If you have your Bibles, we're going to open up to Romans 15. Romans 15. We've been thinking about the key elements of biblical counseling and discipleship. This is just simply the nuts and bolts of how do you use God's Word to help an individual. It started out with saying that the first thing we ought to do is to gather data. It just means to listen, hear what's going on, not speak before we understand what a situation is. After we've gathered information, we want to be able to discern biblically what's going on. That's discerning problems and discerning circumstances. Then we said on Wednesday that we want to build loving relationships and involvement. And then this morning we get to key element number four, and that is giving hope. Giving hope. If you're going to help an individual, That is, if you're going to sit down, open God's Word, and minister to another individual who is struggling, hope is essential. Everyone needs hope. The Bible has a lot to say about hope, and we're going to look at some of that. We're going to obviously try to be thinking about this in a practical way. And so as we get to some of these attributes of hope. I'm just going to kind of rapid fire some of these things. So if you're trying to take notes, you're probably not going to get all the verse references. And if you want the notes, I can just email them to you if you will ask. So giving hope Romans chapter 15 verse 13. Paul says, now, the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. Paul's not really praying here, but this is Paul's desire for the saints at Rome. This is Paul's desire, really for us too, it ought to be our desire for one another, that the God of hope, what does it mean to be the God of hope? It just simply means that God is the source of hope. All hope, genuine hope, comes from God. The God of hope fill you, fill you up. with all joy and peace." Have you ever been in a struggle, in a trial, in a season of life that was just difficult? It's easy to kind of breeze through words like joy and peace when things are going fine. But joy and peace are invaluable when you feel like your life's falling apart. Joy and peace are invaluable when you found yourself in a situation that you just do not know what to do with. Joy and peace are invaluable when you're struggling to hope. So, the God of all hope, fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope. That is, that you might overflow, have more than enough through the power of the Holy Ghost. So, a couple of things to point out here. Number one, it is God who is the source of hope. We're going to talk more about that in just a second. But that's an important thing to remember. God is the source of all true hope. And believers abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. So as we give hope, we are pointing to God and at the same time relying on the Holy Spirit. Those two things are settled. So let's think about this, not only for ourselves, but obviously also for how we might minister to someone and why we would do this. I said it already, but point number one is everyone needs hope. Everyone needs hope. It's worth asking as we start out here. What is hope? What are we talking about? Well, biblical hope just means to embrace the reality that God is at work in my current circumstances, and He will use them for my good and His glory. Another way of thinking about Romans 8, 28. God is at work in my circumstances. Sometimes people try to discern, was this a providential circumstance or did it just happen? There's no such thing as a circumstance that just happens. Every moment of your life is under the providential hand of God. Hope is embracing this reality. God is at work and He's using this for my good and for His glory. Job 14. Job 14.1 says, Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. Man that's born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. We've talked about this passage before. I mean, essentially, we could just summarize what Job is saying. Life is shorter than you think. and it's a lot more difficult than you think it's going to be. See, Scripture is not ashamed to acknowledge the pain and the difficulties that accompany life. Life is hard. Sometimes people think that it's some sort of act of unfaithfulness to acknowledge that life is full of difficulties, that pain really does hurt, that disappointments really do disappoint. that we can become disillusioned in areas of our lives because of expectations that just don't turn out. Job says, this is the stuff that life is made of. And so scripture's not, by the way, Job's not the only one. We could see this in lots of other places, but scripture's not ashamed to acknowledge this reality. And so we shouldn't be ashamed either. But one of the things that is, repeatedly laid out, a principle that's repeatedly laid out in Scripture is this reality that every struggle, every pain, every difficulty that we have in life is an opportunity for you and I to hope in God and draw nearer to Him. Every single time you and I face adversity, it's an opportunity to grow. Now, sometimes people don't like that because they want it to be an opportunity for their agenda to be furthered. Sometimes God puts a screeching halt on your agenda in order to get you to where He wants you to be. And that's good, even though it doesn't feel good. So every time we find ourselves in adversity, in struggles and difficulties, it's an opportunity to hope in God, to draw near to God. Now as we're thinking about helping individuals, and really as we're thinking about ourselves and how to discern different things, many, I would