So did anybody else make a black Friday cyber week cyber Monday whatever the special day or purchase that they're excited about this year You tell you about my newest a my newest fascination started yesterday afternoon. I bought an echo dot on Amazon Did anybody else get one of those there excel in front twenty nine dollars now first? I think kind of creeps me out cuz it's always listening and in my paranoia that that kind of bothers me But I came in the mail and then yesterday I set it up and Meredith was gone last night with working with some folks that she works with and I started playing and I just told It's a Alexa play Christmas music now typically like those electronic talking devices. They don't understand me very well Between my my a little bit of a sutter and a redneck draw they say different things I said Alexa play Christmas music and it instantly started playing Christmas music and I was really excited I'm excited about that because I was not always a Christmas fan and over the last few years I've really turned into one so I'm sitting there like I talked to Meredith into getting a real tree not a fake tree this year I forgot how much real trees cost that frustrated me a little bit I also had to fumble like trying to put water in the the tree holder thingy last night that was interesting I get down the all-force the nukes cup and do that but I've become so excited about Christmas There's a couple things that always make me excited about Christmas The first thing is I love the family stories that come with Christmas You know many of us have like these these stories that we tell about maybe when we were kids about this special Christmas or something special that happened When I was 18 months old my mom for Christmas wanted to give me her childhood a rocking horse And so her dad completely extended this thing down and repainted it and refinished it But the only problem was like we were having Christmas at my dad's family's place and rocking horse was at my mom's family's place And so on Christmas Eve early that morning mom got up and she drove in her 1966 Mustang This was a 1981 so it wasn't a classic it was just an old junkie car and she drove all the highway One to she forth the back away to Omaha, Texas where she grew up like a seven-hour drive back then So before I 49 and then she drove right back home And then we did Christmas Eve at church and then as soon as Christmas he was over at church We got back in the same old junkie Mustang and drove six hours to Hasberg, Mississippi Where my dad's family's from and the whole time they managed to hide this rocking horse from me and like I see those pictures now I realize man my mom drove a lot that day so I could have this rocking horse I think my cool Christmas stories one of my favorite Christmas stories of my family is about my great uncle Burl He was a Marine and war two served in the South Pacific and the family got notification in early December that he was going to be home The war is over we had Vijay day and they're just waiting for big brother to come home My great grandfather it was a career.
It was an army of careers. He was in a war one And so this family knows what's like that to come home from war This is like so stereotypical Christmas story it belongs on the Hallmark Channel like seriously like I don't know how there's not gonna Movie made about this yet, but my grandmother they were at church on Christmas Eve and Oak Grove Baptist Church outside At is Berg, Mississippi and uncle and Burl was not home yet And she remembers they got they got out of church and they got in the car to drive a few miles back to the house And she told her parents girls gonna be home And I know he's not it's gonna be probably the afternoon year troop transport He's probably still stuck in San Francisco da da da da and they come home and my the road was really big and long And they come around this huge bend in the house of my great-grandfather built was on the top of the seal And they turned around the bend and the light was on in the kitchen and they could tell And Burl was home it's like it's fun Christmas stories. We have they're awesome well the things I love about Christmas though Is advent and advent is actually what made me fall back in love with Christmas and if advent is anything advent is The ultimate Christmas family Christmas story There's one fuzzies that we love to get in the holiday season Some of us instantly create that some of us get mad because we might not have those one fuzzy feelings or some of us are just really tired of Watching a Christmas story on TBS for 24 hours straight. I totally watch it But Christmas is that time where we want to see goodness.
We want to understand what good means we want these things and Advent helps us reset ourselves into the story of goodness. It helps us reset ourselves into the story of Jesus every year See we need advent because we need goodness We need something else we need to know that there's something bigger than us and there's something else going on in this world besides the things That seem right in front of us because also how many of y'all get really stressed out over the holidays? Christmas gets really busy it's like the end of the year so works hustling you're trying to make sure everything's squared away for that And you have the whole family thing to take care of You're driving all over kingdom come over the course of a couple of days to see stuff There's like I was a kid. I love Christmas party So I have one or two a year and now as an adult I feel there's a Christmas party every single night who thought parties could be stressful Like those things that are right in front of us this time of the year also can blind us what the big picture is going on So today we're talking about this idea of goodness and how advent redefines that and so some of you might be knowing exactly I'm talking about you.
