Welcome to the Further Gospel podcast, where we are all about providing sound doctrine for everyday people. My name is Kosti Hinn, and I have the pleasure of being your host. And on today's episode, I want to talk about things that break down our hope and things that build up our hope. You can call this episode hope breakers versus hope builders. Question for you. Why is there so much hopelessness in the world today? Pretty obvious answer. People don't know what true hope is all about. But while it's easy to point out at the world and say, yeah, people don't have hope because they don't know God, they're not Christians, or they don't really know what true hope is all about, we throw out these phrases. How easy is it as Christians to forget what hope is all about? Or when our hope breaks down, we fail to quantify why is my hope breaking down? And then how is my hope built up? What should I be reminded of? What do I need to remember in times like this? And how can I encourage somebody else who is a believer in Jesus Christ and says, My hope is just waning, it's fading. None of us as Christians are immune to challenges that steal our hope. I call these, I would call these things hope breakers, because they break down our hope. And before we know it, we find it hard to have joy, we find it hard to have peace, we lose perspective. Some of the most angry people you'll ever meet are actually expressing an emotion rooted in hopelessness. They feel like there's no other option. They have no ability to do anything to control a situation, let alone control their emotions, and so they get angry and they fly off the handle. People don't see the light at the end of the tunnel, and in some way, shape, or form, they snap. Some people don't even see a glimmer of hope in their life at all, while others, well, they'll say, I have hope for eternity. Heaven's gonna be great, but I don't really have hope for my marriage, my job, my ministry. Whatever the case, we do well to quantify hope breakers so we can better understand and appreciate the hope builders that God provides for us as Christians. I'm gonna give you five hope breakers and five hope builders in this episode, and I'm sure you could add more and plagiarize and customize these all you'd like. But this will get your mind going today. And hopefully, as I walk you through truths from Scripture, your mind is renewed. The first hope breaker is when we don't know God. Now, you might think, well, this is a podcast for Christians or for people that are coming to a better understanding of Christianity. Maybe not a podcast where a large portion of the audience doesn't know God, but let me challenge you for a second. Deep down, many people profess faith in God, but they don't understand or fully comprehend the attributes of God. Now, God is completely knowable, but also at the same time completely unknowable in that you can never plumb the depths of who he is. You're never going to know all of God, but he has revealed in his word plenty about himself so that you can know him, love him, and find hope in him. People often, even Christians, face the paradox of wanting supernatural solutions, but they don't understand their supernatural savior. They are not necessarily aware of the God they profess to believe in. It is ultimately impossible to have true and lasting hope, first and foremost, unless you are a Christian believing in Jesus Christ, hidden in Christ, and called by God. But what a hope breaker as a Christian to walk around every day and profess to know a God, but still think, you know, I'm the source of power for my life. I gotta fix my problems, I gotta be strong. You know, God sort of set the timer on the oven of life, and then he's left it in there. It's my job to do the rest. I've got to be God essentially right now until God shows up in the end. Or even more lost than that. I've got to be God since I don't really believe in one. If you're somebody listening to this and you think, well, I'm not really sure about God. Not only is that a scary thought, but it's a depressing one. We need to know God in order to have hope from God. So I challenge you, get to know the attributes of God, who he is. Hopebreaker number two, when we forget God. Maybe you say, Well, I know God, but yeah, I forget him. And you'd think this one impossible, maybe. I don't ever forget God, or I can't forget God. Until you remember the pattern of Israel in the Old Testament and our pattern still today. Israel, the people there in the Old Testament, they need help. Then they cry out, then God delivers, then they forget, then they sin, they get into some trouble, and they cry out again. Then God delivers, then they forget. It's like wash, rinse, repeat over and over and over again. Israel in this pattern of forgetfulness. Forgetting God is a hope breaker because it fails to remember the one who rescues us in times of trouble, like Psalm 34, one through four says. There's one pastor who says it this way: forgetting God does not mean that we are unable to recall certain facts about God, but rather that He is no longer at the forefront of our minds and the top of our priorities. Other things can so easily clutter our time and capture our attention until our worship, thanksgiving, and dependence on God are all but an afterthought. Isn't it so easy sometimes to forget God even when we profess to follow God? We go about our days filled with routine and ritual. As success is found along the way, we grow comfortable in our own abilities, we all of a sudden don't need God. Or then trouble abounds and we scramble to find solutions and we rely on our own ingenuity and our own strength to conquer challenges because we're so logical and we think we're so smart, and before we know it, waiting on God seems like a waste of time. Prayer has become meaningless because it doesn't deliver the immediate results we want right now. And the Bible appears to be useless because reading it takes time away from what? Solving my own problems. Slowly but surely, like an engine that is gradually overheating, we make it some