Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13).
REVIEW:
HOPE IS THE CONFIDENT EXPECTATION OF EXPERIENCING ALL THE FUTURE GOOD GOD HAS PROMISED…SOMEHOW…SOMEWAY…SOMETIME.
ILLUSTRATION: Fill the cup of coffee. Make it fresh, extremely hot, and filled to overflowing.
- The Person of HOPE: Now may the God of Hope.
God identified Himself as the God of Hope
“The God of hope,” points to God as the source as well as the object of hope. The focus is on God as the source of hope…God THE Hope.
The first and most fundamental truth from this verse is that God identified himself as the God of hope.
2. THE PROMISE OF HOPE
The goal of hope is to fill you with all joy and peace (verse 13): “May the God of hope fill you…”
- JOY is the deep-down sense of well-being.
- PEACE—sound of mind…lit. bound together…not coming to pieces, not chaos in your circumstances, In the midst of Chaos.
- FILL means literally to fill “to the brim.” The idea is that what fills a person, exercises control over the person’s affect, attitude, and actions.
- ALL joy and peace – “All” in Greek means all without exception. Complete. Total.
PART 2
3. THE PROCESS OF HOPE The Process … in believing (in Him) … God has proven Himself truthful and trustworthy. Trust Him.
Note the qualifier — “in believing.” This speaks of our responsibility to continue believing…
The Greek literally reads “in the believing” or “in the sphere of the act of habitually believing.” Our believing is the channel, not the cause. The Spirit fills us with his hope and thus with his joy and peace, through our faith.
Believing (the obedience of faith) means to consider something to be true and therefore worthy of trust. The word means to entrust oneself to an entity with complete confidence.
The #1 Textbook highlights our part and God’s part: Our part is a gift to use (faith, hope, love—gifts from God).
Our part is to live in the constant atmosphere of faith – in believing. The word is in the present tense. It means that you habitually continue to believe God, even in tough circumstances:
ILLUSTRATION: Jeremiah in Lamentations. The exercise of God’s gift of faith is a choice to continuously believe God in spite of horrible circumstances that seem to be contrary to His promises.
This I recall to my mind; therefore, I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” (Lam. 3:21-24)
I encourage you to allow this to saturate your thinking, especially in dark and difficult times.
Knowing God and His ways through His Word will show you that He is completely trustworthy.
4. The Power of Hope … by the power of the Holy Spirit … The God of Hope gives the Power to hope.
Hope is supernatural, just like the Power of God. God is in control of ALL things, all the time.
Hope is simply trusting in God’s PROMISE and POWER. Continue believing God is who He says He is…God THE Hope.
The Spirit’s power is the resurrection power (dunamis/dynamite) that gives new life (Romans 1:4). If you have no hope or dead hope, that is not a problem for God who brings creation out of darkness and chaos. Life out of deadness. WOW!
The Spirit is an Enabling Power who strengthens us with power in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith.
I pray that according to God’s riches in glory that He might grant for you to be STRENGTHENED WITH POWER in the inner person by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians. 3:16-17).
Take Note: Hope comes from God The Hope by God’s Word of promises through the God’s Spirit of power.
I like the preacher Spurgeon’s description: “PEACE IS JOY RESTING; JOY IS PEACE DANCING.”
The PROCESS for God’s POWER to continuously flow in your life is to keep on believing in the God of Hope.
5. The Purpose of Hope… so that you may abound in hope.
So that is a purpose clause. The God of Hope emphasizes His Purpose for giving you hope, joy, and peace.
The ultimate purpose is to glorify God in all things. One way to glorify God is to overflow with hope to others in need of a confident expectation of seeing all the goodness God has promised.
Our hope is super-abundant. The Bible says here, “Now may the God of hope fill you, … so that (purpose clause) you may abound…”
WE BECOME THE CONTAINERS OF GOD’S HOPE.
The word “abound” is an interesting word in this text. It means that we have more hope than is necessary. To Overflow. To Exceed the measurements.
An Illustration from the ##1 Textbook can be found in Matthew 14:20 and John 6 which records the miraculous feeding of more than five thousand hungry people.
Jesus asked Philip to provide all these people the food they needed. Philip said that would be IMPOSSIBLE.
Jesus took the lunch basket of one little boy who had five loaves of bread and two fish. Thank you, Momma. More importantly, the little boy had HOPE of eating a good lunch.
What he did not know was that he had more than enough to share with others…until his believing was connected to the purpose and power of Jesus, the God of Hope.
Jesus fed all the multitude from the gift of that one little basket of food.
Then Jesus asked his disciples to gather what is LEFT-OVER. That is the same word as abound in this Cup of Hope. You have more than enough hope. Gather up your left-over hope to share with others.
Wow! God has given you more than enough hope for what you need today, as well as some to abound to overflowing to help others.
You have more Hope available than you could possibly use! Even in those dark and difficult moments of life, you have an immeasurable, super-abundant amount of hope given to you by the God of Hope.
REXplore Note: “Abounding” is also the word used for the waves coming in on the beach. They crash in, continuously, relentlessly, one after another, unending, never ceasing.
The ocean waves keep coming in, whether you are awake or asleep, whether you are wallowing or wading. That is the way God’s hope comes into your life. No one can stop God’s waves of Hope.
