Waiting in Hope - Joel Schrock

And we're currently right between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which is

you know, well then it's new Year, so there's all

kinds of things going on, and there's lots of reason.

There's lots of reason to be thankful, to have hope

and new life. We have all these things kind of

back to back, but we may feel anxious or overloaded,

or busy, maybe even resentful. We get annoyed that people

decided to shop on the same day as us, or

drive down the same road at the same time as

I did. It can be difficult to be reflective and

thankful and hopeful and faithful and loving as we should

be always, but maybe especially this time of year. So

leading up to the celebration of the Birth of Christ,

many Christians have celebrated what they call Advent. And I

don't know a lot about Advent. I haven't really. I've

heard it seems like a lot more about it this year,

for whatever reason, kind of bumped into it here and there.

It does understand it's there's four four weeks. Maybe I

think it's for Sundays that a different theme is thought about.

Not going to get into it too much, but but

that basically takes four weeks is you know, basically takes

the time up between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Here and what

does Advent mean? If you look in your church hymnal,

the songs about the birth of Christ is in the

advent section. I think, well, advent means the coming into

use or being coming into being, different definitions depending where

you look. The coming of a notable person, thing, or event.

One definition I think this in Miriam Webster was the

coming of Christ. Simple the simple meaning as understand of

that word kind of the root is coming or arrival. Well,

something is coming or something is arriving. Maybe some of

the implied meaning would include waiting and anticipation. I think

in this time we think we think of the ad

the coming, the beginning. We think of the incarnation of

Jesus as God became man. And then we also wait.

As Christians, we wait hopefully and joyfully with anticipation for

the return of Christ at the end of time. Now,

as I understand it, the four main themes. I don't

know who decided this, I was decided didn't look into

that in this celebration, or I guess that'd be the

right word of advent. Hope, peace, joy, and love. I

think faithfulness is included in there sometimes. But this morning,

I would like to think about one of those themes,

one of those topics, and to introduce this, like to

look at maybe a not so obvious place when we

think of hope, peace, joy and love. I'd like to

look a little bit at the story given in Genesis

three of the Fall of Man. Like I said, it's

not a real obvious place to look for this, but

I think it may become more obvious as we go along.

Not going to read many of the verses. We know

this story. Well, pick a couple out here. But as

we know, Adam and Eve were created perfectly in a

perfect world, ideal circumstances. They had perfect spouses, they had

perfect food. It was good. It was so good that

God called it very good. Okay, they only had well

and they had this personal relationship with the creator of

the universe. They had just one rule, don't eat of

the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That's it. Well,

we know that God gave us choice. He didn't really

want puppets just saying words of praise over and over

that kind of thing. He wanted people to choose him.

And we know that human nature for whatever reason, is

attracted to forbidden fruit, and the devil came along suddenly

as a serpent. Now I think I could be wrong

about this. I think if if the devil were to

come suddenly to a woman today, he wouldn't come as

a serpent. I think some things have changed. Don't know

that he'd get real far. But for whatever reason, I

think the serpent must have been a very beautiful creature,

very lovely creature. And that's how he came. And he

came with a question, and he came with a statement,

and he came with a conspiracy. And he said, you know,

did God really say that? Did God really say you

can't eat of that? And well, yeah, God said if

I eat it, I'm going to die. And he looks

like Eve may have even embellished it a little bit

if we even look at it. And the devil has

a statement, you won't die, actually, and he said, in fact,

God knows that if you eat this you will become

as gods. So God's withholding this, he's threatening you. He's

withholding this because he knows that if you do this,

you'll become a little bit more unequal with him. So

it looks like and so Eve ate the fruit. I

don't know where Adam was at the time, but he

followed and ate as well. Now, because rebellion, because sin

cannot stand before Holy God in God's presence, Adam and

Eve were driven from Paradise from the garden of Eden.

