The last few weeks we have been on the topic of hope. It is my hope today to take in all these little bits on the topic we have been hearing about and compress it all together into a neat little package. The result being why this message of hope is so important to you and me.
You do realize that hope is an important topic to know about? In fact I would say it is one of the main reasons why Jesus Christ came to this earth.
You see at one time you and I were in a hopeless situation. Because we were hopeless we need Jesus.
Today I want to take our message of hope one step further. Today I want to talk about sharing the message of hope with others.
But first I want to share with you some of the insights that I believe God gave me on this topic.
As we were preparing for this series we were throwing ideas back and forth from each other. Psalm 40 came to mind as a visual for the world. And it seemed that God put this beautiful image of hope in my heart and I want to share that with you this morning.
Psalm 40:1-3
I waited patiently for the LORD;
He turned to me and heard my cry.
2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
Out of the mud and mire;
He set my feet on a rock
And gave me a firm place to stand.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
A hymn of praise to our God.
Pit Illustration: The image is that of me in a pit. And it was a pretty deep pit. Up above me I could see light but the sides of the pit were too steep for me to climb. The walls of the pit were covered in dirt and a slimy mess or miry. I too was covered in this slime. I was dirty and unclean.
Then one day someone from the top of the pit yelled down to me. “I see a way out! All you have to do is call upon the name of Jesus.” So I did. And before I knew it I was on top of the pit. For so long my life simply existed in the confines of the pit.
As I looked around on the surface, I realized that being on the topside of the pit wasn’t what I expected it to be. As I looked around as far as the eye could see all I saw were pits. It was like I was looking at the surface of the moon. [Pic. of Moon] Every once in awhile I would see someone else on the surface, but there were mainly pits.
I would walk to the edge of a pit that was next to mine, and look down. I saw someone digging. They were making the pit deeper. The deeper he dug, the dirtier and slimmer it got. I yelled down to him, “You know there is a way out.” “No thanks, he replied back,” and kept on digging.
In another pit there was someone just sitting Indian style with their head dropped downward in defeat. Next to her was a shovel. She had quit digging, when she realized she was stuck. She just gave up. All hope of escape was gone.
Can you see this image in your head? The truth is that you may be one of those individuals in this image.
-You may be the one who is in the pit and is still digging. Making the pit deeper and dirtier.
- You may be the one who has given up hope and is sitting at the bottom.
- You may be the one who is running desperately from pit to pit, shouting “there is a way out!”
- You may be hearing that voice right now. And today is the day that you can start anew and get out of the pit once and for all.
Psalm 40:2
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
I believe each of us are somewhere on this God given image.
The Purpose of the message today
I believe the purpose of the message today is to tell you that God not only wants us out of the pit, but he wants to run from pit to pit, person to person shouting at the top of your lungs, “Do you know there is a way out. There is hope for you!”
God wants us out there sharing the message of hope with as many people as possible.
NEED:
Why is it important that we talk about this today? Hope is relevant. Christ came so that we would have a hope because we were all hopeless. It is especially relevant in a world where there are many who find themselves hopeless.
[Joel Osteen’s Book – Your Best Life Now]
One of the most common slogans among men and women who are serving long sentences in federal prison is “You’ve got nothin’ comin’.” It is a sad and hopeless statement, robbing the inmates of what little hope they have left. “You’ve got no income, your kids are embarrassed to say they are related to you; your wife isn’t coming to see you and will probably divorce you before too long; nothing is going to change in your life. Don’t expect anything better. You’re getting what you deserve. You’ve got nothing coming.
Sadly, many people “on the outside” are living behind self imposed bars, in prisons of their own making, and have succumbed to the same type of thinking. This is the best you can expect. It isn’t going to get any better, so you might as well sit down, keep quiet and endure it.
The truth is that you can break out of this prison! The door is unlocked. All you have to do is see that there is hope.
This is something I call “poverty thinking.” It is the thinking that God has dealt me this life. This is where I am. I must live with it. It is a mentality that gives up hope and settles for less then what God may be wanting for you.
We need to know that there is hope.
I believe this is what we have been focusing on the last few weeks. You and I have hope in Jesus Christ. Then there are those who have no hope at all.
So right here I want to shift gears. We have been talking about hope very generally an so I want to wrapped that up and shift to sharing that hope with others and I want to do this by reading
1 Peter 3:15.
1 Peter 3:15-17
15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,
When we try to reach our friends for Christ sometimes we totally miss the point. You see we reach the lost because they are in need. Not because it scores us points with God. We seek after them not because it’s the Christian thing to do but because we are on top of the pit and watching them dig the wrong way.
The Hopeless Give Up-
People who have no hope simply give up.
There is a story that I read about a group of behavioral Scientists who put some Wharf Rats in a tank of water, and observed them to see how long they would survive before drowning. The average time was 17 minutes. Then, they repeated the experiment, but this time they "rescued" the rats just before the point of drowning, dried them off and returned them to their cages, fed them, and let them play for a few days, and repeated the drowning experiment.
This time, the average survival time for these rats increased from 17 minutes to 36 hours! The scientists explained that phenomenon by pointing out that the second time around, the rats had HOPE. They believed that they could survive this, because they had done so before. When there is no hope, there is no reason to continue on.
Look at our teenagers who are dealing with suicides. We read about it every week. Kids who just have given up hope and have no choice but to give up their life and take others with them. So many people have told them they have no hope and that they should just quit. Some of them listen and do quit.
Some people might say, “this is a nice message and all, but it doesn’t really apply to me. I am doing just fine. I am healthy. My relationships are in order. I am doing well financially; I don’t need any extra hope right now.”
If there is a person who is here today and doesn’t need hope, then that person statistically has become irrelevant to 99% of the world.
Our world needs hope. If you are here and you don’t need hope, then how relevant are you going to be trying to share the gospel of hope with other people?
We are all in need of Hope. That is step one in sharing hope with others.
Step 1: Realizing we are all in need of hope.
A passage of scripture that really spoke to me about this is:
Matthew 5:3
"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Some of you might have read this in the devotional I wrote a few days ago. This is the first beatitude. This is the first lesson that Jesus taught the followers that is recorded in the Bible. I really believe if you want a lesson on Christian attitude then the beatitudes are the place to go.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit. As I look at this verse, the word “poor” sticks out to me. The word “poor” means: less than adequate and usually refers to material possessions. The translation in the greek is someone who is on their knees begging. This verse doesn’t say “blessed are the poor in material things, but “blessed are the poor in spirit.”
It used to be for me, at least in my thinking that this verse only applied to my distant past. It was like “poor in spirit” was me a long time ago when I didn’t know Jesus, when I was lost, when I was misguided.
But, I don’t think that is what this verse is saying. I think the way I thought about this verse was very immature thinking. This verse isn’t just only for the past but for the present as well. Right now we are to be “poor in spirit.” It is all about our attitude and the place we see ourselves with God.
The opposite of “poor in spirit,” would be more on the lines of what I call a spiritual ego. You know what an ego is. Someone with an ego is proud and maybe haughty. In our illustration it would be the spiritually saved person that is going to pit to pit looking down, and saying, “WOW, that is a really deep and dirty pit. What did you do to deserve that? Well you probably deserved it.” We probably know people like this.
But isn’t it interesting that the very first lesson on Christian character that Jesus speaks of that is recorded in the Bible is about being, “poor in spirit.”
That means that right now, right where I am, I am in need of God. Poor people are in need. If they weren’t in need, they wouldn’t be poor. We need the attitude that “I am poor in Spirit, thus I am in need of God.”
You see what happens when we start thinking this way, is that we remember that we too are in deed broken. I think there are times when we have some of these thoughts in our heart. We totally forget that we were in a pit not to long ago. Even now!
When are looking up from their pit, what do they see? Someone who has a spiritual ego, who they can’t relate to, or do they see someone who has a poor spirit, just like them. Which one of those two can they most relate to.
When you are spiritually proud we tend to judge. When we are spiritually poor, we tend to relate. When we relate we can understand what things those in the pit are going through. We can actually in a spiritual sense come along side and say, “I know the way out.”
The spiritually proud have simply forgotten that they too were and still are broken and in desperate need of Christ. You will be able to tell the difference when you encounter them. The spiritually egotistical well talk down to you, literally and figuratively. I mean you are in the bottom of the pit and they are talking down to you.
The spiritually poor will come alongside and journey with you until you are out of the pit.
Poverty Thinking vs. Poor in Spirit
Ok, some of you might have caught on to something that may seem contradictory. I said we shouldn’t get caught up in a poverty thinking mind frame, yet we are to be poor in spirit. Here is the difference.
The key word is HOPE! Poverty thinking has no hope. Poor in Spirit has hope in Christ.
Step 2: Journeying with those who are hopeless.
We must come alongside and journey through life with those who need hope. When we view others through a “poor spirit,” we can begin to see others as Jesus sees them.
Journeying with someone is different than evangelism from a distance. Direct evangelism has its purposes, but I would argue with you, that direct evangelism is like telling someone about the hope in Jesus with a big stick between the two.
Airplane Evangelist – There was a conference I went to and at the conference was an evangelist who was so proud to tell us stories about how much she loved flying in airplanes. Because for hours in flight she could just sit there and evangelize to the person strapped in next to her and there was not a single thing they could do about it. Even if he didn’t want to know he was “gonna know.”
Never did this evangelist have to enter in this other person’s life. After the flight even if the person was saved, which is an incredible thing, what next? The person is left on their own… with no one to journey with them.
Now let me clarify. Billy Graham had the ability to reach millions in stadiums around the world through direct evangelism. If you are before a large audience who came to listen to you because you offered a way to hope, then I would say use direct evangelism.
The gospel tells us, not to just make Christians out of people, but the Great Commission says:
Matthew 28:19-20
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Making disciples would be the key words. This suggest more than just telling about Jesus, but going a farther. Jesus is talking about Journeying.
Jesus didn’t reach out to people and keep his distance. He reached out to them and touched them. He touched lepers, the sick, the poor. He was in and among them.
When I first wanted to get into ministry, I thought it was a great job. I saw preachers upfront preaching sermons and most importantly helping people. But this is what I learned. Ministry is dirty. It is very messy.
You see when you choose to do ministry the way Jesus did it, we have to get in the pit with them. The pit is very slimy, and very miry.
That is why it is important to make sure we are anchored on the firm ground where God set us.
Heb 6:18-20
19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.
We have to be anchored on the firm foundation before we jump in and journey with someone or else we may fall into temptation by their influence.
Why is it slimy? Well you know. You were there not too long ago. Ministry is messy. Yet we are all called to it.
We get to know others… they get to know us-
You see when we get down in the pit with others, we actually might get to know them a little bit. We will hear of their problems, their hard lives, and their difficult pasts. We will get the privilege to see beyond the mask. We will cry with them, we will hurt with them. We will see them as Jesus sees them when we take the time to get to know them.
Now here is the real fear. Here is the real difficulty. We might actually have to let them get to know the real us. We will have to reveal our stains. Remember it wasn’t too long ago you too were in the pit. If you reveal yourself to them and they see your own personal need for hope, and they see your broken poor spirit. They will say, I too can have what he has. He has stains, he is not perfect, he has struggles too. It is like two old veterans showing battle scars. I can relate to that. I too can make that journey. I too can be acceptable to Jesus.
All of a sudden there is hope! There is a light.
Don’t you see the gravity of this? I mean put aside Solid Rock Church for a moment. When we are talking about church growth, we are not talking just about new rooms. We are not just talking about new video screens, a beautiful stage, and great music. We are talking about PEOPLE who not too long ago were in a dirty slimy pit.
Do you understand we desperately need one another? We desperately need Jesus. That is what the Great Commandment is all about. “Love the Lord your God, Love One another.”
The church is not about Solid Rock. It’s about journeying together with one another.
When you do ministry like this, it is very dirty, but very rewarding.
All of a sudden they can see the hope, they can see the light.
Closing:
Apollo 13 ills.
In the movie "Apollo 13," astronaut Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks) is interviewed by a reporter prior to launch. He asks if Lovell has ever been in a tight situation.
Lovell responds that once, as a Navy pilot in a wartime situation, his plane’s instrument panel had been shot up. It was a pitch black night, no moon and the sea was dark as he was flying back to his carrier. The ship’s lights would be out because of the wartime situation and he was scared. He had no idea how he was going to find his ship.
Jim Lovell, flying over a very dark ocean, noticed a faint trail of phosphorescence in the water below. If his situation had not been so desperate, he might not have noticed that faint light. It was the churned wake of his ship and it led him home.
Alt Quote from Apollo 13
[I’m in a Banshee at night in combat conditions, so there’s no running lights on the carrier. It was the Shrangri-La, and we were in the Sea of Japan and my radar had jammed, and my homing signal was gone... because somebody in Japan was actually using the same frequency. And so it was - it was leading me away from where I was supposed to be. And I’m lookin’ down at a big, black ocean, so I flip on my map light, and then suddenly: zap. Everything shorts out right there in my cockpit. All my instruments are gone. My lights are gone. And I can’t even tell now what my altitude is. I know I’m running out of fuel, so I’m thinking about ditching in the ocean. And I, I look down there, and then in the darkness there’s this uh, there’s this green trail. It’s like a long carpet that’s just laid out right beneath me. And it was the algae, right? It was that phosphorescent stuff that gets churned up in the wake of a big ship. And it was - it was - it was leading me home. You know? If my cockpit lights hadn’t shorted out, there’s no way I’d ever been able to see that.]
Everything I have talked about this morning, concerning pits, isn’t just about us; it is something that God himself experienced.
God realized that His people were in a “pit.” God Himself through
Jesus came down to our miry pit we call earth from the security of heaven on Christmas night. The messiah, the savior, came in the form of a baby. “Emmanuel” God was now with us. To journey with us. To help set us on a firm foundation.
Matthew 4:16 describes it this way:
16 the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death;
a light has dawned.
Psalm 23:4: is the prophecy,
Jesus came down to our miry pit we called earth from the security of heaven.
4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
Jesus is here, the light of the earth. This light is hope! Hope in the darkness.
That is what today is all about. Today is Palm Sunday. On Palm Sunday Jesus made His last entrance to Jerusalem. The savior of the world had come. They threw down Palm’s in front of Him as he passed through as a sign of great honor. He had come to save the world from the pit.
Just a few days later, it was finished on the cross.
Jesus the hope of the world. That is the Easter Story… That is next week. Join us.
