Patience

[0:00] Music Thank you.

[1:00] Hi, I'm Linda Barzikowski. I'm a certified lay minister and lay leader of the 1115 service. If this is your first time here, be sure to get a welcome bag from the connection site or the Welcome and Information Center.

[1:14] I hope everyone will fill out their friendship card that you find in the bulletin. If you have any updated information, please be sure to fill out the card with your address and phone number.

[1:25] If you'd like to receive the newsletter, we ask that you do the same. On the back, there's a section for prayer requests, blessings, or notes to the staff.

[1:36] If you'd like them to stay confidential, we can do that too. We hope that you enjoy the service and have a wonderful day. Good morning. This is the day that the Lord has made. We'll rejoice and be glad in it.

[1:50] This is the day that the Lord has made.

[2:06] Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made.

[2:22] Let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made.

[2:36] Lord, we thank you for your beautiful snow and for safe travels. We thank you for the opportunity to be here in your house. And we pray that you will bless us this day, that we will experience your presence in a powerful way.

[2:52] May everything we do in this service of worship be a blessing to you. For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. I'd like to invite you all to stand if you're able as we sing together, Angels from the Realms of Glory.

[3:03] Angels from the Realms of Glory.

[3:28] From the Realms of Glory. Wing your flight o'er all the earth. Ye who sang creation's story.

[3:40] Now proclaim Messiah's birth. Come and worship. Come and worship. Worship Christ the newborn King.

[3:55] Shepherds in the field abiding. Watching o'er your flocks by night. God with us is now resigning.

[4:09] Yonder shines the infant light. Come and worship. Come and worship. Worship Christ the newborn King.

[4:24] Sages leave your contemplations. Brighter visions beam afar. Seek the great desire of nations.

[4:39] We have seen his natal star. Come and worship. Come and worship. Worship Christ the newborn King.

[4:53] Saints before the altar bending. Watching long in hope and fear. Suddenly the Lord descending.

[5:08] In his temple shall appear. Come and worship. Come and worship. Come and worship. Worship Christ the newborn King.

[5:23] The Lord be with you. And also with you. Please be seated. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we celebrate the new birth by water and the Spirit through the sacrament of baptism as we become members of Christ's Holy Church.

[5:44] And so this morning, it gives me great honor to present to you Gabriel David Prendergast for holy baptism. Come on up, guys. Good morning, Gabriel.

[6:04] How we doing? Okay. Huh? Good morning. Hello. Ooh. Oh, I shocked him. These questions are for the parents.

[6:15] Do you reject the evil powers of this world? Repent of your sin? Accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist Satan. If so, answer, I do. Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and promise to serve as Christ's representative through faithful participation in his church?

[6:33] If so, answer, I do. And will you nurture this child in Christ's Holy Church? And by teaching an example, lead him to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior. If so, answer, I will.

[6:45] And for the sponsors, will you who sponsor this child support and encourage you? And will you encourage him in his Christian faith? If so, answer, I will. All right. Will you as the church of Christ renew your own vows of commitment to Christ and accept your responsibilities to assist these parents in fulfilling their vows by babysitting, changing diapers, and, oh, I'm sorry.

[7:08] Answer, we will. There you go. See, you got it. There you go. Come on up here, guys. Come on up here, guys. Come on up here, guys. Shall we pray?

[7:24] Lord, bless this water as a symbol of your sanctifying and renewing grace. As you have used water to bless the saints of history, let it now bless your child. Pour out your Holy Spirit on this gift of water to bless this child with your grace that leads to eternal life.

[7:39] Help us to know that as we die to this world, we become alive to Christ and share in his final victory over sin and death. Amen. Come here a minute.

[7:54] Are you doing this morning okay? I know. I know. But you'll be okay in a second. Gabriel David Prendergast, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[8:10] May the Lord bless you and be with you today and always. Amen. I present to you your newest member of the family of God. Shall we greet him? Here you go, guys.

[8:29] This one will be up to you. Which one do you want? Decisions, decisions. A little dog. Go for it. Okay, honey. All right.

[8:40] Congratulations. It's always a joy to have new babies and baptisms and people welcomed into the church and family from out of town and families getting together. We are thankful for so many things.

