Hope Has Come | Christmas Service

For to us a child is born to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Luke 2:10

no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it notbe held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength so that through me the message might be proclaimed. 2 Timothy 4:16-17

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”. Matthew 1:23

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.” Matthew 2:1-2

Stay Connected to the Body of Christ and your purpose   

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

Discussion Questions:

What is one area of your life right now where hope feels delayed or “deferred,” like Proverbs 13:12 describes?

Why do you think we isolate ourselves when life hurts, even though we’re created for connection?

What would a “fresh start with God” look like for you this Christmas season?

Who in your world might be spiritually or emotionally “home alone” this season? How can you help them?

What is one way you can practice overflowing hope, not just receiving it, but giving it awa

Thank you for listening to the Relate Community Church podcast! Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. If today’s message spoke to you, share it with a friend or leave us a review to help spread the word. To learn more about Relate Community Church, visit us at www.relatecommunity.com. You are always welcome here, and remember—you are loved

Transcript

Opening Welcome And Praise

SPEAKER_00 0:33

All right. Hey everybody, it's Christmas. Got a little too quiet in here for a second. Come on, man. We have a lot to celebrate today and his name is Jesus. Can you guys do something for me? Hold on. I feel like my mic's not loud enough, but can I ask you guys to just stand up on your feet and let's give a hand of praise for Jesus because he he deserves it? Amen. Woo! Come on. We can't get too relaxed. We gotta be ready to praise God when it's time. Thank you. You can be seated. You can sit down. Alright, all right, all right. And a lesser applause to some degree. Can y'all give it up for the band? Thank you, band. Awesome, awesome. Always good, but today just seemed like it was extra special. And we're doing something a little bit different, as you can tell. I know sometimes y'all walk in and they're like, ooh, the stage is different. I'm not sure if I like it yet. You're gonna like it. It's gonna be okay. To just pat your neighbor on the leg or the shoulder or just give them an elbow, tell them you're fine. It's gonna be okay. It's gonna be good, I promise. Here we it's a special day, so we're doing something a little bit special, and uh, I'll kind of describe that to you in a minute. Before we do that, I want to go ahead and just say thank you for coming today. Thank you for being in the uh in the room and celebrating the goodness of God and opening his word with us today on this um the Lord's Day. I think it is his time to be celebrated all year long, but especially right now. So I also want to look into the camera and just say a great big welcome to all the uh guests who are joining us online or those of our family who are traveling and out and um connecting online. It's a beautiful thing to have techno technology, but can we in the room, can we just let the people online know that we care about them and we love them and it's easy to get disconnected, um, but it's also easy to connect. So um I'll just say that. Today we are going into week number two, and the final message of a short series called Hope has come. Last week, how many of you guys, just by a quick show of hands, how many guys were here last week? So you that you got part one. This truly is a part one, part two. We're really gonna pick up right where we left off last week, although the tone will be very different. I think last week the message was so heavy. The the the idea that we talked about really we just went head on into the idea of hopelessness. And because there are a lot of uh this is a season, I think, that hopelessness gets really heavy because there's such a pressure to have happy days, happy meetings, happy events, meals, uh, gifts. All there's such a like a stress and a pressure for that, and so often we miss that, and we it doesn't live up to expectations and and and and and lot the loss, all of memories, all the thoughts, and uh it can kind of pile up. And so last week we really dealt head on with uh how do we address hopelessness? How what's the answer to it? And the answer his name is Jesus. Come on, somebody. That's uh it's very easy. He is the answer. But this week I want us to do uh something a lot different. Uh I gave you last week's medicine with some uh with some sugar, and it we had a good time. We had a light-hearted time with a really heavy subject, and this week I hope to really first and foremost to celebrate our hope and to uh to celebrate the goodness of Jesus on his birthday. But I want to pick up kind of where we left off last week. Uh, those of you who are note-takers, which I hope is everybody, because we are note-taking church today. There are two Sundays out of the year that we do not have notes, and that is typically Easter and Christmas, and that's because there's a lot of things going on, and um today's no different. So instead of if you're taking notes, I'm happy for you to take notes. It's a good it's a good week to take notes, but you're gonna have to juggle some things because I'm gonna ask you to do something in a minute. And before I tell you what that thing is, let me lay a foundation for it. So last week, the here we're gonna pick up where we left off with the uh a verse in Proverbs that I think gives us a perfect definition, a perfect concept of when hope is missing. He says in Proverbs chapter 13, verse 12. Are y'all ready? Most of you. Are y'all ready? Okay, here we go. There we go. It says, hope deferred makes the heart sick. And you get it. If you just read through that too quickly, then it's easy to miss the point. Hope deferred, that means whenever I have a hope or I have an expectation of something I want to happen, or the way I want life to happen, or the uh my dreams, my I have an expectation right here, and then when reality hits and I actually walk into it, it's down here. It doesn't so my my reality doesn't line up with my expectation. The gap between reality and expectation, that is uh a hope that's been my hope has been put off, it's been deferred, it's been uh delayed, it's been displaced. And so the gap between those two is really where hopelessness and pain exist. And so that that's what I want to I want to I don't want to stay there, I just want to start there because that's where we were. We spent a lot of time there last week, and I want us to um I want us to look at the answer this week. I want us to focus and and unpack the answer. But before we do that, let's talk about Christmas for a second. So raise your hand if you have uh you your family or your extended family, you guys have uh Christmas traditions that you do every year. What what's your Christmas tradition?

