The Power of Hope

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How about a sermon that went on all day?

Well, that's what happened to God's people after they came home from being slaves.

They had forgotten how God wanted them to live or how they were supposed to be.

So Ezra and Nehemiah read them the rules God had given Moses.

But something odd happened.

The more the sermon went on, the sadder they all got.

Why?

Was the sermon that boring?

No, not really.

It's strange, you see.

As Ezra read the book of rules, it worked like a mirror.

It showed them what they were like, and they didn't like what they saw.

They saw that they had not been living the way they should.

They saw that they were cruel and selfish.

We've blown it, they cried.

Now God will punish us.

Ezra looked at God's children.

Great hot tears were tears were welling up in their eyes and streaming down their cheeks.

He stopped the sermon mid-sentence and shut the book.

We were having a party.

He shouted.

And so that's what they all did all week long.

God wants us to be happy, Ezra said.

All day they listened to stories about the wonderful things God had done for his people.

How he made the world.

They remembered how God had always, all through the years, been loving his children, keeping his promise to Abraham, taking care of them, forgiving them.

Even when they disobeyed.

Even when they ran away.

Even when they thought they didn't need him.

God told his children something more.

I can't stop loving you.

You are my heart's treasure, but I lost you.

Now I'm coming back to you.

I am like the sun that gently shines on you, chasing away darkness and fear and death.

You will be so happy you will be like little calves running free in an open field.

I'm going to send the promised one.

The one you have been waiting for.

The rescuer.

He is coming.

So get ready.

It had taken centuries for God's people to be ready.

But the time had almost come for the best part of God's plan.

God himself was going to come.

Not to punish his people, but to rescue them.

God was getting ready to wipe away every tear from every eye.

And the true party was just about to begin.

Merry Christmas.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, welcome to the first Sunday of Advent.

The theme of our service today is hope.

And I'm going to talk to you this morning about the power of hope.

But before I talk to you about the power of hope, let me just remind you why we celebrate hope on the first Sunday of Advent.

That is always the theme of our service.

It will always be the theme of our service because in the times in the history of God's dealings with his people, there were moments in their life where they felt hopeless.

They just felt like this cannot get any worse.

And they wanted to blame God, but God always kind of reflected back to them.

Hey, this isn't about me, this is about you.

And so I want to take two minutes and summarize the entire history of the Old Testament.

Are you with me this morning?

Yeah, some of you are like, there's no way you can do that.

Basically, I'll just use the four sections of the Old Testament.

The books that were recorded were recorded for a certain reason.

Basically, there's four sections of the Old Testament, and all the books in the Old Testament fall into these four sections.

First of all, there's the law.

The law, the period of the law.

This is the first five books of the Old Testament.

This is the period of beginnings.

The world began, humanity began.

God began dealing with his people, Israel, making promises to them, establishing covenants with the patriarchs.

This was the time of Abraham, Isaac, and his son Jacob, and they begin to flourish.

God raises up a man named Moses who's got a checkered past.

So if you've got a past this morning, God can include you in what he's doing to redeem the world.

Moses was a murderer who was living on the backside of the wilderness, just trying to eke out an existence, living in a trailer park, walking to the corner store, buying lottery tickets, hoping to hit it big one day.

God sets a bush on fire and says, I'm not done with you.

I know about your past.

I know you're not an eloquent speaker, but I'm a great God, so I'll make up for whatever you like.

And so Moses leads the people out of slavery into the promised land, but they don't quite get there.

Why?

Because they were persnickety, they're stiff-necked, they're hard-hearted along the way.

And so the period of the law of the law, it goes from creation to the death of Moses.

Moses dies.

He sees the promised land, but he doesn't experience the promised land.

Moses dies.

This ends the period of the law, and it's a dark time for God's people.

After that comes a period that's known as the prophets.

The prophets, some call it the historical period.

The prophets is from the death of Moses to the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC.

The Israelites conquer the land, but they worship the gods of the people whom they conquer.

They're in the land and they begin to intermarry and they begin to say, you know what?

Who are we to sound like we're we're special?

God's monotheistic.

God says, You know, you'll have no other gods before me, and you will not make for yourself a graven image.

Globalism has been around a long time.

They they would get in these other countries and say, Hey, we don't want you guys to feel bad, so we'll worship our God and we'll worship your God, and we'll all be one big global family all together.

And God says, No, no, no, no, no.

Come out from among them and be separate.

During this period, God raises up judges, appoints judges to guide his people, give them wisdom, make decisions.

King David comes during this period.

His son Solomon builds a beautiful temple for God.

And God says, Listen, you have a beautiful temple, and you got ugly worship.

It is not going to satisfy me.

And so they continue to compromise with the culture around them.

God raises up the Babylonian and the Assyrian Empire and they sack Jerusalem.

Happens in 587 BC.

So the period of the prophets, time of the prophets comes to an end, and it is a dark time for the people of God.

Thirdly, you got the writings.

This covers Israelites in exile and the return to the land.

Books like Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Lamentations, uh, the people of God, the book of Daniel's in this section.

The people of God begin to feel what their life feels like, and it doesn't feel good.

That's why, if you're sad, or this morning I read one, I read a psalm and a proverb, uh, just to kind of get my heart connected to what it feels like to live in this world and try to be a person of faith.

And so the period of the writings, they go into exile, they get out of exile, they rebuild the temple, everything's great, but it's not.

Because they begin to look around to the people and go, hey, these people don't worship God, and they take better vacations, live in a nicer house.

Their kids go to a private school.

I can't stand this.

I mean, it's does it matter at all that I worship God?

And so they begin to turn away from God during this period.

And it was a dark period for God's people.

And finally you get to the minor prophets.

These are the 12 books at the end of the Old Testament with the funny names like Obadiah, Nachum, Habakkuk, Malachi.

If you've ever been to a church that preached to the book of Malachi, but it doesn't end on a good note.

And if you read it, this is that last part of the Old Testament.

It sounds like God's mad and God's because people aren't listening.

And God's like, listen, if you're not gonna listen, guess what?

I don't talk to hear myself talk.

When I speak, it is for your benefit.

And so what God does is He He gives these people over to what they want.

The most severe form of judgment is for God to give you over to what you really prefer.

Deep in your heart.

You would never say it out loud, you wouldn't post it on Instagram, but deep in your heart, this is what you really want.

And God says, This is what you want.

You want a world where you don't have to listen to me?

I'll stop talking.

And so the minor prophets ends, and it is the ultimate darkness for God's people.

Matter of fact, it's 400 years of silence.

And God is not angry, God is right, He's displeased with His people.

And so for 400 years, between the close of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament, this is what it felt like for the people of God.

But God is merciful, He would point out to the minor prophets and say, This is your sin.

They go, No, no, no, no, that's not our sin.

And God would say, Yeah.

And they would say, they would always question God.

Like if I ask enough questions, God's gonna change his mind.

Just because you ask questions doesn't mean you know the answer.

And so God would they would ask a question, and God would say, This is how you've done this.

But if you'll repent, I'll restore you.

I don't want to judge you.

I love you, you're my people.

But his people didn't, and so the darkness just hung over them.

And then finally, along comes the book of Isaiah, and God begins to make promises, and he says things like, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, and those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them light has shone.

Which is why on this first Sunday of Advent we light this candle, the candle of hope to remind us that the darkness is not pervasive, it's not eternal, and it's not forever.

We light this candle to remind ourselves of Christ's coming and his second coming.

And because of these two realities that we live in between, we always have hope.

Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for the hope that is ours in Jesus, because of Jesus.

Apart from that, we have no hope.

And so remind us today of the power of hope.

It's not motivation, it's not a wish, it is this powerful, truthful reality that is unchanged and unchanging by anything we say or do.

Your love for us is unconditional.

Our experience of the promise is conditional, but your love for us is unconditional.

And I pray, Holy Spirit, that today we would see the certainty of what is ours.

And you'd begin to foster in us desires that maybe haven't been there before or we haven't tasted in a long time.

Holy Spirit, we ask you to do this, to illuminate your word, just as you pierced the darkness all those years ago.

Now come and illuminate, shine light in all the dark places of our head and heart.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen, amen.

If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Hebrews chapter six.

I want to talk to you this morning about the power of hope.

I'm gonna read Hebrews chapter six.

I'll start reading in verse 13 and I'll read down to verse 20.

This is what the Bible says.

I want you to hear this, okay?

Hebrews chapter 6, verse 13, the power of hope.

Hebrews 6:13

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, Surely I will bless you and multiply you.

And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation.

So 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 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 us.

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.

Hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchazak.

Uh, what do you mean by the power of hope?

There's four things I want to just point to in the text.

And by the way, when I say hope, I don't mean that this is kind of uh this we hope this is true or we hope this comes true.

And so that this is why the first thing I want to say to you about the power of hope is simply this our hope is based on certainty.

Our hope is based on certainty.

We have to be careful how we use this word hope because it is based on certainty.

Now, this section begins with God saying, Hey, there's no one greater than me.

It's almost like God is called to testify in the court.

If you've ever been called, you had to testify in the court, you realize that they make you raise your right hand, put your hand in the Bible.