[8:51] I'd love to hear this morning what you all are thankful for. Judy. Now I'm Carol, 80 years old. Woo-hoo.

[9:02] What else are we thankful for this morning? Thank you. Jackie. Jackie. Jackie. Jackie. Jackie. Jackie. Jackie. Jackie. Jackie. Jackie. Jackie. Jackie. Jackie. Wow.

[9:12] So that's a good thing, but she avoided two accidents. So we'll continue to pray. The roads are slippery, so I'm thankful everyone made it here safely and well.

[9:24] Anyone else have anything you're thankful for? I'm thankful Sandy Garrick, who we've been praying for, is home and feeling a lot better. She still has a long way to go, so we'd like to lift her up in prayer, but boy, what a blessing to have her home.

[9:39] So we're really thankful for Sandy to be home. What else are we thankful for? Did you all experience Christmas? Am I just a few days ago, guys?

[9:49] So we're thankful that Christmas happened and that we had wonderful time, right? Did we have a good time at Christmas? Okay. Okay. For years, he was in a fire in an empty building that he was living in to keep warm.

[10:06] He's at ECMC, and they've provided him with a social worker. The VA is going to get him a home. People are providing furniture, and this man's life is going to turn around. Amen. Amen. So, yeah.

[10:19] You have a joy to share over there? Shout it out. Grandpa's birthday.

[10:30] Wow. Grandpa's birthday. Yeah. We are thankful for so many things. Some of us are a little shy to say it this morning, but man, if we'd really think about it, God is so good.

[10:43] God has blessed us in so many ways to an abundance in each of our lives. So as we reflect on our gift, on how good God is, let's return our gifts, tithes, and offerings to the Lord.

[10:53] Thanks to the Lord. Thank you.

[11:53] Thank you.

[12:23] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[12:53] Alleluia. Thank you. Thank you. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia. ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ 20 todavía be seated. So we have some clipboards we're going to pass back here. We have the one is for First

[15:59] Church. We're going to take them and pass them back. First Church for the meal that we serve every Thursday evening for the community there. When you take them, just pass them on back.

[16:11] The other one is for the youth retreat. And for any youth, we want to make sure you sign up next Sunday is the very last day to sign up. And it really helps us a lot if you sign up early. But we have youth going on a retreat and we're asking for food for that because teenagers eat a lot. So we need lots of snacks. So draw your attention to the clipboards that are there.

[16:33] We have lots of things going on. We had a beautiful Christmas Eve service. If anyone is so inspired and has time on their hands and wants to figure out how to use an iron with a fabric to get the wax off of the new chairs, that'd be lovely. Just throwing that out there. Prayer concerns are many.

[16:55] June Phillips tore a tendon in her ankle and she will be in a wheelchair for four weeks. So please pray for June Phillips. Anita Nelameshkes has very bad back pain. And pray for the Vivian family. Yvonne Vivian's father passed away this past week as well. Do we have any other prayer concerns to lift up this day? Any concerns on our hearts? Okay, let's pray.

[17:28] Almighty God, we come to you this day, humbly seeking you. We pray that you will hear our petition, that you will answer our prayers. We're lifting up to them, Lord, that you will have a mighty hand upon the people that we carry in our hearts, people who are struggling physically. Lord, we pray for your healing touch to be upon them, that any of the disease will be cast away. Bind up any of the pain and cast it out. And we pray that you will make them whole and well.

[18:02] Lord, we pray for healing of the mind, healing of the body, healing of the soul, healing of the spirit. Lord, we pray for healing in our people's lives. We pray for people to be healed in their relationships.

[18:19] Lord, we pray that your love will just infuse our relationships and draw one another closer to one another as they grow closer to you. Help us to have eyes to see you in other people.

[18:33] And send grace and healing to our relationships. Put a blanket of protection over our families. And guide our families in your ways to make you the priority.

[18:48] Lord, we pray for those who are struggling with their finances and with their jobs and job insecurity. We pray that you will open up opportunities and give wisdom. We pray also, Lord, for people who are weary, who are grieving, who have heavy hearts. Lord, we pray that they will experience your peace and your presence. Wrap them in your loving arms.

[19:15] Surround them with your community of people and lift them up. Help them to see you in the midst of struggle. Lord, we pray for our church.

