A Thrill of Hope, December 21, 2025

Well, good morning, fellowship, and I want to wish a Merry Christmas to everybody here in the worship center, those of you in the chapel, of course, those of you that are with us online today, thanks for being here today. If you're new to us, my name is Mark, I'm one of the pastors here. If you are new to us, we're so glad you're with us. We realize there's so many great churches in our city, so it's our humble privilege to have you with us as we celebrate this Christmas season, the birth of our Savior, together today and on into this week. If you're not familiar with fellowship, fellowship is a one church, and we meet across seven locations here in central Arkansas. What unites us together is a shared vision and mission. Our mission here at fellowship is that we exist to make disciples who live by God's grace and for his glory at home and across the world. And this is an incredibly important time of the year for us around our mission and vision, particularly as it relates to end of the year giving. As you can tell there in your bulletin, we're a little bit on this campus, a little bit behind to date on our giving. That's not unusual this time of year, but it does mean that the next kind of week as we kind of bring this year to a close is incredibly important for us. I do want to encourage you because we do want to end the year in a place of financial strength so that we can continue to advance his gospel together, both in our city here, but all across the world. I do want to encourage you, if you would, be prayerfully considerate over this next kind of week to week and a half about the possibility of making a special gift to fellowship as we kind of bring this year to a close. That'll help set us up for this coming year. And just know whether that gift is small or whether that gift is large, man, God can use that for his glory and for his good. So we look forward to seeing how God's going to continue through your gracious generosity provide for this place called fellowship.

Well, if you missed last week, we are in a short Christmas series that we're calling a thrill of hope. We're calling it a thrill of hope because that line is literally taken from a very famous Christmas hymn called Oh Holy Night. And that lyric goes a thrill of hope. The weary world rejoices for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. And here in a few minutes, we'll sing that wonderful hymn together. But you know, as I was thinking about that this week, we are people who like a thrill. We like a thrill. Thus the terminology that sometimes we'll say about somebody, they're a thrill seeker. You ever heard that before? We like a good thrill. That's why we like a fast rollercoaster or maybe whitewater rafting, or maybe you want to take it extreme. How about skydiving? Okay. Or bungee jumping. There's a certain adrenaline rush that comes from that, a certain excitement or thrill, if you will, that comes and that's why we do those things. I remember years ago, we went ziplining as a family. How many of you in here have been ziplining before? Dumbest thing in the world. Can't believe you raised your hand. But I took my family ziplining. I mean, you actually pay somebody to take you up to the very tops of trees. And I don't know why I did this because I'm scared of heights. I mean, you're 75, 100 feet off the ground, if you will. And I get up there and I kid you not, the guide looks at me and tells me that there's a weight limit. He tells me that the weight limit is 225.

Now I'm not going to tell you how much I weigh, but I will say that it's north of 225, okay? I'll give you that much. I tell this guy what my weight is and he goes, oh, you're close enough. Go ahead. Man, I'll tell you, that didn't give me a lot of confidence in this place, but we had an incredible time ziplining. And we do things like ziplining and other things because we like the thrill of it, the excitement of it. But I'll tell you one thing about the thrill of ziplining, it's temporary. Man, it's there for a moment and it's gone. Today, I wanna talk to you about a different kind of thrill, a thrill of hope. And this thrill, man, it's lasting, it's eternal, it's life-giving. And that thrill of hope is wrapped up in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger in Bethlehem. He is the Christmas child, Emmanuel, God with us. God with us, and he is the thrill of hope. Last week, Ben did a great job of showing us that Jesus is our thrill of hope because he came to help us see what we couldn't see. Jesus shows us what God is like. He is Emmanuel, God with us. God is not this distant, impersonal God. No, God left heaven, came to earth, took on flesh to be intimate and close with us. And we talked about that last week. And today, we wanna talk about the second part of this, that Jesus is our thrill of hope

