Hope At Christmas

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Summary

Pastor Safrit walks through Luke 1:26-38, emphasizing the theme of hope during Christmas. He illustrates how hope meets us where we are, overcomes obstacles, brings a divine plan, and is received by faith, using Mary's response to the angel as a key example. The sermon encourages believers to trust in God's promises and maintain hope, especially in challenging times, reminding them that with God, nothing is impossible.

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Thank you for that choir. Thank you for that Michaela and Terry playing for that. If you have your Bibles, we'll be in Luke chapter 1 this morning. Luke chapter 1.
If you haven't been with us over the last couple of weeks, I'll give you a short recap. We've been talking about filling up at Christmastime and how I like to fill up on food.
How many of you in here like to fill up on food? I've got my Ruth Chris sweet potato casserole that we're making.
It's the best sweet potato casserole you'll put in your mouth. If I put it down in front of me and it's there long enough, I promise you I'll eat every single bit of it.
And so oftentimes we fill up on things that are physical good, but spiritually we don't fill up spiritually.
And so we're looking this last couple of weeks on filling up with joy and how God's presence is revealed, brings joy, God's comfort is experienced, it brings joy. God's provisions are detailed and God's grace is embraced.
And when we allow that to happen in our life, joy comes in and we can be full of joy. We looked at Zachariah and the birth of John and that story.
And then last week we talked about the peace of God that comes into our life with Mary experiencing that first Christmas. Peace with God, peace from God, peace of God that ultimately brings peace in God.
As we look through that story of peace and how that looks in our life. And today we're going to be looking at hope.
We're going to back up just a little bit of the announcement of Jesus' birth. The announcement of Jesus' birth in Luke chapter 1 verses 26 through 38.
So if you have your Bibles, we'll stand and we'll read this morning. Luke 21 verse 26.
In the sixth month of the angel, Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth. To a virgin espoused to be a man whose name was Joseph, the house of David.
And the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came unto her and said, Hail, thou art highly favored. The Lord is with you. Blessed art you among all the women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, casting in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
And behold, thou shalt conceive of your womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.
And he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God will give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And his kingdom shall be there no end.
Then Mary said unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I have not a man?
And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost will come upon you, and the power of the High shall oversight of you. Therefore, also the holy thing which shall be born unto you shall be called the Son of God. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth,
she hath also conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month of her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible.
And Mary said, Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, Be it unto me according to your word.
And the angel departed from her. Lord, we love you. Lord, I'm just honored to be here in your presence. As we sang about how we can oftentimes be unfaithful.
Lord, as we reminisce on the account of the first birth as you were away in a manger.
Lord, and how ungrateful I am to stand before these people to proclaim your word. But God, I pray that you give me strength this morning. Give me the words to say as I proclaim the gospel. Lord, the hope that we need so often in our life. We love you.
In your name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.
I started the last couple of messages with a hymn. And not that I couldn't find a hymn, but I don't like to find things just to make it work. But I came across this story a couple of months ago.
Florence Chadwick's Story
And it really spoke to me, and I want to bring it to you today. In 1952, a young lady named Florence Chadwick stepped into the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
She decided that she was going to sail from the Catalina Island to the California coast. The distance that this would have been would have been about 20 miles. And this morning she decided to step out into the water.
She was already the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways, which would have been 21 miles, so an extra mile of swimming. But she decided that she wanted to be the first to swim this Catalina Island to the California coast.
And this particular morning it was foggy and it was cold. And there were boats accompanying her in case a problem had happened. And she was swimming for 15 hours straight. I want you to imagine this church swimming for 15 hours.
Most of it is hard to stay awake for 15 hours. Right? And she swam for 15 hours in the open sea and was just paddling and paddling and paddling and going and going and going. She was emotionally exhausted. She was physically exhausted. And she began to lose hope.
And she looked over to her right and she saw her mom in one of the boats trailing beside her. And she said, I can't do it anymore, 15 hours in. And she said, Mom, I'm giving up.
She swam over to her mom's boat. They pulled her in the boat. As she got into the boat, the fog began to subside. And she could see the coastline to where she was going.
In the press conference afterward, this is what she said. She said, I'm not excusing myself, but I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.
