We choose hope.

We choose not to be downhearted.

We are not downcast.

We may have walked a difficult path, and we may have walked through a shadowed valley,

and we may have had to overcome obstacles, and we may have been disappointed,

and we may have placed our

hope in the wrong things that we stand tonight to declare that Jesus is Lord of our lives,

that His power defines our future, that he is our hope and he is our strength, he is our freedom

and our liberty, he is our future.

You're listening to Alan Jackson Ministries. You can get the outlines for this episode at

Alanjaxon.com slash podcast. If these messages help build you up or encourage you to be a more

fully devoted Christ follower, leave us a five-star rating and review.

Hopefully, that will help others find out about them as well.

Now it's on to Pastor Allen.

Be blessed.

This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent.

The four Sundays that precede Christmas are celebrated around the earth by Christians

of many, many different denominations, traditions.

And then Christmas Eve being kind of the conclusion of that celebration, Advent comes to us from a Latin word that means coming or arrival.

So we celebrate Advent in anticipation, a celebration of the arrival of Jesus and in anticipation of his second arrival, his second coming.

So some of you grew up in more liturgical traditions, more formal, ritualized traditions

where the pattern of scripture reading is across your tradition.

...