IF WE EVER NEEDED HOPE

IF WE EVER NEEDED HOPE, IT’S NOW!

Every year, churches around the world observe Advent, a time of waiting and preparation as we look forward to Christmas. Advent is a month of Sundays and Christmas Eve. Each Sunday has a different theme. This is the first Sunday of Advent and the theme for today is hope. 

Folks, if we ever needed hope, it is now! 2020 has been a challenge for everyone. This pandemic has produced pressure, pain, and poverty. I pray that this time of Advent would change our focus from trial to triumph, from poverty to provision, and from sorrow to the Savior. 

Romans 5:5 (NKJV) Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

1. Hope does not disappoint.

Now, I want you to focus on that first phrase: Now hope does not disappoint...

Now, let’s be honest. We have all had times when we were disappointed that what we hoped for did not come true. Is that what Paul is saying here? I don’t think so. He is not saying we will never be disappointed. He is saying that we will never be ashamed because we believed God for something. The word here is also translated: to shame, delude, dishonor, humiliate, disgrace. I am never ashamed because I trust God. I am never ashamed for putting my hope in Him. Disappointed? Yes. Ashamed? Never. The Bible is full of stories of people who had tremendous faith, but did not see their hope come to pass. 

Hebrews 11:35-40 (NKJV) Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

2. Hope is always distant.

Romans 8:24 (NKJV) For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?

Some of the fun of life is not knowing how it will all turn out! Where would the adventure be if we knew all the answers?

3. Hope is often delayed.

Proverbs 13:12 (NKJV) Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.

I have seen many marriages destroyed by expectations and fantasies. Things people hoped would happen, didn’t.  Disappointment led to despair and disillusionment. This comes because the Bible says to let our expectations be of God alone. 

Psalms 62:5 (NKJV) My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.

4. Hope is built on the ways of God.

Psalms 103:7 (NKJV) He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.

We often desire God’s acts more than His ways. Hope is built on the ways of God. If we understand how God works, then this helps us live in hope. 

Let’s look at an example. As children we begin to dream about what we would like to be. As we grow older that morphs into a more realistic goal or passion. I wanted to play professional baseball, but high school curveballs put and end to that. I wanted to be a doctor, but sometimes got sick at the sight of blood. I loved nuclear physics, but flunked out of trig! I’m glad God called me to preach!

God gives all of us a purpose in life, a vision for our future. God operates on vision. However, many times God will allow that vision to die, so that He can miraculously fulfill it. 

Jesus spoke about it. 

John 12:24 (NKJV) “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”

Life to death to life. 

Think about Abraham. God told him he would be the father of many nations, yet he was childless. He tried to make it happen, but only trouble came. When God finally gave him a miracle baby, Isaac, God told him to sacrifice him as a burnt offering to God! Abraham obeyed, God stopped him, and the promise was fulfilled. 

This is the way of God. A vision is birthed in us. The vision dies. God resurrects it and brings it to pass. 

Habakkuk 2:3 (NKJV) For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

Habakkuk 2:3 (MSG) This vision-message is a witness pointing to what’s coming. It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait! And it doesn’t lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It’s on its way. It will come right on time.

Joseph, as a young man, had dreams of being a person who would impact the world. Then, he was sold into slavery by his brothers. Arriving in Egypt, he became the trusted slave of Potiphar, an important Egyptian. His wife desired Joseph, and when he refused her advances, she lied about him and he was thrown into prison for twelve years. All hope was gone, yet God raised him up to be the prime minister of Egypt and literally save the world from famine!

Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJV) “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

In the mid-1990s, God gave me a vision of pastoring a church in El Paso. I thought the church I was serving would be the vehicle to fulling that dream. The vision plan was interrupted when I got relieved of my duties and encouraged to look for another place to serve. I couldn’t find anywhere to pastor. Churches I contacted wanted me as a worship leader, but no one wanted me as a pastor. Finally, a small country church let me come and preach for them. They were so desperate for a preacher, they let me stay. Four years later, a wonderful time for Alba and I, the vision was fulfilled and Restoration Fellowship was born. *Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gifts!*

Just this week, Alba and I saw this process happen again. 

Machai’s story...

Where are you today? Are in the birth of a vision? The death of a vision? Or the resurrection of a vision? Wherever you are, you are not out of God’s will! He is there with you, working to bring your dream, your desire, your vision to pass. Cry out to God. Wait patiently for Him and He will bring it to pass. 

Psalms 37:4-5 (NKJV) Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.