In this episode, Scott continues the True Crime series and addresses the intricate concept of hope from a biblical perspective. Using the metaphor of neglected areas where weeds thrive, Scott illustrates elements that destroy hope, terming them "hope terrorists." He talks about the need for diligence in identifying and combating negative influences that erode our hope, particularly pointing out the adverse effects of constant media consumption.

Scott also advocates for cultivating a full assurance of hope, which promotes confidence and prevents sluggishness. By coaching oneself, studying historical promises and faithfulness of God, and focusing on His daily love, individuals can maintain and grow their hope. Scott also discusses the analogy of a thermostat versus a thermometer, encouraging listeners to set a hopeful attitude internally, rather than letting external circumstances dictate their hope levels.

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Insight Sheet Blank:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E2Y95-GRWT25NinIJMTAjvFMA7LEpHCx/view?usp=sharing

Insight Sheet With Answers:

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Key Topics Discussed:

• Neglect and Weeds metaphor
• Importance of diligence
• Negative influence of media
• Full assurance of hope
• Thermometer vs. Thermostat analogy
• Feelings vs. reality
• Biblical perspective on hope
• Faith and hope relationship
• Practical steps for maintaining hope
• Avoiding negative influences
• God's daily kindness
• Conclusion and blessing

Hi. If you're looking for greater hope, assurance, and confidence through the shifting sands of life, then join me on today's episode as we dig deep into the bible to discover rock solid truth for life and living from the God of the bible. I'm your host, Scott Keffer. Hi, and welcome to today's episode. As always, for a deeper experience, you can go to the show notes and download the blank insight sheet. Fill in the blanks along with the group. Depending on how you're listening to this, there'll be a link to the episode website at beholdingbibletruth.com, and a sheet with the answers is included as well. Enjoy today's episode.

I remember when Alfred e Newman would show up in my mailbox. I know it was once a month, I can't remember. And his famous won't be worried. And I thought, well, I can I can relate to that because I think I'm a worrier by nature? I wake up in the morning expecting the worst to happen, and I I hope, over time that that would change. And I don't know if it's part personality. I don't know if that's part experience. I don't know what that is. But, generally, have you noticed some people tend to be more positive and more hopeful than others? How many know somebody like that? Yeah.

We know somebody like that. I like to be around someone like that. I just wish I was like that. So today, we're gonna talk about hope. Being hopeful and hopelessness is in the video. So I put down there the, the dictionary says the hope is to want something to happen or to be true, to desire with expectation of attainment or fulfillment. We hope in lots of things, don't we? Hoped in lots of things. So what's your hope temperature? Overall, how hopeful of a person are you generally? How hopeful of a person are you? If one is despair, intended and unassailable hopefulness, where are you? Hope that'd be more hopeful.

Well, I started to think about that. So the question is, how do we get our whole temperature? Where does it come from? Are you a whole thermometer? Are you a whole thermometer? Right? Do you have a whole thermometer? What does a thermometer do? The temperature. The temperature of something. Right? Yeah. Maybe it's the temperature of something. Right? So an outside thermometer measures based upon outside circumstances based on outside circumstances. You're driving in your car, and it tells you how hot or cold it is outside. Maybe you have one outside on your patio or your porch.

And so as you're inside, it tells you the temperature outside. And so it is easy to set our full temperature based upon outside circumstances, isn't it? Right? I hope something happens or I hope something never happens. That's just whatever. You can fill that blank in. We all have the hope this never happens. I hope this happens. Right? And as I start to think about it, and if we were to say out loud some of the hopes we have in there, many of them are half baked. Like, I would hope I never get sick.

Right? And then what? I would hope life would always be good. Right? I would hope life would always be easy. I would hope people around me wouldn't get cancer. I would hope I wouldn't get cancer. Well, we do have lots of hopes, don't we? I put it there. What's your favorite half baked hope? Because when you say it out loud, you think, what is wrong with you? What's your favorite? We all have them. They're in there. They're kinda secret hopes that we hold on to.

So what's your favorite half baked hope? The flight would be like a Hallmark movie. What's your favorite half baked hope? For 1, we could have our temperature gauge outside, telling us the temperature outside. The other is, know, come Thanksgiving, you stick that probe inside the turkey, and we could use the temperature inside. Right? And our inside thermometer is feelings. Our inside thermometer are feelings. And I remind myself, and I have to remind myself regularly that feelings are false prophets. That our feelings are false prophets. I don't know about yours, mine, or all over the place.

