Hope

Well, good morning CFBC family. Obviously we are not together

this morning, but I am so glad that you're tuning in this

morning for worship. I pray that you are warm and

that you are safe. Maybe you're in your comfortable

spot on the couch, a recliner with your coffee.

But I want to invite you now to gather and those you with you,

your family to gather and bring in your Bible.

And we're going to dive into the word of God this morning.

We're in our fourth word of our 4th Sunday in January on these

words that quite honestly, all throughout our County School

system, these words have been being trained, our teachers and

our students. And we've been going to the word

of God to see how these four things that would rain

righteousness in our city, county community and beyond,

what these things should look like in our lives.

Isaiah 45, eight calls on God to let righteousness rain down from

above so that salvation and righteousness bear fruit.

This is what we're asking of God.

Today's word is hope. I want you to turn in your Bible

to Psalm 42, verse 4. Psalm 42, verse 4.

Psalms 42:4 Psalms 42:4

This is a, this is a Bible verse that quite honestly, you need to

have close to your heart, close to your mind.

You need to be able to recall this one in times when the Holy

Spirit needs the opportunity to bring it up.

David asked this question, Why are you downcast, Oh my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God, hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my

salvation and my God. It has been said y'all that

there are three things that human beings need to live food,

water and shelter, but it's just not true.

Say God What do you mean? What I mean is those three

things are not enough for a human being to survive.

If it if it were true, then that would mean that we as human

beings really only need 3 physical things for our

survival. But we're not just physical

beings, we need something else for our survival that's just as

important as food, water and shelter.

We are not like all the other animals that God made.

If so, we could get away with just those three.

But as human beings, we've been uniquely made in the image of

God. We're not just body.

We have a soul, and our needs go far beyond the basic needs of

food, water and shelter. We were designed to enjoy a

personal relationship with God. One of the hostage hostages that

was held by Hamas for months was interviewed afterwards and he

made this statement. He said.

I realized I was either going to go mad or I was either going to

go to God. In other words, what he was

saying was I might have had, though they were meager and

poor, and often times he didn't have them.

But even if he'd had all the food, water, and shelter he

needed in captivity, they wouldn't have been enough.

They would have either going to go mad, go crazy, or go to God,

because he had a need that was much bigger than those three

things. What?

What is that? What is that?

Something else that we as human beings so desperately need, that

basic human need. It's spelled HOPE.

It's hope. It is hope that we as human

beings need that God made us, made us to have, to have in

order to thrive. Today we're going to talk about

the universal essential need of hope in our lives.

Martin Luther, the famous reformer, put it like this.

He said everything that is done in the world is done in hope.

No farmer sews a grain of wheat if he didn't hope that it would

grow and produce a crop. And no bachelor would marry a

wife if he didn't have hope for a happy future.

And no merchant or tradesman would set himself to work if he

didn't hope for a profit, right? So almost anything and

everything we do as human beings in this life, in this or it is

driven by some kind of hope. And yet, right, we all struggle

with hope sometimes. I want to ask you just right now

maybe is that you? Are you finding yourself

fighting for hope, struggling for hope, discouraged,

desperate, maybe having food, water, and shelter, but knowing

something's missing? If so, I want to encourage you

to lean in today because we're going to see that even those in

the Scripture, like some of the greatest examples of the godly

men and women we see here, still struggled at times, just like

David expresses in Psalm 42A struggle for hope.

The first question I want to ask and answer this morning is this.

What is biblical hope? What is biblical hope?

Well, David challenges himself to hope in God.

When he says hope in God, what is he saying?

What does he mean? Well, first we need to clarify

that the way that we use hope in everyday language in everyday

life is very different and often than what the Bible refers to

as. So what we mean when we say hope

is we're saying we wish or we desire.

Like I hope they land the job or I hope she will say yes, or I

hope to make the great. I hope to make the team or we

hope their dreams come true. In other words, we're using hope

as like we wish something were true.

We desire something to be true. We're just not so sure it's

going to be true. That's not the way the Bible

uses the word hope. In fact, the meaning of hope and

Scripture is almost the opposite of our ordinary usage of hope.