Okay, okay, so I have no idea what this a word means And so we're gonna do a little bit of advent 101 this morning to get started and then we're gonna jump into a prophecy from the book about Isaiah but and and Latin Adventist means the coming and it's the time of the year we celebrate the first coming of Jesus like So we go baby Jesus It's also the time of the year to where we celebrate the second coming of Jesus the fact that we are expecting and we are looking for him to come back And we are excited about that Events about how we process our hope and how we process that expectation for Jesus. We're remembering what's going on We all have the major scenes. I like the big blow up ones out in front yards now. There's a really cool I wish I had some of those But I would also yeah too much work for me I like to watch other people's but I don't also give some look forward to because we actually have to think and pray and what What does it mean for us to have our hope in Jesus coming back the same stories that that people told to give them Hope thousands of years ago the same stories we look to with hope now And that's also the time where we imagine and we realize the reality of Jesus is here in our world He's doing these things for us Advent's the beginning of the Christian year if you grew up at a Catholic church or a Methodist a more traditional Methodist church I always say found he's the weirdest Methodist church I'll ever find but I believe through an oppressor this advent thing is something you understand about but but there's a Thousands of year old tradition of the Christian year and it's a way that the church through its worship and through its prayer and scripture reading Celebrates the entire life of Jesus the birth of Jesus the activity of Jesus the death the resurrection of Jesus That celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit actually today is New Year's Day in the church calendar So happy New Year's Day.
You didn't have a party last night probably He didn't know that but this is the beginning of this year-long cycle of us just putting ourselves in a worshiping rhythm with Jesus and who he is This is the time of the year we found we kind of inserts itself into something a little bit more traditional than we normally do But in Advent we wrap ourselves up in the story of Jesus We wrap ourselves up in a different story a different story than the ones around us a different story than what might be stressing us out Right now a different story that makes us groan or breathe deeply because we're nervous about Christmas coming because that is a real thing for many of us We wrap ourselves up in the real story of the gospel because this is the thing the gospel is good news It's not just good advice and so many times we think that these words of Jesus and what Jesus does okay This will make things a little bit easier for me if I do them but the reality is that Jesus is here and that's good news And then add that we look and expect and talk about stories of good news That's the time we call for God to come down and to bring us his kingdom If you're a fan of country western we recognize the name Gary P. None or one of this the person he typically played for it was a man named Jerry Jeff Walker, you know Jerry Jeff Walker, okay? I'm still insulting myself here, but there's a classic song okay I see right there London homesick blues and it's this song Gary P. None wrote when he was stuck in London And all he wanted to do was be back in Texas and it's a sad song where he's just pretty much like it's cold here I didn't know that it's wet it's so miserable makes me miss the desert but the beginning of the song It's what I love it's just it's before he even sings he says there and he strums guitar He says it for a I've been thinking about so much all week long because the perfect place that many of us sit in the beginning of December And he says this let me try to put myself back in that place again He says it before we start singing the song and you don't know if he's saying because he's trying to remember what it was like To be in London and have to sing his homesick blues Or if he's trying to put himself back in a place where he really wants to be Many ways advent it's first week of advent it's us saying before the whole song gets started before everything gets going It's us saying let me get back in that place again that place I yearn for that place that I miss those places that made us happy but also this place is that we're expecting and we're being hopeful as We're looking towards so we start today with a prophecy from the book of Isaiah It's one of my favorite Advent passages and you're gonna recognize it's one of our classic Christmas passage But chapter nine the words be on the screen behind me you can also be in your Bible I'll listen to these words Nevertheless that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever the land of zebulin and after we will be humbled But there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles which lies along the road that runs between Jordan and the sea will be filled with Glory the people who walk in darkness will see a great light for those in a who live in a land of deep darkness a light will shine And you will enlarge the nation of Israel and its people rejoice They will rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest like warriors dividing a plunder for you will break the yoke of their slavery and lift The heavy burden from their shoulders you will break the oppressors rod just as you did when you destroyed the army of Median The boots of the warrior and the uniforms bloodstained by war will also be burned They will be fueled for the fire for a child is born to us and the son is given to us and the government will rest upon his shoulders And he'll be called wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father Prince of peace and his government and its peace will never end See the story is not just a story about the birth of a baby But it's a story of of waiting for someone of waiting for someone who has the ability to fix all of the things a couple Stuff what's going on in this now?
I've read this passage out probably a hundred times. I've preached this I went back and inject my notes. I preached this passage for three years during Adam And when I never recognized was here you ever notice like whenever you buy a car and it's color You don't think you've ever seen before then once you buy it then you realize you see that color everywhere Okay, I've read this tons of times. I never like the little tiny details this week I was like, you know, let me just I want to know what on earth is going on with this whole zebulin and naphthalate thing Why is this in there is that important?
It's there two tribes of Israel and there's something about this length specifically This is passage is talking about this land that it will be humbled in the the they will see great peace and good things happen And so there's two tribes of Israel every tribe is a lot of the piece of land and both of these pieces of land were extremely valuable But every single time there is any conflict or war in Israel these two tribes territories were the first ones to go The zebulin had all of the ports and had all the the sea trade that they needed so I mean that's a pretty good place to go to Then after we it ran all the way down the Jordan River both of them were borders at the very northern kingdom Like these were places of great stress now There are also parts of the territory that is really one of they needed it was almost as though if as long as we have these two things And these two things are safe everything will go good for us We can keep everything stable we can keep the train on the tracks everything's gonna be alright as long as we have the territory of Naphtally and zebulin but the bad thing was it's the first thing to go most of the time that they were riding on the hill that these two places To provide the peace that they needed It's almost like our own attempts at creating a goodness They simply can't in right because we're always gonna be stressing about always I can just have this one thing if I can just take care of this one thing if I can just have this one thing go right if I can Say this one thing I never calls go bad on me Each of us have a territory of zebulin and naphtally in our life those things that were depending on to provide what we need Instead of looking and expecting an interaction with God and realize that he provides every single thing that he defines our goodness That we don't have the ability to find our good as a kid How many of them would choose your own adventure books? Okay, those things were awesome I remember I was reading through all of them and we had quite the controversy in that elementary in 1988 because we had a Choose your own adventure bandit in the school library Okay So you all remember I can start reading it You get to make a decision and depending on what decision you make like you turn to that page And so you can actually like get five or six or seven story lines on these books some kid Was going into the library and was ripping out pages at its usual on adventure books Exactly. Yes, like if anything will get you cut on the playground when you're eight years old Yeah, we have we have the ability to rip the pages out ourselves As much as we want things to go right that when we were trying to do it on our own when we're providing We're we're leaning too much on our zebulins and our naphtales We're gonna find those pages to get torn out and cannot get to where we're going We can't even keep on going on with the story, but the awesome part the part that many of us are so familiar with is just versus It's not a non-six for a child's born to us a son is given to us the government will rest on his shoulders And he will be called wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father Prince of peace Those four titles I think of those have stuck in my memory of Christmas stories for so much of my life And so what I want to think about today's those four titles I also want to think about this I want us to think about what advent prayers do you need to be praying this year? What are the things and what are the places in your life that we need to open up that Jesus might be asking for you to open up this That first title wonderful counselor.
This is not talking like a counselor like you would go to to talk about things This is talking about someone who is an advisor to the king that he has his advisors around him They have an ability to sort things out They have the ability to help the king make right decisions to see things beyond the scope of what he might be able to see They whenever he is stressed out or he is anxious. They are there to provide calm in the midst of the storm They're there to be a non-anxious presence You know a lot of times when I'm going through something and this something I suggest to people when they come talk with me And also in my own life is I always want to find someone who's been through what I'm going through Is anybody else do that because you can lean on somebody you can ask them questions I can say where they may have made good decisions or where they might make bad decisions I like the idea of having someone to talk to that has been through I'm going through before to Hebrews chapter 2 It tells us this about Jesus Therefore it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us his brothers and sisters So that he could be our merciful and faithful high priest before God Then he could offer a sacrifice which would take away the sins of the people since he himself had gone through suffering and testing He's able to help us when we are being tested Now we can lean on Jesus we can understand Jesus being that wonderful counselor because he's gone through every single thing before Jesus came to this earth to go through the full range of human emotions So that he could be fully and absolutely capable of saving us because he's been there before For some of us that advent prayer about seeing Jesus a wonderful counselor means us asking Jesus just to help sort things out this season That no matter how where we are in life and how we are in life We always have things that we need to have sorted out our prayer is just to say Jesus You've gone through anything and you've gone through everything And I want to see you and experience you as a wonderful counselor this year the second thing that the titles give it is mighty God It's my deness it's talking about his capabilities. It's also a word for war I mean this passage of change my bloodstain uniforms are gonna read this at Christmas and separate it How you're thinking come on? But someone who has the absolute full capability This is also the same word for hero in the Old Testament That we talk about resetting things if you're going through our devotion this I would read the giveaway last week we start off in Genesis the first few times I'm saying why are we gonna read Genesis during Christmas time chat that reset is we realize this is the God who created the whole world that He absolutely has capability the absolute we can can stand up for us that he has the power to do whatever Might be necessary for us to have that Advent prayer might be Jesus.
I need you to stand in some places for me I need to see you as someone who's who's willing and able and is doing battle for me right now Some of us are I have some big stuff going on and we need to know that we have a hero We have a champion who has the ability to take care of things for us. What's so awesome is this the second title Mighty God is an immediately contrasted with everlasting father One of those intimate relationships that we might have I thought about that all week long that he is mighty God He's also everlasting father this idea of everlasting. He is without limits There's nothing that can stop him that he it can go as far as he needs to go as a father for us It's not a God who doesn't relate to us It's a God who relates to us absolutely it's a God who when you look at the way the primary way he revealed himself to us Which revealing himself to us as a father is that intimate protector is that loving protector? Is that protector who has absolute awareness of who we are?
The God knows us better than anyone else will ever know us So when we need to feel love and we need to feel comfort Any sort of those intimate emotions that we have the time are terrified to tell somebody about he knows exactly what we need Some of us are advent prayer. I mean be God I need to understand what it means to be loved by you in a way without limits the final way that he reveals himself to us Is the Prince of Peace now think about this all week long I was with the Prince of Peace And I thought about there's one thing that I do not like about this Christmas season and Christmas season I call it the holiday hustle Have you know what that's like how many else to do is grow like crazy during Christmas your schedules grow It seems like you need like two more hours in the day and you're adding all these things and you're supposed to be more enjoyable They're supposed to bring like holiday cheer tire lives and like oh my goodness There's also a tendency to get really mad during holiday season, okay? Like we're a marathon watching Christmas movie yesterday It was laughing because it was so cliche because you know there's gonna be some big huge yogg in it family conflict in the middle Okay, it's like I love Christmas Christmas vacation Like talk about the holiday hustle like I when I was a kid I asked my dad I said what do you want for Christmas? I want to score all to get loose during dinner, but that holiday hustle last year round We're just more aware of it, but the prince of peace That Jesus is the bringer of peace and he's the definer of peace Jesus came to fix chaos To solve chaos and he came to the middle of wherever we are wherever we need peace in our life He has the absolute ability to bring it and to create it to cause it to happen and to cause it to last Our prayers are Jesus.
These are the places where I need you to calm down for me Also means Jesus. These are the places where I tend to cause chaos during the holiday season Jesus I need you to help me deal with that person in my family that always causes case of chaos Like we all I think last year during the Christmas season we did a sermon we all have cousin eddies But then we all also are cousin eddies sometimes Jesus I need to understand what true peace looks like and here's the thing all four of these There's a decision that we make that predicates them being part of our life and that decision is us realizing that we can't save Ourself that God can save us and that's what God came This whole season is about his ability to save us But the gospel be good news not just good advice. We have to prayer if we begin realizing the reality of who Jesus is You know for me We'll talk about your advent prayers one of my advent prayers this year is I said is Jesus I want to understand more of this the 100% honest truthfulness of you being able to be in control of everything It's easy for us to think about Christmas cards or to think about songs or think about memories It's easy for us to sensationalize and make Christmas to send a middle thing my prayer this year say I want to see a hundred percent realness for me our prayers our advent prayers Have the ability to reset This season for us have the ability to reset our entire year It's almost like we're prepping for what 2018 is going to look like by how we stop we breathe deeply and we focus on Jesus during this month So think about those advent prayers think about what does it mean for you to actually grasp what good news looks like in your life Right now because that's what Jesus is coming to bring is coming to bring you good news Pray for what does it mean for you to know Jesus in an intimate way? What does it mean for you to see and to experience and interact with Jesus in a very real way in a very personal way this year?
I think what does it mean for you to pray to experience Jesus? To experience him truthfully in new ways and old ways But for this to not be something that you just do because everybody else does but for Christmas to be something that matters to you Because Jesus matters to you maybe our advent prayers simply just to be more real Real is something I know that I struggle with in my life And I desire a lot at this phase of my love and I've heard from enough of other people than realize That's something that a lot of us want right now and a lot of us value his realness and his truth And so for some of us our advent prayers just means that I need to know some truth and I trust for you to show it to me So let's pray together Jesus We come on this first Sunday We we come to celebrate who you are to celebrate how you've come to this world already How you've already interacted with us the stories that we have in the past We also come to say that we know that we are never done that you don't finish with us ever The day you finish with us is the day that we are standing and looking at you face to face eye to eye Sort help us this advent season to to contemplate to realize and fully experience the beauty and the truth of who you are Jesus we honor you for the way that you've come to us that you've served us that you've shown us that your experience looks like We pray to see more of that this year. We pray. I'm in