♪♪♪ Dave Sumrall: Hey everyone,
my name is Dave, and my wife Kate and I pastor ITOWN Church. Thank you so much for
joining us. You know, our world is facing
unprecedented times, and it's so easy for us to look at the world
around us and just be gripped with fear and even hopelessness. That's why I love the Bible,
because it's filled with stories of hope. Today, we're going to continue
talking about hope as we address the source of hope. But make sure you stick around
until after the message because I've got some resources I want
to share with you at the end of today's program that I believe
will fill you with hope. Now, check this out. ♪♪♪ Dave: We're in a series
called "Hope" because I believe that we are facing a crisis of
hopelessness in our generation today. I think people are really
struggling to find God's purpose and plan for their life,
struggling to see vision for their lives. And I believe all of that is
found in biblical hope. In fact, our theme verse,
Hebrews chapter 6, verse 19, it says, "We have this hope as an
anchor for the soul, firm and secure." We started this series last
weekend with my little baby anchor 'cause we had a big, huge
anchor and it was way too heavy for me to hold. And so, here's my little, tiny
illustration, this tiny, little anchor that is supposed to be
something that holds us firm and secure. 'Cause here's the reality. Every one of us will walk
through difficult times in life. We'll all go through storms,
when life is raging against us, and the winds and waves of life
are beating against us. And if we do not have an anchor,
then we will get blown off track. And so, the Bible tells us that
hope, biblical hope, is an anchor for the soul. It's the thing that holds us
secure in the midst of a storm because what happens in storms
is we start to think the wrong things, we start to feel the
wrong things, we start to desire the wrong things 'cause we're
trying to cope with the pain of walking through a storm. And if we don't have an anchor,
then our lives get blown off track, and we find ourselves far
from God. And so, we have to have biblical
hope, something that holds us secure in the midst of the chaos
of life. But we talked last week about
how biblical hope is not the kind of hope that you and I
think of. Worldly hope is just dreaming of
something that's impossible and wishing it would come to pass. Jot it down if you're taking
notes, we defined biblical hope last weekend as a confident
expectation based on something solid. We have this confident
expectation that the promises of God are going to come to pass in
our lives, but so oftentimes we find ourselves in positions of
hopelessness. And we're searching in the midst
of the storm for something that will hold us secure. We talked about Job last week
and how he was a very wealthy man, had a big family. And then in an instant, all of
his businesses were taken from him, all of his children passed
away in a horrific tragedy, he lost his health. And he says this in Job chapter
17, "Where then is my hope?" And this is the question that
some of you are asking today, where am I going to find any
hope? And who can see any hope for me? I'm looking in places for hope,
but I don't see where it's going to come from. Today, we're going to talk about
how oftentimes we look to the wrong places for hope, and it
always leads us back to a place of greater hopelessness. And then we're going to talk
about how we can find biblical hope. What is the source of true hope
in life? So, first of all, let's talk
about all of the places where we put our hope that we shouldn't. As we're looking for hope in the
world around us, the first place we often look is people. We look at people to try and
bring hope into our lives. We think, "If I just get the
right relationship with the right person, they'll give me
hope, they'll pull me out of this, they'll help me get
through this." And no doubt people play a great
role in your life, but I hate to let you down today, people are
not your savior. People are not God. People are flawed, they have
issues. And all do you know that. Maybe you spent your whole young
adult life praying and believing God that they would bring that
spouse into your life. And you watched "Jerry Maguire,"
so you really thought that they would complete you, that
they would make you so happy and fulfilled. And now you're married, and
you're thinking they're definitely not God, they are
definitely not the savior. Like Lord, help me. Like as great as they are,
they'll still have days that they push your buttons. Why? Because hope placed in people
will always let you down. For some of us, all of our hopes
are gone for our own lives, then we place all our hope in our
kids and the hope for them to have a better life and to be
amazing people. And no matter how great your
kids are, they always make mistakes too. In fact, I found this letter
that was written from a young man to his father, I thought I'd
read it to you today. A father was passing by his
son's bedroom, and he was astonished to see that the bed
was actually made and everything in the room was picked up. But then he saw an envelope
