Guaranteed Hope, An Anchor of the Soul

Hello, brethren, and happy Sabbath to you! Hope this finds you all doing well on this Sabbath day, wherever you may be, whether you're in the church hall or out on the webcast. Obviously, I'm not in the church hall. This is a pre-recorded message coming from my office. My family decided it would be best for us to self-quarantine for one more Sabbath before we rejoin you, but we're looking forward to being together next Sabbath, God willing. I hope you're all doing well, and a very wonderful Sabbath day to you all.

For my sermon today, I'd like to begin with a question, and that is, what do you set your hopes on in this life? What do you set your hopes on in this life? The concept of hope is an important one, and it's a critical one to our way of thinking as we walk through life's ups and downs.

God desires that we be hopeful people. He desires that we have goals and ambitions and make plans and have hopes and strive for those things. God is a God of hopes himself, and he desires that we have hopes as well. But he also desires that we understand the importance of prioritizing our hopes and that we understand the purpose that we have hope in this life. Now, hope's an interesting word because by definition it can be defined as either a noun or a verb.

So it's a thing, as in something that you possess, like, you know, I have hope that 2021 is going to be a better year than 2020. You know, I possess that hope. It is a part of me. But it could also be a verb, an action, which is, you know, I am hoping that 2021 is going to be much better than 2020.

So hope is something that we have. It's something that we express. According to dictionary.com, hope, when it's used as a noun, is the feeling that what is wanted can be had. It's the feeling that what is wanted can be had, or that events will turn out for the best. And in that sense, again, it is something we possess. It's a noun. As it defines it as a verb, hope is to look forward to something with desire and reasonable confidence.

It's to look forward to something with desire and reasonable confidence. And in that sense, it's an action. You know, in this life, we all have hopes. We all have hopes, right? We all have things that we anticipate, things that we look forward to with a reasonable expectation that they will happen. And we often live our lives making plans in accordance with those hopes.

If you put years of effort, for example, into furthering your education, you've gone through K through 12, now you're off to university for years, maybe six, maybe eight years, whatever it is that you're pursuing, but you put your efforts towards that, you push out the distractions, you buckle down, you make good grades.

Why do you do those things? Well, it's in a hope, isn't it? It's in hopes of an outcome. It's in hopes of getting a good job someday. It's in the hopes of driving a nice car, living in a nice house in a decent neighborhood. It's in the hopes of being able to provide well for your family. And so hope is oftentimes something that we look forward to with a reasonable expectation that it will happen, but it likely means that we have to put in the effort towards it along the way as well. And those are reasonable hopes, generally, in terms of if we set down, they're obtainable if we put in the effort, at least usually. But there's also unreasonable hopes.

And I'm not going to go down that path today other than to say that, you know, there's hopes that you might just throw up there like, I hope I win the lottery, although I never bought a ticket. Well, that's not a reasonable hope. And, frankly, buying a ticket, hoping to win a lottery, in my opinion, is not a reasonable hope. We seek after reasonable hopes and godly balance in our hopes.

Now, if you're taking notes today, I'd like to begin by having you write down on your paper five things that you hope for in this life. So go ahead and do that. If you can pull those up in your mind, just jot them down quickly. Five things that you hope for in this life. It can be physical things. It can be spiritual things. So just give you 10 seconds to do that, if you've already started, hopefully.

Okay, hopefully you're fast writers, and you know what you want. Five hopes in this life. Now, what I want you to do is we're going to answer, ask and answer two questions based on each hope you've written down. You don't have to show these to your neighbor. You know, these are yours. But these two questions, you need to ask and answer against these hopes. So question number one, is this hope guaranteed, or is it not guaranteed? Ask that about each hope you've written down. Is this hope guaranteed, or is it not guaranteed? A guaranteed hope is something that will happen. All right, there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It will happen. It's absolute guaranteed.

Now, non-guaranteed hope is something that you do hope will happen, but certain things could come along that would derail that hope, perhaps. Health, financial issues, time, constraints. You know, we don't always get to everything we hope for in this life. So is it guaranteed hope or non-guaranteed hope? Just mark that down. Secondly, second question, is my life's purpose and contentment dependent on this hope coming to pass? Yes or no? Ask that about each one. Is my life's purpose dependent? And is my contentment dependent on this hope coming to pass? Now, the purpose of this little exercise is to help us see that there are hopes in life that are steadfast, and they are sure, and they're guaranteed. And you know what? There are also hopes that are at risk of being dashed to pieces as well. Now, it's not wrong to have both, and very likely your listing contained a mixture of both guaranteed, non-guaranteed hopes. Okay, that is normal. But as God's people, we do need to understand where the priority is, and where our priority each and every day lies as we consider our hopes.

