Topic: Finishing Hopefully in a Despairing World – Discover the Book by Dr John Barnett 31 August 2022
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Finishing Hopefully in a Despairing World
As we open to Titus 2, we re considering the power of hope. When things get darkest in life, what one truth keeps folks going? It’s the word: hope.
Someone once described us as humans in this way:
Humans can live 40 days without food; and
3 days without water; and
8 minutes without air;
But only 1 second without hope!
A Hopeless World Needs
Hope-filled People
The closer we get to the end of days; and the more difficult the world or our part of the world may get; and no matter how much bad prevails all around us, God’s plan never changes. His plan has been the same for Christ’s church for these past 20 centuries.
When the world is sliding towards ruin, God always wants: His children finishing hopefully in a despairing world. And that is the final quality we find in Titus 2:2
Also Read: Open Heaven 31 August 2022 Daily Devotional By Pastor E. A. Adeboye – TAKE CARE OF PASTORS
At the end of the sentence in Titus 2:2, the last word that God’s Spirit inspired Paul to write in the Holy Scriptures is the Greek word: hupomeno. This word is HUGE in both the Old and the New Testament. This inspired word was chosen by God to show up in some of the best-known verses of the Bible, and also in some of the most strategic passages such as those that teach the perseverance of the saints. So listen carefully to all God has to say to each of us through His Word today!
Titus 2:2″ that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience;” NKJV
“[sound in] patience” is how this Greek word hupomone is translated in the NKJV and KJV; or by these words in the other main English translations: “steadfastness” in ESV; “endurance” in NIV; and “perseverance” in the NAS.
The bottom line this word communicates is that God wants older men in Christ’s Church FINISHING HOPEFULLY IN A DESPAIRING WORLD.
God wants men who persevere through all the hard times life will always bring—and then model that triumphant hope Christ alone can bring. Among the aged who are often characterized as fretful and down-hearted, these men radiate hope.
The Power of Godly Hope
Each of us, the older we get have a choice: either give in to idleness through inactivity, despair through a lack of being needed, or we allow the Spirit of God to energize us by His grace to live in hope. A life of hope can temper us to become like steel, and hold up under the troubles life constantly pours out upon us. That is what God’s Word illustrates as we examine Biblical hope.
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