OUR HOPE IN IN GOD TODAY! • You can live three minutes without air • You can live three days without water • And up to three months without food • BUT you cannot live one moment without hope
Hope in Seemingly Hopeless Situations
I Peter 1:3-9
Sunday, March 29, 2020
Pastor Tom Cogle
OUR HOPE IN IN GOD TODAY!
•You can live three minutes without air
•You can live three days without water
•And up to three months without food
•BUT you cannot live one moment without hope
1 Peter 1:3-93 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,
5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
I. Why do we need hope?
If you lose everything and everyone around you ………..but if you have this living hope…you can and will make it!
II. How Does this Hope Operate in our Lives?
Sometimes God delivers you FROM…..and sometimes God delivers you THRU.In order to see the deliverance THRU ….you have got to have HOPE that He is going to see you THRU!
III. How Do We Activate This Kind of Hope
What you believe about God and how He relates to you will determine if your life is feeling HOPELESS or full of HOPE.
We are in “SOCIAL DISTANCING” DAYS:
(time away from the normal routines of life)It’s a good to take advantage of this time by increasing:
1. Our Prayer Time – Jesus began his day with prayer and solitude and often pray alone and at night. But he also prayed often for others and with others. He prayed according to the will of his father. And he taught us that we should always pray and not give up.
How are you using these days to deepen your relationship with the Lord in prayer?
2. Solitude – Jesus would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. He encourage his disciples to come with Him by themselves to a quiet place and get some rest. Setting aside a place for solitude follows His model as well.
Will you make an appointment for time alone with your Lord?
3. Meditation – This is focusing on a biblical passage, something in nature, or an event and asking God to speak to you through it. Scripture calls us to meditate on God’s word day and night. David said, “I meditate on all that You have done.”
Will you take this time to focus on God’s word or His world, asking Him to speak to you?
David’s most famous psalm includes this declaration, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).
God is with us thru this pandemic.And when you know that God is with you – you can have a Hope in Seemingly Hopeless Situations