A Season of Hope
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INTRO:
INTRO:
FB Picture of me with my Red Ryder BB gun. Nov, 2011.
[slide] Entering The Season of Advent
For many, Advent comes from a calendar with little windows that open up revealing a gift or treat for each day of the month leading up to Christmas. But Advent is so much more. The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and the season is marked by expectation, waiting, anticipation, and longing. Advent is not just an extension of Christmas—it is a season that links the past, present, and future. Advent offers us the opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, to celebrate His birth, and to be alert for His second coming. Advent looks back upon Christ’s coming in celebration, while at the same time looking forward in eager anticipation to the coming of Christ’s kingdom when He returns for His people. Hope fulfilled in Jesus. And hope still to be completed in Jesus’s second coming. During Advent we wait for both—active, assured waiting. Our experience of Advent here at church is to have the tradition of lighting candles as we saw a little earlier in the service.The lighting of five candles throughout the season—one for each of the four Sundays before Christmas and one on Christmas Eve—represents Jesus’s coming to a world lost in darkness. As the prophet Isaiah wrote,
Always wanted one. Finally, got one. I guess Dad figure out I was finally old enough to not shoot my eye out.
2 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.
One of my most prized possessions. Waited a long time to get it.
As we celebrate with our own Advent candles this season, we will light an additional candle each week. Each flame brings us closer to the arrival of the true Light of the world, born in Bethlehem.In a season often marked by frenzied busyness, Advent is
What have you waited a long time for? Maybe you’re still waiting...
Success on the job
A great relationship
Health to turn around
Some many other needs and desires in our lives.
Waiting like this can cause us to be so excited when our hopes are fulfilled. Or frustrated when that longed for result just never seems to happen or bitterness and despair when we finally quit trying...
As we experience Advent, its’ first theme is hope. Hope is what keeps us waiting for that expected result.
Worldly hope - uncertain, doubt, lack of control.
Biblical hope - confident expectation that the promises made will come to fulfillment. We can count on them.
This is the kind of hope we’re focused on at Advent. Not hope for the latest game console or even an awesome BB gun, but hope that illuminates our deepest needs, banishes our darkest fears, fulfills our greatest longings.
Hope in the Past
Hope in the Past
Advent reminds us that humanity had perfection in paradise with God but chose not to stay with God. We chose our own way and were removed from God’s presence and eternity.
[SLIDE] Pic of me w/Red Ryder BB Gun.
Ever since, we’ve struggled with being lost, needing to be restored to God.
A big deal for me.
Deeply significant season of waiting for a nation:
The people of Israel knew all about waiting. Their entire history was marked by waiting as they looked forward to the coming of a Messiah who would set them free. The Old Testament is full of prophecies about this Messiah. is one example:
Like that dark foggy drive in the Ozarks - terrifying but got to get down off that mountain.
We’re all moving through life - moments of clarity and vision, seasons of fog, darkness. Not sure where to go, what is safe.
It was the same for God’s chosen people, Israel. They longed for a leader who could show them the way.
[slide] 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’).
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’).
And another well-known prophecy from Isaiah promises,
6 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.
[slide] 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.
What was true for Israel is true for us.
So what can purposeful waiting this Advent season do for us? As we look back on hope past, we gain confidence and renew our faith in God’s promises to us. says:
We’re tired of being lost, losing hope.
The hope we need was ready to be fulfilled:
1 Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.
[slide] Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.
6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.
We can find confidence in the fulfillment of Christ’s arrival—and in all He has done in our lives over time. But we can also find assurance that there is much more to come—that God will complete His good work in you and me and that He will fulfill His promises to make all things new and complete in the end. Let this season be a journey of building confident hope as you wait for His coming.
We can find confidence in the fulfillment of Christ’s arrival—and in all He has done in our lives over time. But we can also find assurance that there is much more to come—that God will complete His good work in you and me and that He will fulfill His promises to make all things new and complete in the end. Let this season be a journey of building confident hope as you wait for His coming.
For this hope to become a reality, Christ had to join us in our humanity:
Hope in the Present
Hope in the Present
God fulfilled that ancient yearning in every human heart to be restored, to be made whole by sending his Son into the world for us.
[slide] In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. For the word of God will never fail.” Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law.
In the midst of life’s questions, do you ever find yourself wishing that Gabriel would just show up and let you know what to expect? I mean, wouldn’t it be easier to just know?Well, maybe.But in Mary’s case, perhaps it would have been easier not to know. What do you do with information like this? Mary was given a direct message from the angel Gabriel, but even (maybe especially) then it took faith to place her trust and hope in God. Thankfully, Mary responded in faith and held fast to the hope of the promise of Immanuel, God with us.Today, as we begin Advent, we know and hold fast to that hope. Jesus has come and made a way for us to be one with God, through His forgiveness of our sin. His coming changes everything. As you sit here today, the present hope you hold on to may not seem to be changing things. Your heart and mind may be flooded with the concerns and stresses and hardships you face. Any signs of change in your circumstances may be slim to none.That doesn’t mean change isn’t happening. It doesn’t mean God isn’t working behind the scenes, inside other people or situations. It doesn’t mean He isn’t working inside our hearts to teach and shape us.Regardless of what outward results look like at any given moment, we can find hope in the words of :
18 Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.
19 This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.
1 Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.
[slide] This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.
Our present hope in Jesus doesn’t stop the storms of life. It doesn’t change the immediate situations we face. But like an anchor holds a ship steady against the wind and the waves, our hope holds us firm and secure in the midst of life’s storms. Let this season be one of secure hope in the midst of whatever storms you face.
But that’s not all:
Our present hope in Jesus doesn’t stop the storms of life. It doesn’t change the immediate situations we face. But like an anchor holds a ship steady against the wind and the waves, our hope holds us firm and secure in the midst of life’s storms. Let this season be one of secure hope in the midst of whatever storms you face.
Hope for the Future
Hope for the Future
[slide] We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)
24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)
8 You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.
It’s hard to be patient. It’s hard to wait. But I encourage you to lean in and unwrap the gift of hope today. No matter what the department stores try to tell you, Christmas has not yet arrived. This is Advent—a season of preparation, waiting, expectation. There is value as well as excitement in patient and expectant waiting. May this be a season of wonder as you discover the gifts Jesus offers to you this Christmas: hope, love, joy, and peace.
As we move into this season of hope, the question to answers is, “What are you hoping for?”
Love, acceptance?
16 “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.
Health?
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
material blessings?
7 “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
peace?
27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.
Prayer: God, thank You that in this season of Advent we can unwrap Your gift of hope. Help us to remember hope past, hold tightly to hope in our present realities, and wait with expectation for hope to be fulfilled when Christ comes again.
Benediction: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” ()