[19:27] That you'll continue to guide us. That we may be open to hearing your word and moving in your direction. Inspire us to do what you would have us to do. Lord, we pray that you will give us hearts to receive your message for us today.

[19:49] Ears to hear, eyes to see, souls to experience. Lord, we pray that your supernatural power will come and fill us up.

[20:02] Dwell among us. Inspire us. Help us to experience you in a way where we can say boldly that we know you are here because we have experienced you.

[20:16] Lord, we pray for that moment. We pray that you will touch our eyes, touch our hearts. We pray for the healing of our nation.

[20:32] That peace will come. And as we step into a new year, Lord, that we will step in with your wisdom in your direction. We thank you for the healing you're giving to your people.

[20:45] And we thank you for your opportunities. For in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now let's hear from the word of the Lord. Good morning.

[21:19] Good morning. Today's scripture comes from Luke, chapter 2, verses 25 through 35. Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon who was righteous and devout.

[21:36] He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Messiah.

[21:50] Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was the custom of the law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.

[22:13] For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.

[22:26] The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed, and a sword will pierce your own soul too.

[22:48] This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen. So did you get what you wanted for Christmas?

[23:07] Everybody get everything you wanted, everything you dreamed of, everything you were waiting for and looking for? Remember, about six weeks ago, I got up in the morning, and there in my chair was one of those advertisements that comes out in the newspaper, and there was this bottle of perfume encircled with a little smiley face.

[23:25] About four weeks ago, I found another one of those advertisements sitting on my seat with a little smiley face. About two weeks ago, I saw the third one with a little smiley face, and I went to the store and bought it.

[23:36] We can get it, ladies. You just got to give us a few, you know, reminders. What if you were waiting, waiting a lifetime for something?

[23:49] Simeon had been waiting to see the salvation of God, the Messiah, waiting for that special time to go into the temple and experiencing God.

[24:02] Waiting. Waiting. I hate waiting. I think most of us don't like waiting. We're an impatient culture. We want to hurry. We want to do things on our time, and we want God to get around to doing what we want as soon as possible.

[24:21] In 2 Peter, he actually talks about it and says, God is not slow in keeping his promise. As some of you understand slowness, instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

[24:35] There's a passage in the book of Revelation that says, Maranatha, come Lord Jesus. And I often want to pray, come Lord Jesus, to reclaim your universe, but not right now.

[24:47] Because I've got things to do. People who need to hear about the salvation of God. But we hurry it. And they did it in the Bible too. Sarah couldn't wait for the promise that she'd have a baby, so she ended up having her husband sleep with the man.

[25:03] We have Samuel, who wanted to anoint a different person, King Saul, who wanted to rush the sacrifice of God. Elijah couldn't wait for God to act.

[25:18] Peter, who was in a hurry and got out of the boat and tried to walk on water and didn't. John and James wanted their seats in power. We look forward to the future.

[25:30] It's what draws us. Christmas Eve, I talked about hope. And it's that desire of something that is going to be great in the future that pulls us forward in life. We have plans.

[25:42] We have dreams. We have projects. We have careers. I was talking about this with somebody in Florida a couple years ago. And he said, Tom, don't wish your life away.

[25:54] Don't be so focused on what you're going to do in the future that you don't live the life that God has given you today. That was good advice. But we don't want that advice.

[26:08] We want things now. Simeon says, now you can dismiss your servant in peace. He's an old man.

[26:19] He's ready to go. I deal with a lot of people who are close to that time of leaving and some of them cling to this world and others say, I'm ready to go to glory. But it's hard.

[26:32] It's hard to wait, to be patient. To be patient. It's one of the most important virtues and yet it's one of the ones we struggle with entirely.

[26:43] Literally, this occurred in a time when they were doing a purification rite. What that means is that Mary, according to the Jewish law, had to wait 40 days before she was allowed to go to the temple.

[26:58] And then they were supposed to offer a sacrifice, a lamb. In this case, he offered two little birds because, well, they must have been poor. I want to know, what did they do in the 40 days?

[27:10] You know, they were in Bethlehem, right? In a stable. Nazareth is a five-day journey there and back. Mary just had a baby. I don't think she's really wanting to go home just to come back again.

[27:21] So did they live in the stable for 40 days? That's not exactly something I would like to do. Can you imagine? You got no bath, you got nothing. 40 days living in a barn?

[27:35] Maybe they went home just to turn around and come back. You ever have to do that? Like the people on Christmas Day that are going from one house to another house to another house to another house? I'll just have a little bit.

[27:47] Please. So they finally go to the temple for this wonderful purification rite, which is a great and a wonderful thing because God has finally given them the opportunity to do what they've been waiting for.

[28:05] And this is where they meet Simeon. God calls us to have patience. In 2 Timothy, he actually, Paul is talking to Timothy, he says, preach the word, be prepared, in season and out of season, correct, rebuke, encourage, with great patience and careful instruction.

[28:24] In season and out of season. When things are right and when things are not. In the Greek, they have two words for a time. One is Kairos and another is Kronos.

[28:36] Many of you heard me talk about this. Kairos are those incredible moments, those moments that we wait for, those moments that we build to. When we're trying to have that perfect, absolute, wonderful experience.

[28:50] Kairos is when we gather together on Christmas and everything's just perfect. I remember we gathered, it was actually Easter, at my grandmother's house one time and my grandma was a great cook and so we all sat down and we piled the food on our plates and then we put the gravy all over everything.

[29:09] It was ham gravy and we took a bite and went, oh, it's awful. And when you're 15 years old, back in that day, you got bad food at grandma's house, you ate it anyways.

[29:22] So we're all choking it down and looking at each other like, oh my gosh. My grandmother and my mother never said anything to us. The next day, my mother said that, her mother called her and said, Lorraine, did you eat any of the gravy?

[29:36] And she said, no, why? Just because it was burned. It was awful. I can't believe your kids sat there and ate the food. Well, of course, we don't want to ruin a special moment. Can you imagine us and grabbing your food and your food's lousy?

[29:49] We can't do that. It's a Kairos moment. It's a special moment. It's the moments we wait for in our lives. Those special opportunities like this morning.

[30:02] Baptizing little Gabriel. Some of you may not know I baptized his father too. To have the opportunity for these special experiences, these moments in our lives.

[30:17] It says that the Holy Spirit came on Simeon and told him, you got to get to the temple. Now back then, the Holy Spirit wasn't available to everybody. So when the Holy Spirit came on him, he went.

[30:28] That was an important thing. He had been promised by God through the Holy Spirit that he would see the Messiah. And so you can imagine the excitement in this man who's been waiting his whole life for this Kairos moment and God broke in.

[30:46] In 2 Peter chapter 3, it says, the Lord isn't slow in keeping his promises. some understand slowness. Instead, he's patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

[31:01] That's it? All right. Because it says, the glory of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night and you don't want to miss that amazing event.

[31:19] So he comes and he sees the baby and he proclaims the confirmation of his salvation. The confirmation of his faith to know that you know that you know.

[31:41] These are last night's notes. I just realized that. I updated and changed him for this morning, but none of the changes are here. This is not a Kairos moment.

[31:57] I wonder why things were wrong. Sorry, guys. It's got nothing to do with you. All right. Well, let's start all over again. How do you know that you know?

[32:11] You know, I had a friend of mine recently who lost his wife. He's actually a pastor. He's preached about eternal life his entire life. But he came and he said, Tom, how can I be sure?

[32:26] I said, because you know that you know. You've told thousands of people that you know. You know that you know. I know. I know. I know. But there's times we have that little bit of doubt.

[32:39] We're just not sure. We don't know whether we can count on it or not. And we need confirmation. We need somebody to say that what we know we know is certain blessed assurance.

[32:57] That's why we have something called confirmation in the church. We start with a little baby. We raise him in the church. And then at a certain point in time when they get to an age where they can understand their faith we ask them to say the same vows their parents said for them to confirm their faith.

[33:17] But what do we do in the in-between time? Well that's the chronos time. The chronological time. That time where we just go through life. Where we wait for the special moment to come again.

[33:31] I hate waiting. You know I was waiting at the store a couple weeks ago. And I went for the shortest line. You know how you do this right? And as soon as you get to that line you get stuck between this cart and that cart.