I think if I could have just seen the end in sight, I could have made it. But I lost hope. I lost hope in my journey. I lost hope 15 hours in.
And a couple years later, she completed that swimming expedition and completed it in 16 hours because she could see where she was going. And oftentimes, church, we get to the point where we lose hope because we can't see the end in sight. Think about Mary this morning.
Think about Mary as the angel came to her and gave her this news of she was going to give birth to the Son of God. She was a virgin.
She had not experienced the moment to be able to have a child, and yet there was a conflict. And hope is the confident expectation of future blessings.
And church, when we begin to get hope in our mind, hope can drive us to do things that we never thought was possible.
I love this verse. It's one of my favorite verses of all Scripture. Luke 1, 37. For with God, nothing shall be impossible. Because church, God is bigger than anything we can ever think, ask, or imagine.
And as we think of our future and we think that what God has in store for us, it begins to encourage us to know that our future is bright and the best things, church, are ahead of us. The best things that Christ has for us are ahead of us.
As dark and as dismal as the world may seem, the economy may seem, the war on the front may seem, the best days are still ahead of us because we know where we're going.
As I read this morning, as I talked about what we were talking about last night in our family devotion, Jade, we began to talk about what heaven was going to be like, what hell was going to be like.
And this is what Jade said to me last night as we were talking through this. She said, Dad, I know I'm a Christian. I know I believe in Jesus. And I can't wait to experience the glory that Jesus has for us.
Now, she didn't say it in that way, but that was my perception of how she said it. You know, I can't wait to be with Jesus one day and see all the shining lights. And the kids are talking back and forth.
And my mind was thinking, as hard as this world is, as hard as things can be, our hope is not here.
Our hope is in eternity. As a follower of Jesus Christ, the best things are definitely ahead of us. The clouds are breaking as this story of Florence Shadwick. The clouds are breaking and we begin to see what Christ has for us.
Four Truths for Hope
This morning, I won't be long. I know it's Christmas Eve. I know we've got family plans. I know we've got things that are going on.
But I want to help us this morning by helping us out with four truths that can bring hope in our lives. You see, every single one of us struggle with this lack of hope, with this lack of encouragement in our life.
And oftentimes, by looking at Scripture, we can get hope for what we have in our life. First thing is this. Hope meets us where we are.
Hope meets us where we are. We don't have to go out looking for it. Oftentimes, hope comes to us. Look at verses 26 and 27 again.
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to the city of Galilee named Nazareth. A virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph to the house of David.
And the virgin's name was Mary. You remember back with that first message two weeks ago as we talked about the oppression of Herod, the conflict, the killing that Herod was doing, the financial oppression that Herod had on his people.
Hope was something that they did not have in this day. And yet, God sent hope to Mary in a day when hope was needed. Rome had them under oppression, and oftentimes we can feel oppressed.
You see, they were waiting and they were praying for the coming Messiah. They were saying, God, when is this going to happen? When are you going to send your son to come and redeem us and set us free from Rome? You see, for 400 years, they hadn't heard from God.
For 400 years, they hadn't had a preacher, they hadn't had a prophet, they hadn't had a teacher that said, this is what the Lord said to me because God was silent for 400 years.
Put yourself in that picture. Not hearing from God for 400 years.
When we were talking last night about hell and what that looked like in our life, Jade said some things like, you know, the torment and the pain that's going to be there. And I said this to her, I said, it's not necessarily the torment, it's the absence of God.
It's not having God in their life that's going to be torturous and just terminus in their life because we have to have God in our life.
And the Israel nation and Mary herself was praying for the Messiah to come, not knowing that she was going to be the one that the Messiah came through. You see, they're waiting.
And church, we're waiting as well. We're waiting for that second coming. We're waiting for when the Lord comes back in 1 Thessalonians where it says we have hope, not as those who don't have hope, but those who have hope in God.
This morning, we have hope because we can trust in the Lord. God is pursuing us. He is seeking after us. And he finds us where we are at.
Whatever situation you may be in life, whatever problem that may come arise in your life, whatever heartache that may be coming in your life, maybe it's lost a loved one, maybe it's a loved one that you're going to
see this week that is lost, that you've prayed for, that you've asked the Lord to save them, that you've asked the Lord to come into their life, and that's going to be a hard time.