Rather than this past year has been a year of dashed hopes for many people. With the coronavirus pandemic that's been circling the globe and the fallout that's erupted from it, we've all been reminded that there are very few guarantees in this life. In fact, many people had hoped for many things that did not come to pass in 2020. Many people had hoped to take a vacation in 2020.

I hope to take a vacation every year. This year I didn't anticipate a vacation. The fact was, though, I did cancel five trips. Five trips on the docket because of restrictions and travel restrictions this year. So people hoped to take vacations. That was dashed. People hoped to start a thriving business in 2020. Open a restaurant in 2020. Some started, but many hopes were dashed.

Many people hope to have another year of experience, of relationship with their spouse, with their parent, maybe with a child, and it didn't happen. Perhaps it was cut short in 2020. And for many people, this year has been a year of dashed hopes and of great disappointments.

Here in the United States, we are on track this year to have the highest number of fatalities ever in the history of the nation. And that might sound shocking, but you have to understand that's not completely unusual. We oftentimes have year after year where the fatality rate is highest because it's a little higher than the previous year. Aging population, greater population, those sorts of things. So that's not an unusual trend, but this year has been exceptional simply by the numbers. The United States is expected to top 3 million in fatalities for the first time since ever, right, here in 2020. According to the CDC, final mortality figures won't be in for a few months, but preliminary numbers suggest that the United States is on track to see more than 3.2 million deaths this year, and that's an increase of 400,000 over 2019. And people could debate, you know, what makes up those numbers. That's not my purpose here, but the point is the numbers. The projected 2020 fatality rate amounts to an increase of 15 percent over last year, and it would mark the highest single-year percentage increase since 1918. So what was happening in 1918? Well, in 2020, we all hear about what happened in 1918. It was the Spanish flu pandemic, all right, and to have a single year-over-year percentage jump that high hasn't happened since 1918. Now, over the course of 2018 and 2019, life expectancy in the United States actually inched up by several weeks each year due to reductions in heart disease, reduction in cancer deaths because of medical advances and science and just better treatment, okay? But the life expectancy number 2020, once they bring all the numbers in, once they add up all the fatalities in the ages, the life expectancy for 2020, they project couldn't end up dropping as much as three full years, again, according to the CDC.

Three years. That's a lot of hopes, Dash. That's a lot of missed experiences, isn't it? That's a lot of disappointments for many. And brethren, my point is this. If our primary purpose in this life is tied up in those hopes that are not a guarantee, then we run the risk of setting ourselves up for great disappointment and even hopelessness when life gets tough. When we have hopes, when we have ambitions, and they are cut short, we can end up hopeless if, in fact, our primary life's purpose is tied up in those things which are not a guarantee. Again, it's not wrong to have hopes, to have dreams, to have ambitions in this life. Indeed, we must. God created us with that ambition, and it's a part of our human existence from Him. But non-guaranteed hopes can't be elevated to the point that they distract our focus from reaching for the true eternal hope that God has set before us. Non-guaranteed hopes can't trump the guaranteed eternal hope that God has set before us all.

When we walk through trials, brethren, when we walk through obstacles that we didn't anticipate, when COVID-19 comes along, you know, and just turns the whole world upside down, and we find certain hopes dashed, what will our spiritual condition be at the end of the day?

What will our spiritual condition look like at times such as those?

Kind of for my message today is guaranteed hope, an anchor for our soul.

There's non-guaranteed hope, but we're going to focus on guaranteed hope, an anchor for our soul.

Let's turn today to Hebrews chapter 6 as we begin to delve into God's Word. Hebrews 6, here the book of Hebrews, is written to a group of Christians who are undergoing a struggle of persecution, of trauma, difficulty in their own time. Because, you see, they had certain hopes dashed as well from following Jesus Christ, from professing their hope in Christianity.

Because they followed God, they had certain things that happened in their life, traumatic compared to even things that many of us have gone through over the past year. And the message to them is to endure. That's the message of Hebrews. It's like in the midst of the struggle and the dashed hopes, endure, persevere, don't give up on your faith. In fact, set your hope in the things that are certain. Set your hope in the promises of God. Hebrews chapter 6, verse 13. Let's jump into the passage here. Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 13.

