What We Forget

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0:00 Michelle, usually if Michelle's in the back she'll like, tell me if you can't hear me or, you know, something. So, but we spent so much time, you know, even as Ben's kind of walked us through so much of what this year has kind of just been disruptive, I feel like, in so many ways. And what it looks like for us as the people of God to think through what does it mean to trust Him in this.

0:30 And I've been thinking through it a little bit this week, what does that look like even for those of us as the people of God in an Advent season, you know. And Advent is so much about this season of what's to come, you know. Advent is kind of this reference to the coming of Christ. And so when you think about Advent as the coming we think so much in terms of the words that come to mind for me are always hope and expectancy.

1:01 You know, when we think in terms of Advent it is so much this idea of hope and expectancy. And Carol and I were trying to make coffee this morning. And I apologize that the coffee's bad. I made it, I don't know how to use that coffee spot. So I took a shot and hopefully it's passable. But which is bad if you're trying to make coffee after like the pastor who owns a coffee shop. He probably makes better coffee than me. So, but we're kind of laughing.

1:32 And Carol's like, hey we've been waiting for like eight months for this to be over so if people have to wait a little bit for coffee we can wait a little while longer. And I was like, oh we should totally talk about that. Because that is this kind of concept of Advent as this season of expectant waiting. And if you're like me, I think after eight months of waiting for things to change you may be tired of waiting. Right. And so I just want to spend some time just a few minutes thinking a little bit

2:06 about what God might invite us into in this season. Especially when we think about kind of the weeks of Advent. Traditionally in the church calendar the first week of Advent is always centered around the theme of hope and what that looks like. So if you got a copy of the scriptures we haven't been putting them out just because of COVID. So if you need one there are some back there you're welcome to grab one or check on your phone. But we're going to look at the first chapter that is actually it's actually the first chapter for the first day in our Advent book

2:41 that I think was sent out to everybody if it's not it will be. But in just some devotional readings that Ben and Carol have compiled for everybody many of you all kind of wrote different ones of those. So I was actually reading through a bunch of them last night. So it was fun to find the ones from our community. But the first reading for day one was from Isaiah 64. So we're going to dive into that for a few minutes. So chapter 64. This is Israel speaking and I say oh that you would run the heavens

3:14 and they're speaking to God here and say oh that you would run the heavens and come down that the mountains would tremble before you as when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil. Come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you. For when you did awesome things that we did not expect you came down and the mountains did tremble before you. Since ancient times no one has heard no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you.

3:45 Who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them you were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. We all shrivel up like a leaf and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls in your name or strives to lay hold of you for you have hidden your face from us. It made us waste away because of our sins.

4:16 Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We're the clay and you are the potter. We are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry. Be all measure, O Lord. Do not remember our sins forever. Look upon us, we pray, for we are all your people. Let's pray for a second. Lord, we just ask that your spirit that you would illuminate, you would illuminate your word to let it land in the places of our heart that we need it to land today

4:48 and in this season. And then as we think about this passage, Isaiah, for some reason, the book of Isaiah, it always feels like I feel like I kind of get lost in it. Sometimes. I don't know if you've ever experienced that. I feel like when I read it, even just when I get like trying to sift through one chapter, I'm like, my gosh, this just feels like it's beyond me. Like I was wrestling with it the past couple of days.

5:18 Yeah, I don't know if you've ever had this experience. Maybe you haven't. But have you ever tried to read something and you're like, this is written by people so much smarter than me? That it just feels like what is illuminating is that I have a hard time understanding. Like I'm just so exposed to it. But I'm like, my gosh, this is just beyond me. And so as I was sitting with it, I've been kind of praying the past couple of days going, I'll tell you a word, but there are pieces in there. And I went back and I was wrestling through some other sections of the book. And I'm just kind of going, man, when we think about these passages in Isaiah,

5:54 one of the first things that we can kind of know, right, is they fit very much in the overall theme of Scripture. They fit very much in the overall theme of the Old Testament. And I feel like it really fits with kind of where we are right now. And when we see Israel cry out right in the beginning of 64, say, oh, that you would rent the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you. And they start listing all like the grand, amazing things. Right? They start listing all this history of like grand, amazing things that God has done.

