Ascension Presbyterian Lord's Day Worship 12/3/2023

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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Good morning, my brothers and sisters in Christ. Grace and peace be unto you from God our

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to the corporate worship of our God. Please stand and hear

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God call you to worship through his word. Nevertheless, the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, as when at first he lightly esteemed the land of Zebulun and the land of Nephthali, and afterward more heavily oppressed her by the way of the sea beyond the

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Jordan and Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

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Those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.

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You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy. They rejoice before you according to the joy of the harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

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For you have broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

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For every warrior's sandal from the noisy battle and garments rolled in blood will be used for burning and fuel of fire.

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For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. And the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called

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Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

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Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever.

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The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Let us worship

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God. Let us pray. Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armor of light.

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Now in the time of this mortal life, in which your son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility, that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to life immortal through him who lives and reigns with you in the

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Holy Spirit now and forever. Amen. Please kneel as you are able for the corporate confession of sin.

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And as you do so, we come to a part of our service that is very familiar to us, that we remember and know that we are commanded in various places of scripture to acknowledge and confess our sins and not to hide them from our heavenly father, but rather humbly confess our sins with a broken and contrite heart.

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And that although we should at all times and in all places confess our sins, and that speedily, we ought chiefly to do so when we are together in corporate worship.

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We gather to render thanks for the benefits we have received for his most gracious hands and set forth our worthy praise to him and hear his holy word and raise up our prayers that are required and necessary for those things which are required and necessary for us.

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Now let us join together with a pure heart and humble voice coming to the throne of grace, confess our sins together.

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Lord Jesus, I have sinned times without number and been guilty of pride and unbelief and neglect to seek you in my daily life.

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My sins and shortcomings present me with a list of accusations but I thank you that they will not stand against me for I have been laid on Christ, delivered me from every evil habit, every interest and form of sins, everything that is the brightness of your grace in me, everything that prevents me from living the life you do.

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Amen. Please stand. As we have noted that we are reminded that if we confess our sin, that we need to confess our sins in God's word.

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But we also know that when we confess our sins, when we say the same thing to our

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Lord, that he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins, receive comfort in this assurance of pardon.

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He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.

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For if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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My brothers and sisters in Christ, rejoice, your sins are forgiven. Amen. Please take up the

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Trinity hymnal and turn to hymn 204, away in a manger, hymn 204.

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Please take up the insert and look for our psalm of the week, psalm 50

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B. My brother, any words of encouragement or instruction?

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♪ Speak and judge difference to now ♪

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Amen. Please remain standing and for the public reading of the word from Revelation chapter two.

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Revelation two. To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

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I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance and how you cannot bear with those who are evil but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false.

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I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake and you have not grown weary, but I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

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Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not,

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I will come to you and remove your landstand from its place unless you repent. Yet this you have, you hate the work of the

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Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

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To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

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And to the angel of the church of Smyrna write, the words of the first and the last who died and came to life.

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I know your tribulation and poverty, but you are rich and the slander of those who say they are

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Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer, behold the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested.

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And for 10 days, you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.

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He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

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And to the angel of the church of Pergamon write, the words of him who has the sharp two edged sword.

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I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, yet you hold fast my name and you did not deny my faith.

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Even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness who was killed among you where Satan dwells.

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But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balam, who taught

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Balak to be a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food, sacrifice to idols and practice sexual immorality.

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So also you have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore, repent.

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If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

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To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.

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And to the angel of the church of Thyatira write, the words of the son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

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I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, that your latter works exceed the first.

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But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and eat food, sacrifice to idols.

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I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed and those who will commit adultery with her,

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I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works. And I will strike her children dead and all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart and I will give to each of you according to your works.

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But to the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you

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I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come.

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The one who conquers and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give the authority over the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

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As when earth and pots are broken in pieces, even I myself have received authority from my father and I will give him the morning star.

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He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

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Let us continue our worship by singing together the Apostles' Creed. I believe in God the

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Father, all Jesus Christ, his only begotten

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Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the

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Pontius Pilate, was crucified, then he ascended into hell.

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The third day he rose again, he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the

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Holy Spirit. We believe the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the...

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Please take the Trinity Hymnal up once more and open up to Hymn 225.

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Once in royal David's city, Hymn 225. ♪ To Rose, turn on sea ♪

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Please turn to Hymn 201. O little town of Bethlehem, Hymn 2.

