Hopeology, Part 6

It's so good to be able to open God's precious word to you once again. I've been gone for several weeks and to be able to come back and share God's word with you It's a great joy We're in Hebrews 6, verses 13 to 20, although we haven't covered those set of verses yet, and we won't today, nor next week Or the week after that, but we will get to those verses because we are looking at God, our anchor of hope, helping you to get a clear understanding of what hope is

What does the Bible say concerning hope? And so, you know, we are called to worship God in spirit and in truth, right? And so, as we do that, we must understand that we must revere the God of truth But to revere him, we must remember him In order to remember him, we need to recall all the things that he said so that we in turn can reiterate those things To others, as well as reveal that truth to others, so we can reproduce that truth in others But if we don't remember what God has said or who God is, we have a hard time revering His Holy Name

So, I'm going to give you this morning an opportunity to remember, by way of review, the principles we've already given to you And this is going to require your participation. I'm not going to call on you individually because many of you have said over the years that, you know what, if you call on me, I'm leaving the church So, I'm not going to do that But give me the opportunity to res. I want you to participate You need to remember what we said. I've been gone four weeks And I'm sure Well, let me ask you this question

How many principles have we already given you about hope? Does anybody know? Seven All right, good So at least two of you remember All right, we've given you seven principles concerning hope And I'm going to give you the opportunity to remember those principles because we're going to review them for you And as we review them for you, give you the opportunity then

To be able to remember what we've said about the God who is hope, that you might somehow recall that in order to reiterate that, in order to Be able to reveal that truth in order to reproduce that truth in those you come in contact with on a regular basis The problem in all of our lives is that we forget We don't remember So it's imperative that we remember what God's Word says We have a hard time remembering from day to day, let alone from week to week, right? That's why we encourage you to take notes, write things down Okay? You're only going to remember 10% of what you hear

That goes up to about 25 or 30% if you write it down So, if you're able to remember those things, you can better revere the God that you worship Israel's problem all throughout the Old Testament And Tim talked about it this past week on Wednesday night: is that they forgot They did not rem We cannot forget what the Bible says concerning h because we offer hope to a world who has no hope Right? To the people in Ohi in El Paso, Texas, this week Who 's going to give them hope? Who's going to grant them hope? We can't hope to make it through the day We can't hope in our situation and circumstances

We hope in the God who controls situations and circumstances We hope in the God who governs each and every day, right? We can't control situations and circumstances, but the God who does control them can use those circumstances to work all things together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose So let's see how much we remember Okay? We've given you, as you have said, seven principles Principle number one: who knows it? You got to yell loud next. I can't understand Hope is rooted in God Look at that Who's got the verse for that? Romans 15, 13

Romans 15, 13, right there, up top All right Romans 15, 13, right? What does Romans 15, 13 say? Very Simply, this It says, Now may the God of Hope Hope is rooted in God No one else Nothing else It is completely rooted in God The Bible says these words, we gave you a myriad of verses, in Jeremiah:, Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, whose hope The Lord is whose hope the Lord is Psalm 7, verse number five For you are my hope, O Lord God You are my confidence from my youth God is the God of h Hope is living in anticipation of what God has promised

You must understand that faith is li by conviction on God's precepts Hope hope is living in anticipation of God's promises And love is living in the realization and the manifestation of his person The great triad of Christian virtues, faith, hope, and love, are very important But faith is based on a conviction We'll talk about that in Hebrews chapter 11 What are we convinced of? What are we convicted about? What are we assured of? Right? Faith is a conviction on what God has already said based on His precepts Hope is an anticipation based on what God has said concerning His promises

And love is a realization and manifestation Of the person and work of God Himself You need to understand that That's why I have told you over the weeks and over the years That you need to be able to master the Old Testament narrative Because the Old Testament narrative is about a people who had hope But their hope was living in anticipation of the promises of God They had not near the revelation that you and I have They can't come close to the revelation that you and I had

And so, if they were able to live in anticipation of what God said, why can't we do that, right? And hope is rooted in God Himself It's rooted in what He has said Already his word What are the promises of God? I live in anticipation of that We're going talk about that when we look at the Lord's table this morning because the Lord's table causes us to live in anticipation of his coming promises, his soon return So, principle number one was that hope was rooted in God If hope was rooted in God, principle number two is what? Hope is received by grace Oh, you guys are so good Received by grace

It's received by grace You can't earn hope You can't buy hope You can't achieve hope Hope is received By grace, it's a gift See, the great thing about salvation is that everything is a gift Faith is a gift Belief is a gift Repentance is a gift Hope is a gift Everything is a gift It's God granting us the gift of eternal life And that gift is wrapped up in who he is, what he's done, because he wants us to be a part of his glorious kingdom So hope is received by grace Who's got the verse for that? 2:16. 2nd Thessalonians: All right, see that you guys are so sharp this morning

You knew I was coming with questions today, didn't you? You know, that 's coming at 2 Thessalonians 2:1. which says very clearly the great promise of God that says, Now may the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by Grace It's a gift Hope is received by grace It's rooted in God There's the third one Hope, number three, is what? Ratified by the resurrection Ratified by the resurrection. I love that word, ratified It's a strong word Confirmed by the resurrection

Who's got the verse for that? 1 Peter 1, 3! 1 Peter 1. 3! See? What does it say over in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse number 3? 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 resurrection of Jesus Christ our L Hope, our hope, your hope, my hope is ratified It is absolutely confirmed It is absolutely assured of one thing: through the resurrection of Jesus Christ the Lord Jesus said, because I live You too shall live Wow, that's a confirmation

Jesus said to Mary and Martha, I am the resurrection and the life He who believes in me will live even if he dies And he who believes in me shall never die Well, what do you mean? I thought you did If you said, if I die, I'm going to live, but you said, I'll never die. I'm never going to be separated from God because he is the resurrection See? My hope is con Ratified by the fact that Jesus Himself rose from the dead And he told us in John's Gospel The fifth chapter: that every soul will rise from the dead because God has granted him the authority Christ Jesus, the authority to do so

What a powerful testimony Our hope is ratified through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord So it's rooted in God, received by grace, ratified by the resurrection And number four, our hope is Reinforced by the scriptures If you're having a hard time with hope, you need to understand what God has said in His Word That's why the Word of God reinforces Our hope What's the verse for that one? Romans fifteen: four, which says For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through the perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have h

Whatever was written beforehand was written for your instruction You better know what was written beforehand Do you know what was in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and so forth? Do you know what happened in the Old Testament with the kings? Do you know what happened in the Old Testament with the prophets and the judges? Do you know the narrative of the Old Testament? Do you understand that? Because those things are written for your Instruction that through the encouragement and perseverances of scripture you might have hope God says, I've written it down for you, I've given it to you

No reason to lack hope because I've reinforced your hope through the word that I have already given to you Wow How powerful is that? Psalm said in Psalm 119:4, you have made me h in your wor How good is that? Psalm 119, 8, I hope for your word Psal 119, 14, you are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in your word Word How great is that? So let me, as I like to do, help you understand that once again Because I can't emphasize this enough It took us 17 weeks to look at the life of Solomon on Wednesday nights And that was just in the book of 1 Kings

And we would refer to Proverbs, we would refer to the Song of Solomon, we would refer to Ecclesiastes, we would refer to the two Psalms that he wrote, okay? But basically, it was based on 1 Kings and the life from his birth till his death Okay? When it was all said and done, we looked at his obituary And looked at his life and the lessons that we learned in those 17 weeks And there are many of them. I just gave you seven of them Because I wanted you to understand the lessons that we learned

Because through the instruction of Solomon's life, King Solomon, the most popular person to ever live, the most powerful person To ever grace planet Earth, the most prosperous person to ever walk planet Earth, King Solomon, right? So, if you want to know about prosperity, if you want to know about popularity, if you want to know about power, study the main at all Right? Because he did And so those things are written for our instruction that through the encouragement of perseverance of Scripture we might have hope So we looked at his life

And what did Solomon's life teach us? What did his life teach us? Well, it taught us, number one, to maintain our priority Remember that? Anybody remember that? No, they weren't here Maintain our priority What's our priority? Fear God Keep his commandments Ecclesiastes twelve, verse number thirteen He wrapped up his life By helping us to understand that we need to fear God and keep his commandments If you read the book of Proverbs, when he wrote that early on in his life, it was all about fearing the Lord It's the beginning of wisdom Right? He talked about the fear of the Lord all the time

In fact, all throughout the Old Testament, there's a big emphasis on the fear of God because the unbeliever does not fear his name, but the believer does And the sum of all things, he says, the most popular, powerful, prosperous, Whoever lives says, Let me sum it up for you this way Listen, you need to fear God and keep his commandments because nothing else matters That's all that matters But if you stop maintaining that priority, then you fall into the trap that Solomon himself fell into He teaches us that

