Hope

Liz Hoyt · Tidal Church Moncton · December 1, 2024 · The Advent of Jesus series

Liz Hoyt looks at Jeremiah's cry in Lamentations 3, written as Jerusalem burned, and how he found hope by remembering God's faithfulness. Hope is a gift and a choice, and it grows stronger and gives courage when life is hardest.

More from Liz Hoyt · The The Advent of Jesus series

Topics: Hope, Faith, Suffering

Transcript

[0:00] Jesus, He is powerful. Can you say His name with me? Jesus. Jesus. He is the hope. The hope of the world, of love, joy, peace. But hope, Jesus, Son of God, born of a virgin, sent His Son. God sent His Son to be on earth with us to experience our pain. He is our only true hope, Jesus. And we celebrate Him this season and hopefully every single day.

[0:46] So we are talking today about hope. Let me ask you, what comes to mind when you think of hope? What feelings does it conjure up or things that you are hoping for? Maybe you're hoping for those new winter tires for Christmas or that game system or maybe for that new promotion in the new year. What are you hoping for? And I wouldn't, of course, and looked up the definition of hope in the dictionary. And this is what it says. Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes, to trust in, wait for, look for or desire something or someone or to expect something beneficial in the future.

[1:47] What are you desiring or expecting? And if we looked more at the, you know, the biblical side clearly of what hope might be, let me give you like a synopsis of what I thought was really good. Hope is an optimistic, nope. Hope is a choice based on the faithfulness of God. A choice to believe that what He says is true. Hope for us as believers is a choice to trust in a God that is solid and unwavering, wise, faithful.

[2:33] And it's a choice. Trusting when things go right and trusting when things go wrong. It is fundamental to our faith, hope, and trusting when we do not see, which in turn gives us hope. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance for what we do not see." Because hope is a gift. It's not a gamble. And it's seeing God's silver lining in every story. We all need His hope to live out our Christian faith.

[3:21] We all need to be reminded of His hope. Hope, a gift, not a gamble. It's a gift, and it is God's silver lining in each one of your stories. But for us to see the hope that we desperately need, that we desperately desire, we need to see the depravity and brokenness in which we live. I know that seems kind of funny because clearly we all do, none of us are untouched by the hopelessness that we have ever felt. And if you had to think right now of a time that you felt hopeless, can you recall the when, the where, the what?

[4:13] I bet for even some of you, there is a moment in time when you can remember what you were wearing, the colors of the wall and the smells in the room, that it was just such an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness, that burden, and something that's gonna affect your entire future. How have you felt? Was it personal loss or just an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness? We have all felt it. We all know it. I know it. You know it. And we have all been touched by the hopelessness that life can bring, and we have felt or are even now feeling helpless and hopeless 'cause of personal loss of a loved one, struggling with untimely sickness, dealing with unbearable feelings that come in.

[5:10] A child is wandering far from home, maybe fine or the pain that comes when you know that you have failed your God, you have failed your family, your friends, maybe yourself, and maybe all of them. We have all seen, felt, and been affected by the hopelessness as this, that this world holds for us. But this world is not your hope. This world is not your hope despite what it offers you or promises you. It is not that. It says it can bring you true fulfillment and hope, but it can't.

[5:56] This world is not our hope. This world offers hope of future goals and aspirations that are temporary and fleeting. The world offers a hope and expectation in the form of amazing rest and that tropical vacation. But as soon as your feet cross the threshold of your home, you no longer feel restful. The world offers hope in the form of a dream to make it big financially and being set for life, only for it to be but an elusive aspiration. The world offers hope in finding the perfect relationship and then you'll be happy. But then they let you down too. Chasing a fleeting dream of what the world offers as true hope, only to find that is wanting, temporary and unstable.

[6:51] And there are many in the Bible that we've walked through as we have read and journeyed through with people in the Bible like Paul, I mean, Paul and his persecution, David and his moral failures. Or we have Job when he's lost everything and even Christ Himself. And the list could go on and on and on. And the deeper we look, it seems that no one has avoided or escaped the hopelessness that this world can bring. And that brings me to the book of Lamentations. Jeremiah is in a world of hurt. And as we turn to the book of Lamentations, chapter 3, which Josh, Sarah, and little one read for us earlier, we see that the city of Jerusalem has fallen, the temple is destroyed, and many of the people were exiled.

