That’s it, I’ve had it. I only ever try to do the right thing, and each and every time God puts obstacles in my road! … Have you ever thought that? Sure you have. So have I. That’s why today, we’re going to take a close look at those seemingly God–ordained setbacks and delays.

There’s something about kicking off a new week, it’s a small version of kicking off a new year I guess, that sense of anticipation, the idea that, well maybe this week things will be different. And yet for many it’s the same old same old, same old drudgery, the same old difficult people and difficult circumstances, seemingly going nowhere. It’s not that life is all that bad it’s just that you had these plans of doing this or achieving that or being there or whatever it is and none of those things seem to be happening. I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve had plans to do this good thing for God or that good thing for God only to have those plans thwarted. And you know the really amazing thing people often say to me “wow Berni, your ministry is so successful” as though somehow success is a relevant measure of what God’s doing. And these days when that happens I stop and I don’t know what to say. Well I do know what to say but I think to myself “what’s the point?”

What I really want to say to this person who looks at this ministry of Christianityworks that produces these radio messages and thinks of it as some overnight success, where were you when the ministry almost folded at least a dozen times? Where were you when nobody could be paid a salary because there was no income coming in? Where were you during those incredibly difficult times when we kept slogging away and slogging away and we just weren’t moving forward? Oh and by the way let me tell you about the challenges and the trials that we’re facing right now. Hello?

It seems the further we are away from the reality of something, the more that we are on the outside rather than on the inside of something, the more likely we are to look at the good bits, yeah we’ll take the good bits any day while completely ignoring the challenges and the problems and the delays and the setbacks. And the more often we do that the more likely we are to develop this completely unrealistic expectation that whatever we set our hands to should be an overnight success. You’re getting the point right? As I sit here now chatting with you I can tell you that there are challenges that I’m facing, challenges so big that unless God shows up we’re going to fail. That’s often the reality and yet we behave as though that’s something abnormal because we’ve been conditioned to believe in this crazy notion of overnight success.

Last week, if you were able to join me, we spent some time on the road with Moses over his rather long one hundred and twenty year life. Forty years living as Pharaoh’s son affectively, in wealth and luxury in Egypt, then because he had to flee for his life another forty years tending a flock of sheep way out beyond the wilderness. So that takes him to age eighty when God finally called Moses to lead His people out of slavery in Egypt and then after a pretty spectacular departure through the Red Sea, another forty years leading a grumbling complaining people through that very same wilderness only to die just before being able to lead them into the Promised Land. Have a listen to what Moses had to say to God about the whole affair of leading the people of Israel through the wilderness through these forty years, Numbers chapter 11 verses 10 to 15:

Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families all at the entrances of their tents. Then the Lord became very angry and Moses was displeased so Moses said to the Lord, “why have you treated your servants so badly? Why have I not found favour in your sight that you lay the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive this people, did I give birth to them that you should say to me carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a suckling child to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors?

Where am I going to get meat to give to these people for they came weeping to me and they say “give us meat to eat?” I’m not able to carry all these people alone for they’re too heavy for me. If this is the way you’re going to treat me put me to death at once. If I have found favour in your sight and do not let me see my misery.

Yeah, obviously Moses was having a whole lot of fun along the journey right? Not so much. And yet when someone mentions the name of Moses these days we think of this great leader, one of the A list characters of the Bible without ever giving much thought to the coal face realities of the setbacks and the delays and the challenges and the frustrations that Moses faced, lots of them for very long periods of time. So when these setbacks, delays, difficulties, trials hit us we act all surprised as though something is wrong, as though if we were truly in Gods will it would be all plain sailing and a smooth ride, no bumps or twists or turns but that is, quite simply, not how God operates. So just in case you’re going through one of those difficult times and just in case you’re acting all surprised have a listen to this word from God to you today, 1 Peter chapter 4 verses 12 and 13:

Beloved do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you as though something strange were happening to you but rejoice in so far as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when His glory is revealed.

