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Why Is Hope Delayed?
CGG Weekly by John W. RitenbaughIn the face of monumental problems, Christians can hold onto hope, not as a physical refuge, but as a spiritual anchor. This hope is grounded in three profound reasons: God has forgiven our sins, removing the terror of death; He has made an unbreakable promise to send Jesus Christ and establish His Kingdom on earth; and through His calling, we trust His Word and are guided by His Spirit through all trials. Biblical hope, unlike a mere wish, is rooted in the unfailing character and power of Almighty God, who cannot lie and does not change. As listed in I Corinthians 13:13, faith, hope, and love stand as the greatest virtues a Christian can embody. Hope, both as an expectation of good and a motivating attitude, is essential to Christian life, acting as an anchor for the soul, sure and steadfast, dispelling fears of frustration and despair. With faith, hope, and love functioning together, they glorify God, urging us to ensure our hope is firmly anchored in Him and His promises, motivating us to work out our salvation.
Defining Hope for the Creation
'Ready Answer' by James BeaubelleEveryone alive is or soon will become damaged goods, physically and spiritually broken by the forces that control and corrupt our environment. The apostle Paul in Romans 8:19-25 speaks of our frailties being subjected to hope, a hope for the repair of our defects and the renewal of our damaged bodies upon adoption and redemption. This hope extends to the whole creation, longing for restoration. Peter describes this as a living hope, with Jesus Christ as its goal and anchor, for because He is alive, we can place our hope in Him with complete confidence through our faith. Colossians 1:5 tells us our hope is laid up in heaven, and Colossians 3:1 urges us to seek things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Christ is both the goal of our hope and the One we depend upon to realize it, through His atoning work as our High Priest. By faith, a virtue given by our Creator, we trust that the hope He provides is true and will be realized in the future. Our faith must remain certain in God's power and willingness to bring His children into the Kingdom, strengthening and informing our hope. Our faith and hope are like interlocking gears powering our walk with God. Paul in Hebrews 11:1 ties them together, stating that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the confidence of things not seen. Our faith strengthens our hope, and our hope is realized by our faith, both having Jesus Christ as their ultimate focus. Hope motivates us to right actions toward a future good, supporting our vision of eternal life in the Kingdom of God. This hope, placed in us by God, makes its object not ourselves, but Jesus Christ and His work. For the children of God, along with the earth that groans under sin's weight, the hope we hold draws closer to fulfillment each day. Until that great day when the earth is filled with the knowledge of God, as promised in Isaiah 11:9, we must remain mindful of our need for Him and the abiding hope He provides through the good works of Jesus Christ, by whose grace we are justified to become heirs according to the hope of eternal life, as stated in Titus 3:7.
The Audacity to Hope
'Ready Answer' by Mike FordHope, as understood by God's called-out ones, stands in stark contrast to the worldly view of hope as an uncertain wish for future desires. For those in the Body of Christ, hope is rooted in God and His promises, not in government or personal aspirations. It is an expectation of good, a trust and confidence in God's unbreakable Word, rather than a mere wish for something to happen. This hope supports and carries us through trials, providing strength and perseverance as we eagerly wait for what we do not yet see. Faith is inseparable from hope, as hope rests on faith and, in turn, quickens it. To hope is to trust, and to trust in someone is to have faith in that person. This connection extends further, as having faith, trust, and hope in another implies a relationship, a belief in who they are, and what they represent, especially with God. Love completes this triad of virtues, linking closely with faith and hope. To have faith and hope in someone, particularly in God, is to love that person, reflecting a deep bond and confidence in His promises. Together, faith, hope, and love form a foundation for those who trust in God, sustaining them with a conviction that transcends mere worldly wishes or preferences.
Hope Is the Strategy
Sermonette byHope is the ability to expect positive outcomes despite current circumstances. Faith, hope, and love are the three elements of the fuel for our spiritual journey.
