The God of Hope

Romans 15:13 announces that God Himself is 'the God of hope' — not a despairing, hand-wringing deity, but the sovereign Lord who makes and fulfils every promise. This sermon expounds three movements in Paul's benediction: the character of the God who hopes, the means by which hope is received (trust in Christ, grounded in the resurrection), and the overflow of joy and peace that results from the Spirit's filling. The closing application calls believers to see themselves as custodians of a message of hope in a world that is, as the preacher puts it, 'on empty.'