TEXT:ROMANS. 15:13, 33
13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Verse 13 “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” There’s a couple of thoughts here, first, that very important clause in the middle of the sentence. That’s the reason why, to be filled with all joy and peace in believing, that you might abound in hope. Now if you were to go to verse 33 of that chapter: “Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.” And the God of peace! You have a God of hope, and a God of peace! But what we’re going to speak about, is “The God of Hope” this morning, ..because we live in a hopeless world.”
The world doesn’t offer hope; not real hope, not like our `God does! That’s what he (the Apostle Paul) called “The God of Hope, and the God of peace”. We don’t have a real complicated message this morning, but a very simple, direct, and necessary one because of the day and time that we live, and the real impact on men, women, boys and girls. We need to be abounding in hope! Not just the Word, “slipping or skating by,” but ‘that 'the Word’ is there, ..on purpose! There are several thoughts here that can occupy some time, if we just pause, and think on each one of them.
Hope is the expectation of good things. “I was reading that this word ‘hope’ also has an indication of meaning (then), ..of impending doom.” But today we call that “despair,” ..rather than Hope. So maybe back then, they used the word 'hope' ..a little differently. Today we use the word hope as an indication of good things, ..nd we use the word despair as an indication of bad things. But we’re preaching this morning about the God of Hope, ..the expectations of good things.
I would like you to ask yourself, if you can rejoice in your hope? Can you do that? For if God has given you hope, ..than rejoice in your hope! Don’t allow anything to hinder you of rejoicing in your hope! That’s not God’s will! You say “I’m a child of God.” Well, as a child of God, it is not His will that you should allow anything, to hinder your rejoicing in your hope. For one thing ‘you’ need it, and another, ..‘somebody else’ needs it! There are people 'looking upon us,' that ask,’ … “Do I want what you have?”
If they cannot discern the hope you say you have, then my question is, “Are you transferring a very important value, to one that is coming up ..and might desperately need it?” If not for today, then maybe someday they might look back and think of “Brother or Sister so and so; My, they were such an inspiration to me, even though I didn’t want it at the time.” There was a rejoicing there!
Not a glum, sour face or demeanor, that you would never know that they had a hope, though they might say, “Oh saints, I am so glad I’m saved.” But you would never know it by their expressions. (You might now say), “Oh don’t get on ‘that’ please.” Hello! I’m glad I came to church this morning! You might say, “Brother that’s a hard way to get us motivated, to criticize us ..for not being expressive in our hope.”
That’s not criticism. If God has given you something to be hopeful about, you ‘can’ express it, ..especially if it has been some time since you have! Yes, you can, for somebody else needs it besides you! You need it the most. You say, “Oh brother, no one could look at me with that mind.” Oh, ..I beg to disagree!
If it’s not here first at the house of God, where will it be? I Peter 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And it’s not just judgment, it’s an expression of hope! If not here, ..where will it be? Will they get it from the newspaper? Not if they’re reading what happened a couple of days ago, they won’t get it from there! Will they get it from the "big festivals," and the “big show”, where, when people go back to their dwellings and places of worship, nothing really has changed? No, ..they won’t!
So if you want to be where Mt Zion is, and where God’s spirit is manifested, then express your hope, ..somehow, ..because people need it! There is no “cut off date" of expression of your hope! There’s no putting “out to pasture, where we feel like, ”You know what, ..no one would accept what I have anyway, or, ..my day is passed, ..and another day is come!” There is ‘no’ such thing in the plan of God, as that! When God saved us, as part of the family of God, we have a right to express our hope, ..until the last breath we take!
There’s never a more important time, than today to express your hope! 'Never'.. a more important time! Amen! Don’t feel like ..“I’m weak, I’ve lost my strength, and I’ve been 'put out to pasture'.” That’s the thought, the enemy wants to put upon you! I didn’t teach that! You didn’t hear that message here! You need to take the place God wants you to, and express your hope!
