Have you lost hope?

Good morning, everyone.  Welcome to Easter.  Today is the greatest day of the year, and we get to talk about why.  I don’t know what you think about Jesus, God, Church, religion, and all of that stuff.  I don’t know if you grew up in church or if church is new to you.  I don’t know where you are spiritually.  So, today, I wanted to start with something that is really important to get us all on the same page.  I’m going to read it for you from the Bible.  When I read it for you, it might surprise you.  Here it is. 

Galatians 2:21 NLT, 5:2 MSG If keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die… The moment any one of you submits to …any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered.

Paul, the one who wrote this, spent two years with this church.  In the two years Paul was with them, he was super clear that the only way you can be made right with God is to believe in Jesus and accept His grace.  In no way can you earn your way into heaven.  In no way can you try to live up to a set of rules and be holy enough to make it into heaven.  Paul taught that it doesn’t work that way.  The only way to be right with God is if you accept the grace of Jesus.  That’s it.

I want to ask you, did you know that?  That might be a surprise because some of us were raised in religion.  When I say religion, that simply means we were raised to believe that to be made right with God, it was up to us.  We were raised to believe that we had to live out a set of rules to earn our way into heaven.  Religion teaches that to be made right with God, it is up to us, what we do, and how we behave.  If you were raised in religion, it left you exhausted because you could never do enough.  And it left you feeling guilty all the time because no matter what you did, you were never good enough.  And that’s what religion does, it wears you out.    

That’s why Paul wrote this letter.  After Paul left the church, some new teachers started saying that grace wasn’t enough.  They taught that the people needed to live out the rules to be made right with God.  Paul found out about it and was pretty upset.  That’s why Paul said that if living out a set of rules could make us right with God, then there was no need for Jesus to die. 

What makes Easter the greatest day of the year is that our faith in Jesus makes us right with God.  That’s what we celebrate today.  We call that relationship.  Relationship simply means we are made right with God when we believe in Jesus and He becomes our personal savior.  It’s not based on what we do, it’s based on what God did.  And in this relationship with Jesus, Jesus gives us His righteousness.  It’s life-giving.  And that is what relationship does, it brings us to life.

I want to read it for you.

Romans 12:3 It’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. MSG

To get us all on the same page today, we are celebrating what Jesus did.  And because He took all our sins into Himself and died and was resurrected, Jesus broke the curse of sin.  What that means to us is that when we believe in Jesus, that curse of sin and all its damage is broken off of us.  Because Jesus was resurrected from the dead, Jesus can give us His power to live out each day.

This is how scripture says.

Colossians 1:13-14 He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. NLT

That’s Easter.  A celebration of what Jesus did. 

And here is the problem.  We live in a world that doesn’t know that.  The world knows about religion that wears people out, so they stay away from church.  And because our world doesn’t know about the hope of Jesus, people are losing hope.  And if you watch the news, it feels like it’s getting worse.  Most of the challenges we see on the news are because people are losing hope.

This past February, there was a shooting at the UPMC Memorial Hospital in York.  It was big news for a week.  They reported that the gunman did what he did because he thought the hospital could do more to save his terminally ill wife.  He lost hope and snapped.  He held some of the hospital staff hostage.  He shot three people who worked at UPMC.  Shot three officers, killing one.  Why did this happen?  Because he lost hope, and because he lost hope, he caused damage to others, causing them to begin to lose hope.

I was talking to a nurse who works in a nearby UPMC site, I wanted to know if she was impacted and how she was doing.  She walked me through what happened that day to her and her friends.  She then shared that she has noticed that the people she works with are losing hope.  They work with the feeling that says, ‘What we are up against is too much.’

We are living in a world where people are losing hope.  And that may include us.  I want to slow down and ask you, have you lost hope?  Do you have that feeling that says, ‘What I am up against is too much.’  Is it your marriage?  Is it your health?  Is it your business? Is it your finances?  Is it the world we live in?  Is it your adult kids?  Is it the stress of graduation and your future?  Are you losing hope and trying to keep it together? 

What does loss of hope look like?  The simple explanation is this.  You feel stuck, and it doesn’t go away.  A loss of hope can happen when you experience painful moments or challenges in life, and those moments lead you to feel overwhelmed, trapped, or insecure.  It’s that feeling that makes you think there is no reason to have joy or passion today.  To make it worse, there is no sign that things will get better tomorrow.  You're stuck living in a world with the feeling that there are no solutions to your problems.  That’s when hope begins to leak.

Because we are human, it’s common to experience moments of hopelessness.  However, if this feeling persists, we can run out of hope.  And if we have no hope, it will show up in our lives.  It can impact us emotionally and physically, and ultimately, it will disrupt how we live, even if we try to hide it. 

Eight signs that hopelessness is disrupting your life:

1.       Feeling depressed, anxious, and lonely much of the time.

2.       Experiencing trouble with sleep, appetite, and personal hygiene.

3.       Avoid spending time with family and friends or others outside the home.

4.       You have little interest or passion in things you once cared about.

5.       Constant feelings of worthlessness or being a failure.

6.       Not doing well at work or school.

7.       Not considering the consequences if you engage in risky activities or tempting fate.

8.       Feeling as if life is not worth living.

I want to slow down and ask you, do you see yourself on this list?  Have you lost hope?  Is there a specific area in your life where you are losing hope?  Are you losing hope and trying to hide it from others? 

