Our Hope, Joy and Crown of Rejoicing

Driving home: Some measure of confident expectation based upon some solid facts that give you a ground to hope, to confidently expect.

Martin uses the story of George Doxy waiting for his bride, Anne, at their wedding to illustrate the biblical meaning of 'hope' as confident expectation, not just a wish, because he knew she would appear.

Now the word hope, in the sense that Paul used it, did not mean hope in terms of I hope it won't rain on Saturday, but it's hope in the sense that George Doxy had hope yesterday. It was my privilege to join them, George and Anne, in marriage, in a little country town a little north of Atlanta, Georgia, yesterday morning at 10.30, and as I came out with the other minister and George and then his brother Paul and then his brother Alan and then another friend, and as I watched George out of the corner of my eye, fixing his gaze at the back of the church where Anne was going to come, George was ho...

4:59 - 5:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It was the symbol that he had attained, that which he pursued with all of his might and with all of his effort, and then from that time to the time he died, when anyone would come to his home and go to his trophy chest, …

Paul's 'crown of rejoicing' is compared to an athlete's victory wreath or an Olympic gold medal, symbolizing the attainment of a goal for which one has striven with great effort and dedication.

And Paul apparently uses a figure from the athletic world. Some commentators conjecture that since he was at Corinth, maybe Paul unbent the bowl one Saturday afternoon, or some Wednesday afternoon, and went out to the Roman games, and perhaps had seen one of the victors in one of the games with the wreath, the victory wreath placed upon him. You remember he says in 2 Timothy 2, the athlete is not crowned except he strive or contend lawfully, except he keeps the rules. Now what is that wreath to the athlete?

8:21 - 9:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider what your hope, joy, and crown of rejoicing truly are in your life right now. Is it sensual pleasure, having no goal, or acquiring material things?

Martin recounts mulling over the text under a large tree in Athens, Georgia, which led him to the realization that Paul's hope, joy, and crown were not temporal things, emphasizing the eternal nature of true Christian pursuits.

qualitative analysis of their work the second thing note the kind of things which should be our hope and joy and crown of boasting and this struck me so forcibly sitting under a huge tree that probably has been standing for close to two hundred years down in the middle in the yard there outside of Atlanta in the little town of Athens as George and Ann were going in late Friday night to visit a grandmother who's ninety-five years of age and I was mulling over the words of this text and the thought struck me what was Paul considering his hope

26:31 - 27:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider what your hope, joy, and crown of rejoicing truly are in your life right now. Is it sensual pleasure, having no goal, or acquiring material things?

The rigorous training of athletes like Jim Ryan and Herb Elliot (running 20 miles a day, in sand dunes) is used to illustrate the intense dedication required to attain a 'crown' (gold medal), paralleling Paul's focused pursuit of an eternal crown.

his joy his crown of rejoicing was it anything that could be touched by time and eroded by the world of sense and of time absolutely not follow the parallel for the athlete it's that gold metal that is his hope his joy his crown of rejoicing and everything in life is governed toward the attaining of that crown everything Paul says that in 2 Corinthians 2 Timothy 2 he that striveth for mastery is temperate in all things have any of you ever read the account of how a man like hmm you can see his face

27:15 - 28:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider what your hope, joy, and crown of rejoicing truly are in your life right now. Is it sensual pleasure, having no goal, or acquiring material things?

These examples are used to contrast worldly 'crowns of rejoicing' (stuffed animals, conquests, material acquisitions) with Paul's eternal crown, highlighting the foolishness of pursuing temporal joys.

and that crown is to have stand with me have standing with me when the Lord Jesus comes again the fruit of my labors a crown that is not corruptible for the fisherman for the hunter what is the crown the hope the cause of rejoicing it's his prize catches stuffed and hung up on the wall or mounted that's the hunter and the fisherman's prize crown of rejoicing for the lecture for the immoral man it's telling about his conquest of lecturing for the covetous man telling you his gains his material acquisitions

28:44 - 29:28 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that Paul's motivation for enduring opposition was the eternal reward of seeing transformed lives, encouraging believers to adopt this eternal perspective to…

Martin humorously states that Paul would have 'snubbed' Dale Carnegie, emphasizing that Paul did not use unholy arts of adaptation or compromise his message to be popular or less offensive.

As Paul labored, and he did labor in the gospel, he met opposition everywhere he went. Dale Carnegie hadn't appeared on the scene, and if he had, Paul would have snubbed him anyway. He didn't learn that unholy art of being a religious chameleon or chameleon. Chameleon.

35:38 - 35:57 Read in full sermon