What are you hoping for?
Notes
Transcript
Have you ever unwrapped a gift and thought to yourself. What is this thing?
A couple years ago for Christmas my dad handed me and Amy a small box.
Pass the box around...
Some of you may already know what this is but I had no idea and he wasn’t saying anything. He wanted us to try and figure it out, guess.
The Apostle Paul when he opens up his letter to the Ephesians prays a prayer that we all would benefit from:
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlighten in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.
to know the hope to which He has called you.
God has called you into hope, but do you know what that means?
Do you know the hope?
Or are you holding in your hands this thing that you don’t understand.
Because let me tell you what hope is not.
Hope is not our foundation.
Hope doesn’t influence our faith…no our faith is what gives us hope.
We don’t wishfully think that all these wonderful things will happen.
Let me say it this way… we don’t come to God and believe in him because we hope that it’s true and real.
We have a confident assurance that what God has said will happen…that is BIBLICAL hope.
It’s not wishful thinking…
Side note and pet peeve of mine… When you or someone you love is going through something, asking for positive vibes and good thoughts means nothing. Positive thoughts and vibes can accomplish nothing…On the other hand. When we come to an almighty and all powerful God in prayer…He can and will move on our behalf.
What is hope?
Hope is a confident assurance of a good future in light of the promises of God.
It’s a gift of the Spirit…
Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we[b] boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
It grows out of our Jesus development. As our character grows, so does our hope.
As we persevere through trials and suffering, our character is developed and when we look back and see the faithfulness of a loving God through those suffering places…our hope for the future is solidified.
You might have no hope right now.
You might feel hopeless…
Dare I say you are simply one surrender away from opening one of the greatest gifts God has for his children.
He is extending his Spirit out to you. He wants to pour out his love into your heart through the Spirit that has been given to us and that Spirit wants to give you a hope and a future.
Hope is having certainty about the future that impacts us here and now.
Our hope isn’t set in some ambiguous thing for no reason. Our hope is set in specific moments in history. For example, the arrival of Jesus Christ as a baby and His life, death, & resurrection. Each of these moments of history can give us hope for the future. Hope is about living right now in the light of a future promise. Christ has come, and he promised he would come again. This hope is about restructuring the way we look at the world, not as it is right now, but as it will be when Christ comes to set all things right.
A mark of almost every person within the Christmas story is that they were full of hope about the fulfillment of a historic promise.
READ ISAIAH 9:2 - SLIDE
2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
The Old Testament holds many promises, or prophecies about the coming of Jesus. Each one helped sustain the Jewish people. Because they believed that rescue was coming, it helped them live each and every day.
Many of us know and love Jeremiah 29:11
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.
But do you know that verse 10 tells them that they are going to be stuck in a captivity, under Babylonian exile for 70 years? That they are to set their hope on a future event even though they are called to live under captivity. They are to seek the peace and prosperity of the city they were living in.
And here in Isaiah 9:2 we have one of those promises that Israel would have held on to for a long time, In a world that was full of deep darkness and suffering, a light was coming. There is an old man named Simeon within the pages of Scripture. Simeon is a wonderful Advent character as he is a perfect example of a person who has oriented their entire life around a future promise given to him by God.
After Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph took him to the temple to participate in some of the traditional Jewish customs of the day. One of the main reasons was to dedicate and consecrate him to the Lord. When they arrived at the temple, Simeon was there as well.
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: 29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” 33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
Some traditions believe that Simeon may have been 112 years old at this time. According to Luke, Simeon was promised that he would not die until he saw the Messiah in the flesh. His life would be spared until he set his eyes on the Anointed One. By the prompting of Holy Spirit, Simeon is at the temple the day Jesus was brought by Joseph and Mary. When he sees Jesus, he is overcome with joy and hope as he realizes that this is the One he has been waiting for. So he takes the baby Jesus into his arms and receives that beautiful prayer.
Can you imagine the way he felt? To know that this thing he had hoped for so long had finally come to pass. Simeon, in his many years had seen many painful and trying times in Israels history. He saw the Romans conquer and occupy his people and land. He saw a bloody civil war, and multiple revolutions by the Israelite people be crushed. Yet he sill believed that God was not done, he still held out hope. He trusted that His deliverer was coming. He believed the Messiah was on His way, and here in Luke 2, that promise that he was hoping for was coming to fruition.
Hope is having certainty about the future that impacts us here and now but
Hope is also birthed out of deep longings and desperate need.
Simeon shows us that hope is birthed out of deep longings and desperate need.
25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.
Consolation- encouragement, comfort. This didn’t mean that he was waiting for God’s pat on the back or a few nice words of comfort. No it was referring to a phrase in the chapters of the book of Isaiah. For hundreds of years Israel had been defeated and destroyed by many different nations, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks and now the Romans. These chapters in Isaiah were written right smack dab in the middle of that mess. When these chapters in Isaiah were written, they pointed to a coming comfort through the Messiah that God would send. Even though that was not the current situation, they were currently being destroyed, they would look ahead for the coming day that things would change. They could have hope, comfort and encouragement that God would come through.
