Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: Remain standing for our scripture reading Romans, chapter 5.
Speaker 2: Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: Through Him, we also have obtained access, by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Speaker 2: Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
Speaker 2: And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Speaker 2: For while we were still weak, at the right time, christ died for the ungodly, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.
Speaker 2: But God shows his love for us in that, while we were still sinners, christ died for us.
Speaker 2: Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Speaker 2: For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
Speaker 1: I want to say a special welcome to a long time and wonderful friend of mine, shannon Johnson Wave to everybody.
Speaker 1: Got to do a lot of ministry with him.
Speaker 1: Man, you were with me my very first year of ministry and a massive encouragement to me and so grateful to have you here, brother.
Speaker 1: Well, the Christmas season meant to point us to the ultimate hope that we have in Jesus Christ is littered with many other false hopes.
Speaker 1: It's a season full of different hopes, right?
Speaker 1: That's why some of you ladies like the Hallmark movies, because the Hallmark movies sell this hope of a serendipitous encounter under the mistletoe with Prince Charming.
Speaker 1: Or they sell the hope of a rekindled love that had gone cold.
Speaker 1: Classic Christmas movies sell the hope of a workaholic father and husband reprioritizing his life, as during the holidays he sees the value of family.
Speaker 1: Or they sell the hope of the Scrooge of the family becoming tender in his heart and realizing the joy of Christmas.
Speaker 1: Christmas advertisement sells us the hopes of a particular product or service changing our lives.
Speaker 1: If I could just get this present like it would change my life and satisfy my heart.
Speaker 1: And then you guys know that the you know jewelry store commercials always sell us the hope that if we'll buy our spouse that perfect diamond, that she'll raise her affections right for us and she'll forget all the stupid things we did over the past year.
Speaker 1: Not sure that works.
Speaker 1: There's the hope of the Christmas bonus, and I can go on and on and on.
Speaker 1: Now, desiring these things is not inherently wrong, but we cannot look to those things for our ultimate hope.
Speaker 1: We cannot look to anything in the world for our ultimate hope.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, the Christmas season brings with it for many people a lot of disappointments because we have such high expectations for all these things and often they don't come to fruition.
Speaker 1: You don't receive that gift.
Speaker 1: You don't meet Prince Charming.
Speaker 1: If the hopes do come true, you quickly realize they don't satisfy your heart like you thought they would Like.
Speaker 1: That gift wasn't as good as you thought.
Speaker 1: You quickly find out Prince Charming actually not that charming after all.
Speaker 1: You get married and find out Prince Charming got some bad morning breath and leaves the toilet seat up.
Speaker 1: Come on somebody.
Speaker 1: Instead of your Christmas bonus you get that jelly of the month club membership right, and you know this is a very real thing.
Speaker 1: Something happens on December the 26th for many people.
Speaker 1: On December the 26th for many people.
Speaker 1: They get this is a real thing the post-Christmas blues.
Speaker 1: It's a very real thing.
Speaker 1: And the reason that happens is because so many people are let down by the let's say, the commercial hopes of Christmas and they're taking down the lights and they're putting away the tree, or throwing away the tree if it's a live tree, burning it, whatever and they're putting the gifts away.
Speaker 1: And with putting all that away, they're also putting away the hopes that were shattered another Christmas.
Speaker 1: It leads them to despair.
Speaker 1: Here's what worldly hope is.
Speaker 1: Worldly hope is a desire for something that may or may not happen, or something that, even if it does happen, may not actually satisfy you like you think it would.
Speaker 1: But I'm grateful today that the Bible offers a hope that is sure, a hope that is guaranteed and a hope that will come and will satisfy our hearts.
Speaker 1: Amen, smile at me if you agree.
Speaker 1: Tim Keller this will be on our screen defines biblical hope like this.
Speaker 1: He says biblical hope is the life-shaping certainty of something that hasn't happened yet, but you know it will.
Speaker 1: We can rejoice because even though our ultimate hope hasn't come to pass yet, we know that it will.
Speaker 1: Let me give you an illustration.
Speaker 1: Imagine today that you're in some battle.
