People of Hope

Date: 29 November 2020

Speaker: Chuck Maher

Romans 15:13 (NLT)

It’s so important with everything that’s going on in the world, that we guard and protect our hope.

Because, the enemy would love for us to lose hope, shrink back and become hopeless.  

And, it’s not only for our own sake that we need hope, but we need to guard our hope so that we have something to offer the world around us. 

Hope: “A joyful, confident expectation of good”.  

1. Hope is anchored in the belief that God is good! 

• “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us” – A.W. Tozer 
• John 14:8-9
• John 10:10
• When we believe that He’s good, it helps us to pray from Heaven’s perspective, and it helps us to have a joyful, confident, expectation of good. 

2. Hope doesn’t limit God to one particular outcome

• There is a subtle difference between hope and faith. 
• Faith tends to be specific:  I am believing God for….  It tends to be specific.  
• Whereas hope is a little more broad, and says, “I don’t know how this is going to play out, but I believe that no matter what happens, He is still good, and He’s going to cause all things to work together for good. 
• Faith is important, but faith without hope gets weird. 
• We’re in danger of shipwrecking our faith when we hold God hostage to answering one particular request. 
• The thing about hope, is it believes that it has options!  

3. Hope is rooted in eternity.

• When I think about the apostle Paul and the early church; I’m convinced that they were so aware the Heavenly realm that they had become citizens of, that they were unshaken by what happened to them or around them in this realm.  
• ** Paul and Silas in prison…
• ** Stephen being stoned to death…
• While being accused, “face of an angel”. 
• While they stoned Him, he said, “father don’t hold this against them. They know not what they do”. 

Philippians 3:17-20 (NIV)