Hope

[0:00] Please be seated and welcome again. Let's go to the Word of God now. We're just going to look at some encouraging themes that I trust tonight.

[0:11] Numbers of times really, but a fresh message on the same subject because I think we could do with some hope right now, don't you think?

[0:37] We think of what's going on around us. We've seen the latest news and the goings on and all the disturbances around us. It seems like there's a lot of despair that's going on right now on our planet.

[0:50] And it's happening even as we've had our share of it of recent days. We weren't even sure that we were able to meet tonight or today. I know I was frantically earlier in the week.

[1:01] I was getting my little set up at home ready to be able to do it all from home. And I'm glad that we can nevertheless be here together as much as we're a bit restrained with the space restrictions.

[1:16] But there's so much going on now. And it seems like there's this cloud of despair. Many have lost hope. You think of some that have been affected. It could be in some of our number here tonight.

[1:29] Your work's been affected. You've had to take time off. There's been disturbance. There's been an impact on you. And many are feeling really impacted where they've actually lost their jobs.

[1:40] And people are feeling hopeless. They've lost hope. It seems like there's no purpose in some people's lives. There's no reason for hope. It seems so desperate at times.

[1:53] It's a terrible state to be in such a state where you've lost hope. You hear of such cases, don't you? People that despair to the point of, you know, should I stick around?

[2:05] They've lost hope. That's a tragic place to get to. A terrible state to be in. And Ephesians 2 verse 12 talks about, of some, that it tells how at that time you were without Christ.

[2:19] You were aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel. So you were cut off from God and His promises, the people of God. Strangers from the covenants of promise. So you were estranged from God.

[2:31] You were far, far away from God. And it tells of these that were without Christ, they're without hope, having no hope, and without God in the world. So the Bible talks about some people, they're without Christ, so therefore they are having no hope.

[2:46] And they are without God in the world. That's the most hopeless state to be in. That's the terrible state, to have no hope. Yet God says we can be a people who do know hope.

[2:59] We can have a hope. Hope. And we do have a reason. A reason for hope, which we'll get to. And friends, the Bible says that we can experience hope in the now.

[3:12] A living hope. And a hope forever. An eternal hope. And this hope of which we speak is the hope that is in you. The Bible says it's a hope that you can have within you.

[3:24] And when we say this word hope, we're not thinking as the world would commonly define it as a kind of wishful thinking. Like I hope I'm going to get something nice as a present in the coming days or whatever it be.

[3:40] You know, we could think I can have that wish, wishful thinking of hoping for something that may never happen. But the hope that we're talking about here, the hope as God would define the word hope, and as we can understand, the Bible word of hope is a hope that is certain.

[3:57] It's a hope that is sure. A hope that is guaranteed. A hope that we know is just around the corner and is sure for us.

[4:08] An assured hope. This hope that we speak is a hope. It's not framed by the world that we live in. It's a hope that is within. Within us. And so I often hear people talk of how they have lost hope.

[4:21] You know, I got some message recently. A friend of mine, he might be tuning in over the internet, in fact. And he was telling me how he felt like God's turned his back on him. He's got so many troubles going on, family circumstances.

[4:35] There's been some abuse in his family circle. There's a lot of heartache and hurting going on. And he's thinking, you know, this is desperate situations. I wonder whether God's with me anymore.

[4:49] You know, he's like losing hope. There's a sense of a losing of hope. And friends, I hear that a lot when I minister and I talk to people. People contact me and they open up and you hear these stories of heartache, of hurt.

[5:05] And it's hard when you hear of someone, they're losing hope. When they're losing hope, it's fading away. As if that hope will fade and die. And yet, even when it all seems hopeless, I'll put to you tonight, we can be a people who have hope.

[5:23] I hope that is sure. I hope that we can hang on to. I hope that we can know that we can trust something of God. That God can work in our circumstance.

[5:35] And we offer a hope to a world that desperately needs a message of hope. This world needs that hope, doesn't it? This world around us, these streets around us, our community, our city of Adelaide, desperately needs this message of hope.

[5:50] You know, it's been said really that it's the critical message of the church. The church, we have such a powerful message. The message is hope. It's a powerful thing. But hopelessness is going to be powerful too.

[6:03] Now there's a story told of an aviator in 1965. He was one of the first American pilots to be shot down during the Vietnam War. And his name was James Stockdale.