Sometimes seemingly out of control. Up, down, sideways, all around. Right? And I wake up. I don't feel well. I don't feel hopeful. Right? McLaren, who's a old time preacher, said that however strong and reasonably occasioned by circumstances, a man's emotions and feelings, he said they're not to be indulged unless they pass mustard and examination by the higher and better self. It's necessary to keep a very tight hand upon all our feelings. That's hard, isn't it? They're like, your feelings like herding cats.

Right? They're all over the place. He said, host of people who make me perfection of being Christians do not habitually put the brake on their moods and tempers and who seem to think that it is a sufficient vindication. What's vindication mean? Yeah. Justification. Justified. Justified. Yeah. It's justified.

So so they they they think that it's a sufficient justification or vindication of gloom and sadness. So I may have feelings of gloom and sadness. Right? Think about the world today. What do you have? You have feeling of gloom and sadness. Right? Doesn't appear to be getting better. Not that it ever was, but we always reflect back to when it was seemingly getting better. It really wasn't getting better. We just made ourselves think it's getting better.

Must be getting better. Right? The vindication of movement said is to say that things are going badly with them in the outer world. So our inner feelings, right, outer feelings, outside thermometer, or inside. And so it's a good picture for me to say, so my hope in this world, is it based upon a thermometer or a thermostat? What's the difference? Thermostat sets the temperature. Thermostat sets the temperature. Oh. A thermometer tells the temperature. So think about it.

Is my is my whole temperature based upon the thermometer of the outside world or my inner feelings, or is it a thermostat that I set? Thermostat sort of reacts to All it does. Temperature is All all it does is tell you something. Right? So the question is, do you have a whole thermostat? Well, the Bible tells us we can. The Bible tells us that our whole should not be a thermometer. Our temperature should be a thermostat. First of all, it says that faith is the assurance. Right? It's the assurance of things hoped for. In other words, that Greek word can mean a number of things, a confirmation or a title deed.

Now is it similar to, you know, somebody shows up and assuming you paid off your house and says, I own that property, and you'd say, no. I own this property. And they say, no. I own that property. No. We own this property. Here, I have a a title deed. I have a title deed, which is proof or evidence that I own it.

This is similar to that word, but it's more than that. It's not just the proof. It is this idea that as a Christian, our faith gives us possession. It's not just it's just not an an ascent, but it's literally no. I possess it. That faith is the assurance, the possession of things, what, hoped for, things hoped for. Right? And the amplified reminds us divinely guaranteed that the things we hope for are divinely guaranteed. I like that.

Divinely guaranteed. And they are also the evidence of things not seen. In other words, the conviction of their reality amplified says, faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by physical senses. But faith that that faith undergirds our hope. That it the foundation of our hope is is built upon faith, which is a setting under. And our hope isn't just sitting up in the air. This oh, I hope. I hope.

I hope. It's concrete. So Ellicott says faith holding to god's words is absolutely critical. Divinely guaranteed is always related to god's promise. God's word, for sure, gives substance to what the word promises, investing the future blessings with a present existence, a a present possession. No. They're mine. Right? They are mine.

For sure, I possess them today even though they're in the future. That's the picture. They are of possession today of possession today, treating them as if already objects of sight rather than hope. Oh, that's hard, isn't it? Should live by faith, not by sight. But it's saying not not by that kind of sight, where Moses said he lived as if seeing as if seeing him who is unseen. So it's living with a sense of that which is divinely guaranteed and unseen is as much, if not more of a reality than what is seen. Well, that's challenging in it. That is something that we have to work on, which we'll talk about.

Right? It's there's proof what the word teaches. Though future and though belonging to a world beyond human sight is received with full conviction. Faith. It's a it's a hope undergirded by faith. It's also a living hope. It's not a dead hope. It's not a false hope. A living hope.

Blessed be the god and father of our lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy, what's he done? He caused us to be born again to a living hope. We've been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In other words, brought about by the resurrection and proven proved by the resurrection, which always said, Christianity is not a set of beliefs. Christianity is a historical faith. It's not I believe, you believe, what do we believe? No. It's built upon the resurrection, the death and resurrection of the lord Jesus. It says to obtain an inheritance, which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away. Oh, is that like crypto? No.

Right. Right? It's not. It's not crypto or hard metal or currency or any of the other things. It's imperishable, undefiled, will not go away. And, by the way, it's it's held, reserved, in other words, but better guarded. It reserved is too light a word. It's guarded in heaven. It's guarded in heaven.

No one's getting it. It's guarded in heaven. And who is it guarded for? For you. And, by the way, not only is your inheritance guarded, you are protected. Your inheritance is guarded and it says, you who are protected. What does that mean? He will protect you to get the inheritance which he is guarding. Is that good news? They're not getting to your inheritance, and they're not getting to you, if you will. But the power of faith for a salvation really to be revealed, which at this moment usually brings up in all of us, you know, what the Baobz are.

