Dakota Community Church
December 2, 2012
Hope for the Season
Isaiah 59:1-11
Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things. No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil. They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die, and when one is broken, an adder is hatched. Their cobwebs are useless for clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their deeds are evil deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands. Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are evil thoughts; ruin and destruction mark their ways. The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks in them will know peace.
So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes.
At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead. We all growl like bears; we moan mournfully like doves.
We look for justice, but find none; for deliverance, but it is far away.
The problem is not inability on God’s part. His arm is not too short to save!
The problem is man’s sin - vividly illustrated in verses 3-8
Ignoring the problem we still look results as though there were no problem! “God how could this happen to me?” “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
Proverbs 20:4
A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing.
He doesn’t plow but he still looks for a harvest! This is how we are regarding righteousness.
THE FALL HAS LEFT US WITH A KIND OF BROKEN/SKEWED VERSION OF HOPE
1. We are a people of (false) hope
Hope is hardwired into us; we cannot help ourselves – as the poet Alexander Pope says – “Hope springs eternal in the human breast”!
All of our choices are fueled by the hope of a better future.
We begin or end relationships based on hope, hope that the decision will lead to something we now lack – something better.
We choose a course of study, or to drop out and stop following that course of study; because of hope.
We gather as families at Christmas – regardless of the family track record – in hope, “This year will be different.”
Your happiest moments in life are moments of realized hope – longings fulfilled!
A wedding, a graduation, a house warming, the cool blue water washing over your vacationing toes – hope realized = happiness!
Your saddest moments in life are moments of crushed hope – hope disappointed by cruel reality.
Cleaning out the desk, signing the divorce papers, absorbing the doctor’s report…
We look for light - we grope along – We look for justice - for deliverance
Hope always has an OBJECT and an EXPECTATION
What messes us up is trying to find hope in places that cannot give it
You buy a lotto ticket – your hope is in money, your expectation is that you can buy happiness
Object: Spouse – Expectation: End loneliness
Object: Children – Expectation: Dream realization (Sports)
Object: Ministry – Expectation: Approval & Affirmation
Object: House – Expectation: Status & Acceptance
You get the idea; but understand this, none of these objects can deliver hope as expected.
That does not hinder us from continuing to try – even retry after repeated failure.
When life is hard for you, when it’s difficult and confusing, when you’re dealing with the unexpected, when your story is not what you would like your story to be, where do you run for hope?
Where do you run for comfort? Where do you run for security? Where do you run and hide? Where is your functional hope?
You are hardwired for hope – where are you placing that hope?
Ecclesiastes 3:9-14
What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.
2. This whole thing is set up by God to lead us to hopelessness – BUT WHY?
The doorway to true hope is hopelessness
Until we reach that point of despair we will continue to look for hope in places that it cannot be found.
In our rebellion, in our fallen state, we will continue to go anywhere – anywhere - but to the one true source of all hope and life. God has to drive us to our need of Him.
Psalm 51:1-5
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. 5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Jeremiah 17:9-10
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
10 “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.”
We do not see our wretched state; we do not understand that our hearts are wicked.
When the marriage disappoints we do not turn to God, we blame the other person and determine to make a better choice next time – or that the single life is the real answer.
Until you reach that point of utter hopelessness – you won’t find hope this Christmas. You will just soldier on as you always have or you will find some way to numb the truth, to insulate yourself from what you simply cannot face.
You have a real problem that you are incapable of fixing
3. False hope disappoints – True hope fixes it!
Proverbs 13:12
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Is your hope this season in a gift or in giving?
Is your hope in a romance or a relationship?
Is your hope this Christmas in beautiful decorations and entertaining, in parties or feasts?
Is your hope in family, or church, or carols, or cookies?
Is your hope in fallen snow or a warm fireplace or a mug of hot cocoa?
There is nothing wrong with any of these things in and of themselves – they just are not sources of hope.
They cannot fix what is broken in you and me.
4. Hope is a person
I Timothy 1:1
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope
John 4:13-14
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Matthew 11:28-29
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Only when Christ is the OBJECT of our hope can the EXPECTATION be realized.
Find your hope in Jesus this Christmas.
If the dinner burns – your hope is not in turkey or pies!
If you get the wrong size – your hope is not satisfied in material things.
If the mall is insane and parking is impossible and other drivers are idiots and white Christmas is a grey slushy mess and uncle Bob has too much to drink and Dad yells at mom and sister won’t come because you know very well what happened last year… Your hope is in a person but not these fallen people – Your hope is in Jesus.
Jesus is our hope for the season.
Jesus is our hope for everyday and all seasons.
Jesus is enough.
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
Follow Dan on twitter: @DanCormie