[6:14] And James Stockdale was captured and made a prisoner of the Viet Cong. And he spent seven long years as a prisoner of war. During that time, he was frequently tortured.

[6:26] And they wanted to break him, to get him to denounce the US involvement in the war. And this man, James Stockdale, he was chained for days at a time, with his hands over his head.

[6:39] So he couldn't even swap the mosquitoes away in that humid climate. And today, he still cannot bend his knee as he walks with a severe limb, because his leg was broken by his captors.

[6:51] They tortured him and they broke his leg. And it never reset. And one of the worst things they did to this man was they held him in isolation away from the other prisoners of war.

[7:03] So he was cut off from his colleagues, his mates. He was cut off and he only had the guards and interrogators as company. How could anyone survive seven years of such treatment?

[7:16] And as he looks back, Stockdale says that it was his hope that kept him alive. You know, hope keeps us alive. He's had a hope of one day going home, that each day could be the day of his release.

[7:30] He kept that hope alive. And without that hope, he knew he would die in hopelessness, as others had done. Such is the power of hope. It can keep one alive when nothing else can.

[7:41] You know, you hear stories of prisoners of war, people held captive, captured, and when they give up hope, they fade away and die. We live in a hopeless world, people.

[7:53] We see the COVID going on. We see the despair. We see people have lost hope. They never had it. People who do not have hope. We are the people who have hope.

[8:04] We have a hope that is steadfast and sure. We have a hope that we are founded upon. The saving goodness of God that has given us his grace and made us to live forever.

[8:19] Even humanly speaking, we must hold on to hope. We have to see above and beyond the circumstances of the day by day. It has been said, even humanly speaking, that one of the most important things in the world, the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

[8:43] You know, the great inventors, you know, think of people like Thomas Edison. He kept trying and trying, you know, hundreds and hundreds of times before the light bulb. And he just kept trying.

[8:54] He kept hoping. He kept persevering. And friends, we're talking, though, of course, spiritually here, it's true as well. The world would say to some, you're a hopeless case.

[9:05] You know, you see some people, they get labelled as a hopeless case. You're beyond redemption. You're too far gone. You know, people that might have got to the pits of life and, like, they're on death's door, where they're, you know, just so impacted by life's hardships and addiction or whatever it be.

[9:28] And they're desperate people, people without hope. And the world would say to people like that, oh, just give up. You know, you're not able to make it.

[9:39] You know, you're beyond saving. But God doesn't say that to anyone. While there's life, there's hope. While there's life, there's hope. And you're able, you that are believers here, you are able to live the victorious Christian life.

[9:54] You have a hope that will help you get through. And we're the ones that can give others that message of hope. We can help others find hope and restore hope.

[10:06] We can maintain hope and keep hope alive. As God's people, we know that the days of adversity will one day be over. And we have that hope that is yet to come.

[10:18] The blessed hope. The Bible talks about the glorious returning of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. As believers, we know that these days that are somewhat dark and disappointing at times of life are just going to be a passing shadow when the glorious returning of our Lord Jesus Christ comes.

[10:38] That blessed hope is what the Bible calls it. There's a time when there was a newsboy. He was standing out in the soaking rain and he had a job selling newspapers on the street corner.

[10:50] And it was a cold day. He had bare feet. And he was standing there every morning. Every few minutes he would cry out, Morning paper! Morning paper!

[11:01] To the passers-by. And there was a man walking by. He had his coat and his umbrella and he brought the newspaper off the lad and he noticed the boy was discomforted. He's there shivering, quaking, holding out, Newspaper!

[11:14] Newspaper! And the man said, This kind of weather's pretty hard on you, isn't it? But he looked up with a smile to the young lad and he said, I don't mind too much, mister. The sun will shine again.

[11:26] And he had hope. He had hope. There's a brighter day coming, amen? There's a brighter day coming. There's going to be some sunshine one day. There might be a bit of rain just now, but the sun will shine again.

[11:39] And we can have that kind of hopefulness, that kind of knowledge that, yes, there's a brighter day. And while we have life, we can have hope. It's been said, really, the only place there is no hope is hell.

[11:51] That's when hope is no more. But while we are living, while we have life, while we can trust Christ, there is hope. We can trust him. We can know his hope. And his hope is forever.

[12:02] It goes on forever. The Bible gives us many human stories about hope. Job was one. Man of Job. Job in the book of Job, in the Bible, is a man who had utter suffering.

