Advent series 1

Overflow with Hope

Overflow with Hope

We are entering advent season

During this time of the year, we prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of our Lord and savior and to remind ourselves that He is coming again.

The word advent in the Latin means “coming.”

Christians around the world use the four Sundays and weeks of Advent to prepare and remember the real meaning of Christmas.

Overflow with hope.

Let’s pray

Rom 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

I believe God wants to fill our hearts with hope this morning.

1 Be filled and overflow with Hope.

What is hope?

When I Google the word hope this is what I came up.

Hope is the emotional state which promotes the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life.

is a wish or a desire.

Hope is joyful anticipation, confident expectation on the word of God. (trust)

When Jesus came into the world, darkness was all around, great spiritual darkness, Directly before the arrival of John the Baptist, was 400 years of silence, during which God did not speak to the Jewish people. Zachariah John’s father was the first one to hear from God in 400 years. Israel was an occupied territory by the Roman empire, the roman empire by the 2sd century, occupied From Wales England, Europe to Syria and Egypt, they all paid taxes and obeyed their rules.

There is so much unrest and evil happening all around the world today and here in the USA Jesus was their only Hope and 2023 years later He is our only Hope today.

By now you know that just because you wished something is not going to come true.

This is not the hope spoken by the prophets.

There are several warnings in Scripture against putting our hope in anything other than the Lord, because when we do it will leave us ashamed, frustrated, disappointed.

Biblical hope is not an escape from reality or from our problems. Hope is active, not passive. If our hope is based on God's promises, it will put us into motion and it will come to past.

Hope is to believe and trust in the word of the Lord.

Pro 10:28 The hope of the righteous shall be gladness; But the expectation of the wicked shall perish.

God is called “the God of Hope.” This means He is the source of all real hope. If we are going to have hope (confident expectation), it must come from Him, for He alone has the power to give it.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, Psa 146:5

Psalm 62:5

My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is from Him.

Isa 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isa 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

This messianic prophecy took place about seven hundred years before Christ and became a reality to us about 2023 years ago.

Written in the years of 700-680 BC before Christ (Gregorian calendar Anno Domini in the year of the Lord.)

2 Protect your Hope.

Satan the enemy of your soul wants to rob your hope.

One of Satan’s most successful weapons against us, is to rob us of our hope in the promises of God.

He will do whatever he can to discourage you and rob you from your hope,

Jesus describes satan this way as He rebukes the Pharisees,

Joh 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Lies are his native language, he is the father of lies.

Satan the enemy of our souls will lie to you about almost everything you are hopping for in the Lord, his desire is to lead you into hopelessness.

Pastor Gilly is here with us, and he reminded of two young men I met long time ago attending one of their schools.

I shared this story before,

Hitch hike

They were thieves robbing people on the streets at gunpoint.

Orphanage at 5 and 7

Cried and cried until they had no more tears

Best friends protecting each other.

Mother returned when they were 14 16

To teach them to be street robbers

They were robbing this guy and he preach Jesus to them

He didn’t no how to help them so he send them to my friend Ton

They forgave their mom and the dad who abandon them.

By God’s grace I was able to pray with them, and Jesus restored the hope and faith the enemy robbed from them

Hopelessness leads us into despair, and when we are desperate, we make poor choices; people even take their own lives, when they are desperate.

Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

3 Grow in Hope

We need to read, to put into practice, be encouraged by the word of God

Rom 15:4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Hope will release faith into our hearts.

Heb 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Heb 11:2 This is what the ancients were commended for.

Heb 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Only by putting our hope our trust in the Lord, that faith is release in our hearts.

There are names we remember in the bible, especially because of their faith and hope in the Lord

Like Joshua and Caleb, they were part of a group of 12 send to spy the promise land. What about the other 10 did you ever heard their names again?

Numbers 13

4 These were their names. There was Shammua the son of Zaccur from the family of Reuben, 5 Shaphat the son of Hori from the family of Simeon, 6 Caleb the son of Jephunneh from the family of Judah, 7 and Igal the son of Joseph from the family of Issachar. 8 There was Hoshea the son of Nun from the family of Ephraim, 9 Palti the son of Raphu from the family of Benjamin, 10 Gaddiel the son of Sodi from the family of Zebulun, 11 and Gaddi the son of Susi from the family of Joseph, from the family of Manasseh. 12 There was Ammiel the son of Gemalli from the family of Dan, 13 Sethur the son of Michael from the family of Asher, 14 Nahbi the son of Vophsi from the family of Naphtali, 15 and Geuel the son of Machi from the family of Gad. 16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. But Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua.

That’s why reading and meditating on God’s word is so important for our faith.

Every Christian longs to hear God saying to them, well done good and faithful servant.

We will not hear those words by being disobedient, or not placing our trust and hope in God’s word.

Our heavenly Father is not looking for your accomplishments, or how out of the box you thought, and how many people you were able to influence with your ideas and creativity.

His question will be simple, did you trust me? And obeyed what I asked you to do?

When Jesus stood before God at the cross, He had no multitudes following him, or a number of churches he planted and now was leaving behind, there were no streets named after Him or any major organization or wealth, no funds were left to support the poor and needy. But with great confidence he answered, “I did everything you told me to do. I placed my hope on you.

Overflow with Hope

1 Be filled and overflow with Hope

2 We need to protect our hope

3 Grow in Hope

Are you praying for God to fill your heart with hope today?

make Jesus the Lord of our lives.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Joh 3:16 To receive Jesus we need to accept Him as God’s son,

we need to repent from our sins and a life of selfishness,

ask Him to be your Lord and savior, not that we deserve it, but is a gift from God.

If this is your desire today, please repeat this prayer after me? Heavenly Father I’m sinner, I’m sorry for my sins, I repent of my sins I’m willing to turn away from my sins. I receive Christ as my savior, I confess Him as Lord And from this moment on, I want to follow and serve Him, in the fellowship of His church, In Jesus name, Amen!

1Co 11:23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;

1Co 11:24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me."

1Co 11:25 In the same manner Healso took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

1Co 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.

1Co 11:27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

Heb 9:14 dead works, acts, sins

E mau aku ka loko maika’i o ka Haku, Iesu Kristo; me ke aloha a ke Akua, a me ka launa pu ‘ana mai o ka Uhane Hemolele ia ‘olua, a me makou apau. Amene.