Celebrate Immanuel; Psalm 96, Matthew 1:18-25

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Make Known His Deeds; Isaiah 12, John 3:1-19

Have you ever been around someone who loves to name drop—someone who mentions all the famous people and “big wigs” that they know or have contact with? Name dropping can be annoying, or it can help you get a job! There’s one name that we are supposed to name drop, and that’s the name of Jesus! Our Isaiah passage today is a poem of thanksgiving and praise, and in it we are encouraged to sing praises to the Lord in all the earth, to give thanks to the Lord in the presence of others, to proclaim the name of the Lord, to shout aloud about what God has done and about God’s presence in our lives. Church consultant Reggie McNeal says, “God loves it when we let God do God’s job. God loves to show up and show off.” In Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby describes how God invites us to join Him in His work and gives us God-sized tasks, so that we know that we cannot accomplish the tasks without God and so that God gets all the credit for the results. The apostle Paul said, “May I never boast except in Christ my Lord.” Ray Ortland says, “As God catches us up into His purpose sweeping through history, what do we contribute? Nothing to be proud of. What does God contribute? Grace greater than all our sin.” Our Isaiah passage today says, “Make known God’s deeds among the peoples.” We are to make known God’s deeds. It’s not about what we do. It’s not even about what we do for God or in God’s name, because if we are really doing those things in God’s name, it’s not us doing them anyway. We have no place to brag or take any credit at all. But when God does something in or through our lives, we need to share those things. When God answers prayer, we need to share. When God touches our lives, we need to share. When God uses us as God sees fit, amazing things happen. What is God doing in your life right now? Have any of your prayers been answered lately? How have you seen God at work around you? How have you participated in God’s work? These are the deeds of the Lord, and we can sing and shout about them and make them known. We do have so much to praise God for. God works in and through our lives all the time. English pastor Charles Simeon said that the key factor in maintaining and growing in his Christian walk was "Constantly meditating on the goodness of God and on our great deliverance from that punishment which our sins deserve. Keeping both of these in mind, we shall find ourselves advancing on our course; we shall feel the presence of God; we shall experience His love; we shall live in the enjoyment of His favor and in the hope of His grace. Meditation is the grand means of growth and grace." Personalizing God’s grace in our lives, when we meditate as Charles Simeon says, results in us having a confident testimony that God is real, that Jesus Christ does transform lives, that the Holy Spirit is present with us and working through us. And as we access that grace, we find that joy, which is our key word for Advent this morning. Isaiah says, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” Jesus described it as living water springing up within us. But shared meditation on these things not only helps us to grow, but others as well. It is our mission to corporately and publicly proclaim God’s grace. It’s interesting to note that in this text, the “you” in verses 1 and 2 is singular. It is personal to each of us. Individually we give thanks for God’s grace in our lives--for the times God has forgiven us when we deserved punishment, for the times God has comforted us instead of shown anger, for the times God as assuaged our fears, for the times that God has been our strength when we thought we couldn’t endure one more hardship or heartbreak or resist one more temptation, for our salvation! And even our prayers are answered by “No,” and we can’t see the good in that “no,” God is still God, Jesus is still our Lord and Savior, and we still have reason to rejoice. Puritan scholar John Trapp said, “It is no less a sin not to rejoice than not to repent.” In verses 4-6, the “you” is plural. We each have a story to share, a testimony so to speak, and together we witness to the world. Pastor Lester Agyei McCorn points out that in verse 5 where it says, “sing praises”, “The Hebrew word for praise employed here is yadah, which signifies the stretching out of one’s hands in thanks while singing. It is a confession of utter dependence upon God for the inferred gift, namely God’s deliverance. A people who were once scattered and symbolically disconnected from their God are now reunited, and thus reconnected to the One who has created them. There is an eschatological hope that has been fulfilled “in that day.” Their profound longings for “home” are now met in a glorious family reunion made possible by a God who promised not to forsake them. More importantly, they can bow before their true King without inhibition or recrimination. They can now wave their hands in joyous gratitude, for three essential reasons: God remembers, God redeems and God restores.” It’s also interesting to note that in verse 6, “inhabitant of Zion” is feminine. This symbolizes the church—the one body bride of Christ, we are to shout aloud and sing for joy. We don’t want spiritual amnesia; we need spiritual anamnesis—the opposite of amnesia, it is the recollection of past events for the purpose of reliving them in the present. It’s remembering who and whose we are. Last week, we were reminded by the life of John the Baptist to call people to repentance. We saw that if we love people and don’t want them to miss out on the joys of Christ’s kingdom, we will warn them of their need to repent because Christ’s return is soon. Shortly, we will sing “We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations.” In this hymn is the refrain of the truth of Advent—that the darkness will turn to the dawning and the dawning to noonday bright. And Christ’s great Kingdom shall come to earth—the kingdom of love and light.” This is the joyous good Advent news that the world needs to hear through us—Christ has come and Christ is coming again. We often share praises and thanksgivings when we have our prayer time in worship, but today we are going to have the opportunity to share joys, praises, and thanksgivings in this part of our worship time. The Thanksgiving holiday has passed, but the time to be thankful and joyous is still present. How have you seen God remember, redeem, and restore? Your responses may be for something in the distant past or recently. It may be an individual praise or for something God has done corporately for His Church. Let’s make known God’s deeds among the people gathered here... As much as these praises and thanksgivings are, they will be all the more when Christ does make the invisible kingdom visible. On that day we will sing like we’ve never sung, shout like we’ve never shouted, praise like we’ve never praised, and be joyful more than we have ever, ever known. Until that day, may we continue to testify and witness to the wondrous love of our Lord.