Perseverance and Hope
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughWe are reminded that faith, hope, and love are essential qualities that abide with us continuously, needed every day throughout our lives. These three elements are the building blocks of a successful and abundant life, inextricably tied to our relationship with God. They are the forces that drive us to function as He intends, much like fuel powers a machine. Every human functions on some form of these qualities, but only the faith, hope, and love that come from God produce a balanced life leading to true success. These qualities do not eliminate the trials of life, but how we use them determines whether we emerge better or bitter from our challenges. Faith, hope, and love must be actively applied to produce perseverance, an active endurance that pushes us to make progress against difficulties rather than passively waiting them out. This active endurance, fueled by hope from God, motivates us to overcome trials and grow spiritually. Our hope, described as a living hope, is assured by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, providing a model of enduring hope that is not fleeting but future-focused. This hope is not merely in promises or events like the resurrection, but in the Person who made them—God Himself. Our hope must be rooted in Him, the source and author of it, for it is He who carries through with what He has promised. Without Him, there would be no hope, as it is not the promise that saves, but the One who gives it. Jesus Christ is directly called our hope, being both the Source and Object of our faith, hope, and love. Our relationship is with a Person, not merely words or promises, and it is because of His character and power that we can have enduring hope. This hope extends beyond the grave, giving us certainty for the future as Christ lives in us, preparing us for the Kingdom of God. It is this presence of God in us that forms the foundation of our confident expectation and patient endurance for salvation. Hope serves as our anchor, holding us steady on our course amidst life's storms. It is not specifically tied to outcomes like resurrection or eternal life, but to Jesus Himself, whose unchanging character provides strong encouragement and stability. As we face increasing pressures, we must remain steadfast, ensuring our hope is placed in the holy and powerful Person who makes all promises worthwhile, walking with Him in a humble, submissive, and loving relationship.
Passover and Hope
Sermon by Richard T. RitenbaughAmidst the despair and challenges that pervade our personal lives, the church, and the world, there shines a blinding ray of hope. Passover, despite the darker matters we often notice, is a time of profound hope, intertwined hand in glove with this season. The heart of this hope is faith in God, a confident and enduring expectation that sustains us through trials. Faith undergirds our hope, for without faith, hope holds no meaning. The strength of our hope depends on how deeply we know and trust God, a trust that fosters an invincible belief in His promises. This hope is relational, rooted in our intimate relationship with God. Knowing Him grants us not only the knowledge we need but also the faith, hope, and love that flow from His actions toward us. These three virtues—faith, hope, and love—are bound together in our understanding of God. As we trust Him, we reflect His love, labor in it, and patiently endure with hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Our hope is funneled through Him, the Mediator and Savior, who reveals the Father's character and the promises of what is to come. David understood this, declaring his hope in the Lord, confident that God would hear and deliver him from any predicament. His lifetime relationship with God taught him to trust in His unchanging, righteous nature, ensuring that true hope rests solely in Him. Similarly, the Psalmist reminds us that no earthly strength or army can save, but the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him and hope in His mercy, delivering their souls from death and sustaining them in famine. Our souls wait for the Lord, rejoicing in Him because we trust in His holy name, finding confident expectation of deliverance no matter the trial. In the New Testament, Paul acknowledges the patience of hope in Jesus Christ, recognizing the work of faith, labor of love, and enduring hope among believers. This hope is not fleeting but a stable rock we can cling to, trusting that what happened to Christ—His death and resurrection—will also happen to us. We can follow where He has gone, sitting with Him in heavenly places, bolstered by the joy and peace that come from believing in the God of hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Elements of Motivation (Part Three): Hope
'Personal' from John W. RitenbaughIn the journey of spiritual growth, faith, hope, and love stand as enduring virtues, as highlighted in I Corinthians 13:13: And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Faith serves as the foundation upon which hope and love are built, while love enables proper interaction and unity. Hope, however, acts as the motivator, energizing us with the anticipation of greater and better things to come. It conveys an absolute certainty of future good, remaining a constant even in the Kingdom of God, where we will always eagerly look forward to new blessings and accomplishments as age upon age unfolds before us. Our hope is uniquely Christian, setting us apart from other ways of life, as no other path offers such certain expectation. Ephesians 2:12 reminds us that before our calling, we were without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Yet, through God's calling, as stated in Ephesians 4:4, we are summoned into His presence to have a relationship with Him, uniting us into one body with a hope that transforms pessimism and despair into a confident, optimistic life filled with endless possibilities. This hope is not fleeting or changeable like worldly expectations; it is continuous and of immense value, rated alongside faith and love. It flows from an inexhaustible Source, ensuring that no trial should quench our optimism for future good. Our response to God's work in us is expressed through trust, patience, endurance, and an eagerness to continue. Hope serves as a defense, a motivator to protect us from losing sight of the glorious end of God's purpose, propelling us forward to persevere and endure, come what may, as only the hopeful will press on toward the goal.
Hope in a Turbulent World
Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)Faith, hope, and love are the three qualities that best support believers in all circumstances. These virtues give strength to function, grow, and endure as God intends. Only faith, hope, and love that comes from God enables fulfillment of responsibilities and transformation into the image of Jesus Christ. Faith is the foundation for hope and love. Hope provides the expectation of good results and motivates perseverance through trials. Love is the action that produces oneness with God. All three are gifts of God, linked together, and must abide continuously.
