Surprised by Hope (2)
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Christmas is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year where joy and thanksgiving abound as we spend time with family, friends, and colleagues.
Christmas is supposed to be a time of “peace on earth and goodwill toward men.” A time when we send Merry Christmas Cards and share cheerful Christmas greetings.
Christmas is the time of year when we sing “Jingle Bells” AND “Joy to the World” and yet, it’s a well-documented fact that people struggle with depression and discouragement more during the holidays than any other time of the year.
One North American survey reported that 45% of all Americans dread the Christmas season because it’s another reminder of the death of a loved one, or a painful divorce, maybe the loss of a job, and unrealized dreams as one more year passes us bye.
So what can help us get through these Holiday Blues? That’s what I want to talk to you about today and you can sum it up in one word . . . HOPE!
Hope is an essential ingredient for an abundant life.
Hope is an essential ingredient for an abundant life.
Because the Bible says that:
12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.
Dr Victor Frankl was a prisoner at Auschwitz Prison during the Holocaust… wrote Man’s search for meaning. Listen to what he says about the power of Hope.
“The prisoner who had lost faith in the future—his future was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay.” Victor Frankl: Man’s Search for Meaning.
“The prisoner who had lost faith in the future—his future was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay.” Victor Frankl: Man’s Search for Meaning.
Hope is powerful force in the human heart. Listen, there is hope. I’m not talking about positive thinking. I believe that true and lasting hope is a result of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
So much more than a human baby was born on Christmas morning in that poor family in a stable 2019 years ago. There was something different about Baby Jesus and when we discover that difference, we will be surprised by hope.
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Four Qualities of the Savior
Four Qualities of the Savior
Quality 1: Jesus as my counselor reveals God’s love for me.
Quality 1: Jesus as my counselor reveals God’s love for me.
Being God, Jesus doesn’t need counselors or advisors. He is omniscient. So we know that whatever Jesus says is true.
Lit: Wonder of a Counselor… it refers to the impact created by supernatural act of God. There has never been a more supernatural event than the God of the universe becoming a baby and becoming the Savior of the world. That’s the greatest demonstration of love ever....
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Jesus came into our world 2019 years ago as the embodiment of God’s love and paid the penalty for our sins and he offers Salvation to all who will take him up on it.
16 For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.
Jesus did not die so we could go to heaven, Jesus died so we can have a relationship with God.
Do you realize that the God of the universe… wants to be with you?
Because of Jesus and what he did for us, We are now friends with God. God loves us so much that can’t even comprehend it.
When you embrace the love of God… live in it… allow yourself to be controlled by it - everything will change. You will never be the same again.
Quality 2: Jesus as the mighty God is in control over everything.
Quality 2: Jesus as the mighty God is in control over everything.
The attribute that gives me comfort and hope is that Jesus is sovereign. He is in control of everything in my life… the good, the bad and the ugly. And that he is at work behind the scenes.
Jesus doesn’t cause the ugly things in our lives, but he uses them to strengthen our faith and develop our character.
There can’t be transformation without tribulation.
There can’t be transformation without tribulation.
2 Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. 3 You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. 4 So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.
Peter says similar…
6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Peter is talking to Christians being persecuted by Nero. He has the nerve to say that hope is coming… it’s not here yet, but it’s coming. So live your life with eternity in mind.
God accomplishes His purposes through my problems.
God accomplishes His purposes through my problems.
He has a reason for them… he is in control and he is working to develop you.
Do you remember science class?
An atom is the fundamental piece of matter in creation. It’s made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. The Protons and Neutrons make up the Nucleus of the atom and the electrons fly around above the Nucleus in a small cloud.
Protons have a positive charge, but Neutrons don’t have any charge at all.
Positive charges repel each other… two magnets… so all these protons should not stay together. If Neutrons had a negative charge, you would understand how they stay together, but Neutrons are neutral.
The Million dollar question is… what’s holding them together. Why don’t they fly apart? They don’t know
“...all the massive nuclei have no right to be alive at all. Indeed, they should never have been created, and, if created, they should have blown up instantly. Yet here they all are.… Some inflexible inhibition is holding them relentlessly together. The nature of the inhibition is also a secret… one thus far reserved by Nature for herself.” Dr Karl Darrow
“...all the massive nuclei have no right to be alive at all. Indeed, they should never have been created, and, if created, they should have blown up instantly. Yet here they all are.… Some inflexible inhibition is holding them relentlessly together. The nature of the inhibition is also a secret… one thus far reserved by Nature for herself.” Dr Karl Darrow
No it’s not. You and I now exactly what holds everything together. We know what holds a Nucleus together … the world together. It’s Jesus!
17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.
