Hope Part 1
Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 13:11-13; Job 5:15-16; Romans 15:13
This morning we are going to talk about hope. Last week Rev. Fulks shared the testimony of one of her friends who celebrated her 66th birthday. As a teenager her friend had been told that she probably would not live to see 21 years of age. Then after surpassing that age, she was told she might not live to see her middle thirties. Can you imagine as a teenager how this news would affect your thinking about your future? I am reminding you of this testimony because I want you to think about how she possibly felt when she was a teenager and heard the news and then how she felt in her twenties when she was given similar news. When she heard the news the very first time as a teenager she might have had feelings of hopelessness. I am sure she hoped that she would outlive that projection of her lifespan and she did. Now think about how she might have felt when she received the second projection of her lifespan. Having lived longer than she was initially supposed to can you see her now believing that she could do it again? Can you see her hoping against hope that she would beat the odds? That feeling of living beyond the projections a second time is what real hope looks like. That hope was based on a foundation that she had done it before. Not only did she beat those odds, she continues to do so. The average lifespan of a person with her condition is between 42-47 years. She has far outlived that average. Praise God!!! Keep her testimony in mind as you listen to this message on hope.
We close 2019 with two messages on love. As you recall, in the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians Paul talks about the importance of love. After discussing the importance of love, Paul ends the chapter with these words: “And now abides faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)The title of my message this morning is “Hope – The Reason We Believe.”
As we enter into a new year, all of us have “hope” that this year will be better than last year. I mean who would hope to have a worse year than the year before? We are all hoping for great things this year. I want you to think about something for a moment as it pertains to hope. The late Dr. Shane Lopez was a leading researcher in hope. He wrote in his book, “Making Hope Happen” that, “Hope is created moment by moment through our deliberate choices. It happens when we use our thoughts and feelings to temper our aversion to loss and actively pursue what is possible.” There is no life without hope. Hope gives us a reason to live. When the night is the darkest, if we have hope, we will have a song in the night. For people whose hope is failing, that song in the night grows fainter with each passing day until it was barely a whisper. A heart filled with hope will have a song in the night and a tomorrow filled with possibilities. A heart who hope is slipping away wonders if the song was really for me. When we start to lose hope, life starts to get pretty overwhelming. Every single little thing that happens can start to become a big deal. But it’s at this juncture that it’s so important to remind ourselves that we’re still here. And as long as we are here there is a possibility for a better tomorrow. There is hope.
We cannot underestimate the impact that having hope has on our lives. There are thousands of people who commit suicide each year because they lose all hope. Imagine a life where you wake up every day in darkness. Imagine a life where every door you open leads to another door then another door and another and there is no end in sight of doors you must open. You never seem to find a door that opens that lets you out of the darkness. That’s a life without hope and there are many people living it – even when they are smiling at us or we are smiling at them and we are the ones without hope. This morning I “hope” to instill in each of you a reason to keep on hoping and, in doing so, impart to you some encouraging words that you can use to help others continue in their hope. We must keep hope alive!
Webster dictionary defines hope as “to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true. A wish for something to happen.” This is the definition that you would generally find in most dictionaries. However, this is not necessarily the case when you examine the word in the Hebrew and Greek text in the Bible. While it’s true that having an expectation is part of those definitions too, the depth of the meaning in the Hebrew and Greek text is not fully captured in our definitions. Let me give you a few examples. As you know, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew while the New Testament was written in Greek. In both the Old and New Testaments there are different words for hope, depending on how it is used. Let’s look at Job 5:15-16.
Job 5:15-16: “But He saves the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty. So the poor has hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.” The Hebrew word for hope in this verse is “tiqvah” and it means “expectation; the thing I long for.” David said in Psalms 71:5 “For You are my hope, O Lord GOD: You are my trust from my youth.” The Lord was who he longed for – his expectation.