because he came to save what could not be saved. And so let me invite you to take out your Bible or your Bible app, if you haven't already done so, and join me in Matthew chapter one. Matthew chapter one is where we're gonna be today. And we're gonna read here in just a moment, starting in verse 18, Matthew chapter one, verse 18. Today, we are celebrating the long-awaited arrival of our Savior, Jesus, the one who has come to bring his light into this dark world, into your dark heart, into my dark heart. Look what Matthew says about this. He says, now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a Jehovah's Witness, and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. Now, we're gonna focus our time today on verse 21 that you see there in the text. Let me read it for us again. It says, she, talking about Mary, will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save their people, they will save his people from their sins. Now, here in Matthew 1, it's interesting. God gives his son two remarkable names. The first one is Emmanuel. We talked about that last week, that God is with us, and we talked about all of the aspects of that name and why that's important. If you missed that, I encourage you to go on our website and listen to that message. But there's a second name that God gave his son here in Matthew 1, and it's the name Jesus. Jesus. And I believe there's something wrapped up for us this Christmas in the name of Jesus

that I want us to see. Three things in the name of Jesus that I think can bring us a thrill of hope this Christmas. And I want us to talk about that. Here's the first one. Jesus' name says that we are a creature People who need saving Jesus name says we're a people who need saving The angel comes to Joseph here in Matthew 1 he he says you're not the biological dad And so I'm giving the name to this child and his name will be Jesus a Very Special remarkable name Jesus is an English translation of the Greek word Iesus Which is the the Greek translation of the the common Hebrew and Aramaic name Yeshua and Yeshua means the Lord saves The Lord rescues So God gave his son a name the name Jesus and it's a label. It's a statement Because his name is what he does He will be the one who saves he's gonna be the the Savior of the world See God knew we didn't need a life coach Who would coach us to a better life? Got God knew we needed a Savior Who could bring us new life? Now I know a lot of us in here Maybe we've we've heard the Christmas story before and so in a moment like this way say man I'm so thankful that God would send his own son to be my Savior our Savior We love the Savior part, but but I want you to listen just for a moment because sometimes We can give a gift and

The gift is actually offensive to the recipient Now now let me say that again Sometimes you can give or even receive a gift and it's offensive to the recipient Are you with me? Let me let me help you understand what I mean. Look for all you married ladies out there Let's say this Christmas Everybody's opening up presents And your husband brings you over this present man, it's big It's wrapped beautifully. So, you know that they didn't pack it They didn't wrap it right because it's all beautiful it looks all good and you're all excited because it's it's all big and you start tearing off the paper you open it up and inside is a gym membership Not Just that also a gift certificate to a personal trainer and An eat healthy cookbook Now, let me ask you ladies, how's that present hitting you I Would argue That a gift like that feels pretty offensive because it's communicating something about you, isn't it? I Remember years ago a church member here gave me a Christmas present man, I opened that thing up and it was a box of breath mints a Real subtle message they were communicating to me. It's why I carry breath mints every single Sunday with me now But here's a bigger point that I'm driving home Sometimes a Gift that's given can feel offensive to the recipient The fact that God would come and give his son Jesus and his name means the Lord saves communicate something about you and me That we need saving

That we have a problem That That we are in need that that left to ourselves we are hopeless and helpless And we are people who need someone to save us And what do we need saving from What do we need saving from that leads to our second point that I want us to talk about Because Jesus name also says that our biggest problem is not external but internal It's not external, but it's internal Jesus name is not just who he is, but it's also what he will do His name is a statement about his mission, what is his mission? What? What did Jesus come to save his people from? Did he come to save them from Rome? Come to save them from oppression? Come to save them from poverty? No, the one lying in a manger, the Son of God came to save his people from what? From their sins. Look at the end of verse 21. You can't say it any more directly and clearly than this. For he will save his people, talking about Jesus, from their sins. See, wrapped up in Jesus' name is actually his purpose, what he came to do, his mission. And he came to save us from our sins. What that means then, is that your biggest issue is not anything outside of you, but something inside of you. Let me say that again, your biggest issue is not something outside of you, but something inside of you.

