Series: “How to Make it Through Tough Times”
Part 1
"Where to Find the Hope You Need"
Pastor Jerry
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One of the fundamental questions being asked today about life in our Pandemic world is this:
Is there hope? Will things get better? “
Is there hope” is being asked everyday by thousands of people in thousands of different ways.
“Is there hope?”
You can go without food water a couple of days.
But you can’t go a single minute without hope. Hope is one of the essentials of life. You need hope to live.
Dr. Harold Wolfe who is a professor at Cornell University in the medical school did a study on 25,000 prisoners of war to see what hope did to them and what difference it made. He discovered that there was one group on whom the experience of being a POW had no effect at all, in spite of the inhumane abuse. They didn’t get ill. They just handled it and went on with their life. The one common denominator was an extraordinary high level of
Hope. Hope is essential for handling the crises of life.
Today we’re beginning a new series –
“How to Make it Through Tough Times.” We’re going to begin by looking at—Where do you go to find the help and the hope that you need to excel in life? Because if you don’t get hope none of the other things we talk about are going to make sense.
Where do you find true hope?
The Bible tells us that you find it in God.
God is the source – the source of hope.
Romans 15:13
“May God, the source of hope, fill you with joy and peace through your faith in Him.” In other words as you put your faith in God, He gives you strength, peace, joy and hope. Specifically, God says if you want to put your hope in Me, you need to put it in My name. What does that mean? How do you put hope in a name?
In ancient cultures, they would choose a name for a person because of what it meant, because your name was usually the definition of your character. God has a lot of different names in the Bible. Each one of those names is a description of His character.
In the book of Ezekiel, God gives one of His names:
“I am Jehovah Shammah.” In Hebrew that means,
“I am the God who is always there.” There is no place that God is not. He is everywhere.
This has profound implications on where you find hope. If God is truly with me all the time, whether I feel it or not, if He’s truly with me, then that means there are three sources of hope that I can count on. There are
three anchors of the soul as the Bible calls them – three things that I can count on so that no matter what happens.
The first thing I know about God is...
- HIS PRESENCE IS …WATCHING OVER ME.
The older I get the more I realize how much of my life that I cannot control. Isaiah 41:10
“’Don’t worry because I am with you,’ says God. ‘Don’t be afraid, because I am your God. I will make you strong and I will help you. I will support you.’” The good news is regardless of what happens; you and I don’t have to go through it alone. There is a God who will be with us. When I hold onto that certainty,
I have hope.
There are a lot of uncertainties in life. One of the sad uncertainties of life is that people that you love will become ill and won’t be themselves any more. There will be people that you love that will die. The sad truth of life is people leave us.
But the certainty of life is God will never leave you. As a pastor, at funerals, I’ve heard many times the words,
“I don’t know how I’m going to make it.” …The answer is this:
God will be with you.
Not only is He with us but the Bible says He watches over us. Psalm 32:8
“I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and will watch over you.” God can control the future. He’s willing to show us the way. There’s great hope in that. I just have to trust the God who has it all figured out.
Lamentations 3
“I have hope when I think of this: the Lord’s love never ends. His mercies never stop. They are new every morning.” Nothing can ever make God stop loving me once I put my hand in His hand. The Bible says that God gives us a new fresh start every morning. I need that. That God gives me a new start and a new day to live a new hope that He wants to give. The first thing that gives me hope is that
God is watching over me! The second source of hope is this..
- HIS PURPOSE IS …WORKING IN ME.
No matter what’s happening in my life – good, bad, or ugly –
God’s purpose is working in me. When you see a purpose behind your problem it gives you enormous hope. It also gives you enormous power to endure it.
Romans 8:28
“We know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” Notice, it doesn’t say,
“All things work out the way you want them to.” And, it does not say,
“All things have a happy ending on earth.” We know that’s not true.
What it says is,
“We know that God causes all things to work together for good.”
Everything fits into God’s plan. The good, the bad, the indifferent. Notice: It doesn’t say,
“all things are good.” And it does not say
God causes all things. God does not. But it does say that
“God causes all things to work together for good.” They work together.
Notice the qualifier of this great promise. It is not for everybody. It says
“… those who love God…” All things do not work together for good for everybody. It’s a promise for those who love God and want to have a relationship with Him and who are trying to live according to His purpose.
If you are facing a difficult situation, the next verse is for you. Jeremiah 29:11 God says,
“I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future.” You may think that what God is doing in your life right now is painful and is to no avail but God says,
“My plan is good. You just don’t see it. You need to trust Me.”
If you have walked away from God. And you think
, “I was close to God at one time but I can’t get back to Him,” then the next verse is for you. Philippians 1:6
“God began doing a good work in you and I am sure He will continue it until it is finished...” God starts something in your life and what He starts He finishes. You may say you’re too far beyond hope. You’re not.
How do I learn about God’s plan for my life?
Through the Bible. The Bible tells us in Romans 15 that everything that was written in this book was written for our encouragement and our hope. The more you get into God’s word, the Bible – the more hopeful a person you’re going to be. The first thing I know about God is...He’s watching over me, and second, His Purpose is working for me, and there’s a third source of hope…
GOD’S PLACE IS… WAITING FOR ME. When things get unbearable in your life you remember that our
ultimate hope is heaven. Paul says it like this, If all our hope is just on this earth, we should be pitied. But there’s more to life than just here and now. We do have an ultimate destination. And God is preparing a place in heaven.
Notice what Jesus said. John 14
“Don’t be troubled. You trust in God, now trust in Me. I am going to prepare a place for you.” Jesus Christ says that heaven is a place, not a state of mind. Heaven is a place of relief and release. The Bible says this
“He will wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. All of that has gone forever.” That gives us a reason for hope. Anybody can have great faith when things are going great. But how do you handle things when things are going bad?
Where does Hope come from? There’s only one place you can get that. A personal relationship with Jesus Christ. When you get that kind of relationship, you know that God is watching over you, His purpose is working in you, His place is waiting for you and
you then can have true hope.
If you are feeling hopeless this morning about something in your life, you have forgotten how much God cares about you. The Bible says in Isaiah 46
“Listen. I have upheld you since you were conceived and I have taken care of you from your birth. Even when you are old, I will be the same. Even when your hair has turned gray, I will take care of you. I made you and I will take care of you. I will carry you and save you…” What a God we have! If you’ve just been barely hanging on you need to remember who God is….
Jehovah Shammah –
“I am the God who is always there.” You will never go through anything alone. No matter what happens,
God’s presence will always be watching over you, God’s purpose will always be working in you and God’s place is always waiting for you. 
