HOPE
(Includes some copied content)
The doctor stands at the foot of the bed. He
looks down at the clipboard. And with an
ashen face he declares, this is a hopeless
case. We have lost all hope of saving him...
HOPE.
 We’re lost without it.
 We’re sunk without it.
Ephesians 2:12 describes some people as
being in such a hopeless condition...
...HAVING NO HOPE, AND WITHOUT GOD
IN THE WORLD.
It seems like the world we’re living in is ever
more HOPELESS...
 Truly, it’s A BLEAK WORLD
 A world who’s COMPASS IS BROKEN
 A world WITHOUT HOPE.
Some have called the time in which we live
the information age, the space age, the postChristian age, the information age...
 Yet more and more see it as an age of
despair, of heartache, and of
heartbreak...
 Many are overwhelmed by a feeling of
HOPELESSNESS.
A story is told about a man who felt so
much despair that he climbed up a bridge
to commit suicide.
A policeman climbed along and tried to
coax him to come down but he would not.
Finally in desperation, the policeman said
“Okay, let’s take ten minutes now. You
take five minutes and tell me what’s wrong
with the world and why you want to kill
yourself. Then I’ll take five minutes and I
tell you what is right with the world and
why you should go on living.”
After each had taken five minutes, they
joined hands---and jumped off the bridge--together!
http://archive.episcopalchurch.org/documents/Message_of_Hope_in_an_Age_of_Despair.pdf
HAVING NO HOPE, AND WITHOUT GOD
IN THE WORLD.
For many people, sadly, this is an age of
despair, of hopelessness.
Really and truly suicide is no joke.
Around 2500 Australians die by suicide every
year.
Seven Aussies will take their own life today.
It’s about twice the number of people who die
from suicide as do from car accidents.
Some people are overtaken by
HOPELESSNESS. Consumed with a souldestroying, depressing hopelessness.
By definition, DEPRESSION is a sense of
hopelessness. Yet the Lord can bring a way
out.
When people are depressed it can bring
DESPAIR.
When you look ahead, at your future, what do
you see?
Do you look with despair or with hope?
Many have LOST hope, GIVEN UP hope...
Some pursue a VAIN HOPE and end up
HAVING THEIR HOPES DASHED.
Some people are HOPELESS SINNERS.
HAVING NO HOPE, AND WITHOUT GOD
IN THE WORLD.
Other people have a HOPE but it is EMPTY.
Some place their hope in WEALTH or
FORTUNE or FAME.
Some try and find hope at the bottom of a
BOTTLE of booze or at the point of a
NEEDLE, or with the puff of a JOINT.
Or some will try DRUGS, ANTIDEPRESSANTS.
Such people just get more deluded and
ever more miserable. As their HOPE has
not lasting quality to it. No substance.
The Bible says that the wicked have a VAIN
HOPE.
For the lost all they have is truly HOPELESS...
It is...
A REFUGE OF LIES
Jeremiah 18:12 And they said, There is
no hope: but we will walk after our own
devices, and we will every one do the
imagination of his evil heart.
For many people in our modern age it can
seem like things are hopeless.
For some people they have no hope beyond
death, even though they speed their way
there like a runaway train.
There are many Bible references to people –
some who were living in HOPE and others
living in HOPELESSNESS. We see this in the
lives of various Bible characters...
Through the pages of your Bible, it tells you
their stories, warts and all...
 It tells how DAVID found HOPE. We read
that it says that he encouraged himself in
the Lord. There was a time he was
distressed, yet he sought after God and
found hope... 1 Samuel 30:6 And
David was greatly distressed; for the
people spake of stoning him,
because the soul of all the people
was grieved, every man for his sons
and for his daughters: but David
encouraged himself in the LORD his
God.
 But in stark contrast the Bible says how
SAUL was HOPELESS. For his comfort
he went to the witch of Endor, and he
ended up killing himself. He was looking
for hope in the wrong place,. Like many
do today vainly searching for new age
gurus and crystals and tarot cards and
Ouija boards, etc...