Think about it, God didn’t even spare His own Son from fiery trials, from being misunderstood, from being rejected by the religious establishment, from the crowds that had followed Him, amazed at the power of His words and His miracles, from those crowds turning on Him and in the end shouting “crucify Him!” Setbacks, delays, trials, temptations, inexplicable as they may be at the time, are a normal part of following Jesus, they just are and the sooner we get that the better things are going to be.

From when I received a clear distinctive calling from God one afternoon when I was ironing of all things, to go out and tell people about Jesus like I am now, until I finally got to the starting line, until I finally got to do what I’m doing now, was eight years, eight years! You know what, that’s a long time when you’re raring and ready to go. And along the way, as God has called Christianityworks to minister into this country and into that country and we’ve stepped out not knowing how we were going to resource that can I tell you? Each and every time we’ve stepped out into new continents and countries there have been setbacks, there have been delays, there’s been opposition, things not going the way we’d hoped, things happening much more slowly than we’d hoped and yet one by one things always seemed to fall into place. Because God is faithful, He’s there, in fact He went ahead of us just like He went ahead of Moses. It’s just that worldly success was never part of His plan. He almost always works like that. I mean look at the Apostle Paul who faced so many trials and setbacks and delays and beatings and shipwrecks, it goes on and on, this is what he says about all those things, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 16 to 18:Ó

We don’t lose heart even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slightly momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal way to glory beyond all measure because we look not on what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary but what cannot be seen is eternal. And that is exactly the sort of attitude, the sort of faith, the sort of perseverance, the sort of victory that God is wanting to build in you and me as He sets before us His preordained, His anointed setbacks and delays for us to walk into.

You’ve heard that saying, haven’t you – Dear God, give me patience … NOW! It’d be really, really nice if we could learn patience instantly. In fact it’d be even better if we didn’t need to learn it at all. But sadly, when it comes to setbacks and delays, trials and temptations, there’s really only one way to learn patience … and that’s the hard way.

To be honest with you patience is perhaps the hardest lesson that I have had to learn since giving my life to Jesus a good many years ago now, THE hardest lesson! I’m just not a patient kind of guy, I think quickly, I act quickly, I even walk quickly, yeah I’m one of those people. Of course there’s an upside to having that sort of personality type, the upside is that I get a lot done, the upside is that if you need someone to crash through some brick walls then I’m your man and yes we need some people in the mix who are like that but the downside is that I can be very impatient. Impatient with circumstances, with people and with God and when God gets someone like me to deal with then you can bet your bottom dollar that He is going to give me some extra tuition in this whole area of patience, hallelujah, thank you Jesus.

You see I don’t get why the guy driving in the car in front of me sensing that the light is going to change in just a few seconds doesn’t put his foot down just that little bit so that he and I can both cross over the white line before the light turns orange. Now I’m not asking him to speed, I just want him to think about my time that he’s wasting and just nudge the accelerator pedal just that little bit. And when he doesn’t do that I simply don’t get that. And what I really, really, really, really want to do is to express my displeasure by slamming down on the horn long and loud and there are many times, irrespective of the makeup of our personalities, when we don’t get why God has to delay things or if it’s not Him delaying them why He doesn’t just crash through it for us and make it happen, whatever ‘it’ happens to be. And can I tell you? The most difficult time to be impatient is when you’re hurting, when you’re experiencing pain, I mean even I have learned to be patient when I’m not in pain. All I have to do is give up on the plans that I had for the time that from my perspective is now going to waste because of whatever delay I happen to be facing. It’s not that easy, it still isn’t easy but I can learn that.

What’s really hard though is to be patient when you’re suffering in a difficult relationship perhaps or under a difficult boss at work or through ill health. I mean ill health is really tough because when you’re in real physical pain compounded by mental anguish patience, well it ain’t that easy to come by. So let me ask you exactly what is patience? Well my dictionary tells me that it’s ‘the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious’. That’s a pretty good definition don’t you think, patience is the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems or suffering with becoming annoyed or anxious.

