Good morning welcome in. Today we are going to take a look at the passage of scripture but before we do that I wanted to ask you a question.
Has anybody ever told you that they would pick you up after work on Friday so that they could take you out to dinner? Just the thought of that gives you something fun to look forward to on the weekend. Have you ever had someone tell you that they would be coming to get you on Sunday to take you fishing that afternoon? You are excited all week long, waiting patiently for that day to arrive. When we are filled with hope, we have a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Expectation is a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future. The Christian faith teaches us that we need to abide in hope.
1 Corinthians 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
First of all, let’s take a look at a man of God who was filled with hope at the promise that God was going to give him a son.
Romans 9:9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.
Abraham was a man who placed his trust completely in God, knowing that God would bring the things that he had promised to pass. Even when most people in society would have lost faith and given up, Abraham was strong in faith, continuing to believe and trust that God was going to make it happen.
Romans 4:18-25 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
When you stagger it means to begin to doubt and waver in purpose or become less confident and be hesitant. Abraham never doubted the promise of God. He believed it, trusted it, and waited patiently for it to happen, and you know what? It did! James wanted the church to be filled with this same kind of unwavering faith and trust in God
James 1 5-8 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Hope and faith have a lot to do with each other.
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hope is waiting for something that you haven’t obtained yet, but continuing to believe that it’s going to happen someday. Someday Jesus is going to return in the clouds above and send forth His angels to retrieve His faithful from off of this earth. It hasn’t happened yet, but its going to. When we have faith in the promises that are found throughout God’s Holy Word, it gives us hope of future events and we must patiently wait for God to bring them to pass. Hope is a part of our salvation.
Romans 8:24-25 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
In order to receive something from God, you need to believe that God will do it. Even when Abraham had to go through trials of His faith, he trusted in God completely.
Hebrews 11:17-19 – By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
It’s the same in the Christian Life. God gives us the promise of eternal life. He promised it since the world began. This life is found in His Son Jesus Christ, who was sent by God to redeem us from our sins, so that we could be reconciled and serve Him in love. Because Jesus laid down His own life for us, we can be filled with great hope of being able to inherit eternal life someday. God’s mercy and forgiveness is available to each of us and His love for sinners is displayed at the cross for all the world to see. God is capable of presenting us Holy in His sight through His precious mercy, but we must continue in the faith, found in the teaching of scripture.
Colossians 1:21-23 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
Everybody has who has this hope of the eternal life will purify themselves through faith.
1 John 3:2-5 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
Through God’s kindness and grace, we can approach Him for mercy in time of need so that we can serve Him in love.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.
Hebrews 7:19 For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.
1 Peter 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Our God is the God of hope!
Psalms 39:7 – And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.
Romans 15:13 – Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
So once again, when we are filled with hope, we have a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. We can have this hope of eternity because of what Jesus did for us at the cross. Praise God for His lovingkindnesses!
Let’s think about these things for right now and Lord willing, we can talk some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody ❤️
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