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♪ We see thee in sight ♪

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Please now make preparations for the prayers of the people. After this manner, therefore pray ye.

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Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

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And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

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Amen. Pray that we may glorify God in all that we do as we live and work in the creation that displays his power.

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And be pleased to dispose all things to his own glory. Pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced.

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Ourselves and others brought into it and kept in it and the kingdom of glory hastened.

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Pray that God, for Christ's sake, would freely pardon all our sins.

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And we are encouraged to ask this because by his grace, we are able from the heart to forgive others.

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Pray that God will either keep us from being tempted to sin or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

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Our Father, taking encouragement and prayer from you alone. In our prayers, we praise you ascribing kingdom, power and glory to you.

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And to testify of our desire and assurance to be heard, we say together, amen.

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Please stand and take up the insert once again. We are now entering into that period in the church calendar, which we refer to as Advent.

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When we look back and look forward. And we remember that when we look backwards, we remember the

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Lord Jesus Christ being born. But that's not all that we should remember as Mary had said when the angel visited her that God has remembered our lowliest state and that he has come to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.

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Our brother, any instruction? Please turn in your

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Bibles to the book of Luke and chapter two. Gonna be reading verses 25 through 40 through a very familiar section.

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No doubt we will be in Luke two a few times in the coming weeks. Luke chapter two, beginning at verse 25.

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This is God's holy and infallible word. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was

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Simeon. And this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.

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And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the

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Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

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So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child

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Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed

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God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.

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And according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the

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Gentiles and the glory of your people, Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him.

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Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel.

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And for a sign which will be spoken against, yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

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Now there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher.

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She was of great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity.

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And this woman was a widow of about 84 years who did not depart from the temple, but serve

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God with fastings and prayers night and day. And coming in that instance, she gave thanks to the

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Lord and spoke of him to all those who look for redemption in Jerusalem.

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So when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own city,

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Nazareth. The child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him.

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May the Lord be pleased with our consideration of his most holy word. Please pray with me.

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Oh Lord, I pray that you would fill our hearts with hope that we would long for your salvation, that we would wait patiently and endure great trial if necessary.

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And we know this will all culminate in our great rejoicing. We give thanks in Jesus name, amen.

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Please be seated. The title of the message today is

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The Hope of Simeon and Anna. The Hope of Simeon and Anna.

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And I have four words which you could use as outline points.

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They're very easy to remember. The first one is longing. The first word for today in outline form is longing.

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The second is waiting. Longing, waiting.

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The third is hoping. And the fourth is rejoicing.

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Longing, waiting, hoping, rejoicing. In the book of Lamentations chapter three, it says this.

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The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

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It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the

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Lord. Simeon and Anna, God's faithful servants, long for his consolation and redemption.

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They wait in hope knowing that he keeps his promises and they rejoice in what he has done and watch expectantly rejoicing in what he will do.

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Well, let's consider our text now. First couple of things

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I'd like to point out to you. I think to properly do an exposition of this, I would probably break it down into the two sections and treat

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Simeon first and then do Anna second. But I have to tell you today, I'm under heavy conviction that I want to reach your heart.

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I want to get deeply into your thinking and your mind because a lot of times in texts like this, they're familiar to us.

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In fact, we sing this every week, don't we now again. It would be natural for us and enjoyable for us and stimulating to us to go through a lot of the details and a lot of the layers of the text and to think about possibly speculate on the identity of who

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Simeon is. And there's a lot of rich tradition and mythology around who

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Simeon is. But today I want to get closer to the heart of the matter for you and for me.

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And that's the matter of our desires and our expectations and our hopes and the way that we view the world and how we see things.

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There's a great lesson for us today in Simeon and in Anna.

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Let's look at beginning at verse 25. There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was

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Simeon. And listen to this description of Simeon. This man was just and devout.

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Incredible superlatives given to a very godly man. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they said of you, oh, they are just and devout.

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But the first thing I want us to consider is look at this description of this great man and his life.

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He's waiting for the consolation of Israel. He is most likely an aged man, probably older even than Anna.

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He has been living his life in faithfulness, but this defining characteristic of Simeon is he is waiting for the salvation of his and our

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God. He was longing for Christ and his salvation.

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Sometimes we forget and make a great Trinitarian error and we act as if the

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Holy Spirit was born on the day of Pentecost. Be a terrible thing to do, wouldn't it, for our own doctrine of the

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Trinity. This man had the Holy Spirit upon him.

