I'm ready to provide the 5-day devotional based on the steps outlined. Here it is:
---
Day 1: Hope Anchored in Christ Alone
True hope is found only in Jesus, offering peace amidst life's storms. When we place our hope in worldly things, our peace is threatened. Jesus provides a hope that is secure and eternal, allowing us to navigate life's challenges with a sense of calm and assurance. This hope is not dependent on our circumstances but is rooted in the unchanging nature of Christ. By fixing our eyes on Him, we can experience a peace that surpasses all understanding, even when the world around us is chaotic. [45:55]
Hebrews 6:19-20 (ESV): "We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."
Reflection: What is one area of your life where you are currently placing your hope in something other than Jesus? How can you begin to shift your focus to Him today?
Day 2: The Danger of Assumption and Self-Righteousness
Assumption can lead us to believe we are righteous based on our actions, much like Simon the Pharisee. This self-righteousness can cause us to place our hope in ourselves rather than in Jesus, who alone is worthy of our trust and honor. It is easy to fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others and assuming we are better because of our deeds. However, true righteousness comes from faith in Christ, not from our own efforts. By recognizing this, we can humble ourselves and place our hope in Jesus, who offers grace and forgiveness. [57:31]
Luke 18:9-14 (ESV): "He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 'Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: "God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get." But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.'"
Reflection: In what ways have you assumed righteousness based on your actions? How can you shift your perspective to rely on Jesus' righteousness instead?
Day 3: Silencing Accusatory Voices
The accusatory voices in our minds can make us feel unworthy of Jesus' love. These internal accusations can lead us to doubt our worth and question our place in God's family. However, by stepping into the light and confessing our struggles, we can experience the grace and hope that Jesus offers, silencing those voices. Jesus' love and forgiveness are not based on our worthiness but on His grace. By embracing this truth, we can find freedom from the accusations that seek to hold us back. [01:03:14]
1 John 3:19-20 (ESV): "By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything."
Reflection: What accusatory voices are you currently battling? How can you bring these struggles to Jesus and allow His truth to silence them?
Day 4: Recognizing Sin Without Complacency
Recognizing the actuality of our sin is crucial, but it should not lead to complacency. Instead, it should drive us to Jesus, who forgives and transforms us. Acknowledging our sin allows us to see the depth of our need for Jesus' forgiveness and grace. It is easy to become complacent, thinking that acknowledging our sin is enough. However, true transformation comes when we actively seek Jesus' help to change and grow. By doing so, we can experience the fullness of His love and grace in our lives. [01:08:05]
James 1:22-25 (ESV): "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."
Reflection: How have you become complacent in recognizing your sin? What steps can you take to actively seek Jesus' transformation in your life?
Day 5: Celebrating the Birth of Hope
Christmas is a celebration of the birth of hope in Jesus. By placing our faith in Him, we find redemption and peace. This season, let us adore Jesus, recognizing Him as the source of our eternal hope. The birth of Jesus signifies the arrival of hope for all humanity, offering us a path to redemption and a relationship with God. As we celebrate this season, let us remember the true reason for our hope and allow it to transform our lives. By focusing on Jesus, we can experience the joy and peace that come from knowing Him. [01:10:38]
Titus 2:11-14 (ESV): "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works."
Reflection: How can you intentionally celebrate the birth of hope in Jesus this Christmas season? What specific actions can you take to focus on Him as your source of hope and peace?
Kara, that's awesome!
All right, we're continuing our Advent series.
Last week, Bill kicked us off, and he shared with us the story of peace—that in the midst of the storm, whether we're in one, coming out of one, or about to head into one, that Christ is our peace. He gives us peace because he goes before us and he goes with us into those storms.
Today, we're going to be looking at a story of hope, and very similarly, we're going to find out, if we don't already, that Jesus is the source of our hope—the only source of hope. I can leave it there. That's the message. If you get nothing else, Jesus is our only hope. But I've got to fill in the rest of the 35 minutes, so bear with me. We'll get to the rest.
