What are you waiting for? (MP3 for download)

Break from Ephesians, and expositional style. Topical Sermon.

Advent, waiting, expectation…

-We Live in a culture of expectation: always looking for the next thing…

-We are constantly experiencing unmet expectations… Matt Chandler says that “all frustration is a result of unmet expectations.” That has been true in my life…

-Our expectations of a product, an experience, or a person are most often the result of a need in our heart, or a desire to fulfill a need in our hearts…

often we expect things to deliver some promise that a thing could never deliver. Tub of ice cream=intimate connection and lifelong companionship…

-Anything that we go to in order to fulfill a need in our heart other than God is an idol…

-In this advent season, I am attempting to do three things in my own heart, and I want to encourage all of us to do these as well.

Recalibrate your expectations…

–Confess your idolatry…

-Renew your mind: Romans 12: 2 tells us “not to be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable, and perfect.

           –Remind yourself of your greatest need. Read Isaiah 59

Recognize: Christmas is a celebration of God answering our deepest need by putting on flesh.

-Paul sums it up for Timothy well in 1 Tim 1:15 when he said that Christ came into the world to save sinners…

– Jesus himself said it when the phrases were after him for hanging out with sinners he said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Rejoice: That Christ came to fulfill your greatest need. If you are in Christ, your relationship with God has been restored, and you have Him!