[33:45] You'll hear price check. Oh no no no not price check not price check not price check the only thing worse would be oh I ran out of tape. No I ran out of tape. And somehow you squeeze your way out and get over to that other line just to watch that one that you were in go I can't stand it.

[34:02] It makes me crazy. People say that I'm a bit impatient. I am. I've got things to do. I've got oh. You know have you ever been to Disney World?

[34:12] Anybody here ever been to Disney World? They've got waiting down. The first time you go to Disney World you wait in line for a ride and you don't even know you're waiting in line because you think you're on the ride because they give you all kinds of stuff to do while you're on the line.

[34:26] Why can't the grocery store give me something to do besides reading those stupid magazines that are saying things that aren't true right? Just give me a game to play or a toy or a TV to watch or something.

[34:39] I hate waiting. Simeon had to wait his entire life for this. In the meantime there's another woman in the temple that we didn't read about named Anna. Anna had said was a prophet and she had been married for seven years and then she was widowed and she spent the last 60 years living in the temple because the temple would give you subsistence living back then.

[35:00] She lived there. She fasted and prayed every single day. Simeon in the meantime is described as devoted and righteous. He spends his time in trying to study the scriptures so that he knows where to look for salvation and what it will look like and in the meantime he's listening to God.

[35:19] So you have two people who are listening to God, studying the scriptures, praying and fasting and that tells us what we do in the in-between time. We till the soil, we work, we work at our faith.

[35:34] Every day we take a little time. I'm not going to ask you when was the last time you prayed because that was a couple minutes ago. When was the last time you read the Bible at home?

[35:47] When was the last time you prayed and actually stopped talking and listened to God? When was the last time you fasted? I know, I know, don't, I'm not the one to talk, obviously I'm not.

[36:00] But do we take the in-between time to till the soil, to prepare for God? We can't make God appear. Most people come to church because they want to experience the living God, amen?

[36:13] You don't come here for what I can do, you come here for what God could do in your life so that God himself will reach into your life and touch you. That's the most powerful thing that can happen in a worship experience.

[36:24] but in the book of John in chapter 3 it says to us, the wind blows where it pleases, you hear it sound but you can't tell where it comes from or where it's going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

[36:37] You can't make God show up, I can't make God show up, I can't cause God to come and give you an incredible experience this morning, I don't have that ability, God goes where God chooses.

[36:48] But we can prepare for him. We can prepare our hearts, we can pray to God, we can prepare our minds, we can listen for God, we can prepare our souls, we can sing our praises to God.

[37:00] And then maybe if we've tilled the soil and prepared everything, the seed will grow. And something amazing will happen. And that's what happened in the life of Anna, that's what happened in the life of Simeon, that's what happened in the life of Mary and Joseph.

[37:15] All of these people just showed up at the same time. Now Anna was living in the temple, but that's a big, big place. Mary and Joseph just happened to come at that moment.

[37:25] Simeon came because he felt led by the Holy Spirit, and at the exact same moment they appeared. Some people call it a coincidence. My wife calls that a God incident. When God does something amazing in the lives of people.

[37:40] A Kairos moment. See, because they weren't just waiting. They weren't just hanging out. They were waiting with a goal in mind, with a purpose in mind.

[37:52] They were expecting the unexpected. They were anticipating that they would meet God. So in comes Mary and Joseph with their little baby.

[38:03] He's a month and a half old. I want you all to think about this. You've got a month and a half year old baby. You walk into this temple. It's the first time you've gotten out of the barn in 40 days, right? You're excited about the fact that you're going to be able to go back home to Nazareth.

[38:17] You walk in the temple and some old man you've never seen comes up and grabs your baby. Security! Right? I'd be freaking out. This guy grabs your baby and takes off to do some blessing.

[38:30] And you're like, who is this old guy? They didn't know him. He wasn't their pastor. He wasn't somebody they'd ever met. He's just some guy shows up, takes their newborn baby, and takes off.

[38:42] I would be freaking out. But they were waiting. They were expecting something. And Simeon himself, he was looking for the Messiah, the salvation of Israel.

[38:56] You'd expect him to be looking for a king on a horse with a sword ready to take out people with lightning. But because he'd been preparing, because he'd been reading, because he'd been looking, he saw the Messiah when no one else saw him.

