WEBVTT 00:00:03.826 --> 00:00:06.812 Well, Merry Christmas, it's good to see you. 00:00:06.812 --> 00:00:11.108 You know, I ended that statement with just Merry Christmas, I didn't say Merry Christmas and all. 00:00:11.108 --> 00:00:12.734 A good night, you know. 00:00:12.734 --> 00:00:15.925 So I'm hoping that you guys will stay awake. 00:00:15.925 --> 00:00:22.126 I believe God has something for us all this morning, and we're just grateful for God's word. 00:00:22.126 --> 00:00:25.939 Let's go to the Lord and let's pray that he would reveal his presence to us this morning. 00:00:25.939 --> 00:00:26.475 Okay so, father, we're just grateful for God's word. 00:00:26.475 --> 00:00:27.608 Let's go to the Lord and let's pray that he would reveal his presence to us this morning. 00:00:27.608 --> 00:00:30.539 Okay so, Father, we're just grateful that we can be here today. 00:00:30.539 --> 00:00:50.479 We ask you, Holy Spirit, to open your word to us, to open our hearts to you, Lord, that you would speak to us in ways that we have never heard before, that we might come to know you in a deeper way, maybe for the first time, Lord, and we ask for it in the name of Jesus, Amen. 00:00:51.902 --> 00:01:01.470 Well, a number of years ago, a submarine sank, with its crew completely trapped at the bottom of the ocean. 00:01:01.470 --> 00:01:05.334 They were rammed off the coast of Massachusetts In the sub. 00:01:05.334 --> 00:01:12.691 It sank immediately and after a number of hours, they decided they would send divers down to check on them and see what they could do. 00:01:12.691 --> 00:01:33.352 Pretty soon, the divers heard a tapping on the side of the submarine and they recognized it as Morse code and the code that they heard it was a question Is there any hope? 00:01:33.352 --> 00:01:37.546 Here's a simple truth. 00:01:37.546 --> 00:01:40.587 We're all lost without hope. 00:01:42.540 --> 00:01:55.593 As Russian Christian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky said, to live without hope is to cease to live, and the reality is for all of us, and I think there's no one that's excluded from this. 00:01:55.593 --> 00:01:57.686 We live in a world of disappointment. 00:01:57.686 --> 00:02:02.061 Every day we get up and we experience things that we would rather not. 00:02:02.061 --> 00:02:06.189 Sometimes they're rather routine, and we all have those days, don't we? 00:02:06.189 --> 00:02:08.234 Where we say well, when it rains, it pours. 00:02:08.234 --> 00:02:11.228 We think when is this going to be over? 00:02:11.228 --> 00:02:14.210 When the things we hope for, they don't come through. 00:02:14.210 --> 00:02:21.133 The Christmas gift you ordered that hasn't come yet, who can raise their hand for that? 00:02:21.133 --> 00:02:30.506 The person you left a message for, who didn't call you back like you had hoped for, your child gets sick. 00:02:30.506 --> 00:02:39.872 Your car breaks down, your provision that you had hoped for, the job that you'd hoped for doesn't materialize. 00:02:39.872 --> 00:02:45.109 Those are all disappointments, but sometimes, sometimes they go far deeper. 00:02:45.109 --> 00:02:49.227 It hit much harder and last a lot longer. 00:02:49.227 --> 00:03:00.782 An unexpected surgery, and you ended up in the hospital for a week, or maybe in an enduring illness that you never thought would materialize in your life and it has. 00:03:00.782 --> 00:03:11.670 Or maybe you see your marriage it's on the rocks, or maybe you've lost a loved one and they're no longer there. 00:03:11.670 --> 00:03:14.705 Those are great disappointments. 00:03:14.705 --> 00:03:15.628 What happens then? 00:03:15.628 --> 00:03:17.725 What happens then? 00:03:19.121 --> 00:03:20.848 It's so easy to lose our hope, isn't it? 00:03:20.848 --> 00:03:28.323 It can happen in a moment, Maybe the two saddest words that we could ever hear is no hope. 00:03:28.323 --> 00:03:34.294 Hopelessness occurs when you have nothing else to look forward to right. 00:03:34.294 --> 00:03:37.146 Hopelessness occurs when your dream dies. 00:03:39.532 --> 00:03:42.602 Brian Chappelle gives a voice to those times of darkness in our lives. 00:03:42.602 --> 00:03:55.489 We all feel it when we lose hope, and he asks what if you cannot look through the windows of faith and see hope, see light or hear God's voice saying I am with you? 00:03:55.489 --> 00:03:59.780 What if the darkness is too dark and the doubt is too loud? 00:03:59.780 --> 00:04:02.710 What if death is all around you? 00:04:02.710 --> 00:04:04.908 What if deceit is in your marriage? 00:04:04.908 --> 00:04:05.734 What if betrayal has all around you? 00:04:05.734 --> 00:04:06.719 What if deceit is in your marriage? 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:09.109 What if betrayal has come from friends? 00:04:09.109 --> 00:04:19.232 What if you face loss of loved ones, loss of respect, loss of health, loss of your faculties, loss of freedom and loss of a future? 00:04:19.232 --> 00:04:23.389 What if it's a loss of your country's moral compass? 00:04:23.389 --> 00:04:29.291 What if you're just getting old, getting tired or seemingly forever lonely? 