This happened after some of what I'm going to talk

about now. But I would like to look at the

last part of the serpent or the devil's punishment here,

and that's in Genesis three, verse fifteen. God said, I

will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between

thy seed and her seed. It that's the seed of

the women, the descendant of the women. Shall bruise thy head,

and thou shalt bruise his heel. Now, if you're in

some sort of fight, you're in some sort of competition

for you know, if somebody's head got bruised and somebody's

heel got bruised, who came out on top, Right, That's

what we kind of know that now. The punishments, the

consequences for Adam and Eve look huge. I think they

went from Paradise to For Adam, the ground will be cursed,

thorns and thistles will be his constant companion as he's

out there working on the ground, the sweat of his

brow take a lot of hard work to provide for

his family. Not only that, his perfect body that was

built to live forever will now deteriorate, fade away. He

will die and his body will return to dust. And

for Eve some of those same things. There will be

pain and child bearing, and her husband would rule over her,

and they were both casts out of the garden of Eden.

Now I think we could say that if all these

things happen, we could say that all hope, or most

hope at least, was lost, Like what's the purpose of living?

But I believe it's in the last part of the

Devil's punishment that there is a possibility of life. There's

a flicker it the seed, the descendant of the woman,

shall bruise thy the devil's head. I believe that this

punishment here foretold the coming of one who would conquer

sin and satan, and this special someone would be a

descendant of Eve, Adam and Eve. Now I stand to

be corrected here, but I think I think it would

be fair to say that this is the first time

that hope entered into the world in any true sense,

in any real, meaningful way. I don't know that there

would have been much to hope for before they were

in the presence of God in paradise. The anticipation for

a redeemer began at the fall of man. I believe now,

if you can imagine this punishment, all these things, all

these consequences for Adam and Eve, all of the things

that they had to face. What if that was the

end of the story. What if that your body returning

to dust was the end of the story. Or worse,

what if the end of the story was that they

would have to spend an eternity outside of the presence

of God. What if there was no hope, no possibility,

let alone confidence in an eternal rescue. But God, in

his great mercy and grace, made a promise of hope

in that situation right there at the beginning when men,

when mankind fell from grace. This morning, I would like

to talk about hope, and the title, if you need

a title, is waiting in hope. Now, if we think

about hope for a little bit, we could compare hope

and faith in some of those. But when does life

seem not worth living? Have you ever been there. Have

you ever been in the place where life really didn't

seem worth it. It's when there's no it's when there

seems to be no hope. I believe if someone or

something is truly hopeless, that's a terrible thing. If a

situation is hopeless, there's no way out. And so when

you wonder at the importance of hope, think of a

life lived with no hope. Hope is a word we use,

well use. We often use a cheap version sort of

of the word hope. There's different there's different definitions, I suppose,

but you know, I hope I make a million dollars

when I get big, or something like that. Or I

hope I get a bb gun for my birthday. I

don't know if anybody knows anybody like that. I know

of at least one. Uh. I hope that I get

invited to my friend's place. I hope that he doesn't

preach till twelve fifteen. There's all sorts of hopes that

we have through life. But the hope I would like

to talk about is one of the three great focuses

of the Christian laid out by Paul and in Corinthians. Faith, hope,

and charity. Now, in that example, Paul points out that

these three outshine let's say, or they are foundational two.

They're more important than spiritual gifts. Each one of these.

Hope is one of these pillars. It is anything but

a hopeful guess. It's not guesswork. Hope is a confidence.

This hope is a confidence in the unseen promises of God.

In Genesis, God promised that a descendant of Adam and

Eve would overpower and overcome, would bruise the head of

the serpent. And this was no frivolous hope. It's not like, well,

I hope that happened sometime. This was a promise and

for nearly the for the nearly a thousand years that

Adam lived, and I presume Eve they never saw that

promise come to pass. I think they imagined they would,

but they didn't. But that hope, that hope made life

worth living. They were part of something for the future.

You can see the hope in Eve as she names

her first son, presumably kin, I've gotten a man from

the Lord. Now, after the devastation of Cain killing Abel,

seems like that Eve may have thought by that time

that Abel may be the one that God would use

just by what she says here soon. But after that,

as devastating as it was, as terrible and heartbreaking as

it was, there was still hope. There was hope because

God made a promise, and Eve had another son and

named him Seth. And here's what it says for God.

She said, hath appointed me another seed instead of Able,

whom came slew. So so God gave me another another child,

another descendant to bruise the head of the serpent. Imagine

that Eve wished for She hoped in that sense that

that would happen in her lifetime. But it didn't. But

she did with the hope of the future, that confident

hope in God's promise, she did get it right with Seth.