You raise your right hand and they say, Do you saw Solomon swear that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, none but the truth?

And you know, oh yes, absolutely, I do.

You're basically you're being sworn in.

Imagine God being sworn in to testify.

Who does God swear by?

This is what the Bible means.

It's like God says, Hey, hey, I I swear by myself.

Uh he said, There's no one greater for God.

It's what the text means when he says, when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself.

It's like God stands up, puts his hands on himself and says, I swear to me.

What I'm about to say is the truth.

And so this all begins.

I don't want you to miss this because we're gonna get into this one when I talk about our hope is based on certainty.

We're gonna get into this one remarkable sentence and just break it down phrase by phrase.

I don't want you to see that this hope is not wishing, it's not, I I I I think this is ultimately going to, no, this is true today, and it's becoming more and more true with each passing day.

After God says he establishes the fact there's no one greater than me, so I swear by myself.

He says, I'll bless and multiply you.

Abraham waited patiently and he obtained the promise.

He says, where people swear by something greater than themselves in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation.

Now, why do why do I go back and reading that?

Because I want you to understand, people swear by something greater than themselves.

Like when I was in the fifth grade, I grew up in a small town in East Texas, and in the fifth grade, a family from New York moved to my town of 4,000 people.

It was the strangest thing I've ever heard in my life.

We were playing flag football one day at recess, and one of my buddies kind of got around the around the inn and ran all the way for a touchdown.

And the kid from New York was screaming, You out of bounds, you out of bounds.

And he goes, I didn't run out of bounds.

He goes, You swear on your mother's eyes.

Oh, easy, bro.

Bringing up mama's eyes.

What are we doing here?

Is this like a bad country song?

And he was screaming, you swear on your mother's eyes, and I was like, What?

Years later, I become a Christian.

I start reading the Bible.

I read in the book of Hebrews, and it says right here, for people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation.

I flash back to playing flag football.

And the kid basically he's saying, Hey, swear by something greater than yourself.

Look at me.

There's nothing greater for God to swear by than himself.

So he swears on himself.

You could just, hey, this is the certainty of the hope that we have.

Our hope is based on certainty.

I told you it's one remarkable sentence.

It starts in verse 17.

Look at it.

That's the background.

That there's no one greater for God to swear by.

And people, this kid would say, he was always swearing.

I say swearing, I don't mean cussing or cursing, however, you say it.

He was like, You swear in your mother's heart, you swear in your mother's eyes.

We're like, Whoa, what you're swearing?

Oh, what you're saying is that I would rather my mom's eyes get poked out than me tell a lie.

And I'm like, it's a little bit dramatic, don't you think, for fifth-grade flag football?

Verse 17, look at what God says.

He established the certainty of his nature.

And then he has this incredible, it's just one sentence, verse 17.

So 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 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 us.

Just once in your life, you want to write a sentence that impactful, I promise you.

So let me just break it down for you.

Because I know you can read the Bible and be kind of like, ah, so let's just look at it phrase by phrase.

This is what I mean when I say our hope, or this is why I say our hope is based on certainty.

Just take the first part to show.

To show what is God, God's not just a telling God.

When you open up the Bible, he's not just telling you things, it's not just rules and regulations, he's a showing God.

Most people think of God as telling, like he's gonna tell you to do something, not to do something you want to do or do something you don't want to do.

But he, and he will do that, by the way.

But he's also a showing God.

He says, to show, to show.

He starts off in verse 17 and he says, By the way, I desire to show.

I want to put this on display.

I don't just want to tell, because if all you do is hear and you never see, you'll never fully believe and experience what is yours.

You should ask yourself this Advent season, what is God trying to show me these days?

What is God kind of pulling back and kind of saying, Hey, you see this?

Because if every time you come to the Bible, you think it's a it's a religious lecture, you're missing out on what the Bible really, you're missing out on what God is like.

Too often we get to order wrong.

When it comes to showing and telling, you need order and you need balance.

So you need to ask ourselves in your interactions with people during this Advent season, do they need to hear the gospel or do they need to see the gospel?

When John the Baptist was in prison and he was about to be executed, he sent his disciples to Jesus and he said, He said, Hey, go ask Jesus, are you the one to come or should we expect someone else?

Translation, are you really the Messiah?

Because if I'm gonna die, I don't want to die for some upstart rabble-rousing preacher.

I'm willing to die for the Son of God.

And so his disciples go and they say to Jesus, hey, John wants to know, are you the real thing?

Jesus responds with this phrase, you go tell John what you hear and what you see.

That's always been the biblical record.

It's not just hearing, because God's not just a telling, not like speaking God.

He's a God that says, I want to show you some things.

