There Is a Hope Pt. 2: Hope for the Community - 12/8/2024

Pastor Dale BensonWhere are you from? Where were you born? What is your origin story? What is your "right" to this story?I want to change the narrative a bit. Where did Hope find you?Can anything good come out of Nazareth? But while Jesus was called a Nazarene and was raised in Nazareth, that was not his origin story.Matthew 2:1-6 (NLT)Micah 5:1-6 (NLT)- 700 years before Christ- Micah points even further back - to David? Even further back?The Birthplace:- Hope for Shepherds- Hope for Innkeepers- Hope for a Small Town- Hope for the WorldGod sent hope there:- Places- Nazareth vs Bethlehem: - God goes to small places.- Where you work: - "I am the only Christian where I work." - “God has placed me to be a light in this place. To bring the light of hope.”Perhaps you are here today because you need to hear the message of hope. Maybe you are here today because you need to be reminded that you have been granted the hope to share in the small, dark places. Why Bethlehem, Ephrathah? The smallest town in the tribe of Judah. A place of darkness and not much hope. Yet, it is in the darkness that hope shines brightest. Hope shines brightest in the moments when it is darkest. In an upper room, on the night our Lord was betrayed, He gathered with His disciples. He talked of a kingdom to come. He spoke of washing feet and serving each other. He warned them that they would be persecuted but that He would be with them. Amid the darkness, He offered hope. You see, this was the way He came into the world.On what had been an uneventful night in a hilly area of Judea in a little nothing town, angels had appeared to a group of shepherds, telling them that their Hope, their Messiah, had come to them.