This exhortation was given at King’s Cross Church (Moscow, ID) on November 27, AD 2022.

Welcome to the first day of Advent in the year of our Lord 2022. 

During this festive season, I’m sure you will be finding yourselves singing many Advent hymns both in church, at various gatherings, and I trust with your families in your homes. 

The word “Advent” means coming, and so in church tