Summit Online - December 12, 2021

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning summit family as the year is coming to a close i've been taking some time to process all of the highs and lows and one of my greatest joys has been getting to share this space with each one of you i see you each week sharing in the chat i see you tagging us in your living rooms on social media and i see you sharing these services with your friends and family we all know that technology has its downsides but i'm so grateful that summit online has brought each one of us together to worship jesus each week if this is your first time i want to personally thank you for joining us today if you're interested in learning more about the summit church and ways to connect you can visit summitchurch.com or text welcome to 33933 we're really glad that you're here quick reminder that next weekend december 18th and 19th is christmas with the summit you seriously will not want to miss it you can rsvp to attend in person at one of our locations by visiting summitchurch.com christmas or join us live right here on sunday december 19th at 9 00 or 11 a.m at live.summitchurch.com we cannot wait to celebrate with you summit from genesis to revelation we read the story of god coming to be emmanuel god with us to redeem us from sin and death as we celebrate his coming let's also remember how it ends that he conquers the grave and is seated at the right hand of the father in heaven in the end he will return victorious let's take a moment and read revelation 4 verses 8 through 11 together and the four living creatures each of them with six wings are full of eyes all around and within and day and night they never cease to say holy holy holy is the lord god almighty who was and is and is to come and whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne who lives forever and ever the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever they cast their crowns before the throne saying worthy are you lord and god to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created jesus is worthy of our praise let's sing [Music] rumors of the son of man stories of a savior holiness with human hands [Music] the image of the father until heaven came to live with me i rescued like no other [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] yes for the king of kings forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh yes you are [Music] oh jesus [Music] my refuge my hiding place [Music] my blessed redeemer my answer my saving grace [Music] [Music] used [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] is [Music] [Music] me oh jesus jesus [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] you are worthy of your name holy jesus [Music] so let's confess together we know to be true [Music] do you feel the world is broken [Music] do you know that all the dark won't stop [Music] do you wish that you could see it on me [Music] and there's a new creation [Music] and is it good that we remind ourselves [Music] [Music] he [Music] is worthy is he worthy [Music] of all blessings is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] forever oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] he worthy is he worthy of our praise on wisdom thanks [Music] he is [Applause] [Music] come on let's believe together [Music] [Laughter] hey summit family if you have your bibles i want you to meet me in isaiah chapter 40 isaiah chapter 40. as you're making your way to isaiah 40. i want to remind you that next weekend is our christmas services if you haven't signed up to be a part of those i want to encourage you to do so not only that but we need people to who will actually help to serve uh at those services um so we want to encourage you if you haven't signed up to do that when i want to really really uh encourage you to do so isaiah chapter 40 want to draw your attention it is that time of year known as advent where we look back at the coming of our lord and savior jesus christ and we are comforted by the reality that just as he came once he will come again to help us with this i want to just encourage us from one of my favorite advent passages of scripture again tucked away in isaiah chapter 40 pick me up in verse 1. comfort comfort my people says your god speak tenderly to jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended that her hear this iniquity is pardoned that she has received from the lord's hand double for all her sins a voice cries in the wilderness verse 3 prepare the way of the lord make straight in the desert a highway for our god every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low the uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plane and the glory of the lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the lord has spoken i want to talk for just a few moments from the subject god's gift of love god's gift of love will you pray with me father we do thank you centuries in advance it was prophesied that jesus christ our savior would come and that he would emancipate us he would set us free and god that prophecy those prophecies were fulfilled and yet lord god we are comforted by this fact that just as those prophecies were fulfilled that there are other prophecies saying that just as he came once he will come again that those prophecies will be fulfilled at the same time so lord god as we now stand at the crossroads the intersection of these two advents the first and second advent we are waiting for the second coming of christ i pray that you would give us hope we need hope not optimism lord we need hope and so do that today we pray stand in my body think with my mind and speak with my tongue those things you'd have a snow say and do may jesus christ be lifted up it's in his name we pray amen and amen at the end of world war ii the allied forces were were in a little town in germany they were making their rounds through all the homes there and they were just checking in making sure people were okay people were safe they were announcing the freedom that was theirs in one particular home a group of these allied forces these soldiers went down deep into the basement of that home and in that home they found these wall these words etched on the wall look at them with me someone had scribbled on the wall i believe in the