PLANT THE SEEDS AND WAIT FOR THE DAY ---
When dust shall sing! ARE WE PRISONERS OF HOPE?
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
TEXT:
Zechariah 9:12 Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do
I declare that I will render double unto thee;
Zechariah 9:12 (NLT) Come back to the place of safety, all you prisoners who still
have hope! I promise this very day that I will repay two blessings for each of your
troubles.
I. HOPE IS A WINDOW --- DUST? THERE IS JUST SOMETHING ABOUT DUST?
HOPE CAN DIE IN THE DUST? HOPE CAN ARISE OUT OF THE DUST? ...
IN DARK TIMES THERE IS A GOD OF LIGHT.
Jeremiah 17:7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Jeremiah 17:17 Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil.
A. Hope is a window.
I heard a Sunday School teacher speak of the day of the ringer washer. She enjoyed
watching her neighbor hang the sparkling clean clothes on the line through the spring
and summer and fall. Soon winter approached and the teacher said she noticed the
neighbor's clothes were not as sparkling clean as they had been. Almost weekly she
could see the clothes hanging on the line were dingy and dirty? One day near spring as
her husband carried in the coal and placed it by the fireplace.
The lady SPOKE the words, how dingy the neighbors clean clothes had grown through
the winter? She said: MAYBE WE NEED TO BUY HER SOME NEW IMPROVED TIDE?
Spring came and they quit burning the coal in the fireplace. One Saturday the husband
washed the windows outside and the wife washed the windows inside.
On the next wash day, the lady noticed how white and clean the neighbors clothes were.
THEN THE LADY REALIZED THE CLOTHES WERE SPARKING CLEAN THE WHOLE TIME.
The coal dust from the fireplace had glazed over her windows.
The dim, dingy, dirty was on HER WINDOWS...
B. LIFE HAS A WAY OF SLOWLY, GRADUALLY BUILDING UP AND DISTORTING OUR
VISIUAL FIELD UNTIL HOPE IS LONG GONE?
C. There are several lessons I would like to teach to anyone that will listen.
KEEP YOUR WINDOWS CLEAN BEFORE SPEAKING NEGATIVE.
One of those lesson is simple to state, but DIFFICULT TO PRACTICE...
D. THERE IS HIDDEN FROM THE MIND THE POWER OF THE SPOKEN WORD...
The Creator knew the power of the spoken word... God stepped out of the eons
of time and said:
God said: (Gen. 1:3) LET THERE BE LIGHT... With words God launches His Creation...
Let there be light --- THERE WAS LIGHT...
II. LIFE IS ABOUT DUST AND DIRT --- BUT LIFE IS MORE THAN DUST AND DIRT ---
A. THE WORDS: LET US MAKE MAN and God stoops to the DUST --- GROUND and
God creates man from the DUST...
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
B. Just imagine as God the Father, Jesus the son, and the Holy Spirit look down on
the FORM OF THE BODY OF THE MAN. God says: THIS IS GOOD..
C. The work is not complete. God breathes the BREATH OF GOD into the MAN.
Now the breath of God has consumed the DUST.
The dust is not DUST anymore --- THE DUST BECOMES HOPE --- A LIVING SOUL.
If you want to touch the DIVINE, it is simple... Breath into the palm of your hand...
D. God's words were so powerful that HOPE ARISES OUT OF THE DUST..
III. WE TEND TO LOSE SIGHT OF THE GOAL. FROM DUST THAT ART --- IS TRUE.
--- WHILE I LIVE I HAVE HOPE! AND TO DUST YOU SHALL RETURN
--- BUT THE CHILDREN OF GOD CAN SAY THESE POWERFUL WORDS
... LIFE IS MORE THAN VANITY, WHEN I AM DEAD I SHALL LIVE AND
I SHALL SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF HOPE...
A. The SMART MAN SPOKE: We shall return to our maker --- but SOLOMN SPOKE an
INVALID CONCLUSION --- Vanities of vanities: Everything is USELESS...
Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit
shall return unto God who gave it. 8 Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.
B. Before Jesus came to earth and spoke life...
JOB SPOKE FOR A FACT --- I SHALL SEE GOD...
Job 19:25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth: 26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh shall I see God:
IV. MY FRIEND WE MUST NEVER FORGET THE POWER OF THE WORD OVER THE DUST.
HOPE MUST BE ALIVE, ALIVE FOREVER MORE --- THERE IS MORE TO LIFE THAN DUST...
THERE IS HOPE AND FAITH AND LOVE...
1 Corinthians 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest
of these is charity.
A. THERE ARE SOME TREASURE WORDS HIDDEN IN THE BIBLE...
A person took his pen after reading his Bible one day... The verse he found was very clear.
Isaiah 26:19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth
shall cast out the dead.
Isaiah 26:19 (NIV) But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust,
wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth
to her dead.
· The act of Faith & Hope can produce a strength and power beyond what an individual or group can produce.
· Life without hope is endless hope.
· While LIFE WITH CHRIST IS AN ENDLESS HOPE.
· Hope is wishing for something to become reality. Faith is believing it will be true.
Hope is to desire something so eagerly --- that in spite of what you see or feel God can. Open the God door.
· Aim high, make big plans...in HOPE and WORK.
· LIFE IS SUMMED UP IN TWO WORDS: HOPE AND WAIT.
Someday the words will fade into history: BUT THE DUST IS GOING TO SING AGAIN.
V. HOPE SHALL REIGN --- THERE COMES A DAY WHEN DUST SHALL SING...
"WHEN DUST SHALL SING" By Dallas Chandler
WHAT A GLORIOUS DAY WHEN CHRIST RETURNS, THE DEAD IN CHRIST SHALL RISE
FIRST AND DUST SHALL SING
I STOOD BESIDE THE GRAVSIDE OF A LOVED ONE. LIKE PLANTING SEED TO WAIT AND
WATCH FOR SPRING WHEN CHRIST RETURNS WITH ALL HIS POWER AND GLORY HE'LL
CALL FOR DEATH TO COME TO LIFE AND DUST SHALL SING
WHEN DUST SHALL SING ON RESURRECTION MORNING THE SAINTS ARISE AND LET
THEIR VOICES RING THOSE THAT REMAIN WILL BE CHANGED IN A MOMENT
WE'LL HEAR THE SHOUT AND TRUMPET SOUND WHEN DUST SHALL SING
SINCE JESUS DIED THE GRAVE HAS LOST IT'S VICTORY IF YOU'RE IN CHRIST, DEATH HAS
LOST IT'S STING CHRIST CONQUERED DEATH, SO HE'LL CONDUCT WITH VOICES RAISED
AND SHOUTS OF PRAISE ---THEN DUST SHALL SING
WE'LL LEAVE THE GROUND AND DUST SHALL SING!!
1 Thessalonians 4:13 (NIV) 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. 15 According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive,
who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice
of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.
VI. DUST MAY SEEM LIKE THE BEGINNING AND THE END BUT GOD HAS A PLAN.
Conclusion:
Maybe you can live 40 days without food?
8 days without water?
4 minutes without air ---
but you just cannot live without hope.
Who against hope, believed in hope that God is able. The RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST
IS OUR HOPE OUT OF THIS WORLD.
Romans 4:18 (KJV) Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father
of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
Romans 4:18 (NIV) Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of
many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
ONE CAN NEVER BE A GOOD FARMER OR A FISHER MAN WITHOUT HOPE.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
