Notes of Faith April 12, 2026
Pastor’s Pen Pulpit Series: Romans 8
June 16, 2002
“SAVED IN HOPE”
Romans 8:24-25
For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
This is Father’s Day, 2002. I’m thankful for where I am today. By the Heavenly Father’s grace I have come a long way since Father’s Day, 1999. Praise His Name. I appreciate my salvation all the more.
Thank God for hope. Paul says,
For in hope we have been saved.
When God saved us, He saved us with a view to hope. While salvation is complete, salvation has not yet been completed. There is more coming!
When you stand before the minister and he pronounces you man and wife, your marriage is complete. However your marriage is not completed until the day God takes one of you home. There is much more coming after you say, “I do” (smile, guys)!
Although promised, we don’t see that hope yet (the coming of Christ and eternal life in Heaven with Him). If we see it, hope would not be hope! The logic – “for who hopes for what he already sees?” This is an incentive to faith. If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with perseverance. We keep on keeping on. Paul says that we wait eagerly for it.
How many things we wait eagerly for – that shiny bike, our first car, graduation, marriage, family, that big promotion, retirement – how even more eagerly should we look forward to seeing our Savior face to face.
Dads, how about it? How is your hope this Father’s Day? Does the future look brighter because you have been saved in hope? Are any of you on the verge of giving up hope? If you are, go over this passage carefully. Nothing will encourage your heart like hope. I guarantee it. If I had not set this hope before me, I don’t think I would have made it. Jesus Christ became more real than ever during those dark days in Mirada Hills.
Let’s close out by looking again at this precious passage:
For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
God bless. Love to you all,
Pastor Charles Covington
Ps 42:5-6
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation 6 and my God.
Ps 71:5-6
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
6 Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
you are he who took me from my mother's womb.
My praise is continually of you.
Ps 71:14-16
I will hope continually
and will praise you yet more and more.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all the day,
for their number is past my knowledge.
16 With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;
I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.
Ps 119:49-50
Remember your word to your servant,
in which you have made me hope.
50 This is my comfort in my affliction,
that your promise gives me life.
Ps 119:116
Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live,
and let me not be put to shame in my hope!
Rom 5:1-2
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Rom 8:23-24
We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved.
Rom 15:4
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Rom 15:12-13
12 And again Isaiah says,
"The root of Jesse (Jesus) will come,
even he who arises to rule the Gentiles (all people except the Jews);
in him will the Gentiles hope."
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Do you hope in God and His work today? Come to Jesus, in faith, believing that He is God the Son, your Lord and Savior, and be filled with true HOPE!
Pastor Dale