Transcript
Good afternoon, everyone. It’s always a pleasure to see all of you. Have you ever lost hope? It can happen to any of us, losing hope. None of us are immune. Fourteen years ago, there was a cave-in at a very prominent mine in a San Jose copper mine in Chile. That collapse, the collapse of that cave, trapped thirty-three miners. Miners, not minors, not children, but miners nearly half a mile underground. The collapse ended up blocking all of the exits and any way of escape.
Now, there was an interesting report that came out of it, and I’m just going to review it. Some of you may even remember this. It was only fourteen years ago. But as I read it, I want you to take note of the level of hope that these victims experienced. This was back in twenty-ten. But it says, “After being trapped, the miners were initially hopeful,” so the cave collapsed and their hope the very beginning was rather high. It says, “They were aware of the mine’s safety protocols and knew that rescue efforts would be initiated immediately. They had planned for such an occasion. Many of the miners had extensive in training and handling emergency situations. They knew how to ration their limited supply of food and water,” so they were prepared.
“The miners also trusted that their colleagues on the surface along with the Chilean government would deploy all necessary resources to locate and rescue them. They had faith in the resilience and the expertise of the rescue teams. The mine also had previously and regularly conducted emergency drills for this very scenario, and the miners were very familiar with the procedures that would follow in case of an accident. This knowledge gave them initial hope that everything would be just fine despite their circumstances. The leadership of the foreman,” the man in charge, “who helped organize and maintain order among the miners played a crucial role in keeping their spirits high and fostering a sense of hope and purpose.”
Now, what was their emotional state as they were going through all of this, as their hope was high at the beginning? They were very calm and organized. The first few days, the miners focused on survival strategies. They rationed their food and their water, and they set up a makeshift living area. This organization helped keep everyone from panicking. It often happened when you’re trapped and you’re in a bad situation. People panic but these men didn’t panic. “Solidarity and teamwork were evident. The miners drew strength from their camaraderie.” They came together as a team. They worked together. Working together, they kept morale high, they shared stories, sang songs, and emotionally supported one another.”
“Many of the miners turned to their faith, praying regularly and finding solace in their belief that they would be rescued. But eventually, over time, things began to change. As the days turned into weeks,” the report continues, “the miners’ rations began to dwindle.” They started to run out of food. They started to run out of water. They were getting concerned about their air. They were initially surviving on emergency supplies meant to only last a few days and they were stretching them out as long as possible.
“Hunger and dehydration begun to take a toll on their physical health causing weakness, weight loss, and fatigue. Trapped in the dark, claustrophobic confines of the mine, the lack of natural light and fresh air affected their mental state.” They started to get into their own heads. They started to lose it a little bit. “The oppressive environment amplified feelings of isolation and hopelessness. Without any communication from the surface, the miners had no way of knowing if rescue efforts were underway or if anyone knew they were alive.” So, they went from planning for this, knowing all of the training and being assured that those on the surface would rescue them. But over time, they began to wonder, “Do they even know that we’re trapped? Do they maybe think we’re all dead already and they’re already planning our funerals?”
“The psychological toll,” continuing here, “of being trapped in such a dire situation was immense. Some miners began to experience symptoms of depression, anxiety, and despair. The constant fear of death and pressure of the situation weighed heavily on their minds. As their situation became more precarious, some miners began to lose hope.” They were no longer as hopeful as they were when they first began. “Desperation set in as they contemplated the possibility that they might never be rescued. This led to moments of emotional breakdown and deep despair.”
The stress of the situation led to tensions and conflicts amongst the miners. They began to fight amongst themselves, to bicker and to argue amongst themselves. Remember, they were singing. They were on the same team. They were all cooperating early on. But things started to change as they began to lose hope. “Arguments over rations, leadership decisions, and personal space occasionally flared up, adding to the emotional strain of the situation.”
The trapped miners began with a strong sense of hope, hope of being rescued, hope that everything would be okay, but over time, their hope turned into an overwhelming sense of despair and desperation. Brethren, hope is a powerful, powerful force. It is actually one of the most powerful forces in the universe. Hope. Without hope, there is not much reason for us to live, for us to go on, for us to go day to day. Brethren, hope must be central. It must be a central part of our lives, that we must remain hopeful no matter what. No matter what happens, no matter what takes place. So today we’re going to explore how to maintain hope, even in the most difficult circumstances.
Now, why do I say that hope is one of the most powerful forces in the entire universe? That’s quite a statement. How can I say that hope, this idea of hope, we know what hope is, we’ve heard of it, we felt it, how can I say that hope is one of the most powerful forces in the entire universe? All right. Well, let me frame it this way. How powerful is faith? How powerful is it? God says, without faith, it’s impossible to please Him. We can’t please God without faith. Faith will move mountains. Through faith, just a tiny bit of faith, of the right faith, can move a mountain from land to sea, or a tree, a sycamore tree, as the Scripture says, from the roots of the ground into the waters of the sea. That’s the power that faith has.
What about love? How powerful is love? God is love. How powerful is God? God is all-powerful. He’s God. So, what about hope? Turn to First Corinthians thirteen. First Corinthians thirteen. What about hope? Certain Scripture may be coming to mind. First Corinthians thirteen is often called “the love chapter.” But it ends in an interesting way, this chapter thirteen of First Corinthians. Reading in verse twelve. First Corinthians twelve. Or excuse me, First Corinthians thirteen verse twelve.
