Sermon Notes
Where Hope Is Found
Romans 8:18-28
Opening Question:
I want you to think about a time that you were hungrier than you’ve ever been. How did it make you feel? What were some of the side affects of your hunger?
Did you have a headache? Did you have trouble focusing on anything else? Have you ever been hungry and you could smell food, but it wasn’t time to eat it or you couldn’t eat?
Illustration:
One time my dad and I were shrimping in edge of Winyah Bay. There was a big, nice boat not far away. They had a grill and they starting cooking steaks. Meanwhile, dad and I were eating MRE’s and Lance crackers. We were both hungry, and the smell quickly turned our fun of shrimping into an obstacle between us and getting back to find some food.
A great enough hunger produces a real suffering.
Quote:
A.W. Tozer wrote a book called The Radical Cross. In the book, he suggests that there are at least four longings of the human heart.
1) The hunger for truth
2) The hunger for love
3) The hunger for justice
4) The hunger for forgiveness
The human heart is starving. The human condition is suffering.
TRANSITION: When suffering comes, however, we have hope. We just have to know where to find it.
Where hope is NOT found:
- Hope is not found in this suffering world.
- “…that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us…” — Romans 8:18
- Paul says, “it is not worth comparing” (a waste of time) in looking at suffering and the greatness of what God has ahead of us.
- Both of these terms are related to the OT concept of weight—heavy was valuable. “Worthy” was from a commercial term that meant “to weigh as much as.”
- Hope is not found with our eyes.
- MAJOR POINT: Do not look for hope with your eyes, but look for hope with faith in your Resurrected Lord and Savior.
- 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. — Romans 8:24-25
Where hope is found.
- Hope for the hungry soul can be found every single day by knowing that every single piece of your life is in the hands of a master carpenter. He is piecing together a great work, but like all great works, it is not an instant process.
- Hope is found through trusting God with patience.
- Hope is found through looking forward to God’s promises.
Hope is seeing what God can do when the way of the world says impossible.
MAJOR POINT: Some of the greatest limitations on our lives are directly related to the size of our hope.