Where Is Your Hope

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Good morning. Good morning, children. Not too bad. Essie, did I hear you say good morning? [00:00:34] Okay, yeah, it's good to be here. Welcome visitors, Mike and Trish and one boy Levi, I can't remember the others. Welcome, welcome to the rest of you too. Let's remember, I guess we got a text saying Jim's are in Fort Wayne. So remember him, maybe we can have a little prayer for him. [00:01:07] Let's just pause for a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you. I want to also thank you for today and this time that we have together. Lord, just now we think of Jim, Linda, and the family as they're down in Fort Wayne. As Jim is sharing your word, I pray that you will hover over him, that your spirit would reach down and bless him with your presence and that your word would go forth and that you would convict through your Holy Spirit and that the lives would be changed. [00:01:48] So I pray a blessing on him this morning, Lord, and each one of us here again in Jesus' name. Amen. We trust that God is here preaching and teaching us, not me. I didn't want to forget, I think it's interesting that that letter was sent to Brad. Brad read the letter of Covenant Choir because I was thinking of saying something. Begging you to pray for Jamie and I as we sing on this Covenant Choir. [00:02:23] We have one more practice and 14, 15 songs to memorize. I think I have one memorized and that is Our God, He is Alive. I think we all have that one memorized. So there's 14 songs that we've got to memorize and it's not going so good for me. I don't know about you, Jamie. But not only that, going into prisons. I think I've done that one time and you know it's kind of like talking to people in Jamaica you never know what's going to happen or what's going to come up or people come forward and us men are to counsel these people these men and I was thinking about that and it's kind of scary [00:03:20] How is that any different than our daily lives here? How is us going into prisons any different than me going to work? Because there's lost souls at work too. So, what am I afraid of? Afraid that I don't know what I'm talking about? Do I really have something that I want to share with them? Do I know Christ in that way? Am I ashamed of Him? This is a bunch of questions for me. [00:03:53] And thinking about them causes me to cry out to the Lord for strength and for boldness and for courage. And then I had to think of my life normally. Why am I praying that way whether I go into prisons or not? I'm just working. So I was going to ask for your prayers to remember us as we do this and memorization and talking to people in prisons. But we should really remember each one of us as we go throughout life [00:04:25] that we would be a light and a witness and a testimony for Him. I was thinking there was something else I wanted to share too. I can't remember. Okay. Maybe I'm a little more scared. I can't hold still up here. I'm going to start something that I've never done before. I'm going to start in 1 Timothy and go through 1 and 2 Timothy. [00:04:59] It's maybe sometimes easier to go with a subject that's on your mind and here you got a book and you're supposed to expound on it and share from it. I was stuck with Paul for quite a while, and I'm probably not done with him, and we all know that Paul wrote to 1 Timothy here. And this will either be a very, very short message, or it will be very, very long, this first chapter. I'm not sure what will happen. I may get stuck on two words in the first two verses, or I may go on to verse 11. [00:05:36] I'm not sure. But, um, okay, 1 Timothy, um, I don't know, you know, it seems like Paul, you know, Paul was writing to Timothy, uh, for some reason, I don't know why I think this, but I always think of Paul and he was older now, you know, and had lots of experience and here's this young Timothy and he's encouraging him in a couple different areas. [00:06:07] I think that here in First Timothy, he's encouraging him in some, maybe some tough times at the church of Ephesus. Because he was to get rid of false doctrine and maybe have some safeguards in public worship. [00:06:38] And he wanted to encourage this mature leadership. And so, I don't know, I kind of think of 1 Timothy as like a manual for leadership. and so does that exclude everybody but me and Jim? Not. That's the wrong answer. No, it doesn't exclude any of us. Because who is the leader in your home? It kind of includes all of us. [00:07:14] And if daddy's not there, then what? Then mama has to take over for the day or something. So I'd like to look at 1 Timothy as a manual for leadership. I think that chapter 3 is a key chapter. And, boy, I'm not sure how this introduction will go, but I just want us to look at, as we go through this, I don't know how long it will take, [00:07:50] but as a manual for leadership and that there's nowhere in 1 Timothy that it says anything that in order to be a good leader you have to have success and a good job and fame. Nothing like that. But there's a whole list of character qualities. That is what he's focused on is these character qualities. But we as men, Christian men, are ministers, are leaders in our homes. [00:08:33] We are to teach our children, teach our wives. In some cases they end up teaching us a few lessons here and there, and I think that you know what I mean. To teach our children and to be an example for our children to follow. And the sad thing is, is going through this, I realized a long time ago, but I'm realizing it more and more, that I was definitely not a leader to be followed. Definitely not. [00:09:05] and it still happens once in a while, I'm not the leader that I should be. So I'd like to encourage each one of you in that to be the leader in your home. Here in 1 Timothy he talks a lot about the conduct of the church, but he's also talking personally the conduct of a minister. The word Timothy, I think I read somewhere that it means honoring God or honored by God. [00:09:49] And I know that that is each one of our desire, is to be honoring God and also honored by God. Okay, I think we'll read chapter 1 through 11 to get started. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. To Timothy, a true son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. [00:10:24] As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, From which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say, nor the things which they affirm. [00:11:03] But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, [00:11:34] and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. Verse 1, we see that undeniably Paul was called by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ. Our hope. I got stuck on our hope. And that's one of the words that I made. [00:12:07] And it maybe won't take very long, I don't know. Our hope, man, what is that? I think I'd like to sing the song 325. I was thinking of that in the black books, 325. I'd really like to look at the words. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. [00:12:42] Wow, that goes with our Sunday School lesson, don't it? That's what my hope is built on. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. When darkness seems to veil his face And I don't know why I think I've always sung its face Why? That's not what it's saying here When darkness seems to veil his face Whose face? Christ's face Darkness all around us seems to veil his face [00:13:13] I rest on his unchanging grace Why is it so hard to rest in him? Why is it so hard to rest? In every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the veil. His oath, his covenant, and blood support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay. [00:13:45] When he shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in him be found Clad in his righteousness alone Faultless to stand before the throne On Christ the solid rock I stand All other ground is sinking sand My goodness When you think of What am I putting my hope in? Where is my hope? [00:14:20] Maybe singing it may take too long. Maybe we can sing it later or something. I want to turn to Hebrews chapter 6. Let's start in chapter 6, verse 9. [00:14:50] But beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you. I think he's encouraging them to go on to maturity here. But beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you. Yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward his name in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. [00:15:21] Okay, one thing I want us to look at here is God's promise, God's promises. And we desire that each one of you shall show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit their promises. Which reminds me of chapter 12 that we just read, or that Brad just read. For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, [00:16:00] saying, Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Verse 17, Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, We might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. [00:16:37] This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus. Having become high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. So our hope is in Jesus. It's just that simple. It's just that simple. [00:17:14] What do we hope for? And where is my hope? I also found out in Romans chapter 15, verse 13. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope. How? By the power of the Holy Spirit. [00:17:45] So, hope is a working of the Holy Spirit. So, I mean, I'm always looking for ways. How is the Holy Spirit working in my life? Well, if we feel we have hope in Christ, that's proof that we have Holy Spirit. You know, somebody off the street, he ain't going to hope in Jesus. You don't have the Holy Spirit. 1 John, read three verses there. [00:18:17] 1 John 3 Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. but we know that when he is revealed we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is [00:18:48] and everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. So when we have this hope in Jesus, that is going to purify us. We're going to allow Christ to work in us and speak to us. It leads to purification. And then another scripture in Job, verse chapter 31, I read 24 to 38, 28, I mean, I want to look at what the wicked put their hope in. [00:19:37] If I have made gold my hope, or said to find gold, you are my confidence. If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great and because my hand had gained much, if I have observed the sun when it shines or the moon moving in brightness so that my heart has been secretly enticed and my mouth has kissed my hand, this also would be an iniquity deserving of judgment, for I would have denied God who is above. And I think that that's, you know, pretty elementary, you know. [00:20:15] We don't put our hope, or let's be sure we're not putting our hope in our possessions, in what we have done. Even ourselves, kissing our own hand, I found that interesting. Kiss my wife's hand every once in a while. I don't put my hope in her