Making Our Way Through 2025

Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord and join us here today.
Gather us together.

When justice fades along with our hopes
Gather us together

When mercy seems distant and foreign and lost and forgotten
Gather us together

When kindness and respect Gentleness and civility
Retreat and feel like old worn memories
Gather us together

When arrogance and pride overwhelm us
And schemes of disregard win the day
Gather us together

When love is focused on things and money
And people are used and misused and torn
Gather us together

Gather us together, Lord
Where you are
Where we can hear your voice
Where our hearts can be healed
Where you make things whole again

Gather us together, Lord, and restore our hope
Reignite our love Rekindle our imaginations
Repair our relationships
Gather us together Lord and give us a song to sing
Fill us with praise for all you do
In our lives day after day
Bring us to worship
In word and deed
Body and soul
Hearts full to overflowing
Amen

Morning Talk: Scotty Smith

Approaching 2025, I found myself struggling with hope for the new year
– I think of myself as an optimist
• for instance, Divorce equals two Christmases and two birthdays
– but today’s world looks grim
• vicious election cycle, out of control inflation, wars, many tragedies, etc.
• I have been searching for hope

Reading through the Scriptures, I came across Paul’s letter to the Romans
– he wrote to a start-up church that he had never visited
• it was a church divided–not unlike our nation and even churches in our nation today
• what caught my attention, was his message to them about a future glory

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans Romans 8:18-26

Paul acknowledges our present suffering, our frustration, and bondage to decay
– these are related to our material situations and circumstances
• that is always where hopelessness is rooted
◦ and there is no denying them
◦ consider the person writing this letter; he experienced a great deal of real suffering
◦ that fact adds power to his words
• our hope lies in liberation from these material concerns
– Paul writes about a hope that is unique to believers
• our salvation in Jesus sets us apart
• he points out, that even though we already have the fruit of the Spirit,
◦ inwardly, we groan as we wait for the fulfillment of God’s work

Really? Even with love, patience, kindness, we still groan inwardly?

Paul explains, “Who hopes for what they already have?”
– when children see their wrapped gifts under the Christmas tree, they have hope
• hope for the special surprise that is hidden from them
• but as soon as the gift is opened, the hope is gone — it is fulfilled
– to me, the fruit of the Spirit is like a sneak peek of heaven
• the fulfillment of our hope
• if life were without challenges or suffering, if it were all ease and fun,
◦ there would be no need or purpose for hope
◦ in fact, that kind of life sounds a lot like heaven

Hope is built into our Christian character

C. S. Lewis described hope as a “theological virtue” that is “not a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian life is meant to do.”
Verse 26 has become one of the most comforting promises for me
– there are times I certainly do not know what I “ought to pray for”
• this verse is like giving a hug to someone who is grieving when words cannot bring comfort
◦ it reminds me of the “Footprints In the Sand Poem”
(There are several different versions of this, but the one that speaks to me is when walking with Jesus along a shore, I look back and see two sets of footprints, but in some places there’s only one set. I turn and complain to Jesus, “Why weren’t You there for me?!” His reply, “Those were the times when I carried you.”)
Henry Alford, “. . . the Spirit also helps our weakness; not helps us to bear our weakness, as if the weakness were the burden, which the Spirt lifts for us and with us, but helps our weakness, us who are weak, to bear the burden.”
• the Spirit bolsters our hope
◦ I believe the next section of scripture can have a similar effect

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered” Romans 8:28-36

Paul faced those very threats he lists
– but he knew was it was to receive from God through Jesus “all things”
William Barclay, “That, to Paul . . . life was an eager anticipation of a liberation, a renovation, and a re-creation wrought by the glory and the power of God.”
• I see this hope also as a fuel for Paul in his ministry of spreading the good news

Story time

When my daughters, Addison and Adrianna, were very small we enjoyed a day at Disneyland. I borrowed a friend’s car to make the trip to Anaheim, but before leaving his house he warned me, “The gas gage doesn’t work, so you might want to fuel up before you get on the Freeway.” Being excited to get to the park right away, I skipped his advice. We went on every ride we could fit into the time available to us, so we did not get back on the road until midnight.