“For now we see through a glass, darkly.” So this is a reference to prophecy. How much and how important has prophecy in seeing and understanding prophecy, how important has it been throughout all of Christianity, but particularly at the end of the age? How important is prophecy? Very important. “We see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part,” so we know prophecy or inspired preaching or future events, we know these things in part, “but then shall I know even as I am known.” So, this sets the tone. It gives us a sense of the timing of where we are.
Again, at the end of the age, we hear more and more about prophecy. We’ll hear about prophecy a little later today. And that sets the tone or the context for this next verse. “And now...” So, okay, prophecy or future events, but what about now? What’s going on now? What are the things we should be focused on now along with future events? “And now abides faith, hope, charity. These three, but the greatest of these is charity…” which makes sense in a chapter that’s about charity. But as we read there, hope is on par with faith and love.
This idea of hope, something that can be so easily dismissed, something that we can assume we know all about, something that we feel can just come and go, it’s put on par with faith and love. Can love just come and go? Can faith just come and go? If the answer to that is no or that it shouldn’t, that it shouldn’t just come and go, why would hope be any different than that?
Understand that God puts hope on the same level as faith and love. Yes, the greatest of these is charity, the greatest is love, but hope along with faith and love are on the same level. Consider a three-legged stool. We’ve all seen a three-legged stool. You take one of the legs away, the stool is useless. You need all three legs for the stool to function the way it was intended to function. We need faith, hope, and love, the three legs of the stool, for us to be able to function properly as Christians. If we don’t have one of the legs, it just doesn’t work. The stool doesn’t work. Our Christianity just doesn’t work. It doesn’t function the way that it should.
Life for a Christian requires faith, hope, and love. All three are very closely related. I stick to the analogy of the stool. They’re all connected. They’re all related, but they are three distinct different things. Faith, as we know, is trust in God and His promises, and that trust is even without evidence. That’s what makes it faith. So faith is trust in God and his promises. Love is a selfless, outgoing concern for others. Hope on the other hand is different. Hope is a confident expectation of a good outcome.
The more hopeful we are, the more confident we are in a good outcome. The less hopeful we are, the less confident we are in a good outcome. Hope is forward-looking and it can sustain and motivate us even through the most difficult challenges, even during those tough times. The more hopeful we are, that’s what propels us, that’s what sustains us, that’s what helps us continue to move forward. It is the hope that does that, even more so than faith and love. Hope is what helps us to continue to move forward. It’s what helps us push through the challenges, to push through the difficulty. Hope does that.
And how difficult are things today? Look around the world. Look at what’s going on in our lives and our individual lives and the lives of the ones that we love, and the challenges that they face. And we experience those challenges with them because we love them. We heard about in the announcements, just everything in the world going on just feels like it’s just bad. And it’s difficult and it’s hard and it’s a challenge. Well, it is hope that allows us to continue to put one foot in front of the other to help us to continue to move forward. And it works in us and through us, hope does, in a way different than faith does, as important as faith is. In a way that’s different than love, as important, once again, as love is.
A strong sense of hope, brethren, can get us through some of the most impossible situations. Proverbs thirteen, Proverbs thirteen. Proverbs thirteen we’ll read in verse twelve. Proverbs thirteen twelve. You’re all there? Proverbs thirteen twelve. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” When we lack hope or we haven’t realized the thing that we’re hoping for, that can make us sick. It could be hard to take. It could be hard to swallow. Hard to get our heads around and to be okay.
The rest of the verse says, “But when the desire comes,” the thing that we hope for, “it is a tree of life.” Refreshing, nourishing, filling, fulfilling, But until that thing comes, that hope deferred or when we lack that hope, it could make us sick. A major problem with the world, I talked about the world earlier, a major issue or challenge that those in the world face is that they lack hope. They don’t have hope. They don’t have anything to hope for. Next paycheck maybe or going on vacation. Maybe the next mayor of their town or president or a new outfit, but these are things that are fleeting. Those things, they don’t last.
The world overall just lacks hope. That’s a big challenge that they face. Why do people, including us, brethren, why do people, including us, we’re people, we’re human, none of us are completely immune to hope, hence a message like this, but why do people lose hope? It can be for many reasons. It can be personal reasons, emotional reasons, spiritual reasons, it could be physical reasons. For instance, people lose hope because they suffer for a long time. Prolonged suffering can lead to a loss of hope. An extended period of pain, illness, or hardship can just wear us down. Unmet expectations. When things don’t go the way we expect, the way that we planned can lead to disappointment and hopelessness.
Things change for a lack of faith. It could be weak faith. Our faith in God can be shaken. Maybe something terrible happens or something didn’t happen and our faith and the way we view God and His promises can be shaken. These things can lead to a lack of hope or a loss of hope. Maybe feeling isolated, feeling all alone in the world. Some brethren in the world, around the world are physically alone. They don’t have anyone to meet with. Maybe or hopefully the feast. They look forward to that and holy days. Times of get together or visits, people come by to minister or the brethren come by to visit them, but otherwise, they feel isolated.
Brethren, we could be isolated in a crowd. You’ve heard it. You could be alone in a crowd. But despite having a number of people, like-minded believers around, we don’t fellowship, we don’t form relationships with each other. We can become lonely and eventually lose hope. Negative thinking. A negative attitude or thinking or negative thoughts, becoming pessimistic, can erode our hope as well. It’s easy to do today.
