I want to start today by telling a story. This is the testimony of a young lady named Hope Wilson who works with the Salvation Army, and she had a very rough life growing up. Some of us had a rough life growing up didn’t we? I sure know I did! Just kidding, I had one of the most blessed lives growing up that a kid could ask for. But anyways, lets hear her testimony to start out today.
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Even though our backgrounds are very different, we all share some universal challenges.
The size of our worry list tells us something about the size of our God. To be completely honest, before I understood the full scope of God’s intervention in human history, God seemed a lot like Jupiter: big, out there, far away and uninvolved in my life.
It turned out, as I got a clear understanding of who God is, that He was not offended or intimidated by my thoughts about Him.
Because God created us, He has the right to tell us how to live. He revealed His righteous and loving will when He created the heavens and the earth and assigned our place in it. As recorded in the Bible’s Book of Genesis, we messed up. Sin became our standard. I do not refer to sin here as theft, murder, lying, etc. These are sin’s effects.
When I responded to the call to consider God as Savior that day, it was as if someone turned on a light and suddenly, I could see clearly. Before, I saw everyone as evil, and my rebellion was rationalized away. I was not as bad as other people. However, that day I realized that before God, I was not as innocent as I had assumed.
Jesus came to die in my place, to take the punishment I deserved for my rebellion against God. As Jesus died on the cross, the awful weight of all our sins fell on His shoulders. The sentence of death God had pronounced against rebellious sinners was lifted by Jesus’ sacrifice. Jesus died for you and me.
The warring factors in Uganda had names like Uganda National Liberation Front and Uganda Freedom Fighters, but the truth was that they could neither liberate the country nor deliver freedom. The Bible records that Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Those people were thieves; they stole, killed and destroyed.
What I yearned for was peace, stability, security and freedom. Luckily for me, for all of us, Jesus came that we might have abundant life; that we might thrive and not merely survive; that we might have real freedteom, freedom from known and unknown fears.
Becoming a Christian did not change the facts of my experience. It changed my perceptions and meaning of the suffering I witnessed. It is no longer about who I am or what my life is about but whose I am and what His life was all about. Apart from God, life used to be a lot of suffering with moments of joy.
Life with God is a life of joy with some moments of suffering. I no longer feel alone, afraid, hopeless or powerless. The God of the universe is my Father. And that was the beginning of the abundant life He promises.
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I could probably just fold everything up right there and all of us head home for the day, but you all know I can let you off the hook that easy right?
A couple of weeks ago, I shared a little of what was going on in my life, and I built on that to include similarities of what some of you are facing right now as well.
Honestly, it wasn’t the most uplifting message I have ever had to present, and I was afraid that some of you all would just leave depressed and having more questions than we had answers for. So today I want to bring that back around and give us some GOOD NEWS.
Our anchor verse this week is going to be Psalm 39:7 – “And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You!”
Did you notice the girl’s name from the into story? Hope, her name was hope. If you really want to read her whole story you can find it on the Salvation Army’s website. She talks about growing up in Uganda while faction wars and battle raged. Not something that many of us here can physically relate to, but in other ways, we have been on the same battlefield haven’t we?
But her name is HOPE. Notice I didn’t say that her name WAS hope. Because HOPE is not a past tense kind of thing. HOPE is forward thinking, HOPE has a future fulfillment, HOPE has a promise that can keep us going even in the darkest places that we find ourselves in.
Let me ask you a few questions:
• Have you ever felt that no matter what you did, all odds were stacked against you?
• Have you ever felt that there is more to life than your circumstances but didn’t know where to turn?
• Have you felt close to death, or lived in fear of it?
• Have you ever wondered about the future, or doubted its brightness?
We kind of danced around these questions a couple of weeks ago didn’t we?
Well, guess what? We are going to provide the answer to all of those questions today. Yall ready for it? I can answer every one of those questions with 1 word.
Anyone want to guess?
H.O.P.E. & Jesus!
Hold up, hold up!!!! You said one word!
Yes I did! My word is HOPE, and since Jesus is THE WORD, His name is all over the word HOPE. So I didn’t lie, or even stretch the truth even. HOPE & Jesus is what we are going to get drilled into each of you today.
So…….. HOPE.
It’s a good word isn’t it?? Sometimes we could use a little more of it couldn’t we??? I know I could. So what is so special about this word and why is it used over and over throughout our bible? That’s really what we are talking about today.
HOPE:
: to cherish a desire with anticipation : to want something to happen or be true. To desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment.
: to expect with confidence : TRUST
I’ve told you before that our English translation is really not great at capturing the true meaning of many words. Well this is another one of “those words”.
New King James Version (NKJV), the word “hope” appears in approximately 240 times across 151 verses in the Bible
“Hopeless” or “Loss of Hope” only occurs about 35-45 times.
That’s a great way to start it off isn’t it?
Hope already outnumbers Hopeless in the only book that really matters right???
Anyway,
Two main Hebrew words are translated as hope in the Old Testament. The first word is yachal, and it appears about 48 times in the Old Testament.
According to Strong’s concordance, yachal means to wait or to be patient. It is translated as such in some verses such as Genesis 8:12, 1 Samuel 10:8, 2 Kings 6:33, and Job 6:11. But it also appears as hope in other verses like Job 13:15, Psalm 31:24, and Psalm 71:14.