You see this quality of patience, this issue of depth of character is not something we seem to place all that much value on in a world that expects overnight success and instant gratification but you and I know that it’s really, really important because when the chips are down, when things are stacked against us, when our plans are thwarted, when we’re suffering pain or loss, unless we have the capacity to tolerate those without becoming annoyed or anxious then we’re going to become, well annoyed or anxious or even worse. We start behaving badly, we start doing stupid things, we start hurting other people, damaging relationships and pretty much ruining our lives. You’ve been there, you’ve been there, I’ve been there so how do we get patience, how do we learn patience when we’re in that caldron of delay and suffering?

I want to share with you today a Scripture that is jam-packed full of incredible wisdom. These three verses punch way above their weight, are you ready? Psalm 37 verses 7 to 9:

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices, refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret, it leads only to evil for the wicked shall be cut off but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

Do you want to know how to get patience? Well there it is. First be still, stop flapping around like a chicken with its head cut off, stop complaining, stop sobbing, stop carrying on, just shut up for a minute and be still and wait patiently for God. The original Hebrew word for waiting used there literally talks of a woman in labour, suffering the pain but waiting, pushing, believing that the child is about to be born. It’s a great picture isn’t it, for what we’re going through when we’re suffering? So stop screaming, stop yelling, wait without fretting. Stop looking at all those evil people over there who seem to be prospering and forget your anger and your desire to take vengeance because if you spend your time thinking about revenge, if you keep fretting over your dilemma it’s going to only lead you to evil, you’re going to do something bad or stupid because here’s the promise; those who wait, a different word used here now for ‘wait’ in verse 9, it means to wait expectantly on the Lord, to expect Him to do something good.

The promise is that those who wait expectantly on God, expecting Him to act will, WILL inherit the land, the Promised Land, the promises of God. I told you these few verses punch way above their weight. Grab a Bible and spend some time in them, think about them, pray about them and then start living them, Psalm 37 verses 7 to 9.

When we’re suffering, when we’re delayed, when things have gone awry, thrashing around, complaining, behaving badly, exacting revenge, none of those things are going to do you any good, they’re only going to lead you to evil and God cuts the wicked off. But choosing in that difficult place instead to wait expectantly on God, to put your trust in Him, even though you are going through great pains that is the one thing that will help you lay hold of Gods promises.

Let me tell you, God is going to keep you there and God is going to bring you back to that place again and again and again until you learn that lesson because He wants you to trust Him through every difficult circumstance.

I’ve never heard someone come back from a three-week luxury holiday and say, “man, you know, God really grew my character, God really developed my stamina and endurance over that holiday.” Maybe God gave you a much needed rest, a much needed refreshment over the holiday but your character is only developed in the heat of the battle, your character is only refined and made pure and strong in the furnace of life. And God isn’t doing this in order to be sadistic, your pain hurts Him as much as it hurts you because He loves you, He feels your pain more acutely than you might have ever had imagined. No He’s doing this for a purpose, see He’s wanting to give you something so precious that He’s prepared to let you suffer for it. Here it is Hebrews chapter 12 verses 11 and 12:

Look discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift up your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight the paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather healed.

The peaceful fruit of righteousness – Because when we start living in the righteousness, the goodness, the right way of living rather than the wrong way of living, when we learn these hard lessons and start living in wisdom that we discover through those fiery trials, we develop a peaceful fruit in our lives, the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Think about it, when we’ve developed the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious what we have in those times instead is peace. That’s what God wants to give you – peace.

As a theoretical concept, we all believe in character–building. It’s a good idea. It’s a good thing. Sure! But as a practical exercise, character building, almost always hurts. And when it’s us that’s hurting, character building doesn’t seem like such a good idea.

