“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.”
You can survive for weeks without food, you can survive for a few days without water, maybe 3 days, you can only survive a few seconds without air.
You can live for sure without a car, with no bread, meat… Even with no Nutella! I don’t know about you… But I am not actually sure if I can live without Nutella!
But there is one thing we cannot live without, and that’s HOPE.
You need hope to live, hope to keep your soul alive, but some people don’t understand what hope is?!
Hope is not some wishful thinking about the future. You need hope today, now. You need hope when you wake up in the morning, and not only when you are about to die; you need hope every day to live well and with Joy!
Hope is not optimism.
Optimism is psychological, and Hope is theological. It comes from God.
Optimism is a personal trust in yourself, and Hope is a personal trust in God.
Optimism is what you think you can do, Hope is what you think God can do.
Optimism is often the denial of reality. It’s positive thinking, not permanent trust.
Hope never does that. Hope is always fixed in reality.
Hope says: Yeah, things are bad, this situation is really bad, but I believe God can help me through this, I believe God is in control.
Paul says that what was written in the past, was written to teach us, to provide Hope to our lives. God through Jesus and the Bible gives us HOPE.
If someone doesn’t read or doesn’t live what the bible teaches them, they will be destroyed from lack of knowledge.
Look Romans 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.” The God of Hope! God can give us hope. Hallelujah.
But, Do you know the reason why people are hopeless today? It is because they’re putting their hope on all the wrong things and they’re looking for hope in all the wrong places.
Look at what God said about Israel in:
Ezekiel 37:11 “Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off”.
The people of Israel were putting their hope on false gods and all the wrong things.
Israel said: Our hope is gone. This is so sad!
Have you ever said, “My Hope is gone”? Have you ever been in a situation in your life that made you feel so bad, you said something like: MY HOPE IS GONE?!
Somebody said: When we say a situation is hopeless, “we are slamming the door in God’s face.”
Let’s consider this:
When hope is gone, you are like a dead soul inside a living body. Do you know what this means?!
You are just living and doing things automatically, you work, you come to church, you take care of your family, but none of those things bring joy and peace to you! You don’t have any dreams, you are not able to make plans, you don’t expect good things to happen in your life.
This hopeless way of thinking is because you don’t feed your soul with the bible. You don’t have a relationship with your creator, The God of Hope.
But in Romans we read that the God of hope can bring hope into your life.
-And Who was talking about hope in the book of Romans? Paul the Apostle. He knew how to live by Hope.
Look what he says: Philippians 4:12,13
“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
He learned that the God of hope Can brings joy and peace in whatever circumstances. The God of hope gives me strength! Hallelujah.
Do you know Who’s the God of hope?
Sometimes, we think that we know our God, The God of hope, but we are wrong.
Maybe the God of your mind is an angry God who determines everything that happens in your lives, often violating our conscience and emotions. Or maybe the God of your mind is a neglectful God, who has the power to make things right, but chooses to sit there and not to anything to help you.
Sometimes, the God that we often picture in our minds is not the God of the Bible. Maybe as a child you pictured God as an old grey man who could strike people dead with a lighting bolt. Or maybe because of religion you pictured him as a God of punishment. God’s true image has been distorted by the ideas of the world. Satan tries to blur the image of God in our minds to keep us from making contact with Him. Of course, the devil (and there is a very real one) prefers to keep you from knowing that God is the God of hope, that He is the God of comfort and the God of peace.
If we want to know who The God of hope is, we just need to read the Bible and practice what it teaches us.
-The God of hope hears our cry!
Exodus says that there was a nation who was suffering in Egypt for 400 years. They cried out, begged before God to be set free, and look what God said:
“The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…
God heard them! He rescued them of this terrible situation. They were slaves, but God set them free!
He is the God of Hope! He can also hear you today. You only need to cry out and decide to obey him – God will hear you and help you, because He is The God of hope!
So my, brothers and sisters:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
-The God of hope give us eternal life
In 1 Peter 1:3-6 says:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”
For the believer there is hope beyond the grave, because Jesus Christ has opened the door to heaven for us by His death and resurrection.”
There is hope beyond the grave! Jesus opened the door of heaven for us!
We have an inheritance in Jesus. Even if we have suffered a little, wait in God! Take courage! Jesus is coming back to give us eternal life.
The God of hope gives us eternal life!
-The God of hope fill us with joy and peace.
Paul’s prayer for the Romans was that the God of hope would fill their hearts with joy and peace through the power of God, the Holy Spirit. That’s the secret of hope in a hopeless situation. Where there is God there is hope, and where there is life, there is God. Never forget it….
*When the God of Hope fill us with Joy and peace
-We become strong, because:
“The Joy of the Lord is our strength”. (Nehemiah 8:10)
*When the God of hope fill us with joy and peace
– darkness and sadness go away.
“For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favour lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”
*When the God of hope fill us with joy and peace
– Our heart is protected and our mind is blessed by Jesus.
“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus
So, dear brothers and sisters, “Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him.