TOMORROW MIND | MARK SLEVIN | LINC CHURCH
TOMORROW MIND SERIES
WEEK 2: KNOW THE HOPE
HEY CHURCH! Here’s a Sunday Message summary to help you go on a personal journey with the word in season and take it out into your world. Let us know if this is helpful so we can make more! Tag us, share it with your world on our social media platforms. LET’S DIVE IN!
The World view / Versus the Word view
ROMANS 12
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[a] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
3 thoughts on Hope:
Hope is perspective. (Uncertain / Certain)
Hope is personal (Horizontal / Vertical)
Hope is powerful.(Free from the world / Free for the world)
Not just an event – but an experience
You can’t live without HOPE.
We underestimate – Tremendously what really is the engine of your life
HOW YOU LIVE NOW is completely determined by your believed in future …
THE IMPORTANCE OF HOPE
Why is it important for you.
What is the first thing the Apostle Paul asks for – highest priority – that our hearts would know THE HOPE
What is the first thing he wants the HOLY SPIRIT to full your heart with? To fill you with HOPE
WHAT IS HOPE?
Greek word 80 times – translated – into hope
Our English word denotes uncertainty / But the Biblical definition – see in Hebrews 11
HOPE IS:
A life shaping certainty of something that hasn’t happened yet, but you know it will
Imagine yourself fighting in a battle – and your side is losing – fighting for your life -people are falling – about to give up. You losing – suddenly you hear something -what you hear is the music /song. You here the song of a marching army …although army not there yet – YOU KNOW. Even though you can’t see them. The two form scents that curated victory are coming – even though you don’t see them, even though you can’t see them –
THE KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT YOU ANTICIPATING MAKES YOU STRONGER!
Your heart is braver … the anticipation changes you – you are connecting to the future
You connecting to the future … that is making you more confident and courageous.
We underestimate – just how much our believed in future affects the way we live now …
It’s not the circumstances -that actually affect the way you feel, its not the circumstances that affect the way you live.
Your future, youre believed in future – completely determines how you process life and how you approach the circumstances now.
YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT HOPE.
Your ultimate HOPE in your ULTIMATE FUTURE – is the most formative thing about you …
YOU SEE life only has meaning in any circumstances if you have a hope that neither suffering, circumstance or even death cannot destroy
If you put your ultimate HOPE into anything in this life, into money, your health, your family, into your status, then suffering and circumstance can take it away – And your life will always be characterised by a ground note of anxiety, it will always be anxious. The only HOPE Is to – put your ultimate Hope into something that even death and suffering cannot take away – into something eternal.
If you put your ultimate Hope in this world there will be an anxiety …
Hope is not HORIZONTAL – it’s VERTICAL.
HOPE – your believed in future will determine how you will live now …
THE BIBLE SAYS THERE IS ANOTHER WAY ….
There is a HOPE God has called you too – its VERTICAL – its ETERNAL.
What is seen, is temporal, and won’t last but was is unseen, is eternal and will last forever!
HOPE IS: PERSONAL
The riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,
When you heard this read – what did you think – wonderful spiritual words – what do they mean?
First of all the word SAINTS – not for super Christians – means the set apart ones – all CHRISTIANS.
Second word. INHERITANCE – it’s an interesting word it means your worth -seance of your – your worth – substance of your wealth – all your worth and wealth – locked up in property – that is your inheritance – in a sense that’s what you would leave ..
Whose inheritance are we talking about here? It doesn’t talk about my inheritance and your inheritance … Paul is taking about Gods inheritance … Here’s what Paul is trying to say – it’s amazing.
Imagine buying Bill Gates? Imagine buying him something so unique and valuable – that it would bless him and he would say this is the best thing i have ever been given – my prized possession. Something more impossible – that has happened – God is the most wealthy individual in the universe, and yet Paul Is saying God has got something of such worth that it’s his greatest gift – above the galaxies, the earth, the universe …
God has got something so valuable to him – it could be called his inheritance – And it’s the Saints – it’s US.
Why is Paul – Paul is praying Paul wants you to be astounded at – how rich God feels when he looks at you –
WHY? Until you see your value to him – you not gonna live the life you have been called …live with courage and confidence …and this is connected to hope and here is why.
CS LEWIS – We all desperately need to know and be affirmed – the least potent way to give affirmation is to give it yourself. You are talented, beautiful and great. You can affirm yourself.
Nothing will compared to the day God meets you face to face – and you see his delight in His eyes – you see his love for you. On the day he declares his love for you – in everything you you ever longed for this would be it.
THIS HOPE IS SO BEAUTIFULL PERSONAL.
Unless you connect your present with this future – you never gonna live with great joy – connected to this personal HOPE …
HOPE IS: POWERFUL
And his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms
Because of his resurrection we have this power that – Sets us FREE FROM THE WORLD and FREE FOR THE WORLD.
Why is it so hard to face suffering, why is it so hard death, why is it so hard to face death of loved ones, disease, physical ailments, disabling, You know why its so hard – you know why its so hard to face the problems of the world …because we think this broken world is the only world we ever going to have ..we feel like money, this body.
But not only that, the Resurrection does not just tell you that the future is there, that’s it’s personal, that it’s certain, but also that it’s unimaginably wonderful.
CAN YOU IMAGINE – the hope the resurrection gives us – its sets us free from this world – knowing that the best is yet to come.
The world offers us consolation, the word gives us RESTORATION.
No religion – but the Bible promises us new bodies – not just new minds and …. only in the gospels do people hurting like me find enormous hope …
You are free from this life in a way – and you can be brave … resilient – why cause the future is in your present … take risks – you can face the worst that happens to you – you can face suffering …
So gives you freedom from the world – it changes the way you live – your whole approach to life.
Freedom for the world – the resurrection proves that God loves this material world –
Every other religion says that your souls are going to escape from this world …go off into another realm
The resurrection proves that God wants to not just save souls but bodies – not just the spiritual but the physical …The resurrection proves that God hates poverty, injustice, disease., death because he hates them we can start working against them …
So keep building business, keep writing songs, keep teaching the next generation, keep fighting for the poor, keep planting trees, keep building roads, keep telling people about the good news … we are co working with God to bring justice to his world.
HOW DO WE GET HOPE?
Where did Jesus hope lie?
What was Jesus hoping in?
The Bible says ‘for the joy set before him, he endured the cross’ – what was his joy and hope .. it was YOU, it was US… When your heart begins to see where Jesus hope was, to that degree, you heart will put its hope in Him.
THE LINC COLLECTIVE 
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