We welcome you to the VI Zion Sermon Podcast.
We are a church based out of Chennai, India.
We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will
be refreshed, revived and energized by what you hear.
Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of
purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.
The year 2025 is 1 where we will be positioned by God to possess
our promise. We start a new sermon series
called Rekindled where we look closer at our own lives and ask
the Holy Spirit to revive and restore things that have gone
dormant in the dry seasons of our souls.
We pray that this series will help you dive deeper into
yourself and see where you need more of God.
Hi Church, such a joy and a privilege for me to bring God's
Word to you today. For those of you watching and
for those of you listening, I pray that even as you hear God's
Word, it'll fall on the good fertile soil of your heart.
Just last week and the week before that, we saw what fertile
faith looks like. And last week we saw what
fragrant faith looks like. And the week before this, we saw
why we need to have faith, such as a fiery faith in US.
And the reason why we've entered into this series called
Rekindled is because our faith, our hope, and our love have to
be rekindled. It can't be dominant over a
season, over a period of time. We claim that we have faith,
love and hope. But it's in this Rekindling, we
realize that there are so many things that we are set in our
ways. There are so many things we've
convinced ourselves. This is what faith is.
This is what love is. This is what hope is, and I want
us to come to a place where we will allow the Holy Spirit to
rekindle our hearts once again. Our hearts so that we believe
once again, our Spirit man, so we'll be thirsty once again, our
physical bodies that will be geared up to do what God's
calling us to do. And so even today as we look
into the continuation of this, we're going to step into the
topic of hope. And my title today is called
honest hope. The rekindling that happens when
we see the Holy Spirit, when we give him access, especially
after we've just come through the entire Pentecost series.
We see that when he when we allow him into our lives, he
rekindles even our hope. Many a times the hope that we
have, many times the hope that we see is so limited.
I don't know about you, but many times when I think about hope,
when I think what I'm hopeful for, a lot of times I'm looking
it through my faith lens or it's my faith size hope.
But God is telling today. Would you have a God sized hope
today? And that has to come to a place
of being honest where we say God, I only can hope for so
much. But when you are in me, when you
are with me, when you are the future, when you say you are the
same yesterday, today and forever, I am willing to trust
in a God says hope. And so we the baseline for the
entire thing is faith. Because without faith none of
this would exist. As we strengthen the faith, as
you go through what fertile soil looks like, as you look through
the fragrant in the crushing is when we are becoming a fragrant
to everyone who are around in that we start having hope.
So I want to ask us today, what do we consider as hope?
If I have to look into the meaning of hope, it's to want
something to happen and you want it to be true.
You have a good reason it might happen or may not happen.
And that's what hope is defined as, as a dictionary.
But I want to go back to what the Word of God says, because
the Word of God doesn't leave room for doubt.
It's certain. And I want us to come to that
place. Romans chapter 5 verses 1 to 5
is what we have taken as a key passage today, and therefore
this and this is what it says in Romans chapter 5.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we
have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now
stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings because we
know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance,
character, and character hope. And hope does not put us to
shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Even as I mentioned, the outcome of our faith is hope.
Even as we read this, Paul constantly draws our attention
to the hope that we have in Christ Jesus.
What is the hope that we have that whatever is happening here
on earth, we are assured of eternity with Jesus?
And so today, you and I are definitely going through a lot
of things. You and I definitely need a lot
of hope for the things that we're going through.
You know, 10 years back, we probably needed some kind of
hope. Today in 2025, we need some kind
of hope. We don't know what the future
holds, but Jesus is telling us. And Paul is also reminding us
through the Romans to keep our eyes fixed on eternity because
the problem is when we don't have our eyes fixed on the
eternity of hope that is given, that's not changing.
Jesus is coming back. The world is going to be judged.
God is going to set apart those who follow him and those who
don't follow him. All these are for sure.
That's what our faith is built on.
That's the cornerstone of our faith, that Jesus Christ came to
seek and save that which was lost.
We who are lost are all now saved.
And so today as we look into this, the word hope in the Greek
means elpis, which is properly expectation of what is sure,
expectation of what is sure. It's to anticipate.
It's to welcome properly and expectation of what is sure.
World explains it as it might happen, or we'll hope for the
outcome of this to be good. We hope that they might be doing
well. We hope.
But the Bible says it's an expectation of what is sure it's
going to happen. And so today I want us to go
back to what Paul's saying. Our hope is in the glory of God,
the resurrected Savior. He's seated on the right hand of
the Father. He's coming back.
There's no change in that. And as we read this letter,
what's encouraging is the fact that he wants us to realize that
our faith has to be in Jesus. He constantly takes us back to
that because we are living in a world where our faith often
times is so fluctuating. If I have to ask you on Monday,
what is your faith in or who is your faith on?
You would soon realize there are so many questions we have for
those of us who are going through sickness.
A lot of times our faith is on our doctor, our faith is in the
medicine that we take. It's all add-ons.
The main faith has to be in Jesus because when we have our
faith in Jesus, everything else starts making sense.
