Living in Hope. [Romans 5:1-6; 8:18-25; 15:7-13] Have you received the WARNING via ? WARNING: ADVENT VIRUS

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Gladys Tucker
5 years ago
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1 Living in Hope [Romans 5:1-6; 8:18-25; 15:7-13] Have you received the WARNING via ? WARNING: ADVENT VIRUS Be on the alert for symptoms of inner Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. The hearts of a great many have already been exposed to this virus and it is possible that people everywhere could come down with it in epidemic proportions. This could pose a serious threat to what has, up to now, been a fairly stable condition of conflict in the world. Some signs and symptoms of The Advent Virus: A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past experiences. An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment. A loss of interest in judging other people. A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others. A loss of interest in conflict. A loss of the ability to worry. (This is a very serious symptom.) Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation. Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature. Frequent attacks of smiling. An increasing tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen. An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it. Please send this warning out to all your friends. This virus can and has affected many systems. Some systems have been completely cleaned out because of it. Let s look at the bible s teaching on HOPE. Romans 5:1-6 [5:2 We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God]. What does that mean? Romans 3:23 reads: We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The glory that man had before the fall ( before the time when man rebelled against God.) We fall short of what God intended man to be. In the beginning God created the world and everything in it - and it was good! God made man male and female, and God blessed them, and told them to fill the earth and to subdue it man, created in the image of God, is asked to share in God s rule. Man was given the stewardship of God s creation: Not to exploit it; spoil it and be wasteful of it o But to use and care for it, in the service of God and man

2 But the first people, Adam and Eve, rebelled. They disobeyed God, and that willfulness, this sinfulness of putting self before God, the creature before the creator is the root cause of mankind s problems and the reason behind the mess the world is in today. The heart of the Christian message is that Jesus came to bring us back to God. Jesus died for our wrongdoing, so that by faith in him, we can be restored to experience life with God, but we are still living in a fallen world and with sinful natures! We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God being restored! Romans 8:18-25 [Romans 8:19 Creation waits in hope that it will be liberated from the bondage to decay; 8:23&24 we eagerly wait for our adoption as sons, for in this hope we were saved.] John 1:12 says: All those who receive Jesus Christ as Lord, God gives the right to become children of God, and here in Romans we read that creation waits in anticipation of the great liberation of God s children, because the universe the earth and all of God s created order, is destined for renewal! In this hope we were saved in this hope of God s restoration of his creation. The Holy Spirit, God s gift to those rescued from sin and rebellion through faith in Jesus and his sacrifice for us, longs for this fully restored universe that will come when Jesus Christ returns as the judge of the living and the dead. we wait for the blessed hope the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. 2 Titus 2:13&14 We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God being restored when the Lord Jesus Christ returns Romans 15:7-13 God s promise to the fathers of the Jews is fulfilled in Jesus. The good news that Jesus came and lived for, that Jesus came and died for, was not only for God s chosen people the Jews, but for the Gentiles for you and for me and still more! The gentiles will hope in him. Our text: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.15:13 Overflow with hope for: The hope of the glory of God The hope of restoration of that glory The hope of redemption making what is bad, good. The hope of when love, joy and peace will reign on earth in place of hatred, sadness and strife

3 The hope of when creativity, care and compassion will reign on earth in place of boredom, rejection and the cold shoulder. The hope of when beauty, justice and goodness will reign on earth in place of scar tissue, injustice and evil. May you be filled to overflowing with this HOPE by the power of the Holy Spirit. This hope is real 1. Choose this Hope 2. Live in this Hope 3. Work in this Hope 4. Be secure in this Hope. 2 weeks ago we looked at Paul s realism. Paul was real he had real needs, real emotions, experienced real disappointments, testified to the Lord s real help! This hope is real. It is not the same as optimism having a positive outlook and hoping for the best in life. It is a hope that can endure hardship We continually thank God for you for your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ [1 Thess. 1:2&3] The examples from last week s family service: This hope was real for Vanya, the young Moldovian drafted into the Russian army and tortured for his faith in Jesus. This hope was real for him when he was put out to spend the night in the freezing temperatures of a Siberian winter in his summer uniform because of his faith in Jesus Christ and god vindicated his witness by miraculously keeping him alive Vanya lived this hope Vanya was tortured because of this hope Vanya died living for this hope This hope was real for Pastor Samuel Lamb who spent 20 years in a Chinese jail for his faith in Jesus Christ, and who said: 20 years in prison is long. Very long. But not worth comparing with the eternity which awaits us. What a future what a joy! This hope is not just optimism it s real! 1. We need to choose to live in this hope. Henri Nouwen writes about letting go of my wishes and choosing to live in hope To wait in openness and trust is an enormously radical attitude towards life.