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And it had been by some special revelation by that Holy Spirit, the third person of the

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Trinity, that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

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And so Simeon lives with a waiting and expecting hope.

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He's longing for the revelation of God's salvation in the person of Christ.

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And so he labors faithfully and he waits, hoping. And now this dramatic moment,

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Christ appears, being carried in by his parents to the temple.

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One thing that I will offer as a speculation that may be helpful and encouraging to us, as you know, the time of the arrival of Jesus in that era in the life of the

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Jewish nation, their conception of the Messiah was one of a temporal messianic office, like really all the kings that had gone before them.

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And it's argued that Simeon forcefully debated theologically that the arrival of the

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Messiah would be the entering into the perpetual kingdom of Christ.

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So he has a radical view about who the Messiah is going to be.

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The people who know about these things, the theologians of that age say, this is gonna be a great military and political leader.

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He's going to drive out the Romans. But we know, and I believe

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Simeon knew, Joseph and Mary, I don't think understand the full weight and the comprehensiveness of it, but Simeon, like Abraham, his father, sees something of the glory of Christ and that he's not going to die until he sees

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God's salvation. There is in this season, there should be, a lament.

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We start getting excited, Christmas is coming. Children are looking forward to all of the festivities.

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There's a lot of darkness before the dawn. How long had the people waited for the deliverance of Christ and his salvation?

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In Genesis chapter three, let's turn there again. It's probably the most quoted Bible verse in my life and ministry in terms of preaching.

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I seem to come back here. I want to read it one more time. And the reason I want you to see something,

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Adam and Eve are in the garden. They have fallen into sin.

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And I believe that's when the holy longing and waiting and hoping and anticipatory rejoicing starts.

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Can you imagine living in perfect communion with God? And then when sin takes hold, can you imagine the sickness in their stomachs they must have felt how everything changed.

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They ate the fruit and it begins again in verse eight. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.

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And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden.

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The Lord called to Adam and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.

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And he said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree from the tree of which

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I commanded that you should not eat? And the man said, the woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate.

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The Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done? And the woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate.

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Now the curse now comes upon the serpent from the mouth of God.

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But I believe that the interjection of longing and righteous waiting and hoping and future rejoicing starts here.

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I think we have here on display for us quite shockingly really if we consider it.

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The entrance into the world of God's gracious dealings with sinful men.

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Man sins and falls. And God immediately offers a hopeful future.

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It's amazing. Oh, how far man has fallen and God says, salvation is coming.

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And we learn in my son, so the curse goes into the serpent.

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But then in verse 15, it says this, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.

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He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

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And to the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception and pain you shall bring forth children.

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Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you because he says to Adam, because you have heed the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which

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I commanded you saying you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake and toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.

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The thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. You shall eat the herb of the field and the sweat of your face.

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You shall eat your bread until you return to the ground for out of it, you are taken from dust you are and to dust you shall return.

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Now what happens here next, it's a little speculative, but I believe that can you imagine, and I wanna appeal to all the moms in here.

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Can you imagine going through the process of pregnancy without a mom or cousins or friends or other women to talk to?

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Think how much we have relied on the wisdom of the fellow women that we know, people who have gone through these things before.

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We rarely think about this in relation to Eve. And can you imagine the feeling that she had prior to the fall, how blissful her existence was.

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And now her belly has grown and now she is screaming and shrieking in pain to give birth to this child.

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And you have to see that maybe she hopes that this could be the one who would bring salvation.

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This devastating thing has happened to him, it's their own fault. And you can almost imagine that she hopes and longs that this could be the man, could be our salvation, could trample on the head of the serpent.

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So this idea of a future hope is in the beginning. In fact, it shapes the whole history of Israel.

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Think about the Exodus, and we're not gonna talk about all the details of that, but they're down in Egypt for 433 years, longing for deliverance.

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You can turn back to Luke, Simeon's life, again at verse 25,

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Luke chapter two. Simeon, the just and devout man is waiting for the comforting, the consolation of Israel.

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The first thing I'd like us to consider in terms of application, I hope to weave some application throughout today, is a question, we jump right in, we see there is a longing in Simeon and Anna, a longing for the revelation of Jesus Christ.

