Hopeology, Part 13

You know, we're looking at the doctrine of Hopology. We began this when we were in Hebrews chapter 6, verses 13 and following, looking at God, our anchor of hope. And so we spent some time looking at this great doctrine.

So we've kind of taken it out of the study of Hebrews because it's kind of morphed into a miniseries. Well, it used to be a miniseries, now it's a long series. But I think it's important for us to understand what the Bible says about hope.

And so we're looking at this and I'm hoping to finish it before Christmas. That's my plan. But you never know how long it's going to take me to get through something I've started and have a hard time corralling myself because there's so much to say concerning the doctrine of hope.

We've covered nine points with you so far to help you understand exactly what this doctrine is, how it's rooted in God, how it's received by grace, how it's ratified through the resurrection and so on and so forth. We've tried to cover them for you so you can understand them so that you can grasp them and understand, do I possess the living hope from the living God because through the living word he made me a living stone. Therefore I have the hope of the living God in me.

That's where we're looking and trying to help you understand that. And today as we come to our tenth point, it helps us understand how hope truly is that one element that revolutionizes my relationships. Hope revolutionizes my relationships.

In other words, if you possess the hope that God grants, it changes the way you relate to everybody around you. It changes the way you relate to everybody in this room, everybody at work, everybody at school, everybody in your family. The way you relate to them becomes significantly different than it was before you possessed the hope of the living God.

Let me show you what Paul says to the church at Colossae in Colossians chapter 1, verse 3. He says these words. We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. In other words, because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven, Paul says we're giving thanks to God, not just because of the faith you have in God, but because of the love you have for all the saints because you have this hope stored up in glory.

And hope is living in anticipation of the promises of God. You have this hope. You live in anticipation of the fulfillment of all the promises of God that is so unique in you that it's changed every way you relate to those who are in the church.

It's revolutionized your relationships. So important. Charles Spurgeon in his book, Sermons on Hope, says this about Colossians chapter 1, verses 3 and following concerning how the hope of God has changed the way I perceive the saints because I have a great love for them.

He says this, there can be no doubt that the hope of heaven tends greatly to foster love to all the saints of God. We have a common hope, let us have a common affection. We are now on our way to God.

Let us march in loving company. We are to be one in heaven. Let us be one on earth.

One is our master and one is our service. One is our way and one is our end. Let us be knit together as one man.

We will of us expect to see our well-beloved face to face and to be like him. Why should we not even now love all those in whom there is anything of Christ? Brethren, we are to live together forever in heaven. It is a pity we should quarrel.

We are forever to be with Jesus Christ, partakers of the same joy, of the same glory, of the same love. Why should we be scant in our love to each other? On the way to Canaan, we have to fight the same enemy, to publish the same testimony, to bear the same trials, and to fly to the same helper. Therefore, let us love one another.

The church today talks a lot about loving one another. The world talks a lot about what it means to love other people. But isn't it interesting that the more books we write on love and the more we preach about love and the more we talk about love, the less we love? In fact, we have no understanding of what it means to love somebody anymore.

It becomes so confusing because everybody has a different definition of what love really means. And so it's imperative that we understand that love is essential in the body of Christ. And maybe you're here today and you're one of those people who says, yeah, you know, I love the brethren.

I love my family. Let's examine that together. Let's evaluate that together.

Let's see if you truly love the saints. Let's see if you truly love those in your family, your physical family or your spiritual family. You see, everybody wants to be loved.

Everybody needs love, but nobody truly reaches out and loves. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13, 8, that love never fails. And many of you would be here today and give a testimony, well, the love that I had for my spouse failed or the love they had for me failed because we're divorced now.

Things didn't work out. Love must have failed. But the Bible says love never fails.

What kind of love? Well, the love described in 1 Corinthians 13. The love that is patient, the love that is kind, and as he gives this great description of what love is and what love is not, that kind of love never fails. In fact, he says in 1 Corinthians 13, 4, the love is patient and the love is kind.

