What is your Hope?
This question could be easily misunderstood. After all, it could represent a zillion different things for as many people! People hope for a lot of things. Children hope for their favorite toy at Christmas. We have hopes for our children as they grow up into adulthood. We may have hope for world peace or that a cure would be found for cancer. As you can recognize, there are a limitless number of examples we could point out.
First of all, I think it would help if we actually defined the term hope before we move on because that could make all the difference in answering the question, "What is your hope?” Because hope has such a spiritually based connotation I want to give you the definition from that perspective. Here is what hope actually is:
An expectation or belief in the fullfillment of something desired.
Did you get that? Hope is something that is actually going to happen! It is future reality not yet realized! In other words, despite how things may look today or tomorrow, hope has a confident expectation that a better tomorrow awaits us. For the Christian, we can simply add "in God" at the end of that sentence. But the actual idea of hope needs to be captured here. It is not some nebulous or ethereal dream that may or may not ever happen. In fact, it is just the opposite of that. It is an actual reality that is already true but yet to be fulfilled!
For instance, if someone puts a hundred thousand dollars in your bank account today, you might say before you go to bed, "I hope to start building that new addition on the back of my house next week.” Now as long as the creek doesn’t rise or the world doesn't blow up, then that hope is going to be fulfilled. That is fairly close to what real hope looks like.
But the kind of hope I want to talk about today is not about this world or its immediate future. You know one day this world of ours is going to end as we know it. Can I tell you something? Nothing excites me more than that hope! Why? Because I know I have placed my eternal hope in Jesus Christ, and absolutely nothing nothing in this present world can shake that hope. It is unshakable.
What is your eternal hope? Listen to what the Apostle Peter said about his hope and ours in I Pet. 1:3-5:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the ressurection of Jesus Christ from the dead. "
I like that term living hope. For the Christian, it is not all about the future, it's also about enjoying, appreciating, and experiencing that hope right now because it is living! The hope Peter mentions here is the hope that begins in us the moment we experience the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ. Hope begins the moment you turn from your sin and trust the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse you and make you a new person in Him! He's waiting! Are you willing?
First of all, I think it would help if we actually defined the term hope before we move on because that could make all the difference in answering the question, "What is your hope?” Because hope has such a spiritually based connotation I want to give you the definition from that perspective. Here is what hope actually is:
An expectation or belief in the fullfillment of something desired.
Did you get that? Hope is something that is actually going to happen! It is future reality not yet realized! In other words, despite how things may look today or tomorrow, hope has a confident expectation that a better tomorrow awaits us. For the Christian, we can simply add "in God" at the end of that sentence. But the actual idea of hope needs to be captured here. It is not some nebulous or ethereal dream that may or may not ever happen. In fact, it is just the opposite of that. It is an actual reality that is already true but yet to be fulfilled!
For instance, if someone puts a hundred thousand dollars in your bank account today, you might say before you go to bed, "I hope to start building that new addition on the back of my house next week.” Now as long as the creek doesn’t rise or the world doesn't blow up, then that hope is going to be fulfilled. That is fairly close to what real hope looks like.
But the kind of hope I want to talk about today is not about this world or its immediate future. You know one day this world of ours is going to end as we know it. Can I tell you something? Nothing excites me more than that hope! Why? Because I know I have placed my eternal hope in Jesus Christ, and absolutely nothing nothing in this present world can shake that hope. It is unshakable.
What is your eternal hope? Listen to what the Apostle Peter said about his hope and ours in I Pet. 1:3-5:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the ressurection of Jesus Christ from the dead. "
I like that term living hope. For the Christian, it is not all about the future, it's also about enjoying, appreciating, and experiencing that hope right now because it is living! The hope Peter mentions here is the hope that begins in us the moment we experience the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ. Hope begins the moment you turn from your sin and trust the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse you and make you a new person in Him! He's waiting! Are you willing?
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