God With Us In the Waiting...

- Good morning.

You guys get all that?

All that?

Is one of my favorite quotes of all time

by coach Jim Valvano.

He says, "If you laugh, you think and you cry,

that's a good day."

That's a heck of a day.

You put that together over seven days

and you got something special.

So this morning we're gonna laugh

and we're gonna think and we're gonna cry.

I got my Bible just in case.

I got a lid on my water just in case.

And I put fresh batteries in here this morning,

just in case.

So whatever happens today, we're gonna get this word, okay?

If you're able to stand, if you would please stand with me,

we're gonna go ahead and get right into this.

We're gonna be reading out of Romans chapter eight.

This is verses 18 through 23.

There is one word in there I struggle with.

I'm Southern.

If you pick it up, just forgive me, okay?

So we're gonna be reading this morning.

Are we ready?

We got it.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time

are not worth comparing with the glory

that is to be revealed to us.

For the creation waits with eager longing

for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly,

but because of him who subjected it in hope.

That the creation itself will be set free

from its bondage to corruption

and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation

has been groaning together

in the pains of childbirth until now.

And not only the creation, but we ourselves

who have the first fruits of the spirit

groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons,

the redemption of our bodies.

Father, I thank you so much for your word.

I thank you for the life that it brings.

God, I ask that your anointing would be upon me today,

that the hearts of your people

would be open to an encounter with you,

that we would leave your chains

and transformed more into the image of your son, Jesus,

through the power of the Holy Ghost.

It's in Christ's precious and matchless name that I pray.

Amen and amen.

You guys can be seated.

This is the third week of Advent.

And in case you have forgotten

or you haven't been with us for this series,

I'm gonna move this a little bit closer.

Advent is the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.

Advent is the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.

And it simply means coming.

The word Advent means coming.

And the tradition of Advent has been waiting

for the Messiah to arrive.

And for us, we await his return, the second coming.

In Advent one, we explored some of the prophecies

concerning Jesus and his coming

and the importance of prophecy itself.

And we also discussed what we can learn from prophecy.

So when we examine the scriptures

and we see how Jesus fulfilled every single prophecy

concerning the Messiah, we can learn two things.

And one is this, there is no link that God will not go to

to have his family restored into him.

He who spared not his own son, his only begotten son.

Okay?

There is no link God will not go to

to have his family restored back to him.

And two, the second thing is the prophecies

that were fulfilled are proof

that we can trust him and his word.

We can trust him and his word.

These things are the bane of my existence

for glasses wear just FYI.

Okay?

The word tells us that if a prophet gives a prophecy

that doesn't come true, that person's not a prophet.

And Jesus fulfilled every prophecy concerning him.

That means we can trust the word of God.

We can trust him.

The Bible foretold of one who would be called Emmanuel,

God with us.

And today we're gonna explore God with us in the waiting

and how we are to wait.

So let's look back at this verse,

this passage that we began with.

Paul says in Romans eight, chapter eight, verse 18,

"For I considered that the sufferings of this present time

are not worth comparing with the glory

that is to be revealed to us."

Paul is not ignorant or blind to the sufferings

of human existence, but he does realize

that the future glory far outweighs the present sufferings.

Are you hearing me?

The future glory far outweighs the present sufferings.

This is fully confirmed in the person of Jesus Christ,

who for the joy set before him,

endured the cross, despising its shame

and is sat down at the right hand of the father.

So what that passage says is there was a fixed point

for Jesus that allowed him to endure the cross.

The joy that was set before him.

You know what that joy was?

Having his family restored, the bondage and the yoke

and the destruction of sin no longer had its power over us.

Death, where is your victory?

Death, where is your sting?

It is no more because Jesus Christ beat death

when he died and rose.

It wasn't just that he died, it was that he rose

and everything hinges on that resurrection.

But it was for the joy that was set before him.

There was something ahead of him

that allowed him to endure that.

And then he says, he goes on to say this,

"For the creation waits with eager longing

for the revealing of the sons of God."

Whenever you run across the phrase sons of God

in scripture, (speaking in foreign language)

it means one of two things, either the angelic host,

the sons of God, the elder race, our elder siblings

or it means us, the sons of God, man and woman.

