Anchoring Our Hope in Christ's Promises
Devotional
Sermon Summary
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"God, thank you for just this season of Advent, this time that we've had to reflect back on your first coming as that baby in the manger and to anticipate and look forward to the day that you're going to come again. In this Christmas season, this Sunday morning before Christmas, I know that there are people in this room and watching online all across the hope spectrum." [00:00:33] (26 seconds)
"The reality, though, maybe some of you are familiar with this saying, happiness equals reality minus expectations, right? Reality minus expectations. So if your life is better than you expected it to be on any given day, in any given moment, then you have like a surplus of happiness or of hopefulness. But if on the flip side of that, you expected things to be better than they currently are, then you've got a deficit and you're experiencing disappointment." [00:03:01] (32 seconds)
"Oftentimes I think we imagine that the opposite of hope is despair, and that can be true. But more often than not, I think the opposite of hope is actually disappointment. What we experience on a much more regular basis maybe than despair. You know, when I was 10 years old, I, for Christmas, all I wanted was this pink and blue scooter." [00:03:32] (25 seconds)
"So what do we mean by hope then? Like, do we mean by hope? Do we mean by hope? Do we mean by hope? Do we mean by hope? Do we mean by hope? We never experience disappointment. Hope in American version isn't what we're talking about this morning. We're not talking about, you know, just general optimism or wishful thinking, but instead I want us to have kind of a working definition of hope based on the scripture." [00:05:40] (19 seconds)
"And yet, we see Mary respond in hope, in faith. She believed that God was good, and because of that, she said, let it be to me according to your word. Next, let's meet Joseph. We don't know a lot about Joseph, but Joseph probably would have been a little bit older than Mary, maybe 17, 18 years. Probably already had an established career as a carpenter or stonemason of some kind, and he was from a town called Bethlehem, and he was from a great family line, the line of David." [00:10:12] (37 seconds)
"The reality is that on this side of heaven, we are going to experience disappointment, sometimes even despair. About 16 years ago, my sister -in -law was driving. She was coming down to visit my mother -in -law, and she had two of her three little girls in the car with her, and she was hit by a distracted driver who had been drinking. The girls were both injured who were in the car, but my sister was devastatingly injured." [00:28:56] (31 seconds)
"We can have hope for our story because Jesus is with us in our current reality. I love the author. The author of Hebrews in chapter 4, he writes these words that we don't have a high priest that can't sympathize with us in our weakness, in our pain. But rather, we have a high priest, we have a Savior who has experienced all of the pain and the brokenness of being human, yet he did it without sin." [00:30:39] (33 seconds)
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"The reality, though, maybe some of you are familiar with this saying, happiness equals reality minus expectations, right? Reality minus expectations. So if your life is better than you expected it to be on any given day, in any given moment, then you have like a surplus of happiness or of hopefulness. But if on the flip side of that, you expected things to be better than they currently are, then you've got a deficit and you're experiencing disappointment." [00:03:01] (32 seconds)
"Oftentimes I think we imagine that the opposite of hope is despair, and that can be true. But more often than not, I think the opposite of hope is actually disappointment. What we experience on a much more regular basis maybe than despair. You know, when I was 10 years old, I, for Christmas, all I wanted was this pink and blue scooter." [00:03:32] (25 seconds)
"So what do we mean by hope then? Like, do we mean by hope? Do we mean by hope? Do we mean by hope? Do we mean by hope? Do we mean by hope? We never experience disappointment. Hope in American version isn't what we're talking about this morning. We're not talking about, you know, just general optimism or wishful thinking, but instead I want us to have kind of a working definition of hope based on the scripture." [00:05:40] (19 seconds)
"And yet, we see Mary respond in hope, in faith. She believed that God was good, and because of that, she said, let it be to me according to your word. Next, let's meet Joseph. We don't know a lot about Joseph, but Joseph probably would have been a little bit older than Mary, maybe 17, 18 years. Probably already had an established career as a carpenter or stonemason of some kind, and he was from a town called Bethlehem, and he was from a great family line, the line of David." [00:10:12] (37 seconds)
"The reality is that on this side of heaven, we are going to experience disappointment, sometimes even despair. About 16 years ago, my sister -in -law was driving. She was coming down to visit my mother -in -law, and she had two of her three little girls in the car with her, and she was hit by a distracted driver who had been drinking. The girls were both injured who were in the car, but my sister was devastatingly injured." [00:28:56] (31 seconds)
"We can have hope for our story because Jesus is with us in our current reality. I love the author. The author of Hebrews in chapter 4, he writes these words that we don't have a high priest that can't sympathize with us in our weakness, in our pain. But rather, we have a high priest, we have a Savior who has experienced all of the pain and the brokenness of being human, yet he did it without sin." [00:30:39] (33 seconds)
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