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The First Week of Advent! Hope is a choice
17 Plays1 year ago
The first week of advent is about hope. The deep hope that no matter what many, many years ago God brought us Jesus. Are we living with this hope? We have control over whether we live in hope or not. The Israelites were told by Moses that they have a choice in Deuteronomy 30:15-20. Read these amazing verses! Will they chose life and love God and obey Him? Or choice death? We that choice too. Will we live with hope and light or choice darkness? God tells us how, we cling to Him! We can not do it ourselves. In Luke 10 in the story of Jesus visits Martha and Mary, Mary knew the answer. She knew she needed to focus on Jesus, be in awe of Him at His feet. This holiday season and every day let's focus on the one thing- Jesus. Even with the chaos around us, let's be in the best place of all at His feet.
The book I referenced is Attachments- why you think feel and act the way you do. By Tim Clinton and Gary Sibcy
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Transcript
Introduction: Hope through Advent
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Filling You Up With Hope
Hi, it's Abby from Filling You Up with Hope, where we go through God's Word every week and we find so much hope. And I'm just so thankful that you're here for the first week of Advent. It's November went by so quick and it's it's already it's already the first Sunday of Advent.
Jesus: The Unimaginable Gift
00:00:29
Filling You Up With Hope
a it's a time where we can just take in the gift, the humongous gift, unimaginable gift that Jesus is and how that changed the entire world. So, but it's hard because there's so many distractions around this this time of year, but I think we have some really good things that we're gonna talk about today that I'm gonna talk about today that I think are really gonna help us remember and hold on to hope and what really matters this holiday season and every day, which is Jesus.
The Symbolism of the Advent Wreath
00:01:17
Filling You Up With Hope
so but So like we're talking about the first candle on an Advent wreath or whatever, um it represents hope.
00:01:29
Filling You Up With Hope
And I saw this online from the University of San Diego. The first week of Advent prepares us to be people of hope and believe that darkness will not prevail, but the light of the world will overcome it. and Which, how beautiful is that? And that's so something that so something amazing, but I think it's important that Jesus has already overcome.
00:01:57
Filling You Up With Hope
So so that it says you know the light of the world will overcome it. it did ah He did overcome it. and so And so we need to celebrate that hope, no matter what we're going through, that we have this light.
Living as People of Hope
00:02:22
Filling You Up With Hope
We have this light because Jesus died for for us and rose from the dead and we have eternity with him. So we have that hope. But are we living like we're people of hope? This time of year is really hard for a lot of people. And it's also, we've made it in our society like crazy, a crazy time of year, a commercial time of year, which creates so many distractions.
00:02:51
Filling You Up With Hope
And then it can be so hard when we lose loved ones, when we're having a hard time. It can be a very, very hard time of year. But I would encourage you that even if that is happening with you, if you're having a hard time, hope is a choice. And it's it's ah it's hard. It's hard because we go through such difficult things, but we need hope. And we don't just need hope and everything will be okay. We need hope in Jesus, because that's the hope that doesn't change, that is constant, that doesn't go away. We need that deep down. So even when we are facing these things, we have that hope.
00:03:43
Filling You Up With Hope
um hope Hope is a, this is a a definition when I Googled Bible definition of hope. And I this um really like this. Hope is a confident expectation of what God has promised and is characterized by assurance, trust, and certainty. So are we living right now in assurance, trust, and certainty, no matter what we're facing? it It's very, very challenging.
Dealing with Hopelessness and Depression
00:04:17
Filling You Up With Hope
But when we have this deep faith,
00:04:19
Filling You Up With Hope
and we know Jesus and we know all he did for us and the life we have with us and that he's with you right now, um then there's hope and that it's so important. Hope is so important. and I think that's why this is called filling you up with hope. Hope is so, we need it. And, you know, a symptom of depression, you know, when,
00:04:46
Filling You Up With Hope
Part of being a therapist is diagnosing people which for and for insurance purposes. And that's a criteria for depression in the DSM. ah The DSM has oh all of the different mental disorders in it and the criteria for them. And one of the symptoms of depression is hopelessness, when we just feel stuck which we've talked about in a lot of different podcasts and like things are just always going to be this way and there's no hope.
00:05:28
Filling You Up With Hope
um and as and it's And it's so hard because it can over overtake us and it can feel so out of control and opening up God's word and listening and listening to Him.
00:05:45
Filling You Up With Hope
and what And what he says is a good way to fill yourself up with some hope. Because we can't do it ourselves, right? It is hopeless when we know't we don't have him. But taking in his word, and today's message and is is filled with this hope. it's So again, Deuteronomy, there's so much in here.
00:06:15
Filling You Up With Hope
So much goodness. um who We've been here for
Moses's Message on Choosing Life
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Filling You Up With Hope
a few weeks. If this is your first time listening, we I started in Genesis and we're going through the Bible. And um and every week we we go through some verses. And this week we're in Deuteronomy 30.
00:06:40
Filling You Up With Hope
It's very close to the end of Deuteronomy, to it's very close towards Moses's death. Moses doesn't get to enter this land. um But he is guiding and encouraging, and he's being a vessel for God to just work through him. And so this is what he's telling the people. It's very close to them entering. And this is what he's telling them. This is Deuteronomy 30, 15 through 20.
00:07:14
Filling You Up With Hope
Today I've set before you life and what's good versus death and what's wrong. That's that's the choice, right? That's the choice. And hope and faith, like that leads to life, right? That leads to light, to living the way that God wants us to live.
00:07:44
Filling You Up With Hope
And so, but continuing. If you obey the Lord your God's commandments that I'm commanding you right now, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, by keeping his commandments, his regulations, and his case laws, then you will live and thrive. And the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away,
00:08:13
Filling You Up With Hope
and you refuse to listen. and so And so are misled, worshiping other gods and serving them. I'm telling you right now that you will definitely die. You will not prolong your life on the fertile land that you are crossing the Jordan River to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth as my witness against you right now. I have set, this is, oh, taking the sin.
00:08:41
Filling You Up With Hope
I have set life and death, blessing and curse before you. Now, here it is. Now choose life, choose life so that your descendants will live by loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice and by clinging to him. That's how you will survive and live long on the fertile lands um the Lord swore to give your ancestors to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Wow. So reading this, reading this often, these verses, choose life, God. And sometimes we need help. We can't, we we always need help. We can't do it. If we're feeling hopeless, praying, God, please may I choose life. Please fill me with hope. I'm struggling with hope, Lord. I'm struggling so much with faith.
00:09:39
Filling You Up With Hope
And what whatever in your heart you're struggling with, like pouring that out to God, that is choosing life when you surrender it and you pour it out to God. So surrendering it to the Lord, surrendering it. And like we talked about, all we have to do is read from, read a Psalm to see David pour his heart out. And that is our
Redirecting Focus to God
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Filling You Up With Hope
guideline. There's sunshine back there.
00:10:09
Filling You Up With Hope
That is our guideline, right? To pour these things out and not just keep them in, but pour them out to Him, to our Lord. But we might read these verses in Deuteronomy and say, like, because, you know, he's talking about, um you might say, this isn't me, like, but he's, our hearts,
00:10:38
Filling You Up With Hope
turning away from God. It's not, cause you might say, well, I'm not worshiping many gods and I only believe in him, but it's our hearts turn away from him in so many different ways. In so many different ways, our heart, our souls turn away from God, not just by worshiping other gods, by worrying all the time, by complaining, by living in negativity,
00:11:07
Filling You Up With Hope
by like, I feel like this holiday season, it's by a lot of times um being distracted, being sucked into the commercial part of Christmas and then saying, I don't have time to really take in his word. and And we might be reading God's bird, but are we really taking it in and making it a priority?
00:11:36
Filling You Up With Hope
because it's become such a commercial busy time of year that it's easy for it to take away from what really matters. So our hearts are turned away in so many different ways, but we have the choice today and every day to redirect our hearts to him. And, you know, it's a really hard thing to do But it's about strengthening our relationship with God. It's about making it a priority that I'm going to start my day praising him and talking to him. And I'm going to turn to him throughout the day. I'm going to study his word. um Like a lot of us do, there's great Advent devotionals to do.
00:12:34
Filling You Up With Hope
I'm really excited to do one with my, with my kids.
Clinging to God for Security
00:12:38
Filling You Up With Hope
And, um, but in any way, in any way, just having that, um, having that knowledge in our hearts that he is what's most important. And we need to, like, I love the wording in this Deuteronomy 30, 15 through 20.
00:13:01
Filling You Up With Hope
And it's, and it says in verse 20, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice and by clinging to him, we need to cling to him. Like it's not healthy to be clingy to people, right? And, um, that, you know, I've been kind of into attachment styles in my job lately and you know, that, that's not a healthy attachment to anybody, right? When we're clingy.
00:13:32
Filling You Up With Hope
to them. The only person who we should be clingy with is God. And when we're clingy with people, it actually makes a, it it a lot of times comes from insecurity. But when we're clinging to God, not clingy with God, but clinging like attached to Him, it is a secure thing.
00:14:00
Filling You Up With Hope
and that leads to secure attachment, a secure base, a secure strong foundation that we can then pass down to our children when we have that secure base. um And there's an amazing book that I keep on recommending to people about attachments. I will find that for the end because that it's such an important thing to have that secure base, especially this this time of year that's so busy, it's just so easy to be distracted.
Martha and Mary: Choosing Jesus
00:14:42
Filling You Up With Hope
And a really good story of this that I've been reading a lot lately, it's only four verses, and I felt like God telling me to read it every day this season.
00:14:57
Filling You Up With Hope
Um, the season's extra busy for me. My kids both have birthdays in December and, um, it's so easy to just feel overwhelmed. And so the story of Martha and Mary and Luke 10, um, and, and I'll be honest, I've, I've read it a bunch of times. I felt like God was guiding me to read it every day and I need to do that. It hasn't been every day. It's been a bunch of times, but every time I read it, it's really weird. and um It is beautiful every time, and it's a reminder every time, even though I've read it time and time and time again. so But here are the verses of Jesus visits Martha and Mary in Luke 10, 38 to 42, and I encourage you to read it
00:15:54
Filling You Up With Hope
um throughout the week as well. While Jesus and his disciples were traveling, Jesus entered a village where a woman named Martha welcomed him as a guest. She had a sister named Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his message. By contrast, Martha was preoccupied with getting everything ready for their meal. In search, preoccupied with getting everything ready for Thanksgiving.
00:16:24
Filling You Up With Hope
everything, all the things that as moms, as wives, as humans that we have to do, preoccupied with life. So Martha came to him and said, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to prepare the table all by myself? Tell her to help me.
00:16:49
Filling You Up With Hope
The Lord answered, Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things. One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part. It won't be taken away from her. One thing is necessary. Like this advent and just for the rest of our lives, ah focusing on the one thing being at God's feet. That's clinging.
00:17:19
Filling You Up With Hope
to God,
00:17:22
Filling You Up With Hope
securely hugging, securely being so rooted in Him that throughout the day, all day, all night, um like it said earlier in Deuteronomy, when we're sleeping, when we're laying down, when we're sitting up, no matter what we're doing like focusing on him. And when our thoughts go towards, um, the worries, the negativity that all the things that we have to do, we need to choose life. And we choose life by focusing on Jesus. We're making that choice to choose him and, and we can do it. We can do it. And it's,
00:18:13
Filling You Up With Hope
you know, and and it's small things and it's big things. It's choosing, you know, if we react, we if we have a tendency to react in a certain way, because we're stressed and overwhelmed this season, and we and then we start snapping at people, right? It's in that moment choosing to pray about it, choosing to respond the way that God wants us to respond.
00:18:41
Filling You Up With Hope
Right, that's focusing on him, that's focusing on him, on hope, and that's choosing life. And the more we do that, the more we'll do that in many areas in our life. and um And we do that by thanking him, waking up in the morning and praising him, was reading his word and taking it the deep end to our
Faith and Hope as Choices
00:19:11
Filling You Up With Hope
hearts. So it roots us. And just throughout the day, turning to him. And it's not because we have to, because it's a chore, because it's on our to-do list this this season, but it's because we just can't get enough of him. Like Mary was at his feet
00:19:37
Filling You Up With Hope
because she was in awe of him and couldn't get enough of him. And I pray that we all feel that this season. like Not that I can't get enough shopping or presents, but I can't get enough Jesus.
00:19:59
Filling You Up With Hope
um
00:20:02
Filling You Up With Hope
I just pray that we that we all have that hope deep down. And if you're struggling with hope this season, I pray right now that God takes away your doubts, your worries, or whatever is is getting in the way. And I pray that that very deeply God will fill you with his hope. and that And that's what we need to do. we need If we're struggling with hope, we need to be praying about it. Whatever we're struggling with,
00:20:37
Filling You Up With Hope
A lot of times turns to complaining worries ah sorry complaining worries negative thoughts. But really the things that we're struggling with, we need to be deeply praying about. And we need to have the confidence um that once we pray about it, we need to have the confidence that it's in God's hands. We need to have the faith that, oh, no, I prayed about this. God god is going to take care of it.
00:21:07
Filling You Up With Hope
we need We need to have that hope and that faith so so deeply, no matter no matter what we're going through. And then that leads to Romans 15, 13. May the God of hope fill you with all of the joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Praying this,
00:21:37
Filling You Up With Hope
praying this deeply, not just for ourselves, but for everyone. Everyone in this world may they feel the hope that there is when you have Jesus, because there's nothing like it. When you've lived without it, which I did for a long time, there was a lot of darkness. There was a lot of anxiety. there was It was just so hard.
00:22:04
Filling You Up With Hope
And it it can be so hard now, but I know that no matter what, there is light. There is light. And I can turn to him and I can have hope no matter no matter what. And that is a choice. It's a choice. That's what God's speaking through Moses in Deuteronomy 30.
00:22:34
Filling You Up With Hope
is a reminder of this season, that it is a choice. And I just pray that right now that we make the choice to choose life, that we make that choice to accept Jesus and then live like we made like we made that choice. Live live with hope, the hope that no matter what happens, if you have faith, if you have turned to him, if you have repented and you're changed changing your heart and life, you have life with Him. And what a gift that is. So I just pray that this is just an Advent season that um that we take in that God is doing a new thing. And He did a new thing when he when Jesus came
00:23:32
Filling You Up With Hope
And he died for us. And I just pray that we take in this hope. And I can't wait to go through the next week um with you next week. And I just hope you have an amazing first week of Advent. Bye.