Love: God's Saving Presence

Advent is about waiting for God's love to break into our world, just as generations before Christ's birth waited for the promised Messiah. The prophets spoke hope into darkness, promising a child who would be called Wonderful Counselor and Prince of Peace. Elizabeth waited her whole life for a child and experienced overwhelming joy when God fulfilled His promise. Mary, despite her youth and uncertainty, said yes to carrying God's son, trusting that love was on the way. Joseph chose trust over fear, protecting Mary and standing by God's plan. The shepherds, ordinary people doing their jobs, became the first to hear the good news and couldn't contain their joy. Today, we continue this waiting, looking for God to move in our lives while sharing the hope we've found with others.

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Transcript

Well, guys, this morning, if you have your Bibles, I'm going to invite you to pull those out. We're opening to the Book of Psalms. We're going to start with Psalm chapter 80, verses 1 through 7, and then we're going to kick over to 17 through 19. I always encourage you to bring your Bibles if you have them. It's fun to write and make under notes, under notes, underlines and notes in the margins.

Find a way to really dive into God's word. But if you don't have your Bibles, you can follow along on the screen. Here's what the word of the Lord is for us this morning. Hear us, shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who sit enthroned between the cherubim. Shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh.

Awaken your might. Come and save us. Restore us, O God, make your face shine on us that we may be saved. How long, Lord God Almighty, will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people? You have fed them with the bread of tears.

You have made them drink tears by the bowl full. You have made us an object of derision to our neighbors and to our enemies mock us. Restore us, God Almighty, make your face shine on us that we may be saved. Verse 17. Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.

Then we will not turn away from you. Revive us and we will call on your name. Restore us, Lord God Almighty, make your face shine on us that we may be saved.

So I want to take you guys back to your childhood. Now, some of you are still in your childhood, right? Not you. I'm talking to literal children in this room mentally. All right, Yeah, I want to take you guys back to your childhood.

Do you remember what it was like waiting for Christmas as a child forever? The lights on the tree were always lit. The constant smell of cookies or sweets that your family had received, either from other friends or other family members? Do you remember the ache of anticipation for everything that Christmas meant to you when you were little? The Christmas songs in the car, the snow.

Do you remember snow? I miss snow.

Do you remember that first Christmas now in your life? Do you remember that first Christmas as a couple? Maybe your partner or your significant other? Or do you remember back to your children's first Christmases and how you would celebrate those things? Maybe you look back when you think about Christmas.

You look back to the times where you travel to go see people that you love the most in the whole world, that longing for a reconnection to our past for us, that's kind of what Advent is. It's that continuing wait for God's love to arrive. Looking back to the time where God arrived first and feeling that longing, Right?

What triggers you to remember Christmas? Like, what. What is it at the first sign of the Christmas season that triggers you to think about Christmas? Is it the changing leaves? Is it the strong winds that are sweeping down the plains that knock the leaves off the trees?

What are the things that trigger you to remind you that Christmas is coming? What are those things? Is it Christmas on the radio? Right? The songs that are being sung, that evergreen smell like, oh, yeah, it's one of my favorite smells.

They do that in, like, July now, to be fair. But yes. I mean, when we see the signs, what are some of the other signs that you recognize? And you're like, oh, it's. It's coming.

BC Clark, for those of you who live in Oklahoma City, many of you guys knew that song. What were you saying?

People who come up Christmas lights, like, really early because they do it as a business, okay. When they're pulling. When you see the. The trucks in your neighborhood that pulls out all the boxes of lights as they're hanging them up around, do what? Yeah.

Or you see them in your neighborhoods, is it ever a feeling that you get that Christmas is coming near? Or is it signs that you see? Is it music? Is it family time? Is it the way that you spend your time together as a family that is kind of a trigger that Christmas is coming?

I know that when the kids get out of school, we love to just couch all day like pajamas, hot chocolate, and movies. For some of you, it might be watching a favorite Christmas movie that's only reserved for Christmas, right? So we've got Elf or the Grinch, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, obviously, and the greatest Christmas movie of all time, Die Hard. There is just something about the whole Advent season, the season leading up to Christmas day, that makes me long for the season, Right? I.

There's just a different feel in the world for me when Christmas is near. Right. I love it when the kids get time off. Like I mentioned, we sit and we watch elf probably 10 times over Christmas break every year. I anxiously wait for Christmas.

And each of us knows what it feels like to wait, right? We've all waited on someone or something, right? As children, I know that we used to count the days until Christmas because we would start looking at the calendar in November and say, all right, here's Thanksgiving break. And then there's our two weeks that we get off for Christmas. We would anxiously wait that last day when we would get the Christmas gifts and we would exchange gifts with our best friends in school.

