CMLC 2023-12-03 Sermon

Howdy. Well, we're getting into the season of Advent. So for those of you who haven't

been celebrating Advent in the past, this is the season that leads up to Christmas. So

Advent is talking about the coming, the coming of the Christ. And with that is each of these

weeks ends up being another week that builds on that theme of Christ coming into this world.

And this first week, we're looking at the season of hope. Now with that is a lot of

times as a child of the 80s, hope could be a very difficult thing at times. Pretty much

anything and everything that we would be immersed in as children would scare the bejesus out

of us. So for example, we're watching the never ending story, and we're thinking to

ourselves, oh, this is lovely, a boy and his horse, a giant flying dog, all of these cute

creatures and then you find out that everything's falling apart. And then you realize that the

horse is getting sucked into a swamp. And it's like now it's like children that grew

up in the 80s with me. Now we've got PTSD over anything to do with swamps, because we're

afraid that now it's going to just suck us right in. Apparently we all think that, you

know, like quicksand and everything else is all around us now. Or then we might say, well,

there might be other things that we might have enjoyed, you know, maybe instead the

American tale. The American tale is this little mouse fival and he's leaving his home in Russia

and he's coming to the US and you're like, oh, that's wonderful, except he's separated

from his family and he's surrounded by these scary cats and you don't know who's coming

after him and you're just like, I thought this was a sweet movie and don't even get

me started on Disney. Oh my word. Pinocchio still haunts my dreams. Oh my goodness, those

donkeys, they were children. Oh my goodness, it just seemed like each one of these stories,

it's like, it's this sweet story except for the dark side to it. Oh my goodness. And so

it's like in addition to our, you know, mutual counseling sessions and support groups among

children of the 80s, is that in addition, it oftentimes ends up not only shaping us,

but also in many ways, it kind of changes what we're waiting for and expecting. And I

bring that up this morning because this is the season of Advent. And so I went into looking

at this hope week, you know, what is it that Advent is going to express for hope? So I'm

thinking, okay, this is the time for, you know, the baby Jesus and the wise men and the

shepherds and I don't know, maybe something new with gingerbread. I'm sure, you know, like

that's what the wise man brought, gold, frankincense, myrrh and gingerbread cookies. So with that,

I'm going into the passages and I'm kind of excited and I'm looking at and then I get

to Mark 13 and I'm like, okay, let's see what this has to say. Mark 13. In those days after

that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the

stars will be falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. This

is leading to Christmas. What in the world? And I started looking at this passage thinking

to myself, geez, Christmas story got super dark, like really fast. But in reality is

this idea of what is happening in the world around us. The world doesn't just stop just

because we are in the middle of the Advent season. There are a lot of things that are

still happening all around us, things that are difficult and scary and we make us frightened

and unsure. We know that at this time, the ceasefire in the Middle East has come to an

end and they're back to bombing one another. We know that there are still hostages that

are in prisoners that have been taken and are in places that they don't need to be.

We know that there is still a battle happening, Ukraine and Russia. We know that we are still

in the middle of issues in our world right now too. The Black Friday sales and the Christmas

season hasn't fixed anything with the economy and inflation just yet. We're still surrounded

by so many things that not only are frightening, but maybe they distract from what Christmas

is supposed to be about. You see, this idea of hope can sometimes be difficult to hold

on to. Now, when we think about stuff like the moon and losing its light and the sun

being darkened and we sometimes get caught up in these kind of scary images that are

in our heads, and whenever we think of something that's frightening, it's very easy to try

to look to a strong, confident figure that makes us feel safe. We're oftentimes trying

to find someone that, well, we're not always worried that there's somebody that we like

and we're not always worried that it's somebody that's nice. We're just wanting to make sure

that it's somebody strong enough to make us feel safe. We want to know that there is someone

there that we think has our backs. You see, I was trying to think through what were some

images of when we're looking for someone to come and to not only make us safe, but also

to take care of our enemies. And I started trying to think through who was a military

figure, somebody that we could look to and say, that is a person that made us feel safe.

And I started thinking about all of the controversial figures that we have known for some time.

And I kept looking back and looking back, trying to find somebody that brought us a sense

of safety that everybody could agree on. And basically, I got George Washington and that's

it. I have no idea who else we'd even looked to. Because with so much of this is that oftentimes

we're putting people in our lives that are just strong, but not always asking if they're

good. More than that, though, is what is it that we're wanting them to do in our lives?

In Revelation six, there's an image where there are people that have been martyred for

the name of Christ for the word of God. And it says, they cried out with a loud voice,

Oh, sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood

on those who dwell on the earth? Because that's a huge part of this. We oftentimes feel in

one way or another that people have wronged us, that they have harmed us in some way.

And we want to know that someone's going to come and take care of that for us. We want

to know that someone is going to fix it. Our hope is oftentimes in thinking that someday

someone is going to take care of all the people we didn't like. And the world will finally

make a little bit of sense. But you see, whenever we hear the passages that say that the kings

of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone

hid themselves in the caves and they're calling to the mountains, fall on us and hide us from

the face of the wrath of the lamb. Then we also have to pause and ask, Yeah, but who

is it that would be afraid of the wrath of the lamb? You see, in our Isaiah passage,

it starts off by saying things like, Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down that

the mountains might quake at your presence. And the nations would tremble to make your

name known to your adversaries. But here's the difficulty later in that chapter, it says,

behold, you were angry and we sinned in our sins. We have been a long time and shall we

be saved? When I was six years old, I went to the theater to watch the best movie of

all time, Transformers. Okay, I don't care about all your Michael Bay stuff nowadays.

