My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus blood and righteous;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand:
All other rock is sinking sand.
When darkness hides His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor hides within the vail
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Supports me in the ‘whelming flood’;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is my hope and stay.
When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found,
Clothed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne
What is HOPE?
- Hope is faith reached out in darkness.
- Hope is God’s gift to believe.
- Hope is not wishful thinking .Wishing comes from emotions. Hope comes from the Word of God.
- Hope is a positive attitude of expectation and anticipation regarding one’s future. Although your next moment and all of its subsequent moments into the distance can not be clearly seen, you still expect the circumstances of your life in the future to be positive and to be beneficial to your well-being. You hope to be relatively comfortable, safe, and happy.
Where do you look for your hope? To yourself, your wallet, your bank–book, your friends? Where do you look when the future look bleak and dark?
The Sons of Korah said in Psalm 42: 5 “ Put your hope in God”
Heb 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” - Substance- What God has done in the past! (Heb 11:1)
- Evidence: What is in the Word?-
v Jer:29:11: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
v Titus 2:13
What God has done in the past, he will do it today.
Moses……………………………………. Parted the red sea
Elisha prayed………………………………… did not rain for 3 ½ years
Dan 3:1 – Fiery heat- God shows himself not sends someone.
Heb:6:19: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
What is this hope we are grasping? It is not money or things or a country. Hebrews 11 says we are looking forward to a heavenly city and a heavenly country. Our anchor of hope is Jesus himself, who died for our sins and was raised for our justification.
Our hope in Christ is like an anchor for the soul.
Epictetus wrote “One must not tie a ship to a single anchor, nor life to a single hope”. Christians have one anchor- Jesus Christ our hope (Col 1:5; I Tim 1:1)
This spiritual anchor is different from material anchors on ships. For one thing, we are anchored upwards to heaven not downwards.
We are anchored not to stand still but to move ahead. Our anchor is “sure” it cannot break and “steadfast”- it cannot slip. No earthly anchor can give that kind of security.
The author says, “We have this hope”; it is in the present tense, meaning we have it now, continuously. When we face our university examinations, we have it; when we go to the doctor and hear our disease is terminal, we have it; at the hour of our death, we have it; when our spouse is sick or when our child dies, we have it.
Sometimes our lives may seem like they are caught in a violent storm as wave after wave of crisis threatens to sink our ship and powerful pressures seem to drive us toward sharp jagged rocks. At such times, an anchor can sustain and brace a ship as the storm rages
We have Jesus, our hope, as an anchor “for the soul” (Heb. 6:19). This does not mean He is the anchor only for the immaterial part of our being; it means Christ is the anchor of our entire life, both body and soul. Our life’s ship is not immune to severe winds, rain, and mighty storms. But we are securely fastened, or moored, to Jesus, who is moored to God, who dwells in the Holy of Holies of the heavenly sanctuary. We are in the storm but the storm is not in us. We are in the sea but the sea is not in us. Our blessed hope brings peace in the midst of storms. Hope feels the intangible.
Sailors do not see the anchor that grips the bottom of the harbor. But they are certain of their safety because of it. Even so, by faith our anchor, Jesus, though invisible to us, but visible to faith and hope, is in us as the hope of glory. But he is also with God. We have two chains linked together: one is promise, the other is oath. In Jesus our hope is linked to us and linked to God. He is in us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). He is also with God, for he has entered the heavens and is seated on the right hand of God as our high priest forever to intercede for us.
Effects of Hope:
1. Patience- I John 3:3
Hope will give you patience and endurance.
2. Purity
Rom 4:18 “where there is life there is hope, where there is life there is a living God
Hope purifies you. Hope thou in God.
RESULTS OF HOPE:
Hope generates enthusiasm- Rom 5:2
Hope brings joy- Rom 15:13-Joy is not happiness.
Joy -> No matter what happens to you (It gives you a song---Paul & Silas)
Happiness- From Environment.
CONCLUSION: The anchor is tied to the ship. Are you tied to Him?
