O

This is the first of a series of five sermons
entitled

Experiencing What Is Ours in Christ.

The idea for this series came about
after reading the Nov/Dec 99 issue of
Discipleship Journal.

Romans 8:18-39 vs
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

The birth of Jesus was meant and is meant to bring salvation to the believer. Salvation not just when we die, but salvation while we live. The kind of salvation you and I need: when we experience the death of a loved one; the loss of a job, a financial set back, the crushing news of critical illness; when we experience the ugliness of betrayal, the pain of broken relationships and promises; when life doesn’t seem fair and God doesn’t make sense.

The birth of Jesus was meant to bring God’s spiritual blessings of hope, freedom, forgiveness, love and power.

I remember speaking with a widower several months after his wife’s death. He said, "I want to have hope. I want to have peace, but I don’t know how to get it."

Have you ever been in this man’s predicament. Wanting the spiritual blessings of God, but not knowing how to get them. You have prayed and prayed and prayed for them but to no avail. Your life is still filled with deep disappointments, unbeatable losses, or excruciating pain. You wonder where is this loving caring God of ours? You feel hopeless and you wonder, is hope just wishful thinking?

To that question the answer from God is,

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

Hope is not wishful thinking. Hope is faith’s answer to the God is good, but life is hard mystery. Hope holds stubbornly to the belief that, by God’s grace, what should be, is what will be. Hope will not let go of God even when God is silent, because a silent God is not an absent God. Hope is more than the kind of wishing we did at Christmas. We wished and wished that we would get a certain present, not know for sure if we would or not. Hope is wishing for what God has already promised.

Hope is believing and embracing the scriptural truth that,

"In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

Hope’s biggest nemesis is circumstances. Positive circumstances crowd out God because we are tempted to deposit our hope in them, not the Lord. Negative circumstances crowd out our view of God, because we believe bad things shouldn’t happen to good people.

Lewis Smedes tells the story of a pastor’s wife who works at an AIDS clinic in Los Angeles. A new doctor had insensitively told one AIDS patient that he would not live out the year. As the man left the clinic, he stopped at Tammy’s desk and wept, "He took away my hope."

When hope is gone, despair comes. It comes because we believe what our eyes and ears tell us, that when difficult circumstances play their hand, the game is over; there is no trump card, no other hand to be played.

Holding fast to hope means being unwilling to let circumstances have the last word. "Despair says circumstances tell us what it is true about God. Hope says God tells us what is true about circumstances."

But HOW? How do you strengthen your grip on the hope, so it doesn’t slip through your fingers?

Too often we allow the difficult events to define our lives. The circumstance becomes like a penny which you hold in at arms length. As you bring it closer to your eye it soon becomes the only thing you see. Put the circumstance into the context of your total life. Then you will see how many things you have to thank God for. The stressful mountains will be seen as the speed bumps for which they really are.

Pain has a place in God plan of redemption. Pain is like the refiners fire. Instead of complaining we should be seeking God’s purpose. What good is God seeking to do in my life. If we run from pain, we may miss the opportunity for major growth God wants to produce in us. Like the birth of a child which doesn’t come without birth pains we must look at our pain as birth pains, which God will use for good.

The greatest problem with hard times is to believe that God is not up to the task. Think back. When life was hard did God ever fail you? When has he ever overlooked your difficulties or left you alone to face them? Remember the story footprints. When life is tough and you find only one step of footprints. Don’t fool yourself into thinking they are your own. They are God’s because God has chosen to pick you up and carry you.

Our senses scream that this is all there is- that life is the sum total of our profession plus possession and death ends it all. The world is neither our home nor our hope.

When the circumstances of your life seem hopeless, remember,

"Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His steadfast love, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and shield. Our heart is glad in Him, because we trust in His holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in You." Psalm 33:18-22

The benefits of placing your hope in God.

"I keep the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure. You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forever." Psalm 16:8,9,11.

Hope is letting God have the last word.

AMEN

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