Rumors

Sometimes it's funny to live in a major college town. Especially in our state, a southern state with no professional sports team, the flagship state university team becomes a focal point. In fact, here they call it the "Razorback Nation".

In case you missed it - after all, you have much better things to be doing - our football coach resigned this week. His final year was filled with controversy, and after the last two seasons rumors flew that he was gone. This time, those rumors were true. For lack of something better to do, the rumor mill then turned to his successor. Those rumors are running high tonight.

Why do I waste my time on this topic? Simply this: the world is full of gossip, rumor, innuendo, games, double-talk. Sometimes we let it make us cynical and we start treating God's promises as, well, rumors. As "I'll believe it when I see it." We forget that biblical hope is not worldly hope. Worldly hope is glorified wishful thinking. Biblical hope, however, is a certainty based on fact. It is the unseen outcome of God's promises.

When I see the craziness surrounding a mere football program, I run even more to the stable, sure word of God. Tonight I encourage you, when you see the craziness surrounding whatever world system you're in the middle of, to run to God's promises. Don't let the world cause you to see them as rumors. Grab on to the examples of faithful believers, and enjoy the ride!

You'll never find anything more rock-solid!

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Rom 4:16-25)