Finding True Hope and Light in Christmas
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Let us pray together. Heavenly Father, we come before you today with hearts full of gratitude and awe, knowing that you alone are God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, perfect in unity, boundless in love, and unshakable in faithfulness. From the very beginning, you promised to rescue us, and through the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, you fulfilled that promise. What a mystery, Lord, that the eternal King of glory would take on flesh to bring peace to a broken world and light to our dark hearts. [00:31:21] (35 seconds)
For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The dominion will be vast and his prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish and to establish his kingdom. He will sustain it with justice and righteousness for now and forever. The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this. And this is the word of the Lord. [00:46:41] (33 seconds)
What kind of false hopes do you place your heart in? What do you look to and place as a false hope? In your life. You know, Christmas actually can be that opportunity where we begin to place our hopes in the wrong things. Now, I love Christmas. It's my favorite time of the year. [00:52:20] (21 seconds)
Christmas can be that time of year where we recognize this misplaced hope, and this is what I mean by that. We need to be mindful about how we celebrate this season, how we celebrate Christmas, because it can be a false hope. It can even be kind of an illusion. What I mean is for the next four weeks, we're going to experience a great time of year full of nostalgia, marketing, advertising, the idea of an altruistic, perfect world, but here's the reality. When the lights come down and the tree is discarded and the marketing shifts to Valentine's Day, and the gifts gather dust, right? [00:56:46] (38 seconds)
Christmas can be like, a palliative therapy. It just covers up the symptoms. It covers up the problems. The light we long for is a fountain and a tree adorned with ornaments. The true light that we're seeking is Jesus on the tree, the one who shed his blood. He is the one who gives us lasting hope, and we know this, yet we can get our eyes off of that prize. We can get our eyes focused on the wrong things. [00:57:50] (28 seconds)
Christmas is a time of year for God's people. Here's the deal. When you're thinking about, what is Christmas? What am I supposed to do that Christmas? Celebrate. Dive into nostalgia. I get it. Enjoy it. Embrace it, right? But at the same time, Christmas is that time of year for God's people to realign their hope with the true promises of God. [00:58:18] (21 seconds)
Anytime we're in a dark hour, God, his plan is always to restore us and to carry us through these dark moments in our lives. And so we see this going on in Isaiah chapter nine, that he says, nevertheless, I'm going to give you a hope, a hope, to sustain. [01:04:58] (19 seconds)
The world likes to set us up for false hopes. And we have to be very, very careful how we look at government. We look at government as the answer to the to everything that is wrong in the world. We're going to walk away very disappointed. You can't go through any time period in history to find where a government has solved all the problems and ills of the world. In fact, probably just the opposite. They're the necessary evil in a lot of ways. So we have to be very, very careful. And that's what he says. He says that the government will be on his shoulder. In other words, there is no government who can solve all the problems, so we need to put the government on the shoulders of this one. And he will shoulder the burden that the governments can't do on their own. [01:09:23] (45 seconds)
Kings and princesses and presidents and prime ministers, they can't solve it. But if you seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, you will be provided for it. All these things will be provided unto you. That is where we seek our hope. That is where we put our trust in. That is the true hope. [01:09:36] (21 seconds)
Trust in the everlasting father. Who is the everlasting father? He is the one true God who created all things, is sovereign over all things. He holds all things together. That's what we trust in. But this is what Exodus 23, 20 verses three through four says, do not have other gods beside me. That was one of the big pitfalls of the people of Israel. They were, always going to other gods. [01:12:45] (26 seconds)
If you're trusting in the things of this world, you're misaligned. But if you put your hope and your trust in Christ, no matter the circumstances, he will always come through. He will always be your light. He will always shine in your life. Why? Because Jesus is the real, true hope for us. Even today, even today, he is our hope. Let's go ahead and pray. [01:16:25] (28 seconds)
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For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The dominion will be vast and his prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish and to establish his kingdom. He will sustain it with justice and righteousness for now and forever. The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this. And this is the word of the Lord. [00:46:41] (33 seconds)
What kind of false hopes do you place your heart in? What do you look to and place as a false hope? In your life. You know, Christmas actually can be that opportunity where we begin to place our hopes in the wrong things. Now, I love Christmas. It's my favorite time of the year. [00:52:20] (21 seconds)
Christmas can be that time of year where we recognize this misplaced hope, and this is what I mean by that. We need to be mindful about how we celebrate this season, how we celebrate Christmas, because it can be a false hope. It can even be kind of an illusion. What I mean is for the next four weeks, we're going to experience a great time of year full of nostalgia, marketing, advertising, the idea of an altruistic, perfect world, but here's the reality. When the lights come down and the tree is discarded and the marketing shifts to Valentine's Day, and the gifts gather dust, right? [00:56:46] (38 seconds)
Christmas can be like, a palliative therapy. It just covers up the symptoms. It covers up the problems. The light we long for is a fountain and a tree adorned with ornaments. The true light that we're seeking is Jesus on the tree, the one who shed his blood. He is the one who gives us lasting hope, and we know this, yet we can get our eyes off of that prize. We can get our eyes focused on the wrong things. [00:57:50] (28 seconds)
Christmas is a time of year for God's people. Here's the deal. When you're thinking about, what is Christmas? What am I supposed to do that Christmas? Celebrate. Dive into nostalgia. I get it. Enjoy it. Embrace it, right? But at the same time, Christmas is that time of year for God's people to realign their hope with the true promises of God. [00:58:18] (21 seconds)
Anytime we're in a dark hour, God, his plan is always to restore us and to carry us through these dark moments in our lives. And so we see this going on in Isaiah chapter nine, that he says, nevertheless, I'm going to give you a hope, a hope, to sustain. [01:04:58] (19 seconds)
The world likes to set us up for false hopes. And we have to be very, very careful how we look at government. We look at government as the answer to the to everything that is wrong in the world. We're going to walk away very disappointed. You can't go through any time period in history to find where a government has solved all the problems and ills of the world. In fact, probably just the opposite. They're the necessary evil in a lot of ways. So we have to be very, very careful. And that's what he says. He says that the government will be on his shoulder. In other words, there is no government who can solve all the problems, so we need to put the government on the shoulders of this one. And he will shoulder the burden that the governments can't do on their own. [01:09:23] (45 seconds)
Kings and princesses and presidents and prime ministers, they can't solve it. But if you seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, you will be provided for it. All these things will be provided unto you. That is where we seek our hope. That is where we put our trust in. That is the true hope. [01:09:36] (21 seconds)
Trust in the everlasting father. Who is the everlasting father? He is the one true God who created all things, is sovereign over all things. He holds all things together. That's what we trust in. But this is what Exodus 23, 20 verses three through four says, do not have other gods beside me. That was one of the big pitfalls of the people of Israel. They were, always going to other gods. [01:12:45] (26 seconds)
If you're trusting in the things of this world, you're misaligned. But if you put your hope and your trust in Christ, no matter the circumstances, he will always come through. He will always be your light. He will always shine in your life. Why? Because Jesus is the real, true hope for us. Even today, even today, he is our hope. Let's go ahead and pray. [01:16:25] (28 seconds)
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