Unshakable Hope

Is really an honor to be up here. I'm humbled

to be up here today.

This church has.

Loved, as Troops mentioned, loved us and cared for us

so well for almost I can't believe it's that long,

but almost a decade now, And Alison, I have just

in our family has been cared for so well. And

I hope that today bringing the Word is just a

small gift back to this church to what it means

to me. So, as Troops mentioned, we're gonna get sorry.

But as Triops mentioned, we're gonna be in Romans chapter

five today. So let's turn to that and I'll read

and we'll get going. Therefore, since we have been just

we have been justified by faith.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into

this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice and

hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but

we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope

does not put us to shame. Because God's love has

been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Who

has been given to us. This is the word of

the Lord. This is an incredibly rich text, so much

so that in sermon prep this week we joke that

you'd probably preach a dozen different sermons on this and

preach excuse me, and preach on something different each time.

But today we're going to talk about how and why

we can walk through this Christian life with unshakable hope

in His glory. And you have your bulletins there with you,

and we're going to follow kind of an outline and

I'll help you guys with that, but we're gonna break

it really into two parts.

One longer than the other.

One is why we have hope, Why we have this hope,

and the second is kind of analysis of how we

can have this hope, how we can live this life

with hope, how we can get from suffering to hope.

So let's get started with why we have this hope,

and we.

Start with therefore, and if there's therefore, at the beginning

of passage, we ask why is it?

Yeah, what's it there for? Excuse me? Lots of wise Okay,

So really.

You know, this is the kind of culmination and pointing

back to Paul's summary, of justification by faith, and it

kind of summarized by mentioning that Abraham was counted righteous

by his faith and then comes to a conclusion with

Christ's deliverance for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

So not only does that set the stage for the

Christian life, but that sets the stage for why you know, for.

This passage here. And so since we have justification by faith,

we have peace with God. Peace with God? What does

that mean? Well, in part, since the fall, since enter

the world.

We were in love with the world and we were

at war with God. James frames it this way that

a friendship with the world is enmity with God, which

is to say we were completely opposed and hostile to God.

And that's a strong word, but that's how we dead

in our sin, That's how we were, That's how our

hearts were towards God. We were living as total adversaries

to God. And thinking about being at war with God,

think about something that even gets close to that level

of despair and discouragement. Have to think about World War two.

Part of that's because I'm fascinated by that time. If

Allison's out of town, I'm almost always watching band of brothers,

or saving Private Ryan. Hopefully I'm not the only guy

in the room that does this. But but one thing,

something that's especially fascinating about that time is that it

was a world war. The entire world was engulfed and

tragedy and suffering and despair and destruction. And I just

try to imagine, you know, you grasp that despair and

that discouraging destruction, but also the incredible amount of relief

and joy that everyone had to feel when it was

finally over years of horrible tragedy, suffering and destruction, finally

over what an I mean, what an incredible amount of

joy that everyone had to feel. I mean, there's so

much joy that there's an entire generation named after the

Spike and childbursts during that time.

There's a lot of joy at that time.

But the point is being at war is so devastating

and with its death and destruction that it causes. And

that's how we were, at least how our hearts were

with God. But God and his incredible grace and power

delivered up his son for our trespasses and cries.

Christ was raised for our justification.

And I think it's important to stop and consider and

grasp the implications of that, of what we've been saved from,

all the broken things that we've done, all the darkness

and suffering in the world, It is covered and not

by anything that we've done. It's important to meditate on,

I think, and just the magnitude of that, of the

magnitude of what.

We've been saved from.

And also how joy inducing it is to be at

peace from God with that and mind after we've grasped that,

how joy inducing that is. So why do we have

faith in the first place? It's pretty simple, it's pretty profound,

and its simplicity by His grace through faith. It is

by that grace that we are in His presence at all.

We have legs to stand on by His grace where

we otherwise do not deserve to be. And that's the

foundation on which we stand. That's the foundation of a

Christian life.

So we can move then to our second main question.

How do we have this hope? How can we get

from suffering to hope? And we'll look at how we

get from suffering to endurance. How does suffering produce endurance?

How does endurance produce character? And how does character produce hope? So,

first we'll get focused on the suffering. How do we

get from how do you know, let's kind of analyze

suffering from it, and how we get to that? How

we make that progression to hope? And the short answer

is by by the sanctifying work of the Holy Trinity

within us. God made promises, He delivered on them through

the person and work of.