[7:46] Lamentations is mostly a series of laments. And the author Mark Vroegop, he puts it like this: laments are the honest cry of a hurting heart, with a hurting heart, wrestling with the paradox of pain and the promise of God's goodness, the cry of a heart wrestling with the pain that we are experiencing and yet still leaning on the promises of God and His goodness despite it all. And the book of Lamentations, as its name suggests, is mostly a series of laments over the condition of Jerusalem and its depravity. The exception though is in chapter 3. It's a more personal lament over the author's condition, who is, by Christian and Jewish It doesn't actually tell us for sure, but by Jewish and Christian standards.

[8:39] They believe it is Jeremiah. And if we look at Lamentations historically, we see that it is written after the most powerful empire in the world at the time, the Babylonians, have come and conquered Jerusalem. And this is one of the worst things to happen in the entire history of God's people. Up until that time, and God had promised the land to Abraham and every king since David had occupied and been there, lived there. And it's where the priest carried out all the sacrifices that God had commanded. The Babylonians actually completely destroyed the city, including the temple. They carried off many of their people. And it is from this that Jeremiah writes a series of five poems reflecting on the disaster that had happened, expressing the pain and confusion that had followed the destruction of Jerusalem.

[9:36] A proud but now broken people who were warned to repent and follow God, but they refused to do so and they were hopeless. Here's the thing, Jeremiah actually had prophesied that it would happen and he had warned them and he tried to show them and told them to turn. He tried to get them to turn back to God. He himself felt abandoned and he himself let down. Can anyone relate? And as a result of seeing the city around him burn, he loses all hope. And as we read, I almost can picture Jeremiah on the hilltop overlooking his city burning, people screaming, the cries of his people in sadness and utter hopelessness and ruin.

[10:30] And he can't find any solution or any future in his pain. And he's lost all hope. And as we read in Lamentations 3:1-20, maybe you hear yourself in some of these words. Jeremiah writes, "I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord's wrath. You know what? Sometimes we don't wanna admit that that's how we're feeling, but maybe we're feeling a little bit like this. I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of the Lord's wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light. Indeed, He has turned His hand against me again and again. All day long He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones.

[11:19] He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. He has walled me in so I cannot escape. He has weighed me down with chains, and even when I cry out, call out, or cry for help, He shuts out my prayer. He has barred my way with blocks of stone. He has made my paths crooked. Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, He dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without hope or help. He drew His bow and made me the target of His arrows. He pierced my heart with arrows from His quiver.

[12:06] I became the laughingstock of all my people. They mock me in song all day long. He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink. He has broken my teeth with gravel. He has trampled me in the dust. I have been deprived of peace. I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, 'My splendor is gone.'" Another word, another version. It says, "My endurance has perished and all that I hoped from the Lord. I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them and my soul is downcast within me."

[12:51] So how does this hit you? If you really had to think about it, how does this hit you? Can you relate to this lament and honest cry of a hurting heart, wrestling with the paradox of pain and the promise of God's goodness? Have you felt like God's never answered your prayer or He's never heard you? Maybe intentionally God has been heaping affliction and pain upon you. Broken hopes, broken dreams. Can you relate to the feeling that enough is enough? Lord, I can handle no more. I have no hope that my future will ever look any different: trampled, deprived, surrounded. Have you ever felt that hopeless?

[13:39] I guess right now on a personal level, I have had a pressing feeling of the darkness pressing in on the hopelessness. Hopelessness that seemed to surround me. I actually had found, I'm admitting, I had been finding myself growing cynical, angry, almost patience was wearing thin. My eyes were clouded with the darkness that I saw around me. I looked around and I saw the loss. I saw the hurt and I see your tragedies. But then I also see the ignorance, the blatant disobedience, the blindness, the indifference, my city, my country.

[14:27] My world seemed dark and hopeless and all I wanted to do was scream. Don't you see? Don't you know? And I became distracted with the hopelessness that I saw. And maybe you have too. Do you feel the hopelessness around you or maybe you yourself are experiencing woundedness and hopelessness and you are floundering and you too are distracted by what you are experiencing? And if I think of how overwhelming life can be, if I let my mind wander just a little too much into the suffering that is around me or even in our own lives, it can seek to consume us and it can seek to distract us from seeing and experiencing God's hope.

