along with our scripture this morning. Initially, we're gonna be in Hebrews chapter six, and we'll begin reading at verse 11, breaking into a little bit of a context, but as we go through the message, I trust we'll see the theme that he does pick up here. In Hebrews chapter six, beginning at verse 11, And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end, that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, Because he could swear by no greater, he swear by himself, saying, surely, blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, whether the forerunner for us has entered, even Jesus, made it high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. This hope we have, this hope that has been set before us. I'd like to share with you this morning a collection of thoughts about hope, biblical hope. the hope that the Christian has. It has been set before us. And it is a hope that we have. He describes it here as as which hope that is the hope that he has just mentioned, the hope of the gospel, the hope of eternal life, the hope of heaven. the hope of being with Christ, this abundance and living hope. This is the hope in general, and he says here, we have it. It's our possession. He has said it before us, and by implication, we, as the child of God, have understood it, and we've taken it into our possession, and it's something that fuels our faith, something that lives with inside of us, something that we understand. Now before we get into the outline, let me ask you a question. I think you are all familiar with that verse in 1 Peter where Peter says, but sanctify the Lord God in your heart and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope. that is in you with meekness and fear. When we think about this biblical reality of hope, would you be able to relate that to an unbeliever, to describe it, to unravel it so that they could see why you have hope? Would you be able to say, and this is gonna sound like circular reasoning, but the reason of the hope is hope itself. And this hope that is tied to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, could you connect those two the way the Bible does? I think hope is a forgotten grace. Hope as a verb, we hope towards God, and hope as a noun. a person, place, or thing, which the Bible uses both of these to describe our blessed hope. I think sometimes hope is seen as a lesser grace or something lesser because, after all, we have faith. Faith is strong. I exercise faith Hope is a weaker. I think that's the semblance, so that's the way we understand it, because perhaps unknowingly we've adopted the world's definition of hope, when in fact hope is just as strong as faith. So I'd like to, again, a collection of thoughts about hope from the scripture. We'll first of all look at hope defined. Secondly, hope's foundation. and we'll look at four foundation stones of our hope, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the second coming of Jesus Christ, the promises of God, and Jesus Christ himself. Thirdly, we'll look at hope's anchor, and fourthly, hope deferred. And my goal today is that we would really get an understanding of the hope that God wants us to have and understand the biblical definition, the biblical usage of it, because this is a very forceful idea. There's a divine omnipotence behind God's hope. and God's will is behind it. So first of all this morning, hope defined. How do we define hope and how is it used in the scriptures? Again, I said hope is both a noun and a verb in the Bible. A noun is what? Person, place, or thing. Something substantive, a reality. Hope as a verb is an action word. It's something we do. We hope in God, for example. When we think of hope as a verb, just by way of general definition, hope is a desire for something. There's patience involved with it. There's an expectation that what we hope for it can be obtained, or at least there's a possibility of it being obtained. And of course, the way the world uses this word, we could use a synonym as wish. They want something good in their life, there's a possibility, it's obtainable, there's something there. Of course, in the world, it's based on something that's fallible. something that perhaps is not trustworthy, something that might be not as real as they would think it is. It's not based on an infallible truth like for the believer. So in the world, they use the word perhaps wish. I hope I win the lottery or I wish I win the lottery. Well, there is a chance that you could win the lottery, one in a gazillion. I hope I get that promotion at work. Well, you might get the promotion if all of the pieces of that promotion work out where they actually want you and you're qualified and somebody else is not crowding you out and you fit the demographics of the job, you might get that job. But again, it's based on something fallible, something not certain. Even if you win the lottery, you might lose the ticket, can't cash in. You might get that promotion at work, but then you get into that new slot, and it's a disappointment. It's not what you thought it would be. The hope of the world, we have to really focus on the uncertainty of it, the fallibility of it, and understand that it's really kind of wishy-washy, uncertain. Of course, for the believer, the Bible uses this word as a verb, and I'm gonna mainly focus today on the noun part of hope, but the verb, the believer hopes, but they rest their hope on something infallible. They rest their hope upon God. The psalmist said, why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God. For I shall yet praise Him who is the help of my countenance. Here the psalmist had to focus his hope upon God. And