You know something; if I never hear the term ‘character building’ again it will be too soon. Let me tell you why. When I was a young man between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one I spent four years training to be an officer in the Australian army at the Royal Military College Duntroon, it’s the Australian version of America’s West Point and Britain’s Sandhurst. Now sounds just a tad glamorous doesn’t it? And certainly that’s how the recruiting brochures portrayed it. Those four years though were without a doubt, the four toughest years of my life. Over seven and a half thousand young men applied, a hundred and forty seven were accepted and only sixty one of us graduated, it’s a pretty severe attrition rate and the reason was that it was brutally difficult.

We all studied a university degree while undertaking military training, it was a punishing seven day a week schedule, intellectually, physically and emotionally punishing and each time we were going through the next incredibly difficult thing, the next nine mile run with full pack and rifle, the next survival exercise, climbing over steep mountains without any food.The next drill sergeant screaming in our face, some of them would mutter under their breath ‘character building’, everyone else would just snigger grimly. My point is character building is always painful and difficult.

As I said yesterday on the program you don’t have your character developed while you are sitting on the beach on a nice holiday sipping a Pina colada, your character is only ever tested and refined and developed through the difficult times and thinking back to those brutal four years of Duntroon everything we went through was about developing our character so if we were ever called upon we would have the capacity to lead soldiers into war, into battle with bullets flying and bombs going off. Each one of those exercises were truly character building exercises to weed out those who couldn’t make it and to develop those who could and that’s the business that God is in, developing our character, yours and mine through deliberately planned trials. Some people find that a tad confronting but that’s exactly what the Bible teaches us, Romans chapter 5 verses 1 to 5:

Therefore since we are justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we now stand and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that we also boast in our suffering because we know that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope never disappoints us because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Now that’s a very interesting passage, it starts off by declaring the good news of Jesus, that we’re saved by faith, that in Jesus we’ve obtained the grace that brings us peace with God and we’re right to boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God, man that’s really good news. And then comes the segway from God’s grace to our suffering and not only that but we also boast in our suffering. Can I ask you something? How often have you boasted in your suffering? When was the last time you boasted to your family or to your friends about the suffering that you were going through right at that minute?

It’s almost as though the Apostle Paul who is writing this letter to the Church in Rome, is truly boasting in his suffering which actually he does over and over again in the various letters that he wrote that are now part of the New Testament, the Bible, Gods very own Word. mSo why does he boast in his suffering? Well to him it’s absolutely obvious, it’s because he knows that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and that hope doesn’t disappoint us because Gods love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that’s been given to us.

Paul knew that through his suffering God was developing his character and when God develops your character it invariably hurts, especially at the beginning. I can’t tell you the pain that I remember from those days at Duntroon, they say you can’t remember pain well perhaps they have never been through military training. Every muscle in my body ached, I was so tired I wanted to drop and then we’d march another fifty miles through the mountains without food or sleep. I tell you I wouldn’t do it again for ten million dollars, that’s how hard it was.

It’s interesting every now and then, a few of us, old classmates get together and we have dinner and we remember the good old days and just generally have a good time and in each of those guys, older and greyer and many of them somewhat pudgier than they were back as young men, I see men of character, a depth of character I can see in each one of them. You can’t put a price on that. See God is interested in your heart, He’s interested in building your character and that’s a really blessed thing. Character building exercises, each one planned specifically for you, each one designed, hand crafted to develop you into the person that God made you to be.

When Samuel was sent to choose the next king of Israel who turned out to be King David but who back then was just a teenager, God said to Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 16 verse 7;

Do not look on his outward appearance or on the height of his stature because I’ve rejected him for the Lord sees not as a man sees, man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart.

And in each fiery trial, each character building exercise that you go through that’s what God is interested in, God’s interested in your heart. So there’s the theory lesson if you will but now it’s time to apply it to your life. What character building exercises has God have you in the middle of just at the moment? Is it a temptation that’s testing you, is it a relationship that is causing you pain, is it something you’ve been longing for and God seems to be delaying His answer? What is it in your life at the moment? The one thing that’s causing you grief, pain and distress because it’s that one thing that I believe God wants you to apply His Word to today.

