Welcome to the River City Church podcast and a message by our
lead pastor, Jason Powers. Our prayer is that this message
would inspire and encourage you, build your faith and point you
to the life changing love of Jesus.
May you enjoy the goodness of God as you follow Him today.
Let's begin with our confession. Each week our confession is we
are badly broken. Yes, you are.
Grace and peace to you. I'm excited that the students
all, they were not ready to give up the stage.
They were ready to stand their ground on this.
But I'm glad that they came and these are this is what a
traditional Christmas looks like.
And if you wonder, the traditional celebration of
Christian of of the Christian Christmas, it looks like Advent.
Advent is the beginning. And in fact, Advent begins the
March, the beginning of the church calendar between now
between this Sunday and then Ascension Sunday that comes a
few weeks after Easter. We call that as the church
calendar. It marks the life of Jesus.
And there are all these seasons throughout that that tells the
life that Jesus meant. So the church.
As we focus. On that we begin to be formed
and shaped by the life of Jesus in the world, and we begin our
gear in the Christmas season by looking at incarnation and the
symbol of Advent is the. Candle.
Candle is a remind us that light is coming.
It doesn't say it's just a candle, right In a dark room, a
candle's a little bit of something.
It's a little bit of light, but it doesn't light the whole.
Thing up, it's not like spotlights, million Watt candle,
power flashlights, it's just a little bit light, but it reminds
us that light isn't completely extinguished, that there's light
coming even though the darkness may surround us.
So in the 5th century, when the Christian started practicing
Advent, it looked a lot like Lent.
They practiced the same way with with fasting and with all kinds
of mortification. But over time, over the
centuries of development, Advent came to be about waiting.
The whole season is about this sense that God is coming, good
is coming. We know that it's coming, but we
haven't experienced it yet. So the whole season of Advent,
the whole for the next several weeks leading up to Christmas
Day, the thing we want to point you at and the thing that we
want to kind of try to cultivate and stir up in your heart is
this idea that God is absolutely at work, He's just not done yet.
So things are still being shaped, things are still being
formed. And our part in this Advent
season, our part in the Advent celebration, is to make room to
createspace in our lives for the things that God wants to work
out. And what that means then is that
often times. We come with candles to poorly
lit, dark, scary places. Advent is the time to.
Have revealed and to see and sometimes to sit with things
about us that maybe we don't like so that we can evaluate
those and decide which things need to stay, which things need
to remain and which things don't.
And this is important for us as we process.
How are we going to celebrate this?
How can this Christmas, how can this Advent season be what it
was created to? It begins understanding we have
to know Advent is not a passive thing.
Advent is not a thing that you sit back and feel vaguely
nostalgic. Feelings, things and things will
happen to you. Advent is purposeful.
The point of Advent is for us, for you, and for me and for us,
right. We're going to carry our
language forward all y'all, for all of us to evaluate our lives
and to begin actually decluttering the things that
take up space in our lives to remove perspectives, biases,
fears, hopes, habits, old things that no longer fit anymore to
make space for those because our hope is that something better
has come in the person of Jesus. Although we're going to have
things that will hopefully bring.
We have Christmas trees, 1,000,000 Christmas trees and
crosses and lights and holly and bells and angels and bows.
Oh my. And all of the things that I
hope that you'll see those things that I hope they will
touch a place that is deep in you.
But I hope you also know that the purpose on the point of this
season isn't about sentiment, and is not.
About nostalgia, It is about formation.
The point of Christmas is to form us around this single idea,
incarnation. There is a God who is real, and
that God because of his great love for us, John.
When John tells the creation story, it says that that word
that Logos put on flesh and dwelt among us.
The idea behind Advent is that the life that God desires to
give. You is perfectly compatible with
the situations that you're in. It need only be chosen.
Advent isn't a feeling. Christmas isn't about something
that we feel together. Advent is about all y'all and me
and us becoming the kind of people who are increasingly
growing towards eternal life, towards the kind of life that
God wants to give us. Advent is a spiritual season.
All the things that we're going to talk about, the lights, the
wreath, the Garland, the bells, the trees, all of it has a
spiritual significance. All of it is pointing us towards
something. And so this understanding, this
idea that it's not just about trees and lights and bells, it's
about something spiritual within our heart.
That is why for many times for some of you would be my
assumption, Christmas is bells and lights and whistles and also
sadness and loneliness and darkness.
And the last thing in the world that I want to do is paper over
what is real and what is present in this space with us for some
aspirational thing that we all kind of feel vaguely.