6:31 As I was thinking about it, I was like, man, okay, this does fit with the pattern of God's people in Scripture. And if you haven't thought about Israel and Isaiah, as they are wrestling with places of God's judgment and places of God's blessing, Israel is not held up to us. And we think of Israel, Israel, those of us who trust in the Lord now, we are part of God's people, Israel, or those who have gone before us. Israel is not held up for us as this model of like super healthy maturity.

7:09 Right? They're actually often held up to us as a model of at times like the opposite. And in chapter 64, it was interesting to me that this was the first section that, again, the electionary that landed for Advent. Because I was like, man, it's so interesting because I was reading it. And I'm like, I feel like this is the model that comes through in Scripture where we see struggle. Right? I mean, it fits in so many of the stories of God's people,

7:40 where we start off and we see struggling. And then what happens when God's people struggle is that we move from struggling towards some type of seeking, towards some type of asking, some type of asking God to either explain, to somehow make the pain stop, to somehow show up and provide release, or to somehow, ultimately show up and provide some aspect of redemption.

8:14 Right? And I feel like that's what Isaiah shows us with Israel right here. And when Israel, they're struggling, right? And so they are looking for God to show up and where they start off. They start off by saying, hey, God, you remember when you did these really amazing things in the past? You remember when you showed up and you set a bunch of stuff on fire and you showed up and you destroyed all these people that were against us? You did all these huge, amazing things. You know what would be great? Could you show up and do that right now?

8:47 Because that was really cool. That was really helpful. It would really mean a lot if you showed up and kind of did the same really amazing stuff that you did back then if you would show up and do it right now. It makes sense. But a lot of scholars that they kind of wrestle with this passage, they would tell you actually a little bit of like an immature argument. And I began to kind of wrestle with that the past couple days because I was like, okay, what does that mean? And I was like, oh, wait a second.

9:20 This kind of reminds me of no sense of kids in the room, but this is like a really good kid argument. This whole chapter is like a really good kid argument because it's all based in, hey, remember when you did that one thing and then you promised that you would do that again? Can't you show up and do it just like you said that you would do last time? Last Saturday you let me go over to my friend's house. And so this coming Saturday is coming.

9:51 And so I don't understand why we can't go to my friend's house this next Saturday. We did this one amazing thing this one time and so I wanted to do the same amazing thing next time. And ultimately I think those of us as parents like we're accustomed to these types of arguments, right? All of us as humans are accustomed to making these types of arguments. People was really accustomed to coming to God in this way and saying, hey, you have showed up this way in the past.

10:23 Can you please show up this way now in the present and the future? And unfortunately most of us know God's timing and ways are very different than what we want often. And so I think that's the time table that I would prefer the ways in which I would want God to show up. But Israel starts off and they give them all these examples of all these amazing things he did and they say, hey, they're basically saying, hey, we're in pain, we're in struggle

10:54 and you remember when you did these amazing things, show up and do them again. And then they move on from there and then they start and then they actually move in to this kind of like adoration piece. Where they actually do begin to really speak truth and they say, when you did awesome things, we did not expect you came down to mountains trembled, but since ancient times no one has heard, no eye, no ears perceived or eye has seen any God besides you who acts on behalf

11:24 of those who wait for him. And so their argument begins to shift a little bit. Their argument begins to go, well, wait a second, God, you have been faithful. And one of the things that we know about you, God, is that you seem to honor and to show up in this really strange way when people wait for you.

11:55 And I find it so interesting that in this, I think it mimics how we often respond to struggle right because in the middle of difficult times, in the middle of like significant disruption and loss and trials and all the things that many of us have walked through even in the past year, the many times over our lives, ultimately like our first place that we show up and I want God to show up quickly now. I want God to show up and do something like these amazing times when maybe I've seen God

12:28 show up or I've seen God do this for other people or it looks on that person's Instagram like God showing up for them, I can't show up like that for me so that I could post it and it looked amazing. But somehow God seems to be this God who honors and shows up in the waiting. I remember years ago, I was at some conference, a bunch of pastoral students or something. After we were in, I think we were in Birmingham, Alabama and there was this old professor

13:02 of preaching from Southern Baptist University and I've never heard like, I mean just an old dude who is, I mean he was like probably like the most amazing creature I've ever heard or he just had the best sermon of his life. But I remember, I mean he sang like three times in the middle of it, it was so good. But at one point he's going off on this concept and I was probably 18 years old and it stuck with me because it wasn't the most like in-depth explanation but he's basically kinda like pointing out that all of us sitting in front of him are all expecting Jesus to

13:38 operate like a vending machine. Where if I pay my money and I hit the right button and I get to decide what that button is, I know exactly what will come out and when it will come out and I will have done my part and so Jesus will do his part and how we have commodified Jesus into basically functioning like a coat machine. And actually we're sitting there and like getting like really like peered up and also being like did you just accuse me of me making Jesus a coat machine? I don't know how I feel but I just know something about that feels true in this sense of what

14:13 I want but I want to decide what it is and how it shows up. No I have seen any God besides you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who glad to be right, who remember your ways, how then can we be saved? What Israel does kind of in this package is they start to remind themselves not just

14:45 of huge things God did but also of who God is. Right? They began to remind themselves of things that were true and if you read chapter 63 and chapter 65 on either side of this that's really where this chapter kind of finds itself embedded is this kind of pattern of going hey we're struggling and we want you to show up like this but we also remember who you are and that you are like this. That you are a God who seems to show up in waiting.

15:19 That you're a God who seems to show up kind of on your own timetable but that you're a God who ultimately we know is with us. And they also move into not just reminding each other because these become corporate messages in Old Testament here. They're not just reminding each other of who God is. They actually begin to in like subtle and really specific ways remind each other of

15:49 who they are. I feel like this is such a powerful piece. So look at verse 8. Yet Lord you are father. We're the clay. You're the potter. We are all the work of your hand. Just saying God you're a father. You're in control. You have made us. You have created us and you will have your way with us as you are in control.

16:24 And it goes on look upon us we pray for we are all your people. There's a reminding in there that is so incredibly powerful. Have you ever thought about the things that you felt like were really important like that you maybe learned earlier in life or you had those moments when like you realized something that you long forgot. Something that you could not believe that you had forgotten.

16:59 Like those kind of moments where it is something hits you where you remember some aspect of something or remember a memory that somehow got lost way back there. Somehow a memory that got lost kind of way and like the recesses of your brain and you might have kind of like that flash bulb memory of like maybe a moment when you were a kid or a moment when somebody says something to you. I kind of get these little memories where you know somebody said something years ago

17:35 and it comes back to me like 10 years later and I'm like oh my gosh that was something really powerful that I didn't appreciate at the time. But man it is really played out and proven true. If you read the history of Israel in the Old Testament they sound like they have horrible memories. They remember the amazing things God did when it's convenient for them to remember them and bring them back up. But when God does really amazing things and brings them out of slavery they seem to have

18:06 like a little bit of a short term memory where all of a sudden that was then and this is now and things are different now. So now we need to kind of build this or worship this or go here or find our safety and security is here. I really felt like that represents this powerful like forgetting in us. And I do this y'all and I would suggest that you probably do it too.

18:37 These things of God and about who God is and who you are. About who God is and who we are as God's people we have an incredible capacity to forget them. And what Israel would do when they brought their case to God in these moments of struggle is they would have embedded in there these reminders of who God was, who God made them to be. Now I think most y'all know but for those of y'all that don't know I work as a counselor

19:10 Michelle and I are a therapist and I've mentioned that before up here but as I was thinking about this the past couple of days I was like man that's forgetting right. This somehow like we begin to live trying to almost in a different reality. We begin to live according to different rules than the ones that even maybe we really believe. And my counselor brain kind of kicked in and I was like oh crap that's like what that's

19:42 what like things like depression do. If you've never struggled with depression one of the weird things that depression does is depression if you're ever in like major depression one of the crippling things that it does. If you've always struggled with it they can tell you this. Is it really messes up your sense of time? Because something like major depression it makes it really hard for me to remember not being depressed. Even though there was a time when I was not depressed it makes it really hard for me

20:15 to remember what that was like. It makes it really hard for me to imagine living in my current life not feeling depressed and it makes it almost impossible to imagine not feeling depressed in the future. Even though we may know better it's this powerful way of distorting kind of the reality in which we're living. I would also say from a counselor point of view the anxiety and trauma do the same thing.

