Hope. We need it like we need oxygen. Without it, it’s hard to go on and with it, we can make it through the toughest of times. But what is real hope and where can you find a hope that lasts? Let’s have a conversation about what it means to have real hope.
Connexus Church Video Podcast
Discovering A Hope That Lasts // Advent (Part 1) // Jeff Brodie
Today, we kick off a brand new series and it's called Advent, a countdown to Christmas. And Advent is something that is a little more of a Christmas tradition that has been long lasting, that we wouldn't lean into normally quite as much as we're going to in this series. And Advent, if you're like, well, I know the word, but I don't really know what it means, it comes from the Latin Adventus, which to me sounds like a superhero word, Adventus. And Advent, it's a combination of expectation and celebration. And it comes actually as far back as the fourth century. And what it is is an expectation and a celebration as we count down to Christmas. When I was a kid, one of the things I was known for in my house was that I could always find the gifts that way parents were going to give me before Christmas day. In fact, it became like a mission for me. I couldn't wait to find out if I was gonna get what I asked for. And the most epic of all was in the cold storage in my parents' basement. I found a set of downhill skis buried under potatoes behind like canned pickles, well, jarred pickles. And I found there my skis before Christmas even came. And here's what's so interesting. It still didn't ruin Christmas for me because there's that expectation of the day I'm gonna get the skis and I'm gonna be in the snow with my new skis and I'm so excited about it. And I'm like, I can't wait for the skis. There's that expectation and celebration. I know the gift that's coming and I'm celebrating it. And I'm also got this longing, this expectation, as we work towards it, as we count down to Christmas. That's really what the spirit of Advent is. And it mirrors what's happened before us. That if you look at the Old Testament, the Jewish people, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, the descendants, they were all waiting. There are prophecies, hundreds of years before Jesus was even born, saying this coming Messiah is gonna come. And they're so detailed, it's unbelievable when you read them, when they talk about the birth of Jesus. And what happens is this countdown is on and then the Messiah comes and they waited 2,000 years. And what we're doing is, man, we're reminding ourself of the gift that we have in Jesus as we count down. Now, in addition to that, it's also something that helps us to look forward. Because if we choose to follow Jesus, as followers of Jesus, Jesus died, his God's son came, we believe, lived a perfect life on earth. And as God's son died for our sin, rose again for our salvation. And then he returned to heaven, but he left us his spirit and he said, I'm gonna be coming back. And one day you're gonna be with me in eternity. And I'm gonna create a new heavens and a new earth. And for us, we're longing for that day. We're celebrating and with expectation, we're headed towards that day. In some ways you could argue, we're Advent people. And what we wanna do in the midst of this series is as we count down to Christmas, is as we get, as there's hustle and bustle and parties and gifts and all kinds of emotions that come with Christmas and there are a lot, right? I mean, Christmas is something for some of us, right? In the midst of all of that, let's not miss out on the greatest gift. Let's not miss out on the reflection that can happen here around what's really going on in our soul. And today I've let the candle of hope. And we're gonna talk about hope today. Now hope to me is like oxygen. You can't live without hope. You can't survive without it. Some of you know what it is like to lose hope. And sadly, you see people who are at the end of their lives. Often it's the moment they give up hope that they let go and pass away. Sadly, some of us know people who were so hopeless that they ended up taking their own life. You have to have hope. It's like oxygen for your soul. It's part of how we're wired as human beings. And where you put your hope dictates your level of peace and joy. Where you put your hope dictates your level of peace and joy. If your hope is in your finances and you think, okay, as long as I am financially secure, I'm good. As long as I'm top of my retirement, my mortgage payment, I've got the writing coming in, I'm good. I've got peace and joy in my life. But the minute something happens, the minute there's something happens in your finances, maybe you lose a job, maybe sadly, you end up in the midst of a divorce. And financially, the whole picture changes and your peace and joy starts to disintegrate because your hope is in that. Some of you, you put your hope in your kids, which by the way, they're not meant to carry that kind of weight. And you think, man, as long as my kids are good. And you know what they say, your only as good as your worst kid is doing or something like that. And you think, man, it's my hope is in them and in their success and in they do well. And when they're doing well, I'm doing well. And then you know what, there's some days they're not going to do well. And there's some days they're going to disappoint you. And your peace and your joy go down. For some of you, it's a career. And all of a sudden one day that career changes and you get that performance review or you get downsized. And all of a sudden, if that's where your hope is, it dictates your level of peace and joy. That's one of the reasons we have to talk about hope. And in the coming weeks, next week, the now is going to talk