Hope That Keeps on Giving

Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church,

Henley, and thanks so much for tuning into our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast,

you can have an encounter with Jesus that'll

change your life. And now get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. Henley, how

are we doing? Good. Hey, if we haven't met before,

my name's Mike. I am kind of one of the passers

here. I am... I had the privilege with my wife,

Jenny, to be the lead passer over in counter

Adelaide. So I'm at Enfield in Henley, but I'm

at Enfield most of the time, and most of you

know that anyway. So I won't dwell on that too

much, but how good is it to be here? Be by the

beach and see all your smiling faces. Enjoy whether

that's not too hot and not too cold. Man, shirts

and jeans in November. What a dream. So it's

Christmas. Big Christmas fans, anybody? Yeah.

Yeah, I love Christmas. The carols, the presents,

the annual tinsel war between Passegen and Emma.

What have you got planned this year? You haven't

planned anything yet, have you? No, you haven't

planned anything yet. Okay, so it's great, but

this is legendary. Ask Emma. It goes back a long

time. And this is great to be able to kick off

our Christmas series, The Gift That Keeps On

Giving. And I wanted to do that by using the

framework of the classic Charles Dickens novel,

A Christmas Carol. People familiar with The Christmas

Carol? Obviously, it's based on the legendary

Muppets movie, The Muppets Christmas Carol. And

Dickens then adapted that to a book, I believe,

afterwards. And it's a story about wealth and

loneliness and the things that really matter.

And perhaps most famously, the thing we take

from the ghosts of Christmas is past and present

and future. So what I'm going to do is share

a message about hope today and try and push it

into that framework. And then you guys can tell

me afterwards if it lands or not. But that's

the aim today. And I want to talk about the way

we tend to get haunted by the ghosts of our past

and our present and our future and how this impacts

the way we interact with the idea of hope. Is

that all right? Good. All right. I'm going to

pray and then we're going to get into the teaching

texts. Let's pray together. Loving God, as we

gather together on this last day of spring, we

just want to be ready for what you do. We're

coming into Christmas, Lord. We're in Advent.

The King is coming. And as we look ahead to that,

Lord, we want to look out above and beyond ourselves.

We want to look to something that is bigger and

deeper and richer than us. We want to be aware

of the needs of those around us, physical and

spiritual, Lord. Help us to be people who are

generous in our minds and lives. But more than

that, help us to be attentive to you, to your

spirit, to what you're stirring up among us.

So we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Okay. Isaiah chapter 11, if you've got your Bibles

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

with you, I want to encourage you to just be

in the Word with me, because if you get distracted

because you're reading your Bible, like I'm fine

with that, like I'm cool with that, you can do

that. So outside of the Gospels, and the Gospels

are the four biographies of Jesus, Matthew, Mark,

Luke and John, there's no book that talks about

Jesus more than Isaiah does. It's full of this

prophetic, future -oriented thinking about what

is to come. And in the passage today, that's

what we hear. geared around the concept of the

Messiah. Moving to the side so I feel like I

don't have something between me as I look at

you. Plus I'm not as tall as the rest of you

guys at Henley. Like we banished a lot of our

tall people to Henley when we planted you guys

but we've got more tall people at Enfield now.

Almost seems like the problem might not be the

tall people. Anyway, all of this in Isaiah chapter

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

11 is geared around the concept of the Messiah.

Everybody say Messiah. Messiah, all right, say

it like you mean it next time. Messiah is a Hebrew

word that means anointed one. So literally, it

means that a person has been smeared with oil

on their head. And when I say smeared, like dripping,

it talks sometimes in the scriptures about the

way the oil is dripping down into the beard.

So that's like a lot of olive oil on a person's

head. And it is a declaration that this person

has been chosen and equipped by God for a particular

task. So in the Old Testament, kings and priests

are anointed, but this is not... an anointed

one, this is the anointed one. You know, it's

that singular definite article which helps you

to know this is not like one of a hundred anointed

ones, this is the guy. There's only one Messiah,

one of one, and in the New Testament, well that

was written in Greek, not in Hebrew, so they

don't use the word Messiah, they use a different

word, that word is Christ. So when you hear the

word Christ as in Jesus Christ, Jesus the Christ,

Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the anointed one. So

we understand that the Jewish people are waiting

for a Messiah. And they don't know him as Jesus

yet in the time of Isaiah. They just know they

are waiting for God's chosen blessed leader to

come and save them. They're living in a time

of war and division, which we can't relate to

at all. The Jewish people are split into two

nations, not one. The southern nation of Judah

and the northern nation of Israel and Israel

was coming to attack Judah. They're meant to

be one family, the twelve tribes of Israel, but

instead they're split and they're attacking one

another. This is the direct opposite of what

God longs for, for His people. And so the prophet

Isaiah, he comes to the king of Judah Ahaz and

he says, listen Ahaz, let me tell you something.

