OUR ONLY HOPE? !
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
THIS IS A TWO PART LESSON.
I STAND AT NIGHT, AMID THE CITY’S THRONG;
AND I SCAN THE FACES THAT PASS ALONG.
AND I READ A HISTORY OF WOE AND OF WANT AND OF GRIEF,
AND MY HEART GOES FURTHER THAN MY HAND CAN REACH,
AND I FEEL A SERMON I COULD NEVER PREACH. Author Unknown.
TEXT:
Romans 8: 20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, ( uselessness), not willingly,
but by reason of him who hath subjected the same IN HOPE.
24. For we are saved BY HOPE: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doeth he yet hope for?
25. But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience WAIT FOR IT!
28. And we KNOW that all things work together for the good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to His Purpose.
31. What shall we then say to these things?
IF GOD BE FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?
32. He spared not His Own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him
also freely give us all things?
35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
37. Nay in all of these things WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS THROUGH HIM THAT
LOVED US.
38. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come,
39. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, SHALL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US
FROM THE LOVE OF GOD, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1. SHUT UP BLIND MAN, THERE IS NO HOPE FOR YOU!
JESUS IS CALLING YOU OUT OF YOUR HOPELESSNESS! LISTEN!
A.Blind people in Jesus’ day wore a special coat that would help identify them from a distance
that they were blind. Much like a blind person today would have a white cane, or a seeing eye dog.
You could identify the blind by their colored coat. When people saw this coat, they knew the person
was blind, a hopeless beggar.
B. Not every one has compassion! Some people see people with problems as a threat to their comfort
zone.
C. There was a blind man that lived in Jericho with little to no hope. There was no government programs,
there was no Braille reading system. As a matter of fact the blind man was not allowed to go into the
sanctuary of God.
D. The only hope for this blind man was to sit out on the main road going into town and beg.
E. Many people passed by, I am sure many turned their heads and walked by without looking
at this helpless pity.
F. I am sure that many people walked by and made fun of this blind man.
G. My heart breaks for HOPELESS PEOPLE. What can we do?
We can’t do anything to help this blind man? What is the use?
Mark 10: 48 And MANY CHARGED him that he should HOLD HIS PEACE:
BUT HE CRIED OUT THE MORE A GREAT DEAL, Thou Son of David have mercy on me.
H. Bartimaeus, you may have come begging in no hope! But Buddy, here comes Jesus!
I. Bartimaeus ONLY HOPE WAS THE PRESENCE OF JESUS.
J. Bartimaeus was going to make a declaration of HOPE!
Blind Bartimaeus will change his name, he is going to meet Jesus and the hopeless will
come face to face with THE HOPE OF THE AGES!
Mark 10: 50 And Bartimaeus, CASTING AWAY HIS GARMENT, AROSE AND CAME TO JESUS.
K. Notice the attitude change in this man, he is still blind, but HE GETS UP, HE TAKES OFF HIS COAT,
AND HE COMES TO JESUS.
L. If Bartimaeus had listened to the negative, out of touch crowd, if Bartimaeus had been quiet, we would
have never known him. This blind hopeless man, had to arise out of his HOPELESSNESS.
Mark 10: 49 Jesus stood still, he called Bartimaeus and stated: BE OF GOOD COMFORT, RISE,
JESUS IS CALLING YOU!
Mark 10:51 Jesus asked him: WHAT WILT THOU THAT I SHOULD DO UNTO YOU?
BARTIMAEUS HAD THE RIGHT ANSWER: LORD THAT I MIGHT RECEIVE MY SIGHT...
Mark 10:52 Jesus said: GO THY WAY, THY FAITH HATH MADE THEE WHOLE.
M. BARTIMAEUS WILL NEVER AGAIN WALK IN THE HOPELESSNESS OF BLINDNESS.
BARTIMAEUS WILL NEVER WEAR THE PITY COAT OF A BLIND MAN, WHY?
