Vox - Advent: A Living Hope

Introduction: Talk about Advent Series.

What is Advent? The arrival of someone, something, or an event.

‌As Christians, this is time of year when we remember the Advent of Jesus being born.

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Jab1/Topical Story:

‌Have you ever been so excited about something that you knew was going to happen?

‌Story: Asking a girl I liked to homecoming.

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Jab 2/Info on Topic:

‌Webster’s definition

‌Hope - a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

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Jab 3/Passionate about Hope in Jesus:

We all have things in life we hope for: Good grades, nice car, getting along with someone.

‌All these things aren’t guaranteed to happen.

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The Bible talks about a hope we can have, and it is guaranteed to happen.

‌Hope found in the Bible can be defined like this:

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Hope (Bible) - a confident expectation that something good will happen because it is based on God's promises, character and faithfulness.

Let’s go to Luke 2:6-7(NIV)…

6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

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This series is about the birth of Christ and all the things that His arrival here represents.

‌One of those things is hope.

‌Jesus represents our Hope. So…

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The Arrival of Jesus was the Arrival of Hope.

‌Because with Jesus, we have an assurance in the promises of God.

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1 Peter 1:3says…

‌ 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,

Our Living Hope Through Jesus…

· He died for Our Salvation.

‌– His death on the cross means he paid our sin debt.

· Our Salvation is Our New Life

– Our salvation means we are born again. We have been given the chance at new life.

· Our New Life brings us a Living Hope

– We have a hope that is alive. It came to life when Jesus defeated sin and death.

Jesus is alive…

Jesus is Our Living Hope

‌

Because of Him, we have the motivation to live a faithful and godly life, not just because of what He did but also because of what He is going to do.

When I think back on the time of my life when my hope was in everything else besides Jesus, it reminds me of one of the darkest periods of my life.

‌Always being let down, searching for things to look forward to and finding nothing that lasted, nothing that kept me from feeling depressed. Contentless with life.

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Until I started put my hope in Christ…

‌See, when we put of our hope in Jesus, hope becomes more than just how we feel.

‌Hope becomes a person, Jesus, who’s living and alive in us.

‌It becomes a living hope that turns into this outward joy that is on full display in our lives.

Because…

Hope is no longer just a desire for something good that we think might happen.

When our hope is Jesus then it becomes a certainty that everything good that He promised will happen.

‌‌Which is eternal life, rewards, a future glory, dwelling with God forever.

When we put our hope in Jesus then our lives will reflect our faith.

‌Let’s talk about Hope and Faith…

· Faith and hope aren’t the same, but they are dependent on each other.

· ‌Faith is putting what we currently believe into action.

· ‌Hope is believing something will happen in the future.

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So, if we don’t believe in what Jesus says he is going to do then how can we have faith?

‌Hope points to future expectations set by Jesus, so…

Hope in Jesus Keeps Our Faith Alive

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I believe in what Jesus did for me, so I live by faith. I continually live by faith because my hope is in His promises for the future.

This hope isn’t just wishful thinking, but a firm conviction that God is in control which leads to a deeper faith. This hope drives our faith.

Let’s go to 1 Peter 1:4…

‌4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you…

Hope came down and after His death and resurrection, Jesus ascended to heaven to prepare a place for us with an inheritance waiting for us in eternity...

Tension:But in the meantime, we are temporarily waiting for eternity.

Compared to our eternal life, this life is temporary.

When is eternity happening?

In Revelation 22Jesus just says, “I am coming back soon,” He gives no time, day, month.

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So, we just wait but there’s a dilemma…

‌We live in an instant gratification culture today so waiting for anything is hard for us.

· We don’t like lines, so we get the express pass

· We don’t like waiting for information so let me look it up on my phone

· We don’t like waiting for deliveries let me get that amazon prime

We don’t like to wait for anything.

‌So…

Our first question is naturally, “How long do we wait Jesus?”

‌I think a better question to ask would be, “How do we wait?”

How do we wait for something that we can’t see? This is difficult to grasp.

“The already but not yet.”

‌It means that God’s Kingdom is both present and future. Established but not completed.

‌It was already established with Jesus being born. We are already experiencing some of the effects of the kingdom…

· The New Covenant

· Saved by Grace, not works

· Jew and Gentile have direct access to God anytime

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It has not yet been fully completed. We are waiting for Christ's return for it to be fully achieved. Then we have New Jerusalem. So…

We can feel the effects of the Kingdome, we just can’t physically see it yet.

‌But we have to keep ours eyes fixed on it…

The author tells us in Hebrew 12:1b-2a (NIV)….

And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

I don’t know about you but it’s hard for me to focus on something I can’t see.

