Understanding the Power of Hope, Part 2

The apostle Paul says, “I’m confident – I know for sure – that He is going to deliver me through it.”

And in this case, a context will tell us that’s what is going to happen.  He says, “I will in no way be ashamed, but [I] will have sufficient courage” – or grace – the word means “all boldness, the ability to speak boldly in public” – “so that now, as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or [whether] by death.”

So, what he’s saying is, “You know what?  The issue, for me, is not whether I die or not.  That’s temporal. I’m not wringing my hands, going, I wonder if I’m going to die?  I wonder if I’m going to die?  I wonder if I’m going to die?  I wonder if I’m going to die?  I don’t know what to do. I wonder if I’m going to die?  And what are those people saying about me out there?  Oh, gosh!  That’s so terrible!  After all these years, Lord, and I’ve written, let’s see, by now, I’ve probably written about 10 of those 13 books You want me to write, but I don’t know about the other three, because, you know, I haven’t died yet, and You’re going to let this happen and . . .” There’s none of that.

He said, “I am absolutely convinced that everything that will be necessary for me to go through this in a way that honors God and gives me what I need is 100 percent available to me at this moment.  That’s my eager focus and expectation.  My hope is not based on temporal circumstances changing.  My hope is based on a hope that can’t change. And my hope and certainty is, a sovereign, good God, using the prayers of people and the power of His Spirit, will give me all that I need, so that in the window of time when I’m at the spiritual free-throw line, and the entire stadium of eternity is filled, I will have sufficient courage to do exactly what you want me to do.  You brought me to Rome, because what’s my purpose?  My purpose is not to grow old, have a great retirement, and everything work out my way.  My purpose is to be an ambassador for Christ, to share Christ, and to live a pure life.”  He says, “I’m confident God will give me what I need to do that.

And notice the very last line here.  And he says that “Christ will be exalted,” and he said, “Plan A could be life.  Plan B could be death.”  And he says, “I am confident.”  But do you see?  Because his deliverance is certain, and because his hope is in that which is eternal, he asks the right questions.  And the power of perspective is always asking the right questions, so you start looking at life through focus, purpose, and hope.

The second reason is that his source of joy is unshakeable.  His source of joy is unshakeable.  And you say, “Well, where do you get that?”  Pick it up at verse 21 with me. He says, “Okay, whether by life or by death.”  And then, notice the first word is for.  For is almost always an explanation or a reason.  “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

And then, he goes through a little reasoning: “If I am to go on living in the body” – in other words, “If I don’t get executed,” – “this will mean fruitful labor for me.”  So, in other words, “I’m going to keep on ministering, and God is going to reward me, both in this life, in the joy of seeing what happens, and also in the next life, by spiritual reward.”  “[Yet]” he apparently has a little dilemma here – “[Yet] I do not know which to choose.  [I’m] torn between the two: I [have a] desire to depart and be with Christ, which is [far] better, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.”  And he’s just sharing the mental process that he’s going through.  “Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you” –why? – “for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.”  And so, he says, “I have an eternal perspective.”

And that eternal perspective, listen carefully, does this: It tells you that the answer to your problem is not a solution.  The answer to your problem is a Person.  Think of that. I always think the answer to my problem is my wife’s attitude change.  The answer to my problem is my kids getting in line and doing what I tell them.  It’s always a solution.  The answer to my problem is the economy shifting, and if those stocks would just get up a little bit more, then I could sell off and do what I wanted to do.  The answer is a new supervisor.  The answer is some employees that would do what I tell them.  The answer is, you know what?  If this physical issue would heal up, and I could go back to doing what I want to do again.

See, unconsciously, whenever you’re looking at life through this lens of temporality, we’re asking, the answer to my problem is a solution – “God, give me a solution.  God, give me a solution.”  And the more we ask, and the more we bump, and the more we bump – and we know that that’s what we need – and we don’t get it, we get frustrated, and we get discouraged.

