Hope at Easter

All right, good morning. Are you, are you at church? Have you figured out if you’re at church yet? Because I’m feeling pretty I tell you what, and I don’t know what kind of condition you arrived in. I’m not sure how you felt when you got here, but I’ve got a word for you today.

Here it is. Get your hopes up. Come on, get your hopes up. You know, get them on up. I know some people told you, maybe it was your mom, maybe it was your dad, maybe it was your brother-in-law, I don’t know.

Somebody told you, “Now, don’t get your hopes up. Don’t get your hopes up.” The reason they told you that is because is because they had something happen to them. They had their hopes up and it didn’t work out. They think that they’re saving you some trouble, but what they’re really doing is giving you some faulty advice. They’re giving you some bankrupt advice, really, because who wants to live through life without hope?

I don’t. So get your hopes up, and that’s what we’re talking about today. Jesus got up, and you should get your hopes up. Because it changes everything. Now, I don’t know if you’re filled with hope today.

You might have come in today and you’re pretty discouraged. I don’t know. You might be facing some things as a result of what’s going on in our nation today. You know, every time you turn the news on, it’s not good news, is it? No.

It’s bad news, and you might be part of those percentages. You know, they don’t seem like percentages when you’re part of them, You might be part of that percentage of rising unemployment. Maybe you’ve been laid off or maybe you’ve lost a job, and that’s really shaken your hope. You don’t know what you’re going to do. Maybe you’re part of that percentage that’s having trouble making their mortgage payment, and you’re afraid you’re going to lose your house, and that’ll shake you up.

Where am I going to live? And so you’ve lost hope in our economy or in your ability to provide and Or maybe you’re in a troubled marriage and maybe, you know, your wife has said she’s getting out and you didn’t see that coming. She says you should have, but you missed it and she’s leaving and you’ve lost hope. Maybe you went to the doctor last week and he gave you some bad news. You found out you got a problem.

You didn’t know that. You thought you were doing okay. Or at least you were trying to ignore the symptoms, and you’ve got a hope problem today. Or you might be here today and you know what? “Well, Gary, I’m doing fine.

I’m doing just fine.” And here’s what I would say to you. I don’t know what you’re putting your hopes in, but eventually, if you haven’t put your hopes in the resurrected Jesus Christ, your hopes will be dashed because if you’re single today and you’re putting your hopes in, “If only I was married, I’d be happy.” I wouldn’t be so lonely. I’d be happy if I was married. Or maybe you’re married today and you’re saying, “If only I was single again, I would be so happy.” Some of you are here today and you got your hopes up and you want to have children and you desperately want children and you want them so bad and your hopes are, “If only I had children, I’d be happy.” And then some of you are here today and you’re like, “As soon as I get these children raised and get them out of the house, I’ll be happy.” You know, happiness is based on a happening, and if the happenings go south, then your happiness goes with it. It’s like this.

It looks like a roller coaster. But joy comes from the hope that we have in the resurrected Jesus Christ, which is a fact in history. The tomb was empty. If it hadn’t have been, somebody would have produced the body, and the whole Christianity thing would have been nipped in the bud. Right?

But they couldn’t produce the body because he was risen, and over 500 people saw him at one time. They couldn’t do away with the fact of the resurrection, and so it resounds now through history, and it gives us hope. I want you to listen to this quote from N.T. Wright. I read this book recently.

It’s called Surprised by Hope. He talks about this doctrine of the resurrection. He says, “A robust— doctrine of the resurrection as part of God’s new creation gives more value, not less, to the present world and to our present bodies. What this doctrine gives is a sense of continuity as well as discontinuity between the present world and the present state and the future, whatever it shall be, with the result that what we do in this present world matters enormously. Nothing done in the Lord in the power of the Spirit in the present time will be wasted in God’s future.

Here’s what I want you to get about that quote. Whatever you’re going through right now, whatever it is, if you’re a Christ follower and you walk through life by the power of the Spirit, nothing’s wasted, not even the suffering, not even the pain, and maybe even especially the pain. It’s not wasted. And it might feel like, “Why am I going through this?” It might feel like that during the time, but if you put your hope in Christ, it will count for something. It will matter.

