Advent 2025: Hope

Introduction

Advent - “arrival” or “an appearing or coming into place.” (Anticipation)

Hope

Peace

Joy

Love

Message Title: Suffering with Hope

Bible Passage: Romans 8:18-25

Suffering with Hope

The corruption of creation

Genesis 3:16–19 “16 To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. 18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; 19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.””

The cry of creation

Romans 8:22 “22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”

Luke 19:40 “40 But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!””

Romans 8:23 “23 And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”

2 Corinthians 5:2–4 “2 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, 3 inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. 4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.”

Hope that saves

Romans 8:20 - “in hope” (What is, What will be)

1 Thessalonians 5:8 “8 But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.”

Ephesians 2:8 “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;”

Hebrews 11:1–3 “1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old gained approval. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”

Hope not seen

Got Questions?

Romans 8:24 reminds us that, while we have already received the initial blessings of salvation, we eagerly await the complete fulfillment of our future hope. As we wait, let us remain faithful and hopeful, knowing that the best is yet to come

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 “16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Conclusion

“We suffer with hope” (hope vs no hope”

Communion - 1 Cor 11:23-32