He then starts when you see here Paul, he talks about having
faith in Jesus. He then talks to them about the
fave moving towards hope where they are assured of what will
happen when we close our eyes. Paul in this discourse always
ends with the hope that we will experience with Jesus face to
face. You know, just recently in the
place where we stay there was the residents who were all
staying had raised a concern and the concern was that the tedious
level of the water was getting too much.
And then me and Tina as we saw the comments going back and
forth in this chats. And for most of you who are
probably in all these association chats and when you
see things go back and forth to banter, you realize that
sometimes what we are fighting for is so few time.
One person argued that everything is getting spoiled
because of the hard water. One person argued that the
resale value of the flat is begin coming down.
But I just realized as this was happening, God, my hope is not
on it. I want to allow my hope to be
dictated by things that can take me off track.
Because these are small things, but we can make it big things.
And so today I want you to realize, what are we making?
What are the small things that we are taking?
And we are making it big. Because when we realize what
God's calling us to have hope, we will realize that it's far
bigger than what we've ever thought of.
You know, growing up I've been to a lot of I used to play the
keyboard music for a lot of these meetings which are
happening in prime between. And one of the words that I keep
hearing is of CT stud. And it says here only one life
will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will
last. And so even today, as we've
titled it as honest hope, it's for us to come to a place to
realize is my hope free of deceit?
Is my hope truthful? Is my hope sincere?
Because that's where we will see the migration between our faith
to hope happen. So as we look into the
Scriptures, I want us to be, I want us to be aware and allow
the Holy Spirit to say, God, if my hope is not honest, I'll come
back to you, Lord, I'll come back to you.
I want to read a verse from Proverbs, chapter 13, verse 12.
I'm reading for the passion. And this is what it says.
When hope's dream seems to drag on and on, the delay can be
depressing. But when at last your dream
comes true, life sweetness will satisfy your soul.
A lot of us probably know the worst in NIV, and I want to read
that too. Hope deferred makes the heart
sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
And I pray that as we wait, because one of the key
ingredients of having hope is waiting, one of the key
ingredients of having hope is to realize that this the journey is
long. One of the key ingredients of
realizing of hope is to realize that one day God will make it
come to pass. So what I'm saying is that OK,
you might be like eternity is set, yes, but what about my hope
here on earth? God answers, God sees, God
provides, God will come through. But will you be honest?
Would you be sincere with the hope that you have?
Because often times we have added too many layers to it.
That's it's dependent on our parents is dependent on our
children is dependent on our circumstances.
It's dependent on our job. God saying, can I bring you to a
place where you'll have honest hope?
You know, I was as I was meditating, I was reminded of
this passage in Genesis chapter 28 was 16 to 22, which I want to
read. It's the story of Jacob.
He had cheated his brother. He saw of his birthright he had
stole, in fact he and his mother had conceived and had taken the
birthright blessing from his father and he's on the run.
He's going to his uncle's house and in that he comes to a place
and he puts his head to rest. And this is what happens in
Genesis 28 or 16 or 22 when Jacob awoke from his sleep, he
thought surely the Lord is with is in this place and I was not
aware of it. He was afraid and said, how
awesome is this place? This is none other than the
House of God. This is the gate of heaven.
Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone he had placed
under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top
of it. Then he called the place Bethel,
though the city used to be called Lust.
Then Jacob made a vow, saying, If God will be with me and will
watch over me on this journey I am taking, and will give me food
to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my
father's household, then the Lord will be my God.
And this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's
house. And of all that you give, I will
give you a tenth. Jacob's earthly hope was fused
when he, when he had this dream of, you know, a stairway with,
with angels going up to heaven and on earth.
When he woke up with that, he knew God was presented.
As he made this vow to God, he realizes that if you look into
his life, everything that he says is all around himself.
The hope is around himself. And I want us to come to a
place. This is a good place to start
where you say God, This is where I am at Lord, and then you allow
faith to really step up. When faith steps up, hope
automatically steps up. And this is what we see.
What happens here is we see Jacob needed a few things from
God, but God's plans were different.
They had to be unfolded. He had to go through this
journey. His ask of God was to watch him
over his journey, return safely to his Father's household.
And in the end, when we look, we'll see that God did far
beyond than what he could have imagined.
And so today as we start meditating on this, there are
three things that I want to highlight as we look into this.
The first thing is our honest hope is birthed out of our
personal salvation. Our honest hope is birthed out
of our personal salvation. You know, when we go back to the
time when we were saved, we were aware of our sinful nature.
And because of receiving Christ and his forgiveness and his
grace over our lives, we suddenly are not operating out
of the yoke of sin, rather out of the freedom that comes from
Christ. And suddenly hope changes.
And So what happens in this moment?
Suddenly we who are not aware of the circumstances and the
consequences of eternity, suddenly are aware of it.
What seemed hopeless, we are hopeful because of Christ Jesus.
And so today I want us to go back to the place where we all
should have a hope that's been birthed out of our personal
salvation. You know, a lot of us have gone
through hardships in life. A lot of us are going through,
you know, our old man was something different.
