Warren Taylor - How do I Ignite Hope? - Sunday, October 11, 2026

Father, it's such a joy to read your word, to meditate on it, to examine it.

Father, we ask that you would breathe over your word today, that it would come alive to us, that you would explain truths that have been hidden to us, and that you would be honored by what you say through your sermon.

Amen.

There are many questions for us in this life.

Why do we need hope?

Does having hope make any difference?

If I don't have hope, is there a way to get it back?

Our hope and faith in God the same.

How are faith and hope connected?

Does God want to truly transform society through me and through you?

I believe God would want me to talk about the following points today.

Number one, what can I do when descending into hopelessness?

Is there a connection?

Number two, is there a connection between faith and hope?

Number three, how does God minister to the hopeless?

And number four, how does faith in God shape and transform my world?

Firstly, number one, what can I do when descending into hopelessness?

Many things can happen to take us into the quicksand of hopelessness.

I say quicksand, for I've seen many Westerns, I don't know whether you have, I love John Wayne, the old movies.

The quicksand is portrayed in many movies as a force that pulls you under.

The more you fight, the more you struggle, the more susceptible you are to being dragged under.

You need a friend with a rope to pull you out.

What battles can pull us under?

I have been made redundant at work.

My spouse has an affair.

I've been passed over for promotion.

I'm struggling to feed my children.

Hopelessness declares there is no way out, no way forward.

I am crushed by others.

I am a pawn in a game that I didn't know I was playing.

What can I do?

I will suggest three strategies.

First one, complain to God.

You didn't think I was going to say that, did you?

Job did it.

Jeremiah was an Old Testament prophet.

In his lifetime, Jeremiah experienced some difficult times living in Israel.

During his lifetime, he saw his nation decimated.

The nation went through an economic crisis.

His land was terrorized by a foreign army.

The enemy came in and began to take people out of Israel into a foreign country as slaves.

Jeremiah witnessed incredible inhumanities unto people and all kinds of suffering.

Many people were out of work and literally starving to death.

Jeremiah wrote two books which are in the Bible: the book of Jeremiah and the Book of Lamentations.

The word lamentations means to complain.

Jeremiah wrote a book of complaints about God.

It goes for five chapters.

Jeremiah unloaded on God.

This is part of his catharsis or healing.

You can tell God how you're feeling.

Moses, Gideon, Abraham, David were very honest and direct in their conversations with God.

God is not like a man.

When we're attacked in our conversation, we can come out fighting or we can get defensive.

In my personal experience, when I've given God a rant, I feel God says, I am with you.

You are my child.

He often disarms my anger and frustration with a loving, kind response.

He exchanges my anger and irritation for his peace.

Coming to God in my hopelessness brings a new perspective and way forward.

What did Jeremiah say in Lamentations chapter 3, verses 1 to 3?

Lamentations 3:1–3

I am the one who has seen the afflictions that come from the rod of the Lord's anger.

He has led me into darkness, shutting out all light.

He has turned his hand against me again and again all day long.

God is able to handle our hissy fits.

The brutal honesty of Jeremiah seems to have reached its peak in Lamentations 3, 17 and 18, where it says, Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is.

I cry out, My splendor is gone, everything I hope for is lost.

Yet in this honest communication, Jeremiah is consumed with the goodness and kindness of God.

And the verse you probably know very well, Lamentations 3.22.

Great is his faithfulness, his mercies begin afresh every morning.

That was the first strategy complaining.

The second one, recognize that we don't see and understand every part of life's puzzle.

When we're faced with difficulties, we can be rocked and dismayed.

We can try to understand our circumstances from a place where we are emotionally and spiritually on the edge.

Yes, God gave us a wonderful brain, but in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 9 it says, Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete.

1 Corinthians 13:9

I've heard it said that life is like a jigsaw puzzle, but God is the only one with the picture.

I think the analogy has gone further for me with the new jigsaws.

I used to be able to manage them, you know, you put the straight edges together around the around the border.

I used to be able to get the border complete, then work inwards.

Now these days my plan is compromised.

There will be many questions that I have when I see God in heaven, but maybe the atmosphere of heaven will be so bright that I won't care.

Third strategy: guard your heart and mind.

There is an interesting verse in Proverbs.

Proverbs 13, 12.

It says, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.

Bill Johnson, pastor of Bethel Church in America, comments on this verse.

It doesn't mean that when you face disappointment, you are automatically thrust into emotional calamity.

It just means you are vulnerable.

In that place of vulnerability, you need to make right choices.

Mourning or sadness can take you into one of two places.

Mourning will either take you to the comforter, or mourning will take you to unbelief.

