Advent: Hope

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Let's pray together.

God, we understand today in the simple singing of this song that we've people have been singing for generations that you come to make your blessings known.

You're not hiding, uh, you're not a punitive God, you're not mad at the world that you created.

You come to make your blessings known because we live in a world that is under the curse of sin.

The penalty and the price for sin is being experienced by everybody and everything and all of creation.

And would it not be most like God to come and say, Well, there's a curse, I want to bring a blessing.

And so, Lord, we just say we understand what you're like, but we also understand the implications of that is that we have to be the blessing.

So we're when we get around people this holiday season who feel cursed, like 2020 has just beat the life out of them.

We want to speak words of life and blessing.

We want to be a blessing because we've been blessed, God.

And so, Lord, thank you that you're a God of redemption who comes and says, Hey, I want to make my blessings flow.

It's not a trickle, it's I'm gonna open up the floodgates and it's gonna come roaring out, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing, and poured right into your lap.

Because you're the God of blessing who comes to beat back the curse.

This Lord, wherever there's we've been cursed in our thinking today, wherever we've been cursed in our doing, God, wherever we've been cursing our appetites, would you bring the redemption of blessing to bear on us, Lord?

But by your spirit and from your word, do these things we pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen, amen.

You can have a seat if you got a Bible.

I invite you to take it and open up to Romans chapter 15.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

Let me just begin with an apology.

If you're our guest today and you arrived a little bit late, they held you up in the lobby.

We're not trying to be punitive, we're not that kind of church.

Typically, you could come in any time.

Uh, but on Advent, we try to create a certain mood and acknowledge certain things with light and darkness and readings.

And so uh today's the first Sunday of Advent.

If you're wondering what is all this stuff, uh, this is an Advent reef.

And Advent means coming or arrival, and it's the four Sundays that lead up to Christmas, and they each have a theme: hope, which is today.

Next week will be peace.

Our friend Ross King will be with us next week leading our services.

Hope, peace, joy, and love.

And then Christmas Eve is the Christ candle, the white candle in the middle.

And so uh, I just want to acknowledge that we weren't trying to be punitive.

We're just a part of our service on this one Sunday out of the year.

We have certain things that are taking place that we don't want to be uh disrupted.

But as I told the the first service, if you arrived a little late, you can just stay in the next service until the lights come up, and then you look at your kids and go, let's go.

Uh and so it's a win-win, amen.

Y'all, we stood out there for nine minutes.

Uh get here on time.

Anyway, uh, oh, yeah, I bet you're not late for your tea time.

Anyway, uh, Romans, I want to read from relax.

I want to read from Romans chapter 15, uh, verses 1 to 7.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

Here's the good news of Advent.

As a little kid said to me this morning, hey, you know what I like about when those red flowers are out?

And I said, those are called poinsetis.

I said, What do you like about that?

He goes, You don't talk as long.

So I made myself a note, punch kid in the throat after church.

So I'll be getting that kid.

Anyway, Romans chapter 15, uh, hope, verse one.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through the endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

There's three words.

I just want to, I read the all seven verses, but I want to just really talk from verse four.

And there's three words I want to pull out of verse four, and the three words are instruction, endurance, and encouragement.

Hear them again in verse four.

For whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

See, we live in a culture that needs hope, that longs for hope.

I was talking to some friends this week.

Uh and they I said, you know, how you guys doing?

Because I mean, they're like locked down tight.

They're like, we are not going anywhere.

We haven't eaten out since March.

And I'm like, oh, there's a lot of room in these restaurants you're missing out on, brother.

Uh and and I said, so what gives you hope?

And I said, not until we get a vaccine.

And I said, you know that the vaccine is out and they're they're they're they're getting it distributed all over the country.

So when we get the final hey, go ahead.

That thing's just gonna flood out.

You know, we're gonna be okay.

Now we're gonna be okay, not because we have a vaccine, we're gonna we're gonna be okay because God is sovereign and in control.

And they were like, Well, what's the delay on this vaccine?

I said, You want to know what the delay on the vaccine is?

You got one president and a president elect that are fighting over who's gonna get credit for it.

And they said, Why would they do that?

I said, the same reason you and I do things like that, because we all want glory.

How much can be accomplished if we didn't care who got the glory, but we just, hey, we're gonna do the right thing.

