Matt Hagee - The Investment of Hope
Everyone is investing all of the time in something. People wanna use the word "Investment" and isolate it simply to a financial exchange, and it has an application there, but everything in your life is some measure of an investment. Because an investment defined is when you put something to work with an expectation that it is going to grow. When you don't see the return that you expected, immediately what happens is you become disappointed, and you lose hope. But this morning, the Bible is giving us a very clear picture about where we are to make our investment, heart, soul, mind, and body, and never lose hope, and that is in God, because that hope does not disappoint.
People lose hope, not because hope is the problem, people lose hope because the thing that they put their hope in fails. The problem is not with hope, the problem is where you put it. Romans 5:5 tells us very clearly "Hope in God," because that hope does not disappoint. Our God never fails. Our God is the God who has been our help in all ages past. His mercies, they fail not. His faithfulness is from generation to generation.
The Bible literally says there is no shadow or variation of turning in him. That means he was good then, he's good now, and he'll be good forever. Our hope is in a God who is a rock and a fortress and a shield of defense. Don't put your hope in a candidate, they'll let you down. Don't put your hope in the economy, it will fail you. Put your hope in the love of God that has redeemed you because his love never fails.
Today, I want you to go with me to Exodus 2:24-25. And very quickly, we're gonna see four assurances that give you the confidence you need to put your hope in God. I picked these verses because this is where all four of these attributes and applications of God can be found in one space, but you read about these things throughout all of scripture. This is not where they're isolated, this is just some place where we can focus on them. But in Exodus 2:24-25, we read these words, "So God heard," somebody say "Heard". "He heard their groaning, and he remembered," say "Remembered... His covenant with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. And God looked," say "Looked... Upon his children of Israel, and God acknowledged them".
Here we see four things that give you confidence in putting your hope in God. First, he hears you. It says, "God heard". You can have hope in a God who listens to you. When you open your mouth and you cry "Abba father," he doesn't hear the voice of a sinner, he hears the voice of one of his own children. The Bible says in Exodus 2, "God heard their groaning". Now, understand this, it's not the groaning that gets God's attention. Because if groaning got God's attention, some of you would be his favorite kid. Israel had groaned for 400 years, and they were groaning because they were underneath the weight of slavery in Egypt. God heard them because the time for his investment in them had come. God hears you.
Proverbs 15:29, it says, "The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayers of the righteous". 1 John 5:14, it says, "Now this is the confidence we have in him if we ask anything according to his will, he," what? "He hears us". Where is God's will? God's will is found in God's word. Which means that whenever you ask anything according to God's word, he will listen to you. Isaiah told us that "God's word will not return void, but it will accomplish the purpose for which he sent it".
If you're looking for healing, healing is in God's word. If you're looking for peace of mind in this world of chaos, there is peace that surpasses all understanding in God's word. If you need power and strength in a moment of weakness, Ephesians 6:10 says "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might". How does God uphold all things? He upholds all things through his word. So today, he's upholding your life based upon his word. There's provision in his word, there's protection in his word, there's deliverance in his word, there is triumph in his word.
Child of God, whatever you need today, trust in the Lord with all of your heart, lean not to your own understandings, in all of your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path. Your barns will burst with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine because that's the kind of God that we serve. You can hope in God because he hears you. And Exodus 2 tells us that God also remembers you. It says, "And God remembered". Over and over you read in the Bible God remembering people. He remembered Noah in the ark, he remembered Rachel who cried out for a child, he remembered his covenant in this passage with Abraham, and with Isaac, and with Jacob.
God remembered the children of Israel, not because they were groaning. He remembered the children of Israel, not because of the circumstance. He remembered the children of Israel because of a covenant promise that he had made years ago. And this is important for us to connect how God remembers and why he remembers, because he doesn't remember like we do. We remember because we forget. God forgets nothing. So, when God remembers something, he doesn't remember it because he forgot, he remembers it because it has now come time for what he promised to come to pass. Look at what the Bible says about when Christ came.
Galatians 4:4, it says "In the fullness of," what? "Time, God sent forth his only begotten Son". He promised Jesus in Genesis 3. Revelation actually says that he was the Lamb of God before the foundations of the world. So, before Genesis 1, God knew that Jesus was going to come. He promised Adam and Eve the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. And do you think he forgot for 2,000 years? No. It just wasn't time for Jesus to come, but in the fullness of time, when the moment was right, when everything was in place, when every promise of the past had been fulfilled, when everything for the future was in order, when the present moment came, that's when God did what he said he would do, even if it had to last for 2,000 years.
Our problem is we come to second service at 11 o'clock and we want God's answer by 2 o'clock before we get home from lunch. That's not how God remembers you. He doesn't do what he does on your schedule, he does it when it's the right time. In the fullness of time, God will keep his word in your life. In the fullness of time, he will perform every promise. In the fullness of time, he will fix the problem that you've been praying about. In the fullness of time, he'll move that mountain that you've been staring at. In the fullness of time, he'll restore the broken pieces that you need restored. In the fullness of time, he will do everything that he has ever said because my God is not a man that he should lie.
That's why Paul said in Galatians, "Do not grow weary in well doing, for in due season," in due season. God has a season for you. And just because it hasn't come yet doesn't mean that he's forgotten you, it just means it's not time. In the fullness of time, you will reap. Don't lose heart. God hears you and he remembers you. The third reason that you can hope in God is because God sees you. It says, "God heard, God remembered," and then it says, "And God looked upon the children of Israel". You can put your hope in a God who sees you. Proverbs 5 reminds us that the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord.
1 Peter 3 says, "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers". God sees everything in your life. He sees the things that you don't think anybody else knows about. He sees things that you're not aware of yet. He sees everything. He sees things you think you've got hidden. The problem you're facing? He sees it. The needs you have? He sees it. The issues you're struggling with? He sees it. The things that you wish were different? He sees it. You can trust God and put your hope in him because he sees you. And lastly, you can trust and put your hope in God because he acknowledges you.
This is a powerful thing. What good is it to have a God who sees everything, hears everything, and can do everything, but he doesn't pay any attention to you? I know people who say all the time, "Oh, I know this person, and I know this person". And they're talking about influential people in government or they're talking about influential people in business. And as much as they may or may not know about that individual, what good is it if that individual does not acknowledge them? "Oh, I know the president".
Who cares if he won't let you in the office? "I know this individual". Who cares if they don't even pay attention to you? But you can hope in God because he acknowledges you. As much as he sees, as much as he hears, as much as he knows, whenever you call him, he stops everything and turns his attention your direction. This is why David said, "Hope in God for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance". His countenance is his face, and what David was saying is, "I have a hope in a God that when I call on him, he turns my direction, and he looks my way".
God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. He acknowledges you. He knows all about you. He knew you before you were formed in the womb. He actually said that he knit your body together and he understands your most intimate things. How can you not put a hope in a God who misses nothing? If God missed something, how could we say we know all things work together for good to those that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose? God has yet to get up one day in heaven and sit on his throne and say, "Oops".
He misses nothing. If he didn't hear everything, if he didn't see everything, if he didn't know everything, then we would have a reason to doubt him and not put our hope in him. But I promise you this, my hope is not wishful thinking, my hope is an investment in a God who has never failed. He has kept his promises to a thousand generations and he's going to keep his every promise to me. I have put my hope in a God who has promised that he who began a good work in you would be faithful to complete it even unto the day of Christ Jesus.
I have invested my hope in a God who has promised that he would do beyond what I could ask, what I could think, and what I could imagine. I have put my hope as an investment in a God who has promised no plague shall come near my dwelling, no weapon formed should every prosper, no enemy shall ever overtake me. Because his hand is upon me and I can put my hope in him. Child of God, if you're looking for a place that you can anchor your soul today, there's a God who hears you, there's a God who sees you, there's a God who knows you, and there's a God who wants to put his hand upon your life. So, hope in God! Hope in God!
Hope requires trust. Is there anybody in here that knows somebody with trust issues? Oh, some of y'all don't even trust enough to raise your hand. You're like, "They're sitting next to me. I would, but she's here". Hope requires trust. When you put your money in the bank, you trust that it's still there when you go back to get it. This is why financial institutions are often called "Bank and trust". Now, staying with this financial analogy of what hope does, it's like a trust account. And a trust account is where an individual puts their resources for the benefit of someone else, and then they give the access to those resources to an individual called a trustee.
And what they say to the trustee in the instructions is that, "When the person that I am leaving these resources for needs them, whenever they get to a certain age, or they get to a certain moment, or they have something that they need for which these resources have been set aside, then you, the trustee, you go get the resources and you give them to the person that I sent them for".
So, this is a way that grandparents take care of grandkids, and they say, "Whenever my grandchild gets to this age, and I wanna take care of school," then they go to the trustee and the trustee says, "What do you need this money for"? And the kid says, "A Ferrari". He said, "No, can't do the Ferrari". He says, "What do you need the money for"? He said, "I need it for tuition". "Okay, we can do tuition". How many of you understand how this works? So, what you need to understand is that God has created a trust account for you in heavenly places.
And here's what he did, he took every promise. The Bible says literally every promise. 2 Corinthians 1:20, "All of the promises in God, in him," him is Christ Jesus. "All of the promises are yes, and they are amen to the glory of God through us". God took 3,000 plus promises and he put them in an account in heavenly places. And then Jesus made the Holy Spirit the trustee. The trustee is the one you go talk to when you need resources from the trust. And how does this work? Romans 8:24. It says, "For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly await for it with perseverance".
We are trusting that the promises that God gave us in Jesus are up there in that heavenly account. I don't see the peace, but it's up there. I don't see the provision, but it's up there. I don't see the healing, the restoration, the deliverance, but guess what? It's up there. Now, when I need it, I have to go talk to the trustee. Verse 26, it says, "Likewise the spirit also helps in our weakness. For when we don't know what we should pray for as we ought, the spirit himself," the trustee, "He makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered".
We've already heard that whatever you ask in faith according to his word, he'll do it. But how do we know what to ask for? I don't know how to pray. And when I tell you I don't know how to pray, what I mean is, it's not that I haven't been taught how to pray. If you've been to this church for more than one service, you know that I know how to pray. But what I'm saying is I don't know how to pray properly because I don't see what God sees. I don't hear all that God hears. I don't know all that God knows. I can't do what God can do.
