Advent: Waiting for Rescue in a Temporary World

So Merry Christmas, but welcome into Advent.

So it's the season of Advent, which is it's the four Sundays leading up till Christmas.

And so each Sunday we'll have a different passage.

It's given to us by what's called the lectionary.

The lectionary is a series of readings that are given to the church, different seasons of uh the church calendar of the year.

So we use the lectionary in Advent, we also use it in Lent, which is the season leading into Easter.

And so today's passage kind of seems odd when we read it.

It doesn't feel very Christmassy, but we'll kind of make sense of it as we go.

And I think it will uh it'll actually have something for us, our lives, and our hearts as well.

So a few weeks ago, uh in the middle of the night, uh a smoke alarm in my house uh it didn't go off, it was the chirp, the battery, right?

The battery alarm, the chirping, middle, is I rolled over, the clock said 3 a.m.

It's like perfect, perfect time for the chirping.

And so I get out of bed, I walk around the bed, I walk out into the hallway, out into the hallway, and in this little hallway outside is where all of our bedrooms join.

So at that point, there's three smoke alarms within like eight feet.

There's one in that bedroom, that bedroom, and one in the hallway.

And so, but by the time I get there, this the smoke alarm's been perfectly programmed to stop chirping.

You know, it was the warning, you know, wake up, get you there in the middle of the night, and then it stops.

But I stood there for a while, and I don't know how long I was half asleep.

Who knows how long I was staying there?

And I stood there for a while, and then um I was getting angry, and so I knew that this was gonna cause a problem going back to sleep if I got too angry.

So I went back to bed.

Miracle, I went back to sleep.

That was amazing.

I went back to sleep, and then I I got woken up by this alarm two more times that night, each time getting up, thinking I could beat out the programming of the chirping before it stopped chirping, of which I did not do.

And every time I'm walking by my lovely wife, who's fast asleep, uh, just sleeping right through it, which is only making me angry.

Amazingly, she can wake up at the slightest noise of our child, but not to a smoke alarm.

I don't know how it works.

And I in reverse, perhaps I'd do the same in reverse.

So this is what an alarm does, right?

Uh how many of you woke up to an alarm this morning?

I woke up to an alarm.

Anybody else wake up to an alarm this morning?

Some of you wait, it's Sunday.

Maybe you didn't have to.

That's a that's great, right?

Tomorrow, how many of you are gonna wake up to an alarm tomorrow?

More, probably more of us.

How many of you never wake up to an alarm?

I'm just interested in that, that fact, yeah?

A few of you, that's wonderful.

But we all know alarms, right?

Because alarms, they wake us up.

That's what an alarm does.

Even if we don't like it, it's what it does.

And this text, this text this morning is an alarming text.

It alarms us.

An alarm, if you look to the screen, an alarm is a shock to the system to pay attention to something else.

You're doing one thing, there's an alarm to get you to pay attention to something else.

Being alarmed is to grow in awareness to something else, to that something else that over time we're just not paying attention to.

Now that carries us into today's passage.

I'll reread some of these verses as we go.

Matthew 24, 36 through 44 is our passage.

Here's 36 through 39.

But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the Ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.

So will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Now, this uh Noah story, maybe maybe you've been around church a really long time, and maybe you even heard it in uh like VBS or Sunday school.

We teach it in Sunday school here, this horrific flood of families and children drowning to death.

This is a story we like to tell our children in church.

Why do we do that?

Well, we do it because there's a boat and there's animals, right?

And children love boats and children love animals, and we leave out a lot of the details about the uh horrifying reality of this story, perhaps the most awful possible story in the scriptures.

It is horrifying.

Uh Jesus mentions it for a particular reason here.

He's using it as an example.

And Jesus is mentioning Noah as to bring up the issue of our capability to live unaware of what is most important in life.

Now, maybe you've been like me, maybe been in some places that use a passage like this only to create shame or most likely create fear.

If you're creating a fear by passage like this, then it's a much easier.

Well, you can raise a lot of money, that's for sure.

But you can also get people to make particular decisions that you want them to make.

Now, I don't think that's very helpful.

Maybe you do.

I don't.

I just don't think we have to leave the heart of God to try to get reactions inside of ourselves or get people to make particular decisions about their devotion to God.

But the text is still here.