Pointing to Jesus; John 1:6-28

The Second Sunday of Advent is often designated as Prophet Sunday. We have heard from 3 prophets this morning—Hosea, Isaiah, and John the Baptist. John was the final prophet to announce Jesus’s coming and to identify Him as the promised Messiah and fulfiller of all other prophecies. Jesus said that there is no one like John the Baptist and that John had the spirit of Elijah, and John himself is very humble, though he is confident in his role. He takes his job to point to Jesus and to prepare people to receive Jesus very seriously. John’s warning is urgent. John’s life & words are still important for us today. First, have we heeded the call to repentance? We confessed our sins corporately this morning, hopefully in response to God’s invitation as heard through other prophetic voices and in the prompting conviction of the Holy Spirit. But it can be easy to say a written prayer in church and go through the motion. So have you really surrendered your life to Jesus Christ? John says that if we have, our lives will bear fruit worthy of repentance. We should live differently if we belong to Jesus. We are about to partake of the Lord’s Supper. If we haven’t opened our hearts to Jesus, the sacrament is not merely meaningless, but we eat and drink judgement upon ourselves by taking unworthily if we have not placed our trust in Jesus. Second, John wanted people to be prepared to receive Jesus. He wasn’t preaching a message of repentance because he was angry and wanted to make people feel unloved. He preached repentance because he was concerned for people’s lives. He did not want them to miss out on experiencing the joys of the kingdom that Messiah was bringing. He wanted them to be ready for Jesus’s coming. We know Jesus is coming back and that His return is soon. Do we love people enough to urge them to repentance? Do we love people enough to want them to surrender their lives to Jesus so they can experience the joys of His presence and His kingdom? Do we really believe the time is short—that next year, next month, next week might be too late? Do we have an urgency to share the good news of Jesus? And finally, do we take our role as Christ’s ambassadors seriously? Do we live humbly, pointing to Jesus, or are we trying to make a name for ourselves, to draw attention to ourselves and our accomplishments? Do we strive to glorify Christ with all of our lives, with each action and choice so that others are drawn to Him?

The Light That Overcomes Fear; Psalm 27

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Reflecting with Gratitude; Psalm 105

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Thankful that Jesus is King (or Worship by Obeying); Psalm 95, Hebrews 3:7-4:13

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Praying for the Wicked; Psalm 109

