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Trinity Community Church
Trinity Community Church
Is He Worthy - Jesus the Worthy One Will Return
In this final teaching from the “Is He Worthy?” series, Pastor Kelly Kinder explores the power of biblical hope and the assurance that Jesus, the worthy One, will return. Kelly begins by reflecting on Isaiah’s prophecy of Emmanuel, reminding us how God’s people clung to the promise of a coming Savior in their darkest moments. Much like a submarine crew tapping out a desperate message of “Is there any hope?”, we often cry out for rescue when life’s troubles threaten to overwhelm us.
Kelly highlights the stark differences between mere optimism and genuine biblical hope. While optimism can fade when circumstances turn bleak, hope that’s grounded in Christ remains an anchor for our souls. Drawing from Titus 2:11-14, Kelly shows how God’s grace instructs believers to live upright lives while awaiting the glorious appearing of our Savior. This confident expectation motivates us to persevere, embrace a godly lifestyle, experience joy in the face of trials, and patiently trust God for His best.
By referencing Hebrews 6:19, Kelly describes hope as “sure and steadfast,” emphasizing that its foundation lies in God’s unchanging character. If our hope is in Christ only for this life, as 1 Corinthians 15:19 warns, we miss the grander truth of His eternal victory. But since Jesus conquered death, our anticipation of His return fuels a deeper joy and a more profound peace.
With Christmas approaching, Kelly encourages us to remember how the birth of Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy of a light dawning in a land of great darkness. The same Lord who came in humility will return in glory. This season, instead of letting despair take hold, we can surrender every fear to the One who banishes darkness. Kelly reminds us that we can trust in God’s character and His promises, just as generations before us have done.
As we conclude the “Is He Worthy?” series, we discover that biblical hope offers far more than a fleeting sense of reassurance. It shapes how we live, love, and endure. Kelly invites us to hold fast to this steadfast hope, leaning on God’s faithfulness. In doing so, we find renewed courage to face whatever lies ahead, confident that Jesus, the worthy One, has the final victory—and that He’s coming again to make all things new.
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Well, Merry Christmas, it's good to see you. You know, I ended that statement with just Merry Christmas, I didn't say Merry Christmas and all. A good night, you know. So I'm hoping that you guys will stay awake. I believe God has something for us all this morning, and we're just grateful for God's word. Let's go to the Lord and let's pray that he would reveal his presence to us this morning. Okay so, father, we're just grateful for God's word. Let's go to the Lord and let's pray that he would reveal his presence to us this morning. Okay so, Father, we're just grateful that we can be here today. We ask you, Holy Spirit, to open your word to us, to open our hearts to you, Lord, that you would speak to us in ways that we have never heard before, that we might come to know you in a deeper way, maybe for the first time, Lord, and we ask for it in the name of Jesus, Amen.
Kelly Kinder:Well, a number of years ago, a submarine sank, with its crew completely trapped at the bottom of the ocean. They were rammed off the coast of Massachusetts In the sub. It sank immediately and after a number of hours, they decided they would send divers down to check on them and see what they could do. Pretty soon, the divers heard a tapping on the side of the submarine and they recognized it as Morse code and the code that they heard it was a question Is there any hope? Here's a simple truth. We're all lost without hope.
Kelly Kinder:As Russian Christian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky said, to live without hope is to cease to live, and the reality is for all of us, and I think there's no one that's excluded from this. We live in a world of disappointment. Every day we get up and we experience things that we would rather not. Sometimes they're rather routine, and we all have those days, don't we? Where we say well, when it rains, it pours. We think when is this going to be over? When the things we hope for, they don't come through. The Christmas gift you ordered that hasn't come yet, who can raise their hand for that? The person you left a message for, who didn't call you back like you had hoped for, your child gets sick. Your car breaks down, your provision that you had hoped for, the job that you'd hoped for doesn't materialize. Those are all disappointments, but sometimes, sometimes they go far deeper. It hit much harder and last a lot longer. An unexpected surgery, and you ended up in the hospital for a week, or maybe in an enduring illness that you never thought would materialize in your life and it has. Or maybe you see your marriage it's on the rocks, or maybe you've lost a loved one and they're no longer there. Those are great disappointments. What happens then? What happens then?
