The Glory of God is Our HOPE

 

Romans 5:1-10

 

 

We started to talk about Hope in the Armenian sermon.

Despair is the opposite of hope. There are many who live without hope. There are many who live with unrealistic, fake hopes. Many live in despair not knowing what to do, where to go?

But today we are talking about HOPE. The Biblical understanding HOPE is unique.

As I mentioned in Armenian sermon, we have hope and it is centered in the GLORY of GOD. God is the center and not man.

 

Think about Mary the mother of Jesus.  She was just a simple young girl engaged to Joseph.

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold you will conceive and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great. He will be the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the world…” (Luke 1:30)

Can you imagine Mary’s fear of the future? What would her fiancé think?

How about the family? How about the town?

I think she did not understand what was going on in her life. Yet, yet, she obeyed. She had great HOPE because she obeyed God’s calling. She saw a new future ahead of her. She realized she did not need to understand everything, but she needed to obey God.  Paul says: “We rejoice in the HOPE of the Glory of God”.  This is a new plan. New creation. New salvation. THE GLORY OF GOD.

 

I read an interesting story. Let me read it for you:

 

“In the year 1870 the Methodists in Indiana held their Annual Conference on the campus of a local college. The president of that college addressed the assembled Methodists and he said: “I think we are living in such an exciting age. I think we are going to see things happen in our lifetime that right now are just unbelievable.” The presiding bishop was intrigued by the college president’s remarks. The bishop interrupted him and said, “What do you see? What specifically are you talking about? What kind of new things do you mean?” And the president of the college said, “Well, all kinds of things, Bishop. I believe we’re coming into a time of great inventions. This is the year 1870 and I believe for example that one day soon we will be able to fly through the air like birds!” “You what?” said the bishop. “You believe that one day we will be able to fly?” “Yes, sir, I do,” said the college president. And then the bishop expounded Why, that is heresy, sir. Just plain heresy. The Bible says that flight is reserved for the angels and the angels alone. Enough of that drivel. We will have no more such talk here. Flying! What a ridiculous idea!” And do you know what? When the conference was over, that same bishop whose last name was Wright, went home to his wife and to his two small sons... whose names just happened to be — Wilbur and Orville! The bishop had tuned out. He wasn’t listening.” 1

 

Can you imagine Mary arguing with God? “I am not married. I do not see any reality in your words…” She just obeyed with the HOPE of the Glory of God.

 

2. Our hope is in Glory of God, which includes joy as well as suffering: “And we rejoice in our suffering, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character; and character hope, And hope does not disappoint us.” (4,5)

 

Our hope is tested. It is not going to be easy. No one is promising an easy life. But in our HOPE there is joy as well as suffering.

Suffering is not joy. But when you suffer for Christ’s glory, when you endure, and when your endurance helps build your character, that is JOY.

 

When we have hope in God this does not mean He will remove all the sufferings from our lives. No, in fact, God will be with us in our sufferings helping us to go through them.

 

Our suffering is not just for our interest, (although we will have better character), but the center of our character must be Christlike. I am mentioning this because we can fall in the trap of self-purity and self -glorification. Our Christian hope is centered on God’s Glory ONLY.

 

 

 

3.  “And Hope does not disappoint us...” (5)

I said this kind of Hope is different than that which the world will teach you. This HOPE is true and genuine and will not disappoint us.

We heard so many times this sentence: “This is last time, I will never disappoint you again.”  You know the result.

The worldly hope will disappoint us, because it is not perfect, and can not be perfect.

God will never disappoint us. What a wonderful promise. This promise will be fulfilled when we see Jesus face to face, when he is sitting on the throne. Then our hope is not hope anymore; our hope will be fulfilled in the perfect presence of God.

Also God will not disappoint us now in this world. Let me tell you about Terry Anderson. He was held captive in Lebanon for 6.5 years. He was released on December 4, 1991. The journalists asked him many questions:

 

 

1. First, when he was asked what had enabled him to survive this awful experience, he answered without hesitation, “My faith, my companions, and my stubbornness.” (Which is another way of saying, trust in God.)

2. Second, one reporter said, “Terry, you have said that you don’t hate your captors. Can you help us to understand that?” Terry Anderson replied, “It’s really very simple. I’m a Christian. The Scriptures teach us to forgive. I don’t hate anybody.”

3. And the third, he was asked, “Terry, did you ever lose hope?” Terry Anderson said, “Hard question... Of course, I had some blue moments, moments of despair, but fortunately, right after I became a hostage, one of the first things that fell into my hands was a Bible. Over the last 6 ½ years as a captive, I have spent a lot of time with the Bible... and that helped me so much because it’s about hope; it’s about trust in God, and that’s what gave me the strength to make it through each day.” And then Terry Anderson said, “You do what you have to do. Faith helps you to do what you have to do. I spent a lot of time with the Bible and it reminded me to do the best I could each day... and to trust God for the future.” 2

We need to wait for Christmas in this spirit.  There are many things happening in our life, holiday expectations, gifts and other duties…

But be careful. We are in the Advent season. We are waiting for the coming of the Lord. So let us prepare ourselves. Let us have the Hope. Come to Christ.

 

When we baptize little Emily it will be good time to reflect on our own Baptisms. Time to remember that we are given to God, we belong to God.

 

“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”  (2 Thess. 2:16-17)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 Sermon Illustrations (eSermons.com)

2 Sermon Illustrations (eSermons.com)