What I Have I Give To You

Romans 15:13

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I want to make a statement this morning and I pray it will help you. There is a strong reality that many must come to grips with and that is that you can only give to others that which you have received. No matter what that might be it is truth that cannot be altered. If you don’t have it, you cannot give it. This morning I am talking about hope. Hope is a tremendously needed entity in just about everyone’s life. People live on hope and die without it. Life is full of episodes that will try in every angle to snatch the hope of God right out of you. But this morning I want to introduce to you a God of hope that is willing to spark life into dead things.

Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large.

1st Point “We are leaky vessels and need to be filled”

In our opening scripture the bible speaks to us of a God of hope. This God who is majestic and holy, wonderous and absolutely amazing in every way. The bible says that this God of hope is so glorious that not even the heavens can contain His glory. And in this statement I ask that you take into consideration that God has decided to fill us with this hope to give it to others who are in desperate need of it.

Beloved we live in a time of desperate measures, people are in need of hope, many today are lost, broken and people are looking for answers, questions are asked about the God of heaven, who is this Jesus, how do we know, why do you believe?

We have the answers, it’s Jesus, hope doesn’t live without problems, hope is not exempt from circumstances, we live against the battles that try to destroy our hope. Yet we serve a God that is able fill us with this hope when all seems lost.

When life takes it toll it cuts and we leak. Being filled with the hope of God is wonderous but when situations happen, there is a withdraw. You are going to draw from your resources of hope, people are going to draw from your resources of hope, you will find yourself at times digging deep to keep yourself above ground and also others will look at you with eyes of desperate need and you will be in their midst and they are going to need to hear that even through a tragedy, even through a terrible situation hope lies in wait in the future. God promises are never broken.

Jeremiah 31:17

17 There is hope in your future, says the Lord,

But the reality is, when your going through it, you can’t see hope, you don’t see the finish line, all you see is hopelessness. Listen to me this morning church and I say this with love and with a deep heart, there are no hopeless situations; there are only men who have grown hopeless about them. And so, we rely on the promises of God and the victories that are promised to us.

Acts 13:52

And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

There is something in the Christian hope that not all the shadows can quench, and that something is the conviction that God is alive. No man is hopeless so long as there is the grace of Jesus Christ; and no situation is hopeless so long as there is the power of God.

There is worry about external things. Many are haunted by the chances and changes of life. It is hard not to worry, for man is characteristically a creature who looks forward to guess and fear. The only end to that worry is the conviction that, whatever happens, God’s hand will never cause His child and needless tear. Things will happen that we cannot understand, but if we are sure enough of God’s love, we can accept with serenity even those things which wound the heart and baffle the mind. Think with me of Job, the tragedy, the lost, the un-relented affliction, the agony, the pain, not understanding what’s happening and yet the bible tells us;

Job 1:22

In all this Job did not sin

There is purpose for everything under the sun.

2nd Point “Realizing the need for obedience”

“peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

There are times in our lives that our peace in the reality of God’s grace is rocked, the peace we should have anchored is uplifted and shaken. So when our peace is touched so is our faith, and now what we once believed in is now in question.