“Step on the enemy’s head and claim the ground God has already given you. And, don’t give it back! Don’t think “It’s somebody else’s time now,” (thinking,“my “time has passed, I have fought a good fight, I have run a good race, and now I’ll just slowly go out to pasture.” I’ll just slowly wait for death’s door to catch up with me.”) ..Don’t do that!
Young people need to hear older people express hope! Young people need to know, that when I get to “that age,” and the body wears out, ..there’s still a spirit inside of hope! Hope doesn’t automatically go until a certain age, and then sort of “leaks out.” Don’t allow that to happen! Get up and testify, ..even the more often!
Saints, we’re fighting a battle of survival and faith. We want to not just survive, but thrive. We’re not going to thrive if we allow the “drumbeat of the world” to pound us, down to the place that we can’t express our hope in some way. We just walk out ..without expressing our hope in some way. How many times do you just walk out and express “I hope God helps them” of another in need of hope?
We’re not so many, that we can’t just “cross the aisle” and express, ..“I heard your testimony, and I’m praying for you.” There are some of us that have not talked "to other" of us, ..for I don’t know how many years! How big, or small, are we? Where is your hope? Bro Sam used to preach harder than this, so don’t find fault with me! And the apostle Paul, preached harder than this. ..I love it!.. We need hope! Hope is not going to be expressed like a "sprinkle of stardust" ..out of the sky.
Hope is going to be expressed by a change in people’s lives, ..through the power of God! Not just from young people, but old people! And you know what, sometimes, people of different ages, lose hope, and “go out into this world” and this world “strips” them of hope! If you had anything that the Lord helped you glean and understand while you were here, and you abandoned it to head out into the world, ..it will strip you of what you got here! It will strip you, cut you, and “eat you” like a chemical of any “varnish or gloss" that God helped you with, when you were “little" too, ..of hope. The “world will leave you “naked,” and raw, ..without hope!
Nothing is more desperate, ..than a person without hope! There’s nothing more in despair, ..than of having expectations of bad things. That’s why we need to encourage each other, and be encouraged by the God of Hope! I appreciate how the God of Hope one day “broke me loose from despair.” I was in despair, and the God of hope, “located” me, and broke me loose from despair. How can 'I go along' and someday get “self calcified”, so quiet, so indifferent and uncaring?
“Well, my time must have passed.” ..The same God is, that was, and shall be, and still, ..needs to break others of despair! People still need to hear and see that God ‘Is’ and has not retired. That “I’m not waiting to die,” that there is something yet, a little “fire” in there, that from time to time there’s a demand!
You know what makes a hot water heater work?” The demand for the hot water, is what keeps that hot water coming! There’s a pilot light (if it’s a gas water heater) that heats the water, ..but what makes it work is the demand for the water. Somebody turns the shower on. The water that comes in from the street is not hot, ..but cold. It “hits” the water heater, and the water heater has to heat it up, if you want a hot shower. So what “draws” the hot water out of the boiler, is the demand for it!
Spiritually we are the boiler, and the Holy Spirit is the pilot light. So from time to time, when the demand is there, it “flares”, to heat that “boiler” up. It is so that it can be used, to be a spiritual benefit! But, if I have allowed the “pilot light to go out,” ..then "my boiler” will cool, eventually be cold, and won’t be useful for someone else. That “hot water” ..won’t be found in me.
But it doesn’t need to be that way! If God has lit a light in your heart, it need not ever go out! And so, there will still be a demand for it. ..How can I supply someone else's "heat?” Well, ..then allow God to then fire you up! “Oh you’re just preaching an emotional gospel!” No. This’ is the gospel! Read the letters of Paul. Don’t you find this in there? There is ‘a warm fervor ’in them. And, it doesn’t have to be this “wild and crazy thing” that some people do today.
There‘s a fire and fervor going on ..when somebody is willing to suffer loss of life, and be stoned by those that would kill them! Somebody had to have “something.” It wasn’t just “Well, let’s go to church.” Saints, the world is today, a 'tough' place. This means we need to recognize the danger of despair, and the awesome opportunity of hope! Don’t let the opportunity pass you by, for the ever present danger of despair is there! The God of hope! We need hope!
We don’t want a vain or empty hope, we want a real hope! Every one of us needs hope. It could be that I would need great help someday. I thought here, about,..“What’s my hope?”
My hope is, ..I know who my Master is, ..I know that I am His servant! I belong to my Master, ..my soul, and life is His! By definition, nothing is greater than my Master! That’s my hope! The Lord being my helper, it could be that I would need great help someday.
You know you say these things, and you “fear” for the trial and tribulation that is to follow. We went through a great tribulation yesterday. I though “Oh my goodness, I hope it doesn’t end up like it could.” Thank the Lord, it didn’t! But I’m telling you, life is real, despair is real, ..and hope is real! Hope is as ‘real,’ as the bench you’re sitting on, as real and necessary as ..the air you breathe!
Hope is not just some spiritual "concept," which we get by reading the bible. Hope is real, that which sustains us, and is our spiritual life blood! “Now the God of hope fill you!” These scriptures aren’t put in here, just to fill space, or because somebody wants to be positive, through the power of positive thinking. “Now the God of hope fill you.” With what? “ All joy and peace!”
The greatest gift, that a human being can ever receive, is hope! You say, “Its salvation.” Salvation is hope! Without hope ..there is no salvation! Without salvation, there is no hope! Hope is the greatest gift you could ever receive! “Why do you say that?” Because without hope ..there is despair! And with despair you perish, for you can’t find God, in your greatest hour of need! But there is always hope, ..when there is “Hope.” “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing”, ….. "through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
Hope is the finish line, that 'when in sight,' ..keeps you going! “I’m not going to quit now, because, I see the finish line. That’s my hope! If you lose sight of the finish line, you need hope! You’d think, “Why am I living this way, if there’s no point, if there’s no good ending to this story, and it’s going to dribble and drab until it’s all over?” If you see the finish line, ..there’s still hope!
If you have hope, ..you have Christ! Don’t forsake it, ..don’t discount it, saying “It’s not worth what it used to be worth.” Hope is worth everything ..right now! Hope is that great pearl of price!” Love hope, polish it, treat it like that pearl of great price! Matthew 13:45,46 45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: 46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. Love it, hang on to it, think about, ..and meditate on it!
Hope has ..a reason. And the reason ....is that it’s already happened before! If it hadn’t happened before, we would not have a reasonable ....expectation. But we have a reasonable expectation, because it’s already happened! Somebody has already been saved! Somebody has already made heaven their home. Someone is still overcoming the wickedness of the world!
Hope is, ..that the Spirit of God is still working! There’s a reason for hope! Hope is the expected repetition ..of everything that’s happened before. The hope is, ..that truth will never die! Hope is, the example that will one day convince someone without hope, that God is real! That ..is hope! Hope is, ..that my affliction, will one day cease. Don’t lose sight of hope!
Hope is my child, or loved one, ..will one day began to conquer their “demons.” Hope! See ..how.. important hope is? Someone who is afflicted with demons, ..and I’m not talking about “hocus, pocus.” I’m talking about the 'real' demons ..that afflict people in their lives. How’s that person supposed to see hope? If I can’t “reflect it,” ..how are they supposed to find it? “Well God can work miracles.” Amen, ..but if God has given me hope, one of the things He expects is that ..I would be a conduit of hope!
Hope is, that when “we go out of this life, ..we have added something beneficial to it. And even just before we left, and not ..just “fifty years ago.” Yesterday, and today, ..I have hope! The Lord may cut your plans, ..shorten your life, ..or say “those hopes you had, I will not see that you realize them.” We don’t know the hour and day of our life, of our frustrations, or whatever, ..but we have hope! “Now the God of hope, fill you.”
