Confidence Despite The Mess

The Lord Our Righteous Savior Is Our Hope

12.1.24 [Jeremiah 33:10-16] River of Life (1st Sunday of Advent)

Romans 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. Amen.

Hope is the secret sauce of any great story. Think about your favorite book, your favorite show, or your favorite movie. What would it be without hope? It doesn’t matter if it’s a love story—like Beauty and the Beast where hope takes the form of an enchanted rose. Or a sci-fi thriller—like Jurassic Park where hope is a helicopter ride off the island. Or a comedy musical—like Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory where hope is a golden ticket.

But hope isn’t merely the stuff of fiction. Great stories suffocate without hope because people cannot live that way. Society crumbles without hope. As soon as hope disappears—even for just a short amount of time—violence, apathy, and death strike with ferocity.

Hope is a powerful gift. It changes how you think, how you talk, and how you live. Hope affects the choices you make and impacts the way you react to challenges and changes. If you have hope, then nothing will dissuade you. If you don’t have hope, nearly anything can destroy you.

People need hope. And God knows that. But the hope that God gives to his people is more robust than mere optimism. The hope that God gives isn’t the sappy, sentimental wishful thinking of rom-coms or super hero movies. Hope is grounded in God. Rooted in his promises. Biblical hope is certainty even in the midst of changes, challenges, and chaos. Hope is one of those golden threads that connects all the stories of the Old Testament, all the events of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, all of the inspired teachings of Peter, John, and Paul.

Again and again in the Scriptures, God gives hope to those who had no business being optimistic or thinking wishfully. On the heels of their catastrophic fall into sin, God gave hope to Adam and Eve by promising the offspring of the woman would crush the serpent’s head.

God gave hope to Noah, who watched the world he lived in burn with lust, violence, and greed. Build an ark according to the specifications I have given you and you and your family will be saved.

God gave hope to Abraham, who longed for an heir and a place to call home. God promised that one day his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore and they would inhabit the land Abraham lived in as a foreigner.

God gave hope to Moses in promising that he would free his people from slavery and lead them to the Promised Land. God gave hope to David in anointing him as king long before he ever took the throne.

God gave hope to the widow at Zarephath through his prophet Elijah. Everyone was suffering from the drought, but God promised her that her flour would not run out and her oil would not run dry until the rains returned. She and her son and the Lord’s prophet did not die of starvation, just as the Lord had promised.

God gave hope to King Hezekiah. Despite being surrounded by the most powerful and violent army the world had known, the people of Jerusalem did not suffer a single loss. The Lord God came to the aid of his people and fought their battle against the Assyrians for them.

Again and again, God gave his people the gift of hope. Though they had not earned it and certainly didn’t deserve it, God remained faithful, loving, and hopeful.

But over time, Judah’s hope was no longer grounded in God or rooted in his promises. Instead of being hopeful, they grew haughty. They were proud and arrogant, rebellious and disdainful. They assumed that their survival and success were because they were special. They had the Temple so they must just be better than the rest. They ignored God’s many prophets, who warned them about the judgment that was to come because of their wickedness.

Then the unthinkable happened. Jerusalem fell. The walls were torn down. The palaces were turned into charred rubble. The king was captured and had his eyes gouged out. The nobles and princes were executed. The best and the brightest were carried off into captivity. The Temple was ransacked. The Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, plundered the holy things of God. And the people lost all hope.

They looked at what remained of their capital city and their holy Temple and they saw (Jer. 33:10) a desolate wasteland. A place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. They lost hope because their hope came from within. It was optimism. It was wishful thinking. It was self-confidence. It was not grounded in God nor rooted in his promises. But you don’t have to live in a deserted, dying city to feel that way, do you?

It’s easy to lose hope when the economy is crumbling around you, when prices are rising, and wages are flatlining, and you’re watching departments and industries get gutted.

It’s easy to lose hope when it feels like the world around you has lost its mind and whatever moral compass it used to have.