It says, For when God made promises to Abraham, in fact, he made many promises. This is specific, a promise. For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely, blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply you. And so after he had patiently endured Abraham, he obtained the promise. Verse 16. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge, notice, to lay hold of the hope set before us. You and I in this life, we have fled for refuge, refuge from the world, from the ways of the world, everything that's going around us, in order that we might lay hold of the hope that is set before us. The hope of salvation that's been set before us is a hope that is promised by God. That's what this has been telling us, is promised by God who cannot and will not lie. And so from that perspective, it is a true hope.

It's a sure hope. It's a guaranteed hope of salvation if we do our part to endure to the end, just like Abraham, just like the man who had the promise set before him, and he acted, and he followed, and he looked to that hope. Verse 19, it says, this hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast in that which enters the presence behind the veil. Verse 20, where the forerunner is entered for us, even Jesus, having become high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. So Jesus Christ led the way, didn't he? He led the way in hope for us. He showed us what it looked like. He is our example, and he is our sacrifice, and he is the one through whom our hope comes. Rather than that hope of eternal salvation and everything that goes along with it, you know, it's described here as an anchor of the soul. An anchor of the soul, and that's vivid imagery. In the boating world, an anchor is what? Well, it's that heavy piece of metal, right? It's very heavy. When you throw it over the side of the boat, or it's lower down over the side, it's attached to a rope or a chain, the other end's attached to the boat, and that anchor is used to moor a vessel to something secure on the bottom of the sea. So you throw it over the side, and it might drag along, scuff along a little bit, and then it's going to hook on a rock or something down there that's going to hold the boat in place. That's its purpose. Its purpose is to prevent the boat from drifting away or from getting smashed on the rocks due to wind, due to the underlying current. Because if you've ever been in a boat, even when the lake or the water, whatever water source you're on, it just looks glassy smooth. You just sit there. Ultimately, you drift.

Because there's current underneath, and you're going to move. So there's an anchor, and this sure hope that comes from God, brother, and is designed to be the anchor that holds us securely in like manner as well. So that we do not drift, because you see, our hearts as human beings tend to drift. We tend to get distracted. We tend to do our thing. But this is to prevent it from getting pulled away in some direction. We do not want to drift in the storms or in the currents of life. And so we have this anchor for the soul so that we are not carried away by every wind of doctrine, by every desire of our heart, but that we remain securely fastened to the promises of God. When everything about this world seems to be unstable, when it seems like it's shifting all around us, when there's confusion, when there's chaos, and our non-guaranteed hopes are being dashed against the rocks around us, our souls can remain steadfast, because we are anchored securely to the promised hope of salvation, which comes from God himself. We hold fast to that focus then, brethren. Nothing's ever going to dislodge that anchor in our life.

It is true. It is secure. Nothing will ever dash that hope. But we have to be willing to hold on to the end. The author here of Hebrews, he ultimately commended those who were persecuted, those persecuted Christians. He commended them for their focus and the guaranteed hope of God, because that's what they looked to. That's what gave them the strength to carry on, despite all that was going on. We're not going to turn there, but I'll just remind you of Hebrews chapter 10, verse 34. Hebrews 10, verse 34, it says, And you joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. You know there is a greater hope set before you, so you're willing to lose, to walk away from, to have taken from you essentially your non-guaranteed hope in this life, because your focus is on what God has promised, and that hope that is guaranteed. And that is what is an anchor, brethren, to the soul of every Christian who believes in God and who has come under the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It's a remarkable perspective. For these Christians, their hopes were not so tied up in the things of the flesh that they couldn't see the reality of what God was doing in their life.

And brethren, that needs to be where you and I are in our life, in our relationship with God today.

In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul wrote about this hope as being something that develops in the heart of a Christian, get this, as a result of enduring tribulation. Tribulation.

You might say, well that's fine, but I'd prefer hope. I don't need tribulation for hope, right? But this hope is a hope that comes as a result of tribulation. And in the end, it describes a hope that will never let us down. That's what's being developed here. Romans chapter 5 in verse 1.

Romans chapter 5 in verse 1, have you ever set a hope in your sights, brethren, only to be disappointed?

