Howdy. Well, we're getting into the season of Advent. So for those of you who haven't
been celebrating Advent in the past, this is the season that leads up to Christmas. So
Advent is talking about the coming, the coming of the Christ. And with that is each of these
weeks ends up being another week that builds on that theme of Christ coming into this world.
And this first week, we're looking at the season of hope. Now with that is a lot of
times as a child of the 80s, hope could be a very difficult thing at times. Pretty much
anything and everything that we would be immersed in as children would scare the bejesus out
of us. So for example, we're watching the never ending story, and we're thinking to
ourselves, oh, this is lovely, a boy and his horse, a giant flying dog, all of these cute
creatures and then you find out that everything's falling apart. And then you realize that the
horse is getting sucked into a swamp. And it's like now it's like children that grew
up in the 80s with me. Now we've got PTSD over anything to do with swamps, because we're
afraid that now it's going to just suck us right in. Apparently we all think that, you
know, like quicksand and everything else is all around us now. Or then we might say, well,
there might be other things that we might have enjoyed, you know, maybe instead the
American tale. The American tale is this little mouse fival and he's leaving his home in Russia
and he's coming to the US and you're like, oh, that's wonderful, except he's separated
from his family and he's surrounded by these scary cats and you don't know who's coming
after him and you're just like, I thought this was a sweet movie and don't even get
me started on Disney. Oh my word. Pinocchio still haunts my dreams. Oh my goodness, those
donkeys, they were children. Oh my goodness, it just seemed like each one of these stories,
it's like, it's this sweet story except for the dark side to it. Oh my goodness. And so
it's like in addition to our, you know, mutual counseling sessions and support groups among
children of the 80s, is that in addition, it oftentimes ends up not only shaping us,
but also in many ways, it kind of changes what we're waiting for and expecting. And I
bring that up this morning because this is the season of Advent. And so I went into looking
at this hope week, you know, what is it that Advent is going to express for hope? So I'm
thinking, okay, this is the time for, you know, the baby Jesus and the wise men and the
shepherds and I don't know, maybe something new with gingerbread. I'm sure, you know, like
that's what the wise man brought, gold, frankincense, myrrh and gingerbread cookies. So with that,
I'm going into the passages and I'm kind of excited and I'm looking at and then I get
to Mark 13 and I'm like, okay, let's see what this has to say. Mark 13. In those days after
that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the
stars will be falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. This
is leading to Christmas. What in the world? And I started looking at this passage thinking
to myself, geez, Christmas story got super dark, like really fast. But in reality is
this idea of what is happening in the world around us. The world doesn't just stop just
because we are in the middle of the Advent season. There are a lot of things that are
still happening all around us, things that are difficult and scary and we make us frightened
and unsure. We know that at this time, the ceasefire in the Middle East has come to an
end and they're back to bombing one another. We know that there are still hostages that
are in prisoners that have been taken and are in places that they don't need to be.
We know that there is still a battle happening, Ukraine and Russia. We know that we are still
in the middle of issues in our world right now too. The Black Friday sales and the Christmas
season hasn't fixed anything with the economy and inflation just yet. We're still surrounded
by so many things that not only are frightening, but maybe they distract from what Christmas
is supposed to be about. You see, this idea of hope can sometimes be difficult to hold
on to. Now, when we think about stuff like the moon and losing its light and the sun
being darkened and we sometimes get caught up in these kind of scary images that are
in our heads, and whenever we think of something that's frightening, it's very easy to try
to look to a strong, confident figure that makes us feel safe. We're oftentimes trying
to find someone that, well, we're not always worried that there's somebody that we like
and we're not always worried that it's somebody that's nice. We're just wanting to make sure
that it's somebody strong enough to make us feel safe. We want to know that there is someone
there that we think has our backs. You see, I was trying to think through what were some
images of when we're looking for someone to come and to not only make us safe, but also
to take care of our enemies. And I started trying to think through who was a military
figure, somebody that we could look to and say, that is a person that made us feel safe.
And I started thinking about all of the controversial figures that we have known for some time.
And I kept looking back and looking back, trying to find somebody that brought us a sense
of safety that everybody could agree on. And basically, I got George Washington and that's
it. I have no idea who else we'd even looked to. Because with so much of this is that oftentimes
we're putting people in our lives that are just strong, but not always asking if they're
good. More than that, though, is what is it that we're wanting them to do in our lives?
In Revelation six, there's an image where there are people that have been martyred for
the name of Christ for the word of God. And it says, they cried out with a loud voice,
Oh, sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood
on those who dwell on the earth? Because that's a huge part of this. We oftentimes feel in
one way or another that people have wronged us, that they have harmed us in some way.
And we want to know that someone's going to come and take care of that for us. We want
to know that someone is going to fix it. Our hope is oftentimes in thinking that someday
someone is going to take care of all the people we didn't like. And the world will finally
make a little bit of sense. But you see, whenever we hear the passages that say that the kings
of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone
hid themselves in the caves and they're calling to the mountains, fall on us and hide us from
the face of the wrath of the lamb. Then we also have to pause and ask, Yeah, but who
is it that would be afraid of the wrath of the lamb? You see, in our Isaiah passage,
it starts off by saying things like, Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down that
the mountains might quake at your presence. And the nations would tremble to make your
name known to your adversaries. But here's the difficulty later in that chapter, it says,
behold, you were angry and we sinned in our sins. We have been a long time and shall we
be saved? When I was six years old, I went to the theater to watch the best movie of
all time, Transformers. Okay, I don't care about all your Michael Bay stuff nowadays.
