The Eternal Gift - Hope | Week 1

Picture this - a shiny basketball, wrapped in festive paper, bound to awaken dreams of NBA victories. Yet, the true joy lies not only in the gift but also in the act of giving itself. Our personal stories transport you through the Christmas season's festivities as we delve into the art of giving. Sharing gifts is a way to express love, akin to God expressing his love by giving us Jesus, the eternal gift.

Join us as we weave through the scriptures, illuminating hope's profound connection to Christmas, tracing it back to the eternal gift of God. We explore the narrative of hope and the blessings it can bring when we keep Christ at the center of our celebrations. Hope, an enduring theme in the Bible, is an invitation to live as Jesus' followers, fostering connections, growth, and service in His name.

Hold on to your seats; we're about to revisit the captivating Christmas story. Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Simeon, and the wise men, each with their unique journey, intertwined in the divine plan unfolding before us. More than just a baby in a manger, the nativity scene symbolizes the hope of God. We extend this hope to you, inviting you to become vessels of His love. As we conclude the episode with a prayer for you, remember to place your hope in God and let your celebrations echo love, faith, and joy.

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Transcript

Pastor Jason Brown: 0:00

Did you say amen to that? So I'll sing this question Do you have hope, man? Part of Christmas time is this idea of presence, and I don't know about you, but I'm a big fan of presents. Anybody else like presents? People are lying because you are in church. We're like, no, I hate presents, take them away. Yeah right, everybody loves presents. They're amazing and and it's a fun part of Christmas. We remember that the reason that we give presents is because we have received the ultimate gift in Jesus Christ, and so the part of presence is a really fun part of Christmas and there's a lot to presence. In fact, there are some people that they are all about the list of presents. Like they're, they have a list. I mean, people have a hard list of stuff that you want for Christmas and Some of you are nodding your head. Others of you are like how does he know this about me? Don't worry about it, you're okay, you know. Others of you it's like, man, it's really not about that, it's really about getting presents and and getting it for the kids and and I, man, that's that's one of the fun things.

Pastor Jason Brown: 1:00

And some of you guys, it's really about the shopping for the presence. How many people like to go and get the shopping for the presence. Other you guys are like nope, it all comes to the house and the wonderful people dressed in all the colors are like, hello, your package, ding dong, and you're like, thank you, in your, in your, in your nighttime apparel that you've never changed out of anybody else. And so there's two, two schools of thought of that. Some people are like they're ready for the sales, go into the mall, go into the Stores, doing the stuff, shopping, going crazy. And other people are just like click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, send and done anybody else. And so there's a mix on two of those things.

Pastor Jason Brown: 1:38

And some people are it's about the intentionality, it's about the hunt for the gift or the hunt for the sale. On the gift you guys know I'm talking about, and so there's a piece of that, there's intentionality with it and and that's all really fun there's another piece of it of the people that like to to actually wrap the presence and do a really nice job of wrapping the presence. Some of you guys are like intricate you, it's all about the how you do it and you're watching the tutorials on doing the hundred cuts so that you can Wrap it perfectly. Anybody some of you guys with the bow, and just right, some of you people are the ones that, as I've heard from Conversation, make people fold up the wrapping paper after they open the gift so they can reuse it next year. People are pointing at people. Don't point at people. People are pointing at themselves. I love that. It's amazing. Other you guys are rip and tear people and those rip and tear people frighten all the people that have done the long time on the presence people. Some of you are like me that you were so thankful they came up with the idea of the gift bag. You're like and it's in a bag and a piece of paper on top and it's wrapped and you're looking for the big gift bags you can put bicycles in. You guys know I'm talking about. You're like how do we wrap this? And so there's all a piece of that stuff.

