Hello, everybody. I want to share a specific message. It may be a little more grim than some of my other messages, but I will say it with a smile on my face and with hope about what Christ can do for you. I want to talk about situations where people may feel a lack of hope, and a Bible verse that has encouraged me whenever I’ve struggled to see God’s plan in times of difficulty. I wanted to bring this verse to your attention.
That way, you can be edified and encouraged by some of the messages in the Bible that you may not have even realized were there. The scripture we’ll go to—granted, I’m going to kind of paraphrase it and maybe take it slightly out of context—is really just six words that are so profound I’m always at a loss for words when I read them.
It’s in Romans 4:18, and it’s the first six words, but I’ll also read the following verses after it: Against all hope, Abraham believed in hope, so he became the father of many nations, just as it had been told: So shall your offspring be.
In context, Abraham had a barren wife, and he and his wife had not been able to conceive a child. They were roughly 90 years old or so—I don’t know the exact age—but for some reason I can remember that Methuselah was 969 years old when he died. Let’s just be real—I don’t know why I know that, but besides the point, this was a situation where Abraham and his wife were unable to conceive. Yet he had a promise from God that he would be the father of many nations.
And let’s be real—if you were in this situation, it would seem pretty hopeless. It’s like you haven’t had a job in four to six years, and you’re just down on your luck, your bills are late, and you’re wondering, How can I get out of this messy situation? It’s as if God promised you a job ten years ago, and you’re still waiting. But you believed. This situation seems kind of ironic and unrealistic, but this is effectively the situation Abraham was in.
I get it—most people in this situation would probably pull a friend of Job and say, “God already is,” or something like that. They would encourage that friend or that believer to just give up, because it would seem so impossible to get out of the situation. But Abraham, unlike them, had a steadfast faith in God despite his hopeless situation. He believed in a hope that was greater than himself—Christ the Redeemer, His word, His grace, and His truth. He believed that what Christ said would come to pass. He believed that Christ would fulfill what He had promised. So he believed in a hope greater than himself.
In this situation of hopelessness, he believed in something greater. So let’s go back to the Old Testament. We have another interesting story where a situation seemed hopeless, but God made a way. I want to encourage you that despite how hopeless your situation may be, Christ can make a way. No matter how much the odds may seem stacked against you—no matter what is going on in your life—Christ can make a way.
Let’s go to the Exodus. Basically, in Exodus—I don’t have it pulled up right here—but I’ll give you the gist of the story. It’s a story you’ve probably heard a thousand times: Moses parting the Red Sea. They left Egypt, fled from captivity, and now Pharaoh and his armies were pursuing them across the Red Sea. The Red Sea was now in the way between them and the Promised Land. And there was a problem: the Red Sea was water, and they were trapped on the beach by Pharaoh’s army. They were completely cornered.
This is basically, effectively, the biblical story of World War Two Dunkirk in the sense that they were trapped on a beach, with no way out, and they were going to need some sort of miracle to escape this impossible situation. But God, in a hopeless moment, called them to have hope. He asked Moses to part the Red Sea, and they crossed on dry ground. Then, instead of letting Pharaoh’s army come behind them, God closed the sea over them, wiping them out.
That situation seemed so hopeless. Imagine being one of the people standing there next to Moses and saying, Bro, why are we still sitting here? We need to run—there are people with swords coming after us! And Moses is just there, cool as a cucumber, saying, Just wait. God has a plan. You’d look at him and probably think he was insane. But that’s precisely the type of faith we need to have in Christ—such a childlike faith that you believe what Christ says is going to happen willhappen.
So, I just want to encourage you: if you feel hopeless, no matter how hopeless your situation may seem, Christ in His magnificent glory has proven time and time again—both in the Old and New Testaments—that He can make a way out of impossible situations you wouldn’t think possible. Look at all the Christian testimonies around the world. So many people have felt they were at their wit’s end. They’d given up, lost their business, or faced something equally devastating. And they just prayed: Jesus, I need Your help. Please help me.
There are so many stories of people on their last leg. I know fellow believers who were at their wit’s end and were actually going to take their own life, and they prayed to Christ one time—and He gave them joy in that moment to overcome their situation.
There are many stories, and many different ways this plays out. So many people have been at their wit’s end from life happening in a horrible way all at once, like a divorce or something like that. But Christ redeems and Christ saves. He made a way for people not just in the Bible stories.
This isn’t some far-off God who is never going to interact with you. This is a God who is deeply personal and who has helped many sinners just like me. You can be redeemed and be given a second chance at life—a new lease on life—to live not only a physical life that is pleasing to God, but also a spiritual life that is pleasing to Him, because we are hidden with Christ on high.
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I just want to thank you for watching. I really hope you are encouraged, and I hope you have a blessed day.
Peace.