Romans 15:13 Hope - the Divine Expectancy

listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week Pastor Don Filsek is preaching from his series

Christmas Words. Let's listen in. Good morning.

Good to see you all. Happy New Year. Is it gonna be a happy New Year?

Is it gonna be better than last year? Can you have a happy New Year?

Well, you know, if you're anything like me, you're kind of thinking, well, it couldn't be any worse than last year, right?

I mean, kind of a crazy year we've had in 2020, right?

You know, I'm an old guy and never have seen anything like that in my lifetime.

You know, I get to wear this lovely Youth for Christ mask around. That's where I get to serve, by the way.

And thank you, Recast, one of my supporting churches that helps us do the work that we do with young people in our community.

So, well, you know, if you know me, you probably know that I'm the chaplain in our county juvenile home as part of my ministry at Youth for Christ.

And every year I do a New Year's message for the young people that find themselves locked in the

Kalamazoo County juvenile home. And you can imagine that, you know, you land in a place like that, you know, a little bit depressing.

And I always like to share with them that God is the God of new beginnings. And a little exercise

I always do, I want to do it with you all, okay? So I always have the kids think about the past year.

So think about 2020 and I want you to rate it, okay?

So on a scale of one to ten, ten would be the highest. And if you chose ten, you would be saying 2020 was the best year of my life.

I don't think we have any tens probably, I'm gonna guess. One would be saying it was the worst year of my life.

Five might be, you know, I'm kind of in the in the middle. So pick a number, okay?

How is 2021 gonna be a better year?

You know, we always say that Happy New Year, it's kind of a kind of funny little expression, right?

But we all kind of know what what people mean by it. It's kind of a wish that I hope you have a happy year.

You know, Don did a message on how to have peace in the new year, how to have joy in the new year.

I get to do a message on hope and how important is hope.

And I I want to share with you, no matter what's in store for us this year, even if it turned worse than last year,

I want to share with you, regardless of the circumstances, that you can have a better year than last year.

Turn with me to Romans 15 13. And this is this is where I want to show you that you can have a better year because of the promises found in this verse.

Romans 15 13 says this, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the

Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. Being filled with joy and peace, that sounds good, right?

Yeah, I like that. Abounding in hope.

How is this possible? If you want a year filled with joy and peace and abounding in hope, the key is found in this scripture.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the

Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. This is saying that through the

God of hope, you can move forward. You can be filled with joy and peace.

You can abound in hope, regardless of what happens with COVID, regardless of what happens with our economy, regardless of what happens in our government.

This joy and this peace and this hope is not based on earthly circumstances.

It's found in God himself. And I'd like to explore this in a deeper way together this morning.

So I want to say a prayer and then we're going to have our lovely announcements on the big screen.

Father, we thank you for your love. We thank you for your presence this morning.

We thank you for seeing us through a difficult year. How you have protected us and provided for us.

And that here we are this morning on this first Sunday of the new year. Father, we look to you expectantly, praying that we could go deeper in our relationship with you, deeper in our knowledge of who you are, that we could walk closer to you.

We pray that you would do a mighty work in this nation and in the nations of the earth as people are searching for hope more than ever before, wondering where it's at, many people just desperate and fearful.

What a time, Father, to shine forth your glory and to proclaim the good news of who you are.

I pray that you will meet with us in a special way today, Lord, that we would walk out of our gathering encouraged and wanting to seek you more, wanting to know more of who you are, that you would just do something special in our lives today through your word, through our communion time, and through the worship time.

We love you and we thank you for your great faithfulness this morning in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm Jason and I'm David.

We're so happy to see you here today. Yes, at your chair, your new 2021 chair, you'll find a worship folder.

Inside this has upcoming events and things that are happening here at Recast. Inside of that you're gonna have a connection card and an offering envelope.

If you're new or newer to Recast, fill this out and drop it off in the welcome table out front. If you would like to give to Recast, you can do that online or put it in here and drop this in the giving slot at the welcome table.

The winner's session of Recast Bible Institute will begin the week of January 11. That is next week.

