Hope Has a Name | Christmas Eve Service | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Lord, we thank you for your presence.

We thank you, God, for what this time is really all about.

It's that time where we can pause and reflect on that precious moment when Christ was born.

Heavenly Father, I pray, God, that you speak to us.

I pray, God, that your spirit, it encourages us, it challenges us, it inspires us.

Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus that you give us open eyes that we can see and recognize you.

Lord, I pray that you give us open ears that we can hear your voice amongst all the chatter.

And God, I pray for open hearts that we can receive everything that you have for us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

You can go ahead and take your seats at this time.

You know, church, since the creation of man, God has used his word as a way to shape our faith, to build culture, to to establish metrics of hope.

You see, when when man was created and they rebelled uh against God and created a fallen and broken world, and it was that in that moment that God spoke and he said, That I am going to bring forth a son, and that son is going to bring redemption.

It's going to defeat the consequences of sin.

It's going to allow mankind to once again be in his rightful place.

The Garden of Eden was God's vision for mankind from the very beginning.

This this sinless, perfect environment.

But that rebellion created a broken world that we now live in.

But God spoke a word and he said that the time was going to come when a man will be born and he's going to undo all the brokenness and the pain that so many of us see on a day-to-day basis.

From that moment forward, God would use prophets to declare what he was going to do.

When we read the Bible, we we see these varying scriptures that highlight what God is going to do.

And we heard earlier in the book of Isaiah how it how it communicates to us that there's going to be a moment when a son will be born, a child will be given, and he's going to be provided to the world, and he's going to be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, Prince of Peace.

This is led up to this very moment.

This moment that we all celebrate, it's the it's the culmination of God's promise being presented to mankind.

The Gospel of Luke chapter 2 catalogues this moment really well.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

It says it here in Luke chapter 2, verse number 1.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

It says, And it came to pass in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

This census first took place while Corinius was governor of Syria.

So all went to be registered, everyone to his own town.

Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary and his his betrothed wife, who was with child.

So it was, while they were there, the days were complete for her to be delivered, and she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for him in the inn.

Now there was in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.

Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid.

For behold, I bring you good tidings and great joy to all people.

To all people.

There's an emphasis that this is meant for all people.

This is the gospel.

The gospel is meant for everyone.

If it's not good news for all, it's not good news at all.

It's for all people.

For there is born to you on this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

This will be the sign to you.

You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, laying in a manger, and suddenly there was an angel, a multitude of heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on the earth peace and goodwill toward men.

So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.

I want you to see this compare and contrast in the response of this idea that the Messiah, the one who was expected, was going to be presented, and we have the innkeeper who said, I don't have room for it.

Versus how the shepherds said, Let us go at once and go check out exactly what has been done for us.

What an amazing image! What amazing moment that this idea that they were familiar with in the in the writings of Isaiah, that Emmanuel, God with us, this moment that the entire world had been waiting for, had happened in this backwoods town that had opportunities for everyone to respond to it.

The world was holding its breath and waiting for this moment, this moment when the Messiah would come and fix everything.

I'm not sure if you've ever had such deep anticipation that it seems to rob you of your sleep.

Moments where you've been so excited and so expected that you can't even rest because you cannot wait to get your hands on what you believe you're going to receive.

I I think we have some children in the room, and so we all know that that feeling, that anxiousness, that that desire of waiting for that morning when you can get open to the presence and see the things that you have been, that you put on your wish list, the things that you've been expecting and anticipating.

It reminds me of many years ago as I shared with you guys earlier.

I was not the most patient child, man, husband, father, pastor.

That's scenario that you've got to pray for me in.

I'm I was not the most patient.

So I remember being at the tender age of about 10 years old.

I think it was around uh 1985-ish, 1986.

And so there was only one thing, only one thing only that I truly desired for Christmas, and that was a Nintendo game system.

That's all I wanted.

That was the only thing I wanted.

I I coordinated, I bribed, I begged my mom.

I said, Mom, this is all I want.

Because everybody else is going to have them, everybody else is talking about it.

