Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Brian: Merry Christmas.
Jacque: Merry Christ. The tree is half up.
Brian: Well, these trees are up.
Jacque: These trees are up, yeah. At home, it’s half up.
Brian: Thank you for singing that song. It's one of my favorites.
Jacque: I don't know. I got so blessed, I almost fell over. An angel just kept me up, I think.
Brian: Jacque makes me sound good at the piano, so thank you. This is the first Sunday of advent. I'm excited about the season of advent. It’s opportunity to celebrate hope and advent is that time, that period that spans the four Sundays prior to Christmas. The word advent simply means arrival. You are waiting for the advent of something; you are waiting for the arrival of something. How many of you know that before something arrives, there is most often a season of what?
Jacque: Waiting.
Brian: Waiting, waiting. Yeah. How many of you love to wait? Doctors have rooms that are specially designed just for waiting. They've perfected the art in making people wait, haven't they? We all know about waiting. Sometimes we are waiting on a solution to a problem. I've got to figure this out. I don't know how to do this. We were waiting on a solution. We are waiting for a deal to go through. How many of us work on deals that need to go through? Waiting on a deal to go through; it seems like we've been waiting for over 20 years for some deals to go through, right, Gary? Sometimes there are people who are waiting for a diagnosis to come back because they've gone to the doctor.
Jacque: That's a hard waiting.
Brian: That's a very hard wait, isn't it? There are other times where people are waiting for a relationship to develop,
Jacque: Waiting for one even in their sights.
Brian: Yes. Yes.
Jacque: That's a longer waiting.
Brian: There are times we find ourselves waiting for what we might call a breakthrough. I need a breakthrough here. If you are Tom Hanks on an island, you are waiting to be rescued. We've seen a lot of babies born in our church here through the years, and you can wait for the birth of a baby. How many times have you mothers said, 'man, I just can't wait for this baby to be born.’I don't want to wait any longer.' The advent that we celebrate at this time of year is the arrival of Jesus, the arrival of Jesus, the greatest gift that was ever given to our world, the greatest gift that was ever given.
We need to remember that Jesus didn't arrive without a wait. Jacque talked about that before we sang 'oh come, oh come Emmanuel.' Most of us can't fathom. We've been kind of waiting for less than a year for this pandemic to get over with. We haven't had to wait very often as a culture, have we? I do actually remember a day and age when if you wanted leftovers for lunch, you actually had to put them in the oven.
Jacque: Not the microwave.
Brian: Not the microwave.
Jacque: We don't have time for that.
Brian: Yeah. But nobody waits anymore. We have instant food. When I was a child, if you wanted mashed potatoes, what did you have to do? Peel the potatoes and cook them. Now, you get them out of a box.
Jacque: Don't tell anyone that maybe we do that.
Brian: You get them in less than five minutes.
Jacque: Please don't tell anyone.
Brian: Okay. We need to remember that Jesus didn't arrive without a wait. Where you and I simply turned the pages of the Old Testament, Malachi to Matthew, if we are reading the whole Bible, it really wasn't quite that easy. There were 400 years between the book of Malachi and the book of Matthew or the rival of Jesus. There were 700 years from the time Isaiah prophesied 'for unto us, a son is given. Unto us, a child is born.’ There were 700 years. We have no clue what it's like to wait 700 years for something. We have a hard time imagining waiting one, two or three or four years for something. There were 400 years of waiting. Some people have even described it as a silence from heaven that span, that gap. I don't know that God didn't actually say anything during those 400 years, but there is nothing written about what he may have said during those 400 years.
Just imagine 400 years without really hearing from God. Imagine that. How hard would that be? I don't like to go a day or two in my life without feeling that I've heard from God. I need to know that God is listening and hearing me, and I need to know that I'm hearing him. We can go at times, maybe a day or two or three or a week, maybe, but years? Just imagine no real voice, no real prophet, really nothing of any significance to note from God. Just imagine the agony of that kind of waiting. Just imagine that, the struggle to keep faith in God's promises. God brought us to this property 23 years ago, gave us a plan for it, and now it's 23 years later and I'll be honest with you; there have been times where I've struggled, did we hear from God? Did we hear from God? I have to go back, and I look at the prophetic words that God spoke to us, and I look at the scriptures that God revealed to us during those seasons, in that season, the early years of this ministry and my heart gets encouraged, and I have to stir up my faith, and I have to stir up my heart so that I can continue to walk in faith.
What do you think it would be like to have gotten a promise from God and then ended up in Dachau or Auschwitz, if you were a Jew? What was it like to get these promises from God, and then hear nothing from heaven for years upon years upon years? One can almost hear the questions being passed from one generation to another. Was God gone? Did we hear God correctly? Did we miss it when we thought we heard what God had said? Was faith in God just a waste of time? Have any of you ever thought that? Have you been so delayed in a promise, so frustrated with the circumstance, so tired of reading the promises of God that seem to never come to pass, that you thought maybe this is just a waste of time? I like the word… I think one of my favorite words in all of the Bible is the word suddenly. Don't you love that word? But suddenly when the time was right, the fields outside of Bethlehem lit up like the noonday sun and it was midnight.
It's interesting that that suddenly took 700 years plus to happen. There were angels on that field and over that field singing glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to all men upon whom his favor rests and the wait was over. Isn't it nice when the wait is over? Isn't it nice? The silence was broken and heaven unleashed this incredible applause and in a very messy manger, the son of God was born. I wonder if Mary and Joseph thought to themselves, 'God, you had all this time and this is the best thing you could come up with?' That's Pastor Jeff laughing up in the sound booth. I doubt very much if Mary and Joseph understood the incredible implications of why Jesus needed to be born in the place that he was born. But that's how God works. He doesn't always let everybody who he is using in on all the details of why he is using you in the way he is using you, and the vessel that he has called you to be.
When God arrived in human flesh, the son of God had become the son of man, Emmanuel, God with us. We sang about that again this morning. From the very, very beginning, the Christmas story has been one of fulfilled longing. There was a longing in Israel for a Messiah. The Messiah that showed up wasn't the one that they had been talking about. Again, they had missed the mark. They had fallen into the trap of thinking how this world thinks. They had fallen into the trap of this world's system. So they were wanting because they were tired of being under the oppression of at that time Rome, prior to that, it had been the Greeks. Prior to that, it had been the Medes and the Persians. Prior to that, it had been the Babylonians. They were tired of being under the heel and the foot of another government, and they wanted their freedom. They wanted to be in charge. They want it to rule over others. They were tired of it, so the Messiah that they were wanting and longing for was not the same Messiah that God had promised.
At the very beginning, the Christmas story from the very beginning has been wonderful, filled longing. It reaffirms our faith and it gives us reason to celebrate in the things that we are desiring, the things that we are waiting for, and it can teach us the near-miss of God and the goodness of God. I would dare say that each one of us struggle at times with our own sense of silence from heaven. As we strain in those moments of silence, as we strain to see God, even, maybe in our own lives, which are quite messy, at times, quite out of control and not nearly as orderly as we would like them to be, our future doesn't seem quite as certain as what we would like it to be, Christmas actually urges us on by reminding us that God will always keep his promises. God will always keep his promises.
We find ourselves at this time a year often, maybe this year, it might be a little bit different because of COVID, but this time of year can become very frenzied, very harried and hurried and frenzied. We have this mad dash for toys and tinsel and all the things. We are driven by consumerism more than anything else. What this does is it creates a perfect storm of anxiety that can easily cause us to miss God's voice. It's really easy to not hear God's voice, isn't it, when we are full of anxiousness, when we are all stirred up? It can cause us to miss God's voice.
It's ironic to me that the season that marks the arrival of the Prince of Peace has somehow begun to leave us feeling frantic. Isn't that a paradox or an oxymoron or a strange thing? We find ourselves stressed, feeling alone and peace-less at this time of year. Christmas is about waiting and hoping in God. So let me ask you a question; what are you waiting for and what are you hoping for? What are you waiting for and what are you hoping for? If we are willing to ask him, God will give us the grace to slow the pace down. If we are willing to ask him, he will help us to remember how loved we are and how faithful he is.
I was just telling Jacque yesterday, I think I mentioned it to him to BJ too, because BJ and Jessica, because of her cancer treatments, they really practice a lot of quarantine. I said to BJ and to Jackie, I said, “Bing Crosby's, I'll be home for Christmas has a whole new meaning this year than any other year before." Even if we have to stay home and not celebrate how we normally do, and some of us probably had our Thanksgiving all discombobulated a little bit from what normally might be. Even if those things happen, God is still faithful. God is still faithful. Let's remember that waiting is not wasting when we are waiting on the Lord, because God is always at work, isn't he? He is at work in my life. He is at work in your life, even when you are waiting, even when there is something (1:03:00) to pop out there that hasn't popped yet.