 SOLOMON commented how the godless
view life as: ‘vanity of vanities; all is
vanity’ - Ecclesiastes 1:2.
YET a RAY of HOPE SHINES THROUGH.
You can have REASON FOR HOPE.
Our sure founded hope in God can bring A
BRIGHTER DAY.
I bring GOOD NEWS for you today.
You can have HOPE.
The HOPE that we can know has a
tremendous HEALING POWER.
HOPE itself can be a huge step towards
HEALING.
What does it mean, TO HAVE HOPE?
Some people hope their footie team will win.
Some hope for a job, a promotion, a pay
rise...
This is not the hope we are talking about
here. It is something more substantial and
vital. The HOPE that we can have is a certain
hope, a confident expectation in God.
Many struggle to stay hopeful when
struggles abound.
Yet Jesus brings HOPE to the HOPELESS.
A RADIANT HOPE...
Our hope is not BASELESS.
 It is not FOUNDED on WISHFUL
THINKING
 It has A REASON.
WHERE IS IT THAT SURE HOPE FOUND?
We read that NOTHING can separate us.
That’s reason for HOPE.
THE WORD OF GOD gives us hope.
This is a Book of Promises for us.
Romans 15:4 For whatsoever things
were written aforetime were written for
our learning, that WE THROUGH
PATIENCE AND COMFORT OF THE
SCRIPTURES MIGHT HAVE HOPE.
And this promise of Hope sustains us.
It carries us over the hard times.
This hope that we have CARRIES US
THROUGH.
We have BIBLICAL HOPE...
The kind of hope that is not based upon
WHAT we know, but on WHO we know.
AGAINST ALL THE ODDS and setbacks of
life.
We can have CONFIDENCE in God.
Biblical hope is A SURE HOPE.
Hebrews 6 tells us of AN ANCHOR...
It is likened to AN ANCHOR.
Hebrews 6:18-19 That by two
immutable things (the context is talking
about God’s counsel and God’s oath we
could think of His Word and His truth) , in
which it was impossible for God to lie,
we might have a strong consolation
(encouragement) , who have FLED FOR
REFUGE TO LAY HOLD UPON THE HOPE
SET BEFORE US: (19) WHICH HOPE
WE HAVE AS AN ANCHOR OF THE
This Hope is an anchor for our souls, in the
midst of stormy times
Our HOPE, likewise, is...
 Sure
 Unshakeable
SOUL, BOTH SURE AND STEDFAST, and
which entereth into that within the veil.
Like the anchor, hope grabs what is out of
sight.
In other words, we can trust in God.
That He will fulfil His promises.
As one puritan put it: “The cable of faith
casts out the anchor of hope and lays hold
of the steadfast rock of God’s promises.”
This hope will ENDURE.
It is unshakeable, we can rest in this HOPE,
as God’s sure word.
Our hope is founded on something sure and
stedfast.
Jesus says to His Disciples, “Let not your
heart be troubled...”
Those six simple words offered hope to our
Lord’s disciples in a hopeless hour.
FAITH gives us hope.
THE PROMISES OF GOD.
We have hope in God’s deliverance.
Hope in God’s character.
Hope stabilises in the storm.
There are sixty-six drawings of anchors in the
catacombs, the caves and tunnels that
persecuted Christians hid in during the
Roman persecutions. Hope was their anchor
during those dark and stormy days (Heb.
6:19; 10:34).
Many years ago, a submarine was rammed
by another ship off the New England coast
and quickly sank. Although rescue was
impossible at that depth, a diver was
dispatched to determine if there was still
life aboard the disabled vessel.
The diver placed his helmeted ear against
the side of the submarine’s hull and heard
a faint tapping sound. He made careful
note of the dots and dashes and decoded
the question: “Is—there—any—hope?” With
great remorse, he slowly signaled back:
“Hope—in—God—alone.”
