Hope For The Future

Hope For The Future -

I would like to speak this evening on a subject that of all subjects probably defines best what I see this ministry defined as.

If somebody where to say, “David, could you very briefly tell me in a sentence what the impact of your ministry would be” it would be the essence of tonight’s message.

If somebody where to ask, “David, when you stand in front of VWC and you look at the faces of those who make up this church, what would be the definition of what you see?” It would have to be the subject matter of tonight’s message.

Yet, if somebody were to question me on what do I see as one of the biggest task I’ve ever had to try and accomplish - I would have to also say, “Getting the Christian sitting in the pew to realize this message is talking about them.”

Tonight I want to talk about, “Hope For The Future”

Do you know that you are the hope for the future?

When we talk about hope we are talking about something that is quickly becoming a diminishing commodity.

You see you need hope for hope and what is happening is people are losing hope in hope.

We all hope things will turn out

We all hope things will get better

We all hope that we will remain healthy and prosperous

But when tragedy hits like this tragedy the other week in Denver (Columbine), when we see things like what has happened in our government over the last couple of years (Clinton immorality), when we see in our neighborhoods

People start losing hope in hope - they become hopeless - there is no confidence in the outcome, that things will be better, because the circumstances effecting the outcome are disasters.

So there is a world walking around in a state of hopelessness because they are losing hope in their hope.

But that is not how it is with the Body of Christ

We don’t have to conjure something up to raise our hope -

Our hope does not lie in balance sheets and budgets, as important as they are

We aren’t in by the notion that the Democrats don’t get it.

We aren’t disturbed by the budget philosophy of the republicans

Our lives and our motivation - thus the basis of our hope is rooted in our theology

Our faith in not only who God is, but what God had in mind for us is the driving factor that keeps us going.

I don’t find myself concerned about many aspects of life that many of the world is concerned with:

Carjackings

violence

going up to the ATM at night

losing what I have acquired

I, as with you, if your trust is based in the Word do not concern yourself with the hopelessness of these situations of life - because you have a hope that is based on a far greater source than any of these items I have mentioned.

taking that thought, as I look at the Word of God I can see that God’s intent for man is not to wonder around in a state of hopelessness.

It was not in God’s original plan for people to be sleeping outdoors in the rain and the snow under a bridge somewhere giving up on their human potential

God did not intend for babies to be born in the hospital addicted to - God didn’t plan that

God’s design did not include the thought that a women would be in more danger behind the locked doors of her own house than a person would be living in a war zone

God didn’t make us to send our kids to school only to have their classmates dressed in long black jackets and for sport put a to their head.

God didn’t make us for the purpose of our teenagers attaching themselves to a gang whose sole purpose is and destruction

So I must analyze within my being that if I walk around with a hope that is rising up within - in the midst of a hopeless society what is God’s intent for my life?

If I am not the Hope For the Future than what am I?

Somebody within my realm of influence is in a situation of hopelessness:

They are headed for hell

They are in an abusive situation

They are bound by the clutches of addiction

I may not know it by looking at them, but when I take my hope that is founded on the Word of God

When I live my life with the hope of a future that is greater than my present even when circumstances appear dreadful.

If I go through my life with my hope carefully tended to, but I never share that hope. I never give that hope to anther.