sun even when it is not shining i believe in love even when feeling it not i believe in god even when god is silent these words were written by a young man who was hiding out from the nazi gestapo for a long period of time i can just see him now waiting waiting and waiting holding tight to a rope of faith for god to show up when we come to our text we we discover that in the book of isaiah the people of god are not so good at waiting here they are no they're not dealing with nazi gestapo but they are dealing with foreign nations nonetheless who are threatening to to wipe them off the face of the earth yet the problem is instead of waiting on god they decide to take matters into their own hands they decide first of all instead of waiting on god that they decide that they're going to make a treaty with the assyrians here the assyrians the assyrians were this this brutal nation they were actually the ones who came up with this form of torture known as as crucifixion so instead of waiting on god here they are just looking at their enemy and they decide we're going to form an alliance with them we're going to make a treaty with them and that doesn't work out so well the assyrians actually renege on the treaty a little while later instead of waiting on god the people of god say okay it didn't work out with the assyrians we'll form a treaty and alliance with the egyptians just like with the assyrians the egyptians let down the people of god and sure enough later a little while later they just submit and surrender themselves to the babylonians who end up taking them off into exile story of isaiah just pulls us into a group of people who are not good at waiting on god and yet if we were to tell the truth many of us right now could be able to confess that we're not so good at waiting on god either all of us kind of know the frustration of waiting on god and then the disappointment in our own selves of instead of waiting on god we turn to other things it's it's hard to wait on god in general but it's a especially hard to wait on god in the midst of uncertainty and trials and tribulations in life in some senses this is all of us i mean collectively as a group it's it's been a rough two-year stretch as we're dealing with a global pandemic some of you now have even confessed that during this two-year stretch you've contracted covet or maybe you know of loved ones who've contracted cove and maybe have even died others of us know the the frustration of these last two years as we've dealt with political and in racial division and cultural trauma that has just happened collectively outside of us and there's all these things caving in on us if i can come though to your to your house put my feet up on your coffee table and get in your in your business some of you it's not just what's happening collectively but for for some of us we're literally waiting right now on the results from a doctor's test maybe there's a sense of worry and anxiety that's filled with that maybe some of you are dealing with issues of infertility and you've been waiting on god to show up and open the womb maybe others of you you've been you've been waiting on god to show up in the life of that child or your kids that they would love jesus with every fiber of their being instead of going out into the far country all of us know what it's like to deal with trials and tribulations in life all of us know what it's like to go god where are you and yet the problem is what happens is that for so many of us instead of waiting on god we again know the disappointment and the frustration of forming our little alliances and treaties no not with the assyrians no not with the babylonians no not with the egyptians but we still know what it's like to form treaties and alliances with the idols of our hearts i think all of us know what it's like to to go well when life backs me into a corner maybe one of the treaties that i make is with myself so instead of waiting on god and seeking him i'm i am going to make a treaty with myself i'm going to take matters into my own hands and one of the ways we know that is something happens and we get a little stressed out something comes our way and and our reflex reaction isn't prayer it's not like daniel and daniel chapter six when he gets the news of the new edict coming down from the king i love daniel what does daniel do he goes to his home as always before opens up the curtains uh prays in the same direction i wish i had that sense of spiritual maturity but if i could just kind of put my business out there i i there's a sense in me when when life comes caving in to just go i can figure this out myself so i know what it's like to make a treaty with myself and not even invite god into the process others of us maybe we haven't made an alliance with the assyrians or egyptians or babylonians or maybe even ourselves but we've kind of made an alliance with safety and comfort and security at the end of the day i'm just gonna play it stay safe i'm gonna sprinkle enough jesus to be acceptable but not too much to be fanatical i i i just want a nice safe and comfortable and secure life i remember some years ago i was about 20 20 years ago i was out to breakfast with a guy that i call my spiritual uh grandfather in the ministry a guy by the name of dr john perkins and we're sitting there doing breakfast together and towards the end of that breakfast that dr perkins at the time was in his 70s and and i said to dr perkins at the end of our breakfast dr perkins how can i be praying for you now remember he's in his 70s and without even pausing or flinching he says oh that's easy brian pray that i don't play it safe it says because the older i get the more i find myself gravitating towards comfort and safety and security he says i want to go out like caleb caleb in the book of joshua just said give me the hill country i don't want to play it safe i want to be known as a man of faith oh oh for that spirit to come over me others of us maybe we haven't made treaties with other nations literally but maybe we know what it's like to make a treaty with moralism all of us in fact this afternoon as i was sitting with my barber i know you're looking at me just going man that's a total waste of money uh but i'm sitting with my barber and i'm just kind of sharing the gospel