00:04:29.291 --> 00:04:33.610 What if the darkness is really that deep? 00:04:33.610 --> 00:04:36.505 Well, those feelings aren't new. 00:04:37.459 --> 00:04:58.211 I was thinking back this past week, before this message and mine came back to the Old Testament prophet named Isaiah, who spoke hope to a people who were living in darkness, who really were living with a fear and disappointment and discouragement because an enemy nation was coming against them, ready to destroy them. 00:04:58.211 --> 00:05:04.031 And the word was a light in the darkness to them. 00:05:04.031 --> 00:05:08.370 So it's a light to the darkness and the darkness for us too. 00:05:08.370 --> 00:05:12.031 We hear these words and they're familiar words, often at Christmas. 00:05:12.031 --> 00:05:15.730 You'll remember and hear them as I read them. 00:05:15.730 --> 00:05:20.973 Think of it as Isaiah's prophetic glimmer, if you will Listen. 00:05:20.973 --> 00:05:24.348 Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. 00:05:24.348 --> 00:05:31.774 Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. 00:05:31.774 --> 00:05:35.466 And that sign that the prophet gave through. 00:05:35.466 --> 00:05:41.228 The prophet spoke of a virgin who would come and would conceive and bear this son, this son of God. 00:05:41.228 --> 00:05:43.687 God told Isaiah to call him. 00:05:43.687 --> 00:05:44.228 What name? 00:05:44.228 --> 00:05:48.591 Emmanuel, which we know as God with us. 00:05:48.591 --> 00:05:51.269 I can imagine with those people they might have kind of gone. 00:05:51.269 --> 00:06:00.029 That's an odd name to call your boy, and they might have preferred to say let's name him. 00:06:00.029 --> 00:06:04.250 God help us because we're in trouble here. 00:06:04.250 --> 00:06:11.300 God help us because we're in trouble here. 00:06:11.322 --> 00:06:13.084 Isaiah knew that God knew there was something better, though, right, Isaiah. 00:06:13.084 --> 00:06:16.771 He goes on in chapter nine to describe this sun as a light. 00:06:16.771 --> 00:06:20.504 Light is a good thing in the darkness. 00:06:20.504 --> 00:06:28.384 The people, he says, who walked in darkness chapter 9, verse 2, have seen a great light, those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness. 00:06:28.384 --> 00:06:31.149 On them a light has shone. 00:06:31.149 --> 00:06:42.023 Now, if you're at my house and I flip on the light in the middle of the night, unexpectedly my wife looks over and says flip that back off. 00:06:42.023 --> 00:06:44.447 I don't, what did you turn that on for? 00:06:44.447 --> 00:06:58.545 Because it's great when you're trying to sleep, right, but if you're trying to find your way out of a dark place, light is a good thing. 00:07:01.901 --> 00:07:20.831 Picture someone who, if you're sitting in the dark and someone flips on a light, and just as suddenly you kind of get an idea of your surroundings and you get your bearings and you see out ahead of you what's ahead of you a little bit, and just as suddenly the person who flipped on that light flips it back off. 00:07:20.831 --> 00:07:24.648 That's really what Isaiah is doing here. 00:07:24.648 --> 00:07:28.951 He's giving them a glimmer of hope through this son. 00:07:28.951 --> 00:07:38.769 And so he says, he foretells the appearance of this child, this light, 700 years into the future. 00:07:38.769 --> 00:07:43.410 Can you imagine that he predicts that this child is coming? 00:07:43.410 --> 00:07:57.329 For he says 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. 00:07:57.329 --> 00:08:07.504 And what he says is true for every generation, including ours, because every generation deals with the problem caused by sin. 00:08:07.504 --> 00:08:12.767 So Isaiah, in these texts and many others, Isaiah is a great book. 00:08:12.767 --> 00:08:16.401 It's also called a gospel of sorts. 00:08:16.401 --> 00:08:29.026 In the Old Testament, Isaiah's words stand as a testament of hope in a dark place, hope in the Lord, the one who saves his people from themselves. 00:08:29.026 --> 00:08:52.131 You know, Ernest Shackleton is a famous explorer known for leading a crew of men, adventurous men, on the ship called the Endurance to Antarctica, and despite cataclysmic failure, he ended up leading his men out alive. 00:08:52.761 --> 00:08:56.707 It's a fascinating story, Mark and I have talked about it a number of times. 00:08:56.707 --> 00:09:03.947 But what happens was their boat was crushed as they got into the ice and they had to abandon their boat. 00:09:03.947 --> 00:09:06.287 They lived on ice flows. 00:09:06.287 --> 00:09:11.172 They got in rowboats and liveboats. 00:09:11.172 --> 00:09:17.113 They paddled and moved themselves hundreds of miles in terrible sea conditions. 00:09:17.113 --> 00:09:32.583 They climbed mountains, and yet not one man through that whole ordeal was lost Shortly after their vessel the Endurance what an interesting name, the Endurance when it was crushed. 00:09:32.583 --> 00:09:46.980 Just after that, Ernest urged his men to lighten their loads and take literally only two pounds of personal items with them, and to illustrate this point, he took out two pages from his Bible that he carried. 00:09:46.980 --> 00:09:51.509 Ernest was a Christian and he dropped the rest of it in the snow. 00:09:51.509 --> 00:09:55.745 And here's the full story from the South Georgia Museum. 00:09:55.745 --> 00:09:56.147 Listen. 00:09:56.649 --> 00:10:07.134 On July 16th 1914, as the endurance expedition was getting underway, Queen Alexandra, widow of King Edward VII, visited the ship. 00:10:07.134 --> 00:10:16.283 The queen presented Shackleton with a union flag, a replica of her own standard and two inscribed copies of the Bible. 