20:50 If you've never struggled with anxiety or been through trauma anxiety and trauma have this really powerful ability to make you feel really unsafe in situations where you're completely safe. Like the best definition of trauma I've ever heard was living in the present according to irrelevant demands from the past. Right? Living in the present according to irrelevant demands from the past when I'm here with you and I know and in all reality I am safe but internally I feel unsafe.

21:20 Right? Those are things that have this incredible capacity to affect how we feel in the day to day. Now there's a lot of ways in which we walk through those things. There's a lot of ways in which people heal from those things for sure. We're not now is on time you know all that. But in those moments have you ever been in that place where you needed to be reminded? So in Israel goes to God they remind themselves who God is, who they are and that is the basis

21:57 for why they show up. That is the core pieces of why they know they can even approach God is because they go God is this God you are this. This is who you are. This is how you are who you are. This is how you made us. This is how you made us to be and this is why we can even show up to ask these things to be. Right? It is that reminding and ultimately it's the remembering that is often needed.

22:32 The pattern in scripture isn't this hey we struggle we ask God to show up. God shows up in a big you know like amazingly loud crash. It was that we struggle and we come to God and the coming to God we remind ourselves and we remember deep within our soul who God is and who God made us to be and that's what gives us the strength and the courage and what we need to walk through the situations that we walk through.

23:03 I would suggest to y'all that is ultimately also the message and essential piece of the incarnation. As we walk into Advent and we think about man what do we put our hope in? Will we put our hope into Jesus coming and being with us? The message of Advent is ultimately the message of the incarnation which is that God said hey you know what I am going to get so down and dirty with you but I'm actually going

23:34 to show up in the dirty barn and be born and I'm going to walk through all these things with you. And Advent the next month is this I feel like it's a pretty powerful opportunity that we have to ask ourselves where we need to be reminded who God is and who he says he will be who we are and who he says we are and let that inform how we come to him.

24:05 So as you think through like what does kind of Advent look like for you over the next month? What do you tend to forget? What are some of the things that deepen your soul you know are true that are all too easy for you to forget? I know for me in really practical ways it is easy for me to forget that God is in control

24:35 and will take care of me. The questions of do I have enough work do we have enough money are we doing this is our house going to fall down like all of those practical pieces loom so large that they tend to block out things that are true. So what are the things that you may tend to forget? And those things that you forget what do they do to your hope?

25:09 The theme for the first week of Advent is always hope. What are the things that you need to be reminded of? What do you need to remember? If I was going to throw kind of more questions at you. I go man where in your story I'm going to pass present and future where in your story do you need to be reminded that God is with you?

25:45 Where are those places in the past that you might need to be reminded either by the Holy Spirit by each other that God was with you and that God brought you through? Where today in your current reality in the midst of all that is happening collectively and personally where do you need to know that God is with you?

26:17 And going forward where do you need to be reminded that God goes before you and alongside you? It's far too easy to forget those pieces y'all I forget them every day. I was talking about some of this with the buddy this weekend and we were just kind of laughing about how easily we forget. Yeah because I feel like you need to be reminded that weekly I feel like you need to be reminded that daily because by three o'clock in the afternoon I'm tired.

26:52 Where do you need to be reminded? We're going to step into Bev's going to share with us and we're going to like the Advent handle but I want to end with a thought. As we think about hope and we think about kind of the story of scripture and this kind of culmination of how it shows up in the incarnation of God saying hey I'm actually going to give you a very even more visible representation that I am with you.

27:23 I'm actually going to be physically with you. And this act of Advent and the incarnation is us remembering what is true and that God is with us. Not just that God came in the person of Jesus but they got to came in the person of Jesus and Jesus promised to be the Holy Spirit and be with us. So here are these words of comfort from the end of Matthew 28. This is after Jesus rose, this is the very end of the book and Jesus says when Jesus

27:58 came to them and said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So go make disciples of all nations baptizing them and then the Father of the Son the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything I've commanded you because surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Let's pray and I'd like to add that. Lord help us to remember the things that we are to easily forget.

28:32 And if there are specific ones for each of us that we need to be reminded of put them in front of us. Bring them to our awareness today this week so that we can somehow write them on our door posts and know that these are things that are true that we need to remind ourselves of. Things that are true of who you are and who we are and the relationship we have. We ask these things in your name.

29:08 Amen.