probably say most, but at least many struggles and disappointments, you can write this one down, many struggles and disappointments are a direct result of placing our hopes in things that God has never guaranteed. You can think back over your own life, think back over your own disappointments and trials, and many of your discouragements, many of your disappointments and struggles are connected to the fact that you had placed your hopes in things that God just did not guarantee. We transition from one season of life to the next, and we have this expectation somehow that it's going to be better. We've talked about this before. It's going to be easier. It's going to be more exciting. It's going to be more fulfilling. So young kids that are ready to move into their teenage years, and they think about how wonderful it's going to be to have more freedom and the ability to do things they weren't able to do before, and then it's after not too long they figure out, it's okay. It's okay. The dream of having a job and having money and being able to spend, and then you realize, I've got to spend this money on things I don't even want to spend it on. Then you get into high school and you dream about how great it's going to be when you get out and get into college and it's going to be a fulfilling experience until you get there and realize it's just a different version of high school. And then you get out and you dream about when things are going to get way easier and you actually start your career until you recognize your career is way harder. And then maybe it's working your way up the ladder and you realize none of this is fulfilling. There's difficulties and struggles attached to every one of these things. And again, so often our struggles and disappointments are the result of placing our hopes in things that God never guaranteed. Biblical hope, true hope, is powerful in the life of a believer. Let me give you some things that biblical hope does. Hebrews 6, verse 19 says that hope is an anchor of the soul. It's a stabilizing factor in the life of a believer. Hope will keep you, anchor you, 1 Thessalonians 4.13 tells us that hope will keep us from inordinate or excessive sorrow. We do sorrow, but not as those who have no hope. Proverbs 10.28 tells us that hope produces gladness. Romans 5.2 tells us that hope helps us to respond to trials in a productive way. You know, we're all going to face trials. We've said this before, but you're either in the middle of a trial, coming out of a trial, or going into a trial. Hope will help you face those in a way that's productive. Galatians 5, verse 5, tells us that hope produces patience. 1 John 3.2 tells us that hope produces holiness. 1 Thessalonians 1.3 tells us that hope produces endurance. Romans 15.4 tells us that hope produces peace. Romans 12.12 tells us that hope produces joy. Lamentations 3.18 tells us that hope produces physical and spiritual strength. See, hope is important. Isn't it incredible what all hope does? I mean, if we're trying to sit down and minister to another individual, if God has providentially brought someone on our path and we're either trying to counsel or disciple that individual and they're going through a struggle, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could help them find an anchor for their soul and keep them from moving into excessive inordinate sorrow and help produce gladness and respond to the difficulty in a way that's productive and produce obedience and holiness and endurance and peace and joy and strength in someone's life? God does that through the Holy Spirit. as the Word of God brings hope into the life of an individual. That's incredible, isn't it? I mean, really, as I'm reading this, it almost sounds like it's too good to be true. So hope is not only something that we all need, but hope is powerful. It's powerful. Next. Biblical hope. So we might look at the powerful nature of hope and think, man, that would be great. That would be wonderful. I would love to have that. Forget about trying to give it away. I'd love to have that myself. Well, this is important. Biblical hope is developed through biblical thinking. Write that down if you're taking notes. is developed through biblical thinking. So let me give you some categories. In order to develop and sustain true biblical hope, we must learn to think biblically about the following. Number one, you must learn to think biblically about God. So many people have an unbiblical view of God, particularly in the way that God relates to their struggles and what it is that God's trying to do in their difficulties. A lot of people just have a unbiblical idea about God from a practical standpoint. So they may know some biblical truths about God, but they have no idea about how to think about the way God interacts and intersects in their life. So a biblical understanding of God, who He is, what He's like, so forth and so on. If you're going to have hope, you're going to need a biblical understanding of your situation. You need a biblical understanding particular situation. You can have all the right thoughts about God that you want to have, but if you're not thinking rightly about your current situation, there's going to be no way for you to connect the dots. You need to learn to think biblically about God's purposes for bringing difficulties in your life. You need to think biblically about God's purposes for bringing difficulties into your life. Does God have a purpose in your trials? Does God have a purpose in the difficulties that you face? In the disappointments that you experience? In the heartaches