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[0:00] We've all gone through various hardships and crises through the years. Of course we have. But overall, for many of us, life has been relatively good.

[0:12] And we need to be abundantly grateful to God for that. But we also need to recognize that fortune has the potential of acting like an anesthetic that numbs us to the reality of brokenness in our lives.

[0:30] Too many people understand this. And so what they do is they spend their lives chasing after fortune, thinking that prosperity is actually the only hope that we have against the brokenness that seems to pursue us.

[0:48] Right? So we don't set our hope on things that are religious at all. We don't set our hopes on people necessarily at all. We set our hopes on fortune. If I can just get my hands on blessing, if I can just get my hands on more stuff, that's the thing that is going to give me security.

[1:04] That's the thing that's going to provide real hope that I can escape the just travesties of my life and the hardships that I've experienced in my life. If I can just get to the blessing, that's where hope and brokenness will ultimately be found.

[1:18] And then when blessing finally comes, and for many of us it does, it quickly sets us on a path of what we would call blissful ignorance.

[1:30] We're ignorant now sometimes of our own brokenness, and we're happy to be so. Blind to the suffering of others in some cases. It's numb, especially to our own sinful condition.

[1:43] Now if you're ignorant of brokenness, the problem is you'll also be ignorant of gospel hope. Because remember, it requires brokenness, the recognition of brokenness, before we can actually get to anything good and substantial about hope and about the gospel.

[2:01] Think about it. There's a reason Jesus said that it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Why did he say something like that? It's nearly impossible for those of us who have been extraordinarily blessed to get a sense of our own need.

[2:21] And when we do, it's very difficult to transfer our hope from wealth, and from pleasure, and from money or whatever it is that we would describe as being fortunate and blessed.

[2:32] It's very hard to transfer our hope from that to a Messiah that was said to have been born 2,000 years ago. That's a hard thing to do for anyone.

[2:43] It's especially a hard thing to do for someone who feels secure in their blessing. But there's also a kind of spiritual prosperity that is just as damning.

[2:58] On one hand, we have the ignorance of brokenness because we are a wealthy people. Maybe not in comparison to other Americans, but relative to the world, we have been extraordinarily blessed.

[3:09] And that blinds us sometimes to some of the realities of suffering, but also to our own brokenness. But then there's this spiritual dynamic as well that's at work here. It's an enemy for us. The Pharisees, for example, were so proud of their ability to keep the law that they lost all sense of their own sinfulness.

[3:30] Theirs wasn't a material blessing necessarily. It was a religious blessing. It was a path of prosperity in terms of their faith.

[3:42] They rejected Jesus, ironically. The only true hope that they actually had. And why did they reject him? Because they expected when the Messiah would come, he would come to reward them because they had done so well because of their spiritual prosperity.

[4:00] Messiah, when he comes, yeah, Jesus can do these wonderful works. He can do these amazing things. But if he was really the Messiah, he would be here to reward us for our ability to keep the law.

[4:10] But what Jesus actually came doing was warning them. You can go to some passage where he pronounces extraordinary woes against the scribes and Pharisees. Why?

[4:22] Because their spiritual prosperity had actually blinded them to the reality of their own sinfulness. Self-righteousness became their hope, making them ignorant of their own brokenness.

[4:36] Okay? So we've got at least two enemies that I'm dealing with today. The first one is just ignorance. Sometimes that's ignorance that comes from material blessing and we just kind of get numb to the fact that we're sinners and that we've got issues and that other people have issues and we're just content to set our hope on wealth.

[4:52] Then there's the ignorance that comes from spiritual blessing. You know, we're just really good Christians and when we're really, really good Christians, we start to forget that we're actually really, really bad sinners too.

[5:02] And the gospel gets muddied up and all of that. Okay, enemy number two. The enemy of denial. The enemy of denial. Now, how is this different?

[5:15] We can also be oblivious to brokenness simply because we choose to be. We just choose to be. An awareness of brokenness, both spiritual and material, is an immensely heavy burden for us to bear.

[5:35] Many of us, we have a particular way that we want to view ourselves. We have a particular way that we want to view the world around us and we will consciously turn away from things that interfere with that vision.

[5:49] This is why churches stop dealing with issues of sin in their services because it's uncomfortable to understand the reality of our sinfulness and to see holiness and justice in God is a heavy burden.

[6:05] We don't like to hear those things, so we don't hear those things. We choose not to hear them. We choose not to say them. It's far easier to cope when you just remove any reminders of how broken the world really is.

[6:20] We do this in all kinds of ways, don't we? People aren't always so genuinely interested in helping a people group like the homeless, but they really don't like it when the homeless colonies are set up with all their tents and their tarps on someone's commute into work.

[6:40] They're not always so interested in actually helping those people, but they want them moved out of the way so they don't have to look at it every day when they're driving to work, right? It's this ignorance of denial we see brokenness, but we don't want to see it anymore.

[6:54] We just want to get it out of the way so we don't have to think about that anymore, right? We refuse, in some cases, to use language of death, right?

[7:06] Why do we do that? We choose rather. We want to use phrases like, well, they've passed on or they've moved on. Why do we do that? Because death is a heavy burden to bear.

[7:16] We want to try to deny its reality as much as we possibly can. And so we try to soften it even with the language that we use. We don't want to watch the news.

[7:27] We don't want to read the newspaper. You know why? Because all it does is tell us how broken we actually are. We don't want to read about nearly 6,000 children who have been killed in the last two months because of Israeli airstrikes.

[7:42] 6,000 in two months' time. That's hard to read about. That's hard to acknowledge. So what do we do? Well, we do everything we can to just get those things out of the way.

[7:55] We don't want to see it. We don't want to look at it. And there's a spiritual version of this denial among some professing Christians that completely destroys the gospel. I told you about a conversation I had last night with Herman.

[8:08] I had a conversation earlier this week with another man named Mike who's connected with a Presbyterian church, USA, in Rock Hill. And he was sharing with me some of his frustrations about this church because the pastor has now decided to be a universalist.

[8:25] He denies now that there is a literal hell, that there is a place of conscious torment for anybody at this point. And his statement would be basically a Christian version of atheism and atheistic arguments, which is if God really is loving, then he would never actually send someone to a place like hell.

[8:47] And they have adopted this doctrine as a church to where even in our own backyard in Rock Hill and probably all over the place, even here in Cornelius and Davidson, there is teaching that, no, hell isn't a real thing.

[9:00] That's not really what the Bible is teaching. And no, everybody's gonna be fine because Jesus is loving, because Jesus has died. Everybody's good now. Well, it's just not true.

[9:14] It's totally inconsistent with the Bible. So where does such teaching come from? It comes from a place of denial about the realities of sin and judgment and hell.

[9:27] It comes from those who have a way that they want to view God and a way that they want to view the world, and they will not even let the Bible interfere with that vision.

[9:42] Just put these two things together, the ignorance and the denial. Both of those things come with a measure of security, don't they? If we're ignorant of brokenness and sinfulness, if we're in denial of brokenness and sinfulness, then we feel secure in that position, right?

[9:57] We fight for it even in some cases. But this security is a false hope. It's not actually real. But there is a true and lasting hope that can be found, but it requires that we first come to terms with the fact that we are broken, sinful people.

[10:24] Scriptures actually go to great lengths to tell us that. Not because they want to beat us up, not because God's just trying to beat us up, but because it's only through that recognition that we can actually get to any kind of true gospel hope.

[10:39] Now, Jesus shows us a better way, and he shows us this better way in just a glimpse here in this text in verses 22 and 24.

[10:53] In the incarnation, Jesus does not ignore our brokenness, neither does he deny our brokenness. In the incarnation, Jesus enters our brokenness, willingly enters it, endures it, in order that he might identify with those that he came to save.

[11:15] Just look here at the first couple of verses. Verse 22, and when the time came for their purification, according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it's written in the law of the Lord, every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or of two young pigeons.

[11:39] So the presentation of Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem, it involved purification rituals that included sacrifice. And at some point along the way, circumcision would have been linked to this process.

[11:53] I don't know if it would have happened on this particular moment at the temple or if it would have happened prior, but this would have been a part of the process as well. Well, all of these things were commanded in the Old Testament law of God as a symbol of sin, as a reminder of our need for spiritual cleansing.

[12:15] But that brings us to an interesting moment of conflict. If Jesus is the Son of God, the sinless Son of God, why was it actually necessary or was it even necessary for him to go through these same practices?

[12:34] Why would he need to go through circumcision, which is just all about cutting out sin? Why would he need to have a sacrifice done for his purification as a baby? I thought he's the sinless Son of God, and yet Mary and Joseph still take him and they do this thing with him.

[12:48] Why? Is that not a contradiction? Well, no, it's not. On one hand, this shows the faithfulness of Joseph and Mary. Now, I want you to think about something.

[12:59] I don't know if you've ever thought about this before, but we see all of these moments in the Gospels about angels appearing to Joseph and Mary and telling them what to do. You're going to have a child?

[13:12] Call his name Jesus. Do this. Do that. So on it goes. Then the angels appear to the shepherds, and they give a little more information, and then there's the Lord's working in all these different ways.

[13:23] Here's something that we never read about in the Gospels. No angel ever comes to Joseph and Mary and says, all right, here's the manual on how to raise the Son of God.

[13:34] This is what you do, and this is how you go about it, and this is what you teach him. There's no manual for that. So surely at some point in Bethlehem, after Jesus has finally been born and Mary perhaps was able to get some rest, perhaps Joseph looks at her and says, what are we supposed to do now?

[13:52] There's no more angels. What do we do? And what was their answer? Well, what does the Scripture say that we're supposed to do? Well, the Scripture says on the eighth day, he's to be circumcised, he's to be presented because he's the firstborn from your womb.

[14:07] That means that he's holy unto the Lord, and we have to do these things. And so what does Mary and Joseph do? They faithfully follow the Word of God and praise God that they did because that's essential for him to be Messiah.

[14:20] For Jesus to be the Messiah means not only that he dies, it means that he fulfills. And the only way he can fulfill the law is if the one born under the law goes through the circumcision and is presented at the temple.

[14:36] It wasn't done for his sake. It was done for our sake. Isn't that amazing? He enters our brokenness, and then he identifies with us in our brokenness.

[14:49] And in this salvation, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, and it is a complete righteousness. No portion of the law was left unturned in terms of Jesus fulfilling it.

[15:03] He fully obeyed and fulfilled God's law on our behalf. And much like his later baptism, these rituals were not performed because he was a sinner, but because he desired to identify with sinners.

[15:20] Think about this. Sacrifice of birds and young pigeons. That's not the typical sacrifice. Why did they have to do that? Because they were poor.

[15:32] They had no money. They couldn't afford a lamb to sacrifice. So Jesus not only comes and identifies with us by going through the rituals, but when he comes, he comes to the lowliest of people.

[15:47] He's born in the humblest of scenarios. Why? To identify with sinners leaving the riches of heaven.

[15:58] Jesus identified with the lowly on earth. He was born under the law, Galatians 4, so that he might redeem those who are under the law to make us sons of God like him.

[16:18] So rather than ignore and deny our brokenness, Jesus was broken for us. Isn't that amazing? And until you see your hopelessness without him, you'll never understand the immense hope that you can have through him.

[16:38] That's why we begin here. I'm not just trying to beat you up. I'm not just trying to tell you how bad you are. In fact, relative to other people, you're probably pretty good. But the comparison and the bar that has been set for us has not been set by other people.

[16:54] It's been set by a holy God. And the reality is that each of us, whether you're 80 years old or you're 8 years old in this room today, no matter who you are, you are absolutely hopeless and broken and sinful without Christ.

[17:07] And until you begin to understand that, you'll never really understand that he is hope. You'll never understand the advent of hope in the advent of Christ.

[17:20] All right. Number two. Hope not only requires that we recognize brokenness, hope requires we believe the brokenness can be fixed.

[17:32] Hope requires that we believe that the brokenness can actually be fixed. Now, my desire is that all of us are thinking truthfully about brokenness at this point, but the fact is that most of you probably didn't need to be convinced.

[17:51] Some of you may not identify at all with the predicament that Michael Buble found himself in. In fact, you're routinely in your life plagued with the reality of sin and suffering that is not only in you but around you.

[18:07] You know what that's like, which brings us to the next point of emphasis. Are we to expect that any of this can actually be made better? Can it be fixed? Can it be made better?

[18:18] Even more, can it be made right? Or are we just on this crazy path of we're just here, there's no purpose, we're just got to do the best that we can?

[18:34] Some seem to struggle to see how bad things are. Many find it difficult to believe that it can actually be made better. Well, again, there's two dangers at this point. The first danger is cynicism, which causes a person to resign themselves to the notion that none of it can actually be made right.

[18:53] In that view, our only course of action is just do the best you can and hope that you fare better than other people. That's cynicism, right? Just, it can't be made better. The other danger here is a misguided optimism, okay?

[19:08] Misguided optimism. This is what we see predominantly at this Christmas season, at least in our secular world. It leads an individual to set their hope on things that cannot actually make any difference in their life, but they just really believe that it can, and they really hope that it can, but it can't, it can't do anything.

