Season of Hope
Seasons Greetings • Sermon • Submitted
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· 743 viewsChristmas is a season of hope. For Israel is was a time of anticipated hope but Christians live in a time of realized hope.
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Christmas is a Season of Hope
Christmas is a Season of Hope
Kids tell what they hope to get for Christmas before leaving for Children’s Church
Hope is an unwavering belief in the expectation of the fulfillment of a desire. Something that is hard or difficult to attain on our own. Hope looks ahead to what is or may be coming with the wish for our preferred outcome. There is a confidence displayed that our actions may have some effect on the outcome of our hope. Like children believing good behavior can help guarantee the perfect gift is received. Christian hope is no different.
The confidence that, by integrating God’s redemptive acts in the past with trusting human responses in the present, the faithful will experience the fullness of God’s goodness both in the present and in the future.
However, hope may be misdirected. Sometimes people place their hope, their confidence in things that will only let them down.
Walt Disney - death in 1966
unwavering faith in technology
rumor began that he was cryogenically frozen
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.
A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save.
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
Reasons for Hope
Reasons for Hope
Hope for deliverance - Psalm 33:18-19
But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
Hope for Provisions - Psalm 33:18-19
Hope for Protection - Psalm 33:20
We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.
Hope gives purpose - 1 Tim. 4:10
That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.
Hope grows deeper in us when we commit to being ministers of hope to others. Hope grows when it is shared, it blooms when it is given away. This is why Christian hope must be understood as both a gift and a calling. Because God has given us hope, we are called to bless others with hope, especially those who are struggling, those whose lives are bereft of meaning or any sense of purpose or those who for too long have felt estranged from anything promising. It is important to stress this lest we think that hope focuses so much on the promises of the next life that it distracts us from the work that needs to be done in this life. Rather, it is precisely because we are confident of the hope God holds out for us that we can attend to the needs of others and do what we can to work for the world’s healing. Far from allowing us to turn our backs on the world, hope commissions us to bring God’s love, mercy, justice and compassion to life in the world. Hope gives us work to do.
Pope Benedict XVI said, “All serious and upright human conduct is hope in action”
Hope is renewing - Isaiah 40:31
but 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 be faint.
Hope, it would seem, is a psychological necessity, if man is to envisage the future at all. Even if there are no rational grounds for it, man still continues to hope.
Tasker, R. V. G. (1996). Hope. In D. R. W. Wood, I. H. Marshall, A. R. Millard, J. I. Packer, & D. J. Wiseman (Eds.), New Bible dictionary (3rd ed., p. 479). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
There are two kinds of hope
There are two kinds of hope
Anticipated Hope - Israel anticipating the Messiah
Realized Hope - Christian hope is realized through Christ
Anticipated Hope
Anticipated Hope
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”
Most Optimistic Thought
Though hope helps to transcend fear, but interestingly, misdirected hope is the cause of all fear. We put our hope in the fallible soldiers of this world. We put our hope in our own abilities and abilities of others. But what hope is there? Can anything or anyone in this world save anyone from death? By the power of time, everything and everyone is destroyed.
Does it mean that one should wait for the hopeless situation to be fearless? Not really. Actually it is hope in the wrong thing that creates fear. Somehow or other if we get the association of godly men, if we cry out for God, then that is a greatly fortunate situation. We all need hope. No matter how bad the situation is, if a person has hope, a person has life, a person has meaning, a person has the spirit of joy that's in that hope.
But for most of us, until we are quite materially hopeless, we do not really take it very seriously. It does not have to be that way, but often it is. We can just understand with good intelligence, where our hope really is. But if we do not act accordingly, then eventually we will be brought to that situation. Everyone is brought to that situation in due course of time be it rich or poor, man or woman, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Jain, Parsi, atheist, Ph.D., or illiterate. Everyone without exception is brought to a point in life where everything material becomes hopeless. It is at the time of death or before. But if we cultivate within our life with all sincerity, finding hope in the eternal love of God, we will get the full shower of God's mercy.
Once a person came to his mentor and said, "I am feeling hopeless." The mentor replied, "Very good." The mentor then gave an example. "There was a music teacher and he would charge certain fee for people who did not know anything about music, and for people who did, he will charge double. Because he had to unlearn them before he can teach them the right thing." So, before we could really learn how to find hope in God, we have to realize how everything else is hopeless. That is not a pessimistic thought. That is the most optimistic thought.
Radhanath Swami
Realized Hope
Realized Hope
The New International Version Chapter 1
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Dictionary of Bible Themes 9615 hope, results of
Hope gives believers confidence and reassurance in this present life, allowing them to lead effective lives for God. It also reassures them of the reality of eternal life, allowing them to face death with confidence.