[12:16] He had such suffering, yet he could utter words of faith and hope. And these are the words of God, eternal words, the words of hope and joy that Job said in Job chapter 19, verse 25.

[12:30] Here he is. This is a man who's got covered in boils and sores, and he's lost everything. He's lost family. He's lost possessions.

[12:41] He's at the pits of his life. And he's sat on a dung pile, scraping himself with these broken pieces of pottery. And yet he says these words, He's saying that even though his body's going to be eaten by worms, which is what's going to happen to all of us one day, yet I'm going to see his face.

[13:22] It doesn't matter about this whole body, this carcass that's going to lie in the ground, or whether it's in dust or ashes, that I will see his face, because the real me will be forever.

[13:35] And I shall know my Redeemer. I shall know that my Redeemer lives, and he's going to stand on the earth. And I shall see him for myself. Mine eyes shall behold him.

[13:47] And this is the confession of faith. This is the confession of a man. He's at the end of himself. He's in a hopeless condition. Yet he could see God.

[13:57] He could see the eternal truth. And it's been said, as one preacher put it, hope can see heaven through the thickest clouds. Maybe our life can be a bit overcast, can't it?

[14:10] We see the lowering storm clouds, but hope can see heaven through the thickest clouds. That could be true for you.

[14:21] That even in the most difficult time of our life, we have heaven as our hope, our certain hope. We can see beyond this present time, beyond the current goings-on, we can see into eternity, that there is a God, and he loves us, and he has an eternal purpose that is yet to happen.

[14:39] So the Bible gives us reason, reason for hope. And here what we're talking of is a real hope. It's not a groundless hope, not a kind of wishful thinking hope, not a false hope, but it's a hope that is guaranteed by the promises of God.

[14:55] This is a legal document. It's called the law of the Lord. This is legal. You know, God's saying, if God says it, that's it. That settles it, whether you believe it or not. God says it, that settles it.

[15:06] And Jeremiah 17, 7 says this, Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. They say that we can have a true blessing.

[15:17] And blessing, it means joyfulness, it means happiness, gladness. That blessedness that comes, it comes from the one that we can trust. And it says, Blessed is that one who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.

[15:33] Now, we don't put our hope and confidence in men, we put our hope in the eternal God. Where do we place our hope? It's a big question. Where is your hope? One man said, Our hope lies not in the man we put on the moon, but in the man we put on the cross.

[15:49] He's the man we've got to have our hope in. You know, all of man's technology and inventions and achievements and scientific advancements and all of the technological wonders of man count for nothing.

[16:03] Our hope does not lie in the man we put on the moon, but in the man we put on the cross. Our hope is in the Lord. He is our hope. He is the one who died in our place, who took our shame, our penalty, and paid it in full.

[16:19] And we can look and we can see by faith, this one, our God, the great God, our glorious Saviour. Our hope is in Him. We can look, it depends how we're looking, it depends what glasses we're wearing, if you like, the glasses that we put on, because we can all see the same things, but we can see things differently.

[16:38] To put to you how I'm putting that, we look at Numbers 13. And the occasion there is of 12 men that were sent into the territory of Canaan.

[16:51] And they were getting ready to advance into what God called the promised land, the land that He had promised for God's children. And at that time, we can see two men were different from the 10 of these 12.

[17:09] Two men, 10 men. They saw the same things, but they had a different heart, a different context. We can look and we can see by faith that our hope and help is in God, as Joshua and Caleb, the two.

[17:26] Numbers 13 tells of these 12. They went over, they undertook a secret mission. They were kind of spies behind the enemy lines.

[17:36] They had this mission of reconnaissance, of sussing out the Canaan land. And as they went to spy out the land, they saw lots of things.

[17:50] And they brought back a report. And this is what they said. They brought back word. They said, this land is fruitful. There's a lot of fruit here. They said, it's flowing with milk and honey.

[18:01] You know, everything's laid on milk and honey. Who likes having milk and honey? You know, you have it on your Weetbex every morning. Milk and honey, it was flowing in this place.

[18:11] And they told the people, they said, these people are strong with walled cities. In Numbers 13.30, Caleb stilled the people. He said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it.

[18:28] Caleb said to Moses, yes, we're ready. This is exciting. This land is fruitful. There's walled cities. The people are strong, but we are well able. Let's go and possess it.

[18:39] Let's go up at once and possess it. We are well able. But the man that went up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.

