Hope Has A Name by Kevin Allen April 9, 2023 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN) Kind: sermon Scripture: Romans 15:13, 1 Samuel 5:3-4, 1 Samuel 5:3, Genesis 40:13, Exodus 5:3, Exodus 19:10, Hosea 6:1, John 1:14, John 1:1, Luke 24:4-6 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kevin-allen--hope-has-a-name Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ Today I'm going to be preaching my Easter sermon and I'm also going to be wrapping up a series that we have been going through through March and now into April, wrapping up the the title of the series is Hope has a name, and we've been building on it each week leading up to today. Because we know this, it's crazy in the world right now, it really is. There's so much going on and it's hard to keep track. There's so many things changing and moving, whether that's just in the financial world or the political world or just in life or just going to the grocery store and getting over sticker shock, whatever the case may be, there's a lot moving, a lot going on. But there's a day coming, we don't know when, when everything will be different. Everything that is so terribly wrong in our world today is going to be set back and it will be fixed. But in the meantime, between now and then, we hope, because hope is what keeps us going, hope for uh tomorrow that enables us to endure the problems of today. I'm so thankful that this isn't all there is for me. Aren't you thankful for that, that I have hope beyond this world? I have hope in a future that is bright one day with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because here's the thing, hope's not always easy, it's not. Sometimes you got to work at it. The Apostle Paul brought hope to a revelation in the world, and he did this because he he was talking directly to the church in Rome, and we've been using this verse in Romans 15 as our base scripture. It says this in in chapter 15 verse number 13: "Now may the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." I just love the way Paul wrote that, the god of hope. Now in diving into the word that I feel like God has for us today, there there's there's a type of hope that you have in life where you're hoping for something, and then there's a type of hope where you're putting that hope in someone. Now if you're hoping for for something, you're hoping for a particular outcome or or a circumstance to work out the way you want it to. You may be like, "I hope I get that job," or you know maybe it's, "I hope I get that that house," or maybe it's, you know, "I hope I get that girl," or it could be, "I hope I get the job and I get the girl and we can get the house." It may be that way, but we we do that, that's towards an outcome, something we have built up in our mind, we want to move forward. Sometimes we hope for something and even though we know it's it's a long shot and there's a remote possibility to happen, we still hoping. It'd be like, uh, you know, the University of Tennessee football team is hoping that they can beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa this year. Maybe, maybe it could happen. I know I lost about half of y'all right now. Some things, sometimes we hope in things that are life and death. "I hope the diagnosis isn't correct. I hope they come back. I hope I don't lose them. I hope it's not this or that." But one day it will be. If it's, if it's not the diagnosis, there's going to be something else one day. And this is the truth, most everything that we have hoped in at some way will disappoint us, it will. You live long enough, it it just happens. Every circumstance, every situation that we're hoping, that it's going to wear out, it's going to give out, it's going to, it's going to fall apart, it's going to melt down, it'll go away. And when that happens, the question then is about the deeper hope that you have in your life, maybe something that I would possibly term as your foundational hope or that fall back hope that you have that is there when all other hopes have disappointed you. What is left there? What's, what's the fallback position when everything has has went away? Because you can put your hope in something, and I'm going to tell you that hope has a name. His name is Jesus. Hope has a name. His name is Jesus. You can hope in him when everything else fades away, when everything else has turned us back, when everything else is broke down and has has just seemingly gone away. I promise you you can put your hope in Jesus. The testimony of the scriptures points to this one. It points to Jesus. Now what I want to do today is I want to talk about this obscure story in the Old Testament. And if you give me, give me an opportunity, just just a little bit of time — I'm not going to be long. That's dangerous when Apostolic preacher says that. It's not my goal to keep you long today, because we want to celebrate him, and I feel in in inside of me this this expectation for what God desires to do at the end of our service today. But I'm going to start off by telling you a story. It's in First Samuel chapter five. And as I read this story, many of the theologians in the room are going to scratch their head like, how in the world is Pastor Kevin going to use this story in the Easter story? And I just want to say, will you