though his hope, his earthly action, as spiritual as it was, though it's not, his hope is not infallible, he was placing it on something that was infallible. It was placed upon God. Hope, again, for the believer, it's this idea of waiting with patience. And you as a believer, you wait with patience on something that God has provided, will provide again, or will provide, for example, at the second coming, and you know that that is an infallible truth. No matter how long you may have to wait, it will come. I want to speak though mainly today about hope as a noun, as we're defining this word hope. As a noun form, it's not the product of wishful thinking. It's not used in a general way that can be applied to all things. It's not based upon man's ability to apprehend it or understand it correctly. The hope that the Bible describes for us is an infallible truth spoken by God himself with a divine omnipotence behind it and the will of God settled into heavens, God who cannot lie, that's our hope. It's bound up in God himself, we'll see. It's a hope that will not disappoint. God's hope, it's impossible for that to disappoint you. It's a God-described, God-designed, orchestrated, architected hope. Let me give you one definition by Benjamin Keech. Benjamin Keech was a Reformed Baptist back in the 1600s. He's mainly known for authoring a catechism. Actually, he wrote a children's catechism that got him thrown in jail because it was too correct, but that's another story. But this is what he says about hope, and he describes our hope in God and the hope that God has designed for us. He says, hope is a well-grounded expectation. There's our action. It's a well-grounded expectation upon the accomplishment of what God has promised. It's based upon what God has promised, that reality. Faith sees the promise and beholds it. Typically it's far off. Faith sees the promise, but then hope comes in and keeps the soul alive with a well-grounded expectation that God will fulfill everything that he's promised. And those two do kind of overlap. Our hope is placed on the hope that God has given to us. If you want to think of a very easy way to remember hope, here's an acrostic. Having, there's the H, optimistic, O, preoccupation, there's the P, with the eternal. Our action, our hope is having optimistic preoccupation. We should be preoccupied with the hope of the gospel, with our blessed hope. Having optimistic preoccupation with the eternal. The eternal is in God's basket. God defines and designs and brings about the eternal. And both of these are used together, Romans 15, 13. Now the God of hope, fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15 and verse 13. Beg the God of hope, fill you with hope so you can abound with hope. One other aspect as we're thinking about hope, I think it's apparent, but let me just use a scripture to enforce it. Hope in this life is typically based upon something that we do. And Paul uses an illustration in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, where he's talking about supporting a pastor with money. But he uses a natural, earthly illustration from the Old Testament, from the law in Leviticus, and he brings it into the New Testament. And it's a valid illustration that he's using for this money situation. But he says this, thus it is written, that he that ploweth in hope, and he that threshes in hope, should be a partaker of that hope. The illustration is the farmer goes out to plow the soil, he goes out to plant the seed, he goes out to nurture, to water, to prune, and then he goes to thresh, to bring that in. And he did all this work. The pastor does all this laboring. The farmer does all this work. He should be able to partake of what he's done. It's his work, right? He did it. And illustrations abound. You go to school so that you can get a degree or that you can get a job. Or you nurture a relationship so that will be mutually beneficial to you. You put in labor. Paul is using this illustration. Well, they should be able to partake of that labor. Here's the beauty of biblical hope. God does it all. He's done it all. The hope is outside of ourselves. Again, hope as a noun, person, place, or thing, the Bible says Jesus Christ himself is our hope. 1 Timothy 1, verse one, there's a person, place. We talk about the hope of heaven, Colossians 1 and verse five. Did you labor to build heaven? Of course not, a thing. Paul talks about the hope of the resurrection, Acts 23, verse six. Or all three of those together, person, place, a thing, Titus 2.13, we are looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing There's the thing of the great God and our savior, Jesus Christ person and the place heaven is implied. We have been given a hope that God made, that God sustains, that God will bring to fruition and Titus 2, verse 13, that blessed hope. That is the, I think, the ultimate scripture that talks about the hope of the believer. So, very briefly, that's hope defined. We mainly want to look at it as a noun. But hope is not like the world, of course. God's hope has a divine omnipotence behind it. His will is behind it. It's not wishy-washy. It's not dependent upon the odds. It's what God has so designed. We hope, verb, in God's hope, reality, that noun. And we have this hope. Which hope we have. Are we aware of the breadth of the hope? Are we preoccupied with the depth of the hope? And is it a living hope within us? Peter said it's supposed to be living. In other words, it animates us, it motivates us, we think about it, it expands in our mind, in our soul, in our heart. Well, secondly, hope's foundation. Hope's foundation. Hope, it's a divine reality. It's a very strong