Real Hope and Change!
Everywhere you look, all through out history, there have been men who have inspired mankind!
David did, Caleb did, Moses and Joshua, Peter, Paul and Mary, Just kidding
But seriously, Discoverers have, Kings have, Presidents…....well you know…....just mention the names of Lincoln, Washington, Kennedy, Roosevelt and Reagan
But at best, it was all and always temporal, because men fall, men fail, men die
and the accuser, combined with time and circumstances, can change things around like the weather, without a moments notice,
Until one day it's 2012, you wake up and you see things you’ve never seen before and the news,
reports on things happening around the world, you’ have never heard of before,
And you see and hear in your own neighborhood, of people ruining their lives,
doing things and drugs that they think, are supposed to make them feel good,
and you can't help but wonder,
Where’'s the Hope gone? Or you wonder, Where’s the lack of Hope gone to?
The world needs hope, the morale of people young and old, all across the globe, needs to be lifted up and inspired,
And they need to be made aware of the hope, the greatest hope ever known and that hope is Jesus!
The hope that not just inspired a generation or two, like at best a man is capable of,
but is capable of doing it, for all of eternity,
A real and lasting, continual Hope, a hope that will never disappoint, a hope that will never let us down!
Romans 5:5 NKJ
5Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Gods “hope” in the Bible is a confident and positive expectation of good.
No where in the world can you find the good news of such a hope,
it can only be found, through the finished work of Christ!
And God wants you to have a confident expectation of good because as His child,
And like any good parent would be towards their own children, He Loves you and He favors you and wants His very best for you.
Matthew 7:11 NKJ.
11. If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
He wants you to always be expecting something good from Him, just for no other reason, because your one of His own!!
And that's more than enough reason for me, Praise God!
TBS. if you are one of His own, you are qualified for everything and anything, He decides to bestow upon you, all for the asking!
Makes me want to shout hallelujah, thank you Jesus, How bout you?
Sounds almost to good to be true…...well, with the worlds twisted way of thinking…...yes it is,
but its not outside the realm of possibilities, of the creator of the universe, the one true God, who loves you very much!
Colossians1:26-29 MSG
26-29This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open.
God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing.
The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory.
It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message.
We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message.
We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity.
To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less.
That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God so generously gives me.”
The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory.
It’s that simple. That is the substance of our Message.
That is the substance of our hope!
Its not a complicated, long and drawled out sales pitch that someone has to learn verbatim, before they can share it with someone else.
Over the years, Christianity and religion has become to complicated by man,
Well if I could just follow all the rules like brother and sister so and so, their so knowledgeable of all the scripture, their such mature Christians.
Brother and sister so and so, ain’t ever gonna get it done for you,
And the good news is, they don’t have to either, God made it easy to inspire hope in your fellow man!
The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory.
TBS. To be mature is to be basic. Its Christ Jesus! No more, no less.
And the hope He inspires, is an amazing hope, can I Get amen this morning?!!
Another amazing thing about this scripture is, that Paul wrote it while he was in jail.
He didn’t let his situation, steal his hope or his joy and we shouldn’t let any of our situations,
No matter whatever they may be, steal our hope and our joy either!
All because Christ is in you, the hope of all glory, you can expect the glory of God to shine not to just one area of your life,
but into every area of your life, including
*your family,
*your job,
*your health and finances,
*your ministry and yes whether you realize it or not, everyone has a ministry, and maybe there would be more hope in the world, if more Christians realized how important their ministry really is!
*as a child of God, you can expect and you have the right to expect, His Glory to shine on everything you touch!
Seriously Church, everything that your associated with?, Yes, everything!,
Now that’s real hope you can believe in, and it’s a lasting and eternal Hope, because it never changes,
TBS. This amazing truth, “Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever!”
we may change like the wind sometimes, but He remains the same, He is our Constant Hope!!
Ill. A group of infantry soldiers were going through Airborne School at Fort Benning Georgia. As they prepared for their first jump, the jumpmaster explained that when the green light went on, everyone was to stand up, hook up, jump out, count to four and the chutes would open. If that failed, they had an emergency back-up chute. Then after they landed, a bus would take everyone back to main post. One soldier jumped from the aircraft, but nothing happened. He tried to open his back-up parachute. Nothing happened. As he was headed downward he thought, “Great--and I bet the bus won’t be there to pick us up either!”
He had no hope and its sad, but there are a lot of people that feel the same way,
The accuser has whittled them down little by little, with one thing after another, the world has been depleted of hope.
In the past, you may have experienced disappointed hopes, but there is a hope that does not disappoint when you are conscious of how much God loves you.
The kind of Hope were talking about this morning, is “a hope that springs from the heart of God,” who loves you very much!
