The Attack On Hope Series

INTRODUCTION

• VIDEO CLIP

• SLIDE #1

• What makes you feel defeated before you even start or get up in the morning? It is the loss of hope.

• Over the next few weeks Jerry and I will be taking you through a series on the subject of hope.

• Hope can motivate us to soar to great heights or hope that is lost can take us in the depths of despair.

• Hope can cause us to endure the most trying and difficult circumstances or a lost hope can cause us to throw in the towel and quit.

• Hope can change the world or lost hope can make the world a really bad place in which to exist.

• Hope is defined as follows:

 to have a wish to get or do something or for something to happen or be true, especially something that seems possible or likely

• Biblical the word has the same flavor with the emphasis on the thought of anticipation or expectation.

• Hope is an important aspect of the Christian walk because it is the hope of eternal life that can help get us through the tough times of life. It is the hope we place in our loving God that can bring us so much peace.

• One of the problems we face in the current world and climate we live in is that our hope is always under attack from the very world around us that we are trying to save.

• Our faith is under attack from some any different fronts that it can be so discouraging if we lose our hope in Jesus.

• In the book of Hebrews in the passage we will examine today the Hebrew writing is trying to give some reasons to his readers to not lose hope.

• The readers are facing very trying times and for these former followers of the Jewish faith the temptation was strong to give up on Jesus and return to the old ways.

• In times of battle for one to survive you must be able to withstand the attacks you face.

• My prayer for each of us this morning is that if your hope is under attack that this passage can give you what you need to be able to withstand the attacks and to then achieve victory!

• Let’s turn to Hebrews 6; we will start with verse 17.

• SLIDE #2

• Hebrews 6:17 (ESV) So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

We can withstand the attacks on our hope by realizing…

I. God’s purpose is unchanging.

• One of the areas in which we can draw confidence and strength from is the fact that God’s purpose is UNCHANGING!

• Since the main audience the Hebrew writer is speaking to us Jewish, the writer harkens back to God’s promise to Abraham.

• In the first six weeks of our Life Groups that start next week, we are going to take a closer look at the fascinating life of Abraham.

• God made promises to Abraham and all them came to pass even though many of them took years and some decades or longer to reach their fulfillment.

• Back in the Old Testament times whenever someone wanted to put an exclamation point on something, they would swear by an oath.

• People everywhere put a lot of faith and confidence on oaths. God so desired for people to know that His purposes never change that God swore by an oath.

• SLIDE #4

• Hebrews 6:13–15 (ESV) 13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

• God faced somewhat of a dilemma, He could swear by no one greater than Himself so He swore an oath by Himself promising Abraham He would bless and multiply Abraham.

• God made His promise to Abraham in Genesis 12 and it was 25 years later that Isaac was born.

• SLIDE #5

• Genesis 12:4 (ESV) So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

• Genesis 21:5 (ESV) Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

• There were times when Abraham waived in his faith, but in fairness to him, it did take God 25 years to begin fulfilling the promise.

• Isaac was most likely in his early 20’s when God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Now Abraham had been patient for close to a half century.