Sunday Wk 48: Advent Begins "Let Hope Arise"
Do You See What I See • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro
Intro
Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years? No one would sleep that night. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television. (https://www.chegg.com/homework-help/questions-and-answers/ralph-waldo-emerson-asked-would-stars-came-every-thousand-years-one-would-sleep-night-cour-q38005065)
We have grown accustomed to our blessings.
Christmas—comes every year… yet it is easy to miss the coming of Jesus in the midst of all the celebration—
Could it be that our senses have become dulled to the joys of the Messiah’s coming by the shouts from the marketplace?
ADVENT IS OUR SPIRITUAL RESET FROM THE HOLLY TO THE HOLY!
LETS TALK ABOUT ADVENT…
ADVENT, Latin roots, meaning “coming.”
Christians of earlier generations spoke of
“the advent of our Lord” and
“His second advent.”
The first phrase refers to God’s becoming incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth.
The latter phrase speaks of Jesus’ second coming.
“Advent” designates a period before Christmas when Christians prepare for the celebration of Jesus’ birth.
This practice may have begun in some churches as early as the late fourth century.
Advent began as a time of fasting.
Advent is announcing the coming of Christ.
CONCERNING THE CHRIST CHILD A PROPHETIC WORD...
Isaiah 7.14
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’).
Matt. 1.18
This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And just as we hear this prophetic word of his coming there is are those prophetic words and speak of his next return.
This Advent has been depicted over the years by the use of Advent Wreaths, often circular traditionally.
Representing God's infinite love
They are usually made of evergreen leaves and branches
"representing the hope of eternal life brought by Jesus Christ."
Within the Advent wreath are candles that generally
represent the four weeks of the Advent season as well as
"the light of God coming into the world through the birth of Jesus Christ".
Although each of the candles has its own significance…
Each candle specifically symbolizes the spiritual meaning of Christmas as we follow the Spirit’s movements that bring us Peace with God as we are led to the Messiah‘s birth...
Again this year, we will light candles each week and welcome the Holy Spirit to take us on a journey of anticipation of Christ’s birth.
(week one) hope
(week two) preparation—promised peace
(week three) joy (the pink candle) and
(week four) love.
Many Advent wreaths also have a white candle in the center to symbolize the arrival of Christmastide, the beginning of Christmas.
The candle is known as the "Christ candle."
It is lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. We will light the candle on Christmas Eve during our Christmas Eve Candle Light Service at 6pm.
HOPE Wk 1
God’s face turned toward us: Hallelujah
This HOPE-FILLED moment started in the beginning.
Gen 3.15
Genesis 3:15 (LEB)
And I will put hostility
between you and between the woman,
and between your offspring and between her offspring;
he will strike you on the head,
and you will strike him on the heel.”
“Strike” To crush, to hit forcefully, to overwhelm.
Jesus was spoken by God to be the seed of women that would crush the power of satan.
Where there is no victor there is no HOPE.
it’s not a physical battle
its not a battle between nations
we NEEDED A SAVIOR—JESUS
He is the One to crush the head of Satan, for this was a battle fought in the spirit.
3 Things to "Let Hope Arise"
Jesus is our VICTOR
Jesus is our LIFE
Jesus is our HEALER
Keep This in Mind as you HEAR THESE SCRIPTURES.
Keep This in Mind as you HEAR THESE SCRIPTURES.
VISUALIZE HEALING FLOW TO YOU.
SENSE HOPE BEING FILLED TO THE BRIM AND RUNNING OVER.
RECEIVE YAHWEH’s RESTORATION POWER —He is the Lord that Heals!
Investigate / Application
Investigate / Application
We are not perfect—we were born into sin—
we had to have a Savior—Jesus is our VICTOR!
Psalm 107.20
He sent out his word and healed them,
and delivered them from their destruction.
Even on our best day we are never able to save ourselves.
David in the OT penned the good things Father desired for us.
Ps. 103.1-5
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.
He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
He redeems me from death
and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
He fills my life with good things.
My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
God’s Word is Life— and
Jesus is our LIFE
John 6.63
The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
Heb 4.12
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
THUS WHEN ISAIAH WRITES about God’s Word…
Is. 55.11
It is the same with my word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
…WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO BELIEVE GOD AND HIS WORD.
Jesus is our HEALER
Is. 53.3-5
Isaiah 53:3–5 (AMPC)
3 He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.
Not all sickness is equal...
EXAMPLE: NOT ALL BREAD MAKINGS ARE THE SAME!
White bread? Cinnamon rolls? Croissants? Dinner rolls?
LIKEWISE… all sickness falls under
He personally carried our sins
in his body on the cross
so that we can be dead to sin
and live for what is right.
By his wounds
you are healed.
A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (ἰάομαι)
“healed” in the Greek is to restore someone to health after a physical malady, heal, cure lit. τινά someone Lk 5:17
This literally means the “Vessel” of a person.
Luke 5.17-18
One day while Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of religious law were sitting nearby. (It seemed that these men showed up from every village in all Galilee and Judea, as well as from Jerusalem.) And the Lord’s healing power was strongly with Jesus.
Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to take him inside to Jesus,
We needed a Healer
But there are instances in the Word that some sickness is caused by
a spirit of infirmity while other
illnesses from our fallen state of being born in a world of sin...
while even another cause of sickness comes from...
Unforgiveness that causes a Root of Bitterness.
So although, it’s all sickness like bread varying with the same basic ingredients—
NOT ALL SICKNESS IS restored the same way.
So where are you today?
Is there an area in your life that needs healing, deliverance, restoration or needs to be made whole again?
Please take a posture to hear these scriptures.
Be discerning and have faith when they speak to your individual need.
Let God’s Spirit work in you today!
for healing and deliverance is the dinner bell to the Gospel and we need that bell to ring louder than ever!
James 5.16
James 5:16 (NLT)
Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.
Prov. 28.13
People who conceal their sins will not prosper,
but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.
Heb 12.15
Hebrews 12:15 (NLT)
Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.
prov.10.12
Proverbs 10:12 (NLT)
12 Hatred stirs up quarrels, but love makes up for all offenses.
Things that keep us from healing: Sin, Unforgiveness, and God’s Design
IN OUR CULTURE WE HAVE DECLARED THAT IF I DON’T GET MY WAY THEN SOMEONE HAS TRAMPLED ON MY RIGHTS—WE HAVE FORGOTTEN GOD’S DESIGN FOR “ME”
Joh. 9.1-3
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”
“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.
Joh.9:6-9
Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!
His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said he was, and others said, “No, he just looks like him!”
But the beggar kept saying, “Yes, I am the same one!”
Acts 10.34-35
Acts 10:34–35 (GWT)
34 Then Peter said, “Now I understand that God doesn’t play favorites. 35 Rather, whoever respects God and does what is right is acceptable to him in any nation.
TODAY IS THE DAY OF SALVATION!
Make it personal
Make it personal
before we light the first candle of Advent, my prayer is that you let God’s Word continue to stir your heart. That my heart would find element of coasting going into these Holy Days. Not lacksidaisy attitude.
2 Corinthians 6:1-5 MSG
1-5 Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us,
I heard your call in the nick of time;
The day you needed me, I was there to help.
Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . .
"Let Hope Arise"
Jesus is our VICTOR
Jesus is our LIFE
Jesus is our HEALER
FIRST CANDLE OF ADVENT
FIRST CANDLE OF ADVENT
Speaker: Lighting a candle in the darkness helps us find our way. In darkness we lose direction.
We cannot see where we have been or where we are going.
A single candle, flickering brightly, helps us find our way again.
Speaker 2: “Stir up your might, and come to save us. Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved” (Psalm 80:2b-3).
The first candle is lit.
Speaker 1: Light one candle; see it glow. Brightly, so that all may know,
How one candle shows the way
Making our darkness bright as the day.
Speaker 2: Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
Say this after me:
Dear God, on this first Sunday in Advent, let this light shine brightly as the days grow shorter, so that we will be ready for your face to shine upon us at Christmas. In the Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Closing
Closing