And if you hit it long enough, and you keep asking the wrong question, what do you do?  You lose hope.  You lose hope. This’ll never change.  She’ll never change.  This job is a dead end.  These kids, after all that I’ve invested . . .  You know what? I’m a has-been.  I can’t even lift my arm anymore.  I can’t even jog anymore.  My body doesn’t work.  And when you ask the question and always expect, The answer to my problem is a solution, then you’re looking through the lens of that which is temporal.

But when I say to myself, “The answer to my problem is a Person,” I know the Person from up here.  So, to me, to live, presently, is Christ.  He’s the answer.  My relationship with Him.  There is no circumstance in my life that can rob me of my relationship with Christ.   Right?  What did Jesus say?  “No one can take you out of My hand.”  Neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come – nothing can separate you from the love of God.  Is that true or not true?  If it’s true, I have, and you have, all we need in our relationship with Christ.  So, to me, my life revolves around Him.

Now, as it revolves around Him, there are very real issues, with children and jobs and parenting and frustration, that I need to filter through this all-powerful, all-loving God, who says, “I am your hope.”  But you know something?  Do you know how freeing it is, when you realize to live is Christ; to die is gain?  Because, see, the living water that I’m seeking and tasting in a temporal way is the Spirit of God manifesting the presence and the power of Jesus.

And there will come a day when, by the grace of God – we don’t think of it that way – I’m going to die, and you’re going to die, and if you know Christ personally, then here’s what happens: The barrier gets removed, and you don’t just taste of the living water, you drink.  Forever and ever and ever and ever.  There are no tears.  There is no sorrow.  There is no pain.  There is no conflict.

And what Paul is saying is, is that everyone’s life revolves around something.  God has put it in nature. Those of you with biology backgrounds, get out your microscopes.  What do you know about a cell?  There’s a nucleus.  What goes around the nucleus?  Electrons, right?  And now, they have these super powerful ones, and they say inside even the nucleus – what?  There’s stuff going around stuff.  “Well, forget it.  I don’t like microscopes.”  Okay, let’s look up.  The Earth goes around – what?  The Sun.  The Sun is in a solar system.  They tell us our solar system goes around an axle star.  Every single thing, in all the world, is going around something.  There is always a reference point for every person, every object, everything, whether it’s minuscule, or as grand as the galaxies in the universe.

And the fundamental question I have to ask, and you have to ask, is, what is your life going around?  Because whatever your life is going around, that’s your hope.  And if it is going around your job, and your job goes south, you’re one depressed, down, discouraged dude that we don’t want to be around.  And if your life is circling around your hope to be married one day, then when it looks good, and when it doesn’t look good, well, you go up and you go down.  And if it’s around how athletic or how sharp or how fit or how smart or how gifted or how successful you are, or if it’s around one of your kids or one of your wives, I’ll tell you what – the apostle Paul said, “That which is seen is temporal.  That which is unseen is eternal.”

He says, “I don’t lose hope.  My joy” – because joy is not happiness.  Happiness comes from the root word of happenings.  Happiness is based on the happenings, or circumstances, in my life.  Joy is a spiritual fruit.  It is always a byproduct of a relationship.  He says, “My joy is unshakeable, because nothing can separate me from my relationship.  In fact, what some people fear so much – they’re afraid they’re going to die – all that does is open the barrier for me.  It’s better.”

Now, I got news for you.  We have so bought into a materialistic world and a temporal view, that I think if the average believer was given a little, “Check box A, check box B: Would you like to live longer and longer here, and have this kind of home, this happen, this happen, this happen, this happen, or immediately go and be with Jesus?”  American Christians, we’re all checking Box A.

Now, I don’t think God wants us to be sadistic and say, “Wow, how soon can I get to heaven?”  But the reason is not because it’s a bad thing.  The reason is, there’s more for you to do here.  You’ve got a purpose here.  And it’s not to play golf.  It’s not to get a second or a third home.  And it’s not so that everything can turn out right, and you can vicariously live through the success of your kids.  You have a purpose here.  You have a purpose: That lost people can hear that they’re loved and get found.  You have a purpose: That found people who know Him can be matured and loved by you investing in their life.  And you have a purpose to become more and more and more the man – or, if you’re a lady, a woman – who reflects the person of Christ in the midst of a topsy-turvy world.

And the apostle Paul said it really boils down to this: “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.  You can either get up on the platform,” he says, “and look through this lens of this camera of time” – and, wow, his circumstances look bad.  Or, what he does is, he gets on this platform and looks through the lens of eternity, and when he does, he says, “Wow, my life is revolving around an eternal Person, Jesus.  If I’m here, they can’t rob my joy.  If they kill me, they can’t rob my joy.”

Very interesting.  Obviously, I’ve been influenced by my last trip to Asia. Church pastors in China and Indonesia right now, I mean, people are burning their churches.  And if you’re not willing to die for your faith, I’ll tell you what, you don’t walk with God in some countries.

And I had the opportunity to go and pray for a group, it’s called the Back to Jerusalem Movement.  And the book I told you about is a guy that put this on his heart, but I found out, about 90 years later, a group of Chinese leaders, they had this dream to get 100,000 Chinese evangelists and walk from China, all the way down to Jerusalem.  Literally walk.

And if you go through that, you’ll see every major world religion, the huge pockets are Hinduism, Buddhism, Muslim. And as you walk, you go through all those countries.  And they’re recruiting, training, and equipping those people to do that.  A hundred thousand.  Two requirements to be on the team.

Requirement number one: If you join the 100,000 Group, you must commit to understanding you’ll never see your family again.  If you ever happen to, great, but no one starts and says, “Oh, my dad’s dying; I go back,” or, “You know, I’m really homesick.” You accept that, as you sign up for this purpose for God in your life, and don’t do it lightly, you put your family behind you.

Number two is, you must be willing to die.  They are absolutely certain that tens of thousands of them, as they share their faith, will die.  They’ll be persecuted.  And so, you think, Well, this sounds wild. It’s actually happening.

So, I’m in the Philippines, and I’m with a guy named Andrew, and we’re in this multi-story place, and we’re having church.  And he gives me this smile, “Come here, I want to show you something.”  And I walk up these stairs, these stairs, and all these cement buildings, and we go through these long hallways, and he says, “They just came in two days ago.”  And there were probably 60 bunks.  And then, “Here’s where we’re doing the food.”  This church in the Philippines is training about 80 or a hundred of the Back to Jerusalem walkers.

And so, I come into a room of all these Chinese people, and I bet the average age is about 22 to about 33.  And he says, “Would you pray for them?”  I’m thinking, You know what? I’m the pastor, from America, of this Christian organization and, “Why don’t you pray for these people?”

And I’m thinking, Now, let’s see.  There are 80 or a hundred people in the room that have said, “I’ll never see my family again, and I’m getting trained, and I’m going to walk down to Jerusalem, and I’ll probably die.  But my purpose is to honor and exalt Christ.  I think that’s good, because eternity is real,” and I’m supposed to pray some prayer.  And I’m going, Oh, Lord.  Spiritual giants, spiritual pygmy.  And so, I prayed the best prayer I could come up with.  “Lord, help them and bless them and encourage them.”

But you know something?  You know what they had?  They had hope.  And what I learned from those people is, until you have come to the full conclusion that dying is not a bad thing – once you have died in your heart, they can’t touch you.  The fear goes out.  “What if I go bankrupt?”  So, you lose a lot of money.  “What if my arm doesn’t work?”  So, it doesn’t work.  “What if my wife walks out on me?”  Well, she walks out.  They can’t take Jesus from you, and if they kill you, great.

The apostle Paul used a term.  We already have the sentence of Christ within us.  When you get where you embrace death as, It’s gain, I’m telling you, the emotional things that occur in your heart and your perspective – they can’t touch you.  I mean, what are they going to do?

Think of the worst thing that is in your life, and think, Oh, what if this happens?  Or what if this, or what if this . . .?  Well, keep playing it out.  This happened and this happens and this happens, and then, on top of this, and then, on top of this, on top of this . . . and then, I die.  Oh.  Or think of all the difficulty and the people you’re dealing with, and just add, Well, in 10 years, will it be that way?  Well, maybe.  In 20 years?  We’ll all be dead.  Okay.  Do you have in Christ what you need today?

And this is what he says.  He says, “To me, if I’m going to go on living in the body, it means faithful labor for me.  That’s a win. What shall I choose?  I don’t know.”  He says, “If I go to heaven, it’s a win.”  And so, he goes on and tells us that we’re really untouchable when our hope is in Christ.  When you ask yourself, “What or who is my hope in?” when you begin to answer, “Jesus,” then you look at life from up there, instead of through here.

I’ve got four summary points I want to give you, so that you can begin to ponder these for yourself.  The summary of Paul’s source of hope: Paul is joyful because he is certain that he will be delivered through this time of personal testing and be found a faithful witness.  You can be certain.  God will not let you down.  And there certainly is a word for us to pray for one another.

Second, Paul’s confidence – key word – confidence rests in the supernatural enabling God will provide through the prayers of the Philippians and the empowering of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  You’ve got it.  I’ve got it.  Everything you need, the Spirit of God will give you.

Third, Paul’s major concern during this time of testing is how his failure might reflect negatively on the Person of Christ.  Did you see that toward the end, here?  He says, “I know that I’ll remain, and continue for your progress and joy in [your] faith.  [It’s better by far.]”  His one concern was, Wow, when I step up to the plate, I don’t want to dishonor God.

And fourth, Paul’s primary motivation and goal in his testing is that Christ’s reputation would be greatly enhanced, regardless of what means God would choose to accomplish His goal: Life or death.

I’ve got a really good friend right now who is on our board, and he is going through a horrendous time.  He has an ulcer on his colon.  He has bleeding, and has had bleeding now for about a year.  And as I talked with Jack, and he said, “Man, really pray for me.”  And he said, “What I know is eternity.”  And he said, “What I want to do is finish well.  I want to finish well.”  And he said, “I want to finish well for my family.  I want to finish well for my kids.  I want to finish well for my grandkids.  I want to finish well for those people who knew me in business.  I want to finish well for those people.”  And he said, “I want to finish well.”  And I thought, What a picture of this final point.  The primary goal is that Christ’s reputation be enhanced.  Isn’t that different from the consumer mindset of, Does it really work for me? and, Am I happy?

On the back, I’ve put a little space that says, “Personal Application.”  And all I’d like you to do – and you can use your pencil, if you like, or you can do it mentally – what personal circumstance in your life, right now, is eating you up?  What relationship, what financial issue, what physical issue, what work-related issue, what emotional issue?

What is it, in your life, that, when you walk out of here, you have to say, “I am sick and tired of over and over and over unconsciously thinking, My hope is this, my hope is this, my hope is this, my hope is this, and you find yourself sinking, and you say to yourself, I’m going to learn – because it’ll be a journey; it’ll be a process – I am going to learn to get up here, from this vantage point, and I’m going to look at that circumstance that is eating my lunch.  Realistically?  Yes.  But through the lens of eternity.  And I’m going to believe with all my heart and begin to act and speak like I – it is a certain thing that God will give me all that I need. Not tomorrow. By the way, there is no hypothetical grace.  What happens next week?  I don’t know.  I don’t know if you’ll be here next week.  I don’t know if I will be.

“Well, if this happens at the same rate, I’ve done the chart, and two years from now, this is where I’ll be.”  Two years from now, you might be in heaven, with me and a bunch of the rest of us.  Who knows?

What you get is grace for today.  What I get is grace for today.  And you get a choice.  I get a choice.  Focus, purpose, hope.  Lens of time, lens of eternity.  What do you need, in your life, to look at through the lens of eternity?

What if we started looking at America through the lens of eternity?  What if we started looking at the economy through the lens of eternity?  What if we looked at terrorism through the lens of eternity?  Realistic, it’s happening, but wouldn’t it begin to start to shift our fears and our anxieties and, “What might happen to me, or what might happen to my family?” and move us from a protectionistic, hold mine, save mine, protect mine, not care, to a, these are volatile times?

It would certainly seem that God would need an army of men and an army of women who had such an eternal perspective.  Because once you know that death can’t hurt you, you’re invincible. God needs some invincible men in the marketplace, and some invincible men in homes, leading kids, saying, “As for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord.”