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[0:00] Now, I don't know if you knew this or not, but today is Father's Day, so if you're a dad out there, I just want to share a terrible story with you.

[0:17] This morning as I got to church and I was getting ready and preparing for service today, we were singing. Yeah, I know, but that's not the bad part.

[0:27] And little did I know that my mother-in-law's namesake would be here today. Hey, Phyllis, I was really surprised that a lady bearing my mother-in-law's name came.

[0:41] Hi, I'm Phyllis. And I said, Mom-in-law, it's Father's Day, why scare me? No, I love my folks, but no, if you're a dad, if you're a dad, happy Father's Day and thank you for being here with us today.

[0:51] If you've got your Bible, open it up to Romans, anybody? Chapter 15, random verse taken at large would be verse 13.

[1:10] Haven't we memorized that yet? Romans 15, 13? Getting there. Let's see how good. May the God of hope fill you with all and in believing so that by the power of the you may abound in hope.

[1:31] That's our text for today. That's it. That's all we're going to do is we're going to deal with that one verse. We've been memorizing and working on this for, you know, we've nailed it, right?

[1:44] Even after months or years or whatever. But that's what we're going to be taking a look at. And I just want to, we're going to emphasize, we're going to rest on, we're going to just understand that God has provided hope.

[2:01] And so no matter where you are in life, no matter what we've gone through in life, there is hope in the Lord.

[2:14] And it's a true, a lasting, a faithful, sustainable, not that we sustain it, but it sustains us. Not that we endure, but it endures.

[2:25] There is a true hope, and it has been provided to us by God. And so we're going to take a look at that today. And I'm going to do something I don't normally do.

[2:41] So you're just going to have to deal with it because it's something I want to do. You're going to have to. All right, here we go. Point number one, the God of the hope. And there's a reason for that.

[2:53] Let's see. There is only one true God and one true hope. So if you take a look at Romans chapter 15, verse 13, it says, May the God of hope, and I want to stop right there.

[3:07] May the God of hope. And I'm going to, you guys ready for this? Bryce, would you kill the lights? Watch this. This is going to be amazing. You're going to be in awe.

[3:18] Okay, so it's underwhelming. But let me just show you a couple things right here. I don't know about anybody else, but that looks like Greek to me. Can I get an amen? All right.

[3:29] So if you take a look at this, it doesn't mean anything. So I'm going to, let's see if I can help out a little bit. Do you see the things that I just underlined? Here, watch this. Not underlined.

[3:40] Underlined. Not underlined. Underlined. Underlined. Those are called, oh, jeez, definite articles. That's it. They're the. Okay? So you see right here, that's a definite article.

[3:56] That's translated the. And the same with this and this right here. And you're thinking, wow, I am so glad I came to church.

[4:06] This is awesome. It gets better. It gets better. Just wait. Watch this. Oh, there's more that's been underlined. There's more that's been made bold. Okay.

[4:16] Anybody know what this word is? God. Theos. God. Very good. You guys are awesome. And I'll give you a hint. The point is the God of the hope. So I wonder what this word means.

[4:30] Hope. Hope. And see this word right here? What do you think that word means? Hope. Now, they don't look exactly the same.

[4:41] Do they? A little bit different on. It's like one is running or he runs. You know, they've got different. Whatever you call the things at the end of it.

[4:52] Endings. Okay. But they both mean hope. So if you look in your Bible, it says, may the God of hope. And it's missing. And it's missing.

[5:02] Most translators don't put this the in there. And it's important. You can turn the lights back on.

[5:14] Thank you. The God. The God. Singular. The God. There is a God.

[5:25] There is only one true God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. One, three, three, one. God. God. God. God. of the hope. Now, there's a lot of different types of hopes in this world, right?

[5:41] I hope that your brand new pit boss smoker works as well as my Traeger, but I doubt it, you know? I hope that someday I will win the lottery, but then again, you know, I don't buy lotto tickets.

[5:55] I hope someday that, you know, my car gets better than 12 miles to the gallon, right? Or I hope that my job, or I hope that this happens. We have all of these temporal hopes, right? But there is only one hope that is true and enduring. You see, it doesn't matter if you hope that your marriage works.

[6:18] By the way, 32 years celebrated this week. I was talking to a friend of mine. Yeah, thank you. And he said, I didn't know she was so brain damaged. And I said, well, if she wasn't brain damaged when she said I do, 32 years of being married to me has probably led to that. I'm so sorry. I love you anyways, you know? But I hope my marriage works. I hope my career path works out. I hope my investments don't crash and burn, you know? Whatever our hope is that's centered on this life, even if it works perfectly, it's going to fail in the end because we will die. And let's say, let's say for whatever reason we don't die and we make it into the millennial kingdom of Christ and all the way through that and whatever, guess what's going to happen to this planet? It's going to be destroyed. Any hope that you have that is focused on this ball of mud will fail eventually. But there is one hope that will go on. There is one hope that will endure. And that is Jesus Christ. Go ahead and take a look at Titus chapter 2 verse 13. For those of you that are using my Bible, Titus happens right before Philemon, right?