Pastor Jason Brown: 2:47

There's also the fun of Christmas time whenever, like, the kids are giving you a present and you're like oh, thank you, is this the thing I gave you money for to buy for me? Oh, thank you. Or the other parent is bought over. Someone else in the family has given the kids money, saying, buy something for you and that's fun because you know what you're getting, or the other side of that is what. You don't know what you're getting, but you know it's not gonna be good, because they bought it with their own money and it wasn't very good, but now you have to hold on to whatever that garbage is, but they gave it to you in love, so it counts. It's good, and we got to remember that. It's really not about the receiving of the presence, and really part of the best part, in my opinion, is the giving of the gift. It's giving of a gift to someone else and seeing those kids open the present on, you know, christmas morning or whenever you open them, and it's that revelation of like, hey, I came to the present. That revelation of like, hey, I care about you. That's why I'm giving this thing to you, as I want to give you a present. It's not because there's a list of stuff that you need to get, because you were good, it's because I care about you and that's why I'm giving you this gift, because it's reminiscent of what God given to me in Jesus, the hope that I've experienced personally. Now I get to turn and give it to another and that's why it's not about running up a charge card or buying the most crazy thing, but it's really just about, hey, I this is a thought from me to you that I love you, I care about you. Here's a gift for you.

Pastor Jason Brown: 4:16

One of my favorite gifts it wasn't the best gift I had, that was Super NES but a really good gift that I got one time was that I would get a Basketball at Christmas time. And you know, let's get a sports ball at Christmas time. It's one of the fun things you could get is getting a sports ball. And I, you know you guys, when I was in seventh and eighth grade, I was gonna play in the NBA. I was so good, I was super awesome, and so I thought that my whole life revolved around this ball. Right here I was like you guys, it's gonna be amazing when I signed my shoe deal and Play hoops professionally, not realizing that the very tippy tallest, if I stand all the way up, I might hit six foot and that just doesn't work out in professional basketball. So I was cut short of my amazing basketball career in In high school. So I really, I really went far with it. But you're gonna remember, like you know you would see, and there was that weird shape that's underneath the tree, it's like part of a box and partly round, and you're like this is it? This is the one. I got another basketball Come on.

Pastor Jason Brown: 5:18

Because if you played basketball growing up, like I did, we didn't have a gymnasium. There was no indoor basketball. All basketball was outdoors, and whenever you played outdoors your basketball went flat all the time. So you needed a new basketball. So we would be like that, right before Christmas, all of us are pushing that basketball into the ground, man, because like you could barely get it to go. You'd pump it up every Five minutes and it couldn't go anymore. And so you're like I gotta get a new basketball. And everybody get the brand new basketball.

Pastor Jason Brown: 5:43

You break it out. You're like, yes, immediately bouncing it in the house. What's your mom say? Don't bounce it in the house. So then you know, all right, fine, you go outside and you're bouncing, you bouncing, you bouncing. You go up to the basket. You have to make the first basket. If you don't make the first basket, might as well chuck the ball, get rid of it. So you stand as close to the basket as you can and you do the one layup, you guys don't talk about. Put the one layup in and you're Like, that's right, michael Jordan, baby, what's up? You guys don't know how. You like Jordan. You know what I mean. The rest of time you can miss all the shots. The rest of the time, it was all about that first basket. And once you did, then you were, like me, gonna be a professional basketball player, congratulations.

Pastor Jason Brown: 6:19

It's so funny how such a simple gift, one that wasn't the most money but was done with intentionality, could have such an impact. See, because it was given a love and it was fun. And and there's something about even the way we think about a gift like this like you can do this by yourself, that's okay, you know, imagine that you're the best player. At the same time, this gift is always meant to be shared. It's always meant to be a game played together. And so, in the same way that, when we think about Christmas, gifts are great, but it's always meant to be something done together, it's always meant to be something that points us into community, together with Christ, and never just to play by yourself. Does that make sense? And so, as we look to scripture today and we look to what the word of God says. It talks to us about how we are being those who have an eternal gift, and that's our focus during this Christmas is the eternal gift of God For us and how we get to embrace the eternal gift of God for us and how we get to share that same gift With others around us.

Pastor Jason Brown: 7:25

Today, we get to talk about the eternal hope that is our gift from God. As we look to the scripture, we have this theme, scripture that comes to us out of Isaiah 9. It says this for to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government Shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor. Mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace, of the increase of his government of peace, there will be no End on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness, from this time forth and forever more. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this, and so this theme is what we're gonna be looking at during these weeks ahead. It's a way for us to see the overarching idea of the eternal gift of God for us. So today, as we look to scripture, we look at hope eternal and how it has an impact on our lives.