WHY? BECAUSE HE GOT THE ATTENTION OF THE SAVIOR! Jesus was his ONLY HOPE!
2. GOD GAVE A SON OF PROMISE AND THEN HE DIED! HOPE? NO HOPE?
THE HARVEST IS UPON US, WE NEED OUR SON, AND HE GETS A HEAD ACHE AND DIES?
OUR HOPE IS GONE?
A. The Shunamite woman had loved God many years, she loved the word and the Preacher.
She asked her husband, LET US HELP THE PREACHER.
B. HER SON WAS HER HOPE! HER SON WAS GOD’S PPROMISE! THE HARVEST WILL NOT WAIT!
11 Kings 4:19 And he said unto his father, MY HEAD, MY HEAD. And he said to a lad,
Carry him to his mother.
C. THE ENEMY ATTACKS WHEN THE BATTLE IS SORE!
20. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees
till noon and then HE DIED!
D. THE SHUNAMITE LADY HAD NO HOPE, SHE WATCHED HER PRECIOUS SON DIE!
BUT SHE STILL HAD HOPE!
21. And she went up, and laid her son on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door
upon him, and went out.
E. A KNUCKLE HEAD HUSBAND DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN A CRITICAL
TIME OF TESTING? THE HARVEST MUST BE HARVESTED, WINTER IS COMING?
22. And she called her husband, and said, SEND ME I PRAY THEE, one of the young men, and
one of the asses, THAT I MAY RUN TO THE MAN OF GOD, AND COME AGAIN!
23. And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to the Preacher today? It is not neither the new moon,
nor the Sabbath. AND SHE SAID IT SHALL BE WELL!
3. IT IS A SAD DAY WHEN THE THOSE THAT CAN’T BE BOUND ARE BOUND. NO HOPE!
MAYBE YOU DON’T HAVE CHAINS AROUND YOUR LIFE, BUT MAYBE YOU ARE BOUND WITH
INVISIBLE CHAINS.
Mark 5: 3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no not with chains.
4. Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked
asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.
5. Always night and day, he was in the mountains, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
A. THANK GOD THE MISERABLE MAN SAW JESUS AFAR OFF,
BUT HE NEVER KEPT JESUS AT A DISTANCE!
Mark 5: 6. BUT WHEN HE SAW JESUS AFAR OFF, HE RAN AND WORSHIPPED HIM.
B.Can you see Jesus?
Remember the cry of the men that came to Andrew: SIR, WE WOULD SEE JESUS!
You will always live with the dead, until you see Jesus, Jesus in our only hope!!!
4. WISH I HAD ALL THE RIGHT ANSWERS FOR ALL YOUR QUESTIONS!
A. Well, I am in my office, been praying a while and you have been before my heart.
Wish I had many good, wise answers for you.
I wish I could roll back a few years, I wish I could make you laugh and smile.
But I can’t seem to find any of your answers? So shall we quit?
B. No, a thousand No’s! There is something we can do --- I can pray, and
in my prayer release faith that reaches to the Father and then the Father reaches down
to you. Our hope is Jesus!
C. You don’t need my answers, there is a place near to the heart of God.
You can come into this haven and find rest.
5. HER ONLY HOPE, JESUS PASS BY THIS WAY!
A. During Vacation Bible School, we had a young girl, about 10, I have known her situation
for many years. The girl does not know me, but I know the family history, I preached the
Great Granny’s and her Great Granddad’s funeral.
I saw the girl at the altar at church, tears were running down her face, as she sang the VBS song,
Amazing Grace, Amazing Love now flowing down, and I thought God, God, this child has nothing
going for her.
B. I watched and cried, for I realized there is ONLY ONE HOPE for this precious child.
Jesus, You alone are the only hope this young girl has, the odds of the world are against her,
but God can remember her and help her. Jesus can pass by this way.
C. I wish I had a greater opportunity than this to show her God’s love, but she is not in my domain?
I heard the next week, the courts gave her to a family member. That I might have wished for
something different, but there is nothing my hands can do to change that.
