(Thefollowing was used for an oral presentation that included extemporaneous andpersonal remarks not intended for publication. This has not been edited forprint.)
Rev. Lonnie A.Richardson
March 4, 2001
There’sNo Hopeless Situations Concerning Human Weakness
A 37-year-old young man wasexperiencing a discouraging time in his life. He felt hopeless. Oneevening, while channel surfing with his television he stopped at an infomercialfor the psychic hotline. He called the 800 number looking for hope. After giving his Mastercard number to the receptionist, the psychic came onlineand said she had some bad new and some good news regarding his future. Here’s the bad news: "You will be discouraged and a failure and veryunhappy until you are 50 years old.” The discouraged young man wasbeginning to see encouragement coming until he heard the “good news” thatfollowed. The psychic continued with the good news. “After you are50 you will still be discouraged and a failure and very unhappy but you will beuse to it by then.”
Sooner orlater, in every life, there comes a time when we feel we are in a hopelesssituation --- one from which there can come no good, one to which there is nosatisfactory solution. I am certain every person eventually comes to sucha situation. You may or may not have come to yours yet. But youwill. And what I hope to say to you this morning is that it is neverhopeless!
We havealready heard Romans 5:1-5, the central text for this series on No HopelessSituations. Let’s listen to some of it again through the eyes andears of hope.
Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with god through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of god. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because god has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Hope, therefore, is the ability to hear the melody of the future andfaith is the courage to dance to its tune today. Let’s hear that again. Note it. Rivet it into your minds. Hope, is the ability to hear themelody of the future and faith is the courage to dance to its tune today.
Here’s how the Apostle Paul danced toit:
I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:12b-13.
There’s nohopeless situations concerning human weakness. We recognize and inwardly lament a part of ourselves, our nature that isnot easily curbed, disciplined, mastered. We refer to this side of ournature as our weakness or frailty or evil inclinations. The inward battlesto react or respond to life’s situations. Elsewhere in Romans the Paulrecognizes this; "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, theevil I do not want to do --this I keep on doing." (Romans 7:19) Paul agonized over his human weakness. We all do!
The mostdiscouraged people who come to their pastor for council are those who think theyhave to write off this embarrassing frustrating part of their lives as anunavoidable frailty of our common human nature. "Something we justhave to accept and live with, " they declare, or "Something we can'tdo anything about." We don’t have to surrender our inner selves tothe spoiled fruits of human weakness.
I maintainthere is something that can be done. There are no hopeless situations inhuman weakness. The hot-tempered, quick tempered, can become cool,calculating, and collected. The thoughtless, selfish, stingy person canbecome thoughtful, self-giving, and generous. The ruthless evil, violentperson can become considerate, good and peaceful. Study your scripturesand see how often that happened. There are no hopeless situations in humanweakness.
The mostdisdained failure in history was Judas. Judas not only betrayed the saviorof the world, but he did it with a kiss adding insult to injury. And yetit was not the sin of Judas that was the tragedy. It was the fact that heconsidered his situation a hopeless situation, and he took his life.
Peter withhis denial, and Thomas with his doubt, were as much a failure as Judas. The only difference was that when peter knew that Jesus had risen, he couldn'twait for the boat to land. You remember, he jumped out into the water andwent wading toward his master to fall on his knees and cry: "Lord, give meanother chance!"
I wonder whatwould have happened if Judas, when he realized his wrong, had gone and sat atthe door of the tomb, and waited in hope, and then had fallen at the feet of therisen lord asking for forgiveness and understanding. I have a feeling wewould be extolling Judas just as we do Peter and John and others.
The tragedyof Judas was not his sin, as bad as it was, the tragedy of Judas was that heconsidered it a hopeless situation. If you and I find that desperate,hopeless feeling in our souls today regarding some recognized weakness, frailty,tendency, inclination, remember, it is not hopeless if we can believe that wecan do all things through Christ who strengthens us... If I didn’tbelieve that, I would resign from Christian ministry.
TheodoreSteinway, president of Steinway and Sons, once noted, "In one of ourconcert grand pianos, 243 taut strings exert a pull of 40,000 pounds on an ironframe. It is proof that out of great tension may come great harmony."
Remember,hope, is the ability to hear the melody of the future and faith is the courageto dance to its tune today.
The happiestpeople don’t necessarily have the best of everything. They just makethe best of everything. Even in the stresses of human weakness there areno hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless aboutthem. How about you?
Is it somebad habit that has enslaved you? Some weakness which irritates you? Some unfortunate, proneness to do bad when you want to do good? Somefeeling of bitterness, wrong attitude you can't put behind you? Someprocrastinating element in your nature which forces you to go on putting off thegood and right which you have always intending to do? You do not have tosettle for a "someday when conditions are better?" Or an "Ijust can't help it" or a "why did I do that?" Or a"why can't I resist evil and do good?" There are no hopelesssituations, Christ can come in his power and strengthen you. You can doall things in Christ who strengthens you. Amen.