It means what it looks like it means… Jesus is holding the Universe together. Every atom should explode apart but they don’t because Jesus is holding them together but one day he is going to turn loose.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
This won’t happen until Jesus lets go of the atom.
One commentary…
“Not only did Jesus create the universe, He also sustains it. He maintains the delicate balance necessary to life’s existence. He quite literally holds all things together. He is the power behind every consistency in the universe. He is gravity and centrifugal and centripetal force. He is the One who keeps all the entities in space in their motion. He is the energy of the universe.”
“Not only did Jesus create the universe, He also sustains it. He maintains the delicate balance necessary to life’s existence. He quite literally holds all things together. He is the power behind every consistency in the universe. He is gravity and centrifugal and centripetal force. He is the One who keeps all the entities in space in their motion. He is the energy of the universe.”
Listen, if Jesus is strong enough… big enough … to hold every atom… every molecule… the entire world together, don’t you think that He can take care of your current problem?
No matter what’s going in your life, there is HOPE because Jesus is not going to let go… He wont’ let you fall… He is literally holding your life together. ILL - ever watch a beautiful sunset? If God can do that… he can take care of me…
So you don’t have to worry… be afraid… of anything. You can place your trust… confidence in Jesus because you know that He loves you more than you can imagine and because He is the mighty God who is holding everything together and he can take care of your stuff.
7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
So many times when the bottom seems to fall out, people go, God must be mad at me… get that out of your mind. God does not operate that way. But God is right there with you and he cares for you!
When you believe he is the mighty God, you will be surprised by the hope that you will have.
Quality 3: Jesus as the everlasting Father keeps His promises
Quality 3: Jesus as the everlasting Father keeps His promises
ILL - I used to laugh at parents when they would go to Toys R us before Christmas with their children. Why would you do that? The kids are asking for everything.
Whenever any parent ever says yes, the reply is almost always the same.... Do you promise? NOTE - Don’t make promises you and not keep them. Broken promises lead to broken hearts and no father wants to do that… God doesn’t either.
Jesus being fully God has all the divine attributes of the Father...
3 He is the sole expression of the glory of God [the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God’s] nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power. When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high,
So when the Bible says…
1 God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. 2 So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. 3 Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge! Interlude
You can believe it.
When the Bible says...
11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
You can believe it...
When the bible says...
12 But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. 13 For they are transplanted to the Lord’s own house. They flourish in the courts of our God.
You can believe it...
When God says…
10 ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’
You can believe it.
When he says...
3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
When you believe that Jesus love for you is greater than the largest universe.. the largest planets… that He is the mighty God and everything is under his control and as the everlasting Father he always keeps his promises.
When you believe that Jesus is the everlasting Father who keeps His promises, you will be surprised by hope
Quality 4: Jesus as the Prince of Peace has made peace between God and me.
Quality 4: Jesus as the Prince of Peace has made peace between God and me.
When Isaiah referred to Jesus as the Prince of Peace, he is referring to the FACT that Jesus made peace between God and me… you...
Before a person receives Jesus as their Savior, the Bible says there are an enemy of God because of their sin. Sin separates them… us fro a Holy God so all we can expect to receive is DEATH. That’s bad news.
But there is good news… that’s what Christmas is about…
Jesus took on himself the FULL WRATH of God while hanging on the cross, shed his own blood anbd died for yours and my sin.
And once you accept Jesus sacrifice on the cross, One you believe in faith that He died on your place… at that moment of belief, You are reconciled to God. God is no longer at war with you. Jesus made peace between me and God.
19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
Don Richardson was a missionary to a tribe called the Sawi in Irian Jaya in Indonesia. The Sawi were a ruthless people, constantly at war with the neighboring villages. Being that they valued treachery and deceit and murder, Richardson thought there was no hope to win these people to Christ and get to a place where they were at peace with other people.
However there was a custom that was legendary with the Sawi called the peace child. This child was the baby in one village that was given to another village. As long as that child was alive there would be peace between those two villages.
So Don Richardson used this custom as an analogy for the reconciling work of Christ. He told them that Jesus Christ was God’s peace child to all men. And because Christ lives eternally through him there would always be peace between God and those who put their faith in his Son. As a result many of the Sawi came to know Christ as their Savior and a large evangelical church flourished.
Jesus as the Prince of Peace has made peace between you and the Father. When you believe that you’ll be surprised by hope.
So where are you today? Which attribute do you need to be reminded of today?
Jesus love?
Mighty God - in control
Everlasting Father that keeps his promises
Or Maybe you are here and you finally connected the dots that you are a sinner and separated from a holy God. Listen to me… He wants to fix that. Let Jesus be your peace child.
Sinner prayer