distance, but we will soon boil over, break down, and wonder how did it get to be this way? When our priorities no longer focus on God, our hope begins to crumble. Hope number hope breaker number three, when we feel alone. Loneliness is a hope breaker. Human beings, and specifically Christians, were created and saved with a built-in need for community. Hope gets broken when relational bonds do, or when feelings of loneliness push out the feelings of being loved, and loved in a way that is godlike and Christian and meant for the Christian community. Now, the word community will get thrown around a great deal in the church these days. So for a moment, if this is you, resist the urge to think I'm talking about potlucks and old casseroles and the multi-purpose or fireside room at a Baptist church, and everybody's sort of hanging out and eating finger food really weird together. No. I'm talking about real, genuine, authentic relationships where people who love you tell you the truth. They walk with you and you walk with them. The kind of relationships where you can be who you are and you are growing and you are honest and you are transparent and you are accountable. The kind of relationships where grace abounds and growth is allowed to take place slowly but surely, where people know you are not who you used to be, but you're still not who you're gonna be. This is the exact opposite of the Instagram highlight reel where everybody shows their best, puts on a veneer, and they photoshop the rest. Meanwhile, they're hopelessly dying inside. I'm not talking about community where we just sort of sit around as well, and it's, you know, you're not okay, and I'm not okay, and it's okay to not be okay. We're all just broken, we're broken, we're broken, and then we stay broken, and it's this perpetual cycle of ongoing brokenness where there's really never a solution, but hey, that's okay, because you're broken and I'm broken, and now we feel better. So just misery loving company is enough. No, that's not even what I'm talking about when I'm saying community. I'm talking about people who are desperate for something more, and they're experiencing something more than just surface-level living. They are together in it. It's raw, it's honest, and it's accountable to scripture. Loneliness can be such a killer, not just spiritually. I mean, unbelieving psychologists have come to find that the Bible is true. We've talked about this before on the podcast where much of the world comes to these great discoveries of logic and reason only to have Christians say, Yeah, we've been telling you that for years. There's this one particular writer who says, I know of no more potent killer than isolation. There is no more destructive influence on physical and mental health than the isolation of you from me and us from them. It has been shown to be a central agent in the etiology of depression, paranoia, schizophrenia, rape, suicide, mass murder, and a wide variety of disease states. Loneliness crushes hope. Even an unbeliever, a psychologist who sticks more to textbooks than the holy book, can tie these rampant sins and brokenness and all of it to loneliness. God made you and I for true biblical community. Hope breaker number four, when we don't see a solution. You ever been in a situation where you just don't see a way out? It's like claustrophobia where we get stuck in feelings of despair, we don't see a way out, there's no light at the end of the tunnel, hopelessness presses in till we feel like we can barely breathe. Fear will often do this to us. Fear tells us you can't conquer this, God's not going to show up. Look at you, failure. You don't have any options here. Oh what? You'll just figure it. No, you won't. You aren't equipped to deal with this. There's no way out of this. You're defeated. That's what fear does. The inability of someone to see a solution is one reason for people giving up on life and committing suicide. More accurately stated, they see no solution to the problems they're facing, except for one, and that is to end their life. This is the heartbreaking reality of suicide. This is the heartbreaking reality of hopelessness. This is why we've got to talk about this stuff. Hopelessness cannot be allowed to run wild and free. This hope breaker needs to be broken. We need help to see that there is always a solution. Suicide or other harmful means are not ever the solution. Hopebreaker number five is tied to that called When We Struggle to See Our Purpose. When we struggle to see our purpose. One of my favorite movies that came out not terribly long ago is called The Call of the Wild. It's a story about a dog named Buck and his unlikely relationship with a very recluse Yukon man named John Thornton. Buck is a crossbreed between a St. Bernard dog and a Scotch Shepherd, and has always been a bit too big and rowdy for fancy surroundings. And so eventually he's stolen and he's cast as a sled dog. A series of painful events enable him to slowly find his purpose, and as for John Thornton, he's lost in despair mourning the death of his son. The bottle, alcohol, has become his only place of solace. That and a map that supposedly leads to Yukon Gold. The movie's a powerful depiction of what purpose can do. Both of these characters find purpose. It's also a sad reminder of how a lack of purpose can be a hope breaker. And so throughout the movie, you find John turning to alcohol to numb his pain, and while Buck never seems to quite find a place to belong, both wrestle with bouts of hopelessness linked to ultimately a lack of purpose, and eventually both are united and come together to find a purpose. Now, movies are movies. Scripture obviously trumps any type of Hollywood feature film or some conjuring up of the human mind and writing a script. But I think I loved the movie so much because it related to a lot of my own experiences, just on a human level. I think a lot of people feel that way about the movie as well. Perhaps you're like Buck. You're without a clear purpose, you are reckless, you tear the house apart, you're like