Scripture Reading

Scripture reading this morning comes from Isaiah chapter nine. You can read along with me in your bulletin, on the screen behind me or in your Bible.

But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the latter time, he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them has light shown. You have multiplied the nation. You've increased its joy. They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder. The rod of his oppressor you have broken is in the day of Mideon. For every boot of the trampling warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born. To us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name should be called wonderful counselor, mighty god, everlasting father, prince of peace, of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the lord of hosts will do this. — Isaiah 9:1-7

This is God's word. Would you join me in prayer?

Father, I pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts would be pleasing and acceptable in your sight. Lord, you are our rock and our fortress and our Redeemer. We pray these things in Jesus name, amen.

Opening Remarks

So two things before I preach. One, I'm going to sit down through this. I sprained my ankle on Friday, and then stood up a lot yesterday and sort of thought, "Oh, I'm fine." And I'm just going to sit down and we're all going to be okay. It's going to be like being in my living room.

And second, today's passage and message really—my wife has had more influence on this. I would never have preached what I'm preaching today, actually three or four years ago without her. And so probably the greatest source for this passage has come from our conversations over the last few years.

A Question About Christmas Movies

Sometime in the next four weeks, somebody is going to ask you this question, either in a group setting or individually. It always comes up: "What's your favorite Christmas movie?" And the common answers are things like Elf and Christmas Story, It's a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, Love Actually. You can go down the list. And there's always some weirdo who has to come up with Die Hard—which is the Bruce Willis fighting Alan Rickman, the bad guy in the office building at Christmas time, gun shooting.

You know what's funny about that? Yeah, it's always a weirdo who comes up with that, probably one of you, I know. But it actually fits this passage a little bit more than some of our traditional Christmas movies. I mean, this passage describes a warrior's boot and garments dipped in blood. I mean, it's kind of a rough passage.

A Different Christmas Story

Today we're shifting gears. And if you've been with us over the course of this year, you know that this summer we spent time looking at Jesus in the Psalms. And then the fall, we've spent the whole fall in Leviticus seeing Jesus in the law. And today we're shifting gears for all of December, which is seeing Jesus in the prophets in Isaiah.

And here's what we find: This is a very different Christmas story than either the movies we watch generally this time of year, or even the way sometimes the church retells the story of Mary and Joseph and a very sanitized stable and wise men and shepherds. Sometimes when the church tells that story, it's sort of framed with an Instagram filter, with kind of softened hues and nostalgic overtones, softened subtle edges. As if when Mary received news from the angel that she was pregnant—even though she had not been sexually active with a man—she was like, "Oh, isn't it great how God works among little people like me?" Instead of saying what she did: "What? How can this be?"

We clean up the Christmas story. And that's likewise true when we look at Isaiah's prophecy. His prophecy about the coming of Jesus into the world is not an Instagram story. It's not "the most wonderful time of the year." It's clash. It's explosion. It's combat. It's not sweaters and eggnog. And this is what you get from Isaiah. You get advent in camouflage. This is a very grown up Christmas sermon that comes from a very grown up Christmas message.

Sermon Outline

If you're taking notes, here's my three points. Here's my outline:

1. Dark and getting darker
2. Hope from a baby
3. Apocalyptic advent

So let's jump in together.

Dark and Getting Darker

Dark and getting darker.

So if you rewind about seven hundred and fifty years before the coming of Jesus into the world and go back to ancient Israel, you find that it was a time of real chaos and conflict. Isaiah, who wrote these words, is a prophet in the Northern Kingdom. He lived at a time when Israel was divided—a divided country. The ten tribes in the North were called Israel. The southern two tribes were called Judah or Ephraim. That's where Jerusalem, the capital city, was. Isaiah lives in the North, and he is writing these words. A lot of his prophecy is focused, though, on Judah in the South.

He lived in a time when there was a dangerous and unpredictable national threat on the horizon. This was sort of their North Korea. There was an aggressive nation called Assyria that was bloodthirsty, ruthless, aggressive and unpredictable. And the little nation of Judah, where the king Ahaz sat on the throne, was one of those nations that was watching this threat come on the horizon. Judah, under Ahaz, was approached by two other kings—the king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the king of Syria—and said, "Let's make a treaty. Let's make an alliance because we're afraid. We've heard news of how Assyria pushes people around, how they roll over other nations, and how incredibly violent and ruthless they are."

