Do You Have Hope?

We are starting a new series this week called, / / “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!”

I am a huge fan of Christmas. I love it. If you are like me and have a memory that just makes you feel all the feels, mine would be coming downstairs at my parents house that I grew up in, they still live in that house today, they have lived there since I was I think just 4 years old. And this memory I have is being the first one up, coming downstairs, of course, not being allowed to wake everyone else up just yet… the Christmas tree is there, I get to turn the lights on, there’s snow on the ground outside. We had this old hutch with a record player in it, and I would take a record and put it on and lie there by the tree - I remember literally lying with my head under the tree just staring up into the branches, the smell of the tree, the sound of the music. Everything about that memory makes me smile. Makes me long for a simpler time.

As I’ve grown up, as all of us have, we go through changes in tradition. Some I’ve grown out of simply by the change of life. I’ve adopted or created others. And with a nine year old even to this year we are still creating more. Things we say, “We should do this every year...”

And the traditions I remember the most centered around two things, family and church. And to today, I look forward to those two things, what Christmas means, or is, with my family and with my church, with my community.

For us, Christmas Eve Carols on the front lawn has become a tradition, and not just for us, but we see some of the same faces of people in our neighborhood every year on that night.

Not just Christmas, but Christianity itself is full of tradition.

And as much as I had my traditions growing up that included church, there were a lot of Christian traditions I just didn’t know about. 8 ears ago now, when we were in Norway I learned of one that just wasn’t part of my upbringing - and that was the tradition of Advent. If you asked 32 year old Rob what Advent was, he would’ve said a calendar with 24 bits of chocolate in it!

I don’t remember ever celebrating or taking part, or learning about this thing called Advent until just eight years ago when we were in Oslo and the week leading up to the first week of Advent the leadership team of the church we were leading asked if we had the candles for advent and I looked at them with what must have been the most confused face ever and asked, “What candles?”

If you’ve been here in the last few years you’ve maybe heard me tell that story and I won’t go through it all again, but needless to say, I felt a little sheepish and a little lost as what was a strong Christian celebration was completely lost to me.

And through conversation and process I challenged our leadership team and also challenged myself to look at what these traditions and ensure that we didn’t just do things for the sake of doing them because they fell on a particular day, but that the tradition had purpose. Tradition for the sake of tradition isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but can easily lose the intention and power if we only do it for the sake of doing it. And if I’m honest, in my past I have tended to push back on these types of things out of a desire to not get locked into a stale or burned out religious life. I also didn’t grow up in a traditional church or liturgical church, so it wasn’t a part of the culture I grew up in.

But even the bible warns us to make sure we don’t fall into the trap of letting our life for Christ grow cold. Just doing the same thing over and over again just for the sake of doing it.

God, through the prophet Hosea said to Israel, / / “I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.”

And the prophet Isaiah goes much more into this than Hosea in Isaiah 1:11-17, and I won’t read the whole thing, but the gist of it is this, God says, / / “What makes you think I want all your sacrifices?” says the Lord… and Isaiah shares the heart of God that all of their ceremony and all of their tradition has made them forget the main point, going as far as saying that all of the tradition has become empty and sinful, and finally says in vs 16-17, / / “Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways. [included in that was their religious ceremony] Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.”

Jesus echos this thought in Matthew 23:23, talking to a group of religious teachers, he says, you’ve made sure that you are tithing down the very cent on what you’ve earned, well done for that… / / but you ignore the more important aspects of the law, justice, mercy and faith...

I like how the Message translation words Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says, / / “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

To the church in Ephesus, John writes in the book of Revelation that Jesus says to them, and this is TPT translation of Revelation 2:2-4, / / “I know all that you’ve done for me - you have worked hard and persevered. I know that you don’t tolerate evil. You have tested those who claimed to be apostles and proved they are not, for they were imposters. I also know how you have bravely endured trials and persecutions because of my name, yet you have not become discouraged. But I have this against you: you have abandoned the passionate love you had for me at the beginning. Think about how far you have fallen! Repent and do the works of love you did at first.”