So I just want to be open this morning and say, I don't like this text.

It's not like a text that I open up and I'm like, can't wait to have my morning devotion with a text about this.

This it's not like one of those passages that I'm gonna journal for three pages and you know go walk in the woods.

And you know, like it's for me, it's just not one of those passages.

But I can't deny this passage as a teaching of Jesus.

And it is really clear, Jesus is being very direct and very clear.

He's intense.

I was riding uh bikes with my girls, my three girls, so uh uh 11, 9, and 6, and so we were riding bikes uh this week.

Uh I went out to the garage to pump up the tires.

That took 15 minutes, that was great.

Uh I wanted to take a nap after that.

That was it for me.

So, no, I actually I pushed through and and we made it on the bikes after pumping up all the tires, and we made it out, and so the 11-year-old goes first, the nine-year-old, the six-year-old, and I sort of I'm in I'm the caboose, and I'm watching all we head down the driveway, sidewalk, out onto the road, and I'm watching all, I'm watching all three of them, but I'm watching them like more priorities on the one right in front of me, the the six-year-old.

Because if a butterfly flies by, I mean, who knows?

Who knows what's gonna happen?

She could go anywhere.

And so I have to pay a lot of attention to her.

Eventually, we get we're going for a bagel.

So eventually we we get up to where we're getting a bagel to the parking lot, and off shoots the 11-year-old through the parking lot.

Off, right?

So the nine-year-old shoots off, six-year-old shoots off.

Well, the problem was the nine-year-old, the six-year-old, they didn't they didn't look to their left.

And I looked to my left, and there's a car coming.

I mean, it's the car's close.

I mean, so this is it.

Like, this is it.

For two of my daughters, this is the end.

Christy's gonna divorce me in her grief.

I'll quit the church.

Uh, you all just end up going to other churches, I'm gonna end up living in a van somewhere.

I mean, this is it, all of this, all in this moment, because I love them too much to yell.

I can't get intense, right?

I mean, I couldn't do that.

I can't be loving and get clear and intense and alarming.

I could I couldn't do well, of course, right?

You're gonna like, well, you you know what I did, right?

I yelled.

I got intense.

I yelled, stop! And not only did I yell stop, I said, I said, get right back here.

Love and draw umbell, I don't care where you go, off she goes, you two back here, face to face.

You always pay attention, you always watch, you always look to your left.

And that was the most loving thing I could do in that moment.

And I'm not even like the greatest father in the world.

I'm just a dad.

I'm just a dad.

That's just what dads do.

I mean, out of love, dads speak intensely at times.

Love can speak intensely and alarming.

That's what we have here.

It's not to create fear, it's to wake us up to the goodness of watching.

Because this world will lull you to sleep.

And it is really temporary.

So that's a very long-winded intro to say this.

Here's point number one.

I could end.

I felt like I could pray right there, we'd be done.

Here's point number one.

I do have a few points.

Point number one: it is dangerous to live unaware of God's reign in your life and love for your heart.

About a month or so ago, it might have been two months ago at this point, uh an elderly gentleman came up to a friend of mine, one of my best friends, came up to him after church at another church and said, Hey, I I think I I think I need you to help me.

I don't know who else to ask.

Oh yeah, what's that?

And the thing is, is this guy's dying.

And he doesn't have anybody to ask to help him through this process.

He said, I I think I I need you to help me um like sell my sell my cars and like get get rid of my stuff in my house and help me sell my house.

The guy has a child, a grown child.

They don't talk.

The man's wealthy or at least somewhat well off.

I mean all the money and everything is going to going to ministry somewhere else.

So who knows what all that's about, right?

Like who knows how you get to that point between a parent and a child.

Who knows?

My friend say, my friend's like, I you know, I don't know.

I can I know I can just serve him and help him.

It's pretty admirable.

And it can end up this way, right?

Like there's nothing this man at this point in life, at the end of his life, he's dying.

There's no amount of money you can give him that all of a sudden the things that really matter the most all of a sudden get cleared up and get healthy.

No achievement.

All of a sudden, all that just doesn't matter.

I mean, he's he's liquidating stuff off and handing it off to somebody else as he dies.

And that's not to say fear on you and more fear on you or more fear.

It's just to say, like, hey, grace on you to have an open heart that we get to live.

We get to live in an awareness that our stories here on this earth will end.

