Wawasee Bible Podcast

We’re tracing the way Hope Unfolds in Scripture this Christmas. This week Pastor Josh explores the message of hope from the book of Titus. Biblical hope is centered on having a firm confidence in God’s promises. Because of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead, saving grace is available to all! For those who know Christ, we should live in anticipation of his return, being transformed by grace to lead godly lives today. Because Jesus came the first time, we know he’ll return and can live with hope today.

We’re tracing the way Hope Unfolds in Scripture this Christmas. This week Pastor Bob Blahnik looks at the role of hope when we suffer and struggle as we navigate life. Biblical hope—the confident assurance that God will keep every promise he has made—is transformative in the midst of suffering as we cling to God’s promises and character. God himself promises to be with us in our suffering, to comfort us, and to help us keep going and trust him.

We’re tracing the way Hope Unfolds in Scripture this Christmas. This week, Pastor Josh dives into the way Jesus is uniquely God with us, Immanuel. His solidarity with those of us who have trusted Christ is unwavering and eternal. Additionally, we look at the importance of Jesus’s incarnation and why the doctrine of the Virgin Birth is essential to Christianity and cannot be ignored. To save us, God came to be with us, put on flesh, and took our place.

This week Top Speicher explores the profound hope found in the prophecy of a Savior, written by Isaiah nearly 700 years before the birth of Jesus. It sets the stage by describing the spiritual despair and idolatry of ancient Israel, contrasting this darkness with the promise of salvation through the coming of a perfect savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus is revealed as the light of the world and the remedy for hopelessness, sin, and brokenness in all aspects of life.

Biblical hope is the confident assurance that God will fulfill every promise he has made. Our new series is tracing how hope unfolds over the storyline of Scripture from Genesis 3:15 through Revelation. Pastor Dave starts us off, preaching from Genesis 3:15.

The story of Abraham and Isaac is a powerful foreshadowing of Jesus's work on the cross. This week Pastor Josh unpacks many of the parallels between the near-sacrifice of Isaac and Jesus's death and resurrection. All of this is God’s grace. It’s never earned by our works but is a gift of grace obtained through faith. The near sacrifice of Isaac is all about Jesus who provides the only sacrifice that brings life!

Life is full of trials, tests, and waiting, but faith in God’s promises is key to navigating them. Abraham’s story shows how trusting God, even when his timing seems delayed or His commands difficult, leads to growth and allows us to successfully navigate our faith journey in a God-honoring way. Abraham waited 25 years for the birth of his son Isaac, and even after that, he faced tests, including the command to sacrifice Isaac. Through it all, Abraham trusted God’s timing and power. Similarly, we are called to trust God in our own trials, whether they are consequences of our actions or tests of faith. We can turn consequences into trials as we repent of our sin and embrace God’s discipline. God’s timing is perfect, and his power is sufficient to bring about his promises, even when we don’t understand. Trusting God’s promises through testing is key in our faith journey.

The Christian life is a journey full of moments of faithfulness, but also times we relapse into old patterns of sin. Our sin illustrates our faithlessness—but thankfully when we’re faithless, God is faithful! The story of Abraham and Abimelech illustrates this struggle, as we all falter. But despite our failures, there is hope: God offers us grace and second chances in Jesus Christ! We must lean on God's faithful promises, the support of our church community, and the provision of Christ to help us stay on course. When we relapse into old sins, God’s love and grace are steadfast, and he sovereignly keeps us.

This week, we continue studying the life of Abraham in Genesis chapters 18 and 19. Abraham bargains with God for the sake of the city of Sodom and does so according to God’s righteousness and justice. By righteousness, we mean God’s “rightness” in all things. He is always and altogether right. By justice, we mean “how God acts in accord with his rightness.” If his righteousness is who he is, his justice refers to how he acts in light of who he is. A key reason that God chose Abraham (and us!) is so that he (and we) would “do righteousness and justice” (Genesis 18:19). We are to do what is right, seek what is right, and appeal to what is right.

Abraham had to do a lot of waiting before God finally fulfilled his promise of a son. It can be hard to wait on God, and Abraham knew this well. He had been waiting for nearly a quarter century when God reiterated his promise in Genesis 17-18 and told him it would come to pass within the year. When we wait on God, he uses this time to refine us, grow our faith, and show his power. Even though it’s hard to wait, God’s Word is sure and he will keep his promises. As we wait, our role is to trust God and exercise faith, knowing he is still at work (especially in us!) and that he will reward our obedient patience!