abrraham

Heb 11:8-19 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

By faith Abraham, even though he was past age — and Sarah herself was barren — was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.
People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country — a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.
He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
In the hall of fame, Abraham surely must have the central display. Abraham occupies the central eleven verses of this chapter. He is the greatest example of faith in the Old Testament.
Because of this long discussion of Abraham’s faith, we have an opportunity to see that faith comes in several flavors. It is not just one thing, but at least three. All of these three aspects are found in in Abraham’s life.
Faith has three aspects—Boldness, Patience, and Hope.
Boldness is the kind of faith it takes to take extraordinary risks, based upon the promises of God. Boldness is not being foolhardy, neither is it recklessness, but it is being willing to stand upon God’s promises and God’s promises alone. Boldness is miracle-producing faith. It is the kind of faith seen in Abraham, Elijah, Peter, Joseph, Paul, and (naturally) Jesus.
Most people are rabbits, not lions. They would rather hide in their houses than have adventures. The thought of actually following God outside heri comfort zone, appalls them.
The kingdom cannot be advanced by rabbits. It requires people who are willing to trust God’s promises on the battlefields of life. Abraham was such a lion.
Abraham showed the boldness of his faith in two great actions. First, he left his home and his family and went into a land he did not know, at the age of eighty-seven.
There are few things more adventurous than starting a new life when you are old. The old adage “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is sadly too often true. But when we begin anew in advanced years, then the world gapes in awe at us.
Moses led his people beginning at the age of eighty. Grandma Moses took up painting in her seventies. We still talk about those people because they are true heroes of faith.
Tennyson expressed his admiration for such boldness in his poem Ulysses,
“Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
The second example of this in Abraham’s life is when he took his son Isaac to he mountain, to sacrifice him according to God’s command. Abraham had a radical faith that was willing to follow God wherever He led, even if it did not make sense. Sacrificing Isaac was against everything that God had ever told him. The rejection of human sacrifice was ont of the things that made Abraham’s God better than the gods around him. Abraham thought he knew this. He believed in a God of love and justice. Besides, it appeared that God was asking him to surrender everything he had wanted in his life—a son. But he did it anyway, because he trusted God more than he trusted his own wisdom, his own preconceived ideas, his upbringing, and even his own conscience.
Sometimes we must think differently than or parents or family. Sometimes e must admit that our old notions are wrong. Sometimes we have to put on the line the happiness we have enjoyed for so long. “He who saves his life will lose it,” Jesus said. “But he who give his life will gain it. “He who surrenders houses and family and lands for the Kingdom of God will gain houses and family for Him” This takes bold faith. There is no substitute for it.
Boldness is the hallmark of a trusting relationship with God. Peter exhibited this when he stood before the men who had crucified Jesus and shouted “You crucified the Lord of Glory.” John had it when the the said to a lame man “in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.” Missionaries show boldness when they leave their homes. Martin Luther showed boldness when asked to deny the truth and embrace the Catholic church. He shouted “here I stand. I can do no other.” St Francis had it when he stood before the Muslim caliph and preached Christ, even when Muslims and Christians were slaughtering each other. None of these men thought of themselves as bold. They just thought of themselves as being faithful.
Patience is the second aspect of Abraham’s faith. This is the kind of faith that is necessary to achieve long-term goals. Abraham was willing to wait forever, if necessary fo the reward that was promised to him. He was willing to work for days, months, or even years before he ever saw any results because he knew that the rewards would be worth it.
Noah was willing to work on the ark, day after day, year after year while the rest of the world though him crazy, because he knew it would save his family. Moses waited in he desert for forty years, to see his people save through the promised land. Solomon worked for forty years on the temple. No great thing is ever accomplished unless we have the patience to see it through.
Abraham refused to settle down, even though he had the means, because he wanted his family to have the land God’s way. He waited for God to bring a son out of he and his wife’s nonagenarian bodies, even though in the entire history of the world, it had never happened. He had to tell his children to wait for he proms, wait for he ime when he promised would be.
Patience is not just having faith. It is leaning on the faithful one. We all get tired. We all think we need a rest. But there is no glory or profit in rest. We have to be willing to go beyond the ordinary if we are ever to see extraordinary results.
An Asian woman recently wrote a book about the Chinese style of parenting, and how it differed from ours. One thing she pointed out was that Chinese parents often insist that their children play an musical instrument. In America, we think we are doing good when we have them practice a half hour a day. But in China, they make them practice two or even three hours a day. Their theory is this. That the fruit of the practice does not begin until after the first hour. At first learning an instrument is just scales and repetition. It is boring. But it is not until we master the boring things that we can really begin to enjoy what we are doing.
Patient faith brings no fruit until we have endured for a long time. When it does, it brings great fruit and great joy. Without patience, we can accomplish nothing.
Hope is the third aspect of faith. Abraham could not have acted boldly or waited patiently unless he also possessed the ability to see into the future with excitement, believing in a reward that was before him. The second time Abraham showed this boldness was when he took his son Isaac up the mountain to kill him, as a sacrifice to God. Kierkegaard wrote a book about this story. He pointed out that Abraham’s boldness in following God was such that he was willing to stand against his own preconceived ideas, his upbringing, and even his own perceived conscience. Sometimes we must think differently than or parents or family. Sometimes e must admit that our old notions are wrong. This takes bold faith. There is no substitute for it.
Boldness and perseverance are active things. We start upon a bold course and day by day see it though. But hope on the other hand is passive. We do not pursue hope, we have it. It isdoes not come from what we do or say, but from God’s assurance to our heart. Hope is what helps us endure hardships and setbacks, ridicule and shame. We know that one day we will be vindicated.
Hope is not just about what we want to happen. It is about what God says will happen A hope is not a wish. We may wish for a million dollars but we do not hope for it. But we all may hope for heaven, because God says we can have it. If we trust in God, and beliee His promises, then we have hope.
I remember the first time as a boy that I ever saved to buy anything. It was a wooden portable chess set, and it cost seven whole dollars. Every week I saved my fifty-cent allowance until I had enough to buy it. Never in my life had anything looked so beautiful as that chess set when I bought.
There was only one way I could have saved for that chess set. I had to have hope that it would be there for me when I had the money to buy it. We must have a certainty that what we want will be there, if we continue to live on less than they can by. Then one day, greater rewards than we can ever imagine will be ours. Hope is what keeps us denying ourselves when we know we could be indulging. We hope for something better down the road.
Where do we get hope? Hope comes from God. It comes from realizing that there are things larger and more important than what we see with our eyes and ears
Jesus came that we might have hope, not just for this life, but for the next. That hope was the reason people went to crosses and stakes for His sake.
Boldness, patience, and hope. If we are going to follow God, and be used by Him, we must have all three.

Living Water

Joy and I had dinner with some friends. They announced they wanted to share in a special occasion. When they were married some thirty years before, someone had given them a bottle of wine, made that year. They had been holding onto it for all that time, and had decided to uncork it that night. They wanted us to share in tasting it. Though we rarely touch wine, felt that it was important that we sample a glass.


Our friends uncorked the bottle an poured us each a small glass. Then-disappointment! It was not very good. It had not only fermented, but gone beyond fermenting. It was barely drinkable.

Think about that wine. For years it sat in their house, waiting to be uncorked, waiting for that special moment. In the bottle, the anticipation of it brought a special sense of joy. But they waited too long. The right time slipped into disappointment.

Don’t we behave that way when it comes to the Gospel? When we received it, it was the greatest gift we could imagine. God almighty wants to be our friend and give us eternal life. We always intended to share it. But we are too cautious. What if we don’t do it right? What if they laugh at us? There are a thousand reasons for not sharing the Good News.

The Gospel doesn’t change. But we do, and so do circumstances. We let opportunity slip though our fingers. There is never a better time to share than now.

God has a moment for us to share. That moment is now. If now now, when? Tomorrow is not as good as today.

Presbyterians are cautious people. We want to pick the best time and the best place, to minimize our risk. It’s amazing they ever get married. It’s even more amazing that we ever see anyone won to Christ, when we are so timid about opening our mouths.

Our Lord was not that way. Jesus was driven by an overwhelming desire to see others in the Kingdom of God. One place we see that is in John 4. 4-30. In this story, Jesus did not sit down and rationally plan a strategy for bringing the Gospel to the Samaritans. Instead He was compelled by the Holy Spirit that this was the right time, and he was compelled to do so.

The story begins like this--And he had to go through Samaria. Now why did Jesus have to go through Samaria? There were two other and better routes from Jerusalem to Galilee that did not involve going through Samaria. Both of them were safer and more comfortable.

Samaria was hill country. Anyone would get tired going up and down those hills all day.

But that wasn’t the real problem. Samaria was unsafe for a Jew. The relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans was very bad. No one wanted to go through there.

