My Hope Is Built On…

Back in the Fall of 1941 this 7th grade report card showed the grading scale on the back of it. There was A, B, C, D, F, and something he'd never seen before: the letter G! Who would have thought there was a grade you could get that was below F. But back then there was. ''F'' of course meant FAILURE. But apparently there was something worse than an F ... a G!

On the back of the report card, beside the letter G was this one-word explanation: ''HOPELESS!''

Today in our society we have many people on their report card we find the big letter “G”.

That is the feel they are living a life of hopelessness.

We can understand why the SINNERS are this way. Every day of their life they live without hope! They never know the next heart beat will be the last heart beat and they will go to their eternal home of hopelessness in hell.

But there are many SAVED people who also have lost all hope. Any time a SAVED PERSON or a SINNER has no hope in this life, they are in bad shape.

This is a beautiful song written by

This song tells us why many Christians live a life of hopelessness.

Song – My hope is built on nothing

When we built our life on the same thing the lost world build their life this explains why so many live a life like their WITHOUT HOPE,.

In this sermon, we want to look at two things about hope and how it affects us. In closing we want to find the cure for hopelessness. First, we need to consider-

I. WHEN HOPE IS LOST

A good example to look at is the life of Elijah. Look at 1 Kings 19:1-5, we read, “And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.”

Before this happened, Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest to see who was serving the TRUE GOD. The God that answered by fire would prove to be the true and living God. Elijah’s God won overwhelmingly!

But later, after Jezebel threatened his life and stated he was a dead man, we find him under a juniper tree saying that he wished he was dead. But he really did not wish he was dead, because if he had stayed there, Jezebel would have been glad to accommodate him.

Illus: Did you hear about the couple that came upon a wishing well? The husband leaned over, made a wish and threw in a penny. The wife decided to make a wish, too. But she leaned over too far, and fell into the well and drowned.

The husband was stunned, but he smiled and said, "It really works!"

Illus: Did you hear about the family in their car on their way to a dog race? A frog crosses the road, and the husband, who is driving, is able to stop the car before running over him. The husband gets out and takes the frog and carries him to the side of the road.

The frog is grateful, he thanks the man and tells him that he will grant him a wish.

• The man says, "Please make my dog win the next dog race." The frog asks to look at the dog, which limps out of the car. The frog notices that the dog only has three legs, it is very fat and can barely move at all, so he tells the man that he thinks it is almost impossible to fulfill his wish, and asks that the man give him a more reasonable wish.

• The man says, "Well, then please make my wife win the next beauty contest in the county beauty pageant.” The frog asks him to tell his wife to get out of the car. The wife comes out of the car and approaches the frog. The frog turns to the man and says, "Could I please have another look at the dog?"