The Discipline of Hope
- You have something that you’re hoping for. We all do. Something you’re looking forward to.
- I like having something on my calendar to look forward to. A dinner. A trip. A visit. Keeps me.
- But sometimes its something much bigger and more important than going out to dinner.
- What is hope? Hope is a confident expectation and trust in God’s promises, not just wishful thinking. It is rooted in God’s faithfulness and character, looking forward with assurance that He will do what He said.
- We’re Christians. We hope here. We don’t give up. We believe God can and will.
- It’s a promise- Ro 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
- In our Christian life we need to maintain hope, stay in hope and live in hope in all things
- It’s a discipline just like anything else. If you don’t manage your brain, you’ll lose hope
- 2 Corinthians 10:5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ
- Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
Isa 26:3 You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. Colossians 3:2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
1 Peter 1:13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. - It’s a discipline like anything else! This doesn’t naturally happen. You live by principles of hope.
- Hope Perseveres
- Part of the discipline of hope is having the spiritual ability to go through some stuff
- The prophecy is that you will go through stuff in this life. But its better to go through w God
- Heb10:36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
- We all need endurance. We need the practical ability to not be emotionally and spiritually destroyed by having to experience trials and tribulations in our life. WE have to believe
- You get to the point of emotional despair, destruction and depression and you believe through it
- Hebrews 12:1 let us run with endurance the race that is set before us
- Any run that doesn’t require endurance isn’t a run. Crystal and I run 3x a week. My back, my hip, my shins, my knees, my foot, my lungs. Everything hurts and I’m dying. But I push.
- Every run I have to get my mind involved with the reality that I’m going to push through the pain because the benefits of exercise are paying eternal dividends in my health and longevity
- I look past the current pain, reframe the situation I’m in and force myself and brain to continue
- How I feel cannot dictate what I am going to do because I know the future reward.
- But this isn’t a physical race- It’s a spiritual one. You cant physically run into a blessing
- Romans 12:12 Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.
- The bible says we should be patient in tribulation, but it leaves us a little clue on how
- Continuing steadfast in prayer- This is the key to persevering. You don’t have what it takes to do it on your own strength. You must live with a verbal communication with your father
- You tell him, you ask him, you cry, you beg, you get angry, you tell him you’re not giving up
- And here’s the second part of perseverance: you get excited when you go through it.
- Romans 5:3–4 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.
- You can’t have perseverance without tribulations! The outcome of tribulations is perseverance and character and HOPE- So when you are going through it- Thank God for it- YES THIS IS GREAT
- so many times look at tribulations as a set back or a denial when they are the exact means by which God is producing something in us for a greater glory. THANK HIM FOR THE TRAILS
- When things are bad: Painful, slow, hurtful, empty, hopeless, crazy, not clear we AVOID IT
- The last thing we do is lean into it! “more pain please. More hurt. More problems”
- We’ve got this mindset that as Christians and children of God shouldn’t have to go through something. NOT what the bible Teaches. It teaches tribulation: Severe affliction as GOOD
- James 1:12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
- And whats the temptation? Giving up. Going back. Finding solace in sin instead of silence.
- Who of us hasn’t drank from the chalice of sin instead of the living water of our savior?
- And we do and it doesn’t satisfy and we realize that the living water is our source in affliction
- Gal 6:9 let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
- In DUE SEASON you REAP. Friend, it will happen for you. I promise. IF YOU DON’T LOSE HEART
- You can’t lose heart in this season. Prophetically I’m telling you to not lose heart. Im encouraging you to not give up or give in. You are going to reap, I promise you! Press on!
- Hope Waits
- Everyone has something that they are waiting for. A healing, relationship, feeling, job, move, retirement, breakthrough, school, spouse, etc. Spiritual? we seem to always be waiting on God.
- If there’s anything true about being a Christian its that we’re a waiting religion. Always waiting
- Pro 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.
- And we identify with that! When you’re waiting it hurts. It hurts in your mind, your soul, your stomach. Waiting on God always feels like a lifetime.
- And when you’re waiting, it seems like no one else is. Everyone else is getting their blessing
- The Bible writers knew and understood waiting.
- Abraham & Sarah: 25 years for Isaac Joseph: 13 years from slavery/prison to palace Moses: 40 years before leading Israel Israel: 40 years in the wilderness David: 15 years from anointing to kingship Simeon lifelong to see Messiah Anna: decades in temple awaiting redemption
- It was thousands of years from Genesis to Matthew. The promises took TIME.
- We’re impatient people. Statistics say people will honk within 5-8 seconds when light turns
- The Modern man is very impatient because so much of what we do requires none.
- Transportation, Food prep, Chores, labor, all of it is QUICK. Our brains are trained for quick
- You used to watch a 2 hour movie for a emotional pay off now it’s a 20 sec video.
- You Build strength in waiting.