Here's what I mean. Ordinarily, when we use hope,

we're Speaking of something that we're uncertain about rather

than something we're absolutely certain about, like this.

I hope Daddy gets home early. I'm just not sure he will.

I'm not certain he will. I, I hope that Jim will arrive

safely. I, I, I'm not certain he will,

but I hope he will. Or a good tailwind is our only

hope of arriving on time. Like we hope the wind blows in

the direction our planes flying to get us there on time.

We're just not certain that it will.

But that's not, that's not the biblical meaning of hope.

Biblical hope, you see, not only desires or wishes that something

is true, but friends, biblical hope is certain that something

in store is true and expects it, doesn't just wish for it, but

knows with confidence that they can look forward to it.

That's biblical hope. Hebrews 11/1 says this.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence

of things not seen. This is as clear and simple A

definition of faith as you'll find in the New Testament.

And I want you to notice that biblical, biblical hope is

actually a part of the biblical definition of faith.

You see, faith can focus on the past, it can focus on the

present, or it can focus on the future.

But what we see here is that the part of faith that focuses on

the future is called hope. When faith is directed to the

future, the Bible calls it hope. So biblical hope is this.

Here's your answer to question number one.

What is biblical hope? Are you ready?

Write this down. Biblical hope is a Christian's

absolute confidence concerning their future in Christ.

Biblical hope is a Christian's absolute confidence of their

future in Christ. So biblical hope is not finger

crossing, it's not lip biting, it is not bedding, it's not

wondering. Biblical hope is a Christian's

absolute rock bottom confidence in their future in Christ.

Let me just ask you this question.

Do you have, do you have that kind of hope?

Do you have biblical hope? You have absolute confidence

regarding your future in Christ because number one, you know

there was a day in your past when you put your hope in

Christ. You asked Him to forgive you of

your sin. You called on him as your

Savior. You gave your life to him, not

with a wishful desire for heaven, but a confident

expectation of it. Not for a wishful desire for

forgiveness, but an absolute knowledge of it.

Not for a wishful desire to be made alive, but having known

you've been made alive in Christ because you've called on Jesus

to save you. You realize right now if you

don't have that hope or never put your hope in Christ in the

past, that day can be today. Put your faith present in Jesus

today. That produces biblical hope for

tomorrow. Do you have biblical hope #2

where does biblical hope come from?

You can flip to Ephesians 212, or you can just listen to me

read it here. Remember that you were at that

time separated from Christ, alienated from the Commonwealth

of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no

hope and without God in the world.

The Bible defines no hope as being without Who?

Being without God, No God, no hope.

Our hope comes from biblical hope comes from God.

To which we might say, Oh well, Kyle, I feel like I've got hope

and I'm not so sure it's always connected with God.

Like I've got things I'm certain about or I'm looking forward to

in life, things like this. We might have hope of getting

married. We're looking forward to that.

Maybe we've got hope of having kids or more kids or having

grandkids or landing our dream job or buying that house.

We've always wanted to go into that place.

We've always wanted to see or enjoying life in some form or

fashion. And all those things give us a

kind of earthly hope. But the deal is we might all

have positive thoughts about the future because of a variety of

things to 1° or another. But these things, though none of

them are guarantees, they offer us levels of hope.

But here's the deal. None of them promise and provide

true, lasting, and ultimate biblical hope.

None of the things in the world can do that.

So the Bible puts true biblical hope like this.

Where does it come from? Proverbs 10/28 The hope of the

righteous is gladness, but the expectation of the wicked

perishes. The hope of the righteous is

gladness, but the expectation, the hope of the wicked, is going

to perish. In other words, the ultimate

hope of those who have God, the righteous is gladness forever,

for all eternity with God. Their hope of the righteous,

those who have God, gets better and is guaranteed no matter what

earthly hopes come true or not. But the hopes and dreams are

expectations of those who do not have God of the wicked.

Ultimately, one day all those hopes do what?

They perish. They don't last.

They do not provide a future that provides hope forever.

They come to nothing. You see, anyone without God in

Christ has no actual true, lasting, ultimate hope for their

future. And let's just be honest,

without true biblical hope and hope for your future death, our

last breath for all of us takes on some terrifying proportions.