And I said, So are you guys hopeful?

And they said, We'll be hopeful when the vaccine comes out.

And I was just like, that's not the kind of hope we're talking about.

A lot of people in our world need hope.

They like hope, they like talking about hope, but they don't know where to get it.

And the Bible says, hey, whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scripture, we may have hope.

This is how you have hope today, okay, beloved.

It's not through a pill or a self-help book or a self-help preacher you might see on TV.

It is through endurance and through the encouragement of the scripture.

And so before we get to those two words, I want to start with the first word, just the instruction.

Here, verse four again.

Whatever was written in former days, it was written for our instruction.

If someone asks you why does the Bible exist, what would you tell them?

If someone said, Hey, I mean, what's the deal with the Bible?

I mean, what's up with that?

How would you explain the Bible?

A lot of people think the Bible, well, the Bible is written because it, you know, it's just to jam us up and make us miserable and make us feel stupid and like we just can't figure out God.

So just walk around feeling bad, then you die.

And if you've been good enough while you felt bad, you might get to go to heaven.

That's not very hopeful.

That's not very helpful either, but I digress.

Instruction, I just say this one of the most merciful things God has ever done is to give us a revelation of his character, his nature, his plan and purpose that we know as the Bible.

And it you're like, hey, I'm kind of waning in my appreciation for the Bible.

I got furloughed, I got laid off, uh, this didn't come through, that didn't happen, had my heart set on that, that didn't come through, uh, all that.

And then my sister-in-law came for Thanksgiving and brought nothing to eat but empty bowls and whole food out, okay?

I'm not very hopeful right now.

Thank you, preacher man.

I I I would just say this.

If you if you're like, hey, I'm not really appreciating the Bible, if you're sitting here and you're like, you know, I've never really read the Bible.

If you're watching online and you're thinking, you know what?

I got a Bible somewhere in this house, but I couldn't put my hands on it if you gave me 10 minutes and a head start.

Uh I would just say this.

The thing that's going to change your experience of the Bible is the way you think about the Bible.

And if you're waning in appreciation for the Bible, then think about it like this.

What if God just left us on our own?

He could have left us on our own without any indication of his plan and his purpose for humanity, his name and nature, what he was like, what do we call him?

How does he how does he want to be known?

Does he even want to be known?

Does he even exist?

I mean, just think about it.

He could have left us all here alone with no revelation, no, no, no, no, no, no means of saying, hey, here's the truth.

Nothing to say what like to build and bank our life on to say, this is certain in a time of deep uncertainty.

Here's the one certainty I know I can always come to because it's always going to tell me the truth.

We could have just been left here like billions of people crawling over each other like ants in a vain attempt to make some sense of all of this.

This is what God could have done, but he didn't.

He gave us the Bible, he spoke it.

Men spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

It is the breathed-out word of God.

Now, you say, Well, what do you mean?

This is, he says, that all that was written down, whatever was written in the former days, let's talk about the Old Testament.

How sexy is that?

I mean, when we read the Bible, most of us read the New Testament because God in the Old Testament is kind of ticked off, and Jesus, he's kind of happy.

I like Jesus.

He's he's the funny guy in the New Testament.

Uh, but the Bible says, hey, whatever's written in the former days was written for our instruction.

Uh now when I just ask you, hey, what's instructing your heart these days?

Does anything from the Old Testament rise up in you?

Because I set out over the past couple of weeks as I was getting ready for today, just to kind of be encouraged by the Old Testament.

And my first thought was, well, this will be kind of hard because there's a lot of killing goes on in the Old Testament, okay?

Uh, but I the more I actually didn't just form an opinion about it, but actually read it, I I was so my heart was so instructed.

Like, like, like, like, by the way, the fact that we even have a Bible indicates three things.

Number one, it indicates that God is an is an expressive God.

He's an expressive God.

You say, well, what's the big deal about that?

Ladies, if you're married to a man that doesn't talk much or share his emotions, you understand what a big deal that is right now.

I see so many people in counseling situations where the ladies like, he doesn't have a pulse.

I mean, he told me he loved me on our wedding day, and if he changes his mind, he'll tell me, but until then I live in silence.

Uh, God could have been that way.

But the Bible just reminds us, number one, that God is an expressive God.

Secondly, it reminds us that God wants to be known.

