Lewis Memorial UMC

Today is the first Sunday of Advent and we are into what many people describe as the most wonderful time of the year. We are in this season of remembrance because of and for Jesus Christ. As Christians we are celebrating as we draw closer and closer to Christmas Day and we remember the birth of our Lord and Savior, our Prince of Peace, our King of Kings, our Emmanuel – Jesus! Do you ever wonder what it must have been like on that very first Christmas? I think about that every year during this time and I can read the entire Christmas Story from Luke’s Gospel and just let my mind wander through the story. This story is full of God’s promises!

There are so many promises that God has made to us throughout the Bible and God has made good on everyone that I know of! Our celebration of the remembrance of the birth of Jesus is a great promise for all of us just as it was for Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and the wise men! I hate it if I have to break a promise I made to someone. It hurts that person and it hurts me too! I don’t want to let anyone down or disappoint anyone so I try my hardest to keep my promises. God never breaks His promises to us and I am very thankful for that and for all that God has done for me! Can you think of any promise God has made that He has not kept? God has promised to never leave us nor forsake us and He hasn’t! God has promised the gift of the Holy Spirit and it is available for all who believe! God has promised us that a Savior would be born and He was!

We consider ourselves today as New Testament people because of Jesus Christ and that is true. But we cannot forget about the teachings of the Old Testament as it gives us a great history of what went on before the birth of Christ and why God came to earth in the form of a baby to save the world. The 7th and 9th chapters of Isaiah foretell the coming of a righteous King, of Immanuel, of the wonderful counselor and mighty God! Several of the Old Testament prophets foretold the coming of the King who would save God’s people from slavery and sin! We cannot forget about this as we look forward to Christmas Day for these are some of the earliest promises of God!

Look with me at the Old Testament book of Joshua 23:14. The book of Joshua may be my favorite book in the OT because it speaks so much about relying on God and trusting in His promises. In chapter 23 Joshua is giving his farewell speech as he realizes his time on earth is coming to an end. But he wants the people to remember how faithful God has been in keeping His promises. Joshua 23:14 says, “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all of your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.” Joshua was talking with many of the people who had wandered around for 40 years looking for the Promised Land! After Moses died Joshua became the leader of the Israelites and he was not exactly excited about this new position. So God promised Joshua that He would always be with him. Joshua wandered with the people for many more years after Moses’ death, but he did God’s will and God’s promises were fulfilled.

In our scripture reading from Jeremiah we read how God was going to fulfill His promise He made to Israel and Judah. That promise was that an offspring of David will always sit as King! This was the promised coming of the king who will rule wisely and will establish justice. This is once again the promise from God about Jesus Christ! What a great and perfect promise! Unfortunately not everyone has accepted Jesus as this promise and they are still waiting, but as Christians we believe the Bible and the promises from God! So this promise has been made and delivered to you and now that we are in the Advent season what are you doing with this great, fulfilled promise?

This is the first Sunday of Advent, but we all know this is not the first day of the Christmas season. Most of us look forward to and anticipate this season for most of the year, just as most of God’s children anticipated the coming of the King after God’s promise to them so many years ago. Just as we wait with joy and excitement for Christmas Day, God’s people in Jeremiah’s time, back around 627 BC waited with joy and excitement for their Savior! Is it possible for us today to have the same joy and excitement that they had before Jesus was born? Can we wait, even for these next 4 weeks or so, with great anticipation to celebrate the birth of our Savior?

In Jeremiah 33: 14 God said that the day is coming when He will fulfill the promise He made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah and then we read what that promise was in the next few verses. Then in verse 17 God repeats Himself so this is at least three times God basically said the same thing. “For thus says the Lord; David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel!” So God originally made the promise, then He said it again in verse 14, and then He repeated in verse 17. If someone tells me 3 times about a great thing that is going to happen to me I am going to get more and more excited until it happens.

You can almost imagine that same feeling for Jeremiah and all who knew of this great promise from God! I think we all need to be reminded about God’s promises to us because too often we take them for granted. These people in the times before the birth of Jesus had only heard of what was to come, but we have seen it and experienced it for ourselves! We have all been touched by the power and love of Jesus and we know the difference He has made in our lives. So where has the joy and excitement gone? Have we lost our ability or willingness to share Jesus with others because we are living more in this world then we are for the world to come? Are we so excited about the gifts of Christmas that we forget about the GIFT of Jesus? Are we more willing to tell others what gift we gave to a loved one then we are about what Jesus gave for us?

Why have so many Christians not done what King David told us to do last week in our reading from Psalm 107? Do you remember what David said? “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!” If you have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus then say so! If you have been saved from your sin then say so! If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior then let your words and deeds and actions say so!

Since we are talking about the promises from God and we are in the book of Jeremiah I cannot help but remind you of one more promise God has made to us. I know I have told you that this is one of my favorite scriptures but I would not be true to God and true to myself if I did not remind you of this great promise from God. Look with me at Jeremiah 29:11. Jeremiah was a prophet for God and God spoke to him and through him to reach His people. Many of God’s children were taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon and God made them a promise that after 70 years He would fulfill. His promise was to bring them back to Jerusalem.

Now here in 29: 11 we read, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” Or, as it says in the Message, “I know what I am doing. I have it all planned out – plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.” Our hope is in Jesus Christ and now that the Advent and Christmas season is here we need to make sure that our hope and our hearts and our minds stay focused on Christ and on God’s promises to us.

God made a few more promises to His children in the verses that follow that include hearing them when they pray and being present with them when they worship Him. These are just two more promises that God has never broken! Our prayers, lifted up in Jesus’ name, never fall on deaf ears. God hears us when we pray! When we enter His gates with thanksgiving in our heart and we enter His courts with praise then God is present in our worship. God is with us always, but I believe He rejoices when we glorify and praise Him in our worship – both corporate and individual worship!

So here we are at the beginning of Advent. We have decorated the church. We have lit the Advent candle of hope. We have asked God to be present in our worship through our prayer. And God has made good on His promises!

As we close this service with a traditional Christmas hymn I want you to think about God’s promises to you and rejoice. I also want you to think about the promises you have made to God. I hope that when you do that you can also rejoice. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee! For this and for all of God’s promises we should rejoice!