Psalm 31:24 says, “Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you that hope in the LORD.” The Hebrew word for hope in this verse is “yachal” and it means “to wait; to be patient.” In the Old Testament believers were encouraged to wait for God hopefully, expectantly. In times of trouble they were to wait for the Lord, Who would turn things around. In Isaiah 49:23 God promises that those who wait for Him will not be disappointed. We know that God is more than able to bring into existence those things hoped for. And the best way for us to wait on God is to keep our minds on him. Isaiah 26:3 tells us that “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You.”
In the New testament there are two primary words for hope in the Greek, one is a noun and the other a verb. The first word is Elpizo which means to “expect or confide or trust in.” As a verb this word is actionable meaning to “hope in.” This is the word that is used in the following verses:
2 Corinthians 1:10: “Who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us.”
First Timothy 4:10: “For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.”
The second word is Elpis (a noun). This word means to “anticipate with pleasure; expectation; or confidence.” It means to have a favorable and confident expectation; a forward look with assurance. It has to do with us putting our trust in God to guide us through the unseen things that we face every day and with the unknown things we will face in the future. This is the word used in these two verses:
Romans 8:24-25: “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.”
First Peter 1:21: “Who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
Hope as used in the Scriptures goes deeper than the hope that we generally think about in our daily lives. It means a lot more than just “wishing” for something to be. It’s about taking the extra step to actually place confidence and trust in what you are hoping for. The hope represented in the Bible is the confident expectation of what God has already promised and its strength is in God’s faithfulness. What I have just described also applies to faith which I will cover in a couple of weeks. There is no hope without faith and there is no faith without hope. Now the point I want you to keep in mind about hope is this: when we live in this type of hope, we live with an expectation, a knowing that what God has promised to us is going to come to pass.
The very first time we see hope in the Bible, although the word “hope” is not used is when God prophesied the birth of Jesus in Genesis 3:15. This is what it says: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This was the promise of Jesus coming and restoring man’s relationship with God. This one promise gave hope to all those who served God in the Old Testament. The writer of Hebrews wrote this of the Old Testament saints who walked by faith: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.” (Hebrews 11:13) This was hope being exercised. They did not receive the promises, but they saw them from afar and were persuaded of them and embraced them. This caused them to confess that they were strangers in a strange land. Remember the message I delivered about being changed? Well these Old Testament saints made their decision to change through their hope in the promise of Jesus coming. Likewise, without this promise, this hope, the entire human race would have been condemned to an eternal life in the lake of fire.
We see hope again in the story of Noah. Before Noah began building the ark, the Bible says: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5) Because of this the Lord decided to wipe out the human race. But what I want you to see is found in verse eight. “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” (Genesis 6:8) Do you know what I see in this verse? Hope. In Noah, the Lord saw that it was possible for people to be different in the future. I believe this verse tells us that God had hope in Noah. Don’t you find that encouraging that God would look upon us and have hope in a similar manner that we have hope in Him? But let me share the difference. We have hope in God who has never failed us and God has hope in us who continually fail Him. That doesn’t seem right does it? I thank God that He has not given up on us yet. The Bible says His mercies are new every morning! We still have time!
We also see THE example of HOPE in the life of Abraham and Sarah. Both Abraham and Sarah were well beyond childbearing age and both had accepted the fact that together they would have no children. When they first married I am sure they had hope galore about the possibility of children but now after many years of trying and old age having come upon them there was no hope left between the two of them that they could have a child together. However, the Lord tells Abraham that he will be the father of many nations and to help him see that promise; that hope, the Lord tells Abraham to count the stars of the sky. Genesis 15:5 says “And he brought him forth outside, and said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if you be able to number them: and he said unto him, so shall your descendants be.” Have you ever stopped and wondered how Abraham felt upon hearing this? Do you think he was excited that he and Sarah would enjoy a physical union and produce a child together in their old age? That my friend was hope ALIVE! There is a very important principle in the story of Abraham. God helped him see the promise. God tells Abraham that before I made a covenant with you (your past), you were not able to have children with Sarah. But, now we have a covenant (a future promise) you will have a son. God gives Abraham “hope” that his past will not be part of his future. I want you to understand this: when we have hope we are looking forward, not backwards. Remember what recorded in Romans 8:24-25? It says, “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.” We do not have hope for what we see or have seen because it’s there. Hope is always forward looking with an expectation based on what we have been told. And in this case, based on what we have been told in the Bible. We must understand this. This is why people leave this world early – they lose hope. They lose their ability to see anything good in their future. They see no doors opening for them, just a continual path of rejection, disappointment and yes, even sadness. They literally have nothing to look forward to and whether we admit it or not, we have all had moments like those where we might have felt similar feelings but chose to keep pushing forward.