Speaker 1: And you're in a bunker, hunkered down with just a few other soldiers, and from a distance you see this group of enemy troops coming towards you and you are way outnumbered and out armed and your heart just drops and you're wondering what to you?
Speaker 1: And you are way outnumbered and out-armed and your heart just drops and you're wondering what to do.
Speaker 1: Should you wave the white flag, or should you take your chances, or do you just make your peace with God?
Speaker 1: And you're despondent.
Speaker 1: But all of a sudden, you've not been rescued yet, but you hear something in the distance and you hear it.
Speaker 1: I think this is a Lockheed plane, john Hunter F-15,.
Speaker 1: You guys make the fighter jets.
Speaker 1: No, okay, okay, so you have an F-15 fighter jet or you have a gun or helicopter.
Speaker 1: You hear it, you see it from the distance and here it comes.
Speaker 1: See it from the distant and here it comes.
Speaker 1: You've not been rescued yet, but your whole life changes in a moment.
Speaker 1: Your despondency turns to joy.
Speaker 1: Why You've not been rescued yet?
Speaker 1: Because your rescue is certain, because those oncoming ground troops are no match for that fighter jet.
Speaker 1: Are you with me, beloved?
Speaker 1: We have a certainty of future hope in Christ.
Speaker 1: So what is this hope that we have.
Speaker 1: Look at verse 2.
Speaker 1: Paul writes Through Christ, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Speaker 1: What is that the hope of the glory of God?
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what it is.
Speaker 1: Paul is talking about what's talked about throughout the New Testament, namely the glorification of our bodies, our final salvation.
Speaker 1: We are saved if we're in Christ.
Speaker 1: Our sins have been forgiven, but ultimately we will be saved.
Speaker 1: Salvation is also in the Bible, in the future tense at times.
Speaker 1: We are saved, but we are in this already, but not yet season of the kingdom.
Speaker 1: Christ is present with us by his spirit and we are forgiven and we are close to God because of the Lord, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: But there is coming a day, hallelujah, when Christ will come, not again as a baby in a manger, but as a roaring lion, amen.
Speaker 1: And he is going to come and he's going to set the world right and we will see our ultimate salvation in that moment.
Speaker 1: How I long for that day.
Speaker 1: Look, this is made really explicit in verse 9.
Speaker 1: Explicit in verse 9.
Speaker 1: Since, therefore, we've now been justified by Jesus' blood, much more shall we be saved from the wrath of God.
Speaker 1: You see what he's talking about.
Speaker 1: When is the wrath of God going to be poured out in fullness?
Speaker 1: When Christ returns and the wicked will be judged and the devil will be completely obliterated and the powers of darkness completely disarmed, all sin, all sickness gone and you and I will not experience the wrath of God.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's going to be a glorious day for the believer, those who are truly in Christ.
Speaker 1: And you know what?
Speaker 1: It's not just God's people who are going to be glorified, do you know?
Speaker 1: The earth itself is going to be renewed.
Speaker 1: It's way better news than what we learned in Sunday school growing up.
Speaker 1: Go with me just a couple chapters over.
Speaker 1: I don't have this on the screen.
Speaker 1: So go with me in your Bible, to Romans, chapter 8, and look at verse 18.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's start in 18.
Speaker 1: Paul writes same book of the Bible, just a few pages over.
Speaker 1: He says for I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory to be revealed in us.
Speaker 1: Beloved, I know life's tough, but there's coming a day.
Speaker 1: The pain that you feel today, the sickness, the loss, the issues, the tribulation, it's nothing compared to the glory that's coming, and here's what it is he says for the creation.
Speaker 1: He personifies creation.
Speaker 1: The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of god, for creation itself was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Speaker 1: For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit.
Speaker 1: Now, many Christians have this kind of Eastern mystical view of quote-unquote heaven, that our final salvation is us like floating on clouds somewhere, and they have no idea how glorious heaven is really going to be.
Speaker 1: Actually, I don't think any of us really know, but I never heard this growing up.
Speaker 1: I heard that, you know, the whole Christian life is about our souls going to heaven.