Yeah. But what about? What about so and so? What about? Right? All the what abouts. Right? The that seem to come against this. Right? What about? Wait a minute. No? Reserved in heaven. And the cool thing is it's not a, what's the good picture? It's not a it's not a chintzy hope. It's an abounding hope. It's an overflowing hope because it comes from the god of hope.

Do you see? It's not just hope. It's not just hope somewhere in here. It's just done in ethereal thing. It is literally proceeding forth from the one who is hope. He is the god of hope. Underline that. It says the god of hope. What's he doing? He's pouring it out.

It's abounding towards you. He's a spring. I love Doug Piper said great picture of the difference between god is that for most poor, God needs to be most gods need to be served. Because if you take a bucket and you go into a water trough and you, you know, you you bring it to God and you serve him, god our god is not to be served. Our god is an everlasting overflowing fountain with no with with unending reserve. So he's the god of hope. His hope is forever flowing. It is forever abounding.

It's forever being poured forth. And let's say, and may the god of hope do what? Fill you with joy and peace and believing. That's what I need, don't you? I need belief. He's gonna give you not only belief, but joy and peace and believing. We need that, don't we? Lord, I want you to pour forth joy and peace and believing. Why? What's the point? So that. What's the so that? You would right? He says, here's the so that. This is why he pour is important.

Joy and peace in believing so that you would what? Abound in hope. Overflow. Overflow. Do you ask god to pour forth, right, to pour forth? He's the god of hope. Do you ask him to pour forth so that you would abound in hope? So you have joy and peace in your belief and that you would abound in hope. What's that mean? He never runs out. He's never closed. He's never not there.

There's never a busy signal. There's never a broken connection. Now may the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace of believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the holy spirits. And lastly, he says, in tribulation, which is gonna come, there's perseverance, perseverance, proven character, proven character, hope, as John Monroe would say, proven character. Right? And hope does not disappoint. It's a it's a hope that does that. It's a and then he says because there's below this, there's the love of God. So it's a loving hope, and it's poured out within our hearts through the holy spirit.

The living hope, an abounding hope, and it's a loving hope, and it's a hope that is undergirded by faith. God has poured out his love within our hearts, and I wonder, where is that? I mean, where is that? Where is that? By faith. Oftentimes by faith, I have to not only comprehend it, but apprehend. In other words, to make it my possession. We walk by faith. So we're gonna look at the video. He's gonna talk about that. But before we do, look it over.

So in Hebrews, he says, in the same way, God and he says, here's his desire. So walk through this. Desire even more. What's he desiring to do? Show. Show. So he's desiring to demonstrate. He's dying to so that we would see. Who would see? What's he call us? Heirs of the promise.

The heirs of the promise. What is he showing us? Unchangeable. K. Unchangeableness of his purpose. He's the, right, he's the immovable, unshakable, unchangeable one. Here's what he's saying. I wanna show you this. Let's say I'm gonna show you this.

Right? So he's saying I'm showing you the unchangeableness of my purpose. So I interposed it with a note. Go into court. What do you say? It's Swear by note. Right? You say, god interposed it with an oath so that now you would say, well, god didn't put his hand on the Bible and swear, does he? Why? Putting in the Bible swear is supposed to mean a tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. We required to do that because we put it on there and lie anyway. But he's saying, god gives you an oath, and there's a reason. The reason is so that again pay attention to the so that's by it's 2 unchangeable things.

2 unchangeable things. What are the 2 unchangeable things? The unchangeableness of his purpose and the fact that god will do what he says. So he's saying there's 2 things. My purpose doesn't change. It's in my character. Can it be true? And I've given you an oath. So I've given you 2. You didn't have to give us 2.

He could've said, I said it. It's done. I I will it, so it will happen. But he's saying 2 unchangeable things for which it is impossible for god to lie. Why did he do that? To show us, to give us more hope, more confidence. He said, why? So we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement. What are we doing? Taking hold of the hope that is before us. We he's doing that for us.

He's doing that for us so that we can grab a hold of that hope. And he said, this hope, by the way, we have as an anchor for our soul. I may need an anchor for their soul. Yeah. The the the the the waves are the waves are getting big out there, aren't they? As the waves get bigger, you're saying we need an anchor for our soul. I hope both sure and steadfast And and where is it anchored? Within the veil where Christ has gone before. Christ has gone so my the anchor isn't on earthly soil. Everybody get it? Where is the anchor set? It's set in the holy of holies.

