HOPE
Rodney W Wicklund Wednesday, November 30, 2011
1. Faith
HOPE, HOW IMPORTANT IS IT? 2. Hope (Love is the greatest but will give up
without Hope)
1 Your heart needs hope
3. Love
2 Hope the floodlight of your heart These three are foundational to our heart. A dream will
die without the presence of these three. Dreams do not
3 Hope the helmet of your thoughts have a chance if these three are absent. Without these
three present a dream can’t be realized.
YOUR HEART NEEDS HOPE All of these things are very important but cannot
function without the other two. Faith can provide
Prov 13:12 Hope
substance but what substance does it provide? Faith
deferred makes the
provides substance of the things you hope for. You
heart sick; but when
could say NO HOPE – NO SUBSTANCE. Love will
dreams come true at go into action and produce actions. You could say
last, there is life and without love there is no reason to have hope or faith.
joy. (TLB) We are what we are and nothing will change. Finally
you could possess faith and love. Faith wants to
possess substance and love wants to act or produce
Prov 13:16 A wise man thinks ahead; a fool doesn't and actions. You could say NO HOPE – NO
even brags about it! (TLB) SUBSTANCE and NO ACTIONS.
1. What dreams do you have? This is how it is possible for people merely to exist.
We need a reason to live. Our reason is God. Our lives
2. Write down your dreams and look forward to
are like mirrors that reflect all the aspects of Him. Just
the reality of achieving them.
think, when we have reflected trillions of aspects about
3. Don’t let anyone rob you of your dreams. Him we will just have begun. There is no end to who
Have you ever met someone who knew how to do are IN HIM!
everything but had never done anything? Your hope is 1. You must be convinced your dream can be a
the blueprint of your soul. Your heart has to have reality.
something to achieve. Your heart must have a purpose.
2. You allow yourself to receive pleasure from
Your heart must have a reason to live.
the anticipation of your dream being a reality.
God has put you on this earth to achieve something.
3. The love of God must remain at the center of
God does not want to do all the work for you. God
your motivation or else the dream can become
wants you to create, plan and achieve. God writes His
a lust.
purpose upon your heart. The purpose God has written
upon your heart will glorify God in your life. You will Do you want your heart alive vibrant and well? The
not truly be happy until you are glorifying God with answer is to seek God with all your heart and find out
your life. what your purpose is. Let God build hope in your heart
and soul. God will give you a reason for living. God
1 Cor 13:13 There are three things that remain-- faith, hope,
will make you a blessing to people.
and love-- and the greatest of these is love. (TLB)
I heard a melody in front of our church coming from
Hope 1680 elpis (el-pece');
between the cedar trees but I could not see anyone. It
from a primary elpo (to anticipate, ususally with
pleasure); expectation (abstractly or concretely) or
sounded like a song of a bird. It was a little girl singing
confidence: and playing. This little girl was singing, playing and
KJV-- faith, hope. glorifying God. She was content and happy doing so.
HOPE - THE FLOODLIGHT OF YOUR Col 1:26 He has kept this secret for centuries and
HEART generations past, but now at last it has pleased him to tell it
to those who love him and live for him, and the riches and
Eph 1:18 I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so glory of his plan are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the
that you can see something of the future he has called you to secret: Christ in your hearts is your only hope of glory.
share. I want you to realize that God has been made rich (TLB)
because we who are Christ's
What a SECRET! God has intricately woven His hope
have been given to him!
into our hearts in the actions of the cross. This is why
(TLB) our enemy accuses us of our pasts continually. Our
1. God created you to enemy does not want us to glorify God. Our enemy
anticipate, believe, wants the earth full of darkness through hopelessness.
and frame your God made us a promise in Isaiah 6. Here is God’s
future from your promise and prophesied through the prophet Isaiah:
heart. Isa 6:3 In a great antiphonal chorus they sang, "Holy, holy,
2. When you have holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is filled with his
thought about the glory." (TLB)
dream in your
heart and anticipated the reality of that dream, God has promised that the whole earth shall be filled
then you will start to talk about the dream. with His glory. The great composition Handel’s
Messiah performed by many choirs at Christmas also
3. As you talk about your dream love grows in
speaks of the sound and vision of God being glorified
your heart and gives richness to the pursuit the
reality of it. in the earth. Those of us who believe in God can
anticipate and know the reality of this great secret.
You can take a simple example of a young man and
The great capacity we have knowing this secret comes
woman who meet, date and then get married. The
young man sees this beautiful young woman and with a supernatural event known as SALVATION.
What happens when you are BORN AGAIN? Our
allows himself to think on the reality of dating her. He
spirits are born again and receive the nature of God.
steps out and actually asks her to go on a date with a
pleasurable anticipation and hope of the young woman Now the HOPE that is in Christ Jesus can influence
saying yes. She says yes! you.