Jesus Christ, and he showed his love by pouring it

into our hearts with the Holy Spirit which he gave

to us. And so what are those promises?

I'll give you just a couple of examples here first,

and isa day of chapter nine, verses six and seven.

I'll read it for you. For to us a child.

Is born, to us a son is given, And the

government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall

be Wonderful counselor Mighty God, ever Lasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace. There

will be no end on the throne of David and

over his kingdom. To establish it and uphold it with

justice and with righteousness. From this time forth and forevermore,

the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this.

And then to reinforce that Hebrews, Chapter one, verse three

says Christ is the radiance of the glory of God

and the exact imprint of His nature, and he upholds

the universe by the word of his power. After making

purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand

of the Majesty on high. So we know very clearly

how and why we got to this point, because you're

sure lays it out for us.

Christ embodies the glory of God, and we.

Grow in our sanctification, and we mature through this Christian

life by knowing and observing this truth within our lives.

So that brings us to our our first sub point

looking at verse three. Not only that, but we rejoice

in sufferings. Rejoice in sufferings. That's got to be a

little bit of a record scratch moment, right. I mean,

we're talking about joy and peace and love. Now we're

talking about suffering and then we're going to talk about endurance.

Those are not really fun words. So what happened?

And let's make sure we're clear what Paul is saying here.

And I think also it's important if you're not a

Christian to stop and kind of discuss this. How can

a good God allow suffering, and why would we rejoice

in that?

Those are good questions, And first.

Off, I think it's important to note that this is

not rejoicing for suffering.

Nothing in scripture is calling us to.

Be glad about or enjoy suffering. But also is evidence

throughout scripture that suffering. Besides Christians, the Christian life is

never promised to be an easy one.

The world is broken.

I don't think anyone Christian or non Christian would dispute

that horrible things happen every day, the things that humans

are capable of doing to one another, saying to one another,

saying about one another. On the surface, at face value,

it's prediscouraging.

But there's good news.

As much as we hate sin and suffering and brokenness,

God hates it immensely more. Those promises that God talks

about in Isaiah and throughout Scripture, this is what he's

talking about. This is not an all hat and no

cattle type of deal. The end of Isaiah nine, verse

seven says the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will

do this. It's with ze, with fervor and with intentionality

that God is delivering on his promises. That's his perfect

plan and he delivers on it.

Christians can expect suffering, not.

Dwelling or worrying about what ifs, but knowing that hard

times are going to come.

Realizing the brokenness of the.

World and of ourselves should shape our worship in a

richer and more meaningful way.

So why can we rejoice in suffering?

Because we can trust with absolute certainty that Christ died

for it.

He's sovereign over it.

And he's at work in it, and he's shaping us

and sanctifying us through these trials for our own good

and for his glory. And as we walk through the

steps of sanctification, we're growing in our grasp of the

breadth and the gravity of what we're saved from and

being at peace like that tunes our heart to joy

and moving now to our second bullet. Then how does

that suffering then produce endurance? And looking at endurance as

Americans and especially as Texans, I think we love the tough, bootstrapping,

individualistic mentality.

That the word endurance brings.

Right and toughness and grit and independence. All those words

that come into mind and all those feelings that come

to mind are not bad qualities when rightly oriented. But

this is not endurance for the sake of enduring. It

is not instructing us to just get over it or

just get through it. Toughness and resolve for the sake

of our own self image and self preservation is fleeting.

It's fleeting.

It'll fail us, and it'll probably fail us at our

time of.

Greatest need.

Because we're not made to carry these burdens on our shoulders.

Paul says this in verse two.

Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into

this grace in which we stand through Him, not through

anything that we did.

Jesus said, his yoke is easy.

And his burden is light because he knows us. He

knows us, and he knows the burdens and sufferings and afflictions.

He knows them, and he knows there to be laid

on his shoulders, not on our own. God does not

call us to white knuckle our way through life, suppressing

our suffering. He calls us to lay them at his feet.

Trying to endure through suffering on our own without the

Lord is like trying to put vegetable oil in a

car engine. It's not designed for that. You won't make

it very far. What Paul is trying to say here

is that we endure knowing the end is already written.