To take that Scripture from Romans chapter 5 verses 1 to 5 and to apply it to your trial. I’m going to read it again in a minute and as I do let the words sink into your trial, your pain, your distress, your longing, your disappointment because as you do God is going to breathe His Holy Spirit into you, as you do God is going to strengthen your weak knees, He’s going to put resolve in your heart, He’s going to breathe meaning into your suffering and in doing all of that I believe He is going to develop your character and move you closer to being all He created you to be. Are you ready? Here it is, God speaking directly into your suffering through His Word, Romans chapter 5 verses 1 to 5:

Since you have been justified by faith you now have peace with God through Jesus Christ through whom you have obtained access to this grace in which you now stand and you can boast in your hope of sharing the glory of God. But not only that you should also boast in your suffering knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and that hope is never going to disappoint you because Gods love has been poured into your heart through the Holy Spirit who has been given to you.

May the Word of God transform you today and may you be filled with the resolve to honour God through your trials and to serve others with His love until Jesus comes again.

When you think about it, pride and impatience are two sides of the one coin. Maybe that’s why so many people are in such a hurry to become an overnight success. Problem is, our plan isn’t always God’s plan, and impatience leads to an enormous amount of frustration.

If you’ve been able to join me over this last couple of weeks you’ll know that we’re talking about this crazy notion that we can become an overnight success. Success is a seductive concept and time and time again we’re told in the media, in the advertising industry, even in the sitcoms we watch that you can be whatever you want to be and you can do whatever you want to do. And in a world where things become oh so instant somebody has dropped this notion on our heads that we can have success and we can have it now.

Just think about how the world has changed, I remember when I was a boy we didn’t have a phone in our house, we just didn’t. If my parents wanted to make a phone call they had to wander down the street to use the public phone but then again most of their friends didn’t have any phones in their houses either so what was the point?

Just think about the implications of that, how do you arrange to go out with your friends? Well you did it weeks in advance and it was something special that you planned and you didn’t go very often. It also meant, by default, that your friends mostly consisted of people with whom you had regular contact, your neighbours, the parents of the children your kids went to school with perhaps or work colleagues.

But no communication is instant, most people have a mobile phone in their pocket or in their handbag. SMS instant, phone call instant, email instant. In fact many a day before 7.00 am I’ve been on Skype to one of my colleagues in Africa or America, space and time are no longer boundaries, pretty much any piece of information you need is in the palm of your hand. If I need a statistic or a fact for one of these messages I just ‘Google’ it and bingo there it is in a fraction of a second.

You can see then how over the last few decades our mentality has shifted from having to wait for things back then to having them instantly today. Combine that with this idea that you can be anyone you want to be and do anything you want to do and can you see then how easy it is for you and for me to imagine that somehow we truly are at the centre of the universe.

That’s a notion that breeds pride, unhealthy pride and that unhealthy pride demands to be satisfied instantly. Like I said pride and impatience are two sides of the one coin and that’s why I believe so many people are so frustrated with their lives today because when all is said and done the world doesn’t think of us at the centre of the universe, the world doesn’t dance to our tune, the theory, the view we have of ourselves is a false one, it’s out of touch with reality and so our expectations of how things should be are completely out of sync with how things really are. “I want to be an overnight success but it’s just not working out for me.’” I think there’s many a person who understands that level of constant frustration in their lives. Is that a frustration you would like to be set free from perhaps? Is that something that has been grinding away at you, this constant sense that things aren’t moving quickly enough for you, in your direction according to your plans to make you feel good?

Well, God has a solution for you and that solution has a name, its called humility. Let’s head to the dictionary to try first to understand what humility really is. I quote: “The quality of having a modest or low view of one’s self importance.” And then the example that my dictionary gives me is this: “He needs humility to accept there may be a better way.” Pretty good definition and you can see how completely opposed the quality of humility is to the world view that so many people have developed with themselves on top, themselves at the centre with the rest of the world, God included, dancing to their tune. 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 5.

