Series: Finding Joy in The Journey
Series: We need to find joy in the journey!
Thesis of series: Joy needs to be experienced in the journey of life! But Joy, like any other attitude, can come and go. It is not guaranteed simply because we are born again believers because storms will blow in and out of our lives. We must put ourselves in the places where experiencing joy is a possibility. We need to go after and find joy in our journey of life even in times of grief, illness, financial crisis, hardship and even persecution.
Introduction to Series:
Studying about joy in Scripture, looking at verses which speak of joy, helps build an understanding of how to put ourselves in places where it is possible to find and maintain an attitude of joy in our journey of life. We need to position ourselves in 2019 to seek after and find joy in the journey of life. God desires to help us find that joy!
• We can find Joy through laughter and humor.
• We can find joy in God’s love.
• We can find joy in the journey through praise and worship.
• We can also find joy in the journey through hope.
Scripture Text Series:
Phil. 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
Romans 15:13: “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.”
Sermon 2: Finding Joy in the journey through Hope! Pt 2
Thesis: Hope is a significant key to finding in the journey of life because it is a wonderful gift from God. Hope will become a source of strength, power and courage in the face of life’s severest trials. Hope will bring you joy when you think there is no joy! Hope will help you see the light in the darkness! Hope will rejoice with you and mourn with you.
Scripture: Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”
Introduction:
Chuck Swindoll from his book Hope Again states this about hope:
“Hope. It is something as important to us as water is to fish, as vital as electricity is to a light bulb, as essential as air is to a jumbo jet. Hope is that basic (3).”
Hope is a key and essential for life. Hope is a power that helps us find joy in the journey. We need it and trust me everyone wants it, but it is only found in a “Living Hope” – This Living Hope is alive and active in our lives!
Main Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Thought: Jesus is not a dead hope – a wishful thought – He is the One who defeated death and opened up the door for us to defeat it too. He is the One who opened up a relationship with us and the Living God! He opened up the door to a living hope found in his resurrection.
Scripture Section: 1 Peter 1:1-12:
1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,
2who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Praise to God for a Living Hope
3Praise 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,
4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you,
5who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care,
11trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
12It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.
Thought: Peter a former fisherman, but now a fisher of men writes about Hope. He was once a companion of Jesus and experienced hope in the flesh. He was a person who had failed and even been obnoxious at times, he was one who had walked on water and then sunk into the water, he was one who did the wrong thing at times and said the wrong things at times, he was one who denied Jesus 3x, but here he is speaking from his heart and he says to those who are “God’s Elected” and are scattered, persecuted, driven from their homes because of their faith in Jesus that for them to find joy in this journey of life they needed to connect to the Living Hope! This hope would empower them to press forward in the journey of life – it will help them get home to Heaven.
Introduction:
Swindoll states, “We don’t look alike. We don’t act alike. We don’t dress alike. We have different tastes in the food we eat, the books we read, the cars we drive, and the music we enjoy. You like opera; I like country. We have dissimilar backgrounds, goals, and motivations. We work at different jobs, and enjoy different hobbies. You like rock climbing; I like Harleys. We ascribe to a variety of philosophies and differ over politics. We have our own unique convictions on child rearing and education. Our weights vary. Our heights vary. So does the color of our skin. But there is one thing we all have in common: We know what it means to hurt. Suffering is a universal language. Tears are the same for Jews or Muslims or Christians, for white or black or brown, for children or adults or the elderly. When life hurts and our dreams fade, we may express our anguish in different ways, but each one of us knows the sting of pain and heartache, disease and disaster, trial and sufferings…Truly, suffering is the common thread in all our garments” (Page 11 and 12).
Peter tells us and those he addresses in his letter that we may be suffering now but we cannot give up and lose hope. Why because we have a Living Hope! Jesus is His name! Hope is His mission! He is a Hope dealer to those who are hopeless!
Today is Palm Sunday – a Sunday that we celebrate every year which kicks off Easter Week or Holy Week! This event is found in Luke 19:28-44; Matthew 21:1-17; John 12:12-19. This is why we handout palms in memory of this great day. It’s the day Jesus entered Jerusalem with applause, with a bang, with a parade, and people were rejoicing and it was a huge celebration – people were cheering and praising Jesus saying “Hosanna! Blessed is he… Blessed is the king…” Have you ever wondered why they were rejoicing like this celebrating His entrance into Jerusalem? How did Jesus all of a sudden become so famous so popular?
