Out of Bondage

This weekend I am speaking at HCBC-UT. I am really excited about the opportunity of speaking at such a missionally-minded church. If you have a spare Sunday come check HCBCUT out this weekend. Anyways, this Sunday is the first week of Advent. Typically, in the first week of this season, the focus is on hope. I've really had to wrestle around with this message. I keep asking myself questions like, "Why is hope so essential in our lives?" and "Where does our hope stem from?"

In my studying I really focused my efforts on Romans 8:18-25. The brokenness of this world seems to pervade from this passage. It speaks of how all of creation is held in bondage to corruption and futility. We, as humans, and the rest of creation recognizes that the world isn't as it ought to be. A tear in the universe has occurred (because of our sinfulness and nature) and something deep within our souls lets us know that we are broken. Creation desires to be set free from this bondage. It instinctly knows that somehow we must find freedom. Out of this recognition of our broken state, we MUST and NEED TO hope that freedom is possible. We must hope that life is available through Jesus. We must hope that one day God is going to reconcile and restore all things. We must hope that God is our refuge and strength. Genuine and true hope starts when we confront our own brokenness and understand that we need saving from it.

Through Jesus, God has come to rescue his creation from its' broken state.