Hope is God's gift to the believer. 1 Corinthians 13 says, "Now abideth faith, hope, and love". Say that with me. "Faith, hope, and love". David writes in Psalm 42:5, "Hope thou in God". You put your faith in some people, you'll often be disappointed. But you will never be disappointed when you put your faith in God. He will never fail you. God put you on this earth for a specific purpose. I want you to get that in your mind. God has a purpose for every person here. And when you fulfill that purpose, your life will be the most joyous adventure you could possibly imagine. God has a plan for you. You have a divine destiny with unlimited potential, blessings that you cannot contain. The favor of God is in your future above and beyond your wildest dream. Nothing is impossible with God or to those that love him!
Jesus Christ is presented in the Bible as our blessed hope. Saint Paul presents Christ as the hope of glory. Hope generates enthusiasm and excitement. Have you ever been around people who are excited about what they're doing? It's because they have hope in that, that they're going to accomplish their assignment. Hope produces joy the world cannot give and the world cannot take it away. Hope is faith reaching out in the darkness, knowing that the God we serve can never fail.
Romans 5:2: "We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God". The first recorded prophecy of hope in the Bible was that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. The woman was Mary. The seed was Jesus. The serpent was satan. His head was crushed. It's a word of hope from God the Father that satan is a defeated foe. His son, Jesus Christ, when he said, "It is finished," the head of the serpent was crushed. Satan has no power over you. He cannot control you. He can harm you. He has been defeated at the cross!
Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is being sure of what we hoped for". I love this verse. We are sure because of the past performances of God in the Bible. I'm sure God answers prayer. I know so. I'm sure God heals from sickness and disease. I'm sure of eternal life. Christ has risen from the dead. And because he lives, we shall live also. I'm sure that the king is coming soon with power and great glory. I'm sure, because the Word of God clearly declares it! Look up and pray up, saints. We're going up in the twinkling of an eye! Have you ever gotten in a circle of pessimistic people without hope? They sink into despair. After despair comes depression. Life becomes an endless trail of tears. They say things like, "I hate my life. It's meaningless. I have no purpose".
That's absolutely wrong. God has a purpose for you! Get off your pity pot and start searching for it. When you sit in a building like this, you don't know the kind of pain the person next to you is enduring right now. There are people who are smiling on the outside and crying on the inside, talking about happiness while they're living in an emotional hell. Is this you? Is this your family? Is this your marriage? Is this about your business? God has this word, "Hope thou in God". Hope thou in God.
Lost hope is the undertaker's best friend. Many people no longer hope for the best: they just hope to avoid the worst. You can't live without hope. If you have no hope, your heart will break, your mind will snap, your will will stagger through life blinded by your tears, you will walk down a road that leads to nowhere, where joy has been suffocated by the sound of your sobbing. Many of you here and many watching by television are desperately searching for hope. I have this message from God for you today. There is hope for a brighter tomorrow. There is hope for a joyous tomorrow. There's hope for an accomplishing tomorrow. Dreams still come true! There is a never-failing hope guaranteed by the promises and the power of God! Our hope is not wishful thinking! Our hope is real! It's alive! It's eternal! It's available! It's yours for the asking!
Many of us are haunted by the memory of a great failure that changed the course of our life. There's a dark chapter in the drama of your life that you cannot forget. You brood over a past failure, and nurse its memory by thinking of what might have been if... You think about something, as humans have a compulsion to do. Remembering yesterday's tragic mistakes cripples our ability to have hope for tomorrow. I want to say that again. Remembering yesterday's tragic mistakes cripples your ability to have hope for tomorrow. How many times have disillusioned and desperate people walking in depression walked into my office with a dark secret locked up inside that has totally destroyed all hope for a better life in the future?
Have you ever read this book? It's a book. It's not about perfect people. This is a book about human failure on a scale that would make the worst among you look like a boy scout. And let me show it to you. Moses was a murderer. He killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. And Moses buried him in the sand. God used Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt's bondage, to bring ten plagues that crushed the economy of the greatest nation on earth, Egypt. Moses led millions across the Red Sea. He climbed mount Sinai to receive the Torah and Ten Commandments, face-to-face with God. He was on that mountain for 40 days in the very presence of God.
