“I WILL ALWAYS HAVE HOPE”
Ps. 71:14-15
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. Three lady-church-attenders saw each other at the store. One said, “Covid-19 has our attendance down to 90 on Sunday mornings!”
2. “That’s nothing,” said the other, “Ours is down to 40!” The third, a single old maid said, “It’s so bad at our church that when the minister says, ‘Dearly Beloved,’ it makes me blush!”
B. TEXT
“As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds, of your saving acts all day long!” Ps. 71:14-15.
C. THESIS
1. There is a desperate need for hope in the world. Think how many people have died because they had no hope. Prisoners in P.O.W. camps died because they had no hope; people who faced terrible shame; women who lost their spouse or child! Many people today are without hope because of Coronavirus, their businesses have been shuttered, and racial and political tensions seem worse than ever.
2. Thank God we have faith in God. This is a moment when Christianity can stand out as a light in the darkness – we offer a light of hope in a dark world.
3. So we’re going to look at WHY we have hope, how it TRANSFORMS our lives, and the 5 FOUNDATIONS for our hope. The title of this message is “I Will Always Have Hope!”
I. HOPE IS A POSITION OF OPTIMISM
Optimism is defined as “hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something.” In other words, it’s a positive outlook based on the conviction that things are going to get better! We Christians have every reason for optimism. Why?
A. GOD IS A GOOD GOD
1. “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” Ex. 34:6.
2. People believing evolution think they’re puppets directed by chance which has no benevolent intent. Contradicting this idea is the almost infinite complexity and design of biological life (clearly revealing a Designer) and the harmony of the universe that unites in supporting this life.
3. The God of the Bible is motivated by love in all He does. He wants to save and bless all humans with eternal life. He is NOT motivated, as Allah, to uphold his greatness at all costs, but voluntarily subjected Himself, in Christ, to mocking and torture by His creatures in order to save them. His over-riding motive is His LOVE. Praise God!
B. GOD IS WORKING FOR OUR GOOD
1. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” Rom. 8:28.
2. God is NOT working for HIS own good, but for OUR good! What an amazing statement. If God be for us, who can be against us? If we are mistreated in this life, still God will turn it around in the next life.
3. The beggars in this life, the under-privileged, the hungry, the sad, the persecuted, the disadvantaged – all will be reversed in eternity. They will not be the tail, but the head in God’s order. [See the “Beatitudes,” Mt. 25:35-43, Luke 16:19-26]
C. HE IS IN CONTROL
1. “For dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations” Psalm 22:28. “It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding.” Dan. 2:21, NASV.
2. The world is in chaos because there are many people who are sinning & violating the will of God. But despite that, God is still moving history in the direction He wants it to go. He’s in charge and intervenes when He sees it’s necessary.
D. HOPE IN TRIALS
1. There are many trials in this life. But even in trouble, we have “hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” Heb. 6:19. We have the promises of God’s Word to cling to.
2. “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” Rom. 15:4, NKJV.
3. Thank God we have the Word of God to give us hope in dark hours. God’s Word reminds us that God uses trials for His glory, to bring us closer to Him.
4. ILLUS. “Praying for trouble in Ethiopia.” [Paul Tan, 7,700 Illus. #6847].
a. An Ethiopian Christian at Saddu Walamo was heard to pray for troubles to come back to Ethiopia. When the times were bad and Christians were persecuted, the church was on fire with preaching the Gospel, even at night, and souls were won by droves.
b. But when things improved and Christians were no longer persecuted, they became careless and lost their zeal for soulwinning. So the man concluded his prayer with the request that God send trouble and persecution back to Ethiopia to put the fire back in the church! Trials may be just what we need!
II. HOPE SHOULD TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE
A. MY LIFE’S NOT BEYOND REPAIR
1. David began this Psalm by ticking off his fears:
a. He feared shame, vs. 1.
b. He feared bad people getting power over him, Vs. 4.
c. He feared old age & weakness, vs. 9.
d. His enemies said God had forsaken him and they made plans to attack him, vss. 10-11.
2. Then in verse 14 David experienced, in the words of Matthew Henry, “a sudden and remarkable change: his fears were all silenced, his hopes raised, and his prayers were turned into thanksgivings!”
3. Don’t you wish we could all – when hit with terrible trials – suddenly gain such a positive perspective? We need to put on heaven’s glasses and see that God will somehow use our troubles for our good!
B. WHAT IS HOPE?
1. The coming of Hope is like lighting a candle in the darkness. “Other men see only a hopeless end, but the Christian…[sees] an endless hope.” George Beenken. Emil Brunner said, “What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope [is] for the [soul] meaning of life.”
