Aren’t you glad that we can count on that truth? That Jesus is all that we need. That’s why a few weeks ago, we began the series talking about marriage and talking about relationships, talking about all of the situations that we go through is what we needed to understand. We need to get the truth and the fact of the matter that Jesus is all that we need in the midst of anything that we might face. That’s why we started this series, “The Father Knows Best.” We wanted to get across the idea that no matter what state you are in, no matter what situation that you are in, no matter where you are in life, no matter whether you have been married a week, or whether you’ve been married for decades or whether you are about to be married. Maybe if you are divorced, if things aren’t going well, that if we would understand that the Father, that Christ knows what’s best for us. And if we would seek Him, that if we would run after Him, if we would run to Him, that in Him we would find the answers to everything that we might face.
That’s why we started a few weeks ago talking about God’s definition of what marriage is, God’s definition on love. Talking about the roles and responsibilities in marriage and last week, talking about conflict that’s in marriage and how to deal with those things according to God’s Word. And so up to this point, we’ve been talking about how to make our marriages better, how to strengthen them, how to make sure that they are growing. How to make sure that we are doing all that we can to grow closer together, and to allow God to bless us and to use those relationships to bring honor and glory to Him.
But today we want to kind of change directions, kind of turn a corner, if you will, because we know that in many situations, and certainly in this church as in every church, there are a lot of people whose marriages are over, they are ended, they’re done. And broken hearts are there. The loss is there. The loneliness is there. And whether it’s through death, or whether it’s through divorce, or whatever it might be. May be a marriage where one spouse is trying to do the right things and follow after God but the other spouse just doesn’t care, is not interested in God, is not interested in the Bible, not interested in doing things according to the Scriptures. And those of us who are in that situation, we are left thinking what do we do now? There’s no hope. Where do we turn?
Today in this sermon, I just, quite frankly want to talk about how to find hope when all hope is lost. When it seems like it is all over. When it seems like there is nothing to look forward to. When it seems like we are all alone in this world and there is nothing to live for. When hope is gone. How do we find hope when the hope is lost?
Let’s take a look at this video clip: (Brief Beverly Hillbillies clip shown at this time.)
Jed: Why thunder, Granny, the ole place ain’t changed a bit. Purty as ever.
Granny: Purtier with the snow.
Elly Mae: Scuse me, Pa, but I got some friends to go say howdy to.
Jed: Yes sir, they just don’t make houses like this no more.
Jethro: Sure don’t make em in Beverly Hills. I’ll go get the bags, Uncle Jed.
Jed: Reckon they just can’t get wood like this. My Grampa chopped down the trees and built this all by hand.
Mr. Drysdale: You say, your grandfather built this cabin?
Jed: He sure did.
Mr. Drysdale: Well, he must have been a remarkable man.
Jed: He sure was. He finished the cabin in the morning, went to town, found a girl, courted her, married her, and carried her across that doorstep all before sundown. Tell me, Granny, was that 18 and 97 or 18 and 98?
Granny: 18 and 98.
Jed: Yeh, that’s right. She was 18 and Grampa was 98.
Mr. Drysdale: You say he was 98 and his bride was 18?
Jed: That’s right. Marriage didn’t work out too good though.
Mr. Drysdale: Well, I don’t doubt it.
Jed: Yeh, Grampa made the mistake of having his Ma come live with them.
Granny: Awful bossy old woman. Wouldn’t let that little bride do nothing. Did everthing herself.
Now when you hear that story of this guy who was 98 years old and marrying a girl that was 18, you can pretty much say, as we all laughed when we heard that, that marriage had no hope. There wasn’t a lot of future in that marriage. And you know sometimes when we get into that kind of situation, we bring it upon ourselves. It’s kind of like the guy that I heard about the other day. He and his wife were in this argument. Man, they kept getting more heated and more heated and they were getting louder and louder and arguing more and more and finally she had just had enough. She was tired of this and she said, “You know what? You are so mean to me; you don’t even like my relatives. You don’t even care about my relatives.” That guy spoke up and said, “Oh that’s not true at all, honey. I like your mother-in-law a whole lot more than I like mine.” I’ll give you a minute on that one. Did you get it? Okay.
That guy is probably doomed to an unhealthy relationship, don’t you think? But you know what? There are times, and certainly in this church, when maybe those watching by television, those at Dan River Church, you are sitting there right now. And you know what? You haven’t started marriage off in a tough spot like we just saw in that video clip. Maybe you’re now going down a road and things were just…there was not hope to begin with. Maybe you’ve done all the right things but right now you are in a broken relationship. Right now maybe that relationship is over. Maybe that marriage is done. Maybe you’re a single parent. Maybe you are divorced. Maybe you are widowed or maybe a widower. And you just feel like, what do I do? I’m so lonely. Where do I turn? Where do I find the hope that I need, the joy that I need, the peace that I need to get me through this situation in life?
Today I want to turn to the Word of God because in these pages, in the words of this book, we find the hope when it seems like all hope is lost. I want you to turn with me to the Book of II Corinthians. In II Corinthians we are going to read out of chapter 10. In chapter 10 we find a statement. We find a paragraph here in verses 3 through 5 that I believe firmly, if we can understand this, if we can get this passage, it will totally revolutionize the way that we think about life, the way that we think about problems, the way that we think about challenges, the way that we think about difficulties and the way that we think about broken marriages, and broken lives and broken hearts.
In II Corinthians chapter 10, verses 3-5 it says this: “For though we walk in the flesh.” Now listen I want to make sure you understand what that means, when it says “For though we walk in the flesh,” I want to replace that just for a moment and basically say it this way, “For even though we are human, even though we make mistakes, even though we are not perfect, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
Listen, let me read it in the New Living Translation because I really want you to understand what this passage is saying. It says this, “We are human but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning. And to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.”
Let me tell you that in every situation, in every broken marriage, in every divorce, in every crisis that we go through, when we are lonely, when we are hurting, when we feel like no one cares, when we feel like we have no worth and no value and nothing to offer, in every one of those situations this passage is talking about us because those thoughts are not coming from God. Those thoughts are coming from our human condition, our humanity from the mistakes, the way that we think, the problems that we put on ourselves.
And this passage is so important to understand, that even though we are human, and even though we make mistakes, and even though we think the wrong way, and even though we think we have no value, and even though we think we have no worth, even though we think that there is no way we could even sustain a relationship, that we just blow it every time, that Christ wants us to get that we are not battling against our flesh. We are not battling against humanity. We are battling against Satan who uses those things to destroy us.
Oh, but listen, the hope that’s found here. We don’t use the world’s weapons. We use God’s mighty weapons to knock down the stronghold of human thinking, of human reasoning. Casting down the arguments, to destroy those false arguments that we make against ourselves. And in every situation those are the arguments that we do make against ourselves. When we get ourselves in situations where we think we’ve made all the mistakes and we’ve done everything the wrong way and we just say, “You know what? I’m not worth anything. No one can love me. No one can care about me. I mess up every time. I have no value, no worth. There’s no reason to even keep living.”
We’ve all heard this story, so many times, the tragic stories, young people and old people who get in that way of thinking. They begin making those arguments to themselves and many times it ends up in suicide because they feel like I’ve got no reason to go on, no reason to live. Christ gave us this passage today to say this. Listen, you trust in God. You believe in me. You use the strength and the weapons and the power and the joy that I will give to you and you will destroy those false arguments. You throw down those reasonings that you are putting into your own mind and you will defeat them and you will know that through me you are worth everything. Listen, that’s an important truth to get. That’s an important thing to understand. When we are going through life and we feel like everything we do goes bad. When it feels like we break everything. It feels like we have no worth, no value. When we understand that God is telling us, listen, you’re not wrestling against what you might think you are wrestling against. Listen, you use the power that I give you and what will happen is that you will have hope.