either, but, well, yes I do. Sorry, no I don't. But, you know, kissing my own hand, imagine. People do it and maybe sometimes we do more than what we think. So where is our hope? That's one word that stuck out to me. The next word that stuck out to me is in verse 2 where he says, [00:20:58] Grace, mercy, and peace. And I think to the churches, he wrote grace and peace. But now to Timothy, he writes, he adds in there mercy. He also said it to Titus. He said mercy. I'm not sure, did he say it to Philemon? Philemon? Not sure, but mercy. Why did he write mercy? I almost think it's because as ministers, whether in the church or ministers at home, men, moms when dad's not there, we need mercy. [00:21:38] We need mercy more than anybody. As leaders, as ministers, we need mercy more. I wanted to look at Luke chapter 6. Jesus speaking here. I think I'll start in verse 35 and I'll read to 38. [00:22:13] But love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High For he is kind to the unthankful and evil Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful Judge not, and you shall not be judged Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned Forgive, and you will be forgiven Give, and it will be given to you. [00:22:45] Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. In Jamaica, verse 38, give was used in the wrong way. You know, give to the church, and you'll be blessed, and you'll get a new car, and you'll get a better job, and you'll get more money. Remember hearing that, Britt? On and on and on. Every other Sunday. Every Sunday there was always a message on giving. There was probably 20 minutes, 25 minutes, a little sermon before the offering was taken up to get people to give. [00:23:24] But it may be talking about money a little tiny bit, but I feel like it's talking about love, giving love, mercy, judging not, all these things. And I don't know, for some reason it's easier to give money hoping that we give something back, or we get something back. You know, it's really, but I don't know if I've ever, well, I'm going to be merciful to Leon so that he's merciful to me. [00:23:55] We don't think in that terms. And so, I really got to thinking of on this mercy. Why don't we show more mercy? And what does mercy mean to have mercy on somebody? Is it because I think that I'm better than that person? Why is it that I don't show mercy? I had to think of, you know, do I know, do I see how merciful God is to me? [00:24:40] And, you know, that's not even a one-time thing. Do I see my sin? Do you see your sin? Do you see your need of Him? And as we look at how God was merciful to us, verse 36, Therefore be merciful just as your Father also is merciful to you, to me. As we see that, then that will cause us to be more merciful, I think. I had to think of the word adrenaline this morning on the way to church. [00:25:13] And I'm not sure why, but I wanted to look at adrenaline being the Holy Spirit. I know you all are thinking, what the hell is he talking about? And I really didn't, obviously I was driving and we had Sunday school and I didn't have time to think this through, so I'm kind of thinking on top of my head. Mercy, okay. I think for me, I don't show mercy when I should because I have an inward look. [00:25:53] An inward look at my pain, the way that I have been wronged, the way that... And I'm looking at somebody else saying, you know, boy, they should act this way and this way and this way. See, I'm more concerned about myself, which is, boy, I hope I'm explaining this right. But yet at the same time, I'm saying, let's get our eyes off of ourselves, okay? Like if I'm working, I had, whose bread knife was it that I cut myself? Cindy's bread knife. I cut my finger on Cindy's bread knife last week. [00:26:24] I had to go to work with it, and I had the thing all taped up. Boy, that thing, I don't know if you know what it's like to get a cut on your finger. But when you've got a job to do, you know, when we're in the middle of epoxy, somebody could club you over the head with a baseball bat and you wouldn't even know it. But, or when I'm working and there's a job to get done, you kind of ignore that. Or I had to think of, like when we were playing football and you'd get a gash on your arm [00:26:55] and somebody would say, hey, you're bleeding. Well, you didn't even realize it. You know, you're so full of adrenaline. You're just playing so hard and you don't even realize it. Or there was a guy, Ken Shom, when his dad died. What was his name? It'd be Terrell Cindy's dad. When his dad, what was his name? In a ways. Grace and who? Lowell. Lowell Shom. He was out cutting trees and a tree fell and it rolled or something and it went across his shoulder and bent him totally backwards and killed him. [00:27:32] Ken went out and found him and he was so pumped with adrenaline he lifted that tree off of his dad, carried his dad all the way up to the house. I don't know if you know Ken Knisley. Ken Knisley and two other guys, I forget who they were, went out there to try to lift that tree. I couldn't budget. Could not budget. Ken was so full of adrenaline, he didn't even think about it. He just, urgh, just did it. And so, you know, he wasn't thinking about his back. [00:28:08] He wasn't focused on himself. He was thinking about his dad. When, you know, in order for me to work, I need to get the attention off my, And my fingers screaming out, pay attention to me, you know. Hey, this hurts, take care of me. Well, if I would get my focus off of myself, then maybe I can be more forgiving. Maybe