You can be doing what you think are all the right things and be missing the point. Tradition and ceremony without devotion and love don’t mean anything to God. That’s what this is saying, right? What’s the point of doing all these things if you’re doing them just to do them!

And it was in that process of asking these questions with our team in Oslo, and even within ourselves that I actually fell in love with this idea of Advent. Just like I said over the last two weeks, I’m grateful that we have the holiday of Thanksgiving here because it reminds us to give thanks.

In the same way Advent has become for me what the church has used it for in the last more than 1600 years, a reminder of what we truly celebrate at Christmas.

Even the word itself speaks of this reminder. We get the word Advent from the latin word / / adventus, which simply translates as “coming” or “arrival” and the definition is / / the arrival of a notable person, thing or event.

To me that \perfectly define what we celebrate at Christmas.

/ / The arrival of a notable person - Jesus Christ

/ / The arrival of a notable thing - Our redemption / salvation

/ / The arrival of a notable event - The birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

See, advent, although it is the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas is more than just an anticipation of Baby Jesus, it is also a recognition, an anticipation and a preparation for the second coming of our King.

Preparation is really the word that embodies what Advent is. / / Advent is a preparation of the heart.

The catholic church has worded it well in their publication the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year and the General Roman Calendar… it say this, / / “Advent has a twofold character, for it is a time of preparation for the Solemnities [a ceremony which is serious and dignified] of Christmas, in which the First Coming of the Son of God to humanity is remembered, and likewise a time when, by remembrance of this, minds and hearts are led to look forward to Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time. For these two reasons, Advent is a period of devout and expectant delight.”

And that is so well stated and really carries the heart of this time of year.

Julie Canless, a Lecturer at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada said this, / / Advent is the impossible paradox in the hope for something we already have.

Meaning what? Meaning / / we are in this beautiful place of a hope we HAVE received in Christ Jesus, yet we patiently and with anticipation await the fulfilment of all things in Christ Jesus.

Each of the four weeks of Advent we will look at a particular aspect of Jesus and what He has brought to us as our Messiah, our Savior.

This week we look at / / Hope.

Next week Peace.

Week three we will look at Joy.

And the week leading up to Christmas we will look at Love.

In each of these weeks we can make the statement that Jesus IS these things. Jesus IS our Hope, Jesus IS our Peace, Jesus IS our Joy and He IS the very Love of God expressed to us, and as Julie Canlis says, we live in that beautiful place of having received this, yet, anticipate greater things to come.

You can almost hear Jesus reminder in the Beatitudes that we looked at in our Could I Be Happier series when He says in Matthew 5:3, / / Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Or as the NLT says it, / / Blessed are those who are poor and realize their need for him...

We live in a place of having received yet anticipating receiving.

Cyril of Alexandria, who lived 1600 years ago and was considered to be a pillar of the Christian faith said this, / / “Let us therefore not stop at his first coming but look forward to the second!”

We prepare for Christmas knowing Jesus came 2000 years ago, yet we celebrate that coming, while also reflecting on the moment that he will come again. We are not waiting for the Messiah, the Messiah has already been revealed through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but we hope in the fulness of revelation to experience all that He is and all that we will be in Him!

If I think of my own experience in following Jesus, I have seen the goodness of God, and yet, I know there is so much more to experience in Him. I worship from a place of revelation while waiting patiently for revelation to come.

So, in this week, as we look at the topic of Hope, I want to look into the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, a bit of what she went through and what she lived leading up to the moment she gave birth to the very Son of God.

I want to start by reading from Luke 1. Luke wrote a pretty descriptive account of events leading up to the birth of Jesus. And I love how he starts this writing because he qualifies himself through identifying the lengths to which he has gone to research and make sure what he is writing is accurate and true. He says of himself in Luke 1:1-4, / / Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples. Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write an accurate account for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.

And he then tells the story of John the Baptist’s birth being foretold, and then to the moment that Mary encounters the angel Gabriel who tells her that she will carry and give birth to Jesus, the Son of God.

Let’s read a bit of the story.