Pastor Jason Brown: 8:30

Give your Bible your tablet, your phone. If you'd open it today to Psalm 146, that's gonna be our jumping off point. Starting in verse five, it says blessed is he whose help is in the Lord, god of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord, his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that's in them, who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoner free. Our question today do you have hope, lord? We thank you so much for your word for us. We thank you, lord, that you love us and you give us this word so that it can be transformative for us. Holy Spirit, we pray that you would breathe upon it, make it alive in us. We'll become merema. We'll be transformative, lord, that we become more into your image. We pray this in the powerful name of Jesus Christ, amen. Well, we are so very thankful that you joined us this morning here at Cornerstone and if you're a guest of ours, we're so thankful that you've joined with us and that you're worshiping with us in this Christmas season. It is a blessing to have you here at Christmas time.

Pastor Jason Brown: 9:43

It continues what we talk about often, which is that we are followers of Jesus. All of us are on a journey with Christ. None of us have arrived. All of us are in need of a savior. That's why we use this imagery of walking with Christ, because we are going where he is leading us to go. Very much. We want to be more like Jesus, and since that's true, then we need to be those that embrace what he wants to do in our life. We want to connect, grow and serve the way the Lord has instructed us, and so, as we look to the word today, we want to be those people that are fulfilling what he says for us. I want to be one of the first to wish you a very merry Christmas, and I want to encourage you that you would put Christ at the center of your Christmas this year, that you wouldn't get so busy with everything else, but that you would focus on what he wants to do in your life.

Pastor Jason Brown: 10:31

Today we're talking about hope eternal, and as we look at that scripture again, we see the very beginning of it talking about the hope, who's, who, our hope that is, in the Lord, our God, and how. If we live that way, then we too will be blessed because we know where our help comes from. Very much, the idea of hope is about future. Hope is about an idea that future is better than the present, or that, even if we have a good present, that our future will be sustained in a good way. And so, as we look about hope very much, those who are hope less do not believe that there's anything else that can get better. They feel that this is it and that there is nothing that can change. Let me encourage you and say this even this week, we reserve messages.

Pastor Jason Brown: 11:16

We receive messages from people who said they feel very alone. They're thinking about self-harm. Let me tell you this that you have value, that you are loved, that God created you with purpose and on purpose, and that you have a future that's brighter than today. Don't believe the lie of the enemy that says you're worth nothing. Don't give into that stuff. That is a lie from the devil who wants to shorten your life and call you nothing. You are loved and you are great in the eyes of God. I was thinking about this and it was starting to get me emotional, thinking about those who would feel so alone when God loves them so very much and they believe they belong to a community of faith that loves them as well.

Pastor Jason Brown: 12:08

It's interesting, this idea of hope, because when we look to his scripture, the most famous passage is actually in Jeremiah. It talks about, in Jeremiah 29, having a future and a hope. But the setting of this is actually quite scary. You think about how God had called the children of Israel. He had set them apart as his children. He called them his own. They belong to him, and in doing so he called them to live separate from the way that others lived. He called them to live for him, in a relationship with him, and they continually rejected his provision for them, even when he liberated them from slavery in Egypt. They turned away from him and wanted to do their own thing. They forgot the very one that liberated them and gave them freedom and gave them purpose and set them apart. They forgot all of that and they cast it aside. And so he brought a prophet and he would bring another one. And he would bring another one and say repent means to turn around, turn back to God and go back into relationship with him. But they refused. They hardened their hearts. It's just as Pharaoh did towards God, so the children of Israel did against God, and so they hardened their hearts against them, and so he took his hand away from them and allowed consequences to befall them. He used Assyria and Babylon as places that actually took them back into the very slavery that he had liberated them from.

Pastor Jason Brown: 13:26

And this is the setting in which Jeremiah is getting this promise from the Lord. He's in the middle of an absolute terrible time. He knows that these things are coming and he can't change it, even though the situation is bad. The word of God says that the situation will not always be this bad, that actually there's a future and there's a hope for you. Whatever situation you're in, whatever you're walking through, there's a future that's brighter for you. God loves you and he has a plan to be someone who lifts you up out of whatever you're going through. Even if that means that in this life it ends and you pass through that door called death, it's still to bring you into his presence, so that you can realize the fullness of who he is in you, and so we can understand the fullness as a better future for us. There's an actual hope that's found in God. Did you know that he loves you? Did you know that he has a purpose and a plan for you. This is what the scripture says to us. The promise to Jeremiah is the same promise for you that, no matter what you're in the middle of, he loves you and he has a plan for your life.

