God WITH Us In the Past

- Well, good morning.

I said good morning.

There you are.

If you're joining us on live stream,

we wish you were here,

but I'm glad that you're joining us nonetheless.

A few things as you guys are coming

and giving this morning.

First of all, just something noteworthy.

Josh McCloud, where are you?

Oh, he's coming.

Come here real fast.

I'm putting him on the spot.

I'd like you one minute.

I just want you to share what you shared a few moments ago.

I think it's predominant today's 20 years.

Come here, come here.

- Sure.

This is a place that produces exponential kingdom

and that's just what it is.

The kingdom of God is without end

and of his kingdom there will be no end.

So this is a super significant day for me.

20 years ago today, I stood on this stage

as the first day of Watermelon Ministries.

And that significant, the 20 year mark is to me

is probably the most significant mark

because I learned that it takes an oak tree 20 years

to create from one acorn to produce another acorn

takes 20 years.

And we often in ministry, we think like,

why isn't this like what happened?

It's three years, like it's five years, it's 10 years.

Why this struggle?

But when God creates something

that's going to multiply greatly,

he often has to season for a long season.

And so this is the 20th year of Watermelon

and so I'm grateful to this church.

You have been exponentially kind to my family

and that has allowed us to be exponentially kind

to the world.

I mean, Instruments of Joy was started

because of Watermelon Ministries,

1400 musicians in 71 countries

given a quality musical instrument in Jesus name.

Picture the Nations was started

because of Watermelon Ministries,

like more than 10 nations represented

by the beauty of their people

instead of the stigma of their poverty.

We had a gallery at the National Airport this year.

Countless sermons and teachings and leaders equipped,

but it would not have happened without this congregation.

And I just, I'm super excited about the next 20 years.

So thanks brother.

- Amen.

Joshua would be happy to meet you

and tell you about his ministry after the gathering.

They don't harvest watermelons

for those who have not been with us for 20 years,

but he's got a real powerful ministry.

He'd love to tell you about it.

A couple other things.

Next Sunday is gonna look a little different here.

Next Sunday, we're gonna have

our Springhouse Christmas party

and we're excited about that.

So here's what's going on next Sunday.

At nine o'clock, for those of you who want to come

and be a part of worship in the word,

we're gonna have a nine o'clock gathering.

It's gonna be the 12 Sunday school class moved in here.

We're gonna have worship in the word.

And then during this gathering at 1030,

we're going to have a special guest

who's going to be with us,

followed by a Christmas party between the hours of 12 and two.

We're gonna feed you.

We've got games, a rock climb.

We've got a candy bar, candy bar, candy bar.

It's gonna be great and delicious and all of the things.

We want you to come and be a part of that.

Bring a friend next week.

We're gonna celebrate the Lord

and celebrate our community together.

Does that sound good?

All right, and then mark your calendars.

December 20th is our 37th annual Carols by Candlelight.

And we want you to be a part of it.

I have kind of gotten a glimpse or heard a couple of things

that are happening in there

that's gonna make this one super special.

Make plans to be here.

Bring family, bring friends.

It really sets the tone as you're leaning into the week

for Christmas Day.

Speaking of Christmas, things have changed around here.

And we are into our Advent series, God with us.

Emphasis on the word with

because the miracle is that He is with us.

So we're doing a three-week series today.

We're gonna talk about God with us in the past

leading up to His birth.

The next message will be God with us in the waiting,

in the present waiting.

And our last message of the series will be God with us

as He's gonna come back and get us.

And we're gonna be with Him for all eternity, amen?

Today, bringing our first message in the series

is Pastor Justin, would you please welcome him?

(congregation applauding)

Hey, all right.

I was gonna say something and then this messed me up.

So that's totally, oh, I know what I was gonna say.

Hey, a couple of weeks ago, I preached a sermon

and it was a closeout series for the church.