give me a minute? Give me a minute, give me a chance. I think I'll, I'll pull it out, because I feel God's directing this this way. So First Samuel chapter 5 verse number three, it says: when they have asked God arose early on tomorrow, the whole Dagon was falling upon his face to the earth before the Ark of the Lord, and they took Dagon and set him in his place again. And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was falling upon his face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold. Only the stump of Dagon was left to him. Now some of you may know this story. I'm quite sure there's there's a good number of you that are not familiar with this story in the Bible. This is very interesting story. It's one that's worth the read. I would encourage you later on to go to First SEMO chapter five and six, facts start with First Samuel four, it really sets it up well, going to five and take you through six and read the story. Some interesting things, some really unique statues they make at some point, just just trust me, go read about it. It's worth a read. But to give you some history today, this this is some 40 years after they have been wandering around the desert, and they come into a land that God had promised them. So to set this up in in a way that hopefully everybody can get their head around, Israel had been in Egypt, and there there's a story that that they start out, it was just a family that moves to Egypt, and a really cool story with Joseph, and he gets set up. But the family gets there and they get established, and everything's going really good for a while. Somewhere along the way, we're not sure when, we're not given the details of the win or even how it happened, but somewhere along the way they became enslaved by the Egyptians. Now they started off as a family, and you fast forward 400 years, and it's easy to say that, but if you really think about, 400 years is quite a long time. We've only been a country 246 years, okay, so as the United States, so it's it's almost double the United States. That's how long they went from just a family. They were prosperous, they were prominent. They became enslaved, and there were so many of them that they were actually referred to as a nation, but they were enslaved with Egypt, and they didn't like it, because they were being abused, they were being taken advantage of, and and they begin to cry out to God. And God hears their cry, and he uses a man named Moses, and he brings his people out. And he tells them, "I've heard you cry, and I want to bring you out. I want to be your God, and I have a land that belongs to you." It was referred to as the promised land. It was something that God said, "I have a place that's going to be yours. It's going to be a land that flows with milk and honey, and it's something that I as God I'm going to give you." And that's where that term Promised Land comes from. It was a promise that God made to the to the nation of Israel, that. So when I say Promised Land, that's that's what I'm referring to, is that. So in our story, they have been in their promised land for a little while, but things had not gone the way that they had necessarily dreamed they were going to go. Now part of that's due to the fact that they were not doing everything they should have done. They had broken some rules. Can you say "break rules"? Yeah, they've broken some rules. And then things were not going according to plan. So they're fighting the Philistines, which is one of their continuous enemies they had in their life. So that's where we are in this story. There's a fight going on with the Philistines. Now the Philistines were interesting folks, and if you read the chapters there, you'll find out they went out to battle to fight, and they lost some seven thousand men. Israel was defeated. They lost seven thousand warriors, 7 000 soldiers were lost that day. And they came back, and it's, and they began to ask a question: "Why has God affected?" If you look at the terms there in the chapter, it says, "Why has God defeated us?" Interesting how they turned to God at this point. They're like, "Why has God defeated us?" And in another way you could say this, "Why has God allowed this to happen?" Anybody ever had a moment in life where things are just not going the way you want them to go, and you, and you've asked yourself, "God, why is this going on?" Anybody, anybody ever thought that, like, "God, why are you allowing this to happen in my life?" That's what's going on here in Israel in this story, is they've been defeated. They're God's people. They're in their promised land, but they're struggling. And the first thing they do is they begin to question, "Why would God allow something like this to happen in my life?" So then all of a sudden they have this great idea: "Hey, we should go back and fight them again. But when we go back to fight them again, we need to take," and here's an interesting term, "the Ark of the Covenant with us." Now for those of you that maybe are not familiar with that term in the Bible, there was a box, for lack of a better way to say it, that God had instructed them to build. And inside that box there were some interesting things. There was some mana, which was the food that God had fed them in the in in the desert when he was leading