They go on their date and now love propels the young Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our
man and woman to think about the reality of a new faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the
dream. Could God want us to be married? As they cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand
spend more and more time together the new dream of the throne of God. (KJV)
begins to be talked about. Hope is framing a picture in This is great news if you have lost your hope. Jesus has
their hearts. provided you the way to know His hope. The Hope of
Then one evening the young man takes her to a special Jesus is so powerful that it helped him get through the
place. The young man kneels down on his knees and punishment of the cross. Jesus is now imparting this
presents the young woman a small box. As the young hope to you through the powerful work of the Holy
woman opens the box, the young man opens his mouth Spirit. You can now have the potential to make it
and asks her a question in eager anticipation and hope, through any situation.
“Will you marry me?” The young man does not know Now it is key for you to remember that if you defer or
that the young woman has hoped for this moment with put off this hope your heart will get sick. You have
eager anticipation also and she opens her mouth and been given a heart of victory. Jesus knows that if we
says, “I will!” Now the love that has brought them to believe in Him anything is possible. Your heart will
this special place explodes and propels them toward become stronger and stronger as you allow yourself to
the future reality of this dream. God joins two dreams dream and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hopelessness
and makes them one new reality. is our enemy.
HOPE THE HELMET OF YOUR Rom 5:4-5 And patience develops strength of character in us
THOUGHTS and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally
our hope and faith are strong and steady. Then, when that
1Thes 5:8 But let us who live in happens, we are able to hold our heads high no matter what
the light keep sober, protected happens and know that all is well, for we know how dearly
by the armor of faith and God loves us, and we feel this warm love everywhere within
love, and wearing as our us because God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts
helmet the happy hope with his love. (TLB)
of salvation. (TLB)
Hope is necessary for our strength and steadiness both
in our spiritual and mental health. We have many
psychiatrists and psychologists that deal with folk’s
mental health. We have a society that has a number of
A helmet protects your head. Your head is the center of people who are mentally ill. When you take the Word
your thoughts and education. Did you ever think that of God and Faith in God away from people the certain
HOPE could protect your thoughts? If we let hope result will be mental illness.
build the thoughts of whose we are will build in our How is our society dealing with this mental illness
mind. Our enemy attacks us with thoughts of failure. condition? In most communities doctors are
Our enemy does not want us to know who we are. prescribing drugs to deal with the weaknesses and
What are you thinking about? What are your friends unsteadiness of mental illness. These doctors shut off
saying? Are your thoughts dwelling on the past or are and numb the mind with drugs.
your thoughts dreaming about your future? Do you I want to ask you some questions:
think about your failures? Have your failures robbed 1. Who created us?
your ability to dream?
2. Does our creator know us?
Rom 4:18 So, when God told Abraham that he would give
3. Whose image were we created in?
him a son who would have many descendants and become a
great nation, Abraham believed God even though such a Now we know we have an enemy. Some folks are
promise just couldn't come to pass! (TLB)
trying to say that there is no such being as Satan or the
devil. If you wanted to weaken God’s creation what
1. Allow yourself to believe the dream can come would you do to weaken them? I would try to deny
true. them access to anything that would make them strong.
2. Let your hope work on the dream and keep I would do this so it would be easier for me to defeat
your mind focused with eager anticipation. them.
3. Let God’s love motivate you toward your Three things are very important for you to be strong.
dream and allow God to unfold His plan. This These three things are FAITH, HOPE and LOVE. Now
will keep you from being selfish and help you in many accounts writing about these three things,
to fulfill what God has called you to do. HOPE is sandwiched between faith and love. I think
We are beings who dream. Hope helps us survive. The that this is very significant. I believe HOPE helps life
national average of suicides speaks to a generation flow between faith and love. If you remove hope these
without hope. Hope gives us something to live for. other two factors of our being can lie dormant. Hope
Now Abraham took a situation without hope and built dares to dream and draw the vision of our future.
himself hope. Abraham dreamed and anticipated a city Your enemy will relentlessly pursue you about your
whose builder was God. past. Your enemy wants you to keep looking backward
The hope of Abraham was so big that he left his own so you will not move forward. We perish where there
relatives and set out on a journey to find the city of is no vision.
God. Abraham’s dream grew to the point that he came DARE to hope. Let God energize and reveal the hope
in contact with God the Heavenly Father. The potential that He invested in His Son. He will reveal this hope
of a man or woman to contact and interact with God is through the blessed ministry of the Holy Spirit. The
great. Relationship with God is now more powerful Holy Spirit will show you things to come. Praise God
than ever. for His wonderful plan.