God’s people through the pages of this
Book have found hope...
You and I are not lying at the bottom of the
ocean in a sunken vessel today. But in many
ways, we seem to be engulfed in the despair
of this world. And sometimes we, like those
trapped inside the submarine, tap out on the
sides of our ship of life: “Is—there—any—
hope?”
JOB knew this great living hope, even
though he felt hopeless at times, was full of
hope of a future resurrection – Job 19:25
For I know that my redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth.
Like the pealing of a bell across a valley, the
message of God’s Word to those in despair
rings out loud and clear: “Hope—in—God—
alone.”
The Bible speaks of THE BLESSED HOPE.
People would have looked at Saul of Tarsus
and written him off as a hopeless case. Yet
he is for us a testimony of God’s converting
power – the power of our hope in God.
The Hope that we have in God is a sure
cure for despair, discouragement, or
depression.
That Christ is coming again. This is our glad
hope, our happy hope...
Biblical Hope is reason for GLADNESS...
As God’s people we know the HOPE of THE
RESURRECTION.
 A Hope that death will not destroy
Proverbs 10:28 The hope of the
righteous shall be gladness: but the
expectation of the wicked shall perish.
We have THE LIVING HOPE...
Biblical Hope is reason for COMFORT.
If your hope is in God He watches over
you...
Psalms 33:18 Behold, the eye of the
LORD is upon them that fear him, upon
them that hope in his mercy;
praise him, who is the health of my
countenance, and my God.
Again, the ground for our confidence, our
Hope, is GOD’S WORD.
BIBLICAL HOPE is reason for BLESSING.
Jeremiah 17:7 Blessed is the man that
trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope
the LORD is.
Psalms 119:114 Thou art my hiding
place and my shield: I HOPE IN THY
WORD.
The hope that we have CHANGES us...
Biblical Hope is the basis of personal
evangelism, because it provokes others to
ask you...
1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts: and be ready always to give
an answer to every man that asketh you
a reason of the hope that is in you with
meekness and fear:
If your souls downcast tell your soul to place
your Hope in Him...
Psalms 43:5 Why art thou cast down, O
my soul? and why art thou disquieted
within me? hope in God: for I shall yet
1 John 3:3 And every man that hath
THIS HOPE IN HIM purifieth himself,
even as he is pure.
Our Hope is part of OUR ARMOUR.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 But let us, who
are of the day, be sober, putting on the
breastplate of faith and love; and for
an helmet, the hope of salvation.
Paul refers to hope as a helmet that
protects our mind or thoughts. Instead of
doubt and despair, let’s renew our minds
daily by the power of hope.
He speaks WORDS OF HOPE to THE
HOPELESS SOUL.
The doctor stands at the foot of the bed. He
looks down at the clipboard. And with an
ashen face he declares, this is a hopeless
case. We have lost all hope of saving him...
But there are no hopeless cases with God.
Some are as ...HAVING NO HOPE, AND
WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD.
Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
and why art thou disquieted within
me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise
him, who is the health of my
countenance, and my God.
And we have a reason for hope that is too
precious to keep to ourselves... a reason
of the hope that is in you..
Have you this hope today?
He can save to the uttermost...
They say, There is no hope...
We can turn to God, as David did,
David encouraged himself in the LORD
his God.
Hebrews 7:25 ...he is able also to save
them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him
We have WORDS OF HOPE today.
We can turn to the pages of His Word, that
WE THROUGH PATIENCE AND COMFORT
OF THE SCRIPTURES MIGHT HAVE HOPE.
We can know by faith, the anchor, WHICH
HOPE WE HAVE AS AN ANCHOR OF THE
SOUL, BOTH SURE AND STEDFAST...
We can tell our soul to have hope...
We want...
 To proclaim this hope...
 To pass on this hope...