unknown 6:41

Watching Home Alone.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Home Alone, all right. That's a good one. Uh you guys have uh our Christmas traditions are it outside of going, we obviously I think this is uh it's at the top of the list because I'm the pastor, but it's going to church service. But also we do family dinners, we also do uh Christmas movies. What's y'all's family's tradition?

unknown 7:04

Christmas movies.

Traditions, Movies, And Charlie Brown

From Disappointment To Living Hope

Full Assurance Of Hope

Act Of Worship As An Act Of Hope

Reason One: Hope In His Name

Worship Response: The Name Of Jesus

Reason Two: Hope In His Timing

Prophecy, Odds, And 52 Factorial

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Christmas movies, all right. That's a that's a big one. Sometimes it's traveling, sometimes it's going. A big part of ours is Christmas movies. I know Pastor Angela loves you can probably guess this, but she loves the Grinch. She loves the Grinch, and that's not my favorite Christmas movie, but I endure it every year, multiple times a year, I think. Uh I I like other more traditional Christmas movies, and we've done a bunch of those over the talked about a bunch of those over the years here in the last few years. Uh, but also, how many of you guys have seen the Charlie Brown Christmas movie? Some of y'all are saying, who's Charlie Brown? I don't that's for another day for us to discuss. But Charlie Brown Christmas, uh, this week we watched the Charlie Brown Christmas movie, and I I was I was really um just captured by the way that Charlie Brown, all the bad things seem to happen to Charlie Brown, and yet he just keeps on uh he has this glass half full, kind of a like it's gonna be okay. He's always looking for the the silver line, he's always believing and hoping that things are gonna get better and that we can do better and that this is gonna work. And I think there's not a scene that captures that better than um how many of you guys remember the scene? It it's happened many times, but the scene where Lucy tells him that she puts the football out and he's gonna kick the football, and then she tries to convince him and he says, No, I'm not gonna do it. You're just gonna move the ball whenever I get over there to kick it. And what happens inevitably every single time is that she'll convince him. The fact I I watched one this week where she says, Here, I have a contract that's signed. I promise you I'll leave the football there. Uh, it's a guarantee, I'm gonna leave the football there so you can kick it. And he says, he looks at the contract and says, This looks legit, this looks alright. I think it's gonna work. He wrote so he gets back, he backs up, he runs to the football, and as soon as, obviously, as soon as he gets there and gets ready to kick it, she moves it back, he kicks and misses and then lands flat on his back. That feels like to me, though, the thing that all of us encounter in life is that we it may not be your whole life, it may not be like, why am I living? It might be a specific area, like a relationship, or a marriage, or uh you're uh maybe it's a kid that you're dealing with or a financial thing. It's a thing that you have done this over and over and over, and you've gotten to the point where you've been like, Why do I even try with this? I'm just I'm gonna have to settle with this. This is this is my life now. I think that's the hopelessness that we have today. I hope more than any other day. I hope that today is the day that you can just let your hope start to rise again, that you can let your hope start to ignite again, start to turn on like a light switch. Let's reach for hope today because we have hope. And you may have given up on it in the past. You may have gotten to the point where you're like, I've already done that, Pastor. I've already backed up, I've already been convinced a hundred times, and every time I get right up to it, it gets pulled out from under me and I end up flat on my back. I hope that you're today. My my hope is that you'll feel something rising inside of you as the presence of God and his word today, as we look at the truth of who he is and what he's done for us. I hope that you can sit back up, stand back up, let part of you start to get back up and go again. And not in a cheesy kind of, hey, it's Christmas, everybody, kind of way. And I hope, cross my fingers, Santa. I hope Santa brings me what I what I wished for or what I asked for, or I hope we have a good Christmas. That's not the hope I'm talking about. I'm talking about the a living hope. I'm talking about a hope that it transcends all of the circumstances that we live in. He, Jesus, is our ultimate hope. Let me show you in the scripture, Hebrews chapter 6, verse 11. It says, and we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing, and then it says, realizing what? Realizing the fullness, the full assurance of hope until the end. He says that uh we earnest we desire each of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the what assurance? The full assurance of hope. That means to me that there are a lot of people walking around with uh a partial hope or an incomplete hope or uh um a counterfeit hope or a displaced hope or a deferred hope. There's a lot of people where there's a piece missing, and the desire that God has for us is to have the full assurance of hope that we wake up every day, not because it's Christmas, but because we are following Him. We wake up every day with hope in our hearts, with an excitement, with an earnestness that is I'm eager to reach for what God has for me. I'm I'm eager to live the life that God has prepared for me. So, how do we do that? What does that look like? What like practically what are you saying, Pastor Shauna? What I'm saying is this God gives us a promise. God says things, and when we have true hope, we take what he says, we take his promise, and we start living by it. We believe it, we have faith in it, we have hope in it, we have uh a trust in a God that his promise is true, and so then we start to act on it. And so that's what I'm gonna ask you to do. I'm gonna ask you to act today a little bit. But first, I'm gonna show it to you in Psalm chapter 42. The psalmist says it this way Why, my soul, are you downcast? That sounds like hopelessness. He says, Why so disturbed within me within me? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Why do I feel so down? Why do I feel so like I'm missing? Why does this Christmas feel like I'm missing something? Why does it feel like um there's a piece missing? Or that this is not uh I'm things aren't right. And the psalmist gives himself the answer. He says, put your hope in God. And then he says, For I will yet, like I haven't done it yet, but I will, I'm gonna praise him, my savior and my God. So that's what I want us to do today. That's why things look a little bit different. That's why today is a special quote unquote. That's how that's why today's gonna be a special service, because here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna give us three reasons, three huge reasons to trust in God. And then what we're gonna do after eat, I'm gonna give you one, and then we're gonna take a minute, maybe two or three minutes, just a short little moment of worship, and then we're gonna make our praise. The psalmist said, put my hope in God, for I will yet praise him. That's what we're gonna do. We're gonna make turn our worship into an act of hope. So I'm gonna get I'm gonna tell you each one, we'll give you three, and then at the end of each of those, I'm gonna let the worship team stand up. They're gonna come right up here, and I'm gonna get out of the way, and we're just gonna worship for a moment and turn our worship into an act of hope. You don't have to stand up, you can stand up. You can walk around, you do anything you want. You raise your hands, you can put your hand right here, like sing out loud. My hope, my my hope is that you will let your heart engage. And all the places in your life, the different areas where God wants to begin to just shine the light of hope, where maybe you've you just laid on the ground and said, I think I'm done with this. I think I don't I don't know if I I why am I even trying here? My hope is that the Holy Spirit would just shine a little light right into that space, that all the places in our lives today that we're feeling hopelessness, that we'll begin to find hope again because he's worth it and because that's who he is. So here's three things. And you can write them down if you're taking notes. Number one, we have hope in his name. Everybody say his name. Y'all know what his name is, his name is Jesus, but watch this in Matthew chapter one. When the angel is speaking to Mary, the angel then also tells Joseph this, but he says, Mary will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. You are to give him the name Jesus. In the New Testament, in fact, there are there are lots of different places, but three specific types of hope that Jesus is. In 1 Timothy, it says Jesus is our hope. In Titus it says Jesus is our blessed hope. And in 1 Peter chapter 1, Jesus is our living hope. Over and over and over, Jesus is our hope. My hope is not in things, my hope is not in like the I hope this thing gets better. I hope that next week something so and so happens, or so-and-so made a promise, and I hope that, I hope they send me a check, or I hope this doesn't happen, or I hope that's not our hope. Our hope is in Jesus. Our hope is not in a what, but it's in a who. His name is Jesus. So Mary gives uh is obedient to the angel. Mary gives the name Jesus to this new baby boy because Jesus means that he was because he will save his people from their sins. Jesus means God saves. Y'all know that names mean things. My name, in fact, my name, raise your hand if you know what your name means. Okay, we we got a few, a few of you don't know what your name means, and that is dangerous. My name means God is gracious. Angela's name means angel, which she lives up to every day. Some names though, and I have found that some names don't mean what you think they might mean. And if I get on your name, if your name in the room, I found a few names, and it might be your name in the room. I hope not. But it may be. They're beautiful names, but it's weird sometimes that the meaning changes everything. The name Cameron means crooked nose. Uh-oh. I know a lot of Cameron's without crooked noses, but it's just a weird the meaning of the name. I love you, Cameron. You're the best. Kennedy, if your name's Kennedy, that means the name of Kennedy, Kennedy means ugly head. That's weird. But it's a beautiful name. See, that's the problem. The word Caden means round or lumpy. Uh-oh. I don't know anyone named Caesar, but the name Caesar means hairy. Okay, but the name Jesus means God saves, right? There's a meaning behind it, and there's a me, there's a reason why we reach for the name we hope in the name of Jesus. Philippians 2 says this that God gave Jesus the name above all other names. It's not just a name, it's the name above all other names. And that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. In heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord. There is a name that is