Hope (2)

Best Christmas Ever

Week 1 – Hope

Isaiah 9:2

(1 Cor 15:54-58, Ps 147:11, Rm 5:2-7, 2 Cor 4.4, 2 Cor 4:6, 2 Tim 1:10)

BCE

Good morning and welcome to worship on this amazing day… and such a beautiful weekend! I want to start today by simply saying Thank you to Alex for stepping in last week. On Friday I contacted him to just be thinking about what he might share, thinking I would be better… then when I was still running fever mid-day Saturday I knew I needed Alex. He did a great job sharing with us about the importance of staying spiritually nourished as we finished out the religious year.

That’s right – Happy New Year! I know, it’s not January 1, but you do realize that today is the first day of the Christian Calendar! Advent marks the beginning. A new beginning… In this season all things are made new as we await the arrival of our King! Yes, we await the arrival of the 6 lbs 8oz baby Jesus… but more than that this is a season of awaiting the return of our King of kings and Lord of lords.

So, with that said, why do I have this gift?

This time of year, kids are making their lists… I know, most of us would spend Thanksgiving looking at the Sears and JC Penney Catalogues making our lists, I guess kids these days scroll through Pinterest or something… I’m not sure, but one thing I know, we all still make our lists.

What is it that you want for Christmas? What is it that you want more than anything else this season? What would you want wrapped in this box?

For many of us, what we want most isn’t some new trinket or some new gadget… what we want is hope. We are surrounded by wars and rumors of wars. Israel and Hamas and Hezbolah… Ukraine and Russia… The Left and the Right… The drug wars, the worship wars, the media wars… the list goes on and on.

We are plagued by anxiety and illness and disappointment and grief and all these things… when what we need is hope.

I was flipping channels one night this past week and came across the movie Signs with Juaquin Phoenix and Mel Gibson. If you haven’t seen it, it is a great movie – one of M. Night Shyamalan best. I’m not going to go into too much detail here, but Mel Gibson plays the part of an Episcopal priest named Graham Hess, who lost his wife tragically in an accident which led to time of questioning his faith. As he and his family face more stress as it seems the world is coming to an end, his little brother, played by Juaquin Phoenix asks a question about faith. Graham replies:

People break down into two groups when they experience something lucky. Group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them. Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance. I'm sure the people in Group number two are looking at [these lights in the sky] in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation isn't fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear… But there's a whole lot of people in Group number one. When they see those… lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope. See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?

It is my prayer for you, that as we enter this season we are a people of hope!

You see, we are entering a 4-week church wide series called, “The Best Christmas Ever.” Yes, it’s a hokey saying that gets used all the time, but what comes to mind when you think of the best ever? What comes to mind when something exceeds expectations? How does something go from ordinary to EXTRAordinary?

That is what we want to examine this month as we prepare our hearts and lives for Christmas… for the Best Christmas Ever as we begin the extraordinary journey of hope, peace, joy, and love.

Turn with me in your Bibles for today’s reading. It comes to us from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. Not only is it today’s text for the message, it is the Old Testament reading from today’s Lectionary.

Isaiah 9:2

The people who walk in darkness

will see a great light.

For those who live in a land of deep darkness,

a light will shine.

Prayer – Holy God, may your hope shine like a great light, may the Light of Christ drive out the darkness in our midst. Open our hearts, minds, eyes, and ears for all that you have to say to us today. Amen

Point 1 – Our Hope is in Christ

Our first point is this… our hope is in Christ. Jesus’ arrival on earth was and is a great source of hope for those who were lost in the darkness. You do know that light and darkness cannot exist in the same space, right?

I remember the first time I visited a cavern with my family. I was a child then, and I have since taken my children on these cavern and cave experiences. On one of these experiences, both as a child and as a parent, I had the opportunity to experience complete and total darkness. We had travelled deep into the recesses of the cavern and had come to what they called the great room. You can look high up at the ceiling and see the pattern cut by the waves rushing through the cavern as it was formed. These inverted waves carved into the sandstone and limestone leaving these scallops with their shadows and colors. As you admire these undulating patterns in the ceiling and wall, is when you hear the warning from the tour guide. They warn you that you are about to experience total darkness. “Parents grab your children. No one is to move for the few minutes” they tell you. And CLICK… total and complete darkness. After what seemed like an eternity of people putting their hand in front of their face and not seeing it, even after bopping their nose… the guide lights a single candle. That one candle lit this great room, a hundred feet wide and long… a hundred feet high, yet one small candle was able to chase away the darkness.

That is what Isaiah was talking about. Isaiah was a prophet during the time after the fall of the United Kingdom of David. The North had already been defeated and the South wasn’t far behind. It was a time of war. It was a time of uncertainty. It was a time of despair and anxiety and grief. In other words, it was a dark time in the life of the people of Israel.