Were not talking about idle words, He is willing to back it up, with His unearned, unmerited Favor that He freely gives to His children, through Jesus His Son!!!
Heres an interesting fact, the first mention of the Holy Spirit in the book of Romans is tied up with the love of God.
Without a doubt, the first thing the Holy Spirit wants to do, is to establish in our hearts that God Truly loves us?
Many people think that the Holy Spirit has come to teach us about power.
And there absolutely is, amazing power to be found in the Holy Spirit!
But the truth is, that the Holy Spirit came not to reveal the love for power, but the power of love!
The Holy Spirit is, Gods Love for us, often called the comforter, He is what draws us to our salvation,
It’s the realization of Gods love for us, by a relationship with His Son Jesus, that changes our hardened hearts,
Hope is renewed and always seems brand new, when you know that you are loved.
Let me tell you, disappointments will come and go as they always do,
but with Jesus and His unbelievable Love that He has for you in your life, you can take confidence in the fact that,
There are better times right around the corner, success is within your grasp, your closer to your victory than you know,
the light bulb has not burned out at the end of the tunnel, it still shines brightly for you!
Things are always going to happen, that’s just the way life is, but because you know how much God loves you.
You know that, He is always working all things together for your good, always.
When you believe that God loves you, good things follow you around looking for you,
good things are waiting for you at every juncture that you come to, in your life
You will never truly receive everything that God has for you, until you truly understand how much He Loves you!
When you truly understand, how much God really Loves you, the hope you have, becomes contagious and infectious,
Life with God should be easy and light, not hard, burdensome or full of stress
Matthew 11:28
28Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
It should give comfort to us, to know that Jesus sees the cares, everyone of them, that we carry in our hearts.
He knows the worries you have for your family and for the future.
Everything that you have ever had to deal with or will ever experience, He already has been there and conquered it.
You must believe, what ever situation you will ever arrive at, or may come upon,
He has already been there for you and has already been victorious over it as well!
Matthew 11:29–30 NKJ
28. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
MSG Bible says it this way.
Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.
I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly."
He says to you, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Jesus wants to give you rest. And He says that the way you receive rest is to be yoked with Him, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
(do you remember choosing teams at recess when you were a kid,
and you said...oh, oh pick me, pick me and you waited, sometimes quickly and sometimes it seemed as though it took forever,
The good news is, you don't have to wait for Him to pick you, He has already chosen you,
He’s just waiting for you to suit up and join Him and experience His goodness!
He wants to give you Hope that will not disappoint you, and He wants you to experience a rest like you never have experienced before.
A sweet, sweet rest like you have never felt before,
and not a temporary sensation, but a continual, constant, renewable peace of mind,
that flows effortlessly over every area of your life and that only He can give to you.
That’s where some people have a hard time, with the resting part.
They think they have to be busy, doing something all the time, to help control the outcome.
When the truth is, Jesus already has done it all for us, there is nothing left to do,
The Bible calls Jesus work, His finished work, not His halfway completed work.
Unlike a young school boy, you don’t have to worry if He has done His homework or not,
When He finished His work on the cross, He dotted every I and crossed every T, He left nothing undone.
When your working with someone on a project, your always quick to point out when someone is going over something you already completed.
Its like you want to say, what are you doing, I already did that, take a break,
You can do it again if you want, but why would you want to.
Sometimes you even feel a little bit insulted when someone is going over your work, like its not good enough or something.
That’s kind of how it is with Jesus, even though some of us might think that were perfectionists,
His Finished Work on the Cross, was complete PERFECTION!
Think of how much less stress we would have, if we depended on His finished work
long before we come to the realization that we finally admit that we have done all we can do, for about the 10th time.
When we constantly do that, we make life so much harder for ourselves than God intended for it to be!
Do you know how important you are to God? He cares so much about every detail of your life.
You see, He cares about your thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
In fact, what you are going through is so important to Him that He records every sorrow and collects every tear you’ve shed.
Why would God record your sorrows and collect your tears? It’s because He loves you so much.
He is your Hope, He is your Vindicator.
He’s keeping account of every wrong that’s ever been done to you so that He can make up for every single one of them.
He wants to restore everything that has ever been stolen. He wants to heal every single hurt and pain.
He sees the longings and desires of your heart, and you can rest assured that behind the scenes He is busy, working all things out for your good!
Please bow your heads for just a moment
Do you know this Savior that we’ve been talking about this morning. Not do you know about Him, but do you Know Him.
Where is your relationship at with Him, is it full of hope, is it full of the possibilities that He has waiting for you?
If not, why not take a step this morning towards a Hope that will never disappoint you.
A hope that will inspire you to be all you were meant to be!
Lets pray,