When he came down, his face was aglow. He struck a rock with his staff and water gushed out of that rock in the middle of the desert, sufficient to service two million people and all of their livestock. That was a lot of water. He lived to be 120. And he walked to his own funeral. He was buried by God himself to keep Israel from worshiping him. Now get this. When Jesus, in his earthly ministry, needed comfort and consolation at the Mount of Transfiguration, who did God send? Moses, Moses, the guy who killed somebody. That's tall cotton for a killer. There is hope for you. Don't give up on yourself. Hope is a tender plant. It's easily crushed and extinguished. And every person must be willing to battle for it. Many are the monuments of despair, dispersion, and depression. When we say and think things that are absolutely hopeless, "All hope is gone, gone forever," that is wrong.
When your mind starts going down that endless road from which there is no return, stop it! Discipline yourself to stop it, because it is an ungodly way to think! You are never beyond hope. Where there is life, there is hope. As long as you have the courage to try again, there is hope. As long as you're willing to start living again, there is hope. As long as you're willing to love again, to believe in other people again, to start achieving again, there is hope. "Hope thou in God". That's a powerful verse of scripture. "Hope thou in God". Don't put your hope in Washington. Don't put your hope in other people. The Bible says, "Do not lean on the arm of flesh. It will turn and rend you". People will disappoint you. But God will never disappoint you! He will never disappoint you!
I know the plans I have for you, saith the Lord, plans for your good, for favor, for prosperity, for the peace of mind, for divine health, for healing from sickness and disease, blessings you cannot contain, to give you a breath-taking future and a hope that will set your soul on fire! Get excited about who you are and who you know! Jesus is his name! Consider the door of hope in the Valley of Achor. What happened to Israel in the Valley of Achor? For Israel, the Valley of Achor was synonymous with tragic failure. They knew the story of how their ancestors under Joshua captured the city of Jericho.
As the priest sounded the trumpets, which would be shofars, the mighty right hand of God crushed the massive walls of Jericho. It was one of the greatest military victories in Israel's history. It was their first military victory going from bondage to the Promised Land. Since it was their first victory, the first fruits belonged to God. And God gave the very clear instruction that no one was to go into Jericho. All the spoils of the defeated city were his. No one was to keep anything for themselves. But there was a man named Achan who refused to obey. There's always someone who believes they can break the rules and get away with it. He slipped into the city in the darkness of night. He stole a beautiful Babylonian robe. He stole 200 shekels of silver, a bar of gold. And he walked back through the tents back to his tent, buried it beneath his bedroll, kicked his head back and laughed.
"I'm a genius. All these other people keeping the rules. Now I'm rich"! Not knowing Achan's sin, Joshua led the Israeli army to attack a little simple place called ai. Ai was small. It was insignificant. It should have been an easy victory, yet Israel's army was badly defeated. How could this tragedy possibly happen? Joshua put on his sack clothe and ashes, and he prayed to God, saying, "Why did this happen"? God said, "Joshua, get up. Stop praying. There's sin in your camp".
And so Joshua performed a tent-by-tent inspection. Here's a Bible verse you need to know: "Be sure your sin will find you out". If you don't confess it and let God bury it, he will make sure you will be found out. You're not going to get away with it. There will come a day when every secret thing that's not confessed to God and buried by the blood of Jesus will be revealed. They gathered Achan's livestock. They gathered him. They burned him, and gathered Achan's wife, his children, and every relative, stoned them and burned them to an ash. I want to tell you God will not tolerate sin. He has sent his son to make it possible for you to confess your sin. And you should confess it and forsake it immediately.
This valley of failure was then named the Valley of Achor, according to Joshua 7:26. And it is called the Valley of Achor until this day. The valley is a place of disobedience to God's word. It's a place of unspeakable failure. It's a place of shame. It's a place of corruption. It's a place of idolatry. It's a place of moral failure: loving the Babylonian government, the gold, the silver, more than you love the God who gave you the victory. Do you have a Valley of Achor in your life? There's good news. God has promised you in Hosea 2, "He will make a door of hope in the Valley of Achor".
A door is a way of escape. It's a new beginning. It's a fresh start. It's a separation from the past. It's looking with joy and hope toward the future. Do you have locked, deeply in your heart, the memory of a personal failure? God is saying today, I'm going to make a way of escape. I'm going to give you a door of hope, plans for good, to give you a brighter future than your wildest dreams. Believe me, God's dreams for your life are greater than you can possibly imagine. Are you locked in a syndrome, going around in the same circle over and over and over? Is your life a treadmill of meaningless nothing? Your life is an unending series of poor choices, unexpected circumstances, poor judgment, taking on too much. Or are you like Achan?