word, divine omnipotence behind it. The question is, how does God relate to us what this hope is all about? God could have said in the scriptures, he could have said, I have this hope for you and trust me, it's my word and that should be enough. But in fact, God has put within the scriptures several detailed accounts, things, doctrines, ideas that support the hope of the believer. If you were to build a 500-story building in seismically challenged California, you would realize that the foundation that you would have to design and build would have to support this enormous building, And it would have to be strong enough so that when an earthquake is shaking it, it doesn't fall down, it's held firm. And that the materials for this foundation, they can't be counterfeit, they have to have a pedigree. And so God, if you will, has built a foundation of which our hope is laid upon. And the hope is so eternal, so unfathomable, so far-reaching, so tremendous that the foundation, the foundation stones, if you will, equally support this eternal reality. God, in his mercy, relates to us several things about this hope. Hope, Paul said in Romans, you probably thought of the verse already, that definition of hope. We can't see hope, right? Paul said we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen, that's not hope. For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for it? But if we do hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it? There's no shortage of connections. There's no shortage of foundation stones that support our hope. God is behind it. Omnipotence is behind it. And as we read in Hebrews, it is of such strength that we could have strong consolation. God is not lying. It's impossible for him to lie. So let me just very briefly touch on these four foundation stones for our hope. Each one is very strong. Each one is described as a hope, our hope in God. First of all, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is no doctrine that is more sure and more certain than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is as sure as anything can be. We can say the same thing for the second coming of Christ. But the resurrection, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, when he's talking about the dead, if the dead don't rise, then Christ is dead and vain. And then in verse 17 he says, and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain and you are in your sins. And then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ, they have perished. And he goes on to say, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. What good is that kind of a hope? You have your hope for your 70 years or maybe 80 years, and then you die and it's all over. That might be the world's definition of hope. Go for the gusto, live 70 or 80 years in this life to its fullest, but then you go to the grave and it's over. He goes on to say, but now Christ has risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of those that have slept. Christ is the firstfruits of the believer. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. The resurrection for the believer, as Brother Tim mentioned, it's inextricably welded to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are raised with him in newness of life. Now he goes on to talk about the resurrection and listen how strong this is. He goes on to say in verse 53, for this corruptible must, must put on incorruption. And this mortality must put on immortality. He doesn't say you shall, you shall. He doesn't say you will, you will put on immortality. He says you must. This is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit says you must put on immortality. Christ's resurrection has guaranteed for us our resurrection. We died with him legally and positionally. Every man after his own order. Christ the firstfruits and afterwards all those that are Christ's at his coming. There is nothing more certain or sure than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And, Paul says, that is our hope. Paul was called to give an account before the king. He says, but this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, So do I worship the God of heaven, believing all things that have been written in the law and the prophets. And I have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow, the Sadducees. I have hope towards God that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. I have hope that I must put on immortality and in corruption. Hope is a very strong word. Hope has the divine omnipotence, will, plan of God behind it. And so if someone were to say, hey, what is the reason of the hope that is in you? You could say with Paul, there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. I have this hope towards God. How strong is the resurrection on the last day? Every grave around the entire globe will be opened. The sea will give up its dead. It's not talking about the sailors. It's talking about those who perished in the floods of Noah's flood. The sea will give up its dead. Though billions of bodies have disintegrated into particles of dust, God will reunite individual souls and spirits with a new resurrected body, billions and billions through the thousands of years, however long the earth has existed. All of these things are gonna be happening in a twinkling of an eye. How powerful is that? Our hope in the resurrection is tied to that very reality because of what Christ has done. It's connected again to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Job said, Job got it. I mean, Job really went through the ringer, but he got it. He said, after my skin, worms destroy this body. yet in my flesh I shall see God. I will see him for myself. My eyes will behold him and not another. Our hope is in the divine power of the resurrection. That whole unfolding of the resurrection at the end of time, the world cannot apprehend a God who has that kind of a power. Likewise, the second coming. There is nothing more sure than the second coming of Jesus Christ. 1 John 3, again. Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, given us, that we should be called the sons of God. And by the way, therefore, the world knoweth us not because it knew him not, beloved, Now, sitting here in this body of decay, now we are the sons of God, but it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that. We know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. We will see him as he is, the whole thing of the glorified body that our brother shared earlier. And everyone that has this hope, What hope? The hope of the second coming. The hope of having a glorified body and that connection for eternity with Jesus Christ. Every man that has this hope in him, it's a reality, it's in me, purifies himself even as he is pure. Do you wish for the second coming? Or do you hope in not wishing for, hoping in the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're building these foundation stones for our hope. The resurrection is called a hope, it's a reality. The second coming is called our hope, a blessed hope in the Timothy passage. Thirdly, the promises of God. The promises of God validate you having hope towards God. God who cannot lie purposely gave us exceedingly great and precious promises so that we could be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the world through lust. God's covenant which is ordered in all things insure, God's covenant which is settled in the heaven, God gave to his people, he describes as exceedingly precious promises so that you can partake of the divine nature. Relative to hope, you have to see the connection, the spiritually logical connection that God would not give all of these promises to his believers Promises where they begin to see they will be one day a partaker of the divine nature Fully when we are joined with him, but now in this life and then think well, it's not going to come to pass I'm gonna say a little bit more about the promises later and then fourthly, of course Foundation is Jesus Christ himself and actually relative to hope Everything is bound up in Jesus Christ. First Timothy 1.1, the Lord Jesus Christ is our hope. The resurrection and the second coming are all about Jesus Christ. And even the promises, all of the promises of God in him and in Christ are yea and in him, amen. Colossians 1.27, Christ in you, the hope of glory. It's not a wish for glory, it's the hope, that eternal hope of glory. These are just briefly four of the foundations upon which our hope can rest and not be shaken, be sure. Thirdly, hope's anchor. We began this morning with that passage from Hebrews chapter six. And the writer there is reaffirming the absolute truthfulness of what God has put forth to his people. This oath of confirmation, two immutable things, it's impossible for God to lie, He sums it up and he's saying, so that we who have fled for refuge, we can lay hold of the thing, the hope that is set before us. And we have this hope as an anchor for the soul. I believe it could be shown that he's talking about Christ. This anchor has entered within the veil, even as a forerunner, in addition to being an anchor. He's run for us. and he's gone there for us. Jesus Christ as our anchor. You know what an anchor is. This is, again, just such of a easy to understand illustration. An anchor is used for securing a ship, especially in times of storm, let's say, or drifting. You cast the anchor out, and the boat is secure. There's a chain or a cable that's attached to the anchor that's attached to the boat or to the ship. The anchor goes down into the ocean, sinking beneath the surface. So it's invisible. You can't see the anchor. But you know it's there because you're being held and you know that that cable and that chain is disappearing off the deck of the ship and it's going down below. And the winds may roar, the waves may be churning up, but it is able to be steadily held by the anchor, something outside of itself. A ship may be traveling and it might lose navigation. Where is it going? Maybe the weather is obscuring the stars, which they used to navigate by. Drop anchor. Stay here so we don't get lost worse. And when the weather clears, when we have our direction. We can go on. A ship may cast an anchor because it's coming alongside another ship and they're gonna offload something into the other ship. Christ is an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast. This is the hope that has been set before us. Christ is our anchor. You don't have to be your own anchor. Your ability to think things out and through might be very, very good, but that doesn't have to be your anchor. He has entered within the veil. Our anchor has been cast into the heavenly places. Unshakable, unmovable. When darkness veils his lovely face, I rest upon Unchanging grace in every high and stormy gale My anchor holds where? within the veil What an anchor an anchor sure and steadfast an anchor that cannot be moved Security for us entirely outside of ourself just like the illustration of laboring, plowing, and threshing so I can partake of that laboring. Again, this is entirely out of us, and yet it is attached to us. Your anchor, though, friend, has to be rightly cast. There's a whole lot of anchors today being thrown out to a whole lot of places that are not gonna profit. Anchors that are trying to be settled