HOPE.

Our Future and Our Hope

1 “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.”  

Jeremiah 29:11-13 NLT

GOD HAS BIG PLANS FOR US.

• God has a plan and a purpose for our lives.

1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 NLT

• More people are seeking and asking questions about God in this pandemic.
• Coronavirus outbreak spurs record Bible purchases: ‘People are looking for hope’.  News article
• Some are looking wholeheartedly, and they will find God.
• This could be a great awakening for our nation or the world.

 

19 And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

Hebrews 10:19-22 NLT

 

OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD THROUGH HIS SON JESUS GIVES US BOLDNESS.

• Jesus made a way for us to enter into the very presence of God.
• We can have a private personal meeting with God each day.
• Many of us had taken for granted being able to gather for church.
• You can establish your own personal relationship with Christ right now by faith alone.

My hope for families:

• I hope we don’t get back to lives that are way too busy.
• I hope we don’t rush back to what wasn’t healthy for our families.
• I hope we will continue to sit down for meals with our family and have engaging conversations.
• I hope we will continue to take walks with our spouse and children.
• I hope parents will continue to teach their children.
• I hope we seek God for a new normal for us.

23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. 24 Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.  

Hebrews 10:23-25 NLT

AT TIMES LIKE THIS, WE ARE TO HOLD TIGHTER THAN EVER TO THE HOPE WE HAVE.

• Our Hope is Christ!
• Our Hope is not in anything but Christ alone.

Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone. 

Psalm 33:22 NLT

1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”  6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” 

John 14:1-6 NLT