Pastor Spencer is going to be teaching two courses, one on systematic theology and one on a

New Testament survey. These classes are gonna be structured similar to college credit, one college credit courses, and I'd highly recommend you sign up for one.

Spencer is super knowledgeable and has a bunch of degrees, but seriously, these courses are great.

I heard great things about them, so I encourage you to sign up. And if you want to sign up for one or both of these, go to our website recastchurch .com

and sign up there. Baptisms are scheduled at Recast as we hear of interest from people who want to be baptized, so we'd love to host another baptismal service soon.

If you're interested, please let us know. Thanks for watching. If you want to find more info, go to recastchurch .com.

If you're watching online, feel free to hit subscribe and click the bell for notifications. Thank you for those amusing announcements.

Hey, I want to share an answer to prayer with you all.

Recast is one of our supporting churches as a missionary of Youth for Christ, and over three years ago,

I asked if you all could be praying with us that God would lead us to our next ministry center.

We had outgrown our old building, and by faith, we put it up for sale and sold it.

It sold. We still hadn't found a building. We moved into temporary office space.

All that to say that last week, we moved into our brand new building on East Main, and it's been incredible to see

God provide for this project in the midst of a pandemic year. The community has been so generous.

We are close to having the whole project paid off. We'll be debt -free, and this building is beyond what we were even dreaming what

God has done, and it's all for the young people of Kalamazoo area, and it's right in the middle of the

Eastside neighborhoods, if you know the Eastside at all. So if anybody ever wants to see it, let me know.

I'll give you a personal tour of this trophy that God has done.

It's just really amazing. We're super excited about it. We're still moving into it and hoping to soon open it up to the neighborhood teens so they can start coming and hanging out and learning the gospel.

So thank you for praying with us on that, and thank you, Father, for answering that prayer.

So I don't know if anybody's starting to read through the Bible in a year.

What an amazing treasure we have in this book, and I've read it through a number of times through the years, and the most beautiful thing that I like about this book is the revelation of our

Father in Heaven. Nature reveals God. I mean, you can see

God and the beauty of nature in His creation, but nature does not tell us the names of God.

Nature does not tell us other than that He's a beautiful creator, but this word from cover to cover is the revelation of God, and the more we learn

His names, and the more we learn His attributes, hope is going to grow within us.

So back starting where we started out in Romans 15, 13, I want you to see what

God is called in this verse, and it's very significant, and I think it's so significant for the time that we are in right now because so many people are fearful and hopeless.

This nation and the nations of the earth are so longing for the gospel, and they don't even know what they're longing for, but they're searching for that hope, and what a time for us as God's people to rise up and share the ultimate hope that is in Jesus Christ.

But look at this beautiful name that we find right here in verse 13. It says, May the

God of hope. What a beautiful name. So it starts out with the name

God, the title God. I immediately think of Genesis 1 .1, right? The very first verse of the

Bible we find this name, God. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

That's how it all starts. And that word in the Hebrew is Elohim, and this speaks of God as the supreme being.

It speaks of God as creator and ruler of all things.

So when you see the name God, it's to remind you that he is the creator and that he is the sovereign ruler of all creation.

And so when we see this where it says God of hope, it's telling us that God is the creator of hope, that he is the author of hope, that he's the source of hope.

It's not in finding a cure for COVID, and I pray we do, and I pray that's eradicated.

It's not in how much money I make. That's not where the hope is. It's not in finding that right human relationship.

True hope is only found in God himself. He is the author and he is the source.

And this word hope in the Greek is a very cool word. And you know hope is just a good word all around, right?

And how important is hope? I want to talk about that for a minute, but this word hope means, in the

Greek, to anticipate with pleasure. So it's looking forward to something that is good.

That's how we often use that word. You know, I hope I get this for Christmas.

You're anticipating something good, right? And that is definitely found in the meaning of this word.

It's an expectation, and it's a confidence that good is going to come.

I entitled this message, Hope the Divine Expectancy, okay?

Because when we know the God of hope, and we have the connection of a relationship, we can anticipate

God doing good things in our lives, bringing good out of what may seem bad.