Without biblical hope in Christ, all that is left without God is

hell and eternal punishment and torment that is beyond

description. It's so dreadful.

Many can't stomach what the Bible says so clearly about the

lack of hope for those that are not in Christ.

In fact, I don't know if you heard about the most recent news

concerning this topic surrounded Kirk Cameron, who came out

publicly proclaiming that he no longer believed in an eternal

place called hell where those who are not in Christ will spend

eternity. He actually affirmed a long

standing ancient unbiblical idea called annihilationism, which is

this belief that if you don't accept Christ as your savior and

your sins are not forgiven, your punishment is actually that you

when you die, you don't go to hell, but you just cease to

exist. And this idea comes from the

rejection of the pure hopelessness that is a reality

according to the Bible, for those that are not in Christ.

And that's just too much for people to often stomach, so they

reject that idea due to its hopelessness.

But this is the difference between the hope we have in

Jesus versus the hopelessness forever for those who don't.

This is where biblical hope comes from, right?

And our hope is in Jesus and Jesus alone.

First Peter 1/3 through 6. Blessed be the God and Father of

our Lord Jesus Christ according to his great mercy, He's caused

us to be born again. I love this to a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

You see, hope comes from God and this hope we have has a name,

and his name is Jesus. Our hope is in Jesus.

It's a living hope because Jesus is alive our hope is in Jesus

and it's a living hope because Jesus has made us alive.

Our hope in Jesus is a living hope because we're going to live

with him forever in the place he's prepared for us.

Biblical hope comes from God, church, family, and his name is

Jesus. The third question we're going

to ask and answer is this. What is it?

What is it? Third question that upholds

biblical hope? What upholds biblical hope?

Billy Graham was asked by US. Senator Billy, are you a

optimist or you a pessimist? To which Billy responded, I'm an

optimist. To which the senator looked back

to him and said, Billy, how can you be an optimist in the world

that we're living in? Billy's response was simply

this. Because I know the last page of

the Bible. What a great answer.

You see, without God, optimism is quite honestly a joke.

Without God, things don't ultimately can't go anywhere

good forever. But knowing the promises of God,

who alone is omnipotent, that means all powerful omniscient,

that means all knowing and omnipresent means God is always

everywhere. His promises and his power and

His presence allow us to have the optimism that is the only

logical option because of God and who He is.

You see, biblical hope is upheld by the precious and sure

promises of God. Biblical hope is upheld by the

precious and sure promises of God.

Listen to second Peter chapter one, verse 3 through 5.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to

life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us

to his own glory and excellence, by which he's granted to us his

precious and very great promises.

There it is so that through them you may become partakers of the

divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in

the world because of sinful desire.

See, the promises of God are like the load bearing walls of

our faith. The promises of God are like the

rebar in the concrete of our faith.

The promises of God are like the I beams in the bridge of our

faith. They're like the bones in the

body of our faith. Our hope is in Jesus, and what

Jesus has promised us is what upholds our hope in Him on a

daily basis. So what are these precious and

very great promises, Jesus, that He has promised us that uphold

our faith, right? I'm so glad you asked.

I mean, I'm going to go through these because we could keep

going on these, but I've just got to mention a few of these.

Are you ready #1 His constant promise of His constant presence

with us now and forever. In the promise to never leave us

nor forsake us. His power and His grace to be

sufficient for our every need and every day.

Working all things for our good, supplying all our needs.

Victory over death, abundant life, rest, peace that passes

understanding, plain sins for our good and our future, Eternal

life, forgiveness of sin, a new resurrected body, Complete

transformation in the image of Christ.

Heaven and eternal place prepared for us specifically in

heaven. Christ returning physically to

claimants, claimants and get us as his own.

A new heavens and a new earth. No more tears, pain or

suffering. We could go on.

All of these are the pure and precious certain absolute

promises of God that actually uphold our hope, which means

your hope means your hope is only as sure and only as strong

as your knowledge and familiarity with the promises of

God. No wonder Hebrews 10/23 says,

let us hold fast to the confession of our hope.