Pastor Jason Brown: 14:35

I think about so often how we get to be busy with all the things we're doing. I mean, man, we can be so busy doing stuff, we forget why we're doing it. You ever started shopping for Christmas and you forget why you're shopping for Christmas. You're just making a list and getting stuff on a list. You're making cookies, you're decorating the house, you're doing this and that and you forget why. Why are we doing this? There's a real purpose behind what we're supposed to be doing. See, our hope doesn't rely on anything that we do. We can do all that we want and still not have hope that comes from God. We need to lift up our eyes from the busyness of our life to say Lord, I see you as my hope, you are my provision, you are my peace, you are my strength, you are my joy, you are all that I need. And when we have that perspective, then all of this is a blessing, because then it actually has meaning, and it doesn't matter that everything doesn't go perfect, because it's a blessing anyway. Then the time with family and this time over here rejoicing, and the fun lights and the fun gifts and the singing of the carols and the nice food and all that stuff is a blessing, because it's not the point. The point is that we get to reflect the love of God through us to each other and we get to live in community. This way, we get to literally channel the hope of God to other people. And so as we look to the scripture, it starts to unpack that way for us.

Pastor Jason Brown: 16:06

And we look at these figures within this Christian story of Christmas. At the arrival of Christ, there was key figures that were there. First of them was Zechariah, and he was actually a, he was a priest before God. In that setting, it actually was something where they would have people come and they would make a sacrifice, and then the priest himself would go in and make a sacrifice on behalf of all of the people. He'd have to make his heart right with God to go in and become that sacrifice and make that sacrifice before the Lord. And as he's there, making that sacrifice before the Lord, he has all of these things. That has been difficulties for his own heart.

Pastor Jason Brown: 16:43

He's a man without a child, without an heir, and in his day that was a shame on you and your culture. His wife was barren, she couldn't have kids, and so he didn't have this male heir to carry on his name. It was going to die with him, and so he was seeking the Lord about this and there was something he wanted so deeply in his life, but he hadn't realized it. And as he went into this place he had to deal with those issues and he had to walk in. And he was there. He met with the messenger of God, it says. The angel of the Lord spoke to him and talked with him and challenged him and said that your prayers have been heard by God and you will have the child that you've been looking for.

Pastor Jason Brown: 17:19

Now here's the interesting thing about Zechariah the priest. The holy man of God could not accept the message. He couldn't accept it from an angel. We wonder why we get so bummed out sometimes. It can't get an encouragement. You have a friend, oh, it's going to be. You know, I'm praying for you. It's going to be okay. Ah, whatever, that's a Zachariah attitude man. He was not having, he was just like I don't agree and I love what the angel says. I'll talk about it next week too. He said he challenges him and actually what happens is that God, in order to get the point through to Zachariah, shuts Zachariah's mouth so he can stop complaining, so he can hear the promise being fulfilled that God said for him.

Pastor Jason Brown: 18:05

How often do you think that God is actually answering the prayers that we're praying, but we're too busy complaining in other prayers to hear it. That's a good point, jay. Thank you, brother. I appreciate you. I say that to me, not to you. How often do my in my own prayers to the Lord, though I give him praise and though I go in that way, I'm like God, but this and this, and he's like listen, it's on the way. If you just listen, hope is already here. We think about that was Zachariah.

Pastor Jason Brown: 18:40

And the same time you have Elizabeth who, when she hears it, she's filled with joy. It says that she cherished it because the Lord made a miracle for her. He had heard her and took away her disgrace. And the same way you fast forward a little bit and the same story happens with Mary. She countered to Zachariah. She has the messenger come and tell her a message that she was going to carry the very gift of God and she was going to be the mother to the Christ child, the fulfillment of scripture. She finds it as joy. She's a young woman, she's about to be married, she's set apart in this way. She knows it's going to create crazy chaos in her life and though she has a humble heart, a humble spirit, she embraces what God wants to do for her and she says that she would count it a blessing that God would see her and value her and use her for his glory. That's what she says.