D. In my despair, I realized that God can lead and order and direct and help this beautiful
little child.
E. Later, I surveyed the crowd of little kids. Many from broken homes. Many have two or three moms
and dads. Many have scars of great pain, their situations are hopeless.
Then there is the great invitation: COME, COME INTO THE PRESENCE OF THE MOST HOLY
GOD AND TRUST HIM.
6. WHAT ABOUT YOU! ARE YOU IN UTTER DESPAIR? HAS IT BEEN MANY DAYS SINCE YOU LAUGHED?
HAS LIFE ROBBED YOU OF YOUR TEARS? HAS DISAPPOINTMENT IN PEOPLE KILLED YOUR DREAMS?
A. Well, I feel much the same way with you, I wish I could be standing with you, on your front porch to be
knocking on your door with all the answers right now.
B. I wish I could anoint you with olive oil and pray and we could throw away the blind man’s coat as we see God’s
plan.
C. Yet, I know my hands, my oil ain’t nothing, but olive oil.
It is just my hands can’t reach the point where my heart does, and I feel the despair, and I can’t see the answer
to show you today. Yet, I minister not of my power or of my words!
E. I must trust the Hands that reach beyond the limitations of human nature.
I must call on the Name of the Lord, and trust the Holy Spirit’s guidance that knows NO BOUNDS!
F. I cry unto the Lord, Lord help us in our despair and wit’s end.
Then the Holy Spirit says to me, "My child, just pray, where you are today and then believe,
the Holy Spirit is with this young girl, the Spirit of God is with you today where ever you are.
7. The same Holy Spirit that shook the place in the book of Acts is walking to and fro looking for a
place to show Himself strong. We know the hurt so much that ANGER IS NOW DRIVING OUR EMOTIONS!
And hindering our hope!
A. The Holy Spirit said, do what you can, don’t worry over what you can’t do.
Our only hope, the young people’s ONLY HOPE, and your only hope are all the same...
a daily personal encounter with the nail scarred hands. We must have a personal commitment
to know the Lord Jesus Christ and to spend time with Him.
B. Don’t listen to the crowd that says, be quiet, don’t bother Jesus.
We must cry out until He hears us.
C. When I start to worry about people, our family, our church, our friends or the despair of the crushing of
loneliness and emptiness and disappointments and all this negative garbage I have to fall to HOLY GROUND,
and realize that God’s holy ground is far reaching. I can’t let words, actions, or motives keep me from the foot
of the cross.
D. I cannot allow my hands, my limited reach to stop me from reaching. I cannot limit my prayers.
I dare to pray beyond my little nothingness.
E. This sermon is a type of prayer, a statement of reaching beyond us into the Divine realm
and I reaching with nothing into nothing, and I come out with tears and something.
F. Tears may hide my ability to see the reality of the solution right before me.
My method, my mode may slip into the realm beyond my reach, but there is an unseen hand
and Jesus reaches beyond the touch of my human hand.
Faith upward, goes beyond my hands outward.
G. My heart breaks when I see God’s people suffer. I can’t understand it,
and I only accept it because I have no other choice, but my heart knows as a father to two sons,
that a Father will not tolerate the children to aimlessly drift, --- suffering is a school of the highest
learning.
8. Suffering is not punishment, never, Jesus suffered, God did punish Him, there
was a lost and dying hopeless world waiting for the victory of the cross.
A. Paul could have never written much of the New Testament without knowing suffering, rejection, and
loneliness.
B. The loneliness we feel can crush us, if we are not very careful.
The loneliness is not to drive us away in a darkened corner, the loneliness is
to get us to our ONLY HOPE, --- JESUS.
C. Why are my hands so short? Why can’t I see immediate answers for my friends?
The answer is easy, if I could do that, the flesh would be our hope, and a husband, a wife, a lot of money
could become our hope.
People can never be our hope, we have Only One Hope!
D. All our other hope is gone, even the fainting hope of ourselves has been dead many years,
well what is the use?
