HOPE REALIZED & ETERNAL
INTRODUCTION:
Illustration: Hiking. Going with youth to hike and camp at Delaware Water Gap. Contents and feeling of the backpack. Been a long time, back injury, out of shape. Some carrying more than others. Backpack a burden, a source of weariness, fatigue, doubt and despair. “If only someone else would carry the burden and allow me to bound along through the forest unhindered!” How I couldn’t wait to reach the top and unload my burden. And how I looked forward to eating all of the food and drinking all of the water so that there would be that much less to carry back. But eventually, I began to just feel the weariness, trouble, and pain itself - that became my focus and the backpack, their source, was mostly forgotten. I naturally began to relent and accept that this was my reality and how it would always be, but of course that was not true!
We live our lives in much the same way, don’t we? Living our lives with worries, troubles and fears is a lot like hiking with a heavy backpack. We carry such burdens as illness, financial troubles, job dissatisfaction or insecurities, family discord, an uncertain future. At first, we groan and cry out, questioning how we will ever make it with such a burden. But, before long, we get used it - our worry, trouble and fear begins to seem so natural. And we accept them, even as we bemoan them. We forget what it’s like to live without these burdens, they may even begin to become comfortable and expected. We’re more likely to feel uncomfortable and abnormal without the familiar feel of the burdens strapped to our back, than with them.
But Jesus calls us to a different way of living! Jesus calls us to live free of such burdens.
1 Peter 5:6-7: “Therfore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” It sounds simple, but the real key to whether or not we can or do follow this is whether or not we hold on to a hope which is realized and eternal.
Hope Revived - Chuck Swindoll in Wisdom for the Way, excerpted from “The Finishing Touch“.
Transition: Even as spring is preparing to follow winter outside, let us also seek that within ourselves.
PRAYER
I. THREE CHOICES CONCERNING HOPE
A. No Hope
* What kind of a life can one live with no hope at all?
B. False Hope
* Hoping in the wrong things - things temporal, uncertain, inadequate, limited.
* Money, jobs, people, government, intellect or ability, knowledge, good works, ceremonies and
rituals.
* False hope ultimately makes one miserable.
* False hope results in a roller-coaster life: constantly feeling like things are going to start going
up, only to suddenly plunge instead.
C. True Hope
* True hope can only be found when the object of such hope is all-powerful, all-caring and
compassionate, unchanging in character, loving and active in our lives.
* The word “hope” is found 52 times in the NT alone - and it is always connected to God.
* We can have no true hope apart from Jesus Christ!
* Colossians 1:27b “Christ in you, the hope of glory”!
SCRIPTURE: Ephesians 1:15-20
II. THE HOPE OF WHICH HE HAS CALLED US
* The Good Lord wants us to have a better and bigger vision of “the hope to which He has called
you.”
Illustration: A city slicker moved to a farm and bought a cow. Shortly after, the cow went dry. A farmer, who got word of this, expressed surprise. The city man said he was surprised too. “I can’t understand it, for if a person ever was considerate of an animal, I was of that cow. If I didn’t need any milk, I didn’t milk her. If I only needed a quart, I took only a quart.” The farmer then had to explain to the city fellow that the only way to keep milk flowing is not to take as little as possible from the cow, but to take as much as possible.
The Lord desires for us to “milk” Him and His word for a full abundance of certain hope.
Romans 15:13 “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Unfortunately, we do not always overflow in hope, do we? Because of our sinful flesh, we are more likely to accept being disappointed, agitated and perplexed. In fact, our sinful flesh delights in being this way. How often, we only take some of what God has for us, when our need is for more hope to flow out to us, overflowing hope. Paul says this abundant hope comes from believing in the Lord, trusting in Him!
A. Hope is realized and eternal only in Jesus
Hope is the opposite of despair and, as such, is grounded in confidence. Oh, how often we misuse the word hope - referring to what we desire, even if we have no confidence in its fruition. But true hope, realized hope is looking ahead with confidence.
There is only ONE rock-solid source of such confidence in all circumstances. And that is Jesus Christ, the Rock of our salvation! God and His Word offer us hope - a hope that we can be confident (1) will be realized and (2) is eternal!
1. Hope Begins with GOD Electing uU.
* Eph. 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world . . .
