Today we are going to learn about what hope is and what it means to be filled with hope, but first I have a short story I would like to share with you. I have been to a handful of different amusement parks over the years, some indoor, and some outdoor; some were water parks, and others were your standard theme parks, but each of them had one singular feature/requirement: you had to be at least a certain age or height to go on the ride.
Now, I happened to go through a few sudden growth spurts in my earlier years, so I was a relatively tall child by the time I was 9 or 10, and could go onto pretty much any ride I wanted to, but I can remember the time when I sat in a line for a while, waiting for my turn on the ride, but when my turn to go on the ride came, someone said, “Wait.” I looked towards them and they directed me to go and stand next to a ruler against the wall to see if I was tall enough to ride. Well, unfortunately for me at the time, I was just a little bit too short to meet the required height limit, and had to turn around and go on some different rides. I could come back as soon as I was taller.
As you can imagine this was a rather disappointing moment, as I had been looking forward to going on this ride for quite a while, but there was nothing I could do. Hopefully I would grow enough and I could ride next year.
Over the next year I waited, as I slowly grew taller over and I continued to be filled with hope that the next time I went I would be tall enough for the ride.
After about a full year had passed, we again went to that amusement park, and I again stood in that line. But this time the result was different; I wasn’t stopped, but was instead let right through and onto the ride. I no longer needed to wait, my hope and patience had finally paid off. I was tall enough!
We need to be filled up with hope just like that as we wait until the day we go to be with the Lord. We want to be with Him so much, but our time is not yet. The promise of eternal life is such an incredible gift that we want to obtain it right now, but we need to be filled with patience, and continue to wait in hope for that day.
Romans 8:16-25 “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
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.”
To hope for something indicates that that we are waiting for something in the future. We don’t have it or see it yet, but we patiently wait and believe that someday we will.
The Bible is full of promises. Jesus says that if we shall ask anything in His name, He will do it (John 14:14). Jesus told us that He is preparing a place for us (John 14:2-3), and while we cannot see the place He is preparing for us right now, we know that Jesus will keep His promise. We just need to continue to wait in hope until that time.
It is the unseen things that we hope for, as Paul wrote. If we had eternal life right now, we would have no reason to hope for it. But because we don’t yet, we wait. We wait patiently, in hope.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 