The definite article is there in the original language to show you that there's a particular kind of love. It's the love. What love? The love of God.

The love of God is patient, macrothymia, it's long fuse, and the love of God is kind. That kind of love never fails because it's the kind of love that God dispenses. And people say, well, I can't love like that.

Sure you can. Sure you can. In fact, you're the only ones who can do that because Romans 5, 5 says that the love of God has been shed abroad in your hearts.

It doesn't say that the love of God has been dipped in your heart. Or the love of God has a sliver of your heart. No, the love of God has been shed abroad in your heart.

It's all over the place. So not to be able to love the way God loves is just an excuse to live a sinful lifestyle. Because the love of God has been shed abroad in your heart and mind.

In fact, the Bible is very clear to point out that the fruit of the Spirit is love. If you possess the Spirit, the outworking of that demonstrates itself first of all in how you love others. So it's very important to understand that the love of God transcends the natural.

Because it's supernatural. And we in the church need to be able to exemplify that. We're talking about how the hope of God refines our present lifestyle.

That was point number nine. It does. It changes the way I live.

Because he who has this hope in him purifies himself even as he himself is pure. Well, that translates itself in how it is I relate to you. As my brother and sister in Christ.

As one even in my own family. Love, that permanent virtue, bears the unbearable, believes the unbelievable, hopes amidst hopelessness, and endures when everyone else quits. Because the love of God does not quit.

It bears the unbearable. In fact, in Titus chapter 2 verse number 4, Older women are to teach younger women to love their husbands and love their children. Why would Paul exhort the women in the church on the island of Crete to have older women teach younger women to love their husbands? Ladies, you know that.

Because for centuries, for millennia, women who are wives have had a very difficult time loving their husbands. And so older women who have learned to love their husbands are to teach younger women how to love their husbands. And to love their children.

Because it is an issue in families. And then on the flip side of that, it says, Husbands, Ephesians 5, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. So the exhortation, not only is for older women to teach younger women how to love their husbands, but the exhortation is, fellas, you've got to love your wife as Christ loved the church.

You've got to give yourself up. See, we don't necessarily want to do that. We would like our wives to give herself up for us.

We don't want to give ourselves up for her. So we find it very difficult, even though the love of God is set upon your heart. It's all over the place.

You have no excuse not to do that. Because you have every avenue by which you are equipped to do exactly what the Lord has said. He's given you a spirit.

Because the fruit of the spirit is love. He has shed his love abroad in your heart. That you might reach out to those in the church.

Those in your family. And love them in a way that honors the Lord. 1 Corinthians 14 says something unique.

Follows 1 Corinthians 13, that great love chapter. 1 Corinthians 14 says, pursue love. Pursue love.

Dioko, which means to hunt love. Hunt it down. It's a hunting term.

You ever been hunting? When you go tracking an animal, you're looking to trap it. Kill it. Eat it.

Skin it. Don't call PETA on me please. But anyway, you're looking to track down the animal.

It's a hunting term. Love is something you track down. You pursue it.

It is something that God has commanded us to do. You see, we forget. We've said this many times.

Love is not a reward. Love is a responsibility. We want to be rewarded by someone loving us.

We want that reward. But the Bible never speaks of it that way. Love is not a reward.

Love is a responsibility. That you and I share. Because God is love, and his love is shed abroad in our hearts, in order for us to properly portray him, not only do we pursue love, we pursue love in such a way that we are able to fulfill our responsibility in portraying God to one another.

That is so absolutely crucial. You are not to pray for God to help you love someone. Did you know that? You're just a lover.

It's a command. You don't have to pray for a command. God says, love one another.

Pursue love. Lord, I just don't know if I should pursue love or not. Could you give me wisdom on that? Lord, I'm not so sure I should love this person.

Lord, why are you praying about a command? You just obey a command. You just obey the command. Pursue love.

