What are you waiting for?
Bryan DeOliviera
Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 18:15
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We spend much of our time waiting inspit our best efforts at being efficiency. Some years it feels like we spend every day all 365 of them waiting. Like this year we have spend much of the time waiting for this virus to go a way. Waiting for the shoe to drop.
This week we are start our Christmas series- Christmas Isn’t Cancelled. Over the next four week we look at four common life experiences that test our patience and that try to take way the joy that comes along with the gospel story.
Whether it’s heading off to college, getting married, waiting for Christmas morning, or the birth of a child, we find ourselves longing for the big event.
Christmas reminds us that God is at work even in the struggle and beauty of life. Despite difficult circumstances, Christmas isn’t, and will never be, cancelled.
This week we will be in Isaiah 9:2-7 go head and turn there or you can follow along on the screen in a few moments.
Before we look at what the Prophet Isiah has to say. Think for a moment.
What is the one thing you are waiting for?
What is the one thing you are waiting for?
you could have many but pick one. if you feel like sharing that type it into the chat. There are a lot of thing that we can be waiting for.
It could be waiting a call on a job you want. Waiting to hear something about a loved one. Waiting to see the first snow fall. Waiting to get to home for Christmas. Waiting for someone call. Waiting.
What are you waiting for?
Look at the chat.
For me I am waiting for the
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What Isai to the jes
2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; a light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness.
3 You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people have rejoiced before you as they rejoice at harvest time and as they rejoice when dividing spoils.
4 For you have shattered their oppressive yoke and the rod on their shoulders, the staff of their oppressor, just as you did on the day of Midian.
5 For every trampling boot of battle and the bloodied garments of war will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6 For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
7 The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.
Whats going on here?
Whats going on here?
This familiar Christmas passage prophesies the birth of a future child, Jesus, who will bring about true freedom, peace, and joy for the people.
It is a beautiful reminder of the power of hope.
When Isaiah wrote this prophecy, the Israelites had not yet been taken into captivity, but they were experiencing increased opposition from the Assyrians (Isaiah 8).
It was a dark time for them. They had no idea if this conflict would end a timely fashion or would end in their favor.
When God spoke through Isaiah, it became a message that the people of God would cling to for hundreds of years.
Verse 2 says that they will come out of darkness. verses 3-5 say that here will be growth, joy, provision, and end to war, not just his war but every war.
Verse 6 tells of a child to be born that would usher in the greatest gift: true peace. Finally we see that his kingdom will reign forever in verse 7.
This is a power words. Some this has come true and some of it we are still waiting for. We are still waiting the all wars to end. we still waiting on the darkness in the world to end.
This passage give us hope that some day it will all come true that some day we will see the end of all the wars and darkness.
Waiting is hard
Waiting is hard
When we were kids, it seemed to take forever to get to Christmas morning. Surely the creation of paper chains and chocolate-filled Advent calendars was inspired by parents who were tired of hearing their children ask, “How many more days until Christmas?”
Since kids have little concept of time, for the youngest and most enthusiastic of children a day feels like an especially long time, and a week feels like an eternity.
The promise of a special toy on Christmas morning compels kids to keep hoping, keep waiting, keep trying to be on their best behavior, and keep watching that calendar until the day arrives.
As grown-ups, we can embrace this unabashed hopefulness—not as we await Christmas morning, but as we wait for Jesus to return.
The people of Israel needed an “Advent calendar” with seven hundred years of windows. That’s how long they waited for the birth of the prophesied child. And then he wasn’t even what they wanted. The gift that was wrapped in swaddling clothes was not the child they’d expected.
After waiting for a long time
It can be a disappointed feeling.
It can be a disappointed feeling.
As we grow older, we learn what disappointment feels like. We will have experienced times when Santa (or our parents) did not deliver on Christmas morning.
In adulthood we can gain perspective. We recognize that the times we didn’t get the thing we wanted most—the newest gaming system, designer clothing, or tricked-out car—was because it wasn’t the thing that we needed most nor the thing that was best for us in the long run.
Hindsight is always 20/20.
Jewish rejected Jesus
Jewish rejected Jesus
Though it might be easy to judge the Jewish nation for rejecting Jesus, it’s more productive to learn from their mistakes.
The Jewish nation expected a king who would reign supreme and take them.
While waiting, they created a king in their own image, powerful and in control of the masses. But you see thats not what God intended with this prophecy. They lost sight in how God works and what his true plans were.
God gave a king who was more concerned with conquering sin and inviting people into an everlasting kingdom than with wearing a political or national crown of power.
As we anticipate Jesus’s return, instead of longing for the ways we might benefit (not that we could have earned them anyway), we can actively pursue helping others experience the freedom, joy, and peace that Isaiah prophesied about.
As any adult knows, the joy of being a child on Christmas morning is only surpassed by the joy of giving a child the gift you picked out for them.
God has given already given us the gift, so until we see him again, our privilege is to share that gift.
Likewise, we are given the gift of Jesus out of God’s love and goodness. His love makes us his children and gives us undeserved blessings—even though in our own strength, we would only be on the “naughty” list.
There is hope in the waiting
There is hope in the waiting
Like a child waiting for Christmas morning, the believer can be
confident that in due time, what God gives will not disappoint.
There is hope that Jesus will come back. There is hope that the waiting will need. Thats not to say the answer will be the best thing. But there is still hope.
This hope even if it just a little. Its still there.
Do you have hope in Christ?
Do you have hope in Christ?
hope can be found in Christ. Christ has promised to take all of our sin away. Christ give us hope that the day will get better at some point. That all the darkness war and pain will be gone.
are willing to give it all to Christ this morning