Fear and anxiety. Worrying about the future. What’s the future, my immediate future, going to bring? I know the Kingdom of God, all of that is wonderful and it’s great, but what’s going to happen to me next week? How am I going to pay this bill or that bill? How am I going to get along with this family member or that family member? How am I going to get my car fixed? It doesn’t work and I have to get to work. You know, it’s just hopeless. Life is just hopeless.
Sin in guilt. Feeling guilty because of sin, because of a weakness that we’re having difficulty overcoming. We don’t feel as close to God as we once did or as we would like to be. It can lead to hopelessness. Discouragement. Whether it’s negative influences from others, or from the world can impact our hope and just an outright spiritual attack. You know, the devil is busy, as they say. An outright spiritual attack. Something that we can overcome quickly can play a role in attacking all of our hope.
And the consequences, brethren, are dire. Could be depression, anxiety, a lack of motivation, poor decision-making. You know, hopeless people make bad decisions. They don’t make the wisest decisions. Because why? They feel hopeless. What’s the point? The consequences don’t matter. Nothing really matters. I feel hopeless. Poor health add stress, and that challenge of not feeling the hope that we want to feel can erode our health.
Spiritual disconnection. We don’t study and pray like we should, which just exacerbates itself, and it only gets worse. So now, we’re not as close to God, we’re not praying, we’re not studying, because of hopelessness. And guess what happens? We lose more hope. It’s a vicious cycle. Strained relationships. Our relationships aren’t the same. We’re just not happy. Difficulty bouncing back from trials. We just go through something, and we just don’t bounce back like we used to bounce back, or like we want to bounce back. We’re just in a spiritual rut all because of hopelessness.
And God forbid, suicidal thoughts. You know, why should I even live? Why is life even worth living? Can that not happen to Christians? Can that not happen to the people of God? We hope not. We don’t want those things to happen, but they can, they have, they do. Brethren, we are the people of hope. We are the people of hope. We should be the most hopeful people walking the earth. That’s not hyperbole. Think about what we know. We should be the most hopeful people walking the earth.
Turn to Psalm seventy-one, Psalm seventy-one. Though all of those challenges that I named can happen to us, we have what it takes to counter all of that, to come against all of those things. We don’t have to automatically succumb or fall victim to those things. Psalm seventy-one, verse fourteen. Psalm seventy-one, fourteen. I said we’re the people of hope. “But I will hope continually and will yet praise you more and more.”
Brethren, we must hope continually. Our hope must continue. It cannot cease. It should not cease. It should continue to be a part of our lives. It should continue to be who and what we are. Our hope cannot wane. We cannot allow our hope to wane. It must be filled to the brim, running over. We must hope continually. How can we make this us? How can we make what we just read, our hope continually? How can we make that us and not just words on a page? Well, that’s why I’m up speaking to you today. That’s why we’re talking about it today.
First of all, we have to understand exactly what is hope. It’s one of those words you know what it means, but what is it? We have to understand what hope is, and ultimately, we have to understand, brethren, what it requires, what hope requires, what it requires to have and maintain and to have this hope continually. What is hope? Well, I call hope divine anticipation, divine anticipation. And we’ve all anticipated some things. We’ve looked forward to things in our lives and events and whatnot in our lives. We’ve all looked forward to things. We’ve anticipated things.
Well, hope is anticipation on steroids. It’s a different level of anticipation. It’s an abundant anticipation. It’s not just normal anticipation. We look forward to things, all sorts of things in life. I look forward to the potluck later today, not just because I’m hungry, but I look forward to the potluck. I anticipate it. The food, great food, great fellowship, something that’s wonderful. I look forward to that. I look forward to getting paid in a couple of weeks. Why? Because I have bills. I have obligations. I have things that I have to take care of. We all can relate to that, anticipating those sorts of things. But hope, according to the scriptures, is at another level. It’s at a different level than just standard anticipation.
Hope is at a higher grade or a higher degree, a higher level. Biblical hope is divine anticipation based on God’s promises, based on his word. That’s a different level of hope or a different level of anticipation. This hope, this biblical hope, is beyond human ability alone. That’s not something that we can just gather up within ourselves as human beings, this level of hope, this biblical hope that I’m describing. Godly hope is an expectation and a confidence that something will happen. It’s an anticipation that something will happen. Because we know it will happen, the level of anticipation about it and for it is higher. It’s based on God’s promises, based on his word. It has to happen.
Hope tells us that things will not always be as they are. As bad as they could be right now, as challenging as they can be right now, as hard as they can be right now, things will not always be the way that they are. That’s divine hope. That’s biblical hope. God put hope in each of us. He put hope in us so we would continue to move forward. We wouldn’t get stuck in a rut. We wouldn’t allow that despair, that depression, that anxiety, all those negative things that I read, he put hope in us so we wouldn’t get stuck in that.
So we’d be able to look at our situation. We all have different situations. In many cases, we have the same situations. But he gave us that hope so we would be able to move forward. We wouldn’t get stuck. We would anticipate on a godly level that things will not always be the way that they are. Hope, even more so than love and faith, does that. Faith and love are important. I don’t have to sell you on that, but hope is different. Hope is different. God specifically gave us hope for all the reasons we’ve discussed so far and the reasons that we’ll continue to discuss.