Yachal is most often associated with waiting on God; it may be waiting on His word, promises, or actions such as in Job 13:15 “Though He slays me, I will hope in Him.” But sometimes yachal is used when waiting continually or enduring such as in Psalm 71:14, “But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.” Even my favorite verse, Isaiah 40:31 says “For those who wait (hope) on the Lord, shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as Eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not feint.”
I think I’m going to start using that word more…… Yachal. For those who YACHAL…
No???........... Too much?...........Ok, too much. Moving on.
The second word is tiqvah or qavah. Tiqvah means cord or attachment. It first appears in Joshua 2:18 “you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window…” and is translated as cord in the book of Joshua only. In other books, it is translated as hope, such as in Ruth 1:12, Job 4:6, Psalm 9:18, Proverbs 19:18, and the famous Jeremiah 29:11.
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare2 and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Tiqvah means to expect, and it is related to the Hebrew word qavah, which means to wait for, to expect. or look eagerly. Qavah comes from the root word qav, which means cord. Qavah is a feeling of tension and expectation while waiting for something to happen, like pulling a cord tight to produce a state of tension. Qavah appears in Genesis 49:18, Job 7:2, Psalm 25:3, Psalm 37:4, and is primarily translated as wait.
So, now you can see that the HOPE our bible talks about, is NOT the HOPE we use in everyday English.
I mean, “I hope it doesn’t rain today.”
Is there any expectation in that? NO! Our English hope might as well be translated as a simple WISH. We have taken the meaning out of what God intended for our support and encouragement…… THE ENEMY has stolen the meaning out of what GOD intended for our support and encouragement, and has turned the word hope into a simple wish.
And we wonder why we don’t have any real encouragement today.
We wonder why we cant seem to get past that THING that is holding us captive.
We wait and wait and wait, and nothing ever seems to change!
We cry and plead and “wish” that our circumstances were different!
Let me tell you all today……. God never told us to “wish” for anything from Him.
The bible tells us over and over and over again that we are to have
HOPE …… (Tiqvah) in HIM!
Do you see what I am trying to get through to you today???? Modern day Christianity has had this “hope” concept wrong the whole time!
Modern Christianity has become 2 Timothy 3:5! “Having a form of Godliness, but denying the power thereof”!!!!!!!!!
That’s a message for another day tho…..
The Hebrews knew what HOPE really was. They understood that Tiqvah kind of Hope!
And they also knew that while they were “fastening themselves to the tension, expectation, and promise “Tiqvah”, that their other word for hope “Yachal” meant that they were to CONTINUALLLY HOPE for their HOPE!!!!!!
Psalm 71:14, “ But I will hope continually (yachal), and will praise you yet more and more.”
Boy there is something we need to talk about someday isn’t it. Hope and Praise together. What a heavenly combination! No, we don’t have time to go there today.
Awwwww……… yeah yeah, I know you are disappointed.
Does any of this make sense? I know I am tossing some big words at you today. And the point is not to really even remember any of those words. ……… It is meant to help you understand that……
HOPE is NOT a WISH!!!!!!!!! Stop treating God like a dang genie in a bottle!
Another prominent religion out there today believes in Jinn and Genies and all that nonsense. You want to make a “wish” to god, go join up there, I’m sure they can accommodate you.
But if you want to put some power back into your Hope…… Start expecting God to show up and show out. Start anticipating His intervention in your situation. Get up tomorrow and BELIEVE that GOD WANTS THE BEST FOR YOU!!! Build your Hope on that expectation.
People we have got to get back to the kind of Tiqvah and Yachal Hope that our bible ACTUALLY talks about.
Stop wishing your life away. Put your HOPE into action. Build your hope with the WORD of God.
You want some verses to back it up. Remember I have 240 occurences in 151 verses to pummel you with. Do we need to go through them all??????????
Ok, I didn’t think so. If you want a list to have to give you some Yachal and Tiqvah Hope, see me after the service and I will give you a copy of my verse list that I used while studying.
I do want to give you a couple though so that you have some to keep in your mind this week when the enemy wants you to get back to rubbing the lamp and “wishing”.
Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you HOPE (Tiqvah)….and a future.”
Lamentations 3:24-25 – “The Lord is good to those whose hope (Yachal) is in Him, to the one who seeks Him.”
I want to challenge you all this week. Renew your Hope. Those questions I asked at the beginning. We have all been there in some form or fashion. Me lately especially! But we have Hope……We have Yachal…….We have Tiqvah…..in our Lord Jesus!
I want to leave you with this one last verse:
Romans 15:13 – “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
If you are here today and you don’t have this HOPE that I have? Come talk to one of us before you leave this place.
You don’t have to be perfect.
You don’t have to be clean.
You don’t have to be nice.
You don’t have to belong to this church.
You don’t even need to be having a good day!
All you need to do is be willing to HOPE, in Jesus. The word that became flesh and dwelt among us. Was tried and tempted in all things as we were. Yet was without sin. Even He had HOPE in His father while He was here among us. What better example for us to follow today, than to put our Trust, put our Faith, put our HOPE……in Jesus Christ.
Come now as we sing.
