Hope For The Weary

Text: Isaiah 9:2–7 Focus: Light has dawned—and will dawn again. Big Idea: The promise of a coming King brings hope that outshines our present darkness.

Outline: 1. We Walk in Darkness – Acknowledge the reality of despair (v.2a). The people of God aren’t strangers to hard years. 2. We Have Seen a Great Light – God breaks through darkness with His promise (v.2b–3). 3. We Trust in a Child, Not a System – Hope is personal, not political (v.6–7). 4. We Rejoice Because the Zeal of the Lord Will Do This – Our hope is anchored not in our endurance, but in His faithfulness.

Illustration idea: Compare human hope (fragile, circumstantial) to biblical hope (anchored in God’s promise-keeping). Advent Candle: Hope Cross Connection: The child born in Bethlehem is the same King who will bring everlasting peace.

Introduction

Good morning!

How was everyone’s Thanksgiving celebration? One thing I would like to express my gratitude for is to the Lord - we are thankful that He opened the door for my family to come and serve along side this community. I, personally, am very grateful that the Lord - who knew the path we would be walking down, placed us in a community of faith where my health struggles could be given purpose and meaning. Since 2021, there has been a sense of disconnection that our family has felt from the community of God as a whole - we’ve attended churches, but never quite felt like we belonged.

That time was triggered by my health scare - in 2021, I had the Delta variant of COVID-19 and ended up in a coma for 19 days. I would spend a total of 7 weeks in the hospital, and we made the decision at the time to forgo rehab because they didn’t allow visitors either, and I had only seen my family once between the time I woke up and the time I went home.

I suffered pretty extensive damage to my vocal chords and was rendered unable to sing - at the time I was an associate pastor and worship ministry was one of my primary focuses. I lost my music, my ministry and in many ways, I felt like I lost my purpose.

One of the other results of the sepsis that put me into the coma was that I had to spend some time on Kidney Dialysis. I only have one kidney, and all the doctors (except one) believed that my kidney was gone for good. That one doctor signed off on me coming to his dialysis clinic for outpatient treatment - and praise the Lord, two months later, I got a call saying my blood results showed a restoration of full function of my kidney. I got that call at 5:30pm - by 7pm, all our friends were there and we had a huge party!

Because of the kidney problems though, my kidney doctor recommended I look into bariatric surgery to get the weight and pressure off my kidney - to give it the best possible chance at lasting me a lifetime. Bariatric surgery is really expensive, so we had to find ways to be creative to make it work. Unfortunately, the people who performed my surgery messed up, and it ended up costing me my stomach. I know I have mentioned this before, but I do not have a stomach, so if you wonder why I am always snacking or if you see me at a meal with very little food, I am not trying to offend, but I need to be in a constant state of grazing.

One of the problems that occured is that there was a leak at the surgery site that was causing a significant infection. I had to wear a drain for 6 months and it took two therapeutic endoscopies to close the leak. The doctor said that it could have easily gone the other way, and I could have died. That was in 2022.

During that time, I was working at a cabinet shop that was struggling with rebounding from Covid. My wife and I had really started to feel the effects of disconnection from our friends and the greater community of faith - so adding the financial stress on top of it, we decided to try to start over and moved to Arizona to be closer to Becky’s twin sister and her family. We were seeking community that really felt to be missing in our lives. We were there for I believe three weeks or so when the thermometer hit 130 and we realized - we made a mistake and this was not for us.

There are some mistakes we make, like forgetting to put the milk away or something, where it literally has no real consequences. But moving across the country and realizing that it was a mistake made our year there one of the most tumultuous and difficult times in our lives. We couldn’t find a church, we didn’t really have too much of a support network and everyone missed being in a place that wasn’t actively trying to kill them with sun stroke.

So in 2024, we moved back to Spokane. The church that we were planning on going back to had experienced so many difficulties and trials that we weren’t sure it would still be open by the time we got back, so we decided that our journey still wasn’t over - we needed to find a community of faith to plug in with. In September, I was speaking with George Hippie and he told me that Pastor Bob was resigning from Sprague and he asked me if I would be willing to come and do some pulpit supply with Eagle Summit, like I had done with Sprague before. So I did - we literally didn’t have any other prospects and would have probably spent the time visitin other churches anyways.

The Lord opened the door for me to step in first as a temporary pulpit-supply guy, then as an interim pastor, then at the business meeting in March, I was confirmed as the new senior pastor at Sprague Community Church. The big motivation for us is that we not only felt like this place was home, but we also felt that we had a lot of experience the Lord would use for His service here.