[19:30] Hard work, a positive spirit, even a strong moral compass cannot provide what we need. So how can we actually come to believe that a real and lasting hope exists?

[19:42] This is where Simeon and Anna are so helpful to us, because both of them show us what it's like to live with a hopeful expectancy that's not rooted in the human spirit or in the, quote, Christmas spirit, but is rooted in the power and the promises of God, okay?

[20:00] Look with me in verse 25. Let's read first about Simeon. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ, and he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms, and he blessed God.

[20:31] He's not only expecting that this is going to happen, but he recognized when it does happen, and he blesses God for it. Now skip to verse 36. Let's look at Anna. And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, the tribe of Asher.

[20:47] She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was 84. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping, fasting, prayer, night and day.

[21:04] Why would she do that? Hopeful expectancy, right? And coming up at that very hour, she began to give thanks to God and to speak of Jesus to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

[21:19] Now Simeon and Anna here are wonderful examples of the spirit of Advent that we talked so much about last week. Remember Advent from the Latin Adventus.

[21:30] It means coming or arrival. There's two Advents in the scripture. The first Advent being the incarnation of Christ. The second Advent being the return of Christ.

[21:41] And of course they're awaiting for the first Advent of Christ. And I want you to think about this in terms of the Advent season for just a moment. The Advent season is a time of longing and hopeful expectation that Christ will come to save his people.

[21:59] Just as Israel and Simeon and Anna longed for and awaited the Advent of the Messiah, Christians now, us, we long for and await the Messiah's return.

[22:13] In the same spirit of it. And no one in the Christmas narratives displays this sense of hope and certainty quite like Simeon and Anna do.

[22:25] Though they understood the deep reality of brokenness and sin, they were fully convinced that God would fulfill his promises of salvation.

[22:37] Fully convinced. It's unmistakable in this passage. Not even yet with the Christ coming to the temple, but just the practices of Simeon and Anna before that, full of hopeful expectation, trusting God, believing in his promises.

[22:54] They both gave their lives to prayer and to worship and proclamation about this hope, and God blessed both of them to speak prophetically about the hope that had come in the child Jesus.

[23:07] But the question is, how could they actually possess that kind of hope? What gave them such assurance in that moment? Is it that they were doing what everybody else was, they were just picking something to put their hope in, and they just happened to be the ones that were right?

[23:23] No, that's not it. And I think the answer can be found for us if we look a little closer at Simeon. If you notice in these verses, Simeon's hope is directly linked in the text to his righteousness and devotion.

[23:42] He was a righteous and devout man. Now this is not that pseudo form of hope that attempts to will or to manifest things by the power of positive thinking.

[23:55] That is all the rage these days, and there's some Christians that are dabbling in this, and let me just take this as a byway for just a moment. Stay away from this manifesting ideology. It's not real.

[24:06] It's demonic New Age theology that says if I just think it hard enough and I think it over and over and over again, I can manifest into existence the good things that I want in my life.

[24:17] There are Christians who are treating God that way, where they just think if I just think positively enough, if I pray enough in Jesus' name, I can manifest through this power, this divine power that is in me.

[24:28] I can manifest these things that I want out of life. Stay away from that. That's false. That's not a gospel. That's a false gospel. Stay away from those things. That's not what Simeon is doing here.

[24:40] Rather, Simeon's hope is grounded in an objective source, the written word of God. Righteous and devout are terms that can only be understood in this context in light of a commitment to the scriptures.

[24:59] Righteous means that Simeon lived according to God's commands. Devout means that he was devoted in genuine faith and service to the Lord, including trusting the promises of a Savior.

[25:14] And furthermore, God blessed Simeon graciously with the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit who drove him forward in hopefulness.

[25:27] That's the source of his hope. That's the source of his certainty here. And there's something significant in this for us. True hope is a divine gift from the Holy Spirit.

[25:41] that is grounded in the Bible. True hope, if you have it, is a gift from the Holy Spirit that is rooted in the word of God, which Paul says later is the sword of the Spirit.

[26:01] It is the weapon that the Spirit yields and wields in order to do the work of God in our lives. hope can only be understood and strengthened as we submit to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and devote ourselves to the faithful study of the inerrant, authoritative word of God.

[26:24] It is in the scriptures alone that we find the hope of the gospel. faithful. And it is the Holy Spirit who illuminates the word in our hearts and minds, giving us the same assurance that Simeon and Anna had.