If this is you, please hear me, God knows.  He knows we live in a world that comes against us.  He knows life has worn us out.  He knows we feel like we come up short.  He knows we feel overwhelmed.  He knows.  And He knows we are trying to hide it from others. 

This is what Paul wrote about his life.

Romans 7:24 I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? MSG

What does that sound like?  It sounds like Paul lost hope.  Paul puts his honest thoughts on paper for everyone to see.  And what I like about the Bible is it doesn’t ‘nice it up’.  What does Paul say?  He is tapped out.  He’s not happy.  He’s worn out.  He is in a spot where life feels like it’s too much for him.  He needs someone to rescue him.  Can you connect with that feeling of hopelessness?  Do you feel like you are at the end of your rope because nothing you do helps?

I want to read the hope that Paul found.

Romans 8:1-4 With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. MSG

That’s Easter.  God knows our situation, so God did something about it.  He sent Jesus to break the brutal tyranny of sin and death that steals our hope.  Because God knows, God sent Jesus to give us hope.  Jesus came to give us His power.  Jesus came to give us His righteousness.  And that’s why we are celebrating Easter today.  

Please hear me, we have all lost hope in moments of our lives because life and sin have worn us out.  We all have the same problem: Life seems overwhelming.  And we feel that pressure build.  What do we do to find relief?  What we normally do is turn to the world to find relief from the pressure.  It makes sense; we live in the world and think something from the world will help us.  We look for something, anything, that will take the pressure away and help us feel better again. 

The problem is, this world’s version of hope is a cheap version of the real thing.  It won’t last.  We know because we have all tried.  When you hear everyone’s story in this room, it’s filled with all our attempts to turn to this world to find relief.  Alcoholism leading to DUIs and prison.  Depression leading to suicide attempts.  Affairs leading to damaging marriages.  Checking out in life and relationships leading to loneliness.  Living with unforgiveness leading to hurting ourselves and our relationships.  Feeling hurt leading us to check out of community.  Everyone in this room knows this because we have all tried to find hope in this world, and it didn’t work.

The hope God gives is radically different.  It’s a promise from God that we know, it will happen.  We can have settled confidence in what God said.  I call it ‘God hope’.  And when we have ‘God hope’, we can have courage, we can have confidence, and we can know that everything is right between us and God.  I want to read it for you.

Hebrews 6:19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.  NIV 

Same verse but a different translation.

This certain hope of being saved is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls, connecting us with God himself behind the sacred curtains of heaven. TLB

I’m excited to tell you that having ‘God hope’ isn’t difficult or complicated.  The only thing that is required is a shift in what you put your hope into.  We stop putting our hope into anything of this world and put our hope into God.  It’s the anchor in our soul that connects us to God.  It pulls us through all the hard times.

Remember how we started today?  The only way we are made right with God is through our personal savior, Jesus.  Remember that verse?

Romans 12:3 It’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. MSG

If you have lost hope or are losing hope, you won’t be able to create hope on your own.  You can’t do it.  You can try, but it won’t work.  You won’t be able to find it in this world.  This world’s version of hope is a cheap version of the real thing.  It won’t last.  This world’s version of hope never works; it always leads to more damage.

If you have lost hope or are leaking hope, you can have hope again.  It’s what Jesus came to offer you.  All you need to do to start your journey is to make a shift.  Stop placing your hope in the things of this world and place your hope in God.

Romans 3:21-22 God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. NLT

Making the shift isn’t difficult or complicated.  We simply put our hope in Jesus.  And that ‘God-hope’ becomes the anchor in our souls that pulls us through hard times. 

For some of you, it might be the first time.  If you want Jesus to be your personal savior, you simply pray, ask God to forgive you of your sins, and invite Jesus into your life.  When you believe in Jesus and ask Him to be your personal savior, scripture says you are made right with God.  Scripture teaches that Jesus gives you His righteousness.  You move from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God.  You no longer have to live under that continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. 

When you accept Jesus as your personal savior, it’s not the finish line, it’s the starting point of a whole new life. 

Scripture says,

1 Peter 1:18-21 Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. MSG

For some of us, you may have given your life to Jesus years ago, but you have been leaking hope and trying to hide it from others.  Life may be wearing you down.  And today, you need hope. 

I want to read for you what King David wrote.

Psalm 4610 Be still, and know that I am God. NIV

In Hebrew, ‘Being still’ means to stop striving, fighting, or gutting it out.  ‘Be still’ means, come to God, be weak, let go, surrender, and release your pain to Him.  And in that moment, Jesus can give you hope.  Today, before you leave, give your burden, that thing that is wearing you out, to Jesus. 

To close today, I want to ask you, have you lost hope?  Is there a specific area in your life where you are losing hope?  Are you losing hope and trying to hide it from others?  If this is you, please hear me, God knows.  It’s the whole point of Easter.  Because Jesus overcame death, Jesus can give you His power to live.  That’s hope.  Let’s read this and pray.

Hebrews 6:19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.  NIV 

This certain hope of being saved is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls, connecting us with God himself behind the sacred curtains of heaven. TLB

If you have lost hope, you can find hope in Jesus.