On this International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church, we recognize that evil seeks to destroy the followers of Jesus. As we pray for other brothers and sisters in Christ, we also pray for those who persecute them. Today’s Scripture is the one of the harshest of the imprecatory psalms, those psalms where we pray that God would smite our enemies. It was written by David, who wrote all but two of the psalms of this type. The curses in this psalm are strong. Walter Bruggermann calls verses 6-19 a “psalm of hate”. Some scholars try to downplay these verses by saying that in this particular section, David is quoting what his opponents are saying about him because there is a change in subject and verb tenses. However, in verse 20, we see that even if these curses did originally come from David’s enemies, he prays for no less than that these curses would return to his enemies. On this International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church, how do we pray for the wicked? We pray by acknowledging the reality of evil. In the opening verses, David tells God what his enemies have done. Thy have borne false witness, fought against him, spoken hatred against him. In verses 4 and 5 we see why David prays curses over his enemies. David didn’t start with asking God’s judgment over his enemies. He started with love. He started with mercy. David says, “In return for my love, they are my accusers. The word “accusers” is Satan. David has loved his enemies. He has done good to them and for them. In return, they act like the devil. They do evil to him and against him. They hate him. He has prayed about it. He has prayed for them. He has remained in touch with God about this. Some of you have heard me mention before a website, atfp.org—adopt-a-terrorist-for-prayer. You can get updates on terrorism around the world and even the names of specific terrorists. The website has lots of resources on how to pray. Right now they are featuring a 30 day prayer guide for members of ISIS. The guide gives a daily focus for prayer—things like softened hearts, opportunities for members to hear the gospel, for their salvation, for them to recognize the evil they are doing and repent, for them to have dreams and visions of Jesus, etc. To pray against the things that lead people to join ISIS; for example, ISIS is recruiting young adults from all over the world and all different backgrounds because they promise wealth, power, and respect—things that these young folks are not finding where they are. These are youth who have often been victims of bullying, who have been betrayed by institutions and corporations, who have not found peace and hope in their religions or in atheism. God is answering prayers, and yes, there are people leaving ISIS for Jesus every day. Too often, when wrongs are done to us, we go straight for revenge. It’s so easy for victims to be become bullies. We see this happen again and again. It’s happening in our society every day. But that is not the Jesus way. Jesus told us to love our enemies, to bless those that curse us, to do good to those who harm us. This is what David did. It is natural to desire retribution, but it is the Spirit filled, Spirit led person whose nature is to forgive enemies and pray for persecutors. However, Jesus did not promise that if we do those things our enemies will stop being evil. That is what we hope for, and it does happen, but not always. How do we resist the temptation to repay evil for evil. Evil must be confronted, but any vengeance must come from God’s hand. David does not say, “I have tried to be nice; now it’s time to play hardball.” Instead, he asks God to intervene and bring justice. It is right to be angry when we are victimized. It is necessary to express it for healing to begin, but it must be done in healthy, not harmful ways. Taking our hurt and anger to the Lord is the right way. According to Walter Bruggermann and J. Clinton McCann Jr. says that praying for God’s vengeance without taking matters into our own hands is an act of non-violence. But still the evil continues. In this prayer guide against ISIS, you will also find prayers for the power of ISIS to be halted, for perpetrators of evil to be brought to justice, for the destruction of this ideology. We must pray against evil, even as we ask God to change hearts and lives. Evil must be confronted, opposed, and hated because God hates evil. And so we come to this section of curses. In verse 6 the curse is that a wicked man would rule over the enemy. Sometimes the only way for an evil person to see what they have done, is for someone worse to become their boss or superior. Tuesday will be a day of reckoning for this country. Whoever wins, I believe that we will be getting the leader we deserve. The next President is no surprise to God. Sometimes in order to see our own rebellion against God, God will set up a prominent figure as mirror and/or as the agent of God’s punishment. The curse continues, “Let an accuser stand at his right hand.” The accuser is Satan. This prayer is not so different from Paul’s instructions in I Cor. 5:5, to turn an unrepentant sinner over to Satan and to stop associating with that person. Like David’s enemies, this is a person who has been confronted, who has been prayed for, and who has been shown grace, and yet continues in his/her evil ways. The goal is the destruction of the flesh in order that the person’s soul may be saved. Remember how Satan was allowed to destroy Job’s flesh. In Job’s case it wasn’t about Job’s need for repentance, but to reveal Job’s character, but in the cases of evil people, it is to lead them to a place of repentance. Verse 7 asks for a guilty verdict. This is the fair and right verdict, because the person is indeed guilty. Prayers for justice are right prayers. The second half, “Let his prayer become sin,” seems particularly harsh. It is that his plea for leniency in sentencing in the court will go unheard. God knows when a person will respond to mercy. This wicked person has already proven himself not to respond to mercy, so justice is needed. When I was leading Celebrate Recovery, one of our participants was an addict and alcoholic who had a son who was also an addict. The son beat his mother and put her in the hospital twice. He stole not only from her, but from others. He had come to our group a couple of times, but was not a regular like his mother. This young man had complete disregard for authority. He had no respect for his mother, no respect for law enforcement. He had been in and out of jail. He had 4 felony charges and because he had never been to prison, thought it was no big deal. He had no fear of the Lord. One night, another leader called to say that the young man had overdosed. My initial reaction was to say that I was relieved for his mom. My coworker was horrified because her first thought was that this man was condemned to eternal destruction. But this man had had many opportunities to respond to the gospel. He had been prayed over. He had been prayed with, and he refused to receive grace and mercy. He had rejected grace and mercy time and again. He was not going to change, but he was wreaking havoc and destruction with his life. His death meant that he could no longer harm or destroy others. Verse 8 is a pray for a shortened time of influence. Whatever wicked ruler is set up over us, we can pray this prayer. “Let his/her days be few. Let another take his/her office.” This verse is quoted by Peter in Acts 1 in regard to what happened to Judas. His office as apostle was given to Matthias. Verses 9-15 are particularly harsh. The death penalty—at God’s hand—is prayed over this person. This person has put others to death. He is an enemy of life. His actions lead to death. But then why should the children be made to suffer for the sins of a parent? Extreme caution must be used in invoking this prayer. It is a prayer for complete annihilation of family, posterity, legacy and even history if possible, to be wiped out. But history has shown that there are destructive lineages. In the Bible, we have the line of King Ahab for example. His great grandparents were evil rulers and each generation got successively worse. Finally judgement was pronounced, and Ahab’s son was the last of that lineage. God used Jehu to cut off the house of Ahab. When there have been generations of evil perpetuated, it is right to ask the Lord to cut off that line. Verse 16ff gives further reason for invoking these curses. The enemy was unmerciful, persecuted the poor and needy and slayed the broken hearted. He did not delight in blessing and loved cursing. In verse 21, David returns to praying for himself. He asks God’s mercy because he is poor and needy. To stand with the Lord is to stand with the poor, needy, and afflicted. He asks for salvation appealing to the character of God. In contrast to the wicked, God is the Life Giver and Life Sustainer, bringing life even out of death. God gives blessing instead of cursing. The Lord is merciful and full of loving-kindness. Prayer for the wicked always ends in praise of who God is and thankfulness that justice will be served. This is how David ends the psalm in verses 30-31. The Lord’s prayer, “Thy will be done” is always appropriate. We don’t know what God will do, but we can know that whatever God does is right.