[26:40] You say, I just feel so unsure of everything. Well, are you devoted to the word? Are you righteous in your obedience to it, faithful in your devotion?

[26:59] A cynic will never experience hope because they refuse to believe in anything at all, but neither is a sense of hopefulness itself worth anything if it isn't rooted in an objective truth.

[27:12] the brokenness of this world can and ultimately will be fixed. It will all be made right. But the only place you will find true grounds for believing that is in the Bible.

[27:30] It's the only place. Hope is not something you can conjure up from deep within you. It is a gift from God that he delivers through his word.

[27:41] So if you're without hope today, what you need is the word. You need to come to the word because it's the word that the Spirit will use to give you this hope. Okay, finally, we've seen hope requires we recognize brokenness.

[27:58] Hope requires that we actually believe that things can get better. If you don't believe that, then you literally don't have any hope at all, right? Thirdly, hope is made certain only through Jesus.

[28:14] Hope is made certain only through Jesus. Now, everything we've covered up to this point has been framed around hope's potential.

[28:26] Okay? Hope's potential. But now I want you to see that through the gospel of Jesus, true hope is a certainty that you can personally experience.

[28:40] okay? Are you with me still? Right? I know it's kind of warm. Give me your eyes for just a second. Will you do that? I'm going to say that just once more. I want you to know, okay, are you listening?

[28:51] Everybody, I want you to know that the hope of the gospel is a certainty. It's a certain hope and you can have it.

[29:02] Okay? So I want you to know and hear me out for just a few more minutes. It's okay. And the Bible speaks of hope. It doesn't speak of it in reference to wishful thinking.

[29:13] That's how we typically use that word. It's not how the Bible uses that word. The Bible uses it in terms of a present assurance of a future reality.

[29:24] Okay? I am certain today of what will be tomorrow. Okay? That's kind of the terms of biblical hope that we're working with here.

[29:36] And this assurance that the Bible gives us, it has everything to do with Jesus. With the advent of Christ came the advent of everlasting hope. And we can begin to see this if we look at what Simeon said.

[29:50] Okay? Verse 28. He took Jesus up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word.

[30:02] For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all people. A light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.

[30:13] And his father and mother marveled at what was said about him. These are not the words of a man who simply wished that this child would be the one to bring salvation, but of someone who was entirely convinced of it.

[30:28] But don't you find it interesting that for some reason now he's interested in dying? That doesn't make a lot of sense. If he believes that Messiah has now come, why is it that now he turns and he says to God, okay Lord, I can die now.

[30:45] I've seen him. Wouldn't he want to stay around for a few more years to see what would actually come of this child? But that's not what he asked for.

[30:56] He says, I'm ready to die. Simeon's hope as gifted to him by God's spirit was so certain that he didn't need to see anything else.

[31:08] He didn't have to ask any more questions. He was so assured that eternal salvation would come through this child that it gave him complete peace to just go ahead and die.

[31:20] He wasn't worried about what was coming next. Why? He was so certain of what was true about this baby Jesus. But it gets even better. Simeon declares that this gospel hope was not just for him.

[31:34] He says it has been revealed before all peoples. That means you and I can also benefit from this certainty at least as far as Simeon is concerned. In other words, the hope that Simeon possessed, it can be yours.

[31:49] It can be mine. But we have to take one step further to understand why. What exactly is it about Jesus that assures us so certainly of this salvation?

[32:02] Well, look at verse 34. Simeon suddenly, and I would imagine solemnly at this point, turns and he looks at Mary and he says, Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel and he will be a sign that's opposed.

[32:20] As much as I love him and am blessed by his presence, Mary, not everybody's going to be blessed by him. In fact, a lot of people are going to oppose him. And then he gives this little parenthetical statement to Mary.

[32:31] In fact, Mary, a sword will pierce through your soul also. Why? So that the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.

[32:42] Okay, now we're getting to the heart of the gospel here, aren't we? Simeon declared that Jesus would be the judge who would bring about the fall of the prideful, and he would be the savior who would exalt the humble.

[32:54] Okay, that's the first phrase. Appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel. Then he hinted that this work of salvation would come through such opposition that it would feel for Mary as though her very soul had been pierced with a sword.

[33:12] Now at the time that Simeon says those words, it's shrouded in mystery. There's no way for Mary and Joseph to really understand what he was getting at about that. we have the blessing of looking back on that moment now, don't we?

