John Gunter: Katie is in Washington DC and on a work trip, she didn't just leave me or anything, but we, as a family, decided the three boys are gonna go to the Astros game today, and Logan just leaned over to me and he said, do not talk to anybody when this is over. We gotta go catch a ball. He said, I I see some people aren't here, they may have skipped church to get down there early. So make sure everybody comes, call your friends if they're not here today, and tell them my son thinks they've skipped to go to the Astros game so they can get a ball and not us. So take that as it is.
I'll tell you, I need to write some of this stuff down because I'm gonna wanna know it years from now, but love it. You had to know what time it was so we could we could get ready. So if I leave mid sentence, you all don't worry about it. Okay? Just just stay till the end.
Again, we are going through our series, Marks of a True Disciple, and I hope you've enjoyed this series. Just as a recap, we've talked about being faith filled, love driven, humble in spirit, obedient in action, spirit led. Last week, persevering in faith, and today, having a hope that holds. Now, you may have seen on the the preview for the sermon, if you if you got here early enough for that, we are next week is our last week in the study, and then we'll go on to another series, but this is something again that we are talking about because a lot of people claim Christianity and claim to be Christian, but is that what their life shows? Are those the marks that they show?
Okay? And so and doesn't just talk about the people outside this room, does It should have us holding up a mirror, looking at our reflection saying, is this who I am? Is this the person I am right now, or that God is transforming me to be? It doesn't mean that you're perfect in all of this. God knows that you're not, and so we continue to strive, we continue to surrender to him, to open up our lives to him, to ask him to change us into the person that we want to be.
And so, now we shift to this heart posture that sustains us, and I think that is hope. And so, hope is not something we just hold on to. Hope holds us and sustains us, and so that's what we're gonna be talking about this morning. From Hebrews six starting in verse 13, for when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself saying, surely I will bless you and multiply you. And thus, Abraham having patiently waited obtained the promise.
For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincing convincingly to heirs of the promise that the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope that hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now, what you saw there is that hope is not something we just cling onto as some kind of fragile optimism.
Hope is something that is backed by the unchanging character of God. God did not ask you just to believe in something that he did not prove. You understand that? And so hope is not this little fleeting fragile feeling. Hope is something that God says, I will swear by an oath, I will swear it myself so that you know this will happen.
And remember, when Hebrews was being written or this we think Hebrews was probably a sermon. And so, if my sermon's shorter than this today, you got bonus points. Okay? We'll we'll count it the next time. But what we see here is that they're looking backwards, aren't they?
God did not just promise this, he followed through with it. And so, you can okay. And we can have hope because God has already shown you that you can put your trust in him, that you can be faithful and hold on to him, and say, we don't hold on to hope blindly, we hold on to the God who's proven, he holds up his end of the promise. You understand that, church? That's what we hold on to.
Now, how many of you have friends that every word they say out of their mouth is a liar and exaggeration? Like every you ever said to somebody about one of your friends, yeah, he says a lot, just don't listen to it, don't pay much attention to it. Right? Yeah. You wouldn't put your hope Now, a hope in that person is very fragile.
Right? There's no way I can believe this, there's no way I can trust it, but God is not that way. God has shown to us, He has proven to us that He will stand behind what He says. And so, if that's the kind of God we're anchored to, unchanging, faithful, and proven, then we need to look closely at what He's actually given us as the foundation for our hope. We need to look and examine these things.
From first Peter one verses three through six, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy. He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. There's a lot of good stuff in those few verses there. I wanna I wanna read that one more time.
And he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Okay? You have seen that, you understand Jesus has been risen, the promise for him, going back to Abraham, what we just read. Alright? The promise for Abraham is that through you, through your offspring, I will bless all nations.
Well, how did he do that? He sent his son to down the cross for just the Jews, just the Samaritans, everyone. Right? And so you've been you have been born again, okay, to a living hope through Jesus Christ, an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Somebody say, amen.
Amen. That you have this tucked away from you, and it's not losing value. It's not going away, it's unfaded, undefiled. God is guarding it for you. Now, that feels secure.
Does it not? Was there any anything in those verses there that made you feel like, it's kinda iffy? You know, fifty fifty shot, maybe, maybe not. No. God is showing you, he is a God who you can with whom you can put your trust, he's gonna do it, and so if you have been born again, raised because of Jesus and what he did, this is what you get, imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith and for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
And and I want you to notice this in six, in this you rejoice. Though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. Now, this does not mean our hope in Jesus, our faith in God, not mean we're gonna live a life of ease. That we're gonna live a life where nobody ever bothers us. I even had a great prayer this morning talking about how we we are blessed, aren't we, to live in a place that you're not really worried about, you know, being attacked, or a lot of things happening to you.