Only to be disappointed. There's a hope that will not disappoint. Romans chapter 5 in verse 1 says, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have access by faith into his grace, in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We rejoice in hope, Paul says, of the glory of God. Our hope, our calling, that which is set before us is to share in the same spiritual glory that God has, to be a part of his eternal family as children of God, to be born into his form of his likeness, created in his image, not just physical form, but spiritually in the image of God. That's a big part of the hope set before us. Verse 34, and not only that, says, but we also, we glory in tribulations. Well, you might think, what are you talking about, Paul?

You know, what skewed your perspective? Well, it says, we glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope.

So what Paul is saying here is that our hope is actually born out of tribulations. You know, it's born out of difficulties and trials, and that might be something that's kind of hard for us to swallow at times, you know, because we don't like trials. We don't like, I mean, it wouldn't be a trial if it wasn't a trial. We don't like it, and that's natural.

And our desire is to get past these things as quickly as possible, but and God doesn't want us to live in them, but the joy set before us is that He has designed a benefit that even as we walk through these things, we can take with us and carry forward.

So there are difficulties that bring about ultimately this hope, and it's a process that leads to God in us. It's a hope that looks to the guaranteed promises of God, not to the non-guaranteed ones, but it starts with tribulation and trial. It ends with hope. It's during the time of tribulation that our non-guaranteed hopes tend to go out the window, don't they? They tend to get smashed on the rocks in times of difficulty, health troubles, financial troubles, whatever it might be. All right? Many things that we hope for in this life can simply disappear, evaporate, but in the midst of all that, what does remain?

In the midst of a trial, what does remain? Well, it's a certain hope that God has set before us all. Not only does it remain in the midst of the trial, it becomes more pronounced in our focus, because when the non-guaranteed things begin to evaporate, we look to the things that are sure, that are true, that are promised by God. Verse 5 says, now hope, this eternal hope, now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, was given to us. And so this form of guaranteed hope is not going to leave us high and dry. It's not going to disappoint us. Hoping for a vacation to Europe in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis just might disappoint you. Just might leave you stranded in quarantine somewhere you didn't want to be, you know, or it might leave you standing there holding a handful of non-refundable tickets that you didn't get to use. That's a pretty disappointing place to be.

But an enduring hope, brethren, guaranteed hope in the things of God will never disappoint.

They will never fail to deliver, because the hope in the things that God has promised is based on something that will happen. God who cannot lie has promised it. It'll come to pass, surely.

Because of our assurance in the promises of God, this hope then becomes an anchor for our souls.

It's what holds us steadfast. It's what becomes a mooring of stability, never permitting us to drift away into hopeless despair, no matter what the challenges of us in this world around us might be. Despair, hopeless despair, is not an element of the people of God. It's not an attribute of who we are.

Now, tribulation does lead to perseverance, right? Because you can't learn to persevere unless you go through something that causes you to have to persevere. So tribulation leads to perseverance. Perseverance leads to character, and then God the character leads to hope.

And it's a hope that will not disappoint. This is the hope of God that we must build the focus of our life upon. And if we do that, we're never going to be found hopeless in despair, you know, just sort of wallowing in, you know, where do we go from here?

We do have times of trial and stress, but, you know, when we find our place, ourself in a place that we just don't know where we go from here, and it's a hopeless despair, actually means we've taken our eyes off the promises of God. That is a place we never want to be. If you find yourself going there, brethren, we have to stop. Look at our list. What is guaranteed? What is not guaranteed? What is the priority of my purpose? And we recognize that the things of God are still there. They're still our hope. They're steadfast, and they are the anchor to our soul.

I won't turn there, but I'll remind you of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I read it often during funeral services. Paul says, I don't want you to sorrow as those who have no hope.

Talking about people who have died, and specifically died in the faith, these are saints. And Paul says, don't be sorrowful as those that have no hope. Don't have a hopeless despair, because we know what God has purposed. We know what he has set before him. And he wraps up the chapter for 1 Thessalonians 4. It was saying, therefore comfort one another with these words.

And they are comfort. That Christ will come. The dead will rise. We'll always be with them, and we'll be together as God's people. And they're comfort because they are the promised hope from God, and God who does not lie. I'll just remind you of Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope. A future and a hope.