That is where we have to be careful when there is disappointment.

When there is disappointment, there is a sense of loss.

Things didn't work out in the way we expected them to.

We are vulnerable in this position.

The scripture says it makes us sick, makes our hearts sick.

It opens you up to vulnerability spiritually, that is not healthy.

So just realize what's going on.

Take charge of your own heart, your own thoughts, your own prayer life and confession.

The second part of the verse that is exciting for Bill: a desire realized is a tree of life or a dream fulfilled in some versions.

The tree of life helps to establish and define our eternal purpose.

Second point, is there a connection between hope and faith?

I'm certainly not a theology lecturer, quoting Greek and Hebrew to you, but I'm intrigued by this passage, a bit longer than normal.

It starts in Romans 4, 24.

God will count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.

Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what God has done for us.

Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into a place of undeserved privilege where we stand and we are confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory.

Other Bible versions use hope instead of confidently and joyfully looking forward.

Because of our faith in God, we are planted in a paddock of confident, high expectation for what God will do in our lives.

I feel God is saying that is like my vacuum cleaner.

I plug in the vacuum cleaner.

It has power, but this power is only released to my vacuum cleaner when I press on the on button.

Faith is the power source, but hope is the on button.

Hydroelectric power is electricity made from the energy of moving or falling water.

The fast water hits a large wheel called a turbine.

The spinning turbine connects to a generator that turns that motion into electric power.

What strengthens, empowers, and activates hope?

You may not be happy with the answer.

Because in Romans 5 it says this.

And endurance develops strength of character, strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

And this hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with love.

It is our faith flowing freely over the turbines of trials that empowers and strengthens the power source of hope.

The question you may be asking is, how do I position myself to be empowered by God in these trials?

In Romans 12, it says, Rejoice in my confident hope, be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.

We have confidence in God, that he is an abundant provider.

We have confidence in God that He's always working for us and never against us.

We have confidence that God is not surprised by our trials.

We have confidence that God can thwart the schemes of the evil one in our lives, even if we're unaware of his schemes.

We have confidence that Lord has plans for us to prosper.

We have confidence that God loves us with the same intensity loves his own son Jesus.

We have confidence that God has forgiven us and declared us right with him because of the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross.

With all the confidence in God we have we've summoned, then calls in that scripture.

I believe the scripture is suggesting a few don'ts to assist you.

Don't dive into the pool of discouragement.

Don't dive into the pool of disillusionment.

Don't dive into the pool of anxiety and fear.

Don't dive into the pool of unbelief.

Where I might think or say, I'm not sure whether God can even cares or lead me through this trial.

Don't retreat from God saying, Why won't you help me?

When I start to get high and mighty with God, I remember this verse from Isaiah 55.

And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, my ways are far higher than your thoughts.

I don't always see what God is doing in the moment.

Only in reflection I become cleverer and thankful.

I realize later that I'm not that clever.

God told me what he was doing.

Later in the Romans 12 verse, it says, We are called to keep praying.

Don't retreat from the power source.

If I use a warfare analogy, if we are a lone soldier separated from your platoon, you are very vulnerable to the attacks from the enemy.

God doesn't want us to function on our own during the trials.

He wants us to truly take hold of the truth in Philippians 4 13.

For I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.

A pastor, Francis Franchans, said, Every area of your life that doesn't glisten with hope means you're believing a lie.

I should almost say that again, shouldn't I?

Every area of your life that doesn't glisten with hope means that you are believing a lie.

I would suggest the lie relates to the goodness and the authority of God.

Maybe Paul says it clearer in Romans 15, 13.

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him.

Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Because we have faith or trust in God, then God is able to fill us to overflowing with hope.

Thirdly, how does God minister to the hopeless?

So often these days we use the word hopeless or hear the word hopeless in a derogatory term related to the coordination of a child at sport or a school or something.

This is not the way that I am using its meaning now.

Hopeless is a person who lacks hope.

I believe God can transform our sense of hopelessness in three ways.

The first way, way one, I'll call it, I will provide.

These were run by Scripture Union.

You may know of them as the coordinators for breach missions.

The regional work of Scripture Union was resigning and asked me to consider taking on the position.

Jude and I prayed for direction.

It meant shifting our young family from Newcastle to Tamworth.

It meant leaving teaching, and my mum, my dad, and my brother, who were based in Newcastle.

My parents weren't supportive of the decision.

I had been teaching for 13 years and had accrued some long service leave.

When I resigned from teaching, I cashed in my long service leave.

This money would be needed for the removal's costs for our relocation.

We had been told by the education department that the money would come to us in two weeks.

So we gave them a month, and we thought that was being clever and that would give us plenty of time.

