Message Notes for August 13, 2023

Series: Real Hope

Title: Hope When I’m Hopeless

H.O.P.E: Hold On Pain Ends.

Without Christ, hopelessness creeps in too easily. But in Christ, we will always have hope to hold to.

Are you hope deprived? Do you need help hoping again?

• Look at what God has done

  Lamentations 3:18-24 “My strength and my hope has perished from the Lord. “Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the bitter wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is grieved down within me. But this I remember, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my inheritance,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

• Look at what God can do

  Psalm 43:5 “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”

• Hope don’t cope

  Galatians 5:1-5 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.”

   

  Family/Study Group Notes for August 13, 2023

  Series: Real Hope

  Title: Hope When I’m Hopeless

   

• Who in your life has held onto hope during hopeless moments? What were they like?

   

• When was the last time you felt hopelessness creep in?

   

• What is one thing, or person, or habit you go to other than God to get you out of a hopeless moment/situation?

   

• Look back at all God has done for you and make a list of them! How can looking back at what God has done help us when it comes to hopelessness?

   

• Read Psalm 43:3-5. Make a list of things you pray/expect/look forward to God doing. Offer that to God by faith and line those up with His will.

   

• If we don’t hope, we cope. Make a list of things you go to, to cope instead of hope. (Ex: Snacking to feel good, lustful eyes to distract or feel loved, drugs/alcohol/vaping to feel or forget, gossip to feel value, working more to push through tough times)

   

• Who is someone in your life who can have more hope for you when a hopeless moment hits you? If no one comes to mind, will you seek out a mature believer to fill that role?

   

• Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13. How are we separated from the rest of the world in regard to hope? What does that mean for you?

   

• Pray and reach out to someone else this week who may be overwhelmed with a hopeless situation and share good news and hope in Christ!