[18:53] That's verse 31. So they brought up this evil report, they call it. And they said, look, these people are giants and we're like grasshoppers compared to them. You know, we don't stand a chance.

[19:05] These were giants in the land. This was a land full of giants. And we're just like grasshoppers. So there's two types of people seeing the same thing.

[19:16] Caleb and Joshua looked to the Lord in faith and hope. They knew that God would help them. They knew that God was with them. He says, we are well able. They saw that God could work here and we believe.

[19:30] But the 10, the unbelieving, they saw things differently. They saw the same things, but they saw it differently. They did not see the power of God. They don't see the promises of God.

[19:41] They just saw the giants. We are not able. They just saw hopelessness from man's point of view. And we're in the same situation, every one of us.

[19:52] We can look at the current events all around us. We can see with eyes that doubt and disbelieve and say, we are not able. This is just a terrible, it's all woe and unbelief.

[20:05] Or we can stand with the vision and the voice of faith and hope like Caleb and Joshua and say, we are well able. God is with us. We're going to get through this.

[20:16] It depends which glasses we're wearing as to what we see, whether we see with fear and hopelessness or whether we see with courage and faith and trust and hopefulness in God.

[20:31] Whose side will we stand on? Will we doubt and disbelieve and say, we are not able or will we say, we are able.

[20:43] God is with us. We will get the victory. Will we be as the God deniers in their cowardly disbelief and their hopelessness or will we stand with the people of faith and hope and say, we are able.

[20:56] God is with us. Will we look in faith and trust in the promises of God it's the promised land. He's told us that. We believe God will help us.

[21:08] It doesn't matter about the giants. God's bigger than them. Another man looked at a giant. He was a champion. It says in 1 Samuel 17 verse 4.

[21:20] 1 Samuel 17 verse 4. This man was 3 metres tall. Can you imagine that kids? A man 3 metres tall. I don't know how tall the tallest man in our church is.

[21:31] Maybe it could be Simon maybe. I don't know how tall he is. But he's probably a shorty compared to this man, this giant. His name was Goliath. He was called a champion. He might have been a champion.

[21:43] I don't know whether he'd be a champion. Heavyweight. He was a champion. He was the champion of champions. He was the Philistines champion. Yeah, nobody could beat this bloke. 3 metres tall.

[21:54] Imagine that. And verse 10, he said, he came out and had this kind of big bluster and showing off and, I'm Goliath.

[22:05] Nobody beats me. I'm the champion. And here he is. And he's having a go at all the children of Israel. It says he was defying them. Defying the armies of God. And he says, give me a man that we may fight together.

[22:18] He wanted to have it. A demolition of anyone who was up against him. And it says this went on for ages. He taunted Israel 40 days. This wasn't just a brief little showing off episode.

[22:33] He went for 40 days. Day after day, 40 days. Give me a man that we may fight together. And when Saul and Israel heard these words of the Philistine, this is 1 Samuel 17, 11, says they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

[22:51] You know, this is hopeless. This is hopeless. And then, verse 26, David, he'd come to the front line to tender some lunch for his brothers.

[23:04] As running an errand for his dad, left the sheep and went to the front line. And he had this Philistine, Goliath, raving on, you know, with his real blustering, you know, bragging, prideful ways, saying, give me a man that we may fight together.

[23:25] And David said this, young David, just a little fella, just a little, little runt, you know, just a young fella, young David. And he says, this is what David says, who's this uncircumcised Philistine?

[23:39] That he should defy the armies of the living God. Who is this guy? Who is this guy? Who does he think he is? Talking like this to the armies of God, who does he think he is? That he should defy the armies of the living God?

[23:52] That he should say this? Who does he think he is? And verse 32 of 1 Samuel 17, it says, David volunteered. David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him.

[24:02] Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. Now David wasn't saying that just to, he wasn't kind of showing off, just kind of being a smart aleck. But David said, let's not be afraid of him.

[24:18] Let no man's heart fail because of him. Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. He had courage. He could have seen the hopelessness like the whole nation did.

[24:29] But he stood alone and he saw with faith and hope what God could do with that certain trust of the God that he knew and served. And so, he spoke up.

[24:44] When someone spoke up with the perspective of hopelessness and powerlessness, it can be off-putting, can't it? You might have that circumstance of life where he thinks, oh, this is desperate.

[24:55] This is hopeless. We're just not going to make it. There's no way we're going to get through this. We're not going to win. Just as well, give up. And that's what Saul said to David.

