This sermon is based on Luke 1:5-18.
SERIES OVERVIEW:
Christmas is a time of waiting. It’s a time of anticipation and hopes and dreams. Everyone loves waiting for Christmas. Life is also a time of waiting. But this waiting is a time of delay and fear and doubt and uncertainty. Everyone hates that kind of waiting. Ask anyone: waiting is the worst. But strangely enough, most of the Bible focuses on people who were up to their necks in waiting. People waited for children, for deliverance, for a land, for peace, for justice, for God’s kingdom, for a ray of hope, for restoration, for the Messiah, for forgiveness, for promises to be fulfilled and even for God. And most of those people hated waiting just like we do. Here’s the thing: most of the time, we see absolutely no value in waiting; but most of the time, God sees huge value in waiting. Not because he delights in making us miserable, but because God is a God who delights in anticipation, in hope and in fulfilling his promises at just the right time. This Christmas, let’s look at all that God is hoping to do in us as, together, we participate in Waiting for Christmas.