specifically about peace. Christine's going to talk about joy. We want to reflect on these things in our lives in these seasons. One way to say it is this. Your hope is only as secure as what holds your heart. Your hope is only as secure as what holds your heart. I mean, imagine I came downstairs on Christmas Day. And instead of my skis, there was nothing under the tree. What would happen to me as a kid? Because I had expectation. My hope was in those skis. I saw myself just going down the hill, right? And it's gone. Like that. And some of you that's happened in your life. You had hoped in something and it was gone like that. And you didn't even know that you hoped in it until it was gone. And then you realized what held your heart. Your hope is only as secure as what holds your heart. So let me ask you a really personal question. What are you putting your hope in now? Today, what are you putting your hope in today? It's an important conversation. There's a guy named Tim Keller, theologian. If you hang out here, you know, I talk about him a lot. And he's wrote a number of amazing things. I think his best book is a book called "Counterfeit Gods." If you haven't read it, you should order it. And he talks in this book, "Counterfeit Gods," about the different things that we put in replacement of God. And he talks about the obvious things that you would think of right away. Money, career, sex, achievement, all those things. But then what he does is in this book, he looks at actually four core things, four things that are really at our hearts when it comes to putting our hope in things outside of God, putting our hope in other things. And to me, they're so incredibly helpful. And the first one is this, hope and comfort. Some of you, that's what you put your hope in. You put your hope in ease. And you know what? Honestly, I really don't blame you because that's how our world is set up. If you live in Barry, if you live in Aurelia, if you live in Alston, Innisfil, or a little bit outside, our whole communities are designed for ease. You are 15 minutes from everything, right? You're 15 minutes from a place to get your haircut, 15 minutes from the bank, 15 minutes from Costco, I mean, Costco's all you need, you don't even need to be close to anything else. The rec center is there, it's all 15 minutes away. And here's the crazy part, it's just not close enough for us, is it? We gotta have that Amazon Prime. 'Cause you know, 15 minutes to Costco, forget it. I need it delivered to my house now. And you order that thing that you didn't really need, and they promised 24 hours and it comes in 48 and you're like, pfft, Amazon, man. These people, how dare I wait, 48 hours for that stupid Christmas decoration I don't even need. But we're so, have you gone to shop for a recliner lately? I mean, it's like something out of a spaceship. They'd like it heats, you got like a massage, you got like a cup holder, it's like an LED screen on the thing, it's like something right out of Star Wars, to make you comfortable. 'Cause if you hope in comfort, you want peace, you don't wanna rock the boat, you don't want difficulty in your life, you don't wanna face hard things, you want ease. And when you don't get it, you escape. That's what you do. And man, we're set up for that, aren't we? There's so many screens we can escape to. Can escape the Netflix, we can start doom scrolling, you put all your heart into your hobby, you go fishing and disappear on your family, we escape when things get difficult, we gotta run. And we keep our relationships for those who hope in comfort, you keep your relationship on the surface because you don't wanna get to know anybody too well. And you don't want anybody to get to know you too well either, right? 'Cause if they know you, they can hurt you. And so you keep everything on the surface. You might have a lot of friends, but how many close friends do you really have? Who really knows you? I would argue you're choosing convenience in your life over the calling God has for you. That you miss out on what God has for you because you just want to keep it all comfortable. And you hear verses like when Jesus says in Matthew, come all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. And you go, yes, rest. That's what I want. But who gives you rest, Netflix? Who gives you redification? 'Cause that's not what Jesus says. He says, I will give you rest. I will meet you in the place of rest. Do not look for comfort outside of me. And you miss that and you pacify yourself just to feel okay. Okay, some of you want me to move on, I can see that. So, all right, hope and approval. Some of you are like, oh, I'm not comfortable right now. I'll tell you that much. Hope and approval. Listen, anybody who stands up like I do right now and wears one of these struggles with this, if they tell you any different, they're lying. Hope and approval, affirmation, respect, significance. I need to be affirmed. I need to be respected. I need people to think I'm doing a good job. Any people pleasers out there today? Right? That's what this is. I gotta please people and you over commit, right? You're already over committed for the whole Christmas season. Too many parties. You said you'd bring that 20 layer dessert to that Christmas thing. I'll show up at this. I'll help you with this. Go with the kids. I'm gonna show up this thing. I'm volunteering at that thing. And all of this is to make you feel okay on the inside and heaven forbid somebody criticizes you when you do one of those things. 