Sermon Central
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God Of Hope
Contributed by Anthony Zibolski on Oct 17, 2013 (message contributor)
Summary: A Hopeless world has hope in Jesus Christ. Christ reaches out to a hopeless world and offers them a future.
God of Hope
Introduction-
This morning I want to talk about hope.
Biblical hope, worldly hope, and I hope that I make myself clear.
Hope is universal and personal.
Hope ties with faith more than we really want to imagine.
Most times faith and hope can be interchangeable.
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
That is faith, and that is hope. Neither word is used in that portion of Scripture.
So if you had to define hope?
Belief?
Faith?
Wishy- washy kind of unsure optimism?
I think the world that we live in today’s idea of hope is to “wish for, to expect without certainty and really no assurance of getting what you desire.”
I hope for the perfect person to marry.
I hope to have a good job.
I hope to drive a nice car and live in a nice house.
Hope by its nature stresses two things
(1) Future
(2) Invisibility
It deals with things we can’t see, or haven’t received, or both.
So let’s talk a minute about worldly hope.
Worldly hope puts all its trust in the here and now.
They have no hope other than between the lines of birth and death.
They hope in pleasure.
They hope for material things.
They hope in drugs to change the way they feel inside which is mostly empty.
They cannot trust anything that they cannot touch or see.
To the world to put any trust or hope into something you cannot have now, or anything they cannot see is foolishness to them.
The world has a saying “Hope springs eternal”, yet it is only Christians that have blessed eternal hope.
To one it is a masked hope
Get all you can right now and at all cost because there is no more.
They have no problem hurting and destroying others because it is the law of the jungle for them.
Hurt before someone hurts you.
Is it any wonder that the world has lost hope?
They put their hope in people, and people have let them down.
They have put their hope in material things and they no longer satisfy.
They have put their hope in pleasure and it is now not enough.
The world struggles in their faith.
They have lost hope.
They are searching for answers in the wrong places.
But to a believer hope takes on a new meaning.
To the world hope in Christ is foolishness.
To the world so oblivious to the real hope Christ offers, they shrug their shoulders at the things of God and continue on their dangerous path.
To the believers it begins in the words of a young prophet Jeremiah. 29:11-
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Following Christ is not easy.
They know that there will be trials and troubles.
They also know that God takes care of His people.
That it not by coincidence things happen in our life.
God has a plan and He has a purpose for us, and it is a good one!
Apostle Paul writes in Romans 15:4-
”For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and encouragement of the Scripture we might have hope.”
God offers hope through His written Word, through the encouragement of other believers, and the faithfulness of God’s promises coming true weather we can see them at the moment or not.
Here is our text this morning- one verse.
Written in the book of Romans between chapter of God helping the weak and the Lord telling us to be patient with those that have not got the faith and hope we have.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (repeat)
Any hope the Christian has comes from God.
Godly hope cannot be conjured up by human effort.
Faith and hope is a gift from God.
“For it is this hope we are saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”
“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”
Remember two weeks ago when we talked about faith?
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
The world is certain of nothing, and has lost hope.