We faithfully suffer, We lament, and we mourn his afflictions

with him, trusting that he at work. How often do

we absorb the challenges in our life without communing with

the Lord or with letting anybody into it? I know,

personally I praise the Lord for praising it for first

Wednesdays because so many times I've found myself in this

room that I've been toiling for days or weeks, and

I have not let the Lord or anybody else into it.

And that is not his design, whether mundane or profound.

He wants in on that.

The Lord wants to be part of our life.

And what a peace it brings to lay that on

his shoulders and not on our own. And what a

joy it is to share and endure through those things

with our brothers and sisters.

Amen.

So, how then, does suffering produce endurance when we faithfully

welcome him in to our trials and observe God's redeeming

work in them. Endurance and steadfastness, those are active words,

those are still roll your sleeves up types of words.

But faithful endurance includes knowledge of and reference for how

we obtain this grace in the first place, it's by

faith we've been justified, and it's by it's with faith

that we should endure. So we look then at our

third bullet, How then, does endurance produce character? And the

translation of the Greek word used here in Romans five

for character is a dependable, trustworthy, what I would call

a such a watch to.

It kind of character.

And that is especially convicting for me because before I

was a Christian, and even as an immature Christian, you know,

I had all of these little moralities and sayings, and

they were really only for my own, you know, self

righteousness and puffing myself up right. But one of the

things I would say was if I say I'm going

to be there, then I'll be there.

But when I inevitably.

Wasn't there, or I flaked out, or whatever the circumstance

may be, I was wrecked by this own self imposed

feeling of guilt. And hopefully there's somebody type A out

there in the crowd that knows what I'm talking about.

But we all like to think we have a good

moral compass. I don't think anybody in here is going

to tell you that they have a bad moral compass.

But a moral compass with a true north set anywhere

other than on the Gospel and on Christ.

Is surely to lead us astray.

Your punctuality, your discipline, our financial stewardship, our parenting, our.

Food and our diet.

A morality focused on anything other than Christ is ultimately

just for the sake of our own self preservation, and

it will lead us to self destruction. And if I'm

applying this to my life, the low hanging fruit is parenting.

Alison and I have been blessed with two young kids

that are four and two and one on the way,

and parenting is an incredible joy of our life. But

I would be lying to you if I had told

you it wasn't without challenges. We all know parenting has challenges,

and I remember, especially in the days when we were

new parents, we felt, man, I don't know if I

will ever sleep again, or I don't know if we're

ever gonna get this kid potty trained. I think we're

gonna drop them off at college in a diaper.

But then as we.

Began to endure through these parenting struggles, it became Lord,

I can't operate in a full day on two hours

of sleep on my own flesh. I can't, in my

own patience sit next to a toddler potty for twelve

hours a day. It's not twelve hours a day. And

it was mostly Alison, if we're being honest, But you

get the point. But having seen his work and our

own physical limitations in our flesh, we when we're doing

it right, as we go into you know, right now,

our big thing is disciplined. So if we're doing it right,

we come to him before, during, and after these discipline

opportunities with open hands, putting in the work to be

sure it is work. We're not just letting go. But

is not by our steadfastness in parenting that we achieve

any progress.

It's by his work through us as instruments in his hands.

We're sanctified not by the sweat of our own brow,

but by fixing our eyes on him.

And that builds in us a character that's not puffed

up or self righteous.

It builds in us a character that is gentle, that

is meek, that is mild.

And it's a character that is like Christ. And there

are a lot.

Of ways to build Christian character. But how does Endurance

build character. Endurance produces character when we begin to continually,

faithfully and dependably transfix our gaze on Christ's redeeming work

as we endure through this Christian life, whatever those circumstances

might be. We build Christian character through a reliable and

humble reliance on Christ. So just recap kind of how

we got here. Suffering has been covered by the blood

of Christ. Suffering produces endurance when we observe His redeeming

work and sovereignty and welcome him into our trials.

And endurance produces character.

When we begin to faithfully, dependably and continually respond.

In the face of life circumstances. So now we get

to the best part. Hope. I think this is a

good time. Excuse me to stop and remember that.

The theme of this text is not suffering. Suffering is

a component of this text, and I think it bears

this analysis. But the theme is joy and hope. Josh

and a sermon on this text a couple of years

ago described rejoicing as the dominant Christian emotion, and I agree.