Kelly Kinder:It's so easy to lose our hope, isn't it? It can happen in a moment, Maybe the two saddest words that we could ever hear is no hope. Hopelessness occurs when you have nothing else to look forward to right. Hopelessness occurs when your dream dies.
Kelly Kinder:Brian Chappelle gives a voice to those times of darkness in our lives. We all feel it when we lose hope, and he asks what if you cannot look through the windows of faith and see hope, see light or hear God's voice saying I am with you? What if the darkness is too dark and the doubt is too loud? What if death is all around you? What if deceit is in your marriage? What if betrayal has all around you? What if deceit is in your marriage? What if betrayal has come from friends? What if you face loss of loved ones, loss of respect, loss of health, loss of your faculties, loss of freedom and loss of a future? What if it's a loss of your country's moral compass? What if you're just getting old, getting tired or seemingly forever lonely? What if the darkness is really that deep? Well, those feelings aren't new.
Kelly Kinder:I was thinking back this past week, before this message and mine came back to the Old Testament prophet named Isaiah, who spoke hope to a people who were living in darkness, who really were living with a fear and disappointment and discouragement because an enemy nation was coming against them, ready to destroy them. And the word was a light in the darkness to them. So it's a light to the darkness and the darkness for us too. We hear these words and they're familiar words, often at Christmas. You'll remember and hear them as I read them. Think of it as Isaiah's prophetic glimmer, if you will Listen. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. And that sign that the prophet gave through. The prophet spoke of a virgin who would come and would conceive and bear this son, this son of God. God told Isaiah to call him. What name? Emmanuel, which we know as God with us. I can imagine with those people they might have kind of gone. That's an odd name to call your boy, and they might have preferred to say let's name him. God help us because we're in trouble here. God help us because we're in trouble here.
Kelly Kinder:Isaiah knew that God knew there was something better, though, right, Isaiah. He goes on in chapter nine to describe this sun as a light. Light is a good thing in the darkness. The people, he says, who walked in darkness chapter 9, verse 2, have seen a great light, those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness. On them a light has shone. Now, if you're at my house and I flip on the light in the middle of the night, unexpectedly my wife looks over and says flip that back off. I don't, what did you turn that on for? Because it's great when you're trying to sleep, right, but if you're trying to find your way out of a dark place, light is a good thing.
Kelly Kinder:Picture someone who, if you're sitting in the dark and someone flips on a light, and just as suddenly you kind of get an idea of your surroundings and you get your bearings and you see out ahead of you what's ahead of you a little bit, and just as suddenly the person who flipped on that light flips it back off. That's really what Isaiah is doing here. He's giving them a glimmer of hope through this son. And so he says, he foretells the appearance of this child, this light, 700 years into the future. Can you imagine that he predicts that this child is coming? For he says to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And what he says is true for every generation, including ours, because every generation deals with the problem caused by sin. So Isaiah, in these texts and many others, Isaiah is a great book. It's also called a gospel of sorts. In the Old Testament, Isaiah's words stand as a testament of hope in a dark place, hope in the Lord, the one who saves his people from themselves. You know, Ernest Shackleton is a famous explorer known for leading a crew of men, adventurous men, on the ship called the Endurance to Antarctica, and despite cataclysmic failure, he ended up leading his men out alive.