Many generations later, thousands of years later, her seed, through

descendants of Seth, would conquer sin Satan. Now I'd like

to look at another Old Testament example that may not

be the most obvious place to look when we think

of hope, and that is the story of Job. Now

I'd like to think a little bit here about hope

and suffering. The story of Job is an interesting story.

Many believe that he lived in the time of the patriarchs.

I know, I'm sure there's some debate on that, but

it seems like he acted as the priest for his

family some of the things that happened in that patriarchal society.

As far as I know, you know, we don't read

about him meeting up with the patriarch that we read

about through the Bible, Abraham, Isaac Jacob, some of those,

but it seems like he may have been contemporaries with

In another part, there's some thought, well, I don't need

to get into all that, that's a little beside the point.

But job it says was a perfect man. He feared

God and is showed evil. He hated evil. So that's

the definition there of a perfect man. He feared God

and a shoot evil. Doesn't mean he never made a mistake,

doesn't mean he was ever misguided a little bit. I

don't think it seems that, you know, when you read this,

maybe he was more righteous than some of the other

patriarchs we read about the through some of his life.

Whatever the case, though job Job lived a righteous life,

he also happened to be quite wealthy. So not only

did he have a relatively large family. I don't know

if it was for then. But you know, he had

seven sons and three daughters. We had many possessions, so

many possessions that the Bible says that he was the

greatest of all the men of the east. It's whatever

that means. Seven thousand sheep. And if that's not impressive enough,

this one here is one that three thousand camels. Where

do you up put three thousand camels? And what do

you do with them? Five hundred yoke of oxen or

one thousand oxen, five hundred female donkeys and a very

great household. Well, you think about it, you think about

all the chores that needed to be done, you'd need

a great household. And I presume they did more than

feed the animals, Like I imagine that they did things with

productive with these animals. Today's value, if you just put

a value on the animals, what really depends depends on

the pedigree. Are talking racing camels, probably not in this case,

but anywhere from a few million dollars to like one

hundred and fifty million dollars. But I really think that

that's probably off base quite a bit. We have today,

we have trucks, we have cars, we have tractors, we have,

you know, ATVs and four wheelers, and so I'm guessing

that the relative value at that time was much greater,

very wealthy. Not only that, what would you do with

five hundred yoke of oxen? Well, some people estimate that

if presumably Job farmed, and that he could have farmed,

you know, in the range of fifty thousand acres, which

is significantly larger than any farm in the Lammatt Valley certainly,

and three thousand camels. Well, camels would have been used

a lot for trade long distance, long distance halls. From

what I can tell, you know, with a camel they

could carry a lot more for your short distances, lighting

them up. If you go in a long ways, you

just take more camels. But if you look at truckloads

being forty two to forty four thousand pounds, somewhere in

that range, let's say for short hauls, he could have

been hauling, you know, seventy truckloads worth of stuff around

right long the really long distance one it might be

down to about twenty you know what twenty trucks could haul.

But it looks like Job was fantastically wealthy, influential and powerful.

His reach. Likely his commercial trading reach went out pretty far.

And yet tragedy can and does strike the best and

wealthiest of men, and it struck Job with a vengeance.

We could say all of his children were killed and

his entire complex of assets were stolen or destroyed. And

not only that Job was covered from head to toe

in painful boils. Now, I think we underestimate that sometimes

it was so bad that Job's friends didn't recognize him

when they saw him. So this is pretty bad, to

put it lightly. And if that wasn't enough, his wife

thought he should curse God and die. When his friends came.

You know, Job may have thought, well, well, at least

there'll be some comfort, but no, they sat with him

for sae seven days in silence, and then it was

accusation after accusation. Job, you're in pretty bad shape. You

must be quite the sinner. You know. Hopefully you don't

go to the hospital and tell people that when you

visit them like. It's not a lot of comfort in that.

But during and Job maintained his innocence before God and

during this back and forth, so you could say that

Job was in the in the deepest, darkest uh situation

pretty much imaginable I think. In chapter nineteen, Job says

something interesting. It's fart. I mean likely this was before

any of the written Bible. And he said, oh, so

this is this is Chapter nineteen, verses twenty three through

twenty seven. He says, oh, that my words were now written, Oh,

that they were printed in a book, that they were

graven with an iron pen, and in lead, and lead

in the rock forever. So we know this next verse

pretty well. This is where it comes from. For I

know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand

in the latter day upon the earth. And though after

my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh

shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself,

and my eyes shall behold, and not another, though my

rains be consumed within me. Those are those are beautiful words.