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Is that longing present in you? Think about how excited and how their lives are governed by their anticipation of the incarnation of Christ.

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How much more so should our zeal and our energy and our passions, our holy affections be geared toward the victorious triumph of Christ and his second advent?

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But we're so tepid. You heard about lukewarm church.

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We're so stoic. We're so unmoved.

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We sing the Apostles' Creed and our hearts don't leap within our chest when we think of the salvation of our

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God. We need to pray today that God would give us an intense longing for himself.

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Nothing really excites us. Our sins don't bring us to tears and the glories of Christ don't elevate us to the heavens.

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We're so numb. These people, these great people, this great man and this great woman were moved and they long to see the salvation of their

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God. Do you long to see the fullest expression of salvation of our

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God? Well, in Advent, we should have a lament, as I mentioned earlier.

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We should go back into time and can you imagine all of the events that take place from Genesis three to the arrival of Christ in Luke chapter two?

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There's a lot of longing. 433 years, there's a lot of waiting.

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The promise to Abraham, he has to wait to be an old man to have his son of promise.

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The people are delivered from Egyptian bondage and they have to wait 40 years again, 433 years, then 40 years before they can enter into the promised land.

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Remember our study in Zechariah, they're taken into captivity for 70 years and then they come out and they get to the place of their home, the promised land and it's all in ruins.

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The people of God are a people who long and wait and hope to lament is to cry out.

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Do you lament that you still sin against your God? You're a good

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Calvinist, you believe in total depravity. It's just an intellectual concept for you.

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Does it grieve your heart that you sin against your redeemer? Do you express sorrow and mourn over your sin?

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A right kind of lamenting enables us to better see the wisdom of God in our finitude, our finiteness, our limitations.

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Adam and Eve and all of the redeemed in Christ's sense learned that they are not able to save themselves.

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So we long for a savior, we long for a redemption, we wait and we hope and we rejoice.

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Simeon and Anna rejoice because Christ has come.

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In our waiting, in our longing, in our hoping, we learn to trust

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God. We learn to trust God in our sadness, in our grief, and that will enable us to trust him and not forget him in our gladness.

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When we lament, we comprehend God's grace more. Imagine if you were, imagine this woman,

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Anna, who let's say she got married when she was 16 years old, which would be pretty common.

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She's married for seven years. Her husband dies when she's 23.

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And from that point for 61 years, she has longed and she's waited and she has foregone the joys of family life and another husband and children and grandchildren possibly.

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And she has devoted her entire existence longing to see the day when she would see the

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Lord's Christ. That was a life well spent. It was not a wasted life.

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How many of us long to see the salvation of our God for our unbelieving family members, for the pagan nations, for the ends of the earth?

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When we lament and we wait and we labor in faithfulness, we comprehend

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God's grace more. And he meets us there in our weakness, in our despair, and we see his grace and we see how free and undeserved it is.

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That dark night dramatically turns into the dawn.

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Can you imagine these righteous ones seeing the corruption of the

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Jewish temple system, which became a den of money changers, political favor and corruption and fraud.

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And yet day after day, they labor in hope, knowing that God would keep his promises, knowing that the

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Christ would come and salvation would enter into the world and the future would be bright.

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We need to lament.

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We need to see our grief rightly. We need to grieve over our sin and our death.

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I tell this to my wife often that I cannot deal with crimes against children.

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Abortion, the first one, the chief one, but then why would someone hurt a child?

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It makes me crazy. I cry out to God. Why would you allow this to happen?

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Why is this in your providence? Why have you ordained these things? It's a cause of grief, but it causes us to hope in Christ.

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We'll become more discerning of the grief and the brokenness of this world. We see what a great reconstruction project

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Christ is doing in the new creation. There will be a day in which righteousness dwells and no little children will be hurt by monsters.

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It's hopeful. It's a cause of rejoicing. We lament biblically and we wait.

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We also walk in the imprints of our master. We follow after his ways.

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He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, but joy was before him.

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He walks in perfect righteousness. He had gladly accepts God's will, which includes the cross.

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And he does it for our redemption. And he emerges from the grave, accomplishing that redemption.

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And we hope and we wait that he will bring all things to its joyful end.

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There's an argument for us to believe in a bright future for the people of God, whatever, and this is not eschatology that I'm arguing about here.

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There's going to be a capital D day when the victory of Christ will be known by everyone who's ever lived.

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Do you believe, do you long for the day when sin will finally be conquered, that you will no longer sin against your

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God? Do you long for the day when death will no longer have its grip over humanity and the creatures, the plants, the animals?

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Do you long for that day because there's going to be a day, a new day of new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells?

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Simeon and Anna in great faith get to be saved. A glimpse of this.

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Well, there's a second part of this that was the biggest. These others will go a little bit quicker. The idea of waiting.

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When I think of waiting, I think of a traffic jam on I -4 or sitting in a doctor's office.

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There's some level of passivity when I think of waiting, but this kind of waiting, an advent waiting is not passive.

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It seems that these examples of Simeon and Anna worked and labored and were grinding and striving to walk in faithfulness, waiting for the promises to be revealed.

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And I think we should too. Christ will reign over all and everyone will know it.

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We know that he reigns, but everyone's going to know it. And there's a sense in which that seems far off from us when this cultural collapse is happening before our eyes.

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But when we look to the future, we know that Jesus Christ wins.

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And so we labor while we wait. This requires a spirit of meekness.

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So I want you to have an intense longing on the one hand, a longing for greater things, a longing for future glory, but I also want you to have a spirit of meekness in waiting.

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Don't be easily provoked or irritated by the circumstances of life because the history of God's people tells us that Jesus is the victor.

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Therefore, my circumstances, my life, the things that I'm facing need to be put in a proper perspective.

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We are submissive to the divine will. Simeon and Anna are not complaining because this hasn't happened sooner.

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They're happy to be aged and old and to wait because they have entirely submitted themselves to the will of God.

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Is that the characteristic of your life? Are you waiting for promises to be filled by him and yet walking every day in your responsibility and faithfulness toward that end?

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Knowing that he's the only one who can do it, do you wait and hope? Do you long and wait and labor, waiting with meekness for God's hand to be shown?

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It's hard for us because we're proud and self -sufficient.

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We want things to happen on our terms. We ought to know better than that because the scripture has shown us it doesn't happen that way.

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Moses and Abraham, Moses definitely 80, Abraham approaching 80 at least before God starts moving really in their lives.

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Strange, isn't it? We always think of God's people are like Spurgeon.

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They get called to be preachers when they're 17 and it happens this way and they have this amazing life of ministry and service just anointed of God from the day they were born.

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Maybe your greatest works will happen like many of the saints of scripture in your old age.

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Are you living in such a way that you'll be faithful at the end?

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Are you doing everything today for that future blessing and use of God as an older man or woman?

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Are you willing to wait for his blessing? There's another element

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I'd like us to consider and that is hoping.

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Simeon hoped for consolation. He waited for it.

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And Anna waited for redemption in Jerusalem.

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Men, we were talking on Thursday evening and it sort of turned to the resurrection as a sub point.

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Because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, I 100 % believe and you 100 % believe defying all natural reason that we will be raised from the dead with bodies incorruptible.

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How is it possible? Because we are united to Christ and his resurrection.

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Our lowly bodies subject to corruption and decay, our bodies will be raised.

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So we live with a different kind of hope than the world's.

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The world hopes they can tack on a few years to their life at the end.

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They hope they have a big bank account and a 401k and a vacation home. The people of God have heavenly hope, eternal hope.

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Eternal inheritance at our disposal, joint airship with Christ, perfect face -to -face communion with God in him.

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Oh, what hope we have in Christ. It seems that Simeon responds with praise.

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The song of Simeon when he's confronted with the promise of the child, the

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Messiah coming, he gives praise and worship it seems. A thanksgiving that God kept his promise.

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I want you to look at verse 38. Anna has a different response. Part of it is different.

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She happens upon the scene. She's been laboring for God with fastings and prayers night and day.

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She's always at the temple offering her life and praying for God to move and to work.

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And she sees Jesus. She gives thanks to the

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Lord. And this seems to be a very abbreviated period of time. And then she goes out and starts doing evangelism.

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She's so taken with the prospect of redemption in Israel that she goes out and speaks to all of those who looked and longed for that redemption.

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Is your life characterized by praise and worship and thanksgiving? Is it characterized by the bold proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

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We have to confess in some measure to tepid lukewarmness.

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We're not moved because we haven't longed. We haven't seen the value in the waiting.

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We've seen holy things and when we talk of them, they're ordinary and common to us.

