Back in the Fall of 1941 this 7th grade report card showed the grading scale on the back of it. There was A, B, C, D, F, and something he'd never seen before: the letter G! Who would have thought there was a grade you could get that was below F. But back then there was. ''F'' of course meant FAILURE. But apparently there was something worse than an F ... a G!
On the back of the report card, beside the letter G was this one-word explanation: ''HOPELESS!''
Today in our society we have many people on their report card we find the big letter “G”.
That is the feel they are living a life of hopelessness.
We can understand why the SINNERS are this way. Every day of their life they live without hope! They never know the next heart beat will be the last heart beat and they will go to their eternal home of hopelessness in hell.
But there are many SAVED people who also have lost all hope. Any time a SAVED PERSON or a SINNER has no hope in this life, they are in bad shape.
This is a beautiful song written by
This song tells us why many Christians live a life of hopelessness.
Song – My hope is built on nothing
When we built our life on the same thing the lost world build their life this explains why so many live a life like their WITHOUT HOPE,.
In this sermon, we want to look at two things about hope and how it affects us. In closing we want to find the cure for hopelessness. First, we need to consider-
I. WHEN HOPE IS LOST
A good example to look at is the life of Elijah. Look at 1 Kings 19:1-5, we read, “And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.”
Before this happened, Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest to see who was serving the TRUE GOD. The God that answered by fire would prove to be the true and living God. Elijah’s God won overwhelmingly!
But later, after Jezebel threatened his life and stated he was a dead man, we find him under a juniper tree saying that he wished he was dead. But he really did not wish he was dead, because if he had stayed there, Jezebel would have been glad to accommodate him.
Illus: Did you hear about the couple that came upon a wishing well? The husband leaned over, made a wish and threw in a penny. The wife decided to make a wish, too. But she leaned over too far, and fell into the well and drowned.
The husband was stunned, but he smiled and said, "It really works!"
Illus: Did you hear about the family in their car on their way to a dog race? A frog crosses the road, and the husband, who is driving, is able to stop the car before running over him. The husband gets out and takes the frog and carries him to the side of the road.
The frog is grateful, he thanks the man and tells him that he will grant him a wish.
• The man says, "Please make my dog win the next dog race." The frog asks to look at the dog, which limps out of the car. The frog notices that the dog only has three legs, it is very fat and can barely move at all, so he tells the man that he thinks it is almost impossible to fulfill his wish, and asks that the man give him a more reasonable wish.
• The man says, "Well, then please make my wife win the next beauty contest in the county beauty pageant.” The frog asks him to tell his wife to get out of the car. The wife comes out of the car and approaches the frog. The frog turns to the man and says, "Could I please have another look at the dog?"
Elijah was wishing he was dead, but he was not really wishing he was dead, because all he had to do was sit there until Jezebel arrived, and she would have granted his request.
This great man of God became so depressed that some think that he had a small nervous break down.
WHAT CAUSED THIS MAJOR DEPRESSION IN HIS LIFE? We need to consider four things, such as:
(1) HE HAD UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
On Mt. Carmel, the God that answered by fire would prove to be the true and living God. The God of Elijah proved overwhelmingly to be the true and living God.
Elijah presumed that everyone would repent. Things didn't turn out the way he planned.
We have to be careful in our EXPECTATIONS, because they can lead to big discouragements in our life.
Illus: Often a pastor prepares all week to preach a sermon that is burning in his soul. And as God works in his heart in that sermon, he begins to get excited, and hopes the same sermon will do for others what it has done for him. He stands before his congregation and skillfully delivers the sermon, but while he is preaching:
• Some are sleeping
• Some are passing notes to each other
• Some are looking at their watches
And when he is finished there is no altar response. He does this week after week, and if he is not careful he can slip into a deep depression.
To avoid discouragement, we have to guard against unrealistic expectations by remembering that God only requires us to be obedient. We need to leave the results in the hands of God.
Illus: We have to be like the farmer, Sam Smith, that had the biggest watermelon crop in the county each year.(This is a true story.) Someone asked how he did it year after year. He said, “I do everything I know to do to have a good crop, I spare no energy or cost. But when I have done all that I can do, I park my tractor under a large tree at the end of the watermelon field, and I say, ‘God, I have done all that I can do and now the rest is up to you!’”
The second thing that caused Elijah some problems was -
(2) HE FOCUSED ON THE PROBLEM
In the wilderness, at the widow's house, and on Mount Carmel, Elijah focused on the power and greatness of God. But under that Juniper tree, he focused in on the power of that murderous Jezebel.
