Untitled Sermon (13)

When I was little like aby normal human being, I was very impatient. I remember this one time when I got in trouble for it, well one of many times that my impatience got me in trouble. During elementary and jr high, my dad would always pick me up. He would always pick me up in front of the school like all the parents. One day I come out of school, and I noticed thqt my dad is not in front. I waited for what felt like 30 min when really it was 3 min and I thought would save time by heading towards the streets that my dad takes to pick me up. That way when he sees me he does not have to go all the awy to the school and I do not have to be waiting. So I started walking i began to look around for my dad. I kept walking then I began to think that he had forgotten about me but I kept walking I already had cross the street and was in th outside mall near the school. That hurt turned into anger, I would be thinking, wait until my dad gets here I am going to let him hve it and then the anger turned into worried. My parents loved me they would never forget about me, what happened to them, are they alright? I was 1 mile away from home. I could see the house from afar when I hear ths honking and it was my dad. Boy was he mad, he told me off. Well that day he was coming from his office so he had to take anbouter route to pick me up. He had been waiting for me for 20 min and was not to happy specially because he thought something bad happen.

Sometimes being patient is hard, in fact almost all the time waiting is hard. We are so use to living in a cujlture where everything is fast no waiting. We can order ahead of time so that when we get there there is no need to wait for our food. In fact the food is waiting for us. Today scripture we will ne learning about a man who waited for a promise from God.

Luke 2:22-40 NIV

Jesus Presented in the Temple

22 When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”[a]), 24 and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”[b]

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss[c] your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”

33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

36 There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and then was a widow until she was eighty-four.[d] She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. 38 Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

39 When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. 40 And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

So, Mary has given birth to our savior Jesus. I sometimes forget the fact that Jesus was a baby. He went through the growing sprout we all did. Just as he was a human, his parents were as part of the culture as anyone else. There is a law that was made in the time of Moses that all firstborn babies need to be consecrated before the Lord. Our Lord Jesus was not born in sin and did not need that mortification of a corrupt nature, or that renewal unto holiness, which were signified by circumcision. This ordinance was, in his case, a pledge of his future perfect obedience to the whole law, during sufferings and temptations, even unto death for us.

While Mary and joseph are heading towards to a temple in Jerusalem. We are introduced to this man names Simeon. Simeon is described as a good man, righteous and devout man.

He was a follower of God and was one of the few people that had direct contact with GOD. He had the Holy Spirit therefore he did not have to go to anyone to confess sins or to come before the lord for him. It is said the God had promised Him that he was not going to die before he saw the Messiah, He who was going to save Israel and set the captives free, the one that would rescue His people. Well in these verses we read that through the Holy Spirit, God told Simeon to go to the temple. He was not told why but he went. I sat on that for a while, I sometimes struggle with following directions knowing the purpose of it I cannot imagine not knowing. Simeon was glad he followe because we read that it was Jesus, the Messiah who he was meeting. God’s promise to Him came true. God showed His faithfuolness.

Have you ever experienced a moment where you have felt or known a promise made by God for you life? That can be having your dream job, your dream of having a family or that job in reality. My sister is one out of 5 people that I share some of my most cherish and sacred experiences with God and vise versa. This week she called me on the phone and she shared her struggle of waiting for God’s promise. I waited until she finished telling me how she has asked God for help and patience. How she was faithfully been waiting but is thinking that maybe it was not God who had given her signs and promises. Well she was done and she got quiet and asked me “well do you now understand why this is so difficult for me to be waiting when God is not saying anything.” I had to take a couple of breaths and said “sister when are you giving time for God to speak to you. All ihear is oyu telling and asking Him. Sorry but you know is there a time we oyu just need to quiet down.” You see what we do is we listen to aprimise and we wait and then when 2 days has passed we begin to doubt and since we know that God is our BFF and we can be honest with Him we share that we area doubting Him and feel betrayed. We are too busy talking that we just don’t stop and quitet down.

