Waiting

Merry Christmas! We're so glad that you've joined us here on Summit Life with pastor, author, and theologian J.D.

Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vitovich. Thanks for setting aside a few moments in the midst of the hustle and bustle of presents and getting dinner on the table to focus on what we're really celebrating, one of the most astonishing moments in human history. We celebrate the day that God himself was born as a helpless human baby. The world had been waiting and God came to dwell.

Let's remember this amazing truth today as pastor J.D. shares a special Christmas message titled, Waiting. When they were really young, it's hard enough to go to the mall at Christmas time. It's just brutal if you've got a three-year-old child in tow. You know what I'm talking about, parents?

That's the worst. This dad has this three-year-old kid and I'm looking over at him and I feel like it's me seven, eight years ago. He's got this three-year-old and this three-year-old clearly was done.

He was laying on the ground and yelling and kicking. The dad was kind of dragging him along. I'm kind of watching this with a sympathetic sense of bemusement. I'm noticing this dad is just speaking so tenderly. He's like, it's okay, Albert. Just a few more, just a little while longer, Albert. It's going to be okay, Albert. Don't worry, Albert. You're almost done, Albert. Don't embarrass yourself, Albert. I watched this for like three or four minutes.

This guy never raised his voice. I thought, this is amazing. I went up to him after three or four minutes. I'm like, hey, man, you don't know me from anybody, but I just got to tell you how embarrassing. I'm impressed I am.

I'm a pastor and I didn't handle this nearly that well when I had my kids dragging them around the mall. I just want to commend you for your patience with your son, Albert. This guy looked at me and he said, listen. He said, Sam is my son's name. My name is Albert. He said, that's who I was talking to over the last few minutes there.

Hey, you know what? We're here. We're here. If we can just turn that off for a little while, you can get back to that. I just want to commend you for coming and thank you for celebrating Christmas here together.

Together with us. Some of you know that I started a podcast a while back called Ask Me Anything in which I take questions that I'll get asked from time to time as pastor and give you a short answer to them. Well, one of the questions I get asked sometimes around Christmas time is people will ask me, how do we know that December 25th was the day that Jesus was actually born and are we sure that he was born on that day?

The short answer to that question is, no, we are not sure. I hope this does not rattle you, but we don't really know the exact date that Jesus was born. The Virgin Mary did not leave much of a social media trail, so we're not able to pin down the exact date, but one of the reasons that the early Christians chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25th was that was the day of the Roman solstice.

Solstice, of course, meaning that day where daylight hours in the winter are the fewest and nighttime hours are the longest. It's the darkest day of the year, and the Christians thought that's just appropriate to celebrate the birth of Jesus because that's what Isaiah says the birth of Jesus will be like a light shining into the darkness. The people who have sat in darkness have seen a great light.

Plus, by the way, they knew that the annunciation when Gabriel appeared to Mary, they knew that based on the Jewish calendar was sometime around March, so it was about nine months after that, and they thought, close enough, let's just celebrate it on this day. But that's the idea behind Christmas and why we celebrate it because into the darkness God has seen a shine to great light. That's literally how the Gospel of Matthew opens up.

The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. Jesus was born into a historic time of great darkness on the earth. Matthew, whose Gospel comes first in the New Testament, he shows us that in a very unique and artistic way by opening up his Gospel with something that, if you're new to the Bible, is a little unexpected and you're not quite sure what to do with. He opens up the New Testament with a genealogy. Now, if you've ever set out to read the New Testament, you got to this first part of the New Testament, the genealogy, and you thought, I don't know what to do with that, and you just kind of skipped it.

But it's in there for a reason because though it is confusing it's got massive implications for how you think about what God is doing in your life when you can't see any evidence of him at all, and how you think about seasons where you're in the midst of a broken family or chronic pain or just great disappointment. The very first verses of Matthew read like this. Matthew lists out all the generations from Abraham to Jesus, and then Matthew concludes, verse 17, thus there were 14 generations in all from Abraham to David, there were 14 from David to the exile in Babylon, and 14 from the exile to the Messiah.

Now again, that might seem like an odd way to open up the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but when you press more closely into it, you're going to see it's designed to communicate a very important message. So here's the news lead to David. He starts with Abraham because that was the first Jewish father to whom the promises of salvation were given.

I'll bless you, I'll make your name great, and I will give you the forgiveness of sins. Abraham is first. 14 generations to David. David comes next because David represents the kind of king that Israel thought that they needed. The kind of king they were hoping for, a political deliverer, somebody who would bring great prosperity to the nation of Israel. 14 generations from David to the exile.