It's what we all seek after, what we all have built into us as a desire by creation. Brother, never take your eyes off the promises of God. It's the promises of God that see us through the most difficult and most disappointing times of our life. They are promises of hope, and they are the anchor of our soul. When you face difficulty, when you face hopes dashed, keep your eyes on the promises of God. Romans chapter 8, over two pages, Romans chapter 8 and verse 16. Paul says, the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. This is the hope that has been set before us all. Right? Children of God, joint heirs with Christ, glorified in the eternal family of God. This is the hope. Verse 18, Paul says, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. You see, God has allowed all of the physical creation to exist in a state of decay, right? In a state of corruption for a time because of sin. And the result of that futility, brethren, is that it produces an eager hope, an eager anticipation of deliverance, that all of the creation groans for, and that God will one day deliver.

Verse 21, it says, because the creation itself will also be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Verse 22, for we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. And not only that, but we also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope.

Did you catch that? We were saved, Paul says, in this hope. This is our calling. This is what God brought us out of the world, cleaned us up, and reconciled us into a relationship with himself, so that this hope might be front and center before us. Verse 24 again, for we were saved in this hope. The hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Perseverance.

You know, the primary focus of our eternal hope, brethren, is not in what we see with our eyes today. It's not what we look around in and say, I want that. And we set our sights on it, and we set our hopes on it. Okay, that's a part of life, and that's okay in improper balance. For the primary focus of our eternal hope is not in what we see with our eyes, rather it is what we do not see.

That's what we set our hope in. It's in things that we do not see. It's in a future that has been promised to us. That is not yet here, but we reach for it by the calling of God.

That which is seen is temporary. That's what Paul tells us in another place. That which is seen is temporary. And so why would you ever want to put your hope in that?

We do hope in temporary things. Okay, but I'm talking our life's purpose. Why would you put your life's purpose in hoping that something that's temporary is going to pass away? That which is not seen, 2 Corinthians 4.18 tells us, is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4.18, that which is seen is temporary. That which is not seen is eternal. And that's where our overarching hope must be placed. It must be placed in the things of God that do not pass away. The things that are promised. The things that are guaranteed. And, brethren, isn't that what hope and faith are all about? Isn't that the foundation of faith? It's about trusting in the unseen, but the guaranteed promises of God. That's faith.

That's Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 1 says, now faith is, notice, the substance of things hoped for. It's the evidence of things not seen, for by the elders obtained a good testimony.

When we trust in the hope that God has set before us, brethren, and we live according to that hope, we're exercising faith. We're exercising our confidence in God. Faith is the evidence of that hope being embraced in our lives. It's the exercising of that hope. It's the living and taking steps towards that hope in absolute confidence that God who has promised cannot lie, and he will deliver if we remain steadfast to the end. That's the hope. That's the faith we all yearn for.

Now the rest of the chapter of Hebrews 11 then goes on and outlines the faith of our fathers, those who did set their focus on an enduring hope. I just want to read here verse 13. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 13, it says, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off. They were assured of them. They embraced them. They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, our forefathers, the faithful, all down through the ages. They've lived their lives on an absolute assurance that God who cannot lie would deliver on the promises that he set before them. And that hope was the anchor of their souls.

It was the anchor of their souls. It kept them from drifting spiritually. It kept them from wandering off, their life being dashed upon the rocks. It was the anchor of their souls, even when the current around them was turbulent, even when the world was pulling in various directions. The hope of God, the promise, was the anchor of their souls. For the remainder of the message today, I want to briefly look at three elements of this hope that is an anchor of our soul. Ultimately, it all comes back to the hope of salvation, okay, the plan and purpose of God. That's the anchor of our soul, but it's like a multifaceted diamond from the perspective that there are so many aspects to this hope that we can focus on. So many elements that are involved in the hope of salvation. So I just want to highlight a few of those briefly for you to consider today. It's barely scratching the surface. I'd encourage you to do some homework after the sermon. I'd encourage you to do a Bible study on the word hope and see what the Bible shows you and see what it reveals is the basis for all of this that God has put before us as the sure anchor of our soul. First point I'd like to make is our hope in God himself is an anchor of the soul. Our hope in God himself is an anchor of the soul. Throughout the entire Bible, we find holy men and women of God who have clearly understood this point. Hope and confidence in him was their anchor, and it saw them through. Psalm 71 verse 4. Psalm chapter 71.