Kelly Kinder:It's a fascinating story, Mark and I have talked about it a number of times. But what happens was their boat was crushed as they got into the ice and they had to abandon their boat. They lived on ice flows. They got in rowboats and liveboats. They paddled and moved themselves hundreds of miles in terrible sea conditions. They climbed mountains, and yet not one man through that whole ordeal was lost Shortly after their vessel the Endurance what an interesting name, the Endurance when it was crushed. Just after that, Ernest urged his men to lighten their loads and take literally only two pounds of personal items with them, and to illustrate this point, he took out two pages from his Bible that he carried. Ernest was a Christian and he dropped the rest of it in the snow. And here's the full story from the South Georgia Museum. Listen.
Kelly Kinder:On July 16th 1914, as the endurance expedition was getting underway, Queen Alexandra, widow of King Edward VII, visited the ship. The queen presented Shackleton with a union flag, a replica of her own standard and two inscribed copies of the Bible. Later, trapped in the ice of the Weddell Sea, Shackleton and his men had to quit their stricken ship and begin desperate measures to save themselves by hauling boats and stores across the ice. Each man was allowed to keep just two pounds of personal gear. Setting a good example, Shackleton discarded what at other times might be judged his most valuable and precious belongings, gold coins and other valuables and the Bible. He tore some pages from the Bible before he left the fly leaf with the Queen's inscription, the 23rd Psalm and a verse from the book of Job.
Kelly Kinder:The Queen's inscription from Psalm 107, 24 reads May the Lord guide you through all dangers by land and sea. May you see the works of the Lord and the wonders in the deep. The verse from the book of Job, 38, 29 through 30, reads Out of whose womb came the ice and the hoary frost of heaven. Who hath gendered it? The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. Another crew member retrieved the Bible that Shackleton had discarded and carried it home. It's now. You can see that Bible in the collection of the Royal Geographic Society. But it just illustrates a question I have for you and for me when do you find hope? Where do you find hope?
Kelly Kinder:And so we focus these last few weeks in some key thoughts in this series. Let me just review these for you so you see what we've said. First of all, we said Jesus is eternally worthy. The worthy one existed as fully God before creation, Before he arrived in the flesh he was fully God, and when he came in the flesh, he was fully God. And when he came in the flesh, he was fully man. Second thing we said we are all unworthy. All of us, we arrive what Broken by the sin of Adam, as it is written. None is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside together. They have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. We're all unworthy, which means we can't rescue ourselves. And then we said Jesus came to save the unworthy. Jesus, the worthy one proved he is worthy. By what? By rising from the dead. Rising from the dead, Dying on the cross, he paid for our sins, our sin debt. He rose again, he sat down at the right hand of God, victorious over sin, death, hell and the grave. Jesus is the worthy one. Today. What we want to do, we want to see how hope, the hope that we need, is intimately tied to our confident belief that Jesus is coming again. He is coming again. The worthy one is coming again. This is so important.
Kelly Kinder:Christ, his return, is a major, major theme in the scriptures. I don't know, did you know this? For example, that one out of the 46 Old Testament prophets less than 10 of them speak of his first coming, but 36 of them speak of his second coming. There are over 1,500 Old Testament passages that refer in some way to the second coming of Christ. That's in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, one out of every five New Testament verses directly refers to the second coming of Christ. In fact, every time the Bible mentions the first coming of Christ, it mentions the second coming eight times. For each time the atonement is mentioned once the second coming is mentioned twice. Jesus refers to his second coming 21 times, and over 50 times we're told to be what Ready for his return.
Kelly Kinder:I don't expect you to remember all those numbers, but what I want to get in your mind is that Jesus is coming again and it's important to the Lord that we know about it. So this is a major importance when it comes to our hope. Listen, it is because what Christ has done, we can trust him to defeat the darkness in our lives and bring us into a glorious future, and that's what the second coming points us to. And so, to see these great realities, I want us to turn in our Bible this morning to Titus. Titus, chapter 2. It's our main text this morning Titus 2, 11 through 14. Now let's read it together. It says For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. Let's read it together. It says great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works.
