Advent 2022 - Advent of Hope!

GREET AND INTRO

Good morning everyone!! Good morning on everyone worshiping this morning through live stream.

If I have not had a chance to meet you either in person or through live stream;  My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship. 

A COUPLE OF THINGS

this morning before we step into the message this morning!

ADOPTION

Brandi and I are so thrilled to share with you guys that after 1099 days i foster care we were joined together as a forever family with two of our foster kids this last Wednesday as our adoption of Andrew David Richerson and Xavier James Richerson was completed. We are so thankful for all that God has done in our family through this season from foster to adoption.

KAIROS

Men we are going on a mission trip to dilly Texas to take Jesus with us to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Brisco State Prison Unit. Applications are in the back - We have this vision of 20 men going together on this life changing journey as those who will go will see God do some amazing things.

ADVENT GUIDES -

Also on the back table are our Family Advent Guides. We published this to help all of us bring back the deeper meaning of this Christmas Season as we draw near to Jesus, celebrate His coming in the midst of this highly commercialize season that frankly can make it difficult to keep our eyes on Him. Pick one of those up on the back table and Enjoy celebration the real reason for the season.

PRAYER

This morning as we step into the season of Advent my prayer over this season for me an my family and for all of us is that through this season we would experience the fullness of Jesus as we anticipate the celebration of His arrival into the world some 2000 years ago and be well prepared for his arriving again which could happen at any moment or take another 2000 years.

LETS GRAB OUR BIBLES

either electronic version or the actual book kind -

Open it to Genesis Chapter 3 as we will look vs 1-19 and then to Hebrews Chapter 10 and we will be looking at vs 19-23 this morning as we step into the season of Advent - A season of preparation, A Season of anticipation, A season of Hope, Peace, Love, Joy and Eternity!

TRUTH

Genesis 3:1–19 NASB95

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. 8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” 16 To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. 18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; 19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”

Hebrews 10:19–23 NASB95

19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;

ENGAGEMENT

So this morning as we step into the season of Advent, which has been traditionally marked by Hope, Peace, Love, Joy and as we as Jesus followers live in a constant season of eternity.

I want to bring to us the focus of our Hope.

You see what we ultimately put our hope in is what ultimately will bring us peace, let us know and experience true and ever lasting Love and culminate in our joy even if the circumstances of life are really difficult.

A Lot of times we get Joy and Happiness confused.

Happiness is a temporary thing that is based on the circumstances of life.

When things are well we are happy when things are not we are not happy.

but JOY is where we are in our hearts and minds in our focus on the Eternal Divinity and Hope of Jesus that God delivers to us through the work of His son that no mater what the circumstances - Were all good!

SO let me ask some questions:

What do you worry about most?

• What, if you failed or lost it, how would that make you feel?

• What do you use to comfort myself when things go bad or get difficult?

• What do you do to feel better?

• What preoccupies you?

What do you daydream about?

What makes me feel the most self-worth?

What are you the most proud of?

For what do you want to be known?

What do you lead with in conversations?

Early on what do you want to make sure that people know about me?

What unanswered prayer makes you really question your faith or trust in Christ?

What do you really want out of life?

What would really make you happy?

What is your hope for the future?

These are question that will bring to our minds those things, or circumstances, or events, or conditions around us of which we value or desire the most.

One of the Stories that you will get to is you read through your Bible is...

You will get to this historical narrative of three guys - who were the Smartest and most talented and the most capable of all the land - And yet their joy was not in any of this - Their joy was in Jesus and the eternal promise and purpose of the Gospel.

and here is what you will read - These three were in a situation where they were not living in their home land - In other words - They were aliens in a foreign country. What these three had done They had worked hard and God had grated them favor because of their faithfulness with the king of the land that they were aliens in.

This king that they had favor with was not a believer, and he was person who was dealing with what is commonly known as a “Source Idol”

I will explain that here in a minute - This source Idol was the Idol of Power and Control.

He had built a golden image - A huge one - And made a decree that everyone should bow down and worship it.

He wanted the power over people and the control to make them do something He wanted them to do.

Here is what he did - he gave everyone, including these three and ultimatum - When the trumpet sounds worship the idol - If you don't Death by burning.

These three said - NO not gong to happen - The king goes to them and basically says Bow or Burn - They say “no” and the kings is furious because these three were his boys.

The King says - Bow or burn and then turns the fur nus up 7 times and these three all say - Our God will save us and even if He doesn’t we trust Him becasue what you are asking we will never do.