Not, may you ‘just’ hang on, and ‘just’ have enough to last until the finish line. You see ones running a race, ..get to the end, ..then they collapse, ..right at the finish line. They have spent every ounce of their strength trying to get to that finish line, ..and then collapse. “Run out of gas, right before the finish line, lean over, and ..“kind of fall.” Some have a heart attack, not finishing to the finish line.
Spiritually too, I cannot just stumble over, in this "kind of white haze," and ..“fall into heaven.” That ..is not an example of a spiritual life. We will not somehow ““just fall into heaven.” Now the God of hope fill you. He’s not talking just to the teenagers, or those that are “strong, or ..fill those that are young.” It doesn’t say, .."and have the expectations of years and years of life ahead." The God of hope will fill ,,all of you, the strong, the weak, the infirm, and the firm.” The same God fills ‘all’ of you. Amen!
2 Corinthians 4; 16b “...though the outward man perish, the inward man is renewed day by day.”Refer again to, Romans 15:13; Hope? Not so you can barely get across the “finish line,” but that you may abound with hope, and, ..have a surplus! Hope is going out of this life, ...having added something beneficial to it. God fills, ..Satan empties. “Fill you with all joy and peace in believing.” Not so you can just barely collapse across the line, ..but that you may abound!
Now Judas may have started with hope, but he began to find fault, and get disgruntled. Judas began to “lean on the arm of flesh,” and “sold Jesus out.” Then he went back to the governors,( the people he had gone to get his money), ..and repented that he had already “sold out God. Matthew 27: 4,5 4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. 5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
("they said, What is that to us?") The world doesn’t care what your problem is, ..they don’t have hope, ..and really have all they can handle on their own hands. Your problem, is 'not' going to be their problem, ..and when you go and look for help from “that quarter, (or those people,)” they’re going to say, “Not my problem, ..you go find your help someplace else!”
Judas, by leaning on the arm of the flesh, had allowed Satan to empty him of hope. It wasn’t that Satan took advantage of that which Judas did not permit, but Judas “allowed” Satan to empty him of his hope.
Judas could have ultimately done like “others” (i.e. the apostle Peter, who repented and recognized no help from the world.) Peter had declared that he would perish in despair if he continued in that way. So Peter handled it differently, asking God to forgive him for having been careless. He recognized that there was no help from the world. That was Peter’s attitude. But Judas went so far, that he allowed Satan ..to empty him completely of hope. It’s sort of like a bucket ..with many leaks in it
I hate to tell you this, but we all have “leaky buckets.” The older you get, your bucket will get leakier ..physically, ..and sometimes even emotionally. Doesn’t have to be, spiritually. We all ..have little tiny holes in our bucket. “Oh brother, God ‘lined’ mine with tin, my bucket is sealed.” Congratulations, ..most of us have a leaky bucket. That doesn’t mean that we “flip flop between sin and Salvation. But that we have a need to be filled with all power of the Holy Ghost.
That tells me that “once we have arrived with the filling of the Holy Ghost, we still won’t ever, not, have a need. The God of hope fill you! And keep filling you, and filling you, ..and filling you! For one thing, ..just life has a way of emptying some of that out. You started “with this much,” and ..‘your just living’ demands something from you. It‘s not just physical, and, ..not just emotional. Life has a way of demanding some of our spiritual filling. Now ..there’s something less. We go through trials and tribulations. Then, there’s a little “pin hole,” and begins to leak just a drop, ever so slightly, little by little.
I have a plumbing device in my house, and I’ll be in another room, and all of a sudden I’ll hear pshhhh..sshhp! I have a leak in a valve, and every so often it has to refill itself. A couple of hours go by, and again I hear, pshhh…sshhp! It’s never to the place I want to do anything about it, because I’m a very bad plumber! I’d probably break it, and have to call somebody to come fix it. So I “suffer” through it. It has a slow leak, and has to be refilled every so often. I grin and bear it, it last about a couple of hours.
