Speaker 1: 0:00

So good to see you guys here. I come from the land of Chicago. I'm sorry, but my heart's in Wisconsin. So love Madison Church, love everything you guys are doing, love being a part of the family here, and can't wait to spend the next couple of weeks with you as we launch into a new series called Waiting for Christmas. And I don't know about you, but I remember as a kid, when it came to Christmas time I couldn't wait, and that's passed on to my kids One of my children, who happens to be here right now in the front row and you can look at her, so she feels awkward Again. When she finishes her birthday on July 24th, the countdown to Christmas begins. She immediately starts to tell us her Christmas list, and it goes on and on and on. So much so she is so adamant and passionate about Christmas that we've had to institute a rule that she is not allowed to talk about Christmas until at least October. And so I don't know if you have that in your life or your kid's life, but we have a hard time waiting for Christmas. It's so hard that we've even invented tools to help us wait for Christmas, called Advent calendars.

Speaker 1: 1:14

Now, how many of you have Advent calendars. Okay, none of you have Advent calendars. All right, great. But I had an Advent calendar growing up and it was like nice little pictures of Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus. You open the little door every day. But as I've gone along I've realized that advent calendars have evolved over the years. There's now Taylor Swift advent calendars, there's Lego advent calendars, there's Donald Trump advent calendars making Christmas great again. Apparently. There's Harry Potter advent calendars. And then there again, apparently there's Harry Potter advent calendars. And then there's this one, happy Socks. You can see it up there Happy Socks advent calendars, where each day you open up a little window and you get a pair of socks, which is awesome. I guess.

Speaker 1: 1:57

If you need rubber duckies, there's rubber ducky advent calendars right here, because we all need 24 rubber duckies For the bearded man in your life. There's this one 24 Days of Beard Treats. So every day you open it up and there's a new beard oil in there. I would not know that I can't grow a beard. I'm 47, hoping that by 50 I can. And then my favorite, obviously made by Wisconsinites, is this next one 24 days of beer. So you open it up, every day you get a new beer. And while we smile at those. The fact of the matter is, waiting for Christmas is hard, and we'll do anything to make it go quicker, but the good thing about these advent calendars is that after 24 days, day 25 comes. Christmas comes, and it's great. You get to open the presents, you get to have the fun of the holiday season.

Speaker 1: 2:54

But I wonder if some of us here in this room or online have been waiting for something, have been waiting for something not just for 24 days, not just for 24 weeks, maybe not even 24 months, sometimes maybe 24 years, and that thing you've been waiting for still hasn't come. What are you waiting for? Maybe you're waiting for a marriage to turn around, but it only seems to be getting worse by the moment. Maybe you're waiting to meet that special somebody, but there seems to be nobody out there for you. Maybe you're waiting for the career that you dreamt of, that seems to be out of your grasp. Maybe you're waiting for the sickness to go away. Maybe you're waiting for you to figure out what you're going to do with your life. Maybe you're waiting for you to figure out what you're going to do with your life. Maybe you're waiting for this anxiety, this gripping fear, these thoughts that keep you up at night to finally disappear. Maybe you're waiting for your savings account to actually have something in it. Maybe you're waiting for your child to come home or to talk to you again. Maybe you're waiting for that child to come home or to talk to you again. Maybe you're waiting for that friendship to be mended, maybe well, you know what you're waiting for.

Speaker 1: 4:12

See, this Christmas season, this season of miracles, the season where God is supposed to appear, sometimes doesn't always feel that Christmassy. Sometimes, when we go to the tree, there's nothing under the tree for us. Then we're wondering where are you, god? You see, we aren't the first people who felt this way. Actually, the first Christmas, the Jewish people, the people of God, had not only been waiting 24 days, not just 24 weeks, not just 24 months, not just 24 years, not even 240 years. They had been waiting over 400 years for Christmas to come. They had been waiting over 400 years for the promise of the Messiah to actually show up, and they waited and waited, and waited, and all they could hear was crickets. It seemed like they were holding on to nothing. The more they waited, the more they wondered this question has God forgotten us? See? That's the question we ask when we're waiting. Has God forgotten me? Has God forgotten you? Has God forgotten us? Have we kind of just been wiped out of his memory? You see, they felt that way.

