Morning Message Text: 1 Thessalonians 3: 9-13
9 How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?
10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.
11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you.
12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
13 May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
Morning Message:
There are many different definitions of the word wait. The first two definitions that I find seem to be in opposition to each other. The first says: to remain inactive until something expected happens. The second says: to be available or in readiness. Do you hear the discrepancy? How are you to be inactive and at the same time be available and ready? I will be using our Advent devotional in my messages throughout the Advent season. In the reading for today we find a third definition of the word wait. Let’s unpack this devotion together. In Genesis chapter 18 we read this very odd story of God visiting Abraham. Advent is a season for our expectations to be raised in anticipation of the coming of our Lord and Savior. Advent is a season of waiting, but so is our entire Christian existence, or at least it should be. Our devotional says, when God as three persons, visits Abraham, Abraham has been waiting for God’s promise of an heir to be fulfilled. Abraham has not been inactive while he was waiting; he was available and in readiness. He has been practicing obedience and following God’s direction.
I want us to pay attention to Abraham’s response when God shows up. The devotional says: But now, he waits upon God. Abraham provides water for foot-washing and bread for the divine visitors to eat. I think that this is important for us to take notice of. Abraham is not focused on what God has not yet provided, an heir, but instead remembers how much God has blessed him and wants to bless God in return. This is such an important lesson for us to learn. We just celebrated Thanksgiving, but did we? It seems that we are always waiting on the next blessing, focused on what God has not provided instead of on what he already has. Do you know how we can fix this flaw in our response to God? By waiting on him. Instead of focusing on our own blessing we should focus on how we can be a blessing to God. I don’t expect that God is going to appear to us physically so that we can wait on him, but Jesus says to us, “As much as you have done it unto the least of these you have done it to me.”
This is the attitude of Paul in our morning message text. “How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?” Paul is not focused on himself or his needs. He is drawing joy from the blessing of people that God has allowed him to minister to. His heart is full of joy and thanksgiving for something that we seldom, if ever, consider: the blessing of what God has allowed him to be a part of. Listen to what he is saying. “Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.” You know, we think we have problems, and we do, but I want you to think about Paul, a missionary, doing God’s will unselfishly. No one could blame him if, in his letter, he said something like, “I have given so much for you could you please help a fellow out and send me an offering.” Living the Christian life is about taking your focus off yourself and placing it on others. So simple, but so difficult, because the world has programmed us to be self-centered.
The remainder of this scripture is in the same vein. Focused on the needs of others. Praying that God will make a way for them to get there so that they can do God’s will. Asking for God’s love to grow in their hearts and for them to be strengthened in the faith.
What should we do while we are waiting for Jesus? We were not called to stand idly by doing nothing except taking care of ourselves. This is not a call to busy yourself in the work of the church. It is a call to stop looking inwardly and start looking outwardly to see how we can wait on God.
I am reading from our Advent devotional because I want to make sure you hear what God is saying this morning. I hope that I am wrong about this, but I suspect that a lot of these devotionals go unread. Not on purpose, but because other things always seem to take priority. Listen: “As we set about making ready for the coming of Christmas, waiting for the arrival of the Son who has been promised to us, we should ponder: Do we still wait for God with joyful hope? How can we make ready to practice the faithful hospitality of Abraham? How will God appear to us? As a road-worn stranger? As a child in a manger? And what is the ‘bread’ that we are called to offer? How are we being called to wait on God?”
I hope that you will discipline yourselves to read your Advent devotional daily. There is a common theme in the readings for this week. I had a notion not to tell you what it is and then ask you next Sunday what it was, but I think it is more effective to tell you. We will celebrate Communion today and every reading this week will point to the bread of life, which is our Savior. My hope is that all week long you will celebrate the Lord’s Supper and the wonder of the Bread of Heaven as you devote yourselves to these readings. God has provided everything in our lives; maybe it’s time that we wait on the Lord. Waiting on God is so much more than looking to the sky for his arrival, it is serving and working and being a blessing.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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