I Set My Hope On Jesus

This week, we're learning a new hymn, "I Set My Hope on Jesus," written by Keith Getty, Matt Papa, and Matt Boswell. It's a hymn that addresses the three main areas where our faith is tested throughout our lives; doubt, temptation and failure, and perseverance. How do we respond when our faith is tested? How should we respond?

The answer to the first question is largely situational. We may respond to doubt with anger and frustration or more doubt. We may respond to failure and temptation by giving up. And the same response might be ours when we stray from our faith and follow the world's call. I have stood at these crossroads at one time or another, as I'm sure you have too. 

The answer to the second question is found below.

Verse 1:
When this life of trials tests my faith
I set my hope on Jesus
When the questions come and doubts remain
I set my hope on Jesus
For the deepest wounds that time won’t heal
There’s a joy that runs still deeper
There’s a truth that’s more than all I feel
I set my hope on Jesus

When Peter stepped out of the boat and walked on the water, his faith supported him. But he quickly began to sink as he reached the limit of that same faith. Jesus displays that he will not reject us because of the limits of our faith. But He asks us, as he did Peter, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:31). The disciples all had doubt in their hearts that day. Even after that day, they still had doubts. Maybe a little less doubt, but they still doubted nonetheless. But even when we have doubts and our faith fails us, Jesus does not. Jesus never takes his eyes off of us, even when we take our eyes off of Him. 

Verse 2:
Though I falter in this war with sin
I set my hope on Jesus
When I fail the fight and sink within
I set my hope on Jesus
Though the shame would drown me in its sea
And I dread the waves of justice
I will cast my life on Calvary
I set my hope on Jesus

Paul does not mince words in Romans 3:23. "All fall short." Regardless of where you come from, where you were born, and how you were raised, we are all in desperate need of God's mercy and grace. The Apostle John tells us, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Of that, Matthew Henry writes, "The Christian faith is the religion of sinners...Penitent confession and acknowledgment of sin are the work of believers and the means of their deliverance from guilt. Our encouragement in this: the righteousness and mercy of God, to whom we make such confession. God is faithful to his word, in which he has promised forgiveness to the penitent, believing confessors. He is also merciful and gracious and will therefore forgive contrite confessors all their sins and cleanse them from the guilt of all unrighteousness."

Verse 3:
Though the world call me to leave my Lord
I set my hope on Jesus
Though it offer all its vain rewards
I set my hope on Jesus
Though this heart of mine is prone to stray
Give me grace enough to finish
’Till I worship on that final day
I set my hope on Jesus

The world offers but one end. Death. The whole book of Ecclesiastes makes this point over and over again. "Though it offer all its vain rewards" could've been written by Solomon himself. Everything the world has to offer is temporary at best. For eternity, there are but two options - heaven or hell. In his famous book "Mere Christianity," C.S. Lewis writes, "Aim at heaven, and you will get earth thrown in; aim at earth, and you will get neither. 

Chorus:
I set my hope on Jesus
My rock, my only trust
Who set His heart upon me first
I set my hope on Jesus

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:1-2).

This is the answer to the second question. We set our hope on Jesus.



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