Hope: Here and Now

(An excerpt from one of Pastor Harry’s many sermons, shared with us by Susan.)

Isaiah 2:1-5 Matthew 1:1-6;16-17

 In Bible study we often laugh, that if you want to cure insomnia, you only need to turn to the Old Testament with its hundreds of laws and its endless genealogies with names that would  challenge even a Hebrew linguist. When reading we struggle with the names or often skip over them entirely. Why do they appear in the Bible? Why do we focus on them?  Matthew’s audience, Jewish people who were looking for the Messiah, now see Jesus’ credentials. What about us? Do we see Jesus’ credentials? In this we find a God who keeps his word.

Here we are at the beginning of November, preparing for another holiday season, ARE YOU READY?

Prepare. Do we have hope for the coming season? Or are we all caught up in whatever is on the news of the moment. The elections, the wars, the natural disasters, the diseases, the gloom and the doom!

It was actually the subtitle below the main title: How to have hope in this terminal generation.

Do you get it? Cheer up and have hope even though we are doomed?!

From an old Webster’s dictionary the definition of HOPE: 1. A feeling of that what is wanted will happen. But the definition that caught my attention was the 4th one (Archaic) trust and reliance. Did you catch that the 4th one is archaic, meaning it is no longer in use? Maybe it is time that weredefine it as such! So what does scripture say about HOPE? Scripture defines it in correlation with the word faith; in fact the two are inseparable. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, theconviction of things not seen”, from Hebrews 11.

From the who’s who list that Matthew gives us what names do we see? Verse one opens with  the book of genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. The two most famous patriarchs listed are Abraham, the father of the faith, and David, the seed of the Messiah. Now what about their message? In the Old Testament the message was a declaration ministry of hope that went beyond the physical.

He was not the conquering King people had hoped for, He did not change the external status quo. But He would challenge it from the inside out with a message of HOPE and deliverance that would change the world through the church.

In the genealogy we have powerful men of faith, we also have four women and three of them are Gentiles. If we look closely at this list, Abraham and David and the others, we find less than perfect people. God uses less than perfect people like you and me and us to do his work.

This is what the thanksgiving message is about: God wants you to do something! How? Open your hearts and let him work on you from the inside out!

So how do we find HOPE? Stop and think about that question: where are our priorities and values?

Do we really have it all? If we do then Jesus’ offer of salvation might not be that appealing. But who has it all?

Instead consider the message from Colossians: “God chose to make known among the  Gentiles……which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27) 

Did You Get That? The hope of glory is Christ in YOU!

YOU ARE THE HOPE !!!!!