Can you believe it? Christmas season is here! And I love Christmas. I really do. I love to see families come together to celebrate. I love to decorate the Christmas tree and drink $10 cups of holiday drink from Starbucks. I even love the snow. I love Christmas. But you know what I am beginning to hate more and more every year about Christmas? I'm sure many of you here will relate to this.

I hate the crazy long lines no matter which store you go to. I don't know where these people are during the rest of the year, but they all show up at the one store that I want to go to, and of course, they buy the very things that I am trying to buy.

Somewhere in history, Christmas has become the best friend of the retail industry. ShopperTrak's National Retail Sales Estimate that Americans will spend some $18.1 billion during the Black Friday Weekend, the three days after Thanksgiving.

This year, Americans will spend almost $800 each in the name of celebrating Christmas, a figure that is up 5% from last year. The total spending will be a record $154 billion. Compare that number to $2.7 billion that was given to victims of hurricane Katrina or the $2.8 billion that was given to 9/11 charities.

The retail industry has done an incredible job at selling Christmas and we are buying it like there is no tomorrow! The Christ in Christmas has been reduced to a gift box with a fancy bow. I don't know about you but that is not the way that I want to celebrate Christmas. I am not saying that I am going to boycott Christmas presents, I am all for receiving them! What I am saying is that in this journey that we call Christianity, there are more than enough things that keep us from living the life that Christ has given his life for. The last thing we need is more bumps on the road already full of pot holes.

This morning, we are launching a new series entitled, "A Day in the Life of Jesus." And our goal in this teaching series is to call us to a break from the chaos of the Christmas season and to refocus our eyes and our hearts on the person of Jesus. So, for the next four weeks, we are going to be looking at four days in the life of Jesus. Each of the four days will reveal something more about Jesus. We will see Jesus, in his complete humanity and complete divinity.

I invite you to take a deep breath this morning and allow Jesus to recapture your heart with the things of His Kingdom. Let's put aside the quest for the iPods and Tickle-Me-Elmos and Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Edition Wide Screen DVDs, and fall in love with Jesus, whose birth in the manger is the single greatest act of love that has ever been lavished upon humanity.
Please bow your heads with me in prayer.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE FOR?
Have you ever hoped for something so much that it hurt? I mean, have you hoped for something with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, so much so that the wait for the fulfillment of that hope was actually too much to bear. Have you ever hoped for something like that?

I bet all of us in this room can relate to that kind of hope. What are you hoping for this morning? Maybe for some of you here today, you may be desperately hoping for a job, not just any job but that one specific job that you just can't seem to stop thinking about. You spend hours daydreaming about what it would be like, thinking about the assignments and the co-workers and that nice office. Maybe there are some of you here who have been hoping for years and years that the Chicago Cubs will win the World Series. We are praying for you guys! Maybe for some of you here today who are single, you are desperately hoping for that someone special to come into your life and to sweep you off of your feet and ride off into the sunset together. Or maybe you did find that special person and you are now married, and you and your spouse have been desperately hoping for a child. And maybe for some of you here today, you are desperately hoping for a breakthrough in your health, or the health of someone you love.

And I bet there are still others of you here this morning. And you feel a sense of bitterness and maybe even anger as I bring up this topic, because your hopes have been crushed. You've hoped too much for too long and you've simply given up because it just hurts too much.

HOPE DEFINED
Hope is to wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment. Emily Dickinson writes, "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all." One theologian writes, "What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life."

Hope is a powerful thing! Have you ever hoped for something so much that it hurt? What are you hoping for today?

OUR PERSONAL JOURNEY OF HOPE
I asked Angela if I might share with you this morning, a journey of hope that we took together as a family this last year.