Had we been in that track, we would have ended up differently.
But God, out of his sheer grace and mercy, has shown upon our
life and has redeemed us once and for all.
And today, you and I get to sit here.
We get to worship God. We get to give thanks to God.
We get to say, God, you be glorified.
But in the midst of all of this, can we say, God, I want you also
to resurrect my hope out of this personal salvation.
I'm not having hope of one that's condemned of sin, but I'm
having hope of one who's been redeemed from sin.
I'm not having I'm not having hope from a place of being, you
know, broken and desolate, but I'm having hope from a place of
being set being worked on by the maker.
Let's continue reading from Romans chapter 2, verse 13.
It goes on to say, for it is not those who hear the law who are
righteous in God's sight, but it's those who obey the law who
will be declared righteous. In fact, when you look in Romans
chapter 2, he Paul has this argument where he goes on to say
he talks about the Jews, where he says you have been so focused
on the outwardly, you've made everything out about the
outwardly. You've you've given so much
importance to that that you forget that those who hear the
law insist on those who are Jews who are righteous before God.
But anyone who obeys God's word is righteous and that changes
everything. And so today in our step one is
accepting Jesus Christ as a Lord and personal savior.
And most of us have done that. If you've not done that, I would
love to journey with you, get in touch with us.
We would love to walk with you in that and introduce Jesus
Christ as a Lord and personal Savior.
Step 2 is what we commit to the waters of baptism.
What is the committing of what the waters of baptism say?
Lord, I am no longer out of the world.
I'm yours. I belong to Jesus, the world
behind me, the cross before me. I am following Jesus and not the
world. And so today that is Step 2.
Step 3 is we continue to grow in reading, in meditating and
living out the gospel. We just don't read.
We just don't know the law or we start living it out in this day
and age. And so today what happens when
we do that, others around will see there's something different
about him. There's something that God's,
he's got God in him. He's got joy in him.
He's got hope in him. Galatians chapter 2, verses 19
to 21. It says for through the law, I
died to the law so that I might live for God.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
Christ lives in me the life I now live in the body.
I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave me,
gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of
God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law,
Christ died for nothing. Paul says here I died to the
law, which means the law is fulfilled and now it's Christ.
So now no longer are you called to give sacrifices in different
times of the year, you'd rather go to Jesus.
You ask for forgiveness, receive the grace that He extends, ask
Him for strength to overcome the enemy, because only he can
overcome with his help. We overcome in Christ my living
faith. I am being made righteous in
Jesus Christ, died and is risen again, and we get to spend
eternity. That is the hope.
But in him, in this world, we have hope that we can bring
light everywhere we go. You and I no longer have to go
to a designated place. We are not anywhere we go as
long as we bear His name. We become His witnesses.
And so our personal salvation births hope.
So I pray that today as we think about this, we don't, we don't
just keep the hope contained to ourselves.
Yes, my name is in the book. Yes, I am assured of eternity.
But there's more to it. Else you're not reading your
Bible. Else you're not growing to be,
you're not growing to become mature believers, Else you're
not putting what you're learning from the Word into practice.
It has to go beyond that. It we are just not looking for a
ticket. We are looking to live out His
glorious life here on earth. Here on earth.
Our personal salvation cannot force us to just think of
ourselves. Personal salvation assures us of
our personal hope. But the personal hope is to move
us from seeing His redemptive work for the world.
Because Jesus just didn't come for you.
He just didn't come for me. He came for the entirety of
mankind. And so today, what we receive,
we also receive His love for the entirety of mankind.
And so I pray that His redemptive work for the world,
it was never meant to be personal.
And So what happens of this is we have an overhaul of hope.
He reshakes everything. He we suddenly live that God has
blessed us with hope. We get to oversee our hope
because everything that we do, we look at it with hopeful eyes.
We also get to have this hope imparted to many others.
I want to go back to a passage in Luke chapter 12, verses 13 to
21. And this is where Jesus talks
about a rich person who suddenly decides to build storehouses and
he talks and he tells you and I just want to go through that
entire verse. It says here in Luke chapter 12
verses 13 to 21, someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell
my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
Jesus replied, man who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between
you. Then he said to them, watch out.
Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.
Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.
And he told them this parable. The ground of a certain rich man
yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, what
shall I do? I have no place to store my
crops. Then he said, this is what I'll
do. I will tear down.
I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I
will store my surplus grains. And I'll say to myself, you have
plenty of grain laid up for many years.
Take life easy, eat, drink and be merry.
But God said to him, you fool this very night your life will
be demanded from you. Then you will get what you have
prepared for yourself. This is how it will be with
whoever stores up things for themselves.
But it is it not rich toward God.
As we read this passage, there are two things.
One, Jesus is saying there is so much more than possession.
So if you're in a place today where you are.
Actually in feud with some of your siblings, with or with
your, with your extended families, Bring God into that
mix. Bring God into the mix because
it'll show you where your hope is really yet is it on the
possession or is it really on God?
I pray that this will minister to you.