[15:36] Because if it were not for the hope of Christ, our hearts would break. Because if it were not for the hope of Christ, our hearts would break. So let's continue though in Jeremiah, 'cause he's actually not finished. We see his terrible plight. We see his hopelessness, his feelings of betrayal that God has left him. And then, then there is light in Jeremiah chapter 3, verse 21 to 24, what we have read earlier. "Yet this I call to mind, these things I remember and therefore I have hope because of the Lord's great love. We are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.

[16:24] They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. And I say to myself, the Lord is my portion, therefore I will wait on Him." As Jeremiah may have been sitting on that hillside watching his city burn and the hopelessness that he saw and in the middle of his pain, in the middle, not after, but in the middle, he reminded himself of God's love and His hope. Because God's love hasn't changed. God's love and compassion, they haven't worn out.

[17:11] It hasn't grown weak and His love hasn't vanished. In fact, they are new every morning. There is an inexhaustible supply of God's mercy that is continually refreshed every day. His presence, God's presence is alive and well, and that is your hope in the middle of the pain. 'Cause there is hope in that darkness, there is hope. When all seems hopeless, there is a promise even in the pain, because hope, it's a gift. It's not a gamble. It's God's silver lining in everyone's story, in your story, in my story, in all of our stories.

[17:56] Because hope is found when we are looking. Hope strengthens through adversity and hope gives courage in the face of deep hurt and sadness. Hope is found when we are looking. Well, hope doesn't come naturally. We have to choose. We have to choose hope and we have to be willing to actually look for it. If we are looking for, if all we are looking for is the bad, the ugly, and the broken, then all we will ever see is that if we are always experiencing the bad, if we are always just wallowing in our hopelessness, it is all we will ever understand. It is all we will ever experience. It's a choice.

[18:42] What will you choose? We have to change our perspective. We have to choose to see God's silver lining in every story. Hope is a choice. We need to pursue it, chase after it, and embrace it. We need to embrace the author of our hope and the promises that He gives. We need to know His truth. We need to know His Word. We need to fill our hearts with things of God because the alternative is believing the lies, the lies that the devil blinds us with and lies that seek to steal your joy and your hope. We have to see beyond these lies.

[19:29] But to do that, we need to know. We need to know God's truth because the devil will tell you, nothing good will ever happen in your life. Has anyone ever told themselves that lie and that the things you care about most won't last? If you're struggling with a situation that's difficult, he's gonna tell you it's never gonna end. Those are lies. Lies. Remember, the devil is a liar and wants nothing more than to leave you feeling hopelessly lost, believing the lie that there is no hope. You have to seek to dispel the lies and seek the truth. You have to remember what God tells us.

[20:16] It is that Jeremiah says, "Yet this I call to mind." Yet this I remember: God tells me He will never leave me and He will never forsake me. That He's faithful, that He's trustworthy. And as we look in His Word, the promises go on and on. And we have to remember that our God walks with us through all things in life and that our hope is placed in the promises of a loving Father. We need to expect God to show up. We need to expect God to show up. It's a choice. We need to look for God's silver lining in every story.

[21:02] In Jeremiah, in the midst of his chaos, in the midst of his hopelessness, he remembered, he remembered the faithfulness of God, but he had to look for it. 'Cause if he looked around him, all he saw was the bad, the ugly, and the broken, and he had to choose it. He had to climb out beyond the chaos that he was in, but he remembered and his hope was restored. Jeremiah's hope was strengthened through his adversity. G.K. Chesterton is quoted as saying, "Hope means hoping when things are actually hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude.

[21:56] It is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to take strength." Hope doesn't just happen, and no one really wants to hear what I have to say about this. But hope is refined, deepened when things look hopeless because it is often in these times of hopelessness that we discover who God is and we experience who He is in times when we least expect it, when we are in the pressure cooker of life, because it gives God the opportunity to prove to us that He cares for us. And He does have a future for you, a future for you. It brings us hope.

[22:43] It takes broken soil to produce a crop. It takes broken clouds to give rain. It takes broken grain to give bread, and it takes broken bread to give us strength. It is in these times of our own weakness and brokenness that we can find the power of God within us that we never knew we had. He is our hope, the power of the hope that we are not alone. And the silver lining is revealed in your story. As Chesterton says, when life is good and everyone is healthy and happy, finding hope is easy, a mere platitude. But it is when we find ourselves in the middle of life and it is heartbreaking that we must learn to trust and hope.

