Waiting Week 2

Announcements

-Next two weeks

-Christmas Party (Bring your favorite Christmas dessert and wear Christmas PJ’s.) person who brings most friends wins AirPods.)

-Junior High Retreat January 27-28. Cost $50 which includes custom hoodie. Deadline to register is December 31st.

-Senior High Retreat Feb 17-19 Cost is $75 and includes a custom hoodie as well. Deadline to register is January 8th.

Last week we kicked off this series with the crazy story of Jesus being born and how Isreal waited hundreds of years for their king, and how as a believer we are called to patience and waiting in our pursuit of Jesus.

Tonight we wrap up this series.

So if Jesus came 2000 years ago, what in the world are we waiting for now?

(Recap Isreal waiting for Emmanuel and Jesus’s life on earth.)

Advent means “The coming” and it is all about waiting for Jesus.

We are still in an advent season, all year long, waiting for Jesus to return.

*Talk about horrible childhood of Jesus returning and how it scared me.*

The entire Bible is focused around the Gospel and Jesus. Paul who wrote most of the new testament says this in Rom 15:4-7 “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”

Did you notice, Paul use the word endurance? Again he focuses the church of Rome around this idea of waiting and being unified in our eagerness to see Jesus.

Look at what he says to the church of Philippi

Philippians 2:1-4 “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

Paul uses this word that we talked on last week which is Humility, that our unity in waiting is linked to our humility for each-other and God.

One And Only Point: When we begin to mirror Christ’s unity & humility we will wait for Him more authentically.

The song we sing a lot during this time of the year is O come, O come, Emmanuel, and this song is all about Isreal waiting for their king.

(Bring Callie up to sing the song. Give out lyrics to students.)

Place yourself in the nation of Israel's shoes, they were longing for Jesus, there was a desperation for him.

Do you wait with joy for full intimacy with God? (I think for some of us, we don’t if we are honest. Our life is consumed with so many other things that give us fleeting happiness, Jesus is this cute nick nack on the wall, rather than our only source of hope.)

So how then do we have this kind of mindset?

Titus 2:11-14 “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

Jesus is the greatest gift that our hearts should long for, being unified with Him should be our life’s pursuit.

(Story of me living not in the light of Jesus.)

Because of Christmas we can be reunited with God, again. Jesus was born and He is coming back! This Christmas let us rejoice.

Let’s pray!