Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

What is your hope placed in?

Perhaps your hope is placed in a relationship, a thing, a place, or an idea.

Lots of people place their hope and trust in various things and sometimes these things come through for us, but more often than not, they let us down.

Nearly 15 years ago, something happened in the US economy.

Times were great, the GDP was rising, Americans were making more money, the housing market was flourishing, and it seemed like the good times would continue for years and years to come.

And then the Great Recession hit at the end of 2007 and its effects would linger for years.

How did the Great Recession happen?

Economists give several reasons.

The subprime mortgage collapse as people defaulted on their home loans, lack of regulations across the board, questionable actions by Wall Street and Washington, and others led to this Recession.

Prior to 2007, people had confidence and faith in the US housing market.

People hoped that the economy would continue to excel - however, the opposite happened.

How many of you have been let down in recent months?

We’ve experienced disappointment, betrayal, loss, and feelings of hopelessness as things have simply been outside of our control in many respects.

Several studies have come out in 2021 regarding the growing number of people suffering with depression due to COVID and being isolated and alone.

Friends, people are looking for hope left and right in order to get through these difficult days!

If you’re here this morning and you’ve been struggling mentally, physically, emotionally, or financially and you’re unsure how you’re going to make it through these hopeless days, turn your eyes upon Jesus.

Does this mean that if you look to Jesus, all of your problems will magically disappear?

That’s not true at all! But, if you look to Jesus your problems often fall into their proper place.

You can have hope in the midst of your problem because your trust isn’t placed in the housing market, it’s not placed in society, it’s not placed in a thing, you can have hope today because your hope is placed in a person who doesn’t ever change!

With Christmas just a few weeks away, it’s exciting to begin our short 3-week Christmas series together as we study several key themes of the “Advent” season.

This morning we’ll be studying the theme of hope as we look at several Old Testament texts to see why we should have hope, especially during the Christmas season.

Some people define hope as something that we wish for.

For example, say your high school basketball team is playing your rival and you say, “I hope that we beat them.”

What you’re saying is that you wish that your team would win.

You might have confidence in your team, you might not, but you wish for one specific outcome.

Is that how Christian hope works?

Do we simply wish for something to happen?

Do we have reasons to be hopeful?

Christian hope can be defined as the confidence that God makes good on His promises and that God will continue to make good on His promises.

We read in 1 Timothy that Christian hope is objectively placed in a person

Whatever you’re going through today, understand that there is reason to have hope and to be hopeful in the future.

The reason for this isn’t based on what’s going on in our hopeless world.

Rather, we can remain hopeful because our God is good.

Our God reigns.

And Jesus Christ still saves sinners.

While we live in this dark world, we must be people of hope.

Today we’re going to look at 4 Old Testament texts that contain prophesies concerning Jesus Christ and we’re going to have 4 application points as to why we can have hope.

We Can Have Hope Because of God’s Plan (Gen 3:15)

Sometimes whenever we think of Christmas, we think of Jesus Christ coming to earth and becoming the God-man and we assume that this was kind of a last minute type decision.

How many of you are planner type people?

In our world there are 2 types of people, people who love plans and people who loathe them!

Phil Jackson was one of the greatest basketball coaches of all-time and won 11 championships with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers.

He coached lots of talented players, but he was well known as a coach who made great adjustments during crucial moments when the stakes were at their highest.

He was a good planner.

Sometimes, when it comes to a plan, though, it’s hard to get the timing right.

As good as Jackson was, he had moments where things didn’t go the right way.

He had the right plan but the wrong timing.

Sometimes things would work out and he would state that he should’ve made that adjustment earlier on.

Back to Jesus coming to earth… Some people think that God made an adjustment and at the very last minute decided to go to plan C and send Jesus to earth.

Thankfully this isn’t true!

We read in the New Testament that Jesus Christ was slain before the foundation of the world

What does this mean for us?

It simply means that God’s eternal plan is good and nothing you or I do makes Him have to go back to the drawing board.

Somehow, you and I have a role to play in His perfect plan.

This is a humbling thought!

It also should remind us that God’s plan is so much better than anything that you or I could imagine.

Think of creation, God made everything and it was good.

Then we get to Genesis 3 and we read that Adam and Eve sinned against God.

For us, whenever we mess up, we have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a backup plan.

Yet, that’s not the case for our God.

God had a plan all along and we see it unfold throughout the Old Testament.

Look in Genesis 3 as we see the consequences of sin and the hope for the future.

Speaking to the serpent, God says

We know the story in the Garden of Eve being tempted by the serpent to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and Adam eating of it too.

As a result, they are banished from the Garden.

They are separated from God, just as you and I are.

This is due to sin.

Yet, even in this time of being punished for sin, God is rich in mercy as he declares in verse 15 that the seed of the woman will will crush the head of this serpent.

Scholars call this the “proto-evangelium” or the “First Gospel.”

All the way back in Genesis, we clearly see God’s plan defined and the answer was Jesus Christ.

Church, what is the answer to our greatest problem today?

Jesus Christ.

What will be the answer for all eternity to come?

The answer is Jesus Christ - the snake crushing Savior!

God’s plan all along was for Jesus Christ to come, live, die, and raise!

This was the plan even before the foundation of the earth as Ephesians 1:4 shares with us in addition to Revelation 13.

How can this be?

In the midst of everything going on, how can we trust completely in God’s plan?

Whenever you got to church this morning, you likely visited with a few folks and eventually you got to your seat and you did what?

You sat down.

Now, why did you sit down in the pew?

You’re likely thinking because its the pew that you usually sit at or because you wanted to sit in the back away from others and way away from the pastor.

But, why did you actually decide to sit down?

Because in the back of your mind, whether you thought of it or not, you trusted that the pew would hold you up.

Did you know that sometimes, pews break?

Sometimes cars that we drive break down.

Sometimes people that we trust let us down.

We live in a world where things never work out the way that we expect.

Our hope and trust is always broken… Yet, that isn’t the case with God.

That’s certainly not the case with God’s plan.

He never fails.

He has a flawless track record.

His plan is perfect.

You can have hope today because of God’s perfect plan.

You can have hope because we read in Galatians 4:4 that when the time came to completion, God sent His Son.

Wherever you’re at today, take heart because God sent His Son to save sinners.

We Can Have Hope Because God is With Us (Isaiah 7:10-16)

Not only can we have hope because of God’s plan, we can also have hope because we know that God is with His people today!

Think of the vulnerable feeling associated with being alone in our world.