What is our greatest hope? What is our greatest hope as Christians? Well, our greatest hope is to be born again into the kingdom of God. That is my greatest hope. And I know all of you well enough and all around the world. I know that that is your greatest hope as well. That’s why you’re here. That’s why we stay the course.
Go to Matthew chapter six, Matthew chapter six. Our greatest hope is to be born again into the kingdom of God. To be a part of God’s family. To be God. Matthew six thirty-three. It’s a memory verse. Matthew six thirty-three, “But seek you first.” And I hit that word first. “First, the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” And this is in the context of all the things that people desire, people want, the things that people need to live, to have a quality life. Amongst that list is this idea, this command, this instruction, to seek first the kingdom of God.
So our greatest hope, the thing we most anticipate on a Godly level is to be born again into the kingdom of God. That is, and, brethren, should be our greatest hope. But is that the only thing we hope for? Do we not hope for anything else? Of course, we hope for other things. It says seek you first. It didn’t say seek you only. “Seek you first the kingdom of God.” We hope for many things. Many good things, not just being in the kingdom of God.
We hope, for instance, to have a good job. Some of you may not be working right now. You may be searching for a job. You may be on the job hunt. Some of you may be in a job that you just do not like and you’d like to have another job. But we hope, you hope, that you land a good job. A job where you can lay out your skills and talents and your competencies, and you can be a help to someone. You hope to make enough money or to have enough money in your bank account.
There have been times in my life where I hope that a whole lot more than others. Life is just that way sometimes, but you just hope, “You know what? I just need... I need to have enough money in the bank to be able to obey God and His promises, or obey God and His commands to tithe, to give offerings, to pay my bills.” Everything is so expensive. Inflation, food is so high. How am I going to have enough food for my own table and enough food to bring to the potluck so I can do my part? Things are just so expensive. Gas prices are just not going down.
We hope to have enough money. We hope to have a happy marriage. You know, I married this woman, or I married this man, and I hope that we can just be happy together. It won’t be perfect. We’re going to have our challenges. We’re going to have our struggles, but I hope overall, we are just happy together. That is my hope. That’s something that I anticipate.
I want my children to be okay. I want my children to be okay. If they’re very young, I want them to be able to get along and learn about life. As they get older, I want them to be able to prepare themselves for life after they move. That’s my hope. I hope my children will be fine. That they will be good examples. That they will do and fulfill all the things that I poured into them as a parent, as I tried to do the best that I could as a parent. I hope that I have good health. I hope my blood pressure goes down. I hope I lose ten pounds. I hope my knee stops hurting. I hope this headache goes away.
We hope all sorts of things, brethren, that are okay to hope and things that we should hope. Overall, I just hope to have a quiet and peaceable life. And to this kingdom of God that I’m ultimately our greatest hope comes, I’m hoping to have a quiet and peaceable life. To be a functioning member of society and to be able to get along and do what needs to be done. Those are all things that we hope for, and those are things we should hope for. Things we should anticipate. Things we want to have happen.
And, brethren, it’s possible to be more hopeful about certain things than others. Maybe some of us aren’t worried about our jobs. Our jobs are going great, but our health is in the dumps. We just don’t feel well. Or maybe our children are giving us the blues and we’re less hopeful about that, but we have enough money in the bank. That’s fine. So it’s possible to hope to have varying levels of hope about different things. But overall, God wants us to have a certain level of hope about everything that I listed there.
Brethren, those things that I listed, God has promises associated with those things. God has promises associated with our job, promises associated with the amount of funds that we have to be able to get along, promises about our children, promises about our marriages, a promise to live a quiet and peaceable life. Those are all things that God has spoken to. Therefore, they’re all things eligible for divine hope, things that we can have another level of hope about.
We don’t have to just leave those things to chance or just leave those things to human capability, human power, human steam. God spoke to all of those things specifically. God wants us to maintain a sense of hope in all parts of our lives, all parts of our lives. Not just some, all parts. If, and I’ll say when, you ever feel hopeless about a situation in your life, if and when that happens, it’s just because the hope, that continual hope that God wants us to have is beginning to wane.
If you ever want to give up that hope and give up on anything, if you ever want to give up, it’s a sign that that hope is starting to wane. The hope that God promises, the hope that God wants us to have. I feel like, you know what? I just don’t want to do that anymore. Something that you know you should do and something that you wanted to do, your hope is just beginning to wane. It’s beginning to slip. I want us, brethren, I want us to learn to be hopeful about all things in our lives. Spiritual things most important, first and foremost.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t call out spiritual things. I want us to ultimately be hopeful when it comes to spiritual matters. That’s first and foremost, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. But brethren, I want us to be hopeful in all sorts of things. God wants us to be hopeful in all sorts of things, and we can do that. We can be hopeful in all sorts of things. It just has certain requirements. There are just certain requirements that we have to meet in order to be hopeful and remain hopeful in all sorts of things.
So what are these requirements? What are the requirements? We will go through several. Well, the first requirement of hope is to have and maintain a positive outlook. The first requirement of hope is to have and maintain a positive outlook. Biblical hope is inherently positive, not negative. Turn to Psalm forty-two, Psalm forty-two. Biblical hope is inherently positive, not negative. If you think about the word hope, it just sounds positive. It feels positive.