I can be more loving, more merciful. [00:28:39] But we need the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the adrenaline. I don't know. Am I making sense? Good. Thanks, Glendon. You're the only one. If we don't have the Holy Spirit, if we don't have no adrenaline, if we don't have the Holy Spirit in us, we're not going to get past ourselves. We're going to be so focused. Look at how you are hurting me, you know, and then the next thing you say something and I'm going to find every little fault wrong with you and you have to remember that you have sins also. [00:29:13] You are not the only one that is hurt. You know, you're not the only one that gets hurt. You hurt others. I kind of get kind of stuck on that. I hurt and I hurt. You hurt and you hurt. You get hurt and you hurt others. And same way with me. I have to get past how I am being hurt. Allow the Holy Spirit in me. It's only by the Holy Spirit that we can forgive somebody. [00:29:46] Truly forgive somebody. But there's still pain there. So what do you do with that pain? Ask my family. What do you do with the pain? I'm not even sure they know what to do. The pain I have caused them. It's only by the grace of God and the pain that I have been caused. How do I get past all that? How do I forgive? It's only, you know, Pinhead's never, that's my neighbor, Jason. [00:30:19] He's never going to forgive somebody. He'll never forgive Dennis, my other neighbor. Never. He don't have the Holy Spirit. How has God shown mercy to you? What has He done for you? What did He do for you on the cross? What have you taken to Him? I had to think of what Brad read this morning in chapter 12 there. The sin that so easily besets us. [00:30:52] The sin that so easily ensnares us. What is that? What is it that you have to take to Christ time and time again in all humbleness and humility and say, Oh man, there I go again. Lord, what do I do? Or you go to a brother and say, Hey, I've got this problem. I can't whip it on my own. Pray for me. How bad do we want to get past our sin? How bad do we want to get rid of it? You don't keep it to yourself yet? You're going to hoard it? [00:31:26] How bad do you really want to get rid of it? That sin, even if it's just ungentleness. Is that a word? What's the word for ungentleness? Mean. Always got a tone of voice that just will rip your child's head off. Ask my children, they know what that is. And then, along with mercy, you know, sometimes when I was, what's the word, when I was passive, I called it mercy. [00:32:11] Well, that's not right. So, and I don't have any answers for you about that, sorry. How to, what's mercy and passive, how do you know when? Well, you know, right away I think, well, to have mercy, there's a way to come to somebody in mercy and love. Passiveness, I'm just never going to go to the guy. I'm never going to go to my son and say, I don't want to deal with it. It's a lot easier not to deal with it. So, if, and you know how, if you don't spank your child, there's no, you don't love them. [00:32:44] Okay, so if I'm being passive, I'm not loving them. So let's not overlook sin, but let's love. And we all need the Holy Spirit. We need that adrenaline to forget ourselves. We need the Holy Spirit to forget ourselves, lay ourselves aside and to forgive and to have mercy. to have understanding, hey, and to see our sin because, yeah, maybe my sin's a little different than Sheldon's, but I'm no better than him. [00:33:24] Why do I think I'm better than him? My sin's not as bad. Okay. I think we'll stop. Otherwise it'll get really long. So I guess, you know, how do you put a title to that? I guess for me, you know, as I was studying, it's what am I putting my hope in? [00:33:57] Maybe I even put it in myself. Maybe I even kiss my own hand. And is that what affects the amount of mercy that I show towards others? And Paul is saying, hey, Jesus Christ, our Savior, our hope, that's where our hope is. And he's saying grace and mercy and peace from God. And you know, if our hope is not in Christ, we're never going to have that peace. Never. [00:34:29] Can't have mercy. Can't have grace. So, may God help us. And I also ask that you would pray for me as next three weeks I'll be going from 5 to 11 talking about the lawful use of the law. My word. So, pray for me as I do that. There's so many prayers. I hope you have a prayer list that you can put me on a prayer list. [00:35:01] I also thought of the song Pure in Heart. Isn't that a daily prayer for me, but for each one of us, that we would be pure in heart. Let's pause for a word of prayer. God, we thank you for your word, for your son, for his life of example, his life of sacrifice. [00:35:37] And Lord, somehow, please do a miracle in me, in each one of us, that we would be pleasing to you, and that we would live our lives sold out to you. Lord, I pray that you would convict our hearts, and that we would serve you from our heart, because Lord, your word says, And Luke 6, that out of our heart, out of the abundance of our heart, our mouth speaks. [00:36:17] So Lord, help us to look at what's coming from our heart and notice what is coming from just our heads. Help us to realize what is the reality of our life, what is real. Lord, do we have a relationship with you that is real? Or do we just talk about it? Lord, search us, try us, know us. [00:36:50] Lord, help us to see if there's any wicked way in us. Lord, we want to, I want to live for you and serve you. having you as our hope that we can have grace and mercy and peace in Jesus name, Amen.