[7:55] Colossians, Ephesians. I know I have Titus in here somewhere. I can't find it. Where did I put it? Oh, there it is. It's on page 1119. Chapter 2 verse 13.

[8:13] Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. What do you and I look forward to? What is our hope? Now, you and I wait for the coming of the Lord.

[8:38] Right? That's what our hope is. What's going to happen when Jesus comes? He's going to take us with Him and we will be with Him forever. We will lay aside the pain, the struggle, the sorrow, the hardship, just the trial of daily existence that this world is, and we will be in the presence of our glorious Lord and Savior. Right? That's our blessed hope. And what's amazing about that blessed hope is it doesn't matter what happens to this ball of mud because God is, God was, and God forever will be.

[9:17] And He says that we will be with Him in that forever. So it is the only sure and true hope. So back here in Romans chapter 15, when it says, may the God of hope, what it is saying is, may the God of the hope and the hope that we have is the coming of the Lord Jesus. And He has given that promise to those who trust in Him, who've come to Him for salvation, that we have a blessed hope.

[9:46] And what does He say? Well, before we do that, we need to talk about the fact that it's a true, real hope that has proof of it. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 11.

[10:05] I didn't need that note card. I just wanted to go. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 11. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. What are we hoping for? Anybody?

[10:19] The glorious coming of our Lord Jesus. Okay. Now faith is the assurance of the things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. So, okay, that's great. That's wonderful.

[10:34] But what about Romans chapter 1 verse 20? We dealt with that verse not too many months ago. His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, and the things that have been made so that they are without excuse.

[10:56] We've got to back up. Verse 19. Here's the thing. God is. God is able. God is powerful. And God is at work. He is.

[11:10] He is powerful. He is at work. He is trustworthy. That can be seen in the things that have been made, Romans chapter 1 says. And because of that, we can have confidence, we can have assurance, because He who is faithful, who has done what He says He would do, will do what He says He will do, so we have assurance.

[11:33] There is only one true God, and there is only one true hope, the coming of our blessed Lord and Jesus, and we can rest secure in that. Okay? May the God of hope fill you with both joy and peace in believing.

[11:51] Paul's prayer is that God would fill us with both joy and peace. Now, when I first was contemplating having you guys memorize this passage, Frank and I were talking, and we were like, look, it's God who fills us.

[12:11] It's not that we have to go dig down and try and find joy or search for peace, but it is something that God fills us with.

[12:23] And that's what Paul is praying, is that God would fill us with both joy and peace. And so the question is, what in a Sam Hill do we have to be joyful about today?

[12:35] Has anybody been watching the news? Anybody? Okay, now yesterday was a great day. We were talking about it, 250th anniversary of our great and glorious army.

[12:46] Can I get a yay army? Down with the Marines, Air Force weenies. No. 250th celebration of our... And that was probably the best thing I saw on the news all week.

[13:00] You know what I saw on the news this week? Morons out protesting. Israel's going to war. People are dying.

[13:13] Conflict. Anybody see that senator who didn't declare who he was and nobody knew who he was and he barges into a news conference and acts like a moron and gets thrown out and then whines about it?

[13:26] That's the state of our political leadership. What is there to be joyful in what's going on around us? Well, I came up with one or two ideas.

[13:41] What about that guy that blings that guy's office? I'm going to move on to the next point.

[13:53] Just let's take a look at what we can be joyful about. We can have joy because he abolished death, brought life and immortality, granted righteousness, and made us family.

[14:07] Those are things that we can celebrate in. And I've given you a couple of references. Are they in your notes? If they're not in your notes, write them down and talk to my secretary.

[14:21] That'd be me. Let's see. 2 Timothy 1, verse 10. 2 Timothy 1, verse 10.

[14:59] Christ paid that penalty on the cross for us. So when we come to him, when we say, Look, Jesus, I know I'm a sinner and I need you. I need to be saved.

[15:09] I need to be forgiven. I need what you've got, God. When we come to him like that, he takes that death away from us, having paid that penalty.

[15:20] Now, I'm not talking about physical death, right? Because the percentage of humanity that dies is rapidly approaching 100%. When I say rapidly approaching, you guys know that there's two people that have never died, right?

[15:36] Don't say Jesus. That's the one. You got Elijah and Enoch. And are they going to die?

[15:48] I believe so, because it says the two witnesses will come and then they will be slain. Those are the only two people we know that haven't died. God says, for it is appointed unto man once to die. 100% of people are going to die.

