Sunday’s message continued the sermon series The Not So Secret Ingredient. Last week was on faith. This week moved to Hope. Dr. Eric Lee, East Cobb Senior Pastor’s husband delivered the message while his wife was at his church in Chamblee delivering the message there.
Reverend Doctor Lee followed a children’s moment that presented a good question to the kids that is also pertinent to adults. The offering also presented a solid question to the congregation. Those two questions are as follows:
What am I thankful for?
What difference will I make today?
"HOPE" by DieselDemon is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
My wife comes to mind immediately as I think what I am thankful for. She is a nurse working the night shift. She provides for our family while I am home looking after things there and our kids. God has very greatly blessed my family with her gifts of healing and kindness.
On the different front I don’t think I’ve made a difference. I should work on that and consider it. I have several ideas there but I just haven’t made much progress on that front.
Oh, and Dr. Lee also gave us a good pizza restaurant recommendation in Roswell, Pizzaria Lucca (you can find their website HERE.)
We ended up on pizza in the message because Dr. Lee referenced how Pastor Lee last week equated our faith with yeast that makes dough rise. He likened our faith as the “active ingredient” whereas hope, which was his message is the proofing process of the dough allowing our faith to increase. He used a Romans 5 passage as his scripture.
1Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
3And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;
4and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;
5and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Romans 5:1–5 (NASB95)
We take the idea that we are to have faith in God and that’s all there is to that piece. Dr. Lee expanded on that a bit. It isn’t that we have faith and that’s all. Our faith is in fact based on God’s faithfulness through Jesus Christ. That God created a way out of the condemnation we face under the Law through the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf. Jesus’ actions are what make our salvation possible and Jesus’ actions are possible because God is faithful to what He said He would do through His Son. Having accomplished salvation through Christ, we become partakers of that based on our faith in Jesus, which is what God said He would honor.
The message went on to talk about how there is hope in our troubles as well, referencing verse 3. Dr. Lee quoted a well known saying after reading verse 3, “If you’re going through Hell, keep going.” The point is that those things we experience as troubles are a refining fire that changes us. The secret there is that change is coming. We can choose the change we want or we can go through it against our will. But change is coming.
On the other side of change, we are a new creature. God is big enough, wise enough, and smart enough to take what comes out on the other side of difficulties and use it for good. We sometimes can’t or don’t see it, but God does. God sees the whole of creation as His Big Picture. He sees how we all fit in and the best place for each of us to walk to be the most useful for the best good for His purposes. To His good outcome, not our own.
In the Lord’s prayer we ask that “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” The “Thy” there is God. God’s kingdom come. God’s will be done, not our own. The concept of praying this line as a subversive statement about the world hadn’t occurred to me, but Dr. Lee made that statement. Stating we want God’s ways and will in the world is a subversive statement against Satan and the powers of the world who don’t like Christ.
How do I or you show, give, and share hope right now?
The answer(s) to that question become “opportunities for us to believe.” Our job as brothers and sisters in Christ is to give each other hope. We are siblings in faith, and we need to demonstrate that we walk in His ways so His purposes will be fulfilled building up His kingdom. Any other actions are contrary to the Kingdom of Heaven which by definition means we are building up the adversary’s holdings, and that’s just not acceptable.