Overcoming Hoplessness

Here is my sermon from this morning. The movie was The Pursuit of Happyness. You can listen here.

Hope is a Gift from God

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. -1 Corinthians 13:13

As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ. -Thessalonians 1:3

Hope is a Choice

Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled. -Romans 15:4

Hope never abandons you; you abandon it. -George Weinberg

We have a choice to abandon God’s gift or to embrace it.

Hope is an Attitude

I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” -Lamentations 3:20-24

1. In all things it is better to hope than to despair. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
2. Dum spiro, spero. While I breathe, I hope. -Latin Proverb
3. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. –Oscar Wilde
4. Hope is the feeling that the feeling you have isn't permanent. -Jean Kerr
5. Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up. -Anne Lamott

But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the LORD their God. -Psalm 146:5

Hope Means Tomorrow Can Be Better Than Today

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. –Philippians 3:13-14

Believing there is something better around the corner. –Michael Schumacher

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. –Albert Einstein

Life is Never Hopeless

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the boat. He sent a wind to blow across the earth, and the floodwaters began to recede. –Genesis 8:1

When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God. -Charles L. Allen

Don’t Ever Stop Hoping

Someday, O Israel, I will gather you; I will gather the remnant who are left. I will bring you together again like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture. Yes, your land will again be filled with noisy crowds! Your leader will break out and lead you out of exile, out through the gates of the enemy cities, back to your own land. Your king will lead you; the Lord himself will guide you. –Micah 2:12-13

The moment we stop hoping is the moment we stop living

Hope is Eternal

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. -1 Peter 1:3-6

Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark. -George Iles