Sermon for 11/25/2007
Why So Downcast O My Soul?
Psalm 42:5, 11; Psalm 43:5
Introduction:
Hope springs eternal in the human breast. Especially if the heart beats within the breast of a loyal and long suffering Chicago Cubs fan like me.
“Just wait until next year!”
WBTU:
A. Many people today go through their lives with a prevailing attitude of hopelessness. This condition of hopelessness seems to be even more prevalent this time of the year, with the holiday season and the financial burdens that are always magnified during this time. Doctors tell us that the shorter days and lack of sunlight can add to this problem.
B. Read Psalm 42:5, 11; Psalm 43:5
C. Hope is the Christian virtue that anticipates something good will happen or expects that the best is yet to come.
E. Our situation may appear bad- hopeless in fact. Our job may be slipping away. We may be wondering how we will pay for the Christmas presents this year. Our marriage may be unraveling. Our children may be causing us to pull our hair out. I want to boast your hope this morning.
Thesis: Let’s talk about hope. Our hope is based on God, realized in the church, and fulfilled in heaven.
For instances:
I. Our hope is based on God. “Put your hope in God”
A. In some way’s societies hopes may appear better than our hopes. They place their hopes in a career, in business opportunities, in a marriage, in children, in money, in security, in a new home, etc.
B. What happens when these things are taken away with no way to get them back? Downcast and disturbed are tame words to describe the hopelessness of these people.
C. Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud led strong attacks on the Christian faith. Marx called religion the “opiate of the people.” Freud defined God as the projection of a child’s wish for a protecting, powerful father. Believing God was dead, both Marx and Freud died bitter and disillusioned men, friendless, without inner peace, and overwhelmed by despair and hopelessness.
D. Contrast Marx and Freud with C.S. Lewis, who embraced the Christian faith and used his talents to influence people toward Jesus Christ. Lewis lost his wife to cancer. He grieved severely, but later emerged from his sorrow with renewed strength and unspeakable joy derived from God on whom his hope was grounded. Unlike Marx and Freud, Lewis had the resources of a living God to see him through.
E. The Christian’s hope is something real and powerful. That something is God- the living God. Again and again, Scripture calls God “the God of hope.”
F. Real hope is based on God. That’s why we can sing, My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly…
G. (Heb 6:19 NIV) We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
H. After the fall of Berlin on May 2, 1945, the body of an old man was found in a bombed out basement. Before he died he had taken a piece of chalk and scrawled on the wall: “I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I do not feel it. I believe in God even when he is silent.”
H. When we feel overwhelmed by disillusionment, discouragement, depression, or even despair, we must never forget that God is the anchor for our hope.
II. Realized in the church
A. Have we ever watched a campfire? The logs in the fire dance as they burn together. But when an ember rolls away from the fire, it quickly burns out. It can’t sustain its heat alone. Illustration about the man who thought he could be a Christian without going to church.
B. Many early Christians faced persecution. They were attacked and assaulted. Many became discouraged, filled with despair. Their fire was beginning to die out. These words were written to them: (Heb 10:23 NIV) Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.(Heb 10:24 NIV) And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.(Heb 10:25 NIV) Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
C. We need to stay in the fire of community around people who love us, support us, and care for us. When we are cold, we can draw heat and energy from them. When we are in despair, we can draw encouragement from others.
D. (Eccl 4:10 NIV) If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!
E. It’s magic and it’s free. It’s not in a prescription. It’s not in an IV. It punctuates our laughter, it sparkles in our tears. It simmers under sorrows, and dissipates our fears. Do you know what Hope is? It’s reaching past today. It’s dreaming of tomorrow. It’s trying a new way. It’s pushing past impossible. It’s pounding on the door. It’s questioning the answers. It’s always seeking more. It rumors of a breakthrough. It whispers of a cure, a rollercoaster ride of remedies, unsure. Do you know what Hope is? It’s candy for the soul. It’s perfume for the spirit. To share it, makes you whole.
E. Pulling closer together keeps hope alive; existing far apart brings despair.
F. The church should be a place where people can come in from the cold brutality of life and get warm. Hope grows as we attach ourselves to a Christian fellowship.
III. Fulfilled in heaven
A. WE speak of hope now and in the future, but never hope for yesterday.
B. (Jer 29:11 NIV) For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
C. Good can come from suffering. (Rom 8:28 NIV) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Hope looks beyond the painful realities of life. Through suffering, God is either teaching us a lesson or preparing us for something grand.
E. Christian hope is guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (1 Pet 1:3) Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,(1 Pet 1:4) and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you.
F. A football game was being played in Badger Stadium in 1982 in Madison Wisconsin with more than 60,000 fans in attendance. The home team was losing. But out of the blue during time outs, when play was a stop the fans would jump up and roar with excitement. Why? Finally the players and coaches realized that 70 miles down the road the Milwaukee Brewers were beating the Saint Louis Cardinals in game three of the 1982 World Series. Many of the fans had walkmans in their ears and were listening to the game over the radio. Their team on the field was loosing but they were turned into something better down the road. The Christian life is like that for us today. Our circumstances are bad at times but we must be tuned into something better down the road. We must place our hopes not in this world but in heaven.
F. The only way we get into heaven is through Jesus Christ. Pagans who lived in the NT days had no hope of life beyond the grave. They were “without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). Corliss Lamont wrote: “While we live, let’s live in clover ‘cause when were dead, we’re dead all over.” In his book Why I am not a Christian Bertrand Russell wrote, “I believe that when I die I shall rot, and that nothing of my ego will survive.” He believed that man is merely food for the worms.
G. Contrast this with the words of D.L Moody- “Some fine morning you will see in the newspapers, ‘D.L. Moody is dead.’ Don’t you believe it! I shall be more alive that morning than ever before!” What makes the difference? One word: hope!
H. The resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us hope of our own resurrection. (1 Cor 15:13 NIV) If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.(1 Cor 15:14 NIV) And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.(1 Cor 15:15 NIV) More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.(1 Cor 15:16 NIV) For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.(1 Cor 15:17 NIV) And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.(1 Cor 15:18 NIV) Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.(1 Cor 15:19 NIV) If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.(1 Cor 15:20 NIV) But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Conclusion and invitation:
There was a pioneer officer of the law in New Mexico in wild frontier times. He had risked his life again and again. He had gone out to track down and arrest and bring in many a murderer, many an outlaw. And he said to a preacher, “I am not afraid to die! You know I am not afraid to die. I have risked my life many and many a time. I am not afraid to die- but O God, what comes after death! That is what I am afraid of!”
