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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Katie Waterbrook

And Hope Does Not Disappoint

Do any of you have any stories that you look back in time and you know that God you probably should have lost your life or Something horrible would have happened but instead God performed a miracle There's 2 stories.

I like to think of often 1 of them is about me and 1 of them is about my husband and I'll start with me.

In 2008 I believe I did Bible work following up the Minnesota GYC and I we were in this in the cities in Minneapolis my sister lives in Rochester and so I would work Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and Sabbath And so Friday was my day off.

And so I would usually drive down Thursday night to spend Friday with my sister and then come back up on Sabbath.

Well, 1 Thursday, there was a pretty bad snowstorm coming.

I don't know if any of you have spent any portion of time in Minnesota in any time between January and even June.

And so there was a bad snowstorm coming, but I really wanted to spend my day off with my sister, so I decided to drive anyway.

So I was driving, and pretty immediately, my windshield iced up.

And So except for probably like 2 inches, kind of in a rainbow here, from my windshield wipers, I could see out.

And I was going really slow and making progress, although things were pretty hairy, and I really should have just stayed home.

And I was, you can see, you know, there's only like an inch here, an inch up here for me to see out.

I last minute turned to get off on my exit and that did not go well.

I spun off the off ramp into down a bank and it was fine.

I got out because someone immediately pulled off and was like, are you OK, blah, blah, blah.

And I was like, yeah, I think everything is OK.

And then he looked behind him, said a swear word, and drove off.

And I looked to see what he was looking at, and there was another car doing exactly what I had done, swerving right towards me outside of my car.

And when you're in the snow, I don't know if he's going to go right or left.

I just started running, and the next thing I knew, I felt I just ended up on my knees.

I don't know how, and the car landed between me and between my car, barely.

And I know that that was an intervention of God because things could have gone a lot differently.

My other story is about my husband Steven.

He went to Africa before I knew him I don't know when a while ago and he was leaving early with another Missionary and so as I understand it they were to get on a bus that was gonna take them to Nairobi Airport and then they would fly out from there.

So they got on this bus, and they knew their exit, or the bus stop name.

And they were waiting for that and waiting for that.

And the bus, more people just kept getting off.

More people kept getting off, and they went more and deeper into the city.

And it started to get not very safe, and it started to get worse and worse.

And eventually, the bus route was over, and they had to get off.

And they didn't feel safe at all but they had no other option.

So they got off and not long after that they found themselves surrounded by pretty tough-looking Africans and they couldn't understand what they were saying and Stephen knew that this was not a good situation and out of the blue comes this nice looking African who spoke perfect English and he said, what are you doing here?

And Stephen briefly explained his situation.

He's like, you know, you should not be here.

And he led them to his car and he drove them to right where he needed to be right where they needed to be and I love those 2 stories because they give me hope when I'm in trying times.

They're like anchors or Ebeneezer's I know that God is working that God cares for us And he has saved us in the past and he's gonna walk with us in the future It makes me think of a verse in 2nd Chronicles 16 verse 9 if you want to turn there with me 2nd Chronicles 16 verse 9.

This is a beautiful beautiful verse 1 of my favorites It is spoken from Han and I the prophet to a second of Judah and second Chronicles verse 16 chapter 16 verse 9 Says for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him.

If you go back 2 chapters to 2 Chronicles 14, chapter 2, you can read, starting in verse 2, about Asa.

This is the king of Judah at the time, and verse 2 says, Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord.

For he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places and broke the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to observe the law and the commandment he also removed the high places of the incense altars from all the quiet cities or all the cities of Judah and The kingdom was quiet under him and he fortified cities in Judah for the land and had rest He had no war in those years because the Lord had given him rest Therefore verse 7 he said to Judah Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the Lord our God, we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.

And Asa had an army of 300, 000 from Judah, who carried shields and spears, and from Benjamin 280, 000 men, who had carried shields and drew bows.

And verse 9, then Zerah the Ethiopian came out against him with an army of a million men That's nearly double what Asa had and 300 chariots and he came to Moreshia So Asa went out against him and they set the troops in battle array in the valley of Zephathah at Moreshah.

And Asa cried out to the Lord his God and said, Lord, it is nothing for you to help, whether with many or with those who have no power.

Help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on you and in your name we go against this multitude Oh Lord, you are our God do not let man prevail against you and verse 12 The Lord struck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah and the Ethiopians fled.

Not only did they flee, Asa and his army followed them and defeated them and plundered them.

And in Prophets and Kings, page 110, Ellen White says about this story, from every human viewpoint, the vast host from Egypt would sweep everything before it.

But in time of peace, Asa had not been giving himself to amusement and pleasure.

He had endeavored to lead his people to make their peace with God.

And now, although his forces were fewer in number than the enemy, his faith in the 1 whom he had made his trust did not weaken.

Having sought the Lord in the days of prosperity, the king could now rely upon him in the day of adversity.

His petition showed that he was not a stranger to God's wonderful power.

I love this story because here is Asa, who's doing all he can in time of peace.

And then here comes this Ethiopian army that seems very scary and very discouraging.

But in this trying circumstance, Asa did not lose hope.

And the title of my sermon today is and hope does not disappoint Trials do come they will come if you don't haven't had 1 yet good for you, but they will come but God gives us a beautiful hope and if you don't remember anything from today I want you to remember this don't lose hope let's pray father in heaven I just ask that you would please join us this morning as I share of your goodness.

I pray that you would Touch hearts and Lord that we would love you more because of this story because of the great things you have done.

I want to start by reading a compilation of verses from 1 Psalm 116 to you.

I Love the Lord because he hears my prayers and supplications He listens whenever I call so I will depend on him as long as I live The pains of death engulfed me and I thought I was dying.

Then I called on the Lord, I beg you O Lord please save me.

Our merciful and gracious God heard and saved me.

Oh my soul, rest in the Lord, for he has been generous with you.

He has saved me from death, stopped my tears, and kept me from defeat.

So I will walk in the presence of the Lord as long as I live.

What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?

I will greatly receive the cup of His salvation and thank Him for saving me.

These verses from Psalm 116 have been especially meaningful to me in the last almost year now.

Some of you may be familiar that last August and leading into the fall, my husband Stephen and I were dealt a one-two punch when we were excited to grow our family, but found out that it was not a baby, it was actually a molar pregnancy.

And there probably are going to be a few of you in here that don't know what that is.

It's when tissue that usually becomes a baby instead becomes an abnormal growth in your uterus.

This has been pretty devastating and a hard trial for us But God has shown himself strong on our behalf through this trial and that's why I'm here to tell you of his goodness.

I am very much a type a Planner personality And what's bad is I also married a type A planner personality.

And so between us, we have lots of lists that we love to make and check off.

We have little meetings and we plan our week each week and every day.

Good planners, but in a, you know, almost too much.

And so, but if you're like me or my husband, you know that it's very important that your plans pan out how you plan them to, right?

When they don't go according to plan, things aren't good.

Well, I grew up only 19 months younger than my sister.

And because of that, we just did lots together.

So we had a lot of the same friends, did a lot of the same things, went on the same trips.

And we eventually became very good friends because of this.

And so her and I had both decided when we have kids, we want to have our siblings close together so that they can grow up friends doing everything together like we did.

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And Hope Does Not Disappoint

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