Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Special Services / Advent 2004

11/28/04 Hope

Title:  ‘Looking for Something More?’ pt. 1 ‘Hope’                                                                                                           Main Text: Rom. 5:1-5
 
Hope
 
Introduction: How much hope do you have about your future? In the mid life crisis movie City Slickers, Billy Crystals character, Mitch, attends career day at his sons grade school. His son told everyone that his dad, was a submarine captain, but he really sells advertising. The kids aren’t interested in what he does and neither is he. When it’s Mitch’s turn to speak, he gives the kids a glimmer of hope concerning their future.

“Value this time in your life, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices, and it goes by so quickly. When you’re a teenager, you think you can do anything, and you do. Your twenties are a blur. Your thirties, you raise your family, you make a little money and you think to yourself, "What happened to my twenties?" Your forties, you grow a little potbelly, you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud and one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother. Your fifties you have a minor surgery. You’ll call it a procedure, but it’s a surgery. Your sixties you have a major surgery, the music is still loud but it doesn’t matter because you can’t hear it anyway. Seventies, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale; you start eating dinner at two, lunch around ten, breakfast the night before. And you spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate in soft yogurt and muttering, "how come the kids don’t call?" By your eighties, you’ve had a major stroke, and you end up babbling to some Jamaican nurse who your wife can’t stand but who you call mama. Any questions?” (from a sermon by Ewen Huffman)

Mitch was looking for something more in life…something more from life. Mitch, like many of us today, asks ‘Is this all there is?’ And we long for something more.

Explanation: Our Advent sermon series is titled: ‘Looking for something more?’.  Beginning today and for the next 4 Sundays we will be examining 5 words we often use very casually but 5 words we look to experience more.  The words are Hope, Peace, Joy, Love and Life.

Transition: This morning we examine the word Hope and ask 4 questions.

1. What is Hope?

: To wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment.
Dictionary.com
To wish for something..yes, but while there is an expectation of fulfillment, we are rarely confident it will happen. We hope but we make alternative plans just in case…am I right? We buy lottery tickets in the hope of winning a lot of money…but we still work to pay our bills..because we really don’t expect to win.

Billy Crystal’s character in City Slickers lacked hope because he believed he couldn’t do anything to improve his situation…his life. Hope for Mitch, was based on his perceived ability to make things better. That’s hope for most people.

Christian Hope, Biblical Hope on the other hand an expectation based on truth, an expectation based on someone other and greater than ourselves.

Read: Heb. 6:17-20a  “Because 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. God 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. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.”

Christian Hope, our Hope is certain and secure, a reality because it comes from God himself, who can not lie, who keeps his promises and who has accepted us in Jesus Christ.

Transition: 2nd question

2. What is it that we hope for?
Read: Heb. 10:23 ‘Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.’

When a Christian speaks of the Hope we profess, what are they talking about?

A. Hope for the here and now.
    Rom. 5:10 ‘For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled,
                      shall we be saved through his life!’
    Rom. 6:23 ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
    Rom. 10:13 ‘for, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

Hope of salvation, forgiveness, acceptance are ours…now … through faith in Jesus Christ.

    Jer. 29:11 ‘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.’
    Rom. 8:28 ‘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.’
    Isa. 40:31 ‘but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary,
                     they will walk and not be faint.’

Hope that God has a plan for us and that God’s plan uses all we experience  today.

When the Christian speaks of the hope they profess, they are talking about…

B. Hope for the there and then
    Matt. 24:26ff
‘For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. They will see the Son of Man
                         coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect
                         from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.’
    Rev. 22:12a “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me’

While the disciples in Jesus’ day may have been confused over this promise, we are confident. Our Hope is that Jesus is coming again.

    Jn. 14:1-3 ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.
                     I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also
                     may be where I am.’

Our Hope is not just that Jesus is coming again, but that he is coming for a purpose…to take us to our heavenly home. Our Hope is that this life is not all there is.
What are you hoping for this Christmas? For you or for someone else?

Transition: But can we truly be certain? 3rd question.

3. Is Hope Trustworthy?
Hope is a major theme throughout Scripture.

    Gen 3:15 The Hope that someone will come and defeat Satan once for all.

    Gen. 12:3 The Hope that all the people of the earth will be blessed.