Those are those are challenging words. In this said you

in darkness, in suffering, in tremendous temptation. Job had hope.

Job had confidence. Job said I know, But what he

knew was something that he couldn't see, and it was

something in the future. This is hope. He didn't say,

I know that my material wealth will be restored. That

wasn't his focus. Now God did that and more. But

he said, as he waited in the most agonizing darkness,

he said, I know that my Redeemer liveth I know

that after my body has gone and decayed or turns

to dust, I in my flash, my new body with

my eyes will see God. So job Job here was

waiting in hope. Now some things we notice about hope.

It's already mentioned. Hope is has to do with the future,

and it has to do let's we'll see later with

the unseen. I'd like to read now from Romans eight.

Going to read a few verses out of Romans eight,

going to start in verse fourteen. I wasn't quite sure

to jump in what I would like to read a

few verses here and just notice the words that have

to do with the future, with anticipation and hopes in here.

So we're going to start in verse fourteen. For as

many as are led by the Spirit of God, they

are the sons of God. For ye have not received

the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have

received the spirit of adoption. Whereby we cry Abba Father,

the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we

are the children of God, and if children, then heirs.

That has to do with future, that has to do

with hope, that has to do with anticipation and waiting,

heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so

be that we suffer with Him, that we may be

also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of

this present time are not worthy to be compared with

the glory which shall be in the future. Shall be

revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth,

And so here we are waiting, waiteth for the manifestation

of the sons of God. For the creature is made

subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him

who has subjected the same in hope. Here's that word, hope,

and then well verse twenty one. Because the creature itself

also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into

the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we

know that the whole creation growneth and travaileth together in

pain until now, And not only they, but ourselves also,

which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we

ourselves grown within ourselves waiting for the adoption. We are

waiting we're waiting to wit the redemption of our body

verse twenty four. For we are safe by hope. And

then a little explanation here. But hope that is seen

is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth

he yet hope? For So hope is for us now

while we wait for something in the future that we

cannot see physically with our eyes. But if we hope

for that we see not, then do we with patience

wait for it. So hope is in something in the future,

it is in something unseen. And yet in this context,

this word hope, it is sure. It is a knowledge

and a trust in God's plan. The Old Testament was

written with hope, with the hope of a redeemer, the

hope of a savior coming to earth. The New Testaments

written in that context the fulfillment of that hope, and

a future hope of that savior coming back to conquer

death and sin once for all, the final bruise on

the serpent's head and to take his own to a

glorious eternity with him. And we are in that time

of hope, that waiting in anticipation for the return of

our Lord. As we think of how to wait today

in hope. I'd like to think of some examples of

how people waited for the coming of the Messiah to

that two thousand years ago. Now, there seems to be

about four hundred years roughly between Malachi for telling the

coming of John the Baptist. At the end, someone would

come with a spirit of Elijah and make that there

between that and the New Testament, it's about four hundred

we could say silent years, four hundred years of no profits.

In fact, there was a time, I think this is

around one hundred and sixty five BC, there was something

that happened and they said, well, we're going to set

these aside for when I think this was recorded maybe

in Josephus I forget now, we're going to set this

aside for when there is a prophet. These four hundred

years of silence could have felt like no hope, could

have felt like just one oppression and disappointment after another.

You know, people were born and lived in this time,

lived their lives, they farmed, they had families, they died

those four hundred years. Now, with some of the warnings

that we see in Malachi and the scene at the

beginning of the New Testament. Some of these people were

not living in hope, not in not in not in

the right way at least. And yet after those four

hundred years we see faithful servants of God waiting eagerly

for the coming of the Messiah. And I believe it

was hope that kept that flame alive, that promise from God. Now,

for a little context, four hundred years might not seem

like a long time when we're reading the Bible, because

we can turn the pages between Malachi and Matthew and

they went four hundred years. Four hundred years is a

long time, So just in our context. So we're in America,

and a lot of us have some European roots. So

civil War in America is about one hundred and sixty

years ago, say, well before that, slavery was quite common

in some parts of the country. And to us sitting here,

that concept seems pretty i would say, distant, far away

foreign to us. The United States itself is only about

two hundred and fifty years old, I think next year.

