FHCC
20251214 Worship

                • Romans 8:18–23ESV

              • O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
              • Silent Night
              • Joy to the World!
                              • Crown Him With Many Crowns
                              • Behold Our God

                                      • Genesis 3:16–19NKJV

                                    • Introduction

                                      Has your December 2025 been marked more by suffering or celebration? By worry or tranquility? By anxiety or peace?
                                      Each year as we prepare for Advent, our thought turn to 4 words [Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace]. But these often describe aspiration more than experience.
                                      Would you be surprised to learn that often the reversals brought by God were processes more than events? And frequently things got worse before they got better?
                                      While I DO believe that Advent brings warmth and light into a dark world, I also want you to know that it is 100 percent normal to admit that our world is not yet all warmth and total light!
                                      I learned this week of a Grammy-nominated Opera singer whose last public concert was a Christian Music conference 3 months ago in Nashville. At that event he sang a medley of Give Me Jesus and a spiritual I had never heard before. See if this 100 second clip resonates with your heart?
                                      Play - https://youtu.be/TbuLij0BnnY?si=4Uiwvya-dv6Jahfz&t=55
                                      Just to underscore the conflict between what is and what should be; Mr. Sykes was found stabbed to death last Monday in his California home and his son has been arrested as the prime suspect.
                                      TRANSITION - This morning I want to talk about the Joy of Advent, but also fully admit that there are people in this room who are NOT feeling it.

                                      Our World as it is - PAIN - Gen 3:16

                                      Gen 3.16 clearly states that pain is part of the woman’s experience, and the realm where this pain is primarily realized is in the home.

                                      Pain in our Homes - Gen 3.16

                                      I see 2 different expressions of mothering - childbearing and bring forth children. If you are like me, your first thought when reading this verse is in labor and deliver.
                                      But if Moses described Eve’s pain in 2 ways, is there another type of pain that mother’s feel? What about the broken heart of a mother when Eve found out what Cain did to Abel?
                                      A mother’s pain does not end at first cry! It doesn’t end when junior goes to school. It doesn’t end when her princess moves out. A mother’s pain for her children is commonly magnified through Rebellion and disobedience and through short-sighted choices.
                                      There is a second type of pain that many/most (all?) women experience in the home. Your translation of the Bible may say that woman would desire for her husband and others translate that she will have desires contrary to her husband. Without getting lost in the weeds on a rabbit trail, both of these translations express unmet desire.
                                      Your children won’t always be and do what you want, and it will cause pain.
                                      Your husband won’t always be and do what you want, and it will cause pain.
                                      Because Adam and Eve choose to seek something God did not give them, it results in painful homes. To Adam the pain looks different. The end of Gen 3.17 specifically mentions pain for Adam, but his pain is not primarily in the home. it is...

                                      Pain in our Work - Gen 3:17-19

                                      Why do I say Adam experiences pain in Work, when these verse never use the word work? I DO see the word sweat in Gen 3.19 and there is another word I see 5x in these 3 verses—eat.
                                      You are free to disagree with me in connecting eating with working. But when I read of a man sweating in order to eat, I think of a New Testament verse my dad repeated often when I wasn’t always quick to do my chores.
                                      2 Thessalonians 3:10 ESV:2016
                                      For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
                                      Your work may involve sweating, it may involve stress, it may involve callouses. I’ve seen both white-collar and blue-collar workers got to the Chiropractor because their work increases their pain, and it is their work that permits them to eat.
                                      TRANSITION: To this world of pain that I see in these 4 verses, I am impressed by the idea that Jesus came to make things different.
                                      John 10:10 ESV:2016
                                      ... I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
                                      It isn’t much of a stretch to see an abundant life as one that will be filled with Joy.

                                      Our World as it will be - Joy - Rom 8:18-25

                                      Fortunate for us, the one who entered into time has made promises to us about what will be after time ceases to rotate around the Sun. If Adam connects eating with pain, later as we read the Bible we see God instructing and blessing eating with feasting.

                                      Passover - Exodus 12

                                      God prescribed a feast for His chosen people. Our Jewish friends celebrate a feast in the Spring called Passover. What were the circumstances in the Jewish world when the first Passover was celebrated?
                                      They were slaves in Egypt. They had just witnessed 9 plagues around them. They had been told that a final (10th) plague was yet to come, but they were to feast in faith that the pain was about to be turned to joy. Note they heard the wails of the Egyptians as emotional pain was magnified BEFORE they were granted deliverance.

