Transforming Hope: How the Gospel Changes Us

REFLECTION QUOTES


“Every man is worth just so much as the things he busies himself with.”

~Marcus Aurelius (121-180),
Roman Emperor and stoic philosopher


“Man staggers through life yapped at by his reason, pulled and shoved by his appetites, whispered to by fears, beckoned by hopes. Small wonder that what he craves most is self-forgetting.”

~Eric Hoffer (1902-1983), American social philosopher

“An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.”

~Eric Hoffer

“Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy—the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.”

~Eric Hoffer

“Pessimism is the refusal to live in the hope of glory.”

~Os Guinness (1941-present), author and sociologist

“The problem with modern people is that they have too much to live with and too little to live for.”

~Os Guinness

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

~Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

SERMON PASSAGE


1 John (NASB)
Chapter 2

28 Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.

Chapter 3

1See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Colossians 3:1-5 (ESV)

1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.