00:10:16.283 --> 00:10:30.730 Later, trapped in the ice of the Weddell Sea, Shackleton and his men had to quit their stricken ship and begin desperate measures to save themselves by hauling boats and stores across the ice. 00:10:30.730 --> 00:10:36.025 Each man was allowed to keep just two pounds of personal gear. 00:10:36.025 --> 00:10:48.293 Setting a good example, Shackleton discarded what at other times might be judged his most valuable and precious belongings, gold coins and other valuables and the Bible. 00:10:48.293 --> 00:10:59.169 He tore some pages from the Bible before he left the fly leaf with the Queen's inscription, the 23rd Psalm and a verse from the book of Job. 00:11:00.320 --> 00:11:08.052 The Queen's inscription from Psalm 107, 24 reads May the Lord guide you through all dangers by land and sea. 00:11:08.052 --> 00:11:12.230 May you see the works of the Lord and the wonders in the deep. 00:11:12.230 --> 00:11:23.052 The verse from the book of Job, 38, 29 through 30, reads Out of whose womb came the ice and the hoary frost of heaven. 00:11:23.052 --> 00:11:25.366 Who hath gendered it? 00:11:25.366 --> 00:11:31.344 The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. 00:11:31.344 --> 00:11:38.899 Another crew member retrieved the Bible that Shackleton had discarded and carried it home. 00:11:38.899 --> 00:11:39.505 It's now. 00:11:39.505 --> 00:11:43.537 You can see that Bible in the collection of the Royal Geographic Society. 00:11:43.537 --> 00:11:50.671 But it just illustrates a question I have for you and for me when do you find hope? 00:11:50.671 --> 00:11:53.611 Where do you find hope? 00:11:55.245 --> 00:12:00.798 And so we focus these last few weeks in some key thoughts in this series. 00:12:00.798 --> 00:12:04.235 Let me just review these for you so you see what we've said. 00:12:04.235 --> 00:12:07.115 First of all, we said Jesus is eternally worthy. 00:12:07.115 --> 00:12:17.475 The worthy one existed as fully God before creation, Before he arrived in the flesh he was fully God, and when he came in the flesh, he was fully God. 00:12:17.475 --> 00:12:19.565 And when he came in the flesh, he was fully man. 00:12:19.565 --> 00:12:22.613 Second thing we said we are all unworthy. 00:12:22.613 --> 00:12:30.187 All of us, we arrive what Broken by the sin of Adam, as it is written. 00:12:30.187 --> 00:12:32.254 None is righteous, no, not one. 00:12:32.254 --> 00:12:34.833 No one understands, no one seeks for God. 00:12:34.833 --> 00:12:36.804 All have turned aside together. 00:12:36.804 --> 00:12:38.552 They have become worthless. 00:12:38.552 --> 00:12:42.455 No one does good, not even one. 00:12:42.455 --> 00:12:47.875 We're all unworthy, which means we can't rescue ourselves. 00:12:47.875 --> 00:12:53.196 And then we said Jesus came to save the unworthy. 00:12:53.196 --> 00:12:57.633 Jesus, the worthy one proved he is worthy. 00:12:57.633 --> 00:12:58.154 By what? 00:12:58.154 --> 00:12:59.697 By rising from the dead. 00:12:59.697 --> 00:13:07.836 Rising from the dead, Dying on the cross, he paid for our sins, our sin debt. 00:13:07.836 --> 00:13:14.333 He rose again, he sat down at the right hand of God, victorious over sin, death, hell and the grave. 00:13:14.333 --> 00:13:17.791 Jesus is the worthy one. 00:13:17.791 --> 00:13:20.866 Today. 00:13:20.866 --> 00:13:29.557 What we want to do, we want to see how hope, the hope that we need, is intimately tied to our confident belief that Jesus is coming again. 00:13:29.557 --> 00:13:31.490 He is coming again. 00:13:31.490 --> 00:13:33.131 The worthy one is coming again. 00:13:33.131 --> 00:13:34.451 This is so important. 00:13:34.565 --> 00:13:39.076 Christ, his return, is a major, major theme in the scriptures. 00:13:39.076 --> 00:13:41.067 I don't know, did you know this? 00:13:41.067 --> 00:13:51.158 For example, that one out of the 46 Old Testament prophets less than 10 of them speak of his first coming, but 36 of them speak of his second coming. 00:13:51.158 --> 00:13:58.572 There are over 1,500 Old Testament passages that refer in some way to the second coming of Christ. 00:13:58.572 --> 00:13:59.710 That's in the Old Testament. 00:13:59.710 --> 00:14:09.820 In the New Testament, one out of every five New Testament verses directly refers to the second coming of Christ. 00:14:09.820 --> 00:14:17.216 In fact, every time the Bible mentions the first coming of Christ, it mentions the second coming eight times. 00:14:17.216 --> 00:14:23.196 For each time the atonement is mentioned once the second coming is mentioned twice. 00:14:23.196 --> 00:14:32.755 Jesus refers to his second coming 21 times, and over 50 times we're told to be what Ready for his return. 00:14:34.158 --> 00:14:43.554 I don't expect you to remember all those numbers, but what I want to get in your mind is that Jesus is coming again and it's important to the Lord that we know about it. 00:14:43.554 --> 00:14:47.308 So this is a major importance when it comes to our hope. 00:14:47.308 --> 00:15:01.832 Listen, it is because what Christ has done, we can trust him to defeat the darkness in our lives and bring us into a glorious future, and that's what the second coming points us to. 00:15:01.832 --> 00:15:06.076 And so, to see these great realities, I want us to turn in our Bible this morning to Titus. 00:15:06.076 --> 00:15:07.210 Titus, chapter 2. 00:15:07.210 --> 00:15:11.456 It's our main text this morning Titus 2, 11 through 14. 00:15:11.456 --> 00:15:14.049 Now let's read it together. 00:15:14.049 --> 00:15:29.898 It says For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. 00:15:29.898 --> 00:15:31.960 Let's read it together. 00:15:31.960 --> 00:15:45.078 It says 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. 00:15:46.966 --> 00:15:53.048 Now, what I want to do this morning, I just want to ask and answer three basic questions that speak of the hope that we can have in Jesus Christ. 00:15:53.048 --> 00:15:55.452 Number one is what is biblical hope? 00:15:55.452 --> 00:15:59.460 Number two why is Christian hope so essential? 00:15:59.460 --> 00:16:04.417 And then number three how can I know and live in this kind of transforming hope? 00:16:04.417 --> 00:16:08.110 Let's start with number one what is biblical hope? 00:16:08.110 --> 00:16:11.337 As I said, we all need hope, don't we? 00:16:11.337 --> 00:16:16.798 But sometimes our definition is really almost the opposite of what you commonly hear. 00:16:16.798 --> 00:16:19.788 Our definition is really almost the opposite of what you commonly hear At its simplest. 00:16:19.788 --> 00:16:24.912 Let me just kind of give you the most simple definition Hope is confident expectation. 00:16:24.912 --> 00:16:29.696 Hope is confident expectation, and let's expand on that. 00:16:29.696 --> 00:16:43.980 So, John Broeger, he says the hope that God has provided for you is not merely a wish, neither is it dependent on other people's possessions the people possessions or circumstances for its validity. 00:16:43.980 --> 00:16:52.846 Instead, biblical hope is an application of your faith that supplies a confident expectation in God's fulfillment of his promises. 00:16:52.846 --> 00:17:05.847 You see, you can think of hope like maybe you thought of the ball game yesterday and you thought UT was going to beat Ohio, and we have all kinds of things that we do that and we call that hope. 00:17:05.847 --> 00:17:07.551 But that's not biblical hope, folks. 00:17:10.700 --> 00:17:17.497 Ji Packer distinguishes merely what we might call human optimism from true biblical hope when he writes. 00:17:17.497 --> 00:17:24.953 Optimism hopes for the best without any guarantee of its arrival and is often no more than whistling in the dark. 00:17:24.953 --> 00:17:31.718 Christian hope, by contrast, is faith looking ahead to the fulfillment of the promises of God. 00:17:31.718 --> 00:17:36.232 Optimism is a wish without a warrant. 00:17:36.232 --> 00:17:40.664 Christian hope is a wish without a warrant. 00:17:40.664 --> 00:17:43.527 Christian hope is a certainty guaranteed by God himself. 00:17:43.527 --> 00:17:50.058 Optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will ever actually come. 00:17:50.058 --> 00:18:03.414 Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God's own commitment, that the best is yet to come. 00:18:03.414 --> 00:18:09.814 And so every moment of your life, in every place of disappointment, all of it's for the future. 00:18:09.814 --> 00:18:15.412 If you go through it, the next thing is in the future, and so that's where Jesus can come in and change everything. 00:18:15.412 --> 00:18:22.244 It's where Jesus can come in and change your current situation, and that's why hope is important. 00:18:22.345 --> 00:18:33.154 Hebrews 6, 19 says we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain. 00:18:33.154 --> 00:18:34.738 Did you get that? 00:18:34.738 --> 00:18:37.846 Hope is an anchor, it's an anchor. 00:18:37.846 --> 00:18:39.934 So what does an anchor do? 00:18:39.934 --> 00:18:49.517 Well, if you're familiar at all with boats, which our family had growing up all the time, we never went out anywhere without having a boat, an anchor on the boat. 00:18:49.517 --> 00:18:54.289 You'd be foolish to go out on the sea without an anchor. 00:18:54.289 --> 00:18:56.555 What does an anchor do? 00:18:56.555 --> 00:18:59.138 It keeps you from crashing against the shore. 00:18:59.138 --> 00:19:00.169 It keeps you from drifting. 00:19:00.169 --> 00:19:02.029 It keeps you safe. 00:19:02.029 --> 00:19:13.173 If you lost your anchor at sea, you would be in real danger, and so hope is an anchor in the storms. 00:19:14.449 --> 00:19:20.057 Something else about an anchor Anchors after you throw them out, the anchor is unseen, right. 00:19:20.057 --> 00:19:29.171 Its chain reaches down into the depths to grab hold of solid ground, and sometimes boats they put out. 00:19:29.171 --> 00:19:33.273 If it's a really bad storm, they'll put an anchor out the front and out the back. 00:19:33.273 --> 00:19:46.406 In the same way, biblical hope reaches down into the unseen places, strong and unseen, into those places below the surface and they grab hold of the very presence of God. 00:19:46.406 --> 00:19:51.777 It's quite amazing, and I've seen this, and you have too. 00:19:52.298 --> 00:20:06.116 I've seen many times over the years, here and elsewhere, saints of God who, in the face of death, they hold on to this intangible reality, this unseen reality called hope, and they make it through. 00:20:06.116 --> 00:20:12.136 They walk in great stability and peace because they hold on to something that's unseen. 00:20:12.136 --> 00:20:15.830 See, the Bible says who hopes for what he's already seen? 00:20:15.830 --> 00:20:18.738 Nobody. 00:20:18.738 --> 00:20:26.159 Hope is an unseen reality that we put our faith in the person that can change everything. 00:20:26.159 --> 00:20:29.009 And we've seen what hope is. 00:20:29.244 --> 00:20:33.056 Let's look now at why this Christian hope is so essential to us. 00:20:33.056 --> 00:20:37.135 Simply, this hope is what motivates you as a believer. 00:20:37.135 --> 00:20:41.007 Hope is what motivates you as a believer. 00:20:41.007 --> 00:20:41.929 Hope is what motivates you as a believer. 00:20:41.929 --> 00:20:47.259 Let me give you some examples of this and show you a few reasons for why hope is essential. 00:20:47.259 --> 00:20:50.334 Number one it keeps us from giving up on life. 00:20:50.334 --> 00:20:52.741 Keeps us from giving up on life. 00:20:52.741 --> 00:21:08.375 Hope motivates us to press on and endure, even when things look bad and when it doesn't look like there's anything in the future for us, even in the face of adversity, to keep pushing forward, knowing that God is what he's, working, all things together for our good. 00:21:08.375 --> 00:21:09.498 Romans 8 28. 00:21:11.905 --> 00:21:15.031 A man approached a little boy one time at a baseball game. 00:21:15.031 --> 00:21:19.179 He stood in with his head into the dugout. 00:21:19.179 --> 00:21:21.291 He asked the little boy what's the score? 00:21:21.291 --> 00:21:25.935 The little boy says well, we're down by 18 runs. 00:21:25.935 --> 00:21:31.255 He said well, boy, son, I bet you're discouraged. 00:21:31.255 --> 00:21:33.571 The little boy says no, not at all. 00:21:33.571 --> 00:21:35.248 We haven't even gotten up to bat yet. 00:21:40.377 --> 00:21:40.979 Here's the thing. 00:21:40.979 --> 00:21:49.996 Hope is a thing that keeps us believing in the goodness of God, no matter what things look like. 00:21:49.996 --> 00:21:54.134 So hope keeps us from giving up on life. 00:21:54.134 --> 00:21:58.913 Secondly, hope it causes us to live a godly life. 00:21:58.913 --> 00:22:09.550 You know, in the church, throughout history of the church, this biblical hope has always been the great motivation for purity of life, for a holy life. 00:22:09.550 --> 00:22:18.156 It seems like the church today is somewhat lost sight of our hope because we see people falling all around us for moral failure. 00:22:18.156 --> 00:22:27.915 But here's the thing Jesus is coming again and we, as his pure and spotless bride, what are we called to do? 00:22:27.915 --> 00:22:32.317 We're supposed to put on clothes that are white and pure and be ready for his coming. 00:22:32.317 --> 00:22:42.380 And if we are, there'll be no reason for having a red face or any excuses, lame excuses, when he comes. 00:22:44.825 --> 00:22:46.510 You know I was thinking about this about. 00:22:46.510 --> 00:22:49.721 You know the times we go to Christmas parties. 00:22:49.721 --> 00:22:51.291 This is a season for parties, right? 00:22:51.291 --> 00:22:53.913 Maybe you've been to a few of them, maybe more than you wanted to. 00:22:53.913 --> 00:23:08.931 But I occasionally will find myself going to some event like that and I'll put on my clothes and halfway there I'll look down or someone will tell me you've got a spot on your shirt. 00:23:08.931 --> 00:23:13.579 I was like, and I go in the mirror and it looks terrible. 00:23:13.579 --> 00:23:16.788 I'm so embarrassed. 00:23:16.788 --> 00:23:19.056 It's like why didn't I see that before I left? 00:23:19.056 --> 00:23:21.030 You probably had that happen too. 00:23:24.185 --> 00:23:25.491 What about when Jesus comes? 00:23:25.491 --> 00:23:33.471 He wants us to be ready when he comes and not be ashamed at his coming. 00:23:33.471 --> 00:23:46.518 First John says in verse 228, and now, little children abide in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 00:23:46.518 --> 00:23:56.688 1 John 3, verse 3 says all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. 00:23:56.688 --> 00:24:01.471 It is a strong motivation to live a pure life because he is coming. 00:24:01.471 --> 00:24:05.355 Hope, then, causes us to live that pure and godly life. 00:24:05.355 --> 00:24:09.596 It also, thoroughly, it calls us to experience real joy. 00:24:09.596 --> 00:24:13.134 This is the product of our hope is joy. 00:24:13.306 --> 00:24:34.328 Romans 5, three through five, says we also celebrate in our sufferings, knowing that suffering brings about perseverance and perseverance, proven character and proven character, hope and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 00:24:34.328 --> 00:24:37.876 See, when God puts us through the fire, what does he do? 00:24:37.876 --> 00:24:43.734 And he puts us through the fire not to punish us but to build character in us. 00:24:43.734 --> 00:24:52.166 And when we allow the work of the Holy Spirit of God to do those things in our lives and we cooperate with him, guess what comes out of that? 00:24:52.166 --> 00:25:02.054 Out of those struggles and sufferings and disappointments comes character, and out of character comes hope. 00:25:02.664 --> 00:25:06.034 I mean, how many of you like to go through hard times? 00:25:06.034 --> 00:25:07.436 Raise your hand. 00:25:07.436 --> 00:25:09.191 I don't see any hands. 00:25:09.191 --> 00:25:12.912 Nobody wants to go through hard times. 