Okay? You may think, you know, the culture is so negative, we have some fear. Right? But but really, if you think about your life, how much have you endured in this way compared to other people all over the world? You may have to sleep with one eye open type of thing.
Right? K? And so, it doesn't mean that everything is just lining up perfectly or anything like that, but okay. We we are blessed in this way. Hope is alive because Jesus is alive.
You see that? But again, that goes back to God's promise. If Jesus had not been risen, what could we say then? Well, I don't know. But Jesus was risen, he was seen by the people around him, he was seen, as the apostle Paul says, by 500 other people.
You could have proven it if you if you had skepticism back then. Okay? Our hope is alive because Jesus is alive. Skipping down to verse eight, though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him, rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul.
Now, Peter wasn't talking directly to us, but that is a word to us this morning. That we have not seen him, we love him. Though we do not see him now, we believe in him, and we rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your soul. Now, obtaining the outcome of your of your faith is not, I I need to put so much pressure on myself to do all this working. Right?
No. The outcome of my faith is I am putting my trust in God, and again, putting my trust in a God who has proven that we can put our trust in him, and have this hope, and have this faith. Right? And and again, the outcome of this faith, the outcome of our putting our trust in God, not our tightening up our belt and working harder, of our putting our trust in God is the salvation of our souls, not because of what we have done, but what He has done for us. And so, that is hope.
In Romans fifteen thirteen, Paul says this, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. And so, what we see here is, again, it's not a I'll just work harder, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, which was a gift from God, if we will surrender to him, we don't like that word. We don't like the word surrender, do we? I like to be in control. How about you?
I'm gonna take care of this. I'm in control. When we surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. The Holy Spirit gives you this. Okay?
So hope is not based on outcomes, it's rooted in resurrection and sealed by the spirit. You can feel that hope because you are sealed by the spirit. Surrender to the spirit of God. But again, this this type of hope doesn't just shine when life is easy, it shows its strength when life is hard. Real hope is most visible when everything else seems to fall apart.
You ever been there or you ever talked to someone who seemed like everything around them was crumbling and you came to encourage them, and you walked away from that interaction being blessed and encouraged yourself? You go, hold up. I thought I was the one bringing the blessing and the positive attitude, and they hit me with the with something I couldn't explain. Because everything about their situation says they should be the one that I'm needing to build up, and I walked away going, oh, I'm glad I came. That was a blessing for me.
Yeah, absolutely. Because, okay, when everything falls apart, we have a hope that is anchored in God again, and sealed with the spirit. Lamentations three, which Lamentations, you know, is a a book about you know what it is to lament. Right? You know, being upset, crying, you know, expressing your feelings to God.
I want you to notice this. This is probably a verse you've got on, you know, right above your door. He has made my teeth grind on gravel and made me cower in ashes. How many of you got that on your door? But you could, because guess what?
God is alright with you telling him that. If you're going through a rough time, it made it into the book. You see that? God didn't run from it. He he allowed it to be again, go read the Psalms, go read Lamentations.
He made my teeth grind on gravel, he made me cower in ashes. My soul is bereft of peace. I have forgotten what happiness is, so I say, my endurance has perished, so has my hope from the Lord. Have you been there? Oh.
It's not a pretty sight, is it? That is the the rock bottom, that is the pit of despair, that is I don't know God where you are, it feels like everything's going right. Does it get any worse than your teeth grinding on gravel? Hope I never say that to any of you all, this week my teeth ground on gravel. But notice, as bad as these few verses are, notice right after this in 21, but this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.
Well, thought hope was gone. Right? So has my hope from the Lord. My endurance has perished, and so has my hope from the Lord. But this I call to mind.
It's all of a sudden that that moment that brings you back. You've been there too. Right? That all a sudden there there's this change. We we say maybe hitting rock bottom does that sometimes.
There's this change. So this I called to my mind, something came to my mind, therefore I have hope. Something brought that back up. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end. We ought to sing a song like that, shouldn't we?
They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. Out of as bad of a verse as these are, we get a song that we still sing today. Because of that turn, because of that hope, that something in there that I'm still hanging on to, even when I don't know it, even when it's not present in my mind, it feels like everything's terrible, I'm still rooted in God. And so, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore, I will hope in him. Hope was gone, hope is returned because I'm anchored in him. Guess what? It's it's not a on again, off again relationship, I have been anchored in him even when I didn't realize it. He's still got me.
Sealed with the holy spirit, therefore I will hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him. To the soul who seeks him, it is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. And what I wanna point out this morning is those those verses that sounded so bad right before this, was someone who was still talking to God. Do you see that?