sitting on the pillow, and it was addressed dad. So, with the worst premonition,
he opened the envelope with trembling hands, and this is
what it read. "Dear dad, it's with great
regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new
girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with mom and you. I've been finding real passion
with Stacy. She's so nice, and I knew that
you would not approve of her because of all of her piercings
and tattoos and tight motorcycle clothes, and because she's so
much older than I am. But it's not only a passion,
dad, she's pregnant. Stacy said that we'll be very
happy, she owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of
firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many
more children, and Stacy's opened my eyes to the fact that
marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone. We're going to be growing it
ourselves and trading it with the other people in the commune
for all the cocaine and ecstasy that we could ever want. In the meantime, we'll pray that
science finds a cure for AIDS so Stacy can get better. She sure deserves it. Dad, don't worry, I'm 15, and I
know I can take care of myself. Someday, I'm sure we'll be back
to visit so you can meet your grandchildren. Love, your son, John." Then at the bottom of the
letter, it says, "PS dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at Tommy's house. I just wanted to remind you
there are worse things in life than the report card in my
center desk drawer. I love you, call when it's safe
to come home." You know, it's funny, but the
reality is there are people here today that are dealing with
their kids running off and doing some of the first part of that. And there are people here today
that are super disappointed 'cause your child got a C on
their report card. It doesn't matter how perfect
they are, people will always let you down in life. It's a lousy place to put
your hope. Proverbs says it this way in
chapter 11, "Hopes placed in mortals die with them; and all
the promise of their power comes to nothing." If you place your hope in
people, eventually they will let you down, and you'll find
yourself back in a position of hopelessness because they're not
supposed to be God in your life. Well, maybe you look at the
power that someone else has, and you think, "Well, maybe if I
just had the power for myself, then I would be able to have
hope for life. If I could just control every
circumstance and every situation, if I could have a
title or a position, maybe I could have enough power that I
could keep myself safe, and that would give me hope." And so, we look to positions, we
look to even possessions that would make us feel powerful. But Psalm 33 says it this way,
"A horse is a vain hope for deliverance." Back then, it was a symbol of
power, especially in battle. "Because for all of its great
strength, it cannot save you." It doesn't matter how much power
you have and how much authority you amass, how much control you
think you have over your live. Eventually, that too will lead
to hopelessness. The last one is actual
possessions. Money is a terrible false God. It's a very easy one to worship
because it's the only one of all the idols that honestly promises
nearly everything that your relationship with God promises
you: safety, security, significance. People think, "If I can just get
enough possessions, then in that I will find hope. There will be hope for my life
because I'll be able to dig my way out of whatever I'm in, and
I'll be able to buy my way through whatever I have to walk
through in life." But the Bible says in 1 Timothy,
"Command those who are rich in this present world not to be
arrogant, nor to put their hope in wealth, because it's so
uncertain." Money is a very, very terrible
false God, and it is incredibly uncertain because just like Job,
in a moment, it can all be gone. And if it's the thing that we
worship, if it's where we put all of our hope, then all of our
hope will go with it. And so, the back half of that
verse is what we're going to focus the rest of our time on. It encourages us, "Don't look at
money, put your hope in God because he richly provides us
with everything for our enjoyment." The true and only source of hope
for us in life is our relationship with God. And you probably expected that
'cause you're at church today. But the Bible says in Romans
chapter 15 that God is the source of hope, and he wants to
fill you with joy and peace through your faith in him so
that you'll overflow with hope. This is what I want you to get
today, God doesn't want to just give you a little dash of hope
that might get you through a couple of days this week before
you find yourself back down on the bottom of life on Wednesday
or Thursday. No, the Bible is clear that God
wants you to overflow with hope, that you'd have a contagious
hope, that you'd almost be annoyingly filled with hope,
that at every turn, no matter what comes your way, you're
constantly looking for the better future, for the life that
God's called you to live. Why? Because he is the source of
hope, and he is a neverending well of hope. And if you'll put your trust in
him, then the Bible says he'll fill us with joy, he'll fill us