Guilty for not living up to We know the stats about depression
during the holiday season. We know the stats about
loneliness, We know the stats. The question is and again I want
to acknowledge some of you are here in that and so the question
that like. And let me also acknowledge some
of you. Aren't here in that and that's
an. Interesting presentation for us.
What about the people that hit this Christmas season?
And we really feel like we got it together.
We feel like finally I've got my life put together.
I'm finally doing it all right. God, finally you gave me what I
needed. I'm handling it all.
I've got it under control. And God, we're good.
What does Christmas have for you?
What does the admin have for you?
I don't know. But I know.
What it has for those who are struggling and has an answer to
the question how does your pain and struggle fit into the
Christmas story? Because we know the Christmas.
Story The Christmas story is where the angels come to the
shepherds. Right.
And they say I have. Good tidings of great joy, which
will be for all people. And we read about the shepherds,
man. And they went, and they saw the
baby and they worshipped, and then they went back to the sheep
poop for the rest of their life. What about them?
What about you is you're just shoveling the stuff day after
day after day, and you're lonely and you're sad and you're sorry?
And now it's Christmas. Time and everything is lit up.
Is it just time to pretend? See, the story of Christmas
doesn't begin with a Manger. The story of Christmas didn't
begin when an Angel came to Mary and said, blessed are you among
women? The story of Christmas didn't
begin when angels showed up over field and Angel.
The Christmas didn't begin Angel.
The story of Christmas begins with promises.
The story of Christmas begins with a promise made in the
Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve had sinned and fallen and
separated. And God said, I'm going to
create one that's going to crush the enemy.
It's going to crush his head under your heel.
That's a promise. And when God?
Came to Abram and he found him and he said, Abram, you didn't
choose me, but I chose you. And he said, Abram, I've set you
apart for a purpose and your purpose are you listening?
Abram, your purpose is to have a family that's going to be a
blessing to the whole world. Our God who saw the end from the
beginning, who saw billions of people on earth, went to Abram
and said, Abram, I've got a job uniquely for you.
I'm going to give you so much goodness that you can't contain
it. And Abraham, your plan and your
purpose is simply to distribute it out to the world.
And the whole world is waiting for it and watching for it, and
they want it, and they're waiting for you to get there.
Abraham and Abraham had a family and they became a nation and
they inhabited the land. And then God made a promise to
David, and David was a king. And he did.
I lose this. David was a king and he told.
David, he said. David, for as long as there is
history, someone from your family and from your line will
be seated on the throne. David, your family among my.
People will have power and will have authority.
Forever. Can you imagine as a people with
those promises? Can you imagine a people whose
identity is the God of all? God sees us and fights for us
and knows us and has established us.
Can you imagine looking around the promised land, a land
flowing with milk and honey? And he says our God has given us
all of this. Who can take it away from us?
Who are we afraid of? Because our God is mighty and he
rules and he reigns. And the people lived under that
for centuries and for millennia, and they were shaped like that.
So you. Can imagine how distraught they
must have been when in the 8th century on their northern
border, the Assyrian Kingdom under kings Tiglev, Pylaezer and
and all these crazy names, they started to camp out on the
northern border of Israel and they entered and they came first
the land first the towns of Zebulun and Naphtali.
The the the tribes assorted to those those tribes.
They fell. The Assyrians came and ran
roughshod all over all of them. Now, Can you imagine if God had
told you specifically? We're the people that God
protects. We're the people that God fights
for. God has promised us.
God made a promise to Abram. God made a promise to David that
one of his kings would sit on our throne.
That's not one of David's kids on our throne.
That's Senecarib. I don't even know how to say
that. In the 8th century, every hope
and dream that the Israelite people had ever had collapsed as
the Israel, as the Assyrian armor invaded their people.
And you know the questions that they asked God, I thought you
said you said that, right? God, you said if I would that
you would. Oh, and I'm I'm perfect also.
I got to do everything perfect now I got to get everything
right for you to make it. God, it sounds like a setup.
God, where are you? God, where have you been?
God, have you forgotten us, or are you just?
Mean to me? Oh, you got lessons to teach me
God Good. God, are you too?
Weak for this situation or are you just unwilling to get
involved for me? God, why are you treating us
this way? These are the cries of the
people, and we can hear them in the Psalms.
We hear them. We read them throughout the
Scripture. But my question is, I want you
to find your voice in the in, in the lament.
Have you had that moment where you thought you were walking,
you thought you were doing it, and you wake up one day to find
and feel like you're betrayed by God?
I have. I've had that moment where I
feel like, God, you're a stranger.
To me. Why would I know how I love my
kids, Lord, and I'm broken and fall and why don't you love me?