Now, they weren't happy, were they? But they were still rooted in him, they were still talking to God. They hadn't shut the door, you see that. And so, that's what we should see as we read a verse like this, and I know that we all go through these tough times. I call this to mine, and therefore I have hope.
Hope doesn't deny hardship, it outlasts it. That's what you see in these verses, isn't it? I don't think I even had hope, all of a sudden there's hope. Something happens that, okay, here we go. Hope doesn't erase the pain, it gives it a context.
It it it says, God's not finished yet. And that's what we see there, that God wasn't finished, I I don't understand how it's gonna work out, everything seems to be very, very bad, but all of a sudden, I have hope again. But that's not all hope does. In first Peter three verse 15, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet, do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
There's two things in this verse. I like these verses a lot, but in 16, the one thing I don't like is that when you are slandered, it it just assumes that bad things are gonna happen. Right? Have you been there before? I have.
As someone who who speaks in front of people all the time, I get all kinds of strays. I'll just tell you that right now. Sometimes, I've been said to have said things that just never happened. I think I've told you before that one time I preached in my home congregation, and a man was so upset that I said a certain thing that one of the ministers went back and said, John, I listened to the sermon three times and you never said it. So sometimes, you just get things just from living your life and trying to honor God in the in the with the gifts that he's given you.
And unfortunately, that's gonna happen. And I don't think God is happy about that, but he also assumes and knows how people are, and it's when you are slandered, Peter said. When it happens. If you are living the right kind of life, when this happens, those who revalue your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame, because other people, I think, can say, no, that's not who he is. Or even if you did something, you can say, man, that he may have done that, but I'll tell you, that John guy is a person who, if he if he didn't know, or if he did know that he did something, he's gonna wanna make that right, because that's who he is in Christ.
Because of who I am in Christ, because of the hope I have through him. Right? And so, that's what we see. Hope is something that can be seen. You see this here?
For for the hope, be ready, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. So hope can be seen. Why are they asking the question? Right? Be prepared because somebody's gonna ask you because something's different.
You see that? Something in the way that you're living your life is such that I wanna ask about it. So you always be prepared. Hope is visible, it is also evangelistic. Because guess what you have now?
You have an opportunity to talk to somebody about Jesus. Be prepared for that, for the hope to tell somebody about the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect. Guess what? We Sometimes we do a good job of that, sometimes we don't. Right?
I'm not a big fan of knocking on the door and telling somebody before you say hello, do you understand that you're going to hell unless you meet Jesus today. Right? I don't think that's the right way to approach it. I don't see that anywhere in Scripture, but for some reason, we we at times think that's the best approach. So let me ask you the question here, is your hope visible enough to be questioned?
Is your hope, which sometimes we feel like is a fragile feeling, scripture tells us our hope is visible. Is your hope visible in your life enough to be questioned? Isaiah forty thirty one says, but they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. If that doesn't make you wanna go watch, remember the titans, I don't know what will.
Rev quotes that very well. Man, that's a good passage of scripture, isn't it? They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. This is a promise from God. Isaiah reminds us that hope leads to renewed strength, not just survival, not just I'm gonna get through it barely alive, but renewed strength.
In Romans five, Paul says this, not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And so, Paul tells us right here, he teaches us that hope is forged in fire, not this fantasy. Hope is forged in a fire. Trials lead us through a process that ends with real, unshakable hope, and hope does not put us to shame.
And sometimes, we we feel like if we're following God, what we should receive, what I should experience, is just clean, easy sailing, no problems, no issues, and what scripture says is that hope is created here. The storms of life don't kill hope, they produce it. So, that person in Lamentations who is upset, they thought their hope was gone, but it had not been killed Because they were rooted in God, they were still talking to God, the line of communication was still open. So, do you have hope? Do you have the kind of hope that makes other people question, what's different about you?
You know, we often sit around and worry about what I can say, or how can I evangelize, and those are good things to to think about and to plan for? But the best thing you can do is live your life as a Christian in the way that God has asked you to live it. Because if you live it in that way, people are gonna come to you, opportunities are gonna come to you, you don't have to plan those, you live your life in a way that shows God is Lord of my life, that I am living for him, and then everything else falls into place, you understand? And so this morning, if you have if you're feeling like you've lost sight of your hope, would you come? If you're carrying grief or fear or even cynicism that we can all experience, and you wanna feel that anchor in God again, would you come and receive a prayer today from the members of this church?
If you wanna place your faith in Christ, if you wanna begin that walk with Him to feel that hope that you can experience through baptism in Jesus Christ, would you come as we stand and sing this morning?