But here's what Ahaz does. He doesn't want to be a part of any of this treaty, not because he thinks it's about politics. It's about personality for him. It's like if you did a business deal and you're like, "Two scumbags want to do it. I don't think so." That's what Ahaz says.

Isaiah speaks to him and says, "Look, you need to trust God." And Ahaz wants nothing to do with this. So Isaiah comes to him and famously says, "Let me give you a prophecy. Here's a sign. You want a sign? Pick a sign anytime. Here's a sign—that you can trust God. There's going to be a virgin who gives birth to a baby. Like an impossible situation. That's analogous to what you're facing, Ahaz, that God can do the impossible. So you need to trust him."

Ahaz wants nothing to do with Isaiah and his prophecy. Instead, he gets in bed with Assyria, the superpower, and makes a treaty with them against God's express commands. God had said, "Don't get involved with other pagan nations. They will lead you astray. They will lead you away from the Lord. Trust me." But Ahaz has nothing to do with that.

At the end of his life, this is the legacy he leaves. He paved the way for the people of Judah to go into exile because he made a treaty with Assyria. Assyria showed up on their front gate. The people were led into idolatry. And all that he has to show for this is ruin and destruction. So great Christmas story, right? Be depressed today.

But I want you to identify, because Isaiah shows up here in Chapter nine and speaks for Ahaz and the people of Judah and says this: "The people walking in darkness." And you can almost see every head in the nation going like, "Yeah, we know about darkness. We know about darkness. We have an unstable ruler in our kingdom. There's a national threat, this North Korea-ish type figure on the horizon. Nothing is certain. Things seem to be getting worse and worse."

And so when he shows up and says, "Dark and getting darker," everybody was like, "Yes." Can you identify with the people in Jerusalem? Do you have this sense? We live in a dark time, and there are a lot of people in 2018 that are ready for this year to be over with.

We look at violence and we say, "Wow, violence is up." Did you know as of November 8, which was the midpoint of this year, there had been three hundred and eight mass shootings in 2018—mass shooting being four or more people being shot? That's almost one every day. Yes, violence is up. Racial strife is up. What may have been a closed door thing a few years ago has now become a very open alt-right, and there is a lot of racial tension and unrest in our country. And it doesn't feel like it's getting better. We feel the effects of global warming. The damage to our environment seems, for many people, irreversible. And we've, in our own state, felt two big storms that have done incredible amounts of damage this year.

Politically, we're more divided than ever. International politics—there are treaties that we've held for years that are now in question. And even on the religious front, do you know what the big story is of 2018? Deconversion stories. You can watch this on YouTube. It's all over the place. People saying, "I once was found, and now I'm lost." And it's celebrated. That's a national phenomenon.

So is it dark? Yeah, it feels dark to many of us and getting darker. And see, Isaiah steps into this situation, and he says something bizarre.

He says, The defeat of God's enemies is going to come from the most unlikely of sources, the most unlikely of sources. The Messiah is going to break the power of his enemies in the same way. Verse four says:

As in the days of Mideon's defeat — Isaiah 9:4

Now, you may not be familiar with that, but that's a powerful story in Israel that comes from Judges chapter six and seven. When a man named Gideon was tapped by God to be the national leader—a judge was more like a national leader—who's to muster the people and overthrow the enemies of Israel, the Midianites who are oppressing them. And so Gideon, whose name is synonymous in the Bible with fear and cowardice, because when God comes to him and says, "You're going to do this," he's like, "No, I'm not. Can't do it." He's like, "I'm hiding." He finally said God convinces him. He musters up 32,000 troops to go up against the mighty Midian army.

And God says, "You know what? Before you go, we're going to do this my way." And God says, "I want you to go to the troops and say, 'You know, any of you are afraid, you're welcome to go home at this point.'" And at that point, 22,000 of the 32,000 troops who showed up go back home. So here's Gideon leading a force of 10,000 against the Midianite army and about to go out to battle. And God says, "I want to make sure that you know we're doing this my way. So I want you to take the troops down to the creek and watch how they drink water."