Speaker 1: Now, to be sure, is heaven a real place?
Speaker 1: Yes, and we know that right now, those who are in the Lord are with those who died in the Lord are with the Lord.
Speaker 1: To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, but we know very little about that state the final salvation of God's people.
Speaker 1: You go to the book of Revelation.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is so clear.
Speaker 1: It's not about us going to heaven, but it is about heaven coming to earth.
Speaker 1: It's a new and better garden of Eden.
Speaker 1: You go to the first couple of pages in the Bible until, on page three, adam and Eve ruin it.
Speaker 1: And you look at, you just paint this picture in your head of the bliss and the glory of being in the garden and you're working the ground without the thorns and thistles, without the sweat of your brow and the breaking of your back, and there's relational harmony and there's harmony with one another, harmony with God.
Speaker 1: And Revelation said it's going to be even a better Eden and the whole world, the prophets say, will be full of His glory.
Speaker 1: Listen, you're not going to be floating on a cloud somewhere.
Speaker 1: God is going to renew his earth.
Speaker 1: He has not abandoned his creation.
Speaker 1: Heaven and earth will overlap and you and I will be with the Lord forever.
Speaker 1: Beloved.
Speaker 1: He is coming again and that's what Advent is about.
Speaker 1: Yes, we look back to Christ's birth, but we look ahead to his glorious return and that is our hope, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: And you say well, you know, paul tells us in verse 2, we're to rejoice in that hope.
Speaker 1: And so the question becomes how can we rejoice in something that hasn't yet happened?
Speaker 1: How do we know that Christ's return is sure?
Speaker 1: I mean, we've been saying he's going to return for 2,000 years, right?
Speaker 1: Peter addresses that when he says that the Lord tarries because his wish is that none would perish.
Speaker 1: How can we know?
Speaker 1: Do you know, in the in the old testament, isaiah prophesied about, as matthew talked about earlier, about a suffering servant who would come, a messianic figure who would be crushed for the iniquities of his people.
Speaker 1: And do you know?
Speaker 1: It took 700, about 750 years after that for that baby to be born in a manger.
Speaker 1: And Matthew told us the purpose of Jesus coming had not changed since Isaiah, so that his name was Jesus, for he came to save his people from their sins.
Speaker 1: And Christ came.
Speaker 1: And so that's significant Because Christ came as God incarnate, emmanuel, god with us.
Speaker 1: It is for that reason that we can trust that he's going to come again.
Speaker 1: How many know God keeps his promises?
Speaker 1: Look at verses one and two.
Speaker 1: Again back in chapter five, paul writes therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Are you grateful for that today?
Speaker 1: Without Jesus coming, you and I were enemies of God, but thank God that Jesus came, that he died and that he is risen.
Speaker 1: Because of him, the slate's been wiped clean.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: He has borne our sin.
Speaker 1: So, therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Through Him, we've also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Speaker 1: So do you see the connection?
Speaker 1: Paul's reminding them that the reason that you know you have this hope is because Christ has come and you already have peace with God.
Speaker 1: Therefore, you don't have to fear the end, you don't have to fear his wrath.
Speaker 1: Look down at verses 8 and 9.
Speaker 1: We see this connection again.
Speaker 1: God shows his love for us and that, while we were yet sinners, christ died for us.
Speaker 1: Beloved, you didn't earn salvation.
Speaker 1: You don't deserve salvation, neither do I, but Christ, while we were yet sinners, died for us Verse nine.
Speaker 1: Since, therefore, we've now been justified, made right with God by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Speaker 1: How can we rejoice in the hope of glory.
Speaker 1: How can we rejoice in something that's not yet happened Because it is certain?
Speaker 1: Remember that biblical hope is to have certainty in something that hasn't yet happened.
Speaker 1: Beloved, we're not hoping like pie in the sky.
Speaker 1: By and by right.
Speaker 1: This is not a pie in the sky hope.
Speaker 1: This is not something we're just wishing happens.
Speaker 1: This is something for the believer that will happen.
Speaker 1: Beloved, it's not that Jesus might come again.
