Seasons of Hope
Intro: It seems that one of the vital components of this life we live is the ability to hope and to dream. You might call it having ambition, aspiration, vision, plans, goals, endeavors, or whatever, but it usually starts very early in life. Even as children we dream of the way things could be – if only our dreams would come true! The optimistic idealism that is often found in children gives them hope for something bigger and better than what they are experiencing right now.
-Experts tell us that too much television can limit or reduce the creativity, and perhaps the ability to dream, in a child. I think this could be because we are settling for someone else’s dream when we watch TV. There are some very creative shows and ideas out there, but nobody can dream the way you can! Sometimes I think our ability to hope and dream big from our own heart is short-circuited or at least crowded out by our fascination with someone else’s idea of what is grand and glorious. Now I do believe that the hopes and dreams of others can stimulate your ability to dream, but only to the extent that they line up with who you are as the unique creation of God. God gave you the ability to dream dreams that are unique to you! He also gives the capacity to hope for the fulfillment of those dreams!
-Now, as most of us know, life sometimes has a way of killing our dreams. Things can happen that bring such deep disappointment that we give up hope and settle for bleak reality. Or, if we face enough obstacles we might lose heart and resign ourselves to the idea that our dreams will just never come true!
-But every once in a while, we hear of someone’s dreams coming true. Even better, sometimes things happen in people’s lives that are way beyond what they had dreamed could happen!
-I’d like to talk a little about the cycles of hopes and dreams that often occur in our lives. I’m calling them seasons of hope. Just as our lives begin at birth, so every dream and hope has a beginning. However, something often happens along the way to squash that dream, making it seem unlikely or even impossible. But if this dream truly came from the heart of God (and I believe this happens more often than we think), then that dream will find new life again- perhaps in a different context or form. We are talking about the birth, death, and resurrection of hope. Here’s the one simple thought I’d like to share today:
Prop: God wants to resurrect hope in your life today!
I. Hope is Born
-People clamor for all sorts of things to happen in their lives that might be considered dreams coming true! If the ability to hope and dream is nothing more than the desire to have more things, have more fun, and do our own thing, then dreams are certainly not in short supply today! However, as we talk about dreams and hope today, I would like to eliminate the things that are short-sighted and self-serving. Any dream that is all about me will be void of any lasting fulfillment.
-So please allow me to reclassify hopes and dreams as those aspirations and longings that were transferred from our Creator to us when he wove our DNA together and made us who we really are. Getting more stuff is no dream! That is just one way people try to fill the time and satisfy the void that remains when our true hopes and dreams go unfulfilled. Material things are simply tools. Material things might be a means to an end, but they are not ends in themselves! They were never intended to fulfill us on a lasting basis, only to meet basic needs along the way.
-I am convinced that true hopes and dreams are born long before we are, because they originate in the heart of God. Sometimes it takes years for a person to discover their dreams because they have to cut through all the distraction and stuff of this life that is choking out their dreams. Others seem to have a sense from early on what they want to be and do the rest of their lives. Most of us go through a process of discovery as we begin to realize what really makes us tick.
-The greatest dreams in life always tie in with relationships. We were wired for relationship! Imagine if your life dream was to find the mother of all mother lodes of gold, and you found it, but had nobody to share it with. What an empty dream! Sure you could buy companionship and pleasure, but there would always be strings attached. Friendships would always be in question because you wouldn’t know who was a gold-digger and who truly cared about you.
-Maybe you have had a dream about how wonderful life could be. Maybe you’ve dreamed of being part of a family where you all got along and didn’t hurt each other with actions or unkind words. Maybe you have dreamed of helping others by showing them practical love (providing food, clothing, shelter, counseling, or helping meet other needs). Maybe you dreamed of becoming a master of some art or craft or area of expertise. Maybe you are gifted in science or logic or math or music or some other particular skill, and you have a dream in your heart to pursue excellence in that area because it is something you love to do. You find fulfillment in doing it.
-Most of us have dreams and aspirations and at some point may even have high hopes that those dreams just might come true.
-This was certainly true of the followers of Jesus and many of the Jewish people early in the first century A.D. They had BIG dreams that God would send them a leader, a Messiah, who would deliver them from the oppression of Rome, much like Moses had delivered Israel from Egypt some 1500 years earlier. Jesus arrived on the scene, healing sick people, giving sight and hearing to the blind and deaf, driving out evil spirits, raising dead people, doing food miracles, and standing up to some of the corrupt authorities in the Jewish religion. Many people began to dream of what it would be like to once again be a powerful nation led by God, without the interference and oppression of a pagan, Gentile government and culture.
