INTRO: 1. Never know what part of you God really has until you come to the end of yourself.
a. Until you come to the end of your strength, faith, courage, endurance, hope.
b. Until all your resources are gone.
c. Such times test the quality of our relationship with God.
2. Here in our text we find the writer Luke and the Apostle Paul at a time when they had come to the end of themselves.
a. This voyage had turned from bad, to worse, to desperate.
b. There’s few terrors that match the storm at sea.
(Insecurity, constant danger, vulnerability)
c. They had gone as far as throw the precious cargo overboard - but things got worse.
d. They had even taken the tackle needed to sail the ship and threw it into the sea - but things got worse.
d. They had surrendered to the fierce sea, then darkness set in - for days, neither sun or stars.
e. Luke confessed that in vs. 20
“all hope that we should be saved was then taken away”
f. I believe he honestly reflected not only the despair of the 274 other passengers on board, but he included himself and Paul as well.
3. Hope is for the soul what oxygen is for the lungs.
a. Without it our life suffocates in despair.
b. The strength of our existence is the strength of our hope.
c. It’s the final resource we can loose.
(When hope is gone faith, strength, our reason to live is gone)
d. ILL. Prisoners of War taught us that man could loose his dignity and still go on, loose his freedom, his contact with world – but never his hope.
4. What can we do when Hope has run out, when we can’t hold out any longer? - do what Paul did he “Borrowed Hope from God”.
a. Hope he got from a prayer meeting.
b. Hope enough for the entire ship.
c. Hope like Abraham
Rom. 4:18 “Who against hope believed in hope, ....”
d. Hope from the God of Hope - Jesus Christ.
Rom. 15:13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
e. Hope powered by the Holy Ghost.
5. Man’s hope is nothing more than wishful thinking
a. Man’s hope is what got them into this mess.
b. It’s anchored on shifting sands. (Sands of feelings, opinion, sight)
c. Paul goes as far as to say that man with Christ has “no hope”.
6. But the Hope we get from God, it holds the power to carry us through the darkness night.
I. HIS HOPE IS AN ANCHORED HOPE
a. The passenger had lost everything to anchor their hope to – tackle, day light, navigation of the stars, self-defense
b. They were willing to loose anything just to have some hope for tomorrow.
c. But Paul could stand with confidence in the midst of trembling and declare, everything is going to be all right because his hope was anchored beyond the veil, in the throne room of Jehovah.
A. GOD’S HOPE IS ANCHORED IN WHO HE IS.
1. Paul’s hope was no longer in his own strength or even in the strength of this great ship, but it was anchored in the Rock - Christ Jesus.
2. He is our Hope! Our refuge in time of trouble. Our fortress when under attack. Our stronghold in which we can hide. The rock that is higher than I. The Faithful One.
B. GOD’S HOPE IS ANCHORED IN WHO WE ARE.
“'angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve”
1. He let them know that he was more than a follower of God, but he was God’s personal property.
2. ILL. I can recognize the sound of my children cry all the way across the store, and at that time nothing is as important than getting to them – He knows your cry.
3. “and whom I serve” – not only was he there as God’s personal property, but he was there on business for God. Not just relationship, but authority.
4. He was an ambassador of the kingdom of God, therefore God has placed all the resources of heaven within his reach.
C. GOD’S HOPE IS ANCHORED IN WHAT HE SAID.
“I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.”
1. Not just “I believe in God”, but “I believe God” – I trust his word.
2. ILL. We judge the quality of a thing by the warranty it carries - but God’s Word carries an Eternal Guarantee
3. Paul let them know that he wasn’t trusting on a prediction, but a promise.
(God guarantor - He’ll see to it)
4. Paul said not only is his word trustworthy, but absolute - “it shall be even as it was told me.”
5. Stop putting your hope in the predictions of man, rest in the unfailing, unfaltering Word of God.
II. HIS HOPE IS A RISKY HOPE
a. When His Hope takes hold of our soul we begin to live in such a way that the world would think is risky.
b. See the world needs their safeguards to feel secure
A. THIS HOPE DOESN’T DEPEND ON SAFETY NETS
1. Two last things they knew they could count on – the lifeboat was still intact and still available and their was still a little grain to feed them.
2. The first thing they lost was the lifeboat – they cut it and let it fall.
3. After there meal they took the grain that remained and threw it overboard.
4. Paul’s hope didn’t need a back-up plan or insurance, he could afford to live risky.
5. ILL. Abraham had a risky faith in not taking an extra lamb when he went to sacrifice Isaac.
B. THIS HOPE DOESN’T NEED ALL THE EXCESS BAGGAGE.
1. With everything they tossed overboard, they became more and more committed to the power of the sea.
2. What they thought they needed to feel secure they discovered didn’t work.
3. What excess baggage do you carry through life to help you feel more secure?
(Worry, Fear - better safe than sorry, Doubt)
4. It’s time to abandon those false supports, cast them overboard.
III. HIS HOPE IS A LIVELY HOPE
a. “be of good cheer” Paul told them on board – what an odd thing to say under their circumstances.
b. What kind of hope produces cheer in the face of disaster, that “lively hope”
1 Pet. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
c. The greek word used for “lively” means not only to live but to make alive, to quicken, to vivify.
A. MORE THAN A SURVIVOR’S HOPE - IT’S A REJOICER’S HOPE.
1. While everyone else is panicking, you’re Praising!
2. While everyone else is sorrowing, you’re singing!
3. While everyone else is giving-up, you’re gearing up.
4. It doesn’t make sense to the outsider, but it makes perfect sense to the one who has borrowed their hope from God.
B. IT’S A EMPOWERING HOPE.
1. Paul’s hope encouraged and empowered others to eat and prepare for God’s deliverance.
2. The world needs this hope, your family needs this hope, your church needs this hope.
3. Take hold of this hope and it will not only strengthen you, it’ll strengthen everyone around you.
IV. HIS HOPE IS A SURE HOPE
Heb. 6:19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
a. Not just sure, but both sure and steadfast.
A. WE CAN COUNT ON IT.
1. Three other shipwrecks Paul had already survived, he knew that this hope could be counted on.
2. A hope that won’t make you ashamed.
Rom. 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
3. Not a single passenger was lost that day.
Conclusion:
What is the foundation of your hope? Is it the in the weak shifting sands of this world?
You can have a hope that anchored, lively, sure and needs no back-up plan. All you have to do is borrow it from Jesus.