The second thing that we see from this is we have to be very
careful because when he had a rich plentiful harvest that is
spent already think he just thought of building storehouses
and he thought that he can retire.
Hope doesn't cause me to retire, but hope causes me to see God in
every season. The point of God's blessing is
not for us to build storehouses so that we can retire early and
in fact, this is a contradiction to the current culture that is
being spoken about. Everyone is talking about you
know what I want to retire my 40s.
I want to retire my 50s. I want to make sure I have the
Esop's. I want to make sure I have built
wealth. I want to make sure I have this
all that sounds good but is a hope on that because the world
without knowing. We'll move you towards thinking
you know what I need to make a good bank balance so that I'll
be set. That is not from God, that is
from the enemy because he uses money to lure us.
What I'm asking us to have is the fact that we be right right
with money. We learn how to spend, we learn
how to save, we learn how to set up at something for our future.
We learn how to give to God. We learn how to be better
stewards, but the bottom line is where is our hope lying at?
Because his hope was on his storehouses.
And that's what God said. If I had to take your life
today, what happens to everything?
And I want to position that to you today is our hope is our
guarantees, our future in our storehouses here on earth.
What are our storehouses looking like?
What are a storehouses looking like?
Even as I speak about this, don't think we shouldn't.
It says in Proverbs 1322, it says a good person leaves an
inheritance for their children's children, but a sinner's wealth
is stored up for the righteous. A good person leaves an
inheritance for his children's. So he doesn't even talk about a
godly person, just says a good person, which means a person.
A good person is a person who's learnt contentment.
A person who's learnt to do good with what they have leaves it
for his children's children. That's two generations down.
Just imagine if God is calling you and me into that space, what
is it looking like? And so today I want us to go
back to that question I first asked.
The first thing in our honest hope is it being birthed out of
our personal salvation. Because if our personal
salvation is not growing, our hope won't grow.
If our personal times with God is not growing, our hope won't
grow. And I pray that we'll move to
that place. I pray especially even as we
come to a conclusion of the first thing.
For those of you who have not committed your lives, I would
say make prayerfully make that decision to acknowledge that
Jesus is God, Saviour all our lives.
For those of you who've been living, can we start being
intentional about His instructions?
May we not just become so rigid that we think, you know what, I
know God's Word, That's it. Allow God's Word to permeate,
allow it to shape you, allow it to make you a vessel so that you
can be a blessing in the way God wants you to be.
The second thing that we see with regard to honest hope is
honest hope is lived out with perseverance is lived out with
perseverance. Once our hope is refined with
our salvation, we see as Christ follows that we have to go
through a journey here on earth and that requires hope.
And many a times we as Christians, we know many who
some of you probably have given up journeying saying, you know,
it's just too hard for me to live this Christian life.
And you've probably checked out, some of you probably have gone
in 10 years and you're like, God, where is this heading?
I don't see anything happening. And for some, probably you've
seen it happen in different stages.
But now you're like, God, I'm just so desperate.
I'm just so desperate to see something.
And so today, even as we read, I just want to encourage you that
God wants us to persevere so that we'll see this honest hope
come to life. And as I make this point, I'm
also mindful that when we have to live out this hope, where our
eyes are locked in matters. Today, when we look into this
hope that God's calling us to have and persevere for what our
eyes locked onto is locked onto people.
Is it locked onto the things of the world?
Is it locked onto situations? Is it locked onto circumstances?
Can it be locked onto Jesus? Because when it's locked onto
Jesus, you will see you'll have strength to face another day.
You'll have encouragement to persevere every step of the way.
Romans chapter 5, verse 3 says not only so, but we also glory
in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces
perseverance, perseverance, character, and character hope.
And there's a progression to this whole thing.
When we say sufferings, there are hardships that will come.
You and I will face hardships. And that's the beauty about
following Jesus. When we gather here, when we
have so many people who come, everyone is going through
hardship, everyone is going through some kind of suffering
or the other. Everyone is going through that.
But what do we get when we come together?
We get a sense of renewed purpose, a renewed vigor and
strength to say, Lord, I'm ready to face this week ahead.
That's why community is important.
That's why the Church of God is important.
That's why we gather in his name.
That's why we break bread and partake of the cup to say God.
We want to see see it come through.
When we do that very act, we are acknowledging, saying we're
going ahead with and saying Lord, you committed to your
entire journey fully. He didn't give up on Gethsemane
and Gethsemane, Jesus looked up to God and said, God, let it be
your will, not my will. And so today when we partake of
the bread week on week and when we partake of the cup, you're
saying, God, I'm in this now. I don't want to give up, Lord.
Yeah, my faith is shaky, but I still want to perceive here.
I still want to perceive here. I still want to perceive because
that builds character and character in turn gives us hope,
gives us hope. James One verse 12 says blessed
is the one who persevere under the trial because having stood
the test, that person will receive the crown of life that
the Lord has promised to those who love him.
I want to ask you today for those of you especially who are
persevering through just being a solo person who has come to know
Jesus, it's it's a hard journey. Don't give up.
