2 Peter 1:10-11
“Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
A camera is an incredible device.
Philippians 4
.13: “I can do all things though Christ who strengthens me.”
It looks at a particular scene and records it instantly for posterity.
What it sees it records.
In the old days the taking of Photos was far more complex it involved the camera person putting their head under a cover to take the photo and the flashing of light and the etching of images chemically onto a plate.
The recording of old photos diminishes with age and the relevance of the old photos fade.
With the passing of time the pictures fade and get lost.
Many of our dreams and aspirations are like that. Do you remember when you had some childhood dream and it faded?
Hope - 2000 years ago was sharp and in focus.
But as time has moved on the technology and the focus has shifted – what was in sharp focus in the first century has – for a lot of the world – been made fuzzy and out of focus. – Morality, what is important and of vital importance has been faded and reversed. And we have lost hope.
Modern society moved on, left Christ’s hope behind, but has never been in a worse state.
Our focus has changed from God to ourselves here is what Billy Graham said in 1966. (Paraphrased.)
The decline in moral values we see in Western culture coincides with the decline in this culture’s view of God’s Word, the Bible.
It has been well over four centuries since William Tyndale was sentenced to death for translating the Bible into English. We find in Tyndale’s ashes not only a symbol of the impact that the Bible has made in our world, but also a symbol of the price paid by many heroes of the faith to give us our Bible. Miles Coverdale, who 400 years ago issued the first printed copy of the Scriptures in our language, was banished from England. The decaying bones of pioneer translator John Wycliffe were dug up 31 years after his burial and publicly desecrated.
Thus, when we read the Bible today, we must remember that every page has been preserved through the years by the tears, the blood and the agony of courageous men and women.
One of the greatest tragedies of America today is that the Bible is an open book available to everyone, but to millions of Americans it is a closed book—either because they leave it unread or because they read it without applying its teaching to themselves.
Men somehow think that in an age of scientific achievement, this ancient book is out of date. However, I am convinced that the Bible is just as relevant for today as it was for the first century.
America is facing a moral crisis that will ultimately determine the future of this nation. The security of America is not being threatened abroad so much as it is being threatened by immorality at home. We are in the midst of a moral struggle that is just as important for the survival of America as the revolution led by George Washington and his co-patriots.
Most Americans hate to admit we are in a crisis, but its bitter fruits are all around us. We are adrift without answers. No single authority rules our conduct. No church lays down the moral law for all. No tribal customs and taboos define the limits of our immoralities. We are free to be prejudiced or promiscuous, to cheat or chisel. We are left floundering in a money-motivated, sex-obsessed society.
Nowhere is the moral confusion more apparent than in the area of sexual morality. The country is paying a fantastic price for this moral-sexual confusion, which began a few years ago in this country and now has reached full tide. It is getting worse with every passing hour. It threatens the foundations of our democracy and the security of our republic.
We are rapidly becoming a secularized society. We are unwittingly accepting the idea that man is simply a physical being—that life on this planet is all there is. This materialism and secularism has captured millions of people in Europe and America. Millions now explain the universe without a reference to God, morality without the Ten Commandments, personality without a soul, the good life without hope of immortality. This is blatant secularism and humanism.
1966 50 years ago. The lens has turned sharply to the left since then and our morality is out of focus.
Christians have been caught up in this eddy or flow into the rapids of disintergration and today I feel that Christians increasingly need to be exploring themes of hope.
The greatest hiding place for Christian disciples today is not moral disintegration nor is it in leading the charge into self ruin and despair the greatest decline in the Christian church is the creation of Christian backwaters that encourage us to live in a backwater culture of decline and self ruin. Christianity and the worlds future will not be defined by secular despots nor moral reprobates but rather by spiritual cowards.
William GT Shedd said – A ship is safe in harbour but that is not what Ships are for!
I believe in 2016 God is calling his church to rise up to rise up in hope not despair and into looking forward to becoming the church that he called into being for a time such as this. God wants us to flick through the family album to revisit the snapshots of Tyndale, Cloverdale and Wycliffe – but also to revisit the old courageous Christians like Polycarp and the Biblical figures of Paul Stephen and most of the Disciples and of course Jesus himself to gaze upon their fading images and to return them into sharp focus to inspire us to live in hope today.
This morning I want to encourage you three ways that you can take courage from hope in Christ so that you can live in hope and victory in this year that we are coming into.
Isaiah 9:7
“Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever more. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”
My first tactic in living in hope is to contextualise Christianity in relation to the world that we are surrounded by – This contexualisation is facing reality not the unreality we are surrounded by.
