Nov 27, 2022

Everybody.

Happy Sunday.

How do you spell worshipping?

140c this morning, first Sunday of Advent.

For me, personally, it's the most exciting time of year for me. I just love this time of year. It's a great thing in that we could use a lot more of that. Christmas song, The Light everything that goes on with the season is a special time of year. And the most special thing is that we get to spend it with her church. And then we're going to celebrate during these weeks during this season. Hoping you jump on that train with us a blast at season for you as we work our way toward that major. That seed that we play over in our head so many times during during the year, but especially this time of year to pick her up today, or Thanksgiving offering. Thank offering. I mean, have a flyer in your pool and says a little bit about what that offering is all about, and if you're like me and you forgot you didn't bring an extra check, you can give online if you want. And there's information in the bulletin for you can go on and you can get Call go down to the Thanksgiving offering there and all those monies. Every penny goes toward our world angelism fine but just the main fun for the Church of the Nazarene in the dark building churches, all over the world. How many countries we in now?

66. What's on right 166.

I think I got Thanksgiving fog.

My brain today Wednesday Kings Club. 5:15 Bible study at 7 back here, Sunday school, participated in any of those and then we're going to light our Advent, candle, and sing a verse of O. Come O come Emmanuel. We Begin our service today and will have an opening prayer in the you to worship this morning. Isaiah chapter 60, verse is 2, + 3. Robert Ray, see, Darkness covers the earth and think darkness is over the peoples. But the Lord Rises upon you and His Glory Appears over you. Nations will come to your light. Change to the brightness of your Dawn. Today is the first Sunday in the season of Advent and it is the Sunday of Hope. Our hope is in God, and in his son Jesus Christ. He is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all is the one who has promised to save his people and we will light the first candle this morning to remind. Jesus Is Our Hope. And not only Our Hope with the hope for the whole world. We thank God for the promises he has made and for the light that he is brought into the world.

You truly are the god of Hope.

Jesus.

You are Immanuel God With Us.

We pray for you to send your light into our hearts at this time. To help us be ready for the day and the hour. if you're fine with pairing, Play bananas forward and help us believe in you. And by the power of your Holy Spirit, transform us.

Set alarm worship our celebration, our times of preparation may be pleasing to you those now and forever. More, I'll men

Thanksgiving. Thank you for being in our lives. Edgar.

just wanted to remind you that today,

Needs to learn.

We're going to prepare to go to the Lord in prayer this morning. It is a lot of sickness going around. Somebody know, you guys know somebody that's not feeling well today, probably we all do.

Several people at Peter and Christine and Jerry and Kim, and John. And I know there are others that this are feeling well this morning, I pray for the sickness going around holding lose such Good morning, Miss Sherry, she continues to do this new treatment that we praise effective.

I know there's a lot of other this morning.

But God is able.

He knows, I think about this time of year. I think about how you know, we pray about things lift people up for the Lord.

if we don't like to wait, Have it your way sculpture?

But we must wait. and the reason we have to wait is because God's timing is always

and that requires some Trust on our part.

Should we pray for people that we pray for?

Christine camp. and as we wait, we keep bologna for him. Looking for sign. And I don't know about you, but in my life, I have found it. When I really desperately needed to hear from God,

Somehow got through today. Could be another person for just use, your reading, your word, or your praying, it could just be when you're doing absolutely nothing. Still small voice comes over says you're my child. I love you. And I will never leave you, nor will I forsake you those are promises. We can hold on to a man. and so that is the god, prepare our hearts to go to in prayer and We're going to sing this song. You know, we wait for Jesus to come.

Morning, as we prepare our hearts for prayer with biking it, if you'd like to pray deodorant open. I should have seen what this morning. Just kind of maybe say to God, you know, I'm willing to wait. Cuz I know your answer is perfect. And I know your time is perfect. While I wait. I Look to You and I trust you. With all that I am.

Hey, God bless you. Would we prepare to pray this morning?

Yes, father. That is

The Prayer church.

It is cough.

