The Power or Hope
December 7, 2008
Continue our lessons on hope
Many times we use this in a less-than-certain way
I hope the Cowboys win, the Red Sox, I get a good grade
WE use it most often for good fortune, or chance
We sit back and see what happens
That is not the biblical view of hope
Not a wishy/washy emotion
It is a state of mind that motivates us
Quote form a long obedience
Hoping does not mean doing nothing. It is not fatalistic resignation. It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide meaning and the conclusions.
Eugene Peterson
Without hope we resort to nothingness,
One night at dinner a man, who had spent many summers in Maine, fascinated his companions by telling of his experiences in a little town named Flagstaff. The town was to be flooded, as part of a large lake for which a dam was being built. In the months before it was to be flooded, all improvements and repairs in the whole town were stopped. What was the use of painting a house if it were to be covered with water in six months? Why repair anything when the whole village was to be wiped out? So, week by week, the whole town became more and more bedraggled, more gone to seed, more woebegone. Then he added by way of explanation: "Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present."
Loss of hope leads to neglect
Hope has a real effect on our lives
Hope motivates
Great hope makes great men – Thomas Fuller
Ever hear the expression – given up hope
How would that look?
Look through Scripture and see what Hope does
1. Promotes integrity
We tend to lose sight of who we are when we lose hope
Compromise
Games when you’re being blown out you tend to act out
Psalm 25
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.
17 The troubles of my heart have multiplied; free me from my anguish.
18 Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins.
19 See how my enemies have increased and how fiercely they hate me!
20 Guard my life and rescue me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
21 May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you.
1 John 3
1 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.
2 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, for we shall see him as he is.
3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
2. Confidence/Boldness/Courage/Strength
Psalm 71
5 For you have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth.
Psalm 31
24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.
2 Cor 3
12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
Isaiah 40
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
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.
A number of years ago researchers performed an experiment to see the effect hope has on those undergoing hardship. Two sets of laboratory rats were placed in separate tubs of water. The researchers left one set in the water and found that within an hour they had all drowned. The other rats were periodically lifted out of the water and then returned. When that happened, the second set of rats swam for over 24 hours. Why? Not because they were given a rest, but because they suddenly had hope!
Those animals somehow hoped that if they could stay afloat just a little longer, someone would reach down and rescue them. If hope holds such power for unthinking rodents, how much greater should is effect be on our lives.
We can do more than we think if we have hope
Amazing Race – the older people would gain energy as they saw the finish line
3. Produces Joy
The joy of heaven trickles down to us even today. Hope is not just some far off wish of heaven, it is the joy of heaven being experienced even now.
Romans 12
12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
1 Timothy 4
8 For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.
4. Peace
Tom had never been on a fishing boat before, and he was now thinking it was the stupidest thing he’d ever done in his life. Who would ever have believed that seasickness could be this awful? With every pitch and roll, Tom wondered how he was going to survive the remaining two hours of the trip.
One of the deckhands came up to him and said, "Don’t worry, young fella. Nobody ever died of seasickness."
"You’ve just taken away my last hope for relief," Tom said.
It’s a terrible thing to live without hope. It’s bad enough to be miserable and have no hope of relief, but it’s even worse to have no hope of anything beyond this life.
Knowing things are going to get better gives you peace
Psalm 62:5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.
6 He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
7 My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
There’s a peace knowing that things are going to get better
5. Perseverance
The school system in a large city had a program to help children keep up with their school work during stays in the city’s hospitals. One day a teacher who was assigned to the program received a routine call asking her to visit a particular child. She took the child’s name and room number and talked briefly with the child’s regular class teacher. "We’re studying nouns and adverbs in his class now," the regular teacher said, "and I’d be grateful if you could help him understand them so he doesn’t fall too far behind."
The hospital program teacher went to see the boy that afternoon. No one had mentioned to her that the boy had been badly burned and was in great pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told him, "I’ve been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs." When she left she felt she hadn’t accomplished much.
But the next day, a nurse asked her, "What did you do to that boy?" The teacher felt she must have done something wrong and began to apologize. "No, no," said the nurse. "You don’t know what I mean. We’ve been worried about that little boy, but ever since yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back, responding to treatment. It’s as though he’s decided to live."
Two weeks later the boy explained that he had completely given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he came to a simple realization. He expressed it this way: "They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?"
1 Thess 1:
2 We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.
3 We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;
Psalm 71: 9 Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone.
10 For my enemies speak against me; those who wait to kill me conspire together.
11 They say, “God has forsaken him; pursue him and seize him, for no one will rescue him.”
12 Be not far from me, O God; come quickly, O my God, to help me.
13 May my accusers perish in shame; may those who want to harm me be covered with scorn and disgrace.
14 But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.
1 Thess 4: 13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.
14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
Hope has inspired Christians throughout the ages.
Many have gone through desperate times but clung to their hope in God.
Some of our hymns are written by such people.
Here’s the story behind one of the songs we sing. Watch and listen to this inspiring story.
VIDEO – Story Behind the Song – ‘Tis So Sweet To Trust in Jesus
We have a great hope and because of that hope we’ll keep on doing what the Lord has called us to do. I have desire to live a life of integrity, I have boldness and courage, I find joy even in struggles, I find peace in the presence of my enemies, and I find perseverance in trials because IHOPE.