Jesus is there, he's watching For those of you who are
probably living out the consequences of your sin, have
hope. He can turn things around.
God can, God will.
You know, many a times we think, yes, God, eternity is said.
So our prayers are likely. Good Lord, if I can close my
eyes, I can spend eternity with you where there won't be pain,
there won't be sorrow. Yes, but God saying son and
daughter, I want to see you become mature believers.
I want to see you become a seasoned Christian wherein
you've just produced through your procedures, you've produced
character, your characters become better.
And God wants us to become more refined so that we will be His
into that original design He has created.
As I'm speaking this, I'm also speaking it over my soul, my
personality. I'm speaking it over my own
spirit. Because many a times my body
tends to give up my spirit. Man tends to give up.
My soul is downcast. And today, can we persevere
today in the midst of difficulty, in the midst of
hardship, in the midst of not being understood, in the midst
of being challenged, in the midst of finding confusion, Can
we say, God, I will trust you no matter what till I see my
breakthrough? Hope is seen when hopelessness
is at its maximum. But what is our response going
to be today? Because that's very important.
Two Corinthians chapter 12 verses 1710 says this where Paul
tells the Corinthian church. The extraordinary level of
revelations I've received is no reason for anyone to exalt me.
For This is why a thorn in my flesh was given to me.
That was these messengers sent to harass me, keeping me from
becoming arrogant. 3 times I pleaded with the law to relieve
me of this, but he answered, My grace is always more than enough
for you, and my power finds it's full expression through your
weakness. So I will celebrate my weakness.
For when I'm weak I sense more deeply the mighty power of
Christ living in me, so I'm not defeated by my weakness, but
delighted. For when I feel my weakness and
endure mistreatment, when I'm surrounded with troubles on
every side and face persecution because of my love for Christ, I
am made yet stronger. For my weakness becomes a portal
for God's power. The reason why I'm reading this
is cause many a times we look at the very struggles that we're
going for lot of us it's our it's our physical limitations.
It's probably a skin disease that we have.
It's probably our bone arthritic pain, or it's probably some of
the limitations that our body has in terms of digestion, in
terms of whatever we're going through.
But Paul is reminding us here that shouldn't be the cause that
pulls us back. The attack of the enemy is real.
He will use all that you're going through to pull us down,
to harass us. But God's grace is manifested in
our weakness. That is an evidence of God being
mixed into the door of our lives.
When you're sick, His strength comes in and helps us to see it
in a light, new light. Some of us are probably having,
you know, hereditary ailments that have been passed on, or
probably some of us are having things in the midst of that.
Would you not give that the final say?
But would you give God the final say to say, God, what is it that
I need to tap into you so that I can overcome this?
It says here that it's a portal that I can see God's power
through. So are you able to see God's
power through some of your weaknesses?
I'm not talking about the weaknesses of sin that we need
to overcome, but the limitations that some of us have with regard
to whatever we are going through.
In fact, some theologians I disagree with the fact that it
wasn't a sickness. It was probably the persecution
and the turmoil that he was going through because of being a
lover of Jesus. Paul celebrates the weakness
because in celebrating, he's testifying about God's hand over
his life. And I pray So today when someone
comes in front and says, I had a hard week, but yet God came
through, we need to give a clap and say thank you, God, thank
you that you persevered today. If you've shown up here, if
you're listening to this in the midst of a dark cloud
surrounding your head, in the midst where you didn't feel like
waking up out of your bed saying God is asking you, would you
persevered through this? Would you push through this?
Because when we persevere, we give access to God's portal.
What's God's portal, Lord? It was not my strength, but you
gave me strength, Lord, and my weakness, Lord, I didn't feel
like doing this, but you gave me the strength.
I didn't have insight to this, but you gave me strength.
I didn't have power, but you gave me strength, Lord.
And when you look into Paul's life, you know, when you read in
Two Corinthians Chapter 11, verses 23 to 29, you see that
he's been he's been flogged many times.
He's been exposed to death time and again.
He's received 40 lashes 3 times. He's been beaten with rods once
he's been pelted with stones. Three times he's been
shipwrecked. And night and day he was in open
sea. He was constantly on the move.
He was in danger from rivers, from bandits.
He was in danger from fellow Jews, danger from Gentiles,
danger the city, danger the country, danger at sea, danger
from false believers. He's gone without food, without
sleep. Everything that he faced, he
says at the end of it in Two Corinthians Chapter 11, verse
13. I must boast, I will boast of
the things that show my weakness.
Perseverance develops my character, but it causes me to
acknowledge the need of a saviour even before that,
because when character is being developed, it has to change an
aspect of a character that's already existing.
And that requires pushing through.
That requires pushing through. Today a lot of us will face a
lot of hardships in our being honest hope when we ask saying
God, I want honest hope in my life, Lord Jesus and it if you
have to live out with perseverance, how do we live
that out? It takes it.
It's lived out with perseverance, which means
hardships will come. The journey will have its Rd.
bumps. The journey will have things
that come up which will make it even more hard.
