Moving In

Message Transcription

SUMMARY

In this Advent sermon, Karl Ihfe draws a parallel between the experience of moving to a new place and God's incarnation in Jesus Christ. Using John 1:14 and Eugene Peterson's translation, "The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood," he illustrates how God left the glory of heaven to dwell among us.

The sermon traces God's promise of presence throughout Scripture, from Abraham to Revelation, showing that "I am with you" is a consistent theme. This promise finds its fullest expression in the Advent story, particularly in the angel's greeting to Mary: "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you" (Luke 1:28).

Karl emphasizes that this promise of God's presence applies to all believers, regardless of their current circumstances or worthiness. He encourages the congregation to receive this promise and respond like Mary did, with surrender and obedience to God's will. The sermon concludes with a call for believers to not only receive God's presence but also to be His presence to others in the world.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Well, we're gonna launch into our Advent series. This is week two of Advent, but it's week one for us. If you have your Bible, invite you to turn over to John 1. That'll be the passage that actually is the thread that's gonna go through each week of our series. We'll look at Luke's account here as well in just a moment.

But before we do that, I want to ask you a question. How many of you like to move? Who are my movers here? I've got a couple, maybe a hand over here, over there. Most people that I know, myself included, don't like to move, don't enjoy it very much.

When I was a kid. By the time I was in third grade, we'd moved about five times, just different places around the city of San Antonio, where I grew up. The place that my dad lives in now, it's the place that we moved when I was in third grade. He's lived there the rest of my life, his life. He's still there.

Kaylee and I, in our marriage, we've moved about five times. I think we started in married student housing at Abilene Christian. We. We moved to Austin and lived in a couple of houses there. We moved here into a rental home at first, and then to our home that we've lived in now for almost 13 years longer than any home we've ever lived in before.

Some people I've met here in Lubbock, I found it more here than almost anywhere that some of you still live in the home that you grew up in. Your parents maybe moved out and you took over, or you maybe lived in the same city your whole life. That's a pretty amazing thing. I was looking at some stats this week. The average American moves about 11.7 times.

I'm not sure where the 0.7, what that looks like, but at least 11 times they move. The most common month to move. Anybody have a guess? June. June.

You know, January is s. A close one, right? June, the most common day of the week to move. Monday. Didn't know that.

I thought that was kind of interesting. Here in Lubbock, we've averaged better than actually the national average. But roughly over the last five years, the Lubbock has grown by about 4%. So about 4%, 1.1% a year, which translates to about roughly 3,000 people, give or take. The judge could probably correct me there on that.

Roughly about 3,000 people a year moved to Lubbock. About 8 people a day are. Are moving out into our city, which Is kind of an exciting thing to think about. We got new opportunities, new relationships, we have new business ideas. Moving helps create some new ideas and innovation, doesn't it?

But there are also some challenges that comes with new. Well, before we get to that, you know the reasons why we move. Number one reason is a better house, better living arrangement. Number two reason people move, family situation, getting married, getting divorced, having a kid, bringing grandma and grandpa to move with us, going to live with grandma and grandpa, some type of family situation. The third one is a job, getting a new job.

So as we think about all the reasons that people could be on the move and coming to Lubbock or somewhere else, there are lots of reasons. But with moving comes also some challenges, doesn't it? One of the hardest things about moving is everything is new, Everything. When we moved to Austin, I had lived there before. That's where I went to college.

But Kaley had never lived there before. So she moved to a new city. She didn't know really any people, maybe a couple. She didn't know any of the streets, any of the one way streets that go a particular direction. And if you turn the wrong direction on those one way streets, everyone reminds you you're going in the wrong direction.

When we moved to Lubbock, Kaylee and I had never lived out this far west. We lived in Abilene. It was as far west as we'd gotten. We'd never lived out this way. We moved here, we knew a handful of people.

And by a handful, I mean literally, I could count the number of people I knew on one hand. And it didn't even take up all the fingers. We didn't know any of the streets. We'd have people come up and ask us, hey, have you been on the Marsha Sharp yet? And I'm thinking, what is the Marsha Sharp like?

I know that's a person I knew she was a famous basketball coach. But what does it mean to be on the Marsha Sharp? You know, we have all the lingo, all the culture. We didn't understand the layout of the city. Now, luckily we had some friends who helped organize and orient us around that city.

But we didn't know. There was a lot that we didn't know. What helps you when you make a move? What's the number one thing that helps get us oriented when we move to a new place? It's finding that familiar face, isn't it?

It's finding that person that can kind of come alongside us and show us the ropes. They can explain to us exactly what the Marsha Sharp is and why it's important and why we should be driving on it, what benefit it's offered. They could tell us the restaurants to go to, the places to avoid. It's always funny to think about when we moved here, who were some of those first faces that we met?