above every other name. We pray in the name of Jesus. We do whatever we do, what? In the name of Jesus. When we gather, we do it in his name. So I'll just say it this way: Hope has a name, and his name is Jesus. Hope has a name and his name is Jesus. It breaks every curse. When I'm in trouble, whose name do I call on? I call on the name of Jesus. It's more power, more powerful than any sickness, any disease, any addiction. The name of Jesus is who we call on. Speak his name in the darkness. Come on, praise Jesus. Would you all worship with us? Speak the day the day by the day Speak the Day The day the win the wheel all the day the show on the day the day the chicken I've been made free I am forgiven strong holes on wrong I've been made free I am for kidding Hallelujah Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus So I will just say this y'all can be seated if I'm in the dark and I feel like hopelessness is is around me I feel like there is no hope then I can just reach for the name of Jesus that's so easy to just start reaching for the name of Jesus so that's number one his name the second the second thing that we have to hope in today is his timing everybody say his timing so in the Old Testament before Jesus if you if if you're not super familiar with the Old Testament New Testament there are thousands of years since from creation to the birth of Jesus and in the Bible all of the the books and the uh the timeline that leads up to that that's the Old Testament and then Jesus' birth is really the mark between when the New Testament starts we see Matthew Mark Luke and John but in between the Old Testament and the New Testament there's a a a break of darkness and before Jesus arrives the the whole world is awaiting on the Messiah because there's been prophecies and and here's the deal over 300 times it's prophesied that there's a Messiah coming that God's gonna send a savior that the that someone will come to save us and he'll do this and he'll be born in this place and he'll he'll be all kinds of things that describe down to such fine details that this is the Messiah I'll give you just a few examples of that of the three out of uh three hundred in Genesis the very beginning of the Bible the very beginning of creation there's a prophecy that he that the Messiah will be born of a woman and you think well that's pretty easy right no it it doesn't take it's not hard to understand that he'll be born of a of a woman but what it's saying is that the Messiah the savior of all mankind will not be like an angel not be he'll be a human baby born into the world the way that we're all born into the world but born into the world and then in Isaiah chapter 7 we get another prophecy uh 750 years before Jesus is born we get the prophecy that he'll be born of a virgin the virgin birth is not something that just happened to be with Mary and then all of a sudden hey it's no they knew it was coming in Micah almost 700 years before Jesus is born the prophecy that he'll be born in this small city of Bethlehem so you think that's not a big deal but it's a just if three prophecies if those three prophecies were fulfilled it'd be a lot but three hundred times that is the odds of fulfilling 300 specific prophecies about the time and the place and the kind of atmosphere and the situation around like him going to a cross him being crucified all all him being beaten all of the things that he did fulfilled the prophecies in the Old Testament about who the Messiah would be and I just want to stop for a second and talk I I can't accurately give you the full weight of the odds of that happening in 300 prophecies but I thought I can show you a little bit of the odds and I decided to do it with a deck of cards and the only way I can connect this to Christmas is that I thought you know what it's just deck the halls I know that's not great but that's all I got this deck of cards actually uh if you know about cards you know that uh there's a lot of statistics and there's a lot of odds if you're playing cards today we're not gonna play cards I just gonna I'm gonna shuffle the cards and I want you to to imagine this you may believe this or not but it's you can fact check me if you want to do it on your phone right now. You have my permission the order of these cards statistically speaking the odds are astronomical that there has never this deck of cards has never been in this order before it's a brand new order. Not only are the odds astronomically um statistically in the favor of them never having that the odds are this it's almost impossible that any deck of cards ever has been in this order it's actually much bigger than that the odds of putting 52 cards in in a specific order if I was to if I was to continue to shuffle them the number that we're looking for like the odds to one not four to one ten to one a thousand a million to one the odds is actually much much bigger and the number's so big I can't even say it the number is referred to as 52 because of the 52 different cards and numbers 52 factorial and if we were to actually count all of the numbers in 52 factorial of how many times it would take me to shuffle this deck to get the same it would be the amount of atoms in the galaxy the chances of getting two shuffles in the same order. I think that's why uh Vegas has such a good time going on. The odds are very good here's the deal 52 is a big number but if we turn that into 300 300 specific prophecies coming true at any given time it's impossible unless God is in it. And the same God that put all those odds in order and sent Jesus to the earth at the exact right time in history is the same God that's working