I know this seems overwhelming, but God has promised

that He will give you a sign that you will overcome.

Don't worry about it. Look to the sign and Ahaz

says, I hear you prophet Isaiah, you know God,

you're with God, you hear Him clearly, you speak

about Him, so I'm going to ignore you and I'm

going to ally myself with the king of Assyria

instead. This much powerful pagan nation, which

I'm sure in no way could come back to haunt me

down the line. spoilers. It comes back to haunt

him down the line. King Ahaz chooses politics

instead of the prophetic and so he allies himself

with the Assyrians. The Assyrians smash Israel

and take them into captivity and then they smash

Judah and take Judah into captivity and so Assyria

has completely absorbed the people of God at

this point. And this would then happen again

by the Babylonians later. And so, the reason

I tell you all of this is not just to show that

I've researched it. It's to show you that the

context of Isaiah does not seem like a context

of hope. As we talk about hope today, this does

not feel like a context of hope. As you're allying

yourself politically and getting smashed, as

you read through the 66 chapter behemoth. As

you journey through the life and death of four

kings, some who are good, some who are bad, as

you journey through the enslavement of God's

people, it's hard to imagine this as a story

of hope, yeah? But it is. The Messiah is all

about hope. So let's look at the three ghosts

to see what I mean. So the first ghost in A Christmas

Carol is the ghost of Christmas past. And the

past is the first perspective Isaiah wants us

to see, the ghost of hopes gone by. Isaiah spends

most of this passage talking about the future.

Yes, the promise of Messiah still to come. But

he begins with this verse, then a shoot will

grow from the stump of Jesse and a branch from

his roots will bear fruit. Okay. Well, the hope

of this Messiah, this promised Saviour, Isaiah

says, is going to come from Jesse's family. And

that's a way of saying it's going to come from

King David's family. Jesse was his father. That's

just the way they talked back then. And this

is really important because for the Jews, David

was not only their greatest King, but he was

the King who God had said, someone from your

family line, David, will be on the throne forever.

Now, just think about that. Because during my

lifetime, it felt like Queen Elizabeth II was

going to rule forever just by herself. And then

she didn't. She died. It happens. And so... Every

time it seems like you've got this dynasty that's

going to last forever, it ends. They all end.

But the line of David, God said, would never

ever end. So setting aside how big that is, how

unique that is, there's a much bigger problem.

And that is this, there's two kings, not one

right now. And both of those kings are about

to be off the throne because they're making mistakes

around Assyria. So where is the hope in that?

How do you take future hope seriously? when the

past hope people are pointing back to has failed

you. You ever felt that way? Like you've had

something in the past and people promise that

something is gonna work for you and then it just

doesn't. Because I gotta tell you as a pastor,

one of the things I see the most is people trapped

by the hurts of their past. By real or perceived

hurts, by broken promises. by abuse. And the

greatest trap people have is the one they set

for their own minds and their own lives. So we've

done something fascinating and damaging in our

culture in the last 30 odd years. What we've

done is we've decided that victimhood and sainthood

are the same thing. Let me explain this before

you boo me off the stage. 40 years ago, if somebody

claimed they'd been wronged 40 years ago, we

would probably be inclined to disbelieve them.

right, if they claim they're a victim. So that

began to get corrected and that needed to be

corrected. Let's be really clear on this. That

needed to be corrected. People were being overlooked.

We started pushing for these voices to be heard

as they needed to be. Then we started trusting

the voice of the victim more than the voice of

the person they might be accusing. And I've got

to say that needed to happen too. That's a slight

overcorrection, but what tends to happen is if

you don't overcorrect a little bit, you won't

actually get back to a healthy balance anyway.

So you kind of got to overcorrect a little bit.