And I preached a sermon called Wake Up

and I shared about how Paul preached all night long

and a guy fell asleep and he fell out of the window

and the guy got resurrected and then they went back upstairs

and he kept talking because Paul had a lot to say.

I got a lot to say this morning.

So prepare your heart now.

If it hits 1201 and I'm not done, Paul went all night.

I promise I won't keep you here too long,

but I feel like that God has a word for us

as we prepare in this waiting season.

So just go ahead and prepare your heart

if we run long this morning, amen?

Amen.

If you're able, go ahead and stand

and we'll get into the scriptures.

We're gonna read one passage.

This is out of Isaiah chapter seven.

Okay, here we go.

Are we ready?

Read with me.

Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son

and shall call his name, Emmanuel.

Father, we thank you so much for this day

that you've given us.

We thank you for the many blessings you poured out on us.

God, we ask that you would be with us now,

that your anointing would rest on me,

that our hearts would be open to an encounter

with your Holy Spirit,

and that we would see what you want us to see,

hear what you want us to hear,

and we'd be changed and transformed more

into the image of your son Jesus

through the power of the Holy Ghost.

It's in Christ's name I pray, amen and amen.

Did you need something for me, brother?

You need a pack?

You need to make sure it's on.

Golly, wouldn't that be something?

It was off, now it's back on.

Hey, can you hear me?

Look, see how they blame me for that?

It's like, it's your fault.

It's been in your pocket for two hours.

You know what, life's like that sometimes, right?

You just gotta own it.

And part of humility is saying,

yeah, it was my bad, I was wrong,

and being able to accept it and move on, amen.

That was free, it's not in the notes.

Here we are, folks, it's December, okay?

It's the first week of Advent.

So what is Advent?

And why do we observe it?

Well, the Bible doesn't say anything specifically

about observing the tradition of Advent.

This tradition has existed within the global church

for centuries.

In fact, this tradition can be dated as far back as 380 AD

to the Council of Saragossa,

and that is a council that met in Saragossa, Spain.

Advent means the arrival of a notable person

thing or event.

I hit it twice.

Look, see, this is me messing this up, ain't it?

Here we go.

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

The word Advent means coming.

It means coming.

So the tradition of Advent is waiting

for the Messiah to arrive,

and this has been an integral part of the lives

of God followers for thousands of years.

Our early brothers and sisters were waiting

on the Messiah to come,

and then He came,

and now we are waiting for the Messiah to come back.

The earth is in this perpetual state of waiting on the King.

Since the very first prophecy,

waiting has been the faith-defining hallmark

of patience and hopefulness in God's people.

For us, we wait not on His coming, but His return,

and what a glorious and terrifying day that will be.

It will be glorious for those who are prepared

for their King to come back and get them.

It will be terrifying for those who have fallen asleep

and are not ready when the King comes back.

Keep your lamps burning.

But we, mankind, humanity,

haven't always been waiting and watching.

In fact, there was a time in history

where man communed with God in a perfect and harmonious state.

I wanna let you guys know

that man was created for a purpose.

Man was not created and then given a purpose.

Man was created for purpose.

Everything that has ever been created and made

was created for a reason.

Created for a reason.

You don't just make something and then give it a purpose.

It's made for a purpose.

That chair was made for a reason.

Could be several reasons,

but mankind was created for purpose on purpose.

Adam was created as a regent of planet earth

and a member of God's cosmic family.

He was made to rule and to fellowship with the family.

He was made to rule and to fellowship with the family.

Genesis chapter two says,

"When no bush of the field was yet in the land

"and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up,

"for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land,

"and there was no man to work the ground.

"And a mist was going up from the land

"and was watering the whole face of the ground.

"Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground

"and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

"And the man became a living creature.

"And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east

"and there he put the man whom he had formed."

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden

to work it and to keep it.

And the Lord God commanded the man saying,

"You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,

"but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

"you shall not eat for the day that you eat of it,

"you shall surely die."