in relationships. or careers, or plans, or politicians, or money. There's anchors that are thrown in the way towards heaven, but they're only cast out halfway. I can only cast out my anchor halfway because I need a little bit of room for myself. So if I wanna go over to this island, or I wanna go here, I can do that. when in fact I know intuitively God has to have complete control. The anchor has to be attached to the ship. It's a permanent anchor. Even when the anchor is on board the ship, it's still permanently attached to the chain in the ship. A lot of anchors being thrown out in a lot of different directions today by people in the world. our anchor has to hold within the veil. Again, Job, talking about money, Job said, if I made gold my hope, if that was my hope, gold, he said, I would offend God. And it would be an iniquity that had to be punished because I would be not denying God that is above me. Is your anchor cast within the veil? If I could make a turn on scripture, where your treasure is, there your hope will be also. I know the scripture says heart. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. But I guess it's very interchangeable, is it not, the idea? Where your treasure is, there your hope will be also. Fourthly and lastly, hope deferred. I think this is where we find ourselves in. Proverbs. 13 in verse 12, hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but when the desire cometh, it's a tree of life. That brother knows that verse. I saw your lips moving, brother. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but when desire cometh, it is a tree of life. Faith is tried with difficulties. Faith is tried with misunderstandings. Faith is tried with our unbelief, even, I will say. Hope is tried in a different way. Again, faith and hope are not in competition with each other. Actually, faith and hope go hand in hand. Faith is tried with difficulties and afflictions and trials. Hope is tried in a sense that sometimes our hope grows dim. Sometimes we put off our hope until that other lifetime. Sometimes our hope gets crowded out by the present. But actually, a tried faith is supposed to result in a more well-grounded hope. A tried faith should result in a more grounded and settled hope. Romans five links these two together. Paul said this in Romans five beginning in verse two, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And then he goes on to say, and not only so but, We glory in tribulations, knowing tribulation work with patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. These are welded together. Tribulation works patience. Patience gives us the gift of experience, and experience produces hope. Now let's apply this text spiritually, understanding that as it says elsewhere, hope never disappoints and hope never makes us ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our heart. However our faith is tried, however long we have to wait, however long our hope is deferred, When desire cometh, there's the reality. When desire cometh, it's a tree of life. So there's this process of hope being deferred. We're waiting. Paul talked about the patience of hope until the end. The writer to the Hebrews, the assurance of hope until the end, this patiently waiting. The whole waiting process, hope being deferred, spiritually, I'm going to say, is where we are now. We're in this waiting process. Now think about Abraham just for a minute. The Bible says of Abraham, who against hope, believed in hope. His hope was set on the child of promise. And Abraham, as you know, waited forever. Not forever, but forever, as we would say. He was 100 years old. when his son Isaac was born. But when the desire came, it was a tree of life. Remember, Isaac means laughter. It was like the deferral process of the hope was entirely forgotten. It vanished. He endured to the end. Hope didn't disappoint. Spiritually, Hope deferred for the believer. The hope deferred is our desire to be with Christ at the consummation of the age. That is the ultimate hope that we have, to be with Christ, which is far better. Spiritually here, yes, but ultimately and finally, there. Bible says, yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and he will not tarry. Even though we are in this deferral, this waiting, this hoping for him right now. You recall a few weeks ago when we talked about the entrance abundantly ministered to the believer and we talked a little bit about death and we saw The wording was such that when we die, it's a departure and an arrival that happen simultaneously. And we saw that there's not one millionth of one second of time in between the two. We saw the quickness. Remember, we quoted David. David said, there's but a step between me and death. It's that quick. I quoted this quote, there's a moment in the life of every believing soul in which there strangely is mingled the lights of earth and the lights of heaven, one dissolving into the other. Hope deferred makes us sick, sick of love, heart sick for the Lord, ardent desires when we apprehend the reality of what that consummation is gonna be all about. But when that desire comes, maybe by death for most of us, maybe by the second coming, we do not know, but that deferral will be swallowed up by the tree of life, by the desire that comes. Remember those in Lamentations, they are talking about being with God, I'm just paraphrasing this, but they're gonna look back on their life and they're gonna say, was that a dream? Was that real? It was so fast, it's over. God was channeling me and positioning me to get to this place, to be with him forevermore. You will leave this place, this place of hope deferred, the reality not