Sunday, January 15, 2012 Message to the Winston-Salem Church of God of Prophecy

HOPE FOR 2012

As I mentioned to you in my first sermon of this year, I was praying and meditating the Monday morning after Christmas what the Lord would have me share the first Sunday and the first day of the first year. The Scripture came to mind, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…" So I introduced this theme and spoke of doing this through prayer and fasting. Last Sunday I developed the theme more fully and said "that if we beginning today, would consciously, continuously, constantly, and consistently put first things first, it will absolutely transform our lives." This is day 15 of our "21 Days Season of Seeking." So I ask you what's you're hope for 2012?

December 27, 2011 a report was released that showed the Consumer Confidence Index, which had improved in November, increased further in December. The Index now stands at 64.5 (1985=100), up from 55.2 in November. The Present Situation Index increased to 46.7 from 38.3. The Expectations Index rose to 76.4 from 66.4.

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday of this past week that all but one of its 12 banking districts experienced some growth from late November through the end of the year. The survey, known as the Beige Book, showed that the final weeks of 2011 were among the economy's strongest.

So it appears things may be getting a bit better. For all those who are unemployed and those who are really struggling I pray that is the case. I was listening to one minister this week who felt the Lord had spoken to him of a "couple more hiccups in the economy and then things would really turn around." But remember even if there is a hiccup, if we will put first things first and be good stewards of what God brings into our care all those things we need will be added to us.

So today I talk about Hope for 2012. Can you remember a recent difficult and discouraging period of time in your life? Of course you can. So can I. Perhaps you are in the middle of such a time right now. The laws of fairness and justice were displaced by a couple of Murphy's Laws. Your dream dissolved into a nightmare. High hopes took a hike. Good intentions got lost in a comedy of errors, only this time nobody was laughing. You were not on the mountaintop but in the midst of the valley. Instead of "pressing on the upward way," you felt like telling Bunyan to move over as you slid down into his Slough of Despond near Doubting Castle, whose owner was Giant Despair. Without hope it is virtually impossible to face the uncertainty of the future with confidence, joy and peace.

(Jeremiah 29:11) For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. (NKJV)

How many of you would say this is one of your favorite verses? It promises us God's future. It promises to us God's hope. And they always go together – a future and a hope.

Let me give you a four-word definition of hope: hope is when I realize that God is in control. In the midst of uncertainty God is still in control.

According to numerous surveys the majority of Americans believe our nation is headed in the wrong direction. And as long as America continues on our current path away from God we will continue in the wrong direction. But I have hope. I believe that there will be a large enough group of us that fulfill (2 Chronicles 7:14) "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (NKJV).

Let's talk about what happens when we have hope and how God brings that hope into our lives, the benefits that God's hope brings, and how He uses the process to develop hope in and through our lives.

What happens if I have hope? How does it change me?

I. IF I HAVE HOPE…

1. I can get started. I can get started again if I have hope. What is it that gets you started in the morning when you get up? Your car can be as shiny as you want on the outside. It can have the greatest engine. But if the starter doesn't work or if the battery is dead or there is no gas it's not going anywhere.

Do you know some people like that? They look good on the outside but something is missing on the inside. But they wake up in the morning and just can't get started.

(Isaiah 40:31 KJV) But they that wait [hope] upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint

2. I can live with…. You fill in the rest of that. You can live with… whatever burden is in your life right now. You can make it through. It is hope that enables us to handle tremendous pressure. I've noticed that people who have hope can handle incredible amounts of burden in their lives. They're like the apostle Paul talking about the ministry burdens that he had because of the persecution that he faced in his life.

(2 Corinthians 1:8-9 KJV)

For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: [gave up hope of living] But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Even at that point where he wondered, "Am I going to make it?" he was able to find hope. He could live with anything because of the hope that God gave him.

3. I can go on. You have the strength to go on. Hope is what gives us the strength to go on after a loss or a disappointment or an unfilled dream or expectation. I like the story of Florence Chadwick who was the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways. On July 4, 1951 she was going to swim from Catalina to the California coastline. She didn't quite make it. It wasn't the cold waters. It wasn't the sharks. It wasn't the 15-16 hour swim. It was the fact that the fog rolled in and she couldn't see the coastline. She quit half a mile from the goal. When she got out of the water she said, "I'm not trying to make an excuse but I feel like if the fog hadn't been there and I could have seen the land, I would have made it." Later she tried again. The fog rolled in again but this time she knew that the coastline was there. And she completed it. In fact, she did it in two hours less time than anybody else had ever done it.

