Hope

This is the sermon that I planned to speak, word for word, the way I wrote it as I prepared.  If you were there with us Sunday morning you will realize that it did not come out exactly this way.  But I think the heart of my script is still very much the same, even if the words are not.  I pray that you will find this a helpful reminder if you were there and encouraging if you weren't.

Good morning.  I’m honored to have this opportunity to speak to you this morning.  For a while I’ve felt blessed by the fact that I hadn’t been asked to speak on a sunday morning except for camp testimonies because when I look around this room, I’m humbled.  I see people who have been walking with God longer than I have been alive, people who have experienced greater levels of His intimacy and glory, people of profound wisdom, unmatched passion, sincere faith; people who are tireless and generous servants.

I have seen true examples of the love of Christ in this congregation - examples which are inspiring; examples that I have tried to learn from.  I know for some of you, the things I have to say this morning may seem simple and basic in light of your experiences.  I am confident that I will miss the depths of what God has revealed to you.  I hope then that this may be a reminder of those deeper truths that you have learned the hard way.  I am humbled, knowing that my own ability, I really have nothing to offer this congregation.  But I trust that by God’s grace, you will be encouraged as I share this simple word.  I trust you will be encouraged by the things I am learning because in so many ways, I am learning these things from you.  But as Kevin reminded us last week, we can rely on God to give us the victory so I will trust Him to help me through this message.

This morning, I believe I have a word specifically for this congregation.  As I prayed for you, asking the Lord what He wanted me to say, I felt led to share what I am about to share.  I feel that God will be doing some serious and wonderful work in many of your hearts this morning, as He has been doing in mine during the 2 weeks I’ve been preparing to speak this message.  We will be studying a passage from 1 Peter chapter 1.  I didn’t start here, but as I spent more time preparing, I felt drawn to this passage.  I spent the first 6 months of this year studying, memorizing and meditating on this passage.  I have grown to love this passage and see many wonderful things in it.  But that which I am sharing with you today is something that has been revealed to me over the last two weeks and I am amazed I’ve missed it for so long.

If you are able, would you stand to honor the Word of the Lord as I read these verses?

1 Peter 1:3-16

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away,

reserved in heaven for you

who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love.

Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,
receiving the end of your faith -  the salvation of your souls.

Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 
To them it was revealed that, not to themselves,

but to us they were ministering the things which have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven - things which angels desire to look into.

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;

but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

Thank you, please be seated.

My message this morning is very simple: “Put your hope in Christ.”

Put

your hope

in Christ.

I say this to you with an urgency in my heart.  I pray that you grasp the depth of what this means for your life and its importance.  I know it seems like a simple thing, but I really believe that God means to restore something today - to bring back to life that which has died in many hearts.  I do not think it was by accident that I was led by the Spirit to a cemetery before He began speaking this word to me.  “When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish, And the hope of the unjust perishes.” In the solitude and silence of that place, I felt God declare hope. He arose from the grave and brought hope with Him.

Before we go any further, allow me to define hope for you:

    hope - the desire or expectation of some future good.

We speak about hope a lot.  People hope for many things:
“I hope we have tacos for dinner.”
“I hope the Bills win this afternoon.”
“I hope it will be sunny tomorrow.”
“I hope we can pay our bills this month.”
“I hope I still have a job after Christmas.”

But what does it mean to have hope?  Why do we need it?

Ultimately, we need hope because hope precedes faith.

Hebrews 11:1 - “Faith is the assurance of things hope for, the conviction of things yet unseen.”
Most Christians will recognize that faith is a necessity.  We live by faith.  Faith is what carries us through life and guides our actions.  Without faith, what we do is meaningless.  But I would argue that it doesn’t require much faith - conviction or assurance - to hope for tacos.  There are hopes that require greater faith.  Hoping you will keep your job requires a greater level of faith.  The magnitude of your hope determines your necessity for faith.  Its easy to have faith for small things when your hope is small.  We find that faith sustains us, if we have the right hopes. And we find that our hope can inspire and minister to others. Hebrews 10: 23 “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on…”

Now, let’s look back at the text.  Who is Peter writing to? and what are we to hope in?
If we look at verses 1 and 2, we see that he is writing to people who are being persecuted and have been scattered.  These are people in serious need of hope.  Peter is writing to restore their hope by reminding them of what to put their hope in.  In verse 3 we see “...His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,…” - He reminds his audience that their salvation is coming and God is on their side.

