Do you remember getting report cards in grade school . . . It was always kind of a nervous day - wondering exactly where you would end up . . . And which marks . . . and which comments the teacher would write . . . I remember my brothers and I would all bring our report cards home . . . and we'd sit around and go through them with our folks. And here's what I would do . . . (when it was my turn) before I'd even show them the card - I'd say - I got the highest mark in the class at Phys. Ed . . . or . . . I did awesome at math - or I did really good in Social Studies . . . but I didn't talk about (the things I wasn't so hot in . . .) Language Arts or Science or Art. I wanted to kinda give them a sales job on the good stuff - before they saw the bad stuff . . . and especially, . . . I tried to shy away from the (teacher) comments like . . . Dean didn't apply himself like he could have, . . . or . . . an A+ could have happened here or here if . . . or a little extra work . . . and excellence would be attained.
Now I got thinking about that this week. Why did I try to get Mom and Dad to focus on the better stuff first? Instead of the bad? Well - because even as a kid I knew that everybody likes good news . . . And I knew that as long as that report card had some good news . . . Mom and Dad would be okay and so would I . . .
Everybody likes good news - it just feels better . . .
Family in our area - won $10 million bucks . . . a while ago. Everybody was energized by the story and it spread like wild fire and what they did with the money - helping others . . . good news . . . so fun to talk about . . .
This week - paper - front page - Some hostages were released in Iraq. Such an awesome news story. 2 young Italian women - released . . . as opposed to beheaded . . . relief - energy - good news is go great to hear.
Today - were concluding this series. Faith that sounds like . . . Country, Jazz, Blues, . . . Gospel . . .
Well, this word gospel simply means good news . . . and today - this message is all about good news . . . I want to talk about something that (since the beginning of time,) has kept the human race motivated and looking towards the future. This one thing is what allows millions of people to think positively about the next generation and beyond . . . And its something that God wants us to understand and own . . . and participate in . . . what I want to talk to you about today is hope . Webster helped me define it . . . Hope is "the expectation of something desired" . . . It's a feeling of optimism that the good thing will happen someday . . . Whatever that good thing is . . . .
I got reading up on this a little bit lately . . . and it was amazing to me (as I read) how powerful this thing called hop e is, in our world and in our lives . . .
Hope is the healthiest of emotions and senses . . . When you say "I hope", or "I believe" or "I expect", . . . the future to be better . . . there is a much greater chance ( catch this - it's quite astonishing did you kow that . . . when you are hopeful there is a much greater chance of . . . .)
(If you have Hope) . . . there is a greater chance of:
. disease being beaten - things like cancer . . . have a harder time beating people who see hope ahead of them . . .
. your marriage not ending in divorce
. your other significant relationships being strengthened
. your business succeeding long term
. your kids developing in a healthy way toward adulthood and
. your over all life just being healthier
All because one emotion is dominant in your life - Hope.
On the flip side . . . when hope is gone . . . we human beings find very little reason to be motivated towards anything good - in fact without hope . . . (my suggestion is today) . . . that we will die . . . Now, that dying might take a while . . . but without hope . . .there is no life . . . at least a life any of us would want to live . . . . Your know what Jesus said...
When He announced the reason why He had come to this earth . . . His mission . . . He said . . . "I come to bring good news", . . .and that good news is all about hope . . . In fact I'm gonna step out and say . . . that the whole message of Jesus' life and death . . . . . . the whole message of the gospel of Jesus Christ . . . centers around one word for us . . . and that word is Hope . . .
In the bible in Hebrews 11:1 . . . it says this . . . Now faith is being sure of what you hope for . . . and certain of what you do not see . . . spiritually . . . faith and hope are inseparably connected . . . in fact . . . you can't have faith with out hope coming along for the ride . . .and vice versa . . . you can't have hope without faith . . .
Today I want to tell you the good news (gospel) of hope . . . so you can be sure of what you hope for spiritually . . . and certain of what you do not see . . . but you can feel it in your soul . . . I'm gonna give you 3 Hope filled statements . . . 3 clear messages Jesus wanted us to have. (One at least will connect with you . . . I'm sure . . . .) (Ist staement of hope and our faith . . .
I. I can be an even better person than I am
You know what I get tired of in my life . . . I get tired of messing things up . . . Let me tell you what I mean . . .
