Finding Hope in Life's Hardships

Years ago, when Pastor Kevin Cummins was pastor, we decided to get a

group from church and take a float trip. Pastor Kevin had recently lost a lot

of weight from running and dieting. We would stop along the float trip to

swim and eat and play. Someone brought a ball and there were several of

us playing catch about the time we were ready to load up and move on,

Kevin realizes that his wedding ring was gone. Kevin is left-handed so, it

could have come off while throwing the ball or any time after we parked

the canoes for our break. We looked and looked. There was a house up

on the hill and Chris Ward went up and asked if they had a swimming

mask or goggles that we could borrow.

We had been looking the whole time while he was gone. When he got

back, he put on the mask and under he went. One person had a hold of

his legs because of the current. Somehow, even with all the commotion of

everyone moving the rocks with their feet and us not really knowing where

the ring might be, we didn’t lose hope and kept looking. Chris found

Kevin’s ring. It was such a blessing and we still think and talk about it.

It could have been easy to lose hope in finding the ring and sometimes it is

easy to lose hope in our journey in life. Paul writes about this in Romans 5

and we will read that now.

Romans 5:1-5

So many promises of God that we love to hold on to, like He will never

leave us, nor forget about us. If we repent of our sins, He is faithful to

forgive our sins and make us clean and by forgiving us and making us

clean, we have the promise of heaven.

But look at this promise found in our main text. Suffering produces

perseverance, perseverance produces character and character produces

hope. Do you see that? Suffering produces hope. There will be times of

suffering, it is life, but that just helps build hope!

Things that we can do to Help us find God’s hope include point 1.

1. Believe in God’s purpose.

Jeremiah 29:11

Colossians 1:16-20

Satan is a discourager. People that we know are naysayers. Even

Christians can be very short sighted. We can get side tracked by one

negative thing. We lose focus on the wisdom of God and start trusting our

own knowledge and understanding. We allow the lies of Satan to distract

us, to make us worry or doubt and even think things are hopeless. God

has a plan and it is not to fail. There may be a battle lost here and there.

Sometimes, it seems that we are on the losing side of more battles than

we win. Is that really true? There is one battle that you have control over.

That is the battle for your soul. Even God doesn’t have control over that,

because He has given us a free will. Ultimately it is your decision, but

know this God has a purpose for you if you allow Him.

What is that purpose? God’s purpose for our lives is for us to become more

like Christ, that we are transformed in our character to be less like the

world and more like God. No more bad attitudes, bitterness, selfishness,

gossip, “it’s not hurting anyone, so it’s okay”. Sin doesn’t stop being sin,

because it is okay in the eyes of the majority. Males do not become

females because they think that they identify as a female or vice versa. If

the world is still around in 1000 years and if an archeologist were to dig up

the body of a transgender, do you know what they will conclude? The

gender of this person will be the same as what they were born as. You

can’t change the facts.

This new creation that we are in Christ, that makes us not like the world

but like Jesus. So, how do we know what aspects of our lives that God

says we need to work on?

I want to borrow something from the bible study, Experiencing God –

Reality #4 says that God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the bible,

prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal himself, his purposes and

his ways.

When I became pastor, which is 5 years tomorrow, the first full year I

would give you anywhere from 2 to 5 chapters of the New Testament, so

that we could read the bible together. I am thinking we might do that

again. It is so important for us to be in the Word that I want to encourage

you to be reading. Here’s the sad truth, many of us don’t read or listen to

the bible regularly and we should. When we read, we should pray first that

the Holy Spirit will open our hearts to what we need in our lives.

We also need to pray, not only that God will speak to us, but that we are

willing to listen, because sometimes we don’t like to hear what the Holy

Spirit is telling us, sometimes it is through the bible, sometimes prayer,

sometimes our circumstances, sometimes the church, but we have to

listen. Believing in God’s purpose for our lives is a step in right direction to

finding hope, and point 2 tells us.

2. Remember God’s Love.

I John 4:9-11

Roman’s 5:6-8

I want to say it again; Satan is a discourager. He will use any method

possible for us to get discouraged. He is really good about using the news

to accomplish his agenda, because most news outlets are horrible. It has

nothing to do with which way they lean when reporting, well, I guess that

is part of it too. It is more about the what they report than the way they

report it. I want you to think about something. What will get the news

outlets the most viewership? What causes most people watch a program.

Entertainment. Either humor, fear, excitement or anger. Political leaning

news will fuel your anger and make you want to hear how they agree with

you.

Tragedies get front page news and good things, barely get mentioned. It

reminds me of the song by Anne Murray called “A Little Good News” I am

sure that many of you have heard it at one time or another but I would like

to quote just a little bit of this song,

“I'll come home this evening...I'll bet that the news will be the same

Somebody takes a hostage...somebody steals a plane

How I wanna hear the anchor man talk about a county fare

And how we cleaned up the air...how everybody learned to care

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town

Nobody OD'd, nobody burned a single building down

Nobody fired a shot in anger...nobody had to die in vain

We sure could use a little good news today”

I have a little good news for you today, actually it is great news. God loves

you! God loves you so much that He wants to spend eternity with you.

God loves the world so much that He is patient and doesn’t want anyone to

perish (end up in hell) but that everyone will come to repentance. That is

truly love. There is more to finding hope than just finding it. We can live

in it every day if we point 3.

3. Practice God’s presence.

I Thessalonians 5:16-22

But, Pastor Mark, I already do that. Do you? Do any of us really practice

this? I hear people talking about things and I wonder if Jesus in the body

was standing beside me, if they would still say what they are saying.

Sometimes, I walk by and overhear things said that break my heart. I am

not talking about someone being sick or someone losing a pet, not that

kind of break my heart. If it breaks my heart, what do you think it does to

God.

I have been told about things people, not people from this church of

course all those other churches, have said in public about church and how

they insult others and make comments that are not those that build others

up, but tear others down. If we are practicing God’s presence in our lives,

what would be different?

Ephesians 4:25-32 New Century Version

If something is bothering you, and you started thinking God is right beside

me so you say, “Lord, may You be glorified in my words” how would the

things you say be different? Hopefully not much, but many lives would be

different, if we would practice God’s presence.

While doing your job or watching television or driving your vehicle, what

would be different? I know one thing, I would have more peace in my life,

more joy in my life and more hope in my life. Because the things of this

world will all pass away.

Finding God's Hope