“What is My Hope and Expectation?”

Philippians 1:19-26

Introduction:
1. Questions:
a. Why are you here this morning?
b. What reason do you give yourself each morning to get out of bed and feel as good as you do about facing this world?
c. How can you go about your day with a calm spirit and a sense of confidence about your person?
d. How do you patiently endure the many troubles presented to you by this world?
e. Why do you rise from bended knee in prayer with a renewed spirit and a feeling of forgiveness?
f. Why have your friends seen a change in your character, making you more understanding, compassionate, knowledgeable, and willing to help others?
g. Why is it that when worship services begin that you become solemn and humbled by the presence of God?
h. What makes you pause, wonder, and grieve at the great story of the cross?
i. Why are you happy when the word of God is taught, but sad and empty when it is not?
j. Why are you happy this day?
i. Because God is in heaven, and we are going there some day!
ii. Apply to each of these questions.

2. Our Hope Lives When We Seek a Higher Call
a. We are in this world anticipating a better one after it.
i. That makes us different from the rest of the world.
ii. Contrast the percent of those who believe in heaven versus those who are actually trying to go there.
b. Society holds one of two philosophies:
i. That this world can be improved and modeled into heaven on earth or utopia.
ii. That there is no heaven and this world will never get better, so live for the moment.
c. We believe in living for God today in hope and expectation of heaven tomorrow.
d. We are different from the world.
i. Improving this world is not very important; improving ourselves is.
ii. We do not live for the moment, but for the eternity to come.
e. Our lives are lived in happiness before God because of the hope that lives in us.
i. John 16:33 - “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
ii. John 17:14 - “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
iii. 1John 4:4-5 - “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 5. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.” 
iv. 1John 5:4-5 - “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” 
v. Rom. 12:2 - “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

f. The Apostle Paul Was Governed By A Higher Calling Than This World.
i. Phil. 3:14, 7 - “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 7. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.”
g. He suffered greatly for this hope.
i. 2Cor. 11:22-28 – “Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. 24. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. 25. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26. In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27. In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.” 
ii. Why!?  Because of his hope and expectation.
iii. Phil. 1:19-21 – “For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, 20. According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. 21. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
iv. And he admonishes us to do the same.
v. Col. 3:1-4 – “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

h. Christ’s Message Of Hope To The Saints Of Revelation Sustained Them.
i. Rev. 2:10, 7 - “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. 7. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”
ii. God’s part is the crown of life and the tree of life.
iii. Our part is to be faithful and overcome. 
iv. It is His promise that enables us to do our part; hope drives us onward.
v. A lifetime of faithfulness in this world in exchange for an eternity of joy in heaven.
vi. We are not so foolish as to trade our birthright for bean soup like Esau.
i. Our hope sustains us and gives us joy in the present world.
i. Rom. 8:23-25 - “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.24. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25. But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” 
ii. 1Peter 1:3-6 - “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4. To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5. Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” 

3. We Build Our Lives Around This Hope.
a. Christians live prepared for the moment they will die.
b. Three immutable facts of life:
i. We will choose to sin.
ii. We will die.
iii. We will face God in judgment.
iv. The only matter that is in our power to control is what will be our moral condition when we stand before God.
c. Christians see beyond this world.
i. 2Cor. 4:8-10, 14, 16-18 - “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9. Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; 10. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 14. Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. 16. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 17. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 18. 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.” 
ii. Psalm 71:5, 14 - “For thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou art my trust from my youth. 14. But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.”
iii. Lam. 3:24, 26 - “The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.25. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” 

d. That is how the faithful Christian can calmly, joyfully live before the Lord day by day in this world.
i. Rom. 5:1-4 - “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4. And patience, experience; and experience, hope.”
ii. No friction, no heat; no trials, no hope.
e. Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people.
i. Jer. 17:7 - “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.”
ii. Prov. 14:32 - “The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death.”
f. What is the hope and expectation of a sinner?
i. Job 8:13 - “The hypocrite's hope shall perish.”
ii. Job 11:20 - “But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.”
iii. Job 27:8 - “For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?”
g. Prov. 10:28 - “The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.

Conclusion:  What is Your Hope and Expectation?