It will count. And so because Jesus got up, hope is not just for— listen to this now, Christians. It’s not like I’m just biding my time till Jesus comes. I’m just a wayfaring stranger traveling through this world, and it’s misery here. It’s all misery.

That’s not very hopeful sounding, is it? That don’t sound very hopeful. “Woe is me.” That sounds like, “Woe is me living.” But this kind of hope, I want you to kind of picture this, it’s like a cord. The Hebrew word The Greek word for hope can also be translated cord, and it’s like it’s anchored at the resurrection 2,000 years ago because, you know, if you’re going to climb something, somebody needs to hold the anchor, right? So it’s anchored down there where Jesus rose from the dead, the fact of it.

He rose from the grave, and that hope is like a cord going into the future and past the curtain. We can’t see where it’s going, but we know it’s good because Jesus went in there first, and we’re hanging on to the hope. See, now hope is like that. Hope doesn’t see what’s coming yet, but it’s certain because of what it holds in its hands is good, and I know who’s leading me there. It’s Jesus.

See, so hope is powerful. It’s certain. It’s not doubtful, and I’m hanging on to that which is anchored in the resurrection and is pulling me into that future glory of resurrection. See, that’s what we’re talking about today, and it changes everything. Let’s look at the book of 1 Peter and see how Peter describes this.

We’re going to read some verses here that talk about this hope, this living hope that causes us to get our hopes up. Follow with me, and we’ll start at verse 3. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. Well, I like that, don’t you?

Kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Now concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels, long to look into these things. Therefore, prepare your minds for action, be self-controlled, set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. And may God bless the reading of his word. Amen.

Amen. We’re going to look at 4 ways that we can let the resurrected Christ raise our hopes. Here’s the first. Trust Christ to take care of your future. Trust Christ to take care of your future.

We don’t know what’s coming next. We don’t know what’s in the future, but we know the one who’s already there. He’s already there, and he’s pulling us towards that destiny, and he tells us what it looks like. Here’s what he says. He says, “We have a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.” Now, I don’t know about you, but everything I lay hands on either perishes, spoils, or fades.

You buy a new car and it loses that new car smell. You buy your wife a rose and petals start dropping before you can get that thing home sometimes. You got to buy them fresh. Beauty is fading, right? Beauty is beautiful, but then it fades.

But Jesus says there’s something he’s preparing for us that won’t do that. “Well, Gary, I don’t know about that because I’ve lived for a while and I’ve looked at this world and this world doesn’t function that way. In fact, there’s something about this world that’s just not quite right. It’s beautiful, but yet it has misery in it. It’s wonderful, but yet there’s suffering.

There’s sweetness, but there’s a real bitterness to it, too. What is wrong with this world?” Well, what’s wrong with this world is when God made it, he created it good. But because of man’s sin, which is basically this, it’s an attitude that says, “I’m going to do it my way instead of your way, God.” That’s what sin is. “I.” Sin starts with that word, “I will.” I’ll do it, and I’ll do it my own way. And because of that, it introduced suffering into this creation, into this world, and so things just aren’t quite right.

Jesus comes and he rises from the grave, and he defeats death because he hates death and he hates all that death does. He does not just to us but to the creation because he’s bringing the kingdom of God. And when he’s finished, when he comes back to get us, there’ll be no more dying. There’ll be no more perishing. There’ll be no more of this weeping and this sorrow, and we’ll be given new bodies.

Now I’m not talking about heaven in a way. Now we sang about heaven a minute ago. That’s a song that Steven recently wrote, and I said, “I want you to sing that because because we’ve set the whole stage up and the screen and everything for you to think about something. Don’t you love this white picket fence, this kind of a blue sky thing? God made this universe, this world, this planet, the stars in the sky for us, for his glory, but we are the crown of creation.

