OVERCOMING HOPELESS SITUATIONS

Everybody on this earth has to deal with their share of hopeless situations ... hopeless in the sense that it can't work out the way you

want it to.

If your car throws a rod in the middle of nowhere at 2 in the morning

in zero weather, the hope of getting it running again that night is

futile...all you can do is try to flag down a ride to safety.

If your restaurant business is thousands of dollars in the hole and

nobody will give you any credit, you may have no choice but to close

down the restaurant.

If a woman has a husband who refuses to get help for his problem

and abuses her and the children every night when he comes home

from the bar, she might have to take the children to a safer place

before one of them gets killed.

Our normal approach to a situation, once we've concluded that it's hopeless, is to get out. The ship is sinking, here's a lifeboat, for goodness sake let's get in it and shove off.

But once we've come into the Body of Christ and share in the life

of the Kingdom of God, our whole idea of what a hopeless situation is and what to do about it has to change.

"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock (your confession) I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."

Matthew 16:18

If there's any place that's hopeless, it's the place called Hades, the region of the dead.

When the rich man landed in Hades whatever hope he had was soon drained out of him.

"Father Abraham, please send Lazarus that
he may dip the tip of his finger in water
and cool my tongue."

- "Sorry, it can't be done."

"Then please send him to my father's house

to warn my brothers about this place."

- "Sorry, it wouldn't do any good. If they aren't listening to Moses and

the prophets, they wouldn't listen to a man returned from the dead."

...."I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not

prevail against it.

My church will crash those gates ...

my church will

conquer the kingdom of hopelessness. It will specialize in overcoming

hopeless situations."

The wedding feast at Cana was a hopeless situation. They'd run out of wine....so Jesus turns the water into wine.

The night of fishing when Peter caught nothing was a hopeless situation. So Jesus says, "Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch,” ...he's never seen so many fish.

The widow whose only son was being buried was in a hopeless situation. He was her only means of support. There was no Social Security. So Jesus says, "Young man, I say to you arise." And the dead man sat up and began to speak; and he delivered him to his mother.

On Good Friday the disciples of Jesus were in a hopeless situation. They had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.... Now he's dead.

On the third day Jesus came and stood in their midst alive from the dead and said, "Peace be with you."

...."On this rock I will build my church and the gates of death will not prevail against it."

When the Body of Christ is about the business it was called to, it's

always down in the valley of the shadow, ramming it's way through the gates of death, overcoming one hopeless situation after another.

This was the thing which baffled the Pharisees ...

and still baffles them.

"Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

Why does Jesus forever hang around with the hopeless people of Hopeless Alley? Because that's what he came to do! He came to overcome

- the hopeless situation of sin,

- the hopeless bondage of death,

- the hopeless tyranny of Satan, the accuser.

The problem with us is that we still haven't caught on to the fact that the hopeless situation is to be our normal environment ... not so that we can walk around and moan, but so that we can conquer it and move on to another one. Instead, we still tend to react as sons and daughters of Adam.

- When the situation looks hopeless we either try to run away

or we throw up our hands in despair and sink.

If we're in a hopeless situation and we're satisfied that it's not because of our own rebelliousness, then we need to see that the Lord himself put us into this situation for one reason:

- to overcome it,
- to conquer it,

- to break those gates of death,

- to throw down those strongholds of Satan.

Jesus stood on the brow of the hill, looked down over Jerusalem and wept. Beneath him was a hopeless city. It had killed the prophets of old, rejected every messenger God had ever sent.

How Jesus had longed to gather its people together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings! But they refused. So what does Jesus do?

Walk away? No, he goes straight into that city and offers himself as the atonement for its arrogant sin.

Jesus entered the temple. It was polluted with the smell of animals being sold, corrupted with the clink of money, hot with the atmosphere of greed ... a hopeless situation ... the House of Prayer degraded into a den of thieves. Does he walk away? He goes, straight into that situation and conquers it.

And we are called by Jesus to do the same thing.

To go straight forward into the hopeless situation and overcome it.

"Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Don't let Satan give you a hard time, you give him a hard time!"

For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war,

for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly

but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ....

II Corinthians 10:3-5

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To him who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life; which is in the paradise of God.

Revelation 2:7

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

He who conquers shall not be hurt by the second death.

Revelation 2:11

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna.

Revelation 2:17

He who conquers and who keeps my works until the end,

I will give him power over the nations.

Revelation 2:26

- Conquers what?

Conquers the lie of hopelessness ... the lie that to survive in this world we have to compromise with evil.

- To demolish that lie.

- To break through those gates of death.
- To destroy those strongholds of Satan.

So, how do we do it?

First, we overcome the hopelessness within us by exercising our faith in Jesus. Notice that before our Lord preached one word or performed one healing, he first dealt with hopelessness at the door of his own heart in a wilderness battle with Satan.

"Are you sure you're the Son of God?

How do you know you're not just another insane man.

If you're the Son of God command these stones
be made bread ... jump from this pinnacle ...

Take charge of this kingdom of the world,
I'll let you have them if you'll fall down
and worship me."

And in each case Jesus confessed faith in his Father and overcame Satan.

In a similar way we're now overcoming Satan in the wilderness of our hearts by confessing and living faith in Jesus.

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world;

and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.

Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes

that Jesus is the Son of God?

I John 5:4-5

- The victory that overcomes the spirit of hopelessness,

which is this world, is our faith in Jesus.

So you wake up in the morning feeling hopeless...already it looks like another dead-end day. You overcome this hopelessness by turning the

heart away from the darkness and toward the light.

"Jesus, you are the light of the world. You are the light of my life. You are my hope. I do not step into this day alone, I step into this day with you. And in your name, I take charge of my own heart and refuse to let it be troubled or afraid."

We overcome the hopelessness within us by faith in Jesus.

Second, we overcome the hopelessness around us by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony, even if we lose our lives in the process.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,

"Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God

and the authority of his Christ have come,

for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony,

for they loved not their lives even unto death."

Revelation 12:10-11

We conquer the hopeless situations around us by the blood of the

Lamb and by the word of our testimony.

The thing that makes these situations hopeless is the presence of

Satan in them. Where Satan is present….

death is present, sin is present, lies abound, fear rules the atmosphere.

Drive Satan out of that mess and immediately hope returns.

And there are two things that will drive Satan out of any situation;

1. The blood of the Lamb.

2. The confession that Jesus is Lord.

So we point to that blood, reminding Satan that he can't stand the sight

of it or the thought of it. That blood forces him to admit his defeat at

Calvary. Nor can Satan stand the simple confession that Jesus is Lord.

- He gets upset.

- He gets violent.

- He starts playing dirty.

- But he will be defeated by that testimony.

When Jesus turned over the tables of the moneychangers to give testimony to his Father's holiness, he knew it would cost him, but he also knew that he would conquer.

When Jesus headed into Jerusalem to give testimony to his Father's mercy,

he knew it meant laying down his life but he also knew he would conquer.

We will conquer,

- when in Jesus' name we quit being scared,
- when we love not our lives even unto death,

and we begin to give a word of testimony to the world around us, even if it means rejection, even if it means danger or death itself.

Far too long we've allowed the hopeless situations in which we find ourselves to turn us into a hopeless people.

God help us to conquer these hopeless situations...

-casting down imaginations

-and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,

-taking every thought captive to obey Christ.

God help us to break through those gates of death

and set the captives free.