But would you push through? Because God has not given us a
spirit of fear, but of one which one which is of love and of
sound mind. Sound mind to know, Lord, I
can't do it, but you can't do it.
To go from the God of Lord. This is, it seems like an
impossibility to me. But Lord, I'm asking you, the
God of impossibilities to come into this, come into this.
You know, just a couple of weeks back, I was spending some time
with the pastor. And as I was talking to him, he
was sharing from his life of as he had mentioned, you know, I
can't come on Sunday, I'll come only on Sunday evening.
And as I was talking with him, he said, my daughter's
graduating and it's a big deal for me.
And I asked how did the graduation go?
And he said, you know what? It's as a family, it's a really
big thing. We never, I thought we would see
this day, but it's so nice to see hopes come true.
And he was just talking back in 2020 when his daughter had
joined into college and when COVID had set in, she had gone
through a mental breakdown. And in that mental breakdown
they found out that she was having, she was been diagnosed
as a bipolar. And what should have been a
three-year course became A7 year course for her to do.
And the family walked through that.
The family walked through that. And in the end, after seven
years when she's graduating, as they were there for the
graduation ceremony, he said we were tasting God's fruit of what
hoping in God looks like. And one thing you need to be
sure, the timeline looks long, but it was just not one person.
It was an entire family that persevered through that.
And I want to pray today and thank God especially for those
who walked out of those persevering moments with
victory, because you've won. You've trampled over so many
things. You've won over so many things,
and God's gracing you for much more.
And we rejoice with you. But I want to ask those who are
wanting to give up midway to say, God, would you strengthen
your feet? Would you strengthen their
hands? Would you strengthen your
spirit? And I would ask today, would you
extend that perceiving hope to others?
A lot are hopeless today. Would you stand in the gap for
someone else? Would you allow?
Because today, if the church has to be radiant, it will be only
when we stand for others. Today when we are standing with
others for their miracle, today when we are standing with for
others for their breakthrough, today when we are standing for
others and interceding, today when we are standing for others
and warring and bringing down this powers of darkness is when
we'll see God come through. So today as we conclude the
second point I want to ask today, are we stuck trying to
hold a pity party for ourselves or are you really persevering?
If you do not rise up, no one will rise up for us.
This is a decision you personally have to take.
Jesus has already won the victory.
He has done his job and it's it's our time to do our job
because he's paved the way. He's made a way.
He's saying trust me, involve me in this journey.
Hardships will come, but joy comes in the morning.
Amen. The third part is honest.
Hope is shared to draw others to God.
Are we willing to run this race till the end so that we can
share in His glory? Yes, but also are we willing to
share what He's given to us till we close our eyes here on this
earth? One of the things Paul
constantly reminds the church tells the churches we are not
done till we close our eyes here on this earth.
And you know when as as me and my wife have been journeying
with quite a few people, you know, we've been seeing how hard
journey gets. It's one thing to start and be
so passionate in your 30s and we don't want you to die down.
Rather we wanted to exponentially increase.
What does that mean? So that when we go into our 80s,
we are more hopeful than ever before.
We are more vibrant than ever before.
We are living out God's life than ever before.
You know, one of the biggest challenges that I personally
take, you know, is when I see a man who's twice as old to me.
You know, Ken, who's a good friend, he's 85 years old and
he's doing God's work still today, even after losing his
wife. He's so passionate and that is a
constant reminder of what the whole gospel looks like because
the whole gospel is to trust, knowing that God has blessed
him. He has a family, he has
grandkids. Life is full.
He can always go back to it, but he's like God.
There's a thirst for many more to receive Jesus.
There's a thirst to see many more come into your Kingdom and
that is where we see the Great Commission being fulfilled
today. You and I are wanting to fulfill
the Great Commission today, but hope is what will keep us going.
So what, what, what do I mean by that?
Today? What I do will determine what I
do when I get old. If I'm not doing anything today,
I can be assured when I get old I won't be doing anything today.
And that's why we call everyone to serve God's Kingdom in
whatever capacity you can today. Because if you don't have hope
for today in serving God, you will be assured when you get
older you'll just by be yourself.
Yeah, you know God is good. You'll be content and that's all
good. But will it be full?
Would it have built character? Would you have perceived?
Through everything is where the question lies.
Paul clears the air that each of us have to do our part.
The hope that our eyes are locked and will make room for
others to partake of it. We will soon realize we're just
one part of the light attracting them to Jesus.
One Corinthians chapter 3 verses 5 to 11.
And this is a fundamental problem that we have.
We always think others will do it.
No, even my part in this is important.
My part in this is important. Here Paul addresses that to the
Corinthians. Judge in one Corinthians 3 was 5
to 11. After all, who is Apollos?
Who is Paul? We are only God's servants
through whom you believe the good news.
Each of us did the work the Lord gave us.
I planted the seed into your hearts, and Apollos watered it.
But it was God who made it grow. It's not important who does the
planting or who does the watering.
What's important? Is that God makes a seed grow.
The one who plants and the one who waters works together with
the same purpose, and both will be rewarded for your own hard
work. For we are both God's workers
and you are God's field. You are God's building.