that you have? In the losses? Does God have a purpose in that? A lot of people think He doesn't. And that results in a lack of hope. Because unbiblical thinking will squelch any kind of hope. We need to be thinking biblically about the resources that God has given us. We need to be thinking biblically about the resources God has given us. He's given us the Word of God. What are we supposed to do with that? He's given us the Holy Spirit. He's placed us in a body. so that we have brothers and sisters in Christ? He's given us prayer and access to the throne of grace. We need to be thinking biblically about what is it that we have access to? Sometimes people go through trials and they avail themselves of almost none of the resources God has given and wonder why it's so difficult. You want to give someone hope? Help them understand what they've already been given, what they already have access to. We need to be thinking biblically about the nature and the causes of our problems. How did we get here? You know, one of the things I've found over the years is that one of the most helpful things you can do for an individual who's struggling is give them clarity. Most people do not have it. Most people aren't thinking clearly. about their circumstances, about their problems, and about how they got there. We need to help. Well, we need to do this ourselves, but we need to be thinking biblically about our own personal responsibilities for actions and responses in our trials. That is, what has God called us to do in response to the difficulties that we're facing? Does God care how you respond to trials? Well, sure. And responding in an unbiblical way to an already discouraging situation is just going to lead to more discouragement. You can help folks get off of that inevitable cycle of discouragement by helping them think biblically about God's or the personal responsibilities the Lord has given to them. Helping people think biblically about their past and about their future. And then helping people think biblically about solutions to their problems. Solutions to their problems. Sometimes, by the time an individual is finally ready to talk and seek help, they have compounded their original problem tremendously by trying foolish solutions that have just made things worse. We need to be thinking biblically about solutions to our problems. That'll give hope. That'll give hope. Now, the opposite of hope is despair. It's worth thinking about that for a second. The opposite of hope is despair. The dictionary definition of despair is just a lack of hope. So we're thinking about opposites here. There are three words that help us as we try to understand despair, and it's worth understanding. Number one is expectation. You've heard the word hope is a confident expectation in that which is good. Well, hope and despair start out the same way. And that is with an expectation. We place an expectation on someone, on something. We're expecting things to turn out a certain way. We're expecting to achieve a certain thing. And then we discover there's a limitation. That is, we discover that our expectation is somehow limited. We cannot receive what we were expecting to receive. Things are not going to work out the way that we expected them to work out. An expectation, followed by a limitation, followed by a conclusion. Now, conclusion is where we get ourselves in trouble. Despair happens when an individual begins concluding certain things about life in light of the fact that their expectations have been limited or unfulfilled. Despair happens when an individual begins concluding certain things about life in light of the fact that their expectations have been limited or unfulfilled. Expect the worst and you'll never be disappointed. You ever heard that? Some of you may even live by that. Is that a biblical mindset? Is it a biblical mindset for a child of God to expect the worst in order to prevent disappointment? How about just set your expectations on the promises of God and in those find peace and joy? You see, we make these conclusions based on our disappointments. I'll never be happy. Things will never work out. What I need is a change of scenery. What I need is a different spouse. What I need is a new fill-in-the-blank. And what happens is people reach these foolish conclusions and run after foolish solutions, and it's one cycle of despair after another. Now, despair, it's the same word, the more common word that you're used to hearing is depression, to be depressed. It's the same as despair, same word family. A depressed person is an individual who has lost hope. Now, it's worth noting that your outer man, that is your physical body, If the problem with despair is the conclusion that you finally arrive at, your physical body doesn't make conclusions. Your inner man does. Conclusions are arrived at by the heart. Proverbs 23. Again, we're thinking about the power of hope and how it relates practically. Proverbs 23. Speaking of the ruler or the king, in verse 7, For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Jesus would also, in Matthew 9, verses 3 and 4, would confront the religious leaders because of the way that their thoughts or the way that their thinking in their hearts about particular things. Now the heart, the mind, the soul, the spirit, these are all synonymous terms for the inner man. So despair is a spiritual problem. It's not primarily a circumstantial or a physical problem. Now, your circumstances can be the springboard for despair, but really it's how you respond to your circumstances that's going to lead you to despair or joy, hope. It's