Some of us are like that, we have “slow leaks.” It doesn’t mean that there is sin in our lives, but that where we “rub shoulders” with the world, in our daily activities, it “costs” us something, and we need to be refilled. The Holy Spirit is the plug. And God fills. But you have to want the plug! The plug is hope! Hope is what stops the leak! The Holy Spirit is what refills it. Satan pulls the plug out and empties. Hope plugs, while the Holy Spirit fills up.
Judas at one time had the plug of hope, but 'permitted' Satan to pull the plug out. And little by little, his bucket emptied, until there was nothing left. Then when he looked for hope that should have been in his vessel, ..his hope was gone. Little by little, a bit disgruntled, a feeling of anxiety and despair, of fear, ..and finally self caught up with Judas. He was “leaking” in several places, so when he needed hope, ..it was gone!
The world has a way of dealing with people like that, taking your hope, ..if you allow it. We find ourselves every day, “rubbing elbows” (not sin) with the world. We pick up the newspaper, read the headlines, and have fears, and say, “How horrible this is, how bad is this getting?
Maybe we find a leak we were not fully aware of, ..causing a drain in us. Maybe an attitude, or something in the history of our life, “sprung a leak” that we weren’t even aware of. Then God tells us, “there’s leak there. You're losing hope! The enemy has a way of pulling the plug. It doesn’t have to be a bad attitude, it could be “just the way of life. It could be the heaviness, the burden, the “constant drumbeat,” ..and then there’s a leak there. I’m not talking about the problem, ..I’m talking about the hope! If this doesn’t apply to you”, ..then it doesn’t apply to you! I’m just preaching! Maybe somebody here, ..it applies to you, ..I don’t know!” It’s the message God gave to me for this morning.
But God says “the hope is leaking, ..be careful.” Satan “pulls the plug.” Ordinary living can cause the “leak” there. Be careful. You say “Lord help me, and then you go back to hope! “The God of hope fill you, (with what?) with all joy and peace.” God help me to have joy and peace in the midst of my trial, ...and in the mean time “plug that hole!”
Because not only I need this, but somebody else needs it. And, if it’s all gone for me, how was Judas going to help anybody. He got so discouraged to such despair, he took his own life! He was out of hope; all the while he was rubbing shoulders with 11 other people who were doing their best to ‘keep’ hope, and with the Master of hope! Right in God’s presence, out of hope! So he went and hung himself. He could not recover!
There’s a “tipping point,” in this hope, ..where there’s no return. People can get to the place, where there’s so little hope left, ..that they can’t see their way back to hope! The despair is overwhelming! There’s a vibrato in sin, a gladness, but it’s not hope! When despair finally overwhelms hope, so that one begins to look for hope, ..they’re not going to find it in vibrato. They’re not going to find it in the fake camaraderie that the world gives. Not hope!
Do you know what hope does? Hope treats the 'real' condition of the soul! Camaraderie, fellowship of the world, cannot treat the real condition of the soul, the despair, the hopelessness, that people find themselves in. Hope treats that! That why God wants you to have it! God fills, ...Satan empties.
Mark 14:21 The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born. Why would it have been good if he never had been born? Because Judas had ‘allowed’ sinful things, and “lost hope.” Sometimes what puts “holes in the bucket” ..is sin. “Playing around, not really agreeing,” (with for instance this message), saying ..it’s an“over reaction.” Until finally, ..your hope looks like the “holes in Swiss cheese, shredded. Like a chess grater, with all those holes leaking out. ..and you allowed, or permitted it to happen.
Some that have sat, right here, heard the message, took it out into the world, and allowed it to be shredded. So that it got to the place that their hope was so small, so difficult to find, with despair surrounding it. Some people won’t listen to the message, until like perhaps Judas, who listened, ‘then,’ to “repent that he was the problem, and wanted forgiveness. They said, “that’s your problem.” That’s the way the world does people. Then he without hope, hung himself, ..having been “shredded” of his hope.