2. HOPE IS A FORM OF FAITH. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” Heb. 11:1. Hope is the confident expectation of something good in the future. To “hope in God” doesn’t mean, “Cross your fingers;” it means, in the words of William Carey, “Expect great things from God.”
3. HOPE = RELIANCE ON GOD’S PRESENCE/POWER
a. Rejoicing in suffering doesn’t mean we celebrate when bad news comes, but that we believe God is doing a redemptive work. This word “redemptive” means that God won’t waste one hurt or disappointment. He’s using them to shape and build us into the image of Jesus.
b. Also, our sufferings force us seek God more intensely than at other times. Our greatest times of growth will occur when we’ve reached the end of our resources and all we have left is Jesus. God uses suffering to make us rely on his presence and His power.
4. ILLUSTRATION
a. Have you ever found a traffic ticket on your car? For years a man parked his car in an alley near his Chicago home. It had never been ticketed. It was legal.
b. One morning he found a ticket on his car. He wondered how this could be a blessing from God. A few days later, during a strong wind storm, a mammoth oak fell right across the place where he had been parking his car.
c. Had his car still been there, it would have been smashed. He humbly thanked God for the ticket!
III. THE 5 FOUNDATIONS OF DAVID’S/OUR HOPE
A. GOD WILL ALWAYS HEAR OUR PRAYERS
1. “Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go,” Vs. 3. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ!
2. Isn’t it awesome that God always hears our prayers? This is a reason for hope!
B. GOD WILL ALWAYS BE OUR PROTECTOR
“From birth I have relied on you…I have become a sign to many; you are my strong refuge,” vss. 6-7. ILLUSTRATION:
1. Francis Clarke told of a young man who went out into the Maine woods with his camera to take a few photographs. He stopped at the entrance of a cavern on a rocky hillside and thought, “I wonder what kind of picture I can get out of that cave?” Steadying the camera just a little way from the mouth of the cave, he gave the film a long exposure into the darkness of the interior.
2. When he later developed the film a wave of terror passed over him. In the center of the opening – but concealed from his eyes by the darkness – crouched a huge Lynx, with its eyes fixed upon him and prepared for a spring! Danger, disfigurement, or death were only a few feet away from him, but he didn’t know it!
3. How wonderful that God protects us from dangers we don’t even know exist! [Paul Tan, 7,700 Illus., #2026]
C. GOD IS FAITHFUL
1. “For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth,” vs. 5. “Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, today, and forever!”
D. BY GRACE WE’LL COMPLETE OUR MISSION
1. “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come,” vs. 18.
2. None of us should be content until we carry the Gospel to the next generation. That was David’s aim too.
E. OUR CERTAIN RESURRECTION & ETERNAL JOY
1. “…you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once more,” vss. 20-21.
2. Paul said that God has given the Holy Spirit as a “guarantee” (KJV – ‘earnest’) of what is to come, Eph. 1:13-14. The Greek word is arrabon. In modern Greek arrabona is the word for the engagement ring! The Holy Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will raise you up from the dead and seat you on the throne with Christ,
3. Peter said that God has “given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” 1 Pet. 1:3. Eternal life with God is our hope!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. The faith that moves mountains has been displayed in a church that was moved by the hand of God. This church stands today in the village of Swan Quarter, North Carolina.
2. Before it was built in 1874 the congregation eyed, with longing, a particular plot of ground to build their church on, but the owner of the land refused to sell. The disappointed congregation had to build a little distance away, but continued to wish for the other site.
3. Two years after the building was completed on Sept. 17, 1876, a violent storm struck that county. Pelting rain, raging wind, and a roaring tide combined to make a miraculous, motive power.
4. The new church building was lifted up by the storm as if it were a scrap of paper. It was airborne for a distance of 300 feet and, though its path was erratic, it found its mark with unerring accuracy. The House of God came to rest upon the exact plot of ground which the worshippers had so strongly desired.
5. The divine transfer awed and thrilled the village and even stopped the objections of the owners of the property. That church still stands on the plot of ground ratified by the hand of God. It’s name was changed from Methodist to the “Church of Providence” and the site is considered by the locals as holy ground! [Paul Tan, 7,700 Illus., # 7606]
6. If you need a miracle, God is still in the miracle-working business!
B. THE CALL
1. How many of you are in need of hope today? We’re going to pray that God will bring light into your darkness.
2. How many of you need a transformed life? Maybe your life is ordinary and the signs of God’s divine hand are absent. That can change! God wants your life to be a living wonder, a visible representation of what God can do. Let’s pray for that!
3. We need to be “born again” through the resurrection life of Jesus. Isn’t it about time you let God do a work in your life?
4. Will you commit to bring hope to someone around you who does not have much hope? Let’s pray.
[I used some of Derwin Gray’s thoughts - “How Can We Have Hope when Everything Seems Hopeless?” in section II.B.]
