Sermon Tone Analysis

Hope is often the only thing that keeps us afloat.

[IMAGE] John Aldridge sees green rubber work boots when he thinks of hope.

Have you ever heard those stories about someone lost at sea?

In the summer of 2017, two longtime commercial fishermen—John Aldridge and Anthony Sosinski—set out to fish from Montauk, Long Island.

As they headed out to sea, about forty miles offshore, Anthony was sleeping below deck while John started to get things ready for the catch they would soon begin to haul in.

He was pulling on a handle with all his might when it snapped, sending him sprawling backward—and right off the back of the boat.

The boat was on autopilot, so it just kept cruising.

As soon as he resurfaced from under the water, John began screaming for help.

Can you imagine what that must have felt like?

If there’s ever been a hopeless situation, that has got to be it.

While John was trying to calm down, quiet his thoughts of certain death, and stay afloat, he realized that his boots were very buoyant.

And he got an idea.

He took one off, emptied it out, and plunged it back into the water so that it created an air pocket.

It did.

And it floated.

So John stuck his boots under his arms as flotation devices.

At least he could stay afloat.

A flicker of hope.

Four hours later, Anthony woke up and realized John was gone.

He called the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard began its search procedures, even though the Coast Guard commander admitted he didn’t have much hope of finding John in so much open water.

On the boat, Anthony found the broken handle and knew what John must have been doing when he went overboard—which also meant he knew the ocean depth of where he would have been doing it.

John made it alive to morning and tried to keep his hope alive.

But the hours kept passing, and there was no sign of help.

Finally he spotted a fishing buoy and was able reach it and climb onto it.

This was a new surge of hope.

In less than an hour a Coast Guard helicopter flew nearby and spotted John waving and splashing.

They pulled him up to safety.

“We’ve been looking for you for nine hours today,” the Coast Guard rescue diver told John.

“Well, I’ve been looking for you for twelve,” John answered.

Miraculously, John Aldridge survived.

What an amazing story!

And what amazing hope!

If it were most of us out there bobbing alone in the middle of the ocean, we probably would have given up hope that there was even a chance—a sliver of a chance—to survive.

But hope is like that.

Hope is the whisper that maybe, maybe these boots will float if I turn them upside down.

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What is hope in your life?

For some, hope is the first candle to be lit when the power goes out in the storm.

Hope is the first day you wake up and can breathe again after an awful cold.

And hope is that percentage you do have of beating the cancer.

Hope is the faint line on that stick when you’ve been struggling to get pregnant.

It’s the first ray of sunshine through your window after a tearful, difficult night.

Hope is the first soldier to land on the beach.

Hope is hearing the words, “He’s going to be OK.”

Hope is the flicker of maybe, just maybe.

Hope is the fuel of faith and dreams.

And hope is what we celebrate on this first Sunday of Advent.

Entering Advent

Advent is actually a season of hope.

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.

During Advent we wait for both—it’s an active, assured, and hopeful waiting.

During Advent we have an opportunity to set aside time to prepare our hearts and help us place our focus on a far greater story than our own—the story of God’s redeeming love for our world.

It is a season of expectation and preparation, an opportunity to align ourselves with God’s presence more than just the hectic season of presents.

Rather, simply, Advent is a celebration that God comes.

God comes to be with us.

He is the God with Us.

In the darkness, in the pain, in the chaos, He comes.

And He makes a way.

The Long Journey of Hope

That’s the way God has been working throughout history.

You see, back in the beginning, in the way God intended this creation, He walked freely and openly with Adam and Eve.

He was with us, and humanity enjoyed wholeness and intimacy with God.

But you know the story.

Adam and Eve chose sin.

Separation divided God and humans.

The brokenness of our world that we know far too well is the ongoing result.

But do you realize that ever since, God has been working toward restoration and healing and wholeness for us and all He has made?

This is the overall story of the Bible.

Throughout it, we can see God making a way and reminding His people that He is still at work.

We see it in God’s covenant with Abraham, then called Abram:

When God encountered Jacob at Bethel, He renewed that covenant and reinforced the hope rooted in His faithfulness: “I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you”

But much time passed, years and generations and centuries, and we humans are an impatient breed.

“How long, O God?” was the cry of the ancient Israelite people.

But through it all, there was a deep and ongoing longing for God to fulfill His covenant and His promise of a Messiah, who would come to make everything right.

The prophet Isaiah is the poster prophet for Advent, this season of longing, expecting, and hoping for God to be with us.

Through Isaiah, God gave Israel and us many prophecies and promises about the Messiah He would send.

And in that way, Isaiah was a voice of hope.

Isaiah lived seven hundred years before Jesus, but he gave us beautiful words that ring with hope for the coming Messiah.

Listen to some of these:

and

A little later in the same chapter, Isaiah wrote:

Can you imagine living in an ancient world, well before the time of digital or even much written information, and hearing a message like that?

Can you imagine the hope that would spring in the people’s hearts?

As we turn our attention to the Christmas narrative in Luke, Zechariah would have been well acquainted with the words and prophecies of Isaiah.

He was a priest.

But Zechariah was still in shock when suddenly, out of the blue, on an ordinary day when he was going about his priestly duties, God dropped a megadose of hope into Zechariah’s world for the people of Israel.

It’s been four hundred years since Israel has had a clear prophetic voice and message from God.

Four hundred years!

So when an angel showed up and told Zechariah that he would have a son who “will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17), Zechariah knew the significance.

He knew the prophecies of the Messiah.

And he also knew that this was a miraculous occurrence all the way around.

Can you imagine the hope that sprang up within this couple and the people around them when they heard this news?

The old prophecies are about to be fulfilled!

The one prophesied to come in the spirit of Elijah to prepare the way for the Messiah is coming!

God is moving to restore hope that He is still here—that the human expression of God with Us is still coming.

That God is about to stir things up and change eternity forever!

Hope in Israel was alive again!