This is why if someone leaves, "tests the waters,” ..they can still have hope to come and be “fixed!” It happened to the prodigal son. There’s more than one example when people go out, and “tests the waters, and get shredded by the world.” That’s why if someone does that, we want to make sure, that they know that we’re not angry at you. We don’t hate you. Hope is not hate! Judgment is not hate! We’re not hateful, ..we’re not angry with you. We want your bucket to be “fixed’ ..so it can be filled up again! One has to get to the place like the prodigal son, (whose father didn’t hate him, and he knew that), had to get to the place where his bucket was almost empty!
Maybe there’s a little hope within, so that God can touch that. That’s what we hope and pray, ..that somebody has enough left. Thank God if you have just enough left. I thought of my own past life last night, and all the terrible things that I permitted. All the holes I allowed the enemy to put in my life, and the hope and trust in God, that leaked out. Hope and trust are “cousins.” If you allow sin to get a hold of you, and then “potshots” get taken into your vessel. You 'allowed' it to happen. But if you have just enough hope, ..you also can allow God to repair your “leaky vessel.” So the God of peace and joy begins to fill your vessel !
That’s why hope is so important. God fills with joy and peace. ‘if’ you let Him. Satan keeps “fooling” people. But he doesn’t have permission to fool you, ..unless you give it to him! Satan always causes you to crave more and more, ..only to be less satisfied. It’s a way to “starve” while “eating” more and more. When you get done with doing business with Satan, you will be spiritually, “skin and bones,” ..unsatisfied. With the hope, that God has to fill you, ..you will be led to be more satisfied. In the world, you might “wish you had never done, listened, seen that, or gone there, because now you are less satisfied.” Yet still, people often go back, ..to be emptied of hope.
Joy and peace leaves you more abounding, to fill you with hope! A life without a certain hope remains a very risky proposition, ..because there is no defense against despair. A certain hope, is ..a hope living free from all sin, ..and not in the way religion explains it. Hope is not, ..where “anything goes, and you can do anything you want, which leaves you into a very risky proposition. That is not.. a certain hope! “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace,.. through the power of the Holy Ghost.” We should not “play church" (mere religion)! God’s hope is not a form of dressing this, or that way,” etc.
You’ve heard the expression, “Don’t play church!” This is real, ..not “shadowy.” It’s not this form, where we come to church, and we dress a certain way. We’re not playing church! It can be likened to when as a child you played house, and someone perhaps had a little play stove, that you played making “pancakes.” We’re not playing church! Because then what happens is, when we’re out “rubbing elbows,” and life goes on, and your vessel starts to get leaky, ..then God help us if we end up like Judas having 'permitted' that. Then now, we really need help, and we turn around, ..and hope is not there! Furthermore, we then have a hard time believing God can even fill my bucket, ..that I’ve done so much to “shred” it.
People today are “playing church” and they play games with life! They play games with Satan. Most of the people in the world today are playing games with Satan. Finding fault with God and His ways of a holy life! Playing games ..with Satan! It’s that serious! They are allowing demons in their life! The demon of unbelief. The demon of finding fault with the people of God. If you're allowing demons and playing games with your life, God is pleading with you, “Please let me help you. You can’t “see” it, but you're ..allowing your bucket to become spiritually shredded. Leaking out hope!
There is a point of no return, for some people, as there was for Judas! No doubt if you talked to Judas, the year before he died, he would have said “I’m just as saved as rest of these people. Then how did Judas get to the place he got to? And why couldn’t Judas return from that place? Are you so certain of that the position you have God, is the position God would have you in? Look again what happened to Judas. We need ‘certain’ hope! Despair can come from any angle, ..at any time. Living without a certain hope, is like playing Russian roulette with your life!
Hebrews 6:18-19 18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Powerful!
There are people that have lived in despair, ..although saved. How? Despair ..is a part of human living. Despair sometimes can come from the fears that you, or I, can produce. Despair is not always without hope. There are some of us ..that just live with “certain despair. You might say, “Shouldn’t be.” Well, I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but that same person, if they submit themselves to God, are filled then, ..with more hope than despair!