[15:58] 100% of people are going to lay down this physically broken, corrupted, frail body and will take up a new glorious body. The thing is, those people that aren't in God, who haven't been saved, those people who haven't accepted Jesus Christ, they'll move from that to the second death.

[16:19] But those of us who know Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, we avoid that death. Christ took care of that for us. Okay, not only that, but he granted us righteousness.

[16:32] And if you've been in church a while, you know what I'm going to say. If you haven't been in church in a while and you need to near it, that's fine. When we go to Jesus and we say, Hey, I'm a sinner. I need salvation.

[16:43] Please forgive me for my sins. God judges us. And just before he declares the verdict of us being guilty of sin, Jesus is our advocate and he says, I paid their penalty.

[16:54] And the righteousness that Jesus Christ has gets applied to our account and the judge declares us righteous in the court of heaven.

[17:08] And therefore, we are righteous. O.J. Simpson. Did he do it?

[17:20] Yes, he did it! But was he innocent? Absolutely, he was innocent. Because the judge dropped the hammer declaring him innocent. Because the judge ruled he was innocent.

[17:35] He was innocent. Did he do it? Yes, he did it. But he was ruled innocent and therefore could not be held accountable. When we go to God for salvation, he, acting as the righteous judge, declares us righteous.

[17:53] Have we committed sin? Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Right? For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But in salvation, God judges us righteous. And therefore, we are righteous.

[18:07] Not only that, he makes us family. John 1, verse 2. Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 2.

[18:18] Verse 12. To all who did receive him, who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

[18:29] Verse 13. Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. We become his children. We become joint heirs with Christ.

[18:43] You want to have a little bit of happiness? You want to have a little bit of joy in your life? You want something that on the darkest day, that you can think about and celebrate?

[18:54] Celebrate this. Jesus Christ has removed the second penalty of death. You don't have to worry about that. Jesus Christ has given you life that will last forever.

[19:05] Jesus Christ has paid the penalty so that you can be declared righteous before God. So I don't know about you, but I personally have...

[19:19] I still at times sin. I know, I know, I know. But you're the pastor. And I still struggle with sin at times.

[19:32] And I get depressed. And I feel bad. I might even get a little grumpy. But I am righteous.

[19:49] I am forgiven. My sin is not held against my account because Christ paid the penalty and God declared me righteous. I can celebrate that even on my worst day.

[20:04] Not only that, God has brought me into His family. He has adopted me as His child. And He has gone to prepare a place for me. And He's assured me an inheritance. And He's got all these great plans for me.

[20:17] In my worst and most depressed and darkest day, I can take my eyes off of me and put them on what my Father has done. And I can have joy.

[20:30] Secondly, I wonder what we can do to have peace about. We can have peace because He justified us, He has brought us near, and nothing can separate us.

[20:44] We're going to hammer on that last one. If you've got your Bible, open it up to Romans 8. I'm going to actually pick it up in verse 31.

[21:04] What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?

[21:19] Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, and who is indeed interceding for us.

[21:37] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long.

[21:50] We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[22:16] peace. Peace. Peace. The ability to just rest in God.

[22:38] Not to strive, not to try and fight for it, but to trust God and to have confidence that nothing can separate you from His love.

[22:55] We could go around the room here and we could talk about broken love. We could talk about divorce. We could talk about abandonment. We, I could, I mean, most of you know, de-adopted.

[23:10] Once was adopted, went to court and they said, we don't want this one no more. He's weird. And they broke that off. Right? We can talk about separation in lots of different ways. But nothing can separate us from God.

[23:29] We can have peace in that. If you're anything like me, the struggles and the bad stuff of life, they want to creep in and they want to whisper and they want to dominate how we think.

[23:46] We get peace when we look at what God has done. We get peace when we allow that to dominate our thinking. We get peace when we're right with the Lord.

[23:57] May the peace of God, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

[24:16] Let's talk about abounding in hope. By the power of the Holy Spirit. the word just a second.

[24:32] I don't think yeah there it is right there. Dunamite power that's you know the root word that we get dynamite from it's it's used often the power of God.

[24:51] You ever built anything? You ever tried to put something together? I got cake yesterday for Father's Day. A little early but I still I got cake and you know what it took to get me that cake?

[25:05] The boy had to go to Safeway and get the ingredients the boy had to come back destroy my wife's kitchen you know put it all together then he had to slice it and he had to put a fork on it and he'd bring it down to me where I sit next to the campfire.

[25:19] That was work that was effort that took I mean and we're talking about cake we're not talking like something really hard like I don't know what do you build?