We Are Saved in This Hope
Sermon by Martin G. CollinsFaith, hope, and love are three great virtues listed in I Corinthians 13:13. Faith, joy, perseverance, and love are four spiritual qualities that harmonize with hope. Faith, hope, and love require both thought and action. Faith without works is dead; love is the keeping of the commandments; and hope requires rejoicing and building character. Paul also wrote about faith, hope, and love in the sanctification process. Romans 5:1-5 states that having been justified by faith, access by faith into grace leads to rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, and that tribulation produces perseverance, character, and hope, with the love of God poured out by the Holy Spirit. Hope is not watered down faith. True godly hope is confident, powerful, and bold. It is not afraid and casts out fear and doubt. It is positive, assured, and looking ahead to the future, but also realizing that the present is a wonderful hope as well. Hope sees God's plan at work now and ahead. Hope is one of the most wonderful words in the biblical vocabulary, occurring in such important phrases as the blessed hope in Titus 2:13 and the hope of glory in Colossians 1:27. Faith and hope, though distinct, are vitally united. They come from the same source, are sustained by the same evidence, and are exercised by the same works. Faith is the perceiving, hope is the anticipation. Faith comes by hearing, hope comes by experience. Faith has respect to the truth of the word, hope has respect to the truth's fulfillment. Faith, hope, and love are gifts of God. God helps develop them because He has placed His mind in us. The word hope has two senses: an attitude of hopefulness and the content hoped for. Both uses occur in Romans 8. Hope is a sure and certain hope and not merely wishful thinking. The content is the return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the body, the adoption of God's children, and the gathering of God's harvest. These things are all promised by God and form the content of hope. From now on, hope is in confidence, grounded not in the strength of emotional outlook, but on the sure Word of God, who cannot lie.
Trumpets Is a Day of Hope
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughFaith, hope, and love form the three abiding virtues of Christian life, with love identified as the greatest. Hope functions as a positive, future-oriented quality directed toward what one expects but does not yet possess. It possesses an internal dimension as a motivating emotional quality that anticipates success or good, and an external dimension as an anchor of the soul that is sure and steadfast, entering within the veil and providing refuge to which believers flee. This external hope resides in God, in Jesus Christ, in salvation, in God's promises and word, in eternal life, in His steadfast love and grace, and in the resurrection from the dead together with sharing His glory. Such hope arises from election according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, and from the resurrection that proves Christ lives to discharge His duties as High Priest. It supplies reason and substance to faith so that love can be produced without futility. Faith undergoes trial by fire, more precious than gold, and must remain focused on the steadfastness of Jesus Christ and God's truth lest it give way to apathy when troubles mount. Love risks growing cold amid intensifying pressures, yet endurance to the end secures salvation. These virtues sustain believers through the tumultuous period preceding Christ's return, enabling them to remain committed loyalists rather than prudent agnostics who hedge their commitments. They counteract the human tendency to drift, lose focus, or become weary in well-doing when solutions seem absent, and they equip the called to glorify God by witness and holy conduct while awaiting the inheritance reserved in heaven. Hope therefore stirs action, strengthens the will, and produces courage and perseverance, keeping the mind girded, sober, and set on the grace to be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Hope to the End
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughFaith, hope, and love form the three essential qualities that Christians must possess, with love identified as the greatest. These qualities function as gifts from God resulting from His election, and they operate together in harmony. Faith serves as the foundation that supports hope, providing the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Without faith, spiritual hope would not exist, and the two together produce the action of love as their fruit. Hope itself combines expectation with desire and functions both as a noun, indicating the basis or foundation for confident expectancy and trust, and as a verb, conveying the motivation and response of longing or acting upon that expectancy. This interconnection carries direct implications for Christian living and perseverance. Salvation occurs by grace through faith, yet hope remains vital within the process, as illustrated by the statement that believers were saved in this hope. In times of cultural decline, persecution, and repeated trials, these qualities motivate obedience to God's standards rather than conformity to the world. Hope enables the mind to focus on the future inheritance and the revelation of Jesus Christ instead of present sufferings, thereby sustaining holiness and preventing the loss of vision that leads some to abandon the faith. Christ Himself constitutes the ultimate object of hope, rendering it a living and active force that glorifies God through conduct. Without the proper foundation in Him, even a great goal proves insufficient to endure, but when faith and hope rest in Christ, they empower steadfast response amid hardship.