If despair is a human thing, and sometimes a product of daily living, then God is able to give us more hope than that despair! And not just so that we “barely get by” but He is able to help us to get through life, and function, to be able to get through life. Some might say “That’s not a good testimony.” But you know what? Sometimes that is a more powerful testimony ..for someone that has not had to experience those things. It means different things, to different people, ..at different times!
Sometimes, someone who has through life and suffered with certain things, are able to demonstrate hope, ..because God is ‘real! So the testimony of their love for God, can be so powerful, to a loved one, or someone looking on; “You know what, they have suffered, what I am suffering, are going through what I’m am going through, ..yet claiming victory! They are claiming victory over sin, and able to go through each day, ..despite this “affliction” that is plaguing them!"
It gives hope to others suffering despair, ..to see they too can live with hope. If she, or he, can do it, ..“I” can do it! If it doesn’t seem humanly possible for them to go through what they are going through, ..then there has to be hope! “Don’t fiddle while Rome burns.” An old expression, that means "Don’t expose yourself to the “demons of life, and allow Satan to draw out your hope!” That expression about Rome, is based on someone that played their violin or fiddle, while the city burned, and blamed it on the Christians, when "he" could have done something about it.
If you know that you have been allowing Satan, to “pull out plugs, and fill you with ‘holes,’ ..don’t go on like that! Don’t play with your life! You don’t have enough of it, ..or time. Don’t allow that to happen! It’s going to empty, ..soon of its own accord! Seek hope! Fill your vessel with peace and joy, ..overflowing! A peaceful person that has joy, "it" comes out over the top! They are like that. ..That’s how they are!
We all have our own peculiarities, but peace and joy, ..are peace and joy! It’s not backstabbing, faultfinding, complaining, double 'dealing or mindedness.' It’s not bad things, peace and joy is what it is! If somebody says, “My bucket is just as filled up as yours,” and yet those things mentioned above, ..mark it down for what it is! It’s a leaky bucket! Seek hope! Filled, ..with peace and joy! Somebody, sometime that you love, ..is going to need it!
Again, Romans 15:13, “The God of all hope fill you,”… Ever sit at the dinner table, and someone is pouring milk into a glass, and gets distracted? The milk is running over the top, and you say “Stop, stop!” And it just keeps going over the top, and all over everywhere? If I understand this correctly, when they anoint a king with oil, it flows down all around his head, and all over, down his face, etc. “What a mess.”
They don’t just pour to fill, but took a vessel and filled it to overflowing. There’s a special significance to that. That’s the way hope is! Hope is not limited! Hope doesn’t stop. We can’t stop hope, ..other than prohibiting God from filling us. But hope itself has no limits! It will crowd out our own selves. It will crowd out our own little hang-ups. Sometimes hope and things of God, are not as popular as what the world offers, and those things that immediately attract our attention . But then “those other things” will cause us to wonder why do I spend my life, wasted on them.
You see Satan wants to distract your attention, and say “You know what? The way they preach hope, is not as satisfying as what they say. I’ve actually tried to live the way they say, and it’s not as satisfying.” You know why? Because there was too much self in the way. The bible will do what it promises to do! (It) hope (will) fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Abound in hope!
I can’t express it the way I would like, this morning, but hope will save a life! If it’s your life, or someone you love, this is going to mean so much to you, when you get to that “raw” place when your spiritual, or physical life, ..or someone that you love needs to be saved, ..because otherwise your hope will be destroyed! You’re going to realize, and you now realize, ..how important hope is! We can think about this in so many ways, ..that we not hinder or damage hope!
The bible says “Father’s ..don’t discourage your children! Don’t take away their hope! Mothers and fathers don’t discourage your children, by the way you are in the home. Don’t take away their hope! .."Provoke not your children”.. Ephesians 6:4, & Colossians 3:21. Children, don’t allow your hope to be shredded by Satan, by “playing” with the “world,” and then, .."collecting it’s demons." Don’t allow that to happen!
Because you’re going to need that hope someday!
Message from THE CHURCH OF GOD OF CARMICHAEL MEDIA SITE
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