Then what happened is people recognised that

by playing the victim card, they could actually

earn credibility. And that is a new and toxic

dilemma. That is not one we've seen before. That

meant that people started recognising that to

be a victim could be advantageous. So we went

from supporting the victim to actively searching

out ways we could become the victim. We started

to diagnose every person we could, affirm every

pain people claim, but here's the really damaging

part. We told them to feel it and sit in it and

live in it. Just live in the pain guys, recognise

it, look at it, pull it apart. This is deconstruction

Christianity for your feelings. And so by living

in that, this is what we did. We told people

to live in their past trauma. And I say this

next sentence as somebody who has diagnosed depression

and undiagnosed ADHD. And that's self -diagnosed,

but every time I say it, nobody goes, not you,

Mike. No one said that yet. So I say all that

to give you context for this next line. We want

diagnoses more than we want responsibilities.

We want to be able to justify our childish behaviour

or our disobedience to God by blaming what has

happened to us. But the great theologian Will

Smith put it this way, something might not be

your fault, but it's still your responsibility.

So, for example, someone insulting your wife

at an awards show is not your fault, but the

decision to walk up on stage and slap them is

still your responsibility. Okay? He didn't know

that quote would come back to haunt him like

that, but it really did. It really did. So if

you're here, and somebody, you're here and you've

had a past hurt happen to you, I'm so genuinely

sorry. I promise you, I have sat with people

who have gone through extraordinary pain. Extraordinary

pain. And I mean it when I say what has been

done to you is not your fault. But the choice

of what to do next is your responsibility. And

you do have the capacity to make that choice

for yourself. So here's the thing, do you have

the courage to process that pain with a therapist,

not just to open it up, but then to go and now

what? Or with a pastor, with Tim or Tex or Ash,

do you have the courage to do that, to acknowledge

it and refuse to let it crush you? Because that

is where hope is found. Not in going something

I hoped for in the past has been crushed, but

by recognising that you had the capacity to do

something bad in the future. Because most people

who have done something extraordinary in this

world have been through immense pain, but have

come through the other side. They have not let

it define their character. I liked Kori Ten Boom.

Do people know who Kori Ten Boom is? She was

a Dutch... refugee, I suppose, but she was a

prisoner of war in the Second World War. And

the reason she became a prisoner of war is because

she was hiding Jews in her house in Amsterdam,

I think she was. And she eventually got taken

off to Ravensbruck, which was a concentration

camp in Germany. And while she was there, she

was consistently searching for things to praise.

And eventually she started... Well, actually,

it was her sister, Betsy, who taught her to praise

God for the fleas in their jail cell. That's

how hard they were looking for things to praise.

And that ended up being something really powerful.

Now, I'm not saying all of this just to, like,

make Tex feel better by telling people to take

responsibility for things that they need to take

responsibility for. Like, I could feel him air

-high -fiving while I said that. But here's why

I say it. because our past hope is all caught

up in our past pain. And if we can't get past

our past pain, we can't come to a future hope

because it's all wrapped up the same. Anytime

you've had a hope in the past and you felt let

down by someone else, or even by yourself, the

temptation is to say never again. And God's saying,

no, no, don't do that. Isaiah says, I know things

look bad. I know you're struggling to see hope

anywhere. And it looks like all the trees are

being cut down throughout the Bible, throughout

the Psalms in particular. You hear these Psalms

about towering oaks of righteousness where the

oaks are being cut down. And I see that there

are stumps, but out of the stump will grow a

green shoot. There is life that comes out of

it. The reason I know this isn't an AI photo

is because under all the headlines for things

growing out of stumps was how to stop things

growing out of stumps. All the Google pictures

were like, this is how you should try and stop

things growing out of stumps. But Isaiah's point

is this, it may seem like the people of Israel

are cut down, but something will come out of

the roots. Now there is something in your life,

a pain that God can turn to eternal goodness

if you let it. if you let it. It can be a great

strength. Let's move on to the ghost of Christmas

present. This is the ghost that takes Ebeneezer

Scrooge around to show him what life could look

like to him because it's happening in the lives

of others. And this is the comparison game, right?

This is the comparison game. The ghost of our

hopes in the present is where our alternatives

haunt us. It's FOMO, it's choice anxiety, and

in its comparison, which is the thief of our

joy. I don't know if you've heard that line before,

but comparison is the thief of joy. If you constantly

ask yourself what someone else has and why you

don't have, you'll feel crushed all the time.

