November 30, 2025
We’re in our new sermon series called Arrival, for the four-week season of advent. I remember as a kid I had an advent calendar where you open a window or flap each day leading up to Christmas. Inside the flap was a Scripture or picture. I thought it was cool! Today, they have gotten bigger: online I saw a Harry Potter Lego advent calendar, I saw online an advent calendar with fishing lures, 24 days of fishing lures when you open the flap! That’s pretty great. I was a bit jealous when my kids got a chocolate advent calendar. But advent isn’t so much about chocolate. Advent started 1500 years ago when monks decided to fast, to eat less, for the time leading up to Christmas. Today that period is called advent.
Advent means…coming or arrival. During Advent we look forward to the coming of Jesus! Jesus arrives in three ways: first, he came in Bethlehem on the first Christmas, second, if you decide to follow Jesus, he comes in your heart, and third, he is coming at the end of time. No more tears or pain. What Advent means is we’re praying and preparing, excited to celebrate on Christmas eve, how Jesus changes our lives!
In church today and the next three Sundays of advent, we light advent candles. Today we light the Hope candle, then Peace, Joy, and Love. Because of Jesus’ arrival, we receive more Hope, Peace, Joy and Love! Today we are talking about Hope! The Hope we have in Jesus, especially when we feel hopeless!
I want to admit, sometimes I feel hopeless, and I’m a pastor! Can you relate?
What is it like to be hopeless? Martin Seligman was a psychiatrist who did some experiments in the 1960s. And if you love dogs, you aren’t going to like what he did! He put dogs in cages and gave them random electric shocks! That was the 60s when they even gave lots of people electric shocks, too! They thought shocking you would make you happier! In the dog experiment, one group of dogs could press a lever and stop the shock. Another group of dogs couldn’t do anything to stop the shock. So, they would just lie down and whimper when they were shocked.
Then the dogs were moved to a different arrangement. They were in a cage and getting random shocks. But if they jumped over a low barrier to another part of the cage, they wouldn’t get shocked anymore. The dogs who used to have a working lever all quickly learned that they could jump to the other side of the cage and be shock free. But most of the dogs who couldn’t stop the shocks before, didn’t figure out they could jump over to the other side of their cage and stop getting shocked. They didn’t try to change things. They just lay down and whined when they were shocked. They felt helpless and hopeless. When help was just a small jump away. When the research ended, those dogs got back to a better life!
There was hope for the researcher, too! Because he stopped shocking dogs! He actually founded a new kind of psychology, positive psychology! We’re not going to dwell on your past, family issues that messed you up. We’re not going to spend time on the negative. We’re going to look at your strengths and positive traits, find your purpose, and make sure you’re connecting with other people so you’re positive and hopeful! I’m glad he found a more positive way to work!
It really helps to be hopeful! It gives us confidence to go out in the world and do our best. We do what we can do, and God does what only he can do, to give us hope.
About a year and 3 months before Jesus was born, Zechariah, a righteous man was serving in the temple. He was alone in the temple, when an angel appeared! Zechariah was frightened! But the angel said, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John…He will bring back many people of Israel to the lord their God.” The angel said so many wonderful things about the impact Zechariah’s coming baby will have on people’s faith in God. Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth had always wanted a child! But they were old and had given up hope.
18 Zechariah’s response to the angel’s promise was, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.” Zechariah doubts! He gave up hope of having a child, and he doesn’t want to start hoping again if he can’t be certain. The angel responds, I speak as God’s messenger! Because you don’t believe me, you won’t speak until this child is born. Which seems harsh. Well, God needs Zechariah to step up and have some hope! After all, his son will be a prophet who speaks for God. Zechariah needs to trust and believe! Zechariah is unable to speak for nine months! Then, John the Baptist is born! Zechariah writes on a tablet; this child should be named John. Finally, Zechariah can speak again! He gives a speech full of hope. He says, “you, child will prepare a way for the Lord, ‘to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.’” Zechariah and Elizabeth waited for years and years, but finally their hope of a child comes true!
Our hope is not in a what, it’s in a who. Our hope isn’t in things happening in our lives according to plan. Our hope is in God! Especially during advent, we pay attention to the hope Jesus brings!
Sometimes we pray and pray, and what we hope for doesn’t happen. Is God brushing aside our prayers? Maybe for us, it’s like it was for Zechariah. Zechariah felt that, because he had to wait a long time, too long, for what he hoped for, there was no hope. Sometimes, there is a long waiting period! There’s no judgement in losing hope! I’ve been there too. Maybe you’re thinking, this is never going to happen. You may be praying for physical healing, or for financial provision, or for a family member to come to faith. But God’s timing is not our timing.
Our hope is not in a what; it is in a who. What we hope for may not happen according to our plan. Because things happen according to God’s plan. Zechariah learned to have some hope and not be so cynical! He learned God can do more than anyone asks or imagines.
Sometimes, though, what we hope for never comes to pass. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do about it, and you feel hopeless. What can you do? You can sit down and cry. Then you get up. Our hope is not in a what, that we’ll get exactly what we hope for. Our hope is in a who, in Jesus! Jesus came that first Christmas, because God so loves the world! If you’re a believer, Jesus came into your heart. If you’re not a believer, trust in him, and you’ll experience salvation and the life that truly is life through him. Jesusis our savior! He saves us from our troubles and pain. To know Jesus is a gift from God. Nobody deserves God’s love, nobody earns it, it’s a gift.
Things can get really busy this time of year, and we can get swept up in things that don’t last. Holidays can make life better, or they can make life feel more hopelessness. So, are you walking with God each day? Are you seeking God in Scripture and finding comfort there? When you spend time with Jesus you realize what really matters in life. When you look to Jesus, he gives hope each day. If you’re feeling hopeless, remember that everybody here in church has been through a time when it’s hard to have hope. Jesus gives us our brothers and sisters in Christ to listen to us, lift us up, pray for us and help us carry those burdens.
My challenge for you this week is to think of an area of your life where you find it difficult to hope. Then, pray in faith, “I hope in you God!”
Life goes better when we have hope and we keep trying because we believe what we do makes a difference. When we trust that God can do what we can’t, and that he is working for our good, we have hope! God loves us, and he sent Jesus to save us! Our prayers may not be answered when we want, or exactly how we want. Sometimes what we hope for won’t happen at all. But our hope is not in a what. It’s in a who, in Jesus who tells us to take heart, for he has overcome the world. Amen.
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