00:25:12.912 --> 00:25:18.556 But when we do, we don't exit on the other side feeling short-changed, do we? 00:25:18.556 --> 00:25:26.130 If you look back at the times you've gone through difficulty, God has taken you and he's shaped you. 00:25:26.130 --> 00:25:32.407 He's transformed you into a different person because of it, and that's why we rejoice. 00:25:32.407 --> 00:25:37.638 God is transforming us, not just to have something that is just different. 00:25:37.638 --> 00:25:45.670 He's transforming us to make you and I look like Jesus, and there's joy in that. 00:25:45.670 --> 00:25:53.156 Born how by the Holy Spirit, and as we go through suffering and hard times, the Holy Spirit walks just right alongside of us. 00:25:53.156 --> 00:25:57.148 That's why he's called the Comforter Number four. 00:25:57.490 --> 00:26:04.935 Here's another reason Hope compels us to wait for God's best, to wait for God's best. 00:26:04.935 --> 00:26:09.371 We talked about light and how it shines, and it's an encouragement to us. 00:26:09.371 --> 00:26:18.035 It shines a light on the present moment, doesn't it, Revealing that even in the darkness, what God is working. 00:26:18.035 --> 00:26:25.048 You may not see God at work in your life, but if you're going through this life, God is working, if you are following him. 00:26:25.048 --> 00:26:30.199 Psalm 39 says and now, Lord, for what do I wait? 00:26:30.199 --> 00:26:35.951 My hope is in you and this is our confidence. 00:26:35.951 --> 00:26:39.557 Folks, With God, something better is coming. 00:26:40.838 --> 00:26:46.438 This past week I was reflecting on this in Hebrews 11, 13. 00:26:46.438 --> 00:26:59.459 You know how sometimes you're going along and everything's going fine, and then you read something in the Bible and it goes oh, that doesn't fit my theology, or something's wrong with this, or I disagree with this, or I don't like this God. 00:26:59.459 --> 00:27:04.809 That happened to me, Hebrews 11, 13,. 00:27:04.809 --> 00:27:22.248 I was reflecting on that and after it lists in Hebrews, chapter 11, what is often called the hall of faith or the heroes of faith, and what they did did some amazing things. 00:27:22.248 --> 00:27:26.875 Here's what it says, and this is what it didn't like partly All these people died. 00:27:26.875 --> 00:27:32.188 That wasn't the bad part, that's bad enough. 00:27:32.188 --> 00:27:35.777 But it says all these people died still believing what God had promised them. 00:27:35.777 --> 00:27:42.124 They did not receive what was promised. 00:27:42.124 --> 00:27:47.393 What Not receive what they were promised? 00:27:47.393 --> 00:27:49.798 I mean that put a pin in my balloon right. 00:27:49.798 --> 00:27:57.563 This deflated my hope. 00:27:57.563 --> 00:28:02.189 But I soon realized and this is why it's so important to read in context. 00:28:02.229 --> 00:28:04.233 I soon realized that what this is speaking about directly. 00:28:04.233 --> 00:28:18.057 It speaks to our as of yet unrealized expectations, Because it goes on to say that the people who live in this way, that is, live in hope, make it plain that they are willing to trade the temporary for the eternal. 00:28:18.057 --> 00:28:25.299 And here's why Hope believes that God is not holding out on us. 00:28:25.299 --> 00:28:30.372 He's holding something better for us than what we thought was the best. 00:28:30.372 --> 00:28:39.468 And so if we don't receive all that we had thought we were supposed to see receiving this life, do you think that God doesn't know that? 00:28:39.468 --> 00:28:44.519 That there is just this possibility that the best is yet to come? 00:28:44.519 --> 00:28:47.230 We just don't know what it is yet. 00:28:47.230 --> 00:28:53.164 And so hope anchors us both in the present and in the future. 00:28:53.164 --> 00:29:03.047 And so, in one sense, hope makes us say, along with the psalmist I am confident I will see the Lord's goodness while I am here in the land of the living. 00:29:03.047 --> 00:29:05.111 Thank you, Patty. 00:29:05.111 --> 00:29:23.430 I am confident I will see the Lord's goodness while I am here in the land of the living, but if not now, we also know that we've not yet seen or heard, or even imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. 00:29:27.076 --> 00:29:28.142 1 Corinthians 2.9. 00:29:28.142 --> 00:29:30.363 So what we've seen here is that hope is an anchor. 00:29:30.363 --> 00:29:32.721 Hope has good reasons to have it. 00:29:32.721 --> 00:29:37.961 And then now, what is it? 00:29:37.961 --> 00:29:39.041 Let's look. 00:29:39.041 --> 00:29:45.270 Let's look at how we can know and live in this kind of hope. 00:29:45.270 --> 00:29:47.719 This is what we're looking at here in Titus 2. 00:29:47.719 --> 00:29:48.500 Did you know? 00:29:48.500 --> 00:30:07.327 Hope can change really the narrative, for you Can change your story, and if you can just find and hold fast to that source of hope, then you will receive something that most other people have not ever caught on to, and that's really my hope for you this Christmas. 00:30:08.394 --> 00:30:17.406 Titus 2 really helps us here because it points us to the only source of our hope, the only ground of our hope, that person of Jesus Christ. 00:30:17.406 --> 00:30:19.634 Let me read it just once more so you'll get it in your mind. 00:30:19.634 --> 00:30:49.943 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 Lord, 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. 