how you respond outside of a few organic physical problems. It's how you respond to your physical problems that will lead to hope or despair. Number two, the world has many counterfeit hopes that ultimately lead to disappointment. So we've been talking about despair and expectations The world has tons. Look in Proverbs 10. In Proverbs 10, 28, Solomon says, The hope of the righteous shall be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked shall perish. The expectation of the wicked shall perish. It's the opposite of biblical hope. Also, Proverbs 11, Verse 7, when a wicked man dies, his expectation shall perish, and the hope of unjust men perish. Now, the reason that I go here is this is the reality for every unbiblical hope that anybody places their heart on. The hope of the wicked shall perish. What are some of these counterfeit hopes that the world places before us. Well, we're going to categorize some of these. The first one, just the counterfeit hope of humanistic ideas. The counterfeit hope of humanistic ideas. Sometimes it comes across like this. Now we're thinking about people trying to make other people feel better about things. The false assurance that you're a good person. You just need to know you're a good person. You may be going through a difficult time right now, but you at your core, you're a good person. You think, well, that's silly. What does that have to do with hope? I don't know, but people do that all the time. Sometimes the false assurance that you're brave enough and you're strong enough to handle anything. You got bad news? You're in a difficult situation? Well, here's what I know about you. You're brave enough to take whatever life throws at you. You're strong enough to take whatever life throws at you. Not true. It's not true. And while it may sound good, it's completely unbiblical. And eventually, the individual that you're trying to encourage is going to be completely discouraged because they're going to figure out this isn't true. Or maybe this, the false assurance that everything will work out well for you. This is just a short time, a little short season in your life, just a little speed bump. Everything's going to work out. Now, ultimately, if we're thinking like a Christian and we're thinking biblically, everything is going to work out because Christ is coming back. But from the standpoint that everything's going to work out, For me, in this life, the way I want it to, that's a flat-out lie. It's not. There's going to be plenty of things that you want to happen that will not happen. Counterfeit hopes of humanistic ideas. I mean, we could go forever on this. Let's move to the next one. the counterfeit hopes of secular psychological coping mechanisms and techniques. Essentially, the counterfeit hopes of secular psychology. All of these really fall under this one heading, and that would be the false hope of experimental interventions. False hope of experimental interventions. So things like this. Medicating non-organic problems. Medicating non-organic problems. Things like electroshock treatments. Or even things like worldly wisdom. So it goes like this. Dealing with guilt by adjusting or erasing your moral standard. not by addressing your moral standard. So someone may go and talk to someone in the world of psychology, receiving worldly wisdom. They're trying to deal with guilt and what they find out is the problem was their standard, not their action. adjusting the way that you think, and that is from conforming your thoughts to the world, turning your moral issues into medical issues, turning villains into victims. That's a false hope. You know why? Because in the end, villains recognize it's me. In the end, folks recognize this isn't helping. This isn't working because this isn't true. And then there's all kinds of just, honestly, just kind of strange psychological gimmicks. I remember being at a counseling workshop one time when I was at Northeast, and there was this guy who was doing a workshop, and his name was Nick something, and he called his method the Quick Nick. Quick Nick, help anybody with their problems, the Quick Nick. And I thought, what in the world is this? So I had an hour to burn, so that's what I set in on. And so he had this gimmicky deal where he could instantly solve anybody's anxiety, and it was by doing these different, like, tappings on different places on your face that was supposed to really tap into some sort of energy, and while you were doing it, you were saying, if it was anxiety, like, my anxiety, my anxiety, my anxiety, and you just keep doing all these tapping things, and then by the time you get done, he says, you're fine, your anxiety's gone. And he says, look, I'm gonna show you. Who in here struggles with anxiety? And some poor girl raised her hand. He said, I want you to do what I'm doing. And so she started doing what he was doing. He was taking her through the thing. And about halfway through, she breaks down and just starts sobbing and runs out of the thing. And he says, well, she didn't make it all the way through or it would have worked. Counterfeit hopes. Placing our hopes in silly psychological gimmicks. You say, well, I would never do that. You've probably already done it. You just don't recognize it. These things fly under the radar. Some of these kinds of things can mask symptoms of things like despair for a season, but they never address the root problem and are never long-term solutions. Let me give you another one. This one's one that's a little closer to home. The counterfeit hope of half-hearted Christianity. That is, some people want to have one foot in the church and one foot in the world, and they do that because they expect, I can have assurance in my soul and I can have fun in my flesh and do both at the same time. Well, many half-hearted Christians become very disillusioned with their lives. And funny enough, their conclusion is that Christianity is not worth having. because it hasn't brought any fulfillment. It hasn't really done anything for their life. And they decide to walk away. You might be surprised to hear this part, but the truth is, as far as half-hearted Christians go, they've come to the right conclusion. They just turned to the wrong solution. The right conclusion is half-hearted Christianity is not worth having. Scripture never lays that out as some sort of a fulfilling thing. As a matter of fact, Scripture says the way of the transgressor is hard. It's always going to be hard. But they turn to the wrong solution. That is, rather than walking away, they're only going to find fulfillment in seeking to love and serve God, not half-heartedly, but with their whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. So all these counterfeit hopes, we could just keep going, but for time's sake, we won't. Number three, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only basis for any real hope and healing. The only real basis for hope and healing is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1.3 says that we have been born again to a living hope. Your Bible says lively, but it should be translated living. You are born again to a living hope. Only those who have been born again of the Spirit of God have a living hope. There is no real basis for hope with unbelievers. The ultimate expectation of good, there's no real basis for it. But we think about passages like Job 19-25 where Job says, I know my Redeemer lives. Do you know that? Do you know that about Jesus Christ? If you do, then that's a basis for hope. That's a basis for a confident expectation that based on the redeeming work of Christ, God is currently at work in your circumstances, working them for your good and for His glory. Why would I ever think that? Because I know my Redeemer lives. That's why I would think that. Or Matthew 1.21. shall bring forth a child, and He shall save His people from their sins." Why would I have any hope that God is working for my good, that I would receive anything good from God's hand? How would I have any hope that the reason I'm in this circumstance is because God is punishing me? Why? Because Jesus Christ saved me from my sin. Now God may be bringing about chastisement and discipline in order to bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness in my life, but I'm not being punished as an expression of God's wrath and anger toward me. Jesus absorbed that. Or what about John 15 verse 5? John 15 verse 5, where Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. Here, Jesus lays out a hope for us. That is, if we abide in Him, you will be. A fruitful Christian. Now the problem is. So often. This is the last part of verse 5. That gets us. The problem is we try to do everything without him. Jesus says you can't do anything without me and we end up trying to do everything without Jesus and then we act confused when it doesn't work out. If you abide in me, Jesus says you'll be fruitful. But without me. You can do nothing. The gospel is the only basis for our hope. It assures us, now hope and faith are alike in the sense of a lot of times we say have faith in God and then the question is, well, what exactly is it I'm trying to trust about God? So when we say hope in God, what exactly are we hoping in? Well, the gospel assures us that we can hope in God to fulfill His purposes and promises in our life and that there's no hopeless situation if we are at peace with God. Look in Matthew 19. Just going to give a couple of couple of things under this. I'm just taking the principle here. Matthew 19, verse 26. Jesus beheld them. This is talking about somebody being saved. But Jesus beheld them and said unto them, with men this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. All things are possible. God can do the impossible. no matter what your circumstance is, no matter what your situation is, no matter what your trial is, God can do the impossible. And the impossible falls into all kinds of different categories. So God can do things in your life that have been declared impossible by the experts. And God can also make you content with the absence of things in your life that you never thought you could do without. With God, all things are possible. And so we place our hopes in the God who can do the impossible. Whether that means He's going to change my circumstances or He's going to change my heart, I'm looking to Him. Romans 8. By the way, you probably know this, but if you don't, Romans 8 is a great chapter to go to if you're trying to think about hope and you're trying to minister hope to somebody. Romans 8. I'm just going to give a couple of things under this heading. Romans 8.31, what shall we say then to these things if God before us Who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Because of the work of redemption, God is for us. You can hope in that. And God will not withhold anything good from us. because of the work of Christ. Now, anything good? That just means anything that is consistent with His eternal purposes and promises. Anything good doesn't mean any desire you happen to have. It means anything that would be good for you. So that if God takes something away, or if God withholds something, were redeemed by the blood