Okay, so we just thought we'd get your blood pressure up a little bit this morning in that moment of anxiety. Um, it is good to be here with you all today. I'm Angela bi. I happen to be the, I have the privilege of being the campus pastor at the Grants Trail campus and I just wanna love bomb them right now. Grants Trail. I love you. Be back with you next week. I know Judy and Alex are taking good care of you for those watching from Fenton and Mid Rivers and online and in the hub here and overflow. It's just good for us to all be together. So the today starts a season that in the church we call Advent. And these four weeks leading up to Christmas is a time where we pause to remember that before the Messiah came, before the Promise Deliverer came, there was waiting. They waited for the promise to come. And that connects us to the story because we also are waiting for the second coming of Christ when all would be made right? And so we live in this tension now between Joy for what has we have received joy for what God has done and hope for what is yet to come. We live in this tension of those two things. And here in the United States anyway, we have kind of a rhythm that that tends to, that where we, we paused at Thanksgiving just last week to be grateful for what we have, to acknowledge what we have received. And now we have this, these four weeks before we celebrate Christmas. And the joy of all that is to come and the hope of all that is to come. So my guess is there's not a person watching or sitting here who would say, I've never waited for anything. I've never had to wait too long, right? We all know that we have waiting as just part of the story of being human. The question for us is not when we wait, but it's more how will we wait? Not if we wait. How will we wait? Is is there a way to wait? Well, in the waiting, and the Bible has an answer to that in Isaiah. It says, but they who wait for the Lord will renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. And in Micah it says, but as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord. I wait for God my Savior, God will hear me. So there is a way in the waiting to have our strength renewed in the weight to walk and not be faint, to have hope in the weight, in the in-between time before all things are made, right? So, um, that's what we're gonna talk about today, how to do that well and maybe what the waiting is like in your life. But first, will you pray with me? So Jesus, we do thank you for all that you have done for us, all that we have received. And so we have joyful hearts knowing that you are our provider and you are good. And we are hopeful for all that is to come. And so I pray that wherever we are in our journey, this today, that you will meet us where we are, that you'll speak hope to our hearts, this hope maybe even in waiting, and that we would understand this time of longing and embrace this tension. And we pray all this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, if you grew up in a church like I did, uh, where Advent was a big deal, it was really part of the calendar that we did, um, you'll recognize that several ways that we would symbolize that time. These four weeks we acknowledged the waiting. And one was an advent wreath where we had a wreath and there were four candles around it and a big candle in the middle. And each week we would light another candle. The first week we would light the candle and talk about hope, the hope of what is to come, the hope of the promised Messiah. The second candle was peace. To acknowledge that he is the prince of peace, he came to bring us peace. The third one is joy. And then on the fourth week before Christmas, we would like the, the love candle. And then on Christmas Eve or Christmas day, we write the Christ candle. When we celebrate that, the time of waiting came to an end and our savior did come. So there are other ways that we count down the days and of this waiting to come to an end. One is with an advent calendar. I know that my grandchildren have one that's chocolate or toys where they open a door each day and you're one more day closer to Christmas as they anticipate that. And they, they take that in and you can see the days disappearing and the days coming to where we get to Christmas. And then yes, there is the Christmas tree, which you know, now let's put up our Christmas trees. And even the Christmas tree is symbolic when in some religious traditions. And that is that we use an evergreen to symbolize the eternal life that Christ came to give us. Um, there's a little bit of, um, controversy each year in my family between real or fake tree. Anybody have an opinion about that? Then the lights go on. Colored or white, the lights go on, which symbolize the light that Jesus brought in the darkness. The word says that he brought light in, in the darkness, can't overwhelm it. And then there's a star at the top often to represent, to remind us that the star led the wise men to the Christ child. And then gifts to remember that Jesus is the greatest gift of all and the gifts that they brought that the Magi brought to him. There's also a tradition, uh, that I love and that is to get an advent devotional where each of the 25 days leading up to advent, you pause to do a devotional. And to remember this time of waiting, we've done something this year. Some of our pastors have put together, uh, reading a scripture and giving a little comment that you can find on our social media in these weeks coming on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and Christmas week. It'll be Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, where you can join us in pausing in this advent time. There's also a reading plan you can find on our website. For all of those things, you can go to the Crossing Church slash advent or slash Christmas and you'll find those there. So these are ways that we just, we just pause in the anticipation of what is to come. So one reason the Zootopia clip makes us so uncomfortable is because as a culture, we have worked very hard to eliminate waiting. How many of us would rather wait than not wait. And so now we have fast internet, we have same day delivery, we have microwave Insta Potts. We no longer run to the mailbox to get news. We can just flip on our computer and within two minutes we see what they wrote. News comes to us from around the world instantly. This may come as a surprise to some of you, but when I was in college, I drove from Mississippi to Oklahoma, a 10 hour drive, and my parents had to wait to see if I arrived safely. When I got into my dorm room and remembered to call them to tell them I was there, there's this waiting that, that we don't have to do anymore. 'cause now what do we do Now we track our kids on the phone or our friends or whoever it is, and we see where they are and we go, oh honey, look, they stopped at Chick-fil-A. That's so cute. We know where we are, we track it. We don't like to wait for news. And so in the wait, there's this collective waiting, like we said, when the, when, when Jesus comes again, oh will be made right? So collectively we wait for him. But there's also waiting that's personal and just for you. And we all have things in our life that, that we're waiting for. And sometimes the waiting, the thing we're waiting for is exciting. And like, like the advent calendar, we count down the days. 'cause we know when that day arrives, kids wait for Christmas and count down. Those days you might be waiting for someone to come home from school or a military person and you know that day is coming, waiting for your wedding day, waiting for a baby to be born, waiting for a bad date to end. We all know that one. Waiting for a flight to finish as long as it doesn't land. And then sit there for 20 more minutes. There are times when we're waiting for something we know will come to an end. We know the outcome. Christmas day comes right here. But then there are other times when we're waiting and the outcome is not sure. We don't know when the end date will be. We don't know if there will be an end date to our waiting. You know, there are times when we wait and we say, when will my person come along? I'm longing for a baby. When does that happen? I have a relationship that's broken. When will that be healed? When will I be restored to this family member? I've been distanced from. When will I get the job I've been praying for? When will my prayers be answered? When does healing happen? And in those moments, we don't have a little door to open to tell us we're one day closer because we don't know. It's just unsure. So for us, different things come up in our waiting. A lot is revealed to us as we wait, some of us wait and we get angry when we have to wait too long. Some of us just have patience and we're waiting with hope and patience. Some of us wait loud and some of us wait quietly. And so we want you to talk to each other for just a minute. How are you at waiting? What does waiting look like for you? Okay, talk to each other. Okay, how did we do? Were we honest? How are we at waiting? Well, waiting is actually not new. All through the Bible, we see people who had to wait and sometimes a long time, you know the Israelites, if you know the story, waited for their deliver to come to, to rescue them from captivity. Even when they were rescued, they wandered in the desert for 40 years before they went into the promised land. Abraham and Sarah were promised a baby that they waited a long time for. A guy named Joseph was in prison, falsely accused. And he waited for justice to come. He waited to be out of prison for the rest of his life to fall out before him. David was anointed to be king and he waited and found himself actually running for his life in the tension of the in-between time as he waited. So we've been in this series called Peak Experiences, where we've been looking at encounters that people had with God. And what we've seen is that that relationship can get complicated and messy, but it's also really beautiful. As God continues to pursue, his people continues to offer, grace continues to invite us into relationship. And so over and over again, there's this pattern where people would turn their hearts from God. We, we heard a few weeks ago about the Israelites. When Moses went up the mountain to get the 10 Commandments, they got tired of waiting. They just couldn't wait any longer. And so they built an idol. They built a golden cap to worship instead of God, their heart. The waiting was too hard and long, they turned their hearts to other things. And over and over and over we see this pattern. God draws his people to himself, they turn from him. And there had to be a better way. And so God makes a promise. There's a better way. A new plan is coming, a messiah, a savior, and he's gonna do for you what you haven't been able to do for yourself. He's gonna make a way for you and I to be connected in ways that you've never been able to do before. And we see this promise, we see hints of it all through the Old Testament as God promises deliverer. In Second Samuel, God promises David an eternal throne. And Isaiah, a child will reign on David's throne forever. And Jeremiah, a righteous