I had to look up a little bit of this word "hope" because you always know what something means, but you don't really know how to articulate those things. For me, hope, I could identify more as a feeling rather than just a series of words. And so, giving a message on hope, I felt like I needed to be better equipped. What are those words that people use to describe hope?
So I went to where anyone else would go—Google. And Google, I felt like, gave me a good answer. It says this: hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Makes sense. Hope is a feeling of expectation or desire for a certain thing to happen.
If I hope that I go to heaven, then what I'm really saying is that I have an expectation and desire that I will spend eternity in heaven. And so, if I place my hope on Jesus, then what I'm saying is that Jesus is the only way that I can spend eternity in heaven in the presence of God.
And I've always struggled a little bit because people use that word, and I've used that word in ways that don't have anything to do with heaven. They have nothing to do with Christ, nothing to do with hope, nothing to do with peace. You know, somebody might say, "Hey, we're going on vacation, and the hope is that we have a good time." Okay, that's interesting. That's fine. I think that's okay.
You know, "I'm going for this interview. I hope—the hope is that I get the job." Yeah, when you look at the definition, that makes sense. Those things you would expect, you have a desire for that certain outcome, that certain thing to happen.
But we can clearly see that when our hope is misplaced, when we place our hope on Jesus, when we place our true hope in the wrong places, we get the wrong effect. In fact, last week we talked about peace. Today, we're going to see that we experience the most peace when our hope is most secure.
So without a secure hope, we will lack peace. For example, I said last time that I was here that we just bought a house. And so we went through this process of getting a mortgage to buy a house. Who's gotten a mortgage in the last 10 or 15 years? Let's see it. Okay, yeah. So you know, it's an invasive process. My doctor knows less about me than my lender does. No joke. They want everything about you. They want to know every detail about your life and where your money comes from and where it's going and where it was 17 years ago.
And they keep sending you things that they need from you because one document just isn't enough. And so I started this process of getting this mortgage, and I got this email from my lender, and it was very long. The first thing was "required documents." That was the subject. And it was followed by a lengthy list of things that they needed—things from tax returns, business documents, pay stubs, this statement, that statement, an affidavit that I'm swearing to something, that, and the other. I mean, I could go on. The list was so long.
But reading this list, I knew. I knew that I could do it all. I knew exactly what they wanted beforehand. I'm in the industry enough to know that these are normal things. I shouldn't be caught off guard. I was prepared to give these documents to them. I knew exactly what they were going to ask for. And in that moment, I thought, "Hey, no problem at all."
However, something inside of me got shaken. My peace started to feel rattled, and ultimately my peace would get destroyed email after email after email that they wanted this and that. And I would send them one thing, and now they want something else to explain that thing. And why was my peace so rattled?
It's simply because my hope was that I would buy this house. My hope was that I would see myself and my family moving into this house soon. And those emails, every time they asked for something, threatened that hope. It put to question whether or not that outcome, which I expect and desire, would actually be fulfilled, come to fruition. So my peace was shaken.
You would say that I felt sick inside. Proverbs 13:12 shows us why I'd feel sick like that. It says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick." Isn't it great when scripture is so right on point? There's no fluff there. Hope deferred—you put your hope somewhere else other than Jesus, your heart's sick. That's where I was. That's where I was. That's where I was in this home-buying process.
Yeah, I would have never said that my greatest hope in life is to buy this house. I would have never said that. But internally, the way I processed this journey in our lives was that this was the greatest thing that could happen. And anything that threatened that would destroy my peace.
What is it for you? Maybe you're also buying a house. Maybe it's a job. Maybe your hope is set on getting a promotion. Maybe your hope is set on building wealth so that you can retire. Maybe your hope is set on your children. You must only have one. Maybe your hope is set on a relationship. Or maybe your hope is set on a church—that you would find the right, perfect church that checks all the boxes and says all the things and plays the right music and does the right things. Maybe your hope is somewhere in between.
What I want us to do, I'm going to pray for us. We like to start with prayer. I'm going to pray for us. But before I do, I'm going to give us some time of silence, some time of reflection. It's going to be 30 seconds. I'm going to look at my watch. It's going to feel like an eternity.