of Christ, it's because it wouldn't be good for you to have it in this sense. Now that can be a hard pill to swallow. That can be a hard pill to swallow. But that's an interpretive lens that we look at problems through. Alright, and then number five. Biblical hope. aims to view our immediate pain and circumstances in light of God's eternal purposes and promises." Say that again. Biblical hope aims to view our immediate pain and circumstances in light of God's eternal purposes and promises. Look in John 16. John 16. And then after this, I'm going to think with you for a few minutes practically about how you can give hope to somebody. John 16, verse 33. Jesus says in John 16, 33, "'These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation. but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Now, what does Jesus give us here as far as ways to think about hope, peace, so forth and so on? Well, very obvious conclusion to verse 33 is this. You can have tribulation in the world, and at the same time, have peace and hope in your heart. You catch that from the passage? In this world you shall. He doesn't say in this world you might. In this world it's possible. In this world you could stumble upon. He says in this world you shall have tribulation. But in light of that, be of good cheer. What in the world? Why? How? Because Christ has overcome the world. You see, this peace that you're going to receive, this hope that you can have, this joy that you can experience is not because of the immediate circumstance that you happen to find yourself in. It's because you've laid hold of the words of Christ that He's spoken to you in the midst of the tribulations and the difficulties that you face. Romans 8, 28-39. Great passage to think about that. 2 Corinthians 4, 8-18. Again, another great passage to think about. Hope in the midst of tribulation. Your outer man is perishing, and at the same time, your inner man is being renewed day by day. One's going down, and at the same time, the other's going up. These are things happening simultaneously. Now, let's think practically now. I mean, we've been trying to think practically, but let's think if you were to sit down and try to help somebody, what would you do? How do you give hope? Well, let me give you a couple of helpful ways you can do this. Number one, if you're trying to help an individual, again, we need to remember Hope is found in God and it is received through the power of the Holy Spirit. So God's not banking on you, but He might use you. So if you're trying to minister hope to somebody and it doesn't catch right away, you're going to have to wait on the Spirit. Hope is going to be instilled as God wills, not as you work. And so as we try to help, we do our best to be faithful, knowing we're dependent on God. So, first way that you can give hope. And I'm given three things and the order is, you could take it in this order and it would probably be good. Number one, guide the individual to the Word of God. Somebody comes and they're in a difficult situation and you're trying to think, how could I give hope to somebody? Well, hope is found in God. It's given through the power of the Holy Spirit. God has revealed Himself in the Word, and the Word was written by the Spirit. And it makes sense that as we're thinking about that, we're going to go to a text that will back this up clearly, that we would be pointing folks to the Word. So Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Verse 49. The psalmist prays, "'Remember the word unto Thy servant, upon which Thou hast caused me to hope.'" Here's the psalmist. Remember last year as we were going through Psalm 119, this is a psalm of difficulties and trials and all kinds of different things. And the psalmist says, "'Lord, remember the word that You spoke to me, that You caused me to hope upon A passage that would speak clearly to the Word of God being a source of hope would be Romans 15. Romans 15. Verse 4, "'For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope." Why were the Scriptures written? They were written for our learning. To what purpose? That we would just have a bunch of knowledge? That we would be smart? That you might have hope. That's the purpose. This is why God wrote or gave Scriptures to us. So we want to get an individual into the Word of God. We want to help them find a passage that is relevant to their situation. So all Scripture is profitable, but it's not all profitable in the same way. If somebody comes and they are dealing with despair, that's probably not the time to get them to read in Exodus the measurements of the tabernacle. So we want to get them in a relevant passage that would speak to the situation that they're in. It's also very helpful, once we find that passage, that we take the time to explain the passage and help connect it to the person's situation. Let me give you one that's almost an all-in-one. You could use this passage with just about any situation that you find as it relates to giving hope. And you've heard me quote it. I've preached on it several times. That is 1 Corinthians 10.18. 1 Corinthians 10.18.13. 