#1 Moments of Hope with Pastor Jerry Rice

On December 17, 1927, a USS S-4 (SS-109) submarine was accidentally rammed by a Coast Guard destroyer and sank to the ocean floor off Cape Cod near Provincetown, Massachusetts. Rescue and salvage operations were immediately commenced lead by Admiral Frank Brumby, Captain Ernest King, Lieutenant Henry Hartley, and Commander Edward Ellsberg, but the rescue operation was hindered by severe weather. Heroic efforts were made to rescue six known survivors trapped in the forward torpedo room, who had exchanged a series of signals with the rescue force divers, by tapping on the hull. As the trapped men used the last available oxygen in the sub, they sent a morse-coded message, “IS THERE ANY HOPE?”
We live in a day of great uncertainty. We have been hit hard by a destroyer called Corona. Rescue and salvage operations have been put in place by our government, the medical field, and local officials to protect us and save us from this deadly virus. The question that many ask is the same as those trapped in the sunken submarine, “IS THERE ANY HOPE?” David answers that question in Psalm 42. He was facing devastating circumstances, but instead of panicking he remembers where salvation comes from, GOD! Hear the words of David, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God”(vs. 5-6a, NIV).
David was simply saying, I refuse to look down, I will lookup. I refuse to live in fear, I will live in faith. I will not live in despair, I will live in hope. As I put my hope in God, I know that things will begin to change. I will live to praise Him for His salvation over my circumstances. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning”(Psalm 30:5, KJV). PUT YOUR HOPE IN GOD!