The question comes: do we maintain that priority? Because through the instruction of the Old Testament, Through the encouragement and perseverance of the Scripture, we now have hope Hope in what? Hope in what God has already promised us And He promises that if you fear me and you walk in my commandments. I will bless your life Stol taught us to maintain that priority He taught us to manifest Our integrity Proverbs 20, verse number 7 Solomon said The man who walks in his integrity, how blessed are his children after him Solomon said that But Solomon would compromise his integrity

He would compromise it with his hypocrisy By compromising the truth of God's holy word, it would cost him great And we learn from his life to manifest that integrity To live out what we say we believe and know in Jesus Christ our Lord Because when you compromise your integrity, It affects your entire family So early on, Solomon would say, Listen, you walk in your integrity, your children will be blessed What about Solomon's children? How blessed were his children? The Bible only tells us he had three. I think he'd have a lot more with 700 wives and 300 concubines

The Bible only gives us three: two girls and a boy And Rehob was the product of Solomon He led the nation into further sin and a divided kingdom Manifest your integrity These things are written for your instruction that through the encouragement and perseverance of Scripture, you might have hope Hope in what? Hope what God's promised And then we also learn that you need to master your ministry Ah, well, this is a good one, man Because Solomon had a two-fold ministry Like you and I have a two-fold ministry, right? It's a ministry

To sh our light and to show our love to shine our light To the world and to show our love to our wife That is your ministry Each and every man has a two-fold ministry That is it Shine the light to the world And Solomon at the early on his ministry did a great job doing that The Queen of Sheba would come in 1 Kings chapter 10, and she would come and she would learn from Solomon And she, what would she learn? She would learn that the God of Israel was his God, and that God put Solomon on the throne How did she know that? Solomon told her He was an effective light to the Queen of Sheba

It doesn't mean that she came to know the Lord because it says it was his God, not her God So we have no record in scripture that she really truly made a confession of faith in the Lord God of Israel But we do know this: that she understood a lot about Solomon's God because he was an effective light to the world But after that turn in 1 Kings chapter 10, toward the latter half of his ministry, everything began to change in Solomon's life

So much so that when the people came to visit him, they had no idea which God he served because he had all these different altars on the side of the Mount of Olives that he erected for his unbelieving wives, his foreign wives So when they came to Jerusalem, they'd be confused Which God do you serve? Not quite sure Got one altar there, and altar there, and one there, and two there, and four there, and a big one over there, one here Which God do you serve? So he didn't master that ministry Not only to show or to shine the light, but to show his love toward the Shunnam woman

Song of Song was about that, right? Ah, great, great book of the Bible, Song of Solomon It's Solomon's love for the Shun woman He would say in Proverbs chapter 5, Rejoice with the wife of your youth Always be exhilarated with her love And boy, he would write the song of Sol, and then you'd see him exhilarated with their love He would say, he who finds a wife finds a good thing But then he would marry 700 more How did the Shinnam woman handle that one? See? How was he effective of showing his love to her, rejoicing with the wife of his youth, and yet Marrying foreign w

You must master your ministry You must manifest your integrity You must always maintain your priority That's what Solomon teaches us And you can go on and see where it says to mind your destiny, to pay close attention, to take care of your destiny That's why he said in the book of Ecclesiastes: what? There's a time to be born, a time to die Ecclesiastes chapter 3 Ecclesiastes chapter 7 You read about it at all Whole new way now Ecclesiastes 7, verse number 1. A good name is better than a good ointment, and the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth

Now you understand that because from the time of your birth to the time of your death, you have a whole life To develop a name, the character that honors the Lord, because a good name last Longer than a good ointment And Solomon knew about fragrances and ointments because so many of them were imported to him, and so many of them he exported out He knew all about the spices and the fragrances, all about that But he also knew that a good name is better than a good ointment Then in his life, he realized his name had been soiled

Because he didn't maintain his priority, he didn't manifest his integrity, he didn't master his ministry So he says, mind your destiny Make sure you know where you're going and make sure you know that by the time you get there you live a life that reflects a name that glorifies the name of God This is so incredibly rich for us to hold on to And you can go on, and we get, I won't go into the detail with you, but you need to maximize your legacy, you need to magnify his glory, you need to model your purity, all those things

All those things were just seven lessons that were learned in Solomon's life that they reinforce hope You say, well, if his life was so negative And it ended in such a negative way How do we learn from that? We learn that because God says, if you walk in my ways and keep my word, I will prolong your life He died at 60 He died younger than me. I think I'm pretty fit. I think I'm pretty in tune with life at 61, right? Solomon became king around 18, 19, or 20, reigned for 40 years, then he died You do the math God says, You fear my name, keep my word, you prolong your lives That's the promise