Hope is an anticipation of all that the Father has for us. This divine hope comes from God.

He's the source of it. When God is our Father, we can live in hope.

We can live in the anticipation of good. No matter what's going on in our world, we can have hope.

And the key is in this word, believing. Look at verse 13 again. May the

God of hope fill you with all joy and peace. I like that, joy and peace.

I want more of that in 2021, definitely. It says in believing, in believing.

And this word doesn't mean just to believe that something exists. It has the idea of putting your trust and confidence in to the point where you entrust yourself to that one that you're believing in.

It's talking about trust in God. Think of how important hope is.

I'm sure that for some of us, you can remember a time in your life where you were without hope.

Maybe you even had thoughts of personal harm to yourself because you lost that hope.

We don't have to look far to see people who are hopeless. I found this quote, and it's from years back.

And so when it talks about men, it's talking generically of human beings, the human race.

So this pertains to men and women and children. But I thought it really ennailed the importance of hope.

It said this, it said, men's dejection and despair arise from their lack of faith in God.

And nothing but a sound and rational belief in God can bring them to a better mind. What is so fitted to inspire with cheerfulness as the conviction that a

God of righteousness and of grace lives and reigns and takes the deepest interest in men and provides for their true well -being.

Without God, where is the hope, right? You know, we've all probably felt that despair at times.

But when we begin to understand and know who God truly is, that inspires hope.

What is so fitted to inspire with cheerfulness as the conviction that a

God, our Father, of righteousness and of grace, lives and reigns and takes the deepest interest in our lives and provides for our true well -being.

That's our Father in Heaven. He cares about your well -being and He is alive and He reigns.

And if you're anything like me, you had to keep reminding yourself of that often in 2020.

But it's as we begin to grow in our understanding of who our God is, who our

Heavenly Father is, that this hope and this joy and this peace will grow in our lives.

You see that throughout the Word. You see some of the things that some of the prophets wrote in the worst of times about rejoicing in God, their

Savior. So what I would like to do is I would like to explore with you four aspects of God's being that inspires hope in our lives.

Four important truths that can be a great comfort and source of joy and peace in our lives.

The first one is this, that we can live in hope by knowing that He, our

God, is the All -Knowing One. He's omniscient. He knows what's going on.

Turn with me to Psalm 139. You find this in verses 1 through 5.

Let's read it together. And I would like you to put yourself in this verse because that's what the

Father wants you to do. It talks about me. It says,

This is saying that He sees every move that you make. Think about that.

Every move. He hears every sigh that comes from you. Every groan.

You know me. You've searched me. You know my deepest struggles. But you love me and you want to help me through them.

You want to heal me. You don't want. You love me just the way I am, Father, but you love me so much you don't want to leave me just the way

I am. He wants to change and heal and transform our lives.

We should be growing and moving forward in this new year in our relationship and our walk with God.

He knows your name. He knows what you're gonna say before you even say it.

You can pray to Him anywhere, anytime. You don't even have to say it out loud. And this says that He hears it and He knows it because He is the

Omniscient One. He is the All -Knowing One. He knows us inside and out.

When I learned that truth, I began to get honest with God. When I first came to Christ, I was ashamed at my struggles.

And yes, I would ask God forgiveness, but I didn't want to talk to Him about them. I was ashamed.

But then I realized He knows what's up. He knows what's going on.

He loves me. And I came to the understanding He's the only one who can really heal me and change this in my life.

And I have learned to talk to God honestly about my feelings, my struggles, my circumstances, pouring my heart out to Him.

What a difference this can make in our lives. Knowing that He is the

All -Knowing One. He's the Omniscient One and that He loves us. In Psalm 46 .1,

He's called a very present help in times of trouble. A very present help.

He's there for us, ready to help. The second truth

I want to share with you is that He is the ever -present One and that we can rejoice in the hope knowing that He is there and that He's promised to never leave us or forsake us.

That's some good news right there. So I love how God's Word explains itself.

So you would say, okay, I think we're almost at 8 billion people now on this earth. That's a lot of folks, right?

How can God know what's going on with every person? How can He have this knowledge and understanding?

It's because He's omnipresent. He is everywhere present. Look at verse 7 in Psalm 139.

The question is asked in this scripture, where can I go that God is not there?

And the answer is nowhere. I like how Acts chapter 17 puts it.

Verse 28, it says, In Him we live and move and have our being.

In other words, the Spirit of God is our atmosphere. We live in Him, we move in Him, and we have our being.

You know, for a fish, their atmosphere is the water, right? They're surrounded. It's essential to their life. You might say our atmosphere is the air.

It's essential to life. Our atmosphere is literally the presence and the

Spirit of God. That's how He is near. And as a believer, He lives in us, that we are the temple of the

Holy Spirit. He is so near. I don't have to twist God's arm for help.

He helps because He loves, and He proved that love beyond a doubt on the cross, pouring out

His blood for us. The presence of the Father makes all the difference. I remember years ago,

I used to do an after -school program at an alternative school in Kalamazoo called Vine Alternative School, and it was a school for kids that got kicked out of their normal school.

And so there were some pretty tough young men and young ladies that went there, and I used to go in every week and have lunch with the students, and I loved to walk the hallways and look at their artwork and the poems and stuff that they would write.

And I noticed that a young man that I knew named Jesse had written a tribute to his father, his dad.

And it surprised me because a lot of the young people I serve, their dads are nowhere in their life, and if they are, they wish, many of them wish that they weren't in their lives because it's not a good situation.

But he was honoring his dad, and I asked him about it, and he told me this story. He said he was in elementary school when his family moved to Kalamazoo, and he was learning how to speak

English. He spoke Spanish, and the kids in his school would make fun of his speech, the way he talked, and they would make fun even of his clothes.

And they would mess with him, but they would never mess with him when he was with his dad.

And his dad would walk him to school every day, and he was at peace when he was by his father's side.

And then his dad, at the end of the school day, would walk to the school and walk him home, and he felt safe and secure knowing the presence of his dad.

Well, think of our Heavenly Father. Parents, think how much you love your children, and then multiply that by billions, and you begin to get the idea of how much

God loves us, His children. And He promised, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

He is that present help. Because of Him, we don't have to live in fear, because He is present.

He will hear you when you pray. He hears you. Jesus said, be careful of what you speak, for one day you're going to have to give an account for your words.

Why is that? Because the Father is already hearing every word you say. And when you intentionally call on His name, it's like if someone in this room called your name right now, you'd turn right to them.

What do they want? When we call on God's name, when we intentionally seek

Him out, He is there in a special way to meet with us. He loves us, and He is the ever -present

One. The third truth that can help us to be courageous in hope, is knowing that our

Father is the Almighty One. That He is the Almighty.

Look at Jeremiah 32, verse 17. Wow, you read through the book of Jeremiah, man, they threw

Him in a pit. They wanted to kill Him, because He was speaking the truth to a nation that had strayed far from God.

They were worshiping idols, and judgment was coming upon their nation, and Babylon was about to strike, and God had revealed this to Jeremiah, and He tried to warn the nation, and they just wanted

Him to shut up. And man, I mean, talk about a tough ministry. Wow, Jeremiah had it.

But this is the confidence that Jeremiah had in Jeremiah 32, verse 17.

He said this. He said, Ah, Lord God, it is

You who have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm.

Nothing is too hard for You. That's the kind of faith Jeremiah had, because he knew his

Father. He knew the revelation of who God was. He was learning, and he knew that God was

Almighty. He could look to the heavens and the earth and know that God's the Creator, and that's the kind of power our

God has. He is powerful. We do live in a fearful world.

We live in a depressing world. Let's face it. It seems like it's going down, okay?

But there is such great hope. There is such great hope in our

Lord and Savior Jesus, in our Father, in heaven. And, you know, knowing this,

I remember discovering Isaiah 41 10, and like, wow, I need this promise.

And I memorized that God says this, Fear not, for I am with you. You don't have to live in fear.

Don't be dismayed, for I am your God. I will help you. I will strengthen you.

