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October 26, 2008
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Dave Burke
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"Choose Hope"
Choose to listen to God in life and place
our hope in Him because He is worthy of it!
Romans 8:28-39
1Samuel 17:45-47
Rom 8:28-39
(28) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (29) For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (30) And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. (31) What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? (32) He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (33) Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. (34) Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. (35) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (36) As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” (37) No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (38) For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, (39) neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Prayer – Almighty God here we are ready to spend some time in your word. Holy Spirit come – guide my words and prepare our hearts to receive. Like plowing a field, come break up the hard parts of our hearts, and encourage us where we already have good soil. I need you Lord – We need you. Spread your fertile seed to be planted and grow in our hearts. Open our eyes to see that you are transforming us into your garden where our hope blossoms into your kingdom reality. Amen.
What is Hope? (Hope is Trusting God)
When I say the word “hope” which is what we are going to talk about, what do you think of? Do you think of “wishful thinking” – like hoping you can pay for credit card purchases, while knowing you do not have the funds? Like a student saying: “I hope I get an ‘A’ on this test” when they never studied? Like a farmer saying, “Hope this is a good crop, when he did not plow the soil?” Or is hope hearing the Doctor’s negative report and still hoping you are healthy and well?
Is hope denying facts? Pastor Brian has a friend who believes that hope is just that – a kind of denial. Is that Biblical hope? The Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines hope as
- A desire of some good, accompanied with at least a belief that it is obtainable. Hope differs from wish and desire in this, that it implies some expectation of obtaining the good desired, or the possibility of possessing it. Hope therefore always gives pleasure or joy; whereas wish and desire may produce or be accompanied with pain and anxiety.
- (Hope is) Confidence in a future event.
Do you hear that? Hope is JOYFUL. Hope is anticipating something good with assurance it will happen. Like a child waiting for Christmas. Hope is NOT wishful daydreaming or even positive thinking like the little train engine who said – I think I can, I think I can.
No, hope is a confidence in God. The little engine puffs – I know God can, I know God can
Hope is trusting that God is bigger than our circumstances.
Hope is acknowledging that God is worth trusting because of who he is – Righteous and Almighty! It is placing our faith in God because He first loved us and continues to love us. And God never changes!
Like we heard in the Romans passage this morning, which we will return to in a moment, our hope is in a God who is big enough and sovereign enough to be able to “make all things work together for our good”.
Even when our perspective is so much smaller than God’s purpose and plan;
Even when the stock market looks dismal and the investments drop by 30% or more;
Even when we have received the worst possible news, the worst diagnosis, or encountered the worst heartbreak,
Even then, we still have a God who is bigger. We still have hope in a God who is able to make all the difference.
Isn’t this what the first disciples discovered? They watched as Jesus, their friend and master, was crucified, died, and closed in a tomb. How could torture and death on a cross “work together for their good?” How could this become an amazing expression of God’s love and glory? And yet 3 days later what a surprise – God did exactly what he said he would do, and Jesus rose to life again!
We have such a tiny view of a great, big God. Hope is the exercise of our faith when we choose to trust that God can meet the needs in our lives regardless of the circumstances, of the doctor’s report, or the balance in our checkbooks. Hope knows God walks with us through the fire, and NOT always around it.
Are you choosing to put your hope and trust in God?
Certainly the young shepherd boy David did this when encountering the giant Goliath! David did not come against the giant trusting in his own strength, or his own ability, or his equipment. Rather, he placed his confidence in the God who was bigger than the giant. Remember the story?
It began long before David fought the giant. It began as David built a relationship with the living God. Alone, guarding the flock of sheep, David learned to depend on God daily. He trusted God when he faced the lion and the bear to save his sheep, and knew God had given him those victories. God grew his confidence and faith so that his hope was secure in his Mighty God when he rushed down the hill toward the giant. I thrill every time I read what David must have shouted so everyone in valley of death heard him.
1Sam 17:45-47 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. (46) This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. (47) All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
I love it! That giant thought he was fighting a boy and Saul’s army, but David corrects his thinking saying he is up against the God of the armies of Israel! David shouted that God was not just going to strike down one giant, but the entire army! The Philistines must have believed David, because after their champion was killed, the whole army turned and ran.