'Cause even if somebody has affirmed you a thousand times, that one criticism creates a canyon in your heart that you'll spend the whole week trying to fill. And you know what happens when your hope is in approval? This is what really happens to us, if you're like me. You start to live a double life. Because everybody out there knows you as the one who helps and shows up and I can always count on them because you over commit and you people please. But when you're at home, you're tired, you're cynical, even jaded. And then you go out the next day and you do it all over again. You live a double life. You're somebody different out there than you are exhausted at home. And you miss out on stuff. Like when God says to his son, Jesus and Mark, what he says to you, you are my beloved child in whom I am already well pleased. But you hear that and you don't think it applies to you. Maybe your hope is in control. You like things secure. You like things predictable. You got your routine because your routine is the way things are to be done. And you wanna keep it that same way. Now you don't call it control. You call it perfectionism, excellence. And you know, perfectionism and Christmas is like boom, right? 'Cause we all know families, anything but perfect. But you're gonna try to make it perfect with the right dinner and the right candles and the right setup. And you're gonna try to make it all perfect. And you're gonna be in control of how it all plays out. And you know what, if you're really honest, you know how to manipulate people to get them to do what you think they should do without them even knowing. And when you pray, your prayers are usually all outcome driven. God, I pray that this would turn out the way that I know it should turn out. I pray that they would understand that I need to show them what they should do with their life. And when people talk about God is in control and people talk about the sovereignty of God, when you hear that, there's always an asterisk in your mind. God gets control when I can't control it anymore. And once I can control it again, now God isn't in control, it's me. And you and God wrestle over that steering wheel all the time. And when you hear verses like be still and know that I am God from Psalm 46, there's an asterisk by that too for you. Because how in the chaos can you be still and know God if you're not the one in control? The last one is hope and power. You want achievement, you want influence, you want recognition, you want to make it happen, you want to show people what you've made happen, I struggle with this one, you're competitive. And you know what, you get angry and frustrated when somebody stands in the way of the thing that you are trying to achieve and the influence that you're trying to have and you'll even choose success over relationships in your life. And on our darkest days, get real honest here for a minute. When someone you know, even someone you love appears to have success, more success than you, you have a hard time even being happy for them. And you know how ugly that is. And you hear Mark 1045 where it says, "The son of God didn't come to be served, but to serve." And you think, yeah, well, I'm into serving as long as it results in the success that I'm looking for. I'm into serving as long as it helps me move my thing forward. But what if God called you to serve in a way that you would appear as you're failing? What if God would call you to serve that someone else might be more successful than you? Would you be willing to serve then? See, here's the thing. When you hope in comfort and when you hope in power and when you hope in control and when you hope in approval, when you hope in these things, here's the thing about them. It's in your humanity as you search for hope, it doesn't stop. Like, you can't get enough 'cause if you control this, now this thing's out of control. When you control this, now this thing's out of control, right? The toddler was out of control, then you got control, then the toddler became a teenager and now out of control, and then the kid left the house and you're like, "Oh my gosh, now I have no control other than the money." And you try to control and when it comes to achievement, how much achievement is enough achievement and how much approval, how much affirmation is gonna fill that hole because it fills it for a while and then it's gone and you get enough control and then it's like whack-a-mole, it doesn't stop. And you get comfortable and then something happens and then you lose that comfort and it never stops. Here's the thing about it. Human hope leaks, it leaks, it doesn't stop. Whichever one it is for you, it doesn't stop. You will chase it your whole life. Your hope is only as secure as what holds your heart. And if comfort, if approval, if control, if power, is the thing that holds your heart, hope will continually leak and you will never feel completely secure in it and what if you could. What if you could? The Apostle Paul writes in Romans about hope in a number of places and one is in Romans chapter five and Paul is an apostle and he's writing this passage to people who have chosen to follow Jesus with their life. People who would say, "Hey, I believe that Jesus died "for my own forgiveness, rose again for my salvation, "was the Son of God, lived a perfect life "and now I can trust in him, knowing my eternity is secure." But the truth is we struggle with this and he wants to remind us of a hope that doesn't leak. And this is what he says in Romans chapter five. He says, "Therefore, we have been made right "in God's sight by faith and we have peace with God "because of what Jesus Christ has done for us." What's he saying here? He's saying, "You've already been made right. "When you choose Jesus, you've been made right. "You don't need to get it perfect. "You don't need the approval to make you feel right. "You don't need to be in control for things to be all right. "You have been made right