This word that Luke uses here for waiting gives the meaning that they were waiting in agony, or waiting with a deep awareness of their deep need.
It’s a sort of waiting that hurts. Simeon’s hope, his expectancy, was birthed out of his awareness of his deep need for God’s comfort and healing.
During these weeks leading up to Christmas Day. I want to encourage you to allow yourself to feel the deep need you have for God.
It’s so easy to dissociate. Or to fill the longings of our soul with other things.
- Accomplishment, parties, shopping, denial, Netflix, substance abuse, food.
When we get a sense of our need we often run right to something to fill that emptiness.
Instead of leaning into our deepest need for God’s comfort to and healing in our lives, we simply try to distract ourselves and in the end, we miss the hope that is offered in Jesus CHrist. When we do this, we are living but we are not fully alive. Look around you, engage with the Advent Season, allow yourself to hope that your current situation and circumstances that bring pain can be changed and restored by the arrival of Jesus Christ.
The ancient prayer of Advent is “Come, Lord Jesus, Come.”
May this Advent season be different that any before. May you allow yourself to feel this season. Don’t allow yourself to distract or self-smooth. Wrestle with pain and come face-to-face with the brokenness of our world. It is only then that we see fully the emptiness of our normal Christmas hustle and bustle. We have been settling for less than it is. Out of a deep longing can come the comfort and hope of Jesus Christ.
Hope is having a certainty of our future that impacts the here and now. Hope comes from a deep longing but
HOPE ALSO IS FOUND IN Christ Jesus
1 Peter we are told that hope is not some kind of wishful thinking. This is amazing news, because if it was, then our hope ends in despair and disappointment. But our hope is set on Christ alone. Not our 401K, not a relationship, not a job or career, not the president, or former president, not a good medical record. No. Our hope is build on nothing less, than Jesus. His promised arrival in the future to restore all that is broken.
Simeon recognized the Messiah in a time that it was really easy to miss him. How did he recognize that baby was the Son of God, the deliverer of Israel?
How did he get it right, when so many others God it wrong?
In short, because people were looking for something that Jesus was not. They were looking for a conqueror. They wanted a political warrior King who would build Israel back to its former Glory as in the Days of King David. They didnt’ expect the Messiah to be a tiny baby who would offer his life as a random for ours on that cross instead of exerting His heavenly power. Their expectations were all about what they wanted God to do for them, how they wanted Him to look, and for things to change their favor. When Jesus failed to meet their expectations, they missed Him altogether. You see, Simeon had a different Hope.
When our hope is placed in anything other than the promises of God and the fulfillment of those promises in Jesus, we tend to settle for hope in lesser things. These things always fail and lead to frustrations.
This morning, in the midst of whatever you are going through…where do you find your hope?
Is your hope based on something you want God to do, or is it based in God himself.
BECASUE THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEING HOPEFUL FOR SOMETHING AND BEING HOPEFUL IN SOMETHING
During this advent season, we don’t just idly wait and hope. In fact, when we sense our deep longing and know our source of hope, then we can live every moment believing the best is before us, even in death. When we begin to embrace the anticipation and the expectation, we free ourselve up from the urgency of having to perform and fix things, and simply rest that God is at work. The question is…
How do we join him in that work?
Illustration…Expecting Parents. Nine months to wait. It seems like it takes forever. All they could do is just simply wait, but actively waiting involves more. It’s preparing the house, it’s getting the clothes ready. Its acting on the hope that this thing will come to pass.
That is the way we need to be with our hope in Christ’s future coming. While we wait on the Lord, what would set us up perfection for his arrival in our lives?
Maybe its forgiving that person who offended you.
Maybe it’s pressing into God and repenting from that Sin
Maybe it’s serving someone less fortunate and loving others. .
Whatever God is calling you to do to actively wait for his return…press in
Because..
He has plans to forgive you
He has plans to keep you and not to harm you.
He has plans to use you for His Kingdoms sake.
He has plans to transform your mind and heart into the likeness of Jesus
He has plans to purify you.
He has plans to give you an inhertiance that is incorruptible
He has plans to pour out his presence in your life and allow you to do miraculous things in the Name and authority of Jesus our Christ
He has plans to glorify you one day.
These are all things we look forward to in hope. That one day there will be no more tears and we will see Jesus face to face, in all his glory and might. And at his feet we will lay our crowns. At his feet we will bow.
The same feet that his mother mary once played with.
At the same feet that carried his mortal body while on this earth.
The same feet that Mary washed with her tears.
The same feet that held his body on that cross, in agony placing his weight on those precious feet so he could take a breath.
It’s at his feet we bow, and it’s under those feet that Satan will be forever crushed under.
Church, we need hope…we need to unwrap this precious gift from God. So may we be faithful to unwrap this gift this holiday season…
But let us not hope for something but let us put our hope in someone.