Luke 1:26-38, / / In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy [mother of John the Baptist], God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. For the word of God will never fail.”

Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And the angel left her.

What I want to look at this morning is how we embrace, through faith, a hope for what is yet to come.

/ / Hope produces change!

/ / Hope by definition is a confident expectation in a positive outcome.

The problem we have is that the current understanding of hope in today’s world is one of the worst thing we can possible have because it dumbs it down to a simple wish that causes many people to sit back and do nothing of themselves when what they are called to do is protect and engage with the word with everything they’ve got to give.

When we hear, “I hope it happens...” does that actually inspire any sort of conviction that it WILL happen?

When we hear, “I hope so...” is that usually said with excitement or does it usually come with a downward slant toward doubt?

In fact, what IS a common saying, “Don’t get your hopes up...” meaning, avoid becoming excited at the possibility of something good happening in the future. It’s the complete opposite of what we are supposed to be living in.

And I see this more often than not. People are moved and swayed by what they see in the moment rather than hold on to the word they’ve heard. I get it. It happens to me too! We are emotional creatures.

James actually warns us in James 1:6, he says about prayer, …when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel more like a wave tossed by the sea than I do a house built on the rock. Just being honest here, right? It can be easy to forget that our hope is in a sure thing. That the Messiah has already come and proved himself which means we CAN have a confident hope in our outcomes!

Jeremiah 29:11, is a powerful verse of promise from God for the people of Israel, which shows God’s heart for all people, says this, / / “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

I said this last week or a couple weeks ago, the greatest thing you can do in your life is to know what the Bible says about God, and to give your life to developing a relationship with God in the here and now.

To know what the scripture says God has said, and to know what God is saying to you in the moment.

And both are possible, and often starts with our faithfulness to what is written. God honors our desire to know by honoring us with his presence and leading when we are faithful to His word. That’s one of those things that through consistency and dedication to something very natural and sometimes seemingly mundane, we experience something incredibly supernatural .

This has been so true of my own life, but I have also had many people tell me that when they started reading the bible they started to see a change in their lives for the better. Not because they understood it all. Not because it all made sense. Not even because what hey read was what they needed to hear. In fact, some of them have told me flat out, “I don’t get this...” and “I’m struggling with some of what I’m reading...” Listen, if we read the bible and don’t walk away with questions, we’re not reading it right. Because there are things in this wonderful book that should make us stop and take pause and wonder and wrestle in ourselves, and with God and with our community, in the meaning of it. My question and wrestle with the things I don’t understand gives me a greater love for the God who inspired the story. Not because in the pages of the book I see God on every turn, but because sometimes in the absolute devastation of humanity I see our need for God.

Scripture points to Jesus, and Jesus leads us! And I’m so grateful we have the life of Christ written down. And I’m so grateful for people like Luke who would say, “Ya, lots of other people have been writing stuff down, but I’m going to fact check all of this for you. I’m going to scrutinize and get down to the real story and see what is what and make sure we’re writing what is right!” That’s what He says at the beginning of Luke, right? Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write an accurate account for you...

Thank you, Luke - the first independent fact checker!

So, reading scripture, and pursuing a God who is very real and very alive in relationship through prayer and conversation leads us to this hope.

Mary happened to have Gabriel show up. And I wish for all of our sakes we would have an experience like that. Gabriel shows up and gives us the word of God in this awe inspiring, you have to have the angel say, “Don’t be afraid...” because you’re terrified but in a good way because, ya know, Gabriel is in your bedroom… But..... that’s not been my experience. I don’t know about you…if that’s been your experience, talk to me at the end of service, lay your hands on me, pray for me...

But, what I want to look at this morning is what Mary does with the word. Because we are meant to do the same.

One of the first things we need to hold on to hope is the Holy Spirit. And I kind of think that Mary received the Holy Spirit that night.

Romans 5:5 says this, / / …hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

/ / The gift of the Holy Spirit helps us in our understanding of love and hope.

And what did Gabriel say to Mary when she says to him, “This is great, but not possible, I’ve never been with a man, so I can’t be pregnant.”