Psalm forty-two. We’ll just spot through the chapter, spot through the Psalm, Psalm forty-two. “As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night.” This person, this individual, is crying. They’ve been crying. They’re not feeling positive. They’re not feeling happy. “My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, where is your God?”
Verse five, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you disquieted in me? Hope you in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.” Verse nine, “I will say unto God my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones, my enemies reproach me while they say daily unto me, where is your God? Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope you in God.” It repeats it. God says it twice. “Hope you in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”
Negativity is poison to hope. If you’re looking to be hopeful, you don’t want to be negative. Having a negative outlook, seeing the bad side of things all the time, that is poison. That is anti-hope. It goes against hope. Hope is positive. Hope requires a positive outlook. Psalm one forty-six, Psalm one forty-six. Negative people struggle with hope. They struggle maintaining hope. Why? Because it fights hope. Negativity fights it. Psalm one forty-six, verse five. Psalm one forty-six verse five.
“Happy is he that has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.” Happy is that person who is hoping in God. That hope in God leads to happiness, not sadness, not negativity. Hopeful people are happy. If you struggle being hopeful, look in the mirror and ask yourself, honestly, am I happy? Am I a happy person? Maybe this circumstance or situation may not have me very happy, but just generally speaking, am I a happy person? And the answer to that may tell you and point to how hopeful you are.
Romans fifteen. Romans fifteen. Romans fifteen. We will pick it up in verse thirteen. Romans fifteen, thirteen. Romans fifteen, thirteen reads, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope.” So the God of hope as He fills us, as it says here, fills us with all joy and peace, what’s the result? We abound in hope. Remember I talked about hope running over, being full of it continually through the power of the Holy Spirit. “And I myself am also persuaded of you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.”
When we are hopeful, it rubs off on others. Our hopefulness. The way we deal with specific situations. When we get that diagnosis, when that family member leaves the church, how do we react to it? Do we maintain our hope? It rubs off on people. If we maintain it, it rubs off. It allows us to admonish one another, to help one another.
Now, I’m not advocating, I’m not saying to be a Pollyanna, that you see the world through rose-colored glasses. Everything is just wonderful. Nothing ever goes wrong in my life. Why? Because I’m hopeful. That’s not what I’m saying. It’s not what I’m saying at all. That’s just not realistic. No one likes a person who just never sees anything wrong. I mean, nothing ever goes wrong, ever? I mean, that’s just not real. That’s just not real. No one likes a person like that. If that’s how you are, just take note. Take note.
It’s okay. Things are going to not always go the right way. The world isn’t all rose-colored. But the difference is no matter what happens to you, you remain hopeful. You may not like it, that situation. You may have to gather yourself and get your bearings. But as you absorb it, as you take it in, as you begin to come to grips with whatever it is in your life that you’re dealing with, that situation, as it starts to just to take root and take hold, you still remain hopeful. You keep the big picture in mind.
Romans twelve. Romans twelve. Stay here in Romans, you don’t have to go very far. But what do I mean? Romans twelve, verse twelve. Romans twelve, verse twelve. “Rejoicing in hope...” So this is that positive element we continue to talk about. “Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer.” Patient in tribulation, yet rejoicing in hope, instant in prayer.
Guess what? Being instant in prayer is how you remain patient in tribulation and rejoice in hope. You have to ask God sometimes for help to do it, but that’s how you do it. We have to keep a positive outlook or I’ll ask it as a question. Do you, do I keep a positive outlook, a hopeful outlook in difficulty or do we just let it all go? Are we only hopeful when things are going well?
Hope, anticipation of things not always being the same really has nothing to do with your current situation. The future did not change. The future is what it is. What we are anticipating did not change. It’s just the circumstances that you’re in at that moment is what you’re dealing with. But the thing you’re anticipating, the thing that you want to happen did not change.
Now you might want it to come a lot sooner because of what you’re dealing with, but it didn’t change. Our hope therefore should not change. I remember getting fired from my job. It’s probably the worst day of my life. It definitely was the worst day of my career. And it was unexpected. I was not at fault. I guess everyone who gets fired probably says that, but I really wasn’t at fault.
But I remember the man firing me told me that it would be the best thing that ever happened to me. And I wanted to jump across the desk and do something else that felt like it would be the best thing that could ever happen. It probably would have been the worst thing that ever happened to me. Assault with a deadly weapon. But anyway, but he told me it probably would be the best day, the best thing that ever happened to you.
And he was right. He was right. It got me out of a dead-end job and it forced me to have to reevaluate where I was in my life and to do things differently. But it was a scary time. I had a family to feed. I didn’t feel like I was at fault. I was in a prime position to give up hope. What was the point? I dedicated years of my life to this job, a lot of sacrifice, and they just canned me at the drop of a hat like that.
It was a perfect opportunity to lose hope, to just say, you know what, what’s the point? What’s the point of it? Didn’t handle everything perfectly, not even close. But it’s those situations that, you know what, at the end of the day, it’s not just about me. I have to maintain this positive outlook because it’s not just about me. I have a family that I have to take care of.
And it changed me. And the man was right. It was one of the best things that could ever happen to me. First Peter chapter one. First Peter chapter one. Brethren, your current circumstances don’t and shouldn’t impact your hope, how you view and understand or anticipate the things to come. First Peter chapter one. Verse three. First Peter one, three.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again...” And I read it for this. “...unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” When we keep the big picture in mind, we just read there about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. When we talk about the big picture and what that means for us, Christ, giving up His life, a perfect God being, sacrificing His life, shedding His blood for the remission of sins that we commit and committed. He gave up His life.