He wants to be known.

Why else would he go on record as saying this is who I am, this is what I'm like, this is what I love, this is what I forbid, this is what I permit, bless, and allow.

I want you to understand all of this.

This is not written for your destruction, it is written for your instruction.

Here's the third thing I want you to understand about the Bible.

Uh, excuse me, he created us to live a certain way.

He created us to live a certain way.

Now, I I don't know how you come to this.

I don't know as you're sitting there on your couch at home watching.

I don't know if you're like, oh, now you're gonna drop the hammer on me.

No, I'm not.

I'm just gonna tell you, he created you to live a certain way.

And and and you feel bad, not because you have a conscience, because you're violating.

I would say you're sinning, uh, you're violating the the way you were created to live by living another way.

That's what the Bible calls sin.

It's called missing the mark.

And so the Bible kind of reveals all these realities to us.

But when he says, hey, what was written in the former days was written for our instruction.

The Old Testament.

And so I started just kind of looking around and just kind of reading.

And let me just say this: imagine a world governed by these realities, because this has been kind of where my head and heart have been marinating over the past couple of weeks.

Uh, this is from Exodus chapter 20.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Now, before God we go any further, I want you to hear everything that I'm fixing to read out of the Bible through these two filters.

Number one, this is God says, This is who I am.

Number two, this is what I've done.

This is bless you.

This is who I am.

I am the Lord your God.

Secondly, I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, out of the house of addiction, out of the house of a jacked-up marriage, out of the house of being single and lonely and in debt.

I brought you out of the land of slavery.

This is who I am, and this is what I did.

When you hear the Bible through those two filters, all of a sudden it it sounds much different.

I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or is it in the water under the earth?

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I am the Lord your God, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work.

But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

On it you shall not do any work.

You or your son or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is written in your gate who is within your gates.

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.

Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God has given you.

You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey.

Now you may be thinking, not a problem, dude.

My neighbor doesn't have an ox or a donkey.

You see, this is the thing.

I want you to imagine living in a world governed by these realities known as the Ten Commandments, which sounds archaic and ancient.

We're so offended by these.

These used to be, I remember as a kid, uh, when I was in second grade, these were on the wall at my public elementary school.

These were on the wall at the post office.

We had a monument out in the yard by the post office, a big grand thing with the Ten Commandments.

I remember walking by this little kid and I asked my dad, what's that?

And he goes, none of your business, boy.

And I just thought, well, my dad's not much on the Ten Commandments.

Uh, and he wasn't.

But anyway, uh, there was a time when this we lived in a world that were governed by these realities.

And you may think, hey man, I don't covet my neighbor's servant or his ox or his donkey.

See, his the Bible, it stains you because I I've been reading this for the past couple weeks and thinking, I'm doing good on that, don't do that.

And then the other day I'm sitting at a red light here in town, and I look over and it's nighttime or dusky, and I look over and someone pulls up next to me in this kind of a light blue with black wheels on the it's a light blue brand new Tahoe with all murdered out black wheels.

That thing is looking, I'm and I'm just like staring, like that is a nice looking vehicle.

And all of a sudden, I am coveting my neighbor's ox and donkey.

I didn't think that, but the more I looked, and all of a sudden that little voice in my head says, Hey, what are we doing?

I'm just looking at that thing.

And now now at the next light, I got in front of them because I had to cut over, and I just happened to look up in the mirror to see what it looked like, you know, from the front because on the side, I couldn't see the grill.

And and on I don't know if all versions, but this one had the Chevy logo on the front of it, and it lit up blue.

And I was like, that is like awesome.

My logo doesn't light up on my Ford.

God, did you know that?

This thing's got 110,000 miles on it, blah, blah, blah.

And at that point, I just hear the Holy Spirit laughing, like, you're still coveting.

I'm not coveting, I'm appreciating, I'm not coveting.

Would you rather have that than this?

Do you think well, I I mean, I mean, if he pulled over right now and said, You want to swap, I'd yank the title out of this thing so fast his head would spin.

See, coveting sounds like no big deal.

Let me tell you something.

Coveting exists.

The reason people steal is because they covet, and they take it.

And I just drove off and I sped up, and that little flickering blue Chevy logo faded in the background.

And I thought, well, mine's faster than yours.

But anyway.