I want you to see this.

And so to show, and then these next two words, more convincingly.

More convincingly.

This is going beyond what is necessary.

Let me ask you a question.

Have you ever told somebody something and they did not believe you?

Say amen.

And then you repeat it again, usually louder, more volume, more gestures, and they do not believe you, say amen.

I had this crippling experience in the third grade.

In the third grade, like I said, I grew up in a small town in East Texas on a chicken farm.

We raised chickens, we had 11,000 chickens, 13 baby calves.

I had a milk cow, we had to milk the cow in the morning, milk the cow in the afternoon.

We never, ever, ever bought milk at a store.

Now, my friends are like, we used to watch the Waltons.

Remember the Waltons?

Say amen.

Yes.

Have you ever watched the episode of the Waltons and then watch what's on TV nowadays and wonder what happened to our country?

Just a little free sidebar there.

If you want to see how banal and just immoral we've become, watch an episode of the Waltons.

But my family was like the Waltons with some dysfunction and whiskey thrown in.

But anyway, uh, we had everything, and my friends were always like, I want to come to your farm.

And so we had 11,000 chickens, 13 baby calves, we had a milk cow, we had two horses, we had a couple of dogs, about 30 stray cats.

They were everywhere.

Uh and we had a pet monkey.

Now that was the thing.

Yes, somebody over here is like, oh my gosh.

I would just tell my friends in the third grade, yeah, I got a pet monkey.

Uh uh.

And I was like, who lies about having a pet monkey?

This was my pet monkey, Chico.

By the way, it's a he's an Ecuadorian spider monkey, is what he's called.

When I say monkey, they thought chimpanzee.

And so forever my friends didn't believe me, all through third grade.

Like, you don't have a monkey.

My friend David Hawker's like, I've been to his house.

He's got a monkey, and this monkey rides on the back of his dog.

And I was like, Yeah, yeah, yours doesn't.

I was just like, ugh, what?

Now you're probably thinking right now, I've got a golden doodle.

How do you feel about your golden doodle now?

I had a pet monkey.

And the monkey was trained.

My dad would go stick him up, and that monkey stick his hands up and they go, bang, and he'd just fall down dead.

We went to the rodeo, and at the rodeo they had these monkeys right on the back of these dogs.

I was like, that's just Tuesday at my house.

We bought tickets for this.

And so I tell my friends, yeah, I've got a monkey.

Not that that's a different kind of monkey, but my monkey can do that.

And like, you ain't got a monkey.

That's all third grade.

I was like, What are you people?

What?

I was so mad, I would come home.

And then the fourth grade, I had Mrs.

Briscoe for a teacher.

And Miss Briscoe stood up one day and said, The boys and girls, in two weeks we're gonna have a show and tell.

Yeah, if you're a teacher, you should be thinking right now, I wish I had you in my class.

And so I went home to my dad.

I said, Dad, can I take Chico?

We had a little cage, we kept him in at night.

He goes, Oh, sure, get permission for your teacher.

And I said, Miss Briscoe, can I bring my monkey?

And she said, No, Neil, nobody has a pet monkey.

I'm like, no, you do.

And I said, Okay, can I bring my monkey?

She said, Sure, bring bring your monkey.

And I was like, What are you people thinking?

What are you people think?

I am incense.

I would ride the bus home.

I tried hell on wheels, literally.

A failed sociological experiment, living with everybody in my school because they did not believe me.

And finally, fourth grade show and tell Mrs.

Briscoe had a sheet drink over the game.

I'm carrying the cage in.

There's nothing in there.

You can hear cheap go, you're making that you're making the noise with your mouth.

And I'm like, oh, I'm so mad by the time show and tell some kid brings her dad.

You brought your dad for show and tell.

We kind of assumed you had a dad.

That ain't nothing.

So I had to follow that.

So I just walked up there and I set the crate down on my teacher's desk.

And I reached up under the sheet, opened the cage, held my hand in there just like that.

And you do like this, and he knew to jump on your arm.

So my monkey jumped on my arm, and I stood up, and there's the monkey on my shoulder in my class.

And I grabbed Chico and just threw him on the kid in the front row.

And then it was a moan.

Angela White passed out.

My teacher jumped up on a bookcase.

Oh my gosh! And I was like, Toby Keith, how you like me now?

Who got a monkey?

Okay.

Now, by the way, that was in the fourth grade.

I graduated high school in 1982.

My senior graduation party.

People were talking about Neil's monkey.

Hey, by the time Neil brought his monkey to school?

And I was like, who got a monkey now?

Now you may be thinking it's advent.

Why are you talking about your monkey?