Better God. We're sad, we grieve, and we
feel disoriented by the way our worlds are shaping up.
I'm just saying. Have you ever identified with
that? The Bible has a phrase for that.
They call it walking in darkness.
And notice it's not a moment of darkness, it's walking in
darkness, is walking through life with the darkness of grief
and sin and betrayal and fear and discomfort and all of this
things that God has. Called us out.
From out of it's all of those things hanging on us and hanging
over us. And so before the Angel spoke to
Mary about her blessedness, before the Angel spoke to the
shepherds, the prophet Isaiah spoke to God's people about
darkness. He says this Isaiah Chapter 9
starting in verse 1. He says, nevertheless, the gloom
of the distressed land. Now before he called, I don't
even need these. See this is a big print Bible.
I solved my problems. See, when Isaiah talks to the
distressed land, he's talking to the people of Israel.
Now notice how different it is before when he was talking to
the people, to Abram and the people in in the wilderness,
what he said, he said he called it a land flowing with milk and
honey. But now that the presence of the
invaders or the presence of the armies, it is a distressed land.
And what we're told is the distressed land will not be like
that of the former times. And he humbled the land of
Zebulun and the land of Naftali. Remember, we talked about those
where the Assyrians came first, these lands under the thumb of
the Assyrian Empire. These would have been signs and
symptoms of the shame and the betrayal of God for his people,
the seeming betrayal and abandonment of God.
God, you said you would protect us.
And now look at the lands that you gave us that have been
reclaimed. You've given them to the pagans.
What? Shame must have fallen on God's
people as they now felt. Betrayed and the former things,
the former times when he humbled Zebulun and Aftala, but in the
future he will bring honor to the way of the sea, to the land
east of the Jordan and to Galilee of the nations.
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.
A light has dawned on those living in the land.
The darkness, this passage that Isaiah's talking about, this
message that he's giving to God's people, it's a message
about an old way and about a new way and the old way that has
fallen under the the the hand of the Assyrians.
It feels like betrayal. It feels like God has turned
from them and it feels like God doesn't see them anymore.
And their defeat. Are you listening?
Your defeat feels like judgement.
God you are. Judging us in this, what it
looks like for us as we walk and we feel the darkness and it
feels like shame or pain or fear.
And what we do is when it haunts us day after day after day, what
we do is we. Begin to try to just get it to
quiet just a little bit. So maybe we turn the radio up,
maybe we put the air pods in, or maybe we take a drink, or we
take a puff, or we spend a little more than we should.
Or we do something that either to make us feel something or to
make us stop. Feeling something, we just want
to drown out the insecurity. Or maybe we're afraid, and we
get so frayed and we live with fear for so long that we start
to. Think, well, maybe I'll just
compromise my integrity. This just this, this once, I'll
just do this one thing one time and that's it.
And so that's the whole former way.
The old former way is trying to negotiate with darkness to try
to make sure say like, Lord, just give me a little bit of
legend. I'll take a candle's worth of
light in my life for right now. Lord, just show me.
And he says it's not going to be like that time, the former time,
he said it's going to be like the future time, what's coming.
This is the now and the not yet that we've talked about in the
Kingdom of God forever, the ages of God has come.
Jesus is resurrected, seated at the right hand of God.
And Paul tells us in the throne we also are.
And yet we walk in this world, and we walk through.
This and we seem to feel judgement but in the future
there's light and what we're told about the light what we see
about the light is what the light does is it undoes the
darkness we're told that the light is aggressive, it moves
forward, it penetrates, it goes and what I'm.
Saying is this is the hope of. Christmas Christmas hope is the
refusal to accept that darkness is the last word.
Christmas hope. Is not the the?
The heartbeat of Advent. And this is where I think we get
it wrong so many times. I like.
We read it and we're just like, oh, we should have hope.
OK, OK, good. I'm going to.
OK, I'm going to muster up hope, but I'm going to have hope.
If you don't have hope, you don't have hope.
It's not there. The heartbeat of Advent.
The thing that I get from Advent isn't I wake up suddenly on
today and he's going, oh, great. I feel so hopeful with Christmas
cheer. Listen, the bill that you forgot
to pay yesterday, it's still unpaid today.
The sickness that you felt yesterday, you're still sick
today. The diagnosis.
Listen, we woke up today basically in the same world that
we fell asleep in last night, the same troubles, the same
difficulties. Does that negate our hope?
Because the heartbeat of Advent, what Jesus shows us, what Isaiah
shows us, what we see from the people of God, the heartbeat of
Advent says, I don't feel any cheer, but it's coming.
And when it does, I will be right.