Your biggest issue today is not your spouse. Your biggest issue is not your job or your boss. Your biggest issue is not the political state of this country. Your biggest issue is you. My biggest issue is me. It's the sin that is in me, the sin that is in you. Listen, I realize that some of you are here today, somebody invited you here, you're just kinda kicking the tires on this whole Christianity thing. You're probably thinking about right now, man, slow down on all this sin stuff. I'm not sure I believe I'm a sinner. Yeah, man, I've made some mistakes in my life. I've kinda blown it here or there, but man, I don't know about this whole sin thing. In fact, that kinda feels judgy, it feels old school. And I get that, I can understand how somebody would feel that way. But here's the truth. The truth of the Bible is, is that all of us have been stained by sin. All of us have a problem, all of us have a need. And it's internal, it's sin. And it's what makes Jesus a thrill of hope, because only in Jesus can we be saved from our sins. Here's the way the Bible talks about it, about this problem of sin that we can't fix on our own. Romans 3, 23 says it this way.

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All have fallen short. King David, who God at one time said, man, that is a guy after my own heart, would later say of himself, in Psalm 51, five, he would say this. I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. From birth, we're all born with a sinful nature. A nature that we inherited from Adam. A nature that loves sin and hates God. And it's our sin and sinful nature that brings God's wrath. The Apostle Paul said it this way in Ephesians 2, 3. He says we are by nature deserving of wrath. Now hear that, we're deserving of God's wrath, not just for our sinful actions, but for our sinful nature. This idea that sin is a part of the very essence of who we are, the bottom line is all of us are sinners in need of a savior. And so friend, if you're here today and you don't think you're a sinner, I wanna prove to you that you are. I believe deep down inside, you know that you have a sin problem. But just in case that you're here today and you're kind of questioning whether you have that or not, I would argue that you can't keep your own personal promises to yourself, much less keep God's promises. You can't keep your own expectations for your own life,

much less keep God's expectations for your life. Here in a week and a half, we're gonna make these things called New Year's resolutions. Man, last January in 2025, man, you said, this is gonna be the year. I'm gonna lose 15 pounds, this is the year. Fast forward to today, and you still have 20 pounds to go, friend. The reality is you can't keep your own promises to yourself. What makes you think you can keep all 600 plus commands of God in his law? You can't. None of us can. Why? Because of this thing that's inside of us, this sin that's inside of us. We need help. We have a problem. Man, have you ever said or done anything that was untrue? Ever lied about anything? I bet you have. You ever gotten a new phone or a new TV? And one of the first thing that comes up when you're setting that up is called the terms and conditions. You ever seen that before? It's this long thing with really small print. And if you're like me, what do you do? You just start hitting that button to go down, right? All the way down to the bottom.

And if you actually read the statement at the bottom, it says, when you click this box, you're acknowledging that you have read and agree to all the terms and conditions. And you lied. Because just like me, you checked that box and you hadn't read it. And see, this sin, it separates us from a holy and perfect God. Now, I wanna take this sin thing a lot deeper. What about your pride? What about your anger? What about the inappropriate stuff you've looked at on the internet? What about the times that you've had too much to drink? See, all of that is sin. All of that. And it's what makes Jesus a thrill of hope. It is that God sent his own son to take on flesh for us. And out of his great love, he left heaven to come to earth so that we could have the forgiveness of our sins, so that we could be reconciled to God because he knew that he was the only one who could satisfy God's divine wrath for your sins and for mine. That's what makes Jesus a thrill of hope. You know, there's this saying at Christmas time, and maybe you've heard it before, Jesus is the reason for the season.

