Hope in the Lord

Amen. Take your Bibles if you would. Turn to first Peter chapter one. It's always a blessing to have Selena with us. She always looks at me and smiles on her way out and so, praise the Lord.

First Peter one eighteen through 21. This morning. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold. From your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ. As of a lamb without blemish, and without spot.

Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. Was manifest in these last times for you. Who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Lord, thank you for your word today.

We pray that you would take it and your holy spirit would use it in our hearts and our lives To draw us closer to you, to challenge us in your service, to convict us of sin, and to draw all men unto yourself. Thank you Lord for it and for the opportunity to preach it, receive it today. May you be honored truly in Jesus name we pray. Amen. What Peter is saying in this passage to the Christians, believers to whom he is writing.

He is saying to them, praise God. You weren't redeemed with the things of Earth. You weren't redeemed with things that men make. You are redeemed, purchased back from Satan and sin unto God to the blood of Jesus Christ that was spilt on the cross of Calvary for you and for me. Who paid the price that had to be paid.

To restore our relationship with God and to redeem us back from our lost condition. And because of that, we have hope. Right. We have hope. Not just a hope as in, well, I hope it rains tomorrow which you probably are hoping it rains tomorrow.

Maybe ought to be praying it rains tomorrow because we need rain. But no, a certain hope. In Hebrews chapter 12, let me turn back there just for a second. In Hebrews chapter 11 actually, it says, now, faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen.

When it says, faith is the substance of thing, things hoped for, what it means is this, the things that have yet to happen, the things that will happen but have yet to happen, we have hope in those things and we can have a certain hope in those things through eyes of what? Through eyes of faith. By faith, I don't just hope. I'm going to see God in heaven someday. Through eyes of faith, I know that I'm going to see Jesus Christ, my savior someday and the place that he has prepared for me.

Amen. That's the kind of hope. Hope is something in relation to God that is just as real and certain as where we are sitting this day but we're not there yet. But we will be. That is the hope that we have in Christ Jesus.

Sadly, we are surrounded by people today that have no hope. The suicide rate continues to climb and climb and climb in our society today. Particularly among young people. Why? Because they are lacking They are lacking hope for tomorrow.

They're lacking hope for their lives. They're lacking hope for eternity. The world does not have anything to offer. Jesus Christ has everything. Amen.

To offer. And if you have Jesus today, you have a certain hope. But for those who know not the Lord, they are wandering around in darkness without hope. Let me turn that off. So, Alright.

I'm not using it today anyway. So, okay, let me turn that off too. Alright. You know, look at a blue screen. Alright.

There we go. Thanks. People are looking up there like, what's going on? Okay. They're not supposed to be doing that.

Every day, hundreds of people are overdosing on fentanyl. It's happening in our country. Because people lack hope. They lack hope because the people and the things they have put their hope in have let them down. Again, and again, and again.

They put their hope in tomorrow. That one day, they're going to wake up and things are just going to be what? They're just going to be better. Their problems are going to be gone. But everyday they wake up and their troubles remain.

They put their hope in romance, believing if they could just find that perfect person and that perfect relationship that that they will be fulfilled in life and happy. But sadly, romance fails too and they lose hope They put their hope and fame and fortune. Thinking that if they just hit it big like the movie stars and the athletes and the businessmen and the politician that their life will be rich and full and satisfying. And it's always just out of their what? Just out of their reach.

And for those who do find wealth and fame. When they get there, they find like Solomon. It's just what? It's just empty. It's vanity.

And they lose hope. They put their hopes in their children. And sadly, their children turn out to be just as human as they are. They put their hopes in their government believing that if they can just get the right people in office, the world will become a paradise. Guess what?

Doesn't happen. Better let go of that hope in the government. Politicians just get more crooked and the world just gets more corrupt, and they lose more hope. They put their trust in drugs and treatments and doctors to make them happy, from plastic surgeons to psychiatrists to acupuncturists. And after it all, they still find out they're still what?

They're still unhappy, and they lose hope. They put their trust in themselves. They get a good education. They're gonna conquer the world. And they're vaunted, lofty goals, and vaunted abilities fall short of bringing them the happiness they thought they were going to find.

And they lose hope. They put their trust in religion and priests and gurus and list of do's and don'ts, religious rituals that they think are going to change their life forever. But apart from the true religion and the true faith in Jesus Christ. All of those things too are just empty. They put their trust in science.