them from Egypt over to the promised land. There's there's some tablets in there from the law. There was some stuff inside that box. But what was important about that box is it was the place where the presence of God dwelt. It was important, because there is where God was. But but somehow they had, they had, they had misunderstood what the ark really was, and I feel like at this moment they had reduced God to being in a box. So they thought to themselves, let's go get the box where God's at, and we'll take the Ark of the Covenant, that's the name of the box. They'll take the Ark of the Covenant into the fight with us, because that means we're going to take God with us. That's always a great idea, to take God with you. But here's the truth for you, God's everywhere, he's not in a box. But for them, they had reduced God to being in a box, so they're going to take the Ark. In in fact, if you read through those chapters I was telling you there in First Samuel 4, 5, and 6, you'll see that, that when the, when the, when the Ark of the Covenant shows up in the camp with all the army, all of a sudden the army begins to be excited. They begin to yell, and they, "Yes, God is here now, and we're going to defeat our enemy." In fact, they were so loud that the Philistines, who were on the other side of the field, began to ask himself, "What is all that noise coming out of the Israelite camp?" And somehow word got back to them, I'm a guest through some spies, and they said, "Oh, they have brought their God in the box." And and if you read it, the Philistines were afraid: "What are we going to do now?" Because they had heard the stories about what Israel had done to the Egyptians, and how they had defeated Pharaoh's army, and how they defeated other other nations as they came into the land. And Phillip, in the Philistines, were upset. They were very afraid. So as you're reading this, you're thinking, "Hey, this, it seems like it's going to turn out pretty good." It's like the Israelites decided to use their secret weapon — they're, they're God in the box, to march into this — and everything's going to be good. But what's so fascinating about this story is, Israel gets defeated again. They lose some 20 or 30 000 soldiers in this fight, and they lose the box. Now they don't know what to do. Those that are left, they don't know what to do. In fact, the the priest Eli, who was, who was the the prophet there in that day, he, he has, he has two two sons, Hoffman Phineas, interesting characters, who actually die in that battle. Eli, he's, he's some, I believe he's 98 years old at this point, he's sitting by the gate waiting to hear some news. Now the word of God says is he's poor of sight. He's already lost, he's blind at this point. And it also says, some interesting, he was, he was a big fella. He wore husky pants. Only those who wore husky pants in their life know what that means. You know, he, he, he, he was full figure. So he's sitting there on this little stool, and he's waiting. And all of a sudden a runner comes from the battlefield, and he comes back, and he's, he's got his clothes torn, he's got dirt on his head, which is the sign he's in mourning. He shows up, and people begin to talk, and Eli begins to say, "Hey, what's going on? What news from the battlefront?" And as, as the young boy goes up to tell him in the news, he says, "Look," he said, "your sons have died. Off nine Phineas have died. We have lost the battle, and we have also lost the Ark of the Covenant." And at that moment, when he hears that the ark is lost, it says that Eli falls backwards off the stool and breaks his neck and dies. At the same time, his daughter-in-law, Phineas's wife, goes into labor in this moment. This is all those chapters, I tell you, you should go back and read. It's a great story. She goes into labor, and she delivers a son, and the labor of pains are so intense, and they tell them, "Look, be of good cheers," what the King James says, "be of good cheer, you have a son." She pays no attention to that, and decides to name the boy Ichabod. This is, that's not a popular name today. It really wasn't then either, because Ichabod literally translates, "the glory is gone." What am I doing? I'm trying to paint a picture of a pretty desperate, dire situation. It's, it's this situation. All right, well, let's go from the Israelite camp over to the Philistine camp, because the Philistines, guess what they are, man, they are so excited, because they have defeated the Israelites, and they have captured God in the box. So they take God in the box back to their temple, Dagon, which is the story I just read to you to open this story, and they're going to put him in there, because they have defeated the great God of Israel, at least they think they have. They decided to put the box in the temple with Dagon, and they begin to celebrate. They begin to have a party in the beginning of doing all this stuff and that there. So, so day one in this story, there's been a great defeat, and the ark has been lost, and it goes back. So we see, I'm gonna read you again verse number three, First Samuel 5: "And when they have asked out a rose early on tomorrow, the whole Dagon was falling upon his face to the earth before the Ark of the Lord, and they took day gun and set him back up