Then the Lord God said,

"It is not good that the man should be alone.

"I will make him a helper fit for him."

Now out of the ground,

the Lord God had formed every beast of the field

and every bird of the heavens

and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.

And whatever the man called every living creature,

that was its name.

The man gave names to all livestock

and to the birds of the heavens, to every beast of the field

but for Adam, there was not a helper found

that found a helper fit for him.

So the Lord God caused the deep sleep to fall upon the man.

And while he slept, took one of his ribs

and closed up its place with flesh.

And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man,

he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

Then the man said,

"This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

"She shall be called woman

"because she was taken out of man.

"Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother

"and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh.

"And the man and his wife were both naked

"and they were not ashamed."

They were not ashamed.

Mankind communes with their maker

who walked among the trees in the cool of the day in Eden.

The word Eden actually means delight.

This is emblematic of the father's house

and represents the fellowship of the divine family.

There was, God had created the earth

and he didn't have a man in place to tend it and keep it.

He created a man.

He realized it's not good that this guy's out here

all by himself.

So let's find him a helper.

He brings all of the animals, all of creation

and not a suitable helper was found for him.

So he took one of his ribs and made a woman for him.

Adam said, "At last, you've brought all these things

"before me that were not suitable helpers.

"And at last, you found me someone who can help me

"that is suitable for this task that you have given us

"to rule and subdue the earth and commune with you."

And so what did God do?

He created a family and he placed him in Eden.

The man was made in the wild and placed in Eden.

So parents and little boys, when they act wild, this is why.

They were made out in the wild.

And we come alive in the wild, we're like,

"Let's go outside and do something."

What? It doesn't matter what we're doing.

Let's get out there.

And then for me, I got a jestling and you know,

and she's just as wild.

I'm like, "This is not how it's supposed to be.

"You're supposed to go to the garden."

And, but God placed man and his wife in the garden.

Why?

That has very symbolic meaning.

That was the place where God communed with his family.

He said, "Outside of this garden,

"it's wild and it needs to be tamed and subdued,

"but inside of this garden, there's peace and tranquility.

"And this is where I'm gonna meet with you

"in the cool of the day.

"I'm gonna meet with my family.

"We're gonna spend time together.

"We're gonna have a relationship.

"You've got work to do out there,

"but in here you get to rest in my presence

"and we get to hang out."

There's work to do and rest is holy.

And God made them both for the man and his wife.

Mountains and gardens are very symbolic in scriptures.

Eden, Paradise, the Father's house, these are all synonymous.

In ancient Near Eastern culture,

a lot of kings would create these elaborate gardens

where they would bring their family

and they would bring loved ones in

to that special place that they were reserved.

You ever heard of the hanging gardens of Babylon?

These were gardens created inside of temples and palaces.

Okay, they were very important.

Not only was Adam created to rule the planet,

but he was created to enjoy the fellowship

with his father as one of his sons.

Adam was created to enjoy fellowship with the father.

Are you hearing me?

He wasn't created just to rule as a regent,

rule the planet, subdue the earth.

He was created to have fellowship with his father.

God is our father and he desires to commune

with his sons and daughters.

And there's three important things I want you to know

about fatherhood that we can see very early on

right here in this passage.

Fatherhood means access.

Fatherhood means access.

Adam and Eve had access to God.

He was accessible to them.

Fatherhood means acceptance.

Did you notice they were welcomed in his presence?

The scripture says they were naked

and they were not ashamed.

They were not ashamed and they were naked.

Why?

Because I'm just being who you created me to be.

Anytime you start walking in who God created you to be,

you're free.

You're not held down by expectations

or unmet qualifications that someone or somebody else

or even yourself have put on you.

A lot of the expectations we put that are put on us

are put on us by ourselves, not by God.

And you're not living up to them

so you feel some sense of failure and disappointment

when God's like, listen, you're accepted in my presence.

There are things that are not acceptable in your life,

but you are accepted in my presence.