As adults, we wait for family to arrive, right? We might wait for travel plans to work out or for Christmas bonus to come through, much like, you know, Clark Griswold would. I think we wait for things like time off. We wait for laughter during card games played around the table at Christmas. We wait for the taste of mulled wine, for the joy of just being together as family.

Advent is all about that kind of waiting, but it's even deeper than that. It's about waiting for God's promises to be fulfilled, for the love of God to draw near, to become incarnate in our world. And so this morning, as we celebrate the final Sunday of the Advent season, it signals for us that Christmas is going to be here and that God's love breaks once more into our world. And so during this time today, we get to reflect on our human longing for God to come close to us.

We get to wait again for the connection that we feel to Christ's birth. We feel that anticipation. We feel Christ coming close. And we have a hope for when Christ comes again to make all things new. I want to read a part of the Christmas story to you this morning.

It comes from the Book of Matthew, chapter 1, verses 18 through 25. The gospel of Matthew says this.

This is how the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, came about. His mother, Mary, was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace. He had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She would give birth to a son, and you were to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to his son and he gave him the name Jesus.

So Advent serves as both a reminder that God fulfilled his promise in sending a savior to the Hebrew people who needed someone to change the trajectory of their lives. And also that God will come again in the future, that Jesus will return to right all the wrongs in our world. God broke into our world when Jesus is placed in that manger. And we look forward to the time when God will once again break into human history to change what life looks like for us. As we've talked about again this Advent season, God's love being made flesh was something that God's people had been waiting for for hundreds of years.

And that story of fulfilled hope for those people then shouldn't be an old story for us. It's a story that should never get old. But today I want to look at the story of how God broke into our world with different eyes. I want us to enter into the stories of those whose lives were changed, those who played a role in the salvation of our world. So this morning, I want to start with what it would have felt like for the prophets.

And if you remember, during the time of the prophets, God spoke to his people and told them that there was going to be a plan. There's something happening. I'm working to make all things new. There's a plan to save the world, and no one will fully expect what it looks like. God was going to save the world through a baby.

And the prophets knew about waiting more than anyone. They spoke to a people who had been through slavery in a land that was not their own. They had been into exile, into the far reaches of an unfamiliar empire. They knew what disappointment and heartbreak felt like. They felt occupation and poverty.

But more importantly, they knew the silence of God's perceived absence in the lives of their people. The prophets looked at a world where injustice seemed to have won, where darkness seemed to cover everything. And they dared to say, in the midst of that darkness, a light is coming. Prepare the way. God is going to do something new.

And God promised the world through their voices that a child who would be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace, would arrive.

Imagine the generations who clung to those words. Parents told their starving children, one day, babies, God will send a savior. Imagine grandparents having to tell their enslaved grandchildren, don't give up hope. It was like waiting for Christmas morning, but only stretched across generations. Centuries.

The gifts weren't under the tree yet, but God promised that something was going to change. And today, we too know that kind of waiting, right? We wait for the phone call that brings good news. We wait for healing in the lives of those that we hope that God will heal. We wait for reconciliation in relationships.

We wait for the joy that overcomes those moments of darkness in our lives. The words of the prophets remind us that waiting is not wasted. It's filled with hope. A hope that gives us a reason to live. Then, in the prophets, strong voices of hope, we sense that God's promise draws near.

And then one day, as the story of God's incarnation began to unfold, we see a new hope arrive for those who had been left out for the barren. For Elizabeth, waiting was personal, right? She had longed for a child all of her adult life, and the years had passed her by, and now she was in what we call an old age. Even in that old age, that old age, God's promise came to life. She would bear a son, a son who played an important role in God's salvation work.

God answered Elizabeth's prayers in a way that would honor Elizabeth. She would bear a son who would prepare the way for the Christ, the Messiah. When Mary came to visit Elizabeth, her joy overflowed. She recognized that God was faithful not just in her life, but across generations and to all people. So think about Elizabeth welcoming Mary, feeling her own baby leap in her womb with joy.

For some of us, it might be relatable to that moment when family finally gets here at Christmas. The door opens, coats come off, hugs are exchanged, smiles, excitement. And suddenly that waiting is over. Elizabeth's house for the first time, was filled with laughter, with recognition of God's answering his promises.

We know that kind of waiting too, right? When we wait for family to come near, for the glow of headlights to show up in the driveway, for the sound of footsteps on the front porch, for the reunion that makes the holiday season complete. Elizabeth's story of longing for that child reminds us that God's promises are not forgotten, even when they seem delayed. In Elizabeth's overwhelming joy, we sense that God's promise of love is drawing near. And then we focus on Elizabeth's close relative, right?