Because the Bible says that God desired to show.

He's not just a telling God, he's a showing God.

Look at me.

More convincingly.

What is God trying to convince you of these days?

I had to convince nobody.

Matter of fact, I had to go sit in the principal's office, Mrs.

Garrison, with my pet monkey the rest of the day.

They called my dad, come get your son.

He brought a monkey to school.

My dad's like, I got work to do.

He'd been telling you for years I got a monkey.

I ain't coming down there because you don't believe my son.

I'll pick my son up when school's over.

He can ride the bus home.

You can't take the monkey on the bus.

Okay.

So my dad came and got me.

He goes, What happened?

I said, They didn't believe me.

What'd you do?

I took him out and threw him on the class.

They believed me after that.

No one doubted me.

Some of your kids, right now, got their phones out looking up Ecuadorian squirrel monkey.

Yeah, I hate my golden doodle, Dad.

I need this.

God is a God that shows more convincingly.

Look at the next phrase to the heirs of the promise.

Who is this?

Who is that?

Who are the heirs of the promise?

Why does God have to convince people who already believe, hey, this is for the heirs of the promise.

That's you and me.

If you don't understand that you're an heir to the promises, then this is never going to be personal.

It's just like, oh, okay, whatever.

What's this got to do with me?

Everything if you're a Christian.

Next phrase, the unchangeable character of his purpose.

What is his purpose?

Start with this purpose.

It's unchangeable.

What is this purpose?

What if it's verse 14 where he says, Surely I will bless and multiply you?

The task is to let God define those two words: bless and multiply.

Because if you and I try to define those two words, you'll come up with something much smaller than what God could ever come up with.

What if the purpose of God is to bless and multiply you?

When I was in college, I read a book by a man named J.I.

Packer called Knowing God.

And in the book, in chapter three of the book, he wrote 53 words that when I read them in 1986, I was just like, Oh my gosh.

I underlined it, I highlighted it, I wrote it out, I came back to it.

Here's the 53 words I read in 1986.

And just understanding, thinking about the way God relates to me as an heir of the promise.

Packer says this, he says, There's tremendous relief in knowing that his love for me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery can now disillusion him about me in the way I am so disillusioned about myself and quench his determination to bless me.

Hear that first part.

There's tremendous relief in knowing that his love for me is utterly realistic.

What does that mean?

You're not conning God, he knows what you're really like.

And his love for you is based on every point, at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about you.

If you wonder how I got to be this way, somebody said to me just recently, Yeah, I tell people, I just think you're somebody who doesn't care what people think about you.

Oh no, I care.

But this truth found me and unwound me a long time ago.

So when the Bible says that the unchanging character of God's purpose, I just think, oh, there's nothing that can quench his determination to bless me.

He loves me, he is for me, he is my advocate.

He's never not gonna be for me.

The next phrase, he guaranteed it with an oath.

He guaranteed it with an oath.

Why an oath?

Because God's accommodating to his people.

He's accommodating.

It's he he comes down and he comes to us in familiar ways so we can see what he's doing, not only what he's doing, but why he's doing it, and that we can trust him to do whatever he's going to do next.

He makes a promise and he makes his promise to us patently clear in the Bible.

He condescends to human level to give an assurance to his promise by taking an oath.

You would think it's God.

God made a promise, and God's like, okay, you guys swear by something greater than yourself, I swear by me because there's nothing greater than me.

So he makes a promise and he gives an oath related to the promise.

Don't miss this.

The oath did not make the promise sure than it was before.

Let me say it again.

The oath when God says, Ha I'll make a promise, and I swear, I swear I'm gonna keep the promise.

The oath, the swearing doesn't make the promise sure than it was before.

Okay?

The oath doesn't affect the nature of the promise.

The oath is intended to affect the nature of the ones to whom the promise applies.

You didn't hear that.

Let me say it again.

The oath does not affect the nature of the promise.

By God's swearing, it doesn't make his promise more sure.

Because it's not intended to affect the nature of the promise.

The oath is intended to affect the nature of the ones to whom the promise applies.

Said differently, the intention of God swearing by himself was to strengthen the faith of people like you and me.

So when you come to a point where you say, Hey, so there are two unchangeable things by which it is impossible for God to lie.

So all of a sudden you move from, see, uncertainty has become a religion in America.

The biggest thing, the most arrogant thing you can do is say, I know for certain I am unchangeable in this.

You will never change my mind about this.

That will get you in a fight in every bar in America because we just worship this vague, well, you know, you can't know, all roads lead there.

We'll eventually get there.

No, you won't.

No.

So by two unchangeable things.

What are the two unchangeable things?

God's promise and the oath that confirms it.

