Sunday 14 December 2025

Nollamara Church Of Christ Sermons.

Raw transcript of meeting:

Date Of Sermon: 14^th December 2025

Speaker: Pete Roberts

Sermon Title: Hope In This Season

Scripture Reading: Romans 1:1-5

 Today's reading is from Romans chapter one, verses one to five. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God. The gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his son, who as to his human nature, was a descendant of David and who through the spirit of holiness, was declared with power to be the son of God by his resurrection from the dead.

Jesus Christ, our Lord. Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.

We're back on rookie mistake. It's, uh, good to be here. What a blessing it is to come and worship the Lord together. Uh, as old friends, new friends and family. It is, uh, good to be in his presence, uh, known, um, Jamie and his family for the last, I think it was about 15 years ago we first met. Ministering at Subiaco.

And so it's a, it's a pleasure to, to be a part of that. As Jamie mentioned before, I worship, I pastor at a servant encounter church, uh, which is bga. And so in 1965, um, some of you will know and may even remember, uh, that 60 years ago some people from this church, uh. With a heart to reach the lost, with a heart to serve the community stepped out into, uh, alga and started a kids outreach.

Uh, started at the North Alga Primary school, moved to the war or war Pindi Primary School. That might be the other way around. And then in 1971, uh, they started gospel services and built a chapel on the corner of climbing and Hay shot Street in bga. And, uh, in two, 2004, they sold that building and shifted to Wayne Garra.

Changed the name to Encounter Church. And uh, that is where I pastor today for the last 12 years. And so it's a, to, to be here with, uh, the church that planted our church. That's a great honor and a privilege. Uh, you'd be happy to know that that church has then planted another church up in tapping. Uh, and so the seed of planting goes on and on and we're all just, uh, a privilege to be a part of what God is doing, uh, in our midst.

And so it's an absolute pleasure. To be here. Uh, we are, it, it coming in the Christmas season. Some people call it, uh, the advent season. It brings a lot of hope and, uh, we hope for a lot of things at Christmas, don't we? Some of it, uh, a little more frivolous than others. We hope that we might get some good presents.

Uh, we hope that maybe someone's found the stock of Old Spice out there and that there's still some of that around. Uh, we hope, uh, that there's good food. We hope that there's, there's good food on the day. We hope sometimes that that family member and we've all got that family member, that can be a little annoying around the table that we hope that they're behaved at Christmas time.

We hope there's a lot of things going on, uh, there. One of the things that I also enjoy about Christmas is a change of TV shows, uh, on the television. That can be a bad thing or a good thing, but one of. Favorite new shows has just come on. Uh, it's called Long Lost Families and it's on, uh, Thursday nights, uh, on the a, b, C.

If you haven't watched it, I just advise you to take a box of tissues When you watch it. Uh, there'll be a lot of tears. But the premise of Long Lost Families is that families, uh, people, uh, have for different reasons become separated from their families. It's based in England and, uh, for being separated for some 40 or 50 years, and they're looking to find rec re reconciliation or reconnection.

With those family members, maybe a parent, maybe a sibling. And so they are wondering what's been happening and what's been happening. And this show then takes their lead and helps them find reconnection to their family. And they're hoping, hoping beyond hope that there is a family member out there that they can be reconnected to.

That they will be able to rejoice with. And so, uh, the show goes out that way. And then my favorite part of the show is when Davina McCall, she's one of the hosts of the show, she comes back into the, uh, lounge room music or the living room of, of someone who's been looking for a lost family member. And, uh, as she comes in, the hope of the person waiting is, is palpable.

Just palpable. You can see the hope in their eyes, the hope in their face as they think has she got some news for me? And as Davina sits down and the person looks across from them with the hope in their eyes, they say, have you got any news? And Davina looks at them and smiles and just nods. And you can see the hope.

Break the hope come to life. Tears start to fall down their eyes at the sound that there has been someone found. And they say, usually, are they okay? Do they wanna see me? And usually Davina says, they're fine and they'd love to meet you. And it's wow. What a moment. What a moment. Hope fulfilled. Hope fulfilled.

That's not everyone's story here. But everyone's story here is that at different times in our life, we need hope. We're in the middle of Advent, and today we did the joy candle. We would run the hope candle a few weeks back and hope is one of the characteristics that we get from Christ when he comes in.

His comes. When he came at Christmas, one of the things that we get at Christmas, we have hope, peace, joy, and love, and they're all found in the coming King Jesus. Hope is a feeling of expectation, desire for a particular thing to happen, but the hope that we have in Christ is not just a hope in a thought, not just a hope.

In a hope that happens. A wish if you like. The hope that we have in Jesus Christ is a hope that's rooted, that's born out of the promise of a faithful God who delivers on His promises more and more. And our hope is now not in a thought or a hope or a wish, but our hope is in the delivery of a promise from a faithful king in the way of his son Jesus Emmanuel, God with us.

It's a far deeper than a wish or a desire. And if you've got your Bible, I'd like you to turn me to, to Romans chapter five. That was a beautiful reading that we had earlier. Um, it wasn't the one that Jamie, uh, had a and me had a miscommunication. And it wasn't the scripture that, uh, that, that we're preaching from today, but I, it was a very good scripture.

All scripture is God breathed and useful for correcting and characters. We know that. But let's read from chapter five verses one to five. A bit of grace on Jamie's not well apparently.

Therefore, since we've been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance.

Perseverance character and character. Hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Paul is sharing with us there at the church at Rome and with us here today in No Lamar Paul is sharing with us. That God's love has been poured out into us by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit being God. The fullness of God through His love is being poured out into every single one of our hearts. That's God with us.

That is God in amongst, amongst us. God, in the situations that we find ourselves God, in every place that we go, he never leaves us is the truth of the gospel. That's good news, isn't it? He never leaves us. I'm sure we've all had situations where we've been, uh, thinking about people around us. I wish they would just gimme some space and would gimme some room.

Has anyone ever thought that about a person? Had some nervous laughs there? Uh, not in the chair next to you today. I just meant in general, the truth of the scripture here is that the God never leaves us. He's always with us. He's present in our lives. He's not someone that's here, goes out, then comes back.

He's with us. He's been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Paul says the opposite to hope is despair. The opposite to hope is despair. We have hope because Christ is always with us, but the opposite to hope is despair. Despair is when we feel helpless, that there's no options, and sometimes we feel hopeless.

Maybe you felt hopeless in relational situations like there's no hope. In this relationship, there's no hope In the connections between people, maybe you've felt hopelessness about other life circumstances. You felt buried in your finances, you felt disconnected in, in your neighborly relationships. Maybe you felt despair with church.

Is there a hope for church? Is there a hope for the church globally? Is there a hope for the church locally? Sometimes we feel despair. The devil wants us to live in despair. If we have hope, because Christ is with us, there's nothing more than the devil would want you to believe than that. You are hopeless, that you are in despair, that you are alone, and there is no solution to the situation that you find yourself in.

That's what the devil would have if we were to be distracted from the hope that we have in Christ. There would be nothing but despair, and that's the place that the devil would like us to dwell in. A place where we don't think that there's any hope and that we only have despair. But that is not our truth because Paul has said that the Holy Spirit, his love dwells within us by his Holy Spirit.

But we as believers, we have hope in the fulfillment of a promise that whatever you are facing and in a room like this today, there'll be many people facing many different things. But whatever you are faced facing. You can have hope in the fulfillment of a promise that whenever you are facing, you are not alone.

One of the great epidemics of this society is aloneness. Some health experts have said that aloneness is a greater health epidemic than any of the drugs that we've had, like cigarettes and things like that. We need. People, but as people of faith, we are never alone. We always have God who is with us and as Christians, we celebrate the hope that comes from Emmanuel God with us at Christmas.

Not only in that, we don't just celebrate the hope that comes through Emmanuel God with us at Christmas, but we also become hope traffickers. We are traffickers of hope at Christmas. Why do we have joy at Christmas? Why do we celebrate Christmas? Because we are sharing with the world that not only have we found the hope of Christ with us, but that hope of Christ Emmanuel, God with us, is available to our whole community.

Isn't that a great joy, not just for us, but there's so much that overflows actually to the whole earth. Yeah, and so we become hope traffickers to whoever we go. Whether you go to a workplace, whether you go to a games club, whether you play a sport, whether you live next door to a neighbor, you are a hope trafficker by the way that you live out the things of Christ and that Christ indwells in you in the times of toughness that you face.

Also, because toughness comes to anyone who's a human, that's part of the human condition that we live in this world, but we have a hope. That's not just for us, but is for others. That's Emmanuel. God, we asked. We have hope in the face of despair in one who is greater than them all who is richly dwells within us and is available to all of those who call on the name of Jesus, as was so beautifully reminded to us through communion today.

Advent is a rich season. And we can forget that sometimes. I'm so glad to hear you got Carol's tonight. That's gonna bring a great amount of joy. Sometimes if you're like me, you, you get to Christmas and, and it's been a busy year. Why do they put Christmas at the end of the year anyway? Let's put it the start of year, be far more, uh, relaxed.

But you get to the end of the year and there's so much things that have to happen. And sometimes we can become very, oh, Christmas, how long till January it's gonna come, isn't it? But Christmas. It is a time of celebration. It's a time where we get to remind ourselves and remind the community about the hope that we have in God.

It comes out of preparation. Advent. It comes outta preparation for a celebration. A celebration of Emmanuel. God, with us, we can hand over the things around us 'cause we are walking in the presence of the Holy God. Advent means the coming or arrival. So we were talking about the preparation of the coming, of the arrival of the king, the one who would make all things right, the Jewish people before Jesus came.

Were waiting for someone, the savior of the world, the Messiah, to come and make things right for them. And so the back history of this is that in Genesis chapter one, God made all the people, he made them in his image. And his whole desire was that they would hang out with him, that they would do life with him, that they would walk through this life with him, united with him.

They would play with him. They would work with him. They would rest with him. That there would be this beautiful connection. That was the whole idea of God and humanity, that we would walk together. He had our best interests, inherently built into his heart. His our best interests. His best interests, sorry.

Our best interest inherently in him. That was the whole plan. But we've become very good as humans at saying, thanks God for the plans you have for me, but I've got my own plans. Thanks God for what you have, uh, set out about. But I can actually do things myself. And we read through it all through the Old Testament and we see that, uh, Moses goes up onto the mountain to meet with God, and yet the people left behind waiting for Moses to come down.

They get bored and so they make a golden calf and turn their attentions elsewhere. All through the Old Testament, we see this pattern of turning our back from God. In fact, we are very good at it today too. We also. Turn our back from God. And so God loses connection with people. And so he thinks I've got to come up with a way that we can have connection.

And many of us think it's just like I said, that he had to come up with a way to find connection. And we think he must have had to have all the best thinkers in heaven come. Like these problems now occurred and what are we gonna do about this problem? And so I could just imagine that some of us like to think that he gets all the best thinkers in heaven together in a boardroom, and he says, we've got this problem.

They've turned their back on us. What are we gonna do? But this isn't some knee jerk reaction. This was planned from the very beginning that God would make a way that his people would have connection with him for eternity. It was planned from the very beginning and so. At just the right time. He sent his son Jesus, but he foretold that through the prophecies.

Prophecies are words from God given to people to speak out for the benefit of people from God. And so there's prophecies all through the Old Testament about the coming of this king and you rule have sung about them. Even if you've never read the scriptures and you've never read prophecies. You've probably heard these words sung.

Uh, around shopping centers at schools, and tonight, here at Nola Ma it says in chapter seven, verse, Isaiah, uh, from Isaiah chapter seven, verse six and seven. Sorry, verses 14 of chapter seven. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel.

He'll be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right in chapter nine, verse six and seven of Azar says for to unto ask, A child is born to ask. The son is given and the government will be on his shoulders. And he'll be called Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace, of the greatness of his government and peace.

There will be no and he'll reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. In chapter 11 verse one, it says, A chute will come up from the stump of Jesse. From his roots. A branch will bear. Fruit. The spirit of the law will rest on him.

The spirit of wisdom and of understanding. If we go onto Micah chapter five, verse two, another prophecy, but you, Bethlehem eth ath, though you are small amongst the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me. One who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old. And from ancient times, another prophecy in Malachi chapter three verse one.

I will send my messenger who'll prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come, says the Lord Almighty. More and more prophecies you can read all through the Old Testament messages from God about the coming.

Of Jesus, the coming of Emmanuel, God with us. And so the Israelite people, the Jews are waiting and waiting for hundreds of years built up Hope. Hope that their Messiah that has been promised will come. And so they're waiting and waiting in the pa, the scripture, the, the gap between the New Testament, the Old Testament itself is known as the Maccabean era at 400 years.

Just in that time, they're waiting hundreds. Of years for the promise to be fulfilled of Emmanuel God with us, that we might have connection with God eternally forever their way. Could you imagine the excitement? Wow. Sometimes when I get excited about stuff, I think, is it ever gonna happen? We've started to renovate our church building at the moment.

I've got hope that it's gonna get finished. I'm excited. When's it gonna happen? It's been seven weeks now. Some of us are waiting for a certain present and we think, is it gonna come? Some of us are waiting for family members to come from other countries or from over east, and we get excited and we have hope.

Is it gonna come? Is it gonna come? When do they get here? These people are waiting for hundreds of years waiting for the promise of God to send the Messiah. Hope is building. Hope, is building on what is to come. But then he comes Emmanuel, God with us. The promise from the start, from the very beginning is now being for Phil.

We sung a beautiful song at the start. Thou dith, leave thy throne and thy kingly crown. He left that to come down. Philippians reminds us of that beauty and we learned from that, that hope in God. We will never let you down. Why? Because God is faithful. God is faithful to his promises. God is always faithful to his promises.

He's faithful to hundreds of years of sending Emmanuel God with us. Their hope was not in vain. And if God is faithful in sending his son, he's faithful to the salvation that comes through his son. He's faithful to the presence of the Holy Spirit. With us as well. Christmas, we celebrate his faithfulness.

Our hope is not in a wish. Our hope is in the fulfilled promise of a faithful God who sent his son Jesus Emmanuel, to be with us, to live amongst us, to live a perfect life. To die for us, but not to stay dead. To raise again, defeating sin and death, and then to the coming of the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost, salvation is not just a ticket to the end dance.

Salvation is not just a ticket to eternity and we've just gotta hang on now, bear and grin it, and hopefully because we've got this ticket to the big dance at the end of the show where we can go and all hang out. No, salvation is for eternity. By all means. It's for eternity, but it's also for now, his salvation is for now.

He rose from the gray. He divided sin and death that we might have life and life through the spirit. We are not bound by sin or our circumstances anymore. We are set free to live. And so his faithfulness rings through our hope in Christ. Emmanuel. God with us is as it should be. Christians can have hope in the promise of God, the assurance of salvation through Jesus Christ.

The resurrection of Jesus, the presence of His Holy Spirit

and our connection, our reconciliation with God. We have reconciliation with God. This provides comfort, strength, assurance in times of uncertainty and difficulty. Hope is in a faithful God who is always there. So then my hope in Christmas doesn't become rooted in what's happening around me. It doesn't become rooted in everything needing to be in place.

My hope is in a God who never fails, who never leaves, who's always faithful, who is always there. That's why as Christians, we can live in the same world, but we can have hope that comes only from God and we have a double hope. Because not only do we live now this side of the hope of Christ coming, Emmanuel, God with us, we live on that side.

Obviously, the birth of Jesus, just in case anyone's concerned, has already happened. He's died. He raised again. Now we live in this space and we don't have, we have the, we live in the faith that the hope that comes from the faithfulness of God coming, but we also live in the hope that one day he will return as well.

And the hope that he has, he says in Revelations chapter 21,

John speaking about the revelation he received in verse. Three in Revelations, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God dwells dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They'll be his people, and God himself will with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.

There'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the older of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne and said, I am making everything new. Then he said, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. We have a hope for the future of eternity based on the faithfulness of God.

Sending his son Jesus. But the hope is not just for the future. The hope is also for the life in the Holy Spirit now helping us to live through whatever comes in your way. He didn't just come then retreat and now waiting for us and we're like just trying to swim against the tide. I hope we can make it to the end line because that's where Jesus is.

No, through His Holy Spirit, he is right here with us. Now in you. Living in you, because he is, as Paul said in Romans chapter five, verse five, he has been poured out in his fullness. Into your heart. You have Jesus with you, Emmanuel, God, with us in you. We have hope from his faithfulness. Hope for the future and hope now.

Whatever you are facing, that's good news. That's why we sing all the things that we sing to proclaim it.

He's come that we might have life, his presence and connection, whatever you're facing. This Christmas, whatever is in your space. 'cause for many of us, we still have hardship. Many of you're still going through things of quite turmoil.

The hope that we have in Jesus is because we are not alone. You're not alone. You might feel alone, but the truth of the gospel is that you are not alone. He's with you, Emmanuel, God with us. And so a message of hope is not to re say to us that we just need to pretend that that's not happening. You know, sometimes we meet people in faith, but they go, well, this, this relationship issue.

I'm not, it's not happening. I've got hope. I've got faith. No things are still happening, things aren't good. But the Holy Spirit with us, Emmanuel God with us, is that we might understand what it is to have comfort. In our pain and our hardship, what it is to have strength when we are exhausted, what it is to have assurance in difficulty and uncertainty.

Colossians puts it like this,

chapter one verse 19. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him. That's Jesus. And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his bloodshed on the cross. Once you me, were alienated from God and were enemies in our minds because of our evil behavior.

But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holiness, sight without blemish and free from accusation if you continue in your faith established and firm and do not move from the hope held out in this gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that is broken from proclaim to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul have become a servant.

Verse five of Romans, our scripture today, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, Emmanuel God, with us. That's the hope I I want to finish today by just giving us a chance to sit with God. We just talked about that.

He's here in you. He's here with us. And so just in this moment, um, it'll just take a couple of minutes. We're just gonna close our eyes. If you're comfortable, just close your eyes

and just with our eyes closed, I'd love you just in this moment, December 14th, 2025. Take time before God

to bring to him all the issues, circumstances, concerns, worries.

That are on your mind, on your heart.

For some of you, those things will be come to mind very quickly because they're very close to the surface.

And then in the midst of that. When you're already start to just in your heart, acknowledge the presence of God in those situations.

Give thanks that he's with you. In those situations, it's,

and if you're ready to hand them over to him to allow him to take control of them. I invite you to do that

and as a way of conclusion today,

may the hope. That comes

from the faithfulness of God by sending his son Jesus Emmanuel, God with us to dwell richly within us. Be your hope this Christmas and into 2026. May you be a hope trafficker to those that you come into contact with and may you know the joy that comes from the hope of Jesus Christ. Emmanuel. God with us.

Amen. Amen. Do we, do we sing? I didn't check off. While the worship team's coming up, is that Yep. While the worship team's coming up. You know, if, if, if stuff is on your heart and God did raise some stuff in your mind there, I'd encourage you. Don't leave without getting someone you trust to pray with you.

It's nothing, uh, shameful about getting prayer. That's what we are here for the body of Christ today. You pray for me tomorrow. I pray for you. We walk this journey together. Amen.