Here, waiting for it, Hope believes that what God says and
promises and tells is more real and relevant and present than
what I feel and what I think. See the people of Israel, what
they found, what they wrestled with, and what they contended
with in exile. The very thing that God
intended, remember said He humbled them.
The very reason and the very way that God intended to humble His
people is to show them you can't make it.
You can't manufacture hope. This is the same thing that he
wants to get to you. Aren't you tired running around
all the time? And I'm going to, oh, I'm going
to earn my way. I'm going to make, I'm going to
pull myself up my bootstraps. You don't have any boots.
Unless somebody gave them to you.
I mean, like, we got to do the best.
We got to step back and acknowledge and realize this is
not a world that we make. I can't control the weather.
I can't control what you do. I can't control what the dollar
does. I can't.
I can't control anything, but I can control where my hope is.
I. Can control what I look to in
the future where I draw strength from for this moment.
So what does God say right? Because he said like it's going
to be a baby right? That's weird.
But the thing that I want to ask you first is, do you believe
that your darkness, that fear, the thing you know what it is?
Do you believe that in your life that is what gets the last word?
Do you believe that that thing in your life defines you,
clarifies you, names you? Well, what does God say?
What does God say about hope? Because Adamant's about hope and
darkness, right? So we've seen the darkness.
What does God say when he brings in what hope does he bring with
him? Well, he says in verse 3, what
does he say? Verse 3 You've enlarged the
nation and you've increased it's what say it.
You've increased it's joy the people have.
What say it? Rejoice before you as they what?
Rejoice at harvest time and as they what over and over and over
and over and over again about rejoicing and God's people
rejoicing and rejoicing. The first sign of hope is the
return of joy. Ask your heart, check your heart
right now. Do you have joy?
I don't mean are you happy? Cowboys beat the chiefs.
So what? OK, some of you, right, I've
been a big tirade a while back about the Cowboys, and so now
they're showing. You're welcome, by the way.
I did that to take responsibility.
Now listen, joy is one of the themes of Advent.
So we're going to talk about that not next week, but the week
after that where we're going to unpack joy a lot right like, but
the thing that so we're going to unpack and see that, But here's
the thing that I want to give you joy should show up.
I believe that God's people should be the most joyful people
on the planet. I believe that the people who
follow God the most closely not that everything is neat and
great. Listen, God's people will have
cancer. They should have joy in the
midst of it. God's people will lose
everything. They should have joy in the
middle of it because as God's people, our joy and our hope and
our peace isn't rooted in what we have.
It's rooted in the one who has us, who came for us, who sees
us, who loves us. And He's calling us out of
hopelessness and addiction and fear and destruction and
devastation. Those are the reasons that our
joy is gone. Those are the things that
consume our joy. And what does it say, right?
It says the places, the people that were walking in darkness,
the very land where the darkness was.
That's where the light shows up. See, the problem is we get the
first hint of darkness. And what do we do?
But whatever it is that we got to do to escape, Netflix writes
a little pacifier so we don't have to deal with the stuff.
Why don't you just sit there for an hour?
Sad as you've ever. Been God, I cannot even believe
that you would let me feel this way.
You know the problem, some of you?
You haven't cried. You've been just holding it in
so you can be strong. And nobody will like what?
Listen, I've seen babies, little boys, they cry for no reason.
You should try that. You know your feelings are given
to you by the Lord. You had joy because hope.
Sign of hope is the return of joy.
Counterfeit hope is circumstantial.
I have hope because the right guys win and I have hope because
I'm in the fast lane. Boy, I have hope.
Because I'm those are counterfeit, circumstantial.
That is a hope that is dependent on everything else going right.
How's that working? The best way to understand
biblical hope is after, not before.
Because biblical hope is born in darkness.
Biblical hope is born when we feel like there's.
Nothing but emptiness. Biblical.
Hope is that dare to dream that something real is coming there.
Biblical hope is that sense of joy that in the darkest moment I
can look at someone that I love and go, man, it's going to be so
good when this is done. Let's say joy comes in the
morning. I'm looking at my friend here
who just had cancer and who just walked through it, and every
time I saw him, I'm OK, I'm fine.
That's what hope looks like. The journey is not done.
He's right in the middle. Of it encouraging people, giving
them hope and grace, because that's what hope does.
Joy is the ability to. See what God has delivered us
from. Can you look back in your life
and see a moment that you thought was certainly going to
be the end of you? Can you look back in your life
and see a moment where you thought, there's no way I'm
getting out of that. There's no way this is the end
and you, and again, here you are.