This past week I took an intesice class in prayer. The professor was saying that in those moments we need to fix our eyes upon Jesus. Well, I have come to terms that I am a literal person. People confuse that with being gullible but no I just hear the words that you say and I do not stop to think “oh this might be a figuretied of speech” or “sarcam” I raised my hadn and asked “how do we do that? I know that when we are having time with God the way we fixed our eyes is making it about Him but what about when we are waiting for something that we consider “earthly desires” Putting your eyes upon Jesus is hard when you do not see Him. The professor laughed and said good question. The way that He explained was, How we resaponf to the sittuion/waiting is what we have been putting are eyes on. So we are waitinf for a promise and when we see that it is not happening we blame our shortcomings, or another person or the sitaion and sometimes even God. We are respoding with the blame game. We are responding in a faulty manner that when you come to terms and dig deep inmto your response you will realize who you were putting your eyes on. I remember this one time, I woke up to realize that I had missed a very important appointment due to the fact that my alarm did not go off. Well I caught myself looking up tp heaven and saying “well that happened. And began my prayer.” It as untul 20 minutes laterthat I realized that I was not blaming nayone. Things like that happned. That week I made sure that all my thoughts were about God. That I was inclusidn Him in everything I was doing. I would invite, thought He was with me, to be with me durng my day to let me know if there is an action I must take to glory His name. We do not need ot put our eyes and focus on that thing that we are waiting for. We need to put are focvus on God.

Going back to my sister, I told her that the prpayer walks that she takes instead of telling God about how furstatered and how tired she was getting. I said, do not say anything about it, in fact I will pray for that what you are waiting for for you. You just focus on God’s beauty. Tell Him who He is for you. Tell Him things that you love about Him. And then on your weay back do not say anything be in silence for the Lord to speak.

Brothers and sister God is not the God that only spoke during bible times, He still speaks. Our problem is that we are to focus on ourselves and the worlds noise and we are not simply still. Do we dedicate time in our days to talk to God or read His word. This is not a just a rule to be a good Christian but a means to know God and get cloer to Him. How can one trust someone that he/she does not know. How can I say I trust God but not know Him. Right now, we are hungry for God’s precense. His creations are in need of their creator, yet we are told that it is not a spiritual need that will will calm us down, it is financial security, someone liking me etc. I have learned that when iquiet down my soul I am takng a step of faith. I am telling God I trust you. I know it is hard to trust because we are not in control. But something that I was remnded this week. GOD IS A TRUSTWORHY GOD. He is not a liar and if He says that He has plans to blessed us and not to harm us then we will believe in that promise.

Some of you knw that I have a small dog. This week I took her to a puppy hotel since I was going ot be in Wilmore for the week and could not take her with me. As I was seeing her be taken away from me and seeing her ears flap away. I wondered if she knew that I would be bacl. Well I picked her up Friday and she was so excited to see me that she did not stop crying and wagging her tail until 35 minutes deriving back home. I was a bit frustrated and through she is a dog I told her, why in the world would I just leave you in that place? Why would I not come in get you? I mean I have spent money on sweater for this dog. Shouldn’t that show her that I love her and wont leave her/ Doesn’t she trust in my love. And though that is such a earthly example. I wonder how God feel when we begin to doubt and not trust Him as we are waiting for the Promise.

This year my prayer is to have sermons that focus in wait that we can build our realti0onsjp with Christ. Today I would like to put the foundation, which is God is faithful and His promises will come to life. But that should not be the reason why we love Him. The fact that He has blessed me with a great church is not the reason I love Him. It is because who HE IS. He is the I AM, SOVERIGN AND POWERFUL GOD. And HE loves you. He wants to tell you How much He wants to talk to you too. When you have yout time with God this week I encourage us to use it to tell Him what He means to us and How muvh we love Him. And mayve dedicate amunite to be in silence and not allowing any worry to take over this divine time. It might not be easy at first but with practice and guidance of the Holy Spirirt it is possible.

So if you are waiting for something this year, maybe a phone call, for the pain or sadness to go away, or anything. Know that whatever is from God He has already worked out the detauls. Just like joseph and mary were simply folling the mosaic laws to present Jesus, they did not know that God’s promise to Simeon was being fulfilled.