HOPE

Principle 2 Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He has the power to help me recover.
Step 2 We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

There is a story about people who probably felt they had no hope because they were caught in the chains of captivity.  We find that account at the beginning of the Book of Exodus.  The nation of Israel was in Egypt for over 400 years.  They were powerless to change that, much like we are powerless to free ourselves of the bondage to our hurt or habit.  Their bondage was physical and spiritual, so is ours.  We’ll follow that account as we move through today’s lesson and into the next several weeks.  It begins tonight with the message of HOPE.

H.O.P.E. for the Hopeless
Higher Power
The One True Higher Power, the God of the Bible, knew all about their suffering and enslavement and He was going to intervene.  Exodus 3:6-8 tells us, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.  And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.  So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey…”

This was a message of hope, God was going to deliver them from their slavery.  God did the same thing for us, delivering us from our slavery to sin (Romans 6).  He broke the power sin has over us by sending Jesus to the Cross to take the punishment we deserve.  In 1 Corinthians 15:3-7, 59 we are told, “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles…Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

Openness

But God doesn’t force us to accept His rescue, He simply offers it to those who believe.  God sent Moses, and Moses’ brother Aaron, to tell the Israelites what God was going to do and they were glad to hear that God was going to answer their cry for help.  Exodus 4:28-31 says, “So Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him.  Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel.  And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then he did the signs in the sight of the people.  So the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.”  The Israelites were open and receptive to the news that God wanted to set them free. 

Acknowledging that He is your only Hope is a critical step of your recovery.  Like I said, God doesn’t force you to believe Him or follow Him; that’s up to you.  That you might find out is that when you do submit to God, things will start happening, but it might not go as you thought it was going to go.  That’s because God’s ways are higher than our ways; He knows better than we do.  But it you are like the Israelites in Egypt, you might not think that what God is doing is the right thing.  Their “belief” and trust of God soon started to falter because God was not doing things the way they expected. 

Seriously, they had no idea what was coming…how it was going to happen.  Things would actually get harder before they got better and we’ll talk more about that next week.  The truth is, they couldn’t have handled God just “snapping His finger” to free them.  This freedom was meant to be life changing and to last for their lifetimes, no going back!  In order for that to happen, they needed to learn to trust God because the enemy (in this case, Pharaoh) was going to come after them. 

We also need to be open to the Truth of Christ and to whatever He is going to do.  Sometimes it will not go as we expected because we can’t see the future; we don’t know everything like God does!  Our freedom from hurts and habits is meant to be life changing and to last for our entire lifetimes, no going back!  In order for that to happen, we need to learn to trust God because the enemy (our hurt or habit) is going to come after us. 

Power to Change
The people in slavery had no power to change anything, and they knew it.  When Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh the first time, Pharaoh got pretty angry and said, “Who is God that I should obey Him.”  Well, pal, you’re about to find out the hard way!  In the mean time, Pharaoh decided to make life even more miserable for the Israelites which made them question what God was doing.  They probably thought their freedom would be immediate, but looking at the whole picture now, we can easily see that they wouldn’t have learned much that way.  Instead, God was going to bring down Pharaoh’s stronghold piece by piece until there was nothing left.  All along the way, He was demonstrating His power over all things so that the Israelites could understand that God was the Almighty and they could trust Him completely. 

Exodus 6:1-2, 6-7 says, “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.’  And God spoke to Moses and said to him, ‘I am the LORD… Therefore say to the children of Israel: I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.  I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.’”

We can’t change anyone else, or our situation, or ourselves for the most part, but Almighty God can!  Maybe you don’t quite believe that because you’ve not seen it.  Well my friend, what if the reason nothing has changed is NOT a lack of God’s power, but a lack of your openness to God and your own expectations getting in the way?  Matthew 13:58 tells us, “Now He (Jesus) did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”  The people in Jesus’ home town didn’t experience the power of God because they didn’t believe.

Expect Change
The Israelites expected change in Exodus 4:31, but not after Pharaoh made their lives harder in Exodus 5:20-21.  As soon as it didn’t go like they expected…they lost hope; they stopped trusting God! 

Your recovery from hurts and habits will not be easy, immediate, or automatic.  BUT God will lead you through, and He’ll do the heavy lifting.  You’ve simply got to trust Him.  I think the best way to put this all together is to let God have the last word; so from Romans 5:1-5…

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.  Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”