Do you remember that thing that you thought was going to crush
you? Listen, I don't want to tell you
that it's not hard. I don't want to say that it
didn't change your heart. I don't want to say that it
didn't leave a scar. My guess is it broke your hip
and you're limping still. What I want to say is you're
still here and God is still working and your life and the
fact that you're here means He still has something for you.
He has joy to give you and He has goodness to give you.
But only, only, only are you listening if your hope isn't
your job, or if your hope isn't your reputation, or if your hope
isn't your income? Only if your hope.
Is sorrow, and the grief that I see around me will soon and
someday come to an end. And on that day, I will be
standing and believing that my Jesus made it happen.
Does that sound impossible? Like like all this just like it
does. So the way that we get ready for
that, this is too simple. You're going to blow me off.
I'm just telling you right now you're about to blow off what
I'm going to tell you because it's not hard enough.
The practice is gratitude. Oh, no, Make no, no.
Something hard. Do it right.
I have a friend, my friend Amy. She's sitting right there.
Every once in a while, Amy will send me a text message.
And it's like this long. It's her gratitude list, and she
shares it with me. And every time she shares it
with me, do you know what happens?
I look at my gratitude list and I go, I got work to do.
But you know what else I know about Amy?
When she walks in, she cheers me up.
She encourages me. She tells me she's praying for
me. She's my friend.
See, gratitude has this power of showing us what's right in front
of us. What do I have to be grateful?
For things that you've received, which by the way, is everything.
I know people who make less money than you, who live in a
smaller house than you. I know people with less money
than you that drive an older car than you.
I know people who have done more good deeds, who have sicker
children than you. I know people in this world who
have it worse than you. We have the capacity for
gratitude. We are just out of practice.
Hope begins growing where gratitude loosens the grip of
fear. See, the reason I'm afraid all
the time is because I think I don't have enough.
I think my only hope is for things to stop getting depleted.
But that's not that's not the case.
That's not my hope. My hope is that I have a God
who's a creator. I have a God who can make more
when more is needed, who has the capacity to give me exactly what
I want and so I don't have to be afraid.
And the secret to hope and the secret to loosening that fear is
joy and its gratitude. That's the second movement.
Look, verse 4, Chapter 9, verse 4.
For you have shattered their oppressive yoke.
It doesn't say you set it off to the side.
It didn't say you wrapped it in bubble wrap and set it in the
garage. It says you shattered it, you
destroyed it. Their what?
Their oppressive yoke. The point of a yoke.
This is a metaphor. The metaphor for the yoke is to
carry something heavy, to carry something that is a burden.
For. You right something that you're
not meant to carry something like endless grief, endless
loss, something like your own limitations these things that
you that you are supposed to feel right.
This is what God is leaning out. He's going to shatter those
things. He's going to shatter the lobe.
He's going to shatter I should get to it.
What else he's going to say? And the rod.
The rod is your wound, right when he strikes you, it's a big
stick, the wound that. You have from growing up your
fear, that nickname that someone called you, that you can't
shake, the abandonment you feel, the scarcity, that you think
you're never going to have enough, you'll always going to
be behind. That's the rod.
The staff of their oppressive rest is just as you did on the
day of Midian. The staff is about authority,
right? Shepherd's staff, the King's
staff. Some of you would have been
abused by authority, whether it's a parent or pastor or a Co
worker or a boss or whoever it is.
You've been abused spiritually, you've been abused
professionally. Side note also to see what God
said he's going to do here is he's going to crush all of those
things real quick. If you're a boss or a parent or
a spouse and you like to do things like put burdens on your
wife or your children, or you like to strike or you like to
abuse, and you just should be careful because what God says
here is he's going to destroy all of those things.
And so if those are the things that you use to get your way in
this world, you're going to find yourself fighting against God.
You're not that strong. And so the thing that he calls
us to do, what he tells us he's going to do is he's going to put
all those things away, right? That's what our hope is.
Our hope is in a God who breaks the things that break us.
What breaks US? Loss, fear, scarcity, doubt.
All of those things are are real and they feel inevitable to us.
But Paul says they're not inevitable.
Listen Second Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16 through 18.
Paul says therefore. We don't give up.
Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner
person is being renewed day by day.
See, that's what Hope looks like.
Hope says I'm being destroyed today, but tomorrow's a new day
and I'll be restored. I'll be renewed tomorrow.
Tomorrow. I'll have enough energy for
tomorrow. I don't have enough energy for
tomorrow. Today, but tomorrow.
Tomorrow I'll have it. Tomorrow I'll be good, right?
Our momentary light affliction is producing for us an
absolutely incomparable, eternal weight of glory.