A lot of us are like that. The fog has rolled in our lives but God's promises are immovable. They're going to be there. You may not be able to see them like you'd want but its hope that gives you the knowledge that the fulfillment of those promises is there if you just go on.

I like this verse about hope in the book of 1 Peter. (1 Peter 1:6 KJV)
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: Peter is saying there is joy and hope ahead even though it may be tough for a while. When I have hope, I can get started and live with whatever and go on.

4. Hope gives me the power to say no.
I can get started, I can live with whatever.., I can go on, and I can say no to the temptations of life. Hope is the foundation of integrity. If I have no hope for the future, if I think there's nothing out there for me, then truthfully there is no logical reason to have integrity. I may be moral anyway but there's no logical reason to be moral….because it doesn't really matter. Just eat drink and be merry because tomorrow we die. It doesn't matter. There's nothing out there. Hope is the foundation for genuine integrity in our lives.

(1 John 3:3 KJV) And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. That's the power of hope in our lives. If we are expecting the return of our Lord and Savior that hope gives us the strength to live righteous and holy lives.

How does it happen? How can I have hope for 2012 and beyond? I'd like to get started. I'd like to be able to go on when things are tough. I'd like to learn to say no. How does it get into my life? How do I have hope? You mostly likely will not like the process but here's God process.

(Romans 5:3-5 KJV) And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

This is God's assembly line for hope in our lives. There's going to be some things about this that you're not going to like. God's process is not the process I would have. If I were going to develop a process for developing hope I would like to go on a 3 week fishing trip in the spring and a three week hunting trip in the fall and inject massive amounts of hope and I'd be ready to continue on. But that not God's process. So here's the first step in God's process of producing hope in our lives.

1. GET A PROBLEM

Hope starts with a problem. God says it starts with suffering or a problem. Remember the definition of a problem: a problem is something you can do something about. If you can't do something about it it's not a problem it's a fact of life.

Are you going to have problems? Yes. And if you and I are going to have hope for 2012 we have to learn to deal with those problems. The incredible thing is that God takes the very problems that I think and you think are sent to steal our hope and He uses them. I don't know how He does it but He uses them to actually give us hope.

In order to have a good sound philosophy of problems I have to realize:

One, the problems are inevitable. We're all going to have problems. Sometimes when people have a problem, they say, "Why me?" A better question is, "Why not me?" Everyone has problems. They're inevitable.

Second, problems are unexpected. You can't plan for them. There's a word in the New Testament for problems. From that word we get our English word "pirate". That's a pretty good picture of how problems happen. They ambush us. They're unexpected. They come at unexpected times and in unexpected ways.

Third, problems are used by God to develop us and grow us. I say that not to minimize your problems but I am encouraging you to recognize God's power. To say that God uses problems to develop us and grow us is not the same thing as saying that problems are good. Problems are not good. God is good but problems are not. But He uses them.

One of the most common questions asked and I think it's a good question is, "Why does God allow problems?" Why does God allow suffering in this world? If God is really all-powerful, He could stop all the problems at any moment. Why doesn't He? Why does He wait?

I don't know all the answers to that. People have been talking about this for thousands of years but I do know one answer. I do know that we live in an imperfect world with imperfect people. God wants some more of those imperfect people in this imperfect world to get to know Him. He could stop it all right now, but that would not give those people the opportunity to get to know Him. So we wait to give more and more the opportunity. And while He waits, He takes the problems that we have in our lives and somehow He uses them for our good. Instead of us just suffering them, He takes them and He uses them for good things in our lives. I don't know how God does that but because He's God He does.

2. PRACTICE PATIENCE WITH THAT PROBLEM

Romans 5:3 again (KJV) "…tribulation worketh patience;" Growth requires both problems and patience.
If problems alone by themselves were enough to grow us, we'd all be very mature by now. We've got lots of problems. Maturity requires both – problems and patience. It just takes time for some problems to be solved. Some problems in our lives we can solve pretty quickly. But there are many others you just can't solve them right away. As you patiently wait, God develops you.

This is the crucial step. This is where it's important to take another look at this. There are a lot of the ways we try to escape this patience step. Three popular ways:

One, we try to run from our problems. We try to get as far away as we can. When you try to run from your problems, you keep running into the same problems. They may have different names and the circumstances are somewhat different…but it's the same problem. You can't run from your problems.