This is going to be a major shift for us because we went from the ColecoVision to the Atari 2600, and now we're about to upgrade into the Nintendo era.

And so, Mom, this is all I absolutely want for Christmas.

I didn't have any context of what the value of things were back then, but what I can tell you is um it it premiered at$180.85, which means with inflation, that's basically still pretty much what game systems cost now.

It was still$460 in today's terminology.

So that's still pretty expensive.

My mom is a masterful gift giver.

She is masterful at it.

But she she came to me and she wanted to manage my expectations.

So she told me, she said, hey, I just want to let you know, that that this particular gift is unattainable, that that we're not gonna be able to get this this go-round.

She didn't explain why.

And so for me, I I was put into despair, a moment of existential crisis as a 10-year-old, being the only kid on the block that could conceivably not have this game system.

What am I gonna do with my life?

I felt that my life was over.

I had about a good two or three days of just feeling as if my mom didn't love me anymore, wondering if there was any hope at all in the world.

Then we got about two weeks out from Christmas, and and my mom again, she would wrap up every single item.

When I say every single item, she would wrap up batteries, she would wrap up a keychain, she would, the Christmas tree would be filled with so many things, and you were just excited to have all this stuff.

And so, two weeks before Christmas, our tree is getting filled with all these different items.

And so I would I would casually go and pick up the box and shake it.

I I would casually rip off the corner of a box, look and see what color was there, then go and look at the Toys R Us or Sears and Robux manual to see if I can match whatever color that was in that bottom corner with said item that was there, because I was making sure that I wanted to see what my mom had for me.

That was just the way I was wired.

But then there was this one gift, this one item that was in this small rectangular box, and I couldn't place it.

I shook it, I I I looked at it, I couldn't do it.

So I had to do a little bit of a deeper dive.

I turned that bad boy over, I looked around, and I surgically began to remove the tape.

I removed that tape.

And I'm looking around.

I'm sorry, mom.

My mom watched some of these messages, she's like, I had no idea that you were that bad.

I promise you, this is the worst of the gifts.

But I remember removing the tape really, really, really slow.

And as I began to open it up, I saw something that completely surprised me.

It was a video game.

It was Super Mario Brothers, to be exact.

So then my Sherlock Holmes deductive reasoning began to kick in.

Why would she provide me with a video game for a game system that she wasn't going to get me?

It was my aha moment.

It is then that I knew that my mom indeed had planned on and had already acquired the Nintendo game system.

My life was saved, my social network was once again strong.

But now I had to shift this moment of excitement and making sure that I didn't give it away to my mom that I knew.

But I was so excited.

I went from being in the pits of despair to now having this sense of confidence.

I had this sense of like joy, I had this sense of peace, I had this sense of like, man, like I'm so looking forward to Christmas morning because I already know what's under the tree.

It's this confident expectation because I got a glimpse of what was to come.

You see, I think when we when we look at Scripture that we need to begin to look at the Word of God as if there are promises from God to us.

And we are to live our lives with the same confident expectation.

This idea and truly believing that if God said it, I will see it.

So I wake up every day with this confident expectation.

See, confident expectation, that is the definition of hope.

We live lives where we are establishing our hope with this belief that we are going to see what God says.

See, there's a reason why God speaks the language of promises.

It's because he wants to make sure that we understand that he is good for his word.

He wants to make sure that we understand that God is going to fulfill what he says.

You ever notice how when you get a check that's called a promissory note?

You write the check and your signature says, I promise that when you take this to the bank, it's not going to turn into a spalding and bounce.

I promise you that this is going to clear.

When we sign our credit card transactions, that signature is our way of promising that we are going to pay the bill.

God's word is his promissory note to mankind saying that if I said it, I will absolutely do it.

If I promised it to you, then you should have a confident expectation that you're going to see it in your life.

But here's the the reality.

Sometimes faith and and hope, they can they can they can sometimes be interchanged.

But I want to make a quick distinction that our faith is built on what God has done.

Our hope is fueled on what God is going to do.

