There are many Among Us where this is not our home
congregation, you have traveled from other places.
Some of you are going through as Dad said, and we're so glad to
be here. And what brings us together this
morning is the blood of Christ. He joins us together so that we
could come and honor him. As we later on, will honor him
around the Lord's Supper, but we also glorify the same God, the
one true God and give him our worship this morning, and it is
indeed a blessing to be here and to worship together.
No matter where you are, where you come from, to be able to
come, and to do just that, I don't think our brother for the
song that we just sang. It.
It leads into what we're going to talk about this morning about
this hope and this Blessed assurance that we have and how
we can Rejoice within that assurance and that hope that God
has promised us, you know, it says here, Romans 12 and 12,
this is simple phrase, by Paul to rejoice, in hope, to rejoice,
in Our Hope. And throughout scripture, you
will going to find all kinds of scripture telling us to be full
of joy or to rejoice in various things.
We're told to rejoice in the Lord.
We're told to rejoice in the resurrection.
We're told to rejoice in the god of hours of our Salvation.
And there are other things you can find the scripture where it
says, rejoice in this or rejoice in that.
But Paul tells us here in the context of what we're going to
talk about. About is to rejoice in Hope.
And so, let me ask you a question regarding that, we're
told to do that. Well, how do we do that?
And in what circumstances in our life and how do we apply it to
our lives so that we can rejoice in Our Hope.
And so to begin this morning, I want to I've always fill it
helpful to look at the context in which this particular
exhortation is written in and so I'm going to go back a little
bit here in this chapter 2 verse number 1 were it talks about us
being transformed and setting apart of being set apart.
From others in this world. And you look here, the very
first two verses of this chapter.
It says I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God,
he says that you present your bodies, a Living Sacrifice, holy
acceptable, to God, which is your reasonable service.
And then he says, do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove.
Prove what is that? Good and acceptable and perfect
will of God and so when we read that and and proving what is
good and proving, what is acceptable improving the perfect
will of God, that's a challenge but that that falls on us.
And we do it through that transformation that happens
within our lives. And so, because of that, it's a
goal for each one of us. And as we put our effort in to
accomplish in accomplishing this, Paul actually gives us
another chap our challenge within this context here.
And so we're going to read on in verse number nine.
Now about rejoicing, in this hope, He says, let love be
without hypocrisy abour. What is evil cling to what is
good, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love
and honor giving preference to one another not lagging.
In diligence, fervent in spirit serving the lord rejoicing in
Hope, patient. In Tribulation continuing,
steadfastly in prayer, Distributing to the needs of the
Saints given to hospitality is. So when you look at the practice
of rejoicing in hope within the context, that Paul puts it in
here, the underlying principle Is love. when you look at verse
9, Tells us the love. Let our love, be genuine.
Don't let your love toward others.
Be shallow, don't let it be fake towards other people.
And we see how a boring evil and holding fast to what is good,
how that is essential to us? Showing love.
And then you look here at verse number 10 and it intensifies
that call to love with the strong words of family,
affection to love one another with Brotherly Love of with
brotherly affection. And so, and it also shows us how
loving how us loving to give honor to others rather than to
get honor upon ourselves. How that's all part of Love to.
And so when you look at what he says in verse number 12 and
these surrounding verses we have the dominant theme of Love
ringing within our minds and that's the essence of the will
of God when you go back to what we read in verse number 2.
And that's why we must be transformed in the renewing of
our minds to know that end each situation, what love looks like
and how sometimes it's not easy, because you're dealing with all
kinds. Kinds of people, you're dealing
with all kinds of personalities. And yet our love has to show in
various ways in various forms to all kinds of people and so how
much of a deep transformation we need to find and follow the way
of love. And this chapter is all written
to help us do just that And so when you look at this idea of a
rejoicing of in Hope among the other things that are mentioned
here in verse number 12, it tells me that all of this is for
love. Rejoice in Hope, be patient in
Tribulation be constant in prayer, all for the sake, of
loving each other, and loving our enemies as we opted.
And so, in this way Christ, who is the ground?
Who is the goal of adult, he becomes more visible and more
real and more convincing in the world and within our lives.
And so that's kind of the context of which all of this is
written. And the overall theme a Guarding
this and so I want to be a giga begin talking about this hope.
Now, when you think of the word hope there is a difference
between worldly, hope and that of biblical hope bit of a
worldly. Hope is for example, something
that that we wish would happen. But there is an uncertainty, if
it will happen or not, And so, when you're driving to work
tomorrow morning, we all wish that there's not going to be any
traffic that we're going to have to deal with when we go to work
in the morning. And so we hope that that will
happen. But we have no idea if that will
happen or not, it's uncertain because there are so many
different variables in that you have no idea who's going to be
on the road. You have no control over who,
who was there and who was not there.