4 I wonder what Mary s thoughts, dreams and wishes for her life had been before the angel came to her and said: Do not be afraid Mary, you have found favour with God. You will be with child c and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. Mary s response, I am the Lord s servant May it be to me as you have said, was a letting go of her wishes and choosing to live in hope. And you and I can do the same when we let go of our obsession with God in my plans for my life and instead See ourselves in God s plan for the world. And when we choose to let go of our wishes and choose to live in hope, like Mary did, then we will find that our whole outlook on life is developed, broadened, widened and deepened. We need to choose to live in this hope the hope of the glory of God. 2. We need to live in this hope. To live in this hope, is to live in the hope of Jesus return as the judge of the living and the dead. After Jesus had risen from the dead, 40 days later he ascended into heaven, and those who were left standing gazing up at the sky were told: Why do you stand here looking unto the sky? This same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen him go. If the hope of our lives is a longing for an end to injustice, abuse and exploitation If the hope of our lives is a longing for an end to hatred, murder and greed If the hope of our lives is a longing for an end to deforestation, degradation and destruction Then the hope of our lives is a longing for the return of Jesus! This week in the Advent devotional you are going to read that this means cultivating the Fear of the LORD We can have a fear of many things: Peladophobia: fear of baldness and bald people. Porphyrophobia: fear of the color purple. Chaetophobia: fear of hairy people. Levophobia: fear of objects on the left side of the body. Dextrophobia: fear of objects on the right side of the body. Thalassophobia: fear of being seated. Stabisbasiphobia: fear of standing and walking and guess what?! Phobophobia: fear of being afraid.

5 But the bible says that: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. How does living in the fear of the LORD impact our lives? Living in the fear of the Lord for you and for me is to live to please God and not God to please ourselves. To live in the fear of the Lord means not playing games with the boundaries of good and evil To live in the fear of the Lord means living with a burning desire for the honour of God s name anger and sadness when God is defamed joy and delight when God is exalted To live in the fear of the Lord means responding to his call to partner with him in his mission to expel evil from this planet Henri Nouwen p. 5 Henri Nouwen p. 5 - THINK: words like fear and desire, justice and mercy have to be relearned and reunderstood. Have you re-learned & re-understood these terms rms? To live overflowing with the hope of the glory of God is to live in the fear of the Lord 3. We need to work in this hope An excerpt from N. T. Wright s book Surprised by HOPE. When we turn to Paul, the verse that has always struck me in this connection is 1 Corinthians 15:58. Paul, we remind ourselves, has just written the longest and densest chapter in any of his letters, discussing the future resurrection of the body in great and complex detail. How might we expect him to finish such a chapter? By saying, Therefore, since you have such a great hope, sit back and relax because you know God s got a great future in store for you? No. Instead, he says, Therefore, my beloved ones, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain. What does he mean? How does believing in the future resurrection lead to getting on with the work in the present? Quite straightforwardly. The point of the resurrection, as Paul has been arguing throughout the letter, is that the present bodily life is not valueless because it will die. God will raise it to new life. What you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it. And if this applies to ethics, as in 1 Corinthians 6, it certainly also applies to the various vocations to which God s people are called. What you do in the present by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself will last into God s future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the

6 day when we leave it behind altogether (as the hymn so mistakenly puts it, Until the day when all the blest to endless rest are called away ). They are part of what we may call building for God s kingdom. In the skit we did at the Thanksgiving celebration there were 4 protestors: 1. Climate change 2. Protecting the environment chained to a tree (supposed to be 200 years old but actually mad 3 years ago for our holiday bible club!) 3. Against injustice someone voluntarily locked in a prison cell 4. Peace not War. God is not going to trash the earth, this is his special creation - he s going to make it new! Believing that affects the way we live and what we live for, and what we are concerned about! If we are overflowing with the hope of the glory of God, then we ll be doing something! CMCC s new Vision statement: Embracing our world with the heart of God. 4. We will be secure in this hope: We have this hope as an anchor for our souls! [Hebrews 6:19] So let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful [Hebrews 10:23] Let me finish with some words of Martin Luther King: "If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. Every now and then, I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize; it isn t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards; that s not important. Tell him not to mention where I went to school. "I d like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others. I d like for somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day, that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try, in my life, to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say, on that day, that I did try, in my life, to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.

7 "Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won t have any money to leave behind. I won t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that s all I want to say If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he s traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain. If I can do my duty as a Christian ought, if I can bring salvation to a world once wrought, if I can spread the message as the master taught, then my living will not be in vain. "Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right side or your left side, not for any self reason. I want to be on your right or your best side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition, but I just want to be there in love and justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world."

cell outlines 2016 SERIES 8

cell outlines 2016 SERIES 8 These Cell Outlines are written by Youth and Children s Ministries. They are available every month from our web site. For more information and other Cell resources, visit salvationarmy.org.uk/children-and-youth-resources