So, if I go into heavenly places and I start asking for things that I see, that I know, that I want, I might be asking wrong because I can't do it like God can do it. And what this verse tells me is that I don't have to know everything, I don't have to see everything, I don't have to hear everything, I've got a heavenly trustee called the Holy Spirit. And if all I can do is groan in faith, then he says, "I know exactly what you need, and I know exactly where to go get it".
If I go to the doctor's office and the doctor says it's cancer, I don't even have to say "Jesus, heal me". I just go, "Help". And the Holy Spirit says, "I'll help you. I'll fight for you. I know exactly who to go talk to. He's already taken stripes on his back, and he locked it up there in an account, and all I've gotta do is reach in that account and pull down this healing, and I can bring it to you". Whenever the economy goes south and you wonder if your business is gonna make it, you don't have to ask God for a five-year business plan, you just have to say, "Jesus"!
And the Holy Spirit says, "I know exactly who can help provide everything that you need because he's already put his blessings, pressed down, shaken together and running over, set aside for you". And this is how the Holy Spirit goes to God the Father and says, "Your son, your daughter, your child, they need you today". He said, "That's already taken care of. I've already got it in a trust. Now, just go give them what they need because I love them. And in faith believing they're calling upon me, let's show them great and mighty things that they know not". Oh church, taste and see that the Lord is good. Give him a hand clap and a shout in this place today.
You can hope in him because he sees you, he hears you, he remembers you, he knows you, and he's already taken care of you. But if you're gonna stay hopeful, you gotta have the right mindset. It's an investment in the future. Hope is not wishing for, hope is believing for. I don't wish that it's going to come, it's gonna come. I'm believing it's coming. And when you hope in God, you don't wish that God hears, you believe he hears. You don't wish that God would do, you believe he will do. You don't wish that his promises are true, you believe that everything that he's ever promised is true and it will come to pass.
So, if you're going to have hope, you've gotta have a hopeful mindset. People say, "Well, I don't know how to do that". I believe that the word "Hope" tells us exactly how to do that. It's kind of an acronym. Here's what I think hope and a hopeful mindset looks like: humble, optimistic, perseverance, enthusiasm. If you're gonna have a hopeful mindset, the first thing you need to do is stay humble. Arrogant people are not hopeful people because their hope is in self. But humble people recognize that they didn't get anything in this life by themselves and that God was a part of all of it. This is why Jesus said, "Apart from me, you can do nothing".
If you stay humble, if you realize that you didn't get anything on your own, but the mighty hand of God was with you, then it'll be easy for you to understand if he was with you then, he's still with you now. 1 Peter tells us that if you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, he will exalt you. When? In due time. If you wanna stay hopeful, you stay humble. The second thing to help you stay hopeful is that you have to be optimistic. Optimistic is a mindset that gives you a confidence about the future. You will never meet a hopeful pessimist. "Hey, it's gonna be a great week". "No, it's not".
That's not how it works. The Bible says about a mindset that "As a man thinks in his heart," what? "So is he". So, if you're gonna invest your hope in God's promises for your future, you've got to have an outlook that says God's gonna do it. I don't know when he's gonna do it, but he's gonna do it. Then p, perseverance. Perseverance is when you continue to do something regardless of the difficulty or the challenge. If you're gonna be hopeful, you've got to stick with it, because it may not come when you want it to but you're gonna have to work for your breakthrough. Romans 8:25, it says, "If we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance".
I can tell you testimony after testimony of people that I know who, through perseverance, obtained the promise of God. My grandmother, she believed for her oldest son to be healed of epilepsy, and when she believed for him to be healed, she fasted and she prayed for his healing. She didn't fast for a week, she didn't fast for a month, she didn't do a 40 day prayer challenge, she fasted and prayed for three years. But whenever he was healed, he was healed for the rest of his life.
Don't give up on God because he didn't give you what you wanted when you asked for it. Persevere a little while and see what God can do. Don't lose hope. God hasn't given up on you, don't you give up on him. And finally, enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. You wanna be hopeful? Be enthusiastic. Have a joyful outlook on the matter at hand. This is what Romans 15:13 tells us about enthusiasm. It says, "May the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit".
That verse is just saturated with enthusiasm. What it says is that you don't have to live one day without a joyful expectation that this is the day that the Lord has made, and I will rejoice and be made glad in it. I'm gonna rejoice because I know that my God can make a way where there seems to be no way. I'm gonna rejoice because I know that my God is working all things out for my good. I'm gonna rejoice because I have been pardoned, I have been forgiven, his blood has saved me and redeemed me, I'll rejoice in a time of sorrow because his joy is my strength.
I'll rejoice in a time of need because he is my provider. I'll rejoice in a time when I've been bound because he is a deliverer who breaks every chain. Child of God, you can rejoice today. Not because of where you are, and not because of what you're going through. You can rejoice today because there is a God of all hope who knows you, who sees you, who hears you, and can do all things for you. Give the Lord a hand clap of praise in this house.