RESURRECTING HOPE: COURAGEOUS HOPE

This week is graduation Sunday! It is an exciting day at St. Johns. We continue our series Resurrecting Hope with the sermon Courageous Hope. We need to resurrect a courageous hope in our lives. There are numerous forces that want us to live in apathy or disappointment. The enemy of our souls has a strategy to overwhelm and defeat us if at all possible. This is the spiritual battle of every believer’s life and it is timeless. Unfortunately, the opportunities for the enemy to defeat us are numerous and the fight would be hopeless, except for the living hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This power is the source of hope for our lives and for our world. Our scripture for the sermon is Hebrews 11:1-10. This chapter is filled with the people who found a courageous hope to confront the circumstances of their lives. They were not just “survivors” but they became “thrivers” with the power of this hope. Yet, it was not easy, or at times even safe, to have this hope but it gave them strength to believe, even in the onslaught of the weapons of darkness and evil. Just as the spiritual battle is timeless, so is the power of living hope for our lives! We pray that you will sense this courage and strength for the battle you are fighting as you read Hebrews 11:1-10.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ² This is what the ancients were commended for. ³ By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. ⁴ By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. ⁵ By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. ⁷ By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. ⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. (NIV)