We need Hope for the Holidays.
We need hope more than gifts, decorations, and holiday parties. Hope is often overlooked in December.
Hope is what this season is about. We need to remember when hope showed up.
Mary carried hope within her. This hope changed the world around her.
We too should carry hope within us. We too should be a source of hope for the world around us.

Hope 4 the Holidays 1 – Hope Showed Up from Redemption Church on Vimeo.
Hope 4 the Holidays – Hope Shows Up
Sermon notes by Chris Fluitt
Redemption Church Plano Tx

Hope Bumper
Welcome
I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for.
Would you agree that the Christmas season is in full swing?
I saw Christmas trees in department stores as early as late September, and now everywhere you look it is hard to forget that Christmas is coming.
I want to talk to you today about this upcoming season. There is something that we need to receive in this season that is so much more important than…
The world needs more than these things. I hope you will agree that H1 1this world needs HOPE.
You see how we are at each other’s throats on social media.
You see the violence in our streets… or worse the violence at the mall.
More people than ever take medication for depression.
Although we live in the richest nation many are hungry and doing without.
Many people are going to miss the point of this entire season and instead go into credit card debt to pay for gifts that most people don’t really need or want.
H1 1this world needs HOPE
Author Hal Lindsey said “Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air…but only for one second without hope.”
Let’s make this season a time when we remember that H1 2HOPE SHOWED UP.
Hope was born of a virgin.
Hope was born in a manger.
Hope was worshipped by shepherds and Magi.
Hope was incarnate. Everyone needs to know about the hope of the incarnation. God put on a bod and came to earth. The creator became the created and dwelt among us in love.
Hope has a name. It is Jesus! Hope showed up!
You can have a Christmas Tree and miss this.
You can sing carols and miss this.
You can buy gifts and decorate your house and still miss this.
Jesus is Hope Showing up!
H1 3Hope was inside Mary
Mary was a young girl who was engaged to a man named Joseph. Like most young girls awaiting their wedding day, Mary no doubt had dreams about the ceremony and the life that would follow. She probably had designs formulated on how she was going to run her house and raise her children. She probably thought of special ways to leave her mark on the world. Her life was filled with hope of the life to come.
It is great to be filled with hope for the future… but what happens when that pictured future is no longer the same.
All of Mary’s hopeful dreams changed when an Angel sent from God came to Mary.
Luke 1:27-38
to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.
You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.