What Is Your Hope In?

Prayer Requests:

• Joyce's would like us to pray for her Uncle Bob, who just underwent surgery. Also keep his wife, Norma, in your prayers.
• On December 3 our sister Robin's son died. This has been extremely hard on the family, so please pray for them this season.
• Pray for health for Richard's brother Lou (still in the hospital), as well as Lil Buckley (who had a pacemaker put in). May God be the Great Physician to them both.
• Pray for Elaine's mother.
• Keep Rebecca in your prayers constantly.
• Dwayne has been struggling with the intense pain of an abscessed tooth lately, but he was feeling better on Thursday. Just keep praying for his total recovery.
• We asked for a safe trip home for Paul and Ruby. They made it safely over a very dangerous pass already, so they just have to finish the snowy road home. 

Sermon Notes:

Our hope is so fickle. Throughout our lives we hope in many things in succession: popularity, relationships, career, family, etc. These hopes are constantly being dashed, in part because of what Romans 8:20 talks about--the world has been subjected to frustration. If we have been putting our hope in things which can be seen, we are in trouble (Romans 8:24-25). Hope can be defined as "expecting good from something". If we are expecting good from something that can be seen, then it can never be enough and we will inevitably be disappointed. Humans have been compared to engines that are designed to run on God, and when we fill ourselves with things other than Him, we malfunction. And what happens when the hopes of the world don't satisfy us? We give up on hope altogether. 

1 Peter 1:3-4a  

This is a hope that we can hold on to even when everything else crumbles around our ears. 

Job 13:15  

Job put his faith completely in God, even to the point of death. In chapter 2 verse 9 Job's wife basically says, "All your reasons for living are gone. Curse God and end your meaningless life!" But Job did not live for his wealth, or his children. When they were taken away his reason for living was just as intact as it ever was.  We need to hold fast to God's promises, even if it doesn't look like they will be accomplished in our lifetimes. 

Job chastised his friends for telling him that "everything will go well if you do everything right and you'll be blessed here and now for sure." Job did all that and he was still plunged into suffering and misery. We can be doing everything right and our circumstances can still look incredibly wrong. This is one reason why we should not judge others. When you see a suffering friend, encourage them to put all their hope in the God that never fails. 

In the end, even the blameless cannot be good enough. We should work as if it depended on us, but our real hope should be completely in God to redeem all of it.