You'll feel miserable all the time. Gratitude

is the antidote to comparison. But it's also

seeming trapped by our circumstances and our

situations. It's presuming that where we are

now is where we're destined to stay. And I don't

think, as I look around, our culture has much

hope. If you're a Gen Z in the room, Like, I

can tell you guys are Gen X's kids because you're

just a little bit more cynical than Gen Y's are.

And you could say millennials are ridiculously

optimistic without any reason and I'll buy that.

But also, there's been something that's happened

over the last decade and just these series of

events that have made us feel like, what's the

point in hope? This isn't gonna work, right?

We've gone through COVID, fears about climate

change, some unusual global political appointments,

growing loneliness and isolation. Polarization,

cost of living crisis and housing prices that

go up and up and up and up and up. Where's the

hope in that? Well, I don't see much hope in

that. That's not where I look for hope. And I'm

not surprised that people are despondent. I'm

surprised why Christians are despondent. We are

meant to be the ambassadors of hope. We're not

meant to look around at housing prices and go,

well, I guess my life is ruined. Of course not.

If our lives are dependent upon housing prices,

what are we going to do if there is a war and

your house gets demolished? What do we do when

that is taken away? If you put your hope in something

that is tactile and can be taken away from you

at any moment, it's not really hope at all. It's

not really hope at all. Friends, the hope of

Jesus comes into the world at Christmas and so

do you now because you have the Holy Spirit in

you as well. And so this was Isaiah's message

to King Ahaz. He said, Ahaz, do not trust in

political systems, trust in God. God is the only

thing that will last. And Ahaz is a Jew. He knows

that he's meant to be one of God's chosen people.

He's a leader who's meant to understand that

only God can rescue his people. For goodness

sake, Ahaz is the political system. What have

you been putting your trust in recently that

hasn't been working out for you? What's been

going on as you look around you? Because Isaiah's

context is grim, remember? But we've got to remember.

Five chapters earlier, Isaiah 6, we hear one

of the most beautiful passages in Scripture.

Isaiah has a vision of the throne room of Jesus

and in that he sees the feet of God, he sees

the train of his robe filling the temple and

he has these two amazing things happen. He has

a vision of the glory and power of God and then

God forgives him his sins and sends him out of

mission. Sound familiar to anybody? That's the

same thing that's happened to you. The same thing

that's happened to you. You've got the glory

of God inside you, the Holy Spirit, and you've

been forgiven and sent out on mission. So listen,

let me give you a definition of hope just to

show you this isn't about wishful thinking. And

it comes from Timothy Keller, not me. So, you

know, take it seriously. Mere optimism assumes

that bad circumstances will improve at the passing

of time. In contrast, hope assumes that God is

faithful and is convinced that He is able to

bring about His good purpose. Hope assumes that

God is faithful. Not the circumstances around

you, God. You're not trusting in like, like,

if we come to the next election and go, I know

if I vote just right, everything will get better.

Like, we don't believe that, right? None of us,

none of us are silly enough to think that. But

sometimes we let ourselves go down that path.

And I can promise you, there are people in your

workplace or uni or family, and they do think

that way because they don't have another place

to put their hope in. They haven't been shown

Jesus. The beauty of seeing Jesus is you can

sit back and go, I choose to engage in the political

system because I want to be part of a solution,

not a problem. However, I'm not looking to that

as my ultimate source of hope. I'm looking at

one of the ways we can make our society a better

place, hopefully step by step, but no matter

who is in government. My ultimate hope and authority

is in Jesus. That's where it all is. That's the

only thing that will work. Friends, the ghost

of our hopes in the present is when we lack perspective.

Instead of being trapped by our past, this time

we're trapped by circumstances and we're convinced

that our current reality is the only reality.

You ever been there where you're like, I just

can't get out of where I am? I was talking to

a friend this morning at the morning service

at Enfield who does AA. And he said to me, I'm

almost up to step five and I need someone to

confess to. I was like, that's awesome, man.

I'd love to be there for you. He's like, I don't

know when I'll get there. I was like, oh, OK.

He's like, I meant to be there and I'm close,

but I keep getting stuck. I was like, oh, OK.

All right. What can I do to help? But he feels

stuck in his circumstances. He wants to move

forward. He sees how close it is. He can almost

taste it. But he's stuck because he feels like

his situation around him controls him. And sometimes,

this is a person who lives a bit rough. And so

for people like that, sometimes they feel like

their circumstances are totally in control of

them. And that's understandable, but it's not

accurate. You feel me? You with me? Alright,

this is what Romans 12 reminds us. The Bible

points to a true reality. Rejoice in our confident

hope. Be patient in trouble and keep on praying.