The exile represents this kind of fashion. the failure first of David to keep the laws of God, but then all the children of Israel, not being able to walk in obedience because of their persistent disobedience, God sent them back into slavery and into exile. 14 generations from the exile to Jesus, Jesus being God's answer to the exile, Jesus being God's answer to their darkness, being God's answer to their failure, Jesus being the fulfillment of all the promises that God had given to Abraham about salvation. 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the exile, 14 from the exile to Jesus. You say, well, that works out kind of neat, doesn't it? Like, you know, 14 generations between each one.

But see, here's the thing. If you go back and you look at your Old Testament, you're just gonna see that there were actually more than 14 generations between each of these milestones. And by the way, Matthew knew that you could see that. He knew that you were gonna have an Old Testament.

He's not trying to pull a fast one on you. You say, well, if he knew that there were more than 14 generations, why did he only say there were 14? It is because, watch this, he is trying to communicate in his own artistic way that the coming of Jesus was a perfect and a perfectly timed fulfillment of the promises of God. 14 is two sevens, of course, and seven is the biblical number of completion. And so Matthew was trying to say that Jesus' coming was not just perfect, it was perfect, perfect.

It was twice perfect. By the way, 14 is also the numerical value in Hebrew if you add up the letters of David's name. And so what he's trying to show you is that history is like a kaleidoscope, that as you're looking through it, you're gonna see that it's all designed to reveal a king like David, a king named Jesus.

Matthew is showing you in a very Jewish, very artistic way that God is always faithful, God is always in control, he is always working to fulfill his promise in his perfectly designed way, and God will ultimately stamp his perfect 14 over all the darkness and the chaos of history. It had been 550 years since the exile, it had been 400 years since the last prophet had spoken. Now think about that with me for just a minute. 550 years is a long time, right?

550 years is twice the length of the age of the country that we live in. And this entire time, these people had sat in darkness, in confusion, wondering where God is, wondering if God has forsaken them, wondering probably if there was a God at all, at least a God like they had heard about, or wondering if he really was good, and if he really was interested in them and committed to them. Christ, Matthew says, is the answer to that question. Christ is the answer, God's answer to that struggle in darkness. Here's what you and I are supposed to see through that at Christmas time. Number one, number one, you're supposed to see through that genealogy that God sees you. God sees you in your waiting.

There's a lot of you that find yourself in a posture of waiting. You're in a time of darkness. You're in a time of confusion. You're in times where you feel like you're abandoned, or maybe it's a season of longing, longing for something to be set right, a longing for some yearning to be fulfilled. Maybe it's a longing for you to have your family put back together.

Maybe it's been years now and you're wondering, God, when are you going to work in my children's lives the way that I've wanted you to? Maybe it's a longing to have a family of your own. I mean, maybe you were just hoping that by this Christmas you were not going to still be single, but here you are going into it again, and you're like, God, when are you gonna fulfill this desire in my heart?

Maybe you still can't get pregnant. Maybe this season you're grieving the death of a child. Maybe this season finds you engulfed with sorrow over somebody that you've lost, or heartache over a family that's just recently fallen apart, a prodigal that just won't come home. Maybe this Christmas represents another year that physical healing still has not come to you no matter how much you've prayed.

Another year where financially things have not worked out. Here's the thing. You've tried everything you know how to try. You've gotten all the advice from all the counselors. You've prayed, you've believed, you've worked hard.

Still things have not happened, so you wait, and it feels darkness, like darkness. And if you're on us like the Israelites in Matthew, you're probably wondering, God, are you even up there? God, do you hear me? God, are you really, honestly, and truly good?

Are these things that you have said about you and that I learned about you, are they actually true? I want you to know, friend, that God sees you. That's why the genealogy is trying to communicate. All those names in there, every single name that he mentioned is somebody that God said, I saw them, and I heard them, and I had not forgot about them.

And it was just a matter of time before I took that darkness and I stamped it with my perfect 14. You see, God saw these people and he remembered them. What that gives you the assurance is that God sees you. Does it feel like you've been in 550 years of exiles?

Does it feel like you've been in 400 years of silence? God sees you, and God remembers. Number two, it shows us that God always comes through in our waiting.

That's what this genealogy demonstrates. God, in his own perfect way, in his own perfect time, he always comes through. God's gonna turn your chaos, he's gonna weave it into his perfect 14. Recently, I've been reading a lot in the prophets and the Psalms just for my own devotional life, and it's amazing how much of the lives of these great saints of old, how much their lives were spent in a posture of waiting.

Of darkness. It's amazing when you consider the promises that God gives to those who wait. In Lamentations, the prophet Jeremiah, for example, who had been rejected by his people, who had been cast into the dungeon and forgot about said, verse 25, the Lord is good to those who wait for him. Isaiah the prophet says, blessed are all those who wait for him. Chapter 49 of his book, those that wait for me shall not be put to shame. God will not disappoint those of you who wait on him. He will not let you be put to shame. He's never let anybody down who's ever trusted in him and you will not be the first. Nobody who has ever waited on God has ever been let down.