branch from David, will bring justice. And Micah, the ruler of Israel, will come from Bethlehem. And then this prophecy from Isaiah, for a child is born to us. A son is given, the government will rest on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor. Mighty God, everlasting Father, prince of peace, his government and peace will never end. So this was the promise that his people clung to a better way is coming, a messiah is coming, one who's gonna do what we haven't been able to do. And so the very last book of the Old Testament is written by a prophet named Malachi. And Malachi tells the people the importance of obeying God's law, the importance of being in relationship with them and reminding them of the consequences that separated them from God when they didn't do that, when they turned away from God. And the Old Testament ends with caution and hope, the in-between time caution and hope and then silence. 400 years of silence from God. So for thousands of years, for generations, God has spoken to his people through prophets, through messengers that came to give guidance, that came to correct, that came to encourage, that came to show a better way. And now silence. Can you imagine what they must have thought as parents told their children? Who told their children, who told their children, hold on, he's coming. The Messiah's coming maybe in your lifetime and their lifetimes passed away as they waited. Hold on. And they hoped and they clung to that hope. And you have to wonder what they were thinking in that time. Were they saying, did we push God too far? Did our sin go further than his grace? Is he just done with us at all years of waiting, silence the joy and the hope the in-between time. So during Advent during this season is when we pause to recognize their waiting. And we pause to recognize our waiting. And often when God doesn't come through on time, now we don't do like the Israelites and and make a golden calf. But there are ways that we turn our hearts from God. God's taking too long, God's not coming through. God's not good maybe. And so we turn our hearts away from him. And this connects us to this story of God with mankind. But here's another promise. Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. This is the hope they clung to during this time of waiting. And when the Messiah did arrive after 400 years of silence, it didn't look anything like they thought. They like what they were waiting for. Jesus didn't come and wear a crown and sit on a throne and overthrow the government that was oppressing them. No, he came as a baby, a newborn baby to a simple, young, humble couple. And many of them because it wasn't what they were looking for. They missed it. They missed it. This isn't no, we waited 400 years for a warrior, a warrior worth waiting for a baby and one who walked beside us through the dust and the dirt. One who experienced what we experienced as human beings. That's what God was promising. And many of them missed it. And we can miss it too. We can miss it when the answer looks different, when the waiting gets too long. And in the midst of it, often God's doing things that we miss because we're looking for what we were expecting. And all along God's at work. But we can, we can miss it and ask our own questions. And Isaiah all also says, but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. You see, we live in this time of between grief and joy, sorrow and hope. But this verse tells us there is a way, there is a way for your strength to be renewed in the waiting. Not once the waiting is over. There's a way that God shows up and renews your strength and you walk and you're not weary in the tension, in the waiting. So the question for us is how do we do that? How do we choose to wait? Well, well I think the first thing we do is we wait with God, not distanced from God. We don't sit back and just say, I'm just gonna be miserable while I wait. Actually, the Hebrew word for weight actually means actively trusting. And what if instead of saying, wait, we said I'm actively trusting God to come through. It means leaning in, not away, not away from God and not away for from community. But often what happens in the wait is we panic. Like the Israelites who decided they would turn, they would make a golden calf. We panic and we decide God's not gonna come through. The weight is too long. This is too hard. I'm gonna take matters into my own hands. I gotta make this happen. It's up to me. I'm, I actually need to take control here. I'm taking the bull by the horns and we turn like the Israelites did away from God. We back away from God. Often we back away from community and we think I am on my own. And then what happens? We know with Abraham and Sarah, their story when they decided they were tired of waiting on God, it goes bad. And not just for them but for generations to come. Often when we stop staying close to God, it affects those we love, not just us. And often what happens when we panic is then we go, okay, so I'm just gonna settle for an unhealthy relationship and not wait on, not wait on God anymore. Okay then I'm gonna manipulate and lie and cheat at work because I am ready for a promotion. I'm ready to get it done. And we use people, often we, we start to make unethical decisions about finances or about how we treat people. Instead of trusting God's provision, instead of trusting, instead of actively trusting that he will come through and we take, we take it onto ourselves. We can get stingy and we can back away from community and say, you know what? I'm not gonna serve anymore. I'm not gonna tithe