How to Have Certain Hope (Part 2)

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This is a continuation from last week’s message. The outline is the same.

Psalm 42

We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can download our service on iTunes or tune in for “The Good Word” each day on AM 1230 WSAL or on Hoosier Country 103.7 FM just after 8am. The title of this message might appear to be a contradiction to some. Hope is often associated with uncertainty rather than with certainty. Even many Christians live with an uncertain hope about their future. Why is that? The simple answer is because many Christians don’t really understand Biblical hope. Biblical hope is one of the most absolutely certain truths that should reign in a Christian’s life. Let’s start with:

1. HOPE’S DEFINITION. Baker’s Ency. Of Bible has this intro to define hope: An expectation or belief in the fulfillment of something desired. Historically people have looked to the future with a mixture of longing and fear. Many have concluded that there is no reasonable basis for hope and therefore to hope is to live with an illusion. So let’s consider
2. HOPE’S DILEMMA. Paul teaches in Eph. 2:12, “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.” Hope is always looking to the future. Since the future is always unknown to us, hope is also uncertain – if viewed from a strictly humanistic perspective. The “something desired” is the total eradication of all human need in all societies and cultures. The “expectation or belief” is that as humanity move forward it will continually get better and better until the “desire” is realized! Here’s the rub: The expectation of a better future (hope) is continually contradicted by the history of the human race. In the 6K years (give or take) since Adam and Eve were banished from Eden because of sin, people have failed to get better and better. Optimism is constantly confronted with the pessimism of sin. Sin won’t allow people to become better and better. The optimism of a hopeful society that trusts in itself is further frustrated by the fact that sin works in such a way as to make people believe they can improve on their own, while at the same time leading them further away from Christ as Savior, and into eternal destruction. Let’s let OT history show us this is true. Consider:
3. HOPE’S DISCERNMENT. For the Old Testament Jew expectation was either good or bad. If the expectation was good it was hope, as David expresses in Ps. 22:8. If the expectation was bad it was fear, as expressed in Zech. 9:5. When students of the Word think of Biblical models of faith, Abraham most often comes to mind almost immediately. Read Rom. 4:13-25. Probably the most defining truth concerning Abraham that sets him above all other men of faith, save Christ, Abraham’s faith, and therefore, his hope was based on God’s faithfulness. Hope must be in God, because He has proven Himself to be faithful and trustworthy. He can always be trusted to act exactly as He says He will. He will also fulfill all the promises He has made. So the question is: who are you relying on in your daily life to plan for your future? You can find the real answer to that question by answering this one: who is it that I depend on to orchestrate just today? Now let’s consider:
4. HOPE’S DECISION Read Rom. 12:1, 2-then 9-13. Notice particularly v.12. The 1^st decision you need to make is to offer yourself to God by transforming your mind. Today we might say, “get over yourself and submit to God’s way of living according to His Word.” If you have trusted Him to keep you out of hell for eternity, what is there about Him you feel you cannot trust with your daily life? Do you see how when you say, “I trust Christ to keep me out of hell for eternity, but I don’t trust Him to guide my daily life, you are contradicting your own philosophy of life? Once you make that permanent decision to offer yourself to God by transforming your mind, you must then let God teach you to be patient in tribulation.

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