We’re not an accident of nature. God made us on purpose, and he bestows us this love. Why did he make it beautiful unless he wanted us to to see it so that his glory would be shown to us.

Whenever I do something, I like to build things and I like to work with wood and I like to write music and I like to create things, but it’s really no purpose to it if someone doesn’t say, “That’s pretty cool,” because also I want others to share that with me. And so recently we’ve been working on remodeling our bathroom To keep me going, my wife has to come in every little bit because I get more paint on me than I do on the wall. She’d come in and she’d go, “Good job!” Of course, then I’ll work for another 24 hours. “Good job!” She’s figured that out. “You’re so smart.” I’m like— I start working.

God made us this way. He made this planet. He made everything. He didn’t have to make it beautiful, but he did. He made it so that we would see it.

And so whatever is coming won’t be completely unlike what we see. It’ll be better. And so the creation is giving birth, and our bodies will die, and they will be sown, and when they come up, there will be something similar. There will be a physical existence but better, and we catch a glimpse of it when we see the resurrected Jesus. Were they able to touch him?

Yeah. Could they see him? Yeah. Could they have a meal? Could they share a meal with him?

Yes. The difference being he had a body that would never die. He had a body that could go into the presence of the living holy God and not burn up. Because it was a holy body without the imperfections. And we’ll get one of those.

That’s what’s coming. Trust Christ with your future. And here’s the thing I want you to get. You won’t be floating on a cloud like you’re in a Charmin commercial. That’s not coming.

That wouldn’t be heaven. That’d be the other place for me. I mean, like, boring. No, I believe heaven will be something where the physical existence is true, that there will be, “I will know you and you will know me.” “Gary, how do you know that?” Well, read the parable that Jesus talks about when he tells the story about the rich man and Lazarus. Did Lazarus and the rich man know each other?

Yeah, they called each other by name. They had self-knowledge. They remembered what they did on this earth, and they knew each other. When you leave this world, you will not become like a drop in the ocean of nothingness. You will still be who you are, and in Christ you’ll be more of who you are.

And so he’s preparing a place for you. In fact, let me read that to you because the disciples were worried about this. See, Jesus kept talking about being crucified, and how they were going to crucify him and how he’s going to get up 3 days later, and that was scaring them because they thought, “Well, he’s leaving us. What are we going to do if he leaves?” Here’s what he said to them in John chapter 14. He said, “Let not your heart be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again.” and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Now, it took God 6 days to make the creation. Isn’t that what the Bible says?

And Jesus has been preparing a place for how long? He’s been gone for 2,000 years. Wonder what he’s up to. He’s going to prepare a place for him? No, he said, “I’m going to prepare a place for you.” Now, did he do pretty good the first time?

I think he did. We never saw the Garden of Eden. We can only read about it. But even this sin-stricken world, this world that groans with suffering because of man’s sin, we still catch glimpses of the glory underneath of what it was supposed to have been. It’s still, boy, it’s still pretty good, isn’t it?

That’s just like a reflection. That’s just like a foretaste of what he’s preparing. He’s made it for you. It’ll be sweet. It’ll be great.

It’ll have meaning. And everything that’s happened here, it won’t be disconnected from it. It will be connected to it. Everything you do for God, everything you’ve done by faith, it will never be forgotten. God won’t forget it.

And here’s what he says. I want you to see this. He says this, he says, “That you have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade, kept in heaven.” Kept in heaven for you. Man, that’s— I know your 401 slipped off to a 101, you know. I know some of you are planning on working past your planned age of retirement now.

I think I’ll be working probably at Walmart down there saying, “Hello. Hello. Howdy. Welcome to Walmart. Was planning on retiring, but now I’m working at Walmart,” you know.

And so, you know, but Jesus says, “Look, I’ve got something in heaven for you.”— and it’s guaranteed. And he says even better than that, look at verse 5, “Who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation.” He says, “Not only that, if you place your faith in me and my resurrection from the dead, if you trust in me, I’m going to shield you too. I’m not just going to shield your coming inheritance that you’re going to get this place that I promised for you. I’m going to shield your salvation so that you trust me by faith and you are kept by faith.” You don’t have to work to be one of my kids. No, I did all the work on the cross.