with him and uh just kind of calling out moralism and one of the things i just said to said to my barbers like look everybody is on a search for meaning value significance and purpose it's just a part of what it means to be made in the image of god we want our lives to matter and yet the problem as i'm talking to this one specific individual is that so many people in this world feel like i i can find a sense of wholeness by being a good moral person that that will bring me a purpose and meaning and value especially when it comes to trials that's why so many people are more apt to come to church or be or be religious in those moments and that's you thank you that you're here because for some people the idea if i do good things that will kind of be a good luck charm that that will kind of put god in my debt to get me out of this mess so what i want us to see is you know the assyrians aren't knocking on our doors or the egyptians or the babylonians all of us know what it's like when we find ourselves hemmed in by life to struggle not only with being patient and waiting on god but forming our own little treaties and agreements with the idols of our hearts the idols of our lives now here's the question judah how did that work out for you judah did not trusting god play well for you the answer is an emphatic an emphatic no here's judah what ends up happening is they turn to the assyrians that doesn't work out they turn to the egyptians that doesn't work out they end up submitting and surrendering and being carried off by the babylonians and theologians tell us now begins this kind of long dark night of the soul known as the babylonian exile if judah were here here's what she would say right now the only thing worse than waiting on god is wishing that you had what judah teaches us is that when we take life into our own hands and don't even invite god into the process things don't get better they actually get worse i mean some of you right now you you could say amen i mean you could just shout it out from experience you know that the only thing worse than waiting on god is wishing that you had some of us are in consumer debt right now in debt over our eyeballs because we wanted certain things a certain kind of life right now we just took manners in our own hands and we'll figure this out right now some of you the the marital strife that you're going through right now is is you've decided that you're going to figure this thing out you're going to you're not going to wait on god you're not going to invite god into this thing and so you you've decided to take your life into your own hands and you would just kind of look at the trauma that's caused your marriage and just go man i i haven't made it better i've i've made it worse some of you maybe you're looking at strained relationships with your children because you've gone down the path of moralism and just you go down the path of moralism and everything's about behavior with you that then leads to legalism and then you're obsessing over your kid's behavior and you're kind of a referee throwing a flag at every little thing that they do and now they're older and you're wondering why why they don't want to be friends with you you've kind of sacrificed the relationship on the altar of rules the story of life is we take matters into our own hands doesn't make it better oftentimes it makes it worse oh merry christmas what a gloomy way to begin this message but here's hope notice what god says to a people who have repeatedly thumbed their noses at him he says beginning in verse 1 comfort comfort my people now in order to get our arms around this you you have to see this in its proper emotional context here here is judah they've refused to do things god's way they're carried off to babylon how are they feeling psalm 137 the opening few verses tells us look at it with me by the waters of babylon there we sat down and wept and we remembered zion and the willows there we hung up our liars for there are chapters required of us songs and our tormentors on earth saying sing us what are the songs of zion and they respond by saying how shall we sing the lord's song in a foreign land don't you see they're weeping they're wailing i i i believe it's just me reading the white spaces of the text they're going man i've made an absolute mess of my life ever been there and it's in the middle of the weeping and wailing that god says hey hey i say i want you to get a word to my people this blows my mind comfort comfort oh this is good our text is originally written in a language called hebrew and the hebrew word for comfort literally means to breathe he says say to them breathe it's his way of saying relax he doesn't just say say to them breathe he says comfort comfort which means breathe breathe the imagery is is vivid it's as if it's a person who's heaving who is sobbing the self-flagellation is through the roof they are they are just tormenting themselves and god doesn't come to them in condemnation he says no no i i want to come in comfort it's a picture of a person putting their hand on a person's back saying no no breathe breathe it's actually a picture of what um what happened to my georgia bulldogs the other night as a matter of full disclosure i am a georgia bulldogs fan i grew up in atlanta georgia bulldogs fan man and uh golly um i'm a godly person because suffering brings character the other week we played the sec championship game that didn't go so well for us and for numerous reasons we lost that game one of those reasons though is our our quarterback stetson bennett the fourth through an interception of pick six and i mean you could just kind of see he makes this mistake and you could just see he's beating himself up again the self-flagellation and our head coach kirby smart runs off the sidelines towards him and he doesn't come screaming yelling and cursing he comes embracing with comfort this is exactly how god comes to judah yes i just compared god to kirby smarts but here's where my illustration falls short i mean we can see kirby comforting his quarterback because his quarterback made a mistake god isn't comforting a group of people who just made a mistake he's comforting people who have been walking in willful rebellion for centuries it is as if it is as if god is coming to his people