So what was happening four hundred years ago? Well, if

you know some European history, the Thirty Years War, what's

going on, the rise of Cromwell and England and the

first permanent European settlements in North America. So you had Jamestown,

you had the Mayflower bringing pilgrims to Massachusetts. You had

Galileo they're busy confirming Helio centrism, and and Kepler studying

planetary orbits. It was, it was sort of in that

great Awakening time, coming out of the Dark Ages, the

first submarines and flintlock muskets were invented. And also in

the Far East in India, the taj Mahal was completed. HM.

The Anabaptist movement would have been about one hundred years old.

And if you wonder why you have a hard time

with some of the words in the Bible you hold.

The King James version was translated roughly four hundred years ago.

Four hundred years after the last profit was quite a while.

But who were the ones waiting and what were they doing? Well,

it's probably not an exhaustive list, but a few a

few of the people, Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of

John the Baptist. You know, there was, as often happens,

there was some corruption at the top of the Jewish society.

Power crupts. Zacharias we see I want to read about him.

He was faithfully executing the priest's office before the Lord

when he was visited by an angel. Now the visit

frightened him, and you can imagine why he in his

position his knowledge, would know even know that there's no

there's no prophets around there there in this silent period,

this angel showed up and identified himself as Gabriel, who

stands in the presence of God, and he gave this priest.

I believe this waiting priest a message of hope. Not

only would his wife bear a son in old age,

which was an answer to a long awaited prayer, but

this son would have the spirit of Elijah that Malachi

prophesied four hundred years or about four hundred years earlier,

and he would prepare it says, he would prepare the

way for the Lord. This was his son was going

to prepare the way for the Lord. Now, Zacharias did

get struck dumb because of unbelief. Okay, he wasn't perfect,

but I believe if we look at him in his life,

he was found faithfully waiting for the promise of God

and faithfully serving as he could. He likely didn't think

this would happen in his lifetime. He's probably too realistic

for that, but I believe he was still waiting, faithfully,

fulfilling the duty of the priest before the altar of God,

faithfully cared for and made intercession for his wife. We

don't know a lot about zach Rice and Elizabeth, but

I think we could say that they were They were

some of the ones waiting in hope. Mary and Joseph. Again,

I don't we don't know a lot about Mary before

Jesus was born. I don't think we hear a lot

about our life. I don't think it was a glamorous one.

I don't think she was famous or well known. I

don't think she was all that wealthy. Probably when the

Angel of the Lord came to her, she called herself

the handmaid of the Lord. And I get the picture

of a young lady who's engaged to be married, faithfully,

living a life of service, with an eye toward God,

and I believe that she must have eagerly awaited the

coming of the Messiah before Jesus was born. She said

in Luke one, going to reat Luke one. A few

verses starting in verse forty six, and Mary said my

soul doth magnify the Lord. So listen to these words

of hope she gives here, and my spirit hath rejoiced

in God, my Savior, for he hath regarded the low

estate of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth, all generations

shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty done

to me great things, and holy is his name. And

his mercy is on them that fear him. From generation

to generation. He has showed strength with his arm. He

has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

He hath put down the mighty from their seats and

exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry

with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away.

He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy,

as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to

his seed forever looking back at all those people that

had hope in the future, going back to Abraham and Joseph,

I don't I don't think we know a lot about Joseph.

Joseph was a humble carpenter. I think that was there

was nothing. There was nothing, really, look, I don't think

carpenters were really looked up to a lot. Let's say

he was living a faithful life, living a faith faithful

to Mary, he was faithful to God. It'd be interesting

to know more about these people, more about their families

and what they what they thought, and what they did before.

But we don't. And I think, but I think we

can safely say that these people that were used of

God were waiting in hope. And what were they doing

in the meantime? Simeon in the temple, what do we

know about him? When when Joseph and Mary took Jesus

into the temple's baby Luke says that Simeon was just

and devout, and what was he doing? Says he was

waiting for the consolation of Israel. This man was waiting

with such faith, fervor and faithfulness that he before the

time that Jesus was born, I presume because Jesus was

just a baby. Now certainly before his ministry. It says

that he was filled with the Holy Ghost and God

revealed to him that he would see the Lord's Christ

before his death. Now he didn't live to see the

ministry of Jesus. The miracles of Jesus, his death and

his resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit on the church,

the formation of the church. He didn't see any of that.