Cold hard facts they say. Just to find out that science, the science in which they trust can't fulfill their soul. And the end is as flawed and in the end is as flawed and untrustworthy as the people who practice it. Some of these things are good things love between a man and a woman, marriage, family, good thing. Money is actually a good thing.

Now, the love of money could be a bad thing but money is something we all need. Science is a good thing. Science has been the means by which many beneficial advancements to humanity have been discovered and put into practice. We're in an air conditioned auditorium today. Ain't that nice?

We have electric lights. Isn't that nice? We have this stuff when it works right. Isn't that nice? But you know, It's empty.

If there is no god who's in charge of it all. True religious practices can be helpful. But apart from God they can't they can't change your eternity. Doctors and counselors, education, and physical fitness, they're all helpful but are are they going to really truly change your life? And give you hope?

The answer to that is no. Without God, it's all smoke and mirrors. Without God, it's like chasing after the wind. Futility, vanity, as Solomon said and those who go through life without Christ are either quite empty inside or they're quite deceived by Satan. And we live in a world today where that's where the vast majority of people are.

If you know Christ as savior, how blessed you are? That's right. How blessed we are to know the Lord Jesus Christ. And have our hope in God. Someone who is eternal.

Someone who is all powerful. Someone who is loving and kind and merciful. How blessed we are today. To have our hope in God. And what peace and joy it brings.

That so many today lack. I have several verses here. I'm just going to read them for you out of the Psalms. Psalms thirty one twenty four, be of good courage. He shall and he shall strengthen your heart.

All you that hope in the Lord. Psalm thirty eight fifteen, for in thee, oh Lord, do I hope? Thou wilt hear. Oh Lord, my God. Psalm thirty nine seven and now Lord, what wait I for?

My hope is in thee. Psalm seventy one five, for thou art my hope, oh Lord God, thou art my trust from my youth. Psalm 130 and verse five, I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait and in his word, do I hope. Psalm 130 verse seven, let Israel hope in the Lord.

For with the Lord, there is mercy and with him is plenty as redemption. Psalm 146 and verse five, happy is he that that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord is God. Psalm one forty seven eleven, the Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him and those that hope in his mercy. Psalm forty two five, why art thou cows down? Oh my soul.

Why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God. For I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. So many verses. If you have a search engine or if you have a Strong's Concordance, put in the word hope.

It's going to show a very long, lengthy list of verses Because we do have a hope and that hope is a person. Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our God in heaven who made us. And despite the difficulties of life, we do not have to be overcome by them.

We can overcome them. Because we are not alone. David spent many years of his life living from cave to cave, always watching his back while the king sought to take his life. He wrote several of the Psalms during that time period. David as king carried the weight of a nation on his back and in his early days faced battle after battle after battle.

Lot on his mind, don't you think? David was also a failure himself and he carried the weight of knowing that others suffered because of it. What a weight to carry. Yet, he did not lose hope For it was in his God that he hoped and not in himself. If your hope is that one day you're going to wake up and all your troubles are going to be gone.

On this Earth. That somehow you're going to fix everything. Your hope is misplaced. Our hope is in God. The God who is going to change this vile body one day and give me a new one.

The God who has freed me from the bondage of sin and can help me to overcome. The God who is prepared a place for me in heaven and one day is going to come and receive me unto himself. He is my hope, not me. I fail. I fail over and over and over again and when I'm particularly focused and trusting in me, the failures are pretty pretty big.

But we have a savior and we have a hope as David did. Jeremiah wrote in Jeremiah seventeen seven, blessed is the man who that trusteth in the Lord whose hope is in the Lord. Lamentations three twenty four, Jeremiah wrote, the Lord is my portion, say it my soul. Therefore, will I hope in him. Now, you think about Jeremiah.

When Jeremiah began his ministry, when God called him, God told Jeremiah, he said, you're going to preach and nobody's going to listen. What what a what a terrible way to start your ministry. Well, you go and you be my voice but At this point, nothing's going to change but I need them to hear my word. I need them to know when judgement comes. Why judgement came?

I need them to know that there is still hope on the other side of what? Of the judgment. We live in a world that's kind of spiraling towards judgment ourselves today. We need God's word. Right.