with peace as we continue to trust in him to the point that
we overflow with hope in life. But the secret is, how
do we get it? Most of you probably would
expect that God would be the source of hope, but how does God
give us hope? What's that transfer look like? Well, that's going to spend the
rest of our time on because I think there are five ways pretty
clearly in Scripture that God brings hope into our lives. Number one is one we talked
about last week, jot it down at every campus if you're taking
today, it's God's promise. It's God's promise. God has made promises to you. If you missed last weekend, we
talked about how God made a promise to Abraham not only to
bless him, but to bless the entire world through him. And then because of the
sacrifice of Jesus, every promise that God gave Abraham is
now ours. And so, as we look into the
Scriptures, the Bible clearly has incredible promises for our
lives. Psalm 130 says it this way, "I
wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I
will put my hope." Now, this is a very important
verse, and it lays out beautifully something that we
talked about last weekend, about how biblical hope is a patient
hope because God will make promises to you, and then you
have to wait. I wait, my soul waits, my being
waits. I'm able to wait because I've
got this promise coming from God's Word. There's two things I want to say
about this. First of all, you won't know
what God has promised you if you don't read the Bible for
yourself. And I just want to encourage you
as a church, it's so important as a believer that you actually
read your own Bible, that you open it up or your technology. That's why we have it on the app
as the very first thing when you open it up at the top, the
second one is devotional, it's right in the center. Click that and then it'll lead
you to an Old Testament and New Testament reading, a psalm and a
proverb with the devotional. You don't have to read all of
it, but read something. Get God's Word into your life
every single day. And then when you find that
promise, you're going to have to be able to stand strong as you
wait for it to come to pass. Because in John 17:17, the Bible
says, "Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth." It's fascinating, that word
"truth" in the Greek New Testament is the word
"aletheia," and it means reality. So, the Bible says God's Word is
reality, God's Word is truth. And so, when we find a promise
that God has given us, you and I as Christ followers have to make
a very pivotal decision. Am I going to base my life on my
reality, or on God's reality? Am I going to live by what I can
see and what I can feel, or am I going to live by what I believe,
what I see in God's Word? Because there are two different
realities that we live with at all times. And so, your doctor may say
you're sick and your bank account may say you're broke,
but God's Word says that you are healed and that you are blessed. And in the meantime, while
you're waiting for God's blessing, you have to decide
which reality am I going to live in. Are you going to let the world
tell you who you are, and what you're going to accomplish, and
what is true about your life? Or are you going to stand on the
principle of God's Word that says I am the head and not the
tail, I am above and not beneath, I will be victorious in
Jesus's name. By his stripes I was healed
2,000 years ago, and my best days are ahead of me because
God's Word says so. Well, you have to get in God's
Word to understand what it says in the first place. And then you have to have that
biblical patience to stand on God's Word. But when you find God's Word is
the highest reality, then it gives you hope to live the life
that God's called you to live. Say, man, I might be in the
waiting period, but I am waiting faithfully and patiently for
God's promises to come to pass in my life. And that brings you
biblical hope. The second one is one you
probably wouldn't expect, and that's God's process. God's process for growing you in
life brings you hope. Let me show it to you in Romans
chapter 5, Paul writes this. "We also rejoice in our
sufferings." Time out. Talk about a terrible verse,
right? Like who--what's wrong with
this guy? Obviously, he's messed up in his
perspective. Nobody rejoices in sufferings. I don't know anybody that's
like, "Pastor, I just came here to suffer. I just really--I just--if I had
any prayer request, it'd be more pain in my life. I just--you know, everything's
so comfortable and wonderful and everything's great." No, we--most of us don't rejoice
in sufferings, but Paul says, "We rejoice in our sufferings
because we know that suffering produces things." Produces perseverance, which is
endurance. And perseverance produces
character, and character, check it out, hope. So, what Paul is saying is that
when I am in pain, I actually have hope because pain is an
indication of growth. In fact, I have learned this as
an athlete or very former athlete, whatever you
want to say. I have always enjoyed working
out, but I've gotten to the place in life, to be honest with
you, that if I don't have soreness, if I don't have muscle