And the connection that we should take, the takeaway we should have from that is a lively hope. So not just hope, “I hope it’ll happen.” No, it has to be lively. We have to fully, and we should fully appreciate this hope that’s alive. It’s not dead hope. It’s positive, it’s vibrant. We can lean on it, we can count on it. It can help us power through those challenges. If that hope is negative, there’s nothing negative about what we just read. Christ gave His life and was resurrected just like we will be resurrected and changed. If we keep the big picture in mind, it just makes hope a whole lot easier. And certainly, we want to make sure it’s positive and not negative.
So hope requires positivity. Hope also requires knowledge. Hope requires knowledge. This hope that I’m advocating, this divine hope, this Biblical hope, it’s not a fairytale. It’s not something just pulled out of thin air. “Oh, I just hope that happens. I hope it rains today. I hope I don’t lose my wallet.” It’s just something that’s just hope, you just hope. No, hope, this hope is based on knowledge, real knowledge. And guess what? The more information we have, the more hopeful we are. They work together. Information, the right information brings stability, it brings confidence.
Turn to First Kings nineteen. Let’s just see how just getting a little bit of information can change the entire outlook, First Kings nineteen. I’m going to read about a situation that Elijah was dealing with and he had a certain outlook, he had come to a certain conclusion, but just a little bit of information made all the difference, a little bit of knowledge. First Kings nineteen, we’ll pick it up in verse thirteen. First Kings nineteen, verse thirteen.
“And it was to... And it was so rather when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering of the cave. And behold, there came a voice unto him and said, ‘Why are you here, Elijah?’ And he said, ‘I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts because the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword, and even I, only am left, and they seek my life to take it away.’“
“Father, it is just me. There’s no one else. Everyone has forgotten about you. Everyone else has forsaken you. They’ve thrown down your altars. They’ve completely given up your way of life. It’s just me and they’re trying to kill me to take me out.” Talk about a lack of hope, but just a little bit of information changed his outlook.
Verse eighteen, God’s response. “Yet they have left Me, seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him.” Elijah was losing hope because he thought he was by himself. He thought there was no one else left, but that little bit of information, God saying, “You know what? It’s not just you, there’s seven thousand others that are also holding on.”
Think about how much that had to boost his hope. “It’s not just me, there are others who are holding on, hanging in, going through the same circumstances that I’m going through, yet they haven’t bowed the knee to Baal. They haven’t kissed him. They haven’t given it all up.” Imagine how that had to boost his hope. Information, that information brought him more hope.
Romans fifteen. Hope requires knowledge. Romans fifteen. Brethren, when we feel like, you know what, the world is against me, it’s just me against the world, remember, we’re not alone. There are others out here fighting the good fight, going through many of the things that we’re going through, in some cases, even worse.
Let that bring you and I hope. Romans fifteen. Hope requires knowledge. Romans fifteen, verse four. “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning.” So these things were written, think about the scriptures, they were written prior to us for us, for specifically for our learning. “…that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have…” what? “…Hope.”
Comfort of the scriptures, they were written for us to learn, and that comfort brings us hope, that knowledge, that information, the things that we’re reading, the things that we study, the things we’re studying and the things that we study, they bring us hope. Knowledge of the scriptures should bring us hope. The things we’re hoping for are not just pie in the sky, things that we just are just pulling from thin air, they’re coming from the scriptures, they’re coming from the Word of God, the words of God.
That same word that was purified seven times, it’s perfect. The perfect and pure Word of God. If you want more hope, keep your nose in your Bible. You don’t have to be in your Bible all day twenty-four seven, that’s not possible. Believe me, it’s not. But if you want to remain hopeful, keep your nose in your Bible. Study the knowledge, study the words of God, the knowledge of God.
That’s how that hope can stay high. That divine anticipation, you have to know what you’re looking for, what you’re anticipating, what you want to have happen. I am always, to varying degrees, but I’m always so much more hopeful after I study God’s Word and it doesn’t have to be a long study marathon session. I could be rushing in the mornings, and, oh, man, I got to study something. I’m just going to read a verse. That’s happened.
But I’m just, my hope just gets boosted when I read it. And if I have a particular issue that I’m dealing with, and I read God’s Word, talk about the level of hope that it brings. That either things won’t always be that way, that maybe I can do something different to cause the situation to change, or maybe I just have to sit in it and just wait for God’s will to be done.
But those are things that are, that’s knowledge that’s in the scriptures and available to us. Sometimes it’s so available we can forget how important it is. But that hope, that knowledge rather brings hope. Psalm one nineteen, Psalm one nineteen, verse forty-nine. Psalm one nineteen, forty-nine. “Remember the word unto your servant upon which you have caused me to hope.”
Just yet another verse that shows us that is the scriptures, this is the Word of God that causes us to hope. That’s why we have hope. That’s why we maintain the hope that we maintain. Hebrews chapter six. Hebrews chapter six. More about the Word of God and the significance of the Word of God. Hebrews six, we’ll pick it up in verse eighteen. Hebrews six verse eighteen, “That by two immutable things...” Two things that cannot change, that word immutable. “...two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie.”
When something is impossible, that means it can’t happen. It’s impossible. So, it is impossible for God to lie. It’s not a cliché. It’s impossible for God to lie. He cannot lie. He’s not able to do it. We might, therefore, because of this belief and understanding that God can’t lie, “…we have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Which hope we have as an anchor to the soul…”
This hope, this immutable, the fact that God cannot lie. Therefore, we should believe His words when He tells us certain things. That should be an anchor to our soul, both sure and steadfast and “…which enter into that within the veil.” The promises of God, the words of God, should be an anchor. You know what an anchor is? An anchor holds you in place. A ship that has an anchor, the captain can relax. The ship is not going to drift off. Why? Because there’s an anchor.
The anchor will hold you in place. The fact that we understand that God cannot lie is our anchor. I remember being in the world. I was lost at sea. I was just drifting around. Whatever happened was going to happen. I assumed it was like that for everyone and what made me any different? What made me special in any kind of way? It was religious confusion. I was frustrated. I say these things because I know you can relate.
Before coming into God’s Church and understanding the purpose and meaning of life, the awesome potential of man, I didn’t know anything about any of that. I had no anchor. I was just adrift. Whatever current came in, that’s the current that I took, but eventually, it all changed. Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one. Eventually, it changed. A loving God did not allow me to stay in that situation. He didn’t allow me to continue in that mindset.
You can all relate to this. Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one verse twenty-three. Colossians one, twenty-three. “If you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, that kind of...” Sounds like an anchor to me. “...and be not moved...” Sounds like an anchor to me. “...be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, which was preached to every creature, which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am a minister.”
Brethren, I heard the gospel. The gospel of the kingdom of God was preached to me and guess what? It became my anchor. It became the thing that would hold me in place. It became the thing that I can now hope for. I had a reason for being. I say this because you all can relate to what I’m talking about. You can all relate to what I’m talking about. The hope that I needed required the right knowledge. Hope also requires strength. Hope requires strength or resolve.
It’s easy to be negative. It’s easy to be hopeless. A negative mindset is a lazy mindset. It’s lazy because you just go with circumstances, you allow circumstances to carry you along, but hope requires strength. It is reactive. Excuse me, it is proactive, not reactive. Joel chapter three, Joel chapter three. Brethren, if you may wonder, “Okay, but how can I get this hope? How can I do it?” You don’t have to do it on your own. Joel chapter three. God does not want us to do it on our own.
Joel chapter three. Joel chapter three, let’s see if I can get there. Verse sixteen. Joel three-sixteen, “The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake, but the Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” Brethren, God is this hope that we have. God is the strength that it requires for us to have this hope. This is not something He is expecting to us to just gather and do on our own. I know what I’m capable of and not capable of, but with God, things are different.
Psalm thirty-one, Psalm thirty-one, with God, things are different. Psalm thirty-one, verse twenty-four. Psalm thirty-one, twenty-four, “Be of good courage and He...” Referring to God. “...shall strengthen your heart, all you that hope in the Lord.” Our hope comes from God. God doesn’t say, “You know what? Go out and hope on your own and then we’ll see what happens.” No, He is there. He wants us to look and lean toward Him for our hope. And brethren, we know that, but over time, something begins to happen.
Second Thessalonians chapter three. Second Thessalonians chapter three, I think about coming into the church, and our hope is high, everything is wonderful, we’re on fire, but over time, something happens. Second Thessalonians chapter three. Second Thessalonians three-thirteen. Second Thessalonians three-thirteen, “But you, brethren, be not weary in well doing.” When we get tired, our hope can start to wane. We don’t think clearly. We’re not as focused as we should be.
Why? Because we’re getting weary. In this case, we’re getting weary and well doing. We don’t think we can hold on anymore. We don’t think we can go another day, another week, another Sabbath, another... We get weary, we get tired, but it tells us here to not be weary in well doing. I talked about being on fire when we’re new. As we go on in the faith, as we get older in the faith, our hope should actually increase.
Go to Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five. Instead of being weaker, we should become stronger. Romans chapter five verse four. Romans chapter five verse four. Let’s start in verse three. “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation works patience.” The longer we’re in this thing, the more tribulations we’re going to face. So it works patience, “…and patience experience.” You know what experience is, that means you’ve done something a while.
What happens? What does that experience lead to? Okay, tribulation experience, now what? “Hope...” Hope, “and hope makes not ashamed.” The longer we’re in this way, the more hopeful we should become, not the opposite. “Oh, I’ve been doing this so long, my hope is waning.” No, no, no, no, no, it’s the other way. More tribulation, more experience, more hope. It should increase. The longer that those who’ve been in the faith, the longer should have the most hope. It should only get stronger.
So many over the centuries, our modern time, instead of getting stronger with experience, they got weaker and weaker and weaker, and eventually, they just faded. They got weary in well-doing, and they disappeared. They did not allow hope to be their strength. They didn’t have the strength. They didn’t look and lean on God to have the strength that they needed to maintain the hope that they said that they would maintain when they got baptized, when they committed their way of life, or committed their life to God.
Hope, brethren, requires strength. It also requires vision. Hope requires vision. It’s a strong imagination, this ability to see things that aren’t right in front of you. But the stronger your imagination or vision is another way to put it, the stronger your vision, the stronger your hope. Brethren, we must have the ability to put ourselves in the situation, even though it hasn’t happened yet.