[39:09] Temple was filled with people and they didn't see him. The kings of the age didn't see him. Simeon saw him because he was expecting something amazing to happen.

[39:22] And Mary and Joseph, they just stood there. It says they marveled. More or less, they were like, what? Now, actually, I find it interesting that they marveled at this. They just both had experiences of seeing angels, didn't they?

[39:36] Mary saw the angel Gabriel. Joseph's got an angel appeared to him. They just had angels appearing in the sky over Bethlehem. These shepherd guys show up. Everybody's, you would think they would be expecting it, right?

[39:50] But when we don't anticipate it, we don't see it. Anna and Simeon were anticipating it. Mary and Joseph, as wonderful as they were, weren't looking for it.

[40:04] Are we looking for it? What are we waiting for? Are we like Simeon, waiting for salvation, waiting for our Savior, waiting for our God to reclaim our world?

[40:15] Are we so busy with other things that we're paying no attention? And we need it. We need it.

[40:26] All the little happy things we do in life don't take away the brokenness and the pain and the hurt and the struggle. Every one of us needs God's salvation.

[40:38] Every one of us has a part of our lives where we feel as if something is breaking apart. I could go around this room and start naming them, but I, of course, won't.

[40:50] And I could tell you about mine, but you don't need to hear it. We all know that there's something deep in each one of us that's just troubled and looking for the day that it will be redeemed, that it will be transformed, and God wants to send that to us if we're looking for it.

[41:07] It says that this was done in public, not in secret. It's a light for even the Gentiles, the people who don't believe. The people living in darkness have seen a great light.

[41:23] And God has come to bless them. A light for the Gentiles. Salvation for all of us. And so it talks about the glory.

[41:37] The glory for the people of Israel. What's our glory? What's our goal? What is it that you really are spending your life, your time, your work, your energy to make happen?

[41:50] There's nothing wrong with these kind of goals, but you do understand that the day will come when God will take the whole world and reclaim it and pull it back as if it wasn't here.

[42:02] And all the things we think are so important on that last moment won't matter at all to us. Will we be able to say, I'm ready to go.

[42:14] I'm at peace. That's the goal. In fact, that's the goal of the church. To make sure that everyone and everywhere people will hear about the possibility that God will reach into your brokenness, your confusion, your fears, your worries, your troubles, your struggles, and give you that peace that Simeon felt here.

[42:37] It'll lead to the falling and the rising of many, including all of us. We need to all fall to the point that we recognize that we can't do it ourselves, that we don't have it all together, that we need something powerful to fix us so that we can repent and turn to God.

[42:57] It's living life intentionally. Simeon was devoted. He was prepared. He was expecting. He was looking for the unexpected.

[43:12] So, what are you doing for New Year's? You know, when I was young, I remember a lot of people my age when I was young wanted to go out, right?

[43:24] Like they go downtown to the ball drop, you know, in 12 degrees temperatures, waiting for that ball to come down. Maybe you're going to do that.

[43:36] I won't ask. Then you get a little older and you try to go to somebody's house or you have a little dinner or maybe even go out to dinner or something fancy like that. At some point, you get to the age where you're just waiting until 12 o'clock.

[43:50] You say, good night, honey, and boom, that's it. And I was just talking to a couple coming in the church this morning who said, we're not staying up until 12. That's crazy. It's about 10 o'clock. We've seen it before.

[44:01] It's nothing new. It's the same thing. The ball goes, that's it. Okay? But let me ask you, what happens when that ball is about to come down? They do a countdown, right?

[44:12] 10. 9. Can you do it? 8. 7. 6. 5. What if you didn't have the countdown? I want you to picture, you're out in Niagara Square or whatever it is in front of the electric building.

[44:27] It's like 10 degrees. You're freezing to death and you have no idea when that thing's coming down. Nobody's got a clock. They're all broke. So you're all sitting there just waiting and wondering, when is it going to happen?

[44:38] It could be an hour. It could be 10 minutes. It could be 5. It could be 3. When you're freezing, it always seems like forever. Right? Could you imagine a countdown on New Year's Eve when you have no idea when it's going to come?