00:30:49.943 --> 00:30:53.898 See, hope is not a thing, Hope is not a circumstance. 00:30:53.898 --> 00:30:54.779 Hope is not a circumstance. 00:30:54.779 --> 00:30:56.142 Hope is a person. 00:30:56.142 --> 00:30:59.906 Hope is a person and his name is Jesus. 00:31:00.688 --> 00:31:15.619 So here in Titus, chapter two, Paul is writing to his young protege, Titus, as he's leading this church, and he sends out this letter intended to show the church how they should live in their difficult days, in their difficult times. 00:31:15.619 --> 00:31:23.884 And he mentioned two significant truths, and I will just call these two significant truths truths about Jesus appearing. 00:31:23.884 --> 00:31:28.356 The first is the appearing of his grace, which is in verses 11 and 12. 00:31:28.356 --> 00:31:32.480 And second, the appearing of his glory, verse 13 and 14. 00:31:32.480 --> 00:31:41.230 So these two appearances or comings we can call them comings of Jesus that are mentioned and we celebrate what we call Advent. 00:31:41.230 --> 00:31:49.786 Well, that Advent 1 is Christmas, Advent 2 is the second coming, and there is the reality that is there. 00:31:49.786 --> 00:31:50.688 Let's look at these then. 00:31:52.914 --> 00:31:54.480 The first one the appearing of His grace in verses 11 and 12. 00:31:54.480 --> 00:32:00.438 It says there, in verse 11, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. 00:32:00.438 --> 00:32:01.619 When did this happen? 00:32:01.619 --> 00:32:09.000 At the incarnation, Grace appeared in a really, really small package. 00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:16.702 I was reminded of that when we just had our second granddaughter recently and we went out to California. 00:32:16.702 --> 00:32:22.336 And boy is she small but she's beautiful. 00:32:22.336 --> 00:32:29.982 And we can say that about the grace that came through Jesus, through Jesus. 00:32:29.982 --> 00:32:43.670 Boy was that insignificant, seemingly Boy, a small baby, but boy, he's beautiful. 00:32:46.035 --> 00:33:08.166 He moved out of the crib, right, so we do celebrate Christmas season as the birth of Christ, but he grew up and he brought salvation to us by living a sinless life, Dying a sinner's death for the sake of every single person here and rising again to what Bring us eternal life. 00:33:08.166 --> 00:33:17.803 And that just doesn't mean when you think of eternal life, it just doesn't mean forever in length of years. 00:33:17.803 --> 00:33:28.721 It means the quality of life here and now as well, Eternal life, life that's more abundant. 00:33:28.721 --> 00:33:37.597 And so, because Jesus is alive, we have reason and power to live this life and say no and yes, no and yes. 00:33:37.597 --> 00:33:42.364 The scripture says no to what Ungodliness and yes to God. 00:33:42.364 --> 00:33:56.249 Verse 12 says we are being what Trained Trained to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age. 00:33:56.249 --> 00:33:58.679 So what is that doing? 00:33:58.679 --> 00:33:59.339 What are we training? 00:33:59.339 --> 00:34:00.303 What is that training? 00:34:00.303 --> 00:34:01.467 We're being trained. 00:34:01.467 --> 00:34:03.182 We're being educated for what? 00:34:04.297 --> 00:34:09.382 In the art of living, you know the best Christians who they are. 00:34:09.382 --> 00:34:21.248 They're the ones who take Scripture and apply them to life in every facet, From marriage to how do you raise your kids, to how do you tell the truth at your workplace. 00:34:21.248 --> 00:34:23.179 It trains us. 00:34:23.179 --> 00:34:35.824 It educates us in the art of living, and we wait for that being transformed by all those little things the Holy Spirit is doing us for his coming, and so it's transformative in its effects. 00:34:35.824 --> 00:34:38.204 Are you letting Jesus transform you? 00:34:38.204 --> 00:34:41.585 Are you letting Jesus educate you in the art of living? 00:34:41.585 --> 00:34:47.039 See, hope is powerful For the here and now. 00:34:47.039 --> 00:34:52.590 And hopefully you're looking more and more like Jesus when you get up each day. 00:34:52.590 --> 00:34:57.166 When you looked at the mirror this morning, saw yourself. 00:34:57.166 --> 00:35:01.065 Did you see yourself more than just flesh and blood. 00:35:01.065 --> 00:35:03.320 Did you look at your spiritual self? 00:35:03.320 --> 00:35:04.925 How you doing? 00:35:06.576 --> 00:35:10.922 Now there's another appearing which Paul mentions here, and it's the appearing of his glory. 00:35:10.922 --> 00:35:17.909 Verse 13 says waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 00:35:17.909 --> 00:35:21.246 Here Paul defines for us really the ultimate hope. 00:35:21.246 --> 00:35:22.711 He calls it the blessed hope. 00:35:22.711 --> 00:35:24.876 The blessed hope why is it blessed? 00:35:24.876 --> 00:35:29.206 Because it's something that God does for us, because of Jesus. 00:35:29.206 --> 00:35:39.543 Jesus is coming again and it is a blessing to us to know him and serve him and love him and worship him, because he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 00:35:39.543 --> 00:35:42.197 The appearing of the glory of Christ. 00:35:42.217 --> 00:35:44.402 There's so much here about the return of Christ. 00:35:44.402 --> 00:35:50.626 He doesn't really go into it a whole lot, but let me just say this because we can just kind of only scratch the surface. 