About three years ago, Angela's mom, Sharon, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She received all kinds of treatment and eventually the cancer went into remission. And about a year ago she started having a lot of headaches, so she went to the hospital to get some tests done. They took some x-rays of her head and we the family just happened to all be home when they Sharon and her husband went to get the results of that test. They came back about an hour later and told all of us that the breast cancer had come back, this time it spread to her brain, lungs, and from the amount of spots they found in her body, that she had about 3 months to live. And as you can expect, everyone was absolutely shocked. I can still remember that day. We all hugged and cried and mourned and grieved. After a little bit of really not knowing what to do, we all gathered in the living room to worship. The words of the song, "Blessed be the name of the Lord" took on a whole new level of reality for us that day, especially the part that says, "You give and take away. But my heart will choose to say, 'Lord, blessed be your name!'" We worshipped, we prayed, and we hoped together.

Sharon was an incredible fighter and she battled this cancer with everything she had. She passed away 6 weeks ago. The doctors gave her only 3 months to live. She ended up living for over a year. And even to her very last breath, Sharon never lost hope. And her hope was ultimately fulfilled. Not in the sense of her physical healing in this lifetime, but her eternal hope in her salvation has been consummated.

One of Sharon's favorite passages was Isaiah 40:

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

So we keep on hoping. We have never stopped hoping. Even after the death of Sharon, we keep on hoping. The only thing different now is that the object of our hope is no longer temporary, but something eternal and everlasting. We keep on hoping.

What are you hoping for this morning?

MARY AND JOSEPH'S JOURNEY OF HOPE
Like many of you guys, I'm sure, Angela and I got a nativity scene for Christmas this year. It is really a beautiful scene with this beautiful barn that looks more like a hotel than a barn. There are happy sheep and camels and the three wise men, all very clean and all very happy. And of course, there is Joseph and Mary standing over the centerpiece of the entire scene, the baby Jesus, all bundled up, snuggly and cozy. This nativity scene is one artist's rendition of what he or she thought the nativity scene might have looked like. There are hundreds of these nativity scenes, and I don't believe that I've seen one that I believe is true to story of the birth of Jesus as is written in the Gospels.

The birth of Jesus was anything but clean and pretty. It was dirty and it was scandalous. So much so, that no human being in his right mind would choose this scenario for the birth of Jesus, the God become flesh.

First of all, Luke tells us that Mary was greatly distressed when the angle first appeared to her to tell her of the events to come. Mary was greatly distressed, and she had every right to be. Here is this teenage girl, who was betrothed to be married to a man named Joseph. And this angel appears to her and tells her that she is going to become pregnant. Never mind that this is the child of God. How do you explain this to your friends? Your family? To Joseph?

I once read a story about a woman talking to a group at a church about a sin in her life that everyone knew about. She had given birth to an illegitimate child and when the father left, she had to raise this child on her own. Her sin was no worse than many other sins, and yet, she told this group that this sin had such conspicuous consequences. She could not hide the result of that single act of passion, sticking out as it did from her abdomen for months until a child emerged to change every hour of her day of the rest of her life. Where is hope in this situation?

Luke tells us that Mary was great greatly distressed. But in our society, where there are over a million teenage girls getting pregnant out of wedlock, we are not struck by the weight of these circumstances. In her days, a betrothed woman who became pregnant was seen as an adulterer and was subject to death by stoning. Mary was greatly distressed. Where is hope in this situation?

And what a tremendous contrast we see between the story of Mary and the story of Elizabeth, a woman who was also became miraculously pregnant. While Elizabeth gave birth to John the Baptist in great fanfare with the whole town rejoicing with them, Mary would not receive any such treatment when she was to give birth to the very Son of God. Where is hope in this situation?

And no matter how great of a man Joseph may have been, I wonder how much anguish and agony he must have felt. Can you imagine Joseph second guessing the whole scenario over and over again? Can Mary really be pregnant with the son of God? It can't be! It just can't be! Where is hope in this situation?

Neither Mary nor Joseph fully understood, nor could they really have even if they tried, the story that was unfolding before their very eyes. They could not comprehend that this baby would become the ultimate fulfillment of hope of mankind. This baby Jesus was not merely the object of our hope. This baby Jesus was hope personified. He was hope in flesh. Jesus is hope! But in the midst of their situation which seemed so bleak and so hopeless, God intervenes in an incredible way.