Speaker 1: 5:30

And just a warning the next few minutes will feel like a history clash and give you flashbacks of high school. So you might want to zone out. That might be your natural reaction. So I just need you to stay with me. So will you stay with me? Okay, one of you will. Will you stay? Just fake it Like, just honestly, just make me feel good. Will you stay with me? All right, there we go.

Speaker 1: 5:50

See, at the time of the Christmas story in the year zero, there was only one superpower, the Roman Empire. They ruled from England to India, nearly the entire world at that time. I mean, imagine today if somebody was in charge. One country was in charge of Africa, asia, north and South America, australia. That's what it was like. Now, palestine, where Jesus was born, was no exception. For 500 years, the Jews, the culture, their identity, their way of life had been taken away from them bit by bit, first by the Greeks, now by the Romans. In charge of this were the Caesars. You may remember Julius Caesar. Well, he came and went, and then Caesar Augustus the time the ruler, when Jesus was born was in charge. He had been ruling for nearly 27 years. The whole world was ruled by one man and he brought in what he called a time of peace, the Pax Romana. But it was anything but peaceful. See, the way to secure peace was to completely dominate everybody, to rule them, to make them know who was boss.

Speaker 1: 6:56

Common places you hear about in the Bible. You may remember the person in the Bible called Mary Magdalene. Well, she's from a place called Magdala, a town that had been overtaken, and 30,000 people, 30,000 Jews, have been taken as slaves by the Romans. Now, jesus knew this as he was growing up. In Caiaphas, just three and a half miles away from where Jesus grew up, the Jews decided that enough was enough and they tried to revolt, and the Romans fought back. That enough was enough and they tried to revolt, and the Romans fought back, and in one moment they crucified 2,000 Jews at one time. And Jesus could see this as a teenager. He knew that was happening. He could look out and see 2,000 crosses with bodies twisted, bloody and people slumped over dead. The message could not have been clearer you mess with us, we'll dominate you, we'll take you out. In fact, it was in this empire devoted to peace that this whole idea of crucifixion grew. Josephus, who was kind of the go-to historian of the time, said that the Romans actually had games where they tried to see who could twist people's bodies the most on a cross, and they would win a prize if they twisted it the worst.

Speaker 1: 8:11

But for Caesar Augustus, it wasn't just about dominating and conquering the world. It was about having the whole world worship him because in his mind, he was God. Now see if some of these things sound familiar. He called himself the son of God because his father, julius Caesar, ascended was apparently ascended to heaven. He was said to have been born of a virgin and was God incarnate. He said that he was the high priest who sat at the right hand of God, the divine mediator between God and people who could offer forgiveness of sins during a 12-day. He said his reign was the good news or the gospel. He, even on Roman coins, made it clear by saying that he was God, and a common phrase at the time was this there is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved except by Caesar Augustus. And the way you showed your allegiance to Caesar Augustus in the Roman Empire is that when somebody said to you Caesar is Lord, you were required to respond back yes, caesar is Lord. He thought he was God and he demanded worship.

Speaker 1: 9:21

But it wasn't just Caesar who was opposing the Jews, it was a guy named King Herod. You see, the Roman Empire was so big that they needed to have puppet kings in different regions, and the region where Jesus was born was ruled by a crazy king named Herod. He was known as Herod the Great, but he was anything but great. He killed everybody in sight when he first came into power. He was so determined to destroy the Jewish people that the Jewish people escaped the mountains and went down in caves and lived there, so they didn't have to be around Herod. But Herod wasn't satisfied with that. He couldn't just stand that. They ran away. So what he would do is he would have his men go to these caves. They would lower them down and smoke, release smoke into the caves and the people would have to come out of the caves to get fresh air. And as they came out of the caves, herod's men would have long hooks and they would take those hooks, grab the people and throw them off the mountain.