The theme here is that we can walk through the

circumstances of our Christian lives with eternal, unshakable hope and

joy in the.

Glory of the Lord. Through faith in Christ.

We can do that without shame, and that is completely counter.

To what the world would have to say about the matter.

The world has come up with plenty of explanations for

why things happen, and I would say especially for why

bad things happen. And when tragedy strikes, you'll hear a

lot of really well intended but ultimately wrong explanations for.

Why these bad things happen.

And you can't really blame the world for coming up

with the because when you observe or you live horrible

tragedies that seem have absolutely nothing, seemingly absolutely nothing redeemable

about them, they make no sense apart from the Redeemer.

Those horrible, seemingly unredeemable sufferings. That is what Christ died for.

Even that especially, that is what he died for. Nothing,

not even the deepest, darkest occurrences in our life here

on earth will knock the Lord off his course to

come after those that put their faith in him. One

reason I chose this passage is that I lost my

father this March and after a long battle with cancer,

and fortunately I was able to be in the room

with him when he passed, and the whole family was there.

You know. It was unfortunately though, it took a while,

and it was it was pretty pretty difficult to watch, but.

You know, I just it gave time for reflection, and

Alice and I were talking and praying and just talking

with the Lord and reflecting, and I just remember thinking.

Lord, I hate this. This is horrible.

This is profoundly sad, and it just doesn't seem to

get any worse than watching someone die painfully way before

their time.

He's in his sixties, it's too early.

But Lord, I know as much as I hate this,

you hated a thousandfold more.

Than I do.

And I drove home that night church, and I tell

you I felt more at peace and more filled with

hope than I ever have in my life. And I

felt that way because I knew I'd seen it firsthand

right in front of me.

This is what the Lord set out to defeat, and

this is what he sent Christ to die for. And

he did. He delivered on his promises.

And I know with unshakable hope and absolute certainty that

the Lord is.

At working this.

I may not know fully how, or I may not

fully comprehend why it has to be this way, but

I can know that this is how suffering, how we

can get from suffering.

All the way to hope.

This is where the rubber meets the road of a

life committed to Christ. This is how the Christian life goes.

The recipients of this letter definitely felt suffering like this.

All of you in this room have experienced suffering. Some

of you are experiencing suffering right now. And one Peter five,

verses nine through eleven, it says, the same kinds of

suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

After you have suffered for a little while, the God

of all grace, who has called you to his eternal

glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish

you to Him be the dominion forever and ever.

Amen, Christians.

We will suffer for a little while, but He has

a plan immensely greater than our own, beyond our own comprehension.

And this mention of this passage, in this passage is

not to make light of suffering. This is to acknowledge

suffering and emphasize that suffering is not eternal.

But He is.

And these tears are tears, they are temporary, but he

is not. And I encourage you as you go out today,

and you've progressed through life's challenges to know with absolute

certainty that the Lord will not abdicate his responsibility. He

will not go back on his promise to his people.

He will not stop coming after you and the ones

that put their faith in him. And what a profound

joy that brings to our hearts, What a profound peace

we have in the glory of the Lord. So as

we summarize how do we have this hope in the

first place, this text tells.

Us how much God loves us.

We're at peace with him, and that peace is unshakable,

just like at the end of a long war.

We can shout and dance in the streets.

We have an understanding of the gravity of what we've

been saved from. We've experienced it firsthand, and we will again.

And we've faithfully observed the work He's done in us

and through us for his glory, and we can respond

with the greatest emotions we.

Have as Christians, with joy and with hope.

And so without an ambition, it will never put us

to shame, It will never put us to same. We

can do that with hope without shame. And I'll just

close with this from Revelation chapter one, verse eight, because

it summarizes this feeling so well. He is the Alpha

and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the one

who is and who was and who is to come,

the Almighty.

Will you stand and pray with me?

God, we come to you and just immense, fervent prayer

and prays to you for the saving work you've done

through Christ. We can go out today and then through

our life as Christians and face every challenge knowing that it.

Is a blood. It's been covered by the blood of

Jesus Christ.

We can transfix our gaze on you and endure and

build character and be sanctified because we know that you

are good, You are faithful to us, and you never fail.

You will never fail us, you will never go back

on your promises.

Praise you Lord for that. It's by Jesus death and

resurrection that we have this grace.

To stand on it all. And it's in His name

that we pray. We love you God, Amen,