Jer. 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified
you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.
Jer. 29:11 For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
2. Hope is Sealed & Assured in Us by The Holy Spirit
* Eph. 1:13-14
* No matter how dark, desperate or difficult our circumstances hope abides!
3. Hope is Anchored in Jesus Christ
* Romans 5:1-5
Romans 8:17
* Jesus’ example of hope in the Garden and at the cross
- “It is finished” NOT “I am finished.”
- It’s Friday . . . But Sunday’s coming!
4. Hope is Eternal in Christ
* Romans 8:18; 35-38
* Hebrews 6:9-12
Illustrations: Tested By Fire by Beth J. Lueders
On September 11, Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell watched the television in his boss’ office as a second hijacked airplane slammed into the World Trade Center. The Army officer had no idea that minutes later madmen would ram a Boeing 757 into the Pentagon, just three windows away from his own office in the outermost ring.
At 9:40 a.m. Brian was stepping out of the men’s room as a massive explosion hurled him to the floor. Instantly a fireball engulfed him. He could not get to his feet and agonized that he would never again see his wife, Mel, and 12-year-old son, Matthew. Brian screamed, "Jesus, I’m coming to see you!" and collapsed to the floor.
But within seconds, an overhead fire sprinkler sprayed cooling relief on his charred wounds. Brian stumbled down the hallway and fellow Pentagon workers carried him to safety.
Meanwhile, both Mel and Matthew were watching TV and saw the damage to the Pentagon. "I knew right away Brian’s office could not have survived that impact," Mel reflects. Mom and son tearfully prayed together for Brian to have been out of his office at the time of the crash.
Burns seared 61 percent of Brian’s body--41 percent third-degree (arms and hands); the rest second-degree, scorching much of his face, ears, legs and back. Inhaled smoke and jet-fuel vapors clogged his lungs. Heavily sedated and clinging to life, Brian didn’t open his eyes for two days. "That was an awesome moment to see those little green eyes again," Mel says. The same day President and Mrs. Bush visited Brian and the rest of the survivors, known as the Pentagon Seven. When President Bush greeted the bed-ridden Brian with a salute, the soldier painstakingly attempted to raise his heavily bandaged arms in a return salute. No eye was dry in the room.
The next 12 weeks were the longest of Brian’s 40 years. Infection gnawed away at the remaining flesh on both arms. Brian endured excruciating dunkings in chlorine and iodine baths, while nurses scrubbed away layers of decayed skin and infected tissue. He required nearly 20 surgeries to cleanse wounds and graft on fresh skin.
Brian is not focusing on what he lost through the attack, but what he has gained.
"My living through all this is one of God’s many miracles," Brian adds. "This testing by fire, so to speak, has strengthened our marriage and faith. My priorities of Mel, Matt and the Army have not changed. I’ve just learned to relish and appreciate these priorities more readily."
Of those endless days and nights at her husband’s bedside, Mel says, "Now I don’t take things for granted as much. Your priorities change. The things that used to bother you in life, you now see that they are really not that important. You just change your focus, and right now, that focus is to get Brian well."
In 1914 the West Orange, New Jersey factory of inventor Thomas A. Edison was completely destroyed by fire. Damage costs exceeded $2 million although insurance coverage was but $238,000.
Much of Edison’s life work went up in the smoke and flames of that December night. Charles, Edison’s 24-year-old son, frantically searched for his father. He found him calmly watching the blaze, his face glowing in the reflection and his white hair blowing in the wind.
Charles would later recount, "My heart ached for him. He was 67 - no longer a young man ? and everything was going up in flames. When he saw me, he shouted, ’Charles, where’s your mother?’ When I told him I didn’t know, he said, ’Find her. Bring her here. She will never see anything like this as long as she lives.’"
The following morning, as the great inventor surveyed the ruins he softly stated, "There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew." A short three weeks later, Edison delivered the first phonograph.
CONCLUSION:
* Beloved of God, we are NEVER without hope if we are God’s children!
* No matter how we may feel, no matter our circumstances, even in our suffering, we have hope.
* We are NEVER beyond the reach of God’s grace, the embrace of His love and the security of our
hope in Christ - the hope of glory!
BENEDICTION:
Hebrews 10:23-25 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner or some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Romans 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
