A Sermon
Delivered on Wednesday Evening, March 18th, 2026, by
Evangelist PAUL ACQUAH,
Live on MZ Radio London, London UK
What do you see when you look at your future? Is it a blank canvas, waiting to be filled by chance? Or perhaps a dark and stormy scene painted by your present circumstances? For many, the future is a place of uncertainty – a vague wish for something better. But for the child of God, there is a different kind of vision. It is a picture painted not by fear, but by faith. It is a masterpiece of confident expectation, grounded not in optimism, but in the promises of a God who cannot lie. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith gives substance to the things we hope for. That means hope is not empty – it is alive. Biblical hope is the active, confident expectation of good. It refuses to look at the world’s “what if” because it is anchored in God’s word. In today’s message titled “Hope inspires expectation,” Evangelist Paul Acquah explores how hope shapes our expectations, paints a picture beyond our present reality, and anchors us in the certainty of God’s promises.
Be blessed as you listen!
The relationship between hope and expectation is an important part of spiritual life. Hope is not just a vague “wish,” but rather the active, confident expectation of good in the future based on God’s Word (Hebrews 11:1). Hope is the foundation for expectation. Hope is the confident anticipation of good, which serves as the breeding ground for expectation. Hope paints a picture of great expectation that the Lord has for us. That’s why he says I’ve prepared good things beforehand for you, meaning there’s this future that is already written for you. Some of us like to plan things out and we have the whole day, the whole week, the whole year. six weeks in advance, everything is planned out. Sometimes when we think about God having everything already in motion and already planned out, we can get a little bit rebellious. You may say ‘well nobody tells me what I’m going to do with my life. But here’s the thing with the love of God: God’s love for you is that those good things planned for you are only amazing.
See how God planned your life. “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You, for [g]I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. 15 My [h]frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret, And skilfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth 16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book, they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them” (Psalm 139:16).
“Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified[a] you; I [b]ordained you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:4).
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11)/
0 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
He chose us in love even before the foundation of the world. So you were on the heart and thoughts of God(Psalm I39:16; Jeremiah 29:11; Ephesians 2:10). We are invited into this plan of God, this creation of God, this destination of God. You were planned before the foundation of the world in love because he’s saying I know that I’ve got a plan for you and it’s good, and it’s beautiful. Not only did he plan us, he called us and chose us that we should be holy and blameless before him. So I’m really excited about sharing with you about this hope because what happens is, this hope painting a picture of great expectation. Not just thinking oh I hope God does it but having hope in the God of hope that if he said it, then he will bring it to pass. ‘I know God is at work’ so all we need to do is to cooperate with him.
Let me share another scripture with you today. I like this scripture so much because there’re so much beautiful word pictures in this verse. Romans chapter 15 verse 13 in the ESV says,
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. May the God of hope, I love that, not a God of despair, not the God of bad news, not the God of tests, difficulties, trials, persecution and disappointment. This is the God of hope that’s our God hallelujah. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.This is powerful. You and I get filled with all the joy and peace in believing. In believing what? That he’s the God of hope, a good future for us. good things planned for you, that he has created and prepared us and equipped us with every good thing so that we could be prosperous in everything that we need.
Our hope is in Christ, and in the word of God. You look in the word of God which is our spiritual mirror that shows you and I who we are supposed to be. Now this hope, which is our conviction starts to be something in our hearts that’s bigger than our plans. So now we are anchoring our belief to the word of God. And that’s what causes this hope painting a picture of great expectation. So, we wait with expectation. Hope requires waiting on God, knowing that our expectation comes directly from Him, rather than from people or circumstances. We need to believe that the word says it. Jesus said it. Jesus did it. He declared it so that’s mine. I don’t know how it’s going to work. I don’t know when that’s going to happen, God, this is all going to be you. But I believe it. Well, then that’s the conviction of things not seen because we don’t see them in the natural, but you’re seeing them in the word of God. So, you start attaching your hope to that. I know my God is well able, so I have great expectation. Hope is not just wishing for things, but having a deep, settled confidence in God’s goodness and His promises.