These are unchangeable.

He doesn't have to swear by anything because he's oh, you gotta swear by something greater than yourself.

That makes you believe the person that made the promise.

Okay, I swear by myself, because there's nothing greater than me.

Yea, me, God says.

You and I should hear that and see that and go, Wow, my God is a God that likes to show and tell.

This is incredible.

Secondly, the text tells us the power of hope is that our hope gives us a refuge.

Look at verse 18.

He says, so that by two intangeable things of which it's impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge.

Underline that little word for.

Take note of refuge, but just underline, circle the little word for.

We who fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

Our hope gives us a refuge.

We who have fled for refuge.

When you hear the word refuge, think person, not place.

All through the Bible, God is his people relate to God as a refuge, a person, not just a place.

The psalmist is probably one of the most popular places.

Like, let me let me read you a couple.

This is Psalm 62.

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him.

He only is my rock in salvation, not Bitcoin, not FTX.

My fortress.

I will, I shall not be shaken.

On God, rest my salvation and my glory.

My mighty rock, my refuge is God.

Trust him at all times, O people.

Pour out your heart before him.

God is a refuge for us.

Selah, which means stop and think about what you just read.

Psalm 91, he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the Lord, My refuge, my fortress, my God in whom I trust.

You didn't just move from things.

You you you you came to God for things.

And if your Christian life is still motivated by what you're trying to get away from, then your Christian life will always be about what you don't want to do.

I don't want to do that anymore.

I used to do that, and that's bad, and I don't want to do that.

It's not Christianity, it's not from, it's for.

What did you come to God for?

And by the way, God knows that you came to Him for some things.

So when you come for those things, He's not surprised that you're here.

He's not like somebody that invited somebody to dinner and then forgot they invited them, and then at six o'clock on Tuesday, the doorbell rings and you show up in your shorts and the hoodie and you open the door and you're like, oh, and they're standing there with flowers, and like, oh, dinner.

That's tonight.

Oh my gosh.

Now, if you've never had that experience, it's enthralling.

Because there's nowhere to hide, there's nowhere to fake it.

Oh, my wife, put it down the wrong.

You know what?

But see, when you ring God's doorbell and you say, I'm here for, he's not like that that's tonight.

Oh, you want refuge today?

I think I had that down for 2023.

I think you're are you sure it's this year?

No, he knows.

Hey, by the way, you need to move from some things.

You come to God from some things, absolutely, but you also come to God for some things.

And so when you come to God for those things, he's not surprised that you're there.

So stop apologizing and acting like, well, you know, uh uh.

Way too many in this room are fueled by from and not fueled by for.

See, God, our hope gives us a refuge.

We who have fled for refuge.

Thirdly, our hope encourages us to continue.

Our hope encourages us to continue.

Look in verse 18.

Notice the little these little words, set before us.

We fled for refuge.

We might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

Most people look behind them to find the encouragement to keep going.

But this strong hope is set out in front of you.

It's out in front of you.

It's not behind you, it's not around you, it is out in front of you.

And if you lose sight of that, you'll start looking around.

And when you start looking around, this is when you make short-sighted decisions.

Allow me to demonstrate.

1952, a lady named Florence Chadwick set out to swim from the coastline of California to Catalina Island.

It is 26 miles.

Just let that in.

Swimming, not running.

This is 0.2 miles short of a marathon.

She is going to swim this, okay?

It's a big deal.

She's got the support teams.

They're in the boats.

She's swimming.

15 hours into the journey, a thick fog rolls in.

She begins to get a little disoriented.

She's kind of like, I can't really see.

I can't tell how far I've got to go.

And I'm getting tired.

I just I don't know if I can make it.

And everybody in the boat's just like, okay, well, you know, and because if she touches the boat, then the attempt is over.

And then it doesn't matter.

You can't hold on to the boat and rest and then swim some more.

So she swims about another hour and finally she just stops.

And the people in the boat are right there, and she's like, and she says, I just can't do it.

Swims over, grabs the boat, pulls herself up in the boat.

They help her, she sits down, and she's been looking around this whole time.

And then finally she looks up and she's like, Oh my gosh.

Less than a mile away is Catalina Island.

Why?

Because most people quit on the brink of realization.

They did, they just because they just look around.

They don't ever look up.

They don't ever do what the psalmist said.

They say, I lift up my eyes to the heels.

Where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord.

She has a boat full of people on her support team.

None of these knuckleheads could look out and go, hey, hey, hey, stop looking around.

You're almost there.

You got this girl.

Put your head in the water and just keep stroking.

We're gonna get there, okay?

Just rest for a little bit.