Hope in God is reliant on His unfailing love!
God provides hope that will bring joy and peace - Ro. 15:12-13
And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope.” 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.
Hope provides motivation
Dictionary of Bible Themes 9610 hope
In Scripture, a confident expectation for the future, describing both the act of hoping and the object hoped for. When grounded in God, hope provides the motivation to live the Christian life even in the face of trouble.
Hope gives confidence
Unrealized hope causes grief - Proverbs 13:12
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Absence of hope brings despair and loss of direction
Dictionary of Bible Themes 9614 hope, results of its absence
An absence of hope leads to a loss of vision, a sense of despondency and ultimately to despair. This contrasts sharply with the Christian hope.
Like any friend, God desires our happiness and seeks what is best for us, but the good that God wants for us is the richest and most fulfilling of all, namely God and everlasting life with God. And, like any friend, God accompanies us, blesses us, steadies and encourages us so that the absolutely best thing we could ever hope for will be ours. This is why hope is not something we achieve through hard work, grit and determination. Hope is inescapably a gift. Hope is the gift God bestows on us so that we can turn our lives to God, seek God, grow in the love and goodness of God and someday know the unbroken beatitude that comes from living in perfect communion with God. If hope arises from the desire for something good, then Christian hope is naturally audacious because Christian hope reaches for an unsurpassable good we already, if imperfectly, possess: the very life, love, goodness and joy of God. Christianity infinitely expands the horizon of hope because, as the whole of salvation history testifies, the scope of Christian hope is determined not by our own power or resources or ingenuity but by God’s inexhaustible love and goodness. Christians should never be anything other than bold and daring with hope because they know that God is both the object of our hope and the means to attain it.
To live in hope is to want nothing less for ourselves than what God wants for us. If that were the fundamental desire of our lives, what would change? How would we be resurrected? At the very least, it would free us from the enervating habit of worrying excessively about ourselves and unbind us from the joyless pastime of always comparing our status and achievements with another’s. Because God is for us and wants our good, we do not have to be anxious and fearful, calculating and cautious. We have time to love our neighbors. We have time to be merciful and compassionate, patient and generous. We have time to listen and to be present, time to encourage and support, because we know, thanks to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, that what God’s love envisions for us will be fulfilled. Hope frees us from the intolerable burden of thinking that so much depends on us that we become oblivious to the blessings around us, and especially to how each day God calls us out of ourselves in order to draw others more fully to life through our kindness and goodness. For Christians, hope is a new and abundantly promising way of life characterized by joy and thanksgiving, service and generosity, hospitality and celebration and even the wonderful freedom to fail.
Faith and Hope are Linked
Faith and Hope are Linked
1 Cor 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Gal 5:5
For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope.
Heb 10:23
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
1 Peter 1:21
Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
She did it first on Nov. 16, 1952. Charlie Brown explains to Lucy: “All you have to do is hold the ball. Then I come running and kick it.”
She’s not so sure. “I don’t know if this is such a good idea.”
Charlie Brown comes running, but, at the last moment, Lucy pulls back the football, explaining to the prostrate kicker: “I was afraid your shoes might be dirty, Charlie Brown. I don’t want anyone with dirty shoes kicking my new football.”
He tells her: “Don’t you ever do that again! Do you want to kill me? This time, hold it tight!” She does, so tightly, he kicks a ball, which doesn’t move, and tumbles onto his back.
“I held it real tight, Charlie Brown.”
He laments: “I’m not going to get up. I’m going to lie here for the rest of the day.”
Lucy would continue some variant of the football snatch in almost every subsequent year of the strip, all the way to 1999. The same would happen nine times in animation. Drawing the strip for the last time, Charles Schultz said that he realized, sadly, that Charlie Brown would never kick that football, but, he also thought, having him succeed would have been a disservice to the character.
Why is that? Perhaps because Charlie Brown is something of an everyman, and trying to kick that football reveals who he is. Depending on your perspective, either he will not learn from the past or he refuses to give up on the future. For the Christian, it’s the latter, which is what makes Charlie Brown something of a Christ-figure: He doesn’t close in upon himself; he doesn’t give up on others; he lives in hope.
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/02/17/charlie-brown-and-his-football-story-christian-hope
Dictionary of Bible Themes 9613 hope, as confidence
Hope means more than a vague wish that something will happen. It is a sure and confident expectation in God’s future faithfulness and presence. The horizon of Christian hope extends beyond death into an eternity prepared by God himself, the reality of which is guaranteed by Jesus Christ.