We are going to light this first candle. Jacque, let's light it. This first candle is actually called the expectation candle. This candle represents the fact that we are all expecting something. You make an order on Amazon, you expect it to come in a day or two or three. All of us are at a place of expecting something, but I encourage us to reflect upon what we want to arrive this year. I would encourage you to have an expectation of an arrival of a deeper sense of God's presence in your life. Jacque and I, we do pauses every day. One of the things we ask God to do is to fill us more. Of course, one of the things we have to do is make more what?
Jacque: Make more room.
Brian: Yeah, make me room.
Jacque: Fill me with your love.
Brian: Yeah, fill me with your presence. Help me be at one with you, Lord. I think when you have an expectation in your heart, one of the things that grows is hope. Not having any hope is a bad place to be, isn't it? It's a very depressing place to be, not having any hope. This candle actually represents expectation, and really embedded in the word expectation is what?
Jacque: Hope.
Brian: Yeah, hope. Hope is embedded in the word expectation. As we reflect upon what we are expecting, it pushes us in a sense in the direction of greater faith in our savior, having greater faith in God. Let us remember that Old Testament prophets, who foretold the coming of Jesus, set a very precise… The first one I'd like you to read, Jacque, is from Isaiah chapter 9, verses 6 and 7. I love this portion of scripture. It's so beautiful. It's so encouraging, but keeping in mind that when Isaiah penned this, there were going to be 700 years before it came to pass. Boy, talk about... Reverend Peterson, GK Peterson, who passed away in 1984, who was the founder of Souls Harbor, he had a favorite saying that he used to say, he said, "The millstone of God grinds ever so slowly, but it does grind ever so finely." What a great saying. Sometimes we don't realize exactly how slow the millstone of God actually grinds.
Jacque: But we are being refined if we work with them.
Brian: Very good.
Jacque: If we work with him.
Brian: If we don't, as the clay jump off to play wheel or whatever it's called, right?
Jacque: If we don't fight it.
Brian: Let's read this what a wonderful scripture that Isaiah gives us here.
Jacque: For to us, a child is born. To us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, Prince of Peace.
Brian: Let me just stop there for a moment. These are names of God. We've kind of lost this in our culture, but names were given to children and given to people because of what that name represented and what they... Oftentimes, people's names were changed because of some significant thing that they would do or how they were in their lives. We have to understand that the names here actually represent how and who God is. Who God is, but also how God is. So we see that he is a wonderful counselor. I would say in our world today, we are at an all-time high in needing counseling. Wouldn't you agree? We are at an all-time high in needing counseling, guidance, how to live. His name is wonderful counselor. I've heard people that have said, 'Yeah, I went to counseling. It didn't do any good. They were terrible. They were terrible, terrible. Don't go to that counselor.' But Jesus’, his name is wonderful counselor, wonderful counselor. You need counsel, you need direction for your life, I'm telling you, go to Jesus. Go to Jesus.
Another one of his names is Mighty God. He is mighty. There is not a sin. He can't save you from. There is not a problem he can't bring deliverance from. There is not a circumstance that he can't help you walk through. He is a mighty God. He is an everlasting father. He is not a temporary God. He is everlasting. He is also the Prince of Peace. Again, in our COVID saturated world, wouldn't you say that the world needs peace today, more than any other time in our existence? Prince of Peace... Go on.
Jacque: Of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord almighty will accomplish this.
Brian: This next part of this verse is actually very important because it completely narrows down who this person is going to be. This person is going to come from the lineage of David, and of course, we know that Mary and Joseph needed to go back to Bethlehem because they were from the lineage of David, had to register in their hometown. When you look at how this portion of this verse exponentially makes it so much more difficult for so many other people to have thought to be the Messiah. This is very significant, but what I love about this last verse or this last half of verse 7 is how this is all going to be accomplished. It says the zeal of the Lord, and what's the zeal of the Lord? It's his excitement about doing this, his enthusiasm about doing this. Sometimes, simply enthusiasm is what carries people through to the end.