there. and you'll go there and instantaneously you're gonna have 20-20 spiritual vision. At the second coming, you will have that glorious body and you will see him as he is. You will understand that he is glorious in holiness, the perfectness of heaven and Jesus Christ himself, Christ exalted to the highest station And Christ will look to you and say, come, you blessed of my father. Inherit the kingdom that has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Will that not be the tree of life when that desire come? Weeping is enduring for the night. but joy cometh in the morning. Hope realized comes in the morning. Hope, biblical hope, is a great thing. It's a tremendous thing. It's a blessing. To see how God has constructed this thing we call hope, this divine reality, this noun, this person, place, and thing, a reality, and he's given to us these foundation stones, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the second coming of our Lord, the promises of God, Jesus Christ himself, Jesus as the anchor of the soul, this hope. And throughout the scripture, we understand though this is a reality, it's deferred at the moment, at least its fullest. expression in our life is deferred at the moment. But latch on to that word when. Yet a little while, and he that shall come, he will come. When he comes, it's a reality. God can't lie. He told us about it. Remember the power of the resurrection, the certainty of the resurrection. Well, let me close with two brief applications. Number one, we must live in the light of this blessed hope. If you recall that passage from 1 John 3, it talked about being a child of God, seeing him as he is, because we will be like him. It goes on to say in verse three, and every man that has this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. Every man that has this hope within him purifies himself. We can't expect to live like he talks about the other people, ungodly. unrighteously, unsoberly. We can't expect to live unsoberly and unrighteously and ungodly and still think that hope can be a reality within us. He tells us we have to deny worldly lusts. We have to purify ourselves, even as he is pure. Yes, legally and positionally, he has done that, but we live in this real world going through this process of sanctification, and he wants us to be pure. So we have to live in the light of this blessed hope. I think I heard a pastor or preacher one time say, we should live in light of this blessed hope as though it's gonna happen tomorrow. And so today, right now, we have to live this way. Second application based back on our verse in Proverbs 13, verse 12, Hope deferred makes the heart sick. I think that is a very accurate barometer or gauge that we can put up to our own soul and our own heart. The bride in the book of the Song of Solomon when she temporarily spurned the king and he withdrew his presence from her, she then decided to go out by night and try to find him in chapter five. And she could not find him. So she told the daughters of Jerusalem, they said, if you find him, if you find my beloved, tell him I am sick of love. I'm heart sick. I know we've all been heart sick in the earthly realm. Major disappointment, a death of a family member, a relationship that we thought was going somewhere but it became broken. I think an accurate gauge of our relationship to the Lord is if we have ever strayed from him, laziness, sin, backsliding, being involved with all the busyness of the world. If we ever have a sense that he is not intimately resident within our heart, are we lovesick for him? We should be, we all know that's the right answer, right? But are we heartsick? hope deferred, Christ's absence, Christ is in the heavenly, make it the heart sick. We so want to be with him. We so see at least a little bit what that's gonna be like. And the seed of God within us is lusting after, yearning after, wanting after that complete closure to be with him forevermore. The word in the Proverbs makes the heart sick. That's actually the word for a woman in travail trying to give birth. Painful, something that is significant, something that is marked. It implies this strong desire such that we just cannot endure another day to be apart from him. It's telling us that Christ's presence in our soul, that's a healthy position to be in. Otherwise we're sick, we're heart sick, we're love sick. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. Do you think there's any other prayer that you can pray to Christ, pray to the Father, that would not be more acceptable and wanted to be heard by him than praying to him and say, Lord, I'm heart sick for you. I'm love sick because I just don't feel your presence in my life as strongly, as continually as I want it to be. Do you think that's the kind of prayer God would hear? That God would answer? Hope deferred makes the heart sick. But when it comes, it's a tree of life. It'll be the tree of life. Well, it's actually, I have to say, it's been very hard this week to think about hope because as I got into it a little bit, it's just, it's voluminous. There was so much there. But dear brethren, lay hold on the hope that has been set before you. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for giving to us that blessed hope, the reality, the certainty that everything that the hope of the gospel has described and points to one day will be ours. Help us to have that hope that you have set before us. Please help us to lay hold of it. And Father, might that be for our edification, for our good, might that be to your glory. for people who are living with that kind of expectation, in your hope, in your hope, we thank you in Jesus' name, amen.