God Of Hope

God of Hope

Romans 15:13

Good morning everyone, glad that you have joined us as we open God’s word to lead us.

Please turn to Romans 15

We are living in a day and age of change- some change we like and some change we do not like. Some change we need to initiate and some change we need to stop.

Some days we seem to be putting the pedal to the metal and it is all system ahead and at other times we seem to be trying to put the brakes on things because the world is spinning faster out of our control and we want to get off the ride.

I was here all day Tuesday as we had the church open as a polling station for the elections. I saw many with enthusiasm and joy come into the building and many with gloom faces like they have eaten a lemon. I could not distinguish which were the Christians and which were not. Because I noticed it was both the Christians and non-believers who were happy and sad- that is even before any results were given.

This morning I want to talk about hope.

Biblical hope and worldly hope…and I hope that I make myself clear. (pun intended)

Hope is universal and personal.

Hope ties with our faith more than we really want to imagine.

Most times faith and hope can be interchangeable.

Ephesians 3:20

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”

That is faith, and that is hope. Neither word is used in that portion of Scripture.

So if you had to define hope?

Belief?

Faith?

Wishy- washy kind of unsure optimism?

I think the world that we live in today’s idea of hope is to “wish for, to expect without certainty and really no assurance of getting what you desire.”

I hope for the perfect person to marry.

I hope to have a good job.

I hope to drive a nice car and live in a nice house.

Hope by its nature stresses two things

Future

Invisibility

It deals with things we can’t see, or haven’t received, or both.

So let’s talk a minute about worldly hope.

Worldly hope puts all its trust in the here and now.

Worldly hope puts all its trust in a person or a group or an organization.

So if they lose any of the three things…hope in a person, group, or organization, they have lost their hope.

Worldly hope is a bit selfish- it is all about them- what’s in it for them…

They have no hope other than between the lines of birth and death. What I mean by that is this is all there is, nothing hoped for in the life after this one.

They hope in pleasures.

They hope for material things.

They hope in drugs to change the way they feel inside which is mostly empty.

They cannot trust anything that they cannot touch or see.

To the world to put any trust or hope into something you cannot have now, or anything they cannot see is foolishness to them.

The world has a saying “Hope springs eternal”, yet it is only Christians that have blessed eternal hope.

To one it is a masked hope

Get all you can right now and at all cost because there is no more.

They have no problem hurting and destroying others because it is the law of the jungle for them.

Hurt before someone hurts you.

Is it any wonder that the world has lost hope?

They put their hope in people, and people have let them down.

They have put their hope in material things and they no longer satisfy.

They have put their hope in pleasure and it is now not enough.

The world struggles in their faith.

They have lost hope.

They are searching for answers in the wrong places.

But hallelujah to a believer hope takes on a new meaning.

To the world hope in Christ is foolishness.

To the world so oblivious to the real hope Christ offers, they shrug their shoulders at the things of God and continue on their dangerous path.

To believers it begins in the words of a young prophet Jeremiah. 29:11-

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Following Christ is not easy.

They know that there will be trials and troubles.

They also know that God takes care of His people.

That it not by coincidence things happen in our life.

God has a plan and He has a purpose for each of us, and it is a good one!