Maybe it's a financial hardship where you maybe are looking at the bank and you're saying, God, I don't know how I'm going to make the next bill. I don't know how I'm going to put gas in my vehicle to get to my family's gathering this week.
God Meets Us in Bondage
I don't know how I'm going to make Christmas happen tomorrow. Maybe that's you this morning.
But the beautiful news is, just as Mary had no hope, just as Mary in the nation of Israel was in so much bondage,
God met them where they were at. God found them and God said, I'm pursuing you, I'm seeking after you, now you seek after me. And that's when hope comes because hope meets us where we are. The second thing is this, hope overcomes obstacles. Look at verse 28 and 20 through 30.
And he came to her and said, greetings, you favored one. The Lord is with you. And how was Mary's response? I'm greatly troubled.
It's hard for me to discern what's going on. What sort of greeting is this? And the angel said to her, be not afraid, for you have found favor with God. Hope overcomes our obstacles.
There's obstacles in our life. There's problems and situations that we're going to come up and we're going to figure out and say, I don't know how to quite figure that out. I don't know how I'm going to make this work. And hope comes in and hope allows us to overcome them.
You see, Mary found favor in God's eyes. When we make the favor of God our focus, everything else falls in place.
That's why I did a whole series through the book of Colossians because we must have our focus correct. We must ask ourselves, where am I aligned at? Where are my eyes at? Who am I focusing on? Think about it like this. When Peter saw Jesus walking on the water.
We know this story. We taught this story to our kid as they were growing up. And Jesus comes walking on the water. And Peter said, if it's really you, Jesus,
let me step out and come out there. Peter stepped out and,
man, could you imagine, Peter, in that moment? My kids here, can you imagine that? Like you're walking on water.
Like all your friends are behind you. You're like, dude, look at me. I'm walking on water. Like I just try to put myself in the pictures like that and try to experience how I would happen if that were me. Like what did you do today?
I walked on water. Like it would be pretty cool, right? He steps out on water. He's walking on water. He's out there with Jesus.
And then all of a sudden he begins to look to the right and to the left. And the current's stronger than he expected.
The wind begins to hit him in the face. Maybe a lightning struck beside him. Maybe water began to hit him in the face.
And he began to get a little scared. And he began to say, I don't know if I can handle this. He began looking to the right and to the left. And he began to sink because his focus was not on Jesus. In church this morning,
when we have our focus on Jesus, everything else falls in place.
We see this time and time again of a story and story again all throughout scripture. When people get their eyes off of Jesus, their lives begin to fall apart.
You see, favor from God doesn't mean that everything's perfect. But Mary still had to go through the torment of Herod. She still had to go through the torment of she couldn't find a room for the baby. Two years into her pregnancy,
after she gave birth, not two years into her pregnancy, that would be a really long pregnancy. Two years into her son's birth,
she hears about this order of Herod killing all the male babies under two. I thought I was favored.
I thought my life was going to be great. Now I've got to leave and go to Egypt? Egypt, that's where we don't like. That's where we were slaves for 400 years. I don't want to go there.
God says, no, no, no, I'm sending you there because you're favored and because I want everything in your life to go right. And Mary could have said, you know what, God? I don't want to go to Egypt.
But yet she listened and she obeyed because God's favor was upon her and she trusted in what God had in her life. She was troubled and yet she still trusted God.
God, not only does hope meet us where we are, not only does hope overcome our obstacles, but hope brings a plan.
Right? Don't you love when you get to a car mechanic and he comes out to you and he says, all right, these are everything that's wrong with your car. And this is what it's going to cost you.
And you're like, man, but I've got an idea of how we can save you a little bit of money and this is the plan that we're going to do. Right?
You like people to have a plan? Okay, I'm a planner. I plan things out. That's just my type A personality. I plan things out.
If we're going on vacation, I've got to know how we're going to get there, the roads we're going to take, what we're going to do when we're down there, how long we're going to be there, what we're doing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner because I like to eat. I'm a planner. Right?
And so maybe you're like that with me.
