A Season of Hope

Prayer

Promises, Promises

Years ago, when I was on staff with Young Life, I took part in a continuing education event - two week summer seminary course. One of the guys I was in class with, Ken, shared story about one of his staff members.

They were in office and he overheard her promising a high school student that she would always be there for her. She said it with full sincerity and with desire to do just that

But Ken was trying to get her attention while she was on the phone to tell her, “no, you can’t say that.” It’s not that Ken didn’t want her to care and be present for that girl.

He just knew that she was making a promise that she could not keep - because she had no way of knowing what will happen in the future

What if the young woman calls her in need when she’s terribly sick? Or out of town? Or in six months her life circumstances change and she moves to another state? There’s all sorts of reasons - no matter how much you may want to - that prohibit us from doing things we may have every intention and desire to do so.

Ken wanted to make sure that she wasn’t making a promise that she couldn’t keep. Otherwise, that young woman might end up feeling let down, betrayed - you promised you would always be there for me. Trust would be broken.

He was exactly right, we all have experience of broken promises

Some of those are promises or agreements we made - and never followed through, sometimes in spite of our best intentions.

Other times we’ve been the ones who’ve been let down. We relied on the word of someone else and they didn’t live out their promise. And that often leaves us hesitation, hedge our bets - protect our hearts because we don’t want to experience the pain of disappointment.

New Spiderman, No Way Home movie has been a huge hit - one of the themes of the movie has to do with whether or not you should be hopeful.

One of the main characters lives by philosophy that if you expect disappointment, then you can never really be disappointed.

I gotta confess, there were times throughout this whole process of buying this building that doubts would creep in and I’d begin wondering whether our benefactor was really going to come through. Did I hear him correctly - did he really promise he was going to be pay the entire amount?

This fear, if this doesn’t happen - it would be crushing. I’d been telling everyone this.

Yesterday was Christmas. Today, I want to spend some time working through some of the stories in the Gospel of Luke - because one of the things you see over and over again in Christmas story is God’s faithfulness.

Over and over again God makes promises and keeps them. He makes a declaration - this will happen. And every time, it happens, God keeps his word. As you’re going to see, the people in this stories end up praising and rejoicing in God, as a way of saying, God, you did it! You said you would and you did!

Our hearts are accustomed to disappointment. I want this season to be for you, as it was for all those who experience it, a reminder of hope, of why we trust in God.

God, you did it!

Now, I realized that there really are a lot more examples I could have included here - story starts with Zechariah & Elizabeth, but I want to start with Mary. In Luke 1, the angel Gabriel comes to tell her that she will soon conceive and give birth to a son, and that this son, whom she is to name, Jesus, will be the fulfillment of the promised Messiah, the Son of David, who will reign forever.

You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.

Now, this is problematic for two reasons - one, Mary is a virgin and unmarried. Which makes the whole conceiving a child very difficult. And who can reign forever? People die. A long reign would be 50-60 years.

But as the angel reminds Mary, no word from God will ever fail. (Do you hear that?!). Sure enough, nine months later (well, it was at least nine months later), Mary, still a virgin, gives birth. Though the rest of the promise took longer - and happened in unexpected ways - as it turns out Jesus did die. But then he rose on third day and ascended into heaven to take his seat at the right hand of God the Father. His throne, so he can reign forever.

I love the little tidbit in Luke 2, after the birth of Jesus, where it tells us that “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

God, you did it! You said you would and you did.

Same thing, with the shepherds. Angel comes to them, declaring the good news of great joy for all the people, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

They take God at his word. “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So, they don’t have to wait very long to discover how true God is to his word - find Mary and Joseph and the baby - and just like the angel told them, lying in a manger.

Again, their story ends, “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which is just as they had been told.”

God, you did it! You said you would and you did.

It doesn’t end there. We don’t often look at what happens afterwards, but if you go further in Luke 2, you’ll see Mary and Joseph bringing Jesus to temple to make an offering on behalf of Jesus. This was required by Law of Moses, that firstborn sons be presented to the Lord and an offering made.

Here we encounter Simeon, whom Luke describes as righteous and devout. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.

God, through his Spirit, made a promise to Simeon - you will see the one I’ve promised to come and redeem Israel. How long had he been waiting? Likely years. All he knew was that it would be before he died.

He’s moved by the Spirit (he’s here!) and he goes to the temple area, and he’s so excited. “Simeon took him (Jesus) in his arms and praised God, saying: Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation.”

God, you did it! You said you would and you did.

Final example. There’s a prophet, Anna, prophetess, who happens to be there while this is all happening - mainly because she’s always there. Her husband had died at a young age, and so for years (she’s 84 years old), she had devoted her life to God. “She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.”

God honors her faithfulness by showing his own faithfulness. This one is interesting because as far as we know, Anna didn’t receive a special message or word from God. But she lived trusting promises God had made to all this people through Scriptures.

Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

In other words, she went and made sure that everyone who was looking toward God to be faithful to his word, to keep his promises, she wanted to make sure they knew that he absolutely was.

God, you did it. You said you would and you did.

Here’s the thing, with God you will never be disappointed.

God is not limited like we are - it will never be the case that he can’t come through for us because he gets sick or an emergency comes up or he moves out of state.

God is alway here. Always present. Always in control.

With God, we should not expect disappointment. We should expect faithfulness. We should live trusting that God will be true to his word.

To his incredible promises: Promise of his eternal presence…and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Promise of his complete forgiveness…There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Promise of his absolute love…For I am convinced that nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We could go on. But my hope for you this morning would be hope. That this Christmas season would be a season of hope for you. Because of your confidence in God’s faithfulness that, with so many others, we can say, God, you did it. You said you would and you did.