Verse 4. Psalm 71. Psalm 71. Psalm of King David. David says, Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and the cruel man. For you are my hope, O Lord God. David said, You are my hope, O Lord God, you are my trust from my youth. He says, you know, where else would I go? He talks about God being his refuge, and he flees the God for protection in so many of his psalms. You are my hope, O God, you are the trust from my youth. Verse 6. He says, By you I have been upheld from birth, and you are he who took me out of my mother's womb. My praise shall be continually of you.

King David acknowledged where his hope lied. He acknowledged that it wasn't in horses, it wasn't in armies, it wasn't in the physical strength of his own might, all right? His hope lied in God. That's where his ambition to pursue ultimately was, not his self, but it was God.

His hope was in God, and that was the anchor of his soul.

Prophet Jeremiah, sent by God to preach to Judah before they were taken into Babylonian captivity, he sounded an alarm to a nation that would not hear. Jeremiah understood this same principle as well. He was kind of in a class by himself, but he depended on God to bring him through. God was his anchor as well. Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 5.

Jeremiah 17 or verse 5. This is actually God relaying this principle to Jeremiah. Jeremiah 17 and verse 5, Thus says the Lord, Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes. But shall inhabit the parks places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. Rather than a person's heart departs from God, there is no hope that remains. There is no place of rest. When the world around gets hopeless, where is that man going to go?

Your hope must be in God. Verse 7, Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord. That's where you and I need to be. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes. But its leaf will be green, and he will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. You'll notice this doesn't say that those who trust in God will never see adversity, never see tribulation. Actually, just the opposite. It says they will, but it also says that when they see it, they're not going to be overcome by it. They're going to continue to prosper, even in the midst of it, because their hope is in God, their faith, their trust. And God, and hope in God, is the anger of their soul. Romans 15. Romans chapter 15. Why can we put our trust in God so completely? How can we believe in this hope? How can we have this hope? We know that it is a sure thing, and it will see us through to a good end. Romans chapter 15. In verse 13, just breaking into the thought here, Paul says, now may the God of hope. Okay, the God of hope. This is where hope comes from, is who is the one who has given the hope to us, who extended to us the promise, who himself has hope. Now may then God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So again, the God we worship is the God of hope, and he's the author of hope. And when his spirit comes and dwells in us, that's his presence in us, then we become a people of hope as well.

This hope isn't something that God expects us to muster up on our own. This is something that is given to us if we yield to it by the Holy Spirit of God. It's an indwelling hope, and this part of the character, godly character, leads to hope.

Point number two, our hope in Jesus Christ as well is an anchor of the soul. Our hope in Jesus Christ is an anchor of the soul. John chapter 6 verse 40.

John 6 verse 40. Here Jesus is speaking to his disciples during his earthly ministry. John 6 verse 40. Jesus says, and this is the will of him who sent me. This is the will of God the Father who sent Jesus Christ into the world. This is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Rather than this through the sacrifice and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that our salvation is made possible. Those who believe in him, those who come under that sacrifice and trust, that that is the way to be reconciled to God and to receive the promise, those who believe in him will have everlasting life. That is a guaranteed hope, and it is a hope that does not disappoint. Clausements chapter 1 verse 27.

Clausements 1 verse 27.

Ah, see me? There it is. Breaking again into the context. We do that a bit as we're pulling out this point of emphasis. Clausements 1, 27, to them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Christ in you, the hope of glory. Verse 28 says, Him we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.

Paul's saying that because the glorified Jesus Christ lives in us by God's Spirit, we too have a hope of glory that is not misplaced. Christ in you, the hope of glory. He lived, He died, He rose again, He sits in glory at the right hand of God, and He is in us by the Spirit of God, and that gives us the hope of the promise. It is a down payment on what it is that will be fulfilled in the fullness in the future. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 19. We're not going to turn there, but there the apostle Paul states that if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. If this life is the only place that we have that hope, we are all of all men most pitiable. Our hope in Jesus Christ is not just for a good life in the flesh today. There are blessings by following his example. There are hopes in this life that we can realize because we live a good life modeled after Jesus Christ. But our hope is not for the flesh today only. More importantly, it's for the glory that shall be revealed to us in the future.

Our hope in him is an anchor of our soul. Third and final point, the hope which comes from God's Word, from the Bible, from the Scriptures of God, this Word, the hope that comes from the Word is an anchor of the soul.

Brethren, the God we worship is the God of Hope. Jesus Christ, his Son, is the Son of the God of Hope, right? And these words are what? Well, these Scriptures are the words of the God of Hope. And so we strengthen our own hope when we study them and when we live them.