I would dare say, my friends that our world is in such a mess we need the enthusiasm of God to accomplish this. He says that the government, this government of God is going to be on his shoulders. He is going to be the governor, in the sense of this government. But he also says this “and of the increase of his government, there shall be no end.” I think you and I need to believe more that God is going to save more and more people before this end time before, before Jesus comes, rather than things are just going to get worse and worse and worse and worse until we are just barely hanging on, then Jesus comes back. That's not what this verse says. This verse says that and of the greatness and of his government and peace, there will be no end. There will be no end to the greatness of it and the fullness of it and the growth of it and the peace of it. Then you and I can take that truth into a problem that might be facing us or facing a friend of ours or a relative of ours and say, listen, let's apply the kingdom of God to your situation.
Jacque: That gives us hope.
Brian: That gives us hope. It gives a reason for this first candle, expectation, expectation. What a wonderful verse. Well, to kind of narrow things down a little bit again, as to who this Messiah was going to be, God stirred up the spirit of Micah, the prophet to prophesize this next verse. We find it in Micah chapter 5, verse 2.
Jacque: But you Bethlehem though, you are a small amount in the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me, one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times.
Brian: This is a prophecy about where Jesus is going to be born. I'm wondering if Mary and Joseph, when they got the word from the angel that the Messiah was going to be born, and Mary was going to be the mother of the Christ child, and all this stuff is settling in, I'm sure as good Jewish people, they knew this verse. I'm wondering if they thought, but I have no plans to go to Bethlehem. Why would I go to Bethlehem to have a child? And then of course, this rider from Rome came through declaring this edict that all people needed to go back to their hometown for the census, which was always related to taxation. Everything in government is related to taxation, by the way. Everything is. They want to know how many people there are. It's about taxes. That's what it's going to be about. That's what it was here. They wanted to know how many people were there and they had to go back to their hometown of register. So now she is like strong with child. Is that a good way to say that? Very excessively...
Jacque: Great with child.
Brian: Great with child, excessively pregnant, about to go into labor, and this guy comes through and says you've got a week to get there. Shows up, told Mary and Joseph to get on the donkey and they made their trek down to Bethlehem.
Jacque: It must've been such a confirmation to them.
Brian: But it had to be that. It had to be that. They had this level of expectation now. But again, reflect back with me for just a moment. These two verses, Micah was written a little bit later than Isaiah, but both of these verses, there were a lot of waiting from the time the scriptures were written until we find ourselves in Luke chapter 2, which is the birth of Jesus. Sometimes it doesn't feel this way at all, but I can promise you, and I say this to myself as well. God works while we wait. God works, while we are waiting, God works. We find another wonderful scripture in Galatians, chapter 4 that talks about this. Let's read it.
Jacque: When the set time had fully come, God sent his son born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship.
Brian: Yes. When the time had fully come, the fullness of time, when it had come, God had arrived, Jesus arrived. A savior had been promised to God's people for centuries. I believe there were many who longed and prayed. Simeon in the temple, I can die now. My eyes have seen the salvation of the Lord, the constellation of Israel. He was an old man. Anna had been a widow. She had been married for seven years and then a widow for about 80 or something like that.
Jacque: She was in the temple for years.
Brian: She was in the temple for all those years, praying and worshiping, longing for this Messiah to come. They had longed and prayed for rescue, and then on the right day and in the right place, and at the right time, Jesus was born. Can we say that again? On the right day, at the right time, and at the right place, Jesus was born. I'm telling you, my friends, there is a right time, there is a right day, and there is a right place, and there is a right time for you. There is a right day, there is a right place, and there is a right time for all of you today. While God rarely comes at our appointed time, he will always come at the right time. He will always come at the right time.
Every single one of us are waiting for something, maybe many things often wondering, have you forgot? Where are you, God? I'm sure many of us have said in our lives, ‘what were you thinking, God?’ All of us are waiting on something, wondering if God has forgotten us, but in our season of waiting, I would ask that you let the birth of Jesus encourage you. Let this advent season be an encouragement to you that no matter what you are waiting for, God will see it come to pass. Just because God hasn't come through as far as you can see, it doesn't mean he has abandoned you, and it doesn't mean he is not working. Even though your circumstances at this moment may say, otherwise, I believe God is still going to come through. It will be on his schedule, which is rarely ours, but he is going to come through on schedule, fulfilling his long appointed plans for you.
