The Power of Hope - Richard E. Simmons III

Are you looking for hope in your life today?In light of the recent, tragic school shooting in Nashville, I'd like to share this message of hope from a Good Friday talk I gave a few years ago. I believe it is pertinent today.Author and pastor Tim Keller says this, “Hope is the engine that drives your life. And the reason is because how you live your life today is so influenced by how you perceive your future.”In our vocabulary today, the word "hope" is generally spoken of as a synonym with wishing for something. I wish this would happen. I hope this would happen. Wishing is a vague longing for something we desire, but find unlikely to happen. The hope that I’m speaking of is a noun and it’s a life-shaping certainty of something that has not happened yet, but you know will happen. That word “hope” is used 85 times in the New Testament. What you’ll see stressed repeatedly is that our relationship with God is the ultimate ground of hope in this life, and that’s what I want to show you today. We are all hope-based creatures. We can’t live without hope. This is why people who see the future as being utterly hopeless, very sadly pull the plug on their lives. Because, when you look ahead at the future and you don’t like what you see and you see no change is coming, you find yourself feeling this sense of hopelessness. This naturally leads to despair in your present-day life. And so, the way you see the future has such an impact on the way you see your life and the way you live your life today.