Bizarre story. So the ones who lap up water like a dog, send those ones home. The ones who scoop up water like a soldier, those are the ones you want. And so Gideon does that. And how many is he left with? 300. So he's 300 troops to take up against the mighty Midianite army. And what happens? They completely defeat them in battle. And it's God's victory. So when he's saying "on the day of Midian's defeat," what is he pointing to? He's like, "God is able to overcome with astounding forces against him." And this is what Isaiah is saying. He says the coming of Messiah's victory is going to be like Gideon's victory. It's going to be overwhelming. It's going to come from the most weak looking, most unlikely of sources.

Now, I know one of the problems of looking at these passages over Christmas time is some of you are so familiar with these, we might as well not even read them, because you just tune it out. It's like, "Oh yeah, son is born, governor, wonderful counselor, right?" You know it. And therefore it ceases to have any weight to you. But try to picture with me what Isaiah is saying. Look at verse six:

He says, in all this darkness, guess what? God is going to answer all your fears, Ahaz, all your longings, all your worries with a baby. — Isaiah 9:6

Good news, right? I mean, can you imagine? You watch me regularly and James on Sunday mornings baptize infants in our church. And can you imagine if one Sunday, after reading through the list of all the threats from global warming and international terrorism and violence and racial strife, I took the newly baptized infant in the church and said, "Guess what? Here's the answer." I mean, can you see how ridiculous that sounds? A baby is the answer to all the darkness in the world. That's what Isaiah is saying.

A baby is helpless, can do nothing for itself. You'd think I was nuts if I said that. I remember when we had our first baby, we went home to visit family for the holidays. And for years we'd been doing this, and every time we'd go home, we'd take a couple suitcases, one for me, one for Susan. That's all we needed. You have the first baby, and going home for the holidays is like not taking a suitcase. It's like moving. You're like, how much luggage does an eight pound child require? It's just an immense amount.

And I think this is what's fascinating. Look, this baby though, as Isaiah foretells, he said, this baby doesn't come to be a burden. This is a baby who's born to take our burdens. This is not a baby who comes to bring lots of baggage to put on your life for you to carry around. This is a baby who comes to bring what? Light, peace, justice, righteousness, and here's the word I really want you to hear: a government.

I mean, look at this. This is the keyword in the passage. Verse six:

A government will be on his shoulder — Isaiah 9:6

Verse seven:

Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it. — Isaiah 9:7

Man, that never appears on anybody's Christmas card. Nobody sends out a new government. Right? Like, that's not even something we do because we're all about the Instagram Christmas, and we miss this. This is about the coming of a kingdom. This is about the coming of a king, not just good wishes, not happy news.

This is about a power that's coming in the world to which all other powers will bend the knee. This is an incredible power. And listen, Isaiah predicts this Messiah's arrival and government in past tense language. Now that is bizarre. Why would he do this? This is a common way that prophets spoke, and they would say like, it's here. What does he say in this passage?

You've already multiplied the nation and increased its joy. The yoke of his burden, the staff, the rod of his oppression, you've broken.

People would be like, No, he hasn't yet. But this is what Isaiah is saying. It's as good as done. Now, you talk this way all the time. Let's say one of your roommates calls you up and says, "Hey, can you pick up this for me on the way home, something at the grocery store." And what do you say to him? You might say done, which doesn't mean they've already been to the grocery store and picked it up. What that means is it's good as done. You can trust me that I will do what I say. And this is what Isaiah says. It's as good as done. You can trust God that He will do what He says.

But here's what Isaiah didn't know and couldn't know: when Isaiah proclaims the coming of a government, the covering of a kingdom, it was a two-parter kingdom. It was an initial coming and a to-be-continued coming. Many of you might remember sitcoms from the 80s and 90s. You watch the thirty-minute episode, and then they wouldn't resolve the story. It would say, "To be continued," right? And that meant you gotta tune in next Thursday night at 8:00 to watch the rest of it. And so this is what Isaiah is saying. There is an already kingdom, and there is a to-be-continued kingdom. This is what we see in the New Testament.