on my behalf. And all the timing that I'm waiting on God where are you? He's working he's doing he's doing exactly what he said he would do. Watch this in Galatians chapter 4 why didn't God send Jesus earlier when the whole world was saying God send a Messiah send our savior we need you to help us why didn't God send him it says in Galatians chapter 4 it says when the right time came God send his son when did God send his son at the right time when does God act at the right time when does God do anything that he does at the right time God's not guessing well I guess I'll try this and see what happens God God's not like pulling the He's not at Vegas trying to figure out your life he's not dealing a deck and saying oh well let's see no God knows exactly what's going on in your life so when you're looking back wondering God what are you waiting on? Wondering why he's not doing what you think he should be doing according to our time we just have to know something's happening. Why did God wait so long there's a there's a period of time called the intertestamental period it's that 400 years before the Old Testament and the New Testament there's a time in there where there's no books of the Bible because there was no prophecy. God wasn't speaking to people it was a time uh theologists call it a time of silence why was God silent there was a lot of things happening there's a very good reason though in that 400 years of silence there was there was a some incredibly important worldwide events taking place. One of them is that Alexander the Great Alexander the Great began to conquer the whole world and uh the Roman Empire began to take over build roads everywhere so they had what was called Roman peace. The first time in the history of the world where you could travel from country to country and from uh nation to nation from continent to you could travel without the danger of just being killed by the first village that you came upon because the Romans had everybody wasn't fighting over the Romans were in charge of almost everybody not only that but now there began to emerge out of that a common language so if I'm God and I'm needing the whole world to be spread around the the whole world the gospel to be spread I wait until there's a time where there are roads now everywhere. There's peace everywhere just enough to begin to spread the and there's a singular language Greek that everybody is speaking and writing and on top of that the world had begun to turn because of that I think away from the polytheism the the the need for a whole bunch of gods they were beginning to turn and desire and have a hunger a spiritual hunger for the true God so in this 400 year period of darkness and silence where God's not speaking and everybody's wondering where are you God? And they're waiting what's God doing God's working God's preparing for just the right moment and can I tell you this in your time of need and waiting and desire and longing and wondering God where are you? He's working and preparing and getting things just right for the right time to act to show up and provide and supply and do all and we just give up hope because I guess God doesn't said anything for 400 years. I guess he's gone I guess God's not paying attention to me because things just seem to be going badly don't give up hang on keep trusting keep hoping keep believing keep reaching for not just the name of Jesus but also the fact and the hope that his timing is perfect. During the six and a half years of us meeting in a movie theater my timing was God we need a building now week year one week one this theater this movie theater is difficult God we need a building that we can meet in that I can just show up and walk up on stage and every time that we could have done anything looking back that wasn't his deal that wasn't his way so many times I've I I've wanted to do that. You know what my prayer is always this that God if this is not what you want me to do and if you don't want me to do this right now I need you to shut the door I need you to lead the way God show me let me feel peace about it. And if I don't feel peace about it I'm not gonna do it and which was much to the uh disappointment of my children growing up sometimes we just told them guys I don't have peace about this. If it was going on a trip or going even and visiting a friend's house or going and spending the night at a friend's house or going and buying anything guys I don't know if I feel peace about this and we're not gonna do it until I do feel peace about it. We're like well dad you just need to pray more if you're gonna get some peace about it. Because I feel a lot of peace about it. I'm sure that's what God's timing is better than our timing. So maybe today you're still waiting but God's still working maybe there's some things in your life that feel extra heavy because you just don't know why it's not working. Maybe you're trying to conceive there are some things that just feel like they take forever like conceiving a child building a family getting a job changing a situation beginning to uh heal from certain things God's timing is perfect. So here's the deal here's what I would remind you of today that uh if it's not God's time then you you don't want to force it. But if it is God's time you can't stop it. And so with that I want uh invite the worship team and I just want you there may be some things in your life that you need to yield to God in his timing. That's an act of hope that's an act of worship where you just get okay God doesn't make sense I yeah I don't feel peace about it but I'm gonna trust you.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