The money arrived a day before the removalist van came, a month after the application.

We did not have the financial resources to pay the removalist outside of this money from the superannual from my long service leave.

I'd like to say that I was calm and trusting in God, but Jude and I were panicking big time.

We considered canceling the removalist fan.

But we still needed to be out of our house because it had been sold.

Why did God come through it at the last minute?

I don't know.

But it did raise my hope in God the next time that we needed some money.

He is an abundant giver.

My experience reforces the idea that hope in God is established through trials.

It is God's way of creating an overflow of hope in our lives.

Way two.

But now the brook is dry.

Elijah had a history with God.

Elijah had complete confidence that not only would God turn up, but cause him to prosper.

Elijah had developed a reservoir of hope in God.

It was the anchor for his soul.

In Zechariah 9, 12 it says, Come back to the place of safety, all you prisoners of hope.

I promise this very day that I will repay two blessings for each of your troubles.

After the brook dried up, God told Elijah to go to a widow's home.

God had planned for the widow to feed him.

When Elijah arrived at the widow's home, Elijah met a widow who had very little food.

Her son and herself were barely alive, crushed and depressed by life.

This is in 1 Kings 17 12.

This is the widow speaking.

I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug.

I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then thy son and I will die.

Did God get it wrong?

Surely this can't be the right place for Elijah to be nourished.

Elijah didn't miss a beat.

In 1 Kings 17.

14.

It says this, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says there will always be flour and water in your container until the time when the lawn sends rain and the crops grow again.

Elijah's reservoir of hope in God was deep.

Surprise, surprise, the containers continued to be filled with flour and water for many days.

I believe God was giving an injection of hope through Elijah.

She, the widow, had prepared her heart for doom, but both the widow and the son were resigned to dying through malnutrition.

But God declared no.

In the roller coaster of emotions, now her son becomes really sick and dies.

The widow is heartbroken.

Misery grabs her once again.

Elijah took the boy and cried out to God, asking God, Why are you punishing this family?

Then Elijah jumps into action.

Maybe God spoke to him in 1 Kings 17.

And it says, And he, Elijah, that is, stretched himself over the child three times and cried out to the Lord, O Lord my God, please let this child's life return to him.

The Lord heard Elijah's prayer, and the life of the child returned, and he revived.

Then Elijah put brought him down from the upper room and gave him to his mother.

Look, your son is alive.

When Elijah came to the widow's home, hope could not be measured on any scale.

But when Elijah left, the family was bouncing in hope.

Way three.

God establishes hope when the enemy is hemmed you in.

In a passage from the Old Testament, the king of Aram was at war with Israel.

He would confer with his war chiefs and officers to plan a strategy to defeat Israel.

Elijah, a prophet, would go into his quiet place with the Lord.

The Lord would reveal the strategy of the enemy, and Elijah would warn the king of Israel.

What a weapon in God! The king of Aram's war plans were thwarted so many times.

He understandably got upset, frustrated, and annoyed.

He believed that a traitor was leaking information to the Israelites concerning their war plans.

His officers denied this and placed the blame solely on the shoulders of the prophet Elisha.

King Aram discovered the whereabouts of Elisha and sent his fully equipped army to the residence of Elisha.

The servant of Elisha awoke next morning to see that Elisha and himself were surrounded by chariots and armed soldiers.

They faced certain death.

Elisha didn't see it that way.

Elisha believed strongly in the truth of the scripture from Romans 8.

No power in the sky above or the earth below, indeed, nothing in all of creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus.

Elisha prayed two mighty prayers.

He prayed that his servants' eyes would be opened to see the angelic realm that had come to deliver them.

Secondly, Elijah prayed this way, this is in 2 Kings 6.

As the Aramean army advanced towards Elijah, Elisha prayed, O Lord, please make them blind.

So the Lord struck them with blindness, as Elijah asked.

Try to imagine this scene, don't you?

Like the army is blind, they're looking for Elisha, and Elisha says, I will take you to where Elisha is.

I know him well, he's a good man, and I'm just going to lead you with my sandals.

You can get all your army armor together, and you can walk and watch with me as we walk over a few hills.

Can you just imagine it?

Make a good movie, wouldn't it?

Then Elisha led the blind enemy into the hands of the king of Israel.

The story gets better.

You are thinking, oh no, this is Christian murder at its worst.

The king of Israel says to Elijah, Will we kill them?

Elisha's reply will amaze you.

2 Kings 6 says, Of course not, Elisha replied, Do we kill prisoners of war?

Give them food and drink and send them home to their master.

So the king of Israel made a great feast for them and sent them home to their master.