Don't touch this boat.

No one picks up a paddle and says, Don't touch this boat, I'll knock you out.

We didn't come to try, we came to succeed.

It's right there.

You can't see it, but from where I sit, I can see it.

Keep swimming.

You gotta have people in your life that when you just want to swim over, you're just looking around and you're just like, I just want to swim over to the boat.

I want relief, not the truth.

But don't let you back in the boat.

Why?

Because your hope, your hope, it gives us a refuge.

Your hope encourages us to keep on, keeping on.

And fourthly and finally, our hope is what has been our hope is in what has been accomplished.

Now, I want to read verse 19 and 20.

You still with me?

Now, there's a section of this you need to understand.

Most preachers skip by it because it's like, what in the world is that?

Okay, and we're gonna end on that note.

Look at verse 19, what it says.

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor for the soul, a hope that enters into the inner uh place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

He said, What do you mean our hope is in what's been accomplished?

Our hope is in the certainty of God's promise.

All of God's promises are yes and amen in Jesus.

So what we're really saying is our hope is in Jesus Christ.

Why?

Two reasons.

Number one, he's gone where we could never go.

What is that?

When it says that he's gone into the inner place behind the curtain, that's a reference to the temple, the holy of holies, where God's presence dwelled, symbolized and represented by the Ark of the Covenant.

Only the high priest within her once a year.

And so no one was allowed in there.

Jesus has gone in there on our behalf as a forerunner.

And so when we say that our hope is in what has been accomplished, we're not thinking about our accomplishments.

We're thinking in what Jesus has done.

And secondly, he's gone where we could never go.

And secondly, he's done for us what we could never do for ourselves.

This is why our hope is in Jesus.

This is certain, unchangeable, and eternal.

This is why you can anchor your soul to it.

Now, here's that last part that you need to understand.

He says, He's gone as a forerunner on our behalf.

Here's this last phrase.

Having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Now, this is the part, he's like, Whoa, what?

Ah, I say this a lot, and I like saying it, so I'm gonna say it again this morning.

Before Christianity is personal, it's historical.

And you need to understand the historical aspects of Christianity and let that personalize, become very personal for you.

This is one of those examples, a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

What does that mean?

Mosaic law dictated that only the descendants of Aaron could be priest in the temple that could serve.

This is what the Mosaic law established.

Only the descendants of Aaron.

When he talks about Melchizedek, Melchizedek was a figure in the Old Testament.

He's the king of Salem.

His name literally means righteous king.

And so he wasn't a priest because he descended from Aaron.

In the same way, Jesus is not a priest because he was descended from Aaron, because he didn't descend from Aaron.

He was appointed as a priest, as a high priest.

Now, why is this a big deal that the Bible says having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek?

Well, funny you should say that.

I want to close with reading from chapter seven of Hebrews.

I'll start in verse 20 and I'll read to the end of the chapter.

Uh, just listen to what how it describes Jesus, okay?

He wasn't, he wasn't descended, he wasn't born into the right family, and therefore I get to become a priest.

And then he dies, you got to get somebody else.

And when they die, you gotta get somebody else.

No, he is a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek, the only other one who was appointed as a high priest.

Hebrews chapter 7, verse 20.

Hebrews 7:20

It says, And it was not without an oath.

For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath.

For this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him, The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.

You are a priest forever.

This makes Jesus the guaranteer of a better covenant.

The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

For it was indeed fitting that he should have such a high priest, we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

Who needs a high priest like that?

People that are not holy, people that are guilty, people that are stained, people that run with sinners.

He has verse 27, he has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people.

Since he does this once for all when he offered up himself.

For the law appoints men in their weaknesses, high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever.

Now, you may be thinking, okay, hope you enjoyed that.

I didn't understand a word of that.

Here's why you and I can find hope today.

You can find hope in the fact that Jesus, who died for you, is interceding for you even now.

He is a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

What does that mean?

He ever lives to make intercession for you.

He's in God's presence right now, and he intercedes on your behalf, and he does this permanently and perpetually.

He is never going to stop.

Someone asked me a while back, hey, what really encourages you in your Christian life?

Oh, the thing that encourages me most is that Jesus, who knows me the best, died for me.

He's going to be unchanged in his head and heart.

He wants to bless me, he wants to multiply me and my influence.

And here's the other part.

He is at the right hand of the Father even now, just reaching over and kind of go, hey, that one's mine.

And I know he's a knucklehead sometimes, but I want to intercede for him.

Yeah.

My kids came home for Thanksgiving, much to my chagrin.

My oldest brought her husband.

And they were leaving.

He was like, What are y'all gonna do with all this dressing?

And then he threw out a little compliment to my wife.

That's the best dressing I've ever had.

In my heart, I just thought, you liar.

You're just sucking up.

And then he took all of it.

I wanted to kill him in the front yard.

Then he goes over, my wife makes me a German chocolate cake from scratch.

He goes over and just whops off half of that.

You only been in the family since August, son.

And then guess what?

My kids leave their Christmas list.

I'm thinking, aren't you 25?

Don't you have a husband in his job?

And my 19-year-old is like, oh dad, and then I forgot to add this.

You know why they do that?

Because they believe deep in their heart.

My dad wants to bless me.

My dad wants to give me the desires of my heart.

They never apologize, they never say, hey, I added this up, it's a bit much.

They just go, hey, here's my list.

Now, I'm not saying relate to God like a Christmas list.

Don't go there.

I'm saying this.

They believe in their head and in their heart that my dad is perpetually for me.

My dad is always.

I said to my 25-year-old, hey, you guys good?

I said, Financially, you're doing okay, you're saving money, you're living below your means.

Yeah, dad, we're good.

Okay.

Why are you asking?

Because I don't want you to struggle.

The first year can be hard.

Don't struggle in silence.

If you need something, you pick up the phone and you call me.

I know, Dad.

Boyfriend over there, who's now husband, and she's like, I'm not even looking at you, son.

By the way, you have an advocate.

Here's why you can have hope when we're done.

Look at me.

You have an advocate, an advocate, a lawyer, someone that's coming to your aid in your defense before God.

If you're a Christian, every day, perpetually, he's going to do this perpetually, he is going to do this permanently.

He is never not going to intercede before you on your behalf before God.

So if you ever need to find hope, you ever need a source of hope, let it be that.

And the Bible summarizes and refers to all that with this little phrase, having become a high priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.

Our hope is not in a better life, our hope is in the person of Jesus who brings real life.

Let's pray together.

If you're our guest, just relax.

We'd like to teach the Bible and give you some space to think about it.

So I'll voice a prayer.

Some questions come up on the screen.

You can take a picture with your phone, something to talk about as you're driving back to wherever you live if you're visiting.

Or something to talk about over lunch if you live here.

Then we voice a prayer.

God, thanks for the truth of the gospel.

Thanks for the light that is ours in Christ.

We relate to those people in Isaiah's time who lived in a land of darkness.

And we've seen a great light.

We've dwelt in a land of deep darkness.

We look around today, guys, like, man, our country is jacked up.

Our hope is not in a political party or a presidential candidate.

Our hope is in King Jesus.

Our hope is in a God who could find nothing greater to swear by.

So he swore by himself.

That's not arrogance, that's just understanding.

Lord, help us to understand the certainty of your nature so we could build and bank our lives on that.

And as a byproduct, we find hope.

Holy Spirit, hover over us as we think about these things.

You've been a refuge for us.

We didn't just come from some things, we came for some things.

So give your people what they come for, we ask.

We wait in Jesus' name.

Lord, we come to you for refuge, we come to you for hope.

Thank you for the reminder from your word, God, and by your spirit.

And then you show us we still don't see it, and so you desire to convince us.

So, Holy Spirit, just hover over what you're trying to convince us of.

So we can be hard-headed, stiff-necked, just like the people of Israel, the Moses was trying to get into the promised land.

We have an infinite capacity to be a knucklehead.

We come to you for refuge, God.

Not because we're trying to escape the world.

We want to be in the world, but not of it, protected from it.

Your people are like that city set on a hill.

No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel.

Put it on a lampstand so it gives light to the whole room.

God, I pray during this Advent season that our lives would illuminate every room we're in.

Not being obnoxious religious people, but just be this illuminating reality that exposes all the darkness in the room.

This is our privilege, it's our pleasure, and so make it our experience.

We pray in Jesus' name and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

Thanks for your presence here today.

Advent is a meaningful journey, and I pray that you'll come on this journey with us.

Each Sunday, we're gonna take another step closer and another step closer, and another step closer, and it culminates in our Christmas Eve service.

Uh, and so I pray that you'll come on the journey with us.

We'd like to conclude our services with a spoken blessing.

So would you stand to your feet?

And let me remind you that our welcome team has little cards that have all our Advent information on them, as well as the times for our Christmas Eve service.

So you want to grab a couple of those, you can give them to some friends, invite them to come experience this with us, okay?

Hold your hands out.

Your God is so merciful and compassionate.

He doesn't just show you, He tells you, He doesn't just tell you, He shows you.

And then He goes the extra mile and says, I'm gonna insist on this until you're convinced.

Become convinced.

Because this is where hope is found.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.