Introduction:
A. The story is told of a certain retired man who volunteers to entertain patients in nursing homes and hospitals.
1. One day he went to one local hospital in Brooklyn and took his portable keyboard along.
2. He came to one patient’s bedside, and told some jokes and sang a few funny songs.
3. As he was about to leave the hospital room, he said to the patient, “I hope you get better.”
3. The elderly patient replied, “I hope you get better, too.”
4. What are you hoping for?
B. One day Snoopy could be seen laying on his doghouse in a depressed state. He said to himself, “Yesterday I was a dog. Today I’m a dog. Tomorrow I’ll probably still be a dog. Sigh! There’s so little hope for advancement.”
1. How much hope do you have for advancement?
C. On August 12, 2000, the largest submarine in the Russian fleet, named the Kursk, suffered an internal explosion and went down in 350 feet of water in the Barents Sea.
1. 118 men were aboard.
2. Deep sea divers went down to assess the situation and to determine if anyone had survived.
3. As they were circling the ship deep beneath the sea, they heard a pinging sound and began to listen more closely.
4. What they were hearing was a type of Morse Code coming from some of the men in the sub.
5. The divers deciphered the code, which turned out to be a simple question: “Is there any hope?”
D. “Is there any hope?” - That’s a question a lot of people are asking today.
1. That’s a good question to ask as we close the curtain on one year and pull back the curtain on the next - Is there any hope?
2. Day after day, month after month, and year after year – there are people who seem to be trapped in a hopeless situation.
3. They look out into the future and they don’t see any change on the horizon.
4. They are convinced that life for them will never get better, and despair begins to rule their days.
5. They are onboard the ship called “Hopelessness,” and are surrounded by a sea of despair.
6. Someone has said that hopelessness is the most difficult and dangerous disease a person can have – and I would have to agree with them.
E. In Luke 24, we read about two men walking on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus – about a 7 mile journey.
1. Their faces are solemn and downcast.
2. The events surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus have left them feeling despondent.
3. They are speaking to each other with weary words because they believe that Jesus is dead, and even though they have heard the report of an angelic visit and a missing body, they were doubtful.
4. As they were talking with each other, Jesus joined them, but they did not recognize who he was.
5. Jesus asked them what they were talking about.
6. The man named Cleopas spoke up saying “Are you the only one in the world who doesn’t know what has just happened in Jersualem?
7. Jesus played dumb – “What happened?”
8. They explained: “About Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:19-21)
9. Do you hear their despair – “We had HOPED…”
10. These men had lost their hope.
F. Proverbs 13:12 says: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.”
1. So many people have hearts that are sick because of hope deferred.
2. For one reason or another, so many are struggling to hang on and not give up hope.
3. Many people have financial hopelessness – they’ve overspent and have overcommitted their resources, and now they feel like “They’ll never be able to pay their bills, never be able to get out of debt, and never be able to get ahead.”
4. Others are suffering from relational hopelessness – They sense that their unhappy situation will never change or can never be reversed. They are trapped in a hopeless marriage or a hopeless family and they’re hanging on by their fingertips.
5. Others are suffering from career hopelessness – They’ve lost their job and can’t find another one, or they are stuck in a job that they absolutely despise or one that does not provide enough income for their family.
a. But with their lack of credentials, the poor economy and struggling job market, they have no hope of changing their situation.
6. These people may feel like they are swabbing the deck of the Titanic as it is sinking.
a. Nothing they have tried made a difference.
b. The ship is still sinking and it is hopeless.
G. If that’s how you feel this morning, then I want to try to infuse some hope, because when God is part of the equation, there is always hope.
1. As we look around the auditorium this morning, we see a lot of people who are filled with hope.
2. We have a smile on our faces, a bounce in our step, and we are excited about living.
3. But it is not because we don’t have our share of disappointments in life.
4. Many of us are experiencing our share of financial difficulties and health issues and family problems.
5. But in the midst of these struggles we have a God in whom we trust and in whom we hope.
6. Let’s spend the rest of this sermon asking and answering a couple of questions about hope.
7. The first questions is…
I. Where does hope come from?
A. Look again at our Scripture Reading for today from Romans 5.
1. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:1-5)
2. What an incredible passage filled with life-giving truth.
B. The first truth we see is that Through Jesus we have peace with God – we are made right with God.
1. It is based on God’s grace which we access through our faith in Jesus.
2. This causes us to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
a. This peace that we have with God causes us to look forward to the future with confident expectation that God will keep His promise to take us to live with Him for eternity.
b. God will reveal His glory in the fulfillment of all His promises – that is our hope.
C. Paul then continues – we not only rejoice in the glory of God, we also rejoice in our sufferings.
1. Say what? Why in the world would we rejoice in our sufferings?
2. Because our sufferings can have many benefits.
3. If we allow God to work in and through our sufferings, then our struggles can produce perseverance, character and hope.
4. You would think that suffering and hope would not have much in common.
5. You might thing that the only connection there should be between suffering and hope is that people would hope that their suffering would stop.
6. But surprisingly we learn that hope emerges through our suffering.
D. The third time hope is used in the section is in verse 5 – “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
1. Our hope in God is well-grounded – it based on God’s love.
2. God’s love is demonstrated in what He has done for us through Jesus, but not only that God’s love lives in us – it is poured into us – through the Holy Spirit.
3. God’s love sustains us and gives us hope – even in the midst of our sufferings.
4. So where does hope come from? It comes from God.
5. The second question is…
II. What can hope do for us?
A. First of all, Hope brings us OPTIMISM.
1. Those of us with a hope in God have a rich optimism and a positive expectation.
a. The opposite is true of those without hope – they are pessimistic and gloomy.
2. Do you remember the story of the flying horse?
a. In an ancient kingdom a certain man was to be punished for his crime.
b. He was brought before the king and told that he would be executed the next morning.
c. Now that’s what I would call a hopeless situation. Right?
d. The condemned man said to the king, “O King, I would like to offer you a deal. If you will grant me one year’s time, I will teach your horse how to fly. All I ask is that if I teach your horse how to fly, then you will set me free.”
e. He could tell this interested the king, so he continued: “Think about it, my king, you will be the only king on the face of the earth with a horse that can fly. All the other kings will admire you because of your flying horse. And king, what do you have to lose? If at the end of the year, I have failed to teach your horse to fly, then you can still put me to death.”
f. The king thought about the man’s proposition and decided to take him up on the offer.
g. Later the man’s friends came to him and asked him: “What were you thinking? That is the craziest idea we have ever heard. You can’t teach his horse how to fly anymore than you can teach yourself to fly. At the end of the year the king is still going to execute you.”
h. The man replied, “In a year’s time a lot can happen. In a year’s time the king might die. In a year’s time I might die a nature death. In a year’s time the king’s horse might die. And who knows, in a year’s time that horse just might learn how to fly.”
3. That’s what I call optimism – and that’s what happens when you hope in the Lord.
4. God has surely done more amazing things than make a horse fly.
5. God has raised the dead, made the sun stand still, made the sun go back in time, and shut the mouths of lions, and God has opened a path through the sea - just to name a few.
6. God can do anything. God can do more than we can ask or imagine.
7. Our hope in God can bring us an optimistic attitude.
B. Second, Hope gives us PERSISTANCE and PERSERVERANCE.
1. When there is hope you keep on trying and don’t give up.
2. Most school districts have programs that help children keep up with their school work during stays in the hospital.
3. One day a teacher who was assigned to that program received a routine call asking her to visit a particular child in the hospital.
4. So the teacher contacted the child’s classroom teacher to find out what they were studying, and found out they were studying nouns and adverbs.
5. That afternoon the teacher went to the hospital to make her initial visit.
6. No one had mentioned to her that the boy had been badly burned, was in great pain, and had been very depressed.
7. Upset at the sight of the boy, she struggled to keep her composure.
8. All she could bring herself to say was, “I’ve been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs. I will be back tomorrow and we will get started.”
9. She left the room upset with herself, feeling like she hadn’t accomplished much.
10. The next day when she arrived, the nurse took her aside and asked, “What did you do to that boy yesterday?”
11. The teacher felt she must have done something wrong and began to apologize.
12. “No, no,” said the nurse. “You are misunderstanding me. We’ve been worried about that little boy, but ever since you came yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. Now he’s fighting back and is responding to treatment. It’s as though he has finally decided to live.”
13. Later the boy explained what had happened.
14. You see, he had completely given up hope until the teacher had come.
15. But in his mind, her arrival meant this – “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?”
C. Sometimes the only difference between life and death, the only difference between continuing or calling it quits is a little hope.
1. God tells us He loves us.
2. God tells us He will be with us.
3. God tells us He will help us.
4. God tells us He won’t give up on us.
5. That kind of hope gives us the perseverance to continue to be persistent.
Conclusion:
A. So is there any hope? With God there is always hope.
B. The old saying is true – a picture is worth a 1000 words.
1. I heard about a powerful picture, and tried to find it, but I couldn’t find it.
2. It is a picture of an old burned-out mountain shack – like this one.
3. All that remained was the chimney.
4. In front of this destroyed home stood an old grandfather-looking man with a small boy at his side.
5. The boy was crying.
6. Beneath the picture were the words the old man was saying to the boy.
7. The simple words present such a profound truth.
8. The caption was – “Hush child, God ain’t dead.”
C. The situation we face may be bleak.
1. The smoldering ashes may have a sense of defeat and finality to them – but they have no power over our God.
2. God ain’t dead. God is alive. God is powerful. God is faithful.
3. And for that reason, there is hope.
D. Let’s end with a reading from Hebrews 6.
1. “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. 19We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” (Heb. 6:17-19)
2. God is our hope. God is our anchor.
3. Keep this image firmly implanted in your mind – we are like ships that are tossed to and fro in the storms of life, but God gives us hope as our anchor.
4. The moorings that God provides us will hold us safe and secure.
E. As we move into the next year and the next decade, I hope we can be a church filled with hope.
1. We want to keep dreaming dreams and look to a future that is bright and optimistic.
2. And we want to be a church that offers hope to discouraged and hopeless people.
F. The first step for all of us to find real hope in life comes from embracing Jesus – our greatest hope.
1. Life without Jesus is hopeless.
2. Without Jesus Christ we cannot have the promise of a better future and eternal life.
3. Embracing Jesus includes putting our faith in Him, turning our lives over to Him, and being buried with Jesus in baptism.
4. When we do this, our sins are forgiven, our name is written in God’s book of life, we become one of God’s children, we have a home awaiting us in heaven, and we have a God who works everything for good that we face in this life.
5. All this is what causes us to be greatly encouraged and filled with hope.
G. What is your hope built on? My hope is built on Jesus.
Resources:
“Jesus is the Giver of Hope,” Sermon by Noel Whitlock.
“Hope – Seven Virtues #6,” Sermon by James Galbraith, SermonCentral.com