I died and I got up. Now you receive it. And so we don’t work to get saved and we don’t work to stay saved. We believe to be saved and we keep on believing, right? And he says, I’m going to shield you.

I’m going to protect you. And when I come again, you’ll be one of mine and you’ll be like me. And he’s the firstborn from the dead. That means he’s the first model. He’s the first one, and so we get a body like Jesus.

That’s good stuff, isn’t it? He says this in Matthew, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Are you investing in that future day? See, you can invest with hope and know you won’t lose it. “Well, Gary, I’ve heard it said you can’t take it with you.” Well, that’s not true. That should go over in that other one, “Don’t get your hopes up.” Don’t get your hopes up, you can’t take it with you, over in the false column.

You can take it with you. “Well, Gary, I hadn’t explained that to me.” Well, that passage just said there’s something you can take with you, and it’s only those things that you do by faith. If you tell someone about Christ and they come to Christ, do you get to take them with you? Yup. If you believe, if you do what God says for you to do, does he forget it?

No, he remembers it for eternity, and he will celebrate it with you. He will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” He’ll tell the other servants about it. “Did you see what happened there when they were faithful right there?” See, the book of Revelation says he bottles our tears. Man, he’s not forgetting any stuff. Maybe some of you lost a ring when you was on vacation and that just plagues you to death to this day.

“I lost my ring.” Or you lost a photograph. Maybe your house burned down. You lost all your family photographs and you got this sense of loss or maybe it’s something worse than that. He says, “Look, what you think you lost, you won’t lose. Everything that counts will all be there for you.

Everything you’ve longed for, there it’ll be.” So friends, stop investing and putting your hope in stuff that’s not going to last.

The more you buy, the more you got to take care of it. Put it in something that lasts. Here’s the second way to get your hopes up. Rejoice in Christ during your present trials. So trust him with your future.

Rejoice in your present trials. In verse 6, it says, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” Don’t you like how Peter says, “Now for a little while”? For some of you, you’re saying, “Little while’s getting a little long. Starting to feel like a long while.” How long is a little while? Here’s the 2 things you want to know when the doctor says to you, “Now, this might hurt.” You got 2 questions for the doctor, right?

How much and how long?

“This is going to hurt a little bit.” What’s a little bit and how long is it going to hurt? What’s a little while and what’s a little bit? Because your little bit and your little while might be more than mine.

Some of you are in the middle of a suffering season right now and you’re going, “Lord, when’s this going to end?” Or some of you are saying, “I don’t think it’s ever going to end.” You’ve lost hope. You’ve lost hope. But here’s the thing about suffering. It has a beginning. It has a midpoint where it just feels like you’re going to break, and then it ends.

That’s how it is. In this world, that’s how seasons of joy sometimes come. That’s how seasons of harvest sometimes come. Sometimes they have a beginning and an end. And we base our faith, if we do, if we base our faith on those circumstances, then our faith looks like that.

Hey, I’m doing good now, so I believe. Oh, I’m not doing so good now, so I don’t believe. No, believe in the resurrection. That’s true. That never changes.

Believe that Jesus is coming again. That’s true. That never changes. So your faith stays here, and yeah, happiness kind of follows happenings, but joy and hope, they’re fixed on this truth of what’s true in Christ. “And so rejoice in spite of your suffering.” And he says, “Here’s why, because it’ll build your faith, and your faith’s worth more than gold,” he says.

And gold, by the way, if you want to get the impurities out, you heat it up. You heat gold up. You take the gold ore, you heat it up, and to the top will bubble up the impurities, and then the goldsmith sloths that stuff off until It increases the purity of the gold or the faith. Now, I imagine if you’re the gold, that might sting a little bit, the heat and the sloughing off part. Have you noticed that when you go through a season of suffering that some of your impurities rise to the surface and come out your mouth?

Right. And you say things that you said, “I’d never say that again.” I told the Lord I’d never say that again, and I just said that because you’re suffering and you found out, “Ooh, there was still something down in there, wasn’t there, Lord? There was still something that was not perfected about my faith. I guess I must still be growing.” Some of us are young and we haven’t been through a lot yet, and we can’t figure out why them old people can’t get it right. It’s because you haven’t been through what they’ve been through yet.

Here’s the thing I’m starting to learn. I know less today than I did 10 years ago. At least I’m less confident about it. But the one thing I know for sure, I know more for sure. I know that Jesus rose from the grave and he lives today and he’s coming to get me again, and when he does, it’s all going to be okay.

I know that better and better. And the other stuff, the stuff that involved what I could do and what I believed, I know that less and less. I know that less and less.

I don’t know about you. I want these sufferings to count because they sting pretty good. I mean, if the doctor’s going to have to go in there and cut something out and it’s going to sting, he better get it. Come on, get it. Don’t have to go twice for it.

I don’t want you in there after it twice. You know, if the doctor’s got to get it out, let’s get it out, right? It’s going to sting, okay, let’s get it over with. What about the suffering in this world? How many times do you need to take the remedial exam before your faith gets purified?

Some of us, we go through a time of suffering, instead of saying, “Lord, I trust you. I’m going to claim joy. I’m going to rejoice in spite of my sufferings.” Instead, we get all bitter and like this, and then the Lord, “Ah, I’m going to have to give them another round of that. They’re going to have to take another round of that spiritual chemo right here. It’s going to half kill them, but I’ve got to purify their faith because I’m making them like Jesus.” What they don’t understand, someday this will all matter.

This suffering which seemed meaningless at the time and seemed like it lasts forever, they’re going to look at it later when they’re with Jesus and they’re going to say, “That didn’t last but just a little while,” and I’m glad the Lord put He put me through it because now I know, now I know, now I know it counts. He was making me like Christ. See, him getting up from the grave makes sense. It makes everything make sense. Romans says, “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later.

All creation anticipates the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time, and even we Christians,” Although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groaning to be released from pain and suffering, we too wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us. See, the suffering that you go through today, don’t waste it. You always got a choice when you go through suffering. You can become bitter, or you can ask Christ to make you better.

And say, “Lord, can I get this one right the first time? I don’t want to take the makeup test on this one.” Here’s the third way. So trust him with your future, rejoice with him in your present trials. The third way is believe the past testimony about Christ’s resurrection. Notice verse 8, he says, “Though you’ve not seen him.” See, Peter had seen the resurrected Christ, hadn’t he?

He’d seen him. He saw the empty tomb. He knew the facts. He knew that wasn’t just metaphorically speaking when Jesus said he was getting up. He really meant that.

I don’t know what we thought he meant when he kept talking about it, but he got up. We saw him. It changed everything. Peter went from a man who wouldn’t even share his faith around a campfire at night. He denied Christ 3 times, the 3rd time with a curse on his lips.

But when he saw Jesus get up, he stood up in front of people, and 3,000 people came to Christ in the city of Jerusalem. He shouted. He became the greatest preacher among the apostles. Peter was a changed man. What happened?

He saw the resurrected Jesus. It was a fact for him. But then he writes the book of 1 Peter to us, and he says, “You’ve not seen him, have you? Will you believe that I saw him?” And some of you will. And Peter says, “When you will, it’ll be like this.” Look at verse 8.

He says, He says, “Some of you will see him and you’ll love him.” I mean, without seeing him, you’ll love him. Some of you, even though you don’t see him now, you’ll believe him and you’ll have an inexpressible and glorious joy come up in you even though you’ve never seen him. Some of you today believe what Peter said about the resurrected Jesus. I’ve never seen Jesus. I’ve never seen him with my eyes, but I love him.

Sight unseen, I love him.

Unseen, I believe in him. Unseen, something is rising up in me that gives me a joy that I cannot describe. That’s what Peter’s talking about. Have you decided to place your hope in what he’s already done and what he’s going to do? See, he’s in process.