Gabriel says in Luke 1:35, / / The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

I kind of have this thought that Mary received the Holy Spirit that evening. More on that in a minute.

But what I want you to see is what Mary does with this word that we all need to do.

Let me ask you a question, because I’m a guy, I don’t know. All the ladies in the room that have had children. Did you know you were pregnant the morning after? Or even in a few days? From my understanding through reading some women might begin to notice some early signs within a couple weeks, and most within 4-5 weeks.

Look at what scripture tells us Mary did...

Going back to the story at Luke 1:39, A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth.

Zechariah and Elizabeth are the parents of John the Baptist. Gabriel said, Even your relative is pregnant in her old age… That’s Elizabeth.

This is where Mary’s faith is seen. Mary so believed the word of God through the angel Gabriel that she left her home, left her soon to be husband, left her duties, left her parents and went to Zechariah and Elizabeth’s house. I am assuming she didn’t physically feel pregnant yet. She didn’t have any sign of pregnancy. But she had faith. She had hope. Like, real hope.

/ / Mary had a confident expectation in a positive outcome. An assurance that what God said would happen was going to happen.

And this was evidence by her actions. She believed it so much she upended her life to support the word.

This wasn’t a, “I’ll just hop across town to check in on Elizabeth.”

To get to Zechariah and Elizabeth’s house was a 100 mile journey for our little 13-14 year old pregnant Mary, with an elevation difference of about 1300 feet uphill. I also think we can safely assume that Joseph, Mary’s soon to be husband, did not know yet that she was pregnant. My chronological bible puts the order in Elizabeth giving birth to John before an angel goes to Joseph to tell him that it’s true, this is of God, Mary has not been unfaithful. So that journey of 100 miles was maybe with a caravan or Joseph sends her with some friends who will watch over her on this journey. The how isn’t necessarily important, but the why says everything.

Why did Mary go?

Because / / she believed the word of God and had hope.

She so believed the word of God that she changed her life to live in that word.

I want to challenge you this morning, and this is a word directly to myself as well. What God has said to you, be that through the bible, or through your own personal prayer life, or through something you have heard here or in a message where the word of God is preached. / / Has the word of God impacted you so much that you are willing to change your life to see it happen?

We live in an age where things are a bit easier I would suggest. Medical advances have made a whole lot of things possible.

At the time Mary found out she was pregnant infant mortality within the first year of life was nearly 30%, and youth mortality under the age 15 was nearly 50%. It’s only in the last 125 years that there has been a dramatic change where by 2017 infant mortality is less than 3% and youth mortality less than 5%.

Yet even today, as soon as a woman finds out she is pregnant, there is change. You make sure you protect yourself and that baby, you change how you eat, you change how you work, how you play, you add vitamins, you see your doctor, you make sure everything is ok. Why? Because something is alive inside of you that you are responsible for bringing to term, to fulfillment.

I want to ask you a very big question this morning.

/ / What if we took every word of God that He has promised us as seriously as Mary had to take the word that there was life inside of her?

What if we took every word of promise where God said He wanted to produce in us life, as an invitation to so dramatically change our lives to protect and nurture that promise until it came to life in us and out of us?

What if we treated the word of God the same way we see a pregnancy coming to full term and bringing new life?

How would our lives change? Would we do things differently?

Instead of saying, “I hope it happens”, maybe we would say, “I know I don’t feel it yet, but it is going to happen, I know because I have hope, and if I want to see it happen this is what I have to do in my life!”

And that would move to, “I feel it, but I can’t see it… And I feel like I’m in a waiting process, but I’m ok with the journey because I KNOW it will come to fulfillment if I am faithful with the promise.”

I am a firm believer in prophecy being potential, not always promise. Prophecy is God saying he desires something for us, it is an invitation for us to experience life through following Him. When Jesus says in John 10:10, / / “I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly.” it comes at the same time as the invitation to follow, Jesus says in connection to that invitation, / / “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me… they will listen to my voice.”