-Many of these Jews were good people who feared God and really thought Jesus was God’s chosen one who would lead their nation to freedom from the Romans. Perhaps they began to imagine what life would be like with no Herod to terrorize them and murder innocent children. Maybe they began to dream what it would be like with no Caesar or Emperor to answer to. No more Roman soldiers who could rudely confiscate their property and force them to carry their belongings. No more tax collectors working for Rome, using extortion to charge extra and make themselves rich. No! Once again, there would justice in the land and mercy for those in need. They were dreaming! They got their hopes up! They could almost taste their freedom as they imagined a whole new system of Jewish government.
-When Robin and I were first married, we were just 2 happy people in love without too many cares. I was just congratulating myself that I had won the heart of such a beautiful lady, having married way above myself. As the years passed we starting thinking about kids. In sharing our hopes and dreams together, we thought, for whatever reason, that it would be really cool to have 3 kids. As the years passed I would dream of being a Daddy who would spend time loving my kids, playing with them, and teaching them to live well and excel in all areas of their lives! I was looking forward to being able to wrap my arms around them and just let them know that everything was going to be all right.
-Finally, after 12 years, our hopes and dreams really came alive! Robin was pregnant! We were so excited and began to plan and dream about how our lives would change. It would be so amazing to hold that little baby for the first time, seeing the tiny fingers and toes, a perfect mouth and nose and eyes. Would he/she look like me or Robin? What kind of personality would he/she have? Hope had been kindled in our hearts as we anticipated the birth of our first child.
-But as you know, not everything turns out the way you dream it or plan it, which brings up a point we don’t really like to talk about.
II. Hope is Lost
-Sometimes our hopes and dreams come crashing down around us, leaving us hurting and wondering if we will ever be able to hope or dream again.
-Again, the followers of Jesus faced this dynamic. They thought they had the dream all figured out. Jesus would somehow rally them to subdue the Roman government. Perhaps He would call fire down from heaven like Elijah had done when he faced the prophets of Baal. Maybe Rome would be destroyed like the ancient enemies of Israel.
-But instead, the disciples find themselves following a violent procession out of town. Their Master and leader, Jesus, is being led away in humility and shame. He has been beaten and whipped beyond recognition and is straining under the load of a heavy wooden beam on which He is to be nailed and executed. Maybe they are still expecting Him to call fire down on the Romans and the corrupt Jewish leaders or to overpower them in some other way.
-But as they see Jesus just take the abuse they begin to wonder if they’ve missed something. Maybe Jesus had just fooled them all along and was not really who He claimed to be. Now, they wince as they hear the sound of the spikes being driven into the hands of Jesus. Why is He letting them do that? He doesn’t have to take that from them! We’ve seen what He can do! What is He thinking? They almost find themselves agreeing when someone says, “Let Him save Himself.” That’s what they are waiting for.
-Within a few short hours their worst fears are confirmed. Jesus is dead, and so are their hopes and dreams. How could this have happened? And why? Maybe Jesus didn’t know why either because they had heard Him cry out, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken Me?” What had gone wrong?
-They all felt forsaken. Their Rabbi whom they had followed for more than 3 years was dead and gone! All hope was lost. What now? Who can help us now?
-So Robin and I were excited about bringing our first child into the world and becoming first time parents. We had shared the good news with our family and everyone was so excited for us and wishing us the best. After all these years we were finally going to have a baby! And then it happened.
-We found ourselves in a hospital, holding our breath as the nurse probed around, searching for a heartbeat. There was only silence. Our hope was silent. Our dream became silent. We had lost what had become so precious to us and just like that the joy and excitement of life was gone.
-Many of you have faced some kind of tragedy or heartache, and it left you feeling kind of numb. The spark of life was gone and now it was all about plodding along, trying to make sense of it all, searching for something to hold onto. Your dreams of a wonderful life seem to have vanished. Maybe you even told yourself, “I will never get my hopes up ever again because I can’t take this kind of letdown. I will never recover from the death of my dream.”
-But that is not the end of the story! There is still hope for something good. Nothing else can help us make sense out of the disappointments of life. So let’s look at this final point when hope reappears!
III. Hope comes Alive!
-Robin and I went on with life, doing what we thought we were called to do. I continued studying in seminary and working, and Robin worked full-time. We stayed busy and were involved in our church through music, and were helping new believers in their walk with God. There were times we felt pretty low, but God was very close to us and helped us all along the way. Our doctor was a Christian and encouraged us, telling us he was sure we would become pregnant again.