Speaker 1: He is coming again.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: We can bank on it.
Speaker 1: And His second advent, his second arrival, is rooted in His first coming.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: I want you to go with me to Romans, chapter 8.
Speaker 1: Before I move on one more time, let's go to verse 29.
Speaker 1: I think I have this one on the screen.
Speaker 1: Paul writes these words for those whom Christ foreknew he also predestined, to be conformed to the image of his son in order that we might be the firstborn born among many brothers.
Speaker 1: And watch this.
Speaker 1: Those who he predestined, he called, and those whom he called, he justified.
Speaker 1: Now remember, to be justified is to be made right with God, to have peace with God because of what Jesus has done.
Speaker 1: It's the same word that Paul used in chapter 5.
Speaker 1: We've been justified.
Speaker 1: Now watch this.
Speaker 1: And those who he verse 30, those who he predestined.
Speaker 1: He called those whom he called he justified and those who he justifiedestined.
Speaker 1: He called those whom he called he justified and those who he justified.
Speaker 1: He has also what Glorified.
Speaker 1: What tense is glorified in Past tense?
Speaker 1: Now think about this If you are justified, what Paul is saying is that eternity is as good as yours.
Speaker 1: He speaks of your glorification.
Speaker 1: Listen, paul talks about these glorified bodies.
Speaker 1: Are you ready for that day?
Speaker 1: I mean, can you imagine a body free of sickness, free of pain, free from brokenheartedness?
Speaker 1: And the Lord says listen, if you've been justified, you can bank on it.
Speaker 1: You've already been glorified.
Speaker 1: You haven't seen it come to fruition yet, but it's as good as done.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the alpha and omega.
Speaker 1: He is outside of time.
Speaker 1: What he says will come to pass shall come to pass.
Speaker 1: As far as God's concerned, it's already happened.
Speaker 1: Those whom he's justified, he's already glorified.
Speaker 1: So if you're in Christ today, oh beloved, you ought to rejoice.
Speaker 1: You ought to get a smile on your face because your eternity is more wonderful than you could ever imagine.
Speaker 1: Thanks be to God.
Speaker 1: You know the hope that we have in Christ.
Speaker 1: It gives us strength for today.
Speaker 1: Can I get a witness that life isn't easy.
Speaker 1: Anybody been through something over, come on.
Speaker 1: But I want to give you some great news.
Speaker 1: Verse three not only that, but we rejoice in our what sufferings?
Speaker 1: Here's why knowing that our suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope.
Speaker 1: And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Speaker 1: You know, the Holy Spirit is a deposit, it's a guarantee of your salvation.
Speaker 1: To come and listen to what Paul's saying here.
Speaker 1: You who have the Spirit, you who are in Christ.
Speaker 1: He says you're suffering.
Speaker 1: You can even rejoice, not in just the hope to come, but in the suffering that's part of your life.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because God uses all things to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
Speaker 1: Do you know that?
Speaker 1: According to His purpose?
Speaker 1: Do you know that suffering has a way of clarifying our ultimate hope?
Speaker 1: Let me say it like this If things were completely good in your life, you might not be as hungry for the return of the Lord when you get a diagnosis or someone steps out of your life that you love, or you lose your job.
Speaker 1: I could go on and on and on, or you're just achy.
Speaker 1: When you wake up in the morning, when life is not all that you think it should be, that's when you say more than ever even so, come quickly, lord Jesus.
Speaker 1: Suffering has a way of clarifying our ultimate hope.
Speaker 1: I spoke with my grandmother yesterday and asked her.
Speaker 1: I didn't get to spend Thanksgiving with her, but I asked her how her Thanksgiving was and we talked for a long time and she said well, we had an excellent meal and it was great being with family.
Speaker 1: Towards the end of the conversation, she began to get weepy.
Speaker 1: She began talking about my grandfather, to whom she was married to for 68 years and just lost not lost, but not too long ago.
Speaker 1: And when she talked about him I was broken hearted, understandably broken hearted.
Speaker 1: Oh, she misses him.