He always comes through. He said, well, why then does he have us wait? I don't know all the answers to that, but I do know from experience that there are things that you can learn about God in the waiting that you can't learn any other way. That's why Jeremiah, after saying the Lord is good to those who wait for him, he says, it is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. You see, that's a verse that God has been speaking to me in my life lately. It is good for me to sit quietly in a posture of helplessness before God. It's like, God, I've tried everything I know how to try. I don't know what else to do.

I know that if you don't do this, it's not gonna get done. And to wait quietly and patiently for the salvation of God because depending on the mercy of God is the safest place you're ever gonna be in the universe. Unfulfilled longings teach you to press into the goodness of God. Unfulfilled longings teach you to probe the depths of the character of God. They force you to wrestle with whether or not you believe God's promises, whether or not you actually believe that he's good, whether or not you believe that you can trust him. And that wrestling, I will tell you from personal experience yields a depth of trust in God that will produce a joy and a strength of faith that you could not have known in any other way.

So friend, do you feel like you're in darkness? Do you feel like God has been silent to you for 400 years? He's gonna come through in his own perfect time in just the right way. He will not disappoint.

He has never disappointed and you're not gonna be the first person in history that he lets down. You need to keep waiting. You need to keep waiting and hoping in the goodness of God because that's the one thing that you can always trust in.

And that's what this genealogy shows you. Number three, it shows us that Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of our waiting. This passage demonstrates that Christ is the ultimate answer to their longing. You see, what Israel needed most and what Israel thought they needed most were not the same thing.

What Israel thought that she needed was a Davidic king, a political deliverer who would throw off the yoke of oppression and restore prosperity. But what they really needed was restoration with God. That's why Christ came like he did. You and I may think that what we most need this Christmas is a new relationship, physical health, financial assistance, family reunion. But I can tell you that what you most need is restoration with your Heavenly Father. What we most miss deep in our souls is reunion with God.

You were created for God. And that's why nothing in your heart can ever take the place, nothing can ever satisfy that longing because you were created for fellowship with an infinite almighty God whose love will be the one thing that you could depend on and that would satisfy you. Blaise Pascal, the Christian philosopher, he very famously said that the human heart has a gigantic hole in it. We spend all of our lives trying to figure out what goes in that hole. It might be fame, good looks, money, success, romance. So we spend all of our lives trying to figure out what goes in that hole, but nothing ever works because that hole, he says, is in the shape of God.

St. Augustine, our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you. I saw a very sad and unexpected affirmation of this from the comedian Jim Carrey recently. Jim Carrey said in an interview, he said, I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of doing like I have so they can see it's not the answer and it'll just leave you empty.

Money's not really what you're looking for, friend. I know we think it is. Love is not, family's not, friends are not. These things are great, but they're not ultimately what you're created for. You're created for Jesus. You're created for God and your heart's always gonna be restless until you find your rest in him. You gotta be restored to him.

See, only the Messiah can do that. The unconditional love that you're yearning for, right? It's not found in the arms of romance.

The arms you were seeking in romance were actually his arms. The meaning, the security that you were looking for in a career and in financial stability, that security is not found there. It's found in the promises of your Heavenly Father.

Listen, I wanna be clear. God is good and we are supposed to wait on his goodness to break into our lives and our families. And that often will look like physical healing or restored families or a fulfilled dream. But first and foremost, Jesus came to restore your relationship with God.

And that is what's most important because apart from that, any other fix in your life would only be superficial. You see, that's the message of Christmas. The reason you're in darkness is because you're not walking and you're not separated or you are separated from God. That's the whole message of the Bible is that God loves you and he wants to restore himself to you that eternal life is knowing God. Eternal life is not something you just experience in the afterlife. It's something God wants to give you now to the knowledge of his love. I sometimes tell people who are new to the Bible, I tell them I can summarize the Bible in four phrases. I say there's bad news, there's worse news, there's good news and better news. Bad news, you and I have separated ourselves from God through a thing called sin.

Sin's kind of an old fashioned word and I tell people what sin means, you can figure out just by the middle letter. S-I-N, the big I in the middle means I have put myself at the center of my life the way that the I is the center of that word. I wanna do what I wanna do. I wanna be the center of everything. I want it to be my will instead of God's will. Instead of giving glory to God, I wanna see glory for myself and that has separated me from God and that separation is eternal and it leads to a godless, not only godless life but godless eternity.

And that is a path that every single one of us are on, all without sheep, have gone astray, we've turned everyone to our own way, right? That's bad news, you're like that is pretty bad news. What could possibly be worse than that news? The worst news is there is absolutely nothing you can do about that.

