Epic HOPE

HOPE - by Webster's account, it is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen... but to me that still leaves room for reservation or uncertainty.

Maybe its just me, but that definition sounds a little too much like finger crossing and wishful thinking!

From a Biblical perpective, HOPE is a CONFIDENT EXPECTATION. It does not imply a shred of uncertainty or any lack of assurance. Instead biblical hope is a confident expectation and desire for something good in the future. There is moral certainty in it.

This week as I shared with the students of Hilldale Baptist Church, I talked to them about Epic Hope... About the ultimate hope of Heaven and how that great hope changes everything about our lives today!

We focused on two basic questions: 

WHAT WILL HEAVEN BE LIKE?
WHAT DOES HEAVEN MEAN IN OUR LIVES TODAY?

Next week, I will share my thoughts about these two questions... But for today, I want to simply ask you this question... Does your outlook on eternity impact your daily behavior today?

If you think about the Hope of Heaven, you are quickly moved to a place of unshakeable confidence, joy, and purpose! The struggles of this life begin to fade...(The Hope of Heaven doesn't mean that the struggles of this life, here and now aren't real or are not challenging...) Their power is broken, their severity placed in a perspective of limitation (light and temporary compared to the weight of glory to come)

Finally, the Hope of Heaven and the greatness of our reward affects us in two additional ways, both of which empower purity of life here and now in the face of opposition. It makes us passionate for purity, because the one we hope to see and be with and be like is pure, and it makes us fearless and happy so that people can’t stop us from pursuing this passion for purity and righteousness here.

1 Corinthians 15:54-58
54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." 55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord,because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Richard Sibbes, one of the great old Puritan preachers of Cambridge who died in 1635, wrote a whole book on Psalm 42:5. He was called “the sweet dropper” because of how much confidence and joy his sermons caused. He called his book The Soul’s Conflict with Itself, because in Psalm 42:5 that is exactly what you have, the soul arguing with itself, preaching to itself. “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God!”

Is your hope in God? Hope Changes Everything!