in God's sight." What is this saying? Listen, I don't want you to miss this. What this is saying is that when God looks at you, when you choose to follow Jesus, when God looks at you, he sees you like he sees Jesus, you have been made right. Because of what he did for you. And then he says this, "Because of our faith, "Christ has brought us into this place "of undeserved privilege where we now stand." I love this phrase, undeserved privilege. My best description from scripture about this is when you choose to follow Jesus, you are like a prince and princess of a king. You stand in undeserved privilege, in confidence, knowing in confidence that you are a son and a daughter of God. Knowing in confidence that doesn't matter who else gives you approval, it doesn't matter what other success you have. You can't be more successful than where you stand. You can't have more approval than where you stand. You can't be more affirmed than where you stand. You have been made a son and a daughter of God. And he says, "As a result," he says, "and we confidently and joyfully look forward "to sharing God's glory." God's glory is what you get. Doesn't matter how successful you are at work or not, doesn't matter how successful you are financially or not, doesn't matter how much power you have or not, you already are sharing in the glory of the God of the universe. What's he saying? He's saying hope. Our hope is in this confidence that we have. That you can listen to this, listen to me. You can stand confidently in your place of privilege as a son and daughter of God and a bright future because of Jesus, even on your crappiest day, even on your most hopeless of days. You can stand confidently, confidently, man, confidently in your place of privilege with a bright future on your darkest day because of Jesus. That's hope. And then he says this, "We can rejoice too." He says, "Because when we run into problems in trials "and look, okay, whoa, whoa. "We're gonna rejoice when we have problems in trials. "What's up?" The comfort people are like, "This makes no sense." Zero. When we, not if we, when we, when we run into problems in trials for we know that they help us develop endurance, that we will face trials, that we will face problems. They will help us develop endurance in many sizzes. And endurance develops strength of character and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. Endurance, strength, character, a confident hope of salvation in the problems in the trials. To me, this is so critical to me to anybody who walks through our doors and hears about the Christian faith. You are gonna have hard times and you are gonna have two options. When the hard time is gonna be a diagnosis, you're gonna lose a loved one, young, unexpectedly. Like if you think this stuff just happens to other people, it happens to everybody. It's gonna happen to you. Something is gonna happen. This is human life in our broken world. And you are gonna have two choices. You are either gonna lean away from God or you're gonna lean into God. There is no neutral, I promise you. Nobody stays neutral. And here's what I've learned. People who lean into God in the hardest of times end up discovering something that can only be discovered by going through that with Jesus, that he carries them and that he walks with them and that he's present with them. And they are different people on the other side in their soul because of what? Why? What is so different about these people? They are confident in the hope of their salvation. That if God can carry me through that crap, I know he's gonna carry me the rest of the way. When I meet people who are like this, they don't talk about comfort. They don't talk about like, oh, like all their achievements. And when you talk to them about God, you know what they say to me? They say, man, God carried me through one of the hardest times of my life. When we lost our child, he carried us. When I lost my spouse, he was present with me. When I leaned in, he showed up. Because when you do that, you experience endurance and you experience character and you experience real hope that doesn't leak. You can rejoice on your worst days, knowing that they are an opportunity to grow in the hope of your salvation. Then on your hardest days, like listen, I'm not saying this lightly. I understand when I say hardest days, I'm talking about the real hardest days and I understand that there's a lot of emotion there, a lot of hurt there. And I'm not here to press on people's buttons. I'm just trying to be honest, that these are opportunities for you to find a hope in the confidence of salvation that will stick with you for the rest of your life. I'm not saying it's easy, but I'm saying it's true and it's real and it doesn't leak. And then he says this, and this hope will not lead to disappointment. Man, as one of those approval competitive people, I like that because it feels like just when I get the next thing, now I'm disappointed. When I get the next thing, now I'm not happy. And you've been there, you bought this thing and it was the greatest thing. And now it's just like that thing in the basement, you don't have the heart to throw away, but you never use it, but you needed it then to fill that hole. But what about a hope that doesn't lead to disappointment? What about a hope that doesn't leak? He's saying the confidence of your salvation, this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with love. Where are my approval addicts? Where are my people pleasers? Where are perfectionists? Fill, fill, fill, the hole, the hole, we can't stop. You can't stop filling it, you're trying to fill it, but the next, it's like you fill it and then something happens and it's empty and you fill it and then it's