E. We can’t, WE CAN’T, we can’t ---- now let us cry!
Cry hard because we can’t!
F. No, a thousand times over NO! NO! NO! NO! ... launch out a little deeper, hang on a little longer,
press on a little harder. Today, you might find your HOPE in Jesus!
G. There IS HOPE! I can’t see it! I can’t always feel it, but my friend there is HOPE OUT OF THIS
WORLD.
H. If our dream is dead, our disappointments far out weigh the laughter and song of the heart
fades in and out, and it is all a lesson, we are looking beyond today in despair without faith.
God knows the trials of our youth!!
I. God knows you by your first name, we have not crossed the desert to die here!
The numb, cold world can’t drive our hope away --- OUR ONLY HOPE IS MORE AND MORE
OF JESUS, MORE OF HIS SAVING GRACE TO --- MORE OF HIS LOVE ...
J. PLEASE, we have allowed time to reduce us to hopelessness and gloom.
We have come to this point as a lesson OUR ONLY HOPE IS JESUS.
FOR NOW WE CAN SEE OUR ONLY HOPE ---
9. Father as Hur and Aaron reached to grasp Moses tired hands and lift them, not only
toward heaven, but toward a great victory.
A. I now lift the Word of God to the height of doing God’s work --- my friends, let us lift the hands of others,
lift your hand toward Jesus --- take off the blind beggars coat.
OUR ONLY HOPE IS HIS INVITATION --- COME NEAR!
B. My tears are sown today, I may plant seeds and never see the harvest, but the harvest
is sure, and the harvest is coming. The enemy cannot stop the harvest! Only our planting can
restrict the harvest.
C. Lift up your head, see OUR ONLY HOPE STANDS BEFORE YOU TODAY!
You are a sower, you are a planter, and planters don’t always see ----
I declare keep planting --- you will see.
Please Jesus, Please!
10. I CANNOT UNDERSTAND MORE THAN A CONQUEROR? YOU CAN, IF YOU WANT TO?
A. WHAT IS A CONQUEROR? One that overcomes, one that wins, one that defeats all the obstacles
and opposition.
B. I ask you --- HOW CAN YOU BE MORE THAN A WINNER?
HOW CAN YOU BE MORE THAN A CHAMPION? You can! I promise you can!
This never made much sense to me, but one day I understood this.
C. Sugar Ray Leonard was the World Boxing Champion. He had won the title, and defended it several times.
After one defense, the referee raised Sugar Ray’s hands in victory. Sugar Ray was hurt, he had blood
coming out of his nose, he had a black eye, but Sugar Ray won.
D. There was a commotion over in the corner, and Sugar Ray’s wife crawled through the ropes,
she stepped over to her husband, she held the Title Belt and the big check that Sugar Ray had just won.
E. Wow, I now understand, we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS --- Mrs. Leonard had all the benefits and
none of the bruises. Well, this is what Jesus did for us, Jesus fought our enemy.
F. On the third day, Jesus came out of the tomb, He was the victor, and we can walk in His shadow, and
victory be ours.
11. DO YOU KNOW OUR SAVIOR LEADETH US?
Remember the old song, "HE LEADETH ME!" by Joseph Gilmore and William Bradbury
He leadeth me! O blessed tho’t! O words with heav’nly comfort fraught!
Whate’er I do, wher-e’er I be Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me!
He leadeth me, He leadeth me, By His own hand He leadeth me:
His faithful fol-l’wer I would be, For by His Hand He leadeth me.
Sometimes ’mid scenes of deepest gloom, Sometimes where Eden’s bowers bloom,
by waters still, o’er troubled sea, Still ’tis His hand that leadeth me.
And when my task on earth is done, When, by Thy grace, the vict’ry’s won,
Ev’n death’s cold wave I will not flee, Since God thro’ Jordan leadeth me.
Will you bring your hopeless situation to the God of hope? It is to soon to quit! Get up and try again.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
Could you help me and pass this lesson on to another?
