November 27 Sermon and Announcements

 

CERRO GORDO CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN

November 27, 2022

 

How long do we have to wait?

Isaiah 7:14, 9:6-7

 

How patient are you? When someone says they are going to do something, especially something that really needs done, are you content just to wait until they get good and ready? After quite a while passes, do you get frustrated if nothing has happened yet?

 

As we begin today with the what the Bible has to say about the Savior of the world’s coming, we have read the promise made by God to Israel through the prophet Isaiah.  This prophecy was given 700 years before any of the events would actually happen. Israel had been overrun for a long time at this point. The people were asking God to free them of the oppression they were feeling. After all they were supposed to be God’s chosen people. God’s favor was supposed to rest on them. They were the ones who should be leading the world. Instead, they had been taken captive and felt humiliated and forgotten. Never mind about the fact their difference against God should have anything to do with their problems. The fact is God is supposed to come to their rescue. So finally, we see God making some promises of a new day for Israel. Isaiah reported to the people in the chapter 7, verse 14, “The Lord himself will give you a sign. The birth to a son and he will call him Imanuel.” Immanuel means God with us. So, something truly special is going to happen. Finally, God has heard our cries and is going to come and defeat their oppressors. It gets even better in the 9^th chapter, 6^th and 7^th verses. God gives them even more details. Man, this is going to be good just to see what God is going to do. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And He will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord almighty will accomplish this.” Do you hear that? Everyone is going to realize who is in charge soon? Finally, God is going to show the world that Israel and Jewish people are the best. But something did not quite work out like everyone thought. The people waited and waited and waited and nothing was happening.

 

When someone says they are going to do something you might not be upset if it did not happen today or tomorrow. Depending on what was promised, maybe even a week or two would be okay, but after that you begin to wonder, “What’s the deal? If you were not going to do anything, why say you are?” Israel and the Jewish people waited 700 years for this promise to become a reality.

 

Many generations of people came and went waiting to see God make good on his promise. Can you imagine the frustration, the disappointment, the doubts that had set in? Admittedly, when God inspired Isaiah to tell the people these things, he never told them when it would happen, but the people felt they deserved help right then. Why God have you allowed the nations to mock us? It is just not fair!

 

Have you ever felt let down because you felt a promise had been made that was for now only to find out it was never really quite as certain as you thought? If so, did you get angry or frustrated? Disillusioned to the point you had trouble trusting anything anyone said to you again? The Israelites had to have felt that way. The people during Isaiah’s time thought something was going to happen very soon. God was going to restore Israel to the glory days of King David, but they waited and waited and nothing happened, nothing changed. We begin this season of promise with the first predictions that God is going to do something truly amazing. As we read these verses over 2,000 years later, it is hard to imagine what God’s people were thinking about this promise.

 

America in its current form has only existed 250 years. God’s people waited 3 times as long as we have existed to see the promise start to take shape. By the time things start to happen did anyone still even know about the promise made through Isaiah? Did anyone believe it would really happen? Next Sunday we will begin to look at this most wonderful story, the most important prophecy fulfilled there ever was.

 

A closing thought for today—the next time you get impatient about a promise someone made to you that hasn’t happened yet, just think of the Israelites that waited 700 years to see God’s promise he fulfilled. It may not make you feel any better, but it does remind us that things do not always happen in the timing we want. Just stay patient, stay optimistic and believe hopefully what was promised will at least happen in your lifetime.

Pastor Larry

Announcements:

 

Tuesday 9:30 Bible Study

 

November 27 Soup lunch/ then decorate sanctuary

 

November 29 Deadline for December newsletter submissions

 

December 4 4:00 Christmas Vespers HERE—need food donations and help in the kitchen; also need a special

 

December 6 12:00 Women’s Luncheon—will reveal prayer partners; meat & drink provided; please bring a dish: A-H vegetable; K-S salad; T-W dessert

 

Get your candy orders in! See the flyer on the bulletin board and give Chelle Shively or Nancy Born Martin your orders. Pick up is on Dec. 3.

 

Offering plates are in the back of the sanctuary. Thank you for your continued giving!

 

Donation Box: The Lord’s Storehouse

First Sundays: food donations for food banks

 

Pastor Larry Traxler- (217) 454-2362

 

To keep up on Church of the Brethren news:

Denomination: www.brethren.org/news Sign up for Newsline by clicking link on left side of page.

District: iwdcob.org (click on newsletter link) and on facebook

Our pages: cerrogordocob.com (printed sermon, announcements, & calendar) and on facebook

Keep in Your Prayers

Jonah Martina; Jan Bower; Larry Traxler; Jill McBride; Michelle West; Carolyn Hirsch; Eli Brunner; Nancy Fansler; Joe Waltz; Doug Larrick; Anna Rose Larrick; Ron & Kathleen Petersen; Anna Gentry Thompson; Louis & Carol Sulwer; Maralyn Heckman; Debbie Leibrock; Dorthea Wood; Tina Wilhelm; Tate Sawyer; Bryce Ashenfelter; Mindy Sawyer; Marlene Schultz; Sarah Rudelick; Carl and Wilma Cable; Mike and Carol Seidenstricker;  Adiline Young; Kim Lehmann; Doug Fansler; Candy Dobson; Shawn Cain; Robert Cripe; Mayo & Darlene Hanaver; Patty Cripe; Lauren Gross; Stacie Warren; Nancy Gorrell; many unspoken requests; Coronavirus; healthcare workers and first responders; victims of disasters; victims of shootings; shut-ins; the Nigerian church; Haitian Brethren; Ukraine; Hope Welty Library; Florida; Puerto Rico; La Place congregation

Military and Other Services and their families

Brethren Volunteer Service workers; Disaster project workers

District Prayer Calendar: Pray for the West Branch congregation in Ogle County.

 

Church of the Brethren vision statement:

Together, as the Church of the Brethren, we will passionately live and share the radical transformation and holistic peace of Jesus Christ through relationship-based neighborhood engagement. To move us forward, we will develop a culture of calling and equipping disciples who are innovative, adaptable, and fearless.

                        Our Mission Statement:

Love God, grow with others, serve faithfully, reach the lost, find peace.