The Already and Not Yet

Let me put up this image. I want you to see this because I think it's helpful to describe this. This is not the timeline of a person's life. This is the timeline of human history. There are three stages: one, two, and three. There is first from the beginning until this, the first coming of Jesus. And then there's the stage where we are right now, these last days till the second coming of Jesus. And when Jesus comes, that'll usher in the final perfection of all things.

Now, I want you to think about this. There's an overlap of the ages. Jesus came two thousand years ago as a baby, came in weakness. He came in obscurity. He came to Galilee, as it says in verse one, right here. He comes to an obscure corner of the universe, and he does nothing like what we would think of a multinational worldwide change program. What does he do? He comes in anonymity. He comes in poverty. He comes in weakness. There's no media blast. He doesn't come to a capital city to be born. He doesn't come with lots of fanfare. He comes in obscurity.

And when he went older, he starts proclaiming the kingdom of God is at hand. But he does so in the most odd ways. He does miracles. He says these are signs of the things I'm about that are to come. And he keeps doing these things proclaiming there's a kingdom. When Jesus rides into Jerusalem, the capital city, he doesn't do so as a conquering king on a warhorse in armor. He does so on a donkey with children. And then he comes and he lays down his life on a Roman cross and sacrifices himself for the people. Every part of this looks like defeat. And yet this is a victory. This is the most obscure, the most impossible.

Jesus in his first coming comes and dies for our sins on a Roman cross and is resurrected from the dead, so that we might be made alive in him. And yet, the kingdom's come, but it's not all the way, is it? What we read in the rest of the Bible is that there is another coming, where Jesus will come on a horse. In fact, the Book of Revelation gives us this image of Jesus riding on a warhorse, a sword coming out and his garments dipped in blood. I mean, you talk about a conquering king. He will come and bring the fullness of the kingdom where everything will be made right, and he will put all his enemies under his feet, and everything will be changed.

So this is where we live. This is your Christmas theology lesson. We live between the first advent or coming of Jesus, and the second. This overlap of the ages, this age, the kingdom of darkness, and the age that is to come, the kingdom of light. And so it creates this tension. We live in a place where we're like, the kingdom's come, but the kingdom's coming. The king has come, but the kingdom is coming.

So we can hear the same words that were spoken over Jesus' first coming, and we can hear them fresh for us.

The true light, which gives light to all people, was coming into the world. — John 1

He was in the world, the world was made through him, yet the world didn't know him. He came into his own, people did not receive him, but to all who receive him, who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of man but of God.

So look, we sit today, just like Ahaz did. We're given a promise, but the promise is not fulfilled yet. The kingdom has come, but it's not here yet all the way. And this time, this in-between time is characterized by waiting, which is my least favorite thing ever to do. I mean, all of us who likes to sit at the DMV for a long period of time? No. Who likes to sit in doctor's offices for long periods of time? We do not like to have to wait. I remember this as a kid. I hated waiting. December just seemed to drag forever. Like, when is Christmas going to come? And we've only made that worse by starting Christmas decorations in the mall in July, right? It just seems like it's always not going to be Christmas.

And in some ways, Advent—the church season—we're just kind of like every Sunday, light the candle, we're not there yet. We're in this, but at every point you're being told, not here yet. That's on purpose because we live in an already and a not yet kingdom. There's an overlap. The kingdom has come but the kingdom is coming. There's been a dawn, but it's not full day yet. This is the time of salvation, but there will be a time of exaltation. This is the time between. This is the time between Jesus's first coming and his second.

This is the time where we say our lives are hidden with Christ in God.

Our lives are hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears at his second advent, we also will appear with him in glory. — Colossians 3

This is where we need the church season of Advent. Advent, as I said before, means coming, means arrival. And all around the globe, Christians celebrate this. We observe this four-week season leading up to Christmas in order to help us focus on the two arrivals of Jesus: the one that's happened and the one that's coming.

So maybe we should rethink what we're watching for our Christmas movies. Maybe we should add a few apocalyptic movies to that list. Like Twelve Monkeys or The Book of Eli or Children of Men, any of the Mad Max series. If you have kids, you can watch the Pixar film Wall-E. All of those are end-of-the-world movies and yet there's part of them that are right and part of them that are wrong. I'm afraid sometimes our view of what apocalyptic means has been more informed by our movies than the Bible.

