MK040 Sermons
The Gift of Expectancy (Audio)
entitled The Gifts of Christmas and we're going to look at some gifts that might surprise you a little bit but we think are very very meaningful for us to spend some time reflecting on and thinking about this time of year. I'm the kind of person who likes surprise. I love to be surprised with gifts that I receive at Christmas and other events. There's a problem though. The problem is that as a kid I had this bad habit and it was never really intentional that I somehow I would find my gifts before I was supposed to get them. You know I'd be looking in the closet somewhere I'd see someone. Oh it's exciting. Oh you know I found it before I was supposed to get it and it's always kind of this big letdown and you know it's understandable when you know that we spent most of my grown-up years there was eight of us living in a double wide mobile home. There's not a lot of places to hide things in that you know in that house but unfortunately that has not that didn't stop when I was a kid because it continued now and invariably I find myself walking into a room or going somewhere in the house and I my normally soft-spoken wife will say get out of there you know and I'm like okay I'll leave the leave the room you know because something's in there that I'm not supposed to be or I'm just trying to be helpful in bringing bags in from the car and show I said don't touch that bag and I think I disrupted a crime scene or something you know by how intense the voices that comes at me but she knows that that happens from time to time and I love the idea of being surprised in this dad who recognized the significance of helping his kids understand the concept of anticipating and looking forward to Jesus arriving. Let me ask you this question how many of you do not like surprises let me see your hands how many of you do not like surprise okay there's this little connection between people who don't like surprises and those individuals who are control freaks just wanted to give you that tidbit not something we're gonna talk about today but you know the truth is even if you don't like surprises my guess is you like gifts you like gifts because gifts say something gifts say that someone was thinking about me someone took some time and effort and thought into purchasing and maybe sacrifice something to buy something for me and that makes me feel significant and feel meaningful and it's important and as you think about this holiday season what is something that you're anticipating you're looking forward to maybe you're looking forward to something that you put on a list or you mentioned to a spouse or to a parent or to a relative it'd be nice to have X whatever that is and you hope to see that show up sometime in the next few weeks at a Chris at a family gathering and maybe you're looking forward to some time off of school or a little bit of a break from work maybe you're looking forward to just some time with family and friends but the truth is if we're all honest for some of you the holidays are not something you're looking forward to actually you kind of view the holidays with the sense of dread and you'd actually rather be working because if you're working then you don't have to spend time with some of the fractured relationships that are around you and maybe this year you're entering the holiday season with someone missing who normally is there and you're not sure what that's going to be like or feel like and you don't really know if you want to experience that and so for you the holidays are not anticipation but dread and it's a little bit like the Christmas song that says there is no peace on earth I said holidays don't feel peaceful to you you just counting down the days to get through them to be able to move on with the rest of your life and regardless of whether you're anticipating the holiday season and maybe for for the gifts or the gatherings or the events or if you're dreading I want to challenge you this morning to shift your focus on what your anticipating this Christmas season to shift your focus a verse has become one of my favorites is in John 5 Jesus said this he said my father is always working and I too am working and it's a reminder to me constantly that no matter what season what time of year no matter what's going on in my life that God's always up to something he's always doing something and the question is where and what is God doing this Christmas season in your life you know to change your perspective I'm learning you have to tell yourself a different story I'm listening to some CDs right now and they talk about having challenging conversations and having challenging conversations often emotions surface when that occurs and the emotion comes up from something that you believe something you're telling yourself and it's very possible to tell yourself something different actually feel a different emotion and and as I've been practicing this it's quite remarkable how it actually works and you know my wife will often say when we're out driving and there'll be a driver in front of us it's a little slower and they're not sure where they're going I'm feeling a little impatient she'll say you know maybe as someone who doesn't know where they're going you know and they got PA police they shouldn't know where they're going you know but you know or she'll say well maybe they're a little bit older and they're not quite sure okay all right yeah I can have some compassion you know and it just happened to me just Friday I was driving into Lancaster and I was coming off of Route 30 and I was gonna go south on 501 and when you come to the bottom of the ramp there's two lanes one has an arrow that goes this way and one you can either turn or go straight I happened to be in this one there was a