High Hopes (Week 5)

Well it's been a blessing in this series, high hopes for us to take a look at what it looks like for us to have our hope in Christ, our hope in the one true living hope, Jesus.

And uh my name is Forrest Coleman, lead pastor here at Multiply.

My family, along with many, many others, um, helped to launch and begin the work of Multiply Church.

If you're new here, welcome.

Glad that you're here.

We'd love to connect with you and be able to walk with you.

And over the last few weeks, we've looked at different phrases and things that we hear all the time that we're hoping for the best.

Don't get your hopes up.

So much of our life revolves around and encompasses what we're hoping, what we're longing for, what we're looking for out of this life.

Sometimes they're very trivial things that we uh are holding out hope for.

Maybe it's uh that you're still you're holding out hope that your football team can still make it to the playoffs at this part of the season.

Maybe you're holding out hope that uh UK and U of L can keep their win streak going on right now.

Maybe you're holding out hope for that uh fancy vacation that you've always wanted to take.

Maybe you're holding out hope for that raise at the job.

Maybe you're holding out hope for that date for them to say yes to the date.

Maybe you're holding out hope for somebody to finally get you that Christmas present that you've always wanted.

And for some reason, it's just never there under the tree.

Or maybe it's some things that the stakes are higher that you're holding out hope for.

You're holding out hope to get that acceptance letter.

You're holding out hope to get the A in that class or just not get an F in that class.

I heard a lot of times D's get degrees.

Umbe you're holding out hope that the skins from the doctor come back clear.

Maybe you're hoping that the bank doesn't foreclose on you.

Maybe you're holding out hope that you're able to get pregnant.

See, there's often times in our life when we have hope that's within us and we're grasping and we're looking for hope for these different circumstances that are of grave importance and sometimes things that are more trivial, but hope touches and is a part of our daily walk and daily life, whether we are aware of it or not.

And when we think about what it looks like for us, and as we hope, and as we hope for the things to come in life, what is clear to us from the scripture is that as we hope, it should be a dialogue with God.

It should be a dialogue between you and the Lord.

But what happens is that the enemy, your opponent, Satan, wants nothing more than to cut off the conversation between you and your Heavenly Father.

He wants to get you into a place where you've now lost hope, that you feel like that things are hopeless, that you're not in any way connecting the Lord and your relationship with God to the everyday workings of your life.

See, the enemy wants nothing more than to create a wedge between you and God.

And there may be some of you who've come in today and you're walking in the room and you're looking for answers and you're gasping because you just feel that there's a wedge between you and heaven.

That may be because of something, some kind of sin that you're wrapped up in it, maybe because of a disbelief that you have.

There'll be a myriad of reasons.

And today we're going to take a look at a person in the scripture, a woman named Hannah, who brought her hopes and brought her dream and brought what she wanted to see come to fruition into a dialogue and a conversation with God.

Not just a conversation, but a crying out to God.

See, for Hannah, for years, she had wanted a child, only to find herself at the end of a rope as she's crying out to God in the temple.

And the priest who's there, Eli, he misunderstands her motives for being there.

And so as we look at the story of Hannah today, I hope it will be an encouragement to you.

In 1 Samuel 1 verses 9, we see that once after the sacrificial meal at Shiloh, Hannah got up and went to pray.

1 Samuel 1:9

Eli the priest was sitting in his customary place beside the entrance of the tabernacle.

And Hannah was deep, was in deep anguish, or we say anguish.

Crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord.

And she made this vow.

O Lord of Heaven's armies, if you'll look upon my sorrow and answer my prayers and give me a son, then I will give him back to you.

He'll be yours his entire lifetime.

And as a sign that he has been dedicated to the Lord, his hair will never be cut, which is a cultural symbol of a vow.

Verse 12.

As she prayed to the Lord, Eli watched her, seeing her lips moving, but hearing no sound, he thought she was that she had been drinking.

Verse 14.

Must you come here drunk?

He demanded.

Throw away your wine.