Okay, Lord, I'm going to pursue love. Husbands, love your wives. Okay, I'm going to love my wife.

Love one another, okay? I'm going to give myself to someone else. I'm going to obey the command. You don't have to pray about something you need to obey.

You just need to obey it. For you to say, I have to pray about it, it's just an excuse to prolong it. It's just an excuse to delay obedience, right? And delayed obedience is always? Disobedience, huh? See, you've learned.

Delayed obedience is disobedience. It's just an excuse to live in disobedience a little bit longer. No, just obey the command.

In fact, it's so clearly portrayed in Scripture. Listen to what it says. Colossians 3, 14, put on love.

Put it on. Don't pray about it, just put it on. Philippians 1, 9, abound in love.

Hebrews 13, 1, continue in love. I mean, if you're already loved by God, and you love the brethren, just continue in love. 1 Thessalonians 3, 12, increase in love.

So not only do you abound in love, not only are you to increase in love, you are to continue in love because you put on love. Then it says in 1 Peter 4, 8, be fervent in your love. It says in Philippians 2, 2, be consistent in your love.

Not inconsistent, but consistent. Hebrews 10, 24, provoke others to love and good deeds. 2 Corinthians 8, 8, be sincere in your love.

1 Corinthians 16, 14, let all you do be done in love. 1 Timothy 1, 5, love out of a pure heart. Romans 13, 8 to 10, oh no man, anything but love.

And Paul says in Ephesians 5, therefore, based on the fact that you are to be forgiving as God in Christ Jesus has forgiven you, therefore, be ye imitators of God and walk in love. Do you want to be an imitator of God? You can't do it unless you walk in love. And if you're walking in love, the depth of one's love is measured always by its willingness to forgive.

Always. Always measured by its willingness to forgive. I wonder if you truly want to be an imitator of God and walk in love.

If you have the hope of the living God, in you, you are living in anticipation. Remember we told you, in 1 Corinthians 13, about that great triad of Christian faith. Faith, hope, and love.

Christian virtues, faith, hope, and love, right? And faith is defined very simply by the conviction, living by the conviction of God's precepts. Hope is living in anticipation of God's promises. And love is living by the realization and manifestation of God's person.

That's how you distinguish the three. Hope causes me to always live in anticipation. And while I'm living in anticipation of what God's going to do one day when he comes to take me home to be with him, I have this great supreme conviction to obey what he says because I've realized who he is and now I want to manifest who he is to others.

That's what love is. But I only do that because there's this upward focus on the true and living God. You see, I can love you today because I know what's coming tomorrow.

My Savior's coming. He's coming to take me home to be with him. And so I'm living in anticipation of the promises of God and excited to let you know exactly who he is.

So I'm going to manifest him to you. That's what love does. So let's examine our lives together, should we? Let's put our life under the microscope of the Scriptures.

Not under my opinion or someone else's opinion, but what does the Word of God say concerning love? If hope truly revolutionizes my relationships because it causes me to love the saints, as Paul says in Colossians chapter 1, then there's something unique about how that hope functions in my heart because it motivates me to truly love you. So let's look at it together. I have several points I want to give you this morning.

Love is always determined by a personal knowledge of the living God. Love is determined by a personal knowledge of the living God. And this is where we will lose some of you, unfortunately, because you don't know God.

I have counseled countless numbers of people in the last 35 years that I've been a pastor. I can't even begin to count the couples that have been in my office or I've been in their home or they've been in my home and I've had a chance to talk with them about their relationship with the Lord. And they just can't bring themselves to pursue love.

They can't just bring themselves to be imitators of God and walk in love, and that's because they don't know God. But they think they do. And they can't understand why they can't love their spouse or why they don't want to love their spouse.

Listen, if you love God, you want to love your spouse. You do. Listen to what the Bible says in 1 John chapter 4. Very familiar verses.

You know these verses. Verse 7, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. It's not from anywhere else but God.

