Hope Comes with Victory: Are we winning or losing?
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Hope Comes with Victory!”.
The statistics aren’t great. The numbers say we’re losing.
So is it true?
Pew Research reports in 2019, 65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade. Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated share of the population, consisting of people who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular,” now stands at 26%, up from 17% in 2009.
Both Protestantism and Catholicism are experiencing losses of population share. Currently, 43% of U.S. adults identify with Protestantism, down from 51% in 2009. And one-in-five adults (20%) are Catholic, down from 23% in 2009. Meanwhile, all subsets of the religiously unaffiliated population – a group also known as religious “nones” – have seen their numbers swell. Self-described atheists now account for 4% of U.S. adults, up modestly but significantly from 2% in 2009; agnostics make up 5% of U.S. adults, up from 3% a decade ago; and 17% of Americans now describe their religion as “nothing in particular,” up from 12% in 2009. Members of non-Christian religions also have grown modestly as a share of the adult population.
(https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/)
Unless you’re lowering your golf score or competing on the “The Biggest Loser”, numbers like this don’t say “YOU’RE WINNING”!
It can feel personally or collectively as Christians that we are on a losing team…if we focus purely on numbers. Don’t get me wrong, the numbers are concerning…not because it doesn’t look good for Christianity, but because it doesn’t bode well for a person’s soul.
Satan is deceiving people to think that “winning at life” is done better apart from Christ than with him. Satan has infiltrated churches to move the message off of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus to being cultural saviors and social justice warriors.
The numbers don’t indicate that those connected to Christ are losing. They indicate more people are losing out on a connection to Christ and the grace of salvation he gives.
This is what concerns me.
I am convinced Jesus provides the ultimate victory. If he was still in the grave…I wouldn’t be convinced. If he were still on this earth…I wouldn’t be convinced. But the fact remains he ROSE from the dead and ASCENDED into heaven. NO ONE has ever won the battle over death on their own…Jesus did. NO ONE has ever ascended into heaven on their own…Jesus did. Why? Because the mission he came to do was complete. He won the battle over sin, death and the devil. He ascended to heaven and sits in the position of power, the right hand of God, above ALL other powers in heaven and on earth.
Satan loves to discount, discredit, and deceive hearts away from Christ. But hope is found where there is victory. And true and eternal victory is ONLY found with Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
This week we’ll expand on some of the seven aspects of a winning team (LISTEN to this week’s sermon for the full list).
Apply: God has placed me on his winning team. Who in my circle of interaction is missing out on the hope this victory gives? Ask the Lord for an opportunity to discuss and share the hope and victory Jesus gives…then be ready when he provides that opportunity!
Prayer: Lord Jesus thank you for winning the ultimate victory over sin, death and the devil. Use me Lord to bring this message of hope and victory to someone else this week! AMEN.
Certain Hope Comes from Being Loved: Love Sacrifices
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Hope Comes with Being Loved”.
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)
Enough said. Right?
When someone sets the standard high, it seems impossible to reach.
That’s not the point.
The standard is set high to show the extent to which love will go to express itself.
To the point of giving up one’s life for another.
Why would anybody sacrifice like this for another person? Love IS the only answer, right?
What leads a soldier to put their life on the line in a combat mission? Love for the country and people they serve.
What would lead a police officer to put their life on the line to apprehend a shooter at a school? Love for the kids of the community they are called to protect.
What would lead a mother or father to give up their life to save the life of their child? Love.
Love is the only thing that would sacrifice in this way. Pride doesn’t. Selfishness doesn’t. Even emotional love doesn’t. Only “agape”, sacrificial, committed love will.
Just like Jesus did.
The only way we can love to this extent is to be first loved by God. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). This is simple when we take a moment to help a neighbor or take a meal to a sick friend. This may be easy to mimic when we take time to listen to someone who is troubled, or go out of our way to help a person in need. Certainly this is a reflection of Christ’s love.
But it gets real when we are willing to give up our lives for another. Only a reflection of Jesus’ life he gave up for us would enable us to do this.
We didn’t deserve Jesus’ sacrifice. We didn’t earn it. We probably would think twice if we were called to give up our lives for ourselves.
But Jesus didn’t. He showed the full extent of his love, not just by washing his disciple’s feet, but by giving up his life on the cross to wash away his disciples’ sins…every one of them.
Because that’s what love does…for you.
Apply: What makes it easy or hard to think about giving up your life for a friend?
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for the greatest expression and gift of love anyone could receive…your death on the cross. AMEN.
Listen to the full message link above to hear how love obeys, honors and expands…put all these terms together and you get MOTHERS. Mom’s, thanks for reflecting Jesus’ love.
Love…
Models
Obeys
Teaches
Honors
Expands
Remains
Sacrifices
Hope Comes from Being Loved: Love Remains
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Hope Comes with Being Loved”.
Hope disappears when it’s based on something temporary. Hope remains when it’s based on something lasting.
What makes true, committed love so amazing is it never quits. Ask a couple married for 72 years…unheard of, unless love remains.
Love only remains and lasts when its fully understood and lived.
Too often love leaves because it is only based on emotion. When emotion is high “love” stays. When emotions leave “love” leaves. That’s why so many people “fall in” and “out” of love. Love isn’t something you “stumble” into and “step” out of. Love is something you choose to give and give continuously.
Where do we find this lasting and enduring love?
From the One who loved us first.
John 15:9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
Jesus chose to love us before we could even love him. Just like a baby is loved even before they can love back.
John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.
Human secular love often is often superficial, petty, and fleeting. It’s why we often “lose hope” in love. God on the other hand wants you to experience a lasting and enduring love – his love.
1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
This is love that remains. This is love that endures. This is God’s love.
1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. …13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Remain in God’s love and you will always have certain hope!
Apply: What has been your experience with love? What improves when you ground your understanding and experience of love in Jesus’ gracious and constant love for you?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for choosing us to experience your lasting and enduring love. Keep us close to you and empower us to show to others the same enduring love you have shown to us. AMEN.
Hope Comes from Being Loved: Love Teaches
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Hope Comes with Being Loved”.
“…everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15)
Everything?
No doubt there are things Jesus knew as God (after all he was “omniscient”) that he didn’t pass on to his disciples. But what he did was important.
John wrote at the end of his Gospel: (John 20:30-31) Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Jesus taught the things the Father wanted him to teach. He taught all the important things about the kingdom of God and what living as part of the kingdom. He taught all the important things that his followers needed to trust and believe to spend eternity with him.
He didn’t want them to miss out. He taught them because he loved them.
We teach what is important. For those that are raising children or have raised children in the past, you took time to teach your children the best you knew to set up your children for success in relationships, education, life and faith. You shared some of the mistakes you made. You shared some of the lessons you learned. You passed on the best from your parents. Why? Because you love them and want the best for them.
We teach what matters because we love those we teach.
How much more the care and effort God went through to pass on his teaching to us. We take the Bible for granted, but each word that the Spirit of God chose to preserve is a teaching that God wants us to know, believe and live because he loves us.
Each teaching he gives us is an act of love.
All of them? Yep. All of them.
Even the ones that are hard or difficult. Even the ones that seem “narrow-minded” or limits on “fun.” God teaches us these things, not because he made the mistakes and didn’t want us to fall into the same thing, but he truly knows what is best for us and wants to protect us from harm.
What happens when you begin to read the Bible as a painstaking act of love that God has given to you to read, learn, believe, and live…because he loves you?
Perhaps I begin to marvel even more at the gift of grace it is to be loved by God.
Apply: What is a tough teaching of the Bible that you find hard to believe and live? What happens when you view that passage from the perspective, “Jesus taught me this because he loves me. So what blessing does he intend for me to receive from it?”
Prayer: Father, thank you for sending Jesus to teach us everything that was important for our life and salvation. Jesus, thank you for taking time to teach us all the Father gave you and you knew was best for us. Spirit of God, thank you for preserving all this teaching to bless us today! AMEN.
Hope Comes from Being Loved: Love Models
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Hope Comes with Being Loved”.
This past Sunday we celebrated Mothers’ Day. Since the early 1900s it has been a day set aside in our country to honor and appreciate the work that mom’s do to love and care for their children.
We can’t underestimate the importance of love a mother shows. It is the first expression of love a child encounters. It also the first place a child learns how to love. A mother’s love is a pattern that a child is likely to follow through out their life time. How they were loved becomes how they love.
Usually we don’t have college courses on “How to love” (maybe it would be helpful!). Love as an emotion and an expression is more “caught than taught.” We experience love (or the lack of it). We observe what is loving. Because love becomes a model for others to follow. But the question is, who is our model of love?
The model for love originates in God the Father. Jesus said in John 15:9, “As the Father has loved me, so have I love you…”
The Father modeled love to his Son. How? We have a few examples. At Jesus’ baptism, the Father affirms publicly his love: “This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). The Father trusted his Son. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) They were inseparable. At the end of his life, his Father received his soul (Luke 23:46).
This love Jesus models to his disciples. He affirmed them. He was there for them. He cared for them. He taught them. He trusted them with the message of his kingdom. He would be ready for them in heaven one day.
But it doesn’t stop there. Jesus said, (John 15:12) “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” Jesus wants us to take the love he has shown to us and show it to others. Love as we have been loved.
So we get the opportunity to be the model of Jesus’ love to those around us. Serving selflessly. Listening carefully. Giving generously. Leading humbly. Loving our enemies and more.
Having trouble loving others…or certain people in your life? I do too. I call them “extra love opportunities.” Where I get encouragement to love, even when it’s not reciprocated and infact at times scorned is to go back to Jesus. He loved his enemies. He loved those that crucified him. He loved … me when I gave him more reasons not to love me than to love me.
With this tremendous model of love given to me…I can, with God’s help, love in the same way.
Apply: Do you have someone in your life you are struggling to love? Review Jesus’ love for you and ask the Spirit for guidance on how to love the person who is challenging to you.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for the wonderful reality and example of your love for me! AMEN.