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[0:01] This is a sermon from King's Church West Lovie. Oh, it's so good to be together, guys, isn't it? I've really enjoyed hanging out with you guys.

[0:13] ! Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[0:36] In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope. Hope. That's what I want to talk about this evening.

[0:48] This morning we talked about laying a foundation of grace. Tonight I want to talk about laying a foundation of hope in our lives. And here is Peter writing, and you can almost hear the excitement as he pens these words.

[1:04] Do you see the hope that you and I have in Jesus? Hope is a powerful thing. I love long-distance walking, as many of you know.

[1:19] I love hiking. So, you know, put on a rucksack, go for a walk for a few days, somewhere remote. And I was doing a long walk with a friend called Dave. And we had been in the Highlands, in quite a remote part of Scotland, for about four days.

[1:35] And we didn't come across any village. So, really remote, carrying all our kit. And obviously there's a limit to what you can carry. So we were hungry.

[1:46] LAUGHTER But on day five, we were very excited, because we knew that in a couple of hours of walking, we were going to hit a hotel. And you know what that meant?

[1:58] Breakfast. And so we got up super early, packed up the kit, got walking, because we were ready for that breakfast. And as we walked along, what consumed our conversation was, what are you going to have to eat, Dave?

[2:15] And Dave said, Mike, what are you going to have? I said, I am going for the full shebang. Bacon, sausage, eggs, make it three eggs, hash browns, brown sauce, toast, extra toast, endless cups of tea.

[2:32] We had worked ourselves into some kind of food frenzy. And we, that's all we were hoping for. And we got to the hotel, and it was closed.

[2:43] LAUGHTER And so we had to walk all of that day, hungry. The conversation went downhill somewhat.

[2:56] Hope. We were hoping for that. Hope is a powerful thing, but biblical hope is different from that kind of hope. Biblical hope has a name.

[3:09] His name is Jesus. And that's what I want to talk about. There was, I came across this interesting story. There was a guy in Turkey called Mutlu.

[3:21] And Mutlu went out with some of his friends, and it was his birthday. And they shared a few drinks together. Well, maybe a few drinks too many. Because Mutlu didn't make it home.

[3:34] He got lost. And when he didn't return home 24 hours later, his wife called the authorities, and they then called out the search parties, and there was a massive search for Mutlu.

[3:49] Mutlu had got utterly lost. He woke up in the middle of a forest. He had no idea where he was. And so he was wandering around, trying to find his bearings, and find his way home.

[4:03] And then, he came across a search party. And he thought, well, I might as well join in. And so he did. And after a few hours, he thought, that's funny.

[4:20] They're calling out the name of Mutlu. There's some poor guy that's lost who has the same name as me. Oh. And he realized, he had joined his own search party.

[4:33] I like that story. That caught my attention. But you know, I wonder. Because you and I have an enemy called Satan. And he loves nothing better than to have Christians wandering around, disillusioned, unaware, and unproductive.

[4:52] Unproductive. That's what Satan wants to do for us. Because Satan is the deceiver. And so that means he plants thoughts in our mind, like, well, I'm never going to change.

[5:05] This following Jesus thing is just too difficult. Or I'm stuck in that area of my life, and I can't get past. He's also the accuser, which means that he plants thoughts in our minds, like, I'm unclean.

[5:19] I'm unworthy. I'm the one that Jesus wouldn't love. Or he condemns us with things like, well, I've blown it.

[5:31] I've blown it this time. I don't know if there's a way back. Or he shows doubt in us. Would God really love me the way he loves others?

[5:42] Or maybe thoughts like, I'm not sure my prayers are actually being effective. He's also the tempter.

[5:53] And so he makes sin look appealing. He makes temptation look appealing to us. He also wants to steal our identity and tells us things like, we're broken, we're unlovable, we're a failure.

[6:10] I'm sure many of us in this room have experienced thoughts like that, that may very well have been planted by the enemy. Where does that battle take place?

[6:23] In our mind. And you see, that's where hope comes in. Hope can help us. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 8.

[6:33] Let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

[6:47] Now, I used to do a bit of mountain biking. And without fail, every time I went out on my mountain bike, Suzanne would say to me, have you got your helmet?

[7:02] Because being a nurse and knowing what kind of mountain biker I was, she was concerned that I would probably fall off my back. And of course, you're doing a sport like that, you need to protect your head.

[7:16] And so when it talks about the helmet here, what's it talking about protection of? Our mind. And so what it's telling us, the protection for our mind is hope.

[7:30] And God, according to His Word, has provided His protective armor for us. Many of you will be familiar with Ephesians 6, put on the full armor of God, which tells us that He has given us protection for anything and everything that the enemy, Satan, wants to throw at us.

[7:51] And so if we have our helmet on tight, we shut down the fight. Helmet on tight, we shut down the fight. So let's build up a picture of this biblical hope that's going to protect our mind.

[8:08] What is the hope of salvation? How do we put on this helmet? Well, let's just double click on salvation. What are we talking about here?

[8:19] When the Bible talks about salvation, it literally means rescued from danger. We've been saved from an old way of life.

[8:31] We were talking about that this morning. And so we say things like, well, perhaps at that time in my life, I became a Christian. I was saved.

[8:42] But then we read verses like this. 1 Peter 1, 9. For you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

[8:55] I'm receiving. Well, that's an ongoing thing. The end result, the salvation of your souls. Well, isn't that a future thing? Hang on. I thought we were saved.

[9:07] So what's it saying? Well, you see, when the Bible talks about salvation, there are three tenses. The past, the present, and the future.

[9:18] And that is what salvation covers. So we've been saved. We are being saved. And we will be saved. And here's the thing we need to get.

[9:30] When the Bible is talking about salvation, the thing that we were always saved from is sin. And what is sin?

[9:41] It's everything that God isn't. The one that is holy and just and perfect. And so sin is choosing to live independently from God.

[9:53] That's what we see happen in Genesis chapter 3. In the fall. It is separation from God. And when there's separation from God, and we can see it right there in Genesis, what's the result?

[10:07] It's deterioration. It's a breaking down of all that is good in the world. And so when we look around the world, every single problem that we see, social, relational, every problem, political, the problems in our own lives, it is ultimately caused by separation from God.

[10:28] By sin. Everything. From feelings of despair to poverty. The result of sin. Everything from knife crime to man flu.

[10:40] The result of sin. But it is a real thing, you know. Thank you. I appreciate that.

[10:52] That means a lot. Because Suzanne usually says, no, that's not a thing. Nurses are the worst. So for God to come and save us, he had a plan.

[11:10] Now imagine, you know, a ship. A big oil tanker. Probably not in the Strait of Hamous right now. And imagine that you've got this huge oil tanker that carries millions of gallons of oil.

[11:23] And the company that run this ship are more interested in profits. And so they neglect to maintain this ship.

[11:35] And the result of their neglect, after a few years, the tanker leaks crude oil into the sea, bringing death and decay to all kinds of sea life.

[11:49] Means that holidaymakers on a beach somewhere are coming out of the water covered in a black sludge. Horrible. What would happen? The Maritime Pollution Authority would prosecute the company.

[12:02] They have broken the law. They have broken environmental laws. And so they would be fined. And let's just say they are fined a hundred million pounds.

[12:15] Until they pay, they are under the penalty of that law. And so what would happen? There would be heated discussions in the boardroom.

[12:26] The insurers of the insurers would finally work out a deal and they would have to cough up a hundred million pounds. When they do, they are no longer under the penalty of that law.

[12:40] They've been saved. We've been saved. What have we been saved from? The penalty of sin. But unlike the company, we can't pay up.

[12:53] It would be like someone saying to us, well, you owe us a hundred thousand pounds and we put our hands in our pockets and say, well, I can scratch together five pounds thirty-two.

[13:04] Well, that doesn't... No. It's not enough. It's impossible. And it's the same with our debt. We can't pay the debt of our sin.

[13:15] But someone already did. Jesus. He's our hope. And we talked about that this morning, that through the cross and through the resurrection, we are put to death and we are raised to life.

[13:31] We are saved in Him. It means there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You are as loved and accepted by God as you ever will be.

[13:46] You've been saved from the penalty of sin. Past tense. So let's go back to our oil tanker.

[13:57] They've been saved from the penalty of the law, but now the environmental agencies are going to use that hundred million pounds to do what? The massive cleanup operation that now has to happen.

[14:11] And you see, there's a cleanup operation that has to happen in our lives. You see, we're polluted. I'm polluted. Sometimes I get impatient.

[14:23] Sometimes I have good intentions and I don't carry them out. Sometimes I intend to go out there and speak to people about Jesus and I don't.

[14:35] Like just the other morning. I was out for my morning walk and I passed this elderly guy and he saw me walking towards him and he was clearly struggling because he couldn't walk very well.

[14:48] And he stopped and he said, I wish I could do that. And I could see, I could see that he was in pain and I could also see a deeper pain. And I'd love to tell you that I stopped and prayed for him and said, in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.

[15:04] But I didn't. I'd love to tell you that I stopped and said, hey, tell me about that. I would love to listen. But I didn't. I walked on past.

[15:15] I said, well, at least the sun's shining. What was that? At least the sun's shining. What kind of a Christian leader am I? I bottled it.

[15:27] Good intentions. And you see, we're all part of this cleanup operation. There are things in our lives that Jesus wants us to cooperate with him by his spirit to put right.

[15:42] And so for me, Jesus is saying, Mike, we need to work on that. You're going to have to trust me. We've got to grow in that grace that we were talking about this morning.

[15:55] We've been saved from the penalty of sin. We are being saved from the power of sin.

[16:06] It's the cleanup operation. But in this life, as we know it, there will always be the effects of that sin, that decay, that death.

[16:18] But one day, one day, we have got a vision of the future. Have you read the end of the Bible? Because the future is good.

[16:30] We will be with Jesus forever. Can you imagine that day hearing those words well done, good and faithful servant?

[16:43] Revelation 21, verse 3, talks about that day. And it says this, God's dwelling place is now among the people. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.

[16:58] There will be no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain. This is incredible vision, guys.

[17:10] Do you see this? That we will live in the presence of God in perfection forever? I can't get my head around that because I think that's quite a long time.

[17:25] And when it says wipe away, here's the thing. It means this. Because we think of just wiping something away, there, there, it's better. No, no.

[17:36] When it says wipe away, what it's meaning that anything that we have suffered, all those prayers that were unanswered, all those hopes that we had, all that pain, all that stuff in our life that we've had to deal with, all the heartache, all the pain, it's not made better.

[17:58] It is undone. It is like it never happened. Do you see that? And our joy will be made fully complete because we will be in the presence of Jesus.

[18:18] Perfection. Completion. And the only reason, the only reason that there's anything in this life that we love is because it's pointing to that eternal vision of the future.

[18:35] it's just a glimpse. It is only a glimpse of what we'll be. I love that vision. Don't you? Doesn't that give us hope?

[18:49] That is our future hope. And you see, if this world is all there is, if this is all we have, then our life becomes small and anything that might reduce our happiness in this life, boom, we're crushed.

[19:09] But with that hope, a future hope, a living hope, a hope of salvation, that rewrites the story. We have a future hope that we can look to.

[19:25] We've been saved from the penalty of sin. We are being saved from the power of sin and we will be saved fully from the presence of sin.

[19:38] This is our hope in salvation. Do you see how beautiful it is? You see, biblical hope, it's not wishful thinking. It's not, I wish it won't rain tomorrow or I wish my team scores a goal.

[19:56] No, it's not that kind of hope. This is biblical hope. Hebrews 11.1. Now, faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

[20:11] It is confident expectation of good based on what? Based on the promises of God. And did you see the connection there?

[20:23] From faith, you move to hope. So, with valid faith, it moves us to valid hope. Hebrews 6.19 says that we have this hope as an anchor for the soul.

[20:40] Firm and secure. My uncle did quite a lot of sailing. And sometimes I would go with him. And I remember him telling me that in a particularly bad storm and being on a yacht, what they would do is they would drop anchor and they would let the anchor go down to the seabed and lock itself onto the rock.

[21:05] And however bad that storm was, that meant that as that yacht was getting buffeted around by the wind and the waves, it meant that it wouldn't capsize, it wouldn't be turned over.

[21:16] And that's what these verses are telling us. When all around us is shaky, when the world is all very uncertain, when we're experiencing that opposition from the enemy, what do we do?

[21:31] We drop anchor. We stand firm and say, no, no, this is who I am. This is what I have in Jesus. This is the hope that I have. I will overcome.

[21:42] I will come through. And we take hold of this hope. And the anchor of our faith reaches out through eternity and is secured on the rock of ages, Jesus.

[22:00] And this is the hope that counters Satan's attacks of self-doubt and despair and discouragement. And when all around us seems unstable and uncertain, it is the helmet of hope.

[22:14] There is a way out. God will provide. You will come through because Jesus is your living hope and you have a future hope.

[22:25] We do not need to believe the lies of the enemy. The anchor of our hope is in Christ, the rock, the one who is completely unshakable.

[22:37] Colossians 12, 7 says, the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

[22:49] He is your hope. When we have the helmet of hope untight, we shut down the fight. And that's not all.

[23:01] What was Jesus' hope? In all the suffering, Jesus going to the cross, what was it all for? Well, in Hebrews 12, it says that for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.

[23:17] What was that joy? Isaiah 53 said that He would see and be satisfied. What was that satisfaction? What was the result of all His suffering?

[23:28] What was the only thing that Jesus didn't have before He suffered and went to the cross that He did after? You. You. Us.

[23:40] So, do you see what this is saying? To the degree you realize that you were Jesus' living hope, He loves me like that, He becomes yours.

[23:56] to that degree that you get that I'm Jesus' hope, then He becomes mine. Our hope is in Jesus.

[24:10] So, however bad it gets, on your worst day, you have hope because you have Jesus. Christ is your anchor.

[24:21] you are saved in hope. You are being saved. You have a living hope. You will be saved. You have a future hope.

[24:33] Guys, this is the most hope-filled vision that anyone could ever have. And as a believer in Jesus, you have it. Put your helmet on tight and you will shut down the fight.

[24:46] Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Lord, I just thank you for this incredible hope that we have in you.

[25:03] Lord, you don't give us a philosophy or a set of rules. You give us yourself, the living person of Jesus.

[25:14] And as we heard earlier in worship, reveals himself to us in the way that we need you. And Lord, I just thank you for the living hope that we have.

[25:26] I thank you that we are saved in hope. You're our living hope and you're our future hope. So Lord, I pray that you would enable us to live as the ones who know you truly are our hope.

[25:43] and not only that, that we were yours and you do love us like that. And so we can rest in the assurance that you've got us, that you have us, and that you are our hope.

[25:59] And I pray that for each of us that hope becomes a living reality that we would know how to put the hope of salvation on and live in that salvation and be able to live it out in your strength and your power.

[26:19] So Lord, tonight we say thank you. I pray that you would come even now by your spirit and move amongst us and do what you want to do with this.

[26:32]  Speak to us, Lord. in Jesus' name. Amen.