                                      Last Supper - Mark 14

                                      Hundreds of years later, Jesus gathered with his closest disciples to celebrate that same feast— remembering the pain of slavery that was turned into the joy of deliverance as they participated in the Exodus.
                                      AND Jesus added a dimension to the feast by pointing that it spoke of Him. Mark 14:19 explicitly tells that the room with Jesus leading the feast was filled with sorrow when He revealed one of them would betray him. But betrayal was just a shadow of how dark things would become before events would give way to hints of joy.
                                      As Jesus feasted with the 12, they were about to experience much more pain before the Joy of Easter. Between feast and resurrection we see pain of betrayal, pain of denial, pain of scourging, pain of injustice, and the pain of death.
                                      Eating only happened for Adam through the pain of his labor. The joy that Jesus hinted toward would come through His painful suffering, but it would be a free, abundant provision for 11 of the 12 who were gathered with him.

                                      Marriage Feast - Rev. 19:17

                                      There was an ancient feast (one of 6 commanded for the Jews to celebrate). There was an adapted feast as Jesus consecrated the bread and the Wine. And there will be a celebratory feast described as a time when the bride (those who are in Christ) are delivered from all pain of this world and united with our Bridegroom, our Savior, for all eternity.
                                      It was this anticipated time of joy, unity and celebration that gives hope amidst pain. What I am calling joy, Paul calls glory in
                                      Romans 8:18–25 ESV:2016
                                      For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
                                      TRANSITION: How do we reconcile present pain with future joy? It is in a word that is not found in many Hallmark cards. We like to move quickly from despair to celebration.

                                      My world right now - Lament

                                      Lament makes room for admission that now is not as it should be or as it will be. Lament says that while I feel like a motherless child far from home, I’m still a true believer.
                                      Hebrews 12:2 ESV:2016
                                      looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
                                      Jesus endured the pain of the cross, and the shame of the cross for the joy that was set before Him.
                                      1 Thessalonians 4:13 ESV:2016
                                      But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
                                      Even death does not have to eliminate our joy. What Paul says here reverberates with the discussion between Jesus and Martha at the tomb of Lazarus in John 11. Jesus had to challenge Martha to think differently about circumstances. The same different thinking Paul instructed the Corinthians
                                      2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV:2016
                                      We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
                                      Natural thoughts, thoughts that obsess on the pain of present experiences, need to be seized and bound as we look to what will be.
                                      Colossians 3:10 ESV:2016
                                      and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
                                      Renewed knowledge replaces the marred images of cursed life with the reverses images of the God who created all things good and will make all things new.

                                      Conclusion

                                      Life doesn’t wrap up neat and tidy in a 30 minute TV episode or a 2 hour Hallmark movie.
                                      Without looking ahead, Genesis 3 leaves us with the grey of the couple on the left. But Christ HAS come, Christ HAS fulfilled prophecy and modeled hope, Christ WILL turn pain into Joy.
                                      In case the 4 Scriptures I just shared under lament are not sufficient to turn pain into joy, here is some additional advice for the times you feel like a motherless child far from home.

                                      Light & Lamp Application:

                                      Light for my Path

                                      Remember even Jesus agonized over the gap between what was and what was yet to be.

                                      Lamps for my Steps

                                      Head – replace half-empty ideas with room-to-increase anticipation.
                                      Heart – prayerfully turn disappointments into gratitude statements
                                      Hands – commit to share somebody else’s pain/burden 2 times this week.

                                        • 2 Thessalonians 3:10NKJV

                                        • John 10:10NKJV

                                        • Exodus 12NKJV

                                        • Mark 14NKJV

                                        • Revelation 19:17NKJV

                                        • Exodus 12NKJV

                                        • Mark 14NKJV

                                        • Revelation 19:17NKJV

                                        • Exodus 12NKJV

                                        • Mark 14NKJV

                                        • Revelation 19:17NKJV

                                        • Romans 8:18–25NKJV

                                        • Hebrews 12:2NKJV

                                        • 1 Thessalonians 4:13NKJV

                                        • 2 Corinthians 10:5NKJV

                                        • Colossians 3:10NKJV

                                          • I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day

                                              • Jude 24–25ESV

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