And that's why Jesus uses the Noah story.

So the Noah story is used several times in Scripture for different reasons.

In 1 Peter chapter 2, it's used as a commentary of morality.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Now, that's not what it's used here for.

It's used here here to just say, hey, be aware, watch.

Your story will end.

That's actually good news.

It's one of the odd parts of my job to remind you that you'll die.

It's not something we walk around, especially in our culture.

We don't walk around and we talk about that and remember that all the time.

But the more we can talk about it, the more we can reconcile that reality that we will die, and it may be sooner, it may be later.

And we can face that fear, reconcile that fear, all of a sudden we can begin to live now in light of that.

So we have these activities that are listed, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.

This is a way to say normal life.

A whole bunch of normal life.

These are good, these are good things, fine things.

Nothing wrong with these things.

I love these things.

They just have to be defined by God's grace.

They have to be in light of eternity.

Verses 40 through 43.

Then two men will be in a field, one will be taken away, one will be left.

Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken, and one left.

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming, but know this that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house broken into.

So some people have built theories on how the world will end based on passages like that.

And then you go and you grab some passages from Daniel, some different Old Testament stuff, and you bit out these huge theories about how the world would end.

And you know what?

Somebody wrote a really great fictional series and made like a ton of like a hundred million dollars called Left Behind.

Like, I mean, he made a ton of money on this one, right?

And you're all going like that would that would have been nice.

Here's what's true about this: you can nerd out on that stuff forever.

But Jesus says in verse 36, no one knows the day and the time.

Now, I believe that that goes beyond just day and time.

Literally, I believe Jesus is saying, like, hey, you're only gonna get so far in your understanding of the return of Christ and how the world ends.

Because the point of it is, the point of it is that we can hope in a day where this world, and the exhaustion of this world, just the exhaustion of it, that we can hope in a day when that will end.

And either the end of our story or the redemption of the story of this world by Christ's return, and we can live today in light of that hope.

Now, I learned this week also that this word uh left, this idea of being snatched away or taken away, it can also mean to be forgiven.

So considering that, this idea that one was taken away, right?

Like they're at the grinding mill, one's taken away, they're out in the field, one's taken away.

This idea of taken away can mean to be forgiven.

So considering that, point number two, in Christ, you are never not invited, not welcomed, or left behind.

You're never left behind.

Not in Christ.

Because you're forgiven.

That's why.

And the forgiveness is by God coming to you and pulling you out.

Some of us know the wound of abandonment?

What did we say last week?

Do you remember the two saddest words in the human language?

Do you remember them?

I heard a whisper.

That's like a slight whimper.

Everybody wants to admit that they've heard it, that you remember it.

What party?

What party?

Oh, have you said that?

Or you thought it?

What party?

Somebody's telling you about what party?

Oh, I wasn't invited.

I thought that's why I don't know about it.

So what wasn't invited?

I wasn't there.

What party is this?

Oh, yeah, that I wasn't there.

That's what that's why.

That's a sad moment.

We've all been there.

We've all been there.

Maybe, maybe it's a feeling of a friend leaving you for another group.

You got you got left behind.

Maybe a love interest you thought it was gonna work out, it didn't, because he went back with her over to she went wherever.

Maybe a spouse abandoned you.

You didn't even see it coming.

Maybe you remember being a child.

And you can remember the day your dad left.

Or you can remember the day your mom left.

Maybe you just know the ongoing feeling of being left out.

I mean, this this is some of the feelings, emotions in this passage of abandonment that cause us to question, like, will we be abandoned by God?

Is it possible that I could be, is it possible that I could be left behind?

I would I would not be welcomed.

I was talking to a friend of mine two weeks ago, and he said, he just realized it's been 20 years he came into this realization, and he said, as soon as fall hits, as soon as fall hits, there's perfect crisp days where the leaves are turning, some leaves are starting to fall, and everybody's so happy because the summer heat is there.

Soon as that weather hits, he gets so anxious and sort of fearful.

It took him 20 years to realize it's because on a perfect fall day, his dad tried to kill his mom and was headed into the bedroom to kill him and his brother also.

And he was 11 years old.

We know the emotions of being abandoned.

And maybe it's not even that bad for you.

Maybe it's just you just haven't felt like you fit in.

