A Certain Hope - Hope in Uncertain Times
A Sermon on Hope
Numbers 6:22-27
22 The Lord said to Moses,
23 “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
24 “‘“The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”’
27 “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
A. What is hope?
It is a confidence of actual goodness for the present and the future, based on actions in the past and the present.
I just keep on hoping that you call me You say you wanna see me but you can't right now You never took the time to get to know me Was scared of losing something that we never found - Post Malone, Hollywood’s bleeding
B. The Need for Hope.
C. The Basis for Hope.
Isaiah 29:7-8 will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night—
8 as when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still;
as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking, but awakens faint and thirsty still.
1 Cor 15:19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
What is the basis for our hope?
1. the secular humanistic worldview
God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him” - Frederick Nietzsche, Prussian philosopher, 19th Century
The Worldly Hope men set their hearts upon Turns Ashes—or it prospers; and anon, Like Snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face Lighting a little Hour or two—is gone. Omar Khayyam, Persian philosopher and Mathematician, 11th Century
2. the Christian worldview
It is a confidence of (God’s) actual goodness for the present and the future, based on (God’s) actions in the past and (human responses in) the present.
Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. I will be hoping that this letter finds you and finds you well. - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption, 1994
John 2:19-22 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
The hope of a secular humanist is based on humans. The hope of a Christian is based on a human – Jesus Christ.
Rom 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Eph 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us
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Photo by Faris Mohammed on Unsplash