Or he's donkey or anything that is your neighbor's.

Now, when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of light and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, hello! The mountain is smoking.

And the people were afraid and trempled.

You think?

And they stood far off and said to Moses, You speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us lest we die.

Some of you think that about the Bible.

You think if I pick it up and start reading it, man, God, this trapdoor is gonna open and I'm gonna fall into hell.

No, no, no.

The Bible's not inspired by God, recorded by men for your destruction.

It's it's inspired by God, recorded by men for your instruction, for all that was written in the former days was for our instruction.

This God could have just been radio silent and said, Good luck.

But he didn't.

He went on record and saying, This is who I am, this is how you were created to live.

Moses said to the people, Do not fear.

For God has come to test you that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.

Beloved, men and women, you sin not because you're bad people, you sin, not because you jacked up and you had childhood trauma, though that's some of it for some of you.

You sin because you don't fear God.

Do not fear, for God has come to test you that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.

The people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

This is about instruction.

Whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction.

Why?

That through endurance, and through the encouragement of the scriptures who might have hope.

Second word this morning, endurance.

One of the problems that plagues us is that we don't know where to look for what we desperately need.

Before you hear the word endurance, I want you to hear the word through, through endurance.

That word through in the Greek, which the Bible has originally written, recorded in Greek, because that was a language of the culture.

That word through means by means of.

Said differently, this is how we're going to get to this hope by walking through 2020 and all that it contained.

Not going to get through it by setting hope aside until things improve enough for you not to feel foolish about being hopeful.

Uh, you say, well, I would never feel foolish about being hopeful.

Well, I confess to you that sometimes in certain situations, I feel a little foolish, like not like I not like I believe it, but I'm around some people and they kind of mock me, like, well, you have to believe that because you're a preacher.

And I'm like, no, I don't believe that because I'm a preacher.

I believe that because I'm a Christian.

I have hope, and my hope is not in who the president's gonna be or when the vaccine's gonna roll out.

My hope is in the fact that the same God who governed the universe a year ago before any of this started still governs the universe.

And this probably got started because some people in some countries said, we want to have a weapon of mass destruction because we want to be in charge.

It's so sinful, it's human nature.

We covet, we look and we say, I want my neighbor's ox and donkey and Tahoe and country.

See how practically incredibly transparently honest the Bible is?

To endurance.

It's the Greek word hoopomone.

It means this the characteristic of a person who is not swerve from their deliberate purpose and their loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.

Suicide is through the roof because of this COVID lockdown.

And you got just just, I'm sorry, you got morons like the governor of California eating$350 black truffle pasta without a mask in a restaurant while he tells everybody else, lock down and stay home.

And I'm not piling on the guy, he doesn't know Jesus, okay?

He wouldn't worship creation if he did.

Uh I'm just saying this that we get to be the people who endure.

The way you endure is you have to suffer.

This is what we don't tell you enough in church.

We don't tell you enough that you're gonna suffer.

Students, if you're 15, put your big boy pants on.

You live in a fallen world full of selfish people that are that are like ants crawling over each other who want to get their way, where nations rise against nations, just like Jesus said in Matthew 24.

And because of that, you are going to suffer.

Not because God is not good and he can't do anything about it because he's not all powerful, not true.

You're going to suffer because man by nature is sinful, and there is always a consequence for sin.

And one of the consequences for us that are stuck in this world is that we suffer.

And because we suffer, we have the we have the capacity to endure.

And my friends said to me this week, so what are you gonna tell your people this week?

I said, Well, this is the first Sunday of Advent.

I'm gonna talk about hope.

I'm gonna read a lot out of the Bible.

What's the purpose of that?

Because there's an encouragement that we get from Scripture, we don't get anywhere else.

And if there's an encouragement we get from Scripture, we don't get anywhere else.

Why would we go anywhere else?

It's why the guy named Peter, big birdie, looks like Hoss Cotright on Bonanza, got no front teeth, whacked the guy's ear off with a knife one time.

Don't you want friends like that?

Somebody bumps into you in the grocery store and your friend's like, I'll cut his ear off.

Back up, let me swing here.

I want that.

I want to come rolling in on Sunday with bodyguards, hats on backwards, three guys go about three feet.

Maybe a biscuit shy 350.

And your kids go, Who's that?