But what I want you guys to do, I want everyone to reflect on where your hope is today. What is it today that, if threatened, your peace would be destroyed? Let's take some time now and reflect on that.
Let's take some time now and reflect on that.
Lift up to you our heart's desires. We lift up to you the things, the people, the events, the activities where our hope is placed. We lift up to you our confession that in placing our hope in these things, these people, these events, we have caused our hearts to be sick.
And so God, we lift this up to you, and we ask that today we would leave here with a peace that surpasses all understanding, with a hope that surpasses all understanding, that we would hope beyond hope, that we would leave here knowing that Jesus Christ is our source of hope forever.
That we would be encouraged by that, that we would be filled with joy by that. And that we would celebrate this season, not just because, but because today on Christmas, hope was born.
And so, Father, we lift that up to you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Let me paint the picture of where we are in this passage. So Luke 7, verses 36 through the end, 30 through 50. Let me paint this picture.
So Jesus, before this passage, was doing a lot of miracles. He was healing the sick. He was making people that were lame walk. He was curing diseases, and he was forgiving sins. And all the while, we have Pharisees that saw all of this happen. You know, Pharisees—they thought that they had it all put together. They were the ones that were right, and you were the ones that were wrong.
And they saw Jesus do all of these things, and all the while, they'd be like, "Who is this guy?" Not in an inquisitive, "Man, I've got to know this dude." No, it was like, "Who does this guy think he is?"
And they would say, "Who does he think he is to forgive sins? Who does he think he is that on the Sabbath, he's doing these miracles? Who does he think he is that on the Sabbath, people would be able to walk and carry their mat? That's a job. That's a task. You don't do that on the Sabbath. Who is this guy that would tell people to do that?"
So there's a little bit of speculation here, a little bit of skepticism against this Jesus. And so one of the Pharisees, Simon—this is the, maybe you'd call him the antagonist here. I actually think he teaches this a lot. Simon, today, he's inviting Jesus into his home. And Jesus goes to eat with Simon. Jesus, it says that he reclined at table.
Today, when you think about reclining at table, you probably think of getting your chair, pushing it back a little bit, you know, leaning your back, crossing your legs, you know, throwing your napkin back down on the table. You feel relaxed. You feel like, "Yeah, this is good."
But reclining at table, what we're talking about here is nothing like that. It's almost the complete opposite. Picture a table much closer to the ground. Picture yourself laying on your left hand, if you're a righty, or right hand if you're a lefty. Picture yourself laying on your arm with your feet behind you. You're basically on your side, your stomach, and you're eating with your right hand. And you're literally laying at this table with other people that are doing the exact same thing as you. That's the picture of reclining at table.
That's a vulnerable position to be in. And Jesus, the king of the universe, steps into this man who he knows to be a Pharisee, knows exactly what's going to happen. Jesus puts himself in that vulnerable position. So here he is. He's reclining at table.
And this woman comes in. It says that she's a woman of the city, a sinner. Other translations call her a woman of the streets. I think either one of those are going to resonate. You know, we would use that lingo. She was a sinner. She was probably a prostitute of some sort.
She comes in, and she is weeping at Jesus' feet. So much so that her tears are wetting them enough for her to use her own hair to wash them and wipe them clean and to dry them. And then she's pouring this ointment, this perfume, on his feet as well.
She would be seen in this room as the most vile, most grotesque person in existence. Remember, Simon's a Pharisee. He prided himself in believing and obeying the law. And here's this woman, who couldn't be farther from believing and obeying the law.
So Simon, in his own head, he wonders. He doesn't say this out loud. He wonders in his head, "If this man was a prophet, if this Jesus was a prophet, he would know who this is that's washing his feet, who's touching him." Gosh. He would know.
And Jesus, he's got a lot to say. So we'll get into that. That's where we're going to pick up right here.
What we're going to see is that this passage walks us through three things that really distract us from placing our hope in Jesus. Three things that really distract us. Three things that drive us to defer our hope, which makes our heart sick. We're going to see that here.
The first one that we're going to see is assumption. Look at verse 39. Simon's just wondering. But he's wondering, not about himself. He's not even really wondering about the woman. He's wondering about Jesus.
If this man were who he says he is, who is Simon to wonder about Jesus? He must really believe that he's got it all together. He must really believe that he's got some kind of authority or that he is in such right position before God that he is able to wonder about the character and the truth and honesty of who Jesus says he is. That's where Simon's heart's at.
Simon does not realize that in that room, he is no different than that woman of the city. He assumes that he's so much better. So much better, in fact, that Jesus in verses 44 through 46 calls him out on it. He says, "I walked into your house and you didn't give me water for my feet. You didn't greet me with a kiss. You didn't honor me as a guest would be honored."
We know what that's like. We know, and you know, a good friend walks in—a friend that you've had for so many, 10 years, 13 years, 17 years, 20, 30, 40 years. They walk into your house, they know where the cups are. They know where to get their drinks from. But somebody of high honor, somebody that you'd feel is more distinguished, somebody that you feel deserves a little more honor in your home—oh, come on in. Oh, excuse the mess, although I spent the last four days wiping it with a toothbrush. Oh, sorry, it's so dirty. Come on in, please. Have a seat. Let me get you some water. In fact, it's already out. I've already got it for you. Don't even have to worry about it.
We treat those distinguished guests very differently, don't we? If you're my friend, you come over, probably offer you something the first couple times. Other than that, you know where the cups are. Let's sit back and enjoy ourselves.
Jesus had no distinguishing honor in this room. There was no pomp and circumstance at all. No kiss on the cheek. No, "Hello, thanks for coming." Nothing. No water for his feet. Simon just assumed that he was so much better.
And you're probably wondering, "Okay, get to the point." Okay, how much do we assume that we're fine? That where we are is good? That we've done enough? That we check the right boxes? That we come to church every Sunday? We serve in some places. We give.
How many things do we check off simply because we believe that that's just what we have to do, and Jesus has no honor in it whatsoever? In fact, he has no honor because when we think about it, when we think about those things that we do, maybe we're thinking of it as, "I do this and I should get."
I come, I serve, I give. I should receive. But that's not the economy of Jesus. That's not how it works. We do those things out of love for him.
That woman walked in there knowing that this man, seeing all the things that she has seen, she knows who this man is. She knows what he's capable of, and she knows that she's not worthy of his presence whatsoever. That's where the tears come from.
And because of that, she honors him on her hands and knees, cleaning him with her own tears. Do we walk in here feeling like we've got this? I do the right things. I don't struggle with the big threes, you know, sex, drugs, alcohol. I don't struggle with those things. Everything else, you know, everyone's got their stuff, but I'm really good. I'm good at all the things, and I've checked the right boxes, and I come to the right places, and I speak to the right people, and I say all the right things. I'm good.
So then our hope is in ourselves. We assume that we've done it for ourselves. But then what happens when we miss the mark and we know it? When our hope is deferred towards ourselves and we miss the mark, how much does our hope actually shatter? How much do we have to defend ourselves?
Let's not get trapped in assuming that we're good just because we do and say the right things. Come every week. Serve, give, be a part of the church family, be a part of your community, but do it because you love Jesus. Do it because his life is so worthy of honor and praise. Do it because you adore him—not because you get anything out of it. What you get is just the blessing. It's just the blessing that comes with it.
The second thing is this. We see this again. Simon—this is why I, you know, God bless his heart, Simon. We see accusation. Simon is at this table, and he's accusing this woman, right? If he only knew, if Jesus knew what this woman was all about, yeah, he wouldn't want her touching him either.
I don't want her in my house, let alone touching my feet. If he knew, he wouldn't want her touching his feet either. That's where I lived, personally. I lived in that shame and the guilt and the fear of being known—of anyone knowing who I was and anything that I struggled with until I came into the light.
But before I came into the light, that voice, that Pharisee that lived in my own mind was constantly saying, "If they knew you, they wouldn't want you. If they knew you, they would want nothing to do with you. If they knew who you actually were, they wouldn't ask you for anything except to leave."