Speaker 1: But as soon as she began weeping she said even so, come quickly, lord Jesus.
Speaker 1: Beloved pain has a way of clarifying our ultimate hope.
Speaker 1: You know, non-christians or Christians, let's say it like this Christians are equipped to handle suffering differently than non-Christians.
Speaker 1: We all go through, christian or not.
Speaker 1: We all go through pain and suffering, do we not?
Speaker 1: But Christians are equipped to handle pain differently if they're walking in the hope of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: We go through the same circumstances, but we're able to handle it differently because of the hope that's in us.
Speaker 1: But we're able to handle it differently because of the hope that's in us.
Speaker 1: Let me illustrate it like this Imagine that there was two guys, two men, and they're both hired to do this tedious job, kind of menial work.
Speaker 1: They're put to do this work in some dismal location, no windows in the office, and they're required to work 80 hours a week.
Speaker 1: Both of them same job, same circumstances.
Speaker 1: The only difference is one of them is told that at the end of the year he's going to receive the big sum payment of $30,000 for his 80 hours of work every week, seven days a week, all year long $30,000.
Speaker 1: The other man is told at the end of the year you're going to receive $30 million.
Speaker 1: Now do you think that those two men might approach their jobs a little bit differently?
Speaker 1: The first man who's going to receive $30,000, he's going to say man, I wish I had a window in here.
Speaker 1: Man, I can't believe.
Speaker 1: I want to be home with my family.
Speaker 1: I can't believe they're asking me to work 80 hours.
Speaker 1: All this work, it's so tedious, it's so repetitive.
Speaker 1: Oh, I could be doing something else and complaining about management, complaining about the job, complaining about the conditions.
Speaker 1: But the other guy, he's like you know what.
Speaker 1: This is not that bad.
Speaker 1: This is not that bad man.
Speaker 1: He would do it.
Speaker 1: That job was as much, hard and passionate as he possibly could.
Speaker 1: Why what's the difference?
Speaker 1: Circumstances are the same, the job's the same.
Speaker 1: What's the difference in the two men?
Speaker 1: The hope that they have, in the end and beloved.
Speaker 1: The reason that we're able to handle suffering in a way that we can even rejoice in is because of the final hope that we have.
Speaker 1: It's really unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Through ministry I've been um in a lot of hospital rooms.
Speaker 1: I've been by the bedside of bedsides of many people who have gone home to be with the lord.
Speaker 1: I've been with them in those last minutes more people than I can count and it's really interesting that the difference between families that serve the lord and are going through that and families that don't know the Lord, I mean the difference is unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I've been around families that don't know the Lord and generally it's in like the hospital room next to the one I'm in and the families are fighting and there's tension and everybody's angry.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because there's no hope.
Speaker 1: But one of our members, missy Brandenburg.
Speaker 1: Her father just passed away not too long ago and she told me that the family was gathered in.
Speaker 1: They're all wonderful Christians, have been in ministry their whole lives and as her dad was taking his final breath, the family stood around that bed in the hospital room and they started singing praises to our great God.
Speaker 1: How can you do that?
Speaker 1: Were they sad?
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Paul said it like this.
Speaker 1: He said we grieve he's talking about when people pass, but we do not grieve as people without hope.
Speaker 1: There's a big difference.
Speaker 1: Because of future hope, listen, we can handle whatever comes our way.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean you won't ever be discouraged or despondent.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean that we're not bothered by things, but listen ultimately, when we put them in perspective.
Speaker 1: What's the worst that can happen to you, even in death, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Speaker 1: If you're in Christ, there's no suffering that overcomes your hope.
Speaker 1: Your hope should always overcome your suffering.
Speaker 1: So what do you do with this?
Speaker 1: I want you to go with me to first Peter and I'm Peter.
Speaker 1: In this first chapter he talks about a living hope.
Speaker 1: Your hope's not dead, your hope's living, your hope's alive, amen.
Speaker 1: So what do you do with this hope?
Speaker 1: What do you do with this today?
Speaker 1: What's the point number one?
Speaker 1: I want to tell you to do this?
Speaker 1: I?