in his place." Now, now the the text doesn't really tell us what those priests that were in that temple were thinking. I wonder if they went and said, "Oh, what happened? There's an accident. Dagon has fallen down. This doesn't look good. This doesn't look good, because it's almost as if he is bowing down to the god in the box. Well, we can't have that." So they, they prop him back up and set him where he's supposed to be, and then they, they go on about the night. Somewhere in the shroud of night, number two, something happens, because they march in on day number three, and things are a little bit different. And then the reason I like this is because this is a three-day story. This is a three-day story. All day long on the second day, Philistines came into the temple, they celebrated their victory, they offer sacrifice, they sing songs under the great God Dagon. But but then that night something happened. The next morning they come in, and not only has Dagon fallen over, but his head has been severed off that statue, his hands have been severed off that statue, and they have been placed neatly in the threshold, and all that's left — and I used the King James specifically for this, because all it says is left is a stump of what once was. Because this is a three-day story. Say, "Three days." This is a three-day story, because we serve a god of the third day. I don't know what kind of battle you've been facing in your life, and I don't care how bleak it's been, I don't care all that you've lost, and I know the price may have been high. I'm quite sure, in a congregation this size today, there's somebody right now who's been in a fight. Something's been going on on day one, not the way you want it to go. But I want you to tell you, we serve the god of the third day. We serve a god of the third day. After losing the battle, and the ark being captured, and the priest of Israel, Eli, dies, his two sons are dead, his daughter-in-law gives birth to a child, her name is it Ichabod, which means the glory is departed. I'm telling you that was not all over. It may have been all over by man's terms and under man's conditions, but we serve a god of the third day. We serve a god of the third day. There's a third day story, because on the third day the story takes 180 degree turn, the idol is cast down, and the time of captivity is over. God is going to come home to his people, because he's the god of the third day. That's the day of hope, the third day. This pattern is repeated time and time again in the Old Testament. Genesis 40 and 13 says, "Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up down ahead and restore thee into thy palace, and thou shalt deliver a Pharaoh's cup into his hand after the former manner in which thou was the battle." This is Joseph interpreting the dream while he's in prison. Exodus 5 and 3 says, "Let us go three days into the wilderness." When the Israelites arrived at Sinai, according to Exodus 19 and 10, consecrate the people and make them ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down. I'm here to tell you, we serve a god of the third day. God does some of his greatest work on the third day. When Israel was threatened with genocide, Esther began to, to come up with a plan, and she said she was going to fast for three days, and then she would go to the king and seek deliverance. When Jonah was swallowed by the well, guess how many days he was there? Three days, because God does some amazing things on day number three. The third day was so frequently used, it became a technical expression, meaning it was a time for weight and deliverance. I don't know where you are. I don't know what's going on right now. Things may be messed up. Hope may be crushed. Your heart may be disappointed. But a better day is coming. Don't give up on the god of the third day. Something special is going to happen. In the book of Hosea chapter 6 verse number one says, "Come and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn and he will heal us. He hath smitten and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us. In the third day he will raise us up." Why? Because he's the god of the third day. But it's Easter Sunday. Jesus shows up on the scene. One day deliverance came in a way that nobody was looking for. It came in a manger, the king of kings and Lord of lords. He didn't come in with, with some kind of great entry according to man's standards, but he came in a manger, literally. John 1 says in verse number 14, 14: "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us." I love the Book of John. I love the Gospel of John. I love how John 1 1 says, his, "In the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." It's establishing some things that are going on. But in verse 14, it says the word became flesh and dwelt among us. That's, that's interesting terminology there. The word dwelt literally means he, he tabernacled among us. Now the reason that that term is important is because the Ark of the Covenant, and remember the box I talked about a few minutes ago, he used to live in the Tabernacle in the wilderness. See, it's really hard to understand Calvary and the significance it has. It's really hard to comprehend Easter if you don't understand the Tabernacle story, if you don't understand what was taking