Second, we try to hide from our problems. We try to pretend that they don't exist. We try to hide behind our anger or we try to hide behind our optimism – just pretend that everything's going to be ok. Practice patience. Don't run. Don't hide.

A third thing we try to do is we point. We become convinced that we're the only one with real problems. So we point at other people. We say, "Look at that person! They don't have the problems I do. They don't have the kind of kids I have! They're not sick like I am! They never had the struggles that I had!" It's unhealthy when we begin to think that we're the only ones that have the kinds of problems we have in our lives, as if everyone else in the world doesn't have problems. Especially for those of us who live in the United States to think that we have problems that are greater than anyone else in the world.

So you must stop pointing and you stop hiding and you stop running. How do you develop patience?

(Romans 8:25 KJV) But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

If we must trust God for something that hasn't happened yet, it teaches us to wait patiently and confidently. It grows out of trust. That's where patience comes from. Trusting in the fact that God is in control.

The truth is, trust doesn't always come easily. Forty years ago the majority of Americans believed that most people could be trusted. Just to show you how far we've come, 40 years ago, three out of four people believed that the federal government could be trusted all or most of the time. The Washington Post and Harvard University did a survey of Americans and they discovered that two out of three Americans believe that most people can't be trusted. Half say that most people would cheat others if they could. And most people are just looking out for themselves. Only one in four thinks that the government can be trusted.

Life has kicked the hope out of far too many people. They wonder who they can trust. How do you rebuild trust in your life?

(Romans 15:4 KJV)
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Trust is always built on the truth. You can't build trust on a lie. This verse reminds us that this book is the truth. The more time we spend with God's Word, the more we get to know it, the more we rebuild trust in our lives. If we were really convinced of how truthful this book is, we'd spend more time reading it. If we were truly convinced of how much hope this book could give hope, we'd spend more time letting it get into our lives. God's Word is the fuel that builds trust.
When you feel hungry what do you do? You eat. When you feel tired, what do you do? You rest or sleep. When you feel hopeless, what should you do? You should feed on God's Truth.

Why is truth so important? Because our lives are controlled by whatever we think to be true. That's what controls our lives. Some people have their lives attached to a lie. That lie will serve as a bungee cord to prevent you from making progress.

• The lie might be, "I'm no good. I'm not going to make it." People have told you that all your life.
  
• The lie might be, "I need this sin to be happy." I don't know what the lie is. There's lots of kinds of lies that we attach our lives to.
  
• The lie might be, "If I don't have bitterness in my heart toward that person, then they're going to get away with it." I don't know what the lie is but we've got our lives attached to this lie.
  

And every once in a while we hear a sermon, read a book and we think, "I'm going to be better," so we try to stretch, get out as far as we can. And we really try to be better and grow. Then we get tired, we relax for just a few moments and Bam! The bungee cord snaps us back. You wonder, "How am I going to grow? How am I going to change?"

The secret is not trying to stretch it further and further one more time to feel a little better about yourself. The secret is to un-attach your life from the lie and attach your life to the truth of God's word.

• God does have a purpose for my life. Then you're always drawn back to that truth.
  
• God has a joy for my life that's above the petty sins and temptations that I tempted to go after.
  
• God has a hope for my life that's greater than anything I can imagine.
  
• The more I can attach my life to that truth, the more real joy begins to happen. That's why truth is so important. When I begin more and more to attach my life to the truth then you and I start to….
  

3. DEVELOP CHARACTER

He starts to change us. He starts to develop us. He starts to do what James 1:4 talks about:

(James 1:4 KJV)
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Another version says it like this "Don't try to squirm out of your problems. For when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you will be ready for anything, strong in character, full and complete." (TLB)

When I was a brand new Christian and problems came into my life I thought, "I'm a Christian now. I'm not supposed to have any problems." I thought, "God, what are You doing to me? This isn't fair."

Then I got a little bit older as a Christian and read in the Bible of someone named Satan as an evil force in the world and began to think when problems came into my life, "Satan, what are you doing to me."

Now that I've grown older as a Christian, when problems come in, I don't call the problems good but I know God is good. So I say instead (or at least what I'm trying to say) "God, what are You doing in me? How do You want to take this problem and use it to develop me and grow me?"

Character emerges out of the fire. If you find someone with great character, I'll guarantee you they've been patient; they've endured through some great trials in their life.

This is a good moment to be honest about a false kind of hope that we often try to build into our lives. Some of us instead of trying to build character in order to build hope, try to build our bank account in order to build hope. There is a temptation to think, "If I can get enough things in my life, then I can build a foundation of hope on those things."