Just hear that combination. Hope, trouble and

prayer. Okay, so this isn't about denying reality.

Trouble is right there. Rejoice in our confident

hope, but be patient in the trouble that, you

know, again, Let's add some words in here. That

we know is coming because Jesus promised us,

in this life you will have trouble. It's coming.

And keep on praying in the midst of it all. Don't

be afraid of that. Keep on praying. It's not

about denying reality, it's about choosing the

greater one. So let's move on to the third ghost,

the ghost of future hopes. The ghost of Christmas

hopes we barely dare believe in. Now, this is

where Isaiah really leans in. He really leans

in. This is what he says about the Messiah. The

Messiah is coming and here's what he will be

like. He'll be filled with the Spirit of God

for wisdom and understanding, for counsel and

might, for knowledge and fear of the Lord. That's

a lot of good stuff. Can we jump to the next

slide Ash? He will delight in obedience to God.

Now the word obey is mentioned 87 times in the

Old Testament and most of the time it feels like

it's just in Leviticus like obey the Lord your

God or else and you're like okay yeah it's a

bit heavy but okay but here it says he will delight

in obeying God he'll bring him joy. He will offer

fairness and justice for the poor and exploited.

Isaiah is specific to say, God is saying that

if you feel overlooked and exploited and beaten

down, the Messiah is here for you specifically.

You are not overlooked. He will have the power

of God in him, which means he's not just going

to say he can do this, he will actually do it.

And he will show the righteousness and truth

of God through his life. And then he goes on

to show the Messiah's influence and I love this

language. In that day, this is verse 6, The cow

will graze near the bear. The cub and the calf

will lie down together. The lion will eat hay

like a cow. The baby will play safely near the

hole of a cobra. Yes, a little child will put

its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm.

If you can't get the picture by this point, I'm

not sure I can help you anymore. The idea is

that no matter what you see around you, actually

a time of hope is coming that will be true and

genuine peace. Fear will be gone. Hope will be

all that remains. And because of our past pain,

and because of our present circumstances around

us, we can struggle to hold onto hope sometimes.

That's very real. And it's very understandable.

But again, it's not accurate. You and I, friends,

we live in a time... and a place of more opportunity

and more possibility and more safety and more

security than ever before. And we simultaneously

live in a time of more anxiety and depression

and uncertainty than ever before. That doesn't

work. That doesn't make sense. Yet here we are.

It's because we are wounded by our past hurts

and we're convinced that we're trapped in our

previous circumstances. and our present circumstances

rather. But it's simply not true. So what do

we do about this? Because we have somebody who

has transcended our present circumstances and

healed our past wounds. We have Jesus. Now, when

I say we have Jesus, I'd like you to hear me.

I don't mean that in a... Like, I'm meant to

say this, right? This is what I... I'm a preacher.

I'm a pastor. If I don't say we have Jesus, like,

I get docked points. I have to give the chocolate

back. But this is what I mean. I mean that Jesus

at Christmas came as a baby boy to live in the

flesh and experience the fullness of life and

its joys and its struggles. He was persecuted

as a baby and forced to flee the country with

his family as a refugee. He has past trauma he

could have leaned on. But instead... He became

an advocate for justice and the poor, just as

he promised. So he turned any trauma he could

have had into goodness and hope for others. Jesus

was born into a situation in the Roman Empire,

a place that was distinctly unfriendly for the

Jewish people, but he was also born as a Messiah

into a Jewish people who wanted a particular

kind of Messiah, and he wasn't it. He did not

fit the bill that the Jewish people were looking

for and so he was persecuted not only by the

Romans but also by the Jews. So Jesus, knowing

exactly the kind of King he was, coming into

a place that crushed other kings, still set himself

up because he knew the mission was directly from

God and that his mission was not just about the

hope of his own life but about the hope of others.

And friends, that's part of the thing here. If

you look around and you look back and you go,

I can't have hope because of what's happening

to me, friend, it's not all about you. It's not

all for you. It's not all to you. All of life

is about how you can love others through God.

All of life. When you do that, oh my gosh, it's

a relief. It is such a relief. You stop being

so self -centered. At least I do. Jesus did not

allow his present circumstances, fear of the

Roman authorities, fear of the Jewish authorities,

or even the knowledge that one of his best friends

would betray him to shape his circumstances.