And in verse 15, oh no, sir, she replied, I haven't been drinking wine or anything stronger, but I'm very discouraged.

Some translations say depressed.

I'm very discouraged.

And I was pouring out my heart to the Lord.

Don't think I'm a wicked woman, for I have been praying out of great anguish and sorrow.

And in verse 17, in that case, Eli said, Go in peace.

May the God of Israel grant the request that you've asked of him.

Oh, thank you, sir.

She exclaimed.

And she went back and began to eat again.

And she was no longer sad.

We see Hannah.

This woman who is in a desperate place.

Not just desperate place.

She's discouraged.

She's downtrodden.

She's depressed.

But in that state that she's in, she's still holding out hope, and she's going to the Father, and she's weeping, and she's crying out before the Lord, and she cried out bitterly.

Some translations say resentfully.

Even in that state of anguish, she took it to God.

You know, because what oftentimes happens is that when life isn't going our way, we're tempted by our enemy.

We're tempted to get into a place of being resentful.

God, things aren't turning out like I want them to.

God, I don't see how this situation is going to be resolved or for there to be a solution.

And in doing so, instead of taking that to the Lord and crying out to the Lord, even in your bitterness, even in your resentfulness, instead the enemy wants you to be cut off from your relationship with God and put a barrier between you and the Most High.

Hannah didn't do that.

Instead of trying to take matters into her own hands, she asked the Lord to answer her call.

See, over my years of ministry, I have seen the different circumstances that involve challenge, loss, grief.

And I've seen for some of those circumstances for people that they've had eyes to see grief as a guide to God.

And I've seen other people in my years of ministry and loss and death and broken relationships and divorce.

I've seen people allow grief to tear them away from God.

And now after years of seeing the states of where people are, those that have allowed their grief and their mourning to guide them to the one who can bring ultimate peace.

Now years later, seeing them in a much different place, a much better place than they would have been if they had turned away from God.

I experienced this and I experienced this in a in a very personal way over the last year with some very close friends of mine, Evan and Krista West.

Just over a year ago, they experienced a tremendous loss and tremendous grief.

At 19 weeks pregnant, Evan and Krista went to have their ultrasound before they went for their anatomy scan for their little baby girl, Hope Abigail.

And in that 19th week uh appointment and in the uh in the ultrasound, the nurses and then a doctor informed them that there was no heartbeat.

And that hope had passed.

Which led to a blur of the next few days, where at the point that they were and she was in the pregnancy, that for her, her next step was to deliver their little baby girl.

And so some of you may remember this story from last year, because it was at that time, and Evan and Krista and I have and our families have been friends for a long, long time.

I got in the car and drove to South Carolina to be with them at the hospital as Krista gave birth to their little girl who'd gone on to be with the Lord.

I remember being in that hospital room as Krista held on to Hope's small body full facial features and ten fingers, ten toes, surrounded with friends, and friends that were praying, loving, caring for them.

And I'll never forget Evan holding on to Krista's arm and him voicing a prayer in that hospital room for his wife and for his family in the midst of intense grief.

That began a cascade of grief for them.

And there's these moments in our life where grief can overtake us and we can allow it to take us and tear us away from God, or we can respond like Hannah did and be honest with the Lord.

Basically, what I have seen since is that Evan and Krista have taken their grief, their loss, their hope to God.

It reminds me too of the work that uh here locally goes on with the Avenue Avenues Clinic, with the Avenues for Women that since in the first few services that we have with Multiply, have we been supporters and have been encouraging the work that they do as our local crisis pregnancy center.

This last Tuesday I got to be a part of a prayer service that they hosted looking for uh them to be able to build a a new brick and mortar clinic here in town to help women who are in a crisis pregnancy situation to love, care, and walk with them.

See Hannah was honest with God.

She wasn't closed off, but instead she was vulnerable before the Lord.

And it was in that vulnerability that she found victory with God in prayer.

And we too can find victory in that vulnerability with the Lord.

See here's what Hannah did.

She didn't just bring the facts of the situation to God, but instead she told God how she was feeling about it.

She cried out to him, she raised her voice, she raised her mind, she raised her heart to the Lord, and she poured out to him, and she was honest with God.

Can I tell you this?

God can handle whatever state you're in.

If you're upset, if you're mad with at the Lord, please tell him.

Please tell him.

He can handle it.

He's not offended by our humanity.

He knows we're human.

But he wants from us that we would walk with him and in his power and not walk away from him and be torn away and have a barrier and have a break and have a wedge between us and him that the devil wants so much to steal, kill, and destroy us.

So be honest with God.

If there's a day when you're in prayer and you say, you know what, God, I don't really want to talk to you today, go ahead and tell him that.

He can handle it.

You may be in the room today and you've got questions about God.

You've got questions about eternity, you have questions about the different religions.

Can I tell you this?

That God is big enough for your questions.

He's big enough for your doubts.

He's big enough for your lack of faith.

So pour out to him.

See, here's what Hannah did.

She was honest with God, and then she gave her problem to God, and then she relied on good counselors and friends in her life and Eli.

That's a model for us, church.

That's a model for us.

That one, we would be honest with God about what we're going on, what we're lacking in hope, that the next thing that we would do is that we would give it over to the Lord, and then we would walk with good counselors and friends that can encourage us along the way here in the body of Christ.

That's why it's important for you to not be trying to do this Christian walk alone.

That's why we have our church set up, that we have small groups, we have teams, so that you can be in relationship with others as you're walking with Jesus.

So that it's not just an isolated solo, solo sport that you're trying to do as you walk out your faith with God, but instead it's a team adventure as we walk with one another and care for one another.

And I got to watch Evan and Krista do just that.

So here's the here's the rest of the story with Hannah.

Hannah ends up giving birth to a son, Samuel.

And Samuel is then uh in the lineage of establishing this kingdom of Israel.

And he's connected with and he's in a line, a prophetic line, and is is is led to and is spoken of of being in a similar standing as Moses is a mediator with God.

And it was through Hannah's prayer that a once closed, barren womb bore a son that would help to rescue Israel.

In the New Testament, the book of Acts speaks of Samuel in this way: Acts 3, 24, and 25.

Starting with Samuel, every prophet spoke about what's happening today.

You are the children of those prophets, and you are included in the covenant God promised to your ancestors.

For God said to Abraham, Through your descendants, all the families on earth will be blessed.

That's the lineage.

It was Hannah carried and walking with God's Spirit that she was able to ask for something and find something even greater than just having a son for herself.

But instead, under the headship of God, that she would be able to deliver a son that would one day help to deliver Israel of its oppressors.

That it one day that out of the kingdom of Israel and the lineage of the prophets, in a simple prayer for a son, God answered her bigger than she could have ever imagined.

Out of the lineage of the prophets and those anointed by God, David, that one day would be in the ancestor and lineage of Jesus himself.

So just a year later, from where my friends Evan and Krista have been, they've walked with their church, small groups, friends, walked through the grief and the challenge of the loss of a child.

And that's led them to a place where they now have a heart and have a desire to help other people who are going through the same thing.

See, over the last year, through the loss that they experienced, God planted in their heart and in their mind a foundation.

A foundation called You Keep Hope Alive.

After their daughter.

And I I would love to uh share with you from my words, but also from their words of where they are right now today, just a year and three months later.

Check this out.

Thanks so much, Forrest, um, for sharing our story, sharing Hope's story, and thank you, Multiply Church, for the prayers over the last year.

They've certainly been felt, they've been appreciated, and um, we're just really excited um to go forward.

We do believe that hopefully was that we do believe this other families.

And of course, I'm really excited to see what God has done in multiple church.

So thanks for following us, and uh we look forward to seeing you guys soon in Kentucky.

Isn't that powerful?

Just over a year later, and for them to have been walking with the Lord enough that planted in their heart was a desire to help other people who are experiencing and have experienced the loss that they have.