MidTree Church
The sermon audio of MidTree Church in Harris County, Ga. BEHOLD // BELIEVE // BECOME
MidTree Church
Finding God's Timing in Holiday Chaos | Pastor Will Hawk | December 8th, 2024
Have you ever wondered how reimagining a nativity scene could lead to profound theological insights? Join us on a reflective journey through the Advent season as we explore the isolation and eventual unity of biblical figures like Mary, Joseph, and Zachariah. Through personal anecdotes and a touch of humor, we take a fresh look at the Christmas story, fostering a childlike faith and openness to divine surprises.
Embrace the joy and mystery of God’s pacing as we dive into the themes of expectation and divine timing. By comparing Zachariah and Elizabeth’s story to our own holiday hustle, we highlight the divine wonders that often defy our sense of fairness and timing. This episode encourages a shift from efficiency-driven tasks to savoring the anticipation and wonder inherent in the Advent season, offering a deeper appreciation of God's miraculous plans.
Imagine celebrating Christmas not just as a season but as a year-round mindset. Inspired by Ebenezer Scrooge's transformation, we discuss the importance of gratitude and preparation in daily life, emphasizing the irreplaceable value of quality time with loved ones. Through the lens of Advent's anticipation, we invite you to keep your heart open and ready for God's surprises all year long, making the message of hope and love a constant pursuit.
If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.
Last week when we sort of kicked off our Advent season. What we have been doing is a little series called Fixing your Nativity to Fix your Heart on the True and Better Story, and I went home after church on Sunday and I try to practice what I preach so I emptied out the nativity, because it doesn't begin that way in scripture I put Mary on one side, I put Joseph on the other, and then some spirit in our home continues to put the nativity back together, no matter how often I spread it out. However, thank you so much, stokes. I did go over to a couple of friends a couple of nights ago friends a couple of nights ago and this is what I saw on their mantle, with Mary on one side and Joseph on the other, and I was so encouraged because one of the things that we looked at last week is the Christmas story begins with people who are very, very much alone. Mary is alone, joseph, confused and alone, zachariah, mute and alone, anna, simeon, elizabeth, all of them, and then, slowly but surely, god continues to tell this story as they find themselves in a guest house.
Speaker 1:I will also say, theologically, I was wrestling with an angel in a boot. It was like well, they are warriors. I thought that was kind of cool that we had an angel in a boot. It was like, well, they are warriors. I thought that was kind of cool that we had an angel in a boot. That was pretty fun. And then a wise man who had other things he'd rather be doing. Quite honestly, it's a long journey. So here's what we are going to do this morning. I'm going to say a little prayer for us and the goal of the morning. The reason that we're walking through the text the way that we are is because we want to fix our hearts on the true of the morning. The reason that we're walking through the text the way that we are is because we want to fix our hearts on the true and the better story. I want you to understand the biblical account outside of cultural myths so that whenever you see a nativity whether you're at Fantasy and Lights or driving by somebody's house or looking in your own home you have these sort of bookmarks and placeholders for incredibly good, deep, rich theology and a God who loves you in an incredible way.
Speaker 1:So let's pray together and then we'll dive into Luke, chapter 1, verse 6. Heavenly Father, I am abundantly grateful for these kiddos. Thank you for the example that they set for us in faith, for the example that they set for us in following in obedience, in trust, and Lord, I pray that as we come to this text, simply put Lord, we would come as little humble children and that you would continue to surprise us with your care and your love over us. And I pray all of these things in Christ's name. And everybody said amen. All right guys. Luke, chapter one, verse 6 and 7.
Speaker 1:Now, as I get ready to read this, one thing that I kind of want you wrestling with, I put Zachariah and Elizabeth's name on the top of this. Oh, unless our tech just went out, maybe, but I don't see Josiah back there. We'll see. Oh, and we're back, beautiful, and we're gone. And okay, you know what. We're going to see how this plays out.
Speaker 1:One thing that I want you to realize is this when you came in this room and the angels started taking their spot, true or false, there were one or two kids that your eyes fell on more than others. True or false? Okay, true. Now it could be for a number of reasons. Could be because it's your kid Nothing wrong with that. Could be because it was your grandkid Could be, because it looked like a shepherd was firing off a 12 gauge to finish off the song. I don't know. Something may have drawn your attention. Forgive me for going deep quickly. I'm not trying to give you emotional or spiritual whiplash.