If you have experienced betrayal or pain, if

you have felt like your circumstances are overwhelming,

Jesus knows that. He understands it. He knew

the hope for which he had been born into the

world was bigger than life itself. bigger than

the world's hope for itself, a bigger burden

than anything we will ever carry. But that is

not why we have a future hope. We have a future

hope because Christ has been raised from the

dead. Now think about it. Think about it. One

of the reasons we struggle to have hope is because

of past pain. Hope that's let us down. When we

struggle to see beyond our current situation,

that is what the world has tried to achieve in

its own strength seems hopeless. All the baby

boomers right now, no baby boomers in the room,

are they? Good. Okay. If they listen to the podcast,

oh, shouts to them. If they've learned to listen

to a podcast, they're probably doing it right.

But all the baby boomers that we are pointing

at and going, why have you collected all this

property? You're so greedy. You're so selfish.

Every one of them was a post Vietnam war flower

child with more idealism than anyone in our generation.

Every one of them. And now they are the quote

unquote enemy. This is what happens when we trust

in the systems of the world for our goodness

and hasn't made them happy No rich. Yes comfortable.

Yes, but any man go into an old folks home That

it comes for us all Money cannot insulate you

from pain Wealthy people when something goes

wrong. Holy smokes. I don't know what to do We

need a hope that is proven A hope that has proven

itself worthy of our trust. Jesus' birth, this

is the past, was the fulfillment of Isaiah's

prophecies. And by His life, in the present,

His teaching and His miracles and His healing,

He showed that He was the Messiah. All of that

was proof. Fulfillment of prophecy shows that

He is the Messiah. But Him dying on the cross,

total fulfillment of all the prophecies, it is

finished, but it wasn't finished. His life was

finished. That proved that He was who He said

He was, but it wasn't hope for us. It was just

proof that Jesus was who He said He was. That

was important because the next bit really mattered.

Our hope, if it ended on Good Friday, would be

very shallow. In fact, the apostle Paul puts

it this way in 1 Corinthians 15, and if you want

to read about the resurrection, 1 Corinthians

15, my friends, if our hope in Christ is only

for this life, we are more to be pitied than

anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has

been raised from the dead. Paul would go on to

say that because Christ has been raised from

the dead, this proves that the resurrection for

you after death will happen, not might, will.

Jesus' resurrection is proof of your future resurrection

and that is proof of future hope. Hope that is

still yet to come. Christ's birth is proof that

your past does not have to define your hope.

Christ's life is proof that your circumstances

do not have to define your hope. But Christ's

resurrection is proof that there is an ultimate

future hope for you and for me and for everybody

else. Present hope, past and present hope has

value and you can dare to hope again. You can

have true hope because of the resurrection of

Jesus. You should have hope because of the resurrection

of Jesus. That's the whole thing now as I come

to a close Some of you you're here today and

at some point you stopped hoping for something

better either because of a past pain or situations

that you're in right now, and you started believing

that this is as good as it gets and I don't know

I feel I actually feel like I'm speaking to someone

on the podcast today that you weren't here in

person today, and you're listening online because

you just couldn't. It's not that you couldn't

be bothered, you were just sort of done. If that's

you, I'm really speaking to you, believing God

wants to minister to you today. Sometimes it's

because we don't take responsibility for our

past. Every single one of us, we've got to take

responsibility for who we are today. You can't

control the past, whether that's something you've

done. or something someone else has done to you

you can't control that you can only control the

future you've got to get up and hope for the

future again and you as children of God are destined

for a future perfect hope that hope is available

for everybody in Christ but those last two little

words matter a lot in Christ if I was not in

Christ I don't think I would have hope I wouldn't

Because I've seen over 40 odd years what human

beings do to one another. Geez, we are awful.

Really, at the heart of it, we're selfish. We

are in it for ourselves. And I would question

the purpose of existence because I would look

around and I would go, really? Like, this is

what we're in for? If I did not have Jesus, I

just wouldn't understand it. And if you're in

this room and you're an atheist, or you're listening

and you're an atheist, God bless you, but I don't

understand you. I really struggle to understand

you. So it doesn't mean I don't like you or respect

you. I just don't understand how you could go

through life, looking at the world around us,

the beauty and the pain and not recognize that

meaning is something we are constantly searching

for and pulling together. And every time we do

it, apart from Jesus, just falls through our

hands like sand. But we have a different hope.

