Introduction: Into a dark world, Jesus came bringing HOPE to the darkness. It is pretty much a given that you will experience difficult and painful times in your life. To travel through life’s trouble successfully, you HOPE. Humanity longs for HOPE – hoping the future will be better than the present. Placing your HOPE in the wrong things is a common mistake. Where do you turn when circumstances seem hopeless? Where do you find HOPE?

1. Hope is Essential 
• “The same happens to all who forget God. The hopes of the godless evaporate.”  Job 8:13 NLT
• “So, I looked for good, but evil came instead. I waited for the light, but darkness fell.”  Job 30:26 NLT
• In the middle of the darkest days hope comes. (Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6-7; Micah 5:2-5)
• HOPE longs for the morning in the middle of the night.

2. Hope is Eternal
• “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.”  Psalm 30:5 NLT
• “His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of His ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!”  Isaiah 9:7 NLT

3. Hope is Jesus
• “Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge…”  Psalm 62:5-6 NLT
• “I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”  Philippians 4:12-13 NLT

Conclusion:
“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”  Romans 15:13 NLT