Hope Brings a Plan
But hope brings a plan. Just as there was a plan for John a couple weeks ago, there was also a plan for Mary. Verses 31 through 33, and behold, you're going to conceive in your womb. You're going to bear a son.
And you're going to give him a name that's above all other names. You're going to call his name Jesus. The angel pretty much lays out what's going to happen, right? There's not much surprises here. He's going to be great.
He's going to be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord's going to give him a throne of his father David and he will reign in the house of Jacob forever and ever. In his kingdom, there will be no end.
There was a conception, there was a completion, there was a name, there was salvation that was reigning forever and ever and ever.
And we have a plan this morning, church, because we have put our hope in Jesus. And if you've put your hope in Jesus, there is sin in our life.
And Christ comes in and says, I'm going to take away that sin through dying on the cross three months, four months from now. As we look at Easter and we look ahead toward that, we begin to see the plan of Christ being fulfilled in his conception. Because he will reign forever.
And church, the good news is we get to reign with him. We get to reign with him.
Everyone who comes to know Jesus is part of this kingdom. And we will reign forever and ever.
The question we have to ask ourselves is, are we part of his kingdom? Is the hope that Mary experienced part of our hope? Are we experiencing the same type of joy and peace and hope over this time?
Everything about Jesus. Everything is about Jesus in this story. In church this morning, we must never drift away from Jesus. We must never drift away from our focus being on Jesus.
Because there are times where our focus is going to be strained. We've got kids. How many of you in here have had kids before? Raise your hand. Okay. Lots of us. How often time is our focus scattered? We've got a ball game here. We've got a music practice here.
We've got a performance here. We've got a church function going on here. And we look at our calendar because we have a big wall calendar. And it's like every day of every hour of every minute is planned out. And someone calls and says, hey, can you come and do that? And you're like, I don't know. I'm overwhelmed.
There's a lot on my calendar. But yet, Christ says when we can sort of block out those things and get our mind focused back on Christ.
Get our mind focused back on Jesus. The one who came into this world as a sinless, perfect lamb for our sacrifice. Hope brings a plan.
This morning, church, hope has a plan for your life and for mine. But not only does hope bring a plan. Not only is hope overcomes our obstacles and meets us where we are. But hope is received by faith. Mary had a choice.
After this moment, she got the news from the angel. She was scared. The angel laid out the plan. Well, now she has to respond. And Mary responded with faith.
I want us to look first at Hebrews. You don't have to turn down. I'm going to read it. Hebrews 4.22 says this. For good news came to us just as to them. But the message they heard did not benefit them. Because they were not unified by faith to those who listened.
I believe it was Paul who wrote Hebrews. Paul here is saying, listen. The nation of Israel received the greatest blessing.
The greatest hope that you could ever experience. And it says this. That because they were not in unity, it didn't benefit them.
Church, this morning, if we are not in unity by faith, then the words of hope, the words that I say this morning, will have none effect of us. They'll be useless. Because unified in Christ is understanding that Christ is in us and through us and working through us.
You see, there's going to be a miracle. And miracles are believed in by faith.
And this is the miracle of Jesus coming. And we must receive it by faith. Again, Luke 1.34 and 35. And Mary said to the angel, how will this be? How is this going to happen? And it lays out what's going to happen.
And she makes this statement. Nothing will be impossible with you. This is the hope that nothing is too big for God. Nothing in our life is too big for God. As big as it may seem in our moment of doubtfulness, our moment of unfaithfulness,
God says there's nothing too big for me to solve.
Oftentimes, you may be like me. I look back on my life and I look at the overwhelming heartaches that are in my life. And I look back four, five, six, eight years later.
And I'm like, man, that's not as big as I thought it was going to be. The things I'm going through right now are harder than what I went through then.
And oftentimes, we can lose faith in our situations when we must simply put faith in Christ and say, God, I need you in this moment. Because I understand that nothing is impossible with you.
A couple weeks ago, we looked at the life of Zachariah. You may remember that. A couple of us were here. Zachariah had a moment where he received an issue from the angel.
A moment where he received this promise of the angel that he was going to bear a son in his old age. And he was going to have John who was going to be the forerunner of Jesus. And you may remember what Zachariah's response was? It's not going to happen.