Pastor Jason Brown: 19:32

Quite the counter to the holy man of God who was gruff in arguing with an angel that we too would be like Mary and have a heart full of hope, a heart full of hope in God, that we see that his plans are better than our plans for ourselves, that his purposes are better than our purposes for ourselves, that he is the source. Mary had it correct. She saw really who God is. We see in the same way this character, simeon Simeon's, there it says that he was an old man and had been prophesied to him and revealed to him that he would see the Christ child before he passed to death and you think about this as an idea.

Pastor Jason Brown: 20:22

And he had lived all these years serving the Lord and he had been looking for the promise, looking for the Messiah, looking for this one that came. And after Jesus came, they went to dedicate him as they would any one in that culture. And as he saw the babe with Mary and Joseph, he saw Jesus face to face. He realized that the promise that God had made to him was fulfilled, the hope that he had been looking for. He knew all the stories of the prophecies of old. He knew all that the people had done to reject God. He knew that God, even though he called them back to that land, they lived under Roman oppression and he knew that there had to be an answer. He was looking for it day after day and finally the Christ child appeared. And here he was and Simeon got to hold the hope for all mankind in his arms and dedicate him to God. What a powerful thing to see a fulfillment of the hope of God Intangible incarnate.

Pastor Jason Brown: 21:29

We see the same story happen with the wise men. They've been looking with intent over the scriptures, seeing who is this one that's going to make everything right? Who's this one who's going to bring about justice? Who is this one that's going to right all the wrongs in this world? Who is the one that's a fulfillment from on high to come and to make all things just and correct and right? Who is it? And they look to the skies over and over to see when is the symbol coming, when is it going to come and indicate to us? And because they were intentionally looking for the sign of hope, they were able to see it. And because their hearts were aligned to come to worship, they were able to travel a great distance that cost them a great amount. And because they had a heart of intentionality with hope, then they came and they themselves got to lay their eyes on the hope of God to all people. They did this because they had the right perspective. They were looking for God everywhere they looked.

Pastor Jason Brown: 22:32

How often do we get so busy in our doing that we forget to look for God in our world? We forget to look for the good things he's doing, the promises that he said he will fulfill. We forget to look for them and therefore we miss it. But if we're intentional to look for God's grace, for God's love, for God's hope, then we'll see it every single day, because he is always working, he is always showing his hope to the world. We think about the children of Israel, we think about these promises that were made to them, and on that night when he arrived and he was there, being birthed into this world, most of Israel didn't pay attention. They'd been given the promises about the Messiah. They even knew the location and they knew all these things, but all the importance of all those things had come down. No one was looking anymore. They were busy doing their own thing, and so it's so sad that on the night when the Messiah arrived, he wasn't met by all of Israel rejoicing, but instead it was just a few outlying people in a field called Shepherds that got to be those who came in to hear. It wasn't the people in the city busy with their own lives, it was those who were out taking care of the sheep that got to come in and meet the good shepherd for the very first time.

Pastor Jason Brown: 24:07

If we are intentional to embrace the hope of God in our lives doesn't mean we'll be perfect, but what it means is that we would be intentional to look for the hope of God. Then he will show us what he's up to and we too we'll be able to be an instrument in his hand to bring the hope of God to others, that we too get to be a part of what he's doing. When we look at that scene of the nativity, when we look at those figures most of the time in stained glass across Europe you'll see it. It's beautiful. It's these imagery of piety and symbolism of what God is doing. And it's beautiful, isn't it?

Pastor Jason Brown: 24:47

But this is not what it looked like whenever he arrived. They weren't in great castles or wonderful cathedrals. In fact, whenever he was born it's most likely he was born in a cave used as a stable. He was used their hone out of the rock used to protect the animals from the weather. It was there, laid in a manger to be the bread of the world, that Jesus came. It was in this place, this very same place, that later, after becoming the sacrifice for all people, he would be laid again in a cave, this time a tomb, to actually seal the price for what he paid for all of us. He took upon the sin of the world that means your mistakes and mine and he paid for it once and for all, and he went in this tomb. But the good news is is that he didn't stay in the tomb, but he rose again and he lives now and we have a relationship with him as he's with the father, and that's what separates him from every other belief system in the world is that our hope is in a living God. Our hope is alive. It's not dead. It's not a set of rules or set of regulations or a thought process, but it is a person named Jesus Christ, and so when we talk about hope, it's not an abstract idea. He is our hope. He is our hope.

