Go Tell It: We Have Hope

Intro- Do you know where you are hiding your gifts? An unopened gift

M&M wars...

Whats hope?

Hope is all about knowing you are not alone and that help is on the way.

Hope takes courage.

Hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised.

Genesis

The New International Version (Chapter 3)

15 And I will put enmity

between you and the woman,

and between your offspring a and hers;

he will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel.”

From there God made a promise with a family that became a people....and despite is persistent presences and promises…they contiuned to reject him…until they need him. God would work through prosititues, murders, warriors, coward, drunks, and kings....but none of them could.

then 700 years before Jesus came the prophet isiah said this...

The New International Version (Chapter 9)

2 The people walking in darkness

have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of deep darkness

a light has dawned.

3 You have enlarged the nation

and increased their joy;

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”

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-Desmond Tutu‌

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The New International Version (Chapter 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.

7 Of the greatness 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.

400 years of no record divine writing or prophetic voice

But God’s apparent silence throughout most of history is not because God was absent or inactive, but simply because it takes eyes of faith to see where God is at work even when He doesn’t have someone write about it.

Hope teaches us that even when we might not be able to see or hear where God is work, we can know He is work.

A prolonged promise is an invitation to hope.

While we are waiting…God is working…while we are hoping God is healing

Great hope is oftentimes preceded by great hurt.

Hope may look different that you expect or even want.

Luke

The New International Version (Chapter 1)

30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Painting by Sister Grace Remington

Roman

The New International Version (Chapter 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.

True hope comes only from Jesus and is for all people.

Here’s the best way to say it: the Christmas story reminds us that hope will never be found if you look horizontally. True hope is found only when you look for it vertically. It’s not enough to say that God gives us hope. What the Christmas story declares to us is that God is hope.

-Paul David Tripp

Hope gives us the gift of being certain about our God even when our circumstances are uncertain.

People desperately need to know the hope they can have in Jesus. We need to go tell them about Him.

People often don’t realize that we have hope because Christians don’t act like it.

Peter

The New International Version (Chapter 1)

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.

The New International Version (Chapter 3)

15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

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Going to lake michigan and almost drowning...

“Go tell it on the mountain” was an old negro spiritual…these worlds likely were first sung by enslaved people who needed hope and freedom.

future. The message of Christianity is, instead, “Things really are this bad, and we can’t heal or save ourselves. Things really are this dark—nevertheless, there is hope.” The Christmas message is that “on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” Notice that it doesn’t say from the world a light has sprung, but upon the world a light has dawned. It has come from outside. There is light outside of this world, and Jesus has brought that light to save us; indeed, he is the Light (John 8:12).

Keller, Timothy. Hidden Christmas (p. 10). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.