Sermon Tone Analysis

We are in our ADVENT series called “Arrival” and our vision for this series is to: Find the blessing in waiting on the arrival of Jesus Christ.

We’ve been studying how God had promised an offspring who would crush the head of the serpent who deceived Eve in the garden...

But mankind had to wait a LONG time for that specific offspring… the Savior of the world...

And before he would come, we see many more offspring through whom God is preserving and protecting his promise…

And we’ve been looking at times when that promise seemed to be threatened by long seasons of waiting on behalf of the woman…

We looked at Eve and her son Seth… Sarah and her son Isaac… today we will look at Leah and Rachel… and 12 sons between the two of them…

They all were made to WAIT in faith… looking for the offspring whom God said would come.

And as we study how these women and their sons fit into God’s bigger story of salvation through Jesus, we are learning in this Advent season that God has designed his blessings to come THROUGH waiting...

Advent teaches us that the blessings of God don’t just come when the waiting is completely over...

But that Jesus enters INTO our waiting as Emmanuel (God with us)...

Advent is all about learning to wait for the second coming of Jesus Christ even as we wait for the celebration of his first coming.

What we are WAITING for is the same son of God who arrived as Emmanuel 2000 years ago... to ARRIVE AGAIN… fully and finally in all of his glory.

And as we wait… his presence with us brings hope and peace and joy and love.

So far we have looked at those first three blessings: hope… peace… and joy… and this week’s blessing (as you might have guessed)… is LOVE.

The Title of Today’s sermon is “The Arrival of Love.”

I was just following the pattern of the way I’ve titled all the sermons in this series…

The Title of Today’s message is “The Arrival of Love.”

Which you have to admit… sort of sounds like the title of a Hallmark Christmas movie, doesn’t it?

You can just imagine the plot…

but when I got to the title of this sermon… I realized it sort of sounds like the title of a Hallmark Christmas movie, doesn’t it?

You can just imagine the plot of a Hallmark Christmas movie called “The Arrival of Love”…

Which THEN made me think of this guy that made me laugh so hard last year… [Play video]

she is rushing around looking for her keys when her doorbell rings… it was her Amazon delivery man with the ARRIVAL of the Christmas gift she had bought for her dying father… the package is two days late...

WE can all see that the delivery man is strikingly handsome and kind, and we learn from his name badge that his name is Jake… but Claire has no time for romance…

She has a pile of work to do… and she has to fit in a Christmas visit to her family… she hasn’t made a visit home in too long…

They exchanged numbers but she had to leave for her small town family Christmas in New Jersey.

So she rudely brushes past the delivery man on her way out the door, talking feverishly to her boss on her cell phone, assuring him she will only be gone one night.

[As video is loading] Too often THIS is what we think of when we think of “The Arrival of Love” at Christmas…

As she leaves the big city in her Uber, she enters her small town which looks exactly like she left it 20 years ago… a Christmas wonderland!

She’s getting out of the uber to walk into a diner when she bumps into someone…

It’s the SAME ruggedly handsome Amazon delivery man…

And now she recognizes him… it was the boy who sat across the room in their High School Chemistry class and annoyed her to death...

But he kindly helps her pick up her things… and to all of us watching, this is CLEARLY the ARRIVAL OF LOVE...

But Claire still can’t see it… she’s still consumed with her own world…

she finds out his name is Jake, and they discover they are looking for the same person: her father.

She does learn his name is Jake… and she has to get to her father’s house.

Well it just so happens that Jake ALSO has a handyman business on the side… and he is going over to her dad’s house NEXT to do some work for him… he gives her a lift…

As the movie unfolds, they get to know each other… have a snowball fight… ride on horseback… decorate a Christmas tree… and they are almost about to kiss… when she gets a phone call…

They get to know each other… have a snowball fight… ride on horseback… decorate a Christmas tree… and they are almost about to kiss… when she gets a phone call… it’s her boss at the toy company demanding she come back right away or else their stocks will plummet by close of trade on Christmas eve...

it’s her boss at the toy company demanding she come back right away because there is a major distribution problem and it’s Christmas eve...

She leaves… the Amazon driver/handyman Jake is so disappointed…

And the scene cuts to her in her office questioning all of her life’s decisions...

And then… in a moment of clarity and confidence… she runs out… drives home in a snowstorm...

…enters her parents home where Jake the handyman is finishing putting up the Christmas lights… they kiss… with the closing line with her narrating as the camera pans out: “I didn’t know that the arrival of my amazon package would also mean the arrival of love.”