Creation waits with eager longing.

You know another word for that?

Expectation.

Creation is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly,

but because of him who subjected it in hope.

Then he goes on to say this,

"That creation itself will be set free

from its bondage to corruption

and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation

has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth

until now."

Notice he didn't say death pains.

He said birth pains.

That's a different type of pain.

They're both very painful,

but one has to be endured for life to come forward.

Are you hearing me?

And creation is groaning in a birth pain way

that, ah, this travail, we're waiting.

God, it's a terrible place, terrible atrocities are happening.

People are doing evil.

We're sinning, we're committing,

we're turning away from you.

We're creating idols.

We're following false gods.

God, we're waiting on you,

but we're not waiting without expectation

because we have a hope in Jesus.

So we're waiting that that joy will be produced in the child.

Who else do we think of having birth pains during this time?

Look, dude, it is Christmas,

and that is like, Jesus, help us, God.

You know what?

First gathering is a little bit smaller,

and I would have thought y'all would have had it together.

Who do we think of having childbirth during this time?

Mary, come on.

Can you imagine what Mary's waiting must have looked like?

Can you imagine what Mary's waiting must have looked like?

Mary, the mother of Jesus,

would experience nine months of complete change.

Everything in her world would change.

Her reputation would change.

You guys realize this is a young girl who's a virgin,

and she now has to explain how she is pregnant.

Mary, I was born in the morning, but it wasn't this one, okay?

So pregnant with the Holy Ghost?

Sure.

Think about, think about logically, think about this.

You're in that community, and this girl says,

hey, I'm pregnant, and I'm gonna have the Messiah,

and I'm still a virgin.

All right, come on, dude.

Think logically.

The gossip and the murmur that would have went on

in her community, even her, the man she was betrothed to

said, I can't do this, God.

What am I gonna tell people?

I don't, I believe her, but I don't believe her.

He had to send a messenger to say, listen,

I know what it looks like on the outside,

but can you trust me?

Have you ever been in a situation where the optics are bad?

It looks terrible.

And God's saying, hey, man, I know what it looks like,

but you just gotta trust me in this situation.

Are you hearing me?

Are you hearing me?

That's what he told Joseph.

Look, I know it looks bad, but can you not go off

what you're hearing other people say?

Can you move and operate based on what I'm telling you

and what I know to be true?

How many of us are being moved and swayed

by somebody else's opinion of our life

instead of what God is telling us to do?

As much as we try to affect it by it,

to not be affected by it, deep down,

most of us care what other people think.

I have shared for years, Fred does no longer,

he informed me at the first gathering,

I told him the truth.

He no longer cares what people think,

but there was a time where he did.

We all care what people think at some point in our lives.

You know how I know?

You all got dressed up this morning for church.

I don't know.

I told my wife this other day, I saw this somewhere.

I don't know if people wearing pajamas in public

have given up on life or are living their best life.

Don't know.

I don't know.

That's almost both, right?

Have you given up completely or do you just, you don't care?

I don't care.

I don't care.

Nobody wants a poor reputation.

Does anybody in here want a poor reputation?

Reputation rehabilitation is one of the hardest things

I've ever done in my life.

You can ruin in a moment

what will take you decades to repair.

And the people will say, man, you gave us evidence.

Now I want to see fruit of the change.

We saw what you did.

Now we want to see fruit in your life.

Sometimes you got to get to a place where you're like,

it doesn't matter.

Or if you have been guilty of destroying a reputation

like I have, you have to adopt a mindset,

whatever it takes for however long it takes.

'Cause you can't put a timeframe

on somebody else's healing.

It's been six months.

You should be over that by now.

What?

Okay.

See how far that gets you, big boy.

Mary's physical condition would change.

Most of the time, I say most,

you know when somebody's pregnant.

And if you, and if not, do not assume.

I'm just giving you some sage advice here, guys.

Don't assume somebody's pregnant.

If you think it, don't.

Unless they give you just drop some real good context clues.

Don't ask.

I've been in some real awkward side conversations

where, but how far along are you?

I'm not pregnant.

You just got to get out of this room right now.

I've been a fly on the wall to those like, golly.