You and I are like those soldiers in the armies of Israel – and David is like the Lord Jesus who has gone before us. When we accept the Lord we receive salvation as God’s children. We too have been called out to serve God in battle—not a physical one like David’s, but one that is spiritual. God has prepared you and me for just such a time as this. So have confidence. Gird yourself in the full armor of God and stand (Eph 6:11-18). Don’t lose heart. Place your trust continually in Jesus Christ who like the shepherd David, stepped forward to be our champion. Jesus defeated death and the armies of darkness that tried to separate us from God! Now Jesus is the triumphant King of Kings, and Lord of Lords! He overcame death, and that army is still running today.
The foundation of hope is an unshakeable faith in our all powerful, sovereign God. We trust that God is good, that His character has NOT changed no matter life’s circumstance or the giant yelling at you from the battlefield. We trust that God dearly loves us, that His heart wants what is best for us even when life hurts or we don’t understand why. We trust that God knows us, loves us, and walks with us through adversity. And sometimes God lessens those difficulties as we encounter them. That is what God did for Sally Smith! She faced major surgery – a giant in her path – but God worked healing in her shoulder so no surgery was necessary! Such a miracle working God deserves all our trust and hope!
Nothing is too big for such a God! No difficult times, no pain, no heartaches, no broken relationships, no declining stocks – nothing changes the sovereignty, the righteous character, or the love of our God. Place your confidence and hope in God. Listen for His voice. Take His hand, and get to know Him better in these routine times. Then your faith will deepen so that you can stand through the storms of life. You will not just survive the large, earth shaking events, but you will be more than a conqueror through them! (Rom 8:37)
A while back I came across a song that my 4 year old son, Averi, and I like to sing together – just as loud as we can. It is called “The Voice of Truth”, sung by a group called Casting Crowns. You may have heard it, but you have never heard it sung with the passion and faith of a 4 year old! The words go like this:
Oh what I would do to have
The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant
With just a sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors
Shaking in their armor
Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand
But the giant's calling out my name
And he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me
Time and time again. “Boy you'll never win!”
(“You'll never win!”)
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, “Do not be afraid!”
The voice of truth says, “This is for My glory”
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth
Can you hear the voice of truth? Even my son can tell you, that voice is Jesus calling out to you. It is Jesus saying, “Do Not Be Afraid”. And upon what can we base such confidence?
We base it upon the promise of God.
Let’s look at that passage from Romans 8:28-30. We read that God is at work. Listen to how Paul described this: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (29) For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (30) And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
Notice that God is at work in all of this calling, justifying, and glorifying! God is at work using all circumstances for His glorious purpose to make my life and yours look more and more like Jesus! Tell someone next to you: “God is making you as wonderful as Jesus!” Go ahead, say it boldly. “God is making you as wonderful as Jesus!”
Follow me through this passage (Rom 8:31-34):
(31) “What, then, shall we say in response to all this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” We are not facing any giants alone. The battle is not ours, but the Lord’s. And we have the victory through Christ Jesus.
(32) “He (GOD) who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” You already have all you need for life!
(33) “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” Who will charge us? NO ONE! Why? Because “It is God who justifies”.
And: (34) “Who is he that condemns?” Who condemns us? NO ONE CAN!
You see: “Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”
Jesus is praying for you and for me, right now and always. And so here is the truth:
As soon as we accept Christ’s gift of forgiveness and choose to live his way of love, we are God’s children –called, chosen, sealed. Our response to God’s overwhelming love for us is to love Him, to trust Him, to yield every aspect of our life to Him, and to seek Him with every fiber of our being. And as we grow like his child and learn to abide in that Trinity family love, we are transformed more and more like God’s righteous character. Then we will hear the Voice of Truth with Paul, whose words become our words in verse 35, and we can shout them from the rooftops.
(Romans 8:35-39) “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Tell me, who shall?
NO ONE! Glory to God,
(35) Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword (or politics, or stock market drops)? (36) As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” (37) No, (say that with me: NO!) in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (38) For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, (39) neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Our hope is in a Tremendous God with Immeasurable Love, who gave His Son to redeem us, and His Spirit to sanctify and transform us. In His Love and Power we can not be moved by any circumstance or person in this world God created. He is sovereign. He is our hope and our salvation. In God our hope is secure! In Him we hear the voice of truth “Do not be afraid!” Nothing, No One, No dark power, No horrible circumstance, No hideous act, NOTHING has more power than our God and nothing can separate us from the Love of God that we find in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!
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