New Light, hope is an expectation that what is currently a reality in our lives will not always be a reality in our lives. It’s the expectation of a “brighter future” or a “fresh new day.” A definition of Godly hope that I recently heard says: “What has been is not what will be.” Now what does this definition mean to us? What are some things that has been that will no longer be? What are those things you’re hoping for now despite what has happened in your past?
• Healing; physical and emotional
• Financial stability
• Family relationships
• Church relationships
• Truly knowing God’s plan personally and corporately
New Light, many of us are trying to live in faith without hope – without seeing “our stars and sand” – without seeing what the Lord has promised us. What are you hoping for this morning? Biblical hope in the New Testament means to “anticipate with pleasure; expectation; or confidence.” And I can’t emphasize enough the part about expectation. Do you know if you’re hoping with worry then maybe you’re not hoping with the biblical kind of hope? The kind of hope I’m talking about this morning stands on what God has already promised – even when they have yet to manifest themselves in our lives. When we stand with that type of hope we have a favorable and confident expectation; forward looking with assurance. We have a favorable and confident expectation with assurances. Those assurances come from God. Hope is all about the unseen and what the future might hold.
Let me explain it this way. When you do your income taxes you hope for a refund. Some people plan their vacations and major purchases on the hope of a refund. When you are hoping for this refund there is excitement and expectation as you plan in your mind how you are going to spend the money. Then you file your taxes and your refund is not what you expected and you are now disappointed. You are disappointed because you now “see” what the refund will be. You are no longer hoping for it because now you see it. Hope is always about the unseen! If on the other hand your refund was more than you were “hoping” for, then there is rejoicing because what you hoped for is now going to be a reality. A tax refund is not promised so we can be disappointed when we are hoping for them. However, God’s promises are real and tangible. Godly hope is that hope we have with pleasurable expectation. It does not include worrying because we are excitedly hoping for what will be.
As we enter into this New Year, what are you hoping for? Not only what are you hoping for, but how are you hoping? Are you stressed? Are you worried? Are you fretting? How are you hoping? Remember what Paul said in Second Corinthians 1:8-10: “For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-10)
Paul said that within themselves they had no hope. He said they were “burdened excessively beyond their strength so that they despaired even of life.” Do you understand what they were feeling? They felt what many people feel when they are about to give up. They had the sentence of death within themselves meaning they could visualize their death and the peace that would come through death. This is what people who have lost all hope feels. Because of how they were feeling he said that they would not trust in themselves but in God. This is where we must get to. When we think all is lost and we have nothing to look forward to, it is at that moment that we must look beyond ourselves. We must replace the hope that we might have had in ourselves and transition it to hope in God. This is what Paul said they did – they placed their hope in the One Who, “raises the dead…..delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us.”
We are living in a world where it is acceptable and easier to give up and end our life when we lose hope. The only way that this will change is when we find a way to instill hope in the one who is on the verge of giving up. I want to close with a verse that I encourage you to read again and again and commit to memory. It’s a promise and strength from our Heavenly Father that will get us through the times when we need hope the most. It’s in the book of Romans, the 15th chapter and the 13th verse. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)
New Light, let the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in 2020!
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. Also, for use of our social media, you can find us at newlightchristianfellowship on FB. To get our live stream services, please make sure you “like” and turn on notifications for our page so you can be notified when we are live streaming. We also have a church website and New Light Christian Fellowship YouTube channel for more of our content. We are developing more social media streams so please stand by and we will notify you once those channels are up and running. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
