God’s Rope of Hope
SERMON STARTER
Last Friday night Lois and I were loading our pickup with a load of food we use for emergency distribution. It was after dark, cold and windy. A couple of cans dropped out of a sack and rolled to the next car. A lady who was waiting for us to finish so she could enter her car said, “Leave them there. I’ll take them!” I bantered back, “Call my office and I’ll arrange a emergency food order. All this food is for distribution to the poor.” She bantered back, “That’s DANGEROUS, working with the poor. They could HURT you!” “I replied, “Our trust is in the Lord!” She snapped back, “Honey, there is no God and you’re wasting your time among the poor!” With that exclamation she climbed in her car and drove off.
Bitterness is all you’re left with if you actually believe there is no God. This woman was a bitter, hopeless soul. This is a sermon about hope and hopelessness. Here I explore the meaning of “waiting on the Lord” in its true context and translation of “Hoping in the Lord.” Our family’s logo is one of high achievement. We see the eagle as the animal that embodies what we see as an ideal. Those who hope in the Lord, “shall mount up on wings as eagles.”
All Hebrew words have a pictorial origin. The Hebrew word, “Qua-Vah,” pictures a broken rope (us) being braided into another stronger rope (The Lord.) Be encouraged that your hope in the Lord is not in vain.
Pastor Phil <><<
January 20, 2008
Sheepfold Ministries- Pastor Phil Roland
God’s Rope of Hope
The Benefits of Waiting on the Lord
Isaiah 40:28-31
“. . .but those who hope in the LORD (wait on the Lord) will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:31
dRw = QUA-VAH = Wait, Hope, Ernest Expectation
To Bind Together By Twisting Several Materials Together
Taking one or more strands of material and binding them together
with stronger material to make a rope.
TO MAKE God’s Rope of Hope
I. WE MUST OFFER TO GOD STRANDS OF OUR WEAKNESS
A. Strand of Sorrow and Grief
1. Despair, Helplessness and Hopelessness
2. Anger/Rage
3. Guilt - “The Shoulds,” “Have To’s” and “Ought to’s”
4. Fear - Four Primal Fears - Abandonment/Death is King!
5. Religious Bargaining -“Where were You, God?”
6. Depression - Can last for years or even a lifetime!
7. Unresolved Grief - “I can deal with this by myself!”
B. Strand of Our Physical Weakness and Infirmities
1. We live in a temporal body. Deal with it! Eccles. 3:20; Ecclesiastes 3:19,20
”Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. 20All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.
Job 7:5-6
”My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering. “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.”
2. Some are healed this side of death: all in the Resurrection
1 Cor. 15:54
”When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and
the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come
true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
3. Take Responsibility For Yourself! Don’t neglect your health!
a. Eat right
b. Sleep 7 to 8 hours each night
c. Take your doctor prescribed medications!
d. Don’t be afraid of alternative meds and approaches
C. Strand of Moral and Temporal Weakness
1. Self-Centeredness - Subjectivity/Immaturity – 2 Cor. 10:12
”We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who
commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves
and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.”
a. It’s time to GROW UP!
Matt. 5:48 - Mature, complete, Fully Grown
“Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your father in
heaven is perfect.”
b. “God, help me to GROW UP before I grow old!”
2. Self Deception - “I’m right and the whole world is wrong!”
3. Rebellion - “Nobody tells me what to do!” 1 Sam. 15:23
”For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as
iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the
LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.”
II. ALLOW GOD TO BRAID OUR WEAKNESS INTO HIS STRENGTH
A. He Exchanges His Strength for Our Weakness
2 Cor. 12:9,10
”And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is
made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. “
1. You plus God are a majority – 1 John 4:4
“Greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world”
2. No Weapon Formed Against You Will Prosper – Isa. 54:17
“No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue
which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the
heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is
from Me," Says the LORD.”
B. Braided Together With God We Will Not Fail
Ecclesiastes 4:12b
“A cord of three strands is not easily broken.”
1. That’s you, One Another and God
2. God has made us for One Another and for Himself
C. The enemy can easily conquer a “Loner”
Hebrews 10:23,24
“And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of
some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the
Day approaching. “
III. GOD BRAIDS INTO US HIS PROMISES:
A. His Strand of Presence - John 14:18
“I will Never Leave You. . .”
B. His Strand of Promise - John 14:19
“Because I Live, You Will Live Also”
C. His Strand of Faith - Hebrews 11:1; Romans 12:3
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen.”
“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you,
not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think
soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”
1. Faith is the “Stuff” of hope
2. To every man the Same Measure of Faith
D. His Strand of Love - John 15:10
"If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have
kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.”
IV. GOD BRAIDS INTO US HIS FULFILLMENT
A. His Life for Ours - Romans 5:8-10
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by
His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much
more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
B. His Faith For Ours – Galatians 2:20
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in
me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of
God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”KJV
C. His Love and Power For Ours – 2 Cor. 12:10; 1 Cor. 1:27
“Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in
persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I
am strong.”
“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the
wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the
things which are mighty;”
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE Rope of Hope:
1. Braided together with Godly Hope we RENEW OUR STRENGTH
2. Braided together with Godly Hope we MOUNT UP
3. Braided together with Godly Hope we RUN IN OUR YOUTH
4. Braided together with Godly Hope we
WALK IN STRENGTH IN OUR OLD AGE
God’s Rope of Hope, Text:
Isaiah 40:28-31
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his
understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.