Hope In The Midst Of Hopelessness (Believing Hope)

Introduction:

Good morning to all and Happy New Year. We may feel different as the settings now is similar to what we have in 2020, when everyone needs to be safe in their own homes, that’s why we are now in our online Sunday Worship and Healing service starting this Sunday.

As we welcome 2022, we were surprised by the new Covid-19 new variant named “Omicron” and just now this week there is another variant named “IHU”. And we know in the news how many of our people are badly affected by it. Though many already received their vaccinations yet we still have this fear what will happen to us this year 2022. With that, can we still say that is there any happiness this new year?

This January we are celebrating a new theme “Believing Hope” and our theme is found in Psalm 37:5 “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this…” Last week, our dear pastor exhorted us to put our faith to God and commit every way God wants us to have this whole year. But how can we start believing that we have hope when everything starts to feel hopeless?

Illustration:

The Devil was having a garage sale, and all of his tools were marked with different prices. There was hatred, jealously, deceit, lying, and pride--all at expensive prices. But over to the side of the garage on display was a tool more obviously worn than any of the other tools. It was also the most costly. The tool was labelled DISCOURAGEMENT. When questioned, the Devil said, "It’s more useful to me than any other tool. When I can’t bring down my victims with any of the rest of these tools, I use discouragement, because so few people realize that it belongs to me." Satan is never happier than when he sees people giving in and giving up to despair and becoming lost in hopelessness.

Hope in the Midst of Hopelessness (Pag-asa sa Gitna ng Kawalan ng Pag-asa)

That’s right, there is still hope in the midst of hopelessness, and we only need to believe that there is still hope! And we can find it in God’s presence. What is impossible to men are all possible to God! Look at our texts that we are going to read this morning found in…

EZEKIEL 37:1-10

1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign Lord, you alone know." 4 Then He said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.' " 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " 10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

Here we can see how the impossible things were turned to possibility as Prophet Ezekiel prophesied to dry bones with no life at all and suddenly God made them all alive! God was telling a lesson to Ezekiel that there is hope to the hopeless like these dry bones!

Setting:

The Babylonians raided and destroyed Israel particularly Jerusalem and most of the people were taken into captivity by the Babylonians and they were all take to Babylon. But some of the people were left behind to be in captives by the Babylonians in Jerusalem. So, in both places in Babylon and Jerusalem, there were Israelites to be taken as prisoners or captives of war.

Prophet Jeremiah ministered to the children of Israel that were still in Jerusalem. But Prophet Ezekiel was carried off with the group that were in captivity by the Babylonians. The name Ezekiel means God will strengthen. Ezekiel was with them to inspire and strengthen the generation that was born into exile and to remind them that the Lord God almighty was still on their side. Don’t think that Ezekiel had an easy task. The people that he was ministering to were too depressed. They were defeated in battle, removed from their homeland, mocked by the people that conquered them. There was nothing easy about this mission. He is trying to provide inspiration to a people that did not want to be inspired. He’s trying to provide hope for folks that felt all was hopeless. Trying to encourage folks that didn’t want to be encouraged.