Part 1 of the "Finding Hope in God" Sermon Series

We need to have a strong foundation. So, when you read Scripture, ask about what you do not understand. You may have heard this before, but there is no such thing as a dumb question. Ask. Ask God. Ask a friend. Ask the pastor. Ask whoever you want. But do ask when you do not understand. Further, try to hear the words of the Lord in awe and reverence, just as the Jews held their scared scripture in faithful awe and reverence toward God. And finally, do not gloss your eyes over Scripture and call it quits. This is what I did when I set myself the challenge to read the Bible in one year. But I have gotten a lot more out of the books reading and discussing them slowly through our Bible Study. Read and study Scripture. Talk about it. Read about what other people have to say.

If you are having trouble seeing and feeling God, God is your vindication. God is your way to turn your attitude around. Depression is just a downward spiral that goes deeper and deeper until you feel that there is no way out. This is the battle that Satan wages; it is a victory for him to get a Bible believer to give up on God. This is what he tries to do all along. Do not let him get this victory. Let people of the church journey with you and support you and love you. And for those who feel close to God right now and understand God’s hope, with God’s peace, take a look at the way you currently live a life of service for God. Where can you improve? You can find some area of the four to focus on as you place God as priority number one this year: Can you praise God more often? Do you need to reimagine your prayer dedication? Do you need to get better at listening? Or do you need get better at sharing so that all the nations might see the glory of the Lord, and so that someone new might come to find the hope that you have found? You may need growth in all four; but I challenge you to pick one to focus on in 2022. I have chosen to focus on prayer. Only you know your own deepest need. But whatever your choice; know this. God is your vindication. God is your turnaround.

In any relationship, you know that you have to give time to it to make it work. The extent to which you value your relationship to God is told in the amount of time that you spend seeking God. Do you spend time in your devotions? Do you spend time worshipping God? Do you spend time praying? Do you spend time listening?

The third sermon of a four part series: We live lives of service for God, praising God, praying to God, listening to God, and sharing God with others. We have talked about how important it is to praise God continually in all circumstances. Praising God renews our confidence and hope in God’s goodness and majesty. We have touched on coming to God in prayer, and noted that God wants to hear any prayer no matter how small it may seem to us. It is crucial that we all realize that we have access to God through prayer, and there is no such thing as a bad prayer. This week, we focus on listening to God.

I challenge all of us over this upcoming year to focus more on prayer. Put God a bit higher on your list of priorities if God is not already your highest priority. Paul told us in Thessalonians to pray unceasingly. And when you pray, remember to pray these four things: Remember to pray God’s praise, remember to pray for God’s will, that you might know and do God’s will, remember to pray in confidence that God is here and will fulfill your every need, and remember in prayer to ask for God’s help.

Prayer is the ESSENCE of our relationship with God.  EVERYONE is capable of prayer and MUST pray if you want to have a relationship with God.  This year, we will put a higher emphasis on prayer.

It is better for us to join in with the churches praising God by living the lives that God has called us to live. That is, we live lives of service for God, praising God, praying to God, listening to God, and sharing God with others. We will consider all four of these areas over the coming four weeks. Today, and this week, we are talking about praising God.

We all want to stay at the manger praising the Lord Jesus, born to us from God to teach us how to live. Yet even the shepherds went their own way to glorify God to those they met. They told their story. They lived their life and worked the same job, but they did so with a new spring in their step and a new story to tell.

We read that the shepherds returned to their fields “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them” (Luke 2:20). Also, “Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). This is the time to do the pondering. This is the time to go to wherever we go and glorify and praise God for what we have seen here.

Are you discouraged?  How do you recapture your passion for God, especially in a season of Christmas?

Malachi 5:2-5, Luke 1

Why do you believe in God?  If you don't know why you believe in God, how can you tell someone else to believe in God?  God is the only source of true hope for salvation.  Also, God rejoices because of you, after all.  Consider why you believe, then help another to do the same.

Zephaniah 3:12-20

Instead of turning away from God when God does not answer us in the way we want, we need to call ourselves back to God. Even if God did not fix things now for reasons unknown to us, God STILL promises to fix things at the end of the story.

We can know God intimately. We just need to be in right relationship with God. First, we need to be in right relationship with others. Second, we need to come to God with proper motives. Third, we need to believe in God’s capabilities. And finally, we need to realize that we are not God.

Psalm 25 and 1 Thessalonians 3 emulate hope. The Psalm is a prayer to God, asking for God’s leadership, confident in God’s steadfast love and faithfulness.  1 Thessalonians 3 envisions an increase in abounding love for one another. If we were to see our hearts strengthened in both areas, we would see a much more confident hope in our future. May God bless us with such a vision and hope.

If we do not have wonder, we have knowledge, not faith. If we are not mystified, we have suppressed the questions that are on our hearts. Come to God with whatever you have so that others might see you and do the same.

Strive first for the kingdom of God, above all else in your life.  If not, God is not in you.

Instead of worrying about where we will stay, or what we will eat, or what we will wear, we are told to strive first for the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33).

If we pray hard enough for the people in power to either turn to God or turn closer to God, we are letting God into power. This is why we pray for our leaders, whether or not we like them. We want God to bless them and change their heart. This is why we are also called to pray for those who persecute us. We pray for everyone because we know that the more hearts that God wins, the better our world becomes.

1 Timothy 2, Matthew 6:25-33