Unplanned Journey

December 27, 2020 • Megan Lemmons • All Is Bright?

In celebration of the coming of the one who has the power to bring hope, healing, and joy, Megan Lemmons closes out our advent series "All Is Bright?"
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Sermon Notes - December 27
All is Bright: Unplanned Journey - Megan

Matthew 2:13-20
After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.” Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance. Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: “A cry was heard in Ramah—weeping and great mourning.Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead.” When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. “Get up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”

Hope: The desire and expectation for something to come.

Christian Hope: That God will make all things new and will restore all things.

Hope as Trust: Trust that God is who he says he is, and will do what he said he would do.

Live In obedience.

Matthew 2:14-15a
That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death.

“We wait for the world to be as God intended it, the world as it should be. We wait for a world free of injustice, pain and violence, but it is not enough to simply wait, we must also prepare. Preparation goes beyond dreaming and invites us to participate in building a better world.” - Brandi Miller

Your obedience in an active partnership with God towards goodness and restoration and wholeness.

Be where you are.

Matthew 2:18
“A cry was heard in Ramah—weeping and great mourning.Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead.”

Jeremiah 29:4-7
This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”