Are you hearing me?

So when you're accepted in his presence,

he begins to work on those things

that are not acceptable in his presence.

But that's not you.

You understand what I'm saying?

You can only get that around your father.

Also fatherhood means attention.

When they fail, who went looking for who?

Who went looking for who?

If you don't know, you'll find out in about 30 seconds.

It's the next passage.

Okay, you can read three chapters of the Bible

before you get, you know, move on, okay?

He went looking for them.

He said, Adam, where you at?

When our shame and sin comes in,

most of the time we want to run and hide

and who goes looking for who?

God says, hey, where you at, Cole?

I hid, I was afraid, I was ashamed.

I'm right here.

God, what if I do this same thing again?

I'll still be here.

I'm still coming and looking for you.

Why?

Because you have access to me.

You have acceptance in my presence

and you have my attention.

Why?

Because you are sons and daughters.

He created a family.

He didn't just create workers to do stuff for him.

He created a family.

And this early revelation of the Lord

is one of the most foundational for us as believers.

And we can trace this throughout scripture.

If we can just get this, that God is a good Father,

then a lot of other things will work themselves out.

Well, so what happened?

So if they've got this, they've got a great thing going,

they've got a good job, okay?

They're experiencing fellowship with each other

and with God in the garden,

walking among the trees in the cool of the day.

They have intimacy and fellowship.

They got a really good thing going.

There's birds flying, nobody's killing nobody, right?

They hadn't.

So what happened?

Our first parents were deceived

by the serpent and the haush.

And as a result, fellowship and communion with the Father.

Took a hit.

This is Genesis three.

Now, now, this is right after what we've just read

in Genesis two, where they were naked

and they were not ashamed.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast

of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, "Did God actually say,

"you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?"

This thing is, I'm about to go to the scriptures.

Genesis three, it's three pages in, here we go guys.

So why about you knew it wasn't gonna take too long, okay?

Listen, it's not on them.

They've had some technical difficulties as well.

If it's up here, it's up there.

If it's not, it's not.

Here we go, just listen along.

Now the serpent was more crafty

than any other beast of the field that the Lord had made.

He said to the woman, "Did God actually say,

"you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?"

And the woman said to the serpent,

"We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,

"but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree

"that is in the midst of the garden.

"Neither shall you touch it, lest you die."

But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.

"For God knows that when you eat of it,

"your eyes will be opened

"and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,

that it was a delight to the eyes

and the tree was desired to make one wise,

she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave some to her husband who was with her

and he ate.

Then the eyes of both were opened

and they knew that they were naked

and they sewed fig leaves together

and made themselves loincloths.

Then in Genesis 3 14, it says,

and I'm just gonna keep reading, Genesis 8.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking

in the garden in the cool of the day

and the man and his wife hid themselves

in the presence of the Lord God

among the trees of the garden.

But the Lord called to the man and said to him,

"Where are you?

"Where are you?"

That's obviously a rhetorical question.

We're talking about the creator of the universe,

maker of heaven and earth, asking Adam, "Where are you at?"

I know everywhere my kids hide.

I didn't realize until last year

that my parents knew exactly everything I was doing.

I thought I was smarter than them.

And we got the first dad and the first son on earth, okay,

hiding from God, hiding from him.

He said, "Where are you?"

And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden

"and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself."

He said, "Who told you that you were naked?

"Who told you?

"Have you eaten of the tree

"of which I commanded you not to eat?"

The man said, "What?"

So dumb.

And if you listen, he didn't even blame her, he blames God.

He blames God, look at his back up there.

He said, "The woman you gave me to be with me,

"she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate.

"Then the Lord God said to the woman,

"what is this that you have done?

"The woman said, well, the serpent deceived me and I ate.

"The Lord God said to the serpent,

"because you have done this,

"cursed are you above all livestock

"and above all beasts of the field.

