Where is Your Hope Part 2
Hebrews 6:19
Hi everybody. Pastor Dave here and welcome to Part Two of the message today on the My Daily Church Podcast. The message is, “Where is Your Hope?” and hopefully you’ve already listened to Part One and gotten the ramp up. And now, in Part Two we’re going to go into the “how.” How do we set our hope? How do we develop, how do we learn, grow in our hope that is the steadfast anchor of our soul?
Here’s Part Two of the message.
Guys, we cannot put our hope in wishing for better circumstances in this world. Instead, in order to build our life on the bedrock of Jesus Christ, we have got to put our hope in God transforming us through our circumstances.
Instead of asking God to change our circumstances, our true hope comes from us asking God to change us through our circumstances.
God wants to change us. He wants to transform us. He wants to give us hope – through our circumstances!
How… how do we begin to allow God to do that?
First, we acknowledge and confess to God that our nature is to respond to our circumstances in the flesh, and just like the world does:
We acknowledge our tendency to respond with:
distraction or denial
or anger or addiction
or either workaholism or laziness.
First, we acknowledge that we need God to transform us at the very core of who we are.
When King David comes to grips with his radical need to repent and respond differently, he said in Psalm 51:10,
Psalm 51:10 (ESV)
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
And that’s how we have to start. We have to start with asking God to create in us a clean heart, a new heart, and asking God to renew a right spirit within us.
We’ve got to recognize our need for the hope that only Jesus Christ can give us. First, we’ve got to be born again into this new life of hope in Jesus Christ, and then we can start growing up in this new life of hope in Jesus Christ.
And then, the Apostle Paul says we must learn the response of hope in every situation. Let’s look at Philippians 4:11-12.
Philippians 4:11–12 (NLT)
11 . . . (2nd half) for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.
12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.
Twice, Paul says I have learned how to be content in every situation.
And notice, that includes good situations too. These are God’s truths we need to learn to live in every situation (good or not good).
With whatever I have or don’t have
With almost nothing or with everything
with a full stomach or empty stomach
with plenty or with little
Paul says in verse 12 I have learned the secret of living in every situation.
And we would say, “Great, Paul, glad you’ve learned it. Can you just download that to me? Text me. Message me. Send me that link on Facebook – ’cause I need that secret quick.”
And the Apostle Paul, and the New Testament and God all say… No! You cannot get it quick. If the Apostle who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament had to learn it, then guess what? You and I are going to have to learn it as well.
Guys, being content, and having hope in every situation does not come naturally. It does not come automatically. If the Apostle Paul had to learn it, then you and I are going to have to learn it.
How… how do we learn this life-changing, Biblical hope?
We learn it
right in the midst of our difficulty
right in the midst of our trying situations and circumstances.
We learn hope and contentment best by being in the presence of God and walking with God through the storms of life.
This is the secret
This is the secret to having confident hope in every situation. It’s learning to press into the presence of God in every circumstance.
Because being in the presence of God (being in a real and growing relationship with him) is where we will find all that we need to have solid, confident hope in any situation this world can throw at us.
If we will genuinely and intentionally seek the presence of God right in the middle of our circumstances, if we will take every experience as an opportunity to meet God in the midst of it to sense what God may be doing
to hear his voice
to grow closer to him
to know him better…
If we will intentionally seek to be in his presence in the midst of every circumstance, then we will learn the secret of having confident, unshakable, rock-solid hope in God.
Way back in Deuteronomy, God told Israel that one day they would be exiled into a foreign land. But listen carefully. In Deuteronomy 4:29 God says,
Deuteronomy 4:29 – (ESV)
29 But from there (from that difficult circumstance) you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Apostle Paul learning the secret to hope and contentment in any situation by learning to seek God, and see God, and trust God, in every situation and by believing with all his heart that God was in full control and fully at work in every, single circumstance.
So much so that Paul could write in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18,
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (NLT)
17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
Don’t take on the world’s view of hope. Don’t simply hope for better, temporary circumstances as you turn the page of the calendar. Instead, let’s learn the secret to true, confident, rock-solid biblical hope.
Seek God intensely and intentionally in every situation until he transforms you at the very core of your being from wishful hoping for better circumstances to a confident expectation based on solid certainty that your Heavenly Father is the Almighty God.