anymore because you know what? What has he done for me lately? What has God done for me? I'm tired of waiting. And when we pull away from God, we start making decisions that could change the whole trajectory of our lives. So we wait with God, we lean in and then the next thing we do is we remember. We remember what God has done already. For those of us who have a rich history of walking with, with the Lord, we back up and we remember what he has done. We remember when he did show up. We remember when he did provide, this is actually very biblical 'cause in the Old Testament, when they came to a decision or or an enemy, they would pause and remember what God had done. I remember he parted the Red Sea. I remember he provided when we thought there would be no food or water. So they would pause and remember what God had done. So those of us who have walked with God, we have those experiences. We can remember years ago, my husband and I were in a very dark time and we didn't have doors to open to see when that time was gonna end. The outcome was uncertain. The end date maybe never in sight. We didn't, we didn't know how we were gonna make it through. We didn't know the answers and we're praying and begging God to come through. And at the time he was a missions pastor and he was happened to be in Africa with in Senegal with some pastors. And he was talking to an African pastor, kind of pouring this out where we were and what was happening in our lives. And this African pastor turned to my husband and he said, pastor Jim, never forget in the dark what you knew to be true in the light. Never forget in the dark what you knew to be true in the light. Clinging to the promises of Jesus like the Israelites did for all those years. We remember what he has done. And listen, if you're new to faith or if you're still checking out the claims of Jesus, find people who have walked with him for a long time. Find people who have stories. Ask them to tell you how have you seen God show up? How do you know he's faithful? Get in a group and lean in and listen and ask your questions. How do you know? 'cause when we remember, it gives us hope for what is yet to come. And then we choose to trust. And that sounds so simple or maybe so impossible that I'm gonna choose to trust instead of being anxious, instead of panicking, instead of taking matters into my own hands. I remember years ago I was, I was just overcome with fear about something. And I remember waking up one day and saying, I'm done being afraid. I'm done. I'm deciding to let that fear go. And it did. So we choose to trust God. I had a mentor in college who said to me over and over, she said, Angela, there're gonna be times when you're life, when you're gonna have to choose to believe that God is good even when you don't see it. So we choose to trust again. Isaiah says this, you'll keep in perfect peace. Those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you. If you need a steadfast mind, if you need a calm heart, you choose to trust. You choose to wait for his provision, you choose to wait for his guidance. You know, maybe just maybe he knows better. Maybe there's a plan you can't see. Maybe there's a timing that you don't yet understand. So we choose in the tension, in the waiting we choose to trust him. The Psalms is one way that we can do that. The writers of the Psalms are so honest and we realize that we, this is not new for us because they often say, how long, oh God, when will you come through? When will my weight be over? Where are you now? How long must I wait? And long, how long will it feel dark? And then their hearts turn to hope. But I hope, but I trust, but I choose to believe. And so one of the things we can do when we need a steadfast heart is to go to the Psalms and let their words be your prayer. Let them pray what you have no words for As the deer longs for water. So I long for you, oh God, I thirst for God the living God. When can I go and stand before him day and night? I only have tears for food. While my enemies continually taunt me saying, where is this God of yours? My heart is breaking. As I remember how it used to be. I walked among the crowds of worshipers leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration. Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I'll put my hope in God. I'll praise him again, my savior and my God. Now I am deeply discouraged. But I will remember you even from distant Mount Herman, the source of the Jordan from the land of Mount Azar. I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tide sweep over me. But each day the Lord pours his unfilling love upon me. And through each night I sing his songs, praying to God, who gives me life? Oh God, my rock. I cry. Why have you forgotten me? Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies, their taunts break my bones, they scoff. Where is this God of yours? Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I'll put my hope in God. I'll praise him again. My savior and my God. So Marcus just read Psalm 42. Psalm 42 is the heart cry of advent, the heart cry of waiting, longing, hoping, acknowledging to God that my heart is so sad in this waiting, but then saying, but I will choose to trust you. I will choose to wait with you. I will remember your faithfulness. So what I encourage you, when you need a steadfast heart, when you need a calm mind, when you need to choose trust over anxiety, open the Psalms. Let their words be your prayer when you have no words. And then what we do is we surrender the outcome to Jesus. And this can be really hard. Years ago I had a counselor who said to me, Angela, you're pretty good at surrendering to God's will. But what you need to learn now is to surrender your emotional attachment to the outcome. Because as you pray and as you wait, you have a certain outcome that you're attached to. And so when the outcome is different, you lose your peace. You lose your your choice. So we we choose to surrender. Jesus actually taught us how to do this in the garden of Gethsemane. Before he went to the cross, he went and he was honest with God, longing for another way, begging for another way than the cross. And at the end of it, at the end of that prayer, he says, okay, I'd rather do it your way. I surrender the outcome. And for me, and for those that I've walked with and I've talked to, often it looks like that moment of why am I so discouraged? Why am I so sad? When will the weight come to an end? And I have to wrestle and pray and get my heart to a place where I can say, okay, if it stays just like this, I'm gonna trust you. I don't see an end date to this weight, but I'm gonna trust you in the middle of it. I'm gonna choose to believe that you are good. I'm gonna choose to believe that you're at work in ways I can't yet see. We choose to trust and we say, I lay down my expectations. And what we find is that waiting comes to an end. Waiting does come to an end. Abraham and Sarah had their son. David became king. Joseph was out of prison. The deliverer did show up. But there are other stories. Moses never made it into the promised land. After wandering for 40 years in the desert, This king David held a baby begging God to let it live. And he died. There's the joy and the sorrow mixed in. We experience loss. What we love is when we see the angels show up and tell 'em what's happening, we see a messenger show up and give direction. Say this is what's happening. The water's part, the fire comes down. But there are more stories than not where they waited, the angel didn't come, the messenger didn't show up. They had to clinging to who they knew Jesus God to be. They had to clinging to the fact that his good. We have to do the same. We clinging to what we know when the outcome doesn't look like we want it to. Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever. The time of darkness and despair will not go on forever in spite of what the outcome is. Because what we learn, even if the outcome isn't what we thought, is that God gets us through. He is faithful to see us through and to be with us through it all. And the last thing I would say is keep your eyes on Jesus. Keep your eyes on Jesus. First of all, it's unfair when we decide that we're gonna make a person or an organization or a church, our savior. Nothing else can be your savior but Jesus. And often when we get tired of waiting again, we don't make a golden calf, but we turn to people or to our church or to our friends, or to an organization or to a job and say, you need to make this right. I need you to fix this. And we put our hope in the wrong thing. And people can't be your savior. Don't expect them to be your savior. So what do we do in this wait time? We keep our eyes on Jesus. We stay the course. And in that time, what we often find is that in the wait is when we have the most profound experiences with God. When we feel the closest to him, when he's forming our character, when what he wants to point out to us bubbles up to the top in the weight, as we say, how long. But I will hope how long? But I will hope so in this time of waiting, we are joyful for what God has done, hopeful for what He will do. We embrace the grief and the joy, the sorrow and the hope. And we stay the course and believe that God is at work in ways that we cannot see. Yet we actively trust. We lean in. I'm gonna read a prayer over you again. It's a Puritan prayer. Often again when we have no words, it's so nice to lean back on the words of others that they've written before. And then after I read this, we're gonna sing probably a familiar Christmas song to you, a Christmas hymn. But I want you to really pay attention to the longing in this song. They say, oh, come, come Emmanuel. How long? Oh Lord. But I will rejoice. I will rejoice in the wait. Oh Lord of all seasons and sovereign of all time. Thou has to point at every moment for thy glory and for my good. Teach me to wait upon me with a quiet heart. Teach me to wait upon me with a quiet heart. For my soul is restless when it runs ahead of thy wisdom and troubled when it lags behind thy will thou notice my frame. How eager I am for answers. How quick to chafe at delay. How prone to doubt when the dawn Terrys yet thou has never failed. Thy servants who leaned wholly upon me grant me. Oh, father, awaiting that is not idle, but watchful, awaiting that is not anxious, but anchored in thy promises. Awaiting that beholds thy hand even when thy ways or hidden Still my hurried thoughts with the remembrance of thy faithfulness. Quiet my murmuring spirit with the assurance of thy steadfast love. Strengthen my fainting hope with the certainty that thou art working in ways unseen for thy purposes never slumber. And thy thy providence never falters. Let my waiting be worsened. My longing become trust, my delay become devotion. Make the posture of my life one of surrendered patients where my heart rests in thee more than the thing I seek from thee. Where my heart rests in thee more than the thing I seek from thee. And in my perfect time, not a moment early, not a second late, fulfill all that has been ordained, that I might praise thee more fully, love thee more deeply, and follow thee more faithfully. Amen.