"On your belly you shall go

"and eat dust all the days of your life.

"I will put enmity,"

this is the very first prophecy of the coming king.

This is the very first prophecy we see

concerning the Messiah in scripture.

I will put enmity between you and the woman,

between your offspring and her offspring.

And he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

The virgin birth is actually predicted in this.

There are some translations that say the seed of the woman,

the seed of the woman.

I don't know if you guys understand biology,

but that's not how seed works.

That's not how seed works.

So if you have a divine father and a human mother,

you would have the seed of the woman.

And I wanna tell you something even crazier than that.

When the baby is in the mother's womb,

the baby's blood and the mother's blood don't mix together.

They don't.

So now you have a baby whose blood is not mixed

with his mother with no biological earthly father.

His blood is completely divine.

It's completely divine.

Then he says in verse 24, is this working again?

I don't know today.

We're just gonna, oh, praise the Lord.

"He drove out the man,

"and at the east of the garden of Eden,

"he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword

"that turned every way to guard the way

"to the tree of life.

"Paradise had been lost along with access

"to the father's house."

Paradise had been lost along with access

to the father's house.

But God in his sovereignty provided a way back to the house.

And unfortunately, it would require

a cosmic level sacrifice, incredible long suffering,

and patience for the plan to unfold.

And this is where we get into prophecy.

So why prophecy?

Why prophecy?

Well, I don't claim to know God's reasons for prophecy.

But we can extrapolate some reasons

that I believe the text revealed to us.

So these are some reasons,

but they may not be God's specific reasons for prophecy,

but they're here.

The first one I believe is,

I believe God uses prophecy for this reason.

God's plans are often veiled and nuanced.

God's plans are often veiled and nuanced.

How many in this room, believers, have ever prayed,

God, what is your will for my life?

Seven of y'all, the rest of y'all need to get to praying.

What a joke, only seven of us wanna know

what God's will for our life is.

Okay, you seven guys.

Most of the time what we're saying is

when we ask God for his will,

God, tell me your will for my life,

we really wanna know what's the plan.

God, I just need to know the plan.

And sometimes it's from selfish reasons,

sometimes it's a control thing.

Sometimes we wanna know what the plan is

so we can start figuring it out

and how we can get there quicker

or how we can completely avoid it.

Depending on which way your life is gonna go,

you're like, I don't wanna do that.

Don't wanna do that.

That one involves sacrifice.

My two oldest kids just moved out.

I've got one and a half 'cause we got split custody.

It's quiet around here.

Well, how about you take four more?

If you guys don't know, I'm in the process

of adopting four kids out of foster care.

There's some new people there, it's not a pat on the back.

I'm just saying I had it figured out and God was like,

well, I'm not gonna tell you all the steps of the plan,

I'm just gonna tell you follow me

and trust me in the process.

And he kept giving me breadcrumbs along the way, okay?

I didn't wanna know the plan

not so I could control it.

But sometimes we don't know where the plan

so we can avoid it.

So I can avoid it.

God's plans are often veiled and nuanced.

Here's further proof.

If he had come out, if he had come right out with it

and said, here's the plan,

here's how I'm gonna destroy you Satan.

Here's how it's all gonna go down.

Then all the forces of darkness

would have been converged at ground zero.

Yahweh gives him a glance of how he's gonna do it.

He said, the seed of the woman is what's gonna be used

to destroy you ultimately.

He gave him a hint, a micro hint

and just a few chapters later,

there's a plan in full effect to corrupt the genome

and the bloodline of the Christ

by the Genesis six incursion.

Just three chapters later, he's like,

well, I'll just corrupt all of the blood of mankind.

Example number two of why prophecy.

Prophecies are clues for those who are looking.

So listening to something by Mike Winger a few days ago,

how many people in here have ever seen the Karate Kid?

More than first gathering.

There was two people in first gathering.

I thought to myself,

whoa, this is gonna take a lot longer than,

if you've never seen a Karate Kid, okay.