Because of God's grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an
expert builder. Now others are building on it.
But who is building on this foundation must be careful.
No one can lay any foundation other than the one we have
already have, that is Jesus Christ.
Paul is confident that because of this hope locked in, he's
able to build the foundation God's called him to build, that
is on Jesus Christ. And so today, when you and I are
doing God's work, let comparison go out.
Because if we have to be honest about our hope, we need to
realize that God, in this journey that you're calling me,
this is what you're calling me to do.
There'll be seasons where I'll be doing A, but if I'm not doing
AI won't be able to do B because when I in my doing A and when
I'm, when I'm God moves me to B, He allows me to encourage others
to do A when I move to CI, encourage the other few who are
there to do B. Suddenly we realize we are all
working together on God's field. What started as one.
Suddenly there are a multitude of people who are willing to
till the soil, to plow the field, to put the seed, to water
the plant, to make sure the fertilizers are put in, to make
sure you're there showing up every day in the field to see
people being saved and coming into the saving knowledge of
Jesus Christ when I hope is shared to draw others to Jesus.
We need to realize that we play an equation.
We are not the equation. We are part of the equation.
We are not the equation itself. And many a times we think, Oh,
my time is done. No, God always has an unfolding
that happens. And when that unfolding happens
is when He reveals a part of His will for our plan.
And I want to extend that because if we are not aware of
what God's calling us to do today, because if we are not
taking that fate step today, hope will fail or cease to exist
today. What is God laying on your
heart? The city needs you.
Our pin codes need you. Everyone of humanity needs an
aspect of us. Would we rise up today?
Would we be honest to say God? I won't be content with just my
name being on the book. I make sure I'm able to draw
many others so that their names will be filled into it.
Hope, honest hope, which is shared, draws others to God.
And so today I want to encourage you Philippians.
One was 15 to 18. Paul constantly reminds the
church, don't whatever is being preached.
Some, he says here it is true that some preach Christ out of
envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.
The latter do sort of love knowing that I'm put here for
the defence of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of
selfish ambition, not sincerely supposing that they can stir up
trouble for me while I'm in chains.
But what does it matter? The important thing is that in
every way, whether from false motives of true, whether from
false motives or true, Christ is preached.
And because of this, I rejoice. You know, one of the important
things I want to emphasize here is you and I are not called here
to be judged. We aren't here to sit here to
you know how the judges sit during Olympics when they're
doing that insane rhythms and moves on the in front of them.
They just take and they put 10-9.
They're not here to do that. We are here to do everything out
of the love that we have forgot. However it is preached, however
it is to if they have to last the test of time, they will
last. If they are drawing people away,
that's on God between God and then let God be the judge.
Maybe always be clear of what God's calling us to do, which
means we have to be in line with God's calling us to do according
to his word. I it comes down to what I
explained first. If you're not having a personal
salvation, this hope that God's calling you to step into, this
hope that he's wanting you to perceive you through and build
character and do will struggle. And the bottom line is in this
entire thing with regard to hope, there's always a constant
motion. Hope cannot be seen when you're
stationary. Hope is seen only when you're
out in constant motion. There's a constant motion that
we as Christ followers are called to exhibit.
John Stott says this. His authority on earth allows us
to dare to go to all the nations.
His authority in heaven gives us our only hope of success, and
His presence with us leaves us no choice.
God's authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the
nations. Whatever nation God's calling
you to go, whatever St. The problem is, we are not
willing to occupy the street here.
We're wanting to occupy the street in another country.
God won't allow that to happen. That's being rooted out of
selfishness. Do what God's calling you to do
here. Eventually He will take you to
the nations. His authority in heavens will
give you the only hope of success, which means He has won
everything. He is the only one who will set
us up to see things happen. His presence with us leaves us
no room, no choice but to go. He believes there's no choice
but to go. And so today, church, you and I
have been commissioned with hope to take hope into this hopeless
world. You know, as I started with
Genesis 26 about Jacob lying down there and witnessing,
having a dream, a stairway to heaven, and then anointing that
place and calling it Bethel. He comes back to that place in
Genesis 35, verses 9 to 15 when we read.
And this is what he says. And Jacob returned to Padhan
Aram. God appeared to him again and
blessed him. God said to him, Your name is
Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob.
Your name will be Israel. So he called him Israel.
And God said to him, I am God Almighty.
Be fruitful and increase in number.
A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and
the kings will be among your descendants.
The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I
will give this land to your descendants after you.
Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with
him. Jacob set up a stone pillar at
the place where God had called, talked with him, and he poured
out a drink offering on it. He also poured out oil on it.
Jacob called the place where God talked with him.
Better. Hope realized in Jacob's life at
that point, in this second time when he visited there.
Hope was realized when God brought Jacob back to Better his
ask was for God to protect him on his journey.
You know to to bring him to bring him back to safety to his
household. But when God talks when you see
verses 11 and 12, he says I am God Almighty be fruitful and
increase in number. A nation and a community of
nations will come from you. Kings will be among your
descendants. The land I give Abraham and
Isaac, I will also give you, I'll give you a land to your
descendants. When hope he goes out with that
one prayer, his personal, he encounters God.