When my wife was pregnant, I have eight kids.

I've only seen her pregnant one time.

That's a, for all you new guys, that's a long story.

We ain't got time.

I wish I had time.

I ain't got no time.

I don't have the time, I swear.

When my wife was pregnant, man,

I don't know if pheromones are real.

I don't know what it was, but I was like, my God,

you look amazing.

She's like, I'm a idiot.

Leave me alone.

And I would follow her around the house

and she'd be like, stop, what are you doing?

And I was like, you are just so beautiful.

You're so cute.

I don't know what it was, but the pregnant-er she got,

the more attractive she was to me,

there was a beauty in it.

You know why though?

You know why it was beautiful?

Because I could see,

I could see her making room for something to grow.

And although she didn't feel good,

it didn't feel good.

She didn't like her body moving and changing like that.

She was making room.

She was accommodating new life inside of her.

Mary's body had to make room for the Christ.

And there are some of us that have not made room

for Jesus in our life.

You're okay with this much prayer.

You're okay with getting scriptures on Sunday

when I put them up there.

You're okay with the meager amount

you're sharing with others,

although God has blessed you tremendously.

We've not made room for Christ to grow in our lives.

There are some creatures on this planet that have shells

and they know when it's time to grow,

when they bump up against that shell.

And if they never get out of that shell,

shed it, move on and get a new one, they'll never grow.

They'll stay where they're at.

And I don't wanna stay where I'm at.

I'm bumping up against this shell

and I gotta make room for God to do something in my life.

Her mindset had to change.

She went from a young girl who's gonna be betrothed.

Are you hearing me?

Look, follow the story.

Young girl betrothed.

Now here's this unexplainable situation.

I'm pregnant.

People are talking.

He wants to leave.

Oh, and by the way, it's the Messiah.

No pressure there, mother of Jesus, right?

And she had to go from young girl about to be married

to young mom about to be married.

And then nesting is a real thing.

I call it a syndrome.

No, I call Mama Bear syndrome in the first gathering.

Mama Bear is not a syndrome,

but there's an innate thing in mothers that they will go,

go ahead and get between a bear and its cubs.

Ruin your day.

I saw a bear and its cubs a couple of weeks ago,

about a week ago.

And I was so nervous to unload my truck

to get into the cabin because that mama had cubs with it.

I wasn't worried about the big guy.

I kind of, one of my toxic traits is

I think I could probably take a small black bear.

I've been working out.

I feel like, you know, maybe.

(congregation laughing)

Ask my wife, we had this conversation I talked about.

So I'd probably take him.

He's not that big.

And then I saw the cubs and I was like, absolutely not.

They gonna rip my head off.

Right?

But that doesn't happen if you're not,

people say you won't know until you have a kid.

Has anybody ever said that to you?

Like, that doesn't mean I don't love you.

Won't know until you have a kid, man.

And then you have one and something happens inside of you

and you say, I don't even know you.

And I would die for you.

I'll give my life for you.

But more so than dying for somebody,

are you willing to live for somebody?

Are you willing to put down your desires?

Are you willing to push back all the things and dreams

and hopes that you have in order to walk into calling

that God's asking you to do,

in order to step up for somebody else?

Her mindset had to change and unconditional love.

But here's the thing.

Mary could not be a bystander to the process.

She had to be submitted to it.

And when Mary was informed of what was about to transpire,

what was her response?

Look at this, this is Luke 1 38.

Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.

Let it be to me according to your word."

She said yes before she knew what it would cost her.

She didn't have the blueprint and say,

well, let me think about this if it makes sense,

if my investment of time and energy and love

and affection is gonna be worth it.

You don't go into it,

you shouldn't go into a relationship or a friendship

and be like, man, two years from now,

me and James, we're not gonna be that tight,

so I'm not even gonna invest in you, right?

I say, yes, I'm gonna love you with everything I got upfront

before I know what's gonna transpire.

Mary's yes was out there upfront

before she knew what it would cost her.

Mary was expecting.

Did you catch that?

She was expecting and was being transformed

by the expectation.

Expectation is defined as a strong belief

that something will happen.

Are we transformed in the waiting?

No, we're transformed by the expectation.

