Romans 15:13: The First Benediction
Introduction: We come to the end of the teaching part of the book of Romans as Paul pronounces the first of three benedictions, Romans 15:13, ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.’ These words may be familiar to you because you often hear a benediction at the end of a service. Why do we do that? If you go to older denominations that have liturgy you would also find benedictions, is this simply a return to ‘dead religion’?...
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Romans 15:4: Hope and the Scriptures
Introduction: The Puritans had a saying, ‘hope is the mother and daughter of patience.’ When we have hope, the knowledge of the certainty of the inheritance God has laid up for us, this gives birth to the daughter of patience, we can push through the difficulties because we know our sufferings are temporary and they must inevitably give way to glory. But Patience is sometimes the mother as well. Rom. 5:3-4, ‘More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.’ It is this second type of hope,...
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Romans 12:12: Suffering Survival Kit
Outline Rejoice in hope Patient in tribulation Constant in prayer Introduction ‘But man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward,’ these are the famous words of Job 5:7. Suffering is the inevitable portion of every child of Adam. This suffering is a result of the fall, all of God’s creation was put under the curse but a promise was given of a Saviour who would make all things new. In the OT when God wanted to point forward to that New Creation He would suspend some of the effects of the fall. He did this for the...
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Ephesians 6:17: The Helmet of Salvation
Outline The certainty of hope The fight for hope The effect of hope Introduction The typical picture of hopelessness is one taken from WWII. In the concentration camps the soldiers would give the prisoners menial tasks. In one camp the prisoners were told to move a huge pile of dirt from one side of the prison camp to the other. Once this was completed they were then commanded to move it back again. This endless cycle of meaninglessness with no light at the end of the tunnel caused many to deliberately throw themselves upon the electric fences to end...
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Revelation 4:1-11: The Throne that runs the universe
Introduction: Your view of the universe determines your reaction to suffering. If you are an atheist who views the world to be the result of time+chance =everything, then you have no reason to complain about suffering, it just is. If you are a Hindu that believes that this experience of reality is an illusion then suffering is not processed but denied, and it is hoped escaped by how well we do in each life finally reincarnating ourselves by our own efforts out of the cycle of pain. Deism that admits to a creator but that the laws of nature...
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