[25:09] It's a bit like the ten said to the two. We're not able. In 1 Samuel 17, 33, Saul says this to David, thou art not able. You're not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him.

[25:23] It's just a youth. He's a man of war, I promise you. Here's this man of war. David's just a little attacker, a youth. And it came to pass when the Philistine arose and came and drew night to meet David, David hasted and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.

[25:41] David, it says when Goliath taunted Israel, they were all afraid and they withdrew. They drew back. They retreated. But David stood firm and he actually ran towards the giant, Goliath, to meet the Philistine, Goliath.

[26:02] And then it says 1 Samuel 17, 49, David put his hand in his bag and he took out a stone and he slung it and smote the Philistine in his forehead. But it sunk into his forehead and it fell upon his face to the earth.

[26:18] So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and he smote the Philistine and he slew it. But there was no sword in the hand of David.

[26:29] And then it says verse 51, he took the sword of the Philistine and he cut off his head. And when the Philistine saw the champion was dead, they fled. The point is David had the hope and faith to fight the giant.

[26:44] Nobody else was going to do that. Nobody else would do that. David's hope was in the Lord, friends. And that's the point I'm making here. You can feel like the armies of Israel, this is hopeless.

[26:58] You can be like Saul and say to David, you're not able, you're just a lad, you're just a young person. You're nobody. He's a man of war from his youth.

[27:10] He's a champion. He's the champion of the Philistines, the whole nation. He's their champion. But David didn't see the hopelessness. He saw the hope that he had in God.

[27:22] David's hope was in the Lord. And friends, by God, we are able, whatever our life throws at us, every giant will fall. Those Goliaths will fall. Three metres, they're just going to fall harder.

[27:34] They're just easier to hit, the bigger giants, aren't they? That's what David would have thought. He's going to be easier to hit because he's bigger. David knew, by faith, in his hope in God, he could face any situation with the eyes of bait.

[27:51] Depends how we look at things, doesn't it? We look at those giants in the land who think it's too hard, we're not able. We see the giant Goliath. We see how weak we are compared to what we face.

[28:03] But if we look with God's hope and hopefulness, we can get victory. There's a story about a storm and it was a rocky coast and there's this boat breaking up and shaking up around the shoreline.

[28:18] It was being threatened to drive onto the rocks here and the passengers were starting to get worried. There was one man who thought, look, I'm going to go to the bridge where the pilot, if the ship is, I'm going to go up and see what the pilot is doing, the one who's steering that big steering wheel of the vessel.

[28:40] And he went up there and he saw the pilot and the rain was lashing in and the storms, the waves were rocking the boat all over the place and the spray was coming up and it seemed like there was all this water coming up and it seemed like this boat was going to be thrown against the rocks.

[29:02] But the man looked at the pilot and the pilot was there just gently and steadily behind the wheel of the vessel. And he went back down deck and he said, I've seen the face of the pilot and he smiled.

[29:15] All is well. He saw the pilot, the captain of that great ship and the captain smiled at him because he knew that he was going to be saved. And it's the same with us when we look at the face of Jesus.

[29:31] Know that he is steering your vessel and you're safe. We can look at the face of Jesus, friends. Even when life is stormy, look at the pilot's face and he's smiling at you.

[29:43] The smiling face of our Saviour. He's steering things. He's behind the steering wheel of your life and you can have faith in that. There's much more we could say.

[29:55] There's a story of a psychologist who interviewed 25,000 soldiers that were held as Japanese prisoners of war. The Japs held these prisoners in World War II and this psychologist studied what happened to them over this time of imprisonment in this prison of war camp.

[30:17] And he says, many of them died but some survived and returned home. And he noticed something about the ones who made it. He says, the ones who made it, they talked about the kind of homes they would have, the jobs they would choose, even the kind of person they would marry.

[30:34] And they drew pictures on their walls to illustrate their dreams and they found ways to study subjects related to the career they wanted to take when they left the prison. And he says, this hopeful attitude made the difference for them.

[30:48] And the prisoners of war who didn't make it didn't have hope. But the ones who had hope, they made it. And the psychologists in this research found that hopeful attitude actually made a physiological difference.

[31:06] That they were actually stronger for it. That their body was stronger against toxins and disease. You know, hope, hope will do you good in the here and now and the hereafter.