[33:25] And we understand exactly what this is about. This was pointing toward Jesus' crucifixion, which Mary herself was a personal witness, eyewitness of.

[33:36] Now can you imagine, those of you who are mothers, can you imagine watching your child go through such torment and pain and to be murdered in such a cruel way? Would that not feel like your own soul has been pierced with the sword?

[33:50] Is that not what he's getting at here? Jesus indeed is the Lord and Savior who brought the hope of salvation, but he did it by dying in our place as a substitute.

[34:04] Remember all that brokenness of sin we emphasized earlier? Jesus came to give his life as an atonement for that sin.

[34:16] He lived the life that we were meant to live. That's the fulfillment of the law. Then he died the death that we deserve to die. That's the crucifixion on a cross.

[34:27] So that instead of eternal hell, which is a reality for those who go to death without Christ, we might instead inherit eternal life by faith as the true children of God.

[34:42] That's what he did. That's why he did it. But the hope of this salvation was ultimately secured after the crucifixion. Because the crucifixion doesn't mean anything until the resurrection happens three days later.

[35:00] How can we be certain that Jesus has brought salvation? Because God raised him up to say, I proved it. He's the one. He fulfilled the law.

[35:10] He has satisfied my wrath. And now you can have life through his life. That's what the resurrection says. It's what we read about in 1 Peter just a few moments ago.

[35:22] I'll read it again. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

[35:33] And what is that living hope in? The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And what does it do? It gives us an inheritance. Remember Galatians 4.

[35:45] We are now heirs. And what is the inheritance that we receive as heirs if we're in Christ? Peter tells us it's an inheritance that's imperishable. It is undefiled.

[35:57] It's unfading. And it's kept in heaven for us. It's secure. Who is it secured for? Those who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation that's ready to be revealed.

[36:17] Do you see that? Salvation ready to be revealed. Salvation, present possession of a future reality. That's what we call hope.

[36:29] And that hope comes only through the crucifixion and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Jesus. And Jesus offers this hope to you now.

[36:42] Now. If you will just trust him by faith, he will save you. He will forgive all of the sin that has led to the brokenness you have experienced in your life.

[36:56] He'll forgive it. He'll cleanse it. He'll give you his righteousness. He'll give you his life. He'll satisfy God's wrath that is determined against you.

[37:11] And today can be the advent of hope in your life. If you will just turn and believe. And why wouldn't you believe?

[37:23] It's so awesome. And it's real. That's the best part of it. It's not this. It's not this therapeutic mumbo jumbo that we're just like really hopeful because that's the kind of people we are.

[37:36] We're super positive and good things happen to positive people. No, really bad things happen to positive people too. No, this is real hope. And it will only be found in Jesus.

[37:49] Let me finish this way as we set our thoughts back on Advent again. Jesus is the Savior who came to die for our sins. He's also the sovereign Lord who will return to judge the earth.

[38:06] So if the issue of our brokenness in terms of our personal sinful condition is met at the cross of Christ, what are we then to do with the news that we read about the 6,000 kids dead in Gaza or about all of the Jews who were kidnapped as hostages and many of them subsequently have been killed?

[38:32] What do we do about the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and all of the injustices that are happening there? What do we do about when we turn on the news and we see the people again this week who don't get a job and they're so mad that they didn't get the job they take a gun and they go and they kill a bunch of people at the place that they were hoping to work?

[38:52] What do we do with that? How will that be made right? That's what we're longing for isn't it? That's the second advent. He is the sovereign Lord and he will return and when he returns he will make everything right.

[39:10] Those who do not belong to him will be judged. Now we take that as a warning on one hand to make sure that you're in Christ okay but those of us that are in Christ we take that as a joyful thing not that we want to take pleasure in the destruction of the wicked not even God takes pleasure in the destruction of the wicked the Bible tells us that plainly no we rejoice in the justice of God that he will make all things right so Simeon and Anna they're going to the temple every day and they're longing for the Messiah who will come to bring them salvation you know what we're doing now that we've received that salvation day by day we're longing for him to come back come back and just make it all right Lord come back and rescue us from the presence of sin in our life now Lord rescue us make the world what it was intended to bring bring us back to the garden that's what we're longing for that's the spirit of advent for those of us who are in Christ still a spirit of longing and expectation and just as we are certain of the first advent's fulfillment of our salvation we are just as certain that he will return and he will make things right so live in light of that certainty you know what that brings joy yeah life is hard but he's coming back and he's going to make it all right and we can rest in that better!

[40:43]  better better better better