SPEAKER_00: Good morning, everyone.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and welcome to church.
SPEAKER_00: Today we're in the message for communion.
SPEAKER_00: I was, it's called Jesus Christ, My Living Hope.
SPEAKER_00: And it comes from 1 Peter 1:3 that says, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And I started to think, why?
SPEAKER_00: And there is a song by Phil Wickham called Jesus Christ My Living Hope as well.
SPEAKER_00: But I just thought, why would the Bible say living hope?
SPEAKER_00: Surely there's hope, or you have hope, or you have no hope.
SPEAKER_00: But to add the word living hope means that our hope is different from normal worldly hope.
SPEAKER_00: We have a living hope.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just had a little look.
SPEAKER_00: So the difference between normal hope and living hope.
SPEAKER_00: So normal hope often means wishing or expecting something might happen.
SPEAKER_00: It depends on circumstances and it can disappoint.
SPEAKER_00: It can be very uncertain, like I hope it doesn't rain today.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: But it might.
SPEAKER_00: So that's normal hope.
SPEAKER_00: Living hope, however, is a confident assurance based on what God has done through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: It's based on the character of Christ, not circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: And that means God is not a man that he should lie.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not shifting sands, it's something reliable and solid.
SPEAKER_00: It's certain because it's founded on God's promises and it endures through trials, difficulties, and suffering.
SPEAKER_00: There's other related scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 6.19 says we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
SPEAKER_00: And I like the imagery of an anchor because when the storms come or circumstances buffet us, we need to have something solid underneath us to hold us steady and to hold us on course with what God's saying to us.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 5 5 says, Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured forth out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
SPEAKER_00: So a living hope is a hope that is alive, active, and certain.
SPEAKER_00: That's the difference between worldly hope and our hope.
SPEAKER_00: It's a certain, it's based in God's love and God's promises.
SPEAKER_00: And it's grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: I had a quick look at what the word hope meant.
SPEAKER_00: In Greek, it means hope, it means a confident expectation, an anticipation of something good.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrew, it comes from a word called tikvar, which I like this imagery again, because tikvar originally referred to a cord or a rope or something solid that we can hang on to.
SPEAKER_00: And tikvar was used in the Joshua 2.18 where Rahab left the scarlet cord go over and the spies came up.
SPEAKER_00: And that was their way they had access into the city.
SPEAKER_00: And also, like I said just previously, hope being an anchor for our soul.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a rope, the imagery of a rope that we can hang on to, but there's also the imagery of an anchor to hold us firm when we're, you know, circumstances may be buffeting or challenging what we're hoping for.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 4 talks about Abraham, and I always sort of wondered about these the words because it says, Abraham against all hope, in hope, believed.
SPEAKER_00: So it sort of sounded a little bit, uh, is the word antithetical or whatever?
SPEAKER_00: It sounded a little bit unusual.
SPEAKER_00: But I'll just read, uh, against all hope, Abraham in hope believed, and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be.
SPEAKER_00: Without weaken in his face faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and that Sarah's womb was also dead.
SPEAKER_00: Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised.
SPEAKER_00: So Abraham's hope was not based on physical evidence or circumstances, was but was divine was anchored in the promise of God.
SPEAKER_00: So as we take communion today, uh I'm just wondering if we could think about maybe some of the promises that God's given us, maybe some of the things that we're believing for.
SPEAKER_00: And trust in God's promises, put our trust in Him, in His character, in His goodness, in His sovereignty, even when they may the promises we're believing for may seem to be delayed, or we might be facing opposing circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: So if you'd like to just take communion and uh be between you and the Lord, and know that we all have together today a living hope that won't disappoint.