A Little Hope Goes a Long Way

A Little Christmas Goes a Long Way.  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  38:37
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Intro

Advent: Taking time to commemorate the coming of Christ. This Sunday the prophecy candle and hope.
Christmas can be a time of year where there is much joy and celebration, but it can also be filled with challenges that often go unspoken or unattended.
Main Idea: Captives Hope to be Set Free
With Christmas time comes other Christmas classics, including one of my favorites by Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol”.
In this story lies one of the most challenging characters.
Ebenezer Scrooge. Looking at the man, you would think that he would never change his ways. He is an old curmudgeon. “Bah! Humbug!” Scrooge would proclaim if you suggest anything pleasant or kind.
In Dickens’ own words,
“Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days, and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.”
It seemed as if Scrooge was a man set in his ways. Very unpleasant, unloving. A lover of self and not of others.
It wasn’t until the appearing of the ghost of Scrooge’s deceased partner, Marley, that Scrooge would even consider changing. Marley, after being judged by the powers of the beyond, is cursed to walk around as a ghost, carrying with him the chains that he forged in life, link by link, according to his own free will.
And upon seeing Marley, Scrooge thinks upon his own life, upon the fathoms of chains that he would be doomed to lug around were he to die that very moment.
His own life, his own desires, were forging the very chains of his captivity. A captivity from which his soul would never have a change to leave upon death.
And in that moment Scrooge was afraid. He was advanced in years and there was no comfort to be had in any of his works. He seemed destined to wander as a ghost, carrying the weight of the chains from his sins. There seemed to be no hope left for him. And from many of the outsider’s perspective, he seemed to be a man beyond hope.
And we all know the type. Maybe it’s one of your neighbors. Maybe it’s a relative or a coworker or someone you serve at work. It’s the man or woman so frozen in their own ways that they refuse to listen to anyone who talks to them.
'Bah! Humbug!' They say when you speak to them.
They insist on their own way. And it seems that the best answer to them is to let them be because no matter how hard you try you won’t be able to move them. They are as stubborn as an ox. Their fate is one of bondage. Their destiny like that of scrooge, held captive by sin.
And if we spend any amount of time in introspection, we would find the same attitude within ourselves.
We love ourselves. We love the things which make us feel good, even when we know they are wrong. We pursue them and chase after them because so often we’re hooked on a feeling. And the desires of your heartly flesh speak to you. They say, “Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to listen to your nagging mother-in-law or children, but just be able to speak your mind?” “Wouldn’t it be nice to run this business your way instead of working for someone else?” “A little taste of the cake isn’t going to harm anyone.”
The sinful heart of humans has been there from the beginning. “A little bite of the forbidden fruit isn’t going to do you any harm.”
Like Scrooge, we are all held captive by our own vices. And without hope, there is no chance of freedom from our chains.

Captives

And God loves us enough to tell us this. He speaks the hard truth that we need to hear about our destiny under sin.
Romans 3:10–18 ESV
as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
and then Romans 3:23
Romans 3:23 ESV
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
All humans are captive to their own passions and flesh, headed toward ruin and misery.
And looking at history, we see this is the case for every single person. Even in Israel, the holy nation which God called out of Egypt for himself, turned away to pursue their own passions.
It was for their sin that Israel, the covenant people of God, were sent into exile. The natural state of sin is toil and futility. It has been from the beginning.
Bitterness awaits all mankind. Captivity is the consequence for sin.
And it might seem that there’s no hope. You can’t break the cycle of sin that you are in. You are feeding the passions of your flesh and like a dog returns to its vomit so you are returning to your sin. (Pause)
But the story’s not over.
There’s hope for you, Scrooge. There’s hope for you to shun the path of sin and eternal punishment.

Hope

Despite where you’re at right now, there is hope.
Isaiah 9:2 ESV
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
And what is hope?
Hope is something that allows you to keep holding on despite your circumstances. (pause)
There was an article yesterday about a man who was rescued after falling off a cruise ship. He floated in the ocean 19 hours before he was found off the coast of Florida. The coast guard was saying usually the longest a person can survive on their own in the ocean is 10 hours at best. But this man had hope of being rescued. He held on to the hope of being found, so he persevered through the cold, through his tiredness, through his exhaustion. And after 19 hours he was rescued.
How long are you willing to hold onto hope so that you may be rescued? (pause) If we lose sight of hope, and we give into the waters of our sin and we are brought to the depths because of it, there will be no new life.
There are many who lose sight of hope in this life, and they give up. They give into the results of sin. They delve headfirst into endless drugs or passions because they have no hope of being rescued. They are content to sink because they don’t think anyone else cares. They themselves no longer care. So they’ve given up.
But what does the Lord say?
Matthew 7:7 ESV
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Matthew 7:8 ESV
For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
For those who hope for rescue from sin, a way of rescue has been given. God is a good and gracious God. He is a God of second chances. Even when we fail him and we are chasing after our own selves and are building more chains to our bonds of sin, God makes a way. He provides an answer to the bondage. A hope.
A Hope.
And this hope came as a person.
Isaiah 7:14 ESV
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Who is the one who has been born of a virgin? Jesus Christ. Immanuel means “God with us”. He is the holy God made flesh. He is God who came to dwell with us so that we might have a hope. He is the light of heaven who broke into our world of darkness.
He is the long-anticipated savior from captivity, savior from sin and death. The one whom the prophets spoke about.
Did he live up to the expectation?
Yes, yes he did.
Jesus Christ sets us free from the bondage of sin.