You just made up your mind to do the wrong thing and failure is staring you in the face every time you look into the mirror. I've got good news for you. Jesus said, "I am the door". "I will make a way of escape. I am going to give you a new opportunity". David says, "Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord". Who? "All you who hope in the Lord". Christ is here to open the door of hope for you this morning. No one can close it. His victory at the cross guarantees that your tomorrows are going to be filled with peace and prosperity. He's going to give you joy that's unspeakable, and confidence in yourself, confidence in Christ. He is going to give you blessed assurance, health and healing and deliverance. He's going to give you the favor of God. Get excited about your future. "Hope thou in God".
Listen closely. Is there hope when I'm from a dysfunctional family? Don't raise your hand right now. Some of you in this audience came from or you are in a dysfunctional family. Your father was a failure. He was never there for you. Your mother left you for a never-ending series of lovers, lived a life of drugs and desperation. Your hopes for your future were crushed when you were a child. And you've never been able to get over that. Don't use your dysfunctional parents as an excuse for what you have become after today. Why? Your example is Jesus Christ. It's not your wino daddy. Or your wicked witch of the west mother. Life is about choices. You are responsible for your choices. What your mind can conceive, your heart can achieve.
Have you ever considered how much God used dysfunctional families in the Bible? Just hold onto your seat and listen to this. From Genesis 12 to chapter 50, God uses 38 chapters in the Bible to portray this dysfunctional family. From Genesis 1 to 11, covers thousands of years. But from 12 to the end of the book, covers one family. It's important. These are the highlights that would have made the news in the New York times, in the San Antonio newspaper, maybe even wall street. Here's the headline: "Husband gives his wife to another man to spend the night with her free of charge". Ooh, did it get quiet in here.
This was Abraham to Sarah. Hebrew scholars say sexual favors were fully expected. Ooh. The son of this husband and wife was a master manipulator, helping her favorite son steal the inheritance of her older son. The son was Jacob, who stole the inheritance. He had 12 sons. When their sister was raped, they went into that town and cut the foreskin off of every man. The next day, the Bible says, when they were too sore to fight, they killed every man in that city. Ladies and gentlemen, it makes the Godfather look like the Brady bunch. That's in the Bible. Then there's the daughter-in-law who disguised herself as a prostitute and seduced a family member to get her pregnant because she wanted a child. This was incest. You talk about desperate housewife. This is a whole new level.
Later those sons lied to their father, Jacob, covering up the fact that they had sold their younger brother into slavery. This was Joseph. Those slave traders sold that boy for a profit to another slave market in Egypt. And that younger brother was sent to prison accused of raping a prominent social light. The world knows him as Joseph. He became the prime minister of Egypt. He saved the world from starvation. Isn't that some story? God takes 38 chapters to tell this gruesome, sordid detail about all of these things for the world to see. Why? God is making this point: God gave them his amazing grace. He forgot all of their unspeakable sins and produced all the 12 prophets. Four thousand years later, this group of people produced Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the hope of glory. He's the reason we're all here today.
So what's the point? The point: if you came from a dysfunctional family or you are in a dysfunctional family, there is a door of hope for your future that is bright as you can possibly imagine. God will make a way of escape. Open up and simply give him the chance to be your champion! The last door that opens in the Bible is Revelation 4. "After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven". The first three chapters of Revelation represent the seven churches of Asia, and then the church disappears until the end of the book. Why? Because the church goes off the air because the church goes up in the air. It's called the rapture.
Jesus made this promise: "I will come again and receive you unto myself: that where I am, there you may be also". Prophetically, every day you pick up the newspaper, you are reading something that Ezekiel prophesied 3,000 years ago. And it's happening instantly before our eyes. Ladies and gentlemen of America, Christ is the answer for this nation. Christ is the answer for your life. He is your blessed hope. He is your blessed hope!
Stand. I ask you this question: how many of you need a supernatural infusion of hope in your life, in your marriage, in your health, in your finances, in your future? You need an infusion of hope in one of the those areas. I want you to raise your hand right where you are. Now, I want you to believe. It is one thing to pray, but it's another thing to pray in faith believing. We're going to pray in faith believing, and God is going to shatter the things that have shackled you emotionally. And he's going to open doors. He'll rip them off the hinge to help you achieve your divine destiny. Lift up your hands and let's pray this prayer.
Heavenly Father, in the authority of Jesus' name, I ask for you to open the door of hope for my life, for my marriage, for my business, for my finances. This day, I want the blessing of God to flow into my life, to be supernaturally anointed to accomplish things I can only dream about, because nothing is impossible to God. And I want to live a joyous, victorious life, and I want to do it now, in Jesus' name! Amen!