The promise to obtain life comes at the invitation to listen to his voice. And the following of His voice is an invitation to dramatically change our lives to find that life.

Matthew 7:14, / / …the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Who want’s that narrow hard life??? We don’t name our churches that way, do we? Welcome to Church of the Hard Road...

Matthew 16:24-25, / / “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.”

Mary understood the assignment. This promise will dramatically change my life for the good, which means I must dramatically change my life to see it fulfilled.

So, in that hope of the promise, with no evidence yet, she rushes off to her relative Elizabeth, a 100 mile journey through the hill country, roughly 40 hours of walking over probably 4-6 days.

Now, here’s why I think she was filled with the Holy Spirit. Back to the story Luke is telling, we are in vs 40, / / She [Mary] entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”

I think that’s the word right there for today. “You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”

The word believed is / / pisteuo and it means not just to have faith, or believe, but to commit. to be committed, to be so persuaded that you’ve put all your confidence into this and committed yourself to it.

That almost sounds like Matthew 5:6, / / Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Righteousness, doing what is right. Being committed to the way of Jesus.

Because of the confident expectation for the fulfilment of what God had promised, let’s just call that hope, Mary committed her life to the process of protecting, and growing that promise to its fulfilment and birth.

Luke says she stayed with Elizabeth 3 months, most scholars believe she was most likely there for the birth of John the Baptist and then went back home.

I read from Romans 5 earlier, that hope doesn’t disappoint. I want to jump a few verses prior to that point because living with hope isn’t always easy. In fact, I would suggest that most people identify more with, “Don’t get your hopes up” than they do with, “I have a confident hope in God’s goodness for my life, I’ve changed everything because I expect it to happen...”

I think in some ways Mary went to Elizabeth to find out. Gabriel told her that Elizabeth was pregnant, and Elizabeth was old and considered barren. She was unable to have children and now past the age of traditional child bearing. That in of itself was a miracle. And if she gets there and Elizabeth is pregnant then the word has to be true, right?

But, Mary was also smart. Get around those who are experiencing miracles. Get around those who are living in the promise. Get around those who are walking the same path that you are. Who are more seasoned than you in the things of God. That can give you direction and add to your hope. One of the biggest problems I see in Christianity lack of community. First, people still believe isolation is the best route for struggle. Nothing could be further from the truth. You need your community when you are going through hard times. Mary needed Elizabeth as much as Elizabeth probably needed a young 14 year old girl to help her around the house while she’s old and 6 months pregnant.

And second, not just through isolation, but through busyness and complacency people do not surround themselves with people who are learning and growing in the same things they are. / / Community is necessary for our spiritual growth. It’s not a nicety, it’s a necessity.

Because holding on to hope isn’t always easy. Mary did NOT have Gabriel coming back every night ensuring her he told her the truth. Gabriel didn’t stick around and quiet the doubts and fears. Again, I’m not a woman, but from what I hear pregnancy isn’t always the easiest. And just because she was carrying Jesus, doesn’t mean Mary had some sort of special easy pregnancy and birth. Even today, it’s estimated that as many as 26% of pregnancies in the US end in a miscarriage, let alone the infant mortality rates of the times Mary was living in.

Hope is absolutely essential for us to obtain the promise! Hope keeps us in the promise and can run off the fear and doubt that tries to creep in.

Paul wrote in Romans 5:3-5, / / We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Commitment. Endurance. Because of Hope.

/ / You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what He said.

Having a confident expectation for the outcome will give you the courage to commit and endure toward the promise. It gives us the courage to change your life where it needs to change so that you can reach the goal God had set before you.

Now, the ultimate hope is the hope of salvation.

The early church called it our blessed hope. Titus 2:11-14 says, / / For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope [ESV - waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of...], to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.

That is the hope we have in Christ Jesus, that we ARE set free from sin, that he HAS cleansed us, that we ARE His people, SO we can commit to his way and be absolutely devoted to him, knowing that He is who He says He is and will do what He has said He will do.

Unfortunately a lot of people live without hope.

They live day to day with the wrong definition of hope, just hoping everything will be alright, rather than with a confident hope that everything will be alright.