To be Set Free

Isaiah 53:4 ESV
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
Isaiah 53:5 ESV
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:6 ESV
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Through his death on the cross, Jesus took all the chains of your sin upon himself. And he gave you the works of his life. The perfect man who never sinned against God did not forge any chains. Thus, he gave you the gift of being free.
Isaiah 12:1 ESV
You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me.
Isaiah 12:2 ESV
“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”
Jesus is our hope. He is the one who frees us from the bondage of sin, who lifts the burden and the weight of sin from our shoulders.
Titus 3:3 ESV
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
Titus 3:4 ESV
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
Titus 3:5 ESV
he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
Titus 3:6 ESV
whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
Titus 3:7 ESV
so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Hope of eternal life. No longer are we captives, doomed to sin. No longer do we wear the chains of our sin that weigh us down. But Christ gives us the power to say no to sin when it comes our way. This is the power of Christ. This is the power of the Emmanuel, the God who is with us. He has not abandoned us.
And our response to being set free?
Well, like Proverbs 10:28 says,
“The hope of the righteous brings joy”
Those who are set free from captivity through the hope of Jesus Christ have joy.
They are able to sing hallelujah! because their hope springs eternal.
Hope from a man, Jesus Christ.
Jumping back to “A Christmas Story” by Charles Dickens, we catch a glimpse of what a redeemed life looks like. After the visitation of the three other ghosts and upon realizing that he has a second chance, Scrooge changes. He repents of his ways and turns to live the life of a good man, serving others and pouring richly into his community.
Like Scrooge, Christians have undergone a life-transforming event. They’ve come face-to-face with their future, and they have repented of their deeds. And through hope in Jesus Christ, their chains are removed. They are now able to celebrate and live different lives because of hope. When our bonds of sin are removed, there ought to be a celebration of joy. We ought to be a people who live in worship of God because of his great acts. We ought to be a people who celebrate and keep the hope that we have.
But it’s not always easy to keep, is it?
For those who have experienced redemption and freedom because hope in Jesus Christ, you know that it’s not necessarily an easy trek afterward. There are still challenges that we face. We still live in a dark world. We still daily have to take up our cross to follow Jesus Christ.

Losing Sight of Hope

And maybe there are those of you out there this season who are losing sight of hope. So what do you do when your faith feels thin? What do you do when that ray of hope that was once so clear seems to be shrouded over by clouds? What do you do when you face your own trials of sickness or addiction or tears and pain?
Well, my encouragement to you is this: A little bit of hope goes a long way.
It starts with a little bit of hope, returning to the hope that there is in Christ. Once we return to him and think about who he is and what he has done for us, our hope returns. And it just takes an initial spark to cause that repentance within us.
1 Peter 1:3 ESV
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,
God gives us a living hope. Once you have been freed from the shackles of your sin, you have the continual freedom of Christ. He paid for your sin once and for all! There is no need to get wrapped up in a cycle of shame.
And we are called to action around this hope:
1 Peter 1:13 ESV
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
These words are necessary for us. Why? Because you know. You know that as soon as you go home, as soon as you shut the door and you are alone, that temptation will come. That urge to smoke a cigarette. That temptation to gluttonize upon the tantalizing food in your fridge. That prompting to look at pornography. That enticement of laziness and the allure of the couch and movies, tv shows, youtube videos, you name it. Whatever your vice is, it will be there when you return home. And the call for you as a Christian is to fight it with a living hope:
Prepare your minds for action
Be sober minded
Set your hope (Fully) on the grace that is to come.
Hope says “I don’t want to live in fear. I want to trust that you are here.”
Grace will be brought to you. Grace is undeserved, unmerited. Perhaps you are ashamed of your sin, of your addiction, of your habits. But know this and know it well, that you are not perfect. You need God’s grace. That is what you hope for. That is what he has communicated and what he offers and it’s up to you to believe whether or not his grace through Jesus Christ is true.
Blaise Pascal - acknowledgment of his sin, lived in sickness his entire life, hoped for forgiveness from the Lord through Jesus Christ, but even in the midst of his suffering he did not ask for it to cease: just that he may live the Christian faith of hope through suffering. Having his gaze transfixed upon Christ while he suffered.
His last words were “May God never leave me.” The man died with words of hope in Jesus Christ on his lips.
For some of us, Christ liberates us from our suffering in this lifetime. He sets our hearts free from the lusts and desires which we once lived in. For others, that complete liberation will not come until he returns and purifies the world. But we now have something which we did not have before: Hope. Captives hope to be set free. Those in Jesus Christ are now no longer slaves to sin, but have had their chains broken by the grace of Jesus Christ.
If we give up hope, then we will remain in the chains of captivity, not ready to be liberated when Christ comes.

Conclusion

As we approach Christmas this season, it’s important to remember that a little bit of hope goes a long way.
There are many captives who do not have hope. Who are bound because of their sin. Like Ebenezer scrooge they are tied to their own self-serving interests. Yet there is hope for a renewed and transformed life. That even the most insidious human, even the coldest neighbor, even the foulest in-law, can be saved. It is hope of salvation through Jesus Christ that Christians live by. It is this hope that can carry us through the hard times.
Ephesians 1:18 (NASB)
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
And in the words of Tiny Tim, “God bless us, every one!”
May God enlighten the eyes of your hearts to his hope in salvation through Jesus Christ to ensure our blessing through him.
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