Sermon Notes, December 2, 2012
Pastor Jan Sinozich
The first Sunday
of Advent was about the Promise. The
Jesse Tree decorations reminded us of scriptures that promised a Savior. Jeremiah 33:14-16 talks about the Lord
fulfilling the promise He made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Jeremiah was in prison. King Zedekiah put him in prison because he
criticized the king. Actually, he’d told
Zedekiah about God punishing Israel because of the evil being done there. The coming war with Babylon would “clean
house.” Verses 14-16 gave the people a
promise for the future: tools to cope with what was coming--hope, trust, and
righteousness.
Advent is a time
for housecleaning: getting ready for family and friends’ visits, etc. The inner house of our hearts also gets
cluttered. We need to sweep away the
stress, and clean the cluttered mess. We
need tools for cleaning.
The first tool
is HOPE. Look at the end result. The coming of the Messiah was the end
result. The country was in a mess,
Jeremiah was in prison, war was coming.
We need to look beyond the here and now, the present mess, to the end
result. The light at the end of the
tunnel can’t be turned off—it’s Jesus.
Our trials and troubles are temporary.
We need hope to cope.
The next tool is
TRUST. God will fulfill His
promises. Verse 15 says there was a
branch that sprang forth from David: Jesus was that branch. People made in the image of God keep
promises. There are 7,000 promises in
the Bible. We can remind ourselves of
God’s promises by reading His Word.
RIGHTEOUSNESS is
the next tool. We can’t be righteous on
our own; self-righteousness is a stress producer. The Lord is our righteousness. We can only be righteous if God lives in us.
Commit your life
to Jesus to see the light of hope.
We can trust Him to be who He says He is. We can be righteous because He is
righteous.
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