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Hope - Don't Leave Home Without It
Contributed by Ken Sowers on Nov 11, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: Hope is vital to our life
What things do you hope in? We are animated by hope.
But things that don’t always go as planned - Sunrise, seed, toy, child, marriage
Let go of the branch
Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Things that go against God’s plans - maybe He will make an exception?
Things that don’t ultimately satisfy - God shaped hole -
Fill in Grand Canyon - my first day on construction - raise 9" lower 4"
Is there a hope that does not disappoint?
When we give our lives to Christ knowing that He knows the end from the beginning, we can have incredible hope
Peter hopeless - Jesus told him what would happen and it happened
John 13:31-38 - Peter warned of his upcoming failure
John 18:15-27 - Peter falls flat on his face
Jesus saw Peter warming his hands by the coals of a fire so He recreated that setting to reinstill hope
John 21:9-17 burning coals - feed my sheep.
The only hope I can have in myself is if Christ lives in me
You don’t need more information - you need proclamation - Hear ye - no more condemnation for those...
Your best hope is to die - not just be wounded
Why did God reveal the law - to teach me how to live - or to kill me? Not as a guide - "Everything I needed to know ..." Is true nature teaches us the law Law’s only purpose is to kill, not inspire. I’m hopeless! Most teaching about the law only wounds - leaving people with the idea that with some more effort on our part and some more help from Jesus, we will be able to lick this. Nonsense!
Cheap Grace requires little of me and little of God, but God has already given all. For me to receive it - it will kill me. Unless you’re willing to lay down your life you cant take up His. That’s your only hope
Christ in me is the hope of glory