Series: “Longing for Christmas”
Part 1
“Living Hope”
Pastor Jerry
Jeremiah 29:11-13
————————————- Message Synopsis ————————————-
Are you excited this year about Christmas? Christmas is coming! That is the message of Advent. The word Advent means “coming.” In the four Sundays of Advent, we prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ at Christmas, we get ready!
However, getting ready for Christmas often means shopping and buying presents and decorating and baking. With all of this it is easy to get so busy that we find that – we miss the true meaning of Christmas – that of longing for Jesus. Many, many people celebrate Christmas without Christ. We have to be careful.
We’re going to talk today about how to get ready for Christmas by living with hope. We are going to talk about how God takes the problems in our lives and uses them in ways that we never expect. Hope can change anything that we face in life.
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” This verse promises us God’s hope.
I have to admit I’m a little disappointed with the word “hope.” Not hope itself but with the word. The way we use it today has nothing to do with the way the bible uses the word. We use the word today to mean, “I wish.” But the Bible doesn’t use it that way. When the Bible uses Hope, it’s a confidence. It’s not “I hope so…” It’s, I hope. That’s the kind of gift God wants to give us this Christmas – HOPE. You can’t live without it.
A lot of people mistake hope and optimism. An optimist sees the glass as half full and the pessimist sees the glass as half empty. A person of hope doesn’t see how much or how little is in the glass but sees that the glass is firmly held in the hand of God. Even in a world where things aren’t perfect, God is still in control. He still holds things in His hands. Why is it so hard to let God be God and let us be human (and not the other way around).
The definition of Hope is when I realize that God is in control. That’s what hope is. When I realize that God’s plan will always prevail, I have hope.
We are all in need of hope. Just look around. The world is full of people in need of hope! We are living in a day in which people are having a general feeling of hopelessness regarding the future. Many people even look forward with a sense of dread. Cases of depression are on the rise and suicide is a leading cause of death in our country. We’re desperately in need of hope. We’re living longer, we have more. But, never in human history have so many had so much for so long and been so depressed about it! Why? Because we have no hope.
We need hope. We need the kind of hope that God gives at Christmas which gives us real life!
Let’s talk about what happens at Christmas when we have hope and how God brings that hope into our lives, gives us living Hope! What happens if I have hope?
If I have hope…
- I can get started over again.
I know there are people who look great on the outside, but are all locked up on the inside and not able to live or move forward. Many things can look great on the outside, but when some problem, ever so small, is locked on the inside, there is a big problem.
Life is like that sometimes. You wake up one morning and you can’t move on. You need hope. You need hope in God, and if you let Him, He will fix that broken heart, fix that broken relationship, and fix that broken spirit. You can have a new start. Christmas is all about that hope which can fix what is broken!
Isaiah 40 “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.” Hope in God at Christmas helps you get started again when life is locked and broken.
If I have hope…
- I can go on.
Life is difficult. But with hope you can live with whatever burden is in your life right now. You can make it through. It is hope that enables us to handle tremendous pressure. The apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 1 talking about the persecution that he faced in his life. “We had great burdens that were beyond our own strength. We even gave up the hope of living. But this happened so we would trust not in ourselves but in God.” He could live with anything because of the hope that trusting in God gave him.
When I have hope, I can get unlocked, get started again & I can go on in the midst of troubles.
If I have hope…
- I can slow down.
Hope is what gives me the ability to slow down this busy life. With life, it gets out of balance when too much becomes too important. We think sometimes we don’t need God’s help; we act as if we can get by on our own but pretty soon you feel so burdened down that you realize that you’re not going to make it; that your life is falling apart.
Without hope, we’re always in a hurry. We don’t know where we’re headed but we think we had better hurry up and get somewhere before it’s too late. Christmas should enable us to slow down just a little bit, to help us realize we don’t have to rush so fast.
Psalm 62:5 “I find rest in God. Only He gives me hope.” Hope and rest go together. Without hope you’ll find you’re very rest-less. But with hope, you have the power to be rested. With Hope I can get started again, I can go on, I can slow down. A final thing that hope does.
If I have hope…
- It gives me the power to say no to the temptations of life.
Hope is the foundation of integrity. If I have no hope for the future, if I think there’s nothing out there for me, then truthfully there is no logical reason to be moral. Because it doesn’t really matter.
1 John 3:3 “Everyone who has this hope in Christ keeps himself pure just as Christ is pure.” That’s the power of hope in our lives.
The bottom line is this…are you ready for Christmas? Not are you ready because you have done your shopping, or baking, or decorations… but are you ready because you have hope! “You are ready because you are longing for Jesus to come into your life in a new way? That’s what Christmas is all about – waiting …longing for God to come to you.
God says, “I want you to have Hope this Christmas!” My Hope! That’s why I sent Jesus at Christmas.
Jesus is our HOPE!
Are you “Longing for Christmas”…or…. do you need Hope for a new start? Living Hope! Are you “Longing for Christmas”… or… do you need Hope for strength to face an ongoing struggle in your life? Do you need Hope to slow down and see where you’re headed? Do you need Hope to overcome some temptation in your life?
Get Ready for Christmas…Come to God today …that is our only HOPE! Our Living Hope!