The Celebration of Advent

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

A lot is written and said about the waiting and the longing of Advent. And that is what Advent is, the silence, the letting go of control as we wait. 

But what are we waiting for? What are we anticipating?

A celebration. 

We also see this in the book of Isaiah. The book of Isaiah has so many prophecies about the Messiah and what the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus would mean for us. 

Isaiah 25 says: On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine – the best of meats and the finest of wines. 

This is not a thrown-together party. 

This is well thought out. 

Like the preparation many of us go through for Christmas. 

I love to smoke meat. I’ll get up early on holidays to get the right flavored wood to go with the meat, the perfect rub, making sure the food is excellent for the people I’m serving. 

Why? It brings joy. 

The best foods, the finest wines. We are told in Psalm 104 that wine brings joy. 

This is a picture of joy. 

The best meat is the expensive, dry-aged ribeye steak. The best wine, not the stuff in a box, but the one you go into the wine cellar and pull out, the wine you’ve been saving. 

Our best Christmas feast is only a foretaste of what eternity with Jesus will be like. 

We don’t think like this. 

But we practice for eternity when we sit around a table with friends and family

Do you see how joy is savoring

Joy is slowing down. 

But this feast isn’t just about what is being served but the purpose of it. 

The prophet Isaiah goes on: On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

Have you ever been invited to a party and not been in the mood?

Maybe right now, you look at your life, this past year, and wonder how you can celebrate. How can you meet up with family and friends this week and celebrate?!

The hope of Advent is that Jesus came and that He will come again, and when he does, he will swallow up death forever; he will wipe every tear away from our faces. 

He will take away the pain of betrayal, sadness, cancer, the pain of death, and decay.  

He will swallow them up. He is showing his power over those things. 

He will remove the disgraces

Think, the disgraces, the things you wish you could undo, the regrets you wish you hadn’t missed, the things your family reminds you of, the things you think when you look in the mirror, all removed. 

We rejoice, and we are glad in his salvation. 

In what he has done. 

Our salvation was bought 2,000 years ago when Jesus came to earth, died in our place, and rose from the dead. 

Finding Peace & Calm in a Chaotic Life

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Many conversations I’ve had over the last couple of years center around the loss of control we have all felt. And I get it. I love control. I love to make decisions, and I feel comfortable when I know what is going on. But the older I get, the more I realize how little control I have in life.

What is control? According to the dictionary: Control is the power to influence or direct people’s behavior or the course of events.

I can’t make Katie do anything. I can’t make my kids do what I want. I can’t control my parents, friends, people in my church, or the economy. I can guide things in my life, but I can’t “make them.”

Very little in my world falls into my control. Very little in your world falls under your control. 

This realization can create a lot of fear, or I can step into it and see what God has in it.

This past Sunday, I preached through Philippians 4:4 – 8, which says:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things.

Max Lucado, in his book, Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World, lays out a helpful acronym from this passage: 

In Philippians 4:4, we celebrate God’s goodness by rejoicing in the Lord always.

When we celebrate, we look back. We remember what God has done, who God is. 

When we celebrate a person, we celebrate who they are. We celebrate the closeness with that person. We don’t invite random strangers to our birthday parties; we celebrate intimacy. 

In verse 6, We ask God for help by bringing all our requests to God. 

We ask God for help.

We bring all requests to God. 

Just like a child asks a parent anything. They ask for every cereal at the store. They ask for ice cream for dinner. 

We need to pray that way. 

Paul Miller said, “Prayer is bringing our helplessness to God.”

In verse 6, Then we leave our concerns with him. 

One of the main times for me to pray and bring requests to God is at night when it is quiet, and my mind is racing. Then, when I’m done, I say something like, “Now, God, help me to leave these to you.”

This is the struggle of prayer and faith, but it is the step of releasing control to God, so we experience his calm.

Then in verse 8, we meditate on good things. 

Think, concentrate, direct your thoughts and attention to the things that are of God. 

God promises he will keep us in perfect peace when we fix our minds on him. 

Why is meditating, thinking, dwelling so important? Because what consumes our minds controls our lives. What we think about, we become. What we focus on dominates our minds, hearts, and bodies. 

That’s why we need to meditate on Scripture, on God, focusing on his ways, to experience his peace and calm. 

This spells CALM.

Celebrate

Ask

Leave

Meditate

When we release control to God, we experience His calm.