Speaker 1: What do you do with this today?
Speaker 1: What's the point Number one?
Speaker 1: I want to tell you to do this?
Speaker 1: I want to encourage you to reorient your hope this Christmas season.
Speaker 1: Look at verse chapter one first, peter, chapter one, verse 13.
Speaker 1: Therefore, preparing your minds for action, prepare your minds and, being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Set your hope, set your mind, excuse me, on the hope that's going to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, listen, some of you are still battling this idea of where your hope truly comes from.
Speaker 1: Oh, you would say, I know my hope's in the Lord.
Speaker 1: But are you living that way?
Speaker 1: Are you living day by day like your hope is in the Lord, or are you looking to success and education and relationships to fulfill you and to bring you satisfaction?
Speaker 1: If you're looking anywhere else for hope but the Lord, you'll end up singing the same tune as Mick Jagger I can't get no satisfaction.
Speaker 1: I try, and I try, and I try and I try, but there is no satisfaction outside of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Mick Jagger had it all according to the world right Money and fame, and women, you name it.
Speaker 1: He had it.
Speaker 1: Never got satisfied and neither will you, beloved.
Speaker 1: We must reorient our minds this Advent to the real hope of Christmas and then, secondly, live your life in light of that hope.
Speaker 1: Look at verses 14 and 15.
Speaker 1: As obedient children so this is right after he talks about hope.
Speaker 1: As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.
Speaker 1: But, as he who called you as holy, you be holy in all your conduct.
Speaker 1: Since it's written, you shall be holy, for I'm holy.
Speaker 1: You know there's a test you can give yourself as to whether or not you really have this hope.
Speaker 1: See, christian hope.
Speaker 1: If you really have Christian hope by the Spirit, it's transformative.
Speaker 1: When you receive Christian hope, it does not change, I mean, it does not leave you unchanged.
Speaker 1: It changes your life.
Speaker 1: And I know we still stumble from time to time.
Speaker 1: But if you have Christian hope, your desire is going to be walked in obedience.
Speaker 1: You're not going to be out sleeping around.
Speaker 1: You're not going to be out partying every night.
Speaker 1: You're not going to be lying and doing shady business deals, because your hope is in the Lord, jesus Christ, and you are so set on your future glory that you right now start living and preparing your life for that future hope.
Speaker 1: Do you ever think about what's the Lord going to find you doing when he comes?
Speaker 1: Boy, that's a scary thought.
Speaker 1: How many of you think back to maybe something last week or last year and thought, man, I'm glad he didn't show up during that time.
Speaker 1: Right, it's worth thinking about.
Speaker 1: So we ought to be obedient people because of the hope we have.
Speaker 1: We also ought to be people of justice.
Speaker 1: You know, so many people have this escapism theology.
Speaker 1: They think the point of Christianity is to just bide our time.
Speaker 1: So the Lord will just take us out of the earth and take us on to heaven.
Speaker 1: Jesus, when he prayed for his disciples in John 17, he didn't say Lord, take them.
Speaker 1: He said Lord, leave them and use them.
Speaker 1: Listen, the kingdom of God is not just future.
Speaker 1: Jesus preached when he came that the kingdom of God is at hand.
Speaker 1: The kingdom is already, but not yet.
Speaker 1: At the cross, at the incarnation and then at the cross, this was solidified.
Speaker 1: The kingdom broke into the earth.
Speaker 1: Jesus was crowned as king of his people.
Speaker 1: God's kingdom broke into this dark world.
Speaker 1: A light shone upon the earth, and right now Jesus has called us to live as part of that kingdom.
Speaker 1: Every day, we ought to be praying in the Lord's prayer thy kingdom come.
Speaker 1: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Speaker 1: We ought to be living as people love the kingdom.
Speaker 1: Right now there's going to be a day where God's justice comes to the earth.
Speaker 1: There'll never be anything unjust done again.
Speaker 1: There's going to be a day when sickness is eradicated, when sin is gone, and you and I are supposed to be signposts to that kingdom.