Yes, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. And he says,

Child of God, you don't have to live in fear. You don't have to live in anxiety.

Take a hold of my hand. I'll see you through this. I'll make a way, because He is the way maker.

I remember meeting with a young man in the Kalamazoo County Jail, and I had known him originally from the juvenile home, and he had got locked up, and he was learning the truth of Jesus, but had never made a commitment.

He served his time. He got out. He went right back to the gangs. I got a collect phone call from him, and he said,

Bible Bill, I'm in jail. Can you come and see me? And so being a chaplain pastor,

I could do pastoral visits in the jail. And so I could go in, and they had this little room that they would let pastors meet with people.

And so I started meeting with Jesse every week, and while he was in that county jail, he opened his heart to Jesus.

And after this had happened, I came in to see him, and he walked into the room, and I could just tell he was so depressed.

And he was facing some very serious charges. He had actually fired on some rival gang members with a gun.

Fortunately, he didn't hit anyone, but he got caught. Attempted murder. You know, he was facing some time, and he had that on him, and he told me, you know,

I just got a letter from my girlfriend. She said that she can't wait for me. I just talked to my mom on the phone, and she's going to lose the apartment because she can't pay the rent.

If I wouldn't have messed up, and if I was out there, I could help her. And just woe after woe in this room, just, it got so dark and oppressive.

It was a dark, dark place. And all I knew was to pray.

You know, what do you say to someone at that time? Hang in there, buddy. It'll be all right. No, that's not going to do it, is it?

But I knew the power of prayer, and I said, can I pray for you? And Jesse and I bowed our heads, and we began to pour out our hearts to the

Father, and I named every struggle that he had mentioned. I asked God to help in it, and we thanked him for his love, and Jesus' name,

Amen. And we both opened our eyes, and something was very different in that room.

Instead of feeling like a dark little dungeon, it seemed full of light. And he looked at me, and he just said, he said, wow.

He said, do you feel that? And I felt it, that the Father had lifted these burdens, and he had met with us there in that stinking county jail, and he did something for Jesse in that moment.

He was trying to show us both something. Yes, he is the all -knowing one.

He is the ever -present one, and he is the Almighty One. That inspires hope, to know that this is who my

Father is. And then when you take, and this is our fourth point, turn with me to a pretty well -known passage,

Romans chapter 8. Our fourth point is this, that we can abound in hope by knowing he loves us, and promises to work all things together for our good.

I got that from Romans 8, 28. It says this, and this is a promise, and we know that for those who love

God, those who are in a loving relationship with God, through Jesus and his work at the cross,

I became a child of God at the age of 20. I know he loves me, and I love him, and I want to grow in that love.

I have the relationship. When I didn't have the relationship, this verse wasn't true.

It's true in the relationship. That's important. And we know that for those who love

God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

It says for those who love God, those who are in the relationship with God. I know young people who are outside of that relationship, and I'm not going to tell them that your dad beating your mom like that is going to work out for good, because it usually doesn't.

But it can, through the power and love of God. It can.

It can. But we have to have that connection. That's the connecting point here, is that this promise is true in a relationship, so it's true for the child of God, that no matter what you're going through, he can bring good out of it.

And you and I, all of us, have been through some painful things, haven't we?

We've been through some hard times last year. Man, that was hard. It was hard.

It still is. But God is going to bring good out of it. I hope that it's brought you closer to him, that it's caused you to understand what's really important in life.

Our relationship with him, our family, loving other people. Man, the kingdom of God, the ultimate hope is, wow, we are secure for all eternity.

That's some good news right there. That's some hope. Man, when God is our

Father, we can live in expectation and confidence of his presence and his providence.

He is here, and he will take care of us, and he will see us through, no matter what the circumstances.

He can turn it around. God is the hope.

He is the source of hope. Hope is the expectation and anticipation of all the good that God promises his children.

And there are some beauties in here, as far as promises. I remember when my mom was battling cancer.

And you know what? That cancer was bad, right? But you know what it did? It brought her to Jesus.

And she was healed in her soul, and she was ready to go to heaven as she was losing that battle of cancer.