It's not going to happen. I'm old. I'm like Abraham. He's old. And Sarah's old.
That's not going to happen to me. My wife's old. She can't have a kid anymore. And he responded to the angel. He responded to the news of John with doubt. But Mary, oh, look at Mary's response. Luke 1.38. And Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord.
Let it be unto me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. She didn't say this isn't going to happen. There's no way. I'm a virgin. This can't happen to me. She said, I'm a servant of the Lord.
This morning, church, are we responding by saying I'm a servant of the Lord or I'm a servant of myself? You see, Mary didn't understand it. And I'm sure you won't understand the situations you're going through. But Mary trusts in God.
And this morning, church, we can trust in God as well. We have this eternal hope of Jesus that has come to give us life and a life more abundant. If only we believe.
If only we put our trust in Him as Mary did. Mary had to trust as well. And this morning, we have to trust as well. As Terry comes and plays, I want to just read some scriptures about hope.
Oftentimes, we can read scriptures and we can read a passive scripture and it really doesn't speak to us. So I actually did a little word study on hope through the Bible. And these are some scriptures that came up.
You can write these down. I'm going to give you every single one of them if you want to write them down. Look them up later. Psalms 42.5.
Why are you in despair, my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Psalms 43.5. Hope in God. For I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God. God. Psalms 32.24.
Be strong and let your heart take courage, all of you who have hope in the Lord. What about false hope? Psalms 40. I'm sorry. Psalms 33.17 and 18.
A horse, or you can put in there anything, is a false hope for victory. Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength.
Behold, the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him. And those who hope is in His loving kindness. Psalms 38.15.
For I have hope in you, O Lord. You will answer, O Lord my God. Psalms 39.7. And now, Lord, for what do I wait?
My hope is in you. You see, oftentimes my mind may be filled with fearings of fear.
But my hope is in God, and it overcomes those obstacles. And it keeps me waiting with a confidence that God is going to be faithful. My hope is not empty attitude about an uncertain future. But God's Word details God's plan for blessing in my life. Very familiar passage.
You read in Jeremiah 29.11. Most of us could quote it. Sometimes out of context, but in this context, you ready? For I know the plans you have for me, declares the Lord. Plans for good and not for evil.
Hope for the Future
To give you a future and a what, church? A hope.
Hope flows into my life today because I exercise my faith in not what I feel or see,
but what God's Word says about my future. And I'm going to close with this verse before we ask some questions. Luke 1.38. We read it before. But what does Mary say again? I am a servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your Word.
This morning, church, where are you at this Christmas? We all have to give a personal account.
We talked about last night in our devotion. I talked about it a lot because it was so powerful and it lined up so well this morning because every single one of us will stand before God one day and we'll give an account for our life, what we've done, how we've responded,
and how we took advantage of the opportunities that God laid in our lives.
This morning at Christmas, the easiest time to talk to people about Jesus. Everyone's singing about Him. Everyone's thinking about it. Maybe not everyone's thinking about it, but they're hearing the words of Jesus on the radio. They're hearing the words of Jesus as they're walking through the storm. And this morning, church,
where are you walking? Where are you going and what are you doing this morning for Christmas? Because this morning, church, we can be full of joy, as we spoke about two weeks ago. We can be full of peace, as we spoke about last week. And this week, we can be full of hope.
But it's got to be where our focus is at. We've got to re-evaluate ourselves and say, what is my eyes focused on? May have not been grammatically correct, but where are we focused at? This morning, what are we doing in the light of what Jesus has done for us?
Maybe this morning you've never accepted Jesus. It says, oh, what a glorious day to say, I accepted Jesus on Christmas Eve. The day that Mary was giving birth to Jesus that night, I accepted Jesus as well.
Whatever your need is this morning, the altar's open. Let's stand. Lord, we love you. Lord, we thank you for this Christmas morning.
Lord, I pray that you'll be with us this morning. Help us to have hope. Help us to have a future for you. Help us to trust in you like we've never done.
Maybe it's this morning we're trusting you for the first time. Lord, I don't know what it is, but be with us this morning. In your name we pray. Amen.
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