He has carried you through your yesterday.
He is at work in your today.
He is out in front of you for your tomorrow.
And, because of WHO God is, and because of who you are to God… it is well with your soul.
Here’s Part Two of the message.
Guys, we cannot put our hope in wishing for better circumstances in this world. Instead, in order to build our life on the bedrock of Jesus Christ, we have got to put our hope in God transforming us through our circumstances.
Instead of asking God to change our circumstances, our true hope comes from us asking God to change us through our circumstances.
God wants to change us. He wants to transform us. He wants to give us hope – through our circumstances!
How… how do we begin to allow God to do that?
First, we acknowledge and confess to God that our nature is to respond to our circumstances in the flesh, and just like the world does:
We acknowledge our tendency to respond with:
distraction or denial
or anger or addiction
or either workaholism or laziness.
First, we acknowledge that we need God to transform us at the very core of who we are.
When King David comes to grips with his radical need to repent and respond differently, he said in Psalm 51:10,
Psalm 51:10 (ESV)
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
And that’s how we have to start. We have to start with asking God to create in us a clean heart, a new heart, and asking God to renew a right spirit within us.
We’ve got to recognize our need for the hope that only Jesus Christ can give us. First, we’ve got to be born again into this new life of hope in Jesus Christ, and then we can start growing up in this new life of hope in Jesus Christ.
And then, the Apostle Paul says we must learn the response of hope in every situation. Let’s look at Philippians 4:11-12.
Philippians 4:11–12 (NLT)
11 . . . (2nd half) for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.
12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.
Twice, Paul says I have learned how to be content in every situation.
And notice, that includes good situations too. These are God’s truths we need to learn to live in every situation (good or not good).
With whatever I have or don’t have
With almost nothing or with everything
with a full stomach or empty stomach
with plenty or with little
Paul says in verse 12 I have learned the secret of living in every situation.
And we would say, “Great, Paul, glad you’ve learned it. Can you just download that to me? Text me. Message me. Send me that link on Facebook – ’cause I need that secret quick.”
And the Apostle Paul, and the New Testament and God all say… No! You cannot get it quick. If the Apostle who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament had to learn it, then guess what? You and I are going to have to learn it as well.
Guys, being content, and having hope in every situation does not come naturally. It does not come automatically. If the Apostle Paul had to learn it, then you and I are going to have to learn it.
How… how do we learn this life-changing, Biblical hope?
We learn it
right in the midst of our difficulty
right in the midst of our trying situations and circumstances.
We learn hope and contentment best by being in the presence of God and walking with God through the storms of life.
This is the secret
This is the secret to having confident hope in every situation. It’s learning to press into the presence of God in every circumstance.
Because being in the presence of God (being in a real and growing relationship with him) is where we will find all that we need to have solid, confident hope in any situation this world can throw at us.
If we will genuinely and intentionally seek the presence of God right in the middle of our circumstances, if we will take every experience as an opportunity to meet God in the midst of it to sense what God may be doing
to hear his voice
to grow closer to him
to know him better…
If we will intentionally seek to be in his presence in the midst of every circumstance, then we will learn the secret of having confident, unshakable, rock-solid hope in God.
Way back in Deuteronomy, God told Israel that one day they would be exiled into a foreign land. But listen carefully. In Deuteronomy 4:29 God says,
Deuteronomy 4:29 – (ESV)
29 But from there (from that difficult circumstance) you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Apostle Paul learning the secret to hope and contentment in any situation by learning to seek God, and see God, and trust God, in every situation and by believing with all his heart that God was in full control and fully at work in every, single circumstance.
So much so that Paul could write in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18,
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (NLT)
17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
Don’t take on the world’s view of hope. Don’t simply hope for better, temporary circumstances as you turn the page of the calendar. Instead, let’s learn the secret to true, confident, rock-solid biblical hope.
Seek God intensely and intentionally in every situation until he transforms you at the very core of your being from wishful hoping for better circumstances to a confident expectation based on solid certainty that your Heavenly Father is the Almighty God.
He has carried you through your yesterday.
He is at work in your today.
He is out in front of you for your tomorrow.
And, because of WHO God is, and because of who you are to God… it is well with your soul.