[31:18] There's a sense of hope. And friends, what the Bible talks about as hope is mentioned over 50 times in the New Testament. this word hope. This sense, this concept of hope.

[31:28] And when it talks about hope in the Bible, it says that we have a hope that we can share. This hope, this hope that we have is, again, it's not a wishful thinking kind of hope so, a hope that will happen, but it's a certain hope.

[31:45] A trusting in God's goodness. A sure reason for hope. And this hope that we have, we can know that when we come to the end of our own resources, when we come to our own limitations, when all we have left is Jesus, we have hope that will see us through.

[32:02] And friends, the Bible's full of this message of hope. If you've got a Bible at home or a Bible concordance or Bible software, look at the word hope in the Bible. It's a very often mentioned theme.

[32:14] The Bible's full of hope. And we can learn of this hope. We can study this life lesson. We can find God's encouragement. It says in Romans 15, 4, it says, for whatsoever was written aforetime was written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, so the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.

[32:37] There's God's encouragement and comfort and we can have hope through the Bible. On the other side of the corner, imagine not having any hope.

[32:48] There's a story about a small town in the USA and they had planned that this town would be submerged. They told the townsfolk, look, your place is going to be buried under metres of water, you're going to have to relocate.

[33:05] And so they were going to submerge the whole town. It's going to be wiped out. Imagine that, the township where you live, that they were going to totally wipe it out when this dam gets built and this big hydroelectric plant.

[33:19] So during this time, while they were building the dam, well before the dam was built, everything stopped in the town. No one painted their house anymore, nobody repaired the sidewalk, the roads, and day by day the whole town just got shabbier and shabbier and it looked abandoned.

[33:39] Nobody cared for it anymore. And the people then, this was even before the people had moved away. And one of the people who lived there said, where there's no faith in the future, there's no power for the present.

[33:51] So this town, there was a hopelessness there. The town was going to be wiped out. People stopped caring for it. And it was cursed with this hopelessness. There was no future. And that's how we see with some people.

[34:02] They don't have a future, they don't have a hope that is going to take them through life and beyond. They lose hope. They give up. That's what happens when we see, sadly as we know, some give up to the point of even taking their life.

[34:20] Friends, it's a sad way to live, isn't it? To die. But you need not come to such a place. You can't have a hope that it's in the now and that is eternal.

[34:31] In Psalm 71 14 it says, I will hope continually and will yet praise thee more and more. Psalm 71 14 talks about a continual hope.

[34:42] I will keep on hoping. That's the kind of hope we can know. And the Bible says that we can have a hope that's inside us. In 1 John 3 verse 3 that purifies us.

[34:54] One day we're going to see the Saviour's face and it says every man that has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. There's that trust that actually impacts the way of life, our whole ethos, our whole integrity.

[35:10] It changes us from the inside out. We're purified. God makes us right with him. He washes us clean. He takes our guilt. He gives us forgiveness and cleansing.

[35:21] And it says we can know that we can be purified by this hope. Our hope is in him. And friends, just as we come to wrap up here, 1 Peter 3.15 says this, Peter's saying, set God apart in your heart.

[35:56] He's saying, get right, get holy, get right with him. And he says get ready, be ready, to always give an answer. We've got a message of hope.

[36:08] And so as messengers of that message of hope, we are duty bound to deliver it. Peter's saying we have a hope. When you're a Christian, you've got a hope that is enduring.

[36:22] It's a hope that's inside of you. It's a hope that you've got a reason for because you know you're saved. You know you're the saviour. You know this is a message that matters. And God is the source of our hope.

[36:33] So that's why as God's people, God helping us, we want to tell everybody this great message about hope that we found that is in Christ. Because God is the source of our hope.

[36:44] It says in Hebrews 6.19, this hope that we have is an anchor of the soul. It grounds us. It keeps us firm and steady. When those waves abound and when we driven by the sea, we can be safe and secure.

[37:02] Even the lightest vessel, if it's got a good anchor, it's going to be able to keep steady and sane. We've just got to let the anchor down as it were.

[37:16] As it goes down, those chains make that noise and the anchor goes down, down, down and it hits the bottom. It hits the ocean floor. And that rope will be able to manage the storms because the anchor holds it firm.

[37:32] And the Bible says we've got a hope that's like an anchor of the soul. So when life's unsteady, we can hold steady, we can be firm and we can know God's keeping strength.