He has hopes in God. If you can bring all this, I
will give a 10th. But when he comes back, God
saying you've come back here, now here, here's bigger promises
for you which lasts beyond generations.
And I want to ask you, are we content with just something we
are coming to our terms with, or are we waiting to see that hope
when it's realized in God's terms, it's far beyond what we
can see. Ephesians 320 is what I can
remember more than we can ask or imagine.
And I believe and pray that a lot of us have to migrate from
just our realization of saying this is the hope that I think I
need to have in Jesus to sing God, what is the hope that I
have? Because I'm going to perceive
you, I'm going to be in motion. I'm going to move, Lord, even
when it seems hard, I'm going to push through.
Even when I don't feel like it, I'm going to show up.
Even when it's going to be hard, I will show up and God saying I
will do it for you. And so today in honest hope will
be, can it be birthed out of a personal salvation?
I know what your personal salvation is looking like.
For those of you who have not invited Jesus in, invite him in.
For those of you who committed to Jesus, we probably obey the
waters of baptism. But you've, you've just been,
you know, chilled out God saying you need to start seeing things
for what it is. Would you allow God's Word to
permeate in you? Would faith start being built
upon you? Because when faith is built,
hope suddenly will take place, will be visible, and that hope
will start creating certain things which will allow you to
pursue God even deeper. For those of you who've given up
midway, I pray and ask, would you live out this hope with
perseverance? If you've stopped because it's
too difficult, I pray you would stand up and say, God, I'm ready
again. If hope is deferred, it's hard,
and you're trying to create your own path, would you say God, no,
I'm sorry, I'm coming back to you.
Give me perseverance or I'll see it to you.
Ordain my steps. Psalms 37 says the steps of a
good and a righteous man are directed and established by the
Lord, and he delights in his way and blesses his part.
I pray that we'll be able to allow God to come through into
that. For those of us who've struggled
with the fact that Lord, we've made our hope all about
ourselves, I pray our honest hope will draw others to God as
much as we are being drawn to what God's calling us to do.
There are people who are who are who are waiting to experience
hope. Because of your hope, are you
willing to share about it? Are you willing to rise up about
the tide and say, God, I'm here? Are you willing to stand up
about your own circumstances and over the pity that you've been
asking to say, God, I'm ready to share.
I'm ready to contend for others. I'm ready to stand in the gap
for others. I'm ready to do what you're
calling me to do. So church, can I pray with you
right now? Loving Heavenly Father, I just
thank you, Lord, for this time. I pray, Lord, that hope, Lord
Jesus, for us, we come, Lord, in all sincerity to you, in all
truthfulness, Lord Jesus, we want to say, Lord, for most of
us we've lived for ourselves, but we come back to say, Lord,
our faith in you causes us to see bigger things, Lord, and I
pray we will see that right now we will stand.
We'll take the stand that you're calling us, Lord Jesus.
We will, Lord, our personal salvation will birth out that
hope, Lord Jesus. Lord, we pray that we will live
out with persevere and say, I pray especially, Lord, for those
who are weary, who are tired, would you refresh them right
now? For those who are in the words
of giving up, would they have a Rhema word from you, Lord Jesus,
to hold on to? Lord Jesus, I pray that we will
live the Zoe life here on earth. Lord Jesus, we thank you.
I pray, Lord, this honest hope will be shared to others.
It'll draw others into your fold.
Lord Jesus, we thank you. Go before us that we'll be in
motion. Lord, we will constantly be in
motion to see what you're unfolding in our life time after
time after time. Thank you Jesus.
I pray especially, Lord, for all those, Lord Jesus, who are in
the season right now where probably that hope that they
were hoping for is crushed. I pray that Lord, they'll go
back and ask you, Lord Jesus. Lord, for those who are waiting,
for those who are waiting for that breakthrough.
Lord, we believe in the power of the supernatural as a church, we
ask that you would come through, Lord.
I pray wombs will be open today. Lord Jesus, I pray that Lord
hearts would be open. Lord Jesus, I pray open doors of
opportunity will be open. Lord Jesus, I pray, Lord, the
clutches of debt will be broken and people will be liberated.
Lord Jesus, right now I pray for those who've been longing for
jobs that those will happen right now.
Lord, I pray a word would go forth, Lord Jesus, as it went
forth when the centurion came, that we would see miracles
happen. Lord, the doors of
impossibilities will start breaking down because the God of
impossibilities has come in and it's starting to break things
down. Go before I start.
Jesus, your blood covering over each and everyone, take charge.
Your most holy name we pray. Amen.
Amen, Church. I pray even as you step out this
week that you will step out with confidence knowing that he is
with you. The faith would mature to come
to a place where you'll be able to have this honest hope to see
God come through, in and through your lives.
I pray God will bless you every step of the way, strengthen you,
keep you, have a blessed week and God bless you.
And remember that whoever finds Jesus finds life.
God bless you all. Thanks for.
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