https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Hope.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
<\/p>\n
I. What are the things that you hope for?<\/p>\n
A. In other words, what do you expect the future to hold for you?<\/p>\n B. Hope is the upper limit on the things that we gain. You will not do much better than\nwhat you expect from yourself.\n
C. The pessimist versus the optimist<\/p>\n
1. Church growth<\/p>\n a. Pessimist – “Look at the problems here. It is no wonder we don’t\ngrow.”\n
b. Optimist – “The fields are white to harvest.”<\/p>\n
2. Becoming a Christian<\/p>\n a. Pessimist – “It is too difficult to be a Christian. There are too many\nthings that I can’t do.”\n
b. Optimist – “Heaven is too glorious to pass up.”<\/p>\n
II. There is hope within each of us – I Pet. 3:15<\/p>\n
A. That hope saved us (Rom. 8:23-25). <\/p>\n
1. It set a goal before us that we truly want.<\/p>\n 2. A goal we want so badly, that we will expend great effort to overcome any\nobstacle.\n
B. Hope gets us through difficulties – Rom. 5:1-5<\/p>\n
1. And when we overcome the difficulties, it leads to increased hope.<\/p>\n
2. A cycle that continues to grow.<\/p>\n
C. God gave us his word to build hope within us – Rom. 15:4<\/p>\n
1. An example is Abraham – Rom. 4:16-18<\/p>\n a. Though it defied logic, beyond reasonable expectation, Abraham\ntrusted God.\n
b. He expected (hoped) that God would fulfill his promise of a son.<\/p>\n
2. Abraham’s hope was not in this world, but in the one to come – Heb. 11:8-16<\/p>\n
D. The wicked may despair, but the righteous have hope for better things – Pr. 14:32<\/p>\n
1. Heb. 6:17-19 – Hope is our anchor. That which keeps us firm in our beliefs.<\/p>\n
2. Hope inspires us to improve ourselves – I Jn. 3:2-3<\/p>\n
III. Look at what we could become!<\/p>\n A. Col. 1:21-23 – We rise above our wicked past to become righteous, blameless. But\nonly if we remain steadfast in our hope. \n B. II Thess 2:16-17 – Hope not only gives us permanent comfort, but gives us the stable\nplatform from which to do every good work.\n C. Col. 1:3-6 – Our hope of a future reward in heaven causes us to bring forth the fruits\nof righteousness\n
IV. Any old hope will not do<\/p>\n A. Eph. 2:12 – Without God there is no hope. Any hope that we could have would only\nbe in this world and this life will end.\n B. I Thess 4:13-14 – Christians have hope in a life beyond this life. This life isn’t all\nthere is!\n
C. God watches out for those who place their hope in him – Ps. 33:18-19<\/p>\n
V. But it means we have to act on our hope<\/p>\n A. You may claim a hope, but if that hope doesn’t spur you on to greater things, then it\nis a vain hope. You don’t truly expect to receive; you don’t truly trust your God!\n B. You must first be obedient to God. Start done the road of righteousness by becoming\na child of God.\n C. As you live a Christian life, you expectation of where you are going and who you can\nbecome will spur you to greater and greater things.\n
D. Ps. 31:23-24 – God will truly bless us.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I. What are the things that you hope for? A. In other words, what do you expect the future to hold for you? B. Hope is the upper limit on the things that we gain. You will not do much better than what you expect from yourself. C. The pessimist versus the optimist 1. Church…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[502],"class_list":["post-46506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-hope"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":60588,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-value-of-hope\/","url_meta":{"origin":46506,"position":0},"title":"The Value of Hope","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 30, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dee Bowman via Plain Talk, November 1977 The Scriptures have considerable to say on the subject of hope. And yet I am convinced that many of us are not enjoying and appreciating our hope as we should, simply out of a failure to really understand what it is and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87546,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-love-having-hope\/","url_meta":{"origin":46506,"position":1},"title":"I Love Having Hope","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Many people only see the present circumstances, dislike them, and despair of life. They wish things were better and different, but don't expect them to improve. I love having hope and confident expectations, because I know that circumstances change or they change us. With a fellowship\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21186,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-faith-and-hope-still-exist-in-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":46506,"position":2},"title":"Will faith and hope still exist in heaven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question from I Corinthians 13 about faith, hope, and love with the greatest of these being love. I have led public prayers in which I prayed something like this \"to bless us with faith, hope, and love. For one day we will close our eyes in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86227,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/assurance-in-the-heart\/","url_meta":{"origin":46506,"position":3},"title":"Assurance in the Heart","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Christians have some great things in their hearts that others lack but need. First, we have confidence that if we die, we are in a good place. We have a covenant with the Creator and Judge, and Jesus is the surety of the best covenant ever\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14682,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-appreciate-that-you-post-your-sermon-texts-and-not-just-audio-files\/","url_meta":{"origin":46506,"position":4},"title":"I appreciate that you post your sermon texts and not just audio files","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, Hope this email finds you well I just wanted to send a quick message to express my appreciation for your website.\u00a0The fact that you take the time to post sermons in text form rather than audio-only is a tremendous help in studying the word.\u00a0I have learned a great\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50868,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-person-have-faith-without-hope-or-hope-without-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":46506,"position":5},"title":"Can a person have faith without hope or hope without faith?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can a person have faith without hope or hope without faith? Answer: Faith is what a person trusts to be true. Hope is what a person expects to happen. The answer to your question then heavily depends on what topics are being believed or hoped for. A person could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}