11/27/2022 Church service

周日礼拜

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First Sunday of Advent - 2022
Romans 13:11-14

We love the Thanksgiving – and for some people, even the after-thanksgiving excitement… but when is “enough enough?“

Somehow it seems to go way too far. It’s so easy to get distracted.

“But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. “

It is now the time of Advent.

I remember one previous catch-phrase for Advent focus in the United Methodist Church was entitled: "Remembering the End."

In the end is our end, our purpose for engaging in God's Kingdom ministry wherever and however we can.
To learn all we can, seek peace, and work for reconciliation here and now.

Advent is both a time of remembering Old Testament prophecies and observing New Testament fulfillment

Isaiah 2:5: “Come, … let us walk in the light of the Lord!”
Isaiah 8:20 - “Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark.”
Do you see that in our world today?

Advent is a time of waiting… and watching.
The world was in darkness before the coming of Jesus Christ.

In Isaiah 9:2: “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.”

From Focus on the Family: The Advent and Christmas season makes up God’s larger story. Within this story, we see that God loves us and has a plan to rescue us from our sin and disobedience.
“We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!

From the message I heard last Sunday night, I was so strongly reminded of how we are blessed to be living in New Testament times…
we have seen the end of the old and the coming of the new.

On the First Sunday of Advent we talk about HOPE, but the Truth is, oyr HOPE has already come.

Part of that Hope is about eternal life… heaven.
We know the blessed “end” we await after we leave these earthly bodies…

But what about the end we must also experience as we cast aside the weight of our old selves and receive the Light of Christ – the Light that has the power to transform us and make us into the people we were created to become?

In Isaiah, we are called “to walk in the light of the Lord,” and so know and fulfill our end.

In Romans, we are called to cast aside the "works of darkness" and instead to "put on the armor of light."

Why? Because "that day" draws near.

In Paul's day, putting on the clothing of a particular profession was understood to establish who you were, not just what you did.
Putting on armor meant you were a soldier, not only that this was your job.

Putting on armor of light, then, means you are light and are protecting yourself against darkness.

We also “put on Christ”
from our passage today: ”… clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 John 4:17 - Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
“we know that our life in this world is His life lived in us. “
“This love is fulfilled with us, so that on the day of judgment we have confidence based on our identification with Jesus in this world.”

from our passage today: ”… clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.”



Modern Western cultures may equate "putting on" the armor of light or Christ in this way as a kind of inauthenticity, a failure to acknowledge a "true self" - hiding our darker nature behind religion or an act of some sort.

(basically assuming we are all hypocrits?)

Thanks be to God, we Christians have two millennia of living witnesses to the power of Christ delivering us from the "desires of the flesh" when we do "put on Christ."

We can know what it is to have "baser passions," but no longer be controlled by them.

We can know what it is for the Holy Spirit truly to "cleanse the thoughts of our hearts" so that we can offer genuine love to others.

We can know what it is to put on Jesus Christ as a garment -- daily as we walk with Jesus in the Spirit.

We know, or can know again if we have forgotten, what it is to walk in the light of God, the armor of light, Jesus Christ our Lord.

We can know what it is to be set free from all sorts of "works of darkness"—whatever that may mean for us – no matter the personal struggle.

We can know what it is to walk in light, in sobriety, purity, generosity, and grace, and we can know and can give witness to how the Spirit in whom we walk in Christ Jesus is the Presence we walk in that gets us from "there" to "here," continually readying us for "that day."

How can we really serve the Lord - how can we live A MORE Godly life - how can we overcome my own weaknesses and be the Light God calls me to be every day?

How, indeed? Do you ever struggle? Does that every puzzle you?

We can’t deny our own humanity – we need God’s help to overcome.

Romans 14: 4: Who are you to condemn someone else’s servants? They are responsible to the Lord, so let him judge whether they are right or wrong. And with the Lord’s help, they will do what is right and will receive his approval.

We need to just love each other - to lift each other up - and let the love of Christ flow through us and out into the world.
Put on the armor of light.

Romans 14: 10-13: “So why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For the Scriptures say, “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will confess and give praise to God.’”
Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God. So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.”

Advent is a time of the coming of the Light.
That light comes to us and then through us to change the world.

There was no room for Jesus in the Inn. What place does He have in our lives today?

If you’re hungry for more of God - if you’re desperate for Him - and nothing less will satisfy you ever again - you’ve got to make room for Him in your heart.

Can we repent of our own carnality - living just for ourselves - and can we instead submit our lives to Jesus Christ as a living sacrifice?

vs 14: “ …clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

This is what “putting on the armor of light” is all about.
It’s not about “will power“… it’s about His Power working in and though us.

The world is in darkness. Look around you. It will not change until we do.

We are the light-bearers. We have a Divine Commission to fulfill.

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

It will happen as God’s grace flows through you and I.

The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.
So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

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09/25/2022  

Hillside United Methodist Church
3739 US 80
Phenix City  AL  36870
United States
Pastor: Mike J Koger

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