Against All Hope

March 04, 2012

by John Partridge Scripture: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Mark 8:31-38 Romans 4:13-25

This morning I want to introduce you to Thomas Wade Truett, age 29. Tom, an airman first class in the United States Air Force, was a fuel manager at Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, S.D. Due to some personal problems, he went AWOL (Absent Without Leave) on December 3, of last year and headed West. Four days later, in the Deschutes National Forest in Oregon, his sports car got stuck in the snow and although he made an attempt to hike out, he was ill equipped to do so and after four days in the woods without a coat or a sweater, he returned to his car which then became buried in snow. Tom lived in his car and on December 13, after having consumed the little food that he had with him, some orange juice, water and a package of almond M&Ms, he wrote a goodbye letter to his parents in Florida. The next day, Tom heard snowmobiles somewhere outside of his car so he threw his backpack, a notebook and some clothing out the window so that someone passing by might discover that he was trapped there. A day later, a group of snowmobilers ran over the backpack and dug far enough to find the windshield of the car and they were shocked to see a claw-like hand tap on the glass. One of their number went for help while the others dug through five feet of snow to reach Tom through the window of his car. Sixteen days after he had left South Dakota, and after nearly two weeks in his car, he had lost 20 pounds, his skin was a sickly pale grey and he was suffering from hypothermia but he was alive. No one knew that Tom Truett was missing and chances are that no one was looking for him. Did his parents suspect that something was wrong? Were they worried? I would guess that Tom knew that no one was looking for him and since he had already written to say goodbye to his parents, I have to think that he had almost given up hope. How about you? How bad is your situation? Is the handwriting on the wall? Does a bitter end seem to be inevitable? Even if things arent quite that bad, do events in your life have you beaten down and wondering if you will ever find your way back again? Have you lost hope? Are you beginning to lose hope? Our message today is for you. Our message from scripture is this: Hang in there. Have hope. God has not forgotten you. We begin today with Abram, the father of the nation of Israel in Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
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When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers. Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 1
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God also said to Abraham, As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her. God had encountered Abram and had told Abram that if he followed him and went to the land that God would show him that God would make Abram into a great nation. Scholars estimate that Abram was seventy five years old when God called him. Twenty-five years later God promises that Abram will have a child. Imagine if that was you. God says that he will make your family into a great nation but now you are a hundred years old! How can that be? Through all that had happened, Abram had not given up. Through all that had happened, Abram had not stopped trusting God. In Romans 4:13-25, Paul reflects on the trials and the accomplishments of Abram
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It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, 15 because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abrahams offspringnot only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: I have made you a father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believedthe God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, So shall your offspring be. 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as deadsince he was about a hundred years oldand that Sarahs womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why it was credited to him as righteousness. 23 The words it was credited to him were written not for him alone, 24 but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousnessfor us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Paul tells us that Abram and Sarai had waited so long that they had gone beyond hope. At the age of ninety-nine, it was completely unreasonable to even hope that they might still have children. Paul says that at the age of ninety-nine Abram was as good as dead and that Sarais chances of having a baby were dead. For Abram and Sarai, hope was dead but faith, now thats something different, faith was alive and well. Abram knew that God had made a promise and Abram knew that God always keeps his promises. Despite his age, and despite the impossibility of Sarai having a child when she was nearly a hundred years old, Abram had faith that God would keep his promise and that God would do what he said that he would do. Hope was dead, but faith was alive and well. I want to put this all together to provide a message of encouragement, but before I do, I want you to hear the words recorded in Mark 8:31-38. In this passage we hear Jesus provide a different sort of encouragement
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He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. Get behind me, Satan! he said. You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Fathers glory with the holy angels. Jesus begins to talk about the abuse that he will receive at the hands of his captors and about his death and resurrection. What Peter hears is not good. Perhaps Peter hears words that sound like surrender to him. Perhaps to him, the words of Jesus sound fatalistic and not the words of strength that he expected. Perhaps as Peter had come to think of Jesus as a military Messiah, he had expected to hear a fighting spirit and words of battle and victory. When Peter hears Jesus talking about death and suffering he takes Jesus a side to set him straight and get with the program but Jesus isnt having any of that. Jesus tells Peter, and us, that we must first and foremost keep God, and the concerns of God, first and foremost. In all of our lives, in all of our hope and in all of our faith, we must remember to keep what God wants in first place and not just the things that we want or the things that we think are best. And so where is the encouragement in all of this? The message that we have heard today is that sometimes life stinks. Sometimes our lives dont go the way that we thought that they would. Sometimes the whole world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket and we dont understand whats going on. Sometimes things are so bad, that it becomes impossible for us to even hope that things might get better. It happens. It happened to Abram and Sarai. It happened to Paul a bunch of times. It happened to Peter and the rest of the Disciples. The encouragement here is this When hope runs out, faith remains. When Abram ran out of hope that his hundred year old wife might get pregnant and have a baby or that he would live long enough to even think of raising a newborn, faith stayed strong. Hope said that it was impossible, but faith remembered that God always keeps his promises. When Paul was locked in prison and was on trial for preaching the gospel, hope despaired over the impossibility of defeating the greatest military nation on earth but faith remembered that God was in charge. Faith remembered that Pauls life was in Gods hands and that whatever happened, whether imprisonment, or beatings, or even death, God was in control and that Gods plan was the best plan. When Peter and the other disciples listened to Jesus talk of suffering and death, hope wept that their leader was giving up but faith remembered that there was something bigger than hope. Faith doesnt always get with the program. Faith remembers that we need to keep God first in our lives and in our thoughts. Faith remembers that we must keep what God wants ahead of what we want. Sometimes as we watch the news we are heartbroken and confused. Sometimes the things that we see are so terrible and so confusing that hope doesnt have a lot of answers and sometimes our personal lives are like that too. Sometimes our relationships are not what we want them to be. Sometimes our sisters and brothers and friends and lovers turn their backs on us and we dont understand why. Sometimes our 3
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suffering drags on for so long that hope fails. Sometimes like Tom Truett, we get trapped in the snow. Sometimes when we see teenagers shooting one another in random acts of violence in the streets and even in our schools we lose hope that our society will ever be what it once was or what we think that it should be. Sometimes life has us so beaten down we wonder if we will ever find our way back again. But When hope runs out, faith remains. In the blackest night, in the deepest gloom, in the darkest hour of our despair, faith lives. Faith remembers that God has not forgotten us. Faith remembers that God always keeps his promises. Faith remembers that God loves us as much as he loved his own son. Faith remembers that God has a plan and faith trusts that Gods plan, despite the suffering, despite the pain, despite the hopelessness, Gods plan is better than any plan devised by you or me or any other human being. When hope runs out, faith remains. Hold on to hope as long as you can but when hope runs out, hold on to faith. Faith will endure.

You have been reading a message presented at Barnesville First United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor of Barnesville First. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Barnesville First UMC at 123 W. Church St., Barnesville, OH 43713. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@barnesvillefirst.com. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at http://www.scribd.com/Pastor John Partridge. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.