Star of Hope message

We come to the Star of Hope service because for us the Holiday season is extremely difficult. We have experienced loss, and that loss has changed us forever.

Some of us have experienced the death of a loved one this year or many years ago. Some of us have experienced loss as a result of income through job loss or financial loss. Some of us have experienced situations of deep despair where the world now looks bleak and dark. For some of us, life has so completely changed that we are unbalanced, our world has turned upside down, and we no longer are completely sure of any thing.

I’m here tonight because I am one of you. I have lost (we really have not lost…..) my first husband when he was 35. I have lost my daughters, one to leukemia and one to a car accident. I have lost my in-laws. I have lost my dad. I have lost my mom. I have lost an unborn child. The grandfatherly neighbor next door sexually abused my daughter. I have had to decide life and death with both my girls. I had to decide not to continue cancer treatment and allow Jennifer to die at age 8. I had to decide to pull the plug on life support for my Jessica after her car accident at age 17. I had to watch my father in law die an excruciating death and he was afraid to die. I have had to learn that there is nothing in life that is within my control. I have felt death warmed over; you know that feeling when there is no blood flowing in your veins. I have lived in darkness, complete and utter and real darkness, and had to resort to antidepressants to help me cope. I have been in situations where I have had little medical funds and had to resort to going to Public Aid. I have fought with insurance companies over health benefits just so I wouldn’t be bankrupt. I have lost an entire life, there is no one in my life today who knows who I was fifteen years ago. There is a whole life that has just disappeared.

It is okay to feel whatever we feel at this time. Grief takes its own path and that path is not the same path for you as it is for the person sitting next to you or for me. It is okay to cry, to be angry, to be confused, to be frustrated. And it is okay to be happy, to laugh, to dream, to love.

There was a time in my life when I was sure God was testing me. I just couldn’t figure out why God would test me without first teaching me what I was to know. And I couldn’t understand what I had done that would explain God taking everything away. God doesn’t do that. God does not play with our lives. God loves us and cares deeply for us. God is not a distant god, God is as near to you and me as the breath we take.

We have come to a season that tells us very clearly just how much God loves us. God came to us as a baby in a manger. God came to us in poverty. God came to us through an unmarried teenager. God came to us in a homeless couple. God came to us when the world was at its darkest, its bleakest, its most hopeless time. God came to us to visibly show us just how much we are loved.

And God didn’t stop there. Jesus was both human and divine. Jesus has walked in our shoes. Jesus has been there. He’s experienced the highs and the lows in life just as we do. Jesus knew despair, anger, frustration, joy, love, abandonment both by his friends, by his family, by his divine Father. Do you think it was easy for Jesus because he was God? Jesus felt all the same things we do, and more. Do you think Jesus did not feel lonely, or trapped, or like he was butting heads with every one and every thing? He did. And why would God willingly allow that to happen? God could have continued working in and through us just as God had for thousands of years prior to Jesus’ birth. Why would God bend down?

Because God cares. God loves each and every one. We needed a visible human sign, an example that we could understand, another just like us who experiences everything we do. We could read and learn through Scriptures but until we could see that in practical day-to-day humanity, we could not comprehend. And that’s why God bent down. That’s why God continually today comes to us through the Spirit. That’s why God never gives up on us. That’s why God carries us during the most difficult times of our lives. That’s why God rejoices with us in our joy, and weeps with us when we cry.

Scripture reminds us of those promises made to us who are hurting, who are lonely, who are confused, who are beaten down with the burden of life. When all else fails to ground us, we can hold on to those promises.

1. He has promised to supply every need we have. The Bible says: "But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus". That's Phillipians 4:19

2. God has promised that His grace is sufficient for us. (II Corinthians 12:9). In fact, God has made provision for our salvation by His grace through faith. (Read Ephesians 2:8. It is through an obedient faith that we have access into the grace of God according to Romans 5:2.)

3. God has promised that His children will not be overtaken with temptation. Instead, Jesus assures us that a way of escape will be provided. This promise is recorded in I Corinthians 10:13.

And Jude wrote: "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present your faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude v 24).

4. God has promised us victory over death. God first resurrected Jesus by way of assuring our resurrection. Peter said: "God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact." (Acts 2:32).

Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (I Corinthians 15:3,4). Later on he adds: "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ " (I Corinthians 15:57).

5. God has promised that all things work together for good to those who love and serve Him faithfully (Romans 8:28). It may be difficult for us to see and understand how this is accomplished at times, but God has promised it, and God will deliver.

6. God has promised that those who believe in Jesus and are baptized for the forgiveness of sins will be saved. (Read Mark 16:16 and Acts 2:38).

7. God has promised His people eternal life (John 10:27,28).

Jesus gave us three amazing promises:
(Jesus said...) A little while longer and the world will see Me no more... (John 14.19a)

#1 - He promised to prepare a place for you in Heaven.
(Jesus promised you...) In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14.2)

#2 - He promised to return for you.
(Jesus promised you...) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. (John 14.3)

#3 - He promised to give you a living gift -- namely, the Holy Spirit.
(Jesus promised you...) And I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth... (John 14.16-17a)

This Season for us can be difficult. We are changed people because of what has happened in our lives. But, let me appeal to you to live so that the promises of God will be yours!