It’s hard to focus on a future life that we can’t see yet when things are happening in this present life we can see.

These things can take all our attention off God.

They can be bad things like pressures of life, our disappointments, our failures, suffering.

They can also be good things though…

Even good things can pull us away from God when we put all our hope in them.

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(Look at Chart)

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Let’s face it, we live in a world that offers endless ways to have a hopeful future.

‌Social media, people around us — all tell us where to find purpose and meaning, what we should put our hopes in. Usually, it’s about seeking what we want…

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Hope in Our Desires Keeps Our Faith Weak

· Success

‌Maybe you’ve heard people say, “If I just achieve this, then I’ll have a great future.”

‌Maybe it’s like: “If I just get that grade, make the team, or get into that college, everything will fall into place.”

‌Success can make us feel good, and there’s nothing wrong with it.

‌But here’s the thing: success is a moving target.

‌You can reach one goal and then there’s another one to chase. There’s always…

· Another level of achievement, or something better

· Someone else is better

· ‌Keep success going to feel valuable.

‌When success becomes the focus of our hope, will leave us empty because it’s based on something that always changes.

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And we don’t want to feel empty or lonely. We all want to be loved…

· ‌Relationships

‌We want to feel connected to others through relationships and friendships.

‌God made us to fellowship with people.

Relationships with people can make us happy, but people aren’t perfect.

‌When we put all our hope in a person, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment.

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Example: If I had put my hopes in every girl I would have ever dated, then…

We all want to be liked. It feels good to have the approval of others…

· Approval of Others

‌But if being liked is your goal, this could be a problem. Social media thrives on being liked:

· ‌ “How many likes did you get?”

· “How many comments/shares?

· “How many followers do you have?”

· ‌ “How popular are you?”

This has become one of the biggest false hopes in our world today.

It’s been given so much of a weight of importance in measuring our self-worth that being liked has even bled over to how we measure success.

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Think about YouTube/Tik Tok:

· How many views? You can get more ad money

· How many likes? Here’s even more ad money

· What’s the content of your video? We don’t care

Social media has made it so important to be liked that show a count of how many likes you have because apparently, it’s so important to let others know how liked you are.

‌And they either don’t have a dislike button or have hidden the dislike count because, “Oh my gosh, are you trying to destroy all my hopes by telling people that I’m disliked?”

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It’s easy now b/c it’s become so normal to start measuring our worth based on what other people think. I’m not saying its bad to want someone to like you.

· ‌But this is a shaky foundation for hope.

· It can change in an instant.

· Trying to please everyone is exhausting.

The approval we should care most about is God’s approval.

The most important way we should measure success is by how God measures success.

The only relationship we should put our hope in is our relationship with Jesus.

Application:

‌Let me ask that question again: How do we wait with Hope in Jesus?

Especially when we’re going through all the pressures of life and we’re dealing with trials, disappointment, we’re hurting, or we fail? Or when we see suffering?

Jesus said we are to be a light of the world.

Example: A lighthouse.

Our Hope in Jesus is a Light

Keep our eyes on the bigger picture and realize there’s a purpose for the struggle.

Paul tells us in Romans 5:3-4 (NLT)…

‌‌3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

Rejoice in the struggle because we’re not just going through it, we’re growing through it.

God is cultivating in us patience, peace, joy, faithfulness. The fruit that’s needed to follow Jesus.

God is strengthening our character by pushing us forward to our new life. Which means we are not defined by our disappointments, failures, mistakes, or our past trauma.

Whether caused by us or someone else, it doesn’t define us.

God strengthens our character which strengthens our hope in Jesus which makes the character Christ to shine through us for others to see.

Make your hope in Jesus be the light that guides you so that you can be a light to the world

Conclusion/Bottom Line:

Romans 5:5 says…

5 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.

Jesus never promised us a life without challenges that disappoint us, but He did promise us that He would never disappoint us. And he promised His presence in the storm.

He never leaves us. He never changes. And He understands.

Jesus understands our suffering. He lived through it. He knows what it feels like to be betrayed, rejected, and even to lose loved ones.

When our hope is in Jesus, we find something that never changes, something that doesn’t disappoint, something that fills the deepest voids, and a light that shines through us.

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Hope in Jesus lights the way through this temporal life while keeping us anchored in His promise of eternal life.

Jesus holds us steady, when life gets shaky. He brings peace in the chaos, he gives us strength in weakness, and He reminds us that we are never alone.

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Jesus said in John 10:10b (NIV)…

“I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”

That full life isn’t found in achievements, people, or popularity. It’s found in knowing Jesus, letting His love fill our hearts, and putting our hope in Him.

Challenge/Close/Pray