Citywide Baptist Church

References:
Kathy Findley, Pastor, The centre for Healing and Hope, Little Rock, ARK on Oct 25, 2003
Alli Patterson, Pastor, Crossroads Church, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Philip Yancey, Reaching for an invisible God
Louie Giglio

Isaiah wrote of a time of despair and desolation but proclaimed that the door that opened up to future hope was not completely closed. There may yet be some gate of hope the people could get through.

Many people live in utter hopelessness. For multitudes of people, people that you and I see every day, hope is lost!

Sometimes there is much more disappointment in our hearts than hope!

If we are searching through Advent for anything at all, we are counting on the fact that hope really can flood our spirits, and fill our hearts, and drench our souls.

Holy and divine hope comes as a gift from God, and it enters our despairing places and weaves together the broken pieces of our lives in new and unexpected ways. Hope "sees" what we cannot readily see.

What are you hoping for right now?

Biblical hope isn’t hoping for better circumstances: it’s waiting for God Himself to show up—right in the middle of all that stuff. It’s the tension of living through the hard times while holding onto the expectation that God can somehow come into it.

For Christians hope is a future certainty grounded in a present reality.
And that present reality is the faithfulness of God.

Christians don’t just hope for the best, we celebrate the hope of the risen Christ

Through Christ our Hope is that God sees a purpose in every circumstance

So let’s ask ourselves this first week of Advent: do we want God’s plan or our own? Is our hope really in Him, or is it simply in the change of our circumstances? Are we willing to listen and say yes even if where He’s leading feels impossible?

Despite life’s contradictions, we are to join prophets and apostles in announcing that day above all days
when the world’s wretched neither hunger nor thirst any more,
when nation no longer lifts up sword against nation,
when God wipes away every tear from every eye.

We declare on this Advent Sunday of hope that, just when our hope seems all used up, there is a wonder and a mystery within, that promises a renewed sense of life in our despairing spirits.

If God is our security we can do crazy things like love our enemies, be generous with our money and have a sense of peace when life throws curveballs.

Small Group Questions:

1) What do you experience most during Advent?
2) What do you do when the bottom drops out of your life?
3) Where do you see God’s faithfulness demonstrated in your life?
4) What do you hope for now?
5) Do you have a hopeful vision for the future?