vehicle next to me that was a truck with like bins they obviously carry something because they had high side walls on it I think it was for our entire company and as we started as the light turned green and we started to make the turn this guy turned like this right into my lane and starts pushing me off to the shoulder well if you remember you're going underneath an overpass there's not much of a shoulder there and I'm laying on my horn and he's getting he's pushing me further and further he didn't I don't know if he didn't know if he didn't see me or realize what was going on like what in the world this guy doesn't know how to drive what in the world is going on and and as we started pulling there was nobody on the other side of us of course I sped up on the other side just to see who this was and was thinking all kinds of very ungodly, unpassed or like un-Christian like thoughts you know at that moment but then I had this thought I thought I wonder who's driving that truck and I said it's probably not some 17-year-old kid who's just a little cocky and swinging over on the other side not paying attention I said I bet you it's some guy that's a little bit older maybe it's he's semi-retired and this is kind of a part-time job maybe he's his career ended at one place and so this is just something I kind of help me help ends meet and as I pulled up next to the guy would you know I didn't roll my window down say hey can you tell me your story you know but as I looked in the window of the guy next it was a guy that was a good bit older and I thought wow that might be the story and I felt a certain sense of compassion and didn't do any foolish road rage things it would get me in trouble you know but oh it's amazing that when you look at a situation and you tell yourself a different story all of a sudden your emotion and your perspective about that story changes quite drastically and that's what I want to invite you to do this morning for some of you you can't wait for the Christmas season you look forward to it you know you've already started decorating and you're already playing Christmas music and you just love the season and there's nothing wrong with that it's a wonderful time of year that we are blessed to enjoy but for you your focus is often on the events and the experience and I want to invite you to add something else to that for others of you as I mentioned it's something you do not look forward you hate the season you hate the disruption you hate all the pain and the emotion all the stuff it pushes up in the comments that someone's gonna make it the family gathering this is gonna make it all awkward and uncomfortable you just dread it with a passion and I want you to have a different perspective as well this morning and in order to do that we're gonna look at we're gonna look at a prophecy from the Old Testament from the book of Isaiah if you have your Bibles if you would turn in your in your Bibles to the book of Isaiah if you don't have a Bible our guys have some they're passing out by the way our Wi-Fi is down I do apologize for that this morning I will tell you that when we move into our new facility this will not happen I've been assured this by our internet company because we'll provide all the new equipment in there so we appreciate your patience this morning but Isaiah chapter 64 is we're gonna is a place we're gonna be this morning and before we turn there let me tell you a little bit about Isaiah Isaiah was a guy in the Bible that Bible times it was known as a prophet prophet is someone who is a spokesperson for God when God wanted to communicate to the people of Israel in that day they didn't have a written Bible that they could read and know this is what God thinks and so the prophet would speak for God and sometimes the prophet would give the people instruction saying this is what you should do other times the prophet would speak judgment about what was going to come for the people that were mistreating the nation of Israel and in the first part of the book of Isaiah chapters 1 through 39 it's filled with words of prophecy about judgment on the nations around Israel you see the land of Israel if you think about geographically where it sits to the south is Africa and Egypt and especially in that day Egypt was a ruling power to the north and over to the east was Babylon and Assyria and Assyria and so the land of Israel sits at this strategic point where anyone who controls the land of Israel controls the Middle East and so the nations of that day were always warring trying to get closer and closer and God spoke words of judgment to those those nations that mistreated the people of Israel and then in chapters 40 to 66 the second half of the book the words really shift from words of judgment to those that were mistreating Israel and sometimes the Israel itself for their violation of God's covenant towards of hope and restoration and promise you see there was going to come a time when the people of Israel would be taken captive over into the land of Babylon for 70 years and they didn't know when God was going to show up and these words were spoken so that they would have hope for a future of when what God was going to go show up they also spoke of a suffering servant who would be rejected and restored Isaiah 53 talks about him and then the consummation of God's restoration of Israel the challenge for the people of Israel of that day is Isaiah wrote these words and he's wrote these words a hundred years before they went into captivity and another 70 years before they actually came out of captivity so it'd be a little bit like words being written in 1860 to your great great great great grandparents about what was going to be affecting you in 2014 that's what it would be like or God writing words to us today that when you're zipping around in your shuttlecraft in the year 2285 you know that would affect you and apply to you and so the question is he wrote these words for them a long time ago before they would ever experience this but these words have application for our lives as well today but the first place we have to start is we have to enter back where they were and he said to them and what we're going to read in just a few minutes is a prayer that he encouraged them to pray when they were in a hopeless situation in captivity waiting for what God was going to show up and do if you're there in your Bibles in chapter 63 verse 7 it records a prayer from the Jewish people in God's response they could not figure out how God was going to solve their problem they could not figure it out no way out no way out they were captive in a foreign nation they were they were held in captivity the only thing they could remember is they could remember back to what God did the last time that happened when they were slaves in the land of Egypt when God showed up and God rescued them that's the only thing they could remember and that's where they went back and they pleaded with God to look down and do the same thing and Isaiah 64 is really the second plea that's going to take place and we want to read that so if you're there in your Bibles in Isaiah 64 if you want to follow along as I read I want to read through it first and then we'll walk our way through this this morning it'll also come up on the screen you can follow there this is what the prophet says as he speaks he says speaking to God oh that you would rend the heavens and come down that the mountains would tremble before you as when a fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you for when you did awesome things that we did not expect you came down and the mountains trembled before you since ancient times no one has heard no ear has perceived no one has seen any God beside you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him you come to help to come to the help of those who gladly do right who remember your ways but when we continue to sin against them you are angry how then can we be saved no one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you for you have hidden your face from us and given us over to your sins yet you oh lord you lord are our father we are the clay you are the potter we are the work of your hands do not be angry beyond measuring lord do not remember our sins forever oh look on us we pray for we are all your people as Isaiah is speaking to god really giving this as a prayer for the people of Israel to say he begins by asking them asking god to show up and do something about their enemies now you might be thinking well john i don't really have any enemies you know my brother and sister and i we fight occasionally but i don't know that that would quantify you know in this in this part of the story but i think maybe another way to understand this is to say what in your life is wrong that you wish god would do something about i think then most of us can think about it most of us can think probably of a relationship that's not working right now that's maybe fractured or separated or people are cut off from one another and we're like god i just wish somehow you would show up and do something in this relationship i wish it wasn't the way that it is or maybe you've been working hard in your job and you've made sacrifices and you've you've you've put an extra time and no one has recognized the hard work and effort that you have put in you just you just say god i just wish there would be some level of recognition here and certainly some financial renumeration would be nice as well something that's just not quite right and you wish god would do something about it that's literally the situation that the people found themselves in and they're saying god we know you've shown up in the past why can't you show up in the future and just just step in and get something started look in verse two isn't that what he says he said when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil he just says god can you just kind of get something started here get some sticks together get a little bit of uh something something that'll get that fire going because we know once that fire is going that fire is powerful and that fire can even actually boil water he's using that as a metaphor to say god i'm not asking you to to change the world just kind of get something started here give me some little glimmer of hope remember these are a prayer for people who are in captivity with no hope on the horizon and they're saying god can you just do something he says come down to make your name known cause the nations to quake for when you did awesome things we didn't expect you came down in the mountains trembled before you it's kind of describing something where the mountains shook and the people of israel remembered some illustrations of that they remembered when they were at their their forefathers were at the edge of the red sea and pharaoh's armory was chasing behind them and death was imminent right in front of them and god miraculously with the touch of moses staff parted the red sea and they walk through on drying land and as the soldiers follow them the waters came down and closed behind them they remembered being at mouth sign i when moses went up on the melon and there was fire in the melon shook and they knew god was there and god was speaking and giving moses instruction for his people so they had heard stories of this over and over and over again i don't know if your family's like my family but we're when we are together especially with my wife's family one of the things is they do is they tell a lot of stories and they tell a lot of stories about you know um things that have happened in family life and as certain family members get a little bit older they retell the same story over and over and over again every single time you're together and um you're kind of joking about it you know uh here comes you know get ready for this one you know and you could kind of retell the story because you've heard it over and over and over again right and and why nobody forgets the story right nobody forgets the story and that's what god did with the people of israel he never wanted them to forget about their being delivered from the red sea and so he actually created an annual tradition for them to retell that story that jewish people call it pass over so they would hear that story so every child growing up every year would hear that story over and over and over so the time they got to adulthood they would know that story inside and out and that's all they had to bank on they said god we just remember what you did one time long ago look what he says in verse four he says since ancient times no one has heard no eyes perceived no ears eye is seen any god beside you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him he says there's nobody else there's no plan b but we know you have this capacity to show up and to do something when the chips are really really down this past year the the team that i follow and baseball the orials they signed a a player by the name of delman young who for the fillies fans you know he used to play for the fillies and um and he was basically a pinch hitter he played a little bit in the outfield little third base but he was a pinch hitter and so he his job was to come in when the game was close and there was a runner in scoring position and then needed someone to come through and drive in a run and uh delman young this past year was one of the best pinch hitters in major league baseball he had a batting average of nearly 500 which means one out of every two times he came up to bat he delivered and in the playoffs this year the orials were down a couple runs they were bases loaded they brought him in as a pinch hitter and he had a three run double and they ended up winning the game and this guy would come through but he would only come through 50 percent of the time but that was far better than what the average was anywhere else and so the prophet is saying to the people of israel there is no one else there's no other options to turn to except this one who who invites you to wait for him verse five you come to help to the help of those who gladly do right who remember your ways who think about and remember your ways you know as you think about what you're anticipating this christmas season what you're kind of hopeful that god you know i i don't know if it's in your scope or in on your radar but it would be really nice if you would do something about whatever this situation is and he says god comes to those who wait on him he said well i don't have any other choice so i can't do anything about it but i think the second half of that part of verse five really speaks our heart our attitude you can say can't do anything anyway he's got if you show up that would be great you know i'm gonna go over here and go about my business or you could wait expectingly for god to do something you don't know when you don't know where you don't know how you don't know what he's going to use but somehow god's going to show up and do something well he goes on in the second half of verse five to really shift his direction because he doesn't just talk about um praying that god will do something but he says there might be something going on inside your life that's keeping god from acting good verse five the middle half the middle part of the verse he says we continue to sin against them we realize that you are angry how then can we be saved he's not talking about salvation from sin he's talking about rescue or delivered from captivity he said all of us have become like one who's unclean and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags you know he's talking about people who try to do good things but their good things are out of their own heart and of their selfish desires and they're actually doing good things because of what they want and they need i'm talking to someone recently and they were telling me that they struggle to to please people and they came to this recognition that people who are people pleasers are actually very selfish because they please people so that they will not feel pain or discomfort it's really all about them and that's kind of what he's talking about he's saying you do righteous things you do good things but they don't really serve any good or any value what's a dirty rag serve up to do other than just maybe clean up more of a mess it doesn't do anything productive doesn't do anything beneficial he says there in the verse six he says we all shrivel up like a leaf and like the wind our sins sweep us away brought in a few leaves from the yard we're all trying to get rid of these things out of our yard and he says you know he said we're just kind of like this fine dust and you know the wind just kind of blows it pulls it away what's the what's he talking about in all of these pictures that he's using i think what he's talking about is i think he's pointing to things on the inside in our lives look at verse seven no one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you the result remember this is a prayer to god you've hidden your face from us and you've given us over to our sins you know he said no one's really pursuing god they know god's the only one they can do anything they're reluctantly waiting on him but they've just kind of chosen to live their own lives they're not even bringing god into the equation and in this season of waiting maybe there's some recognition for you that god's silence or his lack of or his lack of action maybe more about what's going on inside your own heart than god's capacity to do something in the gospel of luke jesus said this he said if a father if a son ask his father for a piece of bread doesn't the father give him that bread he doesn't give him a stone that reminds us that god is a good god a gracious god who's waiting to give good gifts to those who follow him not someone who's holding out and saying just get a little closer just get a little closer and now you thought you were going to get that guess what i'm giving you this and what does it do it tells us that god's really waiting and maybe the limitation is what the prophet iseus suggests for us to do and that's the look in the mirror in first peter three peters talking to husbands and he says husbands he said he calls husbands to respect and honor their wives and he said if you don't your request to god may not be responded to maybe there's something about my relationship with other people that gets in the way of god showing up and doing something on my behalf maybe there's something about my preoccupation with myself and my self-absorption that gets in the way of god showing up and doing something on my behalf you know if i offer my son something i said do you want some of this he can certainly say yeah thanks and take it from me or he can say what no thank you because he's not interested sometimes he has things in his ears and he can't hear me and i say again and again and again you know and he still can't hear me so he's preoccupied right and so he can't hear me but does that mean i'm not still offering this to him no i'm offering this to him and it's always there always ready and always available see a lot of times i think people perceive god to be like a carrot out and then a carrot on a stick out in front of a of a mule that he just can't reach and he just keeps trying to get there and every time he gets close it gets moved a little further away but that's not the picture of god that the bible paints even these prophets in the old testament there was one phrase that they use over and over and over again and that's if you turn back i will bless you you see god is that father waiting there to pour out blessings in the lives of his children but when they're preoccupied with themselves when they're too consumed with other things when they're not paying any attention to to him those gifts are not going to be something that they will take hold of well he closes this prayer with a very powerful image in verse eight and nine and he begins in verse eight by saying yet oh lord you are our father acknowledges the relationship with god acknowledges isn't just someone up there in the heavens who's kind of got things started and he's kind of letting us run on our own down here he says you are our father that's a picture of relationship one of the most valued and treasured relationships that all of us have and then he says we are the clay in other places it starts out the opposite all other places says you are the potter we are the clay he's kind of speaking about his own heart he said we're like clay i said you are the potter you are the one that does something with our lives you see even if we have an anticipation that we're looking forward to what god's going to do and we're willing to take a look at what's inside of our heart the result of what god's going to do may be very very different than what you anticipate and the question is are you willing to trust him with what he has planned for you i want to invite you to watch this video that we produced a couple years ago that just illustrates this concept in a very powerful way you know and that potter takes that lump of clay he knows what he's going to do with it he doesn't just spin that client say huh i wonder what this is going to be because he now he knows what that's going to be and i love the last phrase if you could put verse 8 up on the screen there force kevin i love the last phrase of this of this verse um he says for we are the work of your hand that potter knows what he's doing with that clay even if we're not sure we can't quite figure out it's a kind of a lump it's got a little hole in the middle and then he shapes that clay and then even that the very end takes a little bit and just rolls it out to create the handle for that picture and you know for you this morning you have an opportunity this holiday season to tell yourself a different story to tell yourself a different story about something that maybe seems impossible but you're still anticipating that god's going to do something and you're willing to take just a little step and say i don't know how or i don't know what way but i'm willing to change my story to i don't think there's any way to maybe there's a way that god will in this holiday season maybe instead of just saying well god it's all on you and you really should do something be a good idea to be willing to look on the inside and say you know is there something in my life or it's been a little bit more about me than it has been about you or maybe the story needs to be your way versus god's way your plan versus god's plan you wouldn't really say this but kind of acting like you're the potter and you've got plans and you know how he should take care of that thing over there but are you willing to accept the fact that maybe he has something for you that is very different than what you ever expected that's really what the prophet was talking about and then he closed really with a prayer look at that prayer at the very end that he closed with there in verse nine he says this don't be angry beyond measure remember our sins oh look on us we pray for we are all your people it's interesting how he kind of invites the people to make this something very communal he says this is all of us this is all of us you know one of the things that happens here at CCC and small groups is we share our stories and we share our lives and we know the heartaches and the struggles and the challenges and the longings and as you enter that in your own life in your own journey there's others in the circle that you are a part of who are entering those same kinds of things and so my challenge for you this morning is not just to be prayerful on your part about looking forward to about anticipating about waiting to see what God's going to do but for to do that for the circle of people that God has brought into your life you know the word advent means waiting so what the word advent means reminds us of the people of Israel who for hundreds of years waited for that messiah to show up and so as we enter this season in our lives we often talk about it the Christmas season but for people of faith it's really a season of advent because we're waiting we're anticipating not for Jesus to arrive but to wonder what is God going to do in my life how is God going to show up how's he going to do something in my family maybe in my extended family that doesn't really care about God is there some way that I can be light and salt to them or is it just going to be the same that it always is is there some breakthrough that God's going to give in my heart in my journey that I've been praying with and waiting and anticipating and maybe this is going to be the time when that's going to be happened but if it's not that whatever it is that God has for me whatever he's shaping my life to be I'm going to look forward and anticipate that as well and pray that God will do something and so what's your story going to look like what's the story going to be that you're going to tell yourself this Christmas season you know for our students you know for you it's a break from school a break from the routine some time to hang out with friends and do other things but are you willing to say God what is it that you're going to do in my life this holiday season maybe a relationship that's not really clear what that should be should look like maybe it's your future you're going to school but you don't really know if you really love it and you're like God what is that going to be about maybe for the rest of us it's praying that God might restore relationships holidays bring about this heavy focus on relationships whether we like it or not and as johnnie shared in the first service you know there's that brings all kinds of emotions maybe you've been there's a relationship that you've been leaving in God's hands and he wants you to examine your own heart that's been selfish and unwilling to move towards someone who you are dreading because you've already told yourself a story of what that how that person's going to respond and God say it's time for you to take a step and trust me to do something maybe different than what you expected but are you willing to trust me you see that's what submission that's what being the clay is all about you have to submit and let the potter do whatever the potter wants maybe there's some needs in your life and you're not sure how you're going to meet those needs financially it's allowing people to walk with you in your struggle and be willing to be honest about those whatever it is you know for some of you this longing and anticipation it's very clear you know exactly what it is you're longing for brothers you're not so sure and i just want to invite you over these next few days and weeks to just spend some time reading some passages in the scripture if you read the bible online go to go to uversion there's some 21-day advent readings that you can do and just read a passage each day and say god what is it that i'm waiting for you to do because i want this holiday season to be something that i enjoy something that's meaningful for me and my family and and the things that are there but i also want it to be a holiday season one of which we are anticipating what god's going to do and how god's going to show up just like the people of israel were hundreds of years ago they were waiting for that messiah to show up and you know what he did he did and because he did it gives us hope that he's going to show up in our lives as well would you bow your heads with me and i just want to give you a moment to talk with god and meet with him this morning if it's clear what god's calling you to wait on would you just talk to him about it and as you do just take a moment and look inside and say god am i willing to look at my own heart maybe some ways i've been selfishly ignoring things i need to do we allow god to mold and shape you about whatever the outcome is what might that outcome look like for you this holiday season it's not all the time but likely it's different than what you anticipate it might be god as we come to you this morning there's all kinds of things that are on our hearts minds good things god things that we long for in relationships things that we long for in our careers things that we long for in other parts of our lives things that we long for in our own struggles and journeys that we just would love to be free of those things and able to live our lives the way you designed us to live and so Lord i just pray that this Christmas season might be one in which you fill us with a sense of anticipation not requirement or expectation but anticipation or anticipating what you're going to do we can't fathom waiting for you to show up and do something for hundreds of years like the people of israel did god there's no way we have the patience for that these days but we know that you're alive we know that you're at work god open our eyes to see how you're working in this world. so