Have you ever heard that? Jesus is the reason for the season. I understand why we say that, because it is a real commercialized time of the year. And so certainly that is a very meaningful statement. But I would argue that Jesus is not the reason for the season. You are the reason for the season. Jesus was actually doing quite fine before that first Christmas. But he left heaven to come to earth, and in humility took on flesh to be the savior for your sins and my sins. That's what makes Christmas a thrill of hope. Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves, to offer life and purpose and hope to rescue us from our sins so that we could be a part of the family of God, be called his son, his daughter, and have everlasting life with him. Man, it's a thrill of hope. But in order for Jesus to save you from your sins, it requires some action, some response on your part, which leads us to our last point. Jesus' name has the power to save us. How about that? There is only one savior, one deliverer, one rescuer who can save us from our sins, and his name is Jesus. And it's in his name where there is power to save. The first sermon ever given after Jesus died

and ascended back to heaven was given by one of his disciples named Peter. It's found in the book of Acts, Acts chapter two. And Peter says this in verse 21. He said, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved. There is power in the name of Jesus. Jesus. Later on, this same guy, Peter, in Acts chapter four, and speaking to all the religious leaders of the day, he would say it in a similar way, this way, there is salvation in no one else, for there's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Now, when I say that the name of Jesus has the power to save us, what I don't mean is just uttering the name of Jesus. What I mean is, is putting our faith in the name of Jesus, putting our faith in the character of God that lies behind that name. That we're staking our life and our faith on Jesus and Jesus alone. We're admitting that we need Jesus to save us because we can't save ourselves. Man, and when you put your faith in the name of Jesus, you get all the benefits, all the blessings of salvation. And I want us to hear a little bit about those blessings of salvation from Drew McCurry, who put his faith in Jesus and how it transformed his life and changed his life forever. Let's watch his story here for a moment. So growing up, my life was baseball. I put everything I had into who I was as a baseball player, and that's all I cared about. Well, as I played in college, that was taken away in one pitch. I took a 93-mile-an-hour fastball to the face, shattered my jaw, and took the game that I loved away from me. And I just remember this feeling of just hopelessness, just taken over, like, whoa, whoa, whoa, like, what happened? So what did I do? I turned to drugs, turned to alcohol. And during that time of recovery, during that time of pain, God used a woman to come into my life and show me that, hey, like, there is hope. There is hope outside of just this game. We get married, and we decided we wanted to have kids. I said, hey, I've got to get myself cleaned up. I'm going to start working really hard, get a good, solid career started. And so I stopped drinking. I stopped doing drugs. And I fell into just this world of business and that, hey, I'm going to be the best businessman I can be, make as much money as I can, business,

business, business, not even there for my wife, not there for my soon-to-be-son. My sister sends us a sermon. And Mandy was like, hey, do you want to listen to this? And I was like, you know what? Why not? So we sit down, and we listen to the sermon. This is like the first sermon that I've probably ever really listened to. And the sermon was on this book called Ephesians by this guy named Brandon Bernard. And he starts off talking about, like, wives submit to your husbands. And I was just like, man, see, that's my problem. That's my problem with Christianity. My wife is not my slave. Then he skips down. He's like, no, fellas, I'm talking about this. But if we skip down to 25, this is what I'm really talking about today. And it's husbands love your wives the way that Christ loved the church and gave herself up for it. And that moment happened, and I was like, whoa. I've never heard that before. And I just had everything so wrong about that and what Christ is and who He was and what He's done. And I remember sitting back and kind of thinking just like, man, if I've got this wrong, what else do I have wrong? So I started kind of like wanting to consume everything that I could. And so I went and bought a study Bible. I started reading through different things, highlighting different things, reading commentaries. And we got moved. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to go to church. So we're going. And every Sunday, we keep hearing the gospel, keep hearing the good news of the gospel. And I was just like, you know, like, why are we preaching this over and over and over again? Like, I see it, but I just don't quite understand. Like, yes, I know who Jesus is. Like, He came and died for our sins. And, you know, He raised again. Like, I get all that. But like, why does this really matter? A few months later, after hearing that, I'm driving to a project, and I get a call from my mom. And she's like, Drew, your dad just had a heart attack. I was the first one there. My mom just falls on my arms. We're crying. My older sister gets there, my younger sister, my younger brother get there. And we just have this moment. And we're just there. And we're, we are terrified. I just felt this hopelessness of like, there is nothing that I can do to save my dad. There's nothing like, no matter what I do, no matter what I chase, no matter how hard I work, it's not going to change where we are right now. And that was like, the first time that I understood like, what repenting of your sin actually is and chasing these worldly things, chasing this sin, falling in and turning from that. And when you turn from that, Jesus is sitting

