God With Us Brings Hope

Introduction

Story of John Aldridge - fishing boat

summer 2017

commercial fisherman John Aldridge & Anthony Sosinski

after heading out about 40 miles off shore, Anthony was sleeping

John started getting things ready

He was pulling on a handle when it snapped and he was hurled right off the back of the boat

He screamed for help but no one could hear him and the boat was on autopilot so it kept on going

John watched as the boat disappeared out of sight, He was now all alone treading water in the middle of the Atlantic ocean without a life vest.

It sure sounds like a hopeless situation to me.

John calmed himself and thought quickly about how buoyant his boots were. He quickly took a boot off and plunged it under water to get some air in it and stuck it under his arm. He did this with the other and was able to stay afloat

He kept thinking of his family and the fact that no one even knew he was out there. Not only that but he noticed that there were a few sharks that began swimming around him.

He began making some goals like “let me make it through the next hour,” “let me make it through til morning.”

He eventually caught site of a fishing buoy and pulled himself on it.

Meanwhile Anthony woke up and John was nowhere to be found. He called the Coast Guard but with no idea where he was and the enormity of the Atlantic ocean they really didn't know where to even start.

It just so happens that Anthony started talking with other fisherman on the radio and then noticed that the handle on a pull rod was broken and begin to peice together what John would have been doing and that gave him an idea of where they would have been.

Sure enough a helicopter searched that area and found John clinging to life on that fishing buoy.

It was a miracle that John Aldridge survived. He said in his interview with CBS that is was a positive attitude and his boots that kept him alive. It is an amazing story of hope!

If we would be honest, we might say that we would have given up; that there was no way that we could survive.

Hope is like that; it comes in times of need like when John Aldridge thought quickly about those boots and how just maybe they could help me float.

What is it that you hope for?

Your Hope may be that today for the first time in a long time, you are not bleeding.

Your Hope may be that the pain is not as bad today as it was yesterday.

Your Hope may be that you get the results back from those tests and the doctor says that you are going to be okay.

Maybe your hope is that a loved one would come to know Jesus.

Hope is the fuel of faith and dreams. Hope is what keeps us going.

Hope is what we celebrate today, the first Sunday of Advent.

Entering Advent

Advent is a season of hope!

The word means “coming” or “arrival”

It is a season that links the past, present and future

The ancient world longed for the coming of the Messiah and we get to share with them in that. We also get to celebrate His birth like they did on that first day. But we also look for His second coming where He will set everything right!

So, not only do we look back but we look forward as well!

There is an excitement as we wait on the Lord, much like that of a child anticipating Christmas morning. It is almost tangible!

While many people are rushing and scurrying around trying to buy presents and prepare meals and endure the long shopping lines, Advent is an opportunity to set aside time to prepare our hearts and help us place our focus on a far greater story than our own—the story of God’s redeeming love for our world.

It is a time of the year to draw closer to God and really ask ourselves what does it mean that God sent His Son to be Immanuel, God with Us?

Advent is the celebration of God coming to be with us. No matter where we find ourselves today, God is with us. He is Immanuel!

The Long Journey of Hope

God has always wanted to be close to His creation.

In the beginning He walked with Adam and Eve. They got to enjoy intimacy with the Creator.

Adam & Eve listened to the serpent and chose something that did not belong to them and caused a separation between God and His creation.

Ever since, the whole world has dealt with this decision and has experienced the brokenness caused by separation.

And ever since that fateful decision, God has been working to restore that relationship with man.

We can see throughout the pages of the Bible that God has been working to reconcile man to Himself. Though man caused the separation, he cannot do anything to repair it.

The whole Bible shows that God is making a way. There is hope for His people!

God makes a covenant with Abram:

Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.””

God promised that all people will be blessed!

God renewed that covenant with Jacob:

Genesis 28:15 “What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.””

Time Passed

Though God made a covenant with His people, the people of Israel had a hard time waiting. (We are much like that ourselves)

There is a very distinct cycle that is found in the history of Israel. They went from devotion to neglect to God’s discipline to crying out to God’s mercy.

They would go from prosperity to famine. When things were good they forgot about God and then they cried out to God.

Throughout all these times, there was a longing for God to fulfill his promise of the Messiah. The promise of the Messiah is that He would come and make everything right!

It may seem like that this was just an idea that would come and go (fleeting) but it wasn’t. It was a deep hope that sustained the people of God through thousands of years of waiting.

God Provided Glimpses / Doses of Hope

700 years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah prophesied and gave a huge dose of hope to his people.

Isaiah 7:14 “All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).”

Isaiah 9:1–2 “Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. The land of Zebulun and Naphtali will be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory. 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.”

Isaiah 9:6–7 “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!”

This would have been like a shot in the arm for those waiting. It was just another reminder that God was working.