We need the hope to know that for us who know the Lord and for those who will receive him, this is not the end. It's just a new beginning. Jeremiah wrote these words as he was viewing the armies destroy the city of Jerusalem and slaughter many of its people. Yet, he did not lose hope in God or the promises that he had made to his people. If Jeremiah can still have hope, so can you and so can we.

Listen to the words of Daniel's associates in Babylon. Just before being thrown into the fiery furnace, this is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They wouldn't bow to the idol that Nebuchadnezzar built and the punishment was being thrown into a fiery furnace. It was probably used for for melting metals, okay? Iron.

Nebuchadnezzar brought them in before his throne. He said, I'm going give you one more chance. I'm going be a nice guy in this. You know, I I know you it was reported that you didn't bow but I'm going to give you a what? A second chance.

So Nebuchadnezzar gives them a second chance to bow and this is their response. Oh Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful, meaning anxious, afraid to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thine hand, oh king. But if not, be it known unto thee, oh king, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. What do these three men say to the king?

Well, appreciate the second chance but we're not taking it. We're going to stick with who? We're going to stick with God because our hope is not in Nebuchadnezzar. Our hope is not in your blessing. Our hope is in the power and the blessing of almighty God.

Amen. And we trust in him. With that, Nebuchadnezzar got mad. He heated the fire up even hotter. The people that threw them into the furnace died from the heat.

Did they die? No, they didn't. No. Their hope was not in vain, was it? God delivered them out of the fiery furnace.

A matter of fact, God walked around in the furnace with them. You know, when we're going through troubles, illnesses lost loved ones, pain, you don't walk through that furnace by yourself, Christian. He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. It wasn't that God all of a sudden showed up in the fiery furnace. God was with him the whole time.

Right. God just showed himself to Nebuchadnezzar in the fiery furnace. That God might be glorified. There are many things in this sin cursed world which rob people of hope. Death of a loved one, illness, disease, chronic pain, repeated failure, addiction, depression, Sin robs humanity of joy and peace and hope in this world.

But it need not do so. It cannot do so. If our hope is in Jesus. If our hope is in one who is always faithful. If our hope is in one who has promised us that he will not leave us and he won't.

If our hope is in one who loves us truly and is a merciful and gracious God. If our hope is in one who gives everlasting life. Then the world not need not rob us of our peace and of our joy and of our hope because we have an eternal hope. We have a living hope in Jesus Christ, our savior. Paul said in Romans five one and two, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

If I have peace with God through my Lord Jesus Christ, then I don't have to fear tomorrow and I don't have to fear eternity because I am at peace with God. Jesus has made peace with God through his death on the cross. By whom also we have access by faith into his grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Paul wrote to Timothy in first Timothy one one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

By the commandment of God, our savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope. There it is. Paul says to Timothy, this is who I am. I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ. Who is my hope.

My hope for tomorrow. My hope for life. My hope for joy. My for peace. My hope for eternity.

And yours too Timothy. Titus two thirteen, Paul wrote, looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our savior Jesus Christ. As Christians, we look for the day when we will see him face to face. We look for the day when we'll get a new body. We look for the day when we will receive our eternal inheritance in Jesus Christ.

Look if you would back in first Peter. First Peter one verses three through five. First Peter one three to five. Has become one of my favorite passages of scripture. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope.

That word lively hope can be translated living hope. It is we have a living hope. Unto a living hope. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Why?

Because he is living. We serve a risen savior. Therefore, we have a living hope. Two, an inheritance, incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith, unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Heaven is real.

Amen. And one day, it's going to be revealed. Our new body is real. We're going to get one. We're going to shed the sinful flesh that trips us up and causes us pain.

And we're told in first John three that we will be like him. We will see him as he is. That is what we have to look forward to. That is our hope. That is something we know as Christians.

We can know is ours in Christ Jesus because we serve a risen savior who keeps his promises. Paul and David and Peter and Jeremiah who wrote these words of hope had such an easy and peaceful life, good health, and great treatment by others. That hope came easy to them. True or false? Let me read that again.

Paul and David, Peter, and Jeremiah who wrote these words of hope had such easy and peaceful lives, good health, and great treatment by others that hope came easy to them. True or false? False. I already told you about David and Jeremiah. Let's consider Paul who wrote Romans five and first Timothy and Titus.

Paul was abused everywhere he went. He was cast out. He was mocked. He was beaten. He was left for dead.