right there waiting on you, chasing after it. And in that moment, by grace alone, I put my faith in Jesus Christ, that He is my Savior. And it turns out my dad was okay. He had a heart attack, ended up just having to have a stint. Everything was fine. He was okay. But my life had changed at that moment. So, July 2nd of 2023, I stood in front of the church and I was baptized, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God's got me. My hope is in Him, and that no matter what's going on, no matter what happens, He has me. He has adopted me into His family. No matter what happens around us, no matter what goes on in this world, no matter what business, no matter what happens with our families, no matter what happens with our children, our hope is found in the Lord. And when we keep our gaze on Him, we have that hope. Man, can we give Drew a big round of applause for sharing his story with us? Thank you, Drew. Man, you can hear the hope there, that there's a hope in Jesus. But there's no hope in you rescuing yourself. None. We all need a rescuer. We all need a Savior. You can't do it on your own. But there was a man who stripped himself of the glory of heaven, clothed himself in humility, taking on flesh, and he came on a rescue mission. Not at the risk of his life, but at the cost of his life. And in him is a thrill of hope that will change the trajectory of your life forever. I love where it says in Romans that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It says that Jesus stands at the door and knocks. If anyone will open up, man, He will come into them and eat with them, and they'll eat with Him. This idea that we can be intimate and have fellowship with God through what Christ has done.

Man, that's what makes Christmas a thrill of hope. A Savior has come to save us because we can't rescue ourselves. His name is Yeshua. He is the Lord who saves. So friend, I ask you, have you wrapped your heart in life around Jesus? Have you taken His name to yourself through faith? It wouldn't matter if Jesus was born a thousand times in Bethlehem if He hasn't been born into your heart. You're still lost. You've got to wrap your heart and your life around Jesus, the one who has come to rescue you no matter where you may find yourself today. Jesus can be your Savior, and you can experience a thrill of hope. It never goes away. It's unchanging, and I'll tell you this, it is life-altering, life-altering. Let's pray together. I realize in this Christmas season, there are many of us in this room that are struggling. There's a lot weighing on our hearts and our lives. Maybe you walked in here, and even in this very moment, you feel weighed down by the weight of your sin. Maybe you feel a burden about your past. Maybe you feel weighed down by shame and guilt just seems to be overwhelming you in this very moment. Friend, I want you to know that God, out of His great love, sent His one and only Son to rescue you, to rescue me from our most desperate state of sin. The problem is not outside of us. The problem is inside of us. Friend, would you wrap your heart and your life around Jesus right now? Would you pray? With sincerity, would you say these words, These words, God, God, I'm a sinner. I have lived my life apart from you. And in this moment, I'm driving down a stake of faith in Jesus.

The only one who can forgive me of my sins, the only one who can redeem me, the only one who can save me, the only one who can change my life. And in this moment, would you receive Jesus as your Lord and your Savior so that you can know the true thrill of hope? And listen, there's many of us here today. Man, we've already crossed the line of faith. We already know the thrill of hope. And may that hope be alive in us today. May we stand in awe and wonder of who Jesus is and what he's done on our behalf. And today and in the days ahead, may there be an excitement in us at Jesus who came to save us, knowing that we can never save ourselves. So we worship you. We praise you in this moment. We give you all the glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.