A FUTURE AND A HOPE

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Text: Jer.29:11-14; 31:17

Jer. 29:11
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

Jer. 31:17

7 There is hope in your future, says the Lord, That your children shall come back to their own border.

INTRO

Most of us are often commonly identified by our past, human descent, bloodlines, political, cultural or social history; these issues of our background has to a large extent shaped us, but thanks be to God that history is not destiny! God’s people are identified not by history but by promise, not by our past but by our future and this is what strengthens the hope we have in our lives.

SEE THIS
An example of this is the Man Abraham. He was unique in his generation:
· Not for what he had accomplished
· But for what God had promised him, – a future given him by God in the promise that was made to him.
· This promise, therefore shaped his future and character.
· The promise of God to you is a description of the future He has in mind for you!
· It is more sure than our present circumstance and even more sure than our past which God delivered us from – Col.1:13-14

WHAT IS A PROMISE?
A promise from God can be seen as:
· A promissory note on which to base one’s confidence for the future.
Gen 8:21-22
21 And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

22 “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”
Gen 9:16-17

16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Num 23:19

19 “God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

1 Sam 15:29
29 And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent.”

Mal 3:6
6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change;
Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.

· It can also be that which is promised –
Gen 9:1-3
So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.
3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.
Acts 2:39
39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
· In short, it is God’s undertaking to give or do something –

Heb 6:18
18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
Our Future and the promise
God’s promise to us carries and conveys our future. His promise are extremely powerful and if received in faith, will bath the future in His heart for us.

See the impact of the promise on the following:

1. Fallen man:– brought the hope of redemption and a future of glory for man.
Gen 3:15
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
2. Destruction of the world – Gen.6, World destruction and a way out to give man an opportunity was conveyed to Noah.
3. Abraham: –
Promise of slavery in Egypt, their bitter suffering and the eventual outcome which was the exact future of the Jewish nation.

Gen 15:13-14
13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.
14 And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

4. Isaac: – Gen.26 – He had a blessed life because of the promise.
Gen. 26:3-4, 6
3 Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

4 And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;
6 So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.

Gen 26:12-14

12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him.
13 The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous;
14 for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.
5. Jacob: – Gen.28-32 –The promise of bethel guaranteed him a v. successful future inspite of all he suffered in the hands of people.

6. Joseph and His burial:-

Gen 50:22-26
22 So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father’s household. And Joseph lived one hundred and ten years.
23 Joseph saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation. The children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on Joseph’s knees.

24 And Joseph said to his brethren, “I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

25 Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”

26 So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
Though dead, but could not be buried in Egypt because the promise opened him up to a future in Canaan.- Exo.13:19.
Ex 13:19 19 And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had placed the children of Israel under solemn oath, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you.”

Dr. Udoh
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