God's Love, Our Hope

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church.  The Bible verses used are Psalm 51.

            One of the most important parts of the Christian faith is hope.  The Apostle Paul says that God is a God of hope.  He also says that, in the end, there are three things that will remain:  faith, hope, and love.  He says the most important of them is love, but faith and hope are very important, too.

Our psalm for tonight shows us why hope is so important.  Look at what the author of the psalm says about himself.  He says, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.”  He says he has done what is evil in God’s sight.  He says that he was sinful from birth, and in fact he was sinful before he was born, because he says he was “sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”

            That’s someone with a pretty low opinion of himself.  The author of that psalm is definitely not trying to make anyone think he’s better than he is.  He’s not trying to fool anyone.  He’s not even trying to fool himself, which is always a temptation.  He is quite honest about who he is and what he has done.

            Can you relate to that?  There are times when I can.  I mean, I like to think of myself as a pretty good person, but when I’m honest with myself I know I fail a lot.  I know there are plenty of sins I commit over and over again, every single day.  I know I’m every bit as much a sinner as anyone else, and probably more so than a lot of people.

            When we think of ourselves that way, it can be easy to get discouraged, even depressed.  And when you look at the author of the psalm’s description of himself, you might think he’d feel that way, too.  Again, he says he’s been a sinner since he was conceived, he has done evil, he’s always being confronted with his own sin.  It’s no fun to think of yourself that way.  And yet, the author of the psalm is not discouraged or depressed at all.  He cries out to God, but not in desperation or despair.  The author of this psalm cries out to God in hope.

            He hopes for mercy--the psalm starts off by saying “Have mercy on me, O Lord, according to your unfailing love.”  He prays that God will “wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”

            The author of the psalm says this in complete hope.  He knows he’s a sinner.  He knows God has no obligation to have mercy on him or do anything for him at all.  And yet, he has every hope that God will have mercy on him.  It’s not a forlorn, desperate hope.  It’s a completely confident hope.  He has said all these terrible things about himself, and yet he says to God, “Cleanse me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.”  

            And in fact, he has more hope than that.  He believes that God can do more than just wash away his sins.  He believes God can make him a completely different person.  Listen to this:  “Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a right spirit within me...Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”  

            Think about all the things the author of this psalm is saying.  He knows he’s a sinner.  He knows he’s failed.  He knows he has no right to expect anything from God.  And yet he asks all these things of God, and he asks them in complete confidence, without fear.  He is completely hopeful that God is going to do what he has asked.  He believes God will have mercy on him, God will wash away his sins, and God will make him a new person, a person with a right and willing spirit.

            Can you relate to that?  That one might be a little tougher.  Do we have enough trust in God to believe that God will do those things for us?  Do we trust God enough to believe God will have mercy on us?  Do we believe God will wash away our sins?  Do we believe God will truly make us new people, people with a right and willing spirit?

            It can be hard to trust God that much.  It’s hard because we know we don’t deserve those things from God.  And we know God has no obligation to give them to us.  There is no real reason for God to have mercy on us and wash away our sins and make us new people.  And so it can be hard to believe that God will actually do that for us.

            And so the question is, do we really believe that God loves us?  Because that’s the only reason God would have to do those things for us--love.  In fact, it shows how faith, hope, and love are related, because it’s our faith in God’s love that gives us hope.  The only way we can believe that God would have mercy on us and wash away our sins and make us new people is if we believe God loves us.

            So, do we believe God loves us?  Do you believe that God loves you?

            That’s not always easy, either.  We’ve said that God is not obligated to do anything for us.  So God does not have an obligation to love us.  And we know that we have done nothing to earn God’s love.  So why should God love us?

            The thing is, love is never something we earn.  If someone says, “I’ll love you as long as you do this and that and something else”, that’s not really love.  That’s a business transaction, a quid pro quo.  Love, to be love, is always a gift.  Love has to be a gift.  It’s not something we deserve.  It’s something we’re given, freely and willingly, with no expectation of anything in return.

            That’s the kind of love God gives us.  But still, it can be hard to believe it.  If it’s hard for you, think about this.

            If you think about it, love is the only reason that God would’ve created us at all.  What other reason could there be?  God is complete in and of Himself.  There’s nothing we can do for God that God cannot do without us.  In fact, God could probably do everything better and easier without us--the chances are we just mess things up and get in the way.  God does not need us at all.  And God was complete in heaven.  Yet, God created all this other stuff, all this stuff that God, in and of Himself did not need.  God created the universe.  God created the earth.  God created the land and the oceans and the plants and the fish--and everything else. 

God did all of that--for us.  For you and for me.  So we would have life.  So we would have a place to live that life.  So we would have food to eat and clothes to wear and everything else.  And God created lots of us, so we could always have someone to love and so we could always have someone who loved us.  So we would never have to be alone.  God created all of this just for us.  It’s all God’s gift to us.  The only reason for God to do that is love.  

            Our knowledge of God’s love is what gives us hope.  A God who loves us will always show us mercy, if we go to God and sincerely ask for it.  A God who loves us will always forgive our sins and wash them away, if we go to God and sincerely ask for that forgiveness.  A God who loves us will always give us another chance to be new people, the people God wants us to be, if we’re truly willing to take that chance.

            God wants to create a clean heart in us.  God wants to grant us a willing spirit.  If we truly want those things, God will always give them to us, because God loves us.

            God will give them to us, but we need to be willing to receive them.  And the way we show that is by doing what the author of the psalm does--offer God our hearts.  He says, “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”

            The way we receive that clean heart is to give it to God.  The way to have a willing spirit is to join our spirit with God’s Holy Spirit.  If we are willing to allow God to lead us, if we are willing to surrender our desires to God’s desires, if we are willing to give up our own will to follow God’s will, if we really mean what we say in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done”, then we will have that clean heart and that willing spirit.

            That does not mean we’ll suddenly be perfect.  We won’t be, not while we’re on earth.  Even if we truly desire to let God lead us and surrender to God’s will, there will still be times when we mess up.  We will always have to battle our own sinful nature, and no matter how hard we try to we’ll still slip sometimes.  But when we do, we simply need to ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness again.  And we can ask that in confident hope, knowing that God loves us and that God will give those things to us if we ask for them sincerely and willingly.  And God will give us yet another chance to be the new people God wants us to be.

            You and I can always rely on God’s love.  It’s a love that gives us hope.  It’s a love we can count on.  It’s a love that we always be there for us, because it’s a love that’s given to us as a gift from God.