He’s already done the hard work. He’s already done the heavy lifting.

Right? And that coming again part, that’s going to be fun. And then we get, we’re going to be like him. That’s what’s coming. That’s what’s coming.

And if you keep reading there in verses 10 and following, you can see that the prophets, well, they’re on the other side of that happening, that resurrection thing. They’re way back there and they’re looking actually this way at it. It hadn’t happened yet. They’re like, there’s a Messiah coming. There’s a Christos, an anointed one coming, and they keep getting glimpses of it, and the Holy Spirit was revealing them, and they would write it down, and they were studying it like, what will the times look like when he comes?

And they wrote down, and Isaiah wrote down, he will be pierced for our transgressions. He wasn’t sure what he was writing. He’s like, “I’m catching a glimpse of something. Can this be the Messiah?” And then old David, you know, he was playing his harp one night late looking at the stars, and he started writing down. He said, “The dogs will encircle him, and they’ll auction off, they’ll gamble for his clothes.” He writes it down in a song.

They couldn’t quite get their mind around it, but their hope reached into the future to this Messiah. And it happened. He came and fulfilled all that Old Testament prophecy. That’s what, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you searched intently with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances.” It goes on to say, “It was revealed to them,” verse 12, “that they were not serving themselves but you.” Here’s what they figured out. He’s not going to come during my lifetime, is he?

I’m getting old now. The best I can do is write this down. So that when he does come, they’ll recognize him. So the Old Testament is like this collection of these prophets writing this down. He’s coming.

And so their hope was looking to his coming. See, but now our hope is a little different. It’s anchored in that that already happened, but it’s not finished yet.

He’s coming again like that. Isn’t that sweet? We can have faith in that. Romans chapter 8 says, “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope.” You can’t see it. It wouldn’t be hope if you could see it.

But why does one hope for what he already sees? “But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.” Get your hopes up. That really happened. I really believe it. That’s the center point of all Christianity.

Today, here you are on Easter Sunday, celebrating the centerpiece of Christianity. The founder of our religion is not in the grave. We do not go to his grave and worship the grave. It’s empty. We worship the risen Savior because he’s alive, and that’s the fact.

And then finally, how do you get your joy up? How do you get your hope up? Set your mind on having a living hope in Christ today. Look at that final verse, verse 13, “Therefore.” Whenever you see that in the text, you should always ask what? What’s it there for?

Therefore. It’s always a conclusion. It’s like an equal sign in the text. So he said all this, which equals this, so do this. He says, “Therefore, prepare your minds for action.

Be self-controlled. Set your hope.” So here’s the fourth way that we get our hopes up. Set your mind on having a living hope in Christ today. A few weeks ago, daylight savings time came, right? And you had to set your watch.

So you wouldn’t miss your appointments, right? So you set your clocks. You went through your whole house. And here’s what Peter’s saying. He’s saying, set your hope on what’s in store for you in Christ.

Don’t set your hope on a relationship that won’t completely fulfill you. Yeah, you should have someone in life. Yeah, it’s right to love someone in marriage, or it’s right to have friends, but don’t set all your hope there. They’re not going to be able to live up to it. Don’t set your hope on a new house or a car or a vacation.

It won’t quite live up to it. Should you not have those things? I’m not saying that. Enjoy life. God gave it to you, but don’t set your hopes there.

Set your hopes on something that will not be dashed, that will never perish or spoil or fade. Set your hopes on what Christ has done. And then he says it’s a living hope. Wonder why he said living hope. That’s a kind of hope.

It’s a living hope. He didn’t say dead hope. Remember when James, over in the book of James, said, “Faith without works is dead.” What he meant was there’s a dead faith, and dead faith has no— it produces nothing. That kind of faith has no fruit. It doesn’t bear any fruit.