1 Corinthians 10.13, there is no temptation which has overtaken you except that which is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. So what do we get from a passage like this? Well, this gives us four categories to be thinking about. There's no temptation that's taken you. So number one, trials are real. Sometimes people show up and they're deflated and they're discouraged about being discouraged. Well, trials are discouraging. They're difficult. They're real pressures that fall on us. Again, we could go to a passage like Job 14.1 where Job says, again, life is short and it's hard. It's difficult. So trials are real. Number two, trials are common. There is no temptation that is overtaking you except that which is common to man. So often people are discouraged because they think they're in a unique trial. Now when we say common to man, we're not minimizing. Again, they're difficult. They're real. But God's people have been going through the same kinds of trials from the very beginning. Many of the difficulties that you're facing The people in this room have faced. They just hadn't advertised it. Many of the difficulties that you're facing, that you think are unique to you, have been faced by almost everybody you know in some form, some way. The trials are real. Trials are common. Number three, God is faithful. God is faithful. He is not going to allow you to be tempted above that which you are able, but with the temptation, He's going to make a way of escape so that you're able to bear it. So again, people come in sometimes or people are under trial sometimes. They think, I don't know how much more of this I can take. I don't know how I'm supposed to respond in a godly way to this. These pressures are just too heavy. 1 Corinthians 10.13 says, God is not going to put more on you than you're able to bear. And He's not going to put more on you than you're able to respond in a godly way to. So verse 14, Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. You are able to bear up under the trials that God has allowed into your life. And you're able to bear up under those in a way that prevents you from responding in a sinful way. Why? Not because you're so brave. Not because you're so strong. Because God's so faithful. That's why. And because He's given you the resources you need to do it. And so that leads us to verse 14, which lets us know you have a choice. You are the one who gets to choose how you respond. You can flee from idolatry, or you can run toward it. But you're the one who gets to decide. If you decide to run toward idolatry, don't blame it on your trial. Your trial didn't do that. You did. If you decide to flee from idolatry, praise God for his faithfulness. So. As we're thinking about that, there's a lot of specifics that are going to be. Brought out as you're trying to discuss these things with another individual. So number one, you want to get him into the Word of God. And then number two, you want to help the individual think biblically about God and His character or His attributes. Psalm 42.5, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Hope in God. Hope in God. He will help me with the joy or the strength of His countenance. I can't remember how that what the wording is, but it's Psalm 42.5. Now, we're going to help an individual think biblically about God and His character. This is done. I mean, it seems obvious, but it's not always this obvious. This is done through reading and meditating on Scripture or biblical literature like a book like A.W. Pink's, The Attributes of God is very helpful. But we want to help folks think biblically about God and then We want to help them practically apply what they're learning. So it's getting somebody in the right direction if we say, hey, read the attributes of God and write down the verse references and that'll be helpful. Well, kind of, but what am I supposed to do with it? How does that help me? It's not always apparent. So going a step further, and we'll be done after this. But going a step further can be very helpful in just asking a couple of questions like this. After the individual has gained some knowledge of God's character or attributes, we might say something like, okay, now let's try to identify the attribute of God that He wants you to embrace as you move through this difficult situation that God has allowed into your life. Specificity is everything. You're probably not going to embrace every single attribute all at one time. So what are you going through? Are you going through difficult times financially? Jehovah Jireh would be a great attribute for you to be trying to embrace. The God who provides. We could go through and think about God's attributes and connect those to specific problems all day long. And so the question would be, what is it about God that you think He wants you to be trusting right now in the midst of this difficulty? You started out here. You've zeroed in. And now you're ready to instill hope because you've connected biblical truth to a person's reality. And we could go on, but time is going to limit us, so we'll have to come back this afternoon. We want to think again this afternoon about how to practically, we're not going to be thinking about hope necessarily, but practically minister the Word. I think it was last Sunday we were looking at discerning problems biblically. And I gave you the big list of sins and said, Could you articulate those in a clear and concise way? And so just so you know, I wasn't trying to have a big gotcha moment. I'm going to give you a list that helps you do that in Ephesians chapter four this afternoon. We're going to talk about how to use it. So let's pray. Father, we we thank you that you are the God of all hope. and that as we look to You and as we lay hold of the provisions and resources that You've given us through Your Son, Jesus Christ, we can abound in hope. And then we can also be used by You to help instill hope in others. And so I pray that as we look to You and trust in the power of Your Spirit, that You would use us to Your glory. It's in Jesus' name. Amen.