So we don't focus on what is seen, but we focus on what is
unseen. For what is unseen is temporary,
but what is? No, what is seen is temporary,
and what is unseen is eternal. What he's saying is he's not
saying that the pain that you feel right now isn't real.
What he's saying is, are you listening?
The pain that you feel isn't going to last forever.
What he's saying is this moment is producing something in you
that you need for the journey to come.
So when's it all going to go away?
Revelation chapter 21 starting in verse three, I heard a loud
voice from the throne. Look, God's dwelling is with
humanity. This is a statement of presence.
It doesn't say from a long way off.
God is going to cast a spell. He's going to use his.
Patronus right to cast a spell for this.
It says his presence will be with.
His people. See the subject of our.
Hope is the presence of God. That's the answer, that's the
solution. He'll be his people, and God
himself will be with them, and they'll be their God.
He'll wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more grief, crying, Pain will be no more
because the previous things have passed away.
Then the one seated on the throne said, look, I am making
everything new. He also said, right, because
these words are faithful and true.
See, it's the presence of Father that's going to pull off and
that's what our hope is. Our hope isn't that we're going
to be strong enough or we're going to figure it out.
The hope isn't in you at all. See, the thing that we know most
about ourselves is we're broken. We break things.
But the hope that Jesus wants to turn our eyes to, the hope that
we find in his life and the life of his disciples, the life of
the Word, is our hope is that he is real.
That's what hope does. It fixes our eyes on God's
faithfulness as he battles our easy fights, our battles, and he
fights the battles within and he fights the battles without.
He fights our fear and our insecurity, but he also fights
against our enemies. He fights against oppression.
He fights with strength and with might.
This is the God that you're hoping for.
The problem is the way that God fights.
That isn't the way that you, you fight it.
See, if you'd have given Israel a million years and an infinite
number of guesses what their deliverance, what it's going to
look like, they would have never, ever, ever, ever, ever
come up with baby Jesus, 8 lbs six ounce newborn baby Jesus.
They would have never said that. It would have never come.
So what did he say? Right.
Every trampling boot of battle and the bloodied garments of
war. Will be burned as fuel.
Oh, that was the last part. I'm going to read verse 6 here.
What does it look like? A child.
A child will be born to us, a son will be given to us and the
government will be on his shoulders.
Sounds dangerous, you. Would have never come up with
that. My kids can't even clean their
room. And I'm supposed to have the
government on his shoulder? I'm supposed to have might and
power with him, right? The Dominion will be vast.
Oh, and I forgot this. He'll be named Wonderful
counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
The Dominion will be vast. And it's prosperity will never
end. He will reign on the throne of
David and over his Kingdom. Remember the promise to Abram
and the promise to David. He's going to reign on your
throne, David, to establish and sustain it with justice and
righteousness from now on and forever in the zeal of the Lord
of armies will accomplish this not.
You not workaholism. You need to take a break.
You need to go home at 5:00. Be with your family, right?
Like you're not going to do this.
This is what the Lord is going to do for you.
Because here's the truth about Christmas.
Here's what Christmas shows us more than anything.
Our hope doesn't look like power.
It looks like presents. See, we think we just got a guy.
Find the guy with the biggest muscles.
We got to find the guy who with, with the biggest what?
What's the, what's the strength for you?
What's the strength that you put your hope in?
Economics degree, big car, big guns.
What's the thing right? Because what the father tells us
is that peace looks like a baby. You know what you do with the
baby? You just hold it.
It's just there. Sometimes it's cute and sweet
and sometimes it's in smells funny and right, but it's just
there. You just hold it.
You just received the presence of the child, and that is how
our God wanted you to see him. That is how our God wanted you
to relate to him. And notice what it says here,
remember. Like we talked about the the
yoke on our shoulders. Right in the oppression and you
feel and talk about the rock, well notice where it is.
Now it sits on his. Shoulders.
It's not on your shoulders. Good news as you follow.
Jesus, it's not your yoke anymore, it's His.
That's what the hope is. That's what he calls us into.
And this is the right this is the the thing that Isaiah is
trying to pull our eyes to, this comparison between what's
fleeting and what's eternal. He said he's called wonderful
counselor. What's?
Eternal is wisdom and goodness. What's fleeting is oppression
and violence, shame and empire and your burdens and your fear
and your limitations, the promises that the Lord is going
to do all of these things in you and for you.
Your hope isn't in yourself or in your luck.
Your hope is in Him. So this is the message in
Easter, in Christmas, Easter, it all goes together, right?
Everything that feels final in your life is temporary, and
everything that feels fragile about Jesus is eternal.
See, the cross of Jesus makes me uncomfortable because I don't
want them to do that to me. When I look at Jesus, I look and
go. It didn't diminish him one bit.