It's set in the very presence of God. It's anchored in Jesus. So who's pulling that out? Is it going anywhere? And, of course, the key to the anchor when things get rougher, you should pull closer to the anchor. Did we get that? So that the rope is taught. The anchor hadn't changed. When I get out flipped around by waves, I just need to pull closer to the anchor because it is not moving. And so it's kinda like with, you know, you go swimming with their kids when they're gone, tie a rope around them, and you got the other side. They're not they're not you're not going anywhere.

They may get further away, but you're not going anywhere. And so sometimes you'll draw them, and sometimes the lord will just draw you back to him on it. But the the anchor is set in in the holy place, and we're anchored to him. We're anchored to him. We're tethered to him. So it's an anchoring hope. So I asked the question to myself, how many promises will you need to hear for it to be more unreasonable for you not to have hope than to have hope in god? One promise, 5 promises, 10 promises, 20, 100. So think about that again.

Right? How many promises? I asked myself. We need to hear for it to be more unreasonable for you not to have hope than to have hope. Oh, lord. Maybe one more. Maybe one more. Maybe you could speak 1. And the good news is he is desiring if you go back if you go back to the beginning of the Hebrew 6th verse, it says in the same way, god what was god desiring to do? Yeah. He wants to show you.

He is regularly showing you. If I were god, I'd say, I've told you enough times. Like, get over it. But he's not. He's regularly showing you, isn't he? Regularly, he desires to show you that you're an heir of the promise and that his purpose is unchangeable. And, oh, by the way, in case that's not enough, I'll take an oath. And so on 2 unchangeable things, you can rest your hope. This can be the anchor for your soul.

And I'm holding on, and I'm not moving. He said, I'm not moving. Right? The rope's not breaking because it's an internal rope, and you're not going far away from me that I can't pull you back. So that's our hope. So how the how many people like to know how do we set our own thermostat? Turn up the temperature of our hope. Would that be good? What do you do if you're someone like me who is not hopeful? Right? Who battles anxiety on a regular basis and hopelessness on a regular basis. What do you do? So here's some things you could do to set your hope, and you need to cross out thermometer, and we're replacing it with thermostat. You don't set a thermometer, do you? It tells you what the temperature is in the outside world.

It tells you what the temperature is in your inside world. We need to set our thermostat. So for you, how would life be different if you had an unchangeable hope? How would life be different for you if your hope was unchangeable and unshakable, be more fun to be around. I mean, like, that life better than so it's a good way to say, okay. How am I doing with this? Right? How am I doing with this? How am I doing? What does that look like? More joy, more more peace, more confidence. So the first thing is, in Psalms, it's he he David says, why are you in despair, oh my soul? So he's saying the temperature, my inner temperature right? My thermometer is despair. Despair is hopelessness. Right? So he's saying, why are you hopeless, oh my soul, and why did you become disturbed within me? Open god, for I shall again praise him for the help of this presence.

You need to coach your soul. My soul is unruly. It it it it easily goes to despair. It depends on its feelings way too much, doesn't it? So we need to coach our own soul. Some of that could be journaling. I've noticed when you say out loud the things that your soul feels or thinks you think, well, that sounds stupid or that doesn't seem right or right? So sometimes they get it out onto piece of paper. How am I feeling? Right? How am I feeling? How am I feeling? Might be journaling. Music is another great coach for the soul, isn't it? Because music will take your soul somewhere.

It will grab your soul and take it somewhere. You don't need to mess with it. You just listen and music grabs your soul. Do you notice that? It's impossible for your soul not to hook to the wagon. Right? So the hopeful music, joyful music, Why are you in despair, oh, my soul? The next thing is to ask yourself, what are you hoping for? What are you hoping for? We shared this last time, doctor Tim Keller said, the more we try to make heaven out of this world heaven out of this world, the more we grounded our comfort and security in it, the less we were able to enjoy it. How many found that? Often we say, can we just move somewhere? Don't you wanna just pick up and move somewhere? You think, where can I move? Well, I I wanna I wanna move to, you know, Waco, Texas where the you know, who are those people? Fixer uppers. Who are the fixer uppers are? I mean, really, where things start and end, right, and they end really nicely. I wanna move.

Right? The more I try and do that, the less I'm able to enjoy myself here. So he says, to our surprise and encouragement, Kathy and I had discovered the less we attempt to make this world into a heaven, the more we're able to enjoy it. So you can write the side that this is about expectation, about what life should be. Isn't it? What what what are you hoping for? That's expectation.