stiffness and soreness, I'm really uncomfortable because it
means that I have not done the right things to build up lactic
acid in my body to cause my muscles to grow. I want to grow, I want to
continue getting better physically. And in order to do so, I have to
have pain. Remember the old saying, no
pain, no gain. Well, we know that from a
physical standpoint, but very rarely do we embrace it from a
spiritual standpoint. We have to walk through pain in
order to get to the promise because God wants to grow us. And if you're in pain, that
means that God's being faithful to take us through the process. Because pain is the price for
promotion. I think we need to stop sitting
around and looking at people who have great success, and are
blessed, and have great marriages, and have wonderful
children, and have beautiful homes, and built a great
business, and think thoughts like, "I wonder how lucky
they are. I wonder how amazing that is to
be given all those wonderful things, and to be born in such a
great family, and to have all of those nice opportunities." No, you know what you ought to
ask yourself? "I wonder what they had to
sacrifice. I wonder what pain that they've
had to walk through. I wonder what price they have
paid to have that level of influence or to be at that level
of trustedness in their relationship with God to be that
blessed. I wonder how they have proven
themselves through pain." Pain is required. And so, if you're in pain today,
you actually have hope for a better future 'cause that means
God is faithful and that God loves you. And he's allowing you to walk
through something difficult because there's a promise on the
other side. I want you to know there is
always purpose in your pain. There is no pain that has no
purpose. In life, sometimes pain is the
very thing that's required for us to get to our destiny. We never would have known
who Noah was if there wasn't a flood. We never would have known that
there was a David had there not been a Goliath. You and I would not have
salvation had there not been a cross. There is a price to pay for the
future that we desire, and pain is the pathway to it. And so, we want hope for our
lives, we want God to do something great in the purpose
and the plans that he has for us, but very rarely do we
embrace the pain that comes along with it. Pain is a sign of hope. If you're in pain today, there
is hope for the life that you're dreaming of. It means you may just be one
more day away from those promises coming to pass. Because God does have, number
three, a purpose. And that also brings hope to
your life. I want everybody here to know
that you were born on purpose and for a purpose. God has a great plan for your
life. We read it last weekend,
Jeremiah 29:11, "'I know the plans I have for you,' says the
Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you
hope and a future.'" God has a great
plan for your life. There is a future for your life,
but it's God's plan. So many of us are living for our
own plans, we're living our own dreams, and then we wind up
hopeless. And I want you to know that God
has a great plan for your life because God wants to bless you,
and God wants to promote you, but not for you. He wants to do it through you so
that your life can touch the people around you who so
desperately need what God has placed on the inside of you. So, God wants to get you through
whatever season you're walking through and whatever pain you're
enduring because you have been designed and called and anointed
to be a blessing to other people on the other side of that pain. And that's God's plan
for your life. But if you don't understand that
plan, then you will wallow in self-pity and pain. And you'll always try and fix
your problems. But can I just pastor you
for a minute? Your problems will never
go away. Jesus promised in this world,
you will have trouble. Look, I'm like you, I hate that
verse so much, it's terrible. But Jesus promised there's no
way to alleviate every problem in your life, so I don't have
the power as your pastor to take away all your problems. But what I can give you is
something bigger than your problems, and it's your purpose. And if you're moving through
pain, you need God's purpose for your life because there is
purpose in that pain. And there is something from
God that God wants to do in your life. And you may be saying, "Well,
I've made too many mistakes. I'm too old.
It's too late for me." I want you to know at ITOWN, we
believe that it's never too late to become who you might've been. Read this verse with me, the
Bible says, "Anyone who is among the living has hope." Come on, read that again with
me, "Anyone who is among the living has hope." One more time, every campus,
"Anyone who is among the living has hope." That means if there is breath
in my lungs, there is hope for my life today. If you're breathing,
then there is hope. So pause, everybody, take a
minute 'cause I'm starting to wonder about some of you. Let's all take a minute and
breathe, ready? One, two, three, let it out. All right, one more time,
breathe in. Deep breath, breathe out. One last time, breathe in. Breathe out, you hear that? That's the sound of hope.
