I PRAY THAT GOD WILL BLESS YOU TODAY AS YOU STUDY GOD'S WORD WITH ME.  GET YOUR BIBLE AND USE IT AS YOU READ AND MEDITATE ON HIS WORD.  CHECK BACK FROM TIME TO TIME AS i WILL HAVE MORE MESSAGES TO BUILD YOU UP IN YOUR FAITH IN GOD AND TO ENCOURAGE YOU TO PRESS FORWARD EVERY DAY IN YOUR WALK WITH THE LORD jESUS.

GOD BLESS YOU TODAY!
SERMON
FOR
TODAY!

.HOPE IN THE LORD
.                                                       
                                                  
       


Hope:  to desire and expect.
Hope:  confident expectation..

What are you doing with your hope today?  What or Who are you putting it in?  The Bible tells us that hope is very important.   
Psalms 42:5  Why are thou cast down, O my soul?  And why art thou disquieted in me?  Hope thou in God.

There are so many things going on in our world today that tries to rob us of our hope.  What or who are we putting our hope into, will make or break us when we are facing difficult and challenging times in our life.
   
Psalms 33:18-22   
18.  Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in His mercy.  
19.  To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.  
20.  Our soul waits for the Lord;  He is our help and our shield.  
21.  For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name.  
22.  Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, (according as we hope in thee.) 

God is telling us through His word, the Bible, that He see's us and watches over us when we put 
our hope in His mercy.  He is always for us and watching out for us in our life when we put our 
trust and hope in Him.
   
1 Peter 1:13, 18-22  
13. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
18. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold,
from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers.   
19. But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.   
20. Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.   
21. Who by him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him Glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.   
22. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.

Unfeigned:  not hypocritical, genuine and sincere.
Fervently:    to boil, very hot, glowing, exhibiting or marked by great intensity of feeling.

In other words, when we will do this:  Love our brothers and sisters in the Lord with an unfeigned or genuine and sincere love and see to it that we love one another with a pure heart fervently,or with a heart of glowing intense love that cannot be put out easily.

1 Peter 1:22 tells us this is how we purify our souls, which is our heart, soul and mind.  That is the God-Kind of Love.

As we are growing up, things we read or things that people are telling us, make us think that we are a good person and we will accomplish great things because of our good Works, but the Bible shows us that we can only make a difference in this world and the life of others as we give the love of God to them.  When we open our heart up to God, it is the most important thing we will ever do in our life.  Jesus made salvation available to us when He died on the cross and shed His blood to cleanse us from all sin.  He did that for us so we can have hope and new life through Him.  Praise God, He loves us that much.  When we open our heart up to God and ask him to forgive us of our sins, then He pours His love into us, and then we have something that will give us hope and we can give that hope to others.  If you have never done this before then I want to encourage you to do this....today!
Just pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart and life and to forgive you of all your sins and I can tell you, He will!

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

1 Corinthians 13:13  And now abides faith, hope, and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Proverbs 13:12  Hope deferred makes the heart sick; but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.
Key thought.  We must guard our heart against anything or anyone that tries to rob us of our hope in God!  If you will do this, He will take you through to the victory side of any difficult and challenging situation you may be going through in your life today.  Keep your trust and hope in Jesus!

God Bless and Keep you,

Rev. Barbara S. Parton
                                                                                                                                                                         


.
                                                                                 
                        HOPE IN THE LORD