the way that the father of the prodigal son came to his his youngest son who had thumbed his nose at his dad asked for his inheritance in advance the hebrew equivalent of him saying i wish you were dead and what happens years later the dad sees him and runs after him hugs him embraces him calls him a son not a servant throws him a party that is the god that we serve god comes in comfort in and i want you to hear this this is good news because some of you are right here right now under the sound of my voice you know what it's like to say man what a bad decision what a bad choice i can't believe i did that if i could just say someone maybe is even here and you've had an abortion here you are years later every time you see a child who's the age of what your child would have been triggers you the tears and i can't believe i did that how does god respond comfort comfort some of you are here right now and you've gone through a divorce and it was you who are at fault you're the one maybe who stepped out on your marriage you you were the offender how does god respond comfort comfort why does god respond this way because god understands that guilt and shame and condemnation will never fundamentally change the structures of our hearts it is only grace that's why romans 2 4 says it is god's kindness that leads to our repentance it is never a repentance that leads to god's kindness i i love this though my favorite word in verse one though isn't even comfort it's my comfort comfort my people if i'm isaiah at this point i i'm to go no no no god you mean this people that that's what you mean to say god you don't mean to say my from isaiah i want to be like let me remind you god um i've been prophesying about this group of people judah through five kings i know her she is rebellious god says no no no judah ain't my girlfriend she's my wife i i'm in covenant with her she's she's mine i i got a buddy of mine actually one of my kids godfather he's a record producer out in l.a he's written a few produce a few hit songs and we were hanging out one night and i don't know how it came up but he just he said to me says brian's interesting whenever um whenever i've been fortunate enough to write a hit song you need to know it's just kind of crazy from the time that i write the song till the time i get my first check from that song it's typically about 18 months i'm like what in the world why does it take so long he says well whenever you write a hit song everybody in their mama comes out the woodwork saying that's mine so you got to get lawyers it gets hung up in court you know hit song everybody goes mine mine mine let me just say the obvious judah ain't no hit song she ain't going platinum she ain't gone gold she has messed up what does god say mine someone needs to hear that right now god says of you and i independent of our behavior you're mine the world may look at you as as being messed up completely broken god says that's okay mine or maybe the opposite the world may look at you as a complete success and yet when you do an audit on your inner life your heart when you rest your head on your pillow at night you understand the brokenness and the emptiness in your own heart and what does god say to you an outward success while you feel like a private failure god says mine you may be the one on the college campus other people whisper about with a horrible reputation what does god say mine oh now brian you're being a little flippant i feel like you're being light here i don't feel like you're really giving the fullness of the gospel well hold on read verse 2 god says speak tenderly to jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended here it is that her iniquity iniquity iniquity is pardoned i of the word iniquity is simply the idea of sin god says let's call it what it is judah what you've done isn't emotional baggage what you've done isn't just dysfunction what you've done isn't your family issues let's put a name to it what you have done is sin god calls it out it's not being light he calls it what it is sin but how can god say to a people who have walked in rebellious sin that your mind he tells us in the next phrase he says to them that her iniquity here it is is pardoned idea of the word pardon in the original language uh hebrew it's actually here it is a technical temple term which means to receive with pleasure to receive with pleasure now we call this a technical temple term because because when god's people sin there was specific detailed instructions on what they were to do they were to go to the temple they were to get get an animal without spot or blemish they would buy this animal it would be inspected it would be presented to the priests who right before killing it would look over it again when the p when the priest looked over it again they would receive it with pleasure and offer it as an atoning sacrifice for their sins here we see a foreshadowing in our text of jesus christ god says i am able to say of you that you are mine not because of your performance you don't measure up not because of your goodness you don't have any but i can say of you that you are mine because of the ultimate spotless lamb jesus christ died in your place and for your sins oh friends this is the gospel of jesus christ we are in covenant relationship with god because of the sacrificial atoning work of jesus now it gets even gooder i know that's bad english but it's good theology he says in verse 3 a voice cries in the wilderness prepare the way of the lord make straight in the desert a highway for our god every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low the uneven ground shall become level and the rough places are plain and the glory of the lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the lord has spoken this is rich and its cultural significance back then when a king would go to a town for the first time they would never allow a king to go to a town for the first time using pre-existing roads they thought it was a security threat so whenever king came to a town for the first time they would always build new roads and the idea here is they wanted to create safety now notice what happens here look at the the the language that is used he says again a voice cries in the wilderness prepare the way of the lord here it is make