A Hope and A Future

Today is the first Sunday of 2025. And so, I want to start the new year with a message of hope and promise and assurance from God's word. The Lord of Creation, the Lord who is FATHER to all those – and only to those – who belong to Jesus through faith in His atonement for our sins – this same God said to Israel words that apply to you all of His children in 2025: “I know the plans that I have for you, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

As many of you may know, the word translated from both the Hebrew and Greek as ‘hope’ means to have a ‘confident expectation’ for what God has promised. So, I’ll repeat for emphasis what I just said: The Almighty God, the One who created you, who has the hairs of your head all numbered – He is the one who promises you and me a future in 2025 – and a hope.

Now, of course, what that future and that hope will look like for each of us individually, only this new year will tell. And we all should know by now a future and a hope DOES NOT necessarily mean health, wealth, and every answer to every one of our prayers.

But we have our FATHER’S assurance – His promise – that it will be a good year FROM HIS PERSPECTIVE. And doesn’t that need to be OUR perspective? Wouldn’t the trials of life be so much easier to cope with if we could see things as they really are and not how they seem to be from our limited point of view? Wouldn’t it be so much easier to cope with life’s trials if we trusted God when He tells us that He always causes ALL THINGS to work together for good to those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose? (see Romans 8:28)

So, here we are on the first Sunday of 2025. We’re all a year older than we were this time last year. Some of us are a bit sicker. Some are a bit lonelier. But as we face this year, I have some good news for all of us who seek to know and love the Lord better and better: God is in absolute control of nations, their leaders, and their citizens. For example, here is Proverbs 16:4, “The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” And Psalm 115:3, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”

And there is yet more, God has full and comprehensive knowledge of all their ways and all their thoughts and all their plans even before they themselves are aware of their thoughts and plans. We find that truth revealed in Psalm 139 and elsewhere.

And there is yet more beside: Our Father always exercises utter control over what He will permit any of them to do. Listen a moment to Him speak to humanity – including you and me – through Solomon: (Proverbs 21:1) “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hands of the Lord. He turns it wherever He wishes.” And 2 Chronicles 20:6b “You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.”

And, oh, by the way, let us not ever forget this: Our Father God is also in complete control of your life, your circumstances, your situations – as He is in control of mine.

I love the example of God's limitless power and authority over the lives of even the evilest of national leaders as He speaks to the bloodthirsty Assyrian king, Sennacherib. He and his army were at Jerusalem’s gates, threatening to destroy the city and all who lived within it, and God tells him through the prophet:

(Isaiah 37:26-29) “Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should turn [foreign] fortified cities into ruinous heaps. “Therefore, their inhabitants were short of strength, they were dismayed and put to shame; They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, as grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up. “But I know your sitting down and your going out and your coming in and your raging against Me. “Because of your raging against Me and because your arrogance has come up to My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came.”

If you know your Bible history, that is precisely what happened. God intervened, killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers overnight, and Sennacherib crept home and was shortly thereafter murdered by his own sons.

Listen, my brothers and sisters in Christ – when God tells us He is bringing to us a future and a hope in 2025 – He’s not kidding. And NOTHING is able to stay His hand. Not politicians. Not criminals. Not Satan himself and all his demons.

Now again, I say – that future and hope might not look like a future and hope from OUR very limited perspective. But that’s not how faith works. Remember that text in Hebrews 11? “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  As many of you know, the chapter goes on to list the heroes of faith who simply believed what God had told them – even when they could not SEE those promises or understand how God could fulfill them – men and women like Abraham and Sarah; Like Moses and Rahab; Like Gideon and Barack and David and Samuel and the prophets.

Now, all that I have just said is really the preamble to what is the overarching point of this message on this January 5. So, let’s now move to 2 Corinthians chapters 4 and 5. Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthian Christians 2000 years ago, but because God's word transcends time and culture and race and people-groups – this word to the Corinthians is also a word to the Christians at Ashwood Meadows:

(2 Corinthians 4:7-10, 16-18) “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body . . . .Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Paul continues this thought into the next chapter – which, in the original letter Paul penned, was simply the next line:

(2 Corinthians 5:1-9) “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.

Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord,  for we walk by faith, not by sight, we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:1-9)

Let me now quickly parse this somewhat lengthy text: Though afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down – Paul and his companions did not lose heart. Why? He tells us throughout his several letters, such as this one to Timothy: “I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” (2 Timothy 1:12b)

Did 2024 find you afflicted in body or spirit? Perplexed? Persecuted? But did not the Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God, also comfort you? Did He not bring you through it all? Of course, He did. You would not be here in this church service if He did not. And I would not be preaching this message to you if God had not brought me through what Nancy and I have been through.

And so, by faith, and with His boundless help, we do NOT lose heart – because we know whom we have believed, and we are persuaded, we are convinced that He bring to us a stronger faith who WANT to grow in our faith. We can expect Him to strengthen our trust who WANT to trust Him better. We can expect Him to strengthen our love for Him who WANT to love Him better. We can EXPECT 2025 will bring us a growing maturity through our experiences – ESPECIALLY what we might call bad experiences – as we continue to learn to trust our Father who loves us beyond all we could ever comprehend.

Let me pause a moment here and remind us: No one can ever say He doesn’t love us when we look at Calvary.

But now to move on through this passage in 2 Corinthians. Here is verse 16 of chapter 4: “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Please hear this: It doesn’t take much looking in the mirror to recognize we no longer look as we did when we were 21. And surely many of you know how much longer it takes to get dressed and ready to leave your apartments in the morning. But EVEN THOUGH our outer bodies are decaying, we have great reason for hope and confidence in the future that God has prepared for us in 2025.

OH! Think for a while later today when you have the time to be quiet with your God – think how while we can clearly see our body’s slow decay, think how your inner person, the REAL you is being renewed and strengthened day after day, week after week, and month after month as we seek a closer walk with our Savior.

No one looks forward to tests and hardships that come in life. But God tells us through this text that those tests and hardships are not even worth comparing to the glory that God is building and creating and molding in our spirits through them all.

For many here, 2024 was difficult. It was marked by loss, sadness, loneliness, worsening and chronic pain and so much more. But God would like us to look at 2025 through the lens of His promises, AND to trust Him that 2024 WAS fruitful for our SPIRITUAL growth – even if we cannot see it today.

PLEASE, we MUST remember that we do not walk by sight. We walk by faith. We do not look at things which can be seen, but at things which are unseen. As we saw earlier in Hebrews 11, “Faith is the substance of things not seen and the evidence of things hoped for.” One translation renders it: Faith is being sure about what we hope for, being convinced about things we do not see.” (EHV)

Remember what the Lord Jesus said to His Twelve – and of course, to you and me: “Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am. (John 14:1-3, EHV)

THAT is our inevitable future. THAT is our ultimate hope – our ‘confident expectation. Jesus is preparing a place for us who trust His sacrificial atonement for our sins. That means when my home is completed, He will bring me to it. That might happen in 2025. And when He is done with YOUR home, He will bring you to it as well. And that might happen in 2025.

So, back to the text in 2 Corinthians: “Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:6-9)

Please, don’t gloss over that last verse: Therefore, we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

If you were here last week, you heard me talk about the terrible and tragic loss we will inevitably experience if we do not repent of the time, talent, and treasure we’ve squandered in the past – and of what we continue to squander today. And only the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised would guide us into all truth – only the Holy Spirit can soften our hardened and selfish hearts so that we do, as Paul urged, that we have as our AMBITION to be pleasing to God.

Oh, on this first Sunday of 2025 may the Lord of our life change our lives so that we, in 2025, will daily have as our ambition to please Him with the fruitful use of His gifts to us of time, talent, and treasure.

We are on the cusp of a new year; One which will bring us closer to eternity and the home He is preparing for us. And whether 2025 is glorious from our perspective – or fraught with trials – this one thing is SURE: From God's perspective – and you can write this down in your Bibles – God knows the plans that He has for you, plans for your good and not for evil, to give a hope and a future.