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Simeon and Anna were gripped by the prospect of Christ. How much more so should we be gripped by the reality of Christ in us, the hope of glory?

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If they were just and devout, if they labored with prayers and fastings night and day, how much more so should we?

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How much more so are we qualified to share the good news of Christ?

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I don't know that Simeon and Anna saw the whole of Jesus' life, his death, his burial, his resurrection and his ascension, but we have.

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It seems that we should have lives that are filled with hope, filled with faith, believing

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God, knowing he's going to act, knowing that the

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Lord is going to bring all of his purposes to pass. A great encouragement for us.

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You're feeling a bit discouraged today, some anxiety, depression, whatever it could be called, that dark cloud over you.

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If you be in Christ, oh, what hope you have. How rich are we to have the risen and reigning

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Lord Jesus Christ? Well, finally, let's consider rejoicing.

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You and I need to exalt. There's a little bit of it today in the singing, you can hear it, we need to exalt in the salvation of Christ, consolation has come, comfort has come to the people of God.

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The gift of Jesus Christ in the incarnation is infinitely better than all of the riches and wealth and all the gifts that will be given or have been given to our families and to our loved ones.

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Christ is better. Are you rejoicing?

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Are you longing? Are you waiting and laboring and working while you wait?

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Is your life characterized and filled with hope? Are you rejoicing?

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Salvation has come in Christ. Can you imagine if we told

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Abraham and he saw all of it, he would have dropped to his knees and worship and adoration.

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And there's some textual evidence that he saw something of that glory. If we stopped

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David after he'd been restored in his situation with Bathsheba and his tremendous failure, and we said to David, oh,

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David, your son has taken away your guilt and your shame and you have salvation and he's blotted out all of your transgressions.

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Can you imagine the worship that David would offer? You have to ask, why are we so stoic and lukewarm and unmoved?

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May the Lord ignite in us holy affections that we would long for the salvation of our

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God, that we would in faith know. Can you imagine you and I will be seated at the wedding supper of the

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Lamb, we'll be there. It's not hyperbole, it's not hypothesis, it's not a theory.

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We will be at the table of our God, feasting with him in his presence.

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What hope we have, what cause for rejoicing we have because Christ has come.

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Well, I'm gonna give you a few words of application and we'll conclude here. First, I think we really need to long for the advance of Christ's kingdom.

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I think we need to wait and hope. We need to rejoice that he is bringing it to pass.

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The testimony of scripture is that he will return in victory.

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Meditate on these things, and I have a question for you to consider. It's very exciting, this question, to answer in your heart.

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Which of his promises has he failed to keep? That should be the backbone of my longing and my waiting and my hoping and my rejoicing.

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Second, meekness should be a characteristic of our

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Christian lives. There should be holy boldness in some areas in our lives, but also a quiet resignation and submission to the difficulties of this life, knowing that God works in these things for future glory.

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We need to accept God's providences joyfully in submission to his divine will for he is trustworthy.

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I'm under heavy conviction about this one. For all the optimism of eschatology we have in this room, do you actually desire to see the fulfillment of the great commission, the making of disciples, the teaching them to obey all of his commands?

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Do you long for that? It's cool to talk about, but are you laboring to that end?

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Are you undertaking the responsibility as a child of the king, one of his ambassadors to make disciples, to teach all that he has commanded?

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Fourth, do you have hope for the future? Think about the hopeful future of every sinner converted.

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The possibilities seem limitless when the burden of sin and death has been lifted.

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Why do we have this burning desire within us to procreate?

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Because of the future, every child born, particularly among the family of God, is a cause of rejoicing and for hope.

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We're stretching your children that you're having are going to be into the 22nd century.

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Have you considered that? Your children are going to be living in the 22nd century.

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How much hope arrived in the world at the incarnation of Christ?

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Oh, the laments and the longing and the waiting for salvation from God, and then

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Jesus comes in the flesh. Look at all that he has accomplished.

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Rejoice in these things. Our salvation has been accomplished by Christ. And with great expectancy, let us wait and hope for future fulfillment.

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Someday you and I will walk around the streets of gold in the new heaven and the new earth.

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You think this Lord's supper table is a blessing. Oh, to sit and feast at the marriage supper of the lamb.

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And finally, I'm gonna ask you to pray that the

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Lord will stir up holy affections in you, that your desires will accord with his will, that you will labor for his kingdom and hope, and that you will today rejoice in all the ways his salvation has been made known and is being made known.