Kelly Kinder:Now, what I want to do this morning, I just want to ask and answer three basic questions that speak of the hope that we can have in Jesus Christ. Number one is what is biblical hope? Number two why is Christian hope so essential? And then number three how can I know and live in this kind of transforming hope? Let's start with number one what is biblical hope? As I said, we all need hope, don't we? But sometimes our definition is really almost the opposite of what you commonly hear. Our definition is really almost the opposite of what you commonly hear At its simplest. Let me just kind of give you the most simple definition Hope is confident expectation. Hope is confident expectation, and let's expand on that. So, John Broeger, he says the hope that God has provided for you is not merely a wish, neither is it dependent on other people's possessions the people possessions or circumstances for its validity. Instead, biblical hope is an application of your faith that supplies a confident expectation in God's fulfillment of his promises. You see, you can think of hope like maybe you thought of the ball game yesterday and you thought UT was going to beat Ohio, and we have all kinds of things that we do that and we call that hope. But that's not biblical hope, folks.
Kelly Kinder:Ji Packer distinguishes merely what we might call human optimism from true biblical hope when he writes. Optimism hopes for the best without any guarantee of its arrival and is often no more than whistling in the dark. Christian hope, by contrast, is faith looking ahead to the fulfillment of the promises of God. Optimism is a wish without a warrant. Christian hope is a wish without a warrant. Christian hope is a certainty guaranteed by God himself. Optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will ever actually come. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God's own commitment, that the best is yet to come. And so every moment of your life, in every place of disappointment, all of it's for the future. If you go through it, the next thing is in the future, and so that's where Jesus can come in and change everything. It's where Jesus can come in and change your current situation, and that's why hope is important.
Kelly Kinder:Hebrews 6, 19 says we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain. Did you get that? Hope is an anchor, it's an anchor. So what does an anchor do? Well, if you're familiar at all with boats, which our family had growing up all the time, we never went out anywhere without having a boat, an anchor on the boat. You'd be foolish to go out on the sea without an anchor. What does an anchor do? It keeps you from crashing against the shore. It keeps you from drifting. It keeps you safe. If you lost your anchor at sea, you would be in real danger, and so hope is an anchor in the storms.
Kelly Kinder:Something else about an anchor Anchors after you throw them out, the anchor is unseen, right. Its chain reaches down into the depths to grab hold of solid ground, and sometimes boats they put out. If it's a really bad storm, they'll put an anchor out the front and out the back. In the same way, biblical hope reaches down into the unseen places, strong and unseen, into those places below the surface and they grab hold of the very presence of God. It's quite amazing, and I've seen this, and you have too.
Kelly Kinder:I've seen many times over the years, here and elsewhere, saints of God who, in the face of death, they hold on to this intangible reality, this unseen reality called hope, and they make it through. They walk in great stability and peace because they hold on to something that's unseen. See, the Bible says who hopes for what he's already seen? Nobody. Hope is an unseen reality that we put our faith in the person that can change everything. And we've seen what hope is.
Kelly Kinder:Let's look now at why this Christian hope is so essential to us. Simply, this hope is what motivates you as a believer. Hope is what motivates you as a believer. Hope is what motivates you as a believer. Let me give you some examples of this and show you a few reasons for why hope is essential. Number one it keeps us from giving up on life. Keeps us from giving up on life. Hope motivates us to press on and endure, even when things look bad and when it doesn't look like there's anything in the future for us, even in the face of adversity, to keep pushing forward, knowing that God is what he's, working, all things together for our good. Romans 8 28.
Kelly Kinder:A man approached a little boy one time at a baseball game. He stood in with his head into the dugout. He asked the little boy what's the score? The little boy says well, we're down by 18 runs. He said well, boy, son, I bet you're discouraged. The little boy says no, not at all. We haven't even gotten up to bat yet.
