Ever Feel Like Throwing In The Towel?

THROWING IN THE TOWEL...

ESTABLISH A PERIMETER... HOPE, HOPE AGAIN, HOPE AGAINST HOPE

By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr Kyfingers@aol.com

The church is doing many worldly things in the name of the cross. Several churches have taken out

the pulpit and put in the BIG SCREEN FOOTBALL GAMES. Other churches have removed the pews and

place dirt down and had a RODEO in the sanctuary. Other churches have place WRESTLING RINGS in

God's Holy Place and "CHRISTIAN WRESTLER" hit chairs over each other's heads in the NAME OF JESUS.

Still other churches have placed model run-ways and dance stages for vulgar displays of the flesh.

YET I HAVE GREAT HOPE...

HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED WOMMEN AND MEN SPEAK TWO DIFFERENT LANGUAGES?

Let me tell you a few WOMAN PHRASES:

1.FINE: A woman says: THAT'S FINE... It does not mean what us men thinks it means...

Women use the word FINE to end a conversation or argument when they KNOW THEY ARE RIGHT

and you are wrong. If a woman says: FINE, just shut up and walk away while you can...

2. WHATEVER: Whatever is a word a woman uses when you are in BIG TROUBLE... run!

3. NOTHING: When a woman says NOTHING do not believe her under any circumstances. When she says

NOTHING she really means something, start worrying immediately.

4. GO AHEAD: The language women speak GO AHEAD does not mean you have permission. IT IS I DARE

YOU TO EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. Do not do it.

5. THAT'S OK: Usually a woman will think long and hard before saying: THAT'S OK. She is thinking HOW

LONG WILL I MAKE HIM SUFFER FOR THIS ONE?

I. WHEN EVERYTHING IS HOPELESS... WE HAVE HOPE...

KJV

Romans 4:18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations;

according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

NIV

Romans 4:18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations,

just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."

LB

Romans 4:18 So, when God told Abraham that he would give him a son who would have many

descendants and become a great nation, Abraham believed God even though such a promise just

couldn't come to pass!

MESSAGE

Romans 4:18 When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the

basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father

of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!"

PERIMETER:

The outer boundary of an enclosed area...

HOPE:

Promise... Expectation and desire combined, ... To feel confident...

To give cause of hope...

More than a wish or dream

I have often said: WHEN YOU BUILD A FENCE TO KEEP OTHERS OUT, YOU ARE

ALSO TRAPPING YOURSELF IN...

A BRIDGE OF HOPE WHERE THERE WAS NO HOPE...

A man won several million dollars in a lottery. He and his brother had not spoken since their parents

death. Their farms were their parent's farm divided down the middle. A creek divided their land into

their INDIVIDUAL farms. The new millionaire decided he and his wife would go to Hawaii a for the HONEY

MOON.

Before the millionaire left he called his old hard hearing UNCLE. He told his Uncle I don't care what

it cost build a high privacy fence, A SPITE FENCE, near my house between his brother's and his farm.

The Uncle promised to have it finished before his return.

SO THE UNCLE PURCHASED WOOD AND BUILT A BEAUTIFUL BRIDGE LINKING THE TWO HOMES

TOGETHER. The rich brother returned to see a BRIDGE instead of the SPITE FENCE.

When he got home his brother greeted him with a large fruit basket and said I put up your hay and fed

the chickens while you were gone. I love THE BRIDGE and we will honor Mom and Dad and be brothers

the rest of our days...

The rich brother called his Uncle and said: WHY DID YOU BUILD A BRIDGE AND NOT A FENCE?

The old Uncle said: I did what you told me to do. Do you like it?

SEEMS THIS FAMILY JUST NEEDED A BRIDGE OF HOPE...

II. LET US THROW IN A TOWEL... THE PERIMETER IS ESTABLISHED...

LET US MEET A NO NAME LADY IN THE BIBLE... NO NAME LADY IS LIVING IN EXTEME

HOPELESSNESS, SHE IS WATCHING PEOPLE. SHE IS BITTER AND GIVES UP...

THERE IS A VERSE THAT MENTIONS A GREAT HOPELESSNESS, BUT THE SAME VERSE TELLS

OF GREAT HOPE... TODAY MAY BE DARK, BUT GOD HAS A NEW PLAN...

A. LET US GO BACK TO A VERY DARK DAY IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH...