Well, good morning. My name is Gregg. I am one of the pastors here if we've never met.
I would love to meet you, I'd love to buy you a coffee, something like that, hear your
story. I really like to get to know people, like to talk about Jesus if that's something
that you're interested in talking about. I would love to do that.
As has been established, we are in the second week of Advent. Advent is the beginning of
the global church calendar. It sets the path as we walk through the story of Jesus toward
the cross and Pentecost and then eventually the largest part of the calendar year is just
ordinary time. You'll notice the colors change. It's green for a lot of the year because it's
just reminding us that we are people of this earth, that God has so much for us to do in
the ordinary time. Last week, Scott brought a message about hope and today I'm bringing
the message about peace. I'm going to jump right in. If you want to grab your Bibles,
we're going to be opening to Luke chapter 1. Luke is in the second testament, the newer
testament. It goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. If you see any of those, you know you're
in the right neighborhood. There are Bibles on the table. You can use a digital Bible
as well if you would like. We have a tradition of giving the scriptures our full attention
as we read the passage in the context of the message. One of the ways we do that is by
standing together as we are able, but you're more than welcome to sit. Let's give the scriptures
our full attention. Luke 1 starting in verse 8. Luke 1 verse 8. Once when Zachariah's division
was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by Lot according to the
custom of the priesthood to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the
time for the burning of incense came, all of the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing at the right side of the altar of
incense. When Zachariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said
to him, do not be afraid. Zachariah, your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear
you a son. You are to call him John. Let's jump to verse 18. Zachariah asked the angel,
how can I be sure of this? I'm an old man and my wife is well along in years. Let us
pray. God of every tribe, every tongue, every color, every nation, we thank you for the
scriptures that they have persisted throughout the millennia that we still have them to read,
to consider, to learn from. I pray that today whatever you have for us to learn, I pray
that it would stick, that it would become part of the framework of our faith, that our
faith would grow and become stronger as we become more like your son Jesus. Amen? Amen.
Alright, so Zachariah and really all of Israel had been waiting for a messiah. For hundreds
of years there was this concept that a messiah, that a leader would come along and would free
them from their oppressors, would begin a season of eternal peace. In Zachariah and
Elizabeth we know they were waiting personally for their own child. Long past when people
in their season of life would have been having kids. And that parallel is on purpose, the
waiting. The waiting for a messiah, the waiting for a child. The scriptures are reminding
us on purpose that when we wait longer than we think is possible for something earthly
and physical, that it shapes what we think God can do with the heavenly and spiritual.
In this story we can see that the waiting has given Zachariah a level of pessimism.
This last week on my Facebook page I posted a real simple thing, pessimism is poison.
Zero comments. When the angel Gabriel says to Zachariah, your prayer has been heard,
your wife will have a son. It doesn't say that he smiles, it doesn't say that he breathes
a sigh of relief, it says that he questions whether it's possible. And this isn't the
first time that this has happened either. In the Bible, if you're familiar with more
of the story in the Bible, this actually echoes the story of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham and
Sarah are the mother and the father of the Israelite people and more than 1800 years
earlier the scriptures say that God told Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child in
their older years. And Abraham said this, to God. Can a child be born to a man who is
100 years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of 90? What did Zachariah say to the angel?
How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years. The waiting
is parallel. The promise from God is a parallel. Whether it's God or an angel, it is a pretty
normal response when we're told that something we've hoped for, asked for, prayed for, for
years and years and years is finally on its way to wonder if it's true. To ask big questions,
maybe even pessimistic questions. Cindy and I, we were pretty young when we started having
kids, I think at least by today's standards, people are waiting longer and longer. I was
26 and she was 22 and we found out that we were, well she was pregnant for the first
time, I know this modern thing, we had a baby, she had a baby. And an angel didn't tell us,
a pregnancy test did, but we were fortunate. We know that we're fortunate. We didn't have
to try for years. Eugene Peterson translates the word blessed in the message as lucky.
Zachariah and Elizabeth, so many others, had to wait. But I can relate to Zachariah at
least a little bit, because it felt like when we found out in that season of being pregnant
for the first time, there was a lot of uncertainty. Just months before we became pregnant, this
is back in 2004, we had just left our job at a church, a paid job. We left a paid job
at a church and we started working as volunteers. I was a full time volunteer, worship pastor
at a church and we sold our house. And we moved into the basement of the pastor that
we were working with, because that was the only way that they could pay me. There was
the promise of next year. And that's when two major things happened. One was that we
became pregnant. Second, the senior pastor of the church at large changed their mind.
They decided that the ministry that we were helping start was no longer needed. Where
would we live? What would we do? We had a baby on the way. Jen, you remember, you were
there. It is amazing how when people here on earth make and change plans that it can
leave us thinking that God has changed his promises. But God was still working. We just
had to figure out what faith looked like now. We'd had the faith to sell the house. We'd
had the faith to quit the job. We'd had the faith to move into the basement. We had had
the faith to say, yes, we'll start that thing. But we had to ask, what does faith look like
now? I remember when we went for the ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby. We were in
this dark little room and they had the screen and they had all the equipment and gel on
Cindy's baby belly. And the nurse asked us what we wanted to know. We wanted to know.
She said that we were having a son. Man, the way that I remember it, I felt like God surrounded
me in that room. I went out into the hallway. I left the room because I needed to weep.