So if I were to, by analogy, apply James’ thinking to hope, the opposite of living hope would be dead hope, so it would be hope without fruit. So today we could have someone who says, “I believe that Jesus is coming again and I have hope and I’m just sitting here waiting for him to come and the whole world can just go to h*** while I wait.” That’s not living hope. That’s dead hope. Living hope says, He’s coming again. I get a new body.

He’s taking care of the future. I’m going to use this one up. I’m going to use this body up. Why would I want to save part of it? I get a new one anyway.

Let’s use this booger up.

Come on, let’s use it up and let’s do something for God now because it’s going to be better. And what I do here will matter there if I do it in the power of Christ and by his Spirit, it’ll matter.

And this hope, it has a medicinal kind of effect on the mind. This is a benefit. It’s like a bomb. It’s better than Prozac. It is.

It’s better. It’s better. You can’t get this at the doctor’s office. They can’t write a prescription for this. You’ve got to go to Jesus I want you to get this.

It helps you see things from God’s perspective. “Gary, where are you getting this from?” Well, he says, “Prepare your minds for action. Be self-controlled. Set your hope fully.” It’s something about a way of thinking here. When you get your hope right, you think different.

1 Thessalonians says it like this, 1 Thessalonians 5:8, “But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate.” So faith and love kind of protect your passion in your heart.— but hope, it says, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. Something about hope protects your mindset, the way you think. How many of you have met somebody who lost their hope? They don’t think the same. How many of you have seen an old man who lost his wife?

You go to his house, he’s got dirty dishes in the sink. He don’t shave anymore. He smells like an old man because he don’t take a bath like he used to. He did all those things for his wife and he lost hope. You ever met somebody like that?

And statistically speaking, old men don’t live long after their wives die. Did you know that? They don’t live long because often they’re just so connected to that. So what is it? You see somebody lose hope, you see somebody lose hope, it affects their mind.

They start thinking wrong like that. Christ wants you to put your hope in him so that it helps you. It says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, “We continually remember your endurance.” Inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus. See, it gives you endurance. It gives you staying power because you know what’s coming.

You don’t want to miss the final chapter. He’s coming. He’s coming. I had something in mind, and since you’re here at the second service, you get to see it. First service, I forgot to do it, and so I forgot my page number.

Might not do it this service either.

I forgot my book turned over. This is first service, and I forgot to look it up. Okay, well, maybe I’m not supposed to do it at all. I was going to sing you a song from an old hymnal.

What’s that? Talk amongst yourselves for a second.

This is ridiculous. What am I doing?

Huh? Man, what in the world? Well, no. Oh hey, I had a marker in there. Woohoo!

Okay, all right, I’m going to sing four-part harmony. Y’all ready for this? This is from a church hymnal. Can you see how old this thing is? And, uh, it’s got my mama’s name in the front.

She wrote— she gave it to me. And I grew up in these old country churches where you had funeral home fans that you fanned yourself in. And this has got shape notes in it. Anybody know what shape notes are?

And so this is the soprano and then the alto, and I’m going to skip the tenor and jump to the bass. Y’all ready?

On the resurrection morning when all the dead in Christ shall rise. So there’s the soprano, and the alto says, I’ll have a new body. Praise the Lord, I’ll have a new life. And then eternal life. Sown in weakness, raised in power, ready to live in paradise.

I’ll have a new body, praise the Lord, I’ll have a new life. I’ll have a new home of love eternal with the redeemed of God to stand. There’ll be no more sorrow, no more pain, there’ll be no more strife. Yes, raised in the likeness of my Savior, ready to live in glory land. I’ll have a new body, praise the Lord, I’ll have a new life.— Oh yeah.

So we grew up singing that song, “I’ll have a new body. I’ll have a new body. I’ll have a new life. I’ll have a new body. I’ll have a new life.” So let’s use it up for Jesus.

Get your hopes up. Get your hopes up. Come on. Trust Christ with your future. Rejoice even in the midst of your present trials.

Believe on what he’s already done, even if you haven’t seen it. Believe because of the testimony of those who did see it. And then set your minds fully on this faith. Let’s pray.