When you read this you might ask your self “what kind of Crazy person get them selves thrown into a fire becasue they did not do something so silly and accommodating as bowing down to a fake God anyway - I mean its just a bow Not like they were required to do something extreme like child sacrifice or spouse burning - or self mutilation or anything else - Its just a BOW -

Who does that over a BOW?

A persons who’s ONLY hope is in the promises of God and of the saving work of YHWY that is who.

TENSION

You might be asking: Why in Advent did we recount the Fall of making in Gen 3 here at Christmas time - Kind of Depressing don't you think Pastor?

Here is why its important - So that we can be focused on the Hope that Jesus really brings us.

You see here is what happened to us - When the fall came and we began to live our our broken relationship with God - One of the biggest things that Suffered in our brokenness is Hope - Hope was shattered -

What happens is we put our hope in things and in people and in circumstances that will ultimately lead to pain and suffering and more and more disparity - which ultimately will lead to Eternal death and separation from God -

When that happened we began slowly every so slowly but surely to move away from real hope in the one thing that can bring true joy and contentment to those thing that are elusive.

And we began to define ourselves as having meaning and value in our...

Image - by the way we looked

by our Helping Others whether people needed us

by our dependence on others if there is someone else to provide fro me or keep me safe.

BY our independence if I am free from responsibilities and responsibilities

By our work if we can get the job done

by materialism - What we have or possess What is the amount of our wealth are we financially free

by our religion - if I keep the moral code

by our Irreligion - if I am free from organizerd religion and self made morality

by if I am in the inner ring - Am I apart of the in crowd or the exclusive club or any particular group.

BY my family - if my parents or children are happy with me.

by my relationship - if there is a certain someone who loves me or is in liove with me and in particular love me the way I want to be or deserve to be loved.

BY my suffering - I have meaning and value when I am hurting or in a problem or when I feel noble or worthy of love.

and finally by my knowledge or ideology - i have meaning and value if my views on how the world should work is in control of how things work through positions of power in the government

The problem is that these are surface issues - These can be things that we can easily see in our selves and of course we can be oh so quick to see them in others - But these are surface issues - Tim Keller and as far back as martin luthur would argue that these are related to what are called SOURCE IDOLS -

IDOLS are things or situations or circumstances that we place the hope of our happiness in and we hope that we can have these things to malke us feel better

Those source things that we usually and so easily place our hope in come down to 4 main source issues -

1st is Comfort - Here in the united states where our whole economy is driven by comfort we can so easily be wooed into this one. We want the quality of life that we want - We spend time in self help things to master a particular par of our life. We want what we want when we want it - And we experience a fleeting moment of happiness then we get this but it is fleeting becasue there are time when we don't get what we want when we want it and mastery of something seems elusive and some times the A/c goes out and the car breaks and the hot water heater breaks and some times we just don't have the quality we think we need -

2nd is Approval - This is all so easy to slip into here in the US becasue of again our consumerism culture that is built on two things - The in culture of the haves and the Jones - Ya know that we are loved and admired by this group of people. We are on this team or on this board.

3rd is Control - Many many many of us in our sense of freedom or being free -autonomous Americans easily step into this one - Self Discipline, Standards, certainty - thing like “i am able to mast this area of my life” I will or have eliminated the core problems of my life becasue I have or will have enough money to be certain of it.

4th is Power - and we can see this certainly in the lives of famous people around us if not deep ceded in our selves - This is marked by Success, Achievement, Winning. things like - I want more influence” having this or that will allow me to have a bigger influence on others - A bigger position - A bigger office - A bigger election.

This morning I would argue that this season of Christmas, becasue of the culture we are discipled into we all are particularly valuable to and ever increasing encroachment of these core issues -

During this season this is where many of us can find ourselves focused and placing our hope in the wrong things -

And This is what happened to us all the way back in Genesis chapter 3 - We began to put our hope in the wrong things and in the wrong people becasue just like the story goes - We listen to and influence other than God and we look at things and believe they are good for us - and the Whole time God is saying - Look to me!

This is exactly what the writer of Hebrews is communicating to us this morning is that there is ONE that our hope is to be focused on and one that our hope is to be held on to with the same white knuckle grip that we hold onto the other things in our life -

OUR HOPE IS TO BE FOCUSED ON THE PROMISED ONE OF THE GARDEN - THE ENMITY - THE PERSON OF JESUS.