-Less than 2 years later he was proven right, and a little girl started her life in the same place where death had occurred earlier. We finally settled on a name that means “life,” and called her Zoe. She will be 6 in a couple of weeks, and is very excited about another little life who is expected to emerge in late October.
-Now let me just say that before we became pregnant again, there were times when we didn’t have much faith. We would be excited and expect to find out we were expecting on a number of occasions, but it just didn’t happen. We were afraid to get our hopes up because the higher your hopes are the harder they seem to fall when disappointment comes. But the Lord kept working with us, asking us to trust Him and not lose faith that He would help us. We were not colossal giants of faith, but I can say that hope came alive in our hearts before being fulfilled in our lives.
-After Jesus died, His body was laid to rest in a tomb which had been closed and sealed with a large, heavy slab of stone. As the followers of Jesus deal with their loss of hope and struggle towards an impossible reality, they are surprised by hope.
-John’s gospel tells us, “Early Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, "They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and I don't know where they have put him!" 3 Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see. 4 The other disciple outran Peter and got there first. 5 He stooped and looked in and saw the linen cloth lying there, but he didn't go in. 6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7 while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying to the side. 8 Then the other disciple also went in, and he saw and believed-- 9 for until then they hadn't realized that the Scriptures said he would rise from the dead.” John 20:1-9
-Hope began to revive in the hearts of the followers that Jesus really could be alive. Now we know that false hopes often come to those who are grieving the loss of someone they care for. This may be in the form of denial, not accepting the fact that the person is really dead. So some of Christ’s followers may have begun to hope, and then talked themselves out of it as irrational wishful thinking. Thomas was certainly one who was not going to be a victim of wishful thinking or an overactive imagination. The only way he would hope again if he could physically confirm the reality.
-God is so patient with us! He helps us no matter where we are in our journey of faith! Jesus actually appeared to a group of the disciples, but Thomas was not with them and didn’t believe them when they told him. Over a week later, Jesus appeared to them in a room that was all closed up, and said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don't be faithless any longer. Believe!’ 28 ‘My Lord and my God!’ Thomas exclaimed. 29 Then Jesus told him, ‘You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who haven't seen me and believe anyway.’” John 20:27-29
-Max Lucado suggests at least 2 practical results of the Resurrection of Jesus:
1. My failures are not fatal. We can be forgiven because Jesus took our place. He died for our failures. Our sins are put on Him and His perfect life is credited to our account – if we personally receive and act on what He has done for us. We have hope that God’s grace is bigger than our problems and failures!
2. My death is not final. Because Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, what we experience here is not the end. Those who accept Christ are given hope that the best is yet to come. We have hope that there is more to this life than what we see and experience in this body.
-We’ve talked about seasons of hope today. Sometimes hope is alive and well and you are excited about the future and living in a dream. Maybe this is like the season of summer. But fall and winter can bring dark times to us all when we feel that hope is lost and we’re just not sure we are going to make it through, let alone hope again. However, winter doesn’t last forever, and neither does despair. Just when you think that all hope is lost, spring awakens with a fresh start and signs of life appear. Hope comes alive, announcing the presence of the One who has been with us all along – our Lord and our God! And because of what He did by dying on a cross and coming back from the dead, we can share His life now and forever in eternity.
-So where are you in this process today? Are you dreaming dreams that go way beyond you, hoping that they will come true in your life? What are you basing those dreams on? Do they have God’s fingerprints all over them? Maybe you’ve been there, but now your dreams are dead or dying. So many difficult things have come your way that you have lost the ability to hope. You may sense a small voice telling you to hang on and keep trusting God, but you are having a hard time doing that. There is hope! No matter how dark it seems, there is hope, because Jesus, the One who created you knows you by name and He is alive and ready to hear you and help you when you ask Him to.
-Do you need peace? There is hope! Do you need forgiveness? There is hope! Do you need a miracle? There is hope! Because Jesus died and rose again, there is always hope for those who put their trust in Him. Are you trusting in Him? Will you take a step of faith and put your trust in Him today? The Bible tells us that those who hope and trust in God will not be disappointed. Whatever your need is today, if you want to ask God to help you and give you hope, would you raise your hand so I can pray for you? If you don’t know the Lord as your Forgiver and Leader, you can ask Him to receive you and forgive you, and be the leader of your life. Let’s pray.