There is a Karate Master, his name is Mr. Miyagi

and there is a student, his name is Daniel's son

and Daniel wants to learn karate.

He wants to get the Cobra Kai bullies off his back

and Mr. Miyagi is a Karate Master

and he asked Miyagi to train him and Miyagi says, no,

but instead you can help me paint my fence.

And so he teaches Daniel how to paint his fence

and nobody paints a fence like this.

Look, if you come to my house and you're painting like this,

you're leaving immediately.

You're immediately leaving.

This is not how you paint teenagers.

Y'all go on these mission trips

and paint these children's homes

and they're over there like this, right?

Okay, so he teaches him to paint

and he has him painting like this and painting like this.

And then he's like, hey, Miyagi, can you teach me karate?

He's like, absolutely not,

but you can help me wax my cars.

He's telling me, you gotta do it like this.

You gotta wax on and you gotta wax off, okay?

And then he's like, you gotta wax on, you gotta wax off.

You gotta wax on and wax off.

So Daniel gets fed up with this

and he goes to confront Miyagi, the karate master, right?

He starts yelling at him, "Dad, come to Miyagi.

You said you were gonna teach me karate."

And Miyagi doesn't even say that.

He just starts attacking him.

He starts punching at him.

And Daniel's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop trying to fight me.

What are you doing, right?

And he starts, you know the movie.

You know exactly what I'm talking about

'cause he had been learning karate the whole time

and didn't even know it.

Why did I just tell you that?

Why did I just tell you that?

Prophecies exist as a way to teach us before we need it

so we recognize it when we see it.

There were so many, there were so many

that when Jesus finally came, they said,

"That's him," right?

When he picked his disciples,

they went and told their brothers, they said,

"Come, find the one, this is the one we finally found him,

the one that the scriptures have been telling us about,

the one that our parents have been telling us about,

the one that our ancestors told stories

around the campfire.

He's finally here."

How did they know?

Because for centuries,

they were passing down these prophecies, these specifics.

Here's what it's gonna look like.

Here's what he's gonna look like.

Here's exactly where he's gonna be born.

Here's some of the things he's gonna do.

Here's some of the things he's gonna say.

Here's who's gonna proceed him.

Here's how this is all gonna look.

Here's how it's gonna all work out.

But he veiled it and nuanced it in scriptures

where you think he's talking to somebody,

but he's really talking to someone else.

Are you following me?

And they're learning karate the whole time

and don't even know it.

Scholars estimate, this is a weird number,

that Jesus fulfilled between 300 and 500

and something prophecies.

Now, why the discrepancy?

Well, you gotta take into account,

there are double prophecies in scripture.

So for example, when someone in the New Testament

is citing an Old Testament prophecy, that counts as two.

You see what I'm saying?

So it's not like he may have done 300, he may have done 500.

It depends on how many nuances and actual double countings

you're doing, but I'll break it down

a little bit closer for you.

This is statistically impossible for someone to do.

Like there's no odds on how can someone do this?

And here's proof.

The odds of one person fulfilling eight, just eight,

can you say eight?

Of the 60 major messianic prophecies,

the odds of one person fulfilling them

are one in that number.

10 to the 17th power.

It's actually called a quadrillion, sounds made up.

I think they did make that up.

Well, obviously somebody made it up.

Who's the villain on awesome powers?

One quadrillion.

If you don't understand, like if you can look at that number

you're like, I don't even know,

that doesn't make sense to me.

Let me try to break it down a little further.

You take one quarter, quarter, 25 cent piece,

American currency, and you write Jesus

with a Sharpie on it, okay?

And you put it in a pile.

And this pile is quarters laid side by side,

two feet deep over the entire state of Texas.

Are you tracking?

That's that number.

Ask one person to put on a blindfold

and just pick that quarter out.

That is the odds of one person fulfilling eight, say eight.

And he fulfilled every single one.

