We are in week two of our series Wonder. Last week, we talked about the Wonder of peace; this week, we are talking about the wonder of Hope.

There is a wonder in hope because when you are filled with hope, it just seems like everything is going to work out. And we can get lost in that wonder. Its like we are floating through life on cloud 9 just as happy as can be. But Hope is a funny thing we can find hope so easily but lose it just as quickly. Hope is something that is a driving factor in us; it's that belief that things can and will be better. Have you ever been around someone who is just full of hope? It's contagious. After talking with them, you have a newfound optimism for the situations around you.

We can so easily allow the different situations of life to bog us down and stifle our Hope. But we don’t have to. We have the God of all the universe going before us, protecting us, watching over us, and always with us.

When I think of hope one set of verses comes to mind first,
Psalm 23:1-6
A Psalm of David.
23
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.[a]
3
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness[b]
for his name's sake.
4
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,[c]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6
Surely[d] goodness and mercy[e] shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell[f] in the house of the Lord
forever.[g]


I remind myself that He is the one guiding and protecting me, he brings me rest, he brings peace and restoration to me, even when things are bad, I do not have to fear.

This is our God. This is who we hope for. This is who we turn to in every situation. When things are rough, we turn to him and find reassurance and peace. When things are going great, we turn to Him and praise His name for all that he has done and will do for us.

This is who we put our hope in. But let's dive a little deeper into Hope. What is it?

Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.
As followers of Christ, we get to take it to a different level. Hope for us is a confident expectation of what God has promised and is based on trust in God’s faithfulness.
What does this mean? It simply means that hopelessness happens when your hope is in the outcome rather than your hope being in God’s character.

We can not have outcome-based hope. Our hope has to be based on the character of God. That is what strengthens our faith in hard times.

Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

If faith is the assurance of things hoped for, then maybe the reason your faith is weak is that you are hoping more in the outcome of the situation rather than hoping in the character and nature of God.

That is why even when everything around us is going wrong, we can stand on the foundation of God’s faithfulness and have hope in God that everything is going to work out the way it is supposed to. That doesn’t mean that it will work out the way we think it should or would like it too. But our hope is in God and His character of faithfulness, we know the outcome is God not only having our best interest in mind but the best interest of every person involved.
In Greek, the primary word used for hope is Elpis. The way they use this word is to show a confident expectation or trust in God’s promise. It’s not simply wishful thinking but a firm assurance based on the character and faithfulness of God.

Simply put, our Hope in God is our trust in Him.

When things aren’t going the way you thought they would, are you trusting in Him? When things are going great, are you waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under you?

This is what the enemy wants to do to sabotage your hope, he wants you to focus on the what-ifs so you take your eyes off of the fulfillment of the promises of God.
How many of you have heard the phrase, expect the worst and hope for the best?

The issue with that statement is that we get focused on the worst outcome to the point that we never hope for the best.

It is really easy to be pessimistic. We can look at any situation and think about everything that is wrong instead of looking for where things are going the way they are supposed to go. I remember growing up and thinking I had all my chores done and that everything was good, and then mom got home. It felt like she was pulling out a magnifying glass to see what wasn't done, it felt like she was looking for the smallest out-of-place things. Now, I know that she wanted me to do the job the right way, but at that moment, it was like, why can't you just be happy that I obeyed you? Many of us are walking in life feeling like we can’t win because it seems like everywhere we go, something is being pointed out that we aren't doing right.

Proverbs 17:22
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

This is what happens when we lose hope. Everything dries up. There isn't a reason for us to move forward. When we are without hope, we will do everything we can to look for the most minor of issues and use that to twist the good things that are happening into something they aren’t. We are stuck in a cycle of pessimism.

How do we get out of this? How do we find hope in all things? We have to trust the faithfulness of God.

Are you walking in hope? Or do you feel like there isn’t really a reason to hope? Well, I am here to tell you that there is reason to hope.

We trust in the God that spoke, and the universe was formed and has continued to expand since he said, “Let there be light.” We trust in God that Jesus being crucified for our sins made a way for us to experience His faithfulness.

The issue that we have is that we have trained ourselves to look at the wrong issue. Especially if you are a self-described fixer. You sniff out problems like a tracking dog. You want so badly to fix the problems around you that, eventually, all you see are the problems. And what you don’t realize is that you are squashing the hope in people around you, in fact, you are training them to see problems as well.

Now, seeing problems is needed, but we should control that, it shouldn’t control us. In the same breath that we utter a problem, we should also remind ourselves of the faithfulness of God so we can have hope in the situation.

And so I think that there are three things we need to remember in order to keep hope alive in our daily lives.

We need to remember God’s…

Spoken PromisesWhen we are at the crossroads of hope in God or negativity, we should remember the promises of God to bolster our faith to continue to hope in God.

Romans 15:4 ESVFor whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Paul is instructing us here that the scriptures are here for instruction so we can endure any situation, and through the encouragement of scripture, we can have hope in God.