In the same way you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders and all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another for God opposes the proud but He gives grace to the humble.

The idea of younger people accepting authority from their elders these days in many cultures and communities has gone straight out the window and those where traditional family values still dominate are seeing them being eroded when affluence and western culture starts to bite. I love how the Apostle Peter puts it there, “you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another.” Can I tell you the people I really, really like being around are the humble ones.

Just recently I caught up for lunch with one of my heroes, Phil Littlejohn. Phil was the Pastor at the first Church I ever attended after becoming a Christian. I remember him saying once in one of his sermons years ago that humility is strength under control, it’s not about being a doormat or having low self-esteem or being a weakling, no humility is simply ditching this notion that ‘I am the centre of the universe’, that ‘I am on top of the heap’ and when you meet people who have humility you want to be around them don’t you? I know so many smart, competent, strong people who yet are humble and Phil is one of those. Listen to what Jesus had to say on this subject, Matthew chapter 18 verses 1 to 4:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child whom he put among them and said, “truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children you’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”

In fact Jesus, the Son of God, the creator of the universe said this of Himself on the subject of humility, Matthew chapter 11 verse 28:

“Come to me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Jesus said it Himself that He is humble of heart, how do we know that? Not just by what He said but by what He did, Philippians chapter 2 beginning at verse 5:

Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus who, though He was in the form of God, didn’t regard equality with God as something to be exploited but He emptied himself taking the form of a slave being born in human likeness and being found in human form He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus humbled Himself by dying on a cross for you and me and what God is calling us to do is to be like Him, to let the same mind be in us that was in Jesus, to look first to the interest of others, to, like Jesus, come to serve not be served and when we do that God will exalt us for He opposes the proud but He exalts the humble.

That right there is one of the most powerful spiritual principles that you’ll ever encounter. So if you’re frustrated, if the world isn’t dancing to your tune, if the success you’re after isn’t quite as instant and as overnight as you want it to be then here’s the answer, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, resign as the centre of the universe, serve, care about others before yourself and God will exalt you, God will promote you in due time. Let the same mind be in you that was in Jesus Christ.

Well, at some point in our lives, eventually, we come to the realisation that the idea, the promise of overnight success that the world’s been dangling under our noses is an empty promise. It happens to all of us, eventually. And at that point, what we need is hope. Not a vague, uncertain hope, but a rock–solid, absolutely certain hope.

Maybe that’s what having a mid life crisis is all about, coming to the realisation that you’re not going to have the overnight success that you’ve been chasing all your life. At some point, maybe it’s in your forties or your fifties, you realise you’re not the ‘bees knees’, you’re not going to set the world on fire and for some it happens early, for some it happens later but that youthful exuberance that we once had, that idealism that sprang forth so naturally, that flame that burned inside us to change the world, it’s quenched, it’s snuffed out. It’s a terrible realisation because for many it’s the death of hope, for many where there was once meaning now there’s only meaninglessness. King Solomon was one of the richest and wisest men to ever live. Towards the end of his life he said this, Ecclesiastes chapter 1 beginning at verse 2:

Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! Everything is vanity. What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? A generation goes, a generation comes but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun goes down, hurries to the place where it rises again. The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north and round and round goes the wind on it circuits the wind returns.

All streams run into the sea but the sea is never full, to the place where streams flow where they continue to flow. All things are wearisome, more than one can express. The eye is never satisfied with seeing or the ear filled with hearing, what has been is what will be and what has been done is what will be done.

There’s nothing new under the sun, is there a thing of which it can be said, “see this is new”? It has already been in the ages before us. The people of long ago are not remembered nor will there be a remembrance of people yet to come by those who come after them.

It’s a pretty sad conclusion for a rich, wealthy, powerful, wise man to come to. After all I’ve done, after all I’ve had none of it means anything. That’s the stuff of mid life crisis, that’s the stuff that drives people over the edge. All those years we’ve been sacrificing our lives for what? An ideal, an idea, an image of success that turned out to be as allusive as a mirage in the desert.