[37:46] And friends, the Bible talks about God as being the God of hope. Romans 15, 13. This one that we know, he's the living God. He's the real God.

[37:57] He's the one and only God. It says of him, he's the God of hope. This is Romans 15, 13. It says this God of hope will fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.

[38:14] So think of this one tonight as you can consider a world that seems hopeless. that means in many ways. And there's a hopelessness in man's philosophy, man's thinking, man's desperation.

[38:30] When there's a virus, everybody throws their hands up in the air and panics and fears and look, there is perhaps some needful caution and care.

[38:40] But there's a sense of desperation that we don't have that. We know who holds the future. We know who's in charge of the climate. We know who's in charge of this planet.

[38:53] And he's that one who holds the steering of that vessel. When he's the captain of your ship, then you know he's smiling as he's holding that steering wheel.

[39:06] He's holding you steady. He's got that anchor. He's the one who's going to give you hope. He's going to be the God of your hope. The God of hope. And he's going to help you have hope that abounds.

[39:17] And our confidence is in him. Not in the circumstances. Not in the choppy seas of life. His hope sustains us. And friends, I'm looking up because there's hope.

[39:29] I'm looking up. I'm looking at him. I'm looking beyond the veil as it were. Into the unseen as it were. And know that the God of hope holds me steady.

[39:42] And he holds you. That trust in him. Ultimately, it says there's a blessed hope that is yet future. That we will see one very blessed day. And it's a blessed day that's coming soon.

[39:55] We can be amongst the people who, of it says, they're looking for that blessed hope. This is Titus 2, verse 13. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

[40:10] Friends, it's telling us that there's a blessed hope. There's a hope that gives us joy. A hope that gives us certainty. A hope that brings blessing and gladness to the soul.

[40:22] A certain hope that Christ is coming. He's promised it. It's a glorious appearing. Our great God and Saviour, one day soon. Are you one who knows this great and blessed hope?

[40:33] Friends, this hope starts with the new birth. One last scripture is 1 Peter 1, verse 3. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again.

[40:48] He's born us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The Bible says we can have victory.

[40:59] It says there's life beyond the grave. The Lord Jesus has risen from the dead. He died on the cross for our sin, but he's not held captive in a tomb. He broke the tomb and arose and he's alive, a living saviour today.

[41:15] We have a living hope and it says that we can, by his mercy, be born again to this living hope. We can have a new birth.

[41:28] We can know Jesus as our saviour. We can have a new birthday. I know Julie was celebrating her birthday lately, her spiritual birthday. Is it 48 years as a Christian?

[41:40] I'm letting you know how old she is now. 48 years ago, she trusted Christ. She must have been a very young girl. She trusted Christ at a very young age, 48 years ago, just last week, and she's got a new birthday.

[41:56] That's a good thing to have, isn't it? You can actually have two birthdays. Did you know that? You can be born physically and you can be born again. Born again spiritually. And we're born again, it says, by a living hope, a lively hope.

[42:12] This hope is alive and we can know the living God. How does that happen? Trust in him. Trust Jesus died for your sin. He paid your sin's price, which was dead.

[42:28] And he offers his gift, eternal life. Life eternal. life abundant. And hope, hope eternal.

[42:39] Hope abundant. Abundant hope. And you can know that in all the troubled seas of life, he's behind the steering wheel of your vessel. He's the one who will hold you steady and give you grace and he'll help you say, I'm well able.

[42:57] I can fell that giant three metres. That's nothing to God. My God's bigger than three metres, a three metre giant. My God is able, so I'm able to overcome.

[43:09] I'm able to have victory. Whatever enemies come against me, whatever life throws against me, my God is able, so I'm able. I've got hope in him.

[43:20] Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you that you can give us a hope that sustains us and keeps us and takes us beyond the grave to eternal life. Even in the here and now, we can be born again and know this living hope.

[43:34] I pray each one may know that trust as they know Jesus. Lord, save me. I trust in you and help us to follow, to walk in your steps, to live in your light and to know that power that helps us say, I'm able.

[43:51] Whatever happens, I'm able. I've got hope. I don't see the hopelessness. I see the hope that comes from the God of hope, who you are to us, our great blessed God.

[44:04] We thank you Lord for the blessed hope that one day we'll be seeing you with our eyes. We'll know you and we'll be with you. Lord, we pray for each one to know that comfort, that assurance, that certain hope that you can give to every soul that trusts in you.

[44:23] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.