I expect

this life to be a certain way. The the next is to ask, okay. So what are you hoping in? What are you hoping in? Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in the middle of Hitler's reign, asked a young girl to marry him, to which the godmother said, are you crazy? Like, what is wrong with you? This is the darkest this has gotta be one of the darkest times in history. And he he essentially said, I choose to live with hope because I serve god of hope. And he wrote shortly before its execution, the essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present. It's very interesting, and then it takes no account of the present. His present was not only not hopeful, it was hopeless, seemingly. Right? He said, but it but it is a source of it of inspiration of vitality and hope where others have resigned.

It enables a man to hold his head high to claim the future for himself. I like this not to abandon it to his enemy, Not to abandon the future to his enemy. Ain't that good? Optimism. He's saying that's hopefulness despite despairing situation. Then he says in Hebrews, we should draw near. What should we draw near with? Full assurance. In other words, grab the rope grab the rope and pull yourself near or just say to the lord, pull. Right? Because sometimes you can't do that, can you? He says, draw near.

Sometimes you just say, lord, draw me near. Just draw me near. Right? He draws near, and you could draw near with full assurance of faith. It's the same word that's translated in 6 12, full assurance of hope. It's the same word. Having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, our bodies washed with pure water. No guilt. We can draw near with no guilt.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hold without webring, for he has promised his faithful. And the key to that is the word keep the rope taught. Is that what we want? Keep the rope taught because I'm like a sheep. I'm over the hill. I'll swim away. All in water is kinda that's why scripture says, pause here is there by every wind of doctrine. Lord, he wrote taught. He said you should also study the Old Testament.

Oh, I don't like that. I don't understand it. It doesn't make sense to me. He said whatever was written in earlier times was written for your Stretch. Instruction. That's your perseverance and encouragement. We might have. Hope.

Go through it. You read through the Psalms a bunch of times, you realize David was hopeless a fair amount of times. And he also had good reason to because his his thermometer said things aren't good. Things are not good out here. And his inner thermometer said, I'm in despair. So he struggled with it. So study the Old Testament. Scripture says, watch over your heart with all diligence, but from it, blow the springs of life.

Turn off the media. Social and otherwise. Turn off the media. Social and otherwise. Turn it off. There's nothing good on there. It's an HD toilet. It it it it's yeah.

So turn off the media. He says the eye of the lord, I like this, is on those who fear him, on those who hope. But what are we hoping in? Yeah. That's his covenant love. That's his custom his loving kindness, hesed, is custom covenant love filled with tender kindnesses delivered to you all day long all day long. So what he means is keep your eyes open because my custom kindnesses are coming all day long. If you are tuned to them, you will see them. When that happens, you go, oh, tender kindnesses.

Kinder kindnesses. Covenant. Custom covenant love. Ain't that cool? We can hope in his kindness. Loving kindness. And then he said in Hebrew 6, we just started in each one of you, show the same diligence. Be diligent about your hope. Be diligent.

The Nam automatically done. But what happens automatically, like, your field, like your field down near our house, they cleared, land. They cleared all the trees. They cleared it just soil, and they're building a house. And now it's just filled with weeds. Nobody planted it. Nobody watered it. Nobody attended to it.

They didn't fertilize it. There's all these big, funky weeds everywhere. Right? They grow automatically. So we have to be diligent. Right? And so you need to think, what are the weeds to my hope? What are what are what are the hope terrorists? What are the hope terrorists for you? What are those things that destroy your hope? What are they? Think about it. What are some of the things that destroy your hope? Yeah. News. News.

Hello? Hello? So you watch through the thing. Okay. When I watch that, when I read that, when I hear that, I lose hope. The hope terrorist, be diligent. He said, why? Why do we do that? So as to realize what are we realizing? The full assurance of hope. Hope has a fullness to it. The fullness of our hope is assurance, confidence, hopefulness. Right? Until the end.

There's another so that so that you will not be sluggish. In other words, if you're sluggish, we throw. The hope terrorists come in and they destroy your hope. The imitators are those who who obey the patience inherit the promises so that you will not be sluggish. So we have to coach ourselves, don't we? We have to coach our soul to coach our soul. We have to ask, what am I hoping for, and what am I hoping in? I draw near. I study not only the new but the old so I can see god's faithfulness over time. Turn off the media.

Look for his custom customized covenant love daily and be diligent. Bet your hope. Alright. Break down the insight, application, you're reminded of or something new, fresh that gives you hope.

Thanks for listening. I hope you have greater hope, assurance, and confidence in your life and a deeper trust in the God of the bible and his son, Jesus Christ. Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you his peace, his shalom in your soul and in your life. Until next time, may God bless you and keep you.