Colossians 1:3–8 (ESV)
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

To Paul, this church had a noble reputation. This church was apparently well known, famous if you please, for how they lived.

From what Paul says about this church, we can answer the question:
WHAT SHOULD A CHURCH BE FAMOUS FOR?

The last two days we saw that the Church should be famous for its…
1. FAITH SOUNDLY DEFINED (verses 3-4a)
2. LOVE SPLENDIDLY DISTRIBUTED (verses 3-4)

The Church should also be famous for its…
3. HOPE SECURELY DEPOSITED (3-5a)

3 “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven…”

The NIV describes the hope as “stored up” in heaven.

Hope is not wishful thinking.
If a teenager hopes to save enough money to buy a car this summer and doesn’t even have a job, that’s wishful thinking.

But if Daddy promises him that this summer he was going to buy his child a car, the teenager can live in the hope of the promise of his daddy.

While our human daddies may fail us, our Heavenly Father will never fail us when He makes us a promise.

That’s what hope is: it is the certain anticipation of things to come in the future BASED UPON THE PROMISES OF GOD.

The Christian lives in the hope of the promises that God has made to him.
We live in THE HOPE OF THE RESURRECTION:
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Paul, standing before the Jewish Council said in Acts 26:6, “…It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”

Peter exclaimed, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” (1 Peter 1:3)

We live in THE HOPE OF THE RETURN OF CHRIST:
John 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

Acts 1:10-11 “And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’”

We live in THE HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE:
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Paul speaks in Titus 1:2 about living “in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began..”

We live in THE HOPE GIVEN TO US BY THE GOD OF HOPE:
Romans 15:13 “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.”

BUT HOW DID THEY RECEIVED THIS HOPE? (Colossians 1:5-8)

It came to them through the hearing of “the word of truth, the Gospel” (v.5). Verse 6 speaks that there came a day when they heard the gospel. After hearing it, they came to understand God’s grace in all its truth.

Do you remember when you first heard God’s grace and understood it? When you realized you were a sinner and could not save yourself? When you realized that God loved you just like you were and that Jesus died for you?

Verse 7 indicates that Epaphras, one of Paul’s fellow servants, was the one who first went to Colossae and brought them the gospel. “…you learned it from Epaphras.”

How did they receive this hope? Somebody told them.