I became the interim officially the first week of January, but to my recollection, I have been here now over a year from the beginning of November. Other that a few weeks where Pastor Wayne and other guest speakers filled in - and being away after my surgery, God has allowed me to preach and teach the Word more in the last year than in my entire ministry career before coming to Sprague.

I am grateful to the Lord for the sense of community we have here, for the sense of purpose we have here, and for the opportunity to dig into the Word and explore it in depth. And God knew that we were coming into a season in our lives when we would need community more than ever before. When we were driving to Sprague for Easter service this year, I got two massive headaches back to back - severe enough I almost wrecked the car! They felt almost electrical, like something in my brain was short-circuiting. From that moment on, I would have a constant and consistent headache of varying intensity - but it was always there. In July, the urgent care said it wasn’t really concerning, but if it started really disrupting my life, to go into the ER for imaging. I took there advice in August, where they found a golf-ball-sized tumor in my right front temporal lobe. After further imaging and tests and my surgery at the end of September, it was determined that I have what is called Oligodendroglioma, a rare form of brain cancer that - as of now - has no known cure. We have seen radio-oncologists, medical-oncologists and other doctors in Spokane and they all agreed that we should go to Seattle for further testing and advice.

We went to Seattle two weeks ago, and I realized I hadn’t shared the results of that visit, so I wanted to give you all an update - there was one test that the doctors at UW recommended I get to see if I have a very specific gene mutation that would significantly alter my prognosis - essentially, if I have the mutation, it means that the cancer I have has a genetic component to it that will make it much more aggressive and require immediate treatment. If I don’t have the mutation, then what I have is the regular, run of the mill rare form of brain cancer that means we don’t need to seek any treatment until the tumor begins to grow back.

So for now, we are waiting on the results from those tests, but are not planning on any radiation or chemo treatments for now - it will be a “watch and wait” strategy that will require an MRI every 3-6 months for the rest of my life. God knew we were going to need community and we are Thankful that He put us here in Sprague.

As we transition from Thanksgiving, we now enter the Advent season. This year, we are going to go along with the Advent themes of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. Today, our focus will be on Hope. I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Isaiah, chapter 9. We are taking a break from our series in Nehemiah for now, but we will come back to it at the beginning of the year. But for now, our passage today will be…

Isaiah 9:2–7 CSB

2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness. 3 You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people have rejoiced before you as they rejoice at harvest time and as they rejoice when dividing spoils. 4 For you have shattered their oppressive yoke and the rod on their shoulders, the staff of their oppressor, just as you did on the day of Midian. 5 For every trampling boot of battle and the bloodied garments of war will be burned as fuel for the fire. 6 For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.

The big thing we need to be looking at today is that The promise of a coming King brings hope that outshines our present darkness.

If you are a note taker, our outline today is pretty simple:

God’s People Know Hardship

God Breaks Through Darkness

Hope Is Personal, Not Political

Our Hope Is Anchored In His Faithfulness

God’s People Know Hardship

Please read with me in…

Isaiah 9:2 CSB

2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness.

Our passage in Isaiah this morning begins verse 2 with a declaration, describing a people walking in darkness. Who is he referring to here? If we want to be strict in our historical interpretation of his writings, we need to determine Isaiah’s purpose for writing. I think we see that pretty clearly if we back up just a little and look at:

Isaiah 9:1 CSB

1 Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the future he will bring honor to the way of the sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations.

Isaiah wrote this sometime around the 8th century BC to prophecy judgement for the sins of Judah and the surrounding nations and to also declare the hope they should have in not only the restoration of their lands through repentance, but also hope in the promised messiah - a child promised in verse 6.

Before we get too far into it, I want to address something that has become prominent in the field of Biblical Studies and Theology that I believe represents a deeper issue. There is a theory out there produced by liberal academics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries called the Documentary Hypothesis which postulates that the conquered nation of Israel went back and edited the Biblical books to add details supporting their position that God chose them and ordained them to be His people. The notion denies the reality of miracles, the reality of God’s intervention with humanity, and of God’s Word as Inspired and Authoritative.

This idea was postulated for one primary reason - to refute or explain away the possibility of the miraculous. They look at passages like what we are looking at today and say it wasn’t possible because the prophetic writings predated the events they described. The failed to recognize the simple truth that prophecy - by sheer definition of the word - tells of events before they happen. It was a means to justify their skepticism of God so they could justify not surrendering their lives to him and forsaking their sinfulness. This all came about as a result of increased academic skepticism in the supernatural - a period called the Great Enlightenment. Unfortunately, many Jewish and Christian scholars in the 20th centuries bought into the Documentary Hypothesis hook, line and sinker.