Speaker 1: 10:22

The story is told, a true story, that one man, in order to spare his family this shameful death, killed his seven children before jumping with his wife off the mountain to their own deaths. And Herod, along with 2,000 soldiers, came to Jerusalem and destroyed it. And he destroyed the symbol of God's people, the temple. And as the temple laid in ruins, he rebuilt it and put an eagle above it to show that he was now in control, not God. His paranoia was so bad that, shortly before he died, he ordered that the stadium be filled with Jewish leaders and the doors locked. And the moment he died, he wanted all the leaders in the stadium to be killed, as well as to ensure that when he died. The reason he did this, the reason he filled a whole stadium of Jewish people and killed them on the day he died, was to ensure that mourning would happen for his day of death. He was crazy. It's no wonder that when Jesus was born, he ordered all the baby boys to be killed, but that's even barely mentioned in the history books, because it was such a small thing compared to the other things he's done. He would just kill to kill.

Speaker 1: 11:34

You know, that's something we don't normally see in our culture here in the US, but I've seen it in other places around the world. A few years ago I was in the Democratic Republic of Congo and it was a beautiful country with beautiful people, actually some of the happiest people I've ever met. They sing and they dance, they have great food. They just invite you into their lives. It's unbelievable. It's also a country that's been ravaged by civil war. Millions and millions of people have died over the years, and I remember talking to one lady Congolese lady as she was there and she was telling me the story of how one day these troops came into their town and, for no reason other than sport, grabbed her husband, brought him out into the center of town and macheted him to death.

Speaker 1: 12:24

A few days later I was in another part of Democratic Republic of Congo. I was in a hospital and I was meeting this guy who was there and I said well, why are you here? And he said well, on my way to this town, these guys, these rebels, jumped out of the trees and they shot me. And he said actually, here's my x-ray. You can see the bullet in my head, my brain. If I move the wrong way, I'll die. And he was actually laughing as he said this. But this is not something to laugh about, dude, this is like serious. But he was laughing because he said you know what? They didn't even take anything, they just shot me to shoot me, killed just to kill, kill for sport. That's what it was like with Herod and Caesar.

Speaker 1: 13:04

But there's a completely different aspect of Herod, however, that we need to see. He was a master builder and visionary. That's why he's called Herod the Great. His building projects were all aimed at reinforcing the notion that he was king and nobody could touch him. Some historians believe that Herod was the richest man ever in history. He was Bill Gates times 100. In Jerusalem, he built theaters, paved streets, built huge mall-like buildings that had reception halls, fountains, gardens, baths in them. He built palaces, cities, fortresses, stadiums that could hold up to 500,000 people all over the place. He knew he wanted a coast city, but there was no coast city, so he built a coast and built one of the most amazing cities ever, caesarea.

Speaker 1: 13:50

Now you would think that the Jews would actually benefit from this, from all these building projects, but actually it was built on their backs. They not only did the projects, but they were taxed not just 10%, not just 20%, not just 30%, 10%, not just 20%, not just 30%. They were sometimes taxed up to 90% of their income. You think your taxes are bad? They were paying for Herod to be in control, and it's in that that the Jewish people didn't know what to do. They were left having to sell their lands. In fact, many had to sell their lands and go and find a skilled job, and that's actually, while we don't know this for sure, that's probably what happened with Joseph. The reason he's probably traveling back to Bethlehem in a time when everybody else stayed with their family land was probably because he had to sell his land because of taxes, and that's probably why he had to become a carpenter Just to survive. The rich were getting richer, the poor were getting poorer, and Herod loomed large over it all.

Speaker 1: 14:56

Let me ask you who's your Herod? What's your Herod? What is it in your life that seems so overwhelming, so hard that, no matter what you do, you can't seem to get ahead? It's your Herod. Maybe your Herod is a person, maybe your Herod's sitting next to you. Don't tell them that. Maybe your Herod is your boss, and no matter what you do? She just seems to come down on you all the time. Maybe your Herod is a relationship that was once so close but now is breaking apart. Maybe your Herod is something that happened to you that wasn't fair or wasn't just Now you're just left picking up the pieces and you don't know, actually, if you can put those pieces back together. And maybe your Herod is you, the voices in your head that tell you you are not good enough, you are not smart enough, you are not good looking enough, you are not strong enough, you are not enough. And these voices of Herod just attack you and attack you and attack you.