We need to find scriptures that speak to the problems that we are facing. These promises will contradict what the enemy is trying to get us to believe. The scriptures give us hope because we are reminded of the faithfulness of God! It reminds us that He is with us in every circumstance. Even though the enemy wants us to feel cut off, alone, and feeling like a failure, we have a God that is with us.

These spoken promises are the promises that God means for all of His sons and daughters. It’s irrefutable evidence that we are His kids.

Now, I know some of you may be feeling or thinking, what is the point of remembering the promises?

Hebrews 10:23Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
What are some spoken promises of the scripture?
Peace2 Thessalonians 3:16 ESVNow may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.

Addiction1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

FinancesPhilippians 4:19And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus

HealthJeremiah 17:14Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.

ProtectionPsalm 91
The power of the scriptures is that it is God’s word but its not just the word of God. John 1 says that in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And in John 1:14 it says the word of God became flesh and dwelt amongst men.

The word of God is Jesus. Why do you think that it's so difficult to read your bible? The enemy doesn't want that. When you are reading your bible then you are encountering Jesus. He doesn't want you to have that power over the temptation he is going to throw at you.

Just a few weeks ago Pastor Jason talked about how Jesus used the scriptures to defend against the temptation that Satan threw at Him. That’s what these promises do. When you are facing a situation that seems hopeless, you reassure your spirit, build your faith, and walk in the righteousness of Jesus when you begin to quote the scripture.

And I know that you might be in a situation where you prayed for healing, peace, or something else, but remember, our hope is based on God's character and trust in that character, not the outcome of the situation. We have to e

We need to remind ourselves of God’s….

Fulfilled Promises
Maybe you are in a place where you are facing a circumstance where you are just waiting on God to fulfill His promise, and you are starting to lose hope that He is going to fulfill it.

That’s why we have the history in the Bible laid out the way we do, so we can see the issues that other people faced and be encouraged by God's faithfulness.

It’s Christmas time, so let’s look at the promises fulfilled just by Jesus being Jesus.


There are 351 Old Testament prophecies fulfilled through Jesus alone.

The probability of Jesus fulfilling just eight of the 60 major prophecies in the Old Testament is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (100 Quadrillion)

2 Timothy 2:13If we are faithless, He remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

God’s character is not dependent upon our faithfulness. He is simply faithful. Too many times we can forget that we aren’t the center of the story. God is. Our purpose is to bring God glory. The more we focus on what we are receiving from the relationship, the greater misunderstanding of who God is we have.

One of the things that we need to do to keep our hope alive and strong is to remind ourselves of His fulfilled promises.

We know that all throughout the Old Testament, there are multiple prophecies given about the messiah. Each of these gives hope to God’s people that He would send the messiah to save them and reconcile God’s kingdom on the earth. The issue, though, is that the people only saw the physical component of God sending the messiah. They thought he was going to remedy the physical issue, but as we talked through last week, Jesus came to bring spiritual peace.

This is why it's important to remind ourselves of God’s fulfilled promises. They help us remember that the promises being fulfilled are to fix the spiritual issue first and the physical issue second.

We see this with Abraham multiple times. First, with the promise that Abraham would be a father to a multitude. He eventually had Issac, and that was the start of the bloodline that led to Jesus.

We see again that with Abraham, God asked Him to sacrifice Issac, but Abraham's belief in God’s promise was so great that the physical didn’t dictate his spiritual maturity. In fact, it was the opposite. I know that in that situation, there would be a back and forth between me about what is going on. If I am really going to be able to sacrifice my kid. But because Abraham’s hope was built t in the faithfulness of God, he was able to experience the wonder of Hope in God.

Abraham wasn’t perfect, though; he created an Ishmael because of his impatience. And if we aren't careful we will do the same. We can’t rush God into fulfilling His promises.

Maybe you are waiting on that fulfilled promise; you are on the other side of it, but no matter where you are, the moments you have experienced God fulfilling what He said He was going to do is the fuel you need to continue to move forward.

Let me ask you a question;
If God could do one thing for you to show you that He is all in with you, what would he do?
Sit with that for a second.

Whenever Jason and I were talking about this message, this question came up as we were discussing. This question is important because it helps you identify if your hope is in God’s character or the outcome of the situation.

As I thought about it, the thing that came to mind was finances. It's hard out there for people. The economy is crazy; everything is expensive, It's just a lot. I go through these cycles where I am thinking about money, how to manage it, and what to do with it. I get overwhelmed and start focusing on the outcome of hope rather than God’s character to build my hope on. It's at that moment that I realized that even with having spoken promises that I can quote and fulfilled promises to remind me of who God is, if I am not careful, the enemy will come in and throw everything he can at me to get me distracted.

Where is your hope today? Is it in the outcome of the situation or the character of God’s faithfulness?

Let’s pray.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

How does he want you to respond?