And yet, Isaiah spoke a message of Hope… that the people living in darkness would see a great light. What we know today is that the prophecy was about the hope that Jesus brought to earth some 700+ years later.

Our shared hope is in Christ alone. In the midst of the darkness, there is Christ, and that brings us to the next point.

Point 2 – Hope Sees Light in the Midst of Darkness

Romans 15:12-13 NIV

And again, Isaiah says,

“The Root of Jesse will spring up,

one who will arise to rule over the nations;

in him the Gentiles will hope.”

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 know, we jumped to the New Testament, then read another passage from Isaiah. In Romans, Paul is quoting Isaiah 15… the term The Root of Jesse is translated in other places as the heir to David’s throne. And we know that the heir he speaks of, the root he references is none other than Jesus. It is Jesus that is the hope of the Gentiles. It is the name above every other name and it is a name that brings hope to the hopeless. In the midst of darkness, in the midst of all that is bad, in the midst of the worst of the worst in this life, we can look to the truth of Jesus and see the light, we can see the hope.

Hope looks beyond the circumstances. Happiness is circumstantial, hope goes beyond circumstances and sees the light of Christ in the midst of the darkness.

On your absolute worst day, Jesus Christ is for you! And when Christ is for us, who can be against us, Amen…

That drives us to our 3rdpoint for the day… don’t get your hopes up too fast, today we have 4 points… But point 3 is this…

Point 3 – Let Christ Live in You and Shine Through You

Let Christ live in you and shine through you. You are a new creation… if you are in Christ, you are new. All of creation is made new (2 Cor 5:17). That means you are recreated with New motives. New desires. New goals. New hopes. New dreams.

Gal. 2:20, Paul tells us,

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

We no longer live the old life, it has been put to death, it has been crucified with Christ. I know…. But what about this… what about that… what about my anger issue… what about the sin I keep falling back into… it is dead. It doesn’t define you. It isn’t who you are. Don’t let the dead things of the past define the future of who you are in Christ. Leave the dead things and look to the life of Christ that lives in you.

Let Christ grow in you to overflowing. Let the hope of Christ fill you like a vessel that as more is poured in, it begins to overflow onto everything around it.

When we are in Christ, when you are in Christ, Hope should pour out of us.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Liberia, Costa Rica sitting in a church with church leaders sharing about their hopes and dreams as their church grows. One of the men caught my eye, his name was Mario. I could tell he liked their new pastor, but every now and then Mario would roll his eyes at what the pastor or one of the other said. As I watched him and prayed for him something hit me. Mario is one of the founding members of that church. He was a part of the team of dreamers who said, “God, you have called us to plant a church here so here we go.” He had seen the church go from a gathering under a tree to a building to a campus that could welcome others as they come to help other churches in the region.

And you know what, he was still disappointed. I don’t know what his dream was. I’m not sure what his hope was, but in that moment, I felt that God placed a word on my heart for him.

I grabbed Raul, one of our bilingual participants and pulled Mario to the side and this is the message I had for Mario.

“God knows that your dream for this place hasn’t come to fruition, and God sees you. But God also wants you to know that your dream wasn’t big enough. God has more in store for you than you could ever dream.”

In that moment, Mario melted. He softened, he wept, and he knew that God had not forgotten them.

That isn’t the kind of thing I do. I’m not a prophet that goes about proclaiming “Thus Sayeth the Lord!” But in that moment God used me to shine His light. In that moment I was able to let the hope of Christ pour out of me onto another.

That is what we are called to do. Spread the light. And to do that we can’t hide the light.

Point 4 – Don’t Hide the Light

Who has ever been to a lighthouse? What does it do? What is its purpose?

It is to shine the light. It is a beacon home for the sailor at night. It is a warning of shallow reefs or land to the sailor in the storm.

You should be a lighthouse – welcoming those home who haven’t made it yet. Warning those who are headed for the rocks of this life.

You should be hope and hope is a lighthouse.

1 Peter 3:15 tells us:

You must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.

The Best Christmas Ever will be Rooted in Hope

There is no greater gift that we can give than the hope of Christ. It is the gift that keeps on giving and giving.

In his pivotal work Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis said;

“Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”

To be hope… to shine the light of hope in the world seems like a monumental task, but know this… You are not alone… Jesus has overcome the world.

BCE

We live in a world full of lies. We hear that there is no God. We hear that everything happened by chance. We hear that it doesn’t matter what we believe or do. We are told that nothing ever changes… we are just on this broken cycle of pain and regret.

I want to tell you, Don’t believe the lies of this world… Hope is real… Things do change…

This season reminds us that everything can change in an instant… because Jesus’ birth changes everything.

Choose Hope… and share it with others.

…If you’re light isn’t shining as bright as it should, if you think you are running low on hope, we are going to pray for you!...