a bull in a china shop. And even if you're well-meaning, you, when you don't know what your purpose is, you end up hopeless and just sort of break everything around you. Or perhaps you're like John Thornton. Pain and loss and even your own mistakes have blinded you from your purpose. The equation here is simple: no purpose, no hope. Those are five hope breakers. We're probably all at some level, some point in our life, experiencing one or all of those. But we got hope builders. I love this old anecdote. A man approached a little league baseball game one afternoon. He asked a boy in the dugout what the score was, and the boy responded, 18 to nothing. We're behind. And the man said, Boy, I bet you're real discouraged. And the little boy said, Why should I be discouraged? We haven't even gotten up to bat yet. And depending on where you're reading this, a nice loud amen may be in order. The hope builders are coming. Jesus is still up to bat, even if you're down in life, so to speak, 18 to nothing, your Lord gets the last at bat. Hope breaker number or hope builder number one, rather. Jesus will finish what he has started in you. I don't know about you, but I often forget about the heroes of the faith that are already in heaven experiencing what we wait for with expectancy. Now, we don't know for certain theologically speaking if our loved ones who are saved are watching and cheering us on. We're not sure if that the cloud of witnesses that's mentioned by the author of Hebrews is all of them watching. But we also know Jesus promises to have the last word when it comes comes to our glorious future. And that's a big deal. Because if what you're facing breeds hopelessness, remembering who you belong to and who's behind you and the others who have gone on before you can build up your hope. Jesus will finish what he has started in you. He has done this for millennia with others. He is not going to suddenly stop with you. Philippians 1 6 says, He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ. And Hebrews 12 1 through 3 says, Therefore, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let's throw off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangled us. Let's run with perseverance, the race marked before us. Let's fix our eyes on Jesus, him, the pioneer, the perfecter, the author, the finisher, other translations say. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. He despised the shame of the cross, but obviously he knew what it was going to accomplish, didn't he? The author of Hebrews continues, he's seated at the right hand of the throne of God, and to consider him who endured so much opposition from sinners, so you would not grow weary and lose heart. Jesus has gone before you, he has set the greatest example for you. And so understand, he will finish the work. You may not feel like he's finishing it today. You may not even see what it looks like today. He's gonna finish it. Trust him. Hope builder number two. Jesus has been where you are and he beat it. If there's one thing that I'm grateful for, it is that Jesus is not some detached deity who dwelt in some far off distant place. That would be so unrelatable. Even in the beginning of creation, our God walked with his creation in some manner and form. Genesis 3.8 says that. Even though he's holy and set apart, he's so personal and he's so relatable. And again, the author of Hebrews, who is constantly pointing to the greatness and glory of Christ, says in Hebrews 4 14 to 16, therefore, since we have a great high priest who is ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let's hold firmly to the faith we pres we possess and profess. For we don't have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weakness, but we have one who's been tempted in every way, just as we are, but he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so we can receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need. Jesus walked the road you're on, he did it perfectly. If he's your savior, you're gonna make it. Not because of you, but because of him. Not because of you, but even in spite of you. I gotta say, I agree when people say, you know, in theory or thought, I'm just holding on to Jesus. I'm holding on to hope. Let me tell you something. Because of him, you aren't holding on to hope. Hope is holding on to you. Because of him, you're not holding on to Jesus. Jesus is holding on to you. He's been where you are and he's beat it. Hope builder number three, Jesus haven't hasn't left you alone. If loneliness breaks down hope, the reality that Jesus has not left you alone builds up our hope. One of the greatest fears that the disciples of Christ had in the New Testament was that when he was going to leave them. We think today like them, I don't want to be alone. Jesus, I need you. I need others, I need your truth, I need your comfort, I need your peace. Well, in John 14, 18, Jesus said, I will not leave you as orphans, I'll come to you. His words to his disciples foreshadowing his glorious return, but also the coming promise of the Holy Spirit. That's what came in John 16 as Jesus promised his coming. And the Holy Spirit and the comfort and the hope of all that is to come is a great joy to the believer. All in all, those who have Jesus are never alone. When loneliness rears its ugly head, the believer can put it right back in its place, remembering the promises Jesus has made. And he always keeps his promises. I want to challenge you to assess your heart when it comes to your dependency on people in this way. When you feel lonely, but you have the promises of Christ, but as a people person myself, I'm with you. Sometimes you just you look to people too much. So I ask you, just like I ask myself, is Jesus enough? Is his promise enough? Or I do I need people to do something more than that? And again, we've talked about the need for community and the need for others, but how many of you understand we can take the idea of community way too far, and pretty soon, well, the God of the Bible's fine, and yeah, his promises are fine, but what I