And her and the handyman kiss… with the closing line with her narrating as the camera pans out: “I didn’t know that the arrival of my amazon package would also mean the arrival of love.”

End scene… Roll credits.

Hallmark Christmas movies are what a lot of people think love OUGHT to look like… they are what we WISH love looked like...

Because especially around Christmas time, so many people think that is what true love ought to look like.

Picture-perfect family moments…

Finding the person who is “just the right one”… the person who will satisfy all our dreams.

Getting that warm fuzzy feeling going… Just listen to the holiday songs that are all over the radio right now… that’s the perception of how love SHOULD arrive at Christmas…

Just listen to the holiday songs that are all over the radio right now...

And I believe what fuels the popularity of these movies and songs is actually that they provide an escape from a reality that looks very different from a Hallmark movie.

You see, back in the real world, we KNOW that love stories are not so picture-perfect...

The people we love let us down...

The people we are in relationship with have deeply embedded character flaws that are not solved in an hour and a half...

Our family Christmas gatherings this week… for some of us… will be REALLY difficult because of differences in beliefs… or lifestyle choices… or strained relationships..

Some of you will experience that in your own marriages as you go home today… or with your own parents...

And the Arrival of Love won’t come with all the warm fuzzies and predictable happy endings of a Hallmark movie.

And yet the culture still tells us that this is what we should be looking for:

The type of love that gives us warm fuzzies…

The type of relationships that are all we ever dreamed of.

Thankfully God’s word helps us deal with the real world better than Hallmark.

The passage that we are going to read today demonstrates the painful realities of love gone wrong...

If you think YOUR family is dysfunctional… just wait til you see this one…

And as we get into God’s word today, we will see the futility of seeking satisfaction in the love of anyone but God himself.

Here’s what I believe God wants us to learn to do today:.

Big Idea: Seek the arrival of Christ's Love that removes your shame and satisfies your soul.

Intro: Hallmark Movies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj7-73Xsb74

Big Idea: Seek the arrival of Christ's Love that removes your shame and satisfies your soul.

Your Bibles are open to .

Last week we studied about Abraham… Sarah… and Isaac… the child of laughter… the child that brought joy to his parents’ hearts as they watched God fulfill his promise.

And the story of Isaac really sets the stage for the story that we are reading today.

You see, Isaac had two twin sons… Jacob and Esau.

Jacob was the younger of the two by just a minute… he came out hanging onto the heel of his older brother...

And this would foreshadow his character as a deceiver… always trying to get out ahead of his brother…

Eventually, he would deceive his older brother and father into giving him the birthright and blessing of the family line...

And because his brother wasn’t too happy about that, he FLED to the land of Haran… that was his mom’s hometown...

There he would find his Uncle Laban and he would seek to marry his cousin… which is pretty weird, but it’s what they did back then.

And so he saw Laban’s second-oldest daughter who was named Rachel and immediately notices that she was beautiful… and so he goes and asks Laban for her hand in marriage.

Now in that day, you couldn’t just take a woman in marriage… you had to give something to her father first… and Jacob offers to work seven years for Laban…

I think it’s kind of funny, Laban’s response, “It is better that I give her to you that I should give her to any other man...”

It sounds like he’s saying, “I guess you are better than some of the other schlubs around here… let’s go for it.

So Jacob is like, “OK! I’ll get to work!!!”

And it’s so romantic… tells us that those seven years “seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.”

…sounds like a Hallmark Christmas movie, doesn’t it?

But on the night of the wedding, Laban pulls the old switcheroo on Jacob… this one would be too scandalous for Hallmark...

You see, he had a harder time marrying off his older daughter Leah… and it would bring shame to the family if he allowed the younger daughter to be married first…

So in the dark of night he exchanges Leah for Rachel… Jacob consummates a marriage with Leah THINKING it is Rachel… (don’t ask me how that happens)...

And wakes up to an unpleasant surprise...

He confronts Laban and Laban makes a deal with him....

Laban says, “I’ll give you Rachel as a wife too if you work for me another seven years.” (You can see how well this is going to go)

So Jacob agrees and 29:30 says, “So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years.” ()

You can see how well this is going to go)

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

(2016).

().

Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

That’s the context of what we are studying today…

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

(2016).

().

Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

All throughout the passage we are about to read, God is working out his purposes in the midst of some VERY VERY messed up family dynamics.