We saw a baby, and Simeon was content to die

to be taken. But before the Lord took him, he

looked ahead in hope and prophesied. And here's what he said.

That Jesus would be a light to lighten the gentiles,

which was a new thought. And the glory of thy

people Israel. So he not only had hope for himself

and his people, but all of mankind. And there was

Anna in the temple. Old lady in the temple, very old,

looks like she served God with fastings and prayers day

and night. And she saw the baby Jesus and gave thanks.

And she spake, says to those looking for the redemption

of the Lord, the people that had hope, the people

waiting in hope. Who else, who else noticed the coming

of Jesus as Messiah? Well? Who is it revealed to

the shepherds? Again, I don't think we know anything about

this the shepherds, except that they were watching sheep in

the night. They were faithful in the little things. I

think they weren't rich and famous. But they were faithful,

and they were ready. They were watching. Whatever we don't

know about them, we know that. And when they got

the word from the angels, they said, let us now

go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has

come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

Simple people doing simple things, faithfully. And then there were

the wise men. These may have been the only people

that were anything close to rich and famous that it

was revealed at the time of Jesus' birth that a

king had come. And why is that? You know? There

was there was King Herod, kind of the king or

the pseudo king of the Jews at the time he

was he was kind of rich and famous and powerful

and mean. Uh, there were you know, we have the

The Emperor of Rome didn't didn't find out about it,

didn't know about it, didn't see the uh M. Jewish

rulers didn't seem to notice when the Wise Men came.

They didn't know. They knew they could quote scripture and

say where he should be born and how, but they

didn't know. Likely you don't remember it, uh, at least not.

But I had I had about a year ago, I

think had a message about the wise men. Not going

to repreach that, especially not now. Uh. But some things

I noticed about the wise men, some things that we

noticed then was I think the first thing was that

they were watching, they were searching, and because of that

they saw the star. I don't think they would have

saw the star if they weren't watching. And because they

saw the star, they took action, and they went, They asked,

they followed, and because of that they found the small child.

They worshiped him, They gave gifts, and were obedient to

God as they went their way. So like us to

think about this, Zacharias and Elizabeth were faithfully performing the

priestly duties they were called to. Joseph and Mary lived

in faithfulness to God and each other. Simeon and Anna

both lived faithful, fervent lives as they waited for the

consolation of Israel. The shepherds were faithfully watching their sheep,

and the wise men faithfully followed the star that they

only saw because they were watching. Now we know with

some of these it wasn't like their lives were easy.

There was pain. Simeon talked about a sword piercing Mary's heart.

Zach Ries and Elizabeth lived with disappointment people. Not nearly

everyone believed Joseph and Mary's fantastical story, and some called

Jesus an illegitimate child. And if you back up to

the Old Testament and the prophets, so many prophets in

the Old Testament, many of them were persecuted as they

gave message of hope that the masses refused to listen to.

But the encouragement tasks, as we live our lives that

are full of joys and sorrows, with times of beauty

and times of pain, question is how do we how

do we live in hope as we face sickness, death, misunderstanding,

sorrows or just mundane life. How do we wait and hope?

I believe that it is faithfully living the life we

have been called to live. Examples above there's a priest,

there's a housewife, there's a carpenter, there are shepherds. While

keeping our eyes on the star, the light of the world,

we hope in the coming of the Lord. We have

a confidence and an assurance of God's promises. We hope

in new life and the resurrection, in new bodies without

pain and suffering. Job hoped for that he had confidence

in that in renewed minds, with no misunderstandings or depression

or disappointments. We hope for a life of joy with

all those that put their hope in Jesus. And we

hope in the promise of eternal life with the one

we put our hope in. Now. In closing, I'd like

to read two verses from the Old Testament that I

believe are maybe a comfort as we wait and hope,

as hopefully be joyfully wait and hope for the return

of our Savior and Redeemer. I'd like to read Isaiah forty,

verse thirty one. And this has to do with waiting.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall

run and not be weary, and they shall walk and

not faint. And I'd like to read yet from Jeremiah

twenty nine eleven. And I'd like to read this in

the NIB, for I know the plans I have for you,

declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to

harm you, plans to give you a hope for the future.

So God bless you all as you faithfully wait in

hope