Anaheim boasts being home to “the happiest place on earth,” but Southern Californians know there is a dark side to the city where gangs roam and thugs threaten the safety and lives of others. We were driving through one of those dark areas when we ran out of gas. Fortunately, I could see a gas station down the road. I left the girls in the car with their mom, and walked to the gas station, then headed back with a can of gas in my hand.

I came to an intersection where I had to cross to the other side of the street. I could see two guys on the opposite corner, waiting for the “walk” sign to cross to my side. We would cross paths in the middle of the street. I kept my eyes on them as they came toward me, expecting them to look up. Both were wearing hoodies that covered their faces, kept their heads down, and had their hands in their pockets. I was beginning to feel like this was a weird situation. Now I was looking at them closely, and as they passed by me they began to pull their hands out of their pockets, and they were both wearing latex gloves and in their hands was something metallic–like maybe a metal club or bat. Immediately, I turned and ran. Then they began running after me.

I stayed in the street, running against traffic hoping that one of the drivers would stop and help me. No one did. The two men were also swerving between cars, trying to close the distance between us. I ran faster when there was a lull in the traffic until I was dodging cars once again. When I looked back, they had given up the chase and were running in the opposite direction.

Returning to the car, I quickly refueled, and we were back on the road safe and sound. As soon as my heart slowed enough for me to think semi-clearly, I asked God, “What was that about?” It was one of those times when God was not quiet. What he said to me was, “I’m not finished with you yet.” All I could say was, “Okay.”

Running out of fuel can be dangerous

– running out of hope can also be dangerous
– our sense of hope can be challenged by tragic events, disappointments, loss, confusion, and so on
• by the time Paul wrote the Romans, he was no stranger to suffering and persecution
◦ the very things that can cause our level of hope fuel to run low
◦ but Paul saw his suffering as an opportunity to bring glory to God

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord Romans 8:37-39 (through HIM who loved US)

Oswald Chambers, “These things can and do come in between the devotional exercises of the soul and God, and separate individual life from God; but none of them is able to wedge in between the love of God and the soul of the saint.”

This raises the question, “Why do we suffer if God loves us?”

Is it to glorify God?
To create a contrast between the blessings of heaven and hardness of life on earth now?
To test our faith?

Tribulation is difficult, and I always want to understand the “why” of my suffering
– turning to the Bible’s Wisdom Literature (Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes) I learn:
From Proverbs: God is just. He rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked
From Ecclesiastes: Good is not always rewarded and evil is not always punishment. Everything is meaningless
From Job: The most blameless man gets the worst treatment imaginable
• naturally, Job demands answers from God
◦ God presented him with many of the wonders of his creation and all the operations he oversees
• Job’s response is truly inspired:

“I know that you can do all things;
    no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
    Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me to know.
“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.’
My ears had heard of you
    but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself
    and repent in dust and ashes” Job 42:2-6

We won’t always understand what is going on
– some things are “too wonderful for us” (above our pay grade)
• I did not understand why God told me he was not finished with me yet
◦ and it didn’t matter
◦ like Job, the encounter with God was enough to satisfy my soul

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus Philippians 4:7

Conclusion: How are you going to walk in hope in 2025?

How are you going to refuel your hope?
Through sharing the good news with others, like Paul?
Is there something you need to surrender?
Will you bask in eager expectation of heaven, the fulfillment of all hope and joy?

When I look back on my life from here,
I can see where God was present–during my trials and tribulations
So that’s my plan for this year;
to be more aware of God’s presence,
and to pay more attention to the glimmer of heaven sprinkled throughout each day

I will leave you with this Benediction, again from Romans:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him,
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen