What is hope in your life?

• For some HOPE…depends on traffic…our only HOPE is if there isn’t any traffic
• I HOPE HECO gets these lights back on soon
• Hope is the thinking of the first day you wake up and can breathe again after an awful cold…. hope is that percentage you do have of beating the cancer.
• HOPE is the faint line on a pregnancy test…I HOPE this baby is healthy
• For some HOPE sounds like…I HOPE he’s going to be OK

So hope is used mostly in this sense

• a desire for something good
• a desire for something good in the future

Why Does this Matter?

Usually, when we express hope, we are expressing a degree uncertainty.

But this is NOT the distinctive biblical meaning of hope. Biblical hope is not just a desire for something good in the future, but rather, biblical hope is:

A confident expectation and desire for something good in the future.

• HOPE IS A VERB & AND NOUN … in the NT only as a V or a N … not an adjective or an adverb…the emphasis isn’t on SUBJECTIVE or CHANGING States of mind … but an OBJECTIVE (based on the FACTS of God’s character

What is Advent?

Advent is actually a season of hope. The word advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and the season is marked by expectation, waiting, anticipation, and longing.

Advent is a season that links the past, present, and future…

Hope isn’t Built on a Feeling, It’s Built on a Foundation.

Our Hope is Built on the Foundation of…

1. God’s Promise

God’s Promise is that God’s Presence will never leave us: Genesis 12, Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:6

2. God’s Presence

God’s Promise…His Gift of PRESENCE is HERE in JESUS: Genesis 15:1, Deuteronomy  31:8, Genesis 28:15, Joshua 1:5 & 9, 1 Chronicles 28:20, John 14:18

• Hope Grows in God’s Presence

3. God’s Faithfulness

I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me - Lamentations 3:20-26, Romans 5:3-5 & 6-8

4. God’s Future

The culture tells us to find hope in the NOW…to forget the PAST…Don’t worry about the FUTURE…Get what you can out of life NOW… The world will try and tell you to find your hope in things that you can’t control.

APPLICATION: What’s the Main To Do?

Choose ONE daily Practice that anchors you to Hope in Jesus this week

Devotions, 5 Minutes of Prayer before work, Attend Friday PM Worship

Use the Advent devotional This Week

Personally, with your family, or in your Life Group. This is the daily rhythm that centers your heart on God’s Promise and Presence.

Register for the Family Rhythms Workshop

Establish practices that help your home live from God’s Faithfulness and God’s Preferred Future.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

HOPE GROWS IN HABITS

Hope isn’t Built on a Feeling, It’s Built on a Foundation.

What is your Hope Built on?

Built on your Ability? Gifts? Money? Intelligence?

Have you had the experience of Building your Hope on a Foundation that Failed You?

An old Hymn sings…My Hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness…

Ultimately our HOPE is a PERSON…and one of our most important functions as a church is to invite people to Jesus not to a service...