It’s easy to lose hope when you can’t find any relief from the pain, when the diagnosis is terminal, or when the doctors have no idea what’s going on, much less what to do.

It’s easy to lose hope the brokenness is invisible. When depression sets in. When anxieties afflict. When dementia destroys all the good days—past, present, and future. It’s easy to lose hope when a loved one is suffering and there’s nothing you can do.

It’s easy to lose hope when you’re all alone. When the calls and cards are few and far between. It’s easy to lose hope when it feels like no one is listening—or worse, no one cares.

It’s easy to lose hope when everything is changing faster than you can handle. When your plans fall to pieces. When your resilience is tested.

It’s easy to lose hope when your hope isn’t grounded in God, nor rooted in his promises. God has not promised a booming economy. God has not promised that the world will behave. God has not promised that you will not suffer—physically, mentally, or emotionally. God has not promised that your friends will be faithful or your plans will be fruitful. But that does not mean we are hopeless. Our hope is in the Lord, who (Jer. 33:11) is good, and whose love endures forever.

That Lord did something incredible in Jeremiah 33. Before the city of Jerusalem fell, before the royals were killed and the best and brightest were carried off, before the Temple was plundered, God promised to restore the fortunes of Judah as they were before. (Jer. 33:11) The sounds of joy and gladness, weddings and thank offerings would return.

But it was better than just a hard reset or a second chance. God was going to keep the promise he’d made to Adam and Eve, and renewed to Noah and Abraham. A prophet greater than Moses, a king greater than David, was going to (Jer. 33:15) sprout from David’s line. The Lord our Righteous Savior would do what is just and right.

This is real hope. God’s powerful gift to sinners. Our Righteous Savior lived a life that was grounded in God’s will and rooted in God’s Word.

Again and again, we see Jesus restoring hope to those who, by all accounts, had become hopeless.

Strengthening legs that had been paralyzed. Opening eyes that had been blind. Cleansing skin that had been tormented by leprosy. Freeing those who were oppressed by demons. Giving life to the dead. But most of all forgiving sins that haunted and harassed.

That hope was hard won. On the cross, our sins were laid upon our Lord. On the cross, our Righteous Lord laid down his life for us. On the cross, the righteous Branch was cut down, so that we might be saved, so that we might live in eternal safety, and so that we might have hope.

This is what the Lord our Righteous Savior came for first and foremost. Jesus came to fill us with joy and peace so that we might overflow with hope. And you do have hope. Even in seemingly hopeless situations. Because your hope is grounded in God and rooted in his Word.

Hope is a powerful gift. It changes how you think, how you talk, and how you live. Hope affects the choices you make and impacts the way you react to challenges and changes. If you have hope, you can handle anything God allows. If you have hope, then nothing will dissuade you.

When you’re financially strapped, your hope is not that you can figure it out or that your ship’s going to come in. Your hope is that God is good. That his love endures forever. In love, he provides for the birds of the air. He tells you that you are much more valuable to him than they are.

When the world has lost its way, your hope is not that they’ll come to their senses, but that Jesus will come quickly. Your hope is that God is good. That his love endures all things. In love, he will return to bring to be with him in a place where justice and righteousness are done.

When you are sick and suffering, your hope is not that they’ll find a cure or that you’ll get over it. Your hope is that God is good. His love endures in everything. He has told you that this body, this mind, is but a tent. It will be resurrected. It will be glorified. You will be raised eternal.

When you are feeling alone, your hope is not that someone will come along and make you feel better. Your hope is that God is good. And near. He will not leave you. He will never forsake you. He will be with you even to the very end of the age. Your hope is grounded in God and rooted in the promises of his Word. You have a powerful gift from God.

Because you know the days are coming when God will fulfill the good promise he has made to Adam and Eve, to Noah and Abraham, to Moses and David. In those days, we will be saved and we will live in safety. Amen.