So I get home Thursday night and my wife is baking buns - amazing (house smell so good) . . . Well I'm a little late for supper (rushing) . . . but I got home in time to sit with my family and we eat some buns with supper - great - then Pam had a meeting . . . so she was running around getting ready for that, and she says a simple line . . . "Dean, I just have one big pan of buns left to go in the oven . . . . . . but I've gotta go, can you put them in and then 21 minutes later take them out" . . . "Sure honey," . . . I said, . . . . And she left . . . fully expecting me to understand the amount of effort that she put into making those buns, . . . . . . and the time and energy she had expended that afternoon . . . and she left expecting me to understand that really, the buns were more for me than they were for her - I love fresh buns . . . but I wasn't really listening . . . (to what she said . . . ). I mean I hardly could get out of my busy day (inside my head) long enough to say good-bye to her let alone enter into this bun making labor of love experience she had been in all afternoon . . . And I didn't really listen to her very well . . . because at that point . . . I was pretty much in a self-centered, self-oriented kinda place and wasn't to connected . . . And I burnt the buns . . . and I don't mean just a little . . . I decided to go run some errands with the boys and left the house at 7:00 with the buns cooking and we didn't come back until 8:30. Needless to say the buns were as hard as hockey pucks . . . but what's worse is that to her I just didn't seem to care to much . . . . . . I hadn't listened to a simple request of my wife, and I had misread completely what she was feeling because to be honest, I was in a pretty selfish place . . . and then I think, I've been married for 16 years . . . How many times am I gonna be like that? - I mean . . . it seems like I do that quite a bit and I was (frustrated with myself . . . ) . . . Ever felt like that? . . . Just tired of messing it up . . . and tired of falling back into that nasty set of weaknesses you have that hurts those around
you . . . your list maybe different than mine . . . (may be yours looks like this . . .)
That angry out burst at your kids that you know damages them . . .
That controlling part of you that forces the people around you to cower
That addiction that won't go away and it's eating you up . . .
That drivenness in you that keeps you away from your family too much . . .
Or just a selfishness that fails to let you see the needs of those around you. . .
Don't you get a little tired of that stuff keeping you from loving the people around you like you should . . . And really aren't those the main things you really want to see changed in your life? . . .
The apostle Paul struggled with this stuff to . . . Here's what he said . . .
Romans 7:15-18 (NIV)
"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I don't do, I have the desire to do what is good, but I can't (seem to) carry it out. For what I (actually) do is not the good; no, the evil that I don't want to do (that is what) I keep on doing.
Another place in the bible it makes it very clear . . . Romans 3:23 . . .
"All of us live in sin and fall short of God's standards . . . "
All of us . . . . . .pretty much all the time . . . like every day . . .
So . . . . . . you're probably sitting out there thinking I thought he was
talking about good news and hope . . . and all I've heard so far is that he burnt the buns . . .
Let me turn the corner . . . the good news today is that there is hope for us . . . (even though we're all a bunch of sinners) . . . In fact the key reason Jesus came to earth was this - to save us from our own sin . . . See . . . God knows us . . . and He knew that if we were left to ourselves . . . As human beings, . . . we would spiral down and down and down into sin so bad that we would destroy ourselves and (all we gotta do is look at the world today . . . car bombings and high-jackings and terrorist attacks and genocide in Africa . . . it's crazy . . . but really it's only sin . . . And if we too . . . were left on our own . . . . . . (that spiral would eventually hit us as well) . . .
Folks . . . . selfishness and sin take on all kinds of forms . . . But God said . . . " I'm gonna give you a way out of that . . . here's the good news . Jesus came to save us from our sin (really He came to save us from ourselves . . . ) . . . and to change us into the people we were meant to be - Jesus came to transform us - to be more like Him. That's where the hope lies . . .
Romans 12:2 in the bible says that . . . it's possible for us to not have to live in our weakness and have sin and weakness over taking our lives . . . but instead it says, "Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think . . . " (Romans 12:2).
And just a few verses before that Paul says this about battling sin and weakness . . . , "Overwhelming victory is ours though Christ - who loves us." Romans 8:37
Folks, the truth is, that you and I can be better people than we are . . . but we can't do it on our own . . . oh . . . we might make some changes on our own . . . but the change I'm talking about is wholesale transformation . . .