You know what that tells me? Maybe the things that I'm most
afraid of aren't the scariest things.
Maybe the problem is I've got these powers out there trying to
tell me that the worst possible thing would be to miss, to be
misunderstood Jesus. Like, no, the worst possible
thing would be to be missed. Of course, possible thing would
be to be alone. So why would you do that when
you have the power to have the presence, the personal presence
of God himself with you? And all he says is quit
fighting, relax, show up and make space.
Show up and make space every day.
That's what it is. Remember what Johnny told us.
The fight never ends. Every day it's a fight.
Every day it's a battle against the powers.
So if you came here today exhausted.
Hopeless in your job or in your marriage and your finances or in
any context? Listen, here's what I want to
tell you today. Exchange your life of striving
for Jesus's life of rest. It's an exchange.
You don't get to keep both. You get to have one or the
other. You can have your way.
And here's what I'm going to tell you.
Jesus is a. Gentleman and he will stand
behind you daily, every day and going.
Are you too tired yet? Do you want to rest?
Are you tired? You want to rest?
I'm asking you, do you want to
rest? Remember that song like Jesus
take the wheel. You mean you've had the
omnipotent creator of all things in the passenger seat.
That's your problem. I have specifically want to talk
to you today. Maybe somebody drug you here.
Maybe somebody brought you with it's Christmas, you're going to
lunch, either the lights and all that stuff.
What I'm going to tell you is that person who brought you here
cares very much about you. You're a very important person
in their life, and they want to make sure that you had an
opportunity to hear that the God who created all the things, the
God who is rescuing us from darkness, He loves you.
Put your name on it and what? He says is if you'll trust me,
you'll. Follow me.
Following is a very real thing. You know how?
You know how I know whether I'm following a leader or not?
We end up in the same place. He says if you'll trust me
enough to follow me. He says if you'll give me your
life, and I mean your old habits.
I mean the way that you talk about your mother and the way
that you talk about your spouse and all this.
If you'll give me those, slowly but surely I'll begin to
transform you. And what happens is you'll start
to see little changes along the way.
And what it'll do is it'll give you hope.
Big changes can come after. Oh, you'll be disappointed.
You'll be frustrated because it won't come nearly quickly enough
for you. And you'll still feel like you
are. You are.
You're still being transformed. But the point of Jesus isn't to
finish the job. The point of Jesus are you
listening is to be with you in your brokenness, loving you.
See, it's the enemy that tells you you're not enough.
You're not good enough, you don't make enough, you're not
smart enough. That's where the striving comes
from. That's what wears you.
Down that's what makes you anxious.
It's called sin when you try to earn your way to God.
The phrase for that, the word for that is self righteousness.
When you come to God and go God, here I am look at me and I've
worked so hard for you. He's like, did you die for me?
Well, no, no. But I went to church every
Sunday, said that's not it. But I closed my eyes when I sang
the song. That's not it.
Did you follow? Me.
So I just want to give you an opportunity today.
If you haven't done that, confess it.
Say it. I can't do what I need to do.
I can't create the peace in my own life that I desperately
need. And boy, am I chasing everywhere
after it. And then what we do is we repent
the word repent. It's not a big scary word.
It means start looking for your hope in a different place.
It means you're 10 miles down this road and you're going.
I haven't seen hope anywhere. Cranky bosses, cranky spouse,
cranky kids, not enough money to I've been down this road and
there's nothing down here. I'm going to switch roads.
I'm going to start looking for hope down.
Here, that's what repentance is. I'm not saying you have to quit
your job. Are you listening?
I'm saying you may have to quit your job.
I'm not saying that you need to divorce your spouse.
I'm saying you need to repent and love them and respect them
and honor them. And we need to do different
because our hope isn't that we're going to get it right.
Our hope is that he is. And so if you are in darkness,
maybe you've been following Jesus for a while and you're in
darkness. What I'm going to say is stop
and wait with him. Just stop where you are.
Wait with Jesus. This is the message of Psalm 46
right though the. Oceans roar and the waves
tremble and that all this stuff would.
Have got to be still and know that I am God.
You're not going to fix your problems.
You made the problems. We know that, right?
They're your problems. Jesus wants to rescue from them.
So what we do is we stand in faith.
You're trying to overcome darkness, but all that's in you
is darkness. Your goal is to stand there and
let the light shine. So how do you do that, build
margin in your life? Listen, it's not going to happen
to it. It's not going to happen.
God's not going to force himself on you.
You're going to go to work tomorrow and do the same thing
you did the day before and the day before, and someday you're
going to be 50 years old and go, why aren't things changing?