straight in the desert straight in the desert a highway for our god watch it now every valley shall be lifted up every mountain and hill be made low the uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plane here it is isaiah is describing a road that is perfectly straight perfectly safe and guaranteeing the arrival of the king what is isaiah saying it is a foreshadowing of the advent the first advent of jesus christ jesus christ he is saying through this idiom is guaranteed to come he will come this prophecy is given 750 years in advance and guess what it is fulfilled some of us we've we've gone out and we've purchased a home maybe we were looking at some homes and we landed on a specific home that we we definitely liked and what did we do we we consulted with our loved one or loved ones and and then we turned an offer in and maybe the seller came back and said the offer looks good but but we're going to ask for something called earnest money now we understand what earnest money is it's typically about one to three percent of the total value of the home it's a substantial kind of price non-refundable but why does the seller want you and i to give earnest money because they want to make sure that what we start we're going to finish they want to make sure that we're not going to back out on this thing you need to understand something about jesus christ that his first advent was earnest money he came in this first advent and boy he came he took on flesh and dwelt among us he came and and lived a sinless life he came and he announced the kingdom the idea of the kingdom as a sense of shalom bringing wholeness between us and god vertically and us and each other horizontally boy did he come he came and he was beaten and bruised on our behalf he came and he hung on a cross he came and he was buried in a borrowed tomb he came and boy he didn't stay in that tomb he was resurrected the third day according to the scriptures he came he boarded a cloud back to heaven in the new testament they prophesy of the second coming of christ his first coming it was earnest money he he paid in full the price of our sins it's an earnest money deposit in the sense of the truth of christmas is just as he came once and fulfilled his word he will come again this is not a maybe this is not a might be jesus christ is the original promise keeper he will keep his promise and return again what does this mean for us isaiah says here's what it means to us that you and i are to be about the business verse 3 of preparing the way of the lord hear you and i in between the first advent and the second advent he came and he will come again what are we to do in in the meantime in between time you and i are be about the business of advancing his kingdom what does this mean we are to share the good news of jesus christ opening up our mouth boldly even to individuals who are stealing your money cutting your hair when you don't need a haircut we are to declare the good news of jesus christ that ultimately that barber isn't there the barista isn't there that person isn't in your life ultimately to service you that god has allowed your past to intersect because they need to hear the good news of jesus christ preparing the way of the lord means that we're committed to justice and righteousness preparing the way of the lord means that we're living on mission preparing the way of the lord as we like to say around here means that we've put our yes on the table preparing the way of the lord means that life for us is so much more than than money and clothes and houses and comforts what get what helps us to navigate this life is the life to come there's coming a day when jesus christ will say give me back my breath and i shall behold him face to face and in that moment may i be able to say i have done everything i can by the power of your spirit to prepare the way of the lord oh friends this is the message of christmas god is saying to us no matter how bad you screwed up he's waiting for you not with condemnation but with comfort it's good news that he declares over you and i your mind why because our sins have been pardoned by the ultimate spotless lamb jesus christ and having our sins pardoned we share that good news with others so father we bless you in this place today we thank you thank you jesus that you came once thank you jesus that you will come again oh god would you strengthen us to wait some of us this is a right now word waiting on test results waiting on loved ones who have turned their back on you wait waiting on healing in our body waiting on a job lord help us to wait and lord we thank you for the forgiveness that is ours we thank you that ours is not a contractual agreement with you we're in covenant relationship with you thank you for the sacrifice of jesus for he truly is the reason for this season christ we pray amen [Music] joy to the world the lord is come let earth receive her king and let every heart prepare him in heaven and nature sing and heaven and nature sing in heaven [Music] we will sing [Music] [Music] [Music] rocks [Music] repeat the sounding [Music] we will see [Music] [Music] we will sing no [Music] he comes to his blessings [Music] [Music] we will see [Music] [Music] glory lord of love is hearts oh [Music] joy to the world come on just tell him he rules the world he rules the world with truth [Music] [Music] his righteousness [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] because of christ we can truly say joy to the world the king has come and he will come again as pastor brian encouraged us what are we to do in the meantime we prepare the way of the lord we share the good news and we live on mission for him summit we have been given the spirit of god to empower us to live for him it's through the power of prayer that we can continue to walk in the spirit and live obediently to christ if you'd like to pray with someone today click request prayer and a live host will pray with you right now or you can email us at prayer summitchurch.com summit let's give our whole lives to the mission of god with that you are sent [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] so [Music] uh [Music] you

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Length: 60min 49sec (3649 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 12 2021