He’s Still Got the Whole World in His Hands | Week 3

Sermon Title: Hope  

Sermon Overview

How are we supposed to remain hopeful in a hopelessly broken world? We want to be hopeful, but when relationships sour, stock prices tumble, dreams disappear, and plans crumble, hope can be hard to come by. In a world without guarantees, hope can be a dangerous thing. But what if the tension we feel is the result of putting our hope in the wrong things? What if God has a different plan for us—a plan built on his unfailing love?  

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS  

1. The Pastor defines hope as a person or thing in which our expectations are centered. With that in mind, in whom or what do you most frequently hope?  

2. In what kinds of things or people do you see your friends and family placing their expectations?  

3. Share about a time when you put your hope in something or someone and came away disappointed.  

Read Romans 8:20 

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope. 

4. How does this verse support the idea of sin as a disease and not an event?  

5. Why does this matter in the context of finding and maintaining hope?  

Read Romans 8:26-30 

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who  have been called according to his purpose.  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 

6. What phrases or concepts in this passage engender hope within you? 

Read Romans 8:33-39 

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,  neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

• Paul provides a long list of circumstances, culminating with “nor anything else in all creation” that shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.  

7. If you were to write your own list of circumstances, powers, or feelings that will not separate you from the love of God, what would be on that list?  

MOVING FORWARD

Hope. It only works when the object of our hope is certain, when it is consistent, when it will not fail. God has offered us such an unfailing object: his love. As evidenced in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins, God has shown that his love is truly without fail. So, although this world will remain broken due to the disease of sin, you can confidently hope without reservation—if you will transfer all of your hope onto God’s unfailing love.

CHANGING YOUR MIND  

Read Psalm 33:22

“May your unfailing love be with us, LORD, even as we put our hope in you.”