Pastor Jason Brown: 26:15

We look to this scripture. It talks about how we're to live for him, how we're to be those set apart. And as we look about it we look at that idea of laying in the manger scene we see that he is the Messiah. The Messiah is a fulfillment of scripture. It means the anointed one. It talks about, as we see in the Greek. It's the Christ. It's the one who fulfills all that has been there for us. That's who the Messiah is.

Pastor Jason Brown: 26:42

And as we look to prophecy, prophecy starts to talk about a foretelling of all that would be there. It's a message that's claimed to have been communicated to them by a deity. That's when God would speak to a prophet and say these things will come to pass. As we read earlier in the prophet Isaiah writing to the church, we see the same thing here as Lee Strobel, a famous author. He used to be so critical of the gospel and he started to say in the case for Christ he started to talk about the math that would be just to fulfill a very handful of prophecies and so many more than there would be there, but just to fulfill any of the prophecies. There would be a one in 100 quagillion chance of this happening. You could literally hit the jackpot over and over and over and over before this would come true. But Jesus came and he fulfilled all of these things. Eight examples of that are simple like this the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and preceded by a messenger. He would come into Jerusalem riding on a colt and be betrayed by a friend. He'd be betrayed by 30 pieces of silver, and so on and so forth. And this is just a small sliver of all of the other prophecies that were made about the Christ.

Pastor Jason Brown: 27:51

And so whenever we start to really do our homework on who Jesus is and how he is the Messiah he is the Christ we were looking for we look to this scripture and we see more than a baby in a manger. We see the very hope of God, the very understanding of who he is to us. Jesus is our hope eternal. Whenever we look to this idea of the nativity and all the figures that are there, we see more than just Mary and a baby. Joseph had her side. We see more than just shepherds from a field or more than just kings from afar. We see a future, because Jesus came to give us a future with him. That's why he came to earth To restore back the relationship, a broken relationship that we broke against God, and we, as fallen people, could not make our way back to him. And so he came to make a way for us to return to relationship with the living God, a holy God. He gave us a future. He talks about in Philippians 2, verse four.

Pastor Jason Brown: 29:10

It says let each of you look not only to his own interests but also the interests of others. Have this in mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men it continues in verse eight and being found in human form. He humbled himself by being obedient to the point of death, even on a cross. Therefore, god was highly exalted him and bestowed him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee would bow in heaven and on earth and under earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father. That's who Christ is for us. He came out of the heavenly realm. He had all power and glory.

Pastor Jason Brown: 30:07

It says. He was there before the creation of the world and he emptied himself of all his glory and all his power and came down in the very form of something he himself created. He came out of heaven and into earth and into an earthly realm, and he didn't come into a palace, but into the lowest of the low, to people that didn't matter to anyone around them. He chose a normal start to show us all that he was for us and not just for those at the very tippy top of the mountain. He was for every person from every place, and he came in this way and came to earth so that we could understand who he is and give us the real hope in the future. He was called to be one that restored us back into relationship and restore us back from a place of destruction and restore us from not having a future, but to restore a future for us. He was the one that was coming to heal not just physically our bodies, or not just our brokenness and our mentality, but restore and heal back the relationship with Father God. He came to be the one who brought justice. We think that people get away with things in this life, but, friends, they don't get away because he is a just God and these things that we released to him, they are his to be just over, because we ourselves are not just, we wanna get ahead or get even or inflict pain, but he is just, and so he came to right the wrongs, to establish a true justice that only comes from him.

Pastor Jason Brown: 31:43

As we look here again to scripture, we see that he's more than just a symbol. He's more than just a baby in a manger. He is the very hope that we're looking for. Blessed is he whose help is in the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord, his God. It says that he's the one who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry? The Lord sets the prisoners free. He, today for you, for me, is hope eternal, everlasting. He's all you're looking for and more.