[44:53] That's what it means to wait. To wait for something spectacular to happen but not know when it's going to occur. Let's try Luke chapter, or Peter chapter 3 again.

[45:07] Let's see if we can get it. There we go. The Lord isn't slow in keeping his promises. Some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

[45:18] The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it, everything we've worked for, everything we thought mattered, everything that we put our entire life's effort into will be God.

[45:37] And we'll stand before God. So what do we do in the meantime? We live life intentionally. Till the soil every day.

[45:50] Every day prepare for what you're expecting. Me, I'm expecting Jesus. So every day I take a little time with them. I work on praying.

[46:00] I work on listening. I work on the scriptures. I'm not so good on the fasting. I apologize. And we wait. And let me tell you, none of us likes to wait. From the moment we're born, we don't like waiting.

[46:13] If you don't believe me, just listen. Let's say I'm going to shore because I want to get a tree. This girl found me. He was walking really, really slow.

[46:27] So slow. Mommy said be nice. I don't want to. I was teaching.

[46:38] Hurry up, lady. And I don't say that. And the red is. And the red is. And the red is. She even knows.

[46:49] Oh, sun too poor. Then I got my treat. It was good. So member people don't walk slow.

[47:01] I have no time for that. I got places to go. I got places to go, man. Don't slow me down.

[47:11] Get moving, lady. We learn it when we're this tall. But you know, that was good advice. Don't wish your life away.

[47:25] You see, what happened is, after this amazing Kairos moment in Bethlehem, and all this stuff at the temple, and all these things that were said to Mary and Joseph, they went back to Nazareth, and they waited for something to happen for 30 years.

[47:41] And that day and age, that's a lifetime. They waited a lifetime for something to happen. Can we wait a lifetime for something to happen?

[47:52] Colonel Sanders didn't start Kentucky Fried Chicken until he was 65 years old. Really? Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote all of her works when she was over 70.

[48:04] Do you know that 14 presidents could have collected Medicare while they were in office? Sarah and Abraham. Zachariah and Elizabeth.

[48:15] Simeon and Anna. And oh, what about Mother Teresa? Does anybody remember her? Mother Teresa actually wrote diaries, which she requested that they would be destroyed when she died, but they didn't destroy them.

[48:29] So we could read what Mother Teresa was thinking. And this is what Mother Teresa said when she was about 14 years old. She had an absolutely overwhelming, all-consuming experience of God.

[48:40] It touched her. It moved her. It transformed her life, and she committed her life to serving God. And it says that for the rest of her life, she prayed for, she waited for, she looked for God to do it again.

[48:56] But it never happened. Never happened. She spent her life doing extraordinary things off of the conviction of one Kairos moment.

[49:13] And now, now she's experiencing Kairos moments every day in glory. You've got the Kairos moments.

[49:24] Live for them. Look for them. Prepare for them. But you also have the Kairos moments. Every single day, live in them in an extraordinary way. And you can have an amazing presence in this world.

[49:38] Just like Mary and Joseph. Just like Simeon and Anna. Just like Mother Teresa. It all starts when we're willing to let little baby be born into our lives.

[49:53] ھین k ha f Infant holy, infant lowly, for his bed a cattle stall.

[50:28] Rocks and flowing, little knowing, Christ the baby is Lord of all. Swift our winging, angels singing, Noel's ringing, tidings springing, Christ the baby is Lord of all.

[50:51] Rocks were sleeping, shepherds keeping, vigil till the morning dew. Saw the glory, heard the story, tidings of the gospel true.

[51:08] Thus rejoicing, free from sorrow, praise His voicing, greet the morrow. Christ the baby was born for you.

[51:20] Christ the baby is born to you. He is born, a holy child.

[51:50] Play the yoke, and make life's marriage. He is born, a holy child. Sing we all of the same our child.

[52:03] Through our ages of the past, Now his hand for gold is coming. Through our ages of the past, Now the time has come and last.

[52:20] He is born, a holy child. He is born, a holy child. Play the yoke, and make life's marriage. He is born, a holy child.

[52:33] Sing we all of the same our child. Oh, how lovely, oh, how poor, Is this perfect child of heaven.

[52:46] Oh, how lovely, oh, how beautiful, Gracious gift to Him and kind. He is born, a holy child.