He was arrested. He was shipwrecked. He was imprisoned at times without food, without friends, but still he found hope and encouraged others to do the same. Some of these letters he wrote, he wrote from prison in Rome that we're going to talk about tonight. And they're full of hope.

And they're full of peace. And they're full of joy. Read Philippians. He wrote Philippians from the jail in Rome. It's a book full of hope and joy because for the Christian, life is full of hope and joy.

If you know Jesus Peter and the other disciples saw many of their friends martyred for Christ. We're always under the threat of arrest and execution throughout their ministry. John ended up spending the last years of his life on a deserted island alone and destitute from which he wrote one of the most hopeful books we find in the Bible. The Book of Revelation. You say, pastor, that's that's that's a book of judgment.

That's not hope. Now, read it again. Get to the end of the book. Don't stop in the middle. What's at the end?

The new Jerusalem? What's at the end is what is is in store for us? Right. Who know Christ as savior. He describes the city.

Now, it's hard for us to to put that in the pictures in our mind. Because it's going to be like nothing else we've ever seen. Or experienced but yet God depicts it for us. So, we'll have some idea of the wonderful blessing that is coming our way. That was written by a man who was alone on an island, exiled from everybody else.

He had hope. Know these men should have had little hope. Little hope in humanity, little hope for life, little hope for finding peace and joy in this world, and yet, they had this and far more. Because their hope was in the Lord. His promises.

As ours can be also. Why can it be? Well, because the Lord has shown himself to be a god of love and mercy, of faithfulness and strength to his children. Time and time and time again. Generation following generation following generation.

God shows that he is a god of strength. He's a god of power who hears and answers the prayers of his children. Again and again in our lives, God demonstrates he's God of love and a god of mercy. And he's faithful. He is faithful to the end.

Why can we hope in the Lord? Because the Lord saved your soul. Right. And he saved mine. Amen.

He has given to us life, eternal life. And he went back to heaven to prepare a place for us. Well, how do you know that's where he is? Well, because he said, when I go back to heaven to prepare a place for you, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit. What did he do?

He went back to heaven and he sent who? The Holy Spirit and here we are. In Christ Jesus filled with his holy spirit. The Lord who used those men to turn the world upside down and boy, they did. A little tiny area called Israel and Jerusalem.

Just a pinprick on the surface of the globe. 12 men and 120 people in the upper room. The gospel of Jesus Christ spread like wildfire and it still spreads to every corner of the globe. Right. And he is still in the business of saving souls and changing lives.

Amen. You can trust in him. The Lord to whom they pray and to whom we pray. Answers our prayers. And the Lord who sustained them and delivered them from their enemies is the same God.

That we serve today. There is every reason to hope in the Lord. The Lord is good and faithful. A god of mercy in whom we can trust and yes, hope. He is our hope for eternity, our hope for tomorrow.

He is our hope for our loved ones who are lost in sin or suffering from illness or depression. He is our hope for this world to be changed and humanity one day redeemed. He is our hope for fulfillment in life and forgiveness for past failures and future sins. He is my hope. Amen.

And he is your hope. And we need not lose hope. Because we have Jesus. Hope in God. Trust in him.

Call out to God in faith. Repent and choose him. He will never fail. Amen. He will never leave you.

He will never cast you out. If you will accept his offer of salvation today. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord. For your word, and for the hope we have in Jesus Christ, our savior and Lord.

We pray dear Lord after be one here today that has yet to receive Jesus Christ as the Lord and savior of their life, they wouldn't pass up this opportunity to put their faith and trust in the God who made them and the savior who came and died for them and who was risen again to the right hand of the father. He is our living hope and Lord, I pray if there's someone here upon whose heart you're working, I pray they would come as we give this hymn of invitation and trust you today. I pray Lord for those who know you today as well. Lord, if we have allowed the troubles and circumstances of life to rob us of our hope and joy and peace. Lord, I pray.

That we would confess that to you that we would recognize that we have all the hope in the world beyond the world in Jesus Christ, our savior. And Lord that we would put our trust in you each day that we would look forward to what you have for us tomorrow and that we would not give up in our striving against sin. And Lord that we might live in light of eternity. And the blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus our Lord. That we might pray in faith and look for answers.

That we might follow you wherever you lead. And trust you more. Each day. In Jesus name we do pray. Amen.