That kind of transformation only happens through Jesus Christ - That kind of victory throughout your life only comes when your soul is are being transformed by God Himself . . . and I'm here to tell you today that it is possible . . . in fact . . . that's why Jesus came to this earth . . . so that through Him we might be changed . . . Think about that . . . what would a transformed life look like for you?
. What would your family be like?
. What would your relationships be like?
. What would your passion be?
. What would the future look like?
Transformation is possible because of Jesus . . . and if that picture doesn't give you hope . . . maybe this next statement will . . .
Second statement of hope Jesus wants us to understand . . .
II. I can have an even better life than I do
Here's what Jesus said . . . "I have come that you might have life . . . more and better life than you can imagine . . ." John 10:10
. . . . . . You know a lot of people (a lot of us) have a pretty good life . . . we're doing okay - we've got some friends - some money - some lifestyle - a job . . . we get to live in Canada - (health care and good infrastructure) - one of the greatest countries in the world . . . Saskatoon - nice city - pretty good place to live - safe . . . . . and sometimes because of all that stuff, we get to thinking . . . that maybe this is a good as it gets . . . and we get pretty content . . . I mean . . . why add anything to what we've already got going . . . it's pretty good already . . . Well - (my suggestions to this line of thinking is . . . ) because of the truth of the verse I just read to you . . . is that we're missing a whole other life dimension . . . And that the life Jesus offers . . .is more and is better . . . than we can even imagine. In fact . . . what I'm suggesting is that most of the time we don't even really get it . . . we don't see it . . .
Because the life He offers is more and better than good (it's amazing) - because there is an eternal element to it . . .
In I Corinthians 2:8 & 9 the apostle Paul says it in another way.
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." I Corinthians 2:8-9 (NLT)
See folks - what we forget to remember . . . is that God has been preparing for us since before we were born . . . in fact . . . (in a way that only God can) . . . Long before we were born He placed within each of us the seeds of greatness, as He was forming our souls . . . That's why the human spirit is what it is. That's why there is a calling within you to do more and be more . . . because God has placed eternity in our hearts . . .
Mark Buchanan is his book, "Things Unseen", says this . . . page 74 . . .
Do you ever have that sense? That you were called to more - more life and more adventure . . . and that you were called to make more of a difference in the world around you?
This next Monday I go to some meetings in Calgary and one of the things I always do in Calgary is . . . (this sounds funny) - I make sure I drive to a place where I'm high enough to look west and see the Rockies . . . and as I was writing this I was trying to figure out why I do that . . . because I'm not much of a nature guy and I don't oo and awe over the beauty of the mountains but . . . I think I do it - because when I see the mountains - far off . . . - it reminds me that there's more . . . . . . and it reminds me that God has created the greatness of the Rockies inside each of us . . . and that His plans for my life are not small . . . but are massive and will last forever . . . . . . and when I see the Rockies it reminds me that that the very same God who has the power to create mountains . . . wants to work in my life and in yours . . . With that same power . . . And I just wanted to give you a glimpse of that new horizon . . .
God has plans of greatness for your life. So . . . the good news today is this . . . your life might be good . . . but with God it can be more and better . . . because only when we are connected to Jesus Christ . . . do we tap into the eternity that is within us . . . Only then does our vision expand, and only then can our dreams go to a new level . . . Only as we walk with Jesus will the difference we can make for good be multiplied over and over and over into the lives of others . . .
Here's what I think (dream) . . . I think as we gather with some 1200 - 1300 people (as a community) this weekend . . . I think that there is incredible eternal potential among us . . . and when I see you . . . I dream about a day when everyone of you will fully experience the vision that God has placed within your lives . . . And I think about what would happen if God's power was completely unleashed in us . . . - if eternity was really a clear picture for each of us . . .
I mean think about it . . . no eye has seen - no ear has heard . . . no mind has conceived what God as prepared.
What does that look like?
. What does that do to your career plans?
. Where does significance fit into your plans for success?
. What does compassion look like for you?
. What does your future look like?
More and better life than we can imagine . . . What does that look like?
Another verse I thought about this week . . .
Ephesians 3:20
God is "able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us . . .