Isaiah 9:7
“Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end
Gill in his exposition of this passage says:- In the days of Jesus’ flesh on earth, few believed in him; after his ascension to heaven, there was a large increase of his followers in Jerusalem, and in the Gentile world; the Gospel being preached there, more were the children of the desolate than of the married wife; large numbers were converted, and churches raised and formed everywhere; and in the latter day the church shall fill the earth, and the kingdoms of this world will become the church of Christ; all nations will flow unto it; the people of the Jews, in a body, will be converted, and the fulness of the Gentiles will be brought in; the interest of Christ, which made so contemptible a figure at first, consisting chiefly of the poor of this world, harassed with persecution, and disturbed by heretics, will now make a very great one; the kings of the earth coming into it, the wealth and riches of the world falling into the hands of the saints, the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven being given to them; Christianity will be the universal religion of men, and which will be attended with the greatest spirituality, holiness of life, purity of doctrine, worship, and discipline, and freedom from persecution………………
We need to understand that we are part of this movement .
If that is the case, and it is, then we need to understand that our present societal setbacks are temporary and our task is to take hope and stand –
We need to understand we are moving toward a time where Revelation 21:4
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
What is more Christianity is on the increase nothing has ever stopped it and nothing will!
Wiki seems to back that up
. According to 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there are 2.18 billion Christians around the world in 2010, up from about 600 million in 1910.[1] And according to 2012 Pew Research Center survey if current trends continue, Christianity will remain the world's largest religion by year 2050. By 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion.[2]
You are part of the greatest movement in world history that has ever been and ever will be it will finish with the coming of the Messiah in the air and in heaven itself. Understanding that changes everything!! Hope will propel you into great things
The biblical definition of hope is 'confident expectation'. Hope is a firm assurance regarding things that are unseen. Hope is seen as a fundamental component of the life of a believer.
Galations 6-9 And let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Isaiah 11:9
“They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”
Number one is hope - Don’t grow weary! Contextualise your position. Look through God’s lens at the role and growth of Christianity
Secondly –You can fulfil your God given dreams. Live looking through the lens of your dreams.
Joseph was a dreamer – He came from a difficult family situation Genesis 37.
5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.
6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had:
7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?”
11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
Here was a Young man favoured with the most beautiful coat while his brothers had thrift store coats – provoked by jealousy and then stirred up in anger by his apparently superior dream and they snap and sell him into slavery.
But Joseph who apparently begins unwisely pursues his God given dream and acts impeccably.
In the end – faithful to his God, his dream is fulfilled.
And yours can be as well!
Philippians 4
.13: “I can do all things though Christ who strengthens me.”
Most Christians fail to achieve their dreams because they do not see them as achievable.
Martin Luther King – had a dream to see racial equality in the united States. He was a Baptist Pastor who followed his dream. He once said "If a man had nothing that was worth dying for, then he was not fit to live."
If you have a dream it may well be achieved in your lifetime or like King’s dream after your lifetime because you began something so important it had to continue.
Jesus said “Follow me” and that involves fulfilling his dreams
There is a story of a missionary in Africa who received a knock on the door of his hut one afternoon. Answering, the missionary found a native boy holding a large fish in his hands. The boy said, "Reverend, you taught us what tithing is, so here. I've brought you my tithe." As the missionary gratefully took the fish, he questioned the boy. "If this is your tithe, where are the other nine fish?" At this, the boy beamed and said, "Oh, they're still back in the river. I'm going back to catch them now."
Faith is a huge part of fulfilling your dreams.
William Carrey, considered by many to be the human catalyst behind the modern missions movement, used to say, "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God."
Faith and dreaming are great partners.
Ephesians 6:16
16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
(CEV) "Let your faith be like a shield, and you will be able to stop all the flaming arrows of the evil one."
Hebrews 11:9-10
(Msg) "By an act of faith, he (Abraham) lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger
3. Success is inevitable
Having and fulfilling your dreams will keep your camera in sharp focus as you journey through life.
People following a dream are never without hope.
Finally. Understand that Success is inevitable Be diligent don’t give up!!
2 Peter 1:10-11
“Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Many people begin with a great dream but they get disillusioned and give up.
But if you press on as it says in Hebrews 12 you will succeed.
Failures are inevitable but so is success.
Thomas Barnardo
When Thomas John Barnardo was born in Dublin in 1845 no one
could have predicted that he would become one of the most famous
men in Victorian Britain. But by the time he was 25 he had started
a charity which would become a household name and transform the
lives of thousands of children.
In 1870 Barnardo opened his first home for boys.
. He regularly went out at night into the slum districts
to find destitute boys.
. By the time Thomas Barnardo died in 1905 the
charity he founded ran 96 homes caring for more than
8,500 children. It took faith to fulfil his dreams and when you practice faith you will fulfil yours.
Number one in hope - Don’t grow weary! Contextualise your position. Look through God’s lens at the role and growth of Christianity
Secondly –You can fulfil your God given dreams. Live looking through the lens of your dreams.
Thirdly success is inevitable!