Our faith is anchored in what God has already done, but my hope is built on what I know God is going to do.

And I believe that there are moments where we can have our faith, but we start to lose our hope.

It's possible for you to still have faith in God, but lose hope that you're ever going to see Him move in your marriage.

It's possible for you to have faith in your job, but not feel like you're going to ever see God move in the area of your finances.

It's possible for you to have faith in some areas but begin to lose hope.

And we live in a world that the enemy loves to leverage situations to drain us of our hope.

Every time we turn around, there's a new circumstance, there's a new crisis, there's a new pain point.

And if we're not careful, our hope tank will slowly begin to deplete.

Our faith anchors us, but our hope is what moves us forward.

And if we're not careful, when our hope tank is empty, we stop moving forward.

We stop moving forward.

And here's what that can look like.

We have these amazing devices that are at our fingertips.

We have um we have our our cell phones, we we have our we have our iPads, and in the palm of our hand, we have access to the entire world.

I can I can touch base with friends that are in Zimbabwe while simultaneously touching bass with my family, while checking my bank account, while looking up a scripture.

We have the power of the world sometimes in our hands.

But you know, that item means nothing if it's not charged.

Looking at you, Megan.

You can have access to the maps that can direct you on where you need to go, but if you leave your house and and that thing's not charged up, it changes the way that you interact with your phone, doesn't it?

I I remember when my mom first got her her iPhone, her first iPhone, and she was complaining to me and said, like, the battery keeps dying.

And then when I finally got a chance to see her, it's because she had a whole lot of apps running in the background.

Literally, every app that she ever opened in the history of her having a phone was all running in the background, and it was just draining the battery as soon as she would turn it on.

My my question is, what are the things that are running in the background that is draining us of our hope?

What are the things that we're looking at in the world right now that every single moment we're we're being exposed to things that seems to constantly drain us?

Our our faith, it anchors us, but our hope is what moves us forward.

And I believe that seasons like this that allow us to slow down, to look at the things that are draining us, to close them out, focus on the right thing so that we have the energy and strength in order for us to move forward.

See, hope, it moves us forward.

God never intended for us to be at a standstill.

Hope moves us forward.

That even when we see pain and suffering, hope continues to move us forward.

This idea and believing that what God says I'm going to see, and I've walked, I wake up every morning with this confident expectation that I am going to experience hope.

One of the most common things that we hear in our current culture is that people are losing hope.

They're in the pits of despair, it's hopelessness, it's moments where people feel as if it's not going to get any better than this.

But I believe that it's in this season that we're meant to be reminded that God is not done with you yet.

The Bible says it in John chapter 10 that the enemy comes to kill, to steal, and to destroy.

John 10 · chapter mention

But God comes to give you life and life to its fullest, or life to an abundance.

That is not a prosperity scripture.

When you break down what that word fullest or abundance is, it means a life where you move forward.

God's desire has never been for us to be at a standstill.

It's for us to understand He wants us to continuously always be moving forward.

What are the areas in our lives that we stop moving forward?

What are the things we've been exposed to that have drained us of our hope that has caused us to stop moving forward?

When Jesus was born, he was the culmination of the promises of God, this idea that salvation was coming, that that healing was coming, that redemption was coming, that restoration was coming, that that this idea of hope was finally going to arrive, but it wasn't meant for them to stand still.

He wanted them to continue to move forward.

You know, when we think about whenever we find out that someone is expecting a child, we say, okay, they're they're expecting.

And with that expectation, there becomes a lot of preparation.

You begin to you begin to reallocate how you're going to decorate rooms, you begin to put things in position to prepare for what you've been expecting.

But imagine if the arrival of the child, we stopped living a life of expectation.

Imagine when the child is born, we're like, okay, the child is here, we're all done.

When Jesus was born, that was just the beginning of his mission.

And I believe that for some of us, that sometimes we do happen to get a glimpse of what God has for us, and then we take our foot off the gas and we become content.

But what if God is saying, What I have shown you is merely a glimpse of what I have for you, but you gotta keep moving forward.