I want to pray for you this morning, and then I’ll finish up by reading a really great poem.

First, I want to pray what Paul prays over the church in Romans 15:13. He’s been saying to them, I know you get this, I know you’re full of goodness, I know you know what to do, you can even teach it, but I’m writing these things to you and he says in vs 15, “…knowing that all you need is this reminder!”

So this is what he prayed, / / I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

So I want to pray that over you today. And if you want to stand, or if you want to, how we often say, just put your hands out like you’re about to receive a gift. We do that because it encourages not just a posture of body, but a posture of the heart, a willingness and expectancy to receive from God.

God is always with us, but there’s something special when we turn to him, to connect with him and to receive from him.

So, I’ll start by praying what Paul prayed… Over each of you right now I pray that God, your heavenly Father, the glorious Son, the beautiful Holy Spirit, who IS the source of all hope, would fill you now completely with joy and peace to empower you to trust and believe in him. I pray that you would feel a confident hope, that any double mindedness would be removed now, in the name of Jesus. That where you’ve felt like a tossed wave, you would suddenly feel the solid ground of the foundation of Jesus Christ.

And where you have lacked hope, felt hopeless, felt unsure, I pray that God, our source of hope, would pour it deeply and in abundance into your heart, just like Romans 5:5 says, that we have this hope because the Holy Spirit has been poured into our hearts to fill us with God’s love.

I pray you would experience the hope of Jesus Christ in your heart right now.

Where you may be discouraged. I pray you would feel revitalized in your heart.

Where you may have doubts. I pray you would have reassurance.

Where you have given up. I pray you would feel the courage to endure and get up, go again.

Where you have failed. I pray for the strength and vitality of the Holy Spirit to move through you now, in the name of Jesus. That you would feel the fight in your spirit again.

Where you have fallen, I pray Proverbs 24:16 over you, [even though] the godly may trip seven times, they will get up again...

Where you see only darkness, I pray John 8:12 over you, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” and the Apostle John who said in 1 John 1:5, God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. And you, being filled with God’s very spirit, I speak to any darkness on your heart and in your mind now that you have to leave in Jesus name.

I speak the truth of scripture over you from Ephesians 1:13 that says, …when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.

And so again I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Regardless of what you have experienced. Regardless of your trouble, trial or questions, that you would be filled completely with joy and peace and the power to believe, and the courage to endure and commit. I pray that you would not just feel a bit of hope, but that, as Paul prayed in Romans 15:13, that you would overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit, which you have received when you believed in Jesus Christ.

And I pray also that in times of silence, you would endure.

In times of question, you would have resolve.

In times of doubt, you would remember what God has said.

And now I want to read a poem by Marie Howe, who isa renowned poet. She wrote a poem called / / Annunciation, which means “The announcement of the Incarnation [that is Jesus come to earth as a human] by the angel Gabriel to Mary”.

She wrote this, and a series of other poems from the perspective of Mary, and this one, Annunciation, is about this moment that Gabriel says all of this promise to her, but then she is left to live it out.

I want you to hear this this morning and allow it to give you hope and courage to endure.

/ / Even if I don’t see it again — nor ever feel it

I know it is — and that if once it hailed me

it ever does --

And so it is myself I want to turn in that direction

not as toward a place, but it is with a tilting

within myself,

as one turns a mirror to flash the light to where

it isn’t — I was blinded like that — and swam

in what shone at me

only able to endure it by being no one and so

specifically myself I thought I’d die

from being loved like that.

The beauty of this poem lies in her first line, / / “Even if I don’t see it again, nor ever feel it, I know it is…” And she says, because of that knowing I force myself to tilt, to turn toward what I know to be true. I can’t wait for the angel to come and remind me again, I can’t wait for the birth to know the promise was real, I remember that moment I knew and I know again.

I pray again that you would be filled with the confident hope that Mary had to endure all she endured on the road to giving birth to the promise. That in your life you would experience the fulfillment of promise, new life, as you continue to hope and endure in following Christ.