Folks . . . I just wanted to wet your appetite with hope . . . God wants to work powerfully . . . in your life and in your soul . . . but more than just that . . . He wants to work powerfully through you to give hope to this world . . . He want to shine His light through you to transform other people .
It's amazing . . . think about it - that's how He's gonna keep changing the world . . . through me and you and . . . as He transforms us . . . He will transform those around us by His love . . . (very cool picture)
(3rd statement of hope Jesus has for us . . . )
III. I can be confident of Heaven when I die
You know part of this job that is very strange is that I see and experience a lot of big moments in people's lives . . . passages really . . .
. Dedications of babies . . . promise of parents to build the future and faith in the life of their child . . .
. Weddings - two people becoming one - making sacred promises
. Baptisms - declarations of faith . . . public - honest - open (life changing)
. Amazing . . . and I do funerals . . . which is the biggest passage of them all . . . .
Funerals are funny things in our culture - because we are not a culture that prepares well for death We don't like talking about it - it makes us uncomfortable - it bring up fears we don't really know how to deal with . . . and funerals bring up a bunch of other yukky thoughts and emotions . . . And so . . . in our very quiet Canadian way - we just don't deal with it . . . But at funerals we have to . . . and you know what? At funerals everybody wants to know that same thing . . . and I get asked the same question over and over - ready? . . . Are they in heaven? . . . All of a sudden no matter what or who it is . . . when somebody dies . . . heaven becomes a very real place . . . and heaven becomes a topic everybody wants to talk about . . . See . . . I think it's because when someone dies, . . . we all need hope to kick in . . . and heaven is all about hope.
Let me tell you how I described heaven this week at a funeral for an amazing woman of faith. Jean Nafe. I said (this . . . ) heaven . . . is a place with no more pain no more suffering - no more bad news - no more sorrow - no more disease - no more tears - no more death.
Heaven is a place where everything wrong is set right again . . . and in heaven all things will work the way God intended them to work in the first place . . . It is a place where peace reigns supreme . . . and . . . and you know what I think? . . . I think sometimes God gives us glimpses of heaven here on earth . . . Like the first real day of spring . . . (when the air is heavy with the scent of flowers blooming and new life is all around us) . . . or even in winter . . . when a snowstorm covers the grey - dingy - city with pure white . . . or when we watch a baby cuddled in its mothers arms . . . or when we feel romance and that twinge of love for the first time . . . . And suddenly, this world of pollution and war and crime and hate and darkness . . . disappears for a little while . . . That's a glimpse of heaven . . . and you and I were created to spend eternity in heaven with Jesus Christ . . . forever . . .
Folks, there is no question that Jesus came to give us hope in our lives here on earth. He clearly desired that our souls be transformed as we live every day . . . of our lives . . . but I want to be clear about eternity . . . I want to be clear about heaven . . . so you can be sure of what you hope for . . . The bible says that eternity begins in this life . . . that as we walk with Jesus Christ here on earth . . . it is simply preparing us to walk with Him in heaven forever . . . Jesus very clearly stated that the spiritual path we follow on this earth either leads to heaven when we die . . .or it doesn't . . . He said this . . .
"I am the way, the truth and the life . . .no one comes to the Father, except through me . . ."
Jesus made sure that everyone knew that it was only through a daily vital faith walk with Him in this life . . . that heaven would become a reality when we die . . .
So folks . . . instead of me kickin' around with your family answering the same questions they always ask . . . (at your funeral) . . . Why don't you answer it for them?
Be sure of what you hope for . . . be certain of what you don't see . . . make a clear cut decision to follow Jesus Christ with your life . . . come to Jesus today . . . and give Him your life.
Song - simple and yet amazing . . . simply says . . .
Come to Jesus . . . and Live . . .
During this song - prepare your hearts to respond to God. There is a long standing tradition here at Lakeview . . . That this alter is a place people come to meet with Jesus . . . to do business with Jesus . . . kneel and respond to God. Today, I want to open this alter to all of you. In fact, I'm gonna ask you to flood the front of this church . . . respond to God in you life.
Come to Jesus (respond)
. If you're thankful for what God has done for you
. If you have new hope (just recently)
Connect to one of the 3 Hope Truths:
. If you connected with wanting to just be a better person - deal with sin
. If you want a better life - vision at a higher level . . .
. If you want to be sure of heaven - nail that down
Come now. |
