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Hope in God

Titus 3:3-7


 

            We live in challenging times.  This weekend we are remembering and honoring those who died in the wars to defend our nation and the Constitution of the United States of America.  Yet wars continue.  Those who fought and died in WWI believed it was “The War to End all Wars.”  However, a couple of decades later war broke out in Europe, Asia and North Africa.  And since WWII, Americans have fought and died in Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places around the world.  As we celebrate Memorial Day, it is hard to have hope.  We wonder, “Will the future be as brutal as the past?”

 

            Hope is necessary for human life.  It is important that people have hope for the future.  Without hope, people languish in despair.  I have been watching some interesting videos on YouTube about officers who protect the borders of England, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.  I have been surprised at the huge quantities of illegal drugs that the border officers find in some people’s possession.  Imagine trying to smuggle in cocaine and other drugs by swallowing 98 small packages of drugs?  It is not uncommon for the border officers to find and stop people who do just that.  The world’s appetite for illegal drugs is tremendous.  I read that the drug cartels now have agents in all 50 states to supply drugs to people in this country. 

 

            I suspect that the cartels are supplying drugs to people who at some level have given up hope.  People who are languishing in despair are major users of illegal drugs.  It is a major problem.  And the politicians seek to deal with the problem by decriminalizing some of those drugs.  Even some Indiana people support the decriminalization of Marijuana, the major entry drug to other more harmful and dangerous drugs.  People who use illegal drugs seek to escape the hard realities of life by numbing their minds.  I see this as a sign that there are millions who have given up on hope and are languishing in hopelessness.

 

            We need hope to face the future with confidence.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote:  “Even in the inevitable moments when all seems hopeless, men know that without hope they cannot really live, and in agonizing desperation, they cry for the bread of hope.”  It is time we become a people of hope who look to the future with God-confidence.

 

            What is hope?  Some talk about religious faith and hope as “Pie-in-the-sky in the great bye and bye.”  Is hope pie in the sky?  Others think of hope as wishful thinking.  Still others think of hope as crossing one’s fingers.  I am certain everyone here has heard of crossing one’s fingers and hoping something good will happen.  It is like a student who crosses their fingers and hope they pass the final exam.  Such students likely don’t study and hope that they will pass.  For the most part, that just does not work and it is not really hope.

 

            Hope is not man-made.  World religions are man-made religions of human achievement.  They see God or the gods as divine creatures that are angry and hateful.  The pagan gods do not care for humans.  They are indifferent to humankind.  When you read the Old Testament, you will discover that those who worshipped the Canaanite religions of the Middle East worked hard to appease the indifferent gods and goddesses.  Such man-made religions are quite seductive.  The big problem for the people of Israel was the temptation to become like the Canaanites and try to appease the indifferent and sometimes hostile Baals and the goddesses.  Following a man-made religion does not work.  The Lord God is not a pagan god but one who brings his truth to his people.  To say the least, he was unhappy when his people drifted off into paganism.  Our hope is not man-made but comes from the Lord God.

 

            One of the old hymns that speaks loudly about hope in the Lord is “My Hope is Built.”  It was written by Edward Mote, an 18th century English Baptist pastor.  He got his education on the streets as his pub owning parents let him run loose.  Later he became both a pastor and a hymn writer.  He wrote, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.  I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”  While hymns are not Scripture, the best hymns speak loudly of God’s Word in Scripture.  Pastor Mote was saying that his hope was built on Jesus’ sacrifice for us.  There are a lot of attractive things but they are not the source of our hope.  Our hope comes from the Lord God alone.  All the other attractive things are a delusion.

 

            Biblical hope comes from the Lord God.  Throughout Scripture we read a lot about biblical hope.  Psalm 43:5 tells us to hope in God.  The writer says, “Why, my soul, are you downcast?  Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”  When we are feeling down and depressed, the best we can do is put our hope in God. 

 

            Our hope comes from God’s promises that we find in the Bible.  We can trust his promises because God is incapable of lying.  Among the hundreds of promises we find in the Bible, he promises never to leave us nor forsake us.  God promises that he will never abandon us.  He promises to meet our needs.  He promises give us his salvation.  When you are feeling down or even hopeless, read God’s promises in Scripture and know that his promises are true and that he will never go back on his promises.

 

            Biblical hope looks to the future.  Jeremiah was God’s prophet to Judah during the most difficult time they had faced.  He told the people that God was sending them in exile due to their faithlessness.  The people did not want to hear such negative prophesies.   There were other false prophets who taught the people that what Jeremiah was saying was a lie and that God would not send them into exile but rescue them from the Babylonians.  Jeremiah thought he was alone and was depressed.  At that point, God spoke to him personally.  While this was God’s message to Jeremiah, we can also be encouraged by it.  God told him: “For I know the plans I have for you, ‘declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).”  In the midst of the Babylonian invasion, God gave Jeremiah hope.

 

            Hope looks to the future.  The writer of Proverbs tells us, “Do not let your hearts envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord.  There is surely a hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off (Proverbs 23:17-18).”   Regardless of what comes our way, God gives us hope for the future.  One of the illustrations both of faith and of hope is the story of Abram and Sarai.  Both of them were old even by today’s standards.  Even though Sarai was incapable of becoming pregnant, God promised them a child.  Abram was 100 years old when Isaac was born and Sarai was 90.  And 25 years before that God promised that he would make of Abram a great nation.  They had hope in God’s promise and it was fulfilled when Isaac was born.  Abram was fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised.  Hope is about the future.

 

            Hope is not about what we see but about what is in the future.  Paul writes about this:  “ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?   But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently (Romans 8:24).”  This hope is not wishful thinking.  It is about trusting in God’s promises and having hope for the future. 

 

            Our hope is built on our faith in God.  The first step to hope is faith.  And faith comes  when we place our trust in the Lord.  Paul writes: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 5:8-9).”  And through our faith we have hope for the future.  As salvation is a gift of God’s grace so is hope.  When we have recognized our sinfulness and trusted Christ Jesus for our salvation, we have hope for the future.  Faith is our confidence in the word of God and faith is essential for salvation.  Another wonderful hymn is “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”  In it we sing, “Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.  Faith and hope are linked.

 

            Those who place their faith in Christ Jesus have hope for tomorrow.  We who trust in Christ Jesus for our salvation have the promise of Eternal Life.  The life we live today is not all that is.  We are assured of life eternal as a promise of God.  Titus writes, “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.  He saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life (Titus 3: 4-7).”  It is clear that God has promised us eternal life.  We have hope for the future with Christ Jesus in heaven.

 

            Christians have hope that can conquer the darkness of the world.  And those who numb themselves with drugs can have hope if they trust Jesus for their salvation.  John MacArthur, pastor and Bible teacher, writes:  “The very word ‘hope’ is like turning on the light in the darkness.  It’s like bringing joy into a sorrowful situation.  It’s like introducing life into a scene of death.  Hope is a word that immediately brightens, lifts, produces joy.  Life without hope is bleak.”  This world needs a strong application of hope.  It is the kind of hope that comes from the Lord, not from human strategies or programs.  It is the living hope that comes through the Resurrection of Christ Jesus.  Indeed, our “hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. “

 

            I leave you with these words of the Apostle Peter:  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3)”.

 

Sermon preached by CH (COL) Michael W. Malone, AUS, RET at Veterans Memorial Chapel

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