Hope

Today I was running late for church. I had been doing my quiet time, and I got caught up in it and did not realize what time is what until 10:25. Church starts at 11:00 and I was still in my pjs at home. I rushed upstairs to change clothes and left for church and as I was driving to church I was praying that God would meet me there. That he would speak to me today. That I wouldn’t worry about who was coming to church or my to do list that I would focus on Him because He alone is worthy. He alone is God. The devo that I read this morning had a verse from Exodus 28:16 where Jacob said “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” It talked about when you feel distant from God say “Surely the Lord is in this place” and then pray that God will give you an awareness of His presence. So I prayed also that my eyes would be open to God’s presence in my life. I just wanted to hear from God today. And boy did He speak. I walked in about 10 minutes late, and my friends Leslie and Cory had saved me a seat. They were having a program where kids were all dressed up and singing songs about Christmas. They had video from the different ministries overseas that Fellowship supports about what their kids pray for and how they celebrate the season. It was cute, but I leaned over and asked Leslie is this all we are doing today and she said no, Crawford is preaching too. So after the program Crawford gets up, prays and says this morning I am going to talk to you about HOPE. It’s a word that stirs a lot of emotion in me. HOPE. Crawford defines worldly hope as a desire accompanied by expectation; to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence. Choose an unqualified, unproven or untrustworthy object, and hope becomes nothing more than “hope so” a wish with no promise. But choose a qualified, proven, trustworthy object, and hope becomes nothing less than “done”, a certainty with no chance of failure. The reliability of the object of hope determines its degree of certainty. So what are we putting our hope in?? A job, a spouse, starting a family, a relationship, an education, money, success…..What is the object of our hope? How reliable is it? Have you ever been disappointed my misplaced hope? I know I have.

Crawford goes on to say that a biblical definition of Hope adds three little words: Hope is an expectation of a favorable future under God’s direction. We have hope in God NOT circumstances. He used what has become one of my favorite passages of scripture for the lesson today.

Romans 5:1-5 1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has give us.

We have three anchors of hope: Hope in HIM, Hope in our circumstances, and Hope “in us”

Our Hope in HIM tells us three things from verses 1 and 2. Number 1 the foundation for Hope is peace with GOD. We will never know peace until we are right with God. Number 2 We have access to Him. God the Creator of the universe allows us to freely come into his presence whenever we want. He never grows tired or weary. And Number 3 we have a future with him. We can rejoice that we get to see the glory of God revealed not only in our life, but in our death as well because we will live eternally with him.

Psalms 27:13-14 I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Hope in our circumstances (v3-4) doesn’t mean we rejoice that we lost our job, or have an illness, or can’t get pregnant, or lost a loved one, or have a broken marriage. But it is an opportunity to experience closeness with God that we might not have in the “good times”. It is an opportunity to see what God wants us to learn from the situation, and what our trials produce within us. Suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character and character produces hope. Character is produced by testing. It doesn’t just happen. It is a proven strength and resilience you develop by persevering through something that looks hopeless. We rejoice in suffering because we know the outcome…hope.

Hope “in us” (v 5) The promise of Hope, God promises that this hope does not disappoint. The presence of Love, God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. The Power of the Holy Spirit, which lives within us.

This sermon definitely spoke to me, I wanted to share it because you never know who needs hope. God, thank you for answering my prayer and speaking to me so clearly today. Thank you that Hope in YOU does not disappoint. Thank you for redeeming me to you.