Faith and Hope

1 Corinthians 13:13; Heb. 11:1

Hebrews 11:1 — Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

• Faith - now - heart- breastplate
• Hope - future - mind - helmet
• Hope: What do I now of God's character? "Would He do that?"
• not wishful thinking

1Th 5:8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

Dad Tuesday: "Hope Stands High with Mercy"

1. Introduction In 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 3, Paul was trying encourage the church of Thessalonica.

We don't want to just be excited, or just have certain expectations that we have dreamed up ourselves, but want to be warmed by a hope that God puts within our hearts.

2. Where Is Your Hope At?

• I want to deal with the thought, "Where is your hope at?"

• I wonder if some people have any hope.

• We want to make sure that we have hope; that our hope is high.

• If your hope is in Christ and the promises that God gives, and you understand those promises, your hope is going to be alive, it's going to be a living hope, it's going to be a hope that is rising.

• Not merely optimizistic people, but having a Christian hope in Christ.

• A hope that God gives, that comes by the word of God, will never fail you.

• Can your hope be higher than your faith? That really wouldn't even make sense for us to just live that way -- with a hope higher than our faith. To say, "I've got a higher hope than what I can believe God for," just doesn't make sense to me. But I believe that our faith can cause our hope to rise higher and higher.

3. Remembering

I don't believe that I'm going to teach you something all that new.

You know that the hope of eternal life is through the Lord Jesus Christ.

We live in hope and I encourage you to hope more in the heavenly, in the spiritual realm, than just the natural realm.

The natural realm is real, but the spiritual realm is even more real.

The natural is temporary in its importance, but the eternal is eternally important.

Even though we're now living in a temporary state, we have a hope of eternity with God.

We have a hope of a perfect faith, perfect love, perfect relationship with the Lord.

• What we've experienced is real, but there is more to learn, more to have, more to know.

5. The Bible speaks about David's experience.

We can have hope like David.

There were times in his life to where it didn't look too good.

David didn't seem to have much hope, but the Lord took him through some experiences, touched his heart, and made a change in his life.

In Psalms 42 and verse 5. He says, Why art thou cast down, O my soul?

• You can speak the word of God and those words will give you hope.

If you asked him, he would say he had hope, but then the experience that hit his soul and he would say, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God."

When have similar experiences as David, we should begin to express the hope that God has spoken to us in his word to our spirit.

• Have you heard from the Lord?
• Is there something he's teaching you?
• Is there something he has your attention with?

The Bible speaks about the end of our faith.

In 1 Peter chapter 1,verse 9,

1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

• My hope is turning to him and following him. Every step.

• it's one thing for you to believe a scripture believe a promise and say God I'm waiting on you and it's another thing for God to be testing your patience of believing him to help somebody else.

• how many times we've wrote people off because we've reached to them and we've tried to help them and it just seems like they're not interested? it tries your patience

• The Bible even says the hope of the hypocrite will perish. A hypocrite is one that knows better than who will do it.

Job 27:8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?

• We need our hope high.