really need is that person. If I don't have them, you know, I feel alone, I feel like I don't have anything. Well, even if you are walking the lonely road of faithfulness on your own, Jesus is with you, he's not left you alone, it is enough. And I'm all for relationships, friendships, leaning on trustworthy people. At the same time, we gotta make sure that people do not replace the priority of time with Jesus. We gotta remember that uh you and I have enough when we have a Christ. If you're a believer, you're never alone. You can talk to the Lord, you can pray to him and put your hope in him. Hope builder number four. Jesus hears your prayers and he's praying for you. Out of all five hope builders, this might be the one you think of the least, but should commit to remembering the most. Have you ever prayed and wondered, Jesus, are you even listening? You know, maybe you've echoed the words of Psalm 130, verses 1 and 2, saying, Out of the depths of my heart I cry to you, Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. You know, that is some serious expression about a serious need. But what usually comes next in our minds might be thoughts that go something like this Well, Jesus isn't listening. Now I'm just talking into thin air. How silly and embarrassing to speak when no one's even speaking back. With so many people praying all at once. I mean, my prayers probably aren't that important. God's got better things or other things to do. Those are Are lies that come from only one place, the devil. He himself is the father of lies. He births lies. That's what Jesus says in John 8.44. The devil is a liar. His goal is to blind you from fully knowing and appreciating the hope of Christ. And when you're a believer, he assaults you repeatedly, which is why Paul brings up the armor of God in Ephesians 6, 11 through 18, because you're going to have to hold up the shield of faith to extinguish the arrows of demonic assault attacking your hope. The truth is this Jesus hears your prayers. And let me go further as we extinguish the lies of the enemy together through the power of God's word. Jesus is praying for you. I want to give you some facts from the Bible. You can cast all your anxieties on God because He cares for you. James 1 verses 5 to 8. God is going to unload wisdom on you if you ask Him and believe that He will. John 9 31. God listens to those who worship Him. 1 John 5 14, when you ask for things in line with His will, He hears you and He will do it. 1 Peter 3 12, the Lord hears the prayers of the righteous. That settles that. Certainly Jesus hears your prayers. But let's put up another truth that extinguishes the arrows of our adversary, the devil. Is Jesus really praying for you? Absolutely. Romans 8 31 powerfully declares, If God is for us, who can be against us? Followed up with the assurance in verse 34 of Romans 8 that Jesus Christ is right now seated at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Direct quote from Scripture. Hope is built up when we realize Satan's a liar. Revelation 12, 10 says that. And Jesus is a mighty king who hears your prayers and he's praying for you. So you can tune out and extinguish the devil's lies, and you can tune in to Christ through prayer. Finally, hope builder number five, Jesus promises your pain will have purpose. One of the questions we tend to ask when enduring a painful experience in this life is, what is this all for? What's all this pain for? Even if we have a high tolerance for painful trials, we usually have a low tolerance for not knowing what it's all about, right? The Bible repeatedly tells us that our pain and our trials are going to have purposeful results. Now, I don't recommend you throw all this at somebody the minutes or hours, even days right after they lose a child or a loved one or go through something terrible. It's best to sit with them like Job's friends initially did and just mourn with them. Be a silent friend who loves them. But as time goes on and we search for answers, and as time goes on and those we love need answers, we got to go to James 1, too, and realize the testing of our faith is going to produce an endurance that only God can bring through trials. We need and should want more endurance for this life. Pain and trials are one way that God accomplishes that process. Like an athlete, the way to grow your endurance is to stretch your limits and push yourself beyond where you've been before. And slowly but surely you are the one who endures in the race. Romans 5, 3 through 5 is another passage in which Paul lays this out very loud and clear that suffering produces something in us within our character. And when our character is built up, he actually says that this produces hope. Think about that. Suffering, trials, challenges build you up in the faith, elevate and sanctify your character, and that gives you hope because you see Jesus is doing his work no matter what. The cross of Christ is the greatest example of this hope. Through the cross, Jesus endured much pain, but none of it was pointless, none of it was wasted, no pain ever is. God will give it purpose. And so is your hope built on Jesus? Without him, you'll never experience real and lasting hope. And if you're a believer, don't forget his goodness, don't forget his kindness, don't forget his power to finish the work he started in you. There is hope today, even when you are enduring and persevering in the middle of what seems to be hopeless. There is one way to heaven, and there is only one way to hope. His name is Jesus Christ. My prayer is that this episode will help you and sharpen you and even give you a resource to share with people who need hope, true hope, and the hope that is only found in Christ. And so find it yourself in him, and know that you can also share that hope with others. Thank you for listening to the Further Gospel Podcast and for all of your support for free video teachings and to learn from those video teachings and to share them. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel. 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