During my PhD studies, we spent a great deal of time looking at popular Biblical and Systematic Theology books of the 20th century so we could identify the various author’s positions on these matters. It seems from the outset to be a little nit-picky, but the reality is that if someone justifies their reasoning not to trust the Bible as it is presented, their work should be approached with caution. This comes from the conviction that God’s Word is not only authoritative, but it is historically trustworthy and accurate - all its claims are true and the reasoning of sinful men will only ever try to argue against it - like a child arguing with their father that putting their finger in the electrical socket is dangerous. It is an unfortunate reality of Christian academics today that the Documentary Hypothesis is still a widely accepted theory represented by many commentators, systematic and biblical theologians.

The big thing I would recommend is that when you read, read with these questions in your mind: “Does this author trust Scripture?” “Does this author hold a high view of Scripture or a secular view?”

I don’t want to harp on this too long, but reading good books is an invaluable tool to growing in knowledge and insight. We have the benefit of around 2,000 years of Christian studies to draw on and we can learn great things from thinkers of the past. There is tremendous value in studying what others have written about the Bible that can really encourage us in our own faith journey and in our own Hope of Christ.

Isaiah was writing as a warning, a call to repent and as a beacon of hope that God will bring a child into the world restore fallen humanity back to Him in a way that we could never do on our own.

The people walking in darkness were the people in those lands who didn’t know about the coming Messiah. We live in an entirely different historical perspective, because Jesus was born and dividing history - for so long, we had BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini - The Year of the Lord). Now, they want to use BCE (Before the Common Era) and CE (Common Era). I’m not a huge fan of his, but Neal DeGrass Tyson acknowledges freely that it is just a way to satisfy their atheism.

But what does it mean to walk in darkness? This portion of Isaiah is written in poetic form, which means we can look at the idea that he is using figurative language to describe a deeper emotion - darkness in poetic language, both in and outside Scripture, represents hopelessness and hardship.

If we examine the principle of this verse, it rings true - God’s people are not immune from hardship. John MacArthur once said,

Many people have great confidence in their faith until it is severely tested by hardships and disappointments. How a person handles trouble will reveal whether his faith is living or dead, genuine or imitation, saving or nonsaving.

John F. MacArthur

We remember from our time in James:

James 1:2–4 CSB

2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

God’s people are guaranteed to face hardships - we are not immune from hardships because we serve Him - but rather we have the promise that we will go through them.

The promise of a coming King brings hope that outshines our present darkness.

God Breaks Through Darkness

Read with me again, starting in…

Isaiah 9:2–3 CSB

2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness. 3 You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people have rejoiced before you as they rejoice at harvest time and as they rejoice when dividing spoils.

So God’s people are not immune from times of trouble. In the day Isaiah wrote, he was warning them about the coming judgement for their sin, warning them to repent and turn from their sin. However, if we remember what Isaiah wrote in 9:1, they are being given a bit of comfort that their gloom will not be like the previous times God humbled Nephtali or Zebulun. Now, Isaiah is saying that the darkness - that sense of hopelessness has been broken by the Lord. “A light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness.” Isaiah goes on to speak of how God has expanded their lands and their joy - that even though people have experienced sorrow and gloom, that the Lord is the light.

Theologian D. Martin Lloyd Jones said this:

My only hope is that I shall be clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Welsh Preacher and Writer)

It is an interesting dichotomy presented in Isaiah, that the reason they would have to feel gloom (as the judge of their sin) would also be the reason for having a renewed sense of hope. However, make no mistake - we cannot blame God for the judgment in store for sin - that would be like blaming the judge who sentences a murderer to death. The Lord is just and righteous in His judgement because of His unique holiness and righteousness.

Psalm 99:4 CSB

4 The mighty King loves justice. You have established fairness; you have administered justice and righteousness in Jacob.

Revelation 16:7 CSB

7 I heard the altar say, Yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and just are your judgments.

But not only is God righteous in His judgments, but he is also gracious and kind in how He goes out of His way to give us hope! In the time of Isaiah, He is offering the people of Earth hope through the promise of a coming Messiah. Today, we live in the reality of Jesus’ incarnation - our living hope who was born a baby, lived the human existence, committed no sin and died a substitutionary death so that anyone who would believe in Him wouldn’t have their sins counted against them!