That’s what an imagination is, to imagine ourselves in the situation or the thing that we’ve been anticipating, the thing that we’ve been hoping for. Revelation twenty-one. Revelation twenty-one. Why did God share this? Revelation twenty-one. Revelation twenty-one. Why write this? Why record this? We’ll read several verses. Revelation twenty-one, beginning of the chapter. “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God, out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” My bride, my human bride, was very beautiful.
This is describing a city that’s very beautiful, something that’s very memorable. Verse ten, “And he carried me away in the spirit to a great mountain, great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even a Jasper stone, clear as crystal.” And it goes on to give a vivid description of this city all the way down to the sidewalks, the walls, the foundations, the names. Why record that? If we’re going to experience it, we’ll see it when we get there. What good is it doing us right now? Why record it?
Well, brethren, the reason to record it is because it helps us to paint a vision of what’s in front of us, what we’re going to experience. It helps to fill in the imagination instead of just saying, oh, it’s a city. No, it’s a city that the streets are gold and the walls are made of jewels, and it’s coming down from heaven as a bride adorned for her husband. That vivid description allows us to fill our imaginations. And the more we can imagine and put ourselves in that situation, the more hopeful we will be, the more we can look forward to it. Proverbs twenty-nine. Proverbs twenty-nine. Verse eighteen. Proverbs twenty-nine, verse eighteen.
It reads, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” When we have no vision, our hope perishes. When we have no strong imagination, when we don’t think about the things to come, those things that we anticipate, do we really anticipate them? If we never think about it, if we never think about the kingdom of God, if we never think about all the wonderful things that are to come, are we really hoping for them? You think about the stuff that you hope for. I do.
Romans eight. Romans eight, verse twenty-four. Romans eight, verse twenty-four. Continuing with this idea of vision, Romans eight, twenty-four, “For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope.” If we see it. If we have it, we’re not hoping for it anymore. We got it. We achieved it. It’s ours. “...for what man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not then do we, with patience, wait for it.”
The more we’re thinking about the things that we anticipate that divine anticipation of things to come, the more we think about those things, the more hopeful we are. The more we look forward to it. The more we anticipate it. Our imagination about the future, brethren, must be strong. First John chapter three. What is the future? What is our future? We alluded to it, we talked about it earlier. Let’s go back.
First John three. What is this thing that we’re anticipating, that we’re looking forward to? What is it that God wants us to envision for ourselves? First John chapter three, we’ll pick it up at the beginning of the chapter, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God...” We talked about being born into the God family. “...therefore, the world knows not us, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God...” We’re not adopted. We are begotten sons. “...and it does not yet appear what we shall be...”
So I’m saying, “Okay. We are begotten sons and daughters of God, but we have to be able to envision what that looks like because we don’t look like we’re going to look. So we have to have this ability to imagine, “Okay. I’m a begotten son of God. I’m an embryo.” So we have to have the imagination, the vision to be able to picture and understand what that means. “...but now we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.”
How important is this? “And every man that has this hope...” What I just read. “...every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.” So when this hope is in us, it purifies us. It cleanses us. It cleans us. We’re pure. We become pure the more that we can envision and understand this thing that we are hoping for. Brethren, the hope that we have, the hope that we’re envisioning is real.
Titus two. Titus two. Titus chapter two, it is real. Titus two, thirteen. Titus two, thirteen, “Looking for that blessed hope...” If you’re looking for it, that must mean it’s real. We’re looking for it. “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” In order to understand and realize this hope, brethren, we have to look for it. We have to find it. Scriptures explain that it’s laid up in heaven. Our hope is in heaven. We have to look for it and find it. It’s real. It’s there for us to take it. And when we find it, we can’t let it go. We must grab hold onto that hope and not let it go.
As we conclude, you may be wondering, whatever happened to those miners? Remember those thirty-three miners that got trapped half a mile underground in that mine? Well, if you saw the movie, you know what happened. It was a movie that came out in twenty fifteen. It was called The Thirty-three, and it was about this very story that I’m reading, but the breakthrough for those miners came sixty-nine days. It was two months. Oh, just over two months of being trapped. They thought they’d be trapped for a few days. They were losing hope.
Remember they started out, “Oh, we’ll be fine. We’re trained for this. Everything will be great. Maybe not great, but it’ll be okay.” They started to lose hope over time. And sixty-nine days later, there was a breakthrough and a drill finally reached them. And it let them know, finally, that they were going to be rescued. And that rescue... Oh, they were rescued, and their story became a symbol, all around the world, of hope, of not giving up and holding on despite the odds.
Well, brethren, that’s something natural and it’s a wonderful thing, but think about the things that we’re hoping for, the things that we want to have happen. Those miners held on and they got their reward. They were saved. They were rescued. We’re no different. We are no different unless we give up, unless we give up hope. God above has not forgotten about us trapped down here on this earth. You can wonder sometimes did God forget about us? Does He even know we’re down here? Of course, He didn’t forget about us. Of course, God hasn’t forgotten about us. He cannot lie. It’s impossible. Like those miners, God wants us to hang on and remain hopeful.
And hope requires positivity, knowledge, strength, and vision. Those things are required for us to maintain our hope. Brethren reflect on your own lives. I have to reflect on my own life. Identify areas in your life where you could lean on one of those requirements where you can understand and increase the hope that we should all have. Ask God to help you cultivate and sustain hope even in the face of impossible odds.
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