You gotta keep moving forward.

That maybe you've seen some good things, keep moving forward.

Maybe you've seen some bad things, but keep moving forward.

Maybe you've had some success, but keep moving forward.

Maybe you've had some challenges, but keep moving forward.

The idea of hope is this confident expectation that what God has started in me, He is not done yet, and I am compelled to keep moving forward, to live a life where we're going to continuously move forward.

See, when we look at this passage, I believe we see this tension that is created when we see that moment when Jesus shows up, the source of our hope.

That that moment when Jesus arrives and we see for the innkeeper.

It was a busy time.

As we heard in the text, there was a big census going on.

So there was a lot of travelers in town.

And so the Bible says that when Mary, who's very, very pregnant, and and her husband and her fiance Joseph show up, that he looks at them and he says, I'm sorry, you guys don't have a reservation.

I don't have room for you.

You're gonna you're gonna have to you're gonna have to go out here in the barn and and good luck with all of that.

On the other side of the scale, we have these shepherds who are at work working the night shift, and this angel interrupts their regularly scheduled program and gives them this good news, and their response is okay, let's go.

I'm willing to drop everything to go and see about Jesus.

Here's the distinction that I want to share with all of us.

For this culture, they all were anticipating and expecting the arrival of the Messiah.

That was not a rare idea.

From scripture to scripture, there was this idea that God was going to send a king, a messiah, who was gonna make the world what it should be.

So the idea of the Messiah wasn't anything new.

But for the innkeeper, when Jesus shows up still in his mother's womb, the innkeeper didn't recognize and discern the Messiah because maybe he didn't show up in the form that he expected, and because of that, he didn't make room for him.

How often does God show up in ways that we don't expect?

And because we don't recognize him, or because it's not convenient, we dismiss him and the miracle is not born inside of our home.

Who are the people that God sends into our life?

And it doesn't look as if that's something that can be significant to us, but because it doesn't look the way we think it should look, we dismiss it and we're missing out on the miracle.

Who are the who are the environments or the job opportunities that God presents to us, and you're saying to yourself, man, that's that's a lateral move, or that may be a little bit of a pay decrease.

I'm not I'm not going to do that, but what if that's the very environment that God wanted to get you into that's going to set you up for what you're ultimately called to do?

I've I've seen more often than not that when God shows up in your life, it doesn't look the way that you think it's going to look.

And my prayer for all of us is that we can discern and be sensitive to those moments and that we don't dismiss the miracle.

That we don't want to miss out on what God has for us.

But for the shepherds, they were willing to drop everything that they had.

Jesus interrupted their work schedule, but he was willing to interrupt everything that they had and drop it to pursue what God had for them.

And my prayer is for all of us is that when Jesus shows up in our everyday lives, is that we're willing to drop, make adjustments, and say, I'm going to make room for what God has for me because I don't want the miracle to be born outside of my home.

I don't want the miracle to be born outside of my family.

I'm willing to do what I need to do to make room for what God has for me.

God wants us to continuously move forward.

He wants us to be people who are filled with hope, who are always looking for opportunities to move forward.

You know, when I when I think about when I think about back in 1985-ish, when I when I got my game system, when I opened it up, I remember looking at it for about two minutes in shock and awe on Christmas morning.

And my mom said, You know, you gotta still hook it up, right?

So I snapped out of it.

And I took it out of a box and I and I plugged it in and I hooked it up to the television, and now I was introduced into this whole new world, playing Super Mario Brothers and these other games.

When we went back to school, I'm talking with my friends about it.

We we began to we began to exchange games.

We began, it it shaped everything that we did.

We would share games and when it didn't work, we'd have to shake it and blow in it.

Anybody remember that?

Like we we had to we had to do what we had to do to try to make it work.

All of those things was a part of the life we had because now I had this thing I would have been hoping for, and it changed me.

I subscribed to Nintendo Power magazine and I would get updates and tips on trips on how to make sure that I could successfully um beat the game in a certain time period and get the bonus points.