You go, that's Pastor Neil's security detail.

Don't approach him, they'll cut your ear off.

Wouldn't your kids go home in the back of your new Tahoe and kind of go, Pastor Neil's a bad man?

He got guys that cut your ear off.

Wouldn't your kid be like, I love going to that church?

Now, if you're visiting today, I do not have a security detail.

But if you'd like to apply, the positions are available.

But I want you to be tatted up, full sleeves.

And I want you to wear a pearl snap wrangler from Tractor Supply Company, too.

Like real men do.

I walked by this morning.

Some lady said, Your pastor doesn't dress up very much.

And I just thought, dressing up doesn't make you right with God.

It just doesn't, God doesn't care what you wear.

I mean that.

I'm serious.

I just here's here's what I'm saying.

Don't lose sight of it.

We've endured a lot this year.

And because of this, the hope that is available to us is proportional to all that we've endured.

Let me say that again.

We've endured a lot.

He says that through endurance, look back and see how much you've endured, and then tip that over and tip that forward and see that's just how much hope you should have.

You should look back and go, you know what?

God's been faithful through all of this.

My hope is proportional to all that I've endured.

This is what the Bible says.

This is why you should read the Bible.

Get a translation you understand.

Mom and dad, or dad asked for one for Christmas.

I want a Bible that I can understand, not the one that's got the these and the thou's and the therefores and the bagads, one that talks to a man in a language a man understands.

It's not that our father is withholding from us, but he is asking us to endure so that our hope will be both magnified and matured, deep and wide, rooted in the then, but tangible in the now.

And my friends kind of mocked me and said, Well, I just, I guess you've got to be optimistic because you're a preacher.

I said, No, no, no, no.

I'm hopeful because I'm a Christian.

I'm not optimistic because I'm a preacher.

I'm trying to on some self-help guru book tour.

That's not what this is about.

This is a, I have a hope that is the anchor for my soul.

That's what the book of Hebrews says in chapter six.

All hell can break loose around me.

And I'm like Lieutenant Dan.

I'm up there riding the mask.

Come on, let's go.

I'm not, oh my God, what are they gonna do?

And I don't get mad at God because we live in a jacked-up world and the world's jacked up because of sin.

The wages of sin is death, the Bible says.

Whenever you sin, something in you and around you dies.

And you say, well, I thought the wages of sin is death.

I sinned, I didn't die.

No, I mean you'll die.

You'll die eventually, which you weren't created to do.

You're created to live forever, but that's another sermon.

But when you sin, and when I sin, something in and around us dies.

Your capacity to be believed dies.

That's why men, some of your wives just don't believe you anymore.

When you talk, she's just like, just stop.

I'll I'll do everything.

Just sit down and shovel food in your mouth.

No one here at this house believes you.

That's a horrible way to be.

Students, when you lie and you got hidden apps on your phone, and you're like, my parents are so lame, they don't know anything.

You things are dying inside of you.

What's dying is God's, you're what you're saying to God is you can't really trust me because I don't trust you and I trust myself.

And all you will ever experience in this life is whatever you can manipulate and connive and scheme and get.

Talk about hell on earth.

How would you like to get up every day and go to bed every day believing this?

All depends on me.

Gotta endure through endurance, which is why the Bible says this 10 chapters earlier in the book of Romans, Paul says in Romans 5, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through Him, we we have also obtained access by faith in the grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings.

That's crazy talk.

We don't just rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

We don't just rejoice that one day we're gonna get to go to heaven and be with grandma.

No, we rejoice in our sufferings.

You should have a party.

I'm not being flippant here, okay?

Listen, you should have a party between now and the end of the year.

And it's not a Christmas party.

Have a party, have people over, serve good food, good wine, sparkling grape juice, whatever you're down with, I don't care.

And rejoice over all the things you've suffered this year.

Yes, and invite unbelievers.

And they think, oh, it's like a pity party.

No, you should have like prime rib and twice-baked potatoes and asparagus with drizzled olive oil and sea salt that you had to grind on top of it.

And you should have fresh bread, like sourdough bread with hot butter on it.

And you should just take your shirts off and eat like Vikings.

Men.

And you should just look around and be like, oh yeah, oh yeah.

I mean, back in March, I would say this thing would be over by you know, like April 15th.