Speaker 1:Zachariah and Elizabeth would have had a very difficult Sunday this Sunday. They would have walked into churches they had done many, many times and they would have looked at children and they would have looked at grandchildren and as excited as they were for the beauty of young faces and the excitement that children bring, they would see in their own life an emptiness, a loss, a longing for something Both of them had desired to have a child. But here is how Luke opens up. By the way, I should have done this, but I didn't include verse five. In verse five, the Bible tells you it was in the area of Judea during the time of Herod and I should have left that in there, because this is not a story about somebody who lives really far north. So let's get excited about Christmas. This is history, true history that God has written. But here's what God's word says about Zachariah and Elizabeth. They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly, and this is a huge word in all of the commandments and the statutes of the Lord, but they had no child.
Speaker 1:Now, look, most of us are going to read this and we're going to relate to it emotionally and we're going to relate to it relationally. I want you to understand primarily, what this text is making is a theological claim. What it's saying is this should seem unfair and unjust. There are two reasons that Elizabeth is not pregnant, two reasons that Zachariah does not have a child for his eyes to fall on during the telling of the Christmas story. Number one they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they were both advanced in years. I put these things in front of you to tell you. What the Bible is trying to show you theologically is this there was a supernatural reason they didn't have a child and a very natural reason they didn't have a child. In other words, the Bible is trying to put this in front of you and say this doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1:Shouldn't God bless those who are blamelessly walking? Shouldn't he bless those who are righteous before him? In that day and age, there were not a lot of ways to try to get pregnant. If you were having trouble getting pregnant, it was simple prayer. It was asking the God who created all life to bring life into your own story. And in this, god invites you into the difficulty of the nativity. They had no child, even though it seems that, in all intents and purposes, there was no reason. God, why would you do this? Allow this, bring this. But this is one of the great messages of Christmas. God never tires of surprising us with his goodness. He never gets tired of you being amazed at the story he is writing for you If you're trusting him and following him. He never tires of surprising you. In fact, I think God enjoys the buildup of the excitement as much as the reception of his good gifts. In fact, it's one of the things that his word puts on full display.
Speaker 1:There's a little phrase that I hear all the time come Thanksgiving, through Christmas Eve depending on if you're a college student or not and the phrase is this are you done with Christmas Now? What do we mean when we say are you done with Christmas? Yeah, are you done with Christmas Now? What do we mean when we say are you done with Christmas? Yeah, are you done shopping right? Have you knocked out your to-do list? Have you gotten the gifts? Have you figured out the meals. Is your note living in your phone looking good or is it looking junky? Is that little scratch pad next to the kitchen counter? Is it looking mostly marked off or not marked off? Please listen to this In our culture, the earlier you say yes to that, the more impressive you are.
Speaker 1:Are you done with Christmas? Yes, I've been done for four weeks. And then all of the people around you say wow to be you one day. But if you say something like, eh, I know it's the 22nd and I still don't know what I'm getting my mom, there's sort of an embarrassing tone to saying that. If I could my wife hates this sermon, by the way If I could encourage you to move away from the phraseology are you done with Christmas yet? It would be maybe one of the easiest changes in your vernacular to draw you into a biblical understanding of the Advent season.
Speaker 1:God did not design the first Christmas around efficiency. Americans do that, god did not do that. There is something to God coming to us, like us being born as we are born, rather than immediate manifestation. Adam didn't take nine months, unless God was really taking his time. Okay, adam was let's grab some dirt, let's fashion this thing, breathe a little air into it and then boom, and nobody knows exactly how old Adam was. Let's grab some dirt, let's fashion this thing, breathe a little air into it and then boom, and nobody knows exactly how old Adam was. I'm going to peg him at 23. Doesn't matter, my guess is no more valuable than yours is. But here is Adam. Boom, but when, and, by the way, the most impressive birth I've ever seen of all of my hospital visits, mary, ever seen of all of my hospital visits, mary, what a stud I mean. And we were there. The way that God sent his son was not efficient. Adam was fully man created, fully grown, and yet Jesus comes as a baby. I know this for a fact. You did not do Thanksgiving without preparation, unless you were probably a college student or a husband whose wife is just on her A-game and you meander into it all right. You are not going to do Christmas morning without prep. And God did not do the nativity without prep.
Speaker 1:One year our son, let us know he was very young at the time what he wanted for Christmas Took him to the mall, sat on Santa's lap, said these things I want a truck with a dog in the back. And we as parents were like that's adorable, he's a kid, he's going to forget these things. Like, how much do we need to engage in this? And we're like, ah, kids want lots of stuff, we'll be fine, he's young. And then, come Christmas Eve, it was still falling from his lips, except we were not prepared. So dad ran out to Walgreens and found the only truck he could and you can guess what kid this is. And that Christmas, you see that back corner tucked into the right. It's not even in the middle of the gifts. Everything he wanted and asked for his back turned to it. That is my cute, precious firstborn son, with his back turned to the gift that he had longed for. Because we weren't prepared. We thought it was going to change. We thought the mind of a child is fickle, and so the next year we decided to save up and we got a much better response when he came out the next year.
Speaker 1:I say this to prove a point. God is very thoughtful in the pacing of his preparation and Christian, please hear me on this Pause, and if you're not a Christian in the room, I hope that you will trust me with this God's pace of his preparation is a gift of grace to you Not just that God prepares beforehand, hundreds of prophecies leading up to the birth of Christ, the span, the pace, the gap from the end of the Old Testament to the beginning of the new, hundreds of years in slavery. It is not just God's preparation that is a gift, it is his pacing as well. And once you see this, all of a sudden timing in your life takes on a new light. Longing for a child all of a sudden moves from anxiety into faith, into hope, into trust, into a resolution that God is good, has been good, will be good and peace comes in when we realize that God's pace of preparation is a gift, all of the promises that you have heard from God, read in God's word, that yet remain to come to fruition. When you can trust his pace and his preparation, all of a sudden anxiety begins to drop and faith begins to increase. When you look at broken relationships and wonder if they will ever be brought back together, all of a sudden faith begins to jump and fear begins to drop, because not only the preparation of God's plan but the pacing of it is teaching you something about God's nature and about his character to get you to a place of peace and praise, and there's perhaps no better couple to teach us this in Scripture than a couple that had given up on their own nativity and they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. No-transcript has been heard. Your wife, elizabeth, will bear you a son and you shall call his name John and Zechariah. You will have joy, you will have gladness and many will rejoice.
Speaker 1:You know, when I read this I can't help but wonder when this angel comes and points to these prayers of Zechariah. He was probably in his 60s, 70s or 80s, long past the time of having children. Here's my question Do you think he had stopped praying for children? Bible doesn't tell us, but when it gives us two reasons, they don't have one and only one of them is in the hand of the supernatural. I would be willing to bet that somewhere along the lines, zachariah and Elizabeth looked each other in the eye and they said this just isn't going to be our story and God is still good and he is still worthy of praise. And probably through tears and brokenness and heartbreak, they praised God in the most beautiful of ways. I'd be willing to bet that God continued to hear the prayers of a 20-year-old Zachariah, a 30-year-old Elizabeth, a doubting 44-year-old Zachariah, 42-year-old Elizabeth, and then a decade and a decade and a decade. Do you believe God has stopped hearing the prayers that you prayed many days ago just because you have stopped praying them today? No, I think God loves surprising us with his goodness.
Speaker 1:And here is what we read of this coming child. I just want you to notice the he wills in this passage. I'm going to do my best to point them out. He will be great before the Lord. He must not drink wine or strong drink and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord, their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers to children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.
Speaker 1:Zachariah, you're going to have a child and he will make ready for the Lord a people who are prepared. Zachariah, I don't know what dreams you used to have and the prayers you used to pray, but the child that you're going to have is going to be great. He's going to do incredible things From the youngest of ages. My own spirit is going to reside within him. You're going to see wonders upon wonders. He's going to turn people to the Lord and he's going to do it by living this simple life where God is big and he is small. And this man, who is not interested in the things of the world, is going to draw people whose appetites drip for the things of this world. He's going to be like Elijah, doing amazing things, drawing amazing people to make ready for the Lord, a people prepared.
Speaker 1:Look, every parent has dreams for their kids, and I'm not trying to be mean here, but the smaller your kids are, the bigger your dreams are. The older they get, the more realistic your dreams get. Like let's just make it through high school, let's see if we can get, let's see if we can afford car insurance right. Like I used to have big dreams. Now I just kind of want them to make it right. Like it changes. Well, here's Zachariah is giving up on all of his dreams and God says oh, zachariah, don't give up on them. Look at what I am going to do in spite of your age. Thank you for your faithfulness.
Speaker 1:Now here's the thing. Every one of these dreams should have been familiar to Zachariah, like a song that gets stuck in your mind, a song that gets stuck in your heart but you can't, or a tune where you can't get quite the next thing, but you know it is there. I'll give you an example. I bet you guys are going to do really well on this quiz. Fill in the next line. But I heard him exclaim Merry Christmas to all and to all. Where did that come from? When's the last time you read that? Maybe a year ago? All right, no big deal. No big deal. Every time a bell rings you can tell we're a younger congregation, can't you? Yeah, now, those of you who said that it may have been years since you have thought about it. All right, don't worry, I got some for that. You'll shoot your. Come on. And then maybe my favorite Keep the change. Ok, now listen. You know the end to every one of these lines.
Speaker 1:End to every one of these lines. Zechariah should know what this angel is saying to him, but I want you to see what happens next. I apologize for the small font. On the left-hand side is Malachi 4, 5, and 6. This is the last verse of the Old Testament. That is how the Bible ends prior to Matthew, mark, luke and John, and I just want you to notice some things. Behold, I will send you Elijah. Well, that looks awful common, doesn't it? This is what I just read to you.
Speaker 1:This is the promise that Zachariah was given in Luke 1, 15 to 17. The prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes, he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Does that sound familiar to anyone? Behold, I send my messenger. He will prepare the way before me, zachariah, the moment the angel started speaking. And keep in mind who Zachariah is. This is who Zachariah is. He's a righteous man before God. He walks blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. Commandments and statutes refers to the word of God. Can we agree that? According to God's own word, zachariah knows his Bible?
Speaker 1:And yet when the angel shows up and he starts saying stuff like this, zachariah should have said get out of town Me. No wonder you made me wait four decades. You were going to do a miraculous thing but me, you would choose me. Well, here's how Zachariah responds. But please remember God's pace and his preparation is a gift. God's word is truer than your circumstances. You ought to be living by God's promises, not by your problems. But here is Zachariah's response. Zachariah said to the angel best word, first word, how you know how old I am. Gabriel's like bro. I'm an angel. I got it. I got this figured out. How shall I know this? I am an old man. My wife is advanced in years. And the angel answered him. I got to say Gabriel shows up like an absolute stud into this thing. Just listen to the confidence. Okay, pick up on this. Yeah, zachariah, I don't have this in my notes, it's just hitting me in this moment. You have Zachariah on one hand and you have Gabriel on the other.
Speaker 1:Zachariah is not standing in the presence of God. He is not seeing the planning and the preparation and the pacing of God. But do you know who is Gabriel? Do you know where Gabriel's getting his content from God? And watch the confidence of someone who is near to the creator, watch the confidence of someone who trusts the pacing and the preparation of God. This is great. And the angel answered him I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God. I was sent to speak to you and to bring to you this good news, zachariah. It's supposed to be good news. We've been talking about it for 300 years, since Malachi said it. And behold, you will be silent. You are not going to be talking for a while, until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe Church. Standing up here does not give somebody more faith.
Speaker 1:Zachariah, if you read the story, was chosen by Lot to be the one who stepped into the temple that day. Putting on good robes, carrying around a Bible, memorizing scripture does not necessarily mean you have the superlative varsity status of faith. Zachariah could not believe that God would be this kind of good to him, even though he knew the script and he knew how every line ended. No, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time. And the people were waiting for Zachariah. They were wondering at his delay in the temple.
Speaker 1:Zachariah, go do your job, come on out. We got things to do and when he came out, he was unable to speak to them and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And my favorite part, he has to go into charades at church to explain what happened. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. Like, what do you do with this? Like you appreciate how, how god enters into the human space. I mean, he's made hands appear and start writing on the wall. Could he not tell the other priests hey, here's what happens. Zachariah didn't believe. Give him a breather for a minute, he'll get there. No, he leaves zachariah mute to have to explain it to all of his co-workers what has just happened as he comes out of the temple. And when his time of service was ended, god didn't let him go home early that day. He didn't get to take a mute sick day as a preacher. He went to his home and after these days his wife Elizabeth conceived.
Speaker 1:God's pace of preparation is a gift. Wouldn't it be more efficient for the preacher to be able to tell the story that he had just seen? I would argue it would. Wouldn't you want the next nine months to be filled with one of your pastors and preachers telling you the incredible vision that he had seen? God says no, because his pace and preparation is a gift. God's messenger, john the Baptist, came to a father who could no longer get his message out. Can you imagine how much Zachariah wanted that baby to come? I don't know. Guys, I'll just speak for myself here.
Speaker 1:When something happens to me, twist an ankle, pull out a shoulder, do something and I can't help out the way that I usually help out. If, for some reason, I get sick and I can't do, it's not just that will feel sick, I feel my identity diminish in my home, in my work life, with my children. I begin to question my own value. What happens when you're a preacher who can't talk? For nine months, zachariah could not wait for this baby to come. Just think about how annoying it is. How often do you say hey, can somebody bring me the Nope, unless you've come up with a tap system? Oh, that's milk, that's milk, dad wants milk. Then it's incredibly inconvenient. I don't't know. Maybe this was a gift for Elizabeth. She, she'd had enough words. She was gonna have a very quiet, peaceful time as his baby came.
Speaker 1:The ending of the Old Testament is not the only thing that points to God's pace and preparation. As a gift, Let me give you a couple of books and just let me ask you if you know what is in common Moby Dick, frankenstein, the Catcher in the Rye and the Odyssey. Anybody want to venture a guess. It's okay to be wrong here. The point is for us to learn and grow, not to be impressive. Anybody know what they all have in common Shane in the lead. They are books. They are also written in English. The thing that's unique about all four of those books is you do not meet the main character in the beginning of the story. It's very rare in literature for that to happen. Almost every book that you'll pick up that is a fiction, but nonfiction too. Really, if you pick up a book, you should expect on chapter one to meet the main character.
Speaker 1:Jesus' birth is not in Luke 1. I just want you to sit on that for a minute. His name comes up one time in the first chapter of Luke's gospel. He is barely even talked about. John the Baptist is talked about. Why would God take Christ, who we exemplify, over all things and say how? About chapter two? Because God's pace and his preparation is a gift. This is how the father prepared his creation for his son. He invites you to the lesser known but much needed nativity. A nativity is not a place where you put a star and you put a baby Jesus, a Joseph and a Mary. That is the capital T nativity, capital N Nativity just means the circumstances of a birth. You have a nativity. Zechariah and Elizabeth would one day have a nativity with John the Baptist, but the first nativity that we find is not Jesus's. No, that isn't how he did it.
Speaker 1:In those days, mary arose Her story is about John the Baptist here and she went with haste into the hill country I can't tell you why yet, but I want you to remember that word hill country To a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. You want to know why she greeted Elizabeth. Zechariah didn't have much to say, gave her a high five and a side hug on the way in. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb, just like Malachi said, just like the angel said, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Who moved first? Baby or Elizabeth who moved first? I'll read it to you again and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit who moved first? The baby did.
Speaker 1:If I wanted to make a political argument about the reality of life in the womb, this would actually be the place that I would go first in Scripture. And she exclaimed verse 42, with a loud cry blessed are you among women, blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is this granted to me? That the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, behold, how did she know these things? How did she know that the Lord had come to her? Well, behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy and blessed. Is she who believed that comes from a wife of somebody who did not, that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord? Who is the first person to praise Jesus, john the Baptist, from utero, without possibly a voice to lift, without hands that were fully developed to be lifted in praise, without a mind that had fully developed to conceive? And yet he is the first to praise the coming king, and he does it in utero, while his dad, the preacher, watches on in silence. And here is how the story ends.
Speaker 1:Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth and she bore a son. It would have been a pretty lame gender reveal party if Zachariah was able to let people know Just get the blue we already know. Angel sets up, doubted him for a minute, not gonna doubt him anymore. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, because God never tires of surprising his people. And they rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child and they would have called him Zechariah, because that would have made sense after his father. But his mother answered no, he shall be called John. That wasn't good enough for them. So they said to her none of your relatives is called by this name. And they made signs to his father. He still isn't talking. Please pick up on this. The baby's there. He's not talking. When does he get his voice back? When he believes? They made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called, and he asked for a writing tablet and wrote his name is John. And they all wondered.
Speaker 1:And immediately after stepping out in faith for a God who never tires of doing good things to his people, and immediately his mouth was open and his tongue loose and he spoke, blessing God. And fear came on, all their neighbors and all these things were talked about. I pointed it out to you once and I told you remember I'm going to do it again throughout all the hill country of Judea. God's pace of preparation is a gift If you're in this room and you are not sure where your relationship is with God, if you need forgiveness, if you need to make your life right with the God who created you.
Speaker 1:It may seem to you as though your story is too long for God to look at and still have care for you. I have spent decades on selfishness. I have spent 50 years living with my back turned to God and my face turned to the things that my body, my mind, my soul desired. It has been too long. It may seem to you as though your story of living life apart from God is too long to make a change now. Let me assure you, as we look at a couple who thought their story was too long for God to step into it, that your story thus far is anything but too long in the eyes of an infinitely existing and eternally loving God.
Speaker 1:Can I put it not in pastor speak. It isn't too late. It's never too late If you are here hearing the good news that God sent his son so that you would have someone who could live the life from here to here that you should have lived. That would die a death which, by the way, is coming, but it's 33 years away from this. It's never too late, because God loves surprising his people and his preparation and his pacing is perfect Because God's pace of preparation is a gift. We have Luke 1. The story doesn't start in Luke 2 with Jesus on the scene and because of this lesser known nativity we get John the Baptist. And because God sent John the Baptist. If you look in your own Bibles, you will see this in chapter 1, verse 39, and you will see it in 165. I circled it both times.
Speaker 1:People were talking about Jesus in the hillsides of Judea before Jesus was even there. To talk about. This is the perfect preparation of God and the Christmas season, much like the first Christmas, should be pregnant with excitement and anticipation, not rushing to be done with Christmas. It's a heart posture that requires daily diligence. But here is the good news If you're not a Christian, it is far from too late for you to become one, and if you are, daily diligence in pursuing the Lord is sort of syllabus day one. Stuff this passage. And he said to him you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. It's basically saying your whole being. This is the first and greatest commandment. This comes from Deuteronomy, chapter six, verse four. This is what every righteous walking blamelessly in the commandments of his God, zechariah, would have repeated to himself two times a day.
Speaker 1:When I talked to my wife about this, she said Will, I love the idea of Advent moving slowly. It is an aspirational goal for me. I don't want to be anxious, ladies, I don't know if you know this. She wrote an encouragement for you guys a couple of weeks ago and stuck it in the bathroom. I haven't gotten to see it because it's in your bathroom, but I know it's in there.
Speaker 1:And I said well, baby, how do you wrestle with the fact that the nature of God is slow in pace and long in preparation? And she said well, you tell me, like I know, that that must mean that God wants to elevate Christ, that this buildup is unto something. But what do I do when I have Christmas for four weeks in a given year? And then I was reminded, not of a theologian and not of a hero, but of a quote from someone that all of us would know, a quote from Ebenezer Scrooge. A quote from someone that all of us would know. A quote from Ebenezer Scrooge, charles Dickens, a Christmas Carol. When his heart finally turns heart, soul, mind and strength. When it turns he says this I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all year.
Speaker 1:Maybe the goal is not for Advent to be a four-week series. Maybe the more gospel-rich, biblical, theological goal would be for us to keep the reality of Christmas all year long. And this means we don't need to rush to be done with Christmas. We can have a mindset and a heart posture of daily diligence. What that might mean is to prepare your heart before you prepare the next meal. What it might mean is when you go to turn the oven to 350 or 450, if you're in a little bit of a bind as you turn that knob, you can say, god, your timing and your preparation has always been perfect and whatever I'm sliding into this oven is just one more evidence of your good grace to me.
Speaker 1:Perhaps it's you preparing your mind that, when you realize that company's coming over and the leaves are littered in the yard and you're gonna have to pull out some equipment, that instead you can engage and you can say, god, you have given me the ability to prepare a place for others to come. And what am I, if not a guest? That you have prepared a place for others to come. And what am I, if not a guest that you have prepared a story for as well? Perhaps it's you preparing your soul before you prepare your home for the 18th time, making a bed that nobody will see and cleaning a floor that somebody will make a mess on. To say God, I am constantly making messes and you are constantly loving me in the midst of them.
Speaker 1:We were trying to get something knocked off the to-do list for my wife yesterday and I decided the way that I was going to live this out is I was going to invite one of my children to help me. I'm much more efficient when I work by myself, but when I worked with one of my sons, that thing that we did, this spot that we built, became something that we engaged in together, something that we will pass by, and yet it ended by him saying dad, that took way longer than I thought it was. Keyword. I really wanted to be playing Fortnite, but I'm glad to have quality time with you too. It's true in every one of us. So this is my hope for you. This is what I'm gonna leave up while the band comes up for you to wrestle with and reflect on, if you have believed that your story is too long.
Speaker 1:We'll have a couple of folks over there to pray and I'll be over here to pray. We would love to pray with you, celebrate with you. Just come and join us for anything that we can do to lift up to the Lord. But the Christmas season, like the first season, should be pregnant with excitement and anticipation. Not rushing to be done with Christmas is a hard posture that requires daily diligence. There's no better way for you to find it than in a prayer that would have been prayed twice a day by everyone who pursued the Lord. So take a look at Matthew 22. And when the band is ready, they'll call us to stand and sing with our heart and soul and mind.