And I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this room is full of little voices saying the same thing. I know that in this room, there are many who are struggling with this voice in their head, this little Pharisee that says, "If this church knew you, they wouldn't want you back. If this church knew you, they wouldn't ask you to serve. If this church knew who you really were, they'd finally see where the grasp of hope and grace cannot reach."
We've got to put that voice to death. And the only way to put that voice to death is to bring it to the light. See, because I stepped into the light. I shared that story, and I confessed who I was. I confessed my life, and I was met with a grace that surpasses all grace.
I was met with a grace that truly exemplifies the grace of Jesus. My wife showed me Jesus in a way that I never understood him before because she was so gracious. But I was also met with truth. There were steps I had to take. There were things that had to be done for me to see a life that I wanted to see out of myself.
There were things that I had to do, consequences, things that I lost that I had to experience in order to get to the place that God wanted me to be. I had to see all the places where my hope was deferred to and lose them. And man, I wouldn't change that for the world. There would be no exchange here because I found grace and hope and healing, and you can too.
If you've got that voice inside of your head saying, "If they knew you, if they only knew," if that's the voice that you hear, hear this: step into the light. Find hope. Find healing. Be ready for truth. We will walk with you.
Don't lose sight of 1 Corinthians 10:13 where Paul says that nothing has overtaken you that is not common to man. No temptation has ever overtaken you that is not common to man. I'm not even just talking about that you've been tempted because Jesus was even tempted. He says no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.
That means that no one in this room can say anything that they've ever done, and no one else in the world has ever done it. It's not possible. Everything that has been experienced, every mistake made, every struggle wrestled with, every sin committed has been done and heard and seen time and time again since eternity past.
So don't let that voice tell you that you are alone. Don't let that voice tell you that if they only knew. Don't let that voice show you that there's a place in your life where hope can't reach. Don't let that happen because it's not true. Hope in Jesus and see his love and grace and forgiveness on the cross for you.
We'd love nothing more than to walk our church through that.
The third thing is this. There's an actuality to our sin. Jesus looks at the woman, but he's talking to Simon still, and he says, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven." He doesn't hide the fact that there are a laundry list of sins in her life. And he will never hide that from us either.
There's no room to think that my number of sins might be less than yours or yours might be less than mine. And so there's a distinguishing factor there. There's no room for that. Jesus says, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven." That's a great actuality.
But how does this actuality drive us away from hope? Well, if assumption is this place of like, "I probably, I'm really not that bad. Like, I don't really struggle that much with anything, so I don't really need much. I'm good. Like, I provide for myself what I need." That's assumption.
If accusation is, "Oh my gosh, there's no way I could ever be saved. I've done too much. My sin is too great." Actuality lives somewhere in between. Actuality recognizes sin, but it doesn't really care to do much of it. Actuality will even excuse other sin because, yeah, we're sinful.
In fact, if I don't sin, what did Jesus die for? I've got to contribute something to the equation, right? That's where actuality lives. Actuality makes room for sinfulness in our lives. We're all gonna have sin. We all have that in our lives.
But actuality says, "That's all right." Don't miss the beauty in this actuality. Don't miss how Jesus treats actuality—that our sins are forgiven. Actuality is a gift from God. It shows us how deep and how great God's love is for us.
Because he even says, "He who is forgiven much loves much." If you want to see where you should be with your love for Christ, you've got to see how far you've missed the mark first. You want to experience the love of God. You want to see him doing work and activities in your life. You have to recognize that he's got a lot to overcome to do that. That's actuality.
Actuality looks at the hopeless depravity of our sin and leaves it there. But Jesus looks at the hopeless depravity of our sin and dies for it. That's the difference. And that's why his birth is so beautiful.
It was difficult a little bit as a kid, you know, and even in my adulthood to celebrate the birth of Jesus—not because he's not anyone to be celebrated, but like Easter, I get it. He resurrected. You know, Good Friday, I get it. He died on the cross. He sacrificed himself for our sins. I get that. That always clicked for me.
His birthday, well, you know, as a kid, I'm like, "He hasn't done anything. We just had a baby. He doesn't do much but like eat, sleep, and you know the rest." But I adore my son. I adore that little baby so much.
