Hope Part 1

Hope Part 1

Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 13:11-13; Job 5:15-16; Romans 15:13

This morning we are going to talk about hope. Last week Rev. Fulks shared the testimony of one of her friends who celebrated her 66th birthday. As a teenager her friend had been told that she probably would not live to see 21 years of age. Then after surpassing that age, she was told she might not live to see her middle thirties. Can you imagine as a teenager how this news would affect your thinking about your future? I am reminding you of this testimony because I want you to think about how she possibly felt when she was a teenager and heard the news and then how she felt in her twenties when she was given similar news. When she heard the news the very first time as a teenager she might have had feelings of hopelessness. I am sure she hoped that she would outlive that projection of her lifespan and she did. Now think about how she might have felt when she received the second projection of her lifespan. Having lived longer than she was initially supposed to can you see her now believing that she could do it again? Can you see her hoping against hope that she would beat the odds? That feeling of living beyond the projections a second time is what real hope looks like. That hope was based on a foundation that she had done it before. Not only did she beat those odds, she continues to do so. The average lifespan of a person with her condition is between 42-47 years. She has far outlived that average. Praise God!!! Keep her testimony in mind as you listen to this message on hope.

We close 2019 with two messages on love. As you recall, in the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians Paul talks about the importance of love. After discussing the importance of love, Paul ends the chapter with these words: “And now abides faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)The title of my message this morning is “Hope – The Reason We Believe.”

As we enter into a new year, all of us have “hope” that this year will be better than last year. I mean who would hope to have a worse year than the year before? We are all hoping for great things this year. I want you to think about something for a moment as it pertains to hope. The late Dr. Shane Lopez was a leading researcher in hope. He wrote in his book, “Making Hope Happen” that, “Hope is created moment by moment through our deliberate choices. It happens when we use our thoughts and feelings to temper our aversion to loss and actively pursue what is possible.” There is no life without hope. Hope gives us a reason to live. When the night is the darkest, if we have hope, we will have a song in the night. For people whose hope is failing, that song in the night grows fainter with each passing day until it was barely a whisper. A heart filled with hope will have a song in the night and a tomorrow filled with possibilities. A heart who hope is slipping away wonders if the song was really for me. When we start to lose hope, life starts to get pretty overwhelming. Every single little thing that happens can start to become a big deal. But it’s at this juncture that it’s so important to remind ourselves that we’re still here. And as long as we are here there is a possibility for a better tomorrow. There is hope.

We cannot underestimate the impact that having hope has on our lives. There are thousands of people who commit suicide each year because they lose all hope. Imagine a life where you wake up every day in darkness. Imagine a life where every door you open leads to another door then another door and another and there is no end in sight of doors you must open. You never seem to find a door that opens that lets you out of the darkness. That’s a life without hope and there are many people living it – even when they are smiling at us or we are smiling at them and we are the ones without hope. This morning I “hope” to instill in each of you a reason to keep on hoping and, in doing so, impart to you some encouraging words that you can use to help others continue in their hope. We must keep hope alive!

Webster dictionary defines hope as “to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true. A wish for something to happen.” This is the definition that you would generally find in most dictionaries. However, this is not necessarily the case when you examine the word in the Hebrew and Greek text in the Bible. While it’s true that having an expectation is part of those definitions too, the depth of the meaning in the Hebrew and Greek text is not fully captured in our definitions. Let me give you a few examples. As you know, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew while the New Testament was written in Greek. In both the Old and New Testaments there are different words for hope, depending on how it is used. Let’s look at Job 5:15-16.