Literally when we moved here, we went to this restaurant that we had no idea what it was. It's called the Cast Iron Grill. Have you guys heard of this place? Okay, so this was in the previous location where it was like the strip center where it was on the first floor of a two story building kind of thing. And so Gabe and Halley were much smaller and they're kind of wondering why is the ordering taking so long and when's our food going to be here?

And we said, hey, hey look. We noticed on the napkin dispenser there were pictures of customers. And we thought, oh, that's cool. Hey Gabe and Halie, why don't you just look at the pictures on here and maybe we know somebody. Thinking we don't know anybody and we look and what do you know?

Who's on our napkin holder at our table? It's Rodney Thomas and Terry Cole. And we're like, we actually know those guys. You know, the kids thought that was just the coolest. One of the first folks that kind of took me under his wing to help me, he was a familiar face was Floyd Stumbo.

And Floyd would call me up and he'd say, hey Carl, we're going to lunch. And I'd say, yes sir, what time are you picking me up? And he'd come by and he'd pick me up and he'd take me around the city and he would introduce me to different restaurants and he' show me different places and he'd say, you need to meet this person. You need to know this person. If you're going to be in ministry here in Lubbock, Texas, you need to know this person.

Floyd was one of those familiar faces that would just be with me. He would show me around, show me the ropes. There were several others. But it's an amazing thing to think about how in the midst of move and chaos and crazy, how it helps to have that familiar face that will be with you. And you think, what does this have to do with Advent?

Well, I think Advent really is a story about moving. But it's not just a story about some people moving from one location to another location. Whether it's familiar or unfamiliar. Even though it is about that, it's not Just about finding a new place in a hard, difficult circumstance and new family situation, a new job. Although it includes all of those things, it's a story of God being on the move of a God who is willing to move not just for a better job or a better home life or a new situation, but rather he's moving for us.

Let me take a minute and look back at the passage that Jennifer read for us just a minute ago in John's Gospel, Chapter one. I'll back up just a couple of verses to put it some into context. But we're told as. As John 1 opens up, and the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through him and without him. Not one thing came into me. What has come into being in him was life. And that life was the light of all people. John says in the beginning was the Word.

And this Word wasn't just with God, it was. It was God. And through this Word, everything that you see around you came into being. And then he says in verse 14, and that word became flesh and lived among us. My favorite translation to this passage is actually from the message Eugene Peterson, where he says the Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.

In fact, that's where our series title comes from, God and Neighbor. That Jesus, that God through Christ, moves into the neighborhood. He leaves heaven. He leaves all that he has known in that place, the power and the glory and the majesty, and he takes on human flesh, and he comes to a human town. He went from a place where he had everything, all power, all control, to a place where he has nothing, no power, no control.

Why would he do this? Why would he make that move? Well, because of love. This Advent season, I would love for us to explore together this move. Why did Jesus make this move?

What's the benefit of this move for us? Because with that move came incredible blessing. In fact, the first one, the one that we'll look at today, it's simply this. He is present with us, God's presence with us. Now, it turns out if you're familiar with the pages of Scripture, with the Bible, you'll understand this promise isn't unique to the Advent story.

It's actually a thread that's woven all throughout Scripture. God's gift of his presence with people from beginning to end. He makes that promise to Abraham when he calls him out of this familiar land to leave his father, his family, all that he had ever known, and go to a new place. Abraham doesn't know where he's going. All he knows is God says, I'll be with you.

It's the same promise that he makes to Isaac. Even though Isaac is gonna be living as an alien in a foreign land, he says, I'll be with you. He makes that same promise to Jacob and to Moses and to Joshua and David and Solomon. In fact all of Israel, he continually makes this promise, I'll be with you. Even in the darkest days of Israel, when because of their sin and their failures and their brokenness, they're carried off into captivity.

God's presence, his power, his promise is still available to them. In fact, he tells Jeremiah in chapter one, even though he's just a young man and he's living in a foreign place, he says, I am with you. It turns out this promise is also revealed in Revelation, the last book of the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, we see this. But in John's description of this amazing vision, this is what he tells us in Revelation 21.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven. And the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as the bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, see, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them.

They will be his peoples and God himself will be with them and will be their God. See the message of God's presence. It's the message of Advent. It's the message of incarnation of Emmanuel, God with us. In fact, it's the message that we read about again when we revisit the story of Jesus birth.

It's a message, a promise that's going to come again to a young woman. And I hope and pray this Advent season it will come to you and me as well. Hear these words from Luke's account. In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary.

The angel went to her and said, greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God.

You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end. I’m going to spend the final minutes we have together this morning just camped out and verse 28 greetings you who are highly favored.

The Lord is with you.

