Everyday Hope
1 Peter 1:3-7
Introduction-
As we get closer to the Christmas season, in the 2nd week of Advent, we must stay focused on Jesus.
All the distractions only put Jesus on the outside looking in on our Christmas instead of us looking in on Jesus and the true reason of Christmas.
Last week we looked at the angels in the field, announcing with joy the “Good News.”
That Good News was Jesus Christ birth and the redemption that would be available to man.
We saw that though it was good news, it would not be good news to everyone.
It will only be good news to those that respond and follow Christ.
This morning I want to look at hope.
Maybe you’re here this morning and you could use some uplifting words of encouragement.
Maybe you need the comfort of God to embrace you and your family or you and your circumstance.
Biblical hope is more than wishy-washy “hope everything will turn out okay.”
Hope in the Bible isn’t an act, it is a person. That person is Jesus Christ!
You take Christ out of Christmas and all you have is mass chaos of present buying and busyness.
In a word to the exiled Jews- God says through Jeremiah 29:11-
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Not only does God say you have hope, but you have a future.
Not only will He be there now, but He will be there in the future.
We race through that text- take it in context.
God is telling the Jews and us that He will keep His promises.
He will draw them/us back to Himself.
If we respond, He promises to draw close to us.
When you pray, God will listen.
You will seek me and find me when you come to me whole heartedly.
Proverbs tells us that an evil man (those away from Christ) have no future.
1 Peter 1:3-1:7 Text
That is not a usual Christmas verse. Like I said before, you cannot separate the manger and the cross.
The mercy shown us by God offering us a new birth, a born-again experience is the living hope.
Hope in the midst of turmoil.
Hope in the midst of suffering.
Hope in what seems hopeless.
The hope Christ offers is not wishy-washy, but a firm conviction, much like faith that is directed toward the future.
God’s hope which is not based upon the here and now, but on the promises of God for the future.
Christians today in the USA are only beginning to see what the apostles and what other Christians are living around the world. It is not legal to kill a person in the US for being a Christian. You will not draw a crowd enjoying the beating of person for being a Christian. For that you would have to go to some of these other countries around the world. To understand hardship, suffering, you would need to go to elsewhere in the world and stand in the square and call yourself a Christian.
Dr. Tony Evans
We have lasting hope through the salvation we have in Christ. Hope means that even when it looks like it is over, it is not over yet. That is why the Bible says we can rejoice even in our tribulation. God is working in our hard times to produce proven character and hope in us.
Before Jesus came to this earth in the flesh, God seemed distant.
God seemed hidden in the Holy Temples and available to only the High Priest.
People wondered if their sacrifice was accepted. They doubted their salvation.
Psalms 33:22
“May your unfailing love rest upon us, O’ Lord, even as we put our hope in you”
My purpose this morning is to show how Christ coming gives us hope. The God of the universe comes to Earth for you and me.
My aim is that you embrace, rejoice, and respond to that hope that is in Christ.
Chuck Swindoll
“Hope is something as important to us as water is to a fish, as vital as electricity is to a light bulb, and as essential as air to a jumbo jet. Hope is basic to life, without that needed spark, we are doomed to the dark, grim existence. Take away our hope, and our world is reduced to something between depression and despair.”
The Christmas story is familiar to us- think about this.
The great thing about the Christmas story is that God did something about our hopelessness.
Over 2000 years ago, God sent an angel Gabriel to a family praying for a son though they were much too old and had failed to do it on their own.
“Don’t be afraid”- your prayers have been answered. You will have a son and you will give him the name John. God had a plan, a future, and hope. I don’t know if you know this, but for Zacharias not to name his son after him was an unheard of thing! Most people were wondering who this John was that they were naming their son after.
At the same time, God sent an angel to a young couple engaged to be married and assured them that this young pregnant girl had never been with a man before.
“Don’t be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.”
God had a plan, a future, and hope.
Mary wasn’t confused for a time. The people had rejected what God was doing. God wasn’t confused. God didn’t have to make an adjustment for lack of faith. God was fulfilling his promise. Gods was bringing to pass His plans, our future, and our hope.
God speaking to Joseph- Matthew 1:20-21
“But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit, she will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” (Our hope is in Jesus)
Lastly,
Romans 15:13
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Any hope that a Christian has comes from God! By the power of the Holy Spirit!
Jesus was conceived in Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit of God!
Hope cannot be conjured up by human effort, it is God’s gift by His Holy Spirit.
We are saved by faith in Christ- not hope. But hope accompanies salvation. (Repeat.)
Hope sustains believers when they are suffering.
Holy Spirit helps them to pray and trust God.
Hope in God does not disappoint us. (Repeat.)
Believers hope is not unfounded optimism. It is the blessed assurance of our future destiny and is based on God’s love, and demonstrated by Christ.
We put our faith and hope in Christ! Amen.
You heard the phrase
Liar, Liar, pants on fire. Well, I am disappointed that liar’s pants don’t actually catch on fire. But I will not be disappointed in the hope of Christ and what He has done for us and what we celebrate this Christmas season.
In 1959, Karl Menninger wrote on article called The Academic letter of Hope. Menninger was a Psychiatrist and here is a paragraph he wrote about hope. “Our shelves hold many books now on the place of faith in science and Psychiatry. Vicissitude (Vi-cis-si-tude) of man’s effort to love and be loved, but when it comes to hope, our shelves are bare.”
That is because you cannot define eternal hope by temporal earthly measures. Nothing or nobody can replace the hope that God can place in our hearts. He is the only one that can give us hope when all looks bad and there seems to be no hope. He is the only one that can assure us that this life is only temporal and that the best is yet to come compared to the world thinking that this is all there is. He is the only one that forgives sins and draws us close to Him. That is what was started when He came to this earth and what was completed at the cross.
Praise be to God for living hope
