Jesus is the Only Answer!
Everywhere you look, all through out history, there have been men and women, who have inspired mankind!
David did, Caleb did, Moses and Joshua, Peter, Paul and Mary mother of Jesus...How about Ruth and Esther? How about the women with the Alabaster box, filled with costly perfume?
Discoverers have, Kings have, Presidents, Astronauts and entertainers, have all inspired mankind.
Every time I hear Ella Fitzgerald sing the song "At last" or the words Neil Armstrong said..."one small step for man, one giant leap for all mankind," they grab my attention.
The speech that Ronald Reagan made 35 yrs ago does the same, about a city shining brightly on a hill!
And I'm sure, each and everyone here this morning has similar men and women that have inspired you. But at best, the inspiration they created, was all and always temporal, because people fall, people fail, people die.
Because the pursuit of the relentless accuser, combined with time and circumstances, can change things around it seems just like the weather, without a moments notice,
Until one day it's 2018 and you think, where has time gone, you wake up and you see things you've never seen before and the news,
reports on things happening around the world, you? have never heard of before, another terrorist act of using anything and everything, whatever and whomever he can to cause mass destruction and death!
And you see and hear in your own neighborhood, of people hurting others and ruining their lives,
doing things and drugs like heroine, like meth, like spray paint. Using whatever they they can find they think is supposed to make them feel good, because the enemy has got them convinced they can't face life's ups and downs!
There is someone dying every 12 minutes from a drug overdose statistics say and you can't help but wonder, Where has Hope gone? Or you wonder, Where?s the lack of Hope gone to?
I can remember hearing about heroine growing up, but I never thought I'd see the day, neighborhood children all across the globe would be hooked on the stuff...
The world needs hope, the morale of people young and old, all across the globe, needs to be lifted up and inspired.
Society talks about creating another program to help, but a man made program is still only at best a "temporary solution," what is needed above all else....is JESUS!
They are crying out for help...they need to be made aware of the hope, the greatest hope ever known and that hope is Jesus! The hope that not just inspired a generation or two, like at best a man is capable of, but is capable of doing it, for all of eternity,
A real and lasting, continual Hope, a hope that will never disappoint, a hope that will never let us down! A real and lasting answer that will stand the test of time and bring about the healing in our children and our land that needs to happen and happen quickly!
Romans 5:5 NKJ
5Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Gods ?hope? in the Bible is a confident and positive expectation of good.
No where in the world can you find the good news of such a hope,
Life Changing Hope...can only be found, through a relationship with Jesus Christ and the finished work of Christ!
And God wants you to have Hope and a confident expectation of good because as His child,
Like any good parent would be towards their own children, God Loves you and He favors you and wants His very best for you.
God doesn't want you to have to look anywhere else, for comfort or the answers or anything else for that matter, but to Him!
He is willing to abundantly supply for every need known and unknown that will ever arise, and even for the needs the accuser makes up and creates out of thin air!
Matthew 7:11 NKJ.
11. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
God wants you to always be expecting something good from Him, for one reason and for no other reason, because He loves you and because your one of His own!!
And that's more than enough reason for me, Praise God!
The question is...are you one of His own? Far to many claim to be one of His own, and continually act as though their not!
TBS. if you are one of His own, you are qualified for everything and anything, He is more than willing to bestow upon you, all for the asking!
Makes me want to shout hallelujah, thank you Jesus, How bout you?
Sounds almost to good to be true, that's what the accuser says 24 hrs a day!
Only for those who are unwilling to participate, in God's plan for their life!
but its not outside the realm of possibilities, of the creator of the universe, the one true God, who loves you very much!
Colossians1:26-29 MSG
26-29This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it?s out in the open.
God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing.
The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God?s glory.
It?s that simple. That is the substance of our Message.
We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message.
We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less.
That?s what I?m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.?
The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God?s glory.
It?s that simple. That is the substance of our Message.
Jesus is the substance of our hope! It's Jesus!
Its not a complicated, long and drawled out sales pitch that someone has to learn verbatim, before they can share it with someone else.
Over the years, Christianity and religion has become to complicated by man,
Well if I could just follow all the rules like brother and sister so and so, their so knowledgeable of all the scripture, their such mature Christians.
If I could just be like them, forget about trying to be like them!!!
IF YOU'RE GOING TO TRY TO BE LIKE SOMEONE...BE LIKE JESUS!!
Brother and sister so and so, ain?t ever gonna get it done for you, only Jesus is going to get it done for you!!
And the good news is, they don?t have to either, God made it easy to inspire hope in your fellow man, hope has a name and it's Jesus!
The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God?s glory. TBS. To be mature is to be basic. Its Christ Jesus! No more, no less.
And the hope He inspires, is an amazing hope, can I Get amen this morning?!!
Another amazing thing about this scripture is, society thinks they have it bad all over the world nowadays, but the apostle Paul wrote this amazing and inspiring scripture while he was in jail.
He didn?t let his situation, steal his hope or his joy and we shouldn?t let any of our situations, No matter whatever they may be, steal our hope and our joy either!
All because Christ is in you, the hope of all glory, you can expect the glory of God to shine not to just one area of your life,
but into every area of your life, including
*your family,
*your job,
*your neighborhood,
*your health and finances,
*your ministry and yes that's right...whether you realize it or not, everyone is proclaims to be a Christian has a ministry, and maybe there would be more hope in the world, if more Christians realized how important their ministry really is!
Well all I can do anymore is pray...well in case you aren't aware...prayer and intercessory for your needs and others to the God of all possibilities, has always been the most you could do!
It's never been about your physical attributes, even for the Bible hero Sampson the strongest man eve recorded in the Bible, it was never about his strength....it was always about God's ability working in him and through him!! Amen??
Listen up this morning, as a child of God you can expect and you have the right to expect, His strength and His Glory to shine through you and on you, on everything you touch!
Seriously Church, everything that your associated with! Yes, everything!,
Now that?s real hope you can believe in, and it?s a lasting and eternal Hope, because the hope that God delivers, never changes!
TBS. This is the amazing truth, ?Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever!?
we may change like the wind sometimes, but He remains the same, He is our Constant Hope!!
Ill. A group of infantry soldiers were going through Airborne School at Fort Benning Georgia. As they prepared for their first jump, the jumpmaster explained that when the green light went on, everyone was to stand up, hook up, jump out, count to four and the chutes would open. If that failed, they had an emergency back-up chute. Then after they landed, a bus would take everyone back to main post. One soldier jumped from the aircraft, but nothing happened. He tried to open his back-up parachute. Nothing happened. As he was headed downward he thought, ?Great--and I bet the bus won?t be there to pick us up either!?
He had no hope and its sad, but there are a lot of people that feel the same way,
The accuser has whittled them down little by little, with one thing after another, the world has been depleted of hope.
In the past, you may have experienced disappointed hopes, but there is a hope that does not disappoint when you are conscious of how much God loves you.
The kind of Hope were talking about this morning, is ?a hope that springs from the heart of God,? and continues to flow with it's availability to whosoever is willing to embrace it!
It's called Grace and it's the life changing message of hope and forgiveness, Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave, to deliver to our lost and dying world!
Heres an interesting fact, the first mention of God's precious Holy Spirit in the book of Romans is directly tied to the love of God.
Without a doubt, the first thing the Holy Spirit wants to do, is to establish in our hearts that God Truly loves us?
Many people think that the Holy Spirit has come to teach us about power.
And there absolutely is, amazing power to be found in the Holy Spirit!
But the truth is, the Holy Spirit came not to reveal the love for power, but the power of love!
The Holy Spirit is, Gods Love for us, often called the comforter, He is what draws us to our salvation,
It?s the realization of Gods love for us, by a relationship with His Son Jesus, that changes our hardened hearts,
Hope is renewed and always seems brand new, when you know that you are loved.
Let me tell you, disappointments will come and go as they always do,
but with Jesus and His unbelievable Love that He has for you in your life, you can take confidence in the fact that,
There are better times right around the corner, success is within your grasp, your closer to your victory than you know,
the light bulb has not burned out at the end of the tunnel, it still shines brightly for you!
Things are always going to happen, that?s just the way life is, but because you know how much God loves you.
You know that, He is always working all things together for your good, always.
When you believe that God loves you, good things follow you around looking for you,
good things are waiting for you at every juncture that you come to, in your life
You will never truly receive everything that God has for you, until you truly understand how much He Loves you!
When you truly understand, how much God really Loves you, the hope you have, becomes contagious and infectious,
Life with God should be easy and light, not hard, burdensome or full of stress
Matthew 11:28
28Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
It should give comfort to us, to know that Jesus sees the cares, everyone of them, that we carry in our hearts.
He knows the worries you have for your family and for the future.
Everything that you have ever had to deal with or will ever experience, He already has been there and conquered it.
You must believe, what ever situation you will ever arrive at, or may come upon,
His Grace has already been there for you and has already been victorious over it as well!
He is your Hope, He is willing to be your everything!
He wants to restore everything that has ever been stolen. He wants to heal every single hurt and pain.
He sees the longings and desires of your heart, and you can rest assured that behind the scenes He is busy, working all things out for your good!
Please bow your heads for just a moment
Do you know this Savior that we?ve been talking about this morning. Not do you know about Him, but do you Know Him.
Where is your relationship at with Him, is it full of hope, is it full of the possibilities that He has waiting for you?
If not, why not take a step this morning towards a Hope that will never disappoint you.
A hope that will inspire you to be all you were meant to be!
Lets pray,
