ROMANS 15:1\u20136<\/b><\/p>\n
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope<\/i><\/p>\n
(Romans 15:4)<\/i>.<\/p>\n
What happens to people when they lose hope? They give up. They quit. Hope and perseverance go together. Hope is a future promise that keeps us going. It is the carrot before the donkey. Hope knows that there is a goal, and that the goal is worth pursuing, even through hardship and difficulty. If we don\u2019t have hope, we won\u2019t have perseverance.<\/p>\n
Paul writes in Romans 15 is that everything in the Scripture\u2014by which he means what we call the Old Testament\u2014was written to instruct us in the Christian hope. Throughout the Old Testament we see God\u2019s faithfulness in spite of man\u2019s sin. We see the saints going through times of suffering and discouragement. We see the saints exiled to the wilderness, with no apparent future. But we also see that in time, God brings them back for greater service than before. The kingdom of God never shrinks; it may flow underground for a season, but it always emerges mightier than before. God is not going to be the loser in history!<\/p>\n
Thus, with the encouragements of the Scripture before us (Old and New Testaments), we should have hope. And following God\u2019s example, we should encourage one another. Paul writes in Romans 15:5\u20136 that we encourage one another when we live in unity, without being at each others\u2019 throats, and that a fundamental expression of that unity is worship. When we stand together to sing God\u2019s praises in the psalms and great hymns and prayers of the church, we encourage one another. The man who comes to worship downcast and beaten may emerge with new hope simply because of the unity of worship he has experienced.<\/p>\n
Paul says that God gives endurance and encouragement (verse 5). It is not just the history of redemption as recorded in the Bible that gives us encouragement. It is not just the continuing history of the church, which indeed shows growth over 2,000 years, that gives encouragement. And it is not just the fellowship of other saints, in life and in praise, that gives encouragement. But it is primarily God Himself who gives us encouragement. If we lack endurance and hope, we need to learn more about the attributes and intentions of God; for the more we know Him, the more encouraged we will be.<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
Job 7\u20139<\/p>\n
Acts 7:44\u201360<\/p>\n
WEEKEND<\/b><\/p>\n
Job 10\u201315<\/p>\n
Acts 8<\/p>\n
Psalms are a great source of encouragement, because (a) they meet us where we are, in the midst of difficulty and conflict, (b) they remind us of what God has done, and (c) they bring us face to face with God in prayer. Let\u2019s get the psalms back into our worship and our private devotions.<\/p>\n
For further study: Ps. 119:81\u201389 \u2022 Heb. 6:10\u201319 \u2022 James 5:7\u201311 \u2022 1 Peter 1:13<\/i><\/p>\n
WEEKEND<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ROMANS 15:1\u20136 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope (Romans 15:4). What happens to people when they lose hope? They give up. They quit. Hope and perseverance go together. Hope is a future promise that … Continue reading “HOPE AND ENCOURAGEMENT”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}