The answer was people saw Him as their Living Hope! Why because of His miracles. He had been healing people, blind saw, lame walked, he miraculously feed people, he walked on water, stopped a storm, he delivered people from evil spirits, and the most recent and biggest miracle he had done was raising a dead man back to life who was dead 4 days! Everyone wanted to connect with a person who had this kind of power! Power over death – disease – demons and even nature itself.
This miracle of raising the dead man Lazarus is found in John 11:1-44 it set everything in motion for this entrance into Jerusalem as the Bible predicted 1,000 of years earlier:
The Death of Lazarus
1Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
2This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.
3So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
5Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
6Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
7Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”
9Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light.
10It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.”
11After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.”
13Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,
15and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Jesus Comforts the Sisters
17On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.
18Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem,
19and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother.
20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
22But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;
26and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27“Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”
28And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.”
29When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.
30Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.
31When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
34“Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35Jesus wept.
36Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead
38Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
39“Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
41So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
T.S. - This resurrection from the dead miracle instilled and birthed hope into the people of Israel. They looked at Jesus after this event and saw a Living Hope! Many who were hopeless found hope in Jesus!
I. Mary and Martha found their Living Hope in Jesus and so did Lazarus!
a. The scene of our story:
i. A loved one is severely sick and his sisters who traveled with Jesus send word “Come quick Lazarus is dying so you can heal him!” But, Jesus does not drop everything he is doing and run to heal him. He waits! I am sure the disciples are thinking what is he doing – why does he not go now! Maybe some of them are thinking he is not going because in that area they want to kill him, there is a contract out on His life.
ii. But Jesus knows its time to reveal how truly powerful He really is – He is going to let Lazarus die and be dead for 4 days and bring him back to life again! Yeah that is His plan!
1. Let him die and I will bring him back to life!
2. Point to note: This is not the first time Jesus raised someone from the dead!
a. Jesus raised the widow's son at Nain (Luke 7:11-17)
b. Jairus' daughter (Matthew 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56)
3. No one knows what Jesus is up too! But He knows exactly what He is doing! He always does by the way!
iii. After Lazarus has died – and is really dead in everyone’s mind - they journey to see the family and Lazarus – and Jesus says, “I am going to wake him up!”.
1. It seems from Scripture that this family had many Jewish and important friends in the Jewish synagogue and culture because many are there mourning with this grieving family!
b. Jesus approaches the grieving scene of death and loss.
i. Encounter 1 happens before Jesus reaches the house and tomb:
1. Martha hears he is coming and goes to confront Jesus!
a. Before he reaches the house Martha sister one comes out to meet him – she is in a stage of grief:
i. Denial.
ii. Anger.
iii. Bargaining.
iv. Depression.
v. Acceptance
1. She states to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died…But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
2. She lets her anger out and then catches herself!
3. Jesus tells her “He will rise again” but she does not believe he can come back from the dead after so many days!
ii. Encounter 2 with sister 2 - Jesus asks about Mary so Martha returns to her sister and Mary goes out to confront Jesus and is also in a stage of grief she says, ““Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
1. Jesus is blamed for Lazarus death twice by some of his most devoted followers.
a. H Norman Wright stated, “When you enter into grief, you enter into the valley of shadows. There is nothing heroic or noble about grief. It is painful. It is work. It is a lingering process. But it is necessary for all kinds of loss. It has been labeled everything from intense mental anguish to acute sorrow to deep remorse.”
iii. The question has been asked by countless people going through grief “Does God understand our pain and our grief, does He care?” The answer is “Yes!”
1. Genesis 6:6 states “He was grieved in His heart.”
2. Jesus right here reveals to us that he understands and feels the pain of grief.
3. Jesus is deeply moved by their grief, and he too wept with them – he cried with them – he was moved by their grief and sorrow over Lazarus death.
a. Don’t miss this point church - Jesus wept with this grieving family and had compassion and empathy on them – even when he knew he would raise Lazarus from the dead. Wow! Now that is the kind of Lord I want to serve!
4. This real life story reveals the connection Jesus wants to have with us in our times of grief and sorrow.
a. He will mourn with us – weep with us – comfort us – and be there for us!
b. He will not abandon you – are you listening to me! You are not alone if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior! You have a living hope in times of loss and grief!
5. I really wonder how people survive without Jesus through grief, loss and trails and tribulations!
T.S. – When we connect with The Living Hope who gives us supernatural hope in difficult times it is more valuable than gold! This hope helps us even in the tough times to find joy in the journey. But the key in connecting with a living hope is we have to choose to connect to this Living Hope!
II. We have a Living Hope to assist us in the journey of life if we are Christians.
a. As difficult and hard some pages of our life will be, we are assured we are not alone in this journey!
i. Jesus knows and feels our pain and our struggles in life.