We have a hope that is proven for life after

death because Jesus Christ did not just live

or perform miracles or heal or teach or die but

he was resurrected from the grave and he's ascended

to sit at the right hand of the Father and judge

the living and the dead. The future work of Jesus

points to your future hope. So tonight what I

want to do ...is this. I want to give people

an opportunity to be healed. I think the temptation

on a nice warm spring day... ...is we come here

and we get a bit drowsy and... ...we do things

out of habit and I get that. I'm glad people

are here out of habit. We need to be here out

of hope. This afternoon, here's what I want you

to do. You just take a moment to pray with me.

And just stretch your hands out in front of you

where you're sitting. I just encourage people

to do that as a sign of receiving something from

God. And I'm going to invite the Holy Spirit

to come. And I want to start praying and seeing

breakthroughs come in the Spirit of God. And

in a moment what I'm going to do is invite people

who feel like they need a particular healing

to lift their hands while everyone's eyes are

shut. And I'm just going to pray for you specifically.

Come Holy Spirit. Come Spirit of God. God, pour

yourself out today. We are here, we're stepping

into Christmas and there's excitement and sometimes

there's exhaustion as we come to the end of the

year. And just right now, first of all, before

we really get into it, for those of you, you're

here tonight and you're exhausted, God is saying,

I've got you. Let me wash over you with my peace.

Hallelujah. God, would you just rest on people

now? Let them soak up your presence. Thank you,

God. But God, tonight there are people in this

room who are wounded and hurting and needing

the healing of God. And if that's you, and you

know there's something that's gone on in your

life, either past hope that has really crushed

you or you're struggling to look beyond your

circumstances today or struggling to dream for

the future. Would you just lift up your hand

while everyone's eyes are shut? I just want to

pray for your healing. Yeah, that's great. That's

great. That's great. Anyone else in the room?

Everyone's eyes are shut. This is just you, me

and Jesus. Yeah, that's great. The power of God

is present to heal. Lord Jesus, for those who

have raised their hands today, would you pour

out your Spirit on them? Pour it out. Pour it

out. I see a picture of a waterfall. This is

not a dribble that is coming out of the Holy

Spirit. This is a waterfall of the love and presence

of God. The healing power of God. God, I just

want to speak first to the wounds that people

carry from the past. You're a God who binds up

the wounds of the brokenhearted. Lord, I just

see you coming down the tender hands of Jesus,

binding up the wounds people carry. The wounds

you have from the past, friend, will not define

you in the name of Jesus, but the love of Jesus,

the fact that He came into the world to identify

with your pain. Lord, for those who are carrying

wounds as they look around, they feel overwhelmed

by their situation today. Holy Spirit, would

you pour out on them so that they exhale and

breathe deep for the first time in a long time

and recognise that the situation they are in

does not have to define them. Their hope is not

defined by what they see. Because what is seen

is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal Holy

spirit come The freshness of your breath on those

people Thank you God Amen Amen. Hey, I know pastor

Tim's down here ready to pray if anyone would

like some personal prayer. But as we come into

this moment of worship and close off the service,

I just want to say I just prayed for people for

healing from past and present. I believe the

Holy Spirit is saying to you today encounter

Henley that the creativity within this congregation

is so powerful. You need to recognise the creative

spirit God has put within you and do something

about it. Now, creativity is not just playing

guitar or being like Josh and Emma who pretty

much cover all the creative arts between them,

I think. Creativity is entrepreneurship. Creativity

is dreaming something into existence. It is one

of the unique things about you as human beings.

Some of you have had a dream and you put it on

the shelf because it seemed too hard, but really

because you felt deflated by life. And God is

saying right now the Spirit of God is stirring

up dreams in this place. We cannot afford as

the people of God just to go with the flow and

trudge along with our heads down. We need to

lift up our eyes to what God has before us. There

are bigger dreams and greater days ahead. Would

you stand with me if you're able? We're gonna

worship. Josh and Emma are going to lead us and

I want to encourage you. What is it that God

is calling you to dream about for the future?

Your future hope. Your future hope, friends.

Thanks so much for tuning into this week's message.

If you felt challenged or need prayer, we'd love

to hear from you on Instagram at encounterhenley.

Or if you're interested in how you can support

this ministry, please go to our website encounteradelaide

.com .au. Thanks again for listening. God bless

you.