And after that the Aramean soldiers stayed away from the land of Israel.

Elisha and his servant looked headed for destruction.

Confident hope in God unlocked the resources of the kingdom of God.

Hope unlocked God's kindness and grace.

Hope transformed enmity into friendship.

God's plans are unbelievably good.

How does hope in God shape and transform my world?

We live in a world where the media often tells us how bad the world has become.

No one will be able to buy a home.

I think this doom sometimes has infected the church.

I've been part of Christianity for many years, where people have claimed that the world is getting worse.

Christian values were being eroded and devalued.

I don't believe I serve a defeatist God.

I don't believe I serve a God of misery.

I've heard it said that hopelessness about a problem is bigger than the problem itself.

I believe God wants me to partner with Him to see the glorious transformation of society.

In 1 Corinthians 3 it says, the one who plants and the one who waters together with the same purpose, and both will be rewarded for their own hard work, for we are both God's field and God's building.

God and me.

We are different from one another.

So good.

God delights in our differences, for he made us that way.

God has given different gifts or passions to each one of us.

Some love to pray, some love to share meals with others, some love to give money to the poor, some love to worship God with music.

There is a Christian video that shows how long it and old it is.

The word video is probably not in the dictionary anymore, is it?

Watch for the first time about 20 years ago.

It's entitled Transformations and uses interviews and testimonies and examines the transformation of cities under God.

The city we're going to look at today is called Cali, which is in Colombia, South America.

It was well known as the drug capital of the world in the 1990s.

Violence and corruption run amok.

The drug cartels had amazing control of the city.

Reports suggested the big cartels were profiting 500 million each month from the drug supply.

For years, Cali was the largest exporter, exporter of cocaine.

The cartels controlled the economic, political, and religious situation in Cali.

People would die easily.

Drive-by shootings were common.

The transformation of Cali was rooted in the hands of intercessors.

One pastor who felt called by God to relocate to Cali.

He called the Christians to pray for his city.

Unfortunately, there wasn't unity among the pastors, and it fell on deaf ears.

His church started praying and asking God how to pray.

God revealed the spiritual roots of Cali.

The church divided the city into sections on a map.

Then church members would go to these sections of the city and report back with the problems they saw.

One troubling feature was the city of Cali's deep involvement with the occult.

Drug cartel leaders visited mediums.

The pastors started to come together.

They planned an evening of joint worship and prayer.

In 1995, they held the first all-night joint prayer meeting.

The prayer of Cali got up on the platform and declared that Cali belonged to Jesus.

Forty-eight hours after the all-night prayer time, the local newspaper reported no homicides over the previous weekend.

No one could remember the last time this joyous news happened.

They were used to hearing at least 15 murders per day.

God was moving.

Ten days later, the first drug lord was arrested.

The pastors were so encouraged by their first all-night prayer time that they rented the biggest venue in town, a soccer stadium, seeding 55,000 for another prayer battle.

They were rewarded when 60,000 people from across denominations came.

Then an elite band of police officers was sent to Cali to round up the drug cartel leaders.

So many arrests began to happen.

Six of the seven drug cartel leaders fell over the nine-month period of prayer together.

Julio had a major disagreement with a neighbor who threatened to kill him over disputed property rights.

God told Julio, this man will do you great damage, but from what he does, the revival in Cali will spring.

Shortly after, Julio was murdered.

The further revival of Cali's sword.

At Yulia's funeral, many Christians gathered.

Many pastors who hadn't spoken to each other for a long time.

They embraced each other.

The pastors agreed pastors made an agreement with God to not let disagreements come between them.

Prayer vigils across Doman Ages continue to occur.

Corruption has been dramatically reduced.

Trug cartels were dismantled.

There is unity among his people, and the hunger for God is amazing.

In conclusion, hopelessness going unchecked leads us to disappointment, discouragement, and disillusionment.

It immobilizes us.

God wants us to involve him in the steps of empowerment.

He is the source of confidence.

He will exchange my fear, my anxiety, my restlessness, and yours for his peace.

And as faith and hope are truly connected, we become a power source in God.

God's timing of his provision is so far different from ours.

We believe that God has to act quickly so our stress will evaporate.

God declares that in trials, steadfast faith in God is formed.

At our deepest agony, God comes.

Maybe to declare that he wants to wrap his arms around us.

When we are bouncing with life, we can become self-sufficient.

We don't look for his arms.

My needs are met in me.

It's a big lie.

God wants us to discover that he can ravel the biggest problems of our world, our city, our town, our street.

Look to God.

Here's our hope.

Here's our promise.

He grants us the victory so we can overcome.

Thank you for listening.