Hope to the End (Part Three)
Feast of Tabernacles Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)Faith, hope, and love form the three virtues that must be emphasized together at all times in the relationship with God and with one another. These qualities stand and fall together, cannot be truly separated, and must be developed and strengthened as though they were almost one because their use is never perfected in this life. They appear linked twelve times in the epistles, a number that draws attention to their importance for salvation, and they never stray far from one another in the text. Without them the goal of overcoming cannot be reached, and the one who overcomes will receive the rewards described in the letters to the seven churches. The apostle Paul exalts love above the other two in his conclusion that these three abide forever while spiritual gifts such as prophecy, tongues, and knowledge pass away. He reaches this conclusion through illustrations that contrast childish immaturity with adult understanding and present knowledge seen dimly with the clarity that will come face to face after the resurrection. Faith supplies the foundation that supports conduct and makes hope and love possible, because conviction that God exists and that His word is true must precede desire for what He promises and obedience to His commands. Hope lifts the eyes toward the eternal realities that can be accomplished, and love enables the relationships with God and with others to grow and prosper. Together they motivate every aspect of daily conduct and keep the focus on pleasing and glorifying God rather than on lesser concerns. These virtues therefore supply the strength required to endure the pressures that will increase, to remain spiritually ready whether hidden or required to face tribulation, and to press toward the prize without losing aim. They are eternal qualities needed now and forever, and the one who keeps them central will be prepared for the fulfillment of the prophecies that lie ahead.
Faith (Part Five)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughFaith serves as the foundational element upon which hope and love are built in the life of a believer. It begins with trust in the unseen God who rewards those who diligently seek Him, enabling perseverance in prayer and endurance amid pervasive iniquity at the end of the age. This trust undergirds every aspect of spiritual growth, as illustrated by the progression in which one adds to faith the qualities of virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and finally love, ensuring fruitfulness in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Without faith as the starting point, neither hope nor love can develop in their godly form. Hope arises from this foundation, providing motivation and quality to life by directing attention toward the glory of God and the preservation of one's life through losing it in faithful obedience. Love stands as the greatest and culminating attribute, the finishing point of the process, yet it cannot exist apart from the faith that establishes relationship with God. All three—faith, hope, and love—flow from the gifts of God's grace through the Holy Spirit, which empowers belief, repentance, and the capacity to keep commandments as a response to divine initiative. This relationship of mutual trust, opened through Jesus Christ, produces obedience that pleases God, as seen in those who walk by faith rather than sight, and it guards against the loss of trust caused by sin. The divine order thus begins with faith supplied by grace and demands diligent human cooperation to bring these attributes to maturity.
How Satan Destroys Faith
Feast of Tabernacles Sermon by John W. RitenbaughFaith is the foundation of hope and love, the three supreme spiritual virtues that abide. Without faith, hope remains only an ephemeral longing, but faith supplies vision and solid assurance that the hope can be accomplished. Though love stands as the greatest virtue, faith provides its reason and purpose. Faith stands under these other qualities as their substance, supplying the support, reason, and purpose for all that develops in relation to God. When faith weakens, hope and love deteriorate in turn. Sin, whether one's own or another's, erodes faith by producing envy and disillusionment, while Satan's subtle deceptions—portraying God as weak, distant, or indulgent—cloud perception of right and wrong and raise tolerance for sin. Such erosion opens the way for unrest, confusion, and the loss of first love. Yet the same principle works in reverse: as sin decreases, faith regains strength and undergirds enduring hope and love. Faith therefore requires deliberate effort through hearing the Word of God, thoughtful evaluation of evidence, and the steady setting of the will. Persistence in this course, even when answers are delayed, proves and strengthens faith so that hope remains anchored and love continues active. Only a faith so fortified can sustain the church through scattering and prepare it for greater trials ahead.
Loving Christ and Revelation 2:1-7
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughThere is a direct relationship between loving Christ and doing the right works. God's love for us places us under a compelling obligation to reciprocate.
Love's Basic Definition
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughLove is not a feeling, but an action—defined as keeping God's commandments, the only means by which we can possibly know Him, leading to eternal life.
Elements of Motivation (Part Three)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughIn the familiar triumvirate (faith, hope, and love), faith serves as the foundation, love serves as the goal, and hope serves as the great motivator.
God's Power: Our Shield Against Apostasy
'Personal' from John W. RitenbaughGod is not only powerful, but He is the source of all power. We can tap into God's power to avoid slipping into apostasy.
The Overlooked Work (Part One)
CGG Weekly by David C. GrabbeWaiting on God is a work that demonstrates faith in Him, just as much as any other Christian deed. It is often one of the most difficult of all works.
The Resurrection From the Dead
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughOur lives revolve around the hope of a resurrection from the dead. Hope, deriving from Christ's resurrection, gives faith and love impetus and energy.
Joy in Our Time
Commentary by John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)Attainment of calm joy does not come from anything earthly, but it comes from God, and is dependent upon inculcating godly love.
Hebrews (Part Seven)
Sermon/Bible Study by John W. RitenbaughWith godly hope, we need to envision the successful accomplishment of God's purpose for us, realizing that God has bound that promise with an oath.