Part of my daily devotional is I listen to one of my favorite writer preacher teachers, a guy named John Ortberg. He does a daily podcast, kind of a devotional. And he unpacked the passage, this passage this week. It was really a special thing. It was meaningful to me as I was preparing for this message.

And he reminds us that this promise comes to someone who least expects it. Mary wasn't an important person in her day. She wasn't an important person from an important city, an important region, an important country in the world. She was from a one horse to town, a young girl, probably between 12 and 14 in this one horse town. She grew up with this one horse family.

We find out later on that she gets engaged to this one horse man who has a one horse job in this one horse town. She gets this promise and we're told that now her identity and her mission in life won't come from her own dreams or expectations anymore. And so she takes her place alongside other Biblical characters who received this same promise in unexpected ways and found their lives and their missions no longer led by their own dreams and ideas and hopes for the future, but now by God's mission for them. And that promise is, I'm with you no matter what, no matter what happens, no matter how life unfolds, I am with you. I mean, that's the ultimate promise of Advent.

Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. If you take nothing else from this sermon or from this whole series, my prayer is that you will take that greeting with you.

You're highly favored and the Lord is with you. See, one of the great gifts of Advent, the many blessings of God moving into the neighborhood, is his promise of presence. And it's not continued upon what we've done or who we've been up to that point. Who will be after that. God is with us whether we expect it or not, whether we're hoping for it at the time or not, whether we understand it or not, God is with us.

You know, sometimes we receive it the way that Mary did. We're perplexed. It sounds kind of strange to our ears. We're not sure what to make of it. And so, like Mary, we're greatly troubled at the words and we wonder what in the world does this mean?

Some of us may be hearing and receiving this greeting in a very different place. Right? We may be hearing it in a time of great joy where everything in life seems to be moving up and to the right. Right? Home is working and work is working, families working.

Life is just working. It's coming up roses. And the promise greetings you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you.

But others of us may be receiving this greeting in the midst of some really hard times. In fact, in a really unexpected time of life where works hard or home is hard or relationships are hard or that diagnosis, it's really hard. That's not what we are expecting. And to hear it just makes us stop and wonder what kind of greeting is this?

Well, God is s not mistaken. God didn't move into the wrong neighborhood. He moved into yours on purpose because you're highly favored and God is with you. So no matter how we receive the promise today, may we respond in the way that this confused and bewildered and unexpecting Mary received it. Maybe we receive it and surrender.

Know Paul said to the church in Philippi, he was describing Jesus move from heaven to earth. It says he humbled himself to become a servant, becoming obedient even to death on the cross.

That Jesus didn't count the power and the glory as something he could use for his own advantage. Instead he set it aside. He gave it up for us. He humbled himself, he took on flesh and he moved into our neighborhood. Mary surrendered herself to the will of the Father also.

We learn as best she could and the only way that she knew how and the only way that she could. She says, I'm the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled. Well, that's my hope and pray my prayer for our church as we enter into this Advent season where once again we're confronted with the truth that God is with us, that we are deeply loved by him. No matter what's going on in our life, the Lord is with us.

And though like Mary and Joseph, we may not know where this road is leading, it's going to have some ups and it's downs certainly. But God is with us and so may we surrender to that same promise. Like Jesus, like Mary, as best we can with what we got, with what we have. God, we're your servants. May your word be to us fulfilled.

Father. May it be so for us this day in the midst of the craziness of life happening all around us, that many of us are facing roads where it's just unexpected. We don't know how this is going to go. God, we're trusting and we're believing in this promise that you have made to your people from the beginning all the way through your holy scripture that you're with us. And though you may call us out of the familiar and into an unknown future, that we can trust that you will be with us every step of the way.

I got to pray this Advent season would be one where we are reminded of your presence with us.

Yeah, would you remind us this week that you're with us? Maybe it's through a gentle word of a trusted friend. Maybe it's a phone call that we hadn't had in a long time. Maybe it's some other way go. Just this reminders we look at the world around us and see the beauty of your creation may just remind us that you're with us and that we may be facing hard things in an unexpected, unknown uncertain future here on this earth that we know.

Jesus, you have come to be with us.

He God, may we see that promise not just as something for ourselves, but something to be lived into that we might help become your presence to the people in the world around us. God, will we be hope bringers this week in our workplaces May others see that you are with us and by us being there God, we are helping to just create another little kingdom outpost where your grace can flow into a darkened world. Yahweh would you be with our students, our teachers, our faculty, our staff, so many who are facing the end of a busy semester with tests and papers and projects with so much happen to God, would you bless them today? Would you remind them this week that you are with them both in the class and outside of it? And for those who are facing hard things, would you draw us up to be around them, to be a tangible living reminder of your hands and your feet that we get to be your presence.

Father, thank you for the gift of Jesus who was willing to forsake it all that we might have life with you. God, would you help us to live into that beautiful Advent story we pray in Jesus name.