And because you've got no control over it.
There is that uncertainty? And so in that sense, we desire
for something to happen but we have no idea if it will happen
or not and that's worldly hope but when you talk when you look
at the hope that is mentioned in the bible, it's something that's
very opposite to that of worldly hope.
In fact, biblical hope is it's a confident expectation.
Its Desire with the expectation that we know it's going to
happen. And we're we know for certain
that it's going to happen and it's a hope that we know that we
will obtain something and that we expect it to be fulfilled.
And so biblical hope is the expectation or it's the
anticipation of something that is absolutely certain and you
know why we have that kind of hope that were certain that it's
going to happen. It's because it's promised by
God. That's why.
And we know God is faithful to his promises, isn't he?
Then when God says something is going to happen, it's going to
happen. And that's why we have this
expectation and the certainty in the hope that is told to us
within the scriptures. I find Peters words and first
Peter to be very helpful about this hope and it says here,
First Peter chapter 1, I want to read here verses 3 through 9 He
says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord, Jesus Christ
who according to His, abundant Mercy, has begotten us again to
a Living Hope. How is it?
How is that possible? We says how it's possible as you
continue on reading, it's through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead. That's how it's possible.
And then continuing on in verse number four, to an inheritance
Incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away.
Reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God,
through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed.
In the last time I like this phrase and I like the assurance
that Paul gives us here about our hope.
He said it's a Living Hope And it's because Jesus rose from the
grave because without the resurrection, there would be no
hope. But what about this hope will
Peter says it's the hope of it of inheriting Heaven.
That's what it is for. All of us.
It's that Assurance of going to heaven because Jesus rose from
the grave and you read on about about this Grand truth.
And this realization that we have because of the death burial
and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we had this hope.
And now how do we react to it? We'll look.
Here is a continues on a verse. Number 6, in this, what do you
do? He says, you greatly Joyce,
though, now for a little while, if need be, you have been
grieved by various trials that the genuineness of your faith
being much more precious than gold, that perishes though it is
tested by fire, may be found to praise honor and Glory at the
revelation of Jesus Christ whom having not seen you love.
Though. Now you do not see him yet
believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of Glory.
Receiving the end of your of your faith.
And what is that? He says it's the salvation of
your souls that's what it is. And when you read that and read
what Peter says about how we react to the realization that
we've got this Living, Hope I love Paul's attitude, I love the
tone that he gives here. Because he tells us what we had
this hope. He says, rejoice in that, be
excited about that. Rejoice.
That you have been given this great gift from God.
But when you look at the overall context here of what she writes
about, do you see the overall theme Here?
The overall theme. Is that you rejoice when you're
having a bad time? Rejoice, when you're being
tested by fire. You rejoice in your hope when
you're having a bad day. It's on days like that, it could
be on occasions in the circumstances circumstances like
that, that it's just easy to give in and just lose the battle
for that moment. Yes, it's easy to wipe the wave
the white flag. What if you give up?
You can't rejoice in that Canyon.
You can't you see rejoicing in hope during the tough times.
Well, that tends to be the next level in Christianity.
That's when you mature, that's when you see those trials in the
overall picture at that moment. That's where the growth happens,
that's when you take your stand in the truth and that's when you
feel proud and you feel great for your accomplishments and you
pray and you think God for the opportunity for going through
whatever it Was because it made you a better person and it made
you a stronger servants for God at that time.
Young people. It's going to it's going to
happen when you're being attacked or challenged by the
teacher or classmate because your faith.
It's going to happen when you're challenged about.
If there's a God and if he created this world in the
universe, it's going to happen when you're challenged about
what constitutes a family. And your stand that God only
intended for a man and a woman to become married.
It's going to happen when you faced with peer pressure to do
something unwise or wrong. And I'll admit to you.
Those are some tough and difficult times.
And sometimes we just want to take a step back because we
don't want to create controversy.
We don't want to lose influence, we don't want to lose friends.
And so in those moments of struggle or pressure, would you
have the choice and you have the choice to stand strong and feel
great about the end result, or you also have the choice and
walk away without any reason to Rejoice A New Hope in your
faith. Those are the two choices you
have. And Paul says, the similar thing
back, what we read. And we've already said, said,
seen this already here in 12 and verse 12 of Romans, he said
rejoicing in hope he said patient in Tribulation, but also
continuing steadfastly in prayer. and so Paul gives us the
formula to not just rejoice in the hope during the tough times,
but in Durham, through those times and pray during those
times to pray, I like the end results when you go back here to
1st Peter 1. he says, if you endure through the tough times,
He says you're going to have a joy within you, that's going to
be so great. Inexpressible is what he says.
And the ultimate reward. Heaven.
That's the ultimate reward. We've all gone through some
tough times. One of the toughest times for
me, was when I lost my job, I was out of the job for about
about eight months. That was those were some
stressful times and a lot of prayer, a lot of effort, trying
to find trying to find a job, but that phone call came one
afternoon. Offering me the job and the joy
that just overtook me and the prayers thanking God.
Those are one of the highlights of This Joy.
And there are other things that might that you might relate to,
or greater things that has happened in your life to bring
such joy to your life. But even through even through
whatever we experience, even some of the highlights of my own
life of God's blessings, something greater is there, and
that's God's promise to save me in the end if I'm faithful to
him. And you and I we can rejoice in
that hope of entering through the Gates of Heaven and
experiencing eternal life with God and so Peter and Paul of the
words that we have read so far, tell us to rejoice in that very
hope especially in those tough times.
It's so there's the exhortation. And how do we do this?
How do you obtain of strength? How do we, what do we look to?
For for strength of the hope that we have.
Well, there are things that help us.
And for one thing, I believe that the first and the foremost
thing of how we obtain or strengthen our hope is to look
to the scriptures for help and for guidance, and for
encouragement. You will care what it says in
Romans 15 and verse number 4. He says, for whatever things
were written before were written for our learning that we through
the patience and comfort of the scriptures.
Might have hope. The things that we read in
scripture down when Paul writes these things to the Brethren
here, he's talking about the things of the Old Testament.
But when we look to the Old Testament, even the things that
with written within the New Testament, will they were
written for a reason. They are it so that we can learn
from them, they were written, so that we could we it reveals
God's will to us. They were written to encourage
us in our life. They were written to give us
hope. And so now, Naturally.
When you think about it, the more we're in scripture, the
more Our Hope can be strengthened and we just can't
neglect God's word and expect to have a strong hope and expect to
be able just to have all the instruction and the guidance to
face the trials of life. And the reason why is because
our faith and hope they come from Reading God's word.
They do. and so, when you read the scriptures, You and I each
one of us can have a confident expectation of Heaven because of
seeing the nature of God, through the Biblical, history of
what we read about, how he interacted with people through
time. And the promises that he gave
God's people through time, you can read the thousands of years
of God at work and seeing his plan and seeing his promises and
you could also have an assurance and confident hope in Jesus
being the Messiah. After reading, about all the
prophecies, Of old concerning the Messiah and how all those
were fulfilled through Jesus Christ.
And so remember, The Bible is the source of your hope and it's
nothing that is within us. It is not of any wisdom that
anyone of us have that could bring this this kind of hope.
Then from what we can see in the scriptures, another thing that
can help our hope is to look at the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. In fact, the resurrection of
Jesus Christ is we've already alluded to gives us that ability
to rejoice in Our Hope. And I don't know about you.
If you want to get me excited upon something, you talk about
the resurrection that is that's one of the big ones.
That's one of the highlights that you could read about in
the, in the Bible, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It is all great news for you. And I and so because of the
Resurrection, we can be assured that we're going to have a
victory in the end because Jesus was a victory over the grave.
Paul talked about how sad and he talked about how hopeless it
would be. If Jesus had not risen from the
dead things would be much different for you and I if it
did not happen. In fact, you look here in 1st
Corinthians chapter 15. It says there in verse number
12, now of Christ is preached that he has been raised from the
dead. How does some among you say?
But there is no resurrection of the Dead.
That was one of the problems here in Corinth and Paul is
addressing that where people were saying he didn't, he didn't
rise from the dead, there was no Resurrection.
And because of that, he's going to address several things that
if that were true, there would be some things that would be
evidence because of that, he says, but if there is no
resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.
And if Christ is not risen, number one, Our preaching is
empty, and your faith is also empty.
He goes on to say yes and we are found false Witnesses of God
because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he
did not raise up. If in fact the dead do not rise
for. If the dead do not rise, then
Christ is not risen and if Christ is not risen he says your
faith is futile but not only that he says you are still in
your sins. If there was no resurrection of
Christ. Then also those who have fallen
asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ. We are all men the most pitiable
That would be the facts if there were no Resurrection.
And if the tomb was not empty. But the tomb is not empty.
And so, because it's not empty. He says we Rejoice because of
it. And that gives us a great reason
for us to rejoice in Our Hope. I love absolutely love.
What the writer of Hebrews chapter 6, says regarding a
reason or another reason to rejoice in Our Hope.
He says here, Hebrews chapter 6, beginning of verse number 13.