Speaker 1: 15:56

Who or what is your Herod? Because we all come against our Herods. We all feel like we are losing and we'll always lose. And the more we think about that, the more we just see our Herods, the more we just see Caesar, the more we wait and we think God has forgotten us. And so the question remains has God actually forgotten about you? Has God forgotten about me? Thankfully, and the reason you're here, the answer is no. The answer of Christmas is an emphatic no. See, while you may be in a waiting period, facing all sorts of herods in your life, God, in the spirit of Christmas is still invading your earth with his heaven. That's what he did that first Christmas.

Speaker 1: 16:56

It was in this situation, in this time, amongst an oppressed people group that lived in a small corner of a huge empire that spans the length of England to Asia, that an angel appeared to a 13 or 14-year-old girl named Mary, a poor, oppressed middle school girl. Now I know I know some of you think that Mary wore a blue robe and was 35 years old, but Mary actually didn't look like that, denny, you were up here before. Mary actually didn't look like that, denny, you were up here before. Here's my daughter, who wants everything for Christmas. Mary looked more like this you want to know why at Madison Church, we take students so seriously? Because God chose to change the world to a middle school girl named Mary. Well done, you can go sit down. Can you give her a hand? She told me she was requiring an appearance fee later on.

Speaker 1: 17:58

So here's Mary, a middle school girl no money, probably no property, holding on to a belief that God will still be God. And this angel appears. I mean, just imagine the scene. This angel appears to this middle school girl. She's on TikTok and says you're going to have a baby. And if I was her I'd be like, come again, that's like what. And if I was her I'd be like, come again, that's like what. At the very least I'd be putting a reel online saying crazy things. Angels say to me I mean, this is just, this is absolutely nuts. But Mary doesn't say this.

Speaker 1: 18:43

Mary grabs hold of the hope and she knows that God will be who God says he is. She holds onto this thing and as she does, this song, this amazing song, what we call the Magnificat, which means my soul magnifies the Lord, this Magnificat, just like, springs out of her and as we read her words, it gives us a blueprint of how we can wait patiently for God when we don't hear him or see him. Listen to these words and if you forget everything else I say, just remember these words. Luke 1, 46,. Mary responded oh, how my soul praises the Lord, how my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he took notice of his lowly servant girl. And from now on, all generations will call me blessed, for the mighty one is holy and he has done great things for me. And from now on, all generations will call me blessed from their thrones and exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things. He has sent the rich away with empty hands. He has helped his servant, israel and remembered to be merciful, for he made this promise to our ancestors and to Abraham and his children forever. She's saying the wait's over. She's saying the wait's over, and as we listen to these words, we notice something. We can learn some things about how to wait, what we have to believe at our very core.

Speaker 1: 20:17

When it comes to waiting for God, the first thing we need to understand, and just a couple things as we wrap up today. The first thing is that God notices you. God notices you. God notices you. You see, when we're facing our herds and are in a waiting period where nothing is happening, we feel so unnoticed. We feel like nobody sees us or understands us. We may have even and maybe you've done this before we may have even tried to explain the longing, the hurt, the pain we have to somebody else, but it's like they just don't get it. It's not that they're bad, they're trying to hurt you. They just don't get it and you feel so alone, so unnoticed. But Mary wants us to know that even when we feel unnoticed, god notices Verse 46, look what she says, for he took notice of this lowly servant girl. It doesn't say he took notice of the people who had the power. It doesn't say he took notice of Caesar. It doesn't say he took notice of Herod. It doesn't say he took notice of the CEO or the person who already is noticed. No, he took notice of Mary, a Jewish girl, an oppressed girl, a lowly servant girl, a middle school girl. Have you ever experienced God taking notice of you, the realization that when you feel so unnoticed, that God actually does notice?

Speaker 1: 21:40

This past summer I felt so unnoticed. My wife Joy and I found ourselves in extreme financial difficulty. It wasn't that we were mismanaging our finances, we were doing okay with that, but we just bumped up against some very large, very unforeseen financial realities and I came to a point where we thought I think we have to move, I think we have to sell our house. And you see, I live in the western suburbs of Chicago precisely because my kids live. My ex-wife and I share a custody and we lived about 10 minutes apart. And that was intentional and that's what I thought God wanted.

Speaker 1: 22:19

I remember one day looking at my bank account, thinking the math doesn't add up, and I felt so mad, so alone, so unnoticed, and I tried to explain it to people, what I was wrestling with and the fears I had, and they just didn't get it. It wasn't that they were being mean or anything, they just didn't get it. And I remember one day writing in my journal God, what's up with this? I've been trying to do what you asked me to do, I've been trying to honor you, I've been trying to be the best dad I can, and now this. And for several weeks I felt that way and then one night I was not able to sleep and I was filled with worry, feeling unnoticed. And I get a random text from somebody that I hadn't seen in four years and he just said I don't know why, but I felt like the Holy Spirit woke me up to send you a text to say you're loved and you're not forgotten. The Holy Spirit woke me up to send you a text to say you're loved and you're not forgotten. Now most of you would realize that God was noticing you, but I'm a slow learner, and so the next day I was kind of back in my spiral again, and I was spiraling back into worry and fear and hopelessness when another friend who knew nothing about what I was going through, just called me in the middle of the day and said I got the sense that I was just supposed to call you today and that you were overwhelmed with something. Just know, you were not alone. And this time I did learn. This time I did realize that when I felt unnoticed, god noticed. This lowly servant.

Speaker 1: 24:03

Just to put the story in perspective, fast forward several months. He not only noticed me, but he answered me. A few weeks later. He provided for us in miraculous ways, ways we could not have expected. And then, just a few weeks later, I was just doing my normal work day and those of you who work from home a Microsoft Teams video call popped up and it was a director in another department where I work. And I thought, oh, I probably should take this. And it wasn't even a scheduled meeting. And she said hey, I wanted to offer you a new job in our department and I didn't even have to interview for the job and she just gave it to me. My wife, joy, a couple weeks after that, got a promotion in her job as well. That doesn't always work that way, but God said I notice you.

Speaker 1: 24:50

I love how Mary Little later on doesn't just say God noticed her. She says in verse 54, he remembered to be merciful. He remembered to be merciful. You see, this is what I'm experiencing that God, when I'm so tired of waiting, not only notices me, but he remembers to be merciful because he promised me that he'd never leave me nor forsake me. So God notices you while you wait. But the second thing to realize is God is fighting for you. God is fighting for you.

Speaker 1: 25:18

Mary doesn't say he notices you. He says God does something about it. And as she quotes various passages from the Old Testament, she starts to show a picture of God. She says he is the mighty one. She says his mighty arm has done tremendous things. She says he has brought down rulers from their thrones, that he has sent away the rich with empty hands, in other words, herod. It's been a nice run, Caesar, you've had your time.

Speaker 1: 25:40

But there's a new king in place and his name's Jesus and Caesar. You're not the son of God, he is Caesar. You're not the meteor between man and God. 1 Timothy 2.6. No, it's Jesus, caesar. You are not Lord. No, it's Jesus is Lord and Caesar. It's not by your name that man will be saved, but there is no other name under heaven by which people can be saved but the name of Jesus. No wonder that Jesus, when he looked at that coin that had Caesar's face on it, that said he was God. It seems like a simple statement that we should pay our taxes, but that's not what that statement means. He says render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's. What he's saying when he says that to his people is this Caesar's been claiming to be God. He's just your ruler. I'm God, I'm God. So you know, give Caesar his due as Caesar, but I'm the Lord. See, god is fighting for you. I love Thomas Cahill, who I owe a lot of these thoughts to today.

Speaker 1: 26:51

He says that Mary's poem is the most muscular poem in all of ancient literature. It is the triumph of God making a definite choice in favor of the powerless over the powerful. No one knows it yet, but the poor, the hungry and the humiliated have won, and this unknown 14-year-old is their unexpected representative. Here's what Mary knew, that we must know when we're waiting, that God is already fighting for you. He's already ahead of you. The Mighty One is knocking down your herds. He's bringing down the thrones of your Caesars. You can't see it yet, but he is. And the Christmas picture of Jesus that you need to have is not just of a meek baby born in a manger. No, the picture Mary wants you to see is, yes, of a baby, but also of a warrior king who is fighting for you. See, god is fighting for you, god notices you, but while you wait, please know this God is bringing good to you. God is bringing good to you.

Speaker 1: 27:52

Verse 53. Mary says he has filled the hungry with good things. Now, mind you, this hasn't happened yet. Mary's just taking a claim. I know this is going to happen. I'm still in a waiting period. She hasn't given birth to Jesus yet, but she's saying he has filled the hungry with good things. And the reason she can say this is because she knows God has done it before. In fact, she says in verse 55, for he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever. Mary knows that the God who brought good things in the past is bringing good things to her again. See, the key to waiting and don't miss this is not figuring out how to solve your problem. No, the key to waiting is figuring out what you think about God. See Mary at her core. Even though she and her people were oppressed and unnoticed, even though they had been waiting for an answer for centuries, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is good. So do you believe that? And if I were to sit down for coffee with you and ask you do you believe God is good and do you believe God is working good for you, what would you say? See, here's the deal. Our definition of good is often different than God's definition.

Speaker 1: 29:14

It was for the Jews. See, a lot of the Jews wanted a political savior, somebody to overthrow Caesar and Herod, but Jesus didn't offer that. He didn't overtake the Roman Empire. Instead, he gave people a way of living that allowed them to not only survive but thrive, even in the midst of the Roman Empire. He gave people an everlasting kingdom, a kingdom where the powerful weren't the key but the humble. He gave people a way of living that nobody else had seen before, a way of living that actually worked. His good gift to them wasn't something they could have dreamt up, but is far better than anything they had wished for. And maybe the gift God is waiting to give you, the good thing, is not something you actually want, but something he's actually going to give to you.

Speaker 1: 30:00

When I was again he's aged when I was in seventh grade, I had a strange Christmas wish list. I told my parents. They asked me what do you want for Christmas? And I said I want a collection of nutcrackers. I know this is like the most bizarre seventh grade boy wish list ever, but I we had gone to Germany one year and I'd fallen in love with the craftsmanship of nutcrackers and so I said I want like 10 nutcrackers big ones, small ones. I want all these nutcrackers in my room. And I think my parents knew that was the dumbest ask ever of a seventh grade boy for Christmas. And so they did not give me a collection of nutcrackers for Christmas. You want to know what they gave me A trip to Hawaii.

Speaker 1: 30:45

It was a little bit better than a nutcracker collection, and I think that's what God wants us to know that you're so fixated on what you think the good you need is, but you're fixated on nutcrackers. But I have Hawaii waiting for you. I have something so much better waiting for you. So he's going to bring you good in a package.

Speaker 1: 31:05

You may not expect and it may not look like the way you think it will look, but he's going to bring it to you. So as you wait for that job or career to open up, don't be surprised if the one you think is going to open up doesn't, but something else is around the bend. As you wait for that situation to be resolved, don't be surprised if the way it's resolved isn't the way you think it should be in your mind, but it's in a different way. Don't be surprised that instead of getting a nutcracker, you get Hawaii. Whatever God's solution is, whatever the gift he has for you, it is coming. Christmas always comes, and so we can declare with a 13-year-old middle school girl who lived in the corner of the Roman Empire, unnoticed by everybody else but God, that this Christmas God will and God is filling you with good things, even as you wait.