Today this message is about hope. Today this message is for that single mom or that single dad that’s sitting out there. For that person who’s out there whose marriage is over and you feel like, well what do I do now? That person who is so captured in their loneliness that they just feel like they have nothing to offer, nothing to give. Today I want you to know that God has got incredible things in store for you. He’s got an incredible plan in place for you and He wants to give you hope.
So how do we find hope when hope is lost? How do we figure out what it is that we do when we feel like that all is broken and all is lost? And whether you are sitting in this room today, whether you are sitting in Danville today at Dan River Church, whether you are watching by the internet, whether you are watching by television, regardless of where you are or what you might be in or the situation you are facing, the one most important truth that I want you to get this morning in finding hope when hope is lost, is this. Never forget you are child of the King. You are a child of Almighty God. Christ calls you His child. Look what it says in Galatians chapter 3, verses 26-29. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus and if you are Christ’s,” listen to this, “then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.”
Do you know what that passage says? It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve messed up. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve blown it. It doesn’t matter how lonely you feel. It doesn’t matter how worthless you feel. It doesn’t matter how brokenhearted you are. You are a child of the King and He wants to give you victory in the midst of that pain. Listen, that’s incredible. That’s an amazing promise, an amazing truth that God calls us His children. That it doesn’t matter what we’ve done. It doesn’t matter if we feel like we are all alone and that no one cares. There is someone who always cares. There is someone who always is there and treating us like a dad, treating us like we are His children, with His arms open wide to welcome us, to give us hope. We have to understand if we are going to find hope when hope is lost, we’ve got to realize that we are a child of the king and because we are a child of the King, because He is our father, He also knows how we feel. He knows how we feel.
I have four children. You know I’ve pretty much gotten to the point where I know them fairly well. And I know when they are depressed and I know when they’re discouraged. I know when they are sad, and definitely know when they are angry. I know when they are happy. I know when they are hungry and usually all the rest of the stuff goes along with it when they are hungry. When they are hungry, they are angry, they are mad, they are sad, everything. I mean, I’ve gotten to know them. I know what they are going through and I know how they feel and I know what to do to meet those needs.
But let me tell you something. Those things are all superficial. God knows how we feel in the innermost parts of our heart. Look what it says in Psalm chapter 139. An incredible passage that when we feel like we are all alone and we have no value. Listen to what God says about us. “Oh Lord you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up.” You know when I go to bed. You know when I wake up in the morning. “You understand my thoughts afar off.” You know what I’m thinking. You know what’s going through my mind when I’m telling myself I’m worthless, when I’m telling myself that I’ve got no value. You know those thoughts, Oh God. “You comprehend, you know my path and my lying down.” You know the road that I’m traveling. You know that I’ve lost my job. You know that my marriage is over. You know that I’ve lost my spouse. You know the pain that I’m feeling. You know the road that I’m traveling, God, you know and comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all of my ways. “Everything about me, God, you know. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, oh, Lord, you know it altogether.”
And I love this verse right here, verse 5, “You have hedged me behind and before.” Do you know what that means? What that says? It says this. In the midst of all of this stuff, in the midst of everything that I go through in life, in the midst of the pain that I feel, God, you have wrapped me up in your care. You have wrapped me up in your love.” It doesn’t matter how bad things might seem, God. You have hedged me, you have enclosed me in your love and laid your hand upon me. “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it.” When we are going through situations in life where we feel like no one understands and no one cares and no one knows what we are going through, God knows and God cares and God promises us that He will wrap us up and He will enclose us in His love.
As a pastor, not a week goes by that I don’t have someone come to me and tell me about situations that they are going through that are difficult and the pain that they are going through and the pain they are feeling. And, do you know what? Often it’s kind of a human response, kind of an automatic response, and I’ll say, “Hey, I know how you feel.” But when it comes right down to it, I don’t know how they feel. In lots of situations that they share with me, I don’t know how it feels to lose a spouse. I don’t know how it feels to lose a child. I don’t know how it feels for that family this morning, they don’t even know where there daughter is. The pain must be so overwhelming. I don’t understand that. I don’t know how they feel. Isn’t it awesome to think that no matter what we go through, God does know how we feel and God cares and God wraps us up. He encloses us in His love and in His hope and in His joy in the midst of no matter what we are going through.