We've been waiting for you.

We have been waiting to hear from you.

just since your precious spirit,

A very real way.

We say come and Phyllis guy.

Put your love and grace, your forgiveness, your power.

That we might. Truly be able to love you.

Heart soul strength.

All the, we might be able to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Do we say come?

Come and change us.

Cummins well within ice.

Call withnell. We serve a mighty God.

Father, you have transformed many lives. In this room.

Or some, it's been a long time.

for some of us, it Like a different lifetime.

And for some of us, father, it's brand new.

But wherever we are on our walk.

Father, we pray, you take us a step further today. Take us a step further in our faith.

Even if it's her. Father, is best for us, we trust you. To bring us a wall. Where you would have us be as your people.

This is a time of year. Lord, where

Sometimes there's an emptiness.

Inside of us.

Sometimes it's from being away from loved one.

Trying to celebrate when we're really sad. An empty.

Lord, you're the only one that can fill us. And satisfy it.

And so we pray that you would help me choose one of us.

Opus, father to focus upon you this time of year.

And then this time of year, brings cold with blues, and sicknesses, and things of that nature as well. Lord,

There might be some here this morning that are struggling with health issues or maybe some at home watching right now.

We pray for healing health. For each one of us this week. Begin this. Busy time of year this joyous time of year.

We pray for our community in this church, Lord.

For the Ministries that are going on.

Leadership for those that work so hard. Your kingdom.

We ask that you would give us proof of our laborers. Dear God.

And father, this morning and thank you for each person here.

Loved by you. Gifted. I do.

And I pray for each one of their needs this morning, whatever they might be. Knowing that you're able. knowing father, We Trust sometimes.

Your answer will be here before we know it. And we know that your answer is always for our best.

So father come today, we saved a place for you. Here in this Sanctuary, we saved a place for you here in our hearts.

I pray. God will bring that peace. That passes all understanding. You'll bring that victory.

That white. It is abundant and free.

As always, we will give you the praise and the honor the glory that is. So do your name. Do you still in Christ? Jesus. Our lord. And for his glory today and always. God bless you. You're seated.

We're going to take our ties and offerings this morning. Is he ushers, and may the Lord bless you as you given to the kingdom today? And if you want to give toward at Thanksgiving offering just make sure you let us know. Mark your envelope Thanksgiving in a thanks or something like that. So we know where we can send those money. Father, thank you.

For the blessings. You give us. They're abundant as part of our act of worship. Lord, we bring our tithes and offerings to you. Branded you would bless them all the Platinum Brinkley For Your Glory, the building of your change of these things. We ask in Jesus name

Go on.

Thank you, Cassie.

We're going to be in the book of Isaiah, this morning, chapter 11,

Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1 through 10.

The prophet racist. Shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse from his roots. Branch will bear fruit. the spirit of the Lord, will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and of Might, the spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord. And he will Delight in the fear of the Lord. You will not judge by what he sees with his eyes or decide, but what he hears. 60 years, but was righteousness. He will judge the needy with Justice. He will give decisions for the poor of the Earth. He will strike the Earth with the rod of his mouth.

With the breath of his lips, he will slay, the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness, the sash around his waist. The leopard shall lie down with the go. The cabin, the lion in The Yearling together, in a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together and the lion will eat straw, like the ox. The engine will play here, the cobras Den. The young child will put his hand into the Viper's Nest they will neither harm nor destroy in all my. Holy Mountain. For the Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. As the waters, cover the sea. In that day, the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for his people's. The Nations will rally to him. And his resting place.

Will be glorious.

Joe, there's a back there for you.

So we designate a dispersed Sunday to in the season of Advent has the Sunday of hope. That's the traditional designation, that a lot of churches designate during this time of year, although, they're different orders of the themes and their different designations other than the traditional hope he's recognized the season. Do we recognize our need these things, hope, peace, Joy, love Faith, and whatever other kind of thing that you can think of this God may have for us during this special time of year. did the season can help us as we begin to shift our focus more intently into the upcoming celebration of Christmas and what it all means to us as individuals and as a community, this text and Isaiah takes us back to the eighth Century BC. This is an important time. The life of the nation of Israel. And at this particular time, the Assyrian army was flexing their muscles in the Middle East. And one of the things that we forget about sometimes when we read these, these texts, is it, the nation of Israel was divided at this particular time in history, Israel for the North or the South

and this text follows Isaiah's prediction of complete destruction. Israel tried to force king, ahaz of Judah, to join a coalition with them. And with the Syrian Army, in an effort to stop the Syrian advance, But instead of joining that particular Coalition against the Assyrians, a has instead turned to the Assyrians and he ended up paying heavy tributes in exchange for protection and for safety. But we know who history that that backfire took the money and all the tributes and they attack anyhow and not only Israel, but Judah as well. If we follow Isaiah speak of this destruction, I've got people chapter 10 when we get to their the prophet begins to speak of this remnant. A Remnant that will come back to their Homeland after the struction after captivity. And Not only would they come back to their home, they would come back to God himself. In this, after total destruction, complete destruction. At the hands of the, the Assyrians. Nobody would have ever thought. But there could be a reprisal that there. It'd be a Remnant to survive. What has happened? But God has the last say, In our world. and in the next, In chapter 10 also speaks about the destruction of the Assyrian army themselves. I'm like, Israel, Assyria will not have a rent. They will not rise again, history tells us that Syria was destroyed in 6:09, BC. That was the last the world as the Babylonians obedience in the Persians destroyed down.

God is involved with a people. There's always hope.

There's always hope for a new day and that that new day while it's maybe sometime in the future for the people. Isaiah Wright's to hear and even for us as we await the second coming of Christ that new day can begin today because of God's presence among his people. And his willingness to be involved in their lives.

And not only that but because of his promises to his people and for these people or God's people Israel as a whole, it all goes back to the made with David. You can read about that back in the book of 2nd Samuel work. God told in your kingdom will endure forever and your tablet forever. Stump of Jesse here, indicates that the davidic line has been cut down. What are the trees still alive? This shoot the Springs up, shows that David line will have new life indeed. This shall be restored in this is this shoot this Branch or twig aroo however you want it to find, it won't just be in David line. In fact, be another type of David. And not only just another type of David. Much much more. The David ever was and we talked about how out under David Israel looked at him as their greatest ruler the nation. Flourish,

It became the dominant power in the known world that we solve it. How after David and his son Solomon died. We saw how the successive Kings in that particular mostly fail. In honoring God and in protecting the people.

But not this one. This one to come.

This one will be different. Where the spirit of the Lord.

Rest on him. The prophet speaks of wisdom and understanding counsel and might knowledge, and fear of the war, all of these characteristics of an ideal leader, but the people crave is also key characteristics to righteous living.

His judgment will be righteous and will be determined by his words for. It is his words, they will be the measuring Rod of that righteousness. She's not the world's standards that determine righteousness. It is not the popular opinion, it is not the propaganda. We read about on the news or something that you read on social media business is determined by

.

And our world doesn't like that.

But that is true. In God's righteousness, is much much higher than what the world determines. That's righteous. Google call. This passage, we get down to verses 6 through 9 and it is, we read these. It it kind of gives you this sense that that this is about a restored Garden of Eden

Wolves and lambs and lepers and goes. They generally don't mix. Well, these days.

Bears and cows lions and oxen. They don't eat the same things in our world. They eat one another.

And who would allow their child to play near poisonous snakes.

But there is no beer or harm in this place that the prophecies up. And so what we have here is a picture of the rule of Messiah, the rule that the God people still yearn for when we wait or one that we still hope for both for that for our world, the rest of the world is different

The hope of the world they hold, but then they decide well, if it doesn't happen, so be it. Oh well. But not so with God's people know, we help with this anticipation, we hope with expectation and with a confirmation deed it down inside of us that God really can do what we ask.

Yard two more than that do? What he has promised he will do.