Apocalypse and Advent

In the Bible, the word apocalypse—apocalypsis—is a Greek word which means unveiling, revealing. It's the real title of the Book of Revelation. You hear that word? Revealing, revelation—revealing is the apocalypses. It's the unveiling. It's being shown forth. Today we sort of have that word tied up with end-of-the-world cataclysmic language, and it is about the end of the world, but the focus of the Bible is not on the cataclysm. It's on the unveiling. It's about Jesus and all his power being shown forth, and his kingdom coming in fullness. And it's not to be feared. It's to be anticipated and longed for and welcomed.

Right now the kingdom's come, but it's a veiled way. The king has come in weakness and humility, but there will be a time when everything that right now is hidden will be made known. And that kingdom will—the king will come in power and make everything right.

So apocalyptic Advent. The reformer, the monk-turned-Protestant-reformer Martin Luther was one of the people in church history who most grabbed this language of apocalypse with Advent, of celebrating not only that the king has come, but the king is coming. And so one of his most famous hymns, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," has this one verse in it where he wrote:

And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. The Prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo his doom is sure. One little word, that word is Jesus, shall fell him.

See, that's some apocalyptic Advent. That's a longing. That's like Jesus has the final word.

Sadly, I think the focus on the second coming—we sort of lost that in the church when it comes to Advent. We sort of turned this into just a time of preparing and getting ready for Christmas. Four weeks to kind of get ready. But this traditionally has been the season of last things, the season of watching and waiting and hungering. In a real sense, the Christian community lives in Advent all the time, right?

Advent is where we live between what has and what will be. Between the already and the not yet. So, hence, Advent and Camo.

I got that title from an experience at our church last year. As many of you know, we have a prayer team that meets at 08:30 on Sunday mornings—you're all invited, okay? We pray twice a month with a prayer team from another church, and it's one of my favorite things we do as a congregation because we're learning to pray different ways. Mount Pleasant showed up one Sunday last year, first Sunday of Advent, and their prayer team shows up in Camo. We're starting to pray, and after we're done praying, I look over at the pastor and ask, "Why is everybody wearing camo?" He says, "I don't know." So I asked the question: "Why is the prayer team in Camo this morning?" And one of them said, "Pastor Jeff, we have to fight for hope."

I was like, "Yes, that is Advent. That's an Advent mentality."

See, that view of these weeks coming up toward Christmas is in stark contrast with "it's the most wonderful time of the year," right? Because that view—Advent doesn't ignore the disappointments and the hard and the pain and the brokenness and suffering that characterize life every day in this fallen world. The season of Advent holds those things in tension with the promise of future glory that is to come.

So Advent can be said this way: it is not for the faint of heart. To grasp the human predicament, to hold those two things together, to enter into life and say, "I can look plain faced into what is real, but I also know what's coming"—that takes a lot of courage. That takes a lot of boldness to say, "I live at the frontier of the ages. I live at the overlap of the times. I live in a time when I'm going to allow myself to feel the tension." Man, that's something we never do.

Here's what I want us to do this Advent: allow ourselves to enter into the tension. We spend so much of our lives trying to turn that down. We watch TV. We have a glass of wine. We distract ourselves with a good book. We spend time with friends. We play music all the time. All good things. But there are ways that many of us try to turn down the tension of life in this present world, where we know this is broken and I am broken. I want things to be right, but I don't know how that's going to be.

See, Advent is a time where we actually allow ourselves to feel it, to feel the tension, to step into it and not move and longing. If you're a person today and you find yourself like Christmas is here, and I don't have the Christmas spirit and I don't feel very joyful or merry, maybe you have a full blown case of Advent. And it's not such a bad thing. Because you can identify, you can enter into the ache. I want the king to come.

Observing Advent and Camo

Here's what we're doing over the next four weeks. We're going to stay in this passage. We're going to listen to it over and over again. We're going to say, "Man, we have a wonderful counselor. I want more of a wonderful counselor. We have a mighty God. I want more of a mighty God. We have an everlasting Father. I want more everlasting Father. We have a Prince of Peace. I want more Prince of Peace."

So here are a couple of suggestions for how to observe Advent and Camo. I got four things for you.