If you have your Bible, please turn to Luke chapter 2, verses 21-40.

So it is now 8 days after Jesus is born. He is circumcised and as was required by the Law of Moses, Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the temple to present their son to the Lord and to offer sacrifices. There in the temple we are introduced to a man named Simeon, a devout man some even call him a prophet because all he does is talk about things of God. Simeon, who has been waiting ALL of his long life for the promise to be fulfilled, upon seeing the baby Jesus, cries out in adoration, this song of praise:

Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.

Simeon's response indicates that he was seeing something beyond what he was seeing with his natural eyes. Simeon sees with deeper eyes. We are told that he "was looking forward to the consolation of Israel" and that "the Holy Spirit rested upon him." His meeting with Jesus is no accident. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon is in the right place at the right time. Filled with the Spirit, he sees more about this child than eyes of flesh can see.

Simeon sees what remains hidden. Simeon sees what God sees. Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Savior of every nation. Even in childhood, Jesus reigns as king. In this child, the Lord has "suddenly come to the temple." The one who gave the Law has appeared in person to keep it.

Simeon's words are confirmed and strengthened by the words of another prophet, named Anna, a woman. A woman is an odd choice for a witness in this patriarchal culture. Anna is also guided by the Spirit. Like Simeon, by providence, she arrives at just the right moment to declare the meaning of the child. She, too, prophesies about this child to those who are looking for the redemption of Jerusalem - for the release of God's people from bondage, oppression, and political captivity.

Simeon is not naive. He knows that Jesus will be rejected. He knows that Jesus is a "sign that will be opposed." He tells Mary that a sword will pierce her soul. And yet, having seen Christ and held him in his arms, Simeon can rest in peace.

Mary and Joseph waited patiently for the fulfillment of their hope. Simeon and Anna waited patiently for the fulfillment of their hope. And the fulfillment of their deepest hopes did not necessarily come in the form of any changes to their immediate circumstance. Their struggles remained. But what did change was their eternal perspective. They saw in Jesus, the fulfillment of the hope of all of mankind. The consolation of Israel was born. The savior of the world has come. Jesus Christ was truly "Immanuel" which means "God with us."

CLOSING
Chuck Swindoll writes in his book, "Hope Again" the following:

Hope is a wonderful gift from God, a source of strength and courage in the face of life's harshest trials.

• When we are trapped in a tunnel of misery, hope points to the light at the end
• When we are overworked and exhausted, hope gives us fresh energy
• When we are discouraged, hope lifts our spirits
• When we are tempted to quit, hope keeps us going.
• When we lose our way and confusion blurs the destination, hope dulls the edge of panic
• When we struggle with a crippling disease or lingering illness, hope helps us persevere beyond the pain
• When we fear the worst, hope brings reminders that God is still in control
• When we must endure the consequences of bad decisions, hope fuels our recovery
• When we find ourselves unemployed, hope tells us we still have a future
• When we are forced to sit back and wait, hope gives us the patience to trust
• When we feel rejected and abandoned, hope reminds us we're not alone
• When we say our final farewell to someone we love, hope in the life beyond gets us through our grief

Put simply, when life hurts and dreams fade, nothing helps like hope.

Have you ever hoped for something so much that it hurt? What are you hoping for today? Or are you hopeless? Are you in a hopeless situation?

An anonymous author writes:

Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all. As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength.

Well, if you are feeling hopeless this morning, then you can now really begin to hope. Put your hope in God! As God opened the eyes of Simeon and Anna by his Spirit, may God open the eyes of everyone in this room! May you see beyond the busyness of this season, may you see beyond the gifts that will be exchanged. May you see as Simeon and Anna saw. May we see Jesus, the hope of the world, Emmanuel, who has come to redeem mankind. No matter what your situation you find yourself this morning, may you find hope in Jesus! Let's pray!