It's December this week.

Yes.

And you should look and go, you know what?

I was wrong.

I thought this thing would be over June 1st, July 1st.

I was totally wrong.

But you know what?

God was right all along, past the biscuits.

That's rejoicing in your suffering.

It's not having a pity party, it's not casting little self-pity, chum in the waters on Facebook with self-pity.

So all your friends can do emojis with praying hands.

Stop, grow up.

My kids are like, Dad, you don't use emojis.

I'm 56.

I have words.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame.

You don't have to be embarrassed that you believe the gospel.

You can be in a room full of people that are just like mocking you.

What do you mean you're saving yourself till marriage?

This is the 21st century.

You don't think I knew that?

You don't think I have a calendar?

I mean, what's the point of saying something so stupid?

And then be prepared for them to go, oh, you shouldn't say stupid.

You live with your boyfriend.

Maybe you should find a bigger cross to die on there, Matilda.

Are you kidding me?

And by the way, I don't hate Matilda, but you're offended at stupid.

You're living in fornication.

I hate to just love you enough to tell you the truth.

But my friends don't say anything because they live in the same sin.

What are they gonna do?

By the way, did you feel what just happened in this room?

Did you feel that?

Y'all were like, hey, hey, man, you were being funny, and then you punched us in the face.

No, I love Matilda, and I want Matilda to come to my party where I'm gonna rejoice and just say to Matilda, hey, you don't have to be this way.

You like sex?

Get married.

God's all about sex.

Get married, raise godly kids, go to work, fight, make up, have sex after you make up.

I don't care.

Y'all like, man, just stop.

My grandma's in town.

Would you stop?

Grandma, he's not usually this.

Yes, I am, grandma.

Because I'm sick and tired of people thinking, oh, to really enjoy myself, I've got to go over here and sin.

That's not the gospel.

Knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame.

Why?

Because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For what was written in the former days was written for our instruction.

That through endurance, and finally through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

There's hope available.

You got to endure some things.

Got to put your big boy, big girl pants on.

Not get mad at God.

Oh, God and G church isn't working for me, you know, COVID-19.

Endure.

Toughen up, Sally.

Come on.

Because you don't want your kids looking at you, kind of going, oh, when it gets hard, just quit and stay home.

Eat too much, drink too much, and become a critic on Facebook.

Excuse me, parlor.

You all got off Facebook.

We're gonna show them encouragement.

This word refers to a calling near, an importation that affords refreshment, persuasive discourse, stirring address.

It's conciliatory.

It's such a dense, thick word.

It takes all those words just to scratch the surface of what it means.

But these is these are the things that scripture says we get from scripture.

Not this fill-in-the-blank encouragement, praying for you, heart eyes, emoji.

No, the kind of refreshing encouragement that stirs you at a place that no one even knows exists.

And so I want to just finish my time, uh, just washing you with the word.

Encouragement comes from the scriptures that I would be remiss if I didn't just read you some scripture today.

Like this from Isaiah 42.

Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen, uh in whom my soul delights.

I put my spirit upon him.

He will bring forth justice to the nations.

He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street.

A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench.

He will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands wait for his law.

Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it.

This God says, I am the Lord.

I have called you in righteousness.

I will take you by the hand and keep you.

I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of those that are blind, and to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison, those who sit in darkness.

I am the Lord, that is my name.

My glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.

Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare, before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

Or 1 Peter chapter 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded, protected, watched over, secured, guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed to the last time.

In this you rejoice.

Though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him, and though you do not see him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Or this from Isaiah 40.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the whole earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?

Who has measured the spirit of the Lord?

Or what man shows him his counsel?

Whom did he consult?

And who made him understand?

Who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?

Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales.

Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.

Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

All the nations are as nothing before him.

They are accounted by him as it's less than nothing and emptiness.

To whom then will you liken God?

Or what likeness compare with him?

An idol?

A craftsman cast it, a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for its silver chains?

He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot.

He seeks out a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.

Do you not know?

Do you not hear?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

It is he who sets above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretch out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in?

Who brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness?

Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, and then he blows on them and they wither.

And the tempest carries them off like stubble.

To whom then will you compare me that I should be like him, says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes on high and see.

Who created these?

He who brings out their hosts by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God?

Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary.

His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might, he increases strength.