First is say no. The weeks leading up to Christmas are always some of the most frantic and crazy times of the year. There are way too many good things to do. If you have kids, there are holiday times for them to sing and perform. There are office parties and friend parties, and there are all kinds of open houses and celebration of lights—too many good things, right. And those are all good things. But consider this a permission form from your pastor to say no, to be able to say, "You know what, I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to give myself the two things that are needed for me to enter into Advent."

You know what those two things are? Solitude and silence. They're the two most rare things to find in this time of year. And to capture those, you're going to have to give yourself permission to not do everything and to step away from the Christmas crazy and not get your Christmas cards out on time and not do—and just sit. Say no.

Second is this: consider a fast. Last week we talked, as we were going through the end of Leviticus, about fasting and feasting. I said Advent has been a time for fasting, and traditionally, it's actually been Christmas Eve and after there were times for feasting. That was the time of celebration. So here's what I want you to think about: would you think about entering into a type of fast?

Let me explain what that is. A fast is to go without a good thing so that you grow your hunger for a better thing.

A fast is to go without a good thing in order to grow your hunger for a better thing. So there are good gifts that you enjoy all the time—things like social media, alcohol, watching something on TV, listening to music in the car. But here's what you could do: think about giving up something during the month of Advent, during this time of Advent. Not so you feel like I'm a good Christian, I'm better than other people. No, no. So you grow your hunger.

Every time that you find yourself wanting to look at your phone, wanting that cup of wine, going without lunch on Tuesdays and feeling hungry—every time you feel that, that's an opportunity for you to pray: "Lord, make me more hungry for You. Make me more hungry for Your kingdom. Make me more hungry for Lord Jesus to come." See, that's what you do with a fast. It's not just brownie points. You leverage it to grow your hunger for better things.

Reflect on Your Year

Third, reflect on your year. Spend some time alone thinking about the last eleven months. We don't do this very much. But what would it look like to spend time and think about two things? Think about where have you seen God present in your life this year. Where have you seen him provide? Where have you seen him show his care? Where have you seen God show up?

But also, where have you experienced his absence? God is never absent. But in this world, in the in-between times, it feels like he isn't. Aren't there days it feels like God is very far away? So allow yourself to say: "I have relationships where I long to see God at work, and I haven't seen him. I long to see him show up in our family, in my job. I long to see him show up in our marriage. I long to see him show up with my kids. I long to see him show up with my parents."

Name the places where you experience God's presence and God's absence. Allow yourself to grieve. Grow your hunger.

Feed the Right Kind of Discontentment

And lastly, feed the right kind of discontentment. There's a guy, Jeremiah Burroughs, who wrote a great book, a classic written in the 1600s called The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. And it is indeed really helpful because contentment is very rare, especially at Christmas time when you're being told these are all the things you need. All the advertisers are going crazy this time. This is what you need. So contentment is hard, but I find that the right kind of discontentment, especially among Christians, is even harder.

Where we look and say: "You know what, I want Jesus to come back and make all things new. I want Jesus to come back and wipe every tear. I want Jesus to bring justice and bring healing. I want him to make all things right." How can you grow that over this Advent season? That's a very biblical thing to do, by the way.

All of creation is groaning, waiting for the children of the Lord Jesus Christ to come into their own. — Romans 8

We're also told in the Book of Revelation that saints under the altar—the martyrs under the altar in heaven—are crying out: "How long until you make everything right again?"

So when you enter into this, you enter into the fabric of the universe, what the universe is longing for. God to make everything right.

Here's what my longing is for all of us in this season: that you would, like Isaiah, be able to come to a place where you say, "God says it, it's good. It's done. He's going to bring it home. He's going to bring all things to a close—done."

How are you going to give space for the Holy Spirit to meet you in this season? I have a real sense that the Holy Spirit wants to help us to draw near to him and to experience him in new ways, by entering into this tension with hope and expectation of what's to come, and also the reality of what is.

It's one thing to know lots of things out there about the Bible and about God. It's another thing to experience him regularly—his presence drawing near to you in this place. That's my prayer for you. That's my hunger for you. I pray that it'd be your hunger, and I pray that you give him space to work. Give him space to show up. Give him solitude, give him silence, give him quiet.

May you draw near in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.