The original cartoon movie in 1986 is still the best. All right. But at the same time,

there I was watching this movie and half of them died. Oh my God, it was it was scarring.

I'm like, No, no, no, they're okay. Just put a bandage on it. It'll be fine. I don't I

don't care what I just saw. We're going to say it's okay, right? Right? Well, one of

the biggest scenes in there. And for those of you don't know, Transformers are robots

that turn into cars and planes and everything. Hopefully, I don't have to go into much

more detail than that with you. But the ultimate bad guy, Megatron is fighting the ultimate

good guy, Optimus Prime. And there was a young guy who comes up named Hot Rod and thinks

that he is going to come and take on Megatron. And instead, Megatron beats him down, grabs

him and uses them as a shield and shoots down Optimus Prime. See, as much as Hot Rod is

thinking that he is going to somehow come up and take care of everything in reality,

he was the one who brought the downfall of Optimus Prime. But that's the reality with

us as well. See, we spend a lot of time looking at the world around us waiting for God to

somehow take care of that group or that issue or those people. When in reality, we're oftentimes

the ones causing the problems. Isn't it so easy that we can see everybody else causing

it and then realize that sometimes we're the ones who actually made it possible for evil

to win the day. The times whenever we have not only taken for granted who God is and

what he's doing, but sometimes taking each other for granted, sometimes ignored one another,

or even at times like Christmas, where we're looking to just make sure that we had a wonderful

time and we got to see and enjoy everything around us and make sure we got all the sales

and whatever it is we were waiting all year to get. And then we don't pause to realize

that there are times whenever we've made things harder for God and for the world around us.

You see, oftentimes whenever we say, God, we're waiting for you to return. Yeah, but why

hasn't he returned yet? It says in 2 Peter chapter three verse eight. When we're looking

at this, it speaks of what's happening whenever everything is falling apart. And it says in

here, do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as 1000 years

and 1000 years as one day, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count

slowness, but as patient toward you. Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should

reach repentance. See, in reality, God isn't forgetting us. He's waiting for us because

many of us just keep kind of putting off the things of God. We just keep kind of going

back about our lives and just ignore whatever it is that God is trying to do. God is waiting

not only for us to change and to come to him, even as Isaiah says that you are the potter,

we are the clay. He said he's also waiting for us to take that message to the rest of

the world. The show Thunder Cats, I always loved it. At the end of every episode, there

was always a lesson you were supposed to learn. I was becoming a pastor at the age of seven,

I didn't even realize it. But when it first started, they were escaping their planet and

they were all in some frozen state of animation, but one of the pods opened up. It turned out

that somebody had to stay awake to make sure that the ship landed where it needed to. You're

sitting there watching as that person keeps aging and aging and aging. You're just like,

please let them get to the planet soon before, and then you realize that he has passed away.

The thing is, is that oftentimes when I look back and I'm like, how could that character

have just sacrificed himself like that? Because he realized who it was that was depending

on him. The question is, what is it that he's waiting on with us? What is it that he has

been saying, I have called you for a reason? When are you going to live into it? When are

you going to come back to knowing who I am? And when are you going to go out and share

that with the world that is around you? See, when we look at the season of hope is that

in many ways we're thinking we are hoping for Jesus to come again. But the truth is,

is that Jesus has already come. And what have we done with it? See, that's the thing whenever

we look at the hope of the world, the hope of the world that is to come, is that oftentimes

we miss out on the fact that we've already been given the hope that we're meant to have

here and now. But we keep taking it for granted. You see, whenever I finally finished Never-Ending

Story and I was like scarred for the rest of my life, at least the good part was that

at the end everything was restored. There was still an opportunity for a Trey U and

his horse to ride off together. There was still an opportunity for all the creatures

to come back together. Same thing with the American tale. Fival eventually found his

family. He was able to have his happy ending there in New York. And truth be told is,

Transformers, they always manage to find a way to bring back Optimus Prime. I mean,

everybody loves him. But in reality is that we also know that eventually we're going to

get where we're supposed to go. As much as we keep saying, come Lord Jesus, that part's

already figured out. We know that Jesus is coming back. But what we don't know is what

he's doing in our lives in the meantime. So as we are going into this Advent season,

I want us to take a pause from thinking of what is it that we're trying to look to in

the future and instead look at what has already come. See, the Christ child is being born

in a manger. Not to come and knock everyone out and make sure that everybody has been

taken care of, but rather is to grow for 30 something years and to spend his time being

one of us. Because in that time, he could then eventually go to the one place that would

bring salvation and with that cross to bring a new life. So as we get through the season,

what is it that God is now doing in your life, not only to bring you back to him, but also

so that you can go forth and bring others to know him as well. May he be the hope of

this season for us and for the world. Thanks be to God.