Speaker 1: Now we're supposed to be living by the way, or showing people by the way, that we conduct ourselves both in obedience and in justice taking care of the poor, feeding the hungry, visiting the imprisoned, so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: We're supposed to be showing people that there's another kingdom that's broken in.
Speaker 1: The kingdom has come and the kingdom will come when Christ returned.
Speaker 1: It's not about us escaping the world and going to heaven.
Speaker 1: It's about him coming and establishing let's say this, consummating his kingdom on the earth.
Speaker 1: That's great news, so let's live in light of Christian hope.
Speaker 1: And finally, what do you do with this.
Speaker 1: You share that hope with others.
Speaker 1: Go to 1 Peter, just over a couple of chapters, to chapter 3, verse 15.
Speaker 1: Peter says In your hearts, honor Christ.
Speaker 1: The Lord is holy.
Speaker 1: I want you to mark this, always being prepared to make a difference to anyone who asks you for a reason, for the hope that is in you.
Speaker 1: Yet do it with gentleness and respect.
Speaker 1: You know what this tells me?
Speaker 1: First off, it tells me that you ought to live in such a way where people are going man, you're crazy.
Speaker 1: Why are you different than everybody else?
Speaker 1: You're living like everybody else and you're distraught like everybody else all the time.
Speaker 1: You're living it up like everybody else.
Speaker 1: People aren't going to ask this question, but when you live and you walk in this hope of future glory, people are going to want to know how it is that you have hope in this dark world.
Speaker 1: And Peter said be ready to tell them about Jesus and do it with gentleness and do it with respect.
Speaker 1: Beloved, do you know how many people at your workplace, in your neighborhood, look good?
Speaker 1: On the outsides they, they know how to put on the the christmas cheer, the smiles, but on the inside they are devastated and hopeless, those who do not have christ.
Speaker 1: They are, they, hopeless?
Speaker 1: Let me just read you the very honest testimony of an atheist.
Speaker 1: This is Bertrand Russell, well-known philosopher, avowed atheist.
Speaker 1: Here's what he says about humanity from the perspective of an atheist.
Speaker 1: He says of humanity His origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms.
Speaker 1: No fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling can preserve individual life beyond the grave.
Speaker 1: All the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, for those who choose to believe, we are merely a collection of atoms.
Speaker 1: This is the stark reality of life.
Speaker 1: Once it's over, it's completely over.
Speaker 1: The worst part is that those who think that and are not in Christ, it's actually worse than over for them, worse than over for them.
Speaker 1: Beloved, we need to get serious about evangelism.
Speaker 1: We have the hope that this dark world is looking for.
Speaker 1: That means that we live out the gospel in front of people and we tell them about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: You mind just to come and very softly play.
Speaker 1: I think that we underestimate the importance of hope.
Speaker 1: Do you know that we are shaped now completely by the hope and what we believe about our future.
Speaker 1: I'll close with this story.
Speaker 1: Viktor Frankl was a leading European psychologist or psychiatrist, and he was imprisoned in the Nazi death camps, I think for about three years.
Speaker 1: And while there he began to just watch the people, watch those who survived and those who just curled up and died, and he discovered something interesting.
Speaker 1: And he discovered something interesting.
Speaker 1: Frankl discovered that the key determination of who survived and who didn't was not physical strength and resolve.
Speaker 1: You know what it was.
Speaker 1: It was hope.
Speaker 1: It was a future that went beyond the barbed wire, and he gave an example of this.
Speaker 1: He told the story of a man who was there in the Nazi death camp and in early 1945, this man had a dream, a vision, and he thought it was a revelation from God that the war was going to be ended on.
Speaker 1: It was going to be over on March 30th 1945.
Speaker 1: And man, every strength arose in him and he was excited and he had this great resolve until it came close to the end of March and the news didn't look good.
Speaker 1: There didn't seem any hope to the war being over that soon and hope began to wane.
Speaker 1: On March 29th, the day before he thought the war was going to end, he came down with a fever, a very high fever.
Speaker 1: On March 30th he became unconscious and on March 31st he died Beloved.
Speaker 1: We cannot live without hope, but the good news of Advent is this we don't have to.