I remember not long ago, Jeff, I was with you in the hospital when your wife was very near death and we prayed together and we shared together. A few days later his dear wife went home to be with the Lord. And I was with Jeff and I said, “Jeff, I don’t know how you feel, but I know God does. And I know this, God is the only one who can bring us through those kinds of situations.” Am I right, Jeff? Yes.
God knows how we feel. But listen, not only do we have to realize that we are children of the King and that God knows how we feel, we also must understand that He will never leave us alone in the midst of those things. You know it is one thing to know how we feel, but isn’t it great to know that He will be with us every step of the way? When we are sitting by the hospital bed. When we get those divorce papers. When we’ve lost a loved one. When we are going through those situations that not only does He know how we feel, but He will not leave us in the midst of those things.
Look what it says in Psalm 68, verses 5 and 6. It says, “He’s a father of the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in his holy habitation. God sets the solitary, the lonely in families. He brings out those who are bound into prosperity.” Listen to the way the New Living Translation says it. It says, “He’s a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows. This is God whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families” and then, I want you to get this. “He sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.”
Are there any prisoners here today? Prisoners to pain, to sorrow, to loneliness? Feel like there’s no hope? No future? That there’s no life. We’re bound in those feelings, bound in that pain, but God comes and He sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. What incredible truth, to know that God cares, that God knows what we’re going through. He will never leave us.
Over in Psalms it also says “Whom have I in heaven but you?” And “there is none upon earth that I desire beside you. My flesh and my heart fail.” Do you know what that means? This body is weak. This body is worn. I’ve got nothing in this body really that is of value. It’s just falling apart from the moment we are born. But it says this, “My flesh and my heart fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” God is everything that we need. We are children of the King. He knows how we feel. God never leaves us alone.
And we can also always trust Him with our problems. We can trust Him. You know on this earth, many times we come to people and we’re going through a situation. We are going through problems and we share them with someone because we are looking for help and we’re looking for someone to get us through those situations. You know what happens often? Someone that we have confidence in, someone we believe in will end up sharing it with someone else and the thing just gets bigger and bigger and the problem just gets more and more. You felt like you could have trusted that person, but for some reason they let you down. Listen, God will never let you down.
Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 and 6, a passage you know. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” “With all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him.” And how does that passage end? “And he will direct your path.” When you feel like no one cares, when you feel like you’re all alone. When you feel like there’s no hope. When you feel like you have nowhere to turn, that life’s not worth living. Isn’t it in that situation that you would feel wonderful about having someone there that loved you so much, that cared for you so much, that had so much wisdom that he would show you the path that you should take out of the midst of that problem? That’s who God is. Trust God with all of your heart. Trust Him with all of your problems. Don’t lean on your own abilities because you’ll fail every time. Don’t trust what you think or what someone else thinks. Listen, you trust in God with all of your heart. Don’t lean on your own understanding. In everything acknowledge him and he will show you what to do next.
That’s why those four words are on the back wall of this church. That’s why it says up there on that wall, “Not I, but Christ,” because there was a time in my life not too long ago when I didn’t know what to do next. When I didn’t know what was going to happen. When I didn’t know where to turn. And I put those words up on that wall to be a constant reminder, not only for this church and for all of us, but a constant reminder to me not to lean on my own abilities, not to lean on my own understanding, but to trust God. And if we do that, He’ll lead us through. God always is trustworthy. You can trust Him with all of your problems. Why? Because we know that not only does He care about us, and He loves us and that we are his children, He’s not through with us yet. He’s got a plan for us. He’s got a plan with a future. A plan to do incredible things with us. God has a purpose for you and He wants to use you in a special, special way.
