This morning, I’d like to continue looking at the topic of "hope" which we began last week. Let’s begin with the basics. Hope is a function of two things: First, it arises from the fact that we have desires, that we prefer some things over others. Otherwise, we would be completely indifferent to our circumstances. We would have no desire for things to turn out one way versus another; we simply wouldn’t care. But we do care, and so we hope for one outcome instead of another. And second, hope is a function of the fact that we cannot see the future; we don’t know how events are going to unfold. We don’t have hope about things that have already happened; we only have hope about things to come, or matters whose outcome is still unknown to us. If there were no uncertainty, there would be no hope, only knowledge. As the author of the letter to the Hebrews puts it, "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1)
As for the word "hope," we use it to cover a very broad range of situations and emotions. For instance, you might say, "I hope it doesn’t rain today." Now, if you’re a farmer, and you need dry ground in order to get your tractors and machinery into the fields, that may be a very strong desire. Your livelihood depends on being able to harvest your crops. But for most of us, that would be a simply a wish for nice weather. On the other end of the spectrum, a married couple may be hoping for a child. Perhaps they’ve tried for years to conceive, with no success. Years of doctors, and tests, and disappointment. Anyone who has gone through that knows the intensity of that hope, that desire. It’s not trivial in the least. The point I’m making is that the word "hope" can express anything from a passing wish that lasts only a few moments, to a deep longing that lasts for years, or even a lifetime.
Now, in what I’ve said so far, there’s nothing distinctively Christian. You don’t have to be a follower of Christ to have hope. Everyone in the world, regardless of their religion or lack of it, has hopes, big and small. We all have wishes, and desires, and yearnings of various kinds. But what makes our hope a Christian hope is that it isn’t just a hope for something, but instead it’s a hope in someone. It’s more than just a wish; it’s an attitude of trust and reliance on God our Father, through His Son Jesus Christ. Our hope as Christians isn’t just that events will turn out a certain way; our hope is a settled confidence in the One who determines those events. Our hope is in the wisdom, and the power, and the love of God, the One who holds the future in his hands and turns it in any direction He pleases. That’s the difference. Hoping not just in an outcome, but in the One who controls all outcomes. Not just desiring a change in our circumstances, but placing our hope in the One who has the power to change those circumstances. Not just wishing for a blessing, but setting our hopes on the One from whom all blessings flow. A Christian hope is first and foremost a hope in God.
"No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame. . . Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. . . May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you." -- Psalm 25:3, 5, 21
"Through [Christ] you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God." -- 1 Peter 1:21
Now, placing our hope in God doesn’t mean just looking to Him to get what we want. It’s not just saying, for instance, that "before I was trusting in doctors to heal my son, and now I’m trusting in God to heal him". Or that "before, I was trusting in my own skill and hard work to get a promotion, and now I’m trusting in God to provide it". That’s merely using God as a means to an end, using Him to bring about the result that we desire and we choose. If that’s the case, our hope really isn’t in Him; our hope is still in the outcome that we’re looking for; the outcome that we think will make us happy, and safe, and fulfilled. But placing our hope in God means trusting Him to do what’s right and best, even if it’s different than what we want or expect. Putting our hope in God means that we hold our desires and wishes with an open hand; it means that we entrust ourselves and our welfare into God’s hands to do with as He sees fit. Even if it means that the things we were wishing for never come to pass. Even if it means that the trials we were hoping to avoid come upon us after all.
Why is this distinction important? For at least two reasons. First, if you’re using God as a means to an end, then there’s no relationship. To you, He’s just a tool, like a hammer, or a sewing machine, or a chainsaw. You may consider him to be a very powerful tool, but He’s just a tool. And you can’t have a relationship with that kind of God, any more than you can have a relationship with a pair of pliers. In contrast, the kind of relationship that the true God desires to have with us is one in which we love Him, and trust Him, and rely on Him -- rely on His goodness, and power, and knowledge. He wants us to know Him, to experience His love, to enjoy His blessings and His care. And in fact, that’s the essence of eternal life -- to know God. As Jesus himself said,
"Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." -- John 17:3
But knowing God in this way is not possible as long as we’re still trying to use him as a tool to get what we want. To know God we have to trust Him. Our hope must be in Him, and not merely in his potential usefulness to us. Second, this distinction is important because, when we put our hope in God, when we place our trust in His wisdom and knowledge rather than our own, then we get what He judges to be best. On the other hand, when we try to use God to get what we want, then we are limited to what we think is best. Which would you rather have? Isn’t it better to place our hope in God and rely on his wisdom?