And one of her favorite passages was in Revelation, where God talks about making all things new and wiping away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or pain or dying.

Behold, I make all things new. What a hope we have, right?

How much the world needs hope right now. How we need, as believers, to shine forth.

Man, and to ask God for some holy courage to start seeking to be a light and a witness in this dark world.

What a time for the church to rise up right now, more than ever before, because people are searching for hope more than ever.

Well, he goes on in verse 31. After that, this revelation, the apostle, the prophet, says this,

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Man, that's some courage right there, right?

And then he brings it home this way, He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

He already gave us his very best. He gave us his son.

Jesus poured out his blood for us. Jesus gave his life.

How much more will he give me hope and strength, forgiveness, courage, boldness, grace, whatever the need?

He says, Look, I already proved I love you. Look what I did for you. I can do that for you.

You don't have to be hopeless. You don't have to despair. Trust in me. Pour out your heart before me.

I can make a way. I can meet that need. I can heal that up in you because he is our all -powerful

Father in heaven who loves us dearly. Oh, we have hope.

And I pray that in 2020, we can grow in hope.

That we can abound like Romans 15, 13 says, that we can abound in hope.

And my challenge in the final moments here is, I try to apply this, is number one,

I challenge you to memorize Romans 15, 13. Very short verse. May the

God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the

Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. And realize that this is really a prayer. This is what

Paul was praying for the believers. He was praying that they would be filled with joy and peace in believing through the power of the

Holy Spirit that they would abound in hope. And so memorize it and turn it into a daily prayer for 2021.

Pray every day over yourself and your family and as God leads you over other people.

This is how I would do it. Father, thank you that you are the God of hope. I pray that you will fill me with all joy and peace and believing.

I pray, Father, that you will help my faith. Help me to trust in you. Help me to grow in faith.

Father, I pray that through the power of your spirit, you will help me to abound in hope today and turn it into a prayer.

Because it is a promise and it is a prayer. Realizing that he is the ultimate source of hope, seek him daily.

Seek to walk with him closer. Seek to keep up that conversation throughout your day.

As Romans, or 1 Thessalonians 5, 17 says, pray without ceasing.

Claim his promise. God keeps his word. Oh, we have so much hope going into this new year.

Please be praying for our nation. We should be praying daily over our nation and in the nations of the earth, really, and for the spread of the gospel because truly that is our only hope.

To make all this possible, Jesus shed his blood at that cross for us.

Every Sunday at Recast, we celebrate communion. And communion is recognizing the sacrifice of Jesus, remembering that with thankfulness and worship.

And as we move into our communion time, I would ask you to turn with me to 1

Corinthians 11, 23. Now, I read this just about every

Sunday before I partake of the communion. And if you didn't get your communion packet, they're back on the table there.

Feel free to get up and get one if you so desire. But for me, this is what communion is about.

And I'm just going to go ahead and read through it. And then as you take that cracker, think of Jesus' broken body and thank him for that.

And then as you take the juice, think of his shed blood and thank him for that. Maybe there's something you need to confess to him.

Oftentimes, I use that as a time of confession, knowing that his blood was shed for me and that my sins have been paid for.

But this is what the Word says. He said, Let me pray, and then you can partake of communion.

Heavenly Father, just thank you that you gave us another view of who you are this morning.

Familiar truth, Lord, but wow, if we could just grasp your presence, that you're there, that you hear us,

Lord, what a difference that can make. And we thank you that you are the

God of hope. And Lord, I know that there are people in this room that have been feeling some of that despair and even hopelessness.

Father, we all struggle. We all do. But thank you that you love us and you can help us through those struggles.

And I pray that you would just inspire us with hope and that we could experience more of your joy and peace in believing and that you would bring us to the point where we could abound in hope and that people would even see the hope in us and ask us about it,

Lord, and that you would help us to proclaim your name. But we thank you now for your broken body, for us at the cross, all you suffered,

Lord, for us. We thank you for your shed blood and that because of it, we can be completely forgiven this morning.

We love you. We praise you. And we thank you for these things in your holy name,