Let's hold fast to the confession of our convictions of

the promises of God without wavering, for he who promised is

faithful. We're clinging to the promises

of God. This is where our hope is

upheld. But this is the exact problem

for so many Christians because they don't cling to the promises

of God and said they grasp and they grope after the pleasures

of this world, seeking to satisfy their soul.

But those things never can. And when they let them down, all

the sudden they find themselves encouraged and restless and and

depressed and without hope because they're not clinging to

the promises of God. This is exactly what God has

called us to do by hope up the the promises that uphold our

hope. To live by clinging to them, to

read them, to read the word of God, to memorize them, to

meditate on them, and to preach them to ourselves like David

does in Psalm 42. Hope in God, he says to himself,

to teach them to our kids and to take every thought in our minds

captive to surrender to the truth of the promises of God

because we know them and we're living by them.

Fourthly and finally, what does biblical hope do?

What does biblical hope do? Y'all?

It is inevitable that all of us, you and me, will go through

times when we struggle for hope. This is what David did, happens

to everybody. Jesus told us in John 1633 in

the world, you're going to have tribulation and trials and

distress and frustration, but be of good cheer.

What does he say? Take courage.

What does he mean? He means to be confident.

It means to be courageous. He means take hope, be hopeful.

Why? I've overcome the world.

That's not I'm going to overcome the world.

That's I have overcome the world.

You can have hope. That's a promise of God.

He's already overcome the world. So here's what biblical hope

does #1 Are you ready? Biblical hope fills us with

hope. It fills us with hope.

Listen to Romans 1513. May the God of hope fill you

with all joy and peace and believing, so that by the power

of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Biblical hope fills us with hope.

You see, by the power of the Holy Spirit you can and will

make your He can and will make your whole life radiant with

hope. That's part of the working of

the Holy Spirit in our lives. The God of hope filling us with

hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Biblical hope and abounding in hope means gladness.

It means joy, it means peace, it means strength, it means freedom

from fear and happiness in Jesus.

Who doesn't want to live with those things?

Who doesn't want to overflow and abound in hope by the power of

the Spirit? The God of hope #2 Biblical hope

anchors our soul. It anchors our soul.

Hebrews 619 through 20. We have this as a surer and

steadfast anchor of the soul hope that enters into the inner

place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner

on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the

order of Melchizedek. Biblical hope anchors our soul

in Jesus. This anchor works in two ways.

First, it works to steady your soul by ending your soul's

constant search for rest. See, our souls were made for

God. In fact, the famous North

African pastor in the 3rd century named Augustine put it

like this. He said, God, you have made us

for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their

rest in Thee. Did you realize that until a

human being and their soul finds rest in Jesus, deep down it's

restless because it hasn't found its true home.

The soul without Jesus is a gypsy soul that can never find

true rest and satisfaction in the home it was made for in

Jesus. So the hope that we have in

Christ anchors us by ending our search for rest in peace of a

second. It works to steady the ship of

our soul when we're under the threat of the constant up and

down waves of the circumstances of life.

See, no matter how high or no matter how low your

circumstances may go. Soul tethered to Jesus doesn't

have to move, because Jesus doesn't move.

He's the same yesterday, he's the same today, and he's the

same forever. He has the rock on which we

stand that when all else is shaken, he will never be shaken.

And we won't be shaken if we're standing with both feet on

Jesus, no matter what comes in our lives.

So biblical hope anchors our souls both spiritually in rest,

in peace, and circumstantially in the anchor of the rock of

Jesus, which is our steadiness in hope in him #3 finally,

biblical hope. Biblical hope allows us to

persevere. Listen to Romans 823 through 25.

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first

fruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for

adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not

hope, but who hopes for what he sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with

patience. But if we hope in what we do not

see, we're persevering. We're waiting for it with

patience. You see, this is what biblical

hope does. Life on this side of heaven.

Y'all, let's be honest, involves some groaning, just like that

Bible verse just said. Why?

Because we're living under the curse of sin, life on the other

side of heaven doesn't involve any groaning, but glory.

So what is it that holds us in the middle between groaning in

this life and the glory waiting for us in the next?

It is biblical hope that allows us to hope.

And yet what we cannot see but what we know is certain.

That anchors our soul and allows us to persevere.

That allows us to press through knowing the victory is coming.