Pastor Jason Brown: 32:33

Today, we answer that same question do you have hope? Do you have hope as we come to this altar? Today, we answer that question for ourselves, and maybe you've never embraced Jesus. Today. As your opportunity to do so, today is your opportunity to ask the Lord to come into your life to just start a new relationship. It says that he came to look to earth just to do that very thing. He came to be the sacrifice for all people for all time, and what he did is he made it right for us something that we could never attain. Through great grace he, he gave us this opportunity to respond to his love. But it says that we have to place our faith in our trust in him. Say that we believe you are who you say you are. So I asked you that question today have you embraced Jesus For us? Whenever we see the symbol of the cross, we see a symbol of forgiveness, we see a symbol of freedom, we see a symbol where God took all that was wrong and made it right, and he took on all of the weight of sin, all of my mistakes, all of yours, and he paid for it once and for all. And he did that so that we could be made clean before the eyes of God and live in relationship with him. That's what it means to invite Christ into our life. It's not just to say a magical prayer, it's actually to start a relationship with him.

Pastor Jason Brown: 34:07

The apostle Paul. He writes to the church at Rome and says this Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified. With the mouth, one confesses and is saved. Friends, today is your day of opportunity. It's your day to make a decision to follow Jesus. I'm gonna ask if you're here in the room, if you just stand right where you're at, just bow your head. If you're online, you just prepare your heart for what God wants to do.

Pastor Jason Brown: 34:49

It's a simple prayer, the one that we pray. It's a decision to invite Christ into our hearts and lives. Maybe you're here in the room and you've never made a decision to embrace Jesus. Today is that opportunity, and Maybe you're here and you have made the decision in the past, but you haven't lived for God in quite a while and you need to make an Decision to recommit your life to God. If that's you today, right where you're at here, if you just raise your hand right now, say pastors, remember me as we pray this prayer today. But I want to make that decision to follow Jesus. I want to make the decision of vitamins my heart and life. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. See the hands that are up. Thank you, god for people that are online making decisions today as well. Thank you God.

Pastor Jason Brown: 35:36

It's a simple prayer, the one that we pray. It asks you all just to pray it aloud and follow after me. It says Lord, thank you for loving me and thank you for sending Jesus. I Believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins and I believe he rose again. Forgive me of my sins. I Surrender my life to you in Christ. I may pray Amen, amen. Friends, we rejoice with those making a decision today, with a powerful decision to follow Jesus. Amazing For all of us that are already Christ followers that we would be reminded To our align our lives and our perspectives with God, that we would lift up our eyes from the busyness of our life and realize that he is our hope, that our source is in him, that we too would live in such a way, intentionally, so that we could channel and be a conduit of the hope of God for other people, using our testimony and the spirit of God through us to live love out to others.

Pastor Jason Brown: 36:52

Let's pray, and then we'll open up this altar for you to come and draw close to God.

Pastor Jason Brown: 36:57

Lord, we thank you so much for your word and we pray over it today, lord, that you would just use it by your spirit in our lives, lord, that we would be those that see and lift up our eyes to you, seeing you as the true hope eternal for us. Lord, that our hope is in nothing else, lord, our future is in nothing else. It's alone in you. So we place our hope, our trust, our faith in our future is all in your hands, though we draw close to you today and we ask that you would have your way in us, lord, as we come to this altar, we would pray, lord, that you would indicate anything to us, the Lord, that needs to change so that we can be better used by your hand as a tool, lord to show your love to other people. Lord to be a conduit of hope for others. We pray all this in the powerful name of Jesus Christ. Amen. We do love you, our cornerstone. I'm asking to stand for the blessing today.

Pastor Celeste Brown: 37:47

As you head out, you'll see some baskets out there with a small gift for you today. Just grab one as you head out. I want to invite you back. Next week. We are doing a kids program and we're also gonna have a message, so our kids are gonna be in here and they are ready or not ready, they will be here, and so you know how much fun it is when kids are on the stage. So I invite you to come. Just gonna be a joyous time of celebration during this season.

Pastor Jason Brown: 38:11

Amen. Before we go, we pray this blessing over us. Lord, bless you and keep you. Lord, make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, or lift up his countenance upon you and Give you peace. Lord, I pray a blessing upon your church, your people. God, you empower us by your spirit To love. Live your love out to those around us. We pray all this in the powerful name of Jesus Christ. Amen, amen, know this, we love you very much here at cornerstone. God bless you and Merry Christmas.