place. Because when it says, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," the world was made flesh and tabernacled among us. He came down to where we are. The presence of God came back to where we are. It's interesting, this glory has appeared. We beheld his glory, the kabbad, the glory of the one and only true God. It came in a strange combination of humility and loneliness and fearlessness. Nobody could tame Jesus. Nobody could, nobody could quiet him, not the politicians, not the zealots, not the religious leaders, nobody. They couldn't manipulate him. They couldn't quiet him. They couldn't stop what he was said in motion. Nobody could make him be quiet. So in the end, those that were in power took him and lashed him and whipped him and beat him and pierced him and hung him on a cross, and they laid him in a tomb, and they thought they had defeated. But he's the god of the third day. He's the god of the third day. They thought, the enemy thought, "I'll silence you." He tempted him in the desert. He overcome those temptations. He tried time and time again to catch him in his words, but Jesus was better than all those things. They had no idea what they were doing, because he is the god of the third day. So there was an end. They didn't know that the first day they put him in the tomb, and it was a dark day. Then his followers, his disciples, were crushed, and they thought they had misunderstood, and they didn't gather all the pieces together the way they, they thought they needed to do. And now he's laid in the tomb. The glory that they had seen, the presence that they experienced, the miracles they had witnessed, it seemed like it was all for nothing. It was lying in a tomb. It was Ichabod, the glory had departed. But that was simply day number one. The second day look any better, because Pilate, who was in charge, was encouraged and instructed for somebody to put a stone over the tomb, so nobody would mess with it, so that there would not be something that would come out of this. He, it needed to be, it needed to be quiet. It needed to be ended once and for all. So he put a guard there. He put multiple guards. They put, they put a rock in front of the tomb to cover it up, and, and as that said, it was like they were trying to put God in a nice little box. But I'm here to tell you, he doesn't belong in a box. He doesn't fit in a box. He doesn't fit in a cage. He doesn't even fit completely inside of your mind. We're never going to be able to fully understand him. And even though it looked dark, and even though it looked bleak, and even though it looked like hope was lost, that was just day number two. The thing about Jesus is, you can't keep him in the grave. You can't keep him in the cage. You can't keep him in a box. He's not a grave kind of guy. And that was the second day. It was dark. It was disappointed. But on the third day, on the third day, on the third day, things were different. When they showed back up, something wasn't quite right, because the god of the third day had defeated death, hell, in the grave. Victory was his. He had kept his word. Even though the enemy thought they won, he showed up and said, "Not yet. I'm the god of the third day." The story of Jesus is a three-day story. What the followers found out was that they could put their hope in him, because hope has a name, his name is Jesus. Because of him, the third day come. The third day is God's day. The third day is when the prisoners are set free. The third day is when they come to the mountains and, and the river is parted. The third day is when, when, when, when little girls like Esther face down powerful, manipulative men. The third day is when people and prophets like Jonah get dropped off of the seaside port by a giant fish. The third day is the day when idols like Dagon come tumbling down, and God starts returning back to his, to his people. The third day is the day that stone gets rolled away. The third day is the day that our savior comes back to life. You never know what God's going to do, because he's the god of the third day. So I don't care how bleak your situation is right now. I don't care what circumstances you're facing in your life. It could be a health, it could be a relationship, it could be financial, it could be depression, it can be anxiety, it could be an addiction, it could be all kinds of change. I'm here to tell you that God is alive and well, and it may have been dark on day one, and it may have been bleak on day two, but honey, it's the third today. It's Resurrection Day. It's Easter today. You have a hope. You have a chance, and his name is Jesus. He's the god of the third day. Oh, worship him right now. We have victory in Jesus. We have victory in Jesus. It's Easter Sunday. He's alive, he's alive, he's alive, he's alive. Yes, day three is the day of victory. Oh, I'm fixing to wrap this up. I told you I'm gonna keep you alone. You can stand or you can say it, it's up to you, but I'm ready to end this message, because I feel like God wants to do something today. From that day to this day, the world's never been the same, because there's never been a hope like we've had until that day. Hope has a name, it's Jesus. Hope has a name, it's Jesus. Things change when I say that name. My circumstances are different when