We're altered by hope and hope of a promise fulfilled.

This is what Proverbs says,

hope deferred makes a heart sick,

but a desire fulfilled, a longing fulfilled

is a tree of life.

Every time I read about the tree of life in scriptures,

I read about it in one place, in Eden, in paradise,

in the Father's house.

And so what this tells me is that when your hopes

and your expectations are dashed, it can crush you.

But when your hope is fulfilled, it is a tree of life.

It puts you in a right position, a great heart posture

with you and the Father like it was supposed to have been.

It's akin to being in right relationship with the Lord.

Pastor Barbie Laughlin says this about expectation.

Everyone is capable of waiting though most do not enjoy it,

but not all purpose in their hearts to shift

into a mindset of expectation.

Everyone is capable of standing here with their hands

in their pockets, waiting on Jesus to come back.

But that's not what we're called to do.

Expectation is different than waiting.

Are you hearing me?

Expectation offers us a few things.

The first thing it offers us is the relief of hope

that a promise will be fulfilled.

These prophecies that were given were something

that the people could hold onto.

It was something tangible that they could look for.

It was something set out in front of them

that they could say, all right, I'm looking for something.

I'm looking for something.

I'm looking for something.

Gives me hope.

The peace of vision, the joy that is set before us, right?

If I really believe that Christ died and then he rose

and he ascended to the right hand of the Father

and that what he said is true, he said,

hey, I'm going to make a place

and I'm coming back to get you.

That's a joy that is set before me

so that I know whether I get to see him come back

or I cross over Jordan and help finish

what he's doing right now for you or for my grandchildren,

that joy is set before me and it allows me

to endure everything I'm walking through now,

everything that we're walking through.

If we have no hope, if we have no expectation

that he will make it right someday, then what is the point?

You lose heart.

You don't have the strength to carry on.

Why?

Because hope deferred makes the heart sick.

It also gives us the glory of glimpses,

ways that we see his goodness.

Most of this I see right here happens in my life

in hindsight.

I get glimpses of what God is doing after the fact.

Do you know most of the time you get what you need

after you realize you needed it?

And you look back and you see ways

that God sustained you through it

and I can look back at my life and go,

oh man, this is where you carried me here.

This is where you helped me there.

This is where you protected me here.

This is where you protected them from me.

This is where when my life was going off the rails,

you didn't cause trauma in this person.

Do you realize that God can grace us in so many ways?

And it's not just all about me, me, me.

I have to realize that God has protected some of you from me

'cause sometimes I don't know what it's like

to be on the other side of myself.

I don't know what it's like to be wounded by me.

I have to ask my leadership team sometimes,

hey, what's it like to be on the other side of me?

Am I hard?

Absolutely, you talk terrible to us.

I'm like, no, I do not.

And they're like, read the text thread.

I'm like, man.

Yeah.

But he gives us hindsight, man.

Athletes watch film, right?

So they can go back and you're like,

oh, I see what I did there, man.

I should have, I digged when I should have zagged, right?

God gives us those same glimpses

and it's usually in hindsight

and allows us to change and correct course

as we move forward.

The excitement of reminders,

staying grounded in the little things, man.

You ever having a bad day

and you just get a text out of nowhere,

a phone call out of nowhere?

My buddy Jared called me the other day.

I was like, what are you doing?

He's like, I'm driving down the road.

And I like to think about people that I can call

while I'm driving down the road.

And you came to mind, I'm like, I needed an encouragement.

'Cause I'm putting up a cabinet right now

and it is frustrating me and I needed that.

Whatever you're putting up a cabinet is,

God sends people into your life, right?

Or he'll send, I don't know how he does it,

but he finds a way to do it.

He's always on time and we get those little reminders

and it helps us to stay grounded

because it's easy to get distracted.

That's why they put those little things on horses

when they're racing, right?

So they stay dialed in.

And these glimpses of God's goodness help keep us dialed in.

Why?

Because there is a joy that is set before us.

There's something out in front of us.

And then the small revelations and manifestations

of what has come, what is to come,

you find those in the Word.

So if you ain't in the Word,

you're not gonna know what to look for.

And that's all I'll say about that.

Hebrews 11, one.