Kelly Kinder:Here's the thing. Hope is a thing that keeps us believing in the goodness of God, no matter what things look like. So hope keeps us from giving up on life. Secondly, hope it causes us to live a godly life. You know, in the church, throughout history of the church, this biblical hope has always been the great motivation for purity of life, for a holy life. It seems like the church today is somewhat lost sight of our hope because we see people falling all around us for moral failure. But here's the thing Jesus is coming again and we, as his pure and spotless bride, what are we called to do? We're supposed to put on clothes that are white and pure and be ready for his coming. And if we are, there'll be no reason for having a red face or any excuses, lame excuses, when he comes.
Kelly Kinder:You know I was thinking about this about. You know the times we go to Christmas parties. This is a season for parties, right? Maybe you've been to a few of them, maybe more than you wanted to. But I occasionally will find myself going to some event like that and I'll put on my clothes and halfway there I'll look down or someone will tell me you've got a spot on your shirt. I was like, and I go in the mirror and it looks terrible. I'm so embarrassed. It's like why didn't I see that before I left? You probably had that happen too.
Kelly Kinder:What about when Jesus comes? He wants us to be ready when he comes and not be ashamed at his coming. First John says in verse 228, and now, little children abide in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 1 John 3, verse 3 says all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. It is a strong motivation to live a pure life because he is coming. Hope, then, causes us to live that pure and godly life. It also, thoroughly, it calls us to experience real joy. This is the product of our hope is joy.
Kelly Kinder:Romans 5, three through five, says we also celebrate in our sufferings, knowing that suffering brings about perseverance and perseverance, proven character and proven character, hope and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. See, when God puts us through the fire, what does he do? And he puts us through the fire not to punish us but to build character in us. And when we allow the work of the Holy Spirit of God to do those things in our lives and we cooperate with him, guess what comes out of that? Out of those struggles and sufferings and disappointments comes character, and out of character comes hope.
Kelly Kinder:I mean, how many of you like to go through hard times? Raise your hand. I don't see any hands. Nobody wants to go through hard times. But when we do, we don't exit on the other side feeling short-changed, do we? If you look back at the times you've gone through difficulty, God has taken you and he's shaped you. He's transformed you into a different person because of it, and that's why we rejoice. God is transforming us, not just to have something that is just different. He's transforming us to make you and I look like Jesus, and there's joy in that. Born how by the Holy Spirit, and as we go through suffering and hard times, the Holy Spirit walks just right alongside of us. That's why he's called the Comforter Number four.
Kelly Kinder:Here's another reason Hope compels us to wait for God's best, to wait for God's best. We talked about light and how it shines, and it's an encouragement to us. It shines a light on the present moment, doesn't it, Revealing that even in the darkness, what God is working. You may not see God at work in your life, but if you're going through this life, God is working, if you are following him. Psalm 39 says and now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you and this is our confidence. Folks, With God, something better is coming.
Kelly Kinder:This past week I was reflecting on this in Hebrews 11, 13. You know how sometimes you're going along and everything's going fine, and then you read something in the Bible and it goes oh, that doesn't fit my theology, or something's wrong with this, or I disagree with this, or I don't like this God. That happened to me, Hebrews 11, 13,. I was reflecting on that and after it lists in Hebrews, chapter 11, what is often called the hall of faith or the heroes of faith, and what they did did some amazing things. Here's what it says, and this is what it didn't like partly All these people died. That wasn't the bad part, that's bad enough. But it says all these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised. What Not receive what they were promised? I mean that put a pin in my balloon right. This deflated my hope. But I soon realized and this is why it's so important to read in context.
Kelly Kinder:I soon realized that what this is speaking about directly. It speaks to our as of yet unrealized expectations, Because it goes on to say that the people who live in this way, that is, live in hope, make it plain that they are willing to trade the temporary for the eternal. And here's why Hope believes that God is not holding out on us. He's holding something better for us than what we thought was the best. And so if we don't receive all that we had thought we were supposed to see receiving this life, do you think that God doesn't know that? That there is just this possibility that the best is yet to come? We just don't know what it is yet. And so hope anchors us both in the present and in the future. And so, in one sense, hope makes us say, along with the psalmist I am confident I will see the Lord's goodness while I am here in the land of the living. Thank you, Patty. I am confident I will see the Lord's goodness while I am here in the land of the living, but if not now, we also know that we've not yet seen or heard, or even imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.
