The Generosity of Hope

This morning we are going to jump right into scripture.

We will be in

and if you were here last week you will remember that we were talking about John the Baptist and him preparing the way for Christ public ministry.

and we talked about how in order for us to prepare ourselves for Christ work in us we need to reorder our hearts to fit His will for our lives.

and this morning we are actually starting out right where we left off last week and because of that we see a pretty similar theme taking place where John the Baptist is still is calling for repentance and reordering of our hearts

but this week its starts with John saying some pretty harsh things.

So Once again we are in and it says:

(NIV)

7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

10 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

11 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

13 “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.

14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”

15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

So I had hard time with this passage this morning because it starts out with John the baptist calling everyone a “brood of vipers”

basically you children of snakes

and I was reading that and thinking “wow, what a great Christmas passage”

what a great passage for us lighting the candle of joy this morning

But John in this passage isn’t trying to make us feel awful, He’s not trying to make us feel like we are just the worst people

But what John is trying to do is he is continuing off of the last weeks passage saying you need to repent.

Because

Because like we talked about last week there were a ton of injustices happening in this society that these people lived in, and John recognizes that these people are a product of the culture they grew up in.

they were a product of the injustices

They were a product of the realign

and some of the Jewish people thinking I grew up Jewish so I am fine doing whatever.

and if you look at the language their he is not calling these people the snakes, but he is calling these people children of snakes.

Like I said the product of the world they grew up in.

and they are num and really do not understand what they are doing is wrong.

they are just living the life they have been living.

But John like I said he is brining this message where he is saying to these people its time to realize that you guys are a product of this culture and that may not be your fault, but its time to repent from that.

and thats hard

its hard to change the way you have been living since you can remember, but John recognizes that when you make this change it will bring joy.

When Arika and I first got married and moved into our apartment we loved to go to Ikea to get furniture because you could get decent stuff for a pretty good price.

but the catch with Ikea, why it was so cheap was because everything is in a million pieces.

but the reason is because when you get the box it comes in it arrives in a million pieces and is impossible to put together.

and even when you read the directions you miss one small detail it will mess up the entire thing you are building.

and I would always think I could figure it out on my own and would check the directions every-once in awhile, but I would always get so mad, because nothing ever worked out.

and I remember I would put hours into putting our furniture together and their would be times I would get so mad and just give up because I was building this entire thing wrong but didn't even notice.

and I even remember their being one time where I spent four hours putting together this dining room table and chairs and I called Arika in the room and she said it was the wrong color.

and their was even one time

so I took it apart and had to put it together again.

and you can probably think of things that have happened in your life like this also where maybe you forgot one item in a recipe you were cooking and you get frustrated because it taste awful and you don’t even know why.

but when you are trying to build something or cook something and you are doing it the wrong way it is frustrating.

and now I started to realize something

maybe if I started reading the directions and double checking the right color on the the box when I buy it, it would be a little easier.

when if you did it the right way you a lot of times its easier, it might even be fun!

and thats what John is trying to do in this passage.

and it turns out it was and it actually was.

it ended up actually beining a little fun because it was like grown up legos.

he recognizes that a lot of people are doing things wrong and they don’t even know.

and

and it turns

because they just grew up this way.

and John is saying look if you keep living the life you have since you were a kid there is a good chance its not going to be great, but if you turn away and live the life that Christ is calling you to it will be a life full of Joy

and Joy comes to your life when you are living faithfully in the life God is calling you too. (and joy is a little different then what a lot of us think)

But John is telling these people this news and the people actually have this amazing responce where they say Okay, Well what should we do then?”

and John looks and the different groups in the crowd he is speaking with and you know their are soldiers, their are tax collectors, and really just the common person.

John is looking at these people and he is saying its time to reorder your heart and you cant stay where you are.

but it is about moving into who Christ has made us to be.

and he tells this group who really because of the culture they are in, he realizes they have been living a self perserving lifestyle where they are placing themselves first.

and John tells them you need to make this switch where you are going from perserving themselves to perseving others.

you need to make this switch where you are going from perserving themselves to perseving others.

you need to live a life where you are giving your all to God and the people around you.

and in our culture we have a similar issue where often times we place ourselves first.

You know we make sure that our children will have the best Christmas ever by getting them the greatest things out there

we make sure that we have enough time to watch Netflix when we get home

and these arn’t bad things

I don’t know if I can speak bad about Netflix

but you know self health and relaxing is important

But they can be when all we care about is ourselves

making your children happy on Christmas is important.

But the issue is when we place ourselves and our world above the needs of others because we want to experience happieness in our own lives.

and happieness isn’t a bad thing either.

But I want you to notice that happiness and Joy are different.

Joy sticks around when happiness fades

and joy comes from living and leaning into the person that God wants you to be.

Do we have any hunters in the room?

because if you hunt you know that

but in our life what we like to do is we make the goal to live a happy life when the goal we should have is living a joyful life.

Do we have any hunters in the room?

I sat in a dear blind with my brother in-law once to go hunting so I feel like an expert.

but if you are hunting and you see a decoy in the field next to a real animal and you fire and the decoy instead of the actual animal you are going to feel pretty silly when you see the real animal get away and you just took a shot at the decoy.

But thats really what we do with joy and happiness. we make happiness the goal instead of Joy.

and then we are frustrated that we arent constantly happy

and we go whats the point of all this.

But when we live a joyful life it changes everything.

because we are living a life with purpose.

Thats why we light the candle of joy not the candle of happiness.

because the candle of joy is what the goal is.

Because we can have joy when things arn’t right.

We can experience joy when an unexpected event takes place in our life.

We can even have joy when their is an unexpected death

It doesn't mean everything is happy and great in our life but we are doing what God is calling us to do.

There was this man named Dietrick Bonhoffer and he was a pastor during world war 2.

and while a lot of other pastors were beginning to accept a lot of what hittler was doing and conforming. Bonhoffer would help the Jewish people who were being oppressed hide

and eventually what happened is he was arrested because he was caught rebelling against Hittler.

and he was placed in a concentration camp where he endured pain day after day, but in the middle of the pain he experienced he would minister to all of the prisoners he was with in probably one of the most difficult settings.

and right before the war was over and the prisoners were about to be liberated he was executed for the life he lived.

If you look at the life the Dietrick Bonhoffer lived he dident live the happiest life. But he lived a joy filled life.

because he lived a life where instead of him being like every other person and watching out for themselves.

He said I want to be the person who speaks up for those without a voice.

I want to be the person where in a society that is telling me all of this other stuff I am going to lean into who God has called me to be and live the life he has called me to be.

and if I am being honest like I said in the beginning thats hard.

its hard to reorder our hearts and change where we are.

It might not feel j

Its hard because we grew up a certain way and we might not even know we are in the wrong.

But what if we examined our hearts this morning.

what if this Christmas season we said I want to live a life that mirrors that of Christ.

Because the Christmas message is that Christ came down for us.

He emptied himself from a place of power

and came down to a people who didn't deserve His grace so that He could be in a relationship with us.

to be in a relationship with you.

What would happen if this year instead of living a life where we lived for ourselves we lived a life where we examined our hearts and leaned into where God is calling us?

Because our joy is contagious

because the power of the gospel isn't just ceremonial where you go okay I am saved but it is transformational.

because we want to experience happieness in our own lives.

Where every aspect of your life is changed.

Where you want to desire God more and do everything you can to do that

Where you lean into who God is calling you to be

Where you live that generous life and are not just in your own little world

the gospel message changes our lives!

and when our lives our changed the lives around us are changed.

and the love, the peace, the joy, and the hope that Christ gives breaks into a world in need of that.

Will you pray with me?