00:35:50.626 --> 00:35:59.083 This, because we can just kind of only scratch the surface that when Jesus appears, we will see him, what Face to face, as he is. 00:35:59.083 --> 00:36:00.605 And then it says we will be like him. 00:36:00.605 --> 00:36:03.750 Think about that just a minute. 00:36:03.750 --> 00:36:08.181 We will be like Jesus when we see him face to face. 00:36:08.181 --> 00:36:11.989 That's astounding, especially for me. 00:36:11.989 --> 00:36:19.641 Face to face, that's astounding, especially for me, because I got a long way to go and I bet you do too, but this is a promise from 1 John 3, verse 2. 00:36:19.641 --> 00:36:21.222 See, what is it? 00:36:21.262 --> 00:36:27.150 For us, it's easy to live as if there was no tomorrow, and I think that's true. 00:36:27.150 --> 00:36:39.347 For us, as Christians, it's easy to live as if there were no tomorrow, Kind of a especially in the Christmas season, an eat, drink and marry for tomorrow we die kind of attitude. 00:36:39.347 --> 00:36:44.820 But real Christians live for more than this. 00:36:44.820 --> 00:36:59.663 Listen, if this is not true, if it's not true that Jesus came and lived and died and was buried and he rose again, then we who follow him, we are the most foolish people in all the world. 00:36:59.663 --> 00:37:13.780 Because to believe and live a lie when you could have all this other stuff that is here today and gone tomorrow, that sounds great, doesn't it? 00:37:13.780 --> 00:37:24.525 But this is what Paul said If our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are to be pitied more than anyone in the world. 00:37:24.525 --> 00:37:46.827 See, this is what the world doesn't believe that Jesus is coming again, that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords and that we should serve him and worship him as God incarnate and in the flesh and now the resurrected, living Lord, that this makes all the difference. 00:37:46.827 --> 00:38:17.387 See, here's the thing Christian hope is based on God's promises, and there are promises all through the Bible of what God has said to us to try to get us to believe what he said is true God's promises are based on God's character, and so this is why you and I can live in hope, despite the storms. 00:38:21.016 --> 00:38:22.541 Here's some support for that. 00:38:22.541 --> 00:38:24.175 Hebrews 6, 17 says so. 00:38:24.175 --> 00:38:54.027 When God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things one of the two unchangeable things his promise and his oath in which it is impossible for God to lie we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before him, before us. 00:38:54.027 --> 00:38:57.101 God can't lie. 00:38:57.101 --> 00:39:02.447 It's impossible because that's his character. 00:39:02.447 --> 00:39:06.724 It's not like he could choose it, because that's who he is. 00:39:06.724 --> 00:39:11.211 That's his nature, and so when he says something, you can count on it. 00:39:11.211 --> 00:39:16.315 That's his nature, and so when he says something, you can count on it. 00:39:17.494 --> 00:39:40.568 When the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah found himself caught in a what I would call a horrifying crisis as his nation was being destroyed for their sin, If you look back in that story in Lamentations, where we're going to read what Jeremiah thought, their city was actually surrounded by the enemy and under siege and they had no food, struggling to find water. 00:39:40.568 --> 00:39:45.025 And in chapter four of Lamentations it says the women ate their own kids. 00:39:45.025 --> 00:39:50.501 In that context, listen to what Jeremiah said. 00:39:50.501 --> 00:39:57.420 But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. 00:39:57.420 --> 00:40:00.385 His mercies never come to an end. 00:40:00.385 --> 00:40:02.637 They are new every morning. 00:40:02.637 --> 00:40:04.559 Great is your faithfulness. 00:40:04.559 --> 00:40:08.347 The Lord is my portion, says my soul. 00:40:08.347 --> 00:40:10.757 Therefore I will hope in him. 00:40:10.757 --> 00:40:16.059 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 00:40:16.059 --> 00:40:27.521 So even in the darkest places, Jeremiah points us to the reality that God is always someone whom we can put our hope and our trust in. 00:40:27.521 --> 00:40:33.630 Hebrews, the writer there says hope does not disappoint. 00:40:38.255 --> 00:40:40.701 Edward Welch writes if you're hopeless. 00:40:40.701 --> 00:40:45.108 There may be many contributors, but two are certain. 00:40:45.108 --> 00:40:50.682 Number one, you've placed your hope in something other than God and it has let you down. 00:40:50.682 --> 00:41:02.474 Or number two, you may understand that Jesus conquered death, but you live as though he is still in the grave. 00:41:02.474 --> 00:41:05.297 All hopelessness is ultimately a denial of the resurrection. 00:41:05.376 --> 00:41:18.190 Other stories are always looking for ways to humanize God and deify us, but God's story exalts him and brings appropriate humility to us as his creatures. 00:41:18.190 --> 00:41:20.132 All wisdom starts here. 00:41:20.132 --> 00:41:30.307 If you miss it? 00:41:30.307 --> 00:41:31.735 If you miss it, you are on the wrong path and without hope. 00:41:31.735 --> 00:41:33.721 I hope you don't miss it this Christmas. 00:41:33.721 --> 00:41:35.244