Look what it says in Philippians 1, verse 6, “Being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. “ Listen, I didn’t need to do a word study on the word “complete.” I didn’t need to go and do some kind of a study in the Greek or the Hebrew or look up in the dictionary what the word complete means. I think we all pretty much know what complete means. Does everybody know what complete means? I mean, we know that. We’ve got that. That’s a word we don’t have to try to really get an understanding of. What it means is it will be finished. It will be finished. He will complete it And God is telling us in this passage, listen, I don’t care what you’ve been through. And I don’t care what you are feeling today. The work that I began in you when I sent my son to die on the cross for you, when He bled and died for you, when He gave His life for you, the work that I started on that cross 2000 years ago, the work in your heart. Listen, count on me to finish it. I’ll complete it. What I’ve promised you in this book, I will do it. You can count on it.
And man when we get in a situation sometimes where we feel like there’s no hope, when we feel like there’s no future. There’s nothing to look forward to, isn’t it wonderful to know that the God of heaven loves us so much that He promises us, hey, I’m not done. I’m not done with you. In our minds we tell ourselves all the time, I can’t do it. I quit. I don’t have what it takes. No one can love me. No one cares about me. I’ve got nothing to look forward to. I’ve got no reason to live. God says, “Yes, you do because I’m not done with you yet. What I began in you, what I started in you, I’m going to finish it. I’m going to complete it. All you’ve got to do is trust me. “
We know that God’s not done with us. We know that we can trust Him and why? Why is it that we can trust Him with our problems? Why is it that we know that He’s not done with us yet? Because He has a purpose for us. He desires to use us to serve Him. He’s got something that He wants to do with you. The pain that you’ve been through. The problem that you’ve experienced. The sorrow in your heart that you feel. The tears that have come down your face. All of that has a purpose. God is going to use you to serve.
Look what it says in II Corinthians chapter 1, verse 3-5. “Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all. The God of all comfort. Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us so our consolation also abounds through Christ.”
Let me tell you something, people. Right now in this room there are people who are in the midst of brokenness, in the midst of loneliness, in the midst of hurt. You may have come to church this morning with tears in your eyes as you drove here. I know from the early service, I talked to several with tears in their eyes during the service, because of the situations that they are going through and the pain that they are feeling. They are asking themselves the question “Why?” And, “What do I do now?” And, “What does the future hold?” And, “Is there any hope?”
You’ve got to understand that if we are going to find hope in the middle of a situation that seems hopeless we’ve got to realize that what we’re going through, God can use to bless Him and to bless us. God wants to use what you are going through, maybe to bless the person who’s sitting next to you. Maybe the person who is sitting next to you is going through a situation similar to what you’ve gone through, or maybe what you are going through. Listen, God wants to use you to be a blessing to them. Or maybe you are sitting there and you feel like no one cares and you are all alone and the person next to you is going to be a person that God uses to bring joy into your heart. The biggest thing we’ve got to understand though is this, finding hope when all hope seems to be lost is only found in Christ. It’s only found in Him.
Psalm 121 tells us in verses 1 and 2. Listen, “I lift my eyes up to the hills from whence comes my help. “ And then just to make sure that we understand that passage, to make sure that we understand that verse, you know what Christ says through that passage next? He says this, “Because my help comes from the Lord.”
So we look at the life of David. You talk about brokenhearted. Here’s a guy who committed adultery. A guy who committed murder. A guy whose own son tried to kill him to take over his kingdom. A guy who had tragedy, after tragedy after tragedy. Yet from that brokenness, from that loss, from that pain, from that sorrow, from the family of David came our Savior. You think there’s hope? Yes, there’s hope. You think there’s a future? You bet. But it comes from understanding one very important truth. We can’t look to ourselves to find the hope we need. We can’t look to this world to find the hope that we need. I lift my eyes up to the hills because that’s where my help comes from. My help, your help comes from the Lord. So today in the midst of what you’re going through you feel like you’re done. You feel like there’s no hope, broken, lost, lonely. Make a statement in your heart today, “Lord, I run to you. I run to you.” So today the message of hope comes only from God.
