HOPE

 

HOPE

I am borrowing an excerpt from Pastor Trent Casto’s sermon from February 25, 2024, taken from Ephesians 2:11-22, (Covenant Church of Naples, PCA, Naples, Florida), and I am focusing on the matter of ‘hope’. Pastor Casto asks,

“What is the hope that sustains you in life? You may be sustained by a short-term hope such as getting through school, or beyond a challenging phase of parenting, or through a particular medical treatment. But what if you don’t get through? What hope do you have? It may be hope for your children, that they will grow and be happy and successful however you define it. That’s a wonderful desire, but if it doesn’t happen, what hope do you have left?

 “The hope that carries you may be for a better tomorrow, a peaceful retirement, a financial windfall. But what if tomorrow never comes?

 “The Christian hope runs deeper than all these things and can sustain us even if these other hopes do not come to fruition.

 “The Christian hope is not simply a wish for the future but a certainty that God will do what He has promised. (It is hard to overstate the significance of having such a hope.

“If you are without hope today, or you realize that your hope is on shaky ground, there is a hope which can serve as a firm foundation that will not give way no matter what else in life does give way.” (End of sermon excerpt).

Let me continue by explaining that this word, ‘hope’ is not a wistful longing of uncertain outcome. This ‘hope’ as it used in Ephesians 2:12, comes from the Greek word ‘elpís’, meaning, to anticipate and to welcome – correctly used, it speaks of a confident expectation of what is sure to occur; a certainty. If you are without this kind of hope, sadly, you are walking in the blind, and it need not be that way.

Faith – Certainty – Hope – Proof.

 (#1). Hebrews 11:1 prophetically proclaims that “Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen.” (NASB). Faith – Certainty – Hope – Proof.

Another way to say this is, “Now faith is the assurance – the title deed, the confirmation – of things hoped for – divinely guaranteed, and the evidence of things not seen – but is the conviction of their reality—it is faith that comprehends, as fact, what cannot be experienced by the physical senses. (Amplified Bible Version).

In simpler words, you have to be dogged in and stubborn about your faith. You must be firmly planted on the conviction that God will finish what He has begun in you. You must be firm in your mind that God hears and answers your prayers. Furthermore, you must know that He will answer all your prayers in ways that conform to His great gift of salvation to you, and which will benefit you maturing into the image and likeness of Christ.

You must know that to be saved, literally means to be made safe, to heal, to preserve, to do well, to be made whole; rescued from destruction and brought into divine safety, rescuing believers from the penalty and power of sin. (‘Saved’ in the Greek is the word sozo, pronounced sode-zo).

This is a certainty. It will come to pass; It has come to pass; receive it.

 

Proximity Is Everything.

(#2). Ephesians 2:13 prophetically proclaims, “But no win Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near, by the blood of Christ.”

Romans 10:6-10, explains it this way, “DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL GO UP INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), 7or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

It is – that is the Word of Faith – is as near to you as the words in your mouth!

Believe it. Speak it. Embrace it. This is a certainty.

This is a certainty. It will come to pass; It has come to pass; receive it.

 

AND WE KNOW.

(#3).  “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” (see Romans 8:28-29).

And we know, or at the very least we should know (and understand), these Four Grand Principal Truths:

• God causes all things to work together for good,

 

• to those who love God,

 

• to those who are called according to His

 

• For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.

Let’s re-review this carefully.

• It is God – alone – who is the cause.
• This is exclusively for those who love God.
• This is exclusively for those who are (the) called according to His purpose.
• It is God alone who predestined those whom he foreknew to be conformed to the image of His Son. (This is God’s Primary Purpose and Plan. For by this single offering – the sacrifice of His only Son – He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.)

This is a certainty. It will come to pass; It has come to pass; receive it.

 

Keeping All This In Mind.

(#4). Scriptures tell us, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8).

 “And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen.” (Matthew 21:21).

 “If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7).

OUR PART is to ask, seek, knock, have faith, doubt not, and it will be done.

GOD’S PART is to answer. His thoughts and His words are higher.

 

OUR PART is to have faith and accept what comes from the Hand of God and put it to good use.

GOD’S PART is to create, give, bestow, love us unconditionally, cause all things to work together for our good, whether we understand it, at first, or not.

 

OUR PART is to endure to the end and be saved!

GOD’S PART is to save.

This is a certainty. It will come to pass; It has come to pass; receive it.

 

Your Brother and Friend – In Christ Alone.

Mike Young