We have to look at the power of God, what God can do for us, and not our own power or our enemies power, or else we are going to have some serious discouragement problems.
(3) HE FOCUSED ON HIMSELF
Elijah was in the depths of self-pity. Look at verse 4, we read, “But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”
This is a discouraged man. The only thing he can think about is himself.
(4) HE WAS PHYSICALLY EXHAUSTED
Another reason we yield to depression is exhaustion. By the time Elijah got to Sinai, he was weak from fatigue and from all of the activities that had gone on before. He was very run down from that trip.
These four things that we find in his life are what caused him to LOSE ALL HOPE. He allowed his problem (Jezebel) to become bigger than the God he served. Any time we allow our problems to become BIGGER than the God we serve, we have LOST ALL HOPE.
It is obvious from looking and listening to some Christians, that they are like Elijah, ALL HOPE IS GONE IN THEIR LIFE! You can not see a trace of the Lord in their life.
Illus: There is a story about a little girl who, on the way home from church, turned to her mother and said, "Mommy, the Preacher's sermon this morning confused me." The mother said, "Oh! Why is that?”
The girl replied, "Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?" "Yes, that's true," the mother replied.
"He also said that God lives within us. Is that true too?" Again the mother replied, "Yes."
"Well," said the girl. "If God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn't He pop out through us?"
The little girl makes a point. If we are trusting in the Lord, our life will reflect that:
• He is within us
• He is bigger then our problems
And we can say to the devil and his crowd, “Greater is He that is in me than He that is in the world!”
Understanding the enemy can help you win the battle. The devil wants every one of us to feel HOPELESS, and to think that the God we serve is ASLEEP, or just doesn’t CARE what happens to us.
We looked at WHEN HOPE IS LOST, but let’s also look at-
II. WHERE HOPE IS LOST
We look at each other at times and become frustrated because others do not think or do things like we do.
Illus: (Humor) I want to say something, and I hope everyone here will agree with what I say. As far as I am concerned, if everyone thought the way I think, and did things the way I do things, this would be a wonderful world…. (I am waiting to hear some Amens!)
No Amens? …that proves we do not think alike!
Illus: (Humor) I have looked across this congregation at some of you folks for years, trying to figure you out.
• I have spent many hours in prayer, asking the Lord why some of you do the things you do, and think the way you think.
You can ask some folks why they do not come to church, and they will not tell you they do not love the Lord, they will tell you they worked all day and they were tired. Well are they saying that people who come to church do not have a job, and they do not work. If you go by their logic, there would never be anyone in church.
• I’ve bought books on human behavior, and I still can’t figure out why you do what you do and think the way you think.
Now I am sure you think the same thing about me.
But did you know we all have similar thoughts about God? But God tells us, in Isaiah 55:8, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.”
He does not think the way we think nor are His ways our ways. The ways that He is different from us can cause us to LOSE HOPE. For example, look at -
A. THE TIME FACTOR
It seems that time wears on hope, like nothing else! For example, one of the things I have a hard time trying to figure out about God is, “Why at times is He slower than my wife?” Sometimes I pray about things I know that are within His will, and then I wait, I wait, and I wait.
I like it when things happen fast. For example, when I go on a diet, I like to lose weight fast. I went on a diet some time back using “Slim Fast”, and in two weeks I only lost two pounds! Now I did not like that. I think they ought to call that stuff “Slim Slow!”
Illus: When I go to the doctors office I do not like to wait. But I found out that the reason we are called PATIENTS is because you SIT THERE, SIT THERE, AND SIT THERE! You better have some PATIENCE!
Illus: I like doctors like the one who advertised that he gave flu shots through a drive through window. He advertised it as a “DRIVE-BY SHOOTING”.
Nothing seems to wear on hope like time. But as we pray about some things, we need to consider that God did not answer my prayers yesterday, but I have HOPE that He will today.
Thank the Lord for 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
Illus: Consider the example of E. Howard Cadle. His mother was a Christian, but his father was an alcoholic.
His mother did something every night for him. No matter what she was doing at eight O’clock, she would quit what she was doing and get on her knees beside her sons bed, and pray for him. This was something she did every night.
When her son chose the path of sin, she began to pray more earnestly for him each night at 8 O’clock.
But it seemed the more she prayed for him to come to know the Lord, the worse things began to get.