[23:35] Hope strengthens when our faith is tested, when our journey gets rough, but still trusting in the One who knows from the beginning, from the end, and all the in-betweens. Hope can grow in the journey. You just have to look for it. It is when we have tested God's faithfulness once and then we must test it again and again. That's when we remember, and it brings us hope, an expectation that He will do it again and again and again. He will again and again walk you through whatever you're walking through.

[24:22] He will again and again make beauty out of ashes. He will again and again offer you hope for your future. And then it will be these things that you will recall, and it will bring you hope. Because through our adversity, our hope will grow and hope will give us courage. Hope is courage in the face of deep hurt and sadness. Hope is beyond human reasoning. It doesn't make sense most of the time to hope. And life is incredibly hard. It takes courage. Courage to trust in a faithful God even when it seems like nothing is gonna work out or courage even when all those around you are telling you that you are foolish to think.

[25:12] So it is courage in the face of waiting on God's perfect timing as you wait and wait and sometimes wait. It is courage to face the mountain of grief, the mountain of debt, the mountain of hurt. It takes courage. Hope bolsters us to let go and let God, to get out of the way and allow God to take control. It won't mean you won't have fear or weariness. Absolutely, we are human. You might even question God of what's going on or the whys, and it's okay.

[26:00] It just seems that God, hope gives you the courage to face it. Funny. Dear, I was gonna use this quote, then I wasn't, then I was, and I wasn't. So my husband, he was like, I know, this is like John Wayne. You know, the Western actor. This is what my husband says. Well, no, John Wayne says that. My husband says, "Courage is being scared to death but saddling up." Anyway, someone laughed. But more importantly, courage is fear soaked in a hopeful prayer. Courage is fear soaked in a hopeful prayer, as Deuteronomy 31:6 says, "Be strong and courageous.

[26:55] Do not fear and be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you." It is daily living out our faith with courage as we place our lives in the hand of a faithful God. Because hope is a gift. It's not a gamble. It's God's silver lining in your story. And this gives me courage. So let's not become distracted. Let's not allow the hopelessness of our circumstances over what is happening around us to distract us from the bigger picture, that God is still in control, that God is actually with us in the middle of the pain.

[27:46] That God's promises aren't reliant on the shifting sands of our unpredictable world, personally or collectively, that God is the only true hope that is worth living for. Don't be like me as of late. When I was distracted by the hopelessness that was around me and it was robbing me and those around me of God's silver lining in our stories. I was distracted and I was tending to only focus on the bad, the ugly and the broken. I wasn't looking for the good, the gracious and the loving. I wasn't looking for it like I should have been.

[28:31] 2 Corinthians 4:8 says, we are afflicted on every side in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always carrying the body of the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies. He is our hope, and it is lived out in our everyday tragedies and chaos. Hope isn't a feeling, it is a belief. It's not a feeling, it's a belief. It is deeper and more rich than just a passing whim or fancy of new tires for Christmas.

[29:24] Choose hope. Hope grows in the face of adversity. Allow hope to give you the courage to face whatever life throws your way, 'cause hope is a gift. It isn't a gamble. It is God's silver lining in every story. And as a believer, we have a hope that the rest of the world doesn't have. We have something to offer them that they desperately need, but if we don't carry that hope around us, inside us, if we walk around with that godly expectation, then we are not living out our faith to its absolute fullness, to offer this hope to others.

[30:11] We need to confidently walk with courage, looking for the silver lining in every story, because in the midst of their pain, there is promise. We celebrate the hope of the promised Savior, the hope we have in Jesus, our hope in God, a deep and lasting hope that transcends our present circumstances. Be like Jeremiah today, who experienced tragedy, loss and suffering, but then he remembered. Yes, "This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope because of the Lord's great love.

[30:58] We are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness." Can we pray? Dear God, I thank You for Your faithfulness. God, I thank You for Your hope, and God, today I just pray for whatever stories there are today, that You show them as they look for it, Your hope in their story, because You have not left them. You have not left any of us. You have not forsaken us, and Your love is new every morning.

[31:49] We thank You for the hope that You give us, the hope that You are, that is deep and lasting, because we love You. In Jesus' name. Amen.