I know there are people in this room right now that after hearing what we’ve talked about this morning, after hearing that song, your heart right now is heavy. And right now you are on the verge of those tears coming out of your eyes because you don’t know what to do next. You don’t know where to turn. Listen, today we have talked about one important truth and that is, in the midst of loneliness and in the midst of brokenness, in the midst of hopelessness, there is hope, that God is there and He wants to give you everything. That He wants to bring you the hope that you so desperately need. That we need to run to Him in the midst of anything that we are going through. Say, “God I can’t do this on my own anymore.” And He’ll be a father to the fatherless. He’ll be a defender of the widows. He’ll set the lonely in to families and support. He will set the captives free. Those who are bound by their feelings, bound by the brokenness, bound by the pain, God promises, I will make you free.
Today there are some people in this room who need to be set free. There are some families in this room that so desperately need to run to God and say, God, that’s what I need. God, that’s what I need. And that might be you here today. We are going to keep singing this song.
We are going to end things a little differently today because I know that when someone is broken and when someone feels like they have no value and no worth, when a marriage is in trouble, then automatically our minds start going to work on us as we talked about back in II Corinthians chapter 10 that human reasoning comes in, those arguments start trying to make a case that, you know what? You don’t want anyone else to know. You don’t want to tell anybody else. This is embarassing. You don’t want other people to know what you are going through. That’s human reasoning trying to destroy us. But we are here knowing that God will give us the weapons that will defeat that. That we can cast down those arguments that we can get rid of that reasoning that we have in our minds and that we can run directly to God, and God promises us that He’ll make us free.
And so today as we end, we’re not going to have a traditional invitation. We’re not going to have a time where we sing a song and people walk the aisles and we just stand here and wait for the service to end. No, we’re not going to do that today. Today what we’re going to do is we’re going to have our pastors around the front of the room and we’re going to keep singing this song that has such incredible truths right out of Psalm 121 that says, “Lord, I lift my eyes to you. Where does my help come from? It comes from you, O God.”
As we end the service and as those of us who, maybe are here today and things are going pretty well, as you head off from here, your prayers are going to be with those who are making their way to the front, those who are coming down here to talk with a pastor after the service or maybe to pray at this altar after the service. Listen, I’m telling you, you’ve got to understand this. This is not something that you play around with. This is not something that you mess around with. This is not something that you ignore. When that human reasoning, those arguments that we make to ourselves, oh, I’ll be fine take over. God tells us in II Corinthians chapter 10, I will give you the power to defeat those. I will give you the weapons to cast that stuff down, to get rid of that stuff because in me and in me alone, you will find hope.
So we are going to be here and we want to pray with you. We want to talk with you. Couples, maybe you need to come to this altar. Families, maybe you need to come. Maybe single mom or single dad, you feel like, I just can’t do it anymore. I’m all alone and no one cares. God cares. Maybe you need to come and kneel at this altar and just say, God, I’m lifting my eyes to you today because God, I’m tired and I need help.
Lord, today we have opened your Word and in the pages of this book we have found that you want to give us hope. That you want to give us joy. To set the prisoners free and to replace the pain and to replace the heartache, the hurt and the sorrow. You want to replace that with joy. God, today I pray for every person in this room. I pray for every person that can hear my voice, by radio, television, internet, whatever it might be, God I pray that you would speak to their hearts right now and, Lord, if they feel that loneliness, if they are hurting inside, if there’s a marriage in trouble, that God right now in this place that you would speak to their hearts and say, run to me. I’m the one that will give you help. I’m the one who’s there for you. I’m the one you can trust. I’m the one who knows how you feel. I’m the one who won’t leave you alone. I’m the one that will get you through. God, I pray that you would draw them to this altar today, that you would bring that peace, that joy and that hope to their hearts today.
We are going to continue to sing and for those of you who don’t feel like God is speaking to you right now, you are free to go. But if God is talking to you right now, if God is doing a work in your heart right now, if God is telling you something right now our pastors are here. We are going to sing the song, “Lord I Run To You,” and I’m asking you right here, right now run to this altar. Run to God because He’s the one from where you can find help.