What am I living for? What am I working so hard for? They’re the questions we end up asking ourselves when we’ve wasted half our lives, perhaps more, on the altar of success. It was that stuff, as a very successful man in my mid thirties, it was precisely this that drove me to the brink of suicide. Not everyone, thankfully, gets to that point but you’ll be amazed at how many people actually think about it. Why? Because they’ve lost hope, because the world’s promise of overnight success turned out to be a rotten stinking lie.

We talked yesterday about humility, the transformative power of having a humble heart. Well today I’d like to chat with you briefly about another word that begins with ‘h’, hope. The sort of hope that you need in your heart when things quite haven’t worked out the way you planned them to. When hope is lost, when the future seems to have gone AWOL it’s in that very place that God has something for you which goes beyond, way beyond anything that you and I could have ever imagined. Hope, real, certain, rock solid hope, writes the Apostle Paul to the Church in Rome, chapter 15 verse 13.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul had, by this time, been through many trials in his life, in his ministry for Jesus across the known world. He’d suffered a lot, things hadn’t gone the way he expected them to. He wrote this letter to the Romans in Corinth while he was on his third missionary journey. By this time he’d been on the road proclaiming Jesus for a good many years. He’d been beaten, locked up, threatened with death, he’s had people ride against him, drive him out of town, plot his assassination.

He wanted to go here and there but his plans were blocked, sometimes by God, sometimes by the devil and sometimes by people. Things hadn’t always gone the way he’d planned and he knew he was probably going to be locked up when he headed down to Jerusalem and yet Paul talks here in Romans chapter 15 verse 13 about the God of Hope.

A God who will fill you with all joy and all peace, not just a bit of joy now and then, not just the occasional fleeting moment of peace but all joy and all peace, the sort of joy and the sort of peace that Paul exhibited during his times of trial, the sort of joy and the sort of peace that came to him by the power of the Holy Spirit. And his prayer for the Romans is that they would abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit, do you notice this abundance language here? Abound in hope, overflow with hope and all this comes through believing. Let’s read it again so that it all comes together, Romans chapter 15 verse 13:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and all peace in believing so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In believing, in believing in what exactly? He’s talking about believing in Jesus. For so much of my life I hoped for success and I hoped for wealth and all that stuff, that’s what led me to the brink and it was in that place that Jesus met me, it was in that place that I discovered this God who loved me so much that He sent His Son to die for me, to pay the price of my sin, of my rebellion so that I, I could live for eternity with Him. Can you or I see eternity yet? No we can’t, Romans chapter 8 verses 23 and 24:

For in hope we were saved, now hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what is not seen we wait for it in patience.

And now that my hope is in Jesus God’s given me the patience to wait for His promise, His promise of eternal life, His promise of sharing in His glory forever and ever and when Paul, from amidst his trials writes about being filled with all joy and all peace and abounding in hope and in believing, that’s something I totally get because that’s exactly how it is.

All those years I was chasing the shiny promises of the world that led me, in the end, towards death when all along the real answer was Jesus, the real answer is Jesus. The Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah wrote this, Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 7:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.

Who or what have you placed your trust in? Who or what do you hope in? Success? Then you’re going to be disappointed in Jesus? Then you’ll be filled with a hope that abounds in you, that overflows out of you but in believing brings all joy and all peace.

I’m so conscious that so many people are listening today around the world who haven’t yet placed their hope in Jesus. So if you want to do that then please pray this prayer with me right now, don’t leave it one more minute.

Father God

Today I’ve heard about Jesus, about the One who loves me so much that He came and died and paid the price of my rebellion against you, the one who rose again to give me a life, an eternal life with you. And today I want to put all my trust and all my hope in Jesus, in Him alone. Please forgive me for all my sins, please take me just as I am, please fill me with your Holy Spirit so that by His power I might be filled with all joy and all peace and abound in the certain hope of your blessings here in this world and eternity with you. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.