I say that name. There's something inside of me, Well's up different when I say the name Jesus. From the third day on, Jesus's followers, who used to observe the sabbath, now begin instead to observe it on Sunday, but they begin to call in the New Testament the Lord's day. Today is the Lord's day. Today is the Lord's day. You never know what might happen on the Lord's day. The only question is, where are you? What are you hoping for? Maybe it's something wonderful. Maybe it's something grand. Maybe it's something, something for your health. Maybe you need a healing. Maybe, maybe you need a diagnosis change. I don't know if you need it. I'm telling you, this is the third day, this is the Lord's day, this is the day for hope. My question is, what are you putting your ultimate hope in? What's your foundational hope? What's your fallback hope? What are you building your life on? Because a lot of people are putting their ultimate hope in some circumstances or situation or something that's controlled or dictated by man. Maybe it's a job, or it's health, or it's money, a success or security or power or affliction. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know everybody's story here. I don't know what you're putting you in. But I'm asking you right now to think about, what are you putting your hope in? What are you putting your trust in? Because I can tell you this, hope has a name, his name is Jesus. Put your ultimate hope in Jesus. You can do that right now. You can receive life. You can put your life in your eternal destiny in his hands, someone who does not fail, someone who does not disappoint. "Well, you don't know my story, and there's been times when I felt like God has walked away in this." I don't know your story, you're right, but here's what I do know, he's never left me. There have been some dark times in my life. There has been some times when I was trying my best to figure out where he was at, because I had drifted away, because I had made choices and I had made decisions. There's been things that have happened to me in my life that were beyond my control, that I, that I stood back and said, "God, why have you allowed this to happen?" I've had my questions. I've had my moments. But here's what I've seen. This is what I've known, he's never left the righteous forsaken. And even though a lot of things didn't go according to my plan, I realized he had a plan for my life. And as I look back over the last 47 years, I can tell you this, my God has been faithful and he has been true. Things have not always been the way I wanted them to be, but I am still standing here today to tell you he's a good God. He's the god you can build on. He's a god of hope. He's a god of the third day. It's victory day. It's victory day. Jesus Christ died for our sins. He was raised on the third day. Luke 24 is my last verse I'm going to read to you. Verse number 4 says in, "It happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this," about what? They, they showed up and the tomb's empty. Yeah, perplexed is an interesting word, in it? You think, "Wait, what? He was dead and now the tomb's empty?" Two men stood by them in shining garments. Listen, listen to what's going on. "Then as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, 'Why do you seek the living among the dead?'" Listen to me. I got two minutes. I'm gonna be done. I promise I'm gonna end this. We're gonna have move. God's fixing to happen. Verse 6, "He is not here, but it's risen." Listen to me. I thought God was everywhere, right? I'm gonna mess with you just a little bit. All right, so go ahead and stand, just standing, because we're fixing, in this, Pastor Kevin, "I thought God is everywhere, but clearly the the angel said he is not here. Well, how is that possible?" That, in the context of this verse, is the fact that they were looking for the flesh of Jesus. But the complete context is that the angels are declaring he cannot be found among dead things. He can't be found among the dead stuff. So quit going back to the dead stuff in your life looking for him. He's not there. He is risen. He is alive. So many times people today are looking for him in the wrong place. Jesus chooses to demonstrate his power amongst the living. So what I want you to do is to bring that dead thing you have back to the living God. It could be a dead ministry, a dead relationship. It could be a dead body. You can be dead. I don't know what it is. Quit looking among the dead. He is risen. He's alive. I want to worship God right now, and I want you to know these altars are open. We're going to have some baptisms in just a minute. But he's the god of the third day. He's the victorious king of kings and Lord of lords, and he's the god of the third day. So whatever you got dead, I encourage you, bring you to my God. He's alive. Hope has a name, and his name is Jesus. Oh, it's prayer time. It's time to get close to God. Jesus, right now, in this moment, Lord, I pray that you and move, is only you can, God. I pray that you would right every wrong that's in this place, restore what needs to be restored, men what needs to be mended, for put back what needs to be put back. God, take the brokenness of a life and make it beautiful again, in the name of Jesus. Let it be done. It's prayer time, church.