UNPACKING

vs 19 - 21

Look at 19,20,21 - We have confidence to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, The Blood of is the means and the currency of holiness that we as the unholy have the ability to enter into the Holy Place - the Very presence of God -

This came about by a new and living way which Jesus inaugurated for US in His flesh meaning His life

Jesus lived differently - Jesus lived a new way - Jesus lived the way of Life - Jesus showed us all what it meant to live in the fullness of faith - in the fullness of trust in the Father.

VS - 21 then adds that Jesus who gives us the ability to enter into the presence of God by his blood who brought into this world the new way the living way is a great High priest -

The high priest was the one who entered the tabernacle and made sacrifices for the people and Jesus, being in the flesh, knew the difficulties and sufferings we would have in this life and so can easily sympathise with us in all of our sufferings BUT HIS sacrifice and unlike all of the other ones Jesus sacrifice of him self was a once and done thing -

and Because of this - He is the High Priest over the house of God.

VS22

is all about what we do with these facts -

What do we do since we can have confidence of our being in the presence of God becasue of the blood of Jesus?

What do we do sine Jesus, while he was alive brought to us by example a new way of living that was alive?

And what do we do sine He was a great high priest whose sacrifice was better and a once and done deal?

Draw Near - This is such and interesting directional statement - Draw Near - In the original language of the New Testament - It have a couple of connotations -

To come to - To approach - But there is a much more interesting connotation that this word has in the original language -

To appear before - Like to appear before a judge - To come before God in worship.

So what do we do - based on the blood of Jesus based on the priesthood of Jesus - We Appear before God we come to God with worship and the writer of Hebrews says - With a sincere heart and then He says “with FULL ASSURANCE

Which means “supreme fullness of Certainty”

Supreme fullness of certainty - OF FAITH - of TRUST -

SO>>>

What do we do since we can have confidence of our being in the presence of God becasue of the blood of Jesus?

What do we do sine Jesus, while he was alive brought to us by example a new way of living that was alive?

And what do we do sine He was a great high priest whose sacrifice was better and a once and done deal?

We come to God - We come to God in worship - We come to God as appearing before Him - and we do so in the supreme fullness of certainty of TRUST -

TRUST that our hearts have been “Sprinkled clean from an Evil Conscience” -

This is critical that we grasp this - this does not mean Guilty way of thinking - - Conscience meaning reflecting on our own deeds in conjunction with responsibility whn combined with evil it means morally useless -

Nut you see our reflection of our deeds has been cleaned of any sense of moral uselessness - becasue our minds have been changed - WE have been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus and we have been washed clean with the Regeneration of the Holy Spirit.

VS24

then says “let us hold fast” meaning “hold in our possession” the confession the declaration of our HOPE - our Certainty -

OUR HOPE - T OUR CERTAINTY - THE ONE THING THAT WE CAN BE CERTAIN OF -

OUR CERTAINTY THAT BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS, WE CAN ENTER THE VERY PRESENCE OF GOD, APPRAEEING BEFORE HIM with ASSURNCE.

and we can do so becasue of the fact that He who promised this is faithful meaning God who made these promises is full of Trust and is Trust worthy -

APPLICATION - IMAGINE

As Emanuela and the worship team come and our prayer team comes to pray with anyone and everyone.

We must ask three questions from this Text - and then ask ourselves a question.

What did God promise? How did he fulfill it? What is our declaration of Hope?

God promised in the Garden to place and Enmity between the offspring of Eve and the Devil who was there to destroy all that God had created -

God promised that he would take away the sins of the world - that people who ive in darkness will see a great light -

God promised to in crease our gladness -

He promised to break the yolk of burden - and remove the rod of our oppressor -

HOW did He fulfill this promise? -

The Child in the Manger - The Child that was born - The Son that was given - The one upon whose shoulders the government will rest - The one whose name is wonderful counselor, might God eternal father Prince of Peace -

The one who will have no end to the increase of His government - no End to His peace - no End to His reign or His rule - No End to His Justice - NO End to His righteousness -

WHAT IS OUR DECLARATION OF HOPE?

That the Child in the manger has done the work and finished all that is and was and will every be required to return anyone and everyone into the presence of God through Faith -

Here is what we must ask our selves this morning -

IS our Hope in anything else? Is our Joy and the Peace of our emotions in ANYTHING Else?

As we all step into this Christmas Season - My prays is that we would all take ever increasing steps to take our hope and remove it from anything else and place it sol on the Child in the Manger.

PRAYER TEAM - Say SOmething about them

MEET SOMEONE NEW