And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. And the one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In other words, the one who does not love is defined by someone who does not know God.

Because if you know God, you love. Because God is love. I mean, I don't know how much clearer to make it to you.

I think John did a pretty good job. I'm trying to expand a little bit, but John did a good job through the power and inspiration of the Spirit of God. Right? Love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God.

Well, the reason some of us can't get along with one another is because we don't love God. We don't know God, who is love. His love is not shed abroad in my heart.

The fruit of the Spirit is not love in my life because I don't know God. Love is determined by a personal knowledge of the living God. So when you are wondering why I can't love the person on the other side of the room, okay, maybe that's you today.

Maybe you can't love the same person sitting next to you in the same pew. I don't know. Maybe it's because you lack the knowledge of the true living God.

Hosea would say, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Right? Hosea chapter 6, verse number 4. They don't know me. If they knew me, they wouldn't be destroyed.

Daniel 11, 32 says that those who know their God, okay, do great exploits for God because they are strengthened by God. In other words, if you know God, you're strengthened by God, you can therefore do great exploits for God. But if you don't know God, you can't do that.

But if you do know God, the God who is love, you can love one another. See, John says you can love one another because love is of God and you're born of God. So just do what the Bible says.

Obey the command. You don't have to pray about it. You don't have to think about it.

You don't even have to talk to your pastor about it. You just got to do it. It's not that difficult to understand.

But we make it very difficult. We make it so convoluted. We say, yeah, yeah, yeah, but, but, but.

Whenever you put but in a sentence, you got a problem. I want to, but. But what? But what? You see, we just don't want to do it.

The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. These words. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Paul is talking about the church of Thessalonica. He says, we give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers.

Constantly bear in mind your work of faith. Or in other words, the faith that prompts your work. And labor of love.

In other words, the reason you work so hard. Is because of the love of God that's been shed upon your hearts. And steadfastness of hope.

In other words, there is a service. That's taking place in your church. Because there is a sacrifice on behalf of those in your church.

And that sacrifice is a steadfast sacrifice that never ends. That's why your church is so dynamic. That's why your church is so great.

That's why I give thanks to God for what's happening in your church. Because there is this work of faith. This labor of love.

This steadfastness of hope. That is so amazing. That I can't help but give thanks.

To the true and living God. For all that he has done. Paul would say, 2 Corinthians 5.14 and 15.

The love of Christ compels me. It moves me to action. See, if you love Christ.

It revolutionizes your relationships. Because it moves you to action. We'll see the point number two.

That's this. If love is determined by a personal knowledge of God. Then love is demonstrated by what it does.

Love is demonstrated by what it does. In other words, I said this to you before. Love is more visible than vocal.

Love is more visible than vocal. You can say you love someone. You need to tell your wife at least once a day that you love your wife.

Right? I love you. You should always tell her that. I love you.

But if you tell her, you can tell her a million times a day. But if you don't back it up with your actions. They're just words that mean nothing.

Right? So love is demonstrated by what it does. I love the scriptures because the scriptures are so clear about this. You know, you go through all of Genesis.

All of Exodus. All of Leviticus and all of Numbers. And never one time did God say to Israel, I love you guys.

Never. Never one time all through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers did God say, I am so in love with you guys. It wasn't until the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the scriptures, that God finally tells Israel that he loves them.

But it doesn't mean he didn't love them. Because love primarily is visible, not vocal. He demonstrated his love for Israel all throughout Genesis.

All throughout Exodus. All throughout Leviticus. All throughout Numbers.

He just kept demonstrating his love over and over and over again. To help them understand, I love you guys. Man, I'm doing everything for you.

I'm taking care of you. I'm providing for you. I am your healer.

I am your helper. I am here for you. I am your provider.

I am here. They just didn't get it. So, in Deuteronomy chapter 7, he says, I love you.

And the reason I love you is because, because of what? Say that again, Marlene. I choose to. I choose to love you.