You're not sure if God will have you.

Because of that thing you did, or the thing from the past.

But what Jesus is saying here, I come for you.

If you're in Christ, I will have you.

You don't disappoint me, you don't embarrass me, I welcome you and I accept in your sin and in your witness.

These are just imperfect people here in this passage.

There's nothing separating the people.

You see that in the passage, there's nothing separating the people.

Faith is the only thing that separates.

By grace through faith.

It's not our works, it's not our merits, and our performance, it's none of that.

It's his pursuit of us and our faith that you know what?

That's enough.

That's enough for me.

The cross is enough.

My sin put upon the cross, his righteousness is given to me, so I am forever beloved, and I'll get so caught up in the temporary world, and even then, he will come and snatch me up.

He will welcome me, even when I don't have my act together.

And in all the areas of growth and grace that you need in your life, and sin and shame and woundedness and all of that, all those areas that we need growth and grace, even now, he'll have you.

Point number three is this in the grace of God, we get to grow in awareness as we live in a temporary world.

Awareness to what?

Awareness that it's temporary.

Two questions might be able to help us.

Two questions.

Here's uh question number one.

How am I growing in awareness that this world is not the fullness of God's story for me?

The things of the world are not the fullness of God's story for you and your soul.

There's a reason why you feel exhausted, it's because it's not this world's not enough for you.

There's a reason why you might feel condemned, it's because this world can never justify you or absolve you of your sin.

Your soul needs to be caught up in God's story for you.

And part of God's story for you is what we've been talking about the last, say, two or three weeks, where we said, you know, there's an intersection between your sin and your woundedness, and there the intersection will be your idolatry.

Be all the things you turn to, the ways you forget God, you get caught up in this world.

And the more we can figure that out, the more we can repent and rest back in God's grace has been enough for us the entire time, but we can be moving further into the freedom God has for us.

Question number two how are my priorities transforming by means of my radical acceptance from a God who pursues me?

I think that's what this passage actually lays out.

A God who is pursuing these people, and then by the end of the passage is talking about, hey, pay attention, the world will end, that there's some transformation of priorities.

How are my priorities transforming by means of my radical acceptance from a God who pursues me?

Verse 44.

Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour you do not expect.

So here's how it starts to tie into Christmas, preparing us for Christmas.

Point number four.

By contemplating the way our stories will end, we prepare ourselves for remembering the coming of Christ.

When we start to contemplate that this world is not enough, and this world will end, and this world's not enough for us, and this world is temporary, all of a sudden we start to become open to something that's not of this world.

And grace is not of this world.

Merit and performance is of this world.

And Jesus is the incarnation of God's grace to us.

The challenge with this passage is to not hear it in fear, but to hear it as alarming and hear it as intense, to hear it as a warning, but to hear it as a welcome by the grace of God to say, please pay attention.

This really matters for your soul.

And if you don't know Christ, and you go, I don't know, I mean, I don't even know.

I don't know if I'd be the one who would be put like pulled by him and pursued by him, or am I the one that's left behind?

We don't have to take this passage and separate it out from the rest of Christ's teaching and who he is.

The return of Christ is the return of Christ.

The loving Christ who welcomes all.

And says, by faith, repent.

Repent of all the ways that we entertain ourselves with the things of this world and ways we try to self-save with our performance and we try to hide and we try to cover our woundedness or ignore our sin and ignore our shame.

And we don't have to do any of that because he accepts you now and he welcomes you now.

This is the man who speaks these words.

What an amazing invitation this passage is.

Don't pretend you can rescue yourself.

This passage is ultimately filled with a great promise that God does the rescuing to imperfect people who don't have their acts together.

And at least for me, I need that, and that is incredibly good news.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for this promise we have in this first week of Advent that even in our lack of awareness, you rescue us.

That we are forgiven and rescued by you, a God who in grace pursues us.

Help us in greater and greater ways to move away from performance and merit, but to rest back and put faith and trust that you are enough.

Help us to find our stories caught up in your story.

Help us to find our stories redeemed by your healing.

Give us sight to see that our stories here will end.

And would that create great transformation in our hearts when it comes to values, pursuits, and priorities?

These are all things that we need, work done by your Holy Spirit, not by us, not by our merit, not by our self will, but by us becoming more and more open to the work of your spirit in our hearts.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.