[52:59] Play the yoke, and make life's marriage. He is born, a holy child. Sing we all of the same our child.

[53:12] Jesus, Lord of all the world. Love me as a child among us. Jesus, Lord of all the world.

[53:25] Grant to us the heavenly peace. He is born, a holy child. Play the yoke, and make life's marriage.

[53:37] Sing we all of the same our child. Sing we all of the same our child. You know, when we approach confession, we tend to think about the things we've done.

[53:52] The little actions here where we've somehow offended, and those are important to take to God in confession. But probably more important is when we get totally off track, and we start focusing our lives on all the things, that in the end won't make any difference.

[54:06] It's the things that when we're facing that final moment, we won't even look back and care about. God is calling us to a great and wonderful faith.

[54:17] Let's turn our hearts to Him and confess our need for Him. Dear God in heaven, forgive me, for I have sinned by the things I do, and even more so, Lord, when I think of all the things.

[54:38] Worry about all the things. Work for all the things that have nothing to do with you. Fill my life, Lord.

[54:51] Help me to till my soil and prepare myself for the blessing of your coming. Give me kairos moments and help me to live in the kronos moments with your glory in my heart.

[55:12] For it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The amazing thing about God is it doesn't matter where you are in life, God is willing to put you back on track.

[55:27] You can be completely off track, and even as a thief hanging on a cross, there's the possibility. Only once in the Bible, but it was given. So right now is the opportunity to change the direction.

[55:42] Move the way God wants you to go. Start fresh. In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. Glory to God.

[55:52] Amen. And now, as forgiven children of God, shall we greet one another with the peace of the Spirit. Yeah, Nancy. Amen.

[56:06] Amen. Amen. Amen. Jesus, name above all names, beautiful Savior, glorious Lord, Emmanuel, God is with us, blessed Redeemer, living Word.

[57:30] The Lord be with you. Lift up your hearts. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right and a good and joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

[57:51] You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life. When we turned away and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.

[58:01] You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God, and spoke to us through the prophets. And so with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might.

[58:23] Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Holy, Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

[58:34] Holy are you and blessed is your Son, Jesus Christ. Your Spirit anointed him to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to announce that the time had come when you would save your people.

[58:54] He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and ate with sinners. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection, you gave birth to your church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.

[59:14] When the Lord Jesus ascended, he promised to be with us always in the power of your word and Holy Spirit. On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took the bread.

[59:28] He gave thanks to you, and he broke the bread. He gave it to his disciples, and he said, take and eat. This is my body, which is given for you.

[59:42] Eat of this often. Remembering me. And when the supper was over, he took the cup. He gave thanks to God, and he said, this is the blood, this is my blood, of the new covenant, poured out for you, poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins.

[60:08] Drink of this often. Remembering me. And so, in remembrance of these, your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ's offering for us as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

[60:31] Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.

[60:49] By your Spirit, make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

[61:00] Through your Son, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in your holy church, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever. Amen. Now let us pray the prayer that Jesus taught us, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

[61:19] Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

[61:35] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

[61:46] Amen. Will those who are serving please come forward. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[62:20] Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.

[62:54] Thank you.

[63:24] Thank you.

[63:54] Come and join us with the Lord. Thank you.

[64:54] Thank you.

[65:24] Thank you.

[65:54] Thank you.

[66:24] Thank you.

[66:54] Thank you.

[67:24] Thank you.

[67:54] Thank you.

[68:24] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[69:28] Thank you.

[70:28] And God You know, I'm taking that perfume, and I'm going to be here, and I'm giving it to you, you know, you know, you know, you know, but I didn't, I'm not that dumb, you know?

[71:19] Because when somebody's expecting something absolutely amazing, something spectacular, something incredible to happen, it should happen. It should happen.

[71:30] And I can tell you with complete confidence that I know that the day we meet our Lord is going to be a hallelujah moment. It's going to be so amazing that it's beyond anything we can even think of today.

[71:43] And that gives me the hope, the confidence, the possibility of going through each and every day, knowing that the best is yet to come.

[71:54] May God go with you. May God bless you. May God be with you in the chronos moments, in the dark places, in the struggles, so that you might go through to the other side and walk into glory.

[72:07] Go in his peace. Amen.