• By age twelve, Cadle was emulating his father, and was drinking and out of control.
• Soon he was in the grip of sex and gambling, and in the clutches of the Midwest crime syndicate.
But her prayers didn't seem to slow him, until one evening on a rampage, he pulled a gun on a man and squeezed the trigger.
But the weapon never fired and someone quickly knocked it away.
Cadle looked across the room, and he noticed that it was exactly eight o'clock, and somehow he'd been spared from committing the crime of murder.
He continued headlong in vice, however, and presently his health broke. The doctor told him he had only six months to live. Dragging himself home, penniless and pitiful, he collapsed in his mother's arms, saying, "Mother, I've broken your heart. I'd like to be saved, but I've sinned too much."
This dear old mother opened her Bible and read Isaiah 1:18, which reads, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;.”
That morning, March 14, 1914, E. Howard Cadle started life anew. The change in him was dramatic and permanent. With Christ now in his heart, he turned his con skills into honest pursuits, and started making money hand over fist, giving 75 percent of it to the Lord's work.
He helped finance the crusades of the famous evangelist Gypsy Smith, in which thousands were converted.
Then he began preaching the Gospel himself on Cincinnati's powerful WLW, becoming one of America's earliest and most popular radio evangelists.
He once said: “Until He calls me, I shall preach the same Gospel that caused my sainted mother to pray for me. And when I have gone to the last city and preached my last sermon, I want to sit at His feet and say, ‘Thank You, Jesus, for saving me that dark and stormy day from a drunkard's and a gambler's Hell.’"
Listen Christian, do not get discouraged. TIME can wear on our HOPE like nothing else can do, but in due time, God has promised we shall reap if we faint not!
But another thing that wears on our HOPE is the-
B. THE TERROR FACTOR
In the old Testament, Job experienced HOPELESSNESS like few men have ever experienced. It seemed like the only kind of news that came his way, day after day, was BAD NEWS.
Job got some alarming messages, but he is not the only one to get alarming messages.
Illus: Did you hear about these alarming messages that some folks received.
• Wishing you a speedy recovery from your accident. Look forward to seeing you in court!
• When life deals you a hard blow. So can I, big boy.
• My tire was thumping....I thought it was flat....when I looked at the tire....I found your cat... Sorry!
• I've always wanted to have someone to hold, someone to love. After having met you, I've changed my mind.
• I must admit, you brought religion in my life. I never believed in hell until I met you.
• As the days go by, I think of how lucky I am that you're not here to ruin it for me.
Many folks have received alarming messages, but Job certainly had his share of them. One after the other, they kept coming in.
It was bad enough when he lost HIS REPUTATION, HIS FRIENDS, HIS WEALTH, and HIS HEALTH, but probably the most devastating thing was, that through the terror of a devastating tornado, HE LOST ALL HIS CHILDREN.
Job understood that terror robs us of hope. Notice what he said in Job 3:25, we read, “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.” This was his greatest fear, and it became a reality in his life.
TERROR can rob us of our HOPE! At any time, any of us can be stricken with the TERROR of sickness. And while we are weak, tired, and suffering, you can count on Satan coming around whispering words of HOPELESSNESS in our ear.
We looked at WHEN HOPE IS LOST and WHERE HOPE IS LOST.
Conclusion:
In closing, let us look at THE CURE FOR HOPELESSNESS. The cure for hopelessness is not a program, nor is it a religion. The cure for hopelessness is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are many folks today that will tell you they know something is wrong with their life. They will tell you they know they do not have any JOY OR INNER PEACE.
But the fact is, they never will know anything about Peace until they know the PRINCE OF PEACE!
Illus: Listen, we have a copier in our church office. The other day, I was replacing the toner cartridge. I went to the office supply store and they had all kinds of cartridges. Suppose I said, “Well, it really does not matter which one I get, they are all toner cartridges”. Then I came back to the office and stuck it in the copier but it did not fit. You know what I would have discovered? The people who made those copiers were smart enough to make theirs different from all the others, so when I wanted some more toner, I would have to buy their cartridges.
If man is that smart, then why do people think God is not that smart? For example, you will be surprised at the people who are trying to find PEACE without turning to the PRINCE OF PEACE! It does not work!
Satan cannot rob us of HOPE, unless we allow him to do it. If we focus in on CHRIST and HIS POWER, we can have hope.
I. WHEN HOPE IS LOST
II. WHERE HOPE IS LOST