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The future glory that awaits, and we have cause for rejoicing from the cosmic realm to the created order down to the most common of things, because promises were made that a savior who is

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Christ the Lord would come. And brethren, my friends, he's come. Salvation has come from our

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God. Let us rejoice and be glad and hope for all these great things he has done.

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Please pray with me. Oh Lord, I pray that you allow us to use this season to try to remember what life must have been like before the incarnation, and how sin hung over the heads of our forefathers.

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Oh Lord, there was in your faithful people an intensity in their longing, and I pray that you would give us a hunger and a longing for you to have communion with you, to worship you, to praise you, to adore you, to serve you.

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And oh Lord, I pray that our lives would be characterized by this worship and praise, but also like Anna, oh

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Lord, I pray that it would be characterized by the bold proclamation of your victory in your kingship, oh

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Christ, that we would tell the world that our

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King has come and he has come saving us. He's brought salvation with him, and he sweeps up the nations under his arms and draws them to himself.

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Oh Lord, let us go out with confidence and boldness and make the glories of Christ known.

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Oh Lord, I pray that we would not grow dull in these things, that these would be exciting things for us, that they would be the defining characteristics of our lives, these holy affections and holy service to you.

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And we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. And let's continue our worship with the presentation of tithes and offerings.

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Please stand, let's pray together. Oh Lord, we give thanks to you for the life you have given us.

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We thank you, Lord, for your hard providences and the sweat of our brow and labor.

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We thank you that you've given us stewardship over this little part of your creation.

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I pray that you would make us faithful as stewards in all of our responsibilities, and that all of our time, talent, and treasure would be consecrated to you and your service.

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Oh Lord, take us and use us and lead us in the way we ought to go for your glory.

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We pray that these tithes and offerings would be used for the advance of your kingdom and for the making of disciples.

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Oh Lord, this area is desperate for your gospel. It needs your light.

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Make us the ones who bear your light to this world around us. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

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We've had the privilege of singing great hymns and psalms, considered great things from the word of God.

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Let's reflexively, with great joy, give glory to God in the singing of the

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Gloria Patri. Let's begin. ♪ Glory to God be with you and also with you ♪

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Lift up your hearts. Let us give thanks to the

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Lord. It is good and right so to do. It is right and a good and joyful thing that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you, oh

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Holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God. Because you sent your beloved son to redeem us from sin and death and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life, that when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.

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Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and singing.

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♪ Holy Lord ♪

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Be seated. Let's pray together.

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Oh Lord Jesus, you have come in the flesh.

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You have fulfilled all righteousness. You have borne our grief and our shame on the cross.

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You have conferred upon us your righteousness and you have risen from the grave and ascended on high and guaranteed our citizenship in your kingdom.

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Oh Lord, I pray for your people today that the ministry of the word and sacrament, the singing, the prayers, all of this would cause your people to long for communion with you.

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And we thank you for this bread and this wine, which convey to us the body and blood of Christ crucified for us.

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The basis of our union with him and with one another and the assurance and security of our standing because of his great atoning work.

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Oh Lord, fill our hearts with thanksgiving, we pray. Cause us to rejoice in the salvation of our

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God. We ask all of these things in Jesus name, amen. Our Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, my body.

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Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying this covenant, this blood is a new covenant. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the

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Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, we proclaim the faith.

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Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Let's approach the table now by praying together in unison.

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We do not presume to come to this your table, oh merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great mercies.

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We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table, but you are the same

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Lord who always shows mercy. Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear son,

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Jesus Christ, and to drink of his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us, amen.

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Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the peace.

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The gifts of God for the people of God. Thanks be to the Lord. And with fear and trembling, standing meekly, my blessing in his hand, he thus did set me at his hand,

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Jesus Christ. Let's make this commitment together by praying in unison.

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Almighty and ever -living God, we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of your son, our savior,

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Jesus Christ, and for assuring us in these holy mysteries that we are living members of the body of your son, and heirs of your eternal kingdom.

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O Lord, grant us this other benefit, that you will never allow us to forget these things, but having them imprinted on our hearts, may we grow and increase daily in the faith which is at work in every good deed.

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Now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our

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Lord. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, the honor and glory now and forever, amen.

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Please stand. Praise God, praise him.

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Receive now the blessing, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the