Advent Week 3 - Hope: A Glimmer in the Dark

The Problem:

Isaiah 8:19–22 NLT

19 Someone may say to you, “Let’s ask the mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead. With their whisperings and mutterings, they will tell us what to do.” But shouldn’t people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead? 20 Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark. 21 They will go from one place to another, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and curse their king and their God. They will look up to heaven 22 and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness.

The Problem: No Light In Them!

The look to the dead for their answers… Sadly so many Christians are also looking to the dead… dead poets, dead church or national fathers, dead philosophers and dead theologians...

Look how they walk in ANGUISH - it is because they do not have or have rebelled against His Word - There is NO LIGHT IN THEM (No Dawning!)

Stop Looking at the Sin of the World and Expecting Different

Start Shining the Light of the Gospel into the Darkness of the World

Be a Beacon of Hope in Christ instead of a glaring spotlight of Sanctimony...

The Glimmer:

Sometimes, in the midst of great or even total darkness, there is a spark, a glimmer… A reminder that even a little light can bring much clarity to our surroundings… One Candle in the Darkness...

Isaiah 9:2 ESV

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

And for many who walk in the Dark and Hopeless Wasteland of this World… You, the light bearer, the One in Whom the Holy Spirit Dwells, You may bring that Spark, That Glimmer of Hope If you have not allowed your Gaze to turn aside from Christ, Your Redeemer! [Think, one person looking intently, others come to see that which attracts their attention…]

The HOPE:

Isaiah 9:6–7 NLT

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. 7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!

He Shall Bear the Government!

He Shall Be ALL to Us!

He Shall Bring Peace AND Justice

This has been The YEAR OF OUR LORD… Let me take you back to Luke 24 where the two men are walking sadly on the road to Emmaus and they are joined by Christ, but He is hidden at first...

In verse 20-21 They say, and how our chief priests and the rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But WE HAND HOPED THAT HE WAS THE ONE TO REDEEM ISRAEL. Yes, and besides all of this, it is now the third day since these things happened...

And then to v. 32 - They said to each other, DID NOT OUR HEARTS BURN WITHIN US while He talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the SCRIPTURES?

Today, when the Scriptures are read and declared, even those of us who Have the Light of Christ within us sometimes are carried away with boredom or we are prisoners to thoughts of what has happened in the past or we can only look forward to the moments when we escape the walls of the church to get back to our own business.....

WAKE UP! The ONLY HOPE for the misery and darkness of this world IS JESUS CHRIST. IF indeed You have believed upon His Name then HE DWELLS IN YOU BY HIS SPIRIT. Your Hope in Jesus may be the spark, the glimmer that those who call upon or out to the dead need to waken from their slumber of spiritual death!

And so, I leave you with this Admonishment:

Romans 13:11–14 NLT

11 This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. 13 Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.