1. It becomes clear in our story of Lazarus and Jesus reaction to Martha and Mary he cares and has genuine love and compassion for our struggles.
2. Hope is something that is given to us from Heaven and it’s found in Jesus life – death and resurrection!
a. Peter says we may be suffering but we have a Living Hope I Peter 1:3-7!
i. We have a Living Hope – say it with me!
ii. Just like He instilled hope in Martha he will with you – Martha “I am the resurrection and the life!” Believe this – stand on this promise it will fuel your hope!
ii. Our Living Hope is with us through suffering it is our anchor!
1. Hebrews 6:17-20:
a. 17Because 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. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
b. Hope: an Anchor to the Soul by Mike Willis of Danville, Indiana – FOLLOWING ARE HIS THOUGHT WITH MINE INSERTED TOO:
i. “The Hebrews passage describes hope as the anchor of the soul. The metaphor compares the Christian to a boat on the sea; the Christian is on the sea of life. There are storms which threaten to drive his ship from its port - the storms of persecution, adversity, doubt, death, etc. Just as the boat's anchor reaches down to the bottom of the ocean and out of sight, the Christian's anchor ascends out of sight into heaven where it is there fixed. To serve any purpose, an anchor must hold. It must be "sure and steadfast." When sailors cast out an anchor, they want it to take hold on the bottom of the sea to prevent drifting, to keep them from being driven upon rocks which might destroy their ship. The Christian's hope also must be "sure and steadfast." It must hold.”
ii. A Christian's hope their anchor will give them stability in the midst of the storms of life. During the storms, the ship may drift a little, but the fixed anchor will bring it back to it’s moorings.
iii. Share stories of how my anchor holds my boat in place in rough water of the family whose boat broke away from the tug boat and how they threw the anchor out to keep them from going into the rocks.
2. Question: Will Your Anchor Hold in the storms of Life?
a. There are other anchors that men have.
i. Job describes those who make gold their hope (Job 31:24).
ii. Others make power and strength their hope.
iii. Some make money their hope.
iv. Others make their jobs their hope.
v. Some use drugs and alcohol as their hope.
b. Sadly, because some anchor their soul’s with the wrong hope they crash into the rocks and many lose their lives,
c. Priscilla J. Owens wrote the song "We Have An Anchor."
i. Will your anchor hold in the storms of life, When the clouds unfold their wings of strife? When the strong tides lift and the cables strain, Will your anchor drift, or firm remain? We have an anchor that keeps the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll, Fastened to the rock which cannot move, Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love.
ii. Willis states, “The Christian's hope will anchor the soul, bringing him safely through every trial and temptation of life. The Christian's Hope. The Christian's hope is a hope which the gospel gives. It is "the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel" (Col. 1:5). The only means of attaining this hope is through Christ -"Christ in you (is) the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27).”
3. Psalm 62:5-6: ”Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.”
a. The anchor for your soul to keep it from drifting away from Jesus is a living hope!
i. Do you know what your soul is or does?
1. John Orberg states this about our souls: “If your soul is healthy, no external circumstance can destroy your life. If your soul is unhealthy, no external circumstance can redeem your life (Pg 40, Soul Keeping).
2. John Ortberg describes it this way, “We each have an outer life and an inner one. My outer self is the public, visible me. My accomplishments, my work, and my reputation lie there. But inside is my soul that part of me that speaks in silence to others but yells at me. It's the inside stuff of real life - what is your soul saying to you - how is your soul? (Is it connected to the breath of life or is it deflated by the things of this world and self?)… My inner life is where my secret thoughts and hopes and wishes live. Because my inner life is invisible, it is easy to neglect. No one has direct access to it, so it wins no applause (John Ortberg – Soul Keeping page 37-38).”
a. Your soul needs to be connected to this Living Hope!
3. Ortberg notes: If you read through the Bible, you get the sense that the soul was designed to search for God. The Hebrew Scriptures — which might be thought of as the Great Soul-Book of human literature — are almost obsessed with this thought.
a. Listen to these few verses from the Bible:
i. The soul thirsts for the Mighty One (Ps. 63: 1).
ii. It thirsts for him like parched land thirsts for water (Ps. 143: 6).
iii. Like a laser it focuses the full intensity of its desire on him (Ps. 33: 20).
4. The truth is your soul is looking to connect with a Living Hope!
b. Our Living hope will do many things for us in this life.
i. Benefit #1: Peter reminds us that our Living Hope will gives us a permanent inheritance – a home in Heaven! (vs. 4)
ii. Benefit #2: It’s secure – this living hope is not going to betray us or abandon us – it’s waiting and yearning for us to get home so we can take up residence with it!