The cross reminding us of God's mercy.

The empty tomb reminding us of God's power.

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit reminding us of God's

promised presence, the word of God giving us a defense against

the enemy and Jesus is victory over death, reminding us of the

promise of forgiveness of sin, salvation and eternal life

forever. Between the groaning and the

glory is the hope we have in Jesus that allows us to set our

eyes on him, the author and perfector of our faith, and

persevere with hope and gladness.

And when God is form forming us in the image of Christ through

the ups and downs of life, no matter what, that God is

bringing us to a place where we're going to be with him

forever. This is what what biblical hope

does. Psalm 42 four why are you

downcast O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within

me? Hope in God, for I will yet

praise him my salvation and my God.

If David had days that he had to preach to himself to hoping God,

so will you and so will I. Do you need to preach the self

this to yourself today? You know, biblical hope is often

a fight. Maybe you're fighting right now

for biblical hope. Maybe you're in the middle of

the trenches of the ring and you feel like you're losing.

What would I say to you? What would would the Word of God

tell you practically to do if today you're fighting for hope

or you need to be ready to fight tomorrow?

Let me tell you a few things and then we'll finish.

Number one, never give up. Never give up.

Never lose sight of the fact that God, by His power, has the

power to change your circumstances and that every

storm will pass. Don't give up.

Keep trusting #2 avoid blaming God or thinking He's punishing

you for some sin. Listen, don't turn to anger or

blame towards God. Trust God in the midst of the

hard things, knowing He's using all those things even for your

good. Don't let it erode your hope.

Thirdly, do what's right. Even when you're hurting and

even if others are not doing you right, continue to do what's

right. Continue to do what you know God

has revealed to you to do that would honor Him and bless Him

and bless others around you even when you don't feel like it.

Hey, next, don't withdraw or sulk or isolate yourself from

others. The Bible says only a fool

isolates himself. And so often it's God using the

others around you to help guide you and encourage you to the

place He's leading and calling you to go.

Keep your word and honor your commitments.

This is a character building time when you're fighting for

hope. Keep your word.

Walk with integrity. Be the man or woman, boy or girl

God's caused you to be. And don't.

Finally, don't stop believing. Don't give up hope that God can

improve your situation, that He will lead you through the storm,

that He's got a destination and plan in mind for you that He's

working this for your glory. Don't give up.

Keep walking by faith. When David says hope in God, he

does not mean cross your fingers, bite your lip, wander

or bet. He means if I could borrow the

words from a missionary that would live many years after

David. What he means is David, expect

great things from God because God is great hope in God.

Church family, what a blessing God's Word is to us.

I want to pray for you in a moment, but I want to invite you

before I do to take some time today at home and talk about

what you've heard. Talk about it with your spouse.

Talk about this with your kids and your family.

Talk about that verse, Psalm 42 verse four.

What does it mean to hope in God and talk about biblical of ask

one another if you have it when that happened when that day was

you trusted Christ. If you need to do that, you can

call on Jesus even now. And if you need to fight for

hope now and get on your knees as a result of hearing what

you've heard and say, Lord, help me even as David fought for

hope, to fight for it today to remember what upholds my hope,

to put my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of my faith

and my hope, and to live in the hope as the God of hope allows

us to overflow in it. Spend some time talking about

these things in your home today where you are, and ask God to

help you overflow with hope. Heavenly Father, thank you for

the chance to worship. Even though we're not together.

We thank you for your word. We thank you for the hope that

you've given us. God, I want to pray for everyone

watching wherever they are, whatever their situation, and

especially those fighting for that.

God is the God of hope. You would cause them to overflow

by the power of the Holy Spirit with hope.

Help them to believe the promises of God, to immerse

themselves in them and to stake their lives on the truth of what

you promised us and help us to live our lives for the world to

see that there is a God that Father, you offer hope of all,

hope that lasts for all eternity.

And we praise you in Jesus name. And all God's people said Amen.

Cheers family. I love you.

Stay warm, stay safe. Can't wait to see you soon.

And as we say each week as you go, you go to whenever it is you

go and leave your home, you go to make disciples.

Love you all. We'll see you back at CBC very

soon.