Absolutely nothing. No amount of religion can change that. No amount of good intentions or good works can repair that relationship with God. Your sin has permanently and eternally separated you from God. That's the worst news.

But friend, there's good news. The good news is that God, because he loves you, came and did for you what you could not do for yourself. You see, the gospel is that God came to the way we say it around the Summit Church, he came to live the life that we were supposed to live, a sinless life, and then die the death that we were condemned to die in our place so that he could offer it to us as a gift. We say at the Summit Church that you can summarize the gospel in four words, Jesus in my place. Jesus did not simply die for you, Jesus died instead of you.

He suffered the penalty that was supposed to be yours so that he could give you the gift of eternal life. That's the good news, right? You're like that is good news.

What's the better news? The better news is all you have to do is receive it. It's a gift that's been purchased. It's a gift that's been paid for.

A gift is not something you have to work for. It's something you just receive. That's what we announce at Christmas. That's why when the angels came, they came with an announcement of good news.

They didn't come with an instruction manual. They didn't come with a list of tips about how to improve your life and get back to God. They came with an announcement. Hark, the herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. Peace on earth and mercy mild. God and sinners reconciled.

Not because of what you were doing but because of what God was doing in Christ. Hail the heaven-born prince of peace. Hail the son of righteousness. Lighten life to all he brings. Risen with healing in his wings.

Mild he lays his glory by. Born that man no more might die. Born to raise the sons of earth. Born to give them second birth. That is the gift that God offers at Christmas time and any time because it's a gift he purchased for you is because he wanted to have you back. Friends, you were created for God. That's why you're unhappy.

That's why you can't seem to find anything. That's why a little success leads you one but it never quite answers everything that's in your heart. That's the ultimately the main message of Christmas. And that's what I can offer you. You see, I might not be able to wave a magic wand this evening and give you the romantic relationship you long for, but I can introduce you to God's love which is a love you were created for and that is far better.

I may not be able to guarantee you a promotion or a financial windfall, but I can connect you to the promises of God who says that he will cover you with his wings and provide for your every need and that promise is better than the windfall that you're looking for. I may not be able to grant you physical healing but I can tell you about a God who was broken for you and wounded for your transgressions and bruised for your iniquities so that by his stripes you could be healed so that you can say with Jesus, he that lives and believes in me though he were dead, yet shall he lives and a God who promises to walk now by your side through every step of your pain, then the presence and promises of that God are better even than physical healing. So do you feel like you sit in darkness this weekend? I can't promise you immediate resolution to what you're waiting on, but I can offer you Jesus and he is better and I can promise you that if you trust in him, he will renew your strength. He will make you mount up on wings like eagles so that you can run even through pain and even through death and not grow weary and walk and not faint. Question is, do you know Jesus?

Do you know Jesus? For many of us, Christmas is a joyful time but maybe for you it's also a season of longing, a longing for something to be set right, a longing for something to fill our emptiness. Let me tell you right now, Jesus is that person and Christmas is that moment. With a message titled Waiting, you're listening to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. If you enjoyed today's message and if you'd like to hear it again or share it with someone you love, you can do so online free of charge at jdgreer.com. I sat down with J.D. earlier and I asked him to share a special Christmas greeting with you all. Hey, I want to say to those of you who listen to us every day or maybe you're just dialing in for the first time, maybe you caught us on accident, I know that this Christmas might look a lot different than previous Christmases. I think it's been different for all of us.

Maybe there's a financial difficulty you're going through, maybe you're sick, maybe you're just not able to be with loved ones. In a time of great darkness, God has sent a great light and so wherever you are, whatever you're in, whatever darkness and confusion, I want you to know that this Christmas, there is a message for you and that message is that there is hope found in Jesus. He's called the Prince of Peace and that's because he restores peace first between you and God and then peace with you and others around you and then peace even with your circumstances. What a privilege to be able to come into your car and your home and just be able to help you find this. We want to be your tour guides on this journey of discovery so thank you for allowing this privilege. We want to say Merry Christmas to you and that we're praying that on this day, you'll learn to find the joy that God gives in Jesus at Christmas. We know this is a busy time for you and your family but as we celebrate Christmas today, we just wanted to say thank you for setting aside time to join us. This program is here every day on the radio and online and it's made possible because of friends like you. As our way of saying thanks for your gifts today, we'd like to send you the brand new 2021 Summit Life Day Planner. Our team is home with their families today so we're not answering the phones but we want you to know that you can request the planner when you visit us online at jdgrier.com.

I'm Molly Vidovich. On behalf of Pastor JD and the entire Summit Life team, allow me to wish you a very Merry Christmas. Be sure to join us again next week as we begin a short but important series about life during this challenging season of pandemic. Important lessons to remember as we speed towards 2021. We'll see you Monday on Summit Life with JD Grier. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Grier Ministries.