1. It’s a city filled with love and light. No more pain or suffering – no drugs, no crime, no murders, no hate! Our loved ones who have dies in the Lord before us will be waiting for us there – that’s our real home – this place is not our home. It’s there that we should desire to live and put our hope in.
2. But our living hope assures us it’s a real place with amazing benefits. We just have to stay the course and one day we will be home.
iii. Benefit #3: Peter notes that our Living Hope promises us Divine Protection and deliverance! (vs 5).
1. Swindoll states, “Under Heaven’s lock and key, we are protected by the most efficient security system available – the power of God” (Page 16)
2. Nothing can take away our inheritance and the Love of God – because we are secure in Him – He is our protector.
iv. Share the story from Insanity of God by Nik Ripken about Stoyan’s father.
1. “I will call my next storyteller Stoyan. The name means “stand firm” or “stay,” and it is a common Eastern European name. Stoyan was about sixty years old, energetic and friendly. We met in the capital city of his country. After my usual explanation of who I was and what I was doing, Stoyan began telling me his story. He began by talking about his parents. After the end of World War II, the communists began consolidating their power throughout his country. Eventually, they took control of the government. For decades, the authorities oppressed believers. When Stoyan was twelve, they imprisoned his protestant pastor father. His father remained in custody for ten years. “At first,” he said, “they held him in a secret police place in our city.” “Every morning one of the guards would take some of his own human waste and spread it on the piece of toast that he brought to my father for breakfast.” Stoyan reported that the emotional and psychological impact of this persecution was even worse, and left deeper scars, than any physical mistreatment. Nine discouraging months passed with no word about his father. Stoyan’s mother finally received notification that her husband was being transferred, with a group of other prisoners, to a distant labor camp. The jailers allowed the families a one-hour visit before the transfer. Stoyan and his mother went to the well-known torture facility of the secret police on their assigned day. They were ushered out onto a football-sized field along with many other families who had come to see their beloved husbands and fathers and sons. “Most of the prisoners rushed out to talk with their relatives from the other side of a long row of tables lined up to separate visitors from the inmates,” Stoyan recalled. “But my father did not appear. My mother and I sat and waited. We waited for a long time. Finally, when our hour of visitation was almost up, another prisoner, evidently a trustee, walked through the visiting room door carrying what looked like a bundle of rags. He strode toward us and laid that bundle on top of one of the tables.” “My mother took my hand,” recalled Stoyan, “and together we walked up to the table where, only because of the piercing blue eyes staring out at me from those rags, did I recognize this skeletal figure of a man as my father.” “I took my father’s hand in mine and I put my face close to his. I whispered, ‘Papa, I am so proud of you!’ I was thirteen years old.” “Mama knew what my father would want most, so she slipped a little pocket New Testament under his wool cap. The jailer saw what she had done. He rushed over and took the little book, and then he summoned his commander. The officer took one look at the book before furiously throwing it to the ground. He screamed at my mother, with a great crowd of people around us, ‘Woman, don’t you realize that it is because of this book and because of your God that your husband is here? I can kill him, I can kill you, and I can kill your son. And I would be applauded for it!’” Stoyan was remembering something that had happened decades earlier. But he recited the words as if they had been spoken yesterday. “My mother looked at that prison officer and said, ‘Sir, you are right. You can kill my husband. You can kill me. I know that you can even kill our son. But nothing you can do will separate us from the love that is in Jesus Christ!’” Stoyan said, “I was so proud of my mama!” After the communist government had transferred his pastor father to the gulag outside of the city, the authorities exiled the rest of Stoyan’s family to a remote gypsy village in a distant corner of the country. The police knocked on the door late one night and gave Stoyan, his mother and his three younger brothers an hour to pack. They were allowed to take two suitcases each. They were loaded on a midnight train bound for a place that they had never been. At some point on that lonely train-ride, frightened and feeling like they had lost everything, Stoyan’s younger siblings began to cry. They pleaded with their mother: “What’s going to happen to our house? Mama, where are we going to live now? How will Papa know where we are? What are we going to do? What’s going to happen to us?” Stoyan’s mother had no answers for her traumatized family. All she could do to reassure them was to say: “God will have to provide, little ones.” Then she led them in singing a hymn. After they finished singing, as the train drew near its destination, a stranger approached the fearful family huddled together and spoke to the mother: “Are you the family of the pastor who has been imprisoned?” (As he asked the question, he referred to the pastor by name.) “Yes, we are,” she told him. The man said, “Our church was meeting last night. During our prayers, the Holy Spirit told us to take up an offering, and for me to bring it on this train, to give it to you, and to escort