A while back, I heard a fascinating conversation on Rush Limbaugh’s talk show. Rush had taken the position that the current generation of young adults are constantly whining about the difficulty of their lives when, compared to the hardships faced by their grandparents’ generation…hardships like The Great Depression and WWII …they’ve actually got it quite easy.

A 23 year-old member of this younger generation of adults called in to offer a different perspective. He said that while The Great Depression and WWII certainly created terrible hardships for the people who faced them, he believed that his generation faced an even greater hardship.

Rush asked, “And what exactly would that be?”

The caller said, “The loss of hope.”

He said, as terrible as The Great Depression was, it actually strengthened many families as they worked together in the hope of saving their families. His friends, he said, grew up in families in complete disarray and have given up the hope of ever experiencing family for themselves.

He said, WWII cost thousands of young men their lives yet, knowing the risks, they still enlisted by the millions because they saw it as a cause worth dying for. Most of those in his generation, he said, can’t imagine anything worth dying for and, in many cases, anything worth living for.

He said, “Mr. Limbaugh, The Great Depression and WWII created terrible hardships. But I submit to you that the greatest hardship of all is living without hope.”
It was a powerful argument. The truth is, when you remove hope from any aspect of life what you’re left with is a pretty empty experience. It’s true in our professional lives. It’s true in our personal lives. It’s also true in true in our spiritual lives. When we lose hope spiritually what we’re left with is a pretty empty spiritual experience.

When we quit hoping for spiritual renewal we very quickly slide headlong into spiritual apathy.

When we quit hoping to see God at work in our lives we very quickly stop seeing God at work in our lives.

Thankfully, Christmas invites us to rediscover the gift and the blessing of hope by reminding us that God is with us and as long as God is with us there is always hope.

Simeon, one of the lesser-known characters in the Christmas Story, will be guiding our journey toward hope this morning. We’ll be reading Luke 2: 21-33.

“On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.
When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord’), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: ‘a pair of doves or two young pigeons.’

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.’
The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him.”

So, God promised Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah and that promise became, for Him, a constant source of hope. He woke up every day with this question uppermost in his mind, “Will this be the day when God does this amazing thing before my eyes?” Simeon lived every day with the real and present hope of seeing God at work in his life. And his example encourages a similar kind of hope and expectation in us:

Father, what do you have in store for me, today?

Lord, what lesson are you going to teach me, today?

Father, how will I see You at work in my life, today?

And, folks, when those kinds of questions are with us at the beginning of the day we tend to carry a spirit of hope and expectation with us throughout the rest of our day.

So, how do we nurture within ourselves this abiding spirit of hope and the very real expectation of God’s activity in our lives? We could answer that question in a number of ways, but I want to focus on just one.

If your desire is to live each day with the hope and expectation of seeing God at work in your life, step one is to increase the time that you spend with people who already live with that hope and expectation and to decrease the time that you spend with people who don’t.

Folks, one of the surest and quickest ways to kill the spirit of hope and expectation that Christmas invites us to discover is to surround yourself with negative, complaining, bitter people who’ve not only lost their hope but are intent on squelching yours as well. If hope is a gift and a blessing that you’d like to receive this Christmas then keep an eye out for these spiritual wet blankets and keep your distance from them. And you know the people I’m talking about, don’t you? (No names, please.)

Gift giving is too materialistic.

Christmas carols are boring.

Going to the Christmas Eve worship service is just another obligation.

Operation Christmas Child is a waste of time. You can’t change a kid’s life with shoebox full of pencils and toys.

After 10 minutes with one of these people, you’ve not only lost the spirit of hope you don’t even want to leave the house until Christmas is over. The solution? Limit the time you spend with these spiritual scrooges and maximize the time you spend with people who are constantly hoping for and alert to the presence and activity of God in their life.

And you know the people I’m talking about because they’re scattered throughout our church family. Folks, when you spend time with hope-filled brothers and sisters who constantly expect great things from God, it encourages you to do the same. And once you start expecting God to do great things in your life it’s amazing how often He does. I know it’s true because He does so, so often in mine. Let me share just a couple of recent examples.