Her name is Mary, and she'd be the one chosen to bear the son of God. Mary's waiting was filled with wonder and fear. Could you imagine being a teenager being told your life is going to change from this moment forward? She was ordinary, just a plain young woman. And suddenly she became chosen by God.

An angel told her that she would carry God's very son. Imagine the weight of. Of that promise pressing on her heart. And in the moment of fear and concern for her future, she still said yes, even though she couldn't have possibly known what that would have meant for her whole future. Mary's waiting was like the anticipation of a child staring at the tree, knowing something amazing is coming, but not yet able to unwrap it.

She carried the promise of her people's salvation inside of her, day after day, step after step, trusting that God was going to do something new and she was going to get to play a role. And I think we also know that kind of waiting. In part, we wait for surprises, right? For the joy that we can't yet see, for the moment when everything changes. Mary's story reminds us that saying yes to God means trusting that love is on the way.

In Mary's faithful waiting, we sense that God's promise is drawing near. And we can't forget about the faithfulness of God's servant, Joseph. While we don't know much about Joseph outside of the birth narrative of Jesus, we know that he too played an important role of the coming of our Savior. Right? Joseph's waiting was complicated, right?

Could you imagine? He wrestled with confusion. He probably wrestled with shame, the risk of walking away and what that would have meant for Mary. But then he had a dream. And in his dream, the angel spoke to him.

Don't be afraid, Joseph. And in that moment, Joseph trolled. Joseph chose to trust. And what would have probably been something in the face of rejection and gossip and slander, Joseph chose to protect the one that he loved, to love the woman he had been promised to, to stand beside Mary and this child. Joseph's waiting was like the tension of waiting for a Christmas bonus, Wondering and hoping, will it come if our plans will work out the way we've expected, if our family will be provided for.

Joseph had to decide whether to trust God's promise or to give in to the fear that would have surrounded the situation.

We know that kind of fear too, in part. We know what it's like to wait for provision, for stability, for assurance that everything is just going to finally work out the way we've wanted it to. Joseph reminds us that trust is a constant act of love and that God's promises are worth holding on to. In Joseph's calm and persistent trust, we sense that God's promise of love is drawing near.

And some of the most joyous roles in this Christmas narrative are played by the most unexpected people, right? If we turn our focus now to the shepherds, we recognize that these shepherds aren't anything special. They're just a group of guys hanging out in the hills, probably dirty, smelly. They were doing their jobs. They were keeping watch over their flocks by night.

But then the heavens split open with light and with song. Angels told them of the good news, the peace that was coming for all people. Suddenly, their ordinary night was filled with extraordinary promise. The shepherd's waiting was like the surprise of an unexpected gift, the kind that we don't see showing up in our lives, the one that makes you laugh and cry at the same time. The shepherds would have also begged for that same salvation from God.

But they continued to live their lives and meanwhile didn't expect an immediate answer to their prayers.

We know that kind of waiting in part also. We wait in the ordinary routines of life. And sometimes God breaks in with joy that we've never expected. The shepherds remind us that love comes even to the ordinary, even to us, even the undeserved.

And those who society overlooked God held in special esteem. That night, the shepherds would be the ones who spread the word that a savior had been born and that hope was now present in the world. Alongside them, the shepherds heard the news and they spread the joy that God had fulfilled his promise. Love had come in the shepherds wonder and excitement. We sense that God's promise is drawing near.

I know that during the Advent season many times we play different roles in life. Many times we feel excited, we feel hopeful, and sometimes we feel nothing but fear. Fear that we've left someone out, we've forgotten something, that the turkey won't be cooked right.

But it's our responsibility to carry the sense of waiting into the week ahead. As we wait for Christmas morning, we wait also for God's love to be born anew in our lives today. As we anticipate Christmas morning and all that it means for our family time, I want each of us to also look forward to the completion of God's work in Jesus.

And this week and always, may each of us never be content until we, like the shepherds of old, spread the news that God's love is for all. And we spread that news to all who will listen.

Church this is the last Sunday of Advent. The next time we meet together in this place will be on Christmas Eve, where we celebrate the coming of God's love reality to our world. I hope that you are prepared for what God has done and God is doing in the life of each one of us. And I hope that we, as people who recognize that Jesus changed everything about life, are excited to invite people along for what's ahead.

CHURCH Every day is a little bit of Advent for us. A looking back and a looking forward and I hope that we experience every day with a little little bit of anticipation for what God is going to do.

Whatever you felt this Advent season as we again are kind of moving to end it, I hope that you experienced God's love anew for you this week and over these last few weeks.

Jesus changes everything. If you hear nothing else today, walk out knowing that everything is different because God gave us a baby wrapped in cloths laid in a feeding trough who would someday give his life to prove God's love for each one of us.

Church, that is the best news we could have ever asked for.

Let's pray together.