- Isaiah 40:31 But those 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 you’ve never had to wait you don’t build any strength. Period.
- This is why poorly disciplined indulgent children are so impossible. They are given whatever they want whenever they want. They become demanding petulant humans no one likes
- And parents indulge them because they don’t have the patience to teach it to their kids.
- We all watch it and we know the future outcome of a kid that can’t wait for anything
- You see a kid on hoverboard, with every song known to man in their hand, able to order food to them, cars to drive them, every video game, tv show, drones, “I’m bored” you’re from the future
- Our generation waited. Our turn on the phone, our TV show, someone to drive us, a present at Christmas, a car drive with nothing to do, song on radio, waiting for mom while she shopped,
- Its funny right? But we’re talking real life here. Horrible to wait for healing, rel, deliverance
- Psa 27:14 Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!
- You remind yourself, and verbally say out loud- God is strengthening my heart But how?
- Stop comparing: Psalm 37:7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
- Don’t compare your waiting to someone elses waiting. It’s a fools errand. Its your timeline.
- Looking at other peoples timelines and blessings isn’t good. You don’t know how they got there.
- Look to God as your provider– Micah 7:7 Therefore I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.
- Hasn’t he always done it? Sure not always in our timeline, but he eventually does it. Takes time.
- God always provides in due season. God is a great provider. Waiting shows its HIM who did it.
- Trust God’s timing: He knows the when and how that is best for you. Look back at his perfection
- Habakkuk 2:3 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.
- If you look at times in your life where you got ahead of God, it probably didn’t go as well as it should have. You realize that you should have waited on God instead of doing your own plan
- You say- God I’m trusting your timing. My life is in your hands. I know you’re preparing me
- Continue to seek him: Lam 3:25–26 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
- Continue in prayer, worship, fellowship, giving, serving, being a constant Christian.
- Whens the last time you went to the altar and bowed the knee? “I don’t need to do that” ok, you don’t but there’s power in humility. Bending. Supplicating. Going. Fasting. Worshipping.
- Hope Endures
- I remember from the book of Daniel when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were about to go into the firey furnace and they were talking to Nebuchadnezzer- READ Daniel 3:16-18
- “but if not”. What if he doesn’t? What if it doesn’t happen? I’m not giving up.
- I am going to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that my labor is not in vain in the Lord. I am going to be disciplined in my Hope.
- I am not going to grow weary in doing good. I am going to counted blessed for enduring.
- There’s promises of scripture that are eternal promises of endurance that are central to our faith Jesus said this- Matthew 24:13: But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
- It’s a Call to Perseverance
- Jesus is warning His disciples that difficult times will come false teachers, betrayal, persecution, lawlessness, and love growing cold. In the midst of that, the true follower of Christ is called to endure to the end.
- Endurance here means faithful perseverance not abandoning Christ, not giving up, even when life feels unbearable. Even when you feel like quitting, you don’t quit, giving up you don’t
- Its staying focused on Salvation and Faithfulness
- The phrase “shall be saved” points to ultimate salvation not just being rescued from hard times, but persevering in faith until Christ returns.
- Salvation is not about momentary excitement or a short-lived burst of belief, but about remaining steadfast in trust and obedience to Jesus until the finish line.
- We are enduring for an imperishable crown! sometimes that you means you lay down the thing you want the most to receive the crown that Jesus has for you! FULL TRUST AND SUBMISSION
- I’ve found that when I’m holding on too tight to my own crown I cant take the crown of Jesus
- We endure because we are convinced God’s promises are true. I know God CAN and I know God WILL. I’m not going to stop believing that he can and he will
- I’m also trusting that which I think I need or want has to pass through his fingers to be blessed.
- Hope is what gives us the courage to keep walking when we feel like quitting.
- Jesus is saying: Don’t give up before the breakthrough.
- Revelation 2:10 Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
- Bro, this Christian life isn’t no joke. It takes decades of faithfulness. Its not a quick process
- There’s a reason that when someone dies they say “they’ve entered into their rest”
- This life is a toil! Its relentless. It never gives up.
- Living in Texas, water filling up in the street, pushing the water out of my driveway. Pointless
- It feels like that sometimes. The water just keeps coming and it never will end.
- Romans 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it
- That’s what hope is! Its what we can’t see. We endure as we wait on God to fulfill it.
- And its when HE says. ENDURE. Don’t give up. Stay the course. Wait on him.
- The Promise is: 2 Tim 2:12: If we endure, We shall also reign with Him.
- We remind ourselves- Romans 8:18: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
- Friend, if you don’t have Jesus, this world is pretty pointless. If all you have is this life to look forward to, then yes, it can be painful to not get what you think you need and deserve
- But you’ve got a home in glory. An eternity that far outshines the sun.
- Don’t let this world dictate your joy. Its not worth it.
- Hebrews 10:23: Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
- And he is. He’s faithful.
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