The original cartoon movie in 1986 is still the best. All right. But at the same time,
there I was watching this movie and half of them died. Oh my God, it was it was scarring.
I'm like, No, no, no, they're okay. Just put a bandage on it. It'll be fine. I don't I
don't care what I just saw. We're going to say it's okay, right? Right? Well, one of
the biggest scenes in there. And for those of you don't know, Transformers are robots
that turn into cars and planes and everything. Hopefully, I don't have to go into much
more detail than that with you. But the ultimate bad guy, Megatron is fighting the ultimate
good guy, Optimus Prime. And there was a young guy who comes up named Hot Rod and thinks
that he is going to come and take on Megatron. And instead, Megatron beats him down, grabs
him and uses them as a shield and shoots down Optimus Prime. See, as much as Hot Rod is
thinking that he is going to somehow come up and take care of everything in reality,
he was the one who brought the downfall of Optimus Prime. But that's the reality with
us as well. See, we spend a lot of time looking at the world around us waiting for God to
somehow take care of that group or that issue or those people. When in reality, we're oftentimes
the ones causing the problems. Isn't it so easy that we can see everybody else causing
it and then realize that sometimes we're the ones who actually made it possible for evil
to win the day. The times whenever we have not only taken for granted who God is and
what he's doing, but sometimes taking each other for granted, sometimes ignored one another,
or even at times like Christmas, where we're looking to just make sure that we had a wonderful
time and we got to see and enjoy everything around us and make sure we got all the sales
and whatever it is we were waiting all year to get. And then we don't pause to realize
that there are times whenever we've made things harder for God and for the world around us.
You see, oftentimes whenever we say, God, we're waiting for you to return. Yeah, but why
hasn't he returned yet? It says in 2 Peter chapter three verse eight. When we're looking
at this, it speaks of what's happening whenever everything is falling apart. And it says in
here, do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as 1000 years
and 1000 years as one day, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count
slowness, but as patient toward you. Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should
reach repentance. See, in reality, God isn't forgetting us. He's waiting for us because
many of us just keep kind of putting off the things of God. We just keep kind of going
back about our lives and just ignore whatever it is that God is trying to do. God is waiting
not only for us to change and to come to him, even as Isaiah says that you are the potter,
we are the clay. He said he's also waiting for us to take that message to the rest of
the world. The show Thunder Cats, I always loved it. At the end of every episode, there
was always a lesson you were supposed to learn. I was becoming a pastor at the age of seven,
I didn't even realize it. But when it first started, they were escaping their planet and
they were all in some frozen state of animation, but one of the pods opened up. It turned out
that somebody had to stay awake to make sure that the ship landed where it needed to. You're
sitting there watching as that person keeps aging and aging and aging. You're just like,
please let them get to the planet soon before, and then you realize that he has passed away.
The thing is, is that oftentimes when I look back and I'm like, how could that character
have just sacrificed himself like that? Because he realized who it was that was depending
on him. The question is, what is it that he's waiting on with us? What is it that he has
been saying, I have called you for a reason? When are you going to live into it? When are
you going to come back to knowing who I am? And when are you going to go out and share
that with the world that is around you? See, when we look at the season of hope is that
in many ways we're thinking we are hoping for Jesus to come again. But the truth is,
is that Jesus has already come. And what have we done with it? See, that's the thing whenever
we look at the hope of the world, the hope of the world that is to come, is that oftentimes
we miss out on the fact that we've already been given the hope that we're meant to have
here and now. But we keep taking it for granted. You see, whenever I finally finished Never-Ending
Story and I was like scarred for the rest of my life, at least the good part was that
at the end everything was restored. There was still an opportunity for a Trey U and
his horse to ride off together. There was still an opportunity for all the creatures
to come back together. Same thing with the American tale. Fival eventually found his
family. He was able to have his happy ending there in New York. And truth be told is,
Transformers, they always manage to find a way to bring back Optimus Prime. I mean,
everybody loves him. But in reality is that we also know that eventually we're going to
get where we're supposed to go. As much as we keep saying, come Lord Jesus, that part's
already figured out. We know that Jesus is coming back. But what we don't know is what
he's doing in our lives in the meantime. So as we are going into this Advent season,
I want us to take a pause from thinking of what is it that we're trying to look to in
the future and instead look at what has already come. See, the Christ child is being born
in a manger. Not to come and knock everyone out and make sure that everybody has been
taken care of, but rather is to grow for 30 something years and to spend his time being
one of us. Because in that time, he could then eventually go to the one place that would
bring salvation and with that cross to bring a new life. So as we get through the season,
what is it that God is now doing in your life, not only to bring you back to him, but also
so that you can go forth and bring others to know him as well. May he be the hope of
this season for us and for the world. Thanks be to God.