That is the only reason to love somebody. You know that, right? You only love them because you choose to. Why do you love your wife? She's a great cook.

I think it's great to have a wife who's a great cook, but you shouldn't love her because she's a great cook. But what happens if she loses her arms in an accident? She can't cook anymore. Does that mean you don't love her anymore? I love my wife because, you know, she helps provide for our home.

She brings in half the income. What if she loses her job? You don't love her anymore? I love my wife. My wife, she's so pretty.

Let me tell you something. The older they get, careful, my wife said be careful. The prettier they are.

Yeah, whoo, got out of that one. Let's close in prayer. But, you know, we all, we really, we look differently.

Different, right? We don't look the same. See, beauty, I know, is in the eyes of the beholder. You can't love someone because.

Because, if you love someone because, you really don't love them. You love them because of what they do for you. That's called manipulation.

That's called self-serving. That's not love. I love the people in the church because they serve.

Well, what if you don't serve? Do I not love you? No. That's not the truth. We love the people in the church because they give.

What if they don't give? Do you stop loving them? I love the people in the church because they like to go on mission trips. But what if you don't go on a mission trip? Does that mean we don't love you? You can't love them because. Because, if you put because in the sentence, it's self-serving.

It's manipulating. You love simply because you choose to. I want to love you.

And the only reason I can choose to do that is because the love of God, who chooses to love you and chooses to love Israel, is shed upon my heart. Does that make sense? You can nod your head yes if that makes sense. If that makes sense, just shake your head no.

That will help me understand that you're not tracking with me. But the bottom line is that we are to love one another. For love is of God and love is from God because God is love.

So love is determined by a personal knowledge of God, which is demonstrated in the way I relate to you, the things I do to you and for you. That's love. Because if I have the hope of the living God in me, of the assurance of eternal glory, it will revolutionize everything I do on earth.

Could it be the reason my relationships are not revolutionized is because I have not been revolutionized by the presence of the living God in my heart? You have to ask that question. You have to ask that question. And if I don't compel you to ask that question, if I don't challenge you to ask that question, you're just going to continue to float through life and float through church and float through the things you do without ever personally examining where you stand with the true and living God.

Love is demonstrative. Love demonstrates itself in the things I do, not just in the things I say. 1 John 3. 1 John 3, verses 17 and 18.

Whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and in truth. And just take in the margin of your Bible, love is more visible than it is vocal. Because it is.

Don't just love in word and in tongue, but love in deed and in truth. If you see that your brother has a need, for instance, we have this Operation Christmas Child. There are children who have needs.

We can tangibly meet those needs. And because we love the saints, we want to reach out and do what we can to help children in need. Right? I see the need of my brother or sister in church.

I see their need. Are you compelled to meet the need? Are you compelled to reach out and touch the need? Bruce and Tom boasted up here last weekend and talked about the opportunity to go back to Myanmar and to be able to go to Ecuador and to be able to go to Russia and to be able to send people to train other pastors to reach their churches with the truth of the gospel, to be able to expound the scriptures. But we can't do that unless you as a church give toward that need.

He who sees his brother in need, and there are people in countries around the world that have needs that we can tangibly meet by going to them and teaching them and instructing them and equipping them to do the work of the ministry, that we can actually do that with them, for them. They have needs, and we can meet those needs. So John asks the question, can you really say the love of God dwells in you when you see your brother in need and as you set up your vows of compassion, don't meet the need? No, you want to meet the need.

You want to take care of those who have needs. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, 2 Thessalonians 1 verse number 3 says this, We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting because your faith is greatly enlarged and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater. Wow, see, in the first chapter of the first letter he wrote to those in Thessalonica, he thanked them for their work of faith and labor of love, and now he's writing another letter and saying, wow, man, your love is just increasing.

It's just over the top. It's just amazing. It's abounding.