Then, in verse 6 - we see the result of His reminder: “In this you greatly rejoice,…” Having their hope in salvation through Christ gives them cause for abundant joy, even in the middle of trials.  Are you stressed out? May you are, maybe you aren’t, but either way - do you need abundant joy?
I say again very simply, “Put your hope in Christ.”

I believe that hope and salvation are nearly interchangeable - you can read this passage exchanging “hope” for “salvation” and “salvation” for “hope”.  Our hope is in the salvation of our souls through Christ’s sacrifice.  When we keep our hope in His salvation we find strength.  This is our primary hope.
Yet - somehow we still end up with hopelessness at times.  What causes this?  How do we handle it?
We experience hopelessness because we are forced to deal with time.  As creatures who experience time differently than God, we struggle to understand and act through the eternal nature we were created for.  We get impatient and we choose secondary hopes that are meant for this life and we sometimes have to wait a long time for, if we ever get what we hoped for. We should be careful to hope for those things which God has promised us.  Sometimes it is by His grace that we don’t get what we hope for.  But when our secondary hopes are purely motivated and are a promised to us by God, what then?  Proverbs says “hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the promise comes it is a tree of life.”  Sometimes our faith starts to wane as we wait for our promised hope.  We loosely know that eventually we will find that tree of life.  Hope is the seed that grows into faith and faith will eventually produce a fruitful harvest.  But often we don’t realize that even the dormant seed has life within it.  It often springs forth unexpectedly.  The work of hope occurs in secret. 

But what do we do in the mean time?  We see a great example in David (3 different times in Psalms) - “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.”  David tells himself to snap out of it and reminds himself of what really matters.  Notice - David doesn’t try to restore his faith, but his hope.  He understands that faith follows hope.

Peter echoes David’s example.  In verses 13-16 he makes three statements.  It is interesting to me that (at least in the New King James version of the Bible) these three statements the statements are connected by a semi-colon, meaning that the idea continues but is restated in a different way. First, Peter advises, “Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ…”  He’s saying that you have the power to act - and that the place to focus your effort isn’t on having enough faith, but on having enough hope.  So Peter is saying, “Put your hope in Christ.”  In his second statement, he really does repeat himself even if it doesn’t look that way at first - “...as obedient children, not conforming to the former lusts, as in your ignorance…”  What Peter is saying here is “Stop putting your hope in things other than Christ.  Let go of your desires for things that are less than the good God has for you.  Let go of your hopelessness.  Put your hope in Christ.”  And then finally, he repeats himself again: “but as He who called you is Holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy as I am holy.” - He’s saying one last time to put your hope in Christ and the salvation, glory, and perfection that is to come to you - you WILL be holy. So put your hope there. 

Before I conclude, I want to encourage you to take time later today or this week to re-read this passage and to pray and meditate over it.  I believe that God will strengthen this word within you if you give Him the opportunity to.

Let me close on a personal note.

For a while I have been experiencing a growing awareness of hopelessness in my life.  I have doubted my abilities as a teacher, questioned God’s timing and plan to bless me with a wife, struggled with confidence in my ability to play guitar, and more.  I had been getting frustrated because I had lost hope.  I had stopped expecting anything more or different.  I was becoming complacent.
But recently, God spoke two things that are changing all that in me.  It got my attention when God spoke because it was the most direct He’s been with me in a long time.  but His words to me have changed something in me that is restoring hope in every single area of my life.  And quite honestly, He is exceeding the deficit I had perceived and putting in my heart a well-spring of hope.  Is the work done yet? by no means.  But God is doing a significant work in me.

One night a few weeks ago God spoke an unmistakable declaration that has sparked hope within me.  He said, “I love you so crazy freaking much.” and then, very simply, “It’s time.”

I don’t know what it’s time for yet - but I don’t really care.  The God of the universe loves me - and he has a plan for me that is in action as we speak.  It may not always make sense to me.  And I believe there will still be trials testing the genuineness of my faith.  But I have hope.  My hope is in God.  My hope rests soundly on the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the revelation of His glory in me and in the earth some day.  Some day I will be holy, just as He is holy.  And He is beginning that work here and now.  My faith will be informed by my hope and will inspire my actions.

He loves you deeply.  And He has a plan for you that is in action as we speak.  He has a plan to give you a hope and a future.

May you find yourself humbled and sobered.  May you let go of hopelessness. May you take hold of the hope before you which is in Christ and His resurrection. Put your hope in Christ.

Ask God to breathe hope back into your life.  He is faithful.  Go and have a blessed day and week.