We live in anticipation of the promises of God He says, if you walk in my ways, keep my statutes, you will never lack a man on the throne He didn't do that Didn't do that Instead, he led the nation to a huge division Yes, there was peace during his reign for 40 years God promised him that He's the man of peace That's what his name means, Solomon He's beloved of the Lord, Jedediah, that's what it means He was beloved of the Lord, and God granted him peace to this kingdom for 40 years But as soon as he died, that kingdom was divided And God promised

God promised, right? If you don't walk in my ways, Then this city and all who pass by it will wonder what happened here That's exactly what happened God's promises are true And you live in anticipation of them Our hope is based on what God has already said See that? That's why you need to know what the Bible says That's why you need to be in the Word every single day, memorizing Scripture, reading the narrative of Scripture Coming to understand what God has said in His Word so that you can live each day in the hope of the promises of the living God Four principles

Principle number five is what? Hope is reassured Rea by who? The Holy Spirit Verse Romans 15, 13, good Those of you who sit in the back are better than those of you who sit in the front People in the back are taking notes People in the front are sleeping Romans: Now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believance that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit Oh wow, God has given us a spirit His spirit is the truth teacher Remember, John 14, I will send to you another comforter

And he will teach you and bring to remembrance all these things, right? Why? Because the disciples needed to have hope in what God said Well, how are they going to remember what God said? He's going to get in the Holy Spirit So the Spirit reaffirms, it reassures our h as we spend time in the Word of God That Word is reinforced by the power of the Spirit of God That reaffirms in our life the truth of what God has said How great is that? That's just amazing Number six, hope is a rampart, a bulwark, a fortress against who? Satan and all of his devices

What's the verse? 1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse number 8 Our hope is the helmet of salvation It's a rampart against Satan It's that def mechanism that bolsters our mind It 's a fortress around our mind, right? That gives us the ironclad assurance not of our justification, not of our sanctification, but of our ultimate glorification Because Satan does everything he can to cause us to doubt the destiny of our souls, to discourage us in the midst of the destiny of our souls, and the hope The helmet of salvation is the rampart

So when we, by the power of the Spirit of God, spend time in the Word of God, that helmet gets thicker and thicker and thicker and thicker On our mind, so it cannot be penetrated by Satan's devices And number seven, hope Reproduces joy Verse Romans: Better master, Romans chapter 15, got a lot of good verses in there Romans chapter 15, verse number 13 again, which says, Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace Fill you with all joy What joy? His joy John 15 My joy I give unto you He says, He says, I have spoken these things unto you that your joy may be full

Because He's granted us His j Hope reproduces joy. I know where I'm going. I know exactly where I'm going to go when I die. I have no qualms about that. I have no questions about that. I have no uncertainties about that. I am going home to be with the Lord And you know what? That always reproduces joy Because the circumstances and situations in life don't produce joy But the God of hope, who assures us of our eternal destiny, reproduces joy in our lives The Bible says In Proverbs 10, 2, the hope of the righteous is joy The hope of the righteous is joy

Now, what we're going to do is we're going to partake at the Lord's table And this table, in and of itself, is a reminder how hope reproduces joy On the eve of the crucifixion, our Lord said these words to his disciples. I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer Before I suffer For I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God What Jesus said to his men was give them a promise

And hope is living in anticipation of God's promises. I never again will eat of this table until I eat of it in the kingdom of God, the marriage supp of the Lamb And when you come to the book of Revelation, the 19th chapter, right before our Lord returns, the church is in heaven Partaking of the marriage supp of the Lamb And it says, Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready Let's rejoice and be glad

Why? Because everything that Jesus said about eating this in the kingdom of God is going to happen because he promised it We live in anticipation of that glorious Lord's Supper in glory It was given to her that is a bride to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, but the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints And he said to me, Write, blessed are those who are Invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb They said unto me, These are the true words of God These are the words This is what's going to happen This is how it's going to come to be

There will be a married supper of the Lamb The bride will be there with the bridegroom We will be around the table and the Fulfillment of God's promise will come true, and therefore, hope always reproduces joy because I live in anticipation of what God has said, and one day I will be in glory with Him around His table Celebrating his death with him Wow What a great day that'll be Let's pray Father, thank you for today Chance to be in your word once again It truly is great because you are so great In Jesus' name, Amen.