Because they have moved from one level of glory to the next level of glory. They've matured in their faith. And it's being demonstrated day in and day out by those in Thessalonica.

Let me ask you this question. What can you do this very moment that would actually demonstrate to someone else in this room that you love them? A visible, tangible expression of your love for them. You can say, I love you.

And it's good to say that. It really is. But if there's no visible expression of that, they're just words that go in one ear and out the other.

And if love does not define the way we interact one with another, we have to ask ourselves, does the hope of heaven and all that's stored up in glory truly reside in me? Love is visible more than it is vocal. Love is determined by a personal knowledge of God. Love is demonstrated by what I do.

And thirdly, love is defined by its ability to keep on giving. Love is defined by its ability to keep on giving. The Bible says in 1 John 3, verse number 16, by this, or we know the love by this, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

We know he loves us because he laid his life down for us. Well, how do the brothers and sisters know that we love them? There is this sacrifice that we do. Not a one-time sacrifice, but an ongoing sacrifice.

It would be like saying, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. And say, honey, I sacrificed for you last week. I'm not doing it this week.

It's your turn. We live that way, don't we? You're it, not it, you're it. No, it's your turn.

It's your turn to step up and sacrifice. No, the Bible has never defined that way. Love is not defined that way.

Love is defined by its ability to keep on giving without ever expecting anything in return, by the way. Because once you expect something in return, what has happened? You have manipulated in your efforts. You did what you did because you want a response.

You should never do what you do for a response. Because if you do, that's selfishness. That's manipulation.

I'm going to manipulate, I'm going to massage you, I'm going to soothe you so that you'll do something back for me. That's not love. That's just the highlight of selfishness.

Because what you're doing really is all about you anyway, not about them. And love is defined by its ability to keep on giving. In other words, listen.

Love is always active and never passive. Do you remember that? Love is always active. Love is an action word.

It's active. It's not passive. Don't sit back and wait.

Why? Because you pursue love. You hunt it down. You're pursuing new ways, new avenues, new opportunities.

To give yourself to somebody else. That's what love is. So let me go back to the question I just asked you like four minutes ago.

And that is, what will you do today that will demonstrate not just your love for those in your family or those in the family of God, but what will you do not just to demonstrate, but to keep on doing it because it's defined by the ability to keep on giving and expecting nothing in return. That's love. How about you? Has the hope of the living God revolutionized your relationships? It does so because you have a personal knowledge of the God who is love.

He shed his love abroad in your heart, giving you a spirit so the fruit of the spirit will manifest itself in how I relate to you out of love. It is demonstrated by what I do for you. It's more visible than it is vocal.

I want you to see I love you. And it's defined by its ability to keep on giving. It doesn't demonstrate a one-time sacrifice.

Let's say that's it. I've sacrificed. I'm done.

No, it's not done. It's active. It's not passive.

It just keeps on giving. He came to his own, and his own received a nod. John 1.12. John 1.11, excuse me.

So Jesus went home to glory. Is that what it says? He came to his own, his own received a nod. Well, I am going back to my Father in heaven.

I've come to give myself away. They did not receive me. I'm done.

I'm done. I've had enough of this. I've demonstrated to them the beauty of who I am, and they don't want anything to do with me.

I'm going home. That's the way most of us live our lives. That's the way most of us live in our marriages.

I'm done. I'm going home. I'm taking what is mine, and I'm leaving.

But love is defined by its ability to keep on giving. How about you? We're not done yet. I mean, we're done today, but... unfortunately, I'm not done with this point.

Or fortunately, I'm not done with this point. But we'll finish it next week. I promise.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for today. Thank you, Lord, for the love that you've shown to us and shed abroad in our hearts.

We are grateful. May we be a church that truly demonstrates the love of the living God, the love that's visible, the love that's sacrificial, the love that's beneficial, the love that's transformational, the love that's judicial, the love that has been described so clearly in the Scriptures. May we stop looking out for our own interests and look out for the interests of others.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.