And we can say that we can help it, not only can it happen, but we can help with positivity that it will happen.

But it's not for the first time and it will happen. It will be for the last.

And fully.

And we know that.

Because hope has already come.

It's already here.

Cocaine over two thousand years ago, folks.

And he's still here even now.

And we have to know that is our passage speaks of it a new beginning of going back to what was lost. We two can have that same kind of hope

Are there many different people in different parts of the world who have lost much, some have lost everything, they have known, taking a lifetime. To get something that they had in their grasp just so not very long ago.

Human spirit is amazing. And it certainly will enable me to get back on their feet. It is the holy spirit of the Living. God, it will enable many more. Not only to get back onto their feet. But to be completely restored.

What is Christ?

Call Sissy That. Hope out of Despair is possible that life out of death is very real and a dream of a way of living in honors God. And our neighbor is not only possible it is within our reach. And that is what this is really all about. It is the reality that Messiah came wants to show us the love of the father and to show us the key is and then to promise he's coming back again but until then sweat is Holy Spirit to give us home.

As long as we have Jesus, we have hope.

and so, I ask you this morning, what is it that you code for

What do you hope were you? Hoping like the rest of the world? So that whatever happens you won't be let down.

Or are you hoping in Jesus with the reality that tells us it something great can come out of something so devastating?

Max Lucado writes about Hope in his little book. Call King near.

Harry Potter's the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. We, you know the story.

they're on the road to Emmaus after the death of Christ and Luke 80 notes that the two said we had hoped that he was the one It was going to redeem Israel, sound familiar. Randy writes, this

But we had hoped.

How often have you heard a phrase like that?

We were hoping the doctor would release him. I had hoped to pass the exam. We had hope the surgery would get all of the tumor. I thought the job was in the bag. Words painted gray with disappointment.

What we wanted, didn't come what came we did want. The result. Shattered hope. the foundation of our world, trembles We trudge up the road to Emmaus. Dragon are sandals in the dust wondering we did to deserve such a plate. What kind of God would let me down like this?

And yet, so cheerful door eyes. And so limited is our perspective. Thank God to be the fellow walking next to us and we wouldn't know it. You see the problem with our two heavy-hearted friends was not a lack of faith. But a lack of vision. Their petitions were limited to what they could imagine. Android. I do not answer their prayer. Had he granted their hope the seven-day War? Would have started 2000 years earlier and Jesus would have spent the next 40 years training his disciples to be cabinet members. You have to wonder if God's most merciful Act is his refusal to answer some of our prayers. We are not much different than burden Travelers. Are we? We roll in the mud of self-pity in the very shadow of the cross. We piously ask for his will and then have the audacity to pout if everything doesn't go our way. If we would just remember the Heavenly Body that awaits us. We stop complaining that he hasn't healed this Earthly.

our problem is not so much, the gonda's and give us what we hope or is it is that we don't know the right thing for which to Hope

And he has a parentheses, you may want to read that sentence again.

Is not what you expect. It is what you would never dream. It is a wild improbable tale with a pinch. Me, I'm Dreaming. Ending is Abraham adjusting his by popol so he can see not his grandson, his son. It's Moses standing in the promised land, not with Aaron or Miriam it is side but with Elijah and the transfigured Christ. Speechless at the sight of his wife, Elizabeth great headed and Pregnant. It is the to Emmaus bound pilgrims reaching out it take a piece of bread, only to see the hands for which it is offered are pierced. What is not a? Granted wish or a favor? Perform know it is far greater than that. It is a zany. Unpredictable, dependence. On a god. What's the surprise us out of our socks? Be there in a Flash.

Is he out reaction?

That's hope.

We all have it, folks.

I agree with the Kato. This sometimes we don't know what the hell for.

This sometimes our vision is clouded.

So, let me ask you one more time.

What is it that you hope for?

My Hope and my prayer. Is it? We find it in the one that took on flesh.

And then willingly, gave it all back.

We might have hope.

Father, I thank you for reminding us of