Series: Living in the Spirit
Sermon #4 “Living Hope”
Romans 8:25-39
A middle aged man was on a Caribbean cruise. On the first day out he noticed an attractive woman who smiled at him as he passed her on the deck. Needless to say, this pleased him greatly. That night he managed to have himself seated at the same table with her at dinner. As the conversation developed, he commented that he had seen her on the deck that day and he had appreciated her friendly smile. When she heard this she smiled again and commented, “Well, the reason I smiled was that when I saw you, I was immediately struck by your strong resemblance to my third husband.”
Of course this immediately got his attention and he asked, “Oh, how many times have you been married?”
With this she looked down at her plated, smiled slyly and answered, “Twice.”
“Hope.” We cannot live without it.
Perhaps C. Neil Strait expressed this need for hope a bit more eloquently when he wrote:
Take from a man his wealth, and you hinder him; take from him his purpose, and you slow him down. But take from man his hope, and you stop him. He can go on without wealth, and even without purpose, for awhile. But he will not go on without hope.
It was the Apostle Paul who expressed the theological significance of hope when he wrote:
24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Romans 8:24-25
Hope is what keeps us going. Without hope we give up.
As Christians where does our hope come from? According to Paul it comes from the Holy Spirit as we make him a part of our daily living?
According to Romans 8, we have a living hope because the Holy Spirit gives us the assurance that no matter what happens in the world, God will win!
1. There are those who would have us believe otherwise.
--that God is losing: media, Iraq, 9/11, Katrina
--as believes, if things are going badly in our lives, we find ourselves wondering
2. Old timers when things looked especially bad: “I’ve read the last chapter and God wins!”
3. Text: vv. 24-25 [hope] vv. 28ff [hope]
--vv. 26-27 prayer [digression?]
--He is not actually digressing at all. The greatest expression of Christian hope is prayer.
When we pray we are saying:
“Although things seems bad, I know who is in charge.”
“When we pray we are saying things can be different”
This is hope. Do you want to experience “living hope?” Pray!
When we live daily in the Spirit, not only do have the hope that God will win but we have the living hope that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
1. How did Paul put it? (Message, vv. 35-39)
Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
36They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
37None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. 38I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, 39high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
This coming Thursday August 31 we will be celebrating the birthday of one our great Christian saints. If she were living it would be her 179th birthday. Her name was Anna Warner. She wrote several books one of which was a long novel titled, Say and Seal. In the story one of the main characters is Mr. Linden. Mr. Linden is a good man, a Sunday School teacher in fact. Now keep in mind this was written during the Victorian era which tended to be rather sentimental. One of his Sunday School children is very ill and on the verge of death. Mr. Linden visits the boy and tries of offer comfort. Johnny looks into Mr. Linden’s face and says one word, “Sing.” So Mr. Linden sings and for the first time the world hears these words:
Jesus loves me! This I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to Him belong
They are weak, but He is strong.
One stanza that is not included in most hymnals including the UMC hymnal reads:
Jesus loves me! Loves me still
Tho’ I’m very weak and ill
That I might from sin be free
Bled and died upon the tree.
2. What was Paul and Anna trying to express?
If I lose everything---Jesus Loves Me.
If my body becomes sick---Jesus Loves Me
If my boss makes life difficult---Jesus Loves Me
No matter what happens in life, Jesus will always love me.
Not only does living in the Spirit give us hope that God will always love us but that God has a plan.
This past week I week back and read some old newspaper articles about the aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina. I came across this New York Times article published on September 5, 2005. The title of the article was, Amid the Ruins, Worshipers Pause to Pray and Receive Messages of Hope and was written by PETER APPLEBOME and SEWELL CHAN.
It focused on some of the worship services that occurred that first Sunday after the Hurricane hit. The two reporters spoke to several religious leaders and attended some of the worship services. One of the services they attended was in Baton Rouge at Mount Zion First Baptist Church. The service began with the choir of 30 members strong in flowing green robes [as they], broke into a gospel song that rocked the walls and had parishioners on their feet, swaying and waving their arms in the air.
Listen to what they reported.
In the storm-ravaged towns of the Gulf Coast, and in hundreds of nearby ones overflowing with evacuees, Sunday was a day for many people for the first time since the storm hit to try to channel unfathomably complex emotions, to stop, to pause, to pray. So with countless mixtures of pain and fear, hope and faith, weakness and strength, many across the South, for a day, got to do what comes naturally. They went to church.
The pastor of Mount Zion is Reverend Anthony Kelley. The article reported:
Then Mr. Kelley’s sermon, like a hurricane itself, rumbled and rolled over a landscape of wind and water, death and redemption. He began by reading from Matthew 14:22-33, in which Jesus walks on the water and calms the seas for those who believe in him. "Jesus said: ’Be not afraid. I won’t forsake you. I will be with you in your storm,’ " Mr. Kelley hollered, the congregation yelling in assent.
God, he said, already had a plan. People might not know it. They might not see it. But it’s there. Jesus, after all, was killed on a Friday and resurrected on a Sunday, the ultimate reminder that hope conquers despair. "I’m here to tell you that Sunday is on the way. Help is on the way. Deliverance is on the way," Mr. Kelley said, the organ wailing, the people yelling, the joy and hope as palpable as the hot air outside.
By the end, it was Mrs. Duskin, who teaches English at Dillard University, who was in tears, overwhelmed by emotion, but fortified by the message of hope who said it best:
"It was something that I needed to hear, that God’s looking out for us. That even though we can’t see what’s ahead, that he’s looking out for us."
--Paul expressed it another way in v. 28.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called
according to his purpose.
It is not that everything works for good automatically. Rather it is God who uses everything for our good, both now and ultimately. It is a verse of hope to those who endure hardship, suffering and tragedy. If we know God will bring good out of misfortune, that God loves us no matter what, we can face it less reluctantly and perhaps even cheerfully.
--staff is reading the Bible together: Jeremiah
Jeremiah 29:11 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called
according to his purpose.
Finally by living in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit gives the believer hope that death is not the end.
Perhaps that great theological mind, Linus from the Peanut’s cartoon expresses it in our own language: Lucy and Linus were sitting in front of the television set when Lucy said to Linus, "Go get me a glass of water." Linus looked surprised, "Why should I do anything for you? You never do anything for me." "On you 75th birthday," Lucy promised, "I’’ll bake you a cake." Linus got up, headed to the kitchen and said, "Life is more pleasant when you have something to look forward to."
1. Though it may seem strange to some, it is the hope of a Christian death that keeps many of us going.
2. Paul once said, “To be absent from the body is to be at home with the lord.”
Thinking of the fullness and duration of this wonderful life, W. B. Hinson, a great preacher of a past generation, spoke from his own experience just before he died. He said,
"I remember a year ago when a doctor told me, ’You have an illness from which you won’t recover.’ I walked out to where I live 5 miles from Portland, Oregon, and I looked across at that mountain that I
love. I looked at the river in which I rejoice, and I looked at the stately trees that are always God’s own poetry to my soul. Then in the evening I looked up into the great sky where God was lighting His lamps, and I said, ’I may not see you many more times, but Mountain, I shall be alive when you are gone; and River, I shall be alive when you cease running toward the sea; and Stars, I shall be alive when you have fallen from your sockets in the great down pulling of the material universe!’"
How is this hope possible? Living life in the Spirit.