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." -- Isaiah 55:8-9
"[A]s it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’" -- 1 Corinthians 2:9
God’s ways aren’t just different than ours; they are far "higher". His gifts to us aren’t just better than what we would have chosen for ourselves, they are inconceivably superior. As Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:20, God "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine." His gifts and goodness to us are literally beyond our ability to comprehend. Isn’t it better, then, to place our hope in Him, rather than in something we want Him to do for us? Shouldn’t we always be willing to relinquish our dreams and desires in exchange for what God wants to give us?
Let me give you an example. If you have children, you know that their interest in you is heavily skewed by your perceived usefulness to them. Their primary concern is how to get you to give them what they want. As a general rule, they aren’t too interested in your ideas as to what would be in their best interests. They don’t solicit your opinions as to what foods they should eat; what activities they should engage in; what friends they should choose. They are supremely confident of their ability to choose well, and your role is merely to provide what they have chosen. The problem is that their confidence is in inverse relationship to their competence. For instance, left to his own devices, my son J____ would subsist entirely on granola bars and apple juice. His days would be filled with video games and cartoons. And he would go barefoot or wear sandals all year round. If asked where he’d like to go for dinner, he invariably chooses McDonald’s. And if I try to suggest an alternative, he argues with me, because his six years of experience have made him an expert on nutrition, and education, and clothing, and all other matters pertaining to his welfare. However, as children grow up and mature, hopefully they come to respect their parents’ wisdom. Instead of seeing their father and mother merely as tools to get what they want, they begin to trust us, to put some confidence in our counsel and recommendations. They realize that they don’t have all the answers; that in fact, what we want for them may be better than what they had wanted for themselves. Sometimes this may take twenty, or thirty, or forty years, but hopefully, eventually it will happen. In the same way, as we mature in Christ, we become less and less interested in getting God to do what we want, and much more interested in finding out what He wants for us. The more we come to know Him, the more our hope will be in Him, rather than in ourselves and in our plans and desires.
One of the implications of this approach to life, is that our focus will be much more on what God has revealed concerning His intentions for us. We become less interested in somehow getting God to do what we want, and we become very interested in finding out what it is He wants for us. Because we know that whatever it is must be wonderful. And as it turns out, the primary focus of our hope, according to the Bible, is what God has prepared for us in the life to come. As Paul says,
"If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men."
-- 1 Corinthians 15:19
If this life were all we had to look forward to; if there was nothing beyond the grave, then Christians wouldn’t be people to respect or admire. They would be people to pity. Because the great promise of the Christian faith isn’t in this life; it’s in the life to come. When the Bible speaks of "hope," it almost invariably is referring to promises such as these:
"But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet." -- 1 Thessalonians 5:5
"He saved us . . . so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life." -- Titus 1:5, 7
"I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked." -- Acts 24:15
"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints."
-- Ephesians 1:18
And when it comes to the question of where our focus should be; what it is that should occupy our thoughts and hopes and dreams and plans, we have verses such as these:
"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." -- 2 Corinthians 4:18
Our focus, and therefore our hope, is to be fixed on the life to come. So is this life unimportant? No, far from it. This life is the context in which our faith is born, and grows, and matures, and is tested. It’s where we first come to know God. It’s where we learn obedience. To paraphrase the movie "Gladiator," this life is where we make the choices that will echo throughout eternity.
You might think that fixing our thoughts on the unseen world and the life to come would somehow make this life less significant, less meaningful, less satisfying. But precisely the opposite is true. It’s only as we consider our true destiny that we are able to live this life to the fullest. When Christ said in John 10:10 that he came so that we "might have life, and have it abundantly", he meant starting now. Our abundant life starts now. And it’s possible for us to receive and enjoy all God has for us now only if we understand and embrace this fact: that we are eternal beings who have a future beyond this world. Abundant life doesn’t belong to those whose hopes end at the grave, and who give no thought to what comes after. Abundant life belongs to us, who know the Lord of Life, Jesus Christ, and who live each day in light of eternity. It’s the confidence we have, of life in the world to come, that makes it possible for us to live this life to the fullest; as Henry David Thoreau put it, to "suck all the marrow out of life."
