Hope, it it's such a strange word. Yeah, what's it mean, Ray? It can sound very weak in contemporary English, but biblically it's a very strong word. And you say to someone, I hope it happens, you say, Oh, it's probably not going to. But biblically it's uh a rock. I can't help but um remember, and this'll set you going, it'll push your button.
My aunt had a pleasure cruise that I went on regularly uh down in New Zealand, a place called Melbourne Sounds. We used to go fishing, it was just wonderful. I had a great childhood in my early teens. And we would go into a cove in a windy area, and you'd throw your anchor out and you'd move the boat to try and get the anchor to hook onto something so it would hold you strong during the strong winds that were coming up. And you were only as secure as to that to which you secured yourself. You couldn't see what was going on under the water, and you just hoped that it hooked on something. But the Bible speaks of an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast. And that's what hope is biblically: an anchor for the soul. Um, both sure and steadfast. Rock, rock of ages that we hook into and it won't let go.
SPEAKER_01Amen. I love that. Um, I came across this definition I thought was really helpful. Hope is not optimism or wishful thinking, but confidence in God's promises. Biblical hope is rooted in the character of God and the finished work of Christ.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, I'll often say that hope it's similar. Hope is not wishful thinking or wholly hoping of the best or a crossing of the fingers.
And I think the problem you I love what you just said, Ray, that hope sounds weak. And I think it's because we're so used to being disappointed. I can say, I hope the Lakers will win tonight, but I know that there's a chance that they won't. I can put my hope in a person, I can put my hope in a movement, I can put my hope in an idea. And over and over and over again, these things will fail me and let me down. Hope is not, the hope that the scriptures talk about is not wishful thinking or wholly hoping for the best. The the for the quote I like to use or the definition is confident assurance. Our hope is in a reality, our hope is in a person, it is in the finished work of Christ and the promise of his return. And so that's that is so much different. That's like knowing, you know. I love when Mark says this. That that's the difference. Is I hope the Lakers, like my my desire is that this will happen, but it might not, versus what Mark loves to say is we know the end of the story. Confident assurance that Christ is coming and he's bringing heaven with him.
SPEAKER_02Blessed assurance. Yeah.
Edward Welch, inside of his book, uh Depression, A Stubborn Darkness, he makes two observations for the believer who finds himself in a hopeless situation. Uh number one, he says, if you find yourself without hope, uh, it's because, quote, you have placed your hope in something other than God and it has let you down. And number two, you may understand that Jesus conquered death, but you live as though he is still in the grave. Right? So all hopelessness here, he goes on to say that all hopelessness is ultimately a denial of the resurrection. That what the resurrection does is that it puts our hope in a tangible person, which is Jesus Christ, right? Our Redeemer is bigger than our past. And so now the question is: have you placed your hope in something or someone other than God? If so, it has or it will, and you're maybe recognizing it's going to let you down. It always has, it always will, because our hope is not in our situation inside of our circumstance. We're talking about joy earlier. Uh, joy inexpressible, full of glory outside of our circumstance. We may not understand what's going on, but we know him who is holding all things together that is making a beautiful picture out of even the dark pieces inside of our life. We can look at this little dark black blotch and say, I don't like this. But when you grab a hold of that dark black blotch and you put it with all the other pieces, it accentuates. It allows you to have a clear picture as to what's going on. Imagine if all you have is just this single piece of white, right? Then you don't really have a picture. You need to have all the other colors, all the different fabrics of life that make up life, right? So you may understand that Jesus conquered death, but are you living as though
he is still in the grave? And that's the way we take our litmus test. That is what we do and how we approach life itself, because God doesn't want to waste anything inside of our life. So our hope is not in our situation, that our situation is going to get better. Our situation is in Christ alone, for he alone is our hope. And then maybe a couple scriptures to go along with this. Romans 15, 13. 1 Peter 1, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And finally, Psalm 62. Yes, my soul finds rest in God. My hope comes from him. Truly, he is my rock and my salvation. We will not be moved when our eyes are on the Lord. And it doesn't matter how tumultuous the storm is, when your eyes are on the Lord.
SPEAKER_03The great thing is when we speak about having hope in our death, we're saying that God will give you, if you're a skeptic, a personal miracle, the new birth, where God makes you a brand new person. Each of us experienced that. I had no thirst for righteousness, came to Christ, and all I've done for the last 50-something years is thirst for righteousness because God made me a brand new creature. The things I used
to love, I hate. The things I used to hate, I love. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things pass away, all things have become new, and that is the personal miracle that God gives each of us.
SPEAKER_00Amen. Oh, so good.
You think of like flying on an airplane. When turbulence hits, everybody freaks out. You can tell everyone that you're more likely to get into an accident and die on your way to the airplane than actually flying the airplane. And yet, when turbulence hits, the wings start bending and everybody gets white-knuckled. They freak out. But who's not freaking out?
SPEAKER_03The pilot.
SPEAKER_00The pilot. Why is the pilot confident? Because the pilot has been the school. They know something about the engineering of the airplane and aerodynamics. They've studied the thing and they have confident assurance in the airplane. Here's the problem is that we so often, to your point, Mark, we have a pinprick understanding of God. And what we need to do is increase our pinprick understanding of God so that we can have confident assurance in the work that He has done on the cross and the promise that he's giving to us on his second
coming. When we increase our understanding of God, our hope increases. But the great news is this even for the person having the panic attack on the airplane, their lack of hope or understanding and their safety doesn't make them more unsafe. And that's the beauty of the gospel. Even when your faith is lacking, even when your faith is weak, what saves you is not the size of your faith or the strength of your faith, but the strength and the object of your faith. And the object of your faith is Christ crucified on the cross. That is the beauty of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01You hear about people when they say, you know, that person was they would have died sooner, but they hung on because they were waiting for their loved ones to come or because they wanted to say one last word to their son or daughter or wife or husband or whatever. Like there are there are ways we can hang on. And I think those are because we want to infuse hope in others by how we carry ourselves and how we press on and don't give in or give up. Because when we talk about walking in hope as believers, we're not talking
about just surviving. We're not just talking about, okay, I didn't blaspheme God, I didn't walk away from the faith, I didn't deny Christ. But it's it's about thriving, it's about being fruitful, it's about a proactive walk with God, not a passive, okay, I'm a believer, I'm sitting here, God save me. It's so that we can continue to have impact for God's glory. And friends, those of you listening right now, if you can determine right now, because chances are you've heard this kind of talk before. Chances are you've been encouraged to walk in hope. You've heard sermons on it, you've listened to podcasts about it. What are you gonna do to truly make this something that is a consistent part of your life? So I challenge us, we don't fast often enough as believers. We don't give ourselves over to what's been called by by the divines of old, prevailing prayer, where we in anguish and and and determination, like Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, right? As if though it were great drops of blood, he were sweating, cry out to God. God, fill me with hope because the ripple effects are massive. I'm going to heaven, I'm gonna get there, I'll be in your eternal presence. But between now and then, I want to have impact for your glory. Hope is more than just about me. It's about a lot more.
SPEAKER_03So there's an impact on the unsaved world.
SPEAKER_01Amen. Amen.
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