RADICAL HOPE: Hope Does Not Disappoint - Romans 5:5-11 Sermon Outline (a blog post for a video sermon for Kenwood Church in Livonia, MI, on April 12, 2020)

RADICAL HOPE:

Hope Does Not Disappoint (Romans 5:5-11) - April 12, 2020

INTRODUCTION

Radical Hope is the by-product of suffering, perseverance, and character. It goes through the test, passes the test, and keeps passing the test.

Hope in Auschwitz

Rabbi Hugo Gryn used to tell of his experiences in Auschwitz as a boy. Food supplies were meager, and the inmates took care to preserve every scrap that came their way. When the Festival of Hanukkah arrived, Hugo’s father took a lump of margarine and, to the horror of young Hugo, used it as fuel for the light to be lit at the festival. When he was asked why, his father replied, “We know that it is possible to live for three weeks without food, but without hope it is impossible to live properly for three minutes.

Jewish Chicken Soup for the Soul, HCI Publishing.

“Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all...As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength.”

G.K. Chesterton, Signs of the Times, April 1993, p. 6

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

‭‭ Romans‬ ‭5:1-11‬ ‭NIV

I. HOPE IS OURS THROUGH THE LOVE OF GOD

A. God’s love changes everything.

B. God’s love never changes.

C. God’s love gives us hope.

II. HOPE IS OURS BECAUSE OF JESUS SACRIFICE

“Solid Rock” a hymn by Edward Mote, ca. 1834

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

Refrain:

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils His lovely face,

I rest on His unchanging grace;

In every high and stormy gale,

My anchor holds within the veil.

Refrain:

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

A. God’s love is seen through Jesus’ death.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

‭‭John‬ ‭3:16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

B. God’s love is sourced in God’s love.

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭4:7-10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

C. God’s love is producing hope in us.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

‭‭ Galatians‬ ‭2:20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

III. HOPE IS OURS TO BOAST IN GOD

A. We have hope because of the love of God!

“and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

‭‭ Romans‬ ‭5:5‬ ‭NASB‬‬

B. We have hope because of the Holy Spirit that lives within us!

C. We have hope because of the resurrection of Jesus!

“Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭4:13-18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

CHALLENGE

Live each day in hope. Write down a list of things the love of God, the Holy Spirit in you, and the resurrection of Jesus cannot overcome. Share that list with someone else.  (Hint-The list should be very, very short.)

I want to conclude this message by sharing with you Phil Wickam’s song, “Living Hope.” Have a blessed Easter. Live in the hope of the resurrection.