    Deut. 18:18 The Hope that a prophet greater than Moses will come who will be completely faithful to God.

    1 Kg. 9:5 The Hope that this prophet, known as the Messiah, would reign forever on the throne of David.

    Jer. 33 The Hope of a new covenant made between God and his people, one that is unconditional.
    
The Hope of the Old Testament was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
    Lk 2:25-32 ‘Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit
                       was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit,
                       he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him
                       in his arms and praised God, saying: Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your
                      salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.’

The Hope of the Old Testament was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

What about the Hope in the New Testament? The Hope we already talked about:
•    Hope  of salvation, forgiveness and acceptance by God?
•    Hope that Jesus is coming again?
•    Hope that Jesus is coming for a purpose…to take us to our     heavenly home?     
•    Hope that this life is not all there is?

Is this Hope trustworthy?

    1 Cor. 1:9  ‘God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.’
    1 Thess 5:24 ‘The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.’
    
Yes. Our Hope is certain, it is trustworthy. Not because of our abilities to make it happen, but simply because God has promised and he is forever faithful.

Transition: Last question

4. How do we develop/acquire Hope?
    Rom. 15:4 ‘For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures
                      we might have hope.’

We develop Hope when we read, study and know God’s Word.

    Rom. 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.’
 
We develop Hope when we trust in God.
Notice that Paul says that God is the God of Hope. He is the foundation upon which our hope is built. The Christian’s hope is certain and secure, when it is in God alone.

    Rom. 5:1-4 ‘Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 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. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings,
                        because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. '

We develop Hope when we trust that God is in control

•    Those whose sins have been forgiven
•    Those who have peace with God
•    Those who have access to God’s presence
•    Those who walk in God’s grace

Do so by hope in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. These are the ones who are confident that they are secure in God’s hands. And they rejoice, in the realization and revelation of God’s glory in their lives.

How is hope developed…revealed? Through the circumstances of life, particularly through our times of suffering.

Suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope.

I received an e-mail from Joe Fragale who was one of our guest speakers while I was on vacation. This is what he wrote:

Bob, I'm always blessed at Calvary Baptist. Thanks for thinking of me when you're away. I've just returned home from the hospital. I had prostate cancer surgery last Tuesday. Surgery was successful.  Now I need to recover for about 8 weeks. Praise the Lord! Joe

Joes cancer surgery was the Tuesday after he spoke here. He ends his e-mail by saying “Praise the Lord”. Suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character and character hope. Joe rejoiced in Hope because he trusts in God.

Why hope?
•    Because Hope trusts that God is with us each step of the way.
•    Because Hope trusts that God is in control of all that happens in our lives.

Rom. 5:5 ‘And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.’

We develop Hope when we are filled with both the love of God and the presence of God.

•    Time and time again in our lives we have been assured of God’s love for us…we have felt it as surely as we have ever felt anything.
     Think about it…I am right, aren’t I?

•    Time and time again in our lives we have been assured of God’s presence with us, especially in those dark times of suffering. We have felt the Holy Spirit move
     around us, in us and through us. He has given us power, comfort, peace and yes…Hope. Think about it…I am right, aren’t I?

•    Time and time again in our lives our Hope in God has never let us down, has never disappointed us. Think about it…I am right, aren’t I?

Conclusion

Advent is a time of anticipation and celebration, a time to rejoice in Hope. We celebrate Jesus first coming and we eagerly await our Lord’s second coming. We are confident in the hope that he will come again, to take us to our heavenly home.

ILL: A number of years ago researchers performed an experiment to see the effect hope has on those undergoing hardship. Two sets of laboratory rats were placed in separate tubs of water. The researchers left one set in the water and found that within an hour they had all drowned. The other rats were periodically lifted out of the water and then returned. When that happened, the second set of rats swam for over 24 hours. Why? Not because they were given a rest, but because they suddenly had hope! (Sermon by Steven Grant)

Hope is powerful. In fact, it is life changing…life saving.  
This Advent season, I want to encourage you to remember the birth of Jesus and with Hope anticipate his coming again. And be confident that God will be with you in the ‘in between’ time.

Are you looking for something more…more Hope? Look to God, trust in Jesus, walk in the Holy Spirit.