empty. And what he's saying is listen to me, Paul says, when you choose to follow Jesus with your life, you are dearly loved by the God of the universe. He sees you, he knows you, and nothing you can do will make him love you less, and nothing you can do will make him love you more because he sees exactly who you are and he loves you fully and completely. And you should find your identity in that. That hope is when your identity is in that. That you can know that your identity is as a child of God who knows God loves you more than you can ever imagine. Listen, if I could just, on that day, when you are self-loathing because you just are so, and that inner critic is going at you and you are self-loathing or your mom says that thing that triggers you at Christmas or whatever it is, and you just feel like I just feel that hole in me. I just want you to remember right now. That your identity as a child of God who knows you and loves you more than you could ever imagine. More love than you could ever need in your life. Your hope is only as secure as what holds your heart. In fact, I would say, your hope is only as secure as who holds your heart. And here's what I want to ask you to do this week. I want you to be brave enough to ask yourself this question. Where are you misplacing your hope? Where are you putting your hope in something that the end of the day is never gonna fill that hole? And be honest, and would you be brave enough to give that part of your heart to God to hold? Would you be brave enough to say this control that I need to have over here, I'm actually gonna hand it to God. This approval that I keep looking for over here, I'm gonna hand it to God. This power and achievement, and this need to beat the next, get the next, I'm gonna take that, and I'm gonna give it to him. Would you give that part of your heart to God that I don't need comfort, that this world has to offer, but I can actually step into God's calling. Knowing at the end of the day, I can go to him for comfort with my life. Would you be that brave? The interesting thing, I mean, I'm fortunate, and I know not everybody has this story, but I'm fortunate enough to have some great parents. What would have happened if I didn't get those skis? What would have happened if my hope hadn't been met on Christmas Day? At the end of the day, it would have been okay, because I know my parents love me. I know that the giver of the gift loves me even when I don't get the gift. And my encouragement to you is to know that there is a God who loves you and who cares about you. And even on the days, it feels hopeless. He sees you as a child of his, that your identity is in him, that he will carry you. And at the end of the day, he is present with you and loves you. There's an image in the Old Testament where it talks about the prophecies of Jesus coming hundreds of years before, and I love this image it has. It's of a stump. And the stump is the lineage of David, they call it. So it's Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and then it talks about David, we won't go through them all today, we don't have that kind of time. But the whole genealogy, and it looks at this stump, as they waited for the Messiah, then there's 400 years before the New Testament, they hear nothing, and then the Messiah is born. And the image it uses is like a branch breaking out of the stump. And I picture it with these little green leaves on it, bursting through that stump. That's what the story of Christmas is all about, the hope of that little branch. In some of you are here today, and you are hoping for just, if something could just break through, if something could just crack through, if I could just get a glimmer of hope, that's what Christmas is about. It's about a God who sent his son to be that hope for you today. Paul writes this in Romans. He says, "And in another place, Isaiah said, the prophet Isaiah, the heir of David's throne will come. The branch will crack through the stump, and he will rule over the Gentiles. The Messiah won't just be for the Jewish people, he'll be for all people, and they will place their hope in him." And then he says this, "And this is my prayer for you today." He says, "I pray that God, the source of hope, the unleakable hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him." And he says, "And then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." This is my prayer for you this week, that you would discover the hope that doesn't leak, that you would be given hope by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you would be brave enough to let go of human hope, and actually discover the hope that human beings were designed for from the very beginning, a hope that comes from the source of hope, God himself, because your hope is only as secure as who holds your heart. Let me pray for you. God, I do come to you today, and I pray for each person here in Barrie and Aurelia online, those who hear the sound of my voice, that you, by the power of your spirit, will give us the courage to let go of the things that we find hope in that are temporary, that leak that cause our souls to feel rung out. And in this season, in the midst of the gifts and the parties and all this stuff, that we would discover what it means to tap into the source of hope, that we would be brave enough to find our hope in you, that you would secure our hearts. God, I pray that this Christmas season, as we go on this journey together, that between November and January, we wouldn't come out on the other side the same, but we would come out the other side, different people because of what we've discovered about you. Thank you for the hope of your Son, Jesus. In your name, amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]