Never Lose Hope | Billy Graham
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“Special Strength is Coming” from Billy Graham
The time has come for us to look up some of those passages in the bible that have to do with the future of our world.
And we ask ourselves, is there any hope a person can live a lifetime without sex?
A person can possibly live 75 days without food.
I read about a man and a hunger strike in Britain that lived 70 days without food.
And it’s possible to live about 10 days without water.
It’s possible to live maybe six minutes without air or oxygen, but it’s almost impossible.
We’re told by sociologists and psychologists and psychiatrists and clergy to live without hope and one of the great needs in our world today is hope and many young people have lost hope and that’s why many of them are rebelling and turning to drugs and turning to other things.
They see no hope as they look into the future.
We read about the greenhouse ecology and they talk about Armageddon. They talk about global genocide.
They talk about the end of the world and we’ve seen almost daily on in the press and on radio, some or television, some reference to it.
Hope is the greatest need of our generation. They attempted to give up. They opt out.
And so we tend to hide from reality and responsibility as many people today are searching for hope.
There are four things that I want you to see.
They all begin with a V and there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring men’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken and then shall they see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
And when these things begin to come to pass then look up, look up with hope and lift up your heads for your redemption draws near.
There’s a view of the world today.
When these things begin to come to pass, jesus said, don’t speculate, he said, don’t speculate about the end.
There is going to be an end to the world system of evil but the kingdom of God is going to ultimately triumph.
God is not going to retreat.
God is going to control the whole thing before it’s over and the kingdom of God will prevail and jesus answered.
And Matthew 24 to these questions took 94 verses, he gave a whole scenario, Jesus said, one of the factors would be fear, fear of the impending annihilation and that’s what greek scholars tell us.
The powers of heaven shall be shaken means we will be fearing, there will be wars and rumors of wars, he said it looked like the whole world was becoming good and filled with love at the beginning of this century and there was tremendous optimism in europe and America and all over the world And in this century, what’s happened.
We’ve fought the bloodiest wars and more people have been killed in wars in this century than all the other centuries put together in the past 1000 years.
What happened? Human nature was not put into the equation, God’s answer to the real deep problems of our lives was not taken into account.
Wars and rumors of wars, Jesus said another sign would be disease and famine and hunger and suffering on a scale unprecedented in the history of the world.
And more people today are starving and suffering from disease with all of our modern medicine, with everything we have and then he said, there would be immorality on a wide scale, people will be swapping wives and as in the days of Noah, so shall it also be in the days of the coming of the son of man, they ate, they drank, they married wives and they were given in marriage.
And then Jesus said, there’ll be worldwide evangelism, Matthew 24 14 and this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in all the world for witness to all nations.
Then shall the end come, jesus does not say when these things will take place, but the next word that I have is vigilance, it says that we’re to watch and we’re to look when it begins to come to pass, were to look up, there should be hope, not fear the world that’s outside of christ may fear at the possibility of annihilation.
But you and I as believers? We look forward with great hope to the coming Kingdom of God?
Because christ is going to come back, that kingdom come, thy will be done on earth.
Jesus prayed, I believe that prayer is going to be answered.
Put your eyes on christ, not on the newspapers, not on the television screens.
For your hope, your hope is in christ.
He’s the one that has made the promise that his kingdom is going to ultimately prevail.
He’s going to come back and when men shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes and paul said, behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, he that does the will of God shall abide forever.
Christ gives hope and peace in the midst of all the troubles and all the difficulties that the world has today.
But Jesus said then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken the other left watch therefore for you know not what hour your Lord doth come.
Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as you think not the son of man coming.
Are you ready? He said, be ready?
Be sure that you have repented of your sins and then the third v the vision of hope were to look up the scripture says, where there is no vision, the people perish.
There’s something to look forward to. Something to be happy about. What’s the purpose of my life?
Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? What is the hope of our world?
What a mess the world’s in. What do you what do you what’s the cause of it?
Do you know christ does he dominate your life?
Shakespeare wrote in the merchant of venice through the medicine of Hope.
I have the hope to live and am prepared to die.
Do you have that hope then The last v the victory assured the scripture says in psalm 24 7, lift up your heads and today I can recall so many of those great psalms set to music.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help, my help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth.
I lift up mine eyes and I look to christ and my help comes from him.
He enters into us and he will give you the lift to the kingdom of God at no cost to you because he paid the price.
The only cost to you is that you submit surrender. Believe repent.
Follow him and serve him