Every single prophecy concerning the Messiah

was proven true in Jesus Christ.

And that's eight, that's the odds of eight.

Don't shoot me guys.

That's the odds of eight.

So what are some of the prophecies concerning Jesus?

It says he will be born in Bethlehem.

But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah,

who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,

from you shall come forth from me,

one who is to be ruler in Israel,

whose coming forth is from days of old,

from ancient days.

Isaiah says he be preceded by a messenger.

Isaiah 40, verse three.

It says,

please work.

Flipping, here we go.

There it is, you guys know, listen.

It's gonna take me a little longer.

If you don't hear them right spaces, pages turning,

you don't know what are you even doing?

Here we go, all right.

Your word I have hid in my heart

that I might not sin against you, right?

If you're just relying on the screen,

or if you don't have access to the book,

where is the word?

Where is the word?

Do you even know there are prophecies concerning Jesus?

Do we even know what the word says about him?

Are we reliant on external sources to tell us?

Parents, it is your responsibility

to tell these to your children,

and their children, and their children,

until you pass from here and cross over Jordan,

and then it's their responsibility

to carry this on into the coming of our King

so that they are ready.

A voice cries in the wilderness,

prepare the way of the Lord.

Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

John the Baptist fulfilled that, he even said it.

I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness,

prepare the way of the, he literally quoted it.

Second Ryan nine, he went into Jerusalem on a donkey.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion,

shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.

Behold your King, your King is coming to you,

righteous and having salvation as he,

humbled and mounted on a donkey on a colt,

the foal of a donkey.

He was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.

Then I said to them, if it seems good to you,

give me my wages, but if not, keep them.

And they weighed out as my wages 30 pieces of silver.

Then the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter,

the lordly price at which I was priced by them.

So I took the 30 pieces of silver

and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter.

How many pieces of silver did Jesus betray Jesus for?

All right, and then what did he do?

He felt bad, went back, threw it back at him,

threw all the silver back in there.

This was written a long time before that happened.

And there's so many more, there's so many more.

He was hated without cause.

He was silent before his accusers.

He was executed by crucifixion.

And this one gets me because at any point in time,

the Messiah could have been born.

But he chose the time period where the most brutal

and excruciatingly painful and length of time

of a death that could occur was in that time period.

He said, I'll come take the most amount of pain

for the longest amount of time,

if that's what it takes for my family

to be restored back to me.

God said, I don't care how long it takes,

I will do whatever it takes,

whatever it takes to have my family back.

He was given vinegar to quench his thirst in Psalm 69.

He was executed as a thief, among thieves.

Isaiah says, he was raised from the dead.

And the prophecy which started it all,

the one to be born of a virgin that we started with,

Isaiah 7, 14, that says this,

"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign,

"behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son

"and shall call his name, Emmanuel."

God with us.

So much different being on this side of prophecy.

It's so much different being on this side,

because we can look at the scriptures,

we can look at the historical record,

we can understand that Jesus came

and he did all of these things.

He fulfilled these prophecies and promises.

So what does this teach us about God?

I just said it, there's no length he won't go to

in order for his family to be restored.

There's no length he won't go to

for his family to not be restored.

And what does that tell us?

It tells us that we can trust him.

He is trustworthy.

He said, "I'm gonna give you some veiled promises

"and when they come true, you'll believe me

"that I am who I said I am,

"that I'm gonna do what I said I'm gonna do

"and that I have not forgotten about you."

Some of us have grown impatient in our waiting.

Ask me how I know.

How many of you have gotten on your phone

while you're waiting on whoever's at the restaurant

waiting to come back from the bathroom?

Can you wait two minutes?

Get impatient at a convenient drive-through.

You don't have to buy coffee out, you know that, right?

Let me let that settle for a second for you.

This pool of water I've created here.

Some of us have grown impatient, does he even see me?

Has he forgotten me?

No, God has not forgotten you.