Because I had no idea what our future was. I had no idea what it held. There was so much
uncertainty, but something about that moment, being told that I was having a son, it just
swept over me. I felt seen. It felt like God still knew where we were. In that same season,
we took a trip up to Minneapolis to visit a church called Solomon's Porch. The pastor
there, Doug Padgett, he set us up to stay with a couple from the church. As we talked
to them, they talked about how they'd really been through the wringer. They talked about
how they had a new word for faith. We were sitting at the table there in their kitchen,
in their dining room, and saying, we have a new word for faith. We said, what is it?
They said, bravery. In the midst of not knowing what was next, in the midst of plans falling
apart, but knowing and believing that God was still with us, we'd already picked out
a name for our son. He was going to be named Brennan Reed Hampton, but instead, we gave
him the name Brennan Brave Hampton. Not just as a sign to him for his life, but to always
remind us to be bold, to remind us that faith requires bravery in the midst of uncertainty.
If you fast forward, when Brennan was just 15 months old, we took a pretty brave step.
We moved to Colorado Springs so that I could go to a one-year school of worship at a church
out there called New Life Church. And just two months in, again, we're living in a basement,
a furnished basement, two months in, it came out that the senior pastor at that church
had committed adultery, was abusing methamphetamines, and he was fired. Now, very suddenly,
this whole faith as bravery idea looked a lot like foolishness in disguise. When we saw
the way that so many of the leaders and pastors there set their hearts on the line to care
for the church, to kneel in prayer, to stand for goodness and faithfulness, we watched
as so many people faced one of the greatest challenges of their lives with grace and humility.
Did they know exactly what they were doing? No. They had no clue what they were doing.
At the same time, I could see what kind of character that they had as they walked through it.
In the midst of all that chaos in Colorado, we became pregnant with our second son.
And we knew after naming our first son Brennan Brave that we could not name our other kids
normal names. And so, once again, we began looking at what faith meant now. Faith meant
honor and respect. Faith meant being trustworthy. Faith meant being a person of your word, being
full of kindness in difficult moments. And so we named him William Noble Hampton.
And then, if you fast forward a few years, William was born in Georgia, and then we moved
back to Colorado from Georgia, and I was hired on at that same church after they had gone
through everything. New Life Church. Now, by then, Brennan was about five and a half,
Liam had just turned three. I had been hired on at the church. We felt like, all right,
our feet are under us. It's okay. It's time for us to begin growing the family.
And we were, again, fortunate enough to get pregnant when we tried. But this pregnancy
ended up being really different. For the first time, the doctors were telling us that there
might be issues. The placenta wouldn't attach. Scans found small bubbles in the fetus's
brain. Cindy spent a lot of that pregnancy in a bed, on bed rest. There was a real chance
that we would either lose this boy or he could be born with serious medical issues. So here
we were again, wondering what does faith mean now? As we looked to Jesus, we kept coming
back to this feeling over and over and over again that we could trust him. That no matter
what happened, he was the truth. No matter what. So not only to give our child the path
to follow, but to give ourselves a reminder, we decided whatever happened, this little
boy's name would be Wallace True Hampton. Cindy stayed on bed rest. Bubbles disappeared.
And we were very fortunate that Wallace True was born a healthy little boy. And then if
you fast forward just one more time, a few years later, we felt like God wanted us to
move back here from Colorado to plant a church. At the same time, Cindy said, can we try for
one more baby? I promise if it's a boy we can be done. But I really want to try for
a little girl. And so we did. And the doctors told us that she had all the same issues with
this pregnancy as the last one. All the same risks. All the same medical issues. So we
thought back through living a faith that is brave, through choosing a faith that is noble
trusting that God is true. And in those moments we thought after all we had experienced, what
is faith right now? We thought if faith in God is anything, it is wisdom. So no matter
what her name would be and her name became Adleria Wise Hampton. And wisdom is personified
as wisdom as a woman. Yes. Thank you for editing my sermon. The love of my life. Now some of
you may be wondering what does any of this have to do with Advent? What does this have
to do with Zechariah and Elizabeth and peace? Because you're brave, noble, true, wise. Well
I left something out when we read the passage earlier. See immediately after Gabriel tells
Zechariah, you're going to have a son and you will name him John, and immediately Zechariah
questions how any of this could happen. It says that Zechariah lost his voice. It was
nine months later when it was time to name his son. Everyone wanted to know what to name
this child. Everyone in the family was saying his name will be Zechariah after his father.
His name will be Zechariah after his father. Zechariah grabs a pad and he writes down his
name will be John. It says immediately he regained his voice and he began singing a
prophetic song about what this son of his would be in the world. How this son of his
would lead the way for the son of heaven to shine on the darkness and on the valleys of
death of the earth and to set their people's feet in the path of peace. Nine months earlier
Zechariah had one idea about faith, about what faith was now. On the day that it was
time to name his son, he had a completely different idea of what faith was. And that
was the word peace. The cherry on top of it is the word peace. Far path as Hampton's to
be brave and noble and true and wise has taught me anything about faith. It's that there
is no greater peace than the peace that is found in following Jesus. Whether it's to
move to a house and live in a basement. Whether it's to move to Colorado and live in a
basement. Whether it's to move to Georgia where you don't know a single soul with a
pregnant wife that will give birth to our second son in a place that we didn't know
anybody. Or if it was to move back to Colorado without the job yet, believing that it would
happen. Or when you're working at a really great church in a really great town in a
really great state, believing that God was calling you back to a place called Rock Island.
There's no greater wisdom because there is no greater peace than following in the path
that Jesus sets. The path of peace. My hope for you this Advent is that you'll take a
moment and ask what is faith now? What is faith now? And if I can suggest something,
if you cannot think of anything else, let it be peace. Let it be peace. Let it be peace.
Amen? Amen.