That’s right!

John 3:16–17 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

But the stark reality is that those who refuse to believe still stand in their sin and condemnation is due to their sin and refusal to believe in the only Son of God.

John 3:18 CSB

18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

Jesus is the great hope Isaiah promised and those in the Old Testament waited to see. If you feel your life is without hope and in a void of darkness, answer the call of faith, acknowledge your sinfulness to God, place your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin and receive the hope of eternal life and salvation He has promised.

The Israelites in Isaiah’s day waited for the coming of the Messiah, but Jesus came. This advent season, we go week by week, remembering all the ways that the Messiah’s birth has changed our lives.

The promise of a coming King brings hope that outshines our present darkness.

Hope is Personal, Not Political

Let’s finish our passage in verses…

Isaiah 9:6–7 CSB

6 For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.

Our hope is in the person of the child - not a political ruler or system. Because Jesus is God and infinitely capable of anything He might desire to do, our hope rests in who He is! We have hope because Jesus, the promised Messiah, is good, caring and gracious beyond all measure.

Charles Spurgeon said this:

This is the very essence of true religion—personally living with a personal Savior, personally trusting a personal Redeemer, personally crying out to a personal Intercessor, and receiving personal answers from a Person who loves us, and who manifests himself to us.

Charles Spurgeon

Jesus came to establish a different kind of program with God’s people. the Jewish nation was used to the idea that they were God’s Holy, chosen people because they were descendents of Abraham and they were chosen as a nation from among the nations to be God’s prized possession. He established a covenant with them that they would break over and over again until He finally sent them into exile for 70 years. But even then, He showed His great compassion and grace by bringing them back and re-establishing the covenant with them. About 450 years or so later, the Messiah came to establish a new covenant - a covenant in His blood for the forgiveness of sins - on an individual basis!

It no-longer mattered what nation or tribe you were from, if you were a human being, made in God’s likeness, you could come to Christ in faith and have your sins forgiven and be given the gift of the Holy Spirit. We live in a dark day and age where it seems as if God is losing the culture war, that corruption is so prominent that justice cannot possibly prevail. But friends, that assessment couldn’t be any further from the truth!

The promise of a coming King brings hope that outshines our present darkness.

Our Hope is Anchored in His Faithfulness

When we look around today and see the sad state of things in our world, we may be tempted to think that things are out of control. Lawlessness is on the rise while righteousness seems to be on the decline. If we are being honest, we may be tempted to look around and think that evil in winning. But take heart. It wasn’t a hope for the Judaeans only being proclaimed in Isaiah, but also a hope for the gentiles around the world for all time - the hope proclaimed in the coming Messiah was a hope for the entire world. They were looking forward to the first coming with Hope and expectation - and here we are today, remembering the first coming in our Christmas celebrations and looking forward to the second coming with hope and expectation for God to make all things new and bring everything in creation to subjugation under Him.

Matthew 24:6–14 CSB

6 You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these events are the beginning of labor pains. 9 “Then they will hand you over to be persecuted, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of my name. 10 Then many will fall away, betray one another, and hate one another. 11 Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

In our lives, we have blessings and curses, ups and downs, wins and losses. But - if we have Christ, we also have the promise that all things that happen are under His control and everything is transpiring the way that it is supposed to. We have no cause for alarm - God has the situation under control and reality belongs to Him. We have hope in the fact that He not only came the first time to kill sin in men, but that he’s coming again to rid the world of sin once and for all. God has tremendous plans and reasons for allowing things to transpire the way they have.

Romans 8:18 CSB

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.

If Adam and Eve hadn’t of sinned, we wouldn’t have needed a savior. God knew they would, yet He still had the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden, where they could reach it. I was speaking with a friend recently who challenged me to look into why God allows the status quo to exist when it is so blatantly vile and offensive to a Christian worldview. Why would God allow evil? What was His grand purpose?

I believe the most succinct answer can be found in

Ephesians 1:9–10 CSB

9 He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ 10 as a plan for the right time—to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him.

Why is He waiting so long to come back? To bring everything together in Christ!

Why is He allowing so much evil and sickness to roam the Earth? To bring everything together in Christ!

God’s purpose is to glorify the Son in the most magnificent way possible. We remember the hope the Israelites felt when they awaited the coming Messiah. We remember the birth of Christ in awe and wonder because of the miraculous child given to us that we could be reunited with God. We eagerly await Christ to return and place our hope in Him that all things will be brought under the headship and domain of Christ.

Let’s pray.