Even youth shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted.

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings like eagles.

They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint.

From the Psalms.

For God alone, my soul waits in silence.

From Him comes my salvation.

He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress.

I shall not be greatly shaken.

How long will all of you attack a man to batter him like a leaning wall and a tottering fence?

They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.

They take pleasure in falsehood.

They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse.

Say law.

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence.

For my hope is from him.

He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress.

I shall not be shaken.

On God rests my salvation and my glory, my reputation, my mighty rock.

My refuge is God.

Trust in him at all times, O people.

Pour out your heart before him.

God is a refuge for us.

Or this from Isaiah.

The Lord God has given me an instructed tongue that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.

Morning by morning, he awakens.

He awakens my ear to hear those who are taught.

The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious.

I turned not backward.

I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard.

I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

But the Lord God helps me.

Therefore, I have not been disgraced.

Therefore, I have set my face like a flint.

I know that I shall not be put to shame.

He who vindicates me is near.

Who will contend with me?

Let us stand up together.

Who is my adversary?

Let him come near to me.

Behold, the Lord God helps me.

Who will declare me guilty?

Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment.

The moth will eat them up.

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant?

Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

Behold, all of you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches, walk by the light of your fire and by the torches that you have kindled.

And this you have from my hand, you shall lie down in torment.

And this from 1 Corinthians 15.

I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Behold, I tell you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory.

Oh death, where's your victory?

Oh death, where's your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, therefore, my beloved sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Or from Isaiah chapter 9, there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwelt in a deep in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

You've multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy, they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil, for the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor you have broken as on the day of Midian.

For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

Why?

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

And from Matthew 1.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.

When his mother, Mary, had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be a child from the Holy Spirit.

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit, she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

And finally, from Romans 8, what then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, if God is for us, if God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies.

Who is to condemn?

Christ Jesus is the one who died.

More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

You say, man, that's a lot of read.

That's a lot of encouragement.

And just think just for a moment.

All of that was prophesied, promised, came, lived a sinless life, was crucified, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, buried, rose again, appeared, and then ascended.

Wouldn't you just go on a victory tour and tell everybody how you did it?

No, he sits down at the right hand of the Father and he intercedes for you.

This is why Advent is a big deal.

And this is why we have hope.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you that you've not left us alone in this world on our own, in the darkness, stumbling and fumbling and grumbling about it all.

That you have spoken.

You went on the record and said, if this doesn't happen, then I can be discounted.

But it happened.

And so you have to be taken into consideration by everybody in the world.

Not just in this room, not just watching online, but everybody.

You could have just said, listen, I'm going to slay all you fools.

But you're not a God of destruction.

You're a God of instruction.

You're a God that says, hey, endure.

Endure.

But you're also a God that says, Man, I I spoke, I I breathed out the scriptures so you could find encouragement.

So I pray for anyone here, anyone in our online community, God, that is that is craving encouragement, that they would stop going, stop digging for themselves wells that hold no water, and they would come to you.

This glorious, effusive fountain that is overflowing with encouragement.

And we would just slake our deepest thirst.

We would just baptize our biggest need.

And in so doing, God, we would find hope.

Now, Lord, we just want to spend just a few moments pondering, thinking about, and asking what you said to us today.

So, Holy Spirit, brood over your people now.

Father, I pray that wherever there's curse, there's evidence, sign, or scent of the curse, let your blessing flow.

Just open the valve all the way up, God, and just release a torrent, a flood of blessing.

Let it be better than we could ask or imagine.

Pressed down, shaken together, overflowing, poured right into our lap.

So we would never be tempted to take credit for it.

We have to just say to everybody, Well, he found me and unwound me.

That's how I got this way.

Don't think it's because I have a great job or I made good investments.

It's because God is a great God.

And because of him, we can have hope.

We're humbled that this God is also interceding for us even now.

We take comfort in that.

So thank you, Jesus, for that.

Please continue to intercede.

We're grateful and we're hoped in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

Thanks for your presence today.

If you're our guest, hopefully you had an opportunity to pull one of those guest cards in your seatback pocket.

All we ask of you is if you'd fill that out, if you haven't already, and drop it in the wooden boxes by the door.

That's also where we'll receive our offering.

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

So if you would stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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

Amen.

Bless you.