Good morning! Last Sunday, I was duly chastised for not including a picture of my 3 year old granddaughter Mackenzi dancing so here she is! Isn’t she sweet!

 

Wow, what a wild week of weather! Tuesday morning, when we woke up to 10” of slushy snow I was seriously tempted to invest in a snow blower. But with the weight of the snow and it all turning to ice the next day, I just wasn’t sure if the off the shelf snow blowers I’ve seen around the valley could handle the job. Maybe it’s the farm boy in me. 

 

I did however remember a machine shop in North Dakota who builds my kind of snow blower. This one has a 435 hp Chevy 454 driving it. You can also get it with a turbo charged Cummins diesel if you want. It’s guaranteed to shred ice, rocks, Christmas trees and anything else it happens to grab hold of. Ear protection is advised. Isn’t she sweet!

 

Let’s open our Bibles to Luke 2:21ff. Here’s the sequence of events. The shepherds arrived within hours of his birth while Jesus is still in the stable in the manger. It’s safe to assume that the next day Joseph found a way to move the family into better housing in Bethlehem.

 

 

40 days after his birth, Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem, 7 miles away, where two ceremonies took place. According to Jewish Law, every first born male belonged to the Lord and was to be set apart or consecrated to serve the Lord. This is a reminder that our children do not belong to us, they belong to the Lord. Our job is to love, train, and raise them to know and serve the Lord.

 

The second ceremony was called the rite of purification for the mother. She could not enter the temple courts until this was taken care of. It involved the sacrifice of a burnt offering, normally, a lamb and a dove. A poor family could substitute 2 doves. Once again we see how Jesus was born into a very ordinary and humble family. A month or so later, the Magi arrived and shortly after that the family fled for Egypt. Two few years later, they return to Nazareth.

 

This morning I want to focus on the family’s visit to Jerusalem 40 days after his birth.

 

The word “consolation” means comfort, relief, to wrap your arms around and heal and protect. The picture is God coming to the rescue of his people who are suffering from spiritual battle fatigue. Our battle against the world, the devil, and our own sinful nature is overwhelming. But God hasn’t abandoned us. 700 years earlier, he gave Israel a promise of a comforter to come.

 

Simeon was old enough to recognize the consolation, the comfort, the assurance we need can’t be found in anything human beings generate. Human wealth, beauty, wisdom, power, even human love and kindness will all fail no matter how sincere we may be. We not only need to be saved from the evil around us; we need to be saved from the evil within us.

 

Old Simeon had given up on human solutions. He was focused on God’s promise to send a deliverer and the Holy Spirit had whispered into his heart, “Simeon, you will see the Messiah, the Christ, the promised Comforter of Israel before you die!”

So one day the Holy Spirit moved him to go to the temple. Moving with God’s Spirit begins with an honest look at the desires of our heart. What is it we are longing for? Are we playing footsie with the idea that the stuff of this world will bring us the fulfillment we seek? If so, then we aren’t going to be able to move with the Spirit because of the noise of the other stuff!

 

Somehow, Simeon, by the grace of God was outgrowing the lure of these other voices. His youth was gone, health was fading, maybe the praise of men was no longer a temptation. In any case, he had been set free from that noise around us to listen to the Holy Spirit. And when the Spirit spoke – his ears and heart were open. He was listening, he moved with the Spirit.

 

He walked up to Mary and Joseph and asked if he could hold the baby. Holding him in his arms, he began to pray… “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” Lk 2:29-32

 

Notice that word “sovereign”. It means supreme ruler, Lord, not only of heaven and earth, but of me, my heart, my mind, my life. What are you looking for? Depends on who is Lord of your life. If you are looking for your own will to be done, your own kingdom to come then you are attempting to be sovereign – but you aren’t. No matter how hard you try, you will never be sovereign. The very things you try to control will end up controlling you. You will end up frustrated, disillusioned.

 

There is only one who is truly sovereign, and he cares for you. His purpose is to love you, deliver you, comfort you. Simeon was at peace with turning it over to him. John Piper says “God prepares a person to receive Christ by stirring up a longing for consolation and redemption that can come only from Christ.” In other words, bringing us to the end of ourselves.

 

What are you longing for this morning? And where are you looking to find it? That longing in your heart, that searching spirit within you comes from God. The problem is that our sinful nature is determined to reject God as the source of what we looking for. But God loves us enough to allow us to stuff our selves so full of junk that we get sick so we will learn he alone can satisfy our deepest longing. He frustrates our attempts to fill ourselves with the wrong stuff so that our hearts might be turned back to him. Maybe you’ve experienced that!

 

There was a second person in the temple courts that day. Her name was Anna. She, too, was old. She had lived through the death of her husband and spent her life listening to the Lord. She and Simeon may have had many conversations and prayers together. When she saw what was taking place with Simeon, she joined the celebration and began to tell everyone who would listen what she had seen. You don’t have to listen to someone very long before you know what’s important to them. What do your words reveal about what’s important to you?

 

Imagine what that day must have been meant to Mary and Joseph as they nursed and rocked the baby Jesus, changed his diapers and gave him his bath.  What did Simeon say? “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” Lk 2:34-35

Those words must have haunted Mary as she watched and prayed for her growing son - as she watched him suffer and die on the cross for the redemption of the world.

 

Let me go back to the question. What are you looking for? What drives your restlessness? Is it significance, security, love, meaning, purpose? Yes, but our real need goes even deeper.

Nothing in this world offers can satisfy these deepest needs. But Jesus can. So how does this happen? This is the key! It’s something only God can do. Here’s how it works…

 

First, God must act in our lives to bring us to the end of ourselves. We must come to the place where in John Piper’s words, we are “thoroughly disenchanted” with the things of this world and their sufficiency to meet our deepest need. Human beauty, wealth, power are incapable of meeting these needs or fulfilling these longings.

 

Second, God must act in our lives so that we are willing to seek him, look for him, long for him, wait for him, as the only true source of consolation and redemption.

 

Third, God must act in our lives so that our eyes are opened and we see Jesus as we have never seen him before. So that we can say we old Simeon and Anna, Peter, and Thomas, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the consolation of my brokenness, the forgiver of my sin, my strength for today, my hope for tomorrow, the promise of my future.”

On Jan 31 we begin a new sermon and small group series called “Life’s Healing Choices”. We will see clearly that Jesus truly is the power of God to console and deliver us from hurts, hang-ups, and habits that have controlled our lives. Let me close with his words to us from Isaiah 45.