When we look at Jesus and his birth, do we adore him like that too? Knowing what we know, I know nothing about my son and his life. I have three others. I have no idea how they're going to pan out. But I adored them anyway.
With Jesus, I know exactly how that story goes. I know exactly how the story ends. And I know exactly what happens in my life because of it. Do I look at Jesus as a baby and adore him? Do I look at Jesus as a baby and say, "You alone are worthy, and I'll give you all the glory?"
Christmas is when hope is born. So yeah, we can celebrate that baby. We can celebrate the birth of hope. And we should. And that's the answer. Faith in Jesus. That's the most Sunday school answer I could give you. But it's the only thing I could say.
Faith in Jesus is the answer—that we would place our hope in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, for eternity, but even for this side of eternity where we're still alive. Our hope is in him, not in our homes, not in our retirement, not in the livelihoods that we have, not in our families or our relationships or our church. Hope cannot be found anywhere in those things. Only in Jesus Christ can we find actual hope.
And so we put our faith solely and completely in him, trusting that his work is enough. It's not our product. He didn't go and turn around to this woman and say, "Because you washed my feet, I now forgive you." That's not the story. And that's not the story for us either.
He doesn't look at you and say, "Because you've done X, Y, and Z, and you've produced such good results, I forgive you." No. It's not because of the woman's pleading. I mean, she was pleading so hard, her tears washed his feet. He didn't turn around and say, "You've shed enough tears, I now forgive you." No.
It wasn't her pleading, and it wasn't her penance. It wasn't that she was doing this act because she recognized how much of a sinner she was, and so she wanted to free herself from the iniquity, from the result of that sin. No.
It was her faith in Jesus, and Christian, you can come on up. It was her faith in Jesus that brought her to this place where Jesus turns around and says, "Your sins are forgiven."
It was the product of Jesus. Jesus lived that perfect life, and his results are what we benefit from. It was Jesus' pleading day in and day out. He goes before the Father, and he pleads on our behalf. It's the penance of Jesus. Jesus himself died on the cross. Not me, not you.
And if we did, it wouldn't be enough. We couldn't do it. It wouldn't cover our sins. Jesus paid the penance for us to have eternal life and forgiveness before the Father. That's who we put our hope in. That is where our hope rests. It's in Jesus.
And so we can approach the cross of Christ not in desperation, but in celebration of the redemptive power and hope found through Jesus Christ. We can approach the cross again, not in desperation, but hoping that we've done enough. We can't do enough.
We can't hope that we've prayed enough or we've prayed hard enough. We can't hope that we've repaid the penalty of our sin enough. No, we run to the foot of the cross, and we see the hope and the peace that hangs there.
And the blood that's shed for you and for me that we would have eternal life with God. That's where our hope is. We hear Jesus echo for all eternity, "Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace." That's our hope.
It shouldn't be deferred from that. Hoping in anything else will leave your heart sick, empty, lonely, full.
I asked you to reflect on where your hope may be deferred. So I hope that the Lord spoke to you, either in that time or throughout this message. But what I want us to do now is I want to bring that right back to him.
Now that we've heard that our hope may be deferred because we've assumed something about ourselves, we've maybe assumed something about others, or because we feel these accusations in our own minds, or because we haven't really seen the actuality of our sin—whatever it might be, let's bring that back before the Lord.
And let's confess our true desire and expectation for receiving our prayers. Thank you for receiving the penalty of our sin. I pray right now that wherever our hope is, that we can leave here with full surrender, that we would surrender those things that we desire, that we desire so much that when threatened, our peace is destroyed.
Fill our hearts with the hope that can only be found in you. Give us that peace that surpasses all understanding, that our eyes would be fixed on you and you alone, and that we would celebrate Christmas, not just the birth of a child, but the birth of hope, so we can adore you, and we declare that you alone are the glory, now and forever.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
There's going to be some prayer team over here at the front and throughout the back of the church. If you want to pray with someone, if there's something that is heavy on your heart or you feel like hope has been deferred in your life, please come on up. Let's pray for you and let's see what the Lord might have for us in this next season of your life.
on Dec 08, 2024