I'm gonna yield to you so let's worship never been a hope that you weren't it's never been the time that you didn't see me through God.

The Right Time And Silent Years

Trusting God’s Peace And Closed Doors

Worship Response: Yielding To God’s Timing

Reason Three: Hope In His Return

King Of Kings And Our Eternal Hope

SPEAKER_00 35:01

I worship you've never been the day never been the day never been the home Jesus I was tossed in the but I never went on time Jesus when I went through the fire you were right there beside you all right amen you may be seated for just one more moment um I I want us to close with this and that's number three we have his name to hope in we have his timing to trust in and finally I think almost more than anything we have his return to look forward to because he wasn't just the 4,000 years from creation to his birth that creation cried out for a savior and a messiah and people waited and watched and wondered but now we're waiting and watching and wondering again on his return. And so when he comes back y'all he's not gonna come back in a manger he's not gonna come back with a star and the shepherd searching and it's not gonna be like that. The Bible says that he's gonna come back as a conquering king let me read it to you in Revelation chapter 19 it says now I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse that's a lot different than him riding into town into Jerusalem on a on a donkey he's gonna ride in on on the clouds on a white horse it says uh it goes on his eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns this is this is John the this is John seeing into the future having a vision of his return and it says and the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen white and clean followed him on white horses this is unimaginable almost now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nations this is not a baby Jesus coming back lowly surrounded by donkeys and sheep and cows lowing and it says he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written King of kings and lord of lords that's what we have to hope in what does that mean for us what is our hope in that there's another verse in Thessalonian 1 Thessalonians 4 that gives us a picture of this happening from a different perspective from for us it says and for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command and with the voice of an The archangel and with the trumpet and call of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. And after that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever. We're waiting on his return. We're waiting on that. That is our hope. Not our hope in whether or not the economy will make a turn. Not our hope in some politician and the promises that may or may not come true. Not in the new bill that's being written or what has happening around the world or what my boss said he might do or what my marriage might do. If we could just get this right, we've been trying this new thing, and maybe we might have this baby and my kids and my family and my home and my all the things. Our hope is not in those things. Our hope is that no matter what happens on this planet, no matter what happens in my life, no matter what happens in my body, I have a hope in glory. I have a hope in eternity that I get to spend with him when he returns for his church. I think is when the story the story of Jesus doesn't just happen when Jesus shows up placed into a manger and born of a virgin. That's the Christmas story, but the Christmas story starts when Jesus is working. The Bible says in John that Jesus is all the way back at the beginning of creation. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The light came into the darkness. And that our hope is not in the things that we can see, but our hope is in the things we can't see. And so today, if everything you can see has given up on you, can I just tell you to put your eyes on him? Can I tell you to start looking at the things that can't be seen with natural eyes? And start to hope in the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords because our hope is not in the coming days of what 2026 might bring. It's not in the promise of a man that could give, tell us this or that could happen. Our hope is not in the coming days, but in the coming king. So we're gonna worship one last time together before we close in prayer. And we're just gonna turn our hearts, turn our eyes towards the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, awaiting, eagerly awaiting his return and his purpose in our lives. So holy Jesus. Would you just stay on your feet for one moment? I want us to close with a simple idea, and that is that our hope is in him, in his name, in his timing, in his return, in his purpose, in his plan. It requires that we just surrender our own plan and not compromise or counterfeit or replace his plan with our plan. No matter how things may seem, there is hope. But I want to show you where I showed you the first part of the verse. In Proverbs, it says, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but then it goes on. The second, this the next line says, But a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. That's what he wants for us. That's what he always wanted from us from the beginning of time, from the beginning of creation, from the Garden of Eden, he wanted us to have a tree of life for us to be fulfilled in him, and yet we reached for other things. Adam and Eve reached for other things, and they never fulfill. People will always let you down. This world, Jesus said, in this world, you will have trouble because this world will always let you down. The promises of the enemy, the devil will try to get you to leave God's plan and just hey, I got a plan for you, but that will let you down. And you may have been let down, but here's what here's what I can tell you today that whenever we put our hope in Him, that our longing is fulfilled. It's like a tree of life that brings life and it fulfills, and it so no matter where you are today, I I would encourage you and challenge you to let hope start rising again. Maybe you need to call on the name of the Lord, maybe you need to trust in his timing, maybe you need to set your eyes on eternity and not on things that are temporary. Wherever you are today, let's let this Christmas be a moment where we put our hope in him. Today, if you've never placed your life in his hands and began to hope and trust and put your faith in him as a savior and as a Lord, as a God who saves, then I would invite you to do that with me today. Let's do it together. We're gonna say a simple prayer of faith where we just give our lives to him. So I'd invite you to bow your head, close your eyes, and I won't embarrass anybody or call anyone forward, but I would just ask you, would you just repeat these words after me? Would you just say this, God today? I choose to follow you. I choose to put my hope in you. So forgive me of my sin. Forgive me for putting my trust in other things. And today I choose to follow you from this day forward. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's give a hand clap for those who said that prayer for the first time. It's a prayer we can keep on saying every time we get a little bit off, every time we start to take a step this way, or that we can come right back to God. I trust you. God, I put my hope in you. I love you guys, and I'm so thankful that you came today. I'm gonna invite you to join us on Wednesday night for our one hour Christmas Eve candlelight service. It's gonna be amazing. I'd like to invite the prayer team to join me at the front. If you'd like to pray with someone before you leave, then just make your way up here. Otherwise, God bless you. Have a Merry Christmas.