Notice the confidence that King David drew from the Word of God. Psalm 119.

Psalm 119, verse 105. Psalm 119, verse 105, very familiar yet profound passage.

Verse 105, your Word, says David, is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. He says, God, when I study your Word, what it is that is given for us to live by, it illuminates the way before me. It shows me where to place my feet, how to walk.

It brings life and success to all that I do. Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Verse 106, I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep your righteous judgments. I am afflicted very much, he says, revive me, O Lord, according to your Word. It's where David looked for inspiration, for strength, and frankly for comfort, when he felt pressed on all sides. Continuing on, he says, except I pray the free will offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me your judgments. My life is continually in my hand, yet I do not forget your law. The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I have not strayed from your precepts.

Why would David not stray from the precepts of God?

What is it that keeps you from straying? Well, it's an anchor, is it not? And David says, I have not strayed from your precepts, because he studied God's words, and he lived them, and they were the anchor of his soul.

Verse 111, your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart. I am inclined my heart to perform your statutes forever and ever. He says, I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. You are my hiding place and my shield, I hope in your word. Verse 115, depart from me, you evildoers, for I will keep the commandments of my God. Hold me according to your word, that I may live, and do not let me be ashamed of my hope. The hope that David received from God wasn't just an intellectual hope, it wasn't just a feel-good feeling, it was an act of hope. It literally directed his steps, and it impacted the way that he lived his life day to day. And brethren, you and I must allow God's word to impact us in the very same way as well. Keeps us from strain, keeps us from becoming confused, keeps us from being in despair. It is the word of hope and truth. It is what we must live by as God's people. Romans 15 verse 4. Romans chapter 15 verse 4. What is this hope?

Again, have to do with the word of God. Well, the whole word is hope when we study it, but notice what Romans 15 verse 4 says. Here the apostle Paul, he says, For whatever things were written, talking about the biblical record that's preserved for us, whatever things were written, were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. This word, the word of God, the word of the God of hope, and by the Spirit of the God of hope that dwells within us, gives us hope. It's far too easy, brethren, to lose hope living in this world.

And yet it will almost certainly happen if we neglect to regularly connect with the word of God.

These words have been written so that we can be encouraged. They've been preserved so that we can be taught how to rightly live, embrace them, meditate on them, ask God to open your mind to them by His Spirit so that you will be able to regularly be strengthened in that guaranteed hope, which is an anchor of the soul. At the beginning of today's message, I stated that our hopes are something that we often have to put effort into reaching. If you have a goal, you work towards it. And that's true as well, not only with physical hopes, but it's true with the spiritual hopes of God as well.

In light of the guaranteed hope that God has laid before us, brethren, we ought to never lose sight of what our responsibility indeed is and what it is that we must do in response.

What is required of us? So great a hope has been laid before us. What does God require? Let's conclude 1 John chapter 3 in verse 1. 1 John chapter 3 in verse 1.

Lied us so great a hope, what must our response be?

1 John 3 verse 1. Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God. Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. We'll be of the same glorified form, of the same likeness of God, in the glorified state at our change, and we will see Him as He is. Verse 3. In everyone who has this hope in Him purifies Himself just as He is pure.

Brethren, we have a job to do. Our responsibility before God is to come out of this world and to purify ourselves according to the likeness of His very own character, according to the Spirit that dwells within us, to not be overcome by the world, but to overcome the world, and to present ourselves in white garments, as Chase Virgins for Christ. All these descriptors in the Bible are our responsibility in light of the hope that has been laid before us.

Brethren, as we wrap up 2020, a year that has dashed the hopes of so many, we're not going to be among those who are hopeless. That's a blessing. It's a huge blessing. We've seen hopes dashed, haven't we? We've been disappointed in various things, but we are not among the hopeless. God who cannot lie has set before us a sure promise of salvation, and He set before us a kingdom that cannot be shaken. As we step forward into the next calendar year here in just several days, a little over a week down the road, we step forward into their next calendar year. Actually, it'll be before next Sabbath. Make your plans. Set your goals. Have hopes.

Have dreams and desires for 2021. I do feel that it's going to pick up. It's going to look better. I pray that it does. But make your plans. But, brethren, above all, never take your eyes off of the guaranteed promises of God. Never lose sight of that blessed hope, which is an anchor of our soul. It is the gift of God. He is promised, and it will come to pass surely.

Brethren, have a wonderful Sabbath.