Bro, when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear
by no one greater he swore by himself saying surely blessing,
I will bless you and multiplying, I will multiply
you. And so after he had patiently,
endured he obtained. The promise for made indeed
swear by the greater and a note for confirmation is for them and
end of all dispute. Thus God, determining the show
more button to lead to the The Heirs of Promise, the
immutability of his counsel confirmed, it by an oath that by
two immutable things in which number one, it is impossible for
God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for
Refuge to lay hold of the Hope set before us.
This hope, he says, we have as an anchor of the Soul.
That's a key phrase. Our hope is an anchor of the
Soul, both sure. And steadfast and which enters
the presence behind the Ville where the 4Runner has entered
for us even Jesus having become our high become high priest
forever according to the order of Melchizedek and when you read
what is what we just see here in Hebrews chapter 6, do you hear
the certainty? Do you hear the confidence that
we have? because of this hope, but
because of what God has done, I mean, you you look at God's
track record and he has promised, and he has kept them
all. And another thing is that God
can't lie And so when he has promised us a reward in heaven,
our hope is based on a truth and we know that God's going to keep
his word regarding that very thing.
And notice what is said about this.
Hope again, it is an anchor of our soul.
It's what motivates us to be a servant.
It's what motivates us to never give up.
What a Blessed Assurance we have, don't we?
And all the more reason to rejoice in the hope that is
promised to everyone of us today.
And as we wrap things up here this morning, I want to mention
one last thing. We read a bit from Peter and
Paul about rejoicing and I hope. And when you look at what those
men went through for the cause of Christ, When you look at the
persecutions that both of those guys endured, it was horrible,
was it? They were threatened to death.
Paul on one. Occasion was stoned.
By an angry mob, almost died left for dead outside.
The, the, the walls of the city or the gates of the city, but
those guys went through all that, Because of the hope.
It was because of Jesus. And it was because of this
surance, that they knew that they had.
Because God was faithful. To what he was promised. and so,
when you read about the experience of just these two
guys, specifically, in the book of Acts, if you want to be
encouraged, read the book of Acts regarding this thing in
this life and when you read about that experience and then
those two guys in particular, saying rejoice, in the hope that
you've got, Those are words of experience and those are men who
know what they're talking about. Because they had that assurance
that they were going to go to heaven because of the life that
they had lived. They show us how to rejoice in
Our Hope. And as I leave these teachings
to you this morning, I want to leave you with this one verse in
Romans, 15 and 13. Now, the May the god of Hope.
Fill you with all joy and peace in believing?
That you may abound in, Hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And that's what God does. And that's the Blessed assurance
that we have. When this life is over.
Be thankful that you serve a god?
Who is faithful and is good to you and gives us that promise.
And rejoice in that every day that you live in whatever,
circumstance that comes your way.
And I hope that with these things that we've seen here,
this morning that you've been encouraged, that you've been
lifted up. And there are things that I need
to work on. So I Rejoice even more because
of the god. That is so good to me and
blesses me in so many ways. And I'm looking forward.
To the hope. Where my faith becomes sight.
It's going to be great. And you're looking forward to
that too, aren't you? Maybe you're here and you've
never become a child of God. there's a there's a realization
that if you have not become a child of God, if you have not
obeyed, the gospel of Christ, There's no hope.
There's no hope but you can change that understanding about
God's grace, how he sent his son down to this world and he lived
the life that he lived and he was perfect and he was sinless.
Yet he bore your sins on the cross and was the ultimate
sacrifice for your sins. How he died and was buried and
was resurrected on that third day.
Because of that and because our obedience to that very thing, we
can have hope and we can have our sins washed away and we
could be added to the Lord's church.
That's something that the Lord does it obedience to that and
understanding that and repenting of your life.
And that confessing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
And then be baptized for the remission of your sins.
That happened to those people there in Acts chapter 2.
And it specifically says that the the Lord added them to his
church is not something that we do that.
We add you to the church. It's the Lord that add you to
the church in obedience to his will and Obedience of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. And then you'll have that hope.
That God has promised, the faithful.
Take advantage of that. If you've never done it, take
advantage of the goodness and mercy and love of God.
If you've never done that, if you have become a child of God,
maybe you've messed up. Maybe there are things in your
life that you just need to make things right with God.
Whatever it is, understand that God always gives us another
chance because he is so merciful and forgiving.
That's the kind of God whom we serve.
We thank you for listening to our podcast, put on by the
Church of Christ at 22:15 plans. Road in Bakersfield, if you
would like any additional information, or you would like
to receive a free Bible correspondence, course by mail.
Please email us at info at her Church of Christ
Bakersfield.com. Our service times are on Sundays
at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m.
Please make plans to join us. We would love for you to be our
honored guest.