You're alive. God still has a plan
for your life. There's still hope for you
today, there's still a purpose and a plan, and we have to
connect to God to understand what it is. We have to find our spiritual
gifts, and we have to find the needs in the world around us. I'm telling you, there is
purpose and there is hope for your life. The fourth one, jot it down if
you're taking notes, it's God's place. God's place. In fact, the Bible says that
this is the greatest source of hope, and this is where we're
going to conclude the series in week four. We're going to talk about God's
place 'cause Paul says this in Philippians chapter 3, "Our
citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await our
Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ." Now, I don't mean to sound harsh
or difficult, I'm trying to pastor you well today. I want you to hear this. When's the last time as a
believer you woke up in the morning and eagerly anticipated
the return of our Savior? Even as your pastor, I'm ashamed
to admit that it's probably been far too infrequent for me. Living every moment as if it
were our last and living with the reality that this life is
not about this life. Yeah, we're blessed to be
Americans, but our actual citizenship is in heaven. We put so much stock in earth
working out the way we want it to. And this is just not our home. God never promised to make
this life perfect. Our citizenship is in heaven. It's very difficult for us to
wrap out finite minds around the concept of something infinite
like eternity that will never end, so here's my best shot
at it. If I told you you have 24 hours
to live, over the next 24 hours, every decision that you make and
every action that you take will impact the next 1,000 years of
your life. And in those 1,000 years, you
won't be able to change a thing. They'll solely be impacted by
how you live the next 24 hours. Would you live those 24 hours
enjoying the moment, thinking about what's happening at that
moment, spending all of your time and all your hopes and all
your pleasure on the 24 hours? Or would you spend the 24 hours
preparing yourself for the 1,000 years that would follow it? I think the answer is obvious
for all of us, we'd spend preparing for the 1,000 years. And yet, this life the Bible
says is just a vapor. It's even shorter than 24 hours
compared to 1,000 years, and yet even as believers, we live our
lives trying to make earth our home, and it's not. We have the hope of heaven,
that's why the Bible says we don't grieve as those who have
no hope. Because when people pass on from
this life as Christians, we know that it'll just be a moment
before we're reunited with them as we meet our Savior face
to face. It's the hope of heaven,
the hope of eternity, it's a real place. Talking about God, the source of
hope, he gives us promises. He takes us through a process. He has a purpose and a plan
for our lives. He has a special place for us. But all of it is fueled, as we
close, number five, by his presence. It's the most amazing thing that
God has given us. It's my personal belief that
this is why people enjoy the weekend at ITOWN, 'cause we lean
into this principle that nothing happens without the presence
of God. It's his presence that fills out
hearts. It's his presence that fills
our lives. It's his presence that touches
our hopelessness. We need it more than anything
else in this life. Lamentations says it this way in
chapter 3, "The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to
the one who seeks him." I want to encourage you to be a
seeker of the presence of God. That's what worship does, you
know, it brings you into his presence. The Bible says, "Enter his gates
with thanksgiving. Enter his court with praise." I talked last weekend about how
there's something special about being in the room. As you join us at all of our
campuses today, there's something about corporate
worship that's anointed and special in a way as faith and
hope builds that you can't get on your own. But what you can get on your own
is a moment of worship. You can enter into God's
presence without any of us involved. And I want to encourage you this
week, when stress is high and anxiety is riddling your body
and it feels like you're slipping into hopelessness, take
a moment and worship. Dave: There is nothing like
being in the presence of God. It's so amazing to know that the
creator of the universe wants to spend time with us, that he
wants a relationship with us. Before we go today, maybe you
don't have that relationship with God. It'd be my honor to help you
take that step. If you would, just bow your
head, maybe close your eyes right where you're at. And if you know you're not in an
authentic relationship with Jesus, if you haven't made him
the Lord of your life, or maybe you've drifted from him and it's
time to rededicate your life to him, let's just pray this simple
prayer together. Just say, "Lord Jesus, please
forgive me today for all of my sin and all my mistakes. I surrender to you. Come and fill my life. Make me brand new. Today, I make you my Lord. In Jesus's name I pray." Father, I pray for every single
person watching. We thank you that you're an ever
present help in times of trouble, and that in your
presence, we find everything we need for life. So God, as we press in to you,
as we worship this week, we're so thankful that you're always
there for us. I pray that you would comfort
every one of us, that you would help us to experience your love,
your peace, and your joy. And God, we thank you for these
moments that we have with you, in Jesus's name we pray, amen. Now, if you just made that
decision to follow Christ, I want you to know I think it's
the best decision you can make with your entire life. I'm so proud of you. You know, our church is built to
come alongside you, to help you in your journey of faith. And so, one of the easiest
things you can do is just text us the word "hope" to the number
on the screen, that's 63566. If you'll do that, we get an
automatic text response that'll be sent to you. We don't save your number, we'll
never text you again. I just want to get you some
resources that'll jumpstart your relationship with God. Of course, you can find the rest
of this series called "Hope In the Darkness" on our website at
itownchurch.com, along with more information about our church. Now, I mentioned earlier about a
resource I have for you. I think worship is the best way
to get into the presence of God. And so, if you'll jump on our
website, itownchurch.com/hope, we have some playlists there for
you that you can just click play on, it'll take you right into
the presence of God. And I pray that it encourages
and strengthens your journey of faith. Of course, we'd love to see you
online for a weekend service. At itownchurch.com, we have a
time of worship and teaching. I think it'll be a great
encouragement to you. Until then, of course, we love
you and we're praying for you. God bless. ♪♪♪ ...