I read recently that the most dangerous neighborhood is in Chicago. That neighborhood t is so bad that there is a one in four chance for someone walking in broad daylight to be attacked. Most of us would not even think about going there. That was what Samaria was to the Jews.

But Jesus had to go through Samaria. Why?

He had to go through Samaria for one reason. It is where the Samaritans were. The Samaritans needed him, and somebody had to take it there. He had the Gospel, and it was time had to uncork it. If he waited the wine of the /Spirit might turn to vinegar.

Let’s set the scene. Samaria was, by the standards of the day, a slum. It had once been an important place, the capital of the Northern Kingdom. Jacob’s well was there, probably, covered with dirt and graffiti.

Even so, Jesus led his disciples there. They came to Jacob’s well about three in the afternoon. The disciples went into town to get food. Jesus stayed behind at the well.

The well was deserted. It was too late for the breakfast crowd, and too early for the supper crowd. But one woman did come--the kind of woman your mother warned you about.

In those days you did not talk to strange women. But Jesus did, breaking a social taboo.

“Give me something to drink.”

She looked at Jesus contemptuously. The probably assumed that this strange man was about to proposition her. These Jews were all alike, she thought. They pretend to be all high and mighty, but they are no different from other men.

She answered, “How is it that you, a Jew ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink? The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans.”

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

“Living water” meant running water. It was not a stagnant pool, like this well. It was good, clean water like a mountain spring.

"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Clean, clear water is symbolic of a Spirit set free by the Holy Spirit. It washes us clean and keeps us clean, so we can stay fresh in the world.

Wouldn’t any of them want some living water? Wouldn’t they want some joy that would keep coming even if everything else seemed to be falling in around them? That sense of resilient joy is what Jesus had to offer.

The Gospel is resilient joy. No matter how far you have fallen, no matter many times you fail, God forgives you. Even if you were the worst person in the world, you could be clean if you turn your sins over to Jesus, and experience His love and forgiveness.

Here’s the problem with us Christians. We have the Gospel but we don’t believe it. We say we believe that Jesus has the power to make a saint out of the worst of us. But then we have a whole list of people who we believe will never change. We’ve got whole classes of people that we think we don’t have to love or care for—other races, other nationalities, strangers, aliens, and so on.

We might come around to loving them eventually. But in the meantime, we hesitate too long. We can’t wait until they are gone, and then pretend to be looking for them. We might as well be fishing in a bathtub as to be seeking the lost only when they come to us.

He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."

"I have no husband," she replied.

Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."

Jesus is not condemning this woman’s bedroom behavior, nor is He condoning it. He is demonstrating His knowledge and power. He knows her secrets but doesn’t care. He is not interested in her past, but her future. He wants her to have eternal life.

People look at our past. Jesus looks at our future. He loves us where we are. He wants to see them have that pure water coming up from inside us.

When do we truly walk like Jesus? When we know that we have to go through Samaria. We cannot be truly Christians and not love those whom Jesus loves. God despises our churchy pretensions and wants us to embrace his love for lost sinners.

This woman was impressed.

"I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."

Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."

Incredibly, this was the first time Jesus told anyone He was the Messiah. He hadn’t told his disciples, but he told this woman He was the savior, because she needed a savior.

Do you need a Savior? Do you think your sins are bad enough to send you to hell? If you don’t need a savior, you don’t need Jesus, because that’s what Jesus is.

Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"

There is no difference in God’s eyes between you and a bum on the street. You both need Jesus. Only by God’s grace and the accident of birth are you not a bum on the street, if you don’t know Jesus. He has come to seek and save the lost, and we are among their number.

The end of this story is inspiring.

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people,

"Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

There is a moment when the Good News must be told. This woman told. When she told, they came. Hundreds, maybe thousands of Samaritans poured out of those hills to meet this man that the woman told them about. As they met him, they changed, too—lepers were cleansed, sick people were healed, the demon possessed were set free, addicts were made whole, all kinds of things happened, because this woman believed. The living water flowed from her, into the lives of so many other people;

I have always wanted to see one of those moments, like the disciples experienced in Samaria and elsewhere, where people came down of their own accord, looking for the Messiah. We can’t call it a revival, because there was nothing there to revive. It is a move of the Holy Spirit, where He reveals Himself through changed lives, answered prayers, and unusual power and love. I have spent my whole life trying to get people into churches. It would be nice just once to see people who didn’t have to be persuaded to come. These Samaritans experienced the move of the Spirit, and th came.

I attended a Methodist school in Kentucky which had experienced such a move of the Spirit. That move swept across this country in the Seventies. For thirty-five years, I’ve wanted to be in such a flow of living water. But I have never seen it in this denomination. I am convinced that is why we are so small.

We have the Gospel of Christ, but we have kept it to ourselves. We have put it on the shelf and left the cork in it. We keep saying one day we are going to let it loose, tell the world, but we do not. The time never seems ready. One day it will be too late. There are other believers who will be obedient and willing to be channels of the Spirit, if we will not. If we do not use what we have been given, God will give it to others. But if we are willing to turn the Spirit loose, God can do great and mighty things.

What is God For? A Future Worth Having

Do you remember the old movie The Time Machine? In it, a scientist sits in the machine, and pushes the lever forward. Time begins to accelerate. The sun and moon pass rapidly before his window. Furniture scoots around the room. He pushes the lever forward faster. The room itself disappears. He is now in a vacant lot. He sees the mannequin in a store window--skirt hemlines go up and down with the changes of fashion. Then the store itself disappears. The town disappears, too, and greenery grows around him. Finally, he is encased in rock and then the rock itself wears away.


The older I get, the more I feel like that time traveler. Everything I know fades away. Old friends age and die. My hair turns from black to white. Just as soon as I get used to one bit of technology it's obsolete.

Think of the things we have known--records, black-and-white television, newspapers, books, full service gas stations, board games, milkmen, door-to-door salesmen, big cars, written letters, balancing your check book, soft drinks in glass bottles—all are either gone or fading. Those things we thought would last forever fall away and we are in an unfamiliar world. We are the strangers in our own homes, even strangers in our own bodies.

Desperately we try to slow things down. We pull on the lever. But the world will not go any slower because we want it to. Everything disappears--including ourselves.

Every generation has experienced obsolescence, decline and death. No one grows old gracefully. Everyone hates to see the old go.

Our reaction to aging depends on one thing--what we think comes afterward. If I were that man in the time machine, I would enjoy the ride only if I knew I was going back to my own time. If I thought it aging was permanent, then I would fight furiously to slow the world down. .

"To be, or not to be," Hamlet said. "That is the question." When he thought of ending his life, he thought of eternal judgment and changed his mind.

Either we believe that we are headed for oblivion, or we believe we are headed for heaven. Which is more appealing? Which give some reason for living?

The Bible gives abundant evidence of the existence of heaven. Consider these verses.

1 Thess 4:13-18. Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.



Rev. 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, he new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."



John 14:1-4 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

What is heaven like? We cannot really know. The pearly gates, streets of gold, wedding feast, and thrones are all just metaphors meant to express to our earthly something indescribable.

Forget everything you have heard about heaven. Forget everything you imagine it to be. There is nothing this side of heaven that can even begin to express its true nature. What kind of existence we will have we could not begin to grasp. The images we get of heaven are either our attempts to grasp the ungraspable or God's method of expressing the inexpressible. It is the fulfillment of all things on earth, and the surpassing of all human joys. It is a real place where all the pleasures and joys of this world are multiplied many times over.

What do we know of heaven? We can at least say four things about it.

First, in Heaven there is no time. When God chose a name to give Moses, He called Himself “I am.” "I exist always in the present." When Jesus wanted to tell who he really was, he said "Before Abraham was, I Am." He lives in a present, which was before Abraham.

Eternity is beyond time and beyond space, when we live in all moments at once, as God does. I do not understand this, I only know it is.

I don't know about you, but this is a great comfort to me. In heaven I will literally have all the time in the world to enjoy what I want forever.

Second, in heaven there will be no sin. Once upon a time, God created a perfect world. We messed it up, by not obeying Him. This led to all the problems of the world, disease, war, famine, destruction, and death. Jesus redeemed out of this world those who would believe. One day when the world ends and our lives end, we will live happily ever after.

We would live happily ever after now, if it were not for one thing--sin.

We all suffer because of something someone has done, either ourselves or someone else. Drug use leads to addiction which leads to poverty. Promiscuity leads to unplanned pregnancy which leads to poverty. Drunken driving leads to accidents which leads to poverty. But many, many more suffer because they are victims of someone else. In a world without sin, there would be no poverty, either. And if there is no poverty without sin, then it must also be true that in a place where there is no poverty, there was no sin.

We battle sin our whole lives. But once we get to heaven, that battle is over. The drunkard is clean, the lustful are faithful, the lazy are industrious, the proud are humble, the greedy are satisfied, and the violent are calm at last. God wipes away every tear from our eyes and every temptation of our heart.

Third in heaven, there is love.

Yes, we will see our mothers and fathers and all those who have gone before (assuming they have trusted in Christ and arrived safely) But this is just a tiny part of heaven's joys. Without the restrictions of this world, and the sin of this world, our love broadens, as so does everyone else. There will not be separate families in heaven. Instead, we will all be part of one great family. Instead of one mother, we will have millions. We will have millions of fathers, too. Everyone we meet will be our brothers and sisters. In heaven, all children will be our children, and we will be children of all.

Love is the substance of heaven, as it the substance of God. We will live in it. Every relationship in heaven is rooted and grounded in the love of God.

Remember what Jesus said "Those who do the will or My father are my mothers and brothers." Remember when He said no one will give up father and mother without having a hundred more in the kingdom of Heaven. Remember when He said that in heaven there is no marrying or giving in marriage. We will all love each one. Divisions on earth are so ridiculous—if we are going to spend all eternity together, who why quarrel about what doesn't matter?

Fourth, in heaven will be the living presence of God. Here's the best part.

In Revelation 21: 22-26 John likens heaven to a city, shaped like an enormous city. The streets and the avenues of the city on every level are transparent gold, like glass

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.

The glory of God lights the city, from top to bottom. It fills every nook and cranny of the dwelling place of the dead with glorious light.

On earth, we only catch glimpses of that light Imagine what it would be like to experience that moment of glory every moment of every day, for the rest of eternity, to be frozen in wonder forever.

In James Hilton's novel, Lost Horizon, a man visits a place called Shangri La, a place so beautiful that he spends the rest of his life trying to get back to it. Heaven is such a place. It is worth everything to go there.

So how do we get to heaven? It is simple. We put our trust in Jesus. Jesus' death on the cross washes away not only the guilt, but the power of sin in our lives. Whatever our sinful minds have done, whatever sinful lusts have driven us, he breaks the power of them, so that we can walk free of them.

Don't let the littleness of this life get you down.. God is in charge. He has a better place waiting for us, if we will only believe.

What is God for? Hope

Today, I want to talk about a third aspect of what God is for—a hope for the hopeless. Before we discuss this, let’s talk about what hope actually is. Hope includes two aspects-- reality and feelings. In order for hope to help us, is must be both.


Let me illustrate. Suppose someone else did in my name and bought me a lottery ticket. I neither believe in nor approve of the lottery. Nevertheless, if you own a lottery ticket, there is an element of real hope associated with it. Any lottery ticket has the possibility, however infinitesimal, of financial gain. I certainly would not go out and run up my credit cards in anticipation, however.

Now, suppose that I had this ticket, but I did not believe it had any possibility of any real gain from it, and I tore it up. Whatever real hope there might be in that ticket would be lost. It would be worth nothing. It would be foolish on one hand to feel the ticket had value when it didn’t, and go borrow money on that basis. It also be foolish to tear it up, without at least waiting to see whether it actually had some value.

Or lets suppose you have a rare and serious illness. The doctors tell you there is no hope, so you give up treatment. Then one doctor says there is a possibility of a new treatment that might work. If you don’t believe it will work, you will not take the treatment, and it will do you no good. But if you think it has a possibility of working, you’ll move heaven and earth to have it.

Real hope is based on a possibility of gain. But without believing in that possibility—perceived or felt hope, then the real value does us no good.

If we perceive hope where there is none, we are just being delusional. If we have no hope where there is real hope, we are being fatalistic. Without some degree of hope, we give up the struggle. We must have hope to continue to live.

It is difficult to overestimate the value of hope. If we have hope, we will do anything, try anything,endure anything. But if we have no hope, even the most routine of activities becomes pointless.

The word "hope" in English is not strong enough to convey what the Bible says about hope. Our word means the possibility of improving situations. The word "hope" in both Hebrew and Greek means a great deal more than that. I means our improvement Is certain, if we stay on the right course.

In Hebrew, the word used is tiquvah. Translated literally int English, it means a rope or a cord. If we are going through a treacherous place, then a rope may be what we hold onto. It is a sure and certain guide before us.

In Greek he word is elpis. It is a word which mean, not only he possibility of improvement, but the certainty of it. Hope is acting on what is promised tomorrow today.

Recently, Joy and I got some new furniture for our living room. It took two weeks to deliver from the store. Druing that time, we were stuck with having to get rid of the old furniture. It took three trips and several house, but we finally got our furniture own to Hope, incorporated to distribute to a burned-out family. When we wer done we sat in a nearly empty living room for a day. If the furniture had not arrived on time, we would have been in a mess. But the furniture did arrive right on time, and our hope was validated.

Every day we make decisions based on hope. We cast our furniture in anticpation of another. We unpack one house and move into another. We reach out because we know we will be of use. Without hope, we would sit in our hoes and do nothing. Hope is something we must have to do anything. It is a necessary commodity to anything we do.

When we lose faith, we lose hope. If we really don't trust politicians, why vote? If we think we have no chance of making friends, then why be a friend? Everything we are and ever will be depends upon hope.

Christians know where hope comes from. It comes from Jesus Christ. Christ is the bringer of hope, more than anything else. The story of Christ's birth is a hopeful story. It shows us that God can come to earth in the most unlikely of places. The story of Christ's baptism brings hope, since it shows that the Messiah can come from anywhere. The story of Christ's miracles bring hope, since it shows that God can overcome anything, even death itself. The story of Christ's death and resurrection brings hope, since it shows that nothing not even death, can separate us from the forgiveness of sins that Jesus gave through his atoning work.

Our faith in Jesus is not vain. It is a real hope. Jesus really did die on the cross for our sins, and he really promises us forgiveness and true life forever. This is not an illusion.

But this hope does us no good unless we feel it. Hope is a thing we must have for ourselvs. It cannot ge given to us b others.

Paul says in Romans 5:1-4

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 rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Hope is an upward spiral to the Christian. As we practice hope that God will accept us by faith in Him, and we anticipate that by praising Him, we learn perseverance, which develops our character, including that characteristic of hope.

Christ gives brought us four kinds of hope to us.

1. He gave us hope for an experience of God.

I believe that everyone instinctually has a desire to see and experience God in their lives. We see this in the way all cultures have developed a sense of divinity, whether it be true or false. We all want fellowship with Him.

In our modern age, many have turned away from all divinity, and declared themselves atheists or agnostics. Even so, they we have kept in our stories, a longing for wonder, a hope for something truly amazing to break into our lives. The reason people seek our ghosts, UFO's and psychic phenomena is because they want to believe there is something greater than ourselves who will come and rescue us. In Communist countries like China and North Korea, their leaders are woshiped as gods. Having done away with the true God, they put worldly rulers in His place

But the only hope we have of speaking to God is through Jesus Christ. Sin has separated ourselves form the truth. We cannot restore is, s we must rely upon God's mercy through Jesus to ope n the door that would otherwise be shut to us. "For there is just one name in heaven and earth by which ou must be saved." .

2. He gave us hope to change our lives and attitudes.

When do you think personality is formed--College? High school? Preschool? When does it become too late for a person to change?

Some people believe that there is no possibility to change. Behaviorists, racists, and gay rights activists all have one thing in common--they believe there are aspects of who we are that came from birth, and cannot be changed later.

We do not have to be any one of those to believe we are predetermined from birth.

As we get older, more and more we accept the lie that we cannot change. In time, we quit trying. But Jesus can still change us, whether we are two years old or a hundred. We can always start again. When we trust Jesus, we are born again. A new life begins, and a new hope comes with us.

3. He gave us hope for eternal life.

When we are young, we think we will live forever. In our country, death is far from most of us for a long time. So we never sit and contemplate the reality of death. One day we will exist on this world, and the next day we will not.

The Bible says that there is another life waiting for us--heaven. Heaven does not have the limitations of this life, nor does it have the temptations. Heaen is forever, and the joy of heaven is forever.

The way we understand heaven makes all the difference in the way we understand this life. If there is no heaven, it doesn't matter what we do. Eefyting will be ther same. But if there is a heaven, then we should live and obey in a way that helps us get there. If there is no heaven, then we should do everything we can to stay alive, no matter what it does to others. A live coward is better than a dead hero. But if ther eis a heaven, then death is not the worst thing. Missing out on eternity is the worse thing, and death which leads to heaven is the best thing we can ever have.

4. He gave us hope for a new world.

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth" John said. "For the old heaven and the old earth have passed away." To which the believer will no doubt say "Well, It's about time!" Sin had left this world with some terrible flaws. It is a tough, selfish world to live sin, and it is getting worse. Mark Twain once said that man was a little lower than the angels, and has been getting a little lower ever since. But the hope that we have for ourselves also extends to the whole world. God will make it right. We do not have to despair.

Let us have hope, then. Let us live in that hope and die in that hope. God's hope will not disappoint.