The #1 Textbook describes God’s goodness as waves of grace which God has lavished on us (Ephesians 1:8).
Lavished means over and above any measure, “which God super-abounded to us.” Superfluous. Overflow. Abundance. Considerably more than what would be expected.
Here is another place where the word is used:
May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all men, just as we also do for you (1Thessalonians 3:12).
God promises more than enough hope for your circumstances, More than enough. Why? You can share that same hope with others! Be like the little boy with the small lunch basket. Trust Jesus that you have more than enough to share!
Our REXplore point: The fullness of God-given hope never reaches a limit in this life. It can always grow and always abound more and more.
APPLICATION
- GET TO KNOW GOD BETTER. Read the #1 Textbook.
- I think J. I. Packer’s book is helpful, KNOWING GOD. Ignorance of God lies at the root of all hopelessness.
- LEARN TO THINK IN TERMS OF GOD’S CHARACTER AND NOT YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES.
Consider the illustration of Job’s test of faith in God’s goodness. Job lost everything. He experienced devastation beyond our imagination, and yet his confession of hope overflowed to us.
The Lord gives and the Lord takes away Blessed be the name of the Lord. When this is finished, I will come forth as pure as gold. Though God slay me, I will still trust Him.
Job experienced despair. Job had questions… How? Why? What?
That is when and where you need Hope. That is when and where you find God trustworthy. That is where others see God THE Hope in your life.
3. GOD-GIVEN HOPE IS FOUND IN THE MIDST OF DESPAIR AND DARKNESS.
Let me conclude with a testimony from my cousin, Toni.
My cousin, Toni, was the princess of our family. She was beautiful, smart, strong, and kind. She was blessed with a good husband and two wonderful young boys. She developed terminal cancer in her early forties. She was devastated, as were the rest of our family.
When I visited her in the hospital, Toni asked if she could be honest with me. She said she was so mad at God but felt so guilty saying it. She cried as she poured out her heart about how unfair this was. She continued to weep as she worried about her sons. She asked for my counsel.
I suggested she just tell God what she had just told me. Toni seemed shocked. I shrugged and said, “It is not like He does not already know how you really feel.”
I encouraged her again before we prayed together. Talk it out with God. He can handle your complaints. God will not love you any less. The more you complain TO GOD, the more foolish it will seem since He is the only one who can help you.
EVERTHING GOD DOES IS ALWAYS WISE, RIGHT, AND GOOD.
Everything! Always! The more you express your complaints TO GOD, the more you will end up trusting Him, as Toni did. Her complaints honored God as the God of her trust. Toni did not get answers to all her questions. She did find peace in trusting God to take care of her loved ones.
Here is a lesson. for your times of hopelessness. Tell God how you really feel. Keep telling God no one cares for your soul until you realize how foolish and wrong that is. God never ceases to care for you. Never.
The God of Hope will fill you with joy and peace in believing...
Difficulties in life are part of the process of hope. If you keep talking to God, you will get to the questions that matter. Contemplate the questions God asked of Job and Toni for your encouragement and hope.
Where were you when I formed the foundations of this earth? Did I ask you for counsel on how the sun will come up each morning and the stars at night? Did I need your help when I named all the stars, more than can be counted?
God does not need our counsel, advice, suggestions, plans. The way your life has and will unfold would be what you would want and do if you knew what God knows. Job and Toni understand that now; we are waiting…in faith and hope.
What happens affects generations to come. God is still using Job’s story and Toni’s story to give us hope.
I do not understand my circumstances, but I know God is THE Hope. God is THE Joy. God is THE Peace. God is THE Good in my life past, present, and into the endless future.
4. LEARN TO PREACH TO YOURSELF THE TRUTHS AND PROMISES OF GOD AND THEN PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH.
Preach to yourself. Practice what you Preach.
When you feel overwhelmed with despair or depression, preach to yourself. Tell yourself again and again to Hope in God.
Take Note: The depressed psalmist did this repeatedly when he felt so alone in life.
“Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence” (Psalm 42:11).
Take Note: We listen to ourselves going to sleep and waking up. Oh me! Oh my! Oh Wow! Learn NOT to listen to your words and your worries and your anxieties and your gripes and your grumblings; BUT listen to God’s Word.
Read the life stories in the Bible.
Your story is just as significant in the heavenly journals. We are all rough drafts. When God writes the last chapter, it will be good.
As we gaze into the unknown future for HOPE, be reminded that faith, love, joy, and peace show up in the rear-view mirror.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take…the clouds you so much dread…are big with mercy and soon shall break…with blessings on your head. (William Cowper).
I do not know your circumstances, but you can pray this prayer.
I have five loaves and two fish of Hope today …more than enough to share.
I hope you will take some of my hope and share some of your leftovers with someone who needs hope.
I would have despaired unless I still believed that I would still see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
I am praying for you to ABOUND IN HOPE, THE CONFIDENT EXPECTATION THAT WE WILL STILL EXPERIENCE ALL THE GOOD GOD HAS PROMISED SOMEHOW SOMEWAY SOMETIME.
EYES UP! LOVE YOU!
LOVE FIRST...LOVE MOST 