The Light Brings Hope
Moving Towards the Light • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Hope
Hope
Winter setting in
ADVENT Word with Latin roots, meaning “coming.” Christians of earlier generations spoke of “the advent of our Lord” and of “His second advent.”
The advent of our Lord is the incarnation in Jesus.
The second advent speaks of Jesus’ second coming.
We are starting with Hope, the light brings hope, the advent of the lord and the second advent brings Hope.
What does Hope mean to you? what does it look like?
Simon and I were talking about this at life group that it is hard to define and I wonder if we find it easier to relate to Hopelessness - Right now the world feels anxious, and many are lonely.
Maria was reading a book that shared American Research finding that 3 in 5 Americans report being chronically lonely, and that number is “on the rise”. These states are indicators of a grave and costly crisis. Anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts are all on the rise. Scientists now warn that loneliness is worse for our health than obesity, smoking, lack of access to healthcare, and physical inactivity.
A conference I was at a few years again loneliness was high in first nation brothers and sisters and Generation Z, labelled an epidemic
These are all states before covid which only accelerated, before a war between Russia and Ukraine and before this economic crisis gripping the world.
Psychology professors Anthony Scioli and Henry B. Biller published “Hope in the Age of Anxiety” in 2009
Listing 9 states of Hopelessness and I want you to take note if any have been your experience
Alienation - others have forgotten about you or don’t include you as a peer
Forsakenness - others have abandoned you when you needed them the most.
Lack of inspiration - When you don’t feel mentally stimulated or creative, you may develop this type of hopelessness. You may feel blocked or unable to be creative in some or all aspects of your life.
Oppression - associated with a feeling of not being treated fairly or equally.
limitedness - You may feel as though you don’t have enough resources or skills to achieve your goals, or you’re facing physical or financial restraints to do so
Doom - feeling condemned to a certain negative outcome in life
Captivity - physical prisoner at some point in your life or if you’ve been in an abusive relationship that made you feel you weren’t free to act or do as you wish.
Helplessness - Feeling you’re unable to stand up for yourself or act without someone’s help
Powerlessness - Feeling you and your actions have no influence or impact on others or the world.
Have you experienced any of those feelings?
I believe that the last one we see a lot of today in society, the powerlessness to overcome the systems, and traditions or make change.
Take the climate movement, to live more sustainably and make sure companies are not expoiting the earth. you can feel powerless to have any meaningful change on your own.
Or currently, the voice, to overcome years of pain and alienation just to have an opportunity to have their story heard and recognised.
These are good intentions and even possibly examples of biblical principles, to be good stewards of the land and to help the marginalised. However, as Australian Pastor and social analysis Mark Sayers describes many are trying to have the kingdom without the king. Trying to bring justice in these area’s in their own strength, with no need for God. So what happens, you hit wall after wall and it turns you bitter it turns into us verse them and you lose hope because you cannot see how things could change, you may even lose hope in humanity.
How do we overcome these feelings of hopelessness?
By understanding what is Biblical Hope
The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Hope)
HOPE The confidence that, … God’s redemptive acts in the past with trusting human responses. Means the faithful will experience the fullness of God’s goodness both in the present and in the future.
Redemptive acts - what redemptive act in the bible do you enjoy reading? God gave Abraham and Sarah a child in their old age. Joseph interpreting a dream that saves nations from starvation, Isreal in the wilderness feed every day for 40 years and without their sandals wearing out? David and Goliath (a small boy beating a giant), Elisha lighting a fire after the wood has been saturated with water, or Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego surviving the fiery furnace. To name a few redemptive acts.
Of course, the greatest redemptive act is what advent is all about.
Jesus our Christ’s birth and resurrection, God incarnated, walking among us.
Biblical hope is in God and His redemptive acts as they culminate in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There are two words in Hebrew for Hope that help us to see this biblical Hope as a picture,
Yak-hal (to wait, often waiting on a certainty, Noah Yakhal for the flood waters to reside) and Qavah (ka-vah)( to wait but the feeling of tension as you wait, the anticipation of expectation).
Listen in
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.
Hope is like a watchman waiting for sunrise, it is a certainty that the sun will rise again, and the watchman is anticipating it.
2 Examples I have recently experienced
1. waiting on the starting line - girls cross country (God has done these redemptive acts in the past and I cannot wait to see them go off again)
2. waiting for Rafael to be born (In the waiting is preparation)
To wait on the lord is not to sit around (I get concerned when I hear preaching of this nature and if I am honest I want to avoid mentioning Jesus' second coming if it means we think we can just sit around and wait for Jesus to come and fix everything).
Jesus gives an example of how this is not what we are to do as followers in his parable in the Matthew 25:1-13. Jesus shares that 10 virgins are waiting for their bridegrooms to come and meet them at the gate, they take longer than expected and at midnight they come. however, the virgin's lamps have been burning the whole time, there are 5 wise virgins that have packed extra oil and therefore make it to the meeting point, and there are 5 foolish virgins that have not been prepared and cannot make their way.
We are not called to sit around and wait for Jesus second coming but to be prepared.
We are to respond with Hope and participate in redemptive acts today.
Newstead values HOPE
· Living the hope and peace we have in Christ
· Reaching out and offering to people the hope of God’s love and truth
· Encouraging one another to trust in God
· Believing and applying God’s Word the Bible
· Being equipped to share the hope of the Gospel to people near and far
But is that true for you? do you feel that sense of Hope that enables you to act? Going back to what you may have noted as a feeling of hopelessness
If you’re living with a mental health condition such as bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder, you may experience hopelessness as part of the symptoms.
It’s still possible to manage this emotion, but it’s also highly recommended that you seek the support of a mental health professional to address all your symptoms, particularly unresolved trauma.
Scioli and Biller also suggest you work to reassess your irrational thoughts or cognitive distortions.
These are false assumptions you operate upon that can lead you to feel hopeless about different circumstances of your life.
The first step to overcoming any form of hopelessness is to identify which distorted thoughts you use the most.
What lies are you listening to?
What truth do you need to have on repeat?
Is there someone you can talk to that will remind you what is a lie and what is the truth?
My Journey coming back to work.
Can I encourage you to join in prayer if you are needing to break through a feeling of hopelessness (after the service, prayer meeting and week of prayer and fasting)
If you do not feel certain about the evidence of God’s redemptive acts, particularly Jesus' birth, death and resurrection can I encourage you to join us with Alpha
We can trust in God to help us overcome the spiritual battles of this world, the systems that enable evil,
God can overcome because of Jesus our living Hope, today's verse
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,
who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
Hopes biblical meaning to wait on a certainty, people in the old testament waited on the Messiah, he came and gives salvation to all that want to draw near to God.
The new testament promises He will come again, Jesus said it himself
A verse that stood out to me this week
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
In Advent of Jesus coming again, we will not need faith or hope, we will be with God.
Our troubles and our heartbreaks and even death itself are temporary! Scripture tells us that eventually, God will do away with pain and death and sickness and suffering - forever.
How do I know because he sent Jesus, Wait on God to do a redemptive act in your life in the present and in the future because of his unfailing love for you.
And with that Hope, go into this week asking where can I share that hope and see the kingdom of God make its way into the world today.
Closing prayer
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.