If nothing changes, nothing's going to change.
You can make a change, a small change.
I'm not asking you to change the world.
Oh my gosh, I used to say that. Oh, we'll get up in the church
to change what? I don't think that's the point.
I don't think that's the mission.
I don't think that's the goal. The point is to change your
hearts, to give your heart entirely to Him.
And so one moment at a time, one blessing at a time, 1 gratitude
at a time. Slow down, stop to pray.
Don't talk on the your phone in your car.
You want to talk on the phone, pull over and wait and sure
it'll be safe. I don't care about safety.
Your hand, your life is in the Lord's hands.
I'm talking about slowing down, getting your head right around
and recognize the Father is with you in this moment.
You will see Jesus if you will quiet and so pray differently.
Don't pray on the run. Oh, I pray with Jesus everywhere
with me. No, yes He is.
That's about His omnipotence, not your prayer life.
I say that too. You know why I say, Oh, I pray
without ceasing because mostly I forget and I feel guilty.
Sit down in a chair for 20 minutes and contend with the
reality that your mind is all over the place.
And go, Lord, what do you want to do with that?
And you know what? I.
Think you'll start to hear? I knew that.
I'm not worried about your You think I'm worried about your
scatterbrain. I'm not.
Just sit there. Go serve.
Go meditate. Go do something different.
You won't grow if you keep doing the same things that you've done
before. And finally, cultivate hope by
the practice of radical hospitality and gratitude.
I mean radical. Listen, River City, do you want
to be the best at something in the world?
The best This is it hospitality you.
You want to break records that will make the Kingdom proud.
You want to make break records that make angels stand on their
heads and said. Hospitality.
That's it. Be the most welcoming, the most
inviting. Create the biggest tables for
the largest group and the best food and the best whatever it is
that you're drinking and making an Invite everybody and talk
about the Lord's. Goodness and faithfulness.
And when it's done, thank you, Lord, for all that.
You've done, you're doing it yourself and you're trying to go
alone and you come to hard Bible passage and you don't know what
it means. So you just turn the page and
keep going. Find somebody else, find
somebody like my friend Amy and just spam them with your
freaking thing. Your, what's it called?
Gratitude. Just keep sending it to them.
I'm really fired up, Amy. Thank you.
It takes time. We got a whole month.
What if we just practice it? What if we work on it?
This series is called Prepare Him Room and it acknowledges the
reality that our God is a gentleman.
He has made all the provision that we need for a hope.
That will sustain us until every single sad thing comes untrue.
But you listening, He will not force His hope and peace upon
you. We must choose it by
intentionally aligning our thoughts and behaviors with the
Prince of Peace. Let's pray, Jesus, you came with
the authority to give peace. And boy, we run around and done
a lot of other stuff. But I think Jesus that a lot of
that I know for me is because I feel like my hope is in
different places. I feel like I've got to earn
something or prove something or be enough or be smart enough or
or or something. I don't even know what I feel
like I need. I just know that the sense of
hope often eludes me. And I think, Lord, it's because
I haven't. I haven't made peace with the
reality that we're not home yet. Things aren't always going to go
the way I want them to. Sometimes people will hurt me.
Sometimes things will run out. Sometimes I'll look in the
mirror and really not like what I see.
And those moments I start to lose hope.
And Christmas just feels like another burden that I have to
carry that I don't have the shoulders for, and my back
hurts. And oh, Jesus, I pray that you
would give us the hope that this burden is not one that we can
carry. And so you're with us.
And I pray especially for those who are carrying a load, a
burden of grief and fear and pain and discomfort this
morning. You see the details of every bit
of it. And so I pray that during this
season, as we, your church, press in not to do the easy
thing. Lord, we're not looking for
numbing experiences and and the OR we want something that's real
and eternal. So call us to you.
Plant the seeds of your hope, this tiny candle flicker of
light and our hearts and grow and expand and teach us Jesus,
living in a land of great darkness to wait on your light.
Jesus, we love you and we thank you and we ask these things in
your name and for your glory. Amen.
Thank you for joining us today. River City Church is all about
experiencing and expressing God's love in our lives and
community, and we hope that you've been able to experience
that today. As grateful as I am that you've
spent this time listening in this morning, this podcast is no
substitute for full participation in a local church.
I love it when River City people listen to other pastors, but it
is those who show up week after week faithfully giving their
support and time and resources that make all of this possible.
If we can help you get connected to a local church, pray for you,
or support you in any way, click the link in the description and
let us know. If you'd like to financially
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Thanks so much for listening. May the Lord bless and keep you
in all grace and peace.