Thoreau thought the way to be most alive was to reduce life to its essence, its core. Well, here’s essential, bedrock truth for you: We are immortals, you and I. We will never die. We cannot be killed. When our eyes close on this life, they will open in a place where there is no death, no suffering, no sorrow -- and no separation, either from one another or from God. Our bodies, reborn and reconstructed, will never grow old, or sick, or weak. No one will ever again harm us, or deceive us, or steal from us, or betray us. Now, do you think that knowledge might affect us as we live our lives here and now? Of course! It has to! It gives everything we do and say eternal significance. It gives us comfort in suffering. It gives us perspective to persevere in the midst of trials. It gives us courage to do the right thing, when confronted with temptation. It makes all the difference.
However, I realize that if you’re not accustomed to thinking along these lines, it’s hard to imagine how this could all be put in to practice. It’s hard to imagine how something as seemingly abstract and ethereal as the promise of eternal life could affect my day-to-day existence in this world, here and now. And I’ll admit, it doesn’t come naturally. Bringing these two worlds together takes work, and effort. But if we learn to do it, it can change our hearts and change our lives. So let me give you some examples.
You get the flu. You’re miserable. Sore throat, aching muscles, fever, vomiting. This doesn’t really seem like a situation in which theology would be of much help. But consider, as you’re lying there in bed, that this discomfort is only for a short time, and that in a few short years or decades, a "blink of any eye" by God’s standards, you’ll be in a place where you will never again have to worry about influenza, or anthrax, or melanoma, or diabetes. You’ll be strong and healthy all the time. I guarantee you, the thought of a resurrection body which is impervious to disease and injury is never so sweet as when you are sick or injured. And that prospect can help you patiently to bear up under suffering without complaining, and allow you to worship and glorify to God, even from out of the midst of your pain.
Or someone close to you wounds you deeply. Betrays you. Lies to you. Rejects you. No matter what anyone says, that hurts. But you can find solace, and comfort and perspective in knowing that you are destined for the kind of life in which that will never happen again. Not only will others not hurt you, but you will never again hurt anyone else. Sin, and evil, and hatred, and malice will be a thing of the past, and you will have nothing to look forward to but perfect fellowship and love forever. And that knowledge, that hope for the future, can give you the courage and strength to forgive here and now.
Now, if these examples don’t seem very powerful, if you have a hard time seeing all this having much effect in real life, then you probably have never really tried it. You’re probably operating most of the time from a completely "this-world" perspective. So let me suggest to you that you simply try it. Just try it. Infuse your daily life in this world with thoughts of the next. You’ll be surprised at the joy and peace that results.
Finally, let me say something about prayer. If our intention is to receive what God has planned for us, instead of using Him to get what we want, then should we even pray? Or should we just sit and wait for whatever He brings into our lives? Yes, we should pray. Putting our hope in God isn’t the same as passivity or inactivity. We should bring all of our requests, and desires, and wishes to God in prayer, as well as our fears and anxieties. But the difference is one of attitude. If our hope is in God, we don’t just say: "God, this is what I want. Please give it to me." Or, "God, this is what I’ve decided is best. Please bring it to pass." Instead, we bring our requests to God with open hands. We acknowledge the limitations of our understanding, and our knowledge, and our wisdom. We commit ourselves and our circumstances to Him, trusting that whether He grants our requests or not, He will do for us what is good, and loving, and best. And we don’t just ask once. We come to Him over and over again with our requests. And that does two things. First, it confirms that we really are trusting in Him, rather than in ourselves or in some other person or power. Because we don’t give up and abandon the process if we don’t see immediate results. We don’t say, "Well, I tried God, and that didn’t work, so I’m going to try something else." No, we keep at it; we keep saying, "God, my hope is in you and you alone. Please either grant my petition, or change my heart to accept what it is that you want to do instead." And that’s the second thing that persistent prayer does. It gives God the opportunity, slowly over time, to change our heart and bring our hopes and desires into synch with what He wants to do in our lives.
Some of you here this morning may be struggling with hope. This all sounds good, but you’ve had your hopes crushed too many times. All I can do is tell you what God said to the prophet Isaiah, that: "Those who hope in me will not be disappointed" (Isaiah 49:23). Put your hope in God, and in His Son, Jesus Christ. And in spite of some short-term pain, in the long run I know that you will by no means be disappointed. Amen.
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
