Hope

​Isaiah 7:14 NLT 
All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin[a] will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).

This Sunday marks the beginning of Advent and the first candle that we will light represents "Hope."
This first purple candle, which symbolises royalty is sometimes called the prophecy candle, which prompts us to look back to the prophet Isaiah' s foretelling of the coming saviour, Jesus. The hope of all people then and today.
People can place their hope in many things, work, business, each other and for some, even lottery tickets. When we compete with others by trying to have a bigger house, a better car, and so on, we are taking our eyes off of the Lord and placing our hope onto the material things of this world. But the truth is, these things only bring a temporary fix. Even our jobs are not as secure as they once were and these things can be here today and tomorrow they are gone.
But by placing our hope in Jesus, the supplier of all things, we can find confidence in knowing that he will sustain us in every way as we patiently await His return. He says in His word, look at the birds of the sky, the do not store up food in barns, yet our heavenly Father takes care of them, so how much more will He take care of us!
This is a hope we can count on. The hope of our life here on earth being taken care of, but most importantly the hope of His return, in where we have eternal benefits. Eternal life and no more wars, sicknesses, and death will be no more. Everyone will be the same, have the same and we will be content. Everything will be totally pure, as God is pure. And we will be blessed and put in awe of his glory.
And all those things that we place our hope in today, money, cars, houses, businesses, clothing, all of the things that we compete in this world in hopes to be like someone else, will be gone and we will totally be reliant on God alone. The competition will be gone and only one thing will remain! Our loving Father God. Oh what a glorious day that will be.
Have a blessed weekend
Pastor John Oakley