Text: 1 John 3:1-3
Title: The hope that’s worth living for.
Some descriptions of Hope
“Nothing gives you more false hope than the first day of a diet.”
“Lost hope is the undertaker’s best friend”
“A man hopes that his lean years are behind him; a woman, that hers are ahead.”
“The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night’s sleep.”
“There is hope for any man who can look in a mirror and laugh at what he sees.”
“A lot of people no longer hope for the best. They just hope to avoid the worst.”
“There are those who cast their bread upon the waters, hoping it will be returned to them toasted and buttered.”
“Hope is the oxygen of the soul.”
“We can live 30 days without food.3 days without water. 3 minutes without air but can’t live a second without hope.”
Why hope?
“Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.” (v3)
Hope = Helps Our Purifying Efforts
Where does this hope come from and how can we get more of it?
1.This hope comes from knowing God. (v1)
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” (v1)
Those who know God have great hope.
a. Knowing God starts with knowing the love of God
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us”
Knowing God is not just an issue of the mind but more so of the heart
God is always lavishing us with His love but the world just can’t see it!
What is the most lavish thing God has done for us to express his love? God sent Jesus into the world to die for our sins.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) The world just can’t see it!
What is the best thing that can happen to me if I know God loves me? I can become a child of God. (Rule out: I can become somebody in the world)
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”
“Yet to all who received him, to those that believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12)
What does that do for your hope when God becomes your father because you went ahead and received and believed in Jesus?
Illustration: Your new father is the authority on hope. You can’t find a greater authority on hope any where else in the world.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)
In order to overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit I must first be filled with hope by God the Father
How do I get to be filled with hope? The answer is …"as you trust in him"
How can I trust in him more? By getting to know him more!
1.Through the works of God (creation)
2.Through the words of God
3.Through the Son of God
2.This hope grows only as we become more like Christ (v2)
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him…”
As long as we are becoming more like Christ we are keeping this hope alive. Dying hope will make us more like the world. Living hope will make us more like Christ.
At various times our hope is going to be tested.
The world will test it
The silence of God will test it ("what we will be has not yet been made known")
Remember that God is always in control. God controls the circumstances of our lives in order to make us more like Christ. (Romans 8:28-29)
Don’t lose hope because we are promised that when he appears we shall be like him.
So our hope in everything is this: God is somehow using this difficult circumstance to make me more like Christ.
3.Finally this hope allows us to see God
“For we shall see him as he is.”
Immature Christians see God only in the good times
Mature Christians see God in the Good and the bad.
illustration:
"I believe in the sun even when it not shining; I believe in love even when feeling it not; I believe in God, even when he is not there.”
conclusion:
Everyone who has this hope purifies himself, just as he is pure.”
We do not have a habit problem as much as we have a hope problem.