your family to your new home.” He handed her a small cloth bag and lowered his voice to say, “Here’s enough money for six months. We will bring more when this runs out.” Over the remaining years of his father’s imprisonment, Stoyan’s family was allowed two visits. Each visit was for one hour each time. Somehow, the pastor and his family managed to survive. It wasn’t easy for any of them. Three times a day, Stoyan was required to report to the local police station. In 1955, the communist authorities expelled him from the university. Stoyan’s father, like every evangelical pastor that the government had imprisoned, had been accused of being an American or British spy. Stoyan’s father was called “a political prisoner.” Because of his family connection, the secret police stamped “Enemy of the Republic” on Stoyan’s university record, and declared him ineligible to graduate. He was then conscripted into military service. There, he received no promotions and was allowed to do only menial work in a supply unit. More than ten thousand “political prisoners” died in Stoyan’s country during those years. There was little hope that his father would survive his ordeal. Near the end, his guards made one last cruel attempt to break him. They informed the pastor that he was scheduled for execution. They took him outside, tied him to a pole, and offered him one last opportunity to deny his faith. If he would not deny his faith, they told him, he would be shot. He straightened his back, stood tall and declared, “I will not deny Christ.” The guards became furious with him. Evidently, they did not have the authority to carry out their threat of execution. And, evidently, they had actually been given very different orders. They continued to insult and curse him even as they began to untie him. Then, much to his surprise, instead of escorting him back to his cell, they took him to the prison wall, unlocked a gate, opened a door and literally threw him out of prison without a word of explanation. He was so shocked by what had just happened that he didn’t know what to do. It finally dawned on him that he had been released. He began to walk. Much later, he found his way to his family’s new home. It was a Saturday when he arrived, and no one was home. He then found the church and discovered his family and other church members praying for him at the altar. After a joyous reunion, he was finally able to preach again. One Sunday, a few months later, an elderly woman asked the pastor for help. He did not know her. She told the pastor that she had a diabetic son—a son who had recently gone blind and was now close to death. He needed medication to manage his agonizing pain. Unfortunately, as a believer, there was no way for her to get that medicine for her son. Stoyan’s father promised to try to help acquire the medication. And eventually he was able to do that. When he took the medicine to the old woman’s apartment, she led him into the bedroom to introduce the pastor to her son. She was grateful for the medicine, and she wanted the pastor to pray for her son. When Stoyan’s father entered the room, he got the shock of his life. The blind, invalid, middle-aged man lying helpless in the bed before him was the prison guard who had spread human waste on the pastor’s breakfast toast every morning for the first nine months of his imprisonment. “Oh, Lord! Do not let me fail you now!” Stoyan’s father prayed beneath his breath. Without identifying himself or saying anything that might give away the connection, the pastor granted his former tormenter forgiveness in his own heart, helped the old woman administer the medicine to relieve the man’s pain, prayed for her son, and then returned home awed by a new and deeper understanding of God’s grace. In fact, he was so overwhelmed by God’s grace that the experience changed his life and the lives of his family members…
2. By 1962, Stoyan had completed his correspondence degree and had become a pastor himself. That led to his firing from the foundry, after which he earned another theology degree by correspondence. By 1966, he had acquired two illegal Bibles in his national language. This gave him the idea to start a underground center for smuggled materials in his home. Over the next two decades, he translated over twenty Christian books.”
a. Ripken, Nik. The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected . B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
v. James Gray stated, “Who can mind the journey when the road leads home.”
1. Every journey is filled with ups and downs!
a. Have you ever been hiking in the mountains? The trials are filled with valleys and peaks – up and down you go!
Conclusion:
What do we need to Know?
A living hope will empower us to press forward in the journey of life even in times of grief, loss, persecution or even torture for the faith. A living hope is alive – it’s not dead – its not wishful thinking its alive and active in our life. It will comfort us and rejoice with us and even morn with us!
Why do we need to know this?
When we connect with living hope – not a dead hope – we find strength – power and an anchor for our soul that will sustain us through the storms of life. It’s real – you can feel it and experience it – it’s their for all who believe.
What do we need to do?
We have to connect with living hope – we must embrace it – we must believe in it – we must put ourselves in positions to receive it. It will strengthen our soul in the storm and show us the way home!
Why do we need to do this?
If we choose to put our faith and trust in living hope we will discover strength and joy for the journey of life. It will empower us to press on in this life to our home in Heaven. It will lift us up and sustain us through the storms.
