Mars Hill Fellowship

MESSAGE |

The God of Our Hope

SERIES |

Finding God

SCRIPTURE |

Acts 17:29-33

SPEAKER |

Pastor Joseph Ardayfio

KEY THEME |

Above all things, God is the foundation of our hope for this life and the life to come because God’s justice will ultimately prevail and how we live our lives each day will make a difference for eternity.  

I.         Hope is what keeps us anchored in the midst of life. It is a feeling of confident expectation and desire for the future. We all inherently have some type of hope, the question is whether our hope is founded in something/someone sturdy enough to anchor us through the storms of life.

II.         We are accountable for responding to God’s revelation of himself shown throughout all of creation.

1. The Apostle Paul challenged the Areopagus because their altar to “THE UNKNOWN GOD” meant that they knew that there was something more in the world but they were comfortable with doing the least possible work for the maximum benefit.
2. In the same way, our culture promotes a practice of acknowledging God without engaging in an effort of really KNOWING Him through a personal relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ.
3. If God is truly real, then we must submit to his authority, and obey his instructions. God’s main instruction to all of mankind is to repent or change course from living a self-centered life to living a God-centered life.

III.         When the reality of God’s existence settles in – it causes us to make God the foundation of our HOPE for this life and the life to come.

1. We ought to have hope that how we live our lives each day makes a difference for eternity.
2. We ought to have hope that God is just. Although we see injustice all around us, when Christ returns, God will restore all things back to His perfect order.
3. We ought to have hope that Christ is advocating on our behalf. God’s justice shouldn’t scare us but give us hope since we know that when Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, he advocates on our behalf even when we are the ones guilty of injustice.
4. We ought to have hope that the down-payment securing our eternal destiny has already been made by God through Jesus Christ. God will not abandon His people or His promises. God has shown his commitment to us by sending His Son to the earth in human flesh, allowing Him to die for the sins of mankind, and most of all, raising Him from the dead!

Scripture Index:

Acts 17:21-33

Psalms 33:16-17
Romans 1:18-23 

thoughts for further study

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