[25:32] Some people are into arts and crafts my wife she's been spending her evening sewing I'm trying to watch the television you know bother me but she's creating something or you be out there with a hammer and you're pounding on something welding it together grinding it down I don't know how easy it is to build something that looks good and actually functions let's just say okay I'm not talking about making a mess I'm talking about building something positive it's hard right check out Genesis chapter 1 Genesis chapter 1 verse 13 this is incredible oh we don't even have to use verse 13 let's verse 3 I don't know why I said 13 Genesis chapter 1 verse 3 what does yours say and God said let there be light and wait a minute how about verse 6 and God said let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters let it separate the waters verse 7 and God made the expanse verse 9

[26:52] God said verse 11 God said do you realize what this teaches us God speaks and things happen the power of God is such that it's not like he's out there working at things and banging on them and twisting them together he just says let there be a planet there's a planet let it be light there's light he could have said let there be a cake and there would have been a cake God has so much power that when he says something things happen Psalms 100 no just Psalms 33 wrong Psalms 33 verse 9 what does it say for he spoke and it came to be he commanded and it stood firm

[27:52] I tell people things to do all the time and they totally ignore me right clean your room ain't happening get out of my way not gonna stop bothering me not happening God says stop and it stops Hebrews chapter 11 verse 3 by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible when it says that by the power of the Holy Spirit we're talking about so much power so much authority so much that he speaks and things happen by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in the hope the idea of abounding is to have lots have lots and lots to have to have more than you need to have to have more than you really know what to deal with that's what abounding is right we abound in the hope and again it says the hope and we know what the hope is the glorious appearing of our

[29:30] Lord and Savior which will lead us to be with him forever and ever that's our hope so the idea of abounding in hope peace joy joy peace abounding in the hope is that as we live this life looking to our hope the coming of our Lord and Savior we abound in what we do here we abound we abound in joy we abound in peace so that all of the waves and all of the troubles and everything that happens in this life it's okay because our focus isn't on this earth but our focus is on our Lord and his glorious coming and I was preparing that sermon this week and then I ran into the gospel of John chapter 12 verse 26 and it's something for us to consider something for us to what I've said so far today if that does not excite you then the person next to you needs to wake you up and you need to listen because it truly is exciting things that the

[31:00] God who created everything by the power of his word who has established our hope the coming back of Jesus Christ he hasn't abandoned us at all but rather after having established salvation he promised to come back to take those who are his with him and so we can live every day in peace and in joy by the power of the Holy Spirit looking towards that hope if that's not good news then you're wrong and I'm right because that is good news that is hope and that is something to comfort our hearts every day of our life but but consider John consider John chapter 12 verse 26 if anyone serves me he must follow me and where

[32:01] I am there will my servant be if anyone serves me the father will honor him the key is who do you serve!

[32:24] you see what it means to be a believer as we talked about in Sunday school today is more than just head knowledge if you are a true believer in the Lord then you will be seeking to serve him now some people serve him by getting up on Sunday morning and talking and trying not to put people to sleep some people serve him by cleaning the church some people serve him by faithfully praying for the ministry some people serve him by sharing their faith of course all of us should be doing quite a few of those but what do you do with your time you see the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified truly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies it bears much fruit whoever loves his life loses it whoever hates his life in this world keep it for eternal life if anyone serves me you see it's a question if we're going to serve the

[33:39] Lord we need! to! follow yesterday was a great day got done taking a group of Asian kids on a little hike with Nathan Killian and we're driving back through town and the we don't want Trump rally was getting started in town and as I'm rolling down my window to express to them kept driving because how honorable would it be for the pastor to be getting into a shouting match with a bunch of people who don't want to hear him anyways but I'm going to tell you something Todd James ex paratrooper who likes a little rowdiness boy he wanted to climb out and sit on the grill and howl at the moon while his wife drove him through the crowd but that's not serving are you serving the

[34:52] Lord because look what it says here anyone who serves me the father will honor how's the father going to honor that person I wonder I'm not declaring I'm wondering if we read about this here in Romans chapter 15 verse 13 where it says may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope so I'm going to leave you with this two questions are you abounding right are you abounding does joy and peace just ooze off you every day do you live in the hope looking forward to that day when our glorious Savior will appear if not are you serving

[35:59] God or are you serving yourself see I wonder what the connection there is I wonder how close the connection is now don't get me wrong don't get me wrong I'm not telling you that if you don't serve God mightily the hope is taken away I'm not saying that if you don't daily dedicate yourself no no no no you missed the point but it says this may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that oh may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in your belief as you live for him as you think his thoughts as you do his deeds may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the

[37:01]  Holy Spirit you may abound in hope now some of you are abounding in hope and that is wonderful and some of you are probably struggling with a little bit of joy and peace in your life and that's awesome because you have an opportunity to today turn to the Lord and so let us individually and corporately serve the Lord together and may Cascade Mountain Bible Church be a church marked by the joy of the Lord and by the peace that comes from being his child amen let's pray father thank you