Isaiah himself must have been so excited when he heard the Word of the Lord for His people.

The hope that Isaiah felt and the hope that all of Israel had is a hope that we can joyfully share today.

The waiting continued however…

Luke does an excellent job of detailing the Christmas story.

He tells us about the priest Zechariah who would have been very aware of Isaiah’s prophecies and himself waiting for the long awaited Messiah.

It had been 400 years since a message from the Lord had been heard in Israel and now an Angel appears to Zecahriah. 400 years is a long time to not hear something. Think about it this way: the United States is only 248 years old. Jamestown was being settled. King James was on the throne in England.

Wow! How exciting it must have been for Zechariah to hear from the angel. The angel told him about the miracle that was about to take place in his family. He and his wife Elizabeth were very old but they were going to have a child and this is what the Scripture says: Luke 1:17 “He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.””

Zechariah would have understood the significance of this word.

It would have been a big deal that they did not have children and now after having gone so long, hope was given. Not only a hope for them personally, but hope for us all.

I can just imagine the stir that was going on around town that day! The one who would prepare the way for the coming of the Lord was going to be born. This means that the long awaited Messiah was coming! He is coming! He’s on His way! He’ll be here soon!!

God would certainly be Immanuel, God with Us.

Hope for Us

You may be here or watching and wonder what this has to do with you. You may think that no one knows what you are going through.

No matter what kind of problems or struggles you are facing right now, no matter what kind of season of darkness and pain you are in, let me encourage you not to abandon hope. Hope is still alive, even in our deepest pain and most hopeless circumstances.

Hope is alive because God is with us.

But how can we be sure that this is true?

Hope Based on God’s Word

God is With Us in His Word that He left for us.

He has given us the inspired Word of God that is the Bible - consisting of both the OT and NT

The Bible is full of God’s promises and they can rays of hope

The Bible can expose our innermost thoughts and desires and remind us that no matter what we go through, God will never leave us or forsake us.

The Word is life when all we see is death

The Word is light when all we see is darkness

The Word is direction when all we see is chaos

Nothing can separate us from God, that is comforting! Consider the words of the Psalmist:

Psalm 139 NLT

For the choir director: A psalm of David. O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me! O God, if only you would destroy the wicked! Get out of my life, you murderers! They blaspheme you; your enemies misuse your name. O Lord, shouldn’t I hate those who hate you? Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose you? Yes, I hate them with total hatred, for your enemies are my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Do you hear the words of HOPE in that passage? Can you feel the hope knowing that God is With Us wherever we go?

Scripture is filled with stories and words that can cause a supernatural hope to rise up in us no matter what it looks like in the natural.

Hope Based on God’s Character

We can be sure that Hope is alive because God is With Us because of His Character

God is a giver

John 3:16–17 ““For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”

God is compassionate

Matthew 8:1–3 “Large crowds followed Jesus as he came down the mountainside. Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. “Lord,” the man said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.” Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared.”

God is Good

Exodus 33:19 “The Lord replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”

1 Timothy 4:4 “Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks.”

Mark 10:18 ““Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good.”

God is Holy

1 Samuel 2:2 “No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.”

1 Peter 1:15–16 “But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.””

Revelation 4:8 “Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty— the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.””

God is Light

1 John 1:5 “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.”

God is Just

Zephaniah 3:5 “But the Lord is still there in the city, and he does no wrong. Day by day he hands down justice, and he does not fail. But the wicked know no shame.”

God is Love

God is Faithful

God is Patient

And the list goes on and on

God’s character is one where He cannot lie and it is His nature to love. We cannot use the word “love” with any accuracy outside of God.

We can be sure that there is Hope because of God’s character.

Hope Based on God’s Faithfulness

Have you ever seen God move in your life?

If so, what makes you think He won’t keep all His promises?

Gratitude breeds hope! Because I have seen Him do it before I will be thankful. That thankfulness is something that moves the hand of God.

Look at what Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations, a book filled with passionate expressions of grief or sorrow:

Lamentations 3:21–26 NLT

Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.

The prophet understood that we have a future hope when we remember what God has done in the past.

Hope is like a spark to a fire. It just takes a little to make it catch and grow!

Hope requires cultivation. You must water it like a garden. Neglect it and it will die, take care of it and it will grow and provide.

Recognizing God With Us should bring Hope!

Where are you today?

Do you need to reignite your fire? Make your way to these altars and let God fill your heart with Hope today!

There are some who just need to foster an attitude of thankfulness and see what God will do. These altars are for you too!

You might be hear today and are saying that I have no hope or I really can’t see it. A life without Jesus is like that. Turn from your ways and follow Jesus! Let Him fill you with His love and hope. You have to take a step of faith; make your way down here and let’s pray together.

Benediction:

Romans 15:13 “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”