Jacque: This is going to be my prayer, that I wait well, that I wait in hope, that I wait in joy. I cannot wait in worry, not wait in tension, but wait in peace and wait with love, trust. I asked God to help me wait well.
Brian: Don't give up, take hope in the manger, and you can know that you are loved and you are prized by God, this God who stepped down from heaven and arrived at the perfect time for you and for me. Jacque, just gave you some things that she wants to do, and I want to give you three more, three more things to do while we wait. The first thing is this; let's ask God to meet us in our waiting. Let's ask God to meet us in our waiting. Just being with somebody else makes something difficult, easier to go through, doesn't it? If you are a child, being able to hold your dad's hand helps you when you are scared. When you are married, just having a life partner just helps you through so many things, having a good friend to carry you through. So let's ask God to number one, meet us while we are waiting.
The second thing is, let's ask God to steal our hearts. Isn't it easy for our hearts to get anxious, our hearts to get full of doubt, unbelief, anger, frustration? So let's ask God to steal our hearts. The third thing is, let's ask God to help us to know he is near, that he is near, that his plans are good and that I'm not been rejected. He hasn't cast me aside. He is just working for the perfect time, the right place at the right time. I want to finish with one more verse. We all know this verse quite well. We find it again in Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31. This isn't so much a Christmas verse, but this is a verse about how we can become when we are waiting.
Jacque: But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles. They run and don't get tired and they walk and don't lag.
Brian: Isaiah 40 verse 31. When we are waiting upon God, he will give you fresh strength. He will give you fresh strength, and we can spread our wings and soar like eagles rather than have our wings clipped and pluck around like chickens. We can run and not get tired. I'm telling you, my friends, the older you get, that's harder to come by, but we can run and not get tired, run the race. We can walk and not lag behind. Today, we begin the first aspect of this advent season of having hope and expectation while we are waiting. You don't need to hope for something you already have. You don't have to have an expectation for something other than if you are waiting for it. This candle is to signify the promise that God will provide, even when we are still waiting, even when we are still in a place of expectation.
So let your heart be encouraged today, and those of you who are watching via live stream, I know personally, some of you who have written us, and we know who you are, you are going through a real difficult time right now. Some of you are physically challenged. Others of you are really struggling to hold onto your faith and the promises of God. I just want to encourage you today. Let the Christmas story, let the arrival of Jesus, the advent of Christ, let this wonderful event be an infusion of faith to you today so that you can rest in the Lord and let the peace of God come and overshadow you, and that you can walk with confidence with your God. He has not forgotten you. He has not abandoned you. I'm so thankful today for this opportunity to have hope in our waiting.
Jacque: I'm just thinking of a friend of ours who is watching from the hospital today. Lori, I'm praying for you. She is in excruciating pain.
Brian: She is a child of God.
Jacque: Yes, she is. I just pray for great hope as you wait to get well.
Brian: Just think of someone that is waiting, not only yourself, but maybe a family member or friend, and let's just bring them up to the Lord right now, shall we? Let's pray together. Father, we lift these people up to you who are waiting, who are in a place of... I don’t know if torment is the right word, but struggle, suffering, anxiety, stress. I pray in Jesus' name that you would bring infusion of faith and peace into their hearts. I thank you, father, that across the world COVID has created so much anxiety, so much distress. People have lost jobs. People have lost loved ones and family members and friends who have died, yet Lord, you are able to come and saturate this world with your presence. Your word promises us that your presence will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
We just pray for the saturation of your presence. Saturate us, Lord with your presence. Saturate our hearts and our minds. Bring encouragement to those who are still waiting, bringing encouragement to those who are still hoping. I pray for people's hope and expectations levels to grow because they are keeping their eyes focused on you, Jesus. We lift these wonderful people up to your name. Lord, your throne of grace. We pray in Jesus name for a saturation of the love of heaven to come down. This, we pray, in Jesus name. Let's lift our hands together, shall we? Now may the Lord bless you. May the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace, and may your hope and expectation levels grow as we trust and wait upon our Lord and our savior, Jesus Christ. This, we pray, in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
God bless you. Thank you for being here today. It's great to see all of your wonderful eyes. When we get outside, maybe we can see each other's faces from a distance. God bless you. We love you all. Thank you for being here today. God bless. Bye-bye.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 11-29-20. If you would like to watch the full service, click one of the links below.