Pass It On-Hope

Title: Pass It On-Hope

Place: BLCC

Date: 7/20/14

Text: 1 Peter.3.13-16

CT: May we share the hope of Christ with all who come behind us.

FAS: Forty-three states, along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands, run lotteries [as of January 2014] …. According to a CNN article, "More than half of us have played the lottery in the last year, although 20 percent of customers buy the majority of the tickets." In fiscal 2012, Americans spent around $78 billion playing lotteries. Since 1964, when New Hampshire launched the first modern state lottery, ticket sales have gone up every year, even during the Great Recession, when the sale of most other items declined.

What drives the popularity of lotteries? Not the incredible odds. You're more likely to be attacked by a shark (one in 11.5 million)

or die in a lightning strike (one in three million)

than you are to win Powerball's grand prize (one in over 175 million). You'd have to buy 86 million tickets to reach even a fifty-fifty chance of winning.

Although the chances of winning Powerball is less than having a meteor crash into your house (one in 182 trillion).

So why do we people keep playing the lottery? Maybe because it lets us live in a fantasy world. "For $2 you can spend the day dreaming about what you would do with half a billion dollars—half a billion dollars!" Maybe the lottery appeals because "it lets you believe in magic: that you will be the one who spent a little and got a lot" and that the money "will give you a respite from the conflict, complexity, and angst of everyday life."

Journalist Adam Piore writes, "[The lottery] is a game where reason and logic are rendered obsolete, and hope and dreams are on sale."

LS: For the Christian hope is not equated with "I hope I win the lottery." Hope is solid assurance that God's promises are true. Hope is not something that can be purchased. It is not a wish.

I.A I developed this series to encourage us as Christians to pass the baton of faith to all those who follow us. I pray it has encouraged, challenged and maybe even stepped on some toes. I know it has for me. We have looked at examples from the Word to better understand how God views his ideal on these aspects of our faith. Today I want to present something we must pass on to those coming behind us. [Screen 6] HOPE.

B. Hope is mentioned a lot in the Bible.

Ps.42.5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Ps.62.5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.

Prv. 23.18 There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

Isaiah 40.31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Jer. 29.11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Lam. 3.21-26 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the Lord ’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Romans 8.25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

1 Thess. 5.8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

Hebrews 6.19 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

C. What is this hope? In the dictionary I read, the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.

And here is the text I want to unpack today. This text encourages us to pass this hope on to others.

1 Peter 3.13-16, Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,