(1 Timothy 6:17) Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. (NKJV)

Most of us will say, "That scripture doesn't apply to me because I'm not rich." Well we may not be part of the one per centers we hear about on the news but most of us in this room—if not all of us are in the top 8% if we use world standards. We are blessed indeed. The point is hope is not realized by accumulating more money and assets.

A while back on PBS they did a special with some babies in a crib. They put some different toys over the crib. First they brought a mobile in that had a couple of figures on it and hung it over the baby's crib. The baby laid there and was happy and enjoying it. Then they took it away and brought another mobile in that had twelve figures on it and the baby was really happy with this and enjoying it. Then they took that away and brought back the one that had only two. What do you think happened? The baby wasn't happy. "I want my 12-figure mobile back. I deserved it. I earned it. I worked for it."

There's a huge problem in our lives when we build our hope upon things, which can so easily be lost. When they get pulled out of our lives we think hope has been lost. The truth is, we've built our hope on the wrong thing. When you build hope on the character that God alone can develop in your life, no one can take that away from you. Always build your hope on something that no one can take away. Hope doesn't come by developing a bank account or a portfolio. It comes by developing our character.

That's what God does as we're patient through the problems of life. Then as He does that, I encourage you to do the fourth thing….

4. ENJOY HOPE

Enjoy it! You don't have to wait to get to heaven to enjoy the hope God wants to give you. (1 Peter 1:3 KJV)Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Circle "resurrection". In the New Testament, the word "hope" occurs one time before the resurrection of Jesus – in the book of Matthew. But it occurs 70 times after the resurrection of Christ. It doesn't take a genius to figure out where hope comes from! It comes from the resurrection. The resurrection started with a cross. Hope begins at the darkest places of our lives.

If you want an illustration of how God allows problems into the world to bring good into the world, don't look any farther than the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He took that evil that was done on the cross and turned it into a resurrection that brings us light – there's the illustration, the fact that He can bring hope. The cross tells us that He not only understands our pain but He can transform our pain.

There is a hope out there in the future that's indescribable. It's a place called heaven. It's a perfect hope. It's a perfect place, with a perfect God who makes things perfect for eternity. However, even in this life, when the fog rolls in, we still can have hope—hope for today and hope for the future.

(Lamentations 3:21-22 KJV) This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

You don't have to wait for hope to begin.

• Its hope that enables someone whose job seems in jeopardy because you're old or because you've been ill and someone younger is coming in to take your place to continue on.
  
• It is hope that enables someone who has been victimized in a terrible way to not only find healing in their life but have the ability to go help someone else who's been victimized.
  
• Its hope that enables someone who is just not sure about the future…you're not sure where life is headed…to put one foot in front of the other and keep going on, knowing that God has a future even though you don't know what it is.
  
• It is hope that enables someone to take a dream that has been shattered and watch God begin to put it together piece by piece one more time.
  
• It's hope that enables you to look forward to the future even when you've sat down across the desk from that doctor and he has looked you in the eye and said, "It's not going to get any better." You know that one day there's a better day coming.
  

We can have hope in 2012. I said earlier that hope is always built on trust and the truth. I want to encourage you to trust the God of truth in your life. Some of you need to trust the truth that Jesus Christ loves you and died on the cross for you. He gave His life so that you can enjoy forgiveness of your sins in this life. He was resurrected so that you can enjoy new purpose for life. You need to trust that.

You can do that right now. How? Just talk to God. If you want to trust Him, say, "Jesus Christ, I trust that You're there, that You can hear this prayer. I trust You to forgive me of my sins. I trust You with my life as best as I know how. Would You show me how to live?"

You might be thinking, Is that all? That's a lot, to say that I'm going to let go of my life and trust it into somebody else's hands is a lot.

Some of you need to trust the fact that God is working in a problem that you're facing right now even though you can't see it. The fog has rolled in and you have no idea what God is doing. But today you need to say in your mind, "God, I trust the fact that You are working through and in this problem in ways I don't know."

Some of you need to trust in the truth of heaven today, the hope for the future. Trust the fact that even though what's being done to you right now is entirely unjust and may never be made right in this world there is a time when it is going to be made right. Trust the fact that even though you're suffering now, and you don't see when it's going to end, there is a day when there will be no more suffering or pain. To trust the fact that even though you feel alone now there is a day when you will have perfect relationship with Him in heaven forever and ever.

When we trust Him, God does something amazing. Isaiah 49:23b (NIV) "Those who hope in Me will not be disappointed."