Kelly Kinder:1 Corinthians 2.9. So what we've seen here is that hope is an anchor. Hope has good reasons to have it. And then now, what is it? Let's look. Let's look at how we can know and live in this kind of hope. This is what we're looking at here in Titus 2. Did you know? Hope can change really the narrative, for you Can change your story, and if you can just find and hold fast to that source of hope, then you will receive something that most other people have not ever caught on to, and that's really my hope for you this Christmas.
Kelly Kinder:Titus 2 really helps us here because it points us to the only source of our hope, the only ground of our hope, that person of Jesus Christ. Let me read it just once more so you'll get it in your mind. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the Lord, of the glory, of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. See, hope is not a thing, Hope is not a circumstance. Hope is not a circumstance. Hope is a person. Hope is a person and his name is Jesus.
Kelly Kinder:So here in Titus, chapter two, Paul is writing to his young protege, Titus, as he's leading this church, and he sends out this letter intended to show the church how they should live in their difficult days, in their difficult times. And he mentioned two significant truths, and I will just call these two significant truths truths about Jesus appearing. The first is the appearing of his grace, which is in verses 11 and 12. And second, the appearing of his glory, verse 13 and 14. So these two appearances or comings we can call them comings of Jesus that are mentioned and we celebrate what we call Advent. Well, that Advent 1 is Christmas, Advent 2 is the second coming, and there is the reality that is there. Let's look at these then.
Kelly Kinder:The first one the appearing of His grace in verses 11 and 12. It says there, in verse 11, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. When did this happen? At the incarnation, Grace appeared in a really, really small package. I was reminded of that when we just had our second granddaughter recently and we went out to California. And boy is she small but she's beautiful. And we can say that about the grace that came through Jesus, through Jesus. Boy was that insignificant, seemingly Boy, a small baby, but boy, he's beautiful.
Kelly Kinder:He moved out of the crib, right, so we do celebrate Christmas season as the birth of Christ, but he grew up and he brought salvation to us by living a sinless life, Dying a sinner's death for the sake of every single person here and rising again to what Bring us eternal life. And that just doesn't mean when you think of eternal life, it just doesn't mean forever in length of years. It means the quality of life here and now as well, Eternal life, life that's more abundant. And so, because Jesus is alive, we have reason and power to live this life and say no and yes, no and yes. The scripture says no to what Ungodliness and yes to God. Verse 12 says we are being what Trained Trained to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age. So what is that doing? What are we training? What is that training? We're being trained. We're being educated for what?
Kelly Kinder:In the art of living, you know the best Christians who they are. They're the ones who take Scripture and apply them to life in every facet, From marriage to how do you raise your kids, to how do you tell the truth at your workplace. It trains us. It educates us in the art of living, and we wait for that being transformed by all those little things the Holy Spirit is doing us for his coming, and so it's transformative in its effects. Are you letting Jesus transform you? Are you letting Jesus educate you in the art of living? See, hope is powerful For the here and now. And hopefully you're looking more and more like Jesus when you get up each day. When you looked at the mirror this morning, saw yourself. Did you see yourself more than just flesh and blood. Did you look at your spiritual self? How you doing?
Kelly Kinder:Now there's another appearing which Paul mentions here, and it's the appearing of his glory. Verse 13 says waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Here Paul defines for us really the ultimate hope. He calls it the blessed hope. The blessed hope why is it blessed? Because it's something that God does for us, because of Jesus. Jesus is coming again and it is a blessing to us to know him and serve him and love him and worship him, because he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The appearing of the glory of Christ.