Some of you will remember that in my Thanksgiving sermon 4 weeks ago, I shared a story about a man who was robbed, yet still maintained his spirit of gratitude saying, “Father, I thank you that they took my money, but not my life. I thank you that I was the one robbed, not the one who did the robbing.” The next day, I got an email. The writer has given me permission to share it with you. She wrote:

The story you told today about the man who was robbed really resonated with me. Many years ago, I had an experience similar to his. (My date and I) had gone to a concert in the city and when the concert ended, we walked back to the car only to realize that (it) was no longer where we had parked it. By the time we realized the car had been stolen, we knew we were in trouble. To make a long story short we were robbed at gunpoint, kidnapped, and I was gang raped while they held a gun to my date’s head. I tell you this story because of the thoughts that ran through my head after we were set free. As we were running to safety I was so thankful to God for the fact that we were alive… all I remember saying in my head was thank you God for sparing our lives...and I said these words over and over again. Although these men took from me something they had no right to take, I experienced an overwhelming sensation of gratitude to God that I was not like my attackers…that I knew it was not okay to treat another person in this way. Finally, as we ran I not so much heard the words “Father forgive them” repeated many times as I felt these words being said. It was then I knew that Jesus was running right along beside us and the words came from him. You see right before the attack began I remember my date dropping to his knees in prayer. God not only heard his prayers he answered them by sparing our lives and sending his Son to protect us from further harm. This is always a difficult time of year for me because (the attack) happened (this) coming weekend. So I want to thank you for sharing the story of this man and what he was grateful for after his attack because it reminded me of what I was grateful for after my attack and what I am still grateful for today.

Now, folks, think about all the ways that God was working to make all of this happen. On Monday as I was praying He gave me a scripture and a general direction for the sermon. On Thursday and Friday He guided me as I developed the sermon and brought to my mind a story which I had first heard years ago. Then on Sunday He drew into the service a woman who was coming to the anniversary of the most horrifying experience of her life so that she could hear a biblical call to gratitude brought to life by a story perfectly matched to her need as she faced that awful anniversary. And all of that was taking place through my sermon without me even knowing about her need.

How great is our God? How great is our Father’s love for His children? How could we ever lose hope as long as He is with us? How could we ever doubt that He is actively working in our lives?

The following week, some of you will remember that I preached a sermon in which I said that we need to let go of anything in our past that is hindering our ability to move forward with God. The following day I received this email from Teresa O’Connor and she’s gave me permission to share it with you. She wrote:
I went for a walk by myself Sunday morning around 7am. As I was walking past the park…a rather unpleasant memory from more than 20 years ago popped into my head. I have a "repertoire" of about 6 or 7 really unpleasant memories that come up for me from time to time - either of things I've done for which I am deeply ashamed and sorry, or unpleasant things that happened to me or that I was a witness to. Anyway, as I walked along, I thought, "Ok, I'm going to pray about this". I asked God how to stop remembering these incidents and how to stop the horrible feelings they dredge up. Three words came into my head "Let it go". Well, I got kind of miffed at that, because I know I'm supposed to let it go - the problem is I don't know how to let it go! I swallowed my irritation and kept praying...then I got "Pastor Tom". So, I took that to mean that I should seek your counsel on it - and spent the rest of the walk sort of composing an email in my mind to you…

So, then we go to the 9 am service, and what do you preach about? Exactly what I was praying for that morning. Let the mistakes of the past go and press on, focus on the goal. Pick the fruit and burn the rest. No matter what distance we've come from where we were to where we are now, there is still some distance to go.

As you said this morning, I love it when God does that!

Now, folks, think about all the ways that God was working to make all of this happen. On Monday as I was praying He gave me a scripture and a general direction for the sermon. On Thursday and Friday He guided me as I developed the sermon. Early Sunday morning He reminded Theresa that there was some stuff from her past that was hindering her future and when she asked Him, “What do I do about it?,” He answered, “Pastor Tom.” So she got ready to make an appointment to come talk with me and instead God answered her specific prayer request in a very direct way through my sermon without me even knowing about her need.

How great is our God? How great is our Father’s love for His children? How could we ever lose hope as long as He is with us? How could we ever doubt that He is actively working in our lives?

How long has it been since you saw God at work in your life? How long has it been since you hoped to see God at work in your life? How long has it been since you expected to see God at work in your life?

Folks, it’s Christmas. We’re celebrating the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. And when God is with us there is always reason to hope.
Ask God to restore your hope. Ask God to rekindle within you the expectation of His work. Join me in this prayer, “Father, I trust that you are constantly working in, through and around my life. If it be your will, open my eyes and let me see the wonderful things that you do.”

© Copyright 2006 Pastor Tom Marcum

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