These promises and prophecies teach us

and invite us to trust him and to trust his plan.

We're being restored back to the family.

Isaiah 41 is a promise that he was with us

even now as we wait for his return.

Isaiah 41, eight through 10 says this,

"But you Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen,

"the offspring of Abraham, my friend,

"you whom I took from the ends of the earth

"and called from its farthest corners,

"saying to you, 'You are my servant, I have chosen you,'

"and not cast you off.

"Fear not, for I am with you.

"Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

"I will strengthen you.

"I will help you.

"I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

God was with them as they looked for redemption

and redemption has come, his name is Jesus.

Emmanuel, God with us, and God is with us now

as we wait and we do so with joyful expectation.

Worship team, you guys can come out.

It worked out like this.

I promise you I'm not trying to manipulate you.

I try to prepare you just the same way

I tried to prepare the first gathering.

I told you guys beforehand that it was gonna run long

and I was gonna go over, right?

And here we are and we're right on time.

You were prepared.

You had prepared your heart to wait for a reason.

You prepared your hearts to be okay in the waiting

for however long it took.

And some of us have grown impatient

because it's taken 20 years, God.

Why am I not over that thing?

Why is it still coming back into my life, God?

I'm tired.

Why do I still have to walk through this?

And we get impatient in our waiting.

But when you prepare your heart in advance to wait

for whatever it takes, for however long it takes

for God to show up and move and you don't stop praying,

you don't stop looking, you don't stop praising,

but you're okay in the waiting.

You're okay in the waiting.

This is from my devotional today,

Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth again,

whether you believe it or not.

The question is, have we done more to prepare

for the celebration of a past event

than we have for a future one?

We may be all ready for Christmas,

but are we ready for the return of Christ?

Spend all this time celebrating the birth

and the incarnation and we have to.

That's when God stepped out of eternity

and into our planet to become with us,

literally human flesh, took on flesh.

But are we doing more to prepare for this

than we are for Him coming back to get me again

and take me to a place I long for,

take me back to somewhere I've never been?

Are you hearing me?

Take me back to somewhere I've never been

and I want you to go with me.

And sometimes it's hard, I lose trust in His plan.

Sometimes I feel like He's forgotten me

or He's lost sight of me.

And then I remember between the end of the Old Testament

and the beginning of the New, it was 400 years of waiting.

And I get frustrated waiting two, three, 15, 20.

So this season, as we enter into this Advent season,

yes, let us remember the Advent,

let us remember the Christmas season,

let us remember that Christ came to be with us,

but understand that we can trust Him

even if we don't know the plan.

We're active in our waiting.

We ask Him to restore our hope and trust

as we walk through this season,

a season of expectant hope and active waiting.

I'd like the elders and anyone that has been called to pray

for our people to come on down.

And if you have a need, what if you have a need?

What if you're sick in your body?

You need somebody to anoint you with oil

and lay hands on you according to the Scriptures

and believe in you with faith, that's available.

What if you say, God, I feel like you've forgotten me,

I'm frustrated, I don't wanna wait on your healing anymore,

I don't wanna wait anymore on you

to show up in this situation,

I'm tired of waiting for this relationship to be fixed.

Now I'd like you to come.

Because if these prophecies have shown us anything,

it's that God can be trusted.

You don't have to understand everything to trust.

Part, there's a major faith element that says,

God, I don't get it, but I'm gonna trust you.

Not blindly, I've acknowledged the reality

that I've tried to do this on my own

or I've went a hundred different ways,

but at the end of the day, they've all failed.

'Cause I've failed to realize

that you're the one in control.

So if you have any prayer need

or God has stirred your heart in any way,

the altars are here for you to come,

and if not, then let's praise.

Let's run to the Father

'cause we have access to the Father now,

even though we're still looking for that day

where we get to be in His presence for all eternity, amen.

So if you have a need, then come.

And if not, let's worship with our brothers and sisters.