Kelly Kinder:There's so much here about the return of Christ. He doesn't really go into it a whole lot, but let me just say this because we can just kind of only scratch the surface. This, because we can just kind of only scratch the surface that when Jesus appears, we will see him, what Face to face, as he is. And then it says we will be like him. Think about that just a minute. We will be like Jesus when we see him face to face. That's astounding, especially for me. Face to face, that's astounding, especially for me, because I got a long way to go and I bet you do too, but this is a promise from 1 John 3, verse 2. See, what is it?
Kelly Kinder:For us, it's easy to live as if there was no tomorrow, and I think that's true. For us, as Christians, it's easy to live as if there were no tomorrow, Kind of a especially in the Christmas season, an eat, drink and marry for tomorrow we die kind of attitude. But real Christians live for more than this. Listen, if this is not true, if it's not true that Jesus came and lived and died and was buried and he rose again, then we who follow him, we are the most foolish people in all the world. Because to believe and live a lie when you could have all this other stuff that is here today and gone tomorrow, that sounds great, doesn't it? But this is what Paul said If our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are to be pitied more than anyone in the world. See, this is what the world doesn't believe that Jesus is coming again, that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords and that we should serve him and worship him as God incarnate and in the flesh and now the resurrected, living Lord, that this makes all the difference. See, here's the thing Christian hope is based on God's promises, and there are promises all through the Bible of what God has said to us to try to get us to believe what he said is true God's promises are based on God's character, and so this is why you and I can live in hope, despite the storms.
Kelly Kinder:Here's some support for that. Hebrews 6, 17 says so. When God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things one of the two unchangeable things his promise and his oath in which it is impossible for God to lie we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before him, before us. God can't lie. It's impossible because that's his character. It's not like he could choose it, because that's who he is. That's his nature, and so when he says something, you can count on it. That's his nature, and so when he says something, you can count on it.
Kelly Kinder:When the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah found himself caught in a what I would call a horrifying crisis as his nation was being destroyed for their sin, If you look back in that story in Lamentations, where we're going to read what Jeremiah thought, their city was actually surrounded by the enemy and under siege and they had no food, struggling to find water. And in chapter four of Lamentations it says the women ate their own kids. In that context, listen to what Jeremiah said. But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore I will hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. So even in the darkest places, Jeremiah points us to the reality that God is always someone whom we can put our hope and our trust in. Hebrews, the writer there says hope does not disappoint.
Kelly Kinder:Edward Welch writes if you're hopeless. There may be many contributors, but two are certain. Number one, you've placed your hope in something other than God and it has let you down. Or number two, you may understand that Jesus conquered death, but you live as though he is still in the grave. All hopelessness is ultimately a denial of the resurrection.
Kelly Kinder:Other stories are always looking for ways to humanize God and deify us, but God's story exalts him and brings appropriate humility to us as his creatures. All wisdom starts here. If you miss it? If you miss it, you are on the wrong path and without hope. I hope you don't miss it this Christmas. Jesus is the worthy one. How much is he worth to you? How much is he worth to you? See, if you need hope this Christmas, there's really only one place to find it, and it's the one who keeps his promises, the one who's faithful, the one who is the worthy, the one who's faithful, the one who is the worthy one, the one whose name is Jesus.
Kelly Kinder:Father, we're thankful and grateful that you came to rescue us, Lord, to remind us that we are not without hope. Because of you, Lord, I pray today for every person who hears my voice that doesn't know you, that they will turn their lives to you and seek your face. Lord, I pray that you would rescue them from their hopeless place today and they would find the life eternal as they put their hope and their faith in you. And I pray for us today, Lord, that know you that in our struggles and our disappointments and our sometimes days where we just wonder where you are, Lord, that we can still know that you are a God of hope. You are the God of hope. You are the God of hope, and that we can confidently know that you have our best in mind. Lord, give us that hope in you. This day, as we celebrate our Christmas season, we pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.
