August 16, 2026, Morning Service
Process To Grow Our Hope
Pastor Greg Isom
Paul in the first four chapters of Romans built the case that we are all sinners in need of a Savior. He made it clear to us that we are not saved by works (what we do), but by faith (what we believe in). He began chapter 5 with the word “therefore,” showing us that he had established his point and now was going to begin to build on it. In the last two weeks we have seen the advantages of each of us being “justified by our faith.” First, we are given the peace of God, which is not what the world offers but a peace that even passes our own understanding. Next, we are given access into the grace of God with Him blessing us with much more than we deserve. We also found we are given the ability to “rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” We rejoice in the hope that one day we will see our Lord and Savior when He returns to take us to our eternal home that is so awesome we can’t even imagine what it is like. We spent two messages digging deep into these two verses.
Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (2) through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
When we began this study, I made the statement that this letter to the Roman church (and specifically to each of us) can change your life. The truth is many of us over the years of attending church have become “gospel hardened.” We hear the words faith, peace, grace and hope and dismiss them as “old news,” been there, done that, and heard that sermon. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us that we should never look at the blessings of God in that manner.
Lam 3:22-24 (22) Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. (23) They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. (24) “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”
The Lord’s mercies, His peace, His grace, and the hope we have in Him are all “new every morning!” Our goal here is build a firm foundation of faith upon what the Lord has done for us and continues to do for us each and every day. Dig your roots even deeper into your faith in Christ and wrap you mind around all that God does for us. I pray we follow Jesus each day with a new and refreshed gratitude and vigor. These scriptures are to remind us of these truths to keep us grounded and growing in our faith. As we move forward here, Paul is showing us the process God has put in place for us to grow in our hope towards God, which I believe also grows our faith in God. Here is where we can put the rubber to road and become doers of the Word and not hearers only.
Romans 5:3-5 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; (4) and perseverance, character; and character, hope. (5) Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
“We glory in tribulations;” wait a minute Paul are you crazy or something? Who in the world would take joy in tribulations? Jesus for one. Remember these statements from the Sermon on the Mount?
Matthew 5:10-12 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (11) “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. (12) Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven.”
Jesus is not telling us that we are to enjoy the suffering not because we love pain and discomfort, but we are blessed with tribulations and persecutions which are in reality opportunities for growth. This is the beginning of the process to build our hope stronger. Rejoicing in times of tribulations does not come naturally, but is an act of the Holy Spirit working in our life calling us to something deeper. It is not something we can do on our own. To “become” what God wants us to be, we must “overcome” all the trials that are placed in our path. We can’t control “what” happens to us, but we can control “how we react to it.” Tribulations often leave us feeling alone, helpless, and broken and that is fertile ground for God to work in. When we face trials that are bigger than us, it causes us to turn to our Lord for help and rely on Him for strength and guidance. Paul is challenging us to not to be bogged down by our troubles, but to use them as a springboard to get stronger in our faith, draw us closer to God, and make us reliant on Him. He is instilling within us a new perspective to live by. We build up our strength and grow in our hope and faith by putting them into action in our lives in the face of tribulations.
When we exercise our faith in a time of tribulation and put God’s word to work in our life, we use our tribulation to build our perseverance. We could also place the words endurance and patience into the place of perseverance. Perseverance in Greek means to abide or remain under pressure. This can be applied to the concept of the squeezing process of grapes or olives. A pressure is applied to them to draw out something better. The same is true of us. When the pressures of this world are upon us, we to have to allow God to use that pressure to make us better and stronger. We create a pattern in our lives that now we begin to fall back to as our “default” actions when trials arise. Perseverance is built stronger by repetitions. We saw our faith work before, so we begin to trust God more and more when trials arise.
Perseverance placed into action then begins to build our character. Character is who we are at the core of our being. It is who we are when no one is looking. It is who God knows us as. Character is also not build overnight, it is a process of making good choices and keeping God first in our lives. Our character is the part of us that the Holy Spirit is shaping to be like Jesus. Paul tells us we have the “”mind of Christ.”
1Cor. 2:16 For “WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD THAT HE MAY INSTRUCT HIM?” But we have the mind of Christ.
With the mind of Christ, our character begins to resemble the character of Christ. “God loves me just as I am, but He refuses to leave me that way as He wants me to be just like Jesus.” (Lucado)
To close out this process, Paul now tells us that by enduring tribulations with joy we build up our perseverance which builds our character which leads us to back to our goal of hope. Hope again is the feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Our hope is built stronger by going through this process Paul lays out here for us. I believe we can tie in the growing our hope in Christ to the growing of our faith as well. Just as our physical bodies are made stronger by constant, consistent exercise, we are also made stronger spiritually by exercising our faith and putting it into action through this process.
Notice how Paul ends the explanation of the process of building our hope. Once we have this hope; “hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. The hope we have been given will not fail us because it comes to us by the love of God pouring it into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We are given the hope that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Rom. 8:28) By placing our hope in Jesus, we will never be let down. He comes through every single time.
Once we have been given this hope, now we must walk in faith trusting God to lead us and empower us to become all He created us to be, by overcoming tribulations with joy. Sounds great, but that is still hard to apply to my life! Try looking at it as Paul did:
2Cor. 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. (17) For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, (18) while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
We need to take the perspective of the things that are eternal (our hope of victory in Jesus) and come to grips with this life being only temporary. This life is but for a moment. Our suffering here will not last but we have the hope that this suffering leads us to something better. Something that is eternal.
Rom 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Paul and the early church suffered greatly. He was imprisoned for years, beaten and eventually martyred for his faith. If Paul can grasp this hope that there is something better coming, so can we. Keep your eyes set on the eternal not the temporary. Trust the process. Next time tribulations arise, hit your knees in prayer and thank God for them and ask Him to use them to build up your perseverance, character and hope. You will not be disappointed in the results.