I I had to read the manual to be exposed to the things.

Things that I had access to.

I had a different community that I began to talk to.

I talked a different language.

It shifted everything inside of me.

And I wonder when we have an encounter with Jesus, is it changing the way that we talk?

Is it changing the way that we interact with people?

Are we finding a community that we can talk to about it?

Are we finding people that we can begin to invite to come over so they can participate in what we have?

What I'm saying to us is that when Jesus shows up in our world, it's not just for us, but it's meant for it to change everything in our lives.

We should never have an encounter with God and walk away exactly the same.

And this idea of understanding that my faith is built on what God has done, but my hope is on what God is going to do.

And my biggest prayer for every single one of us is for us to recognize it's you to keep moving forward.

God is not done with you yet.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to pose this question to you.

I'm going to ask the worship team to come out.

We're going to go into a moment of prayer and a candlelight moment.

But maybe you're in here with us today, and for you, maybe this has been a challenging season, the season where there have been some things running in the background that has been been draining you.

Moments where you feel like maybe you've lost a little bit of momentum.

Moments where you feel like there may be a little bit of tension and struggle that you're experiencing.

I simply want to take this moment to pray for you right where you are.

On account of three, would you be willing to lift a hand and saying, it's time for me to get a recharge?

I I want a recharge of faith.

I want a recharge of hope.

I need some strength.

I need some peace.

I need some things that to become into my life.

I need the things that Jesus says he is to be more prevalent in my life than others.

If that's you, on account of three, would you lift your hands up?

One, two, three.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

God bless you.

You can go ahead and put those hands down.

My next question is this.

For some of us, maybe, maybe this is the moment where where God is nudging on your heart.

Maybe this is that moment where, similar to the innkeeper, he comes and he knocks on the door, and it's a moment for us to either make room for Jesus or to send him away.

Maybe you don't have a relationship with God right now, but we want to create this space to give you the room, the opportunity to create the space to invite Jesus into your life, into your earthly tabernacle.

Maybe you're away from God and and and you recognize that now is the time for you to surrender your life to Christ.

It's the best decision you will ever make.

And it's an incredible journey.

And from that, you come alongside a family that wants to strengthen you, encourage you, and walk alongside you.

But if that's you, and you want to walk, step into this journey alongside of us, on account of three, would you be bold enough to lift your hands up so we can pray a prayer with you?

One, two, three.

It's for our online family as well.

Church, we put our hands together for everyone that is making that decision to return back home and to make room for Jesus in their lives.

No, the Bible continues the story of the moment when Christ was born, the source of our hope, us keeping our eyes on Jesus.

This idea of hope is now made available to us.

And the Bible talks about these wise men and how they had got a glimpse in the sky of a star that had begun to shine.

That was an indication to them that the Messiah was born.

Scripture tells us that they followed that star until they arrived where the Jesus was and they presented him with the gifts.

This is where we get this idea of presenting gifts.

And these gifts, when you break down the meaning of them, they were symbolic of the entire life of Jesus.

They were a representation of the anointing on his life.

It was a representation of the suffering that he would endure, but also the royalty that was with him.

It was the embodiment of the gospel that was presented before Christ.

And those wise men, they simply followed the star in the darkest night.

It's from here we get this idea that Jesus is the light of the world, that Jesus is the one who guides us, who leads us to take us where God is calling us to be.

Ultimately, that glimmer of hope that leads us to a place of peace and wholeness and restoration.

When you came in today, you were given a candle for us to reenact that moment, so to speak.

So I'm going to ask you to go ahead and get those candles out.

If you don't have them, it's it's okay.

If you can just raise a hand and one of our team members will be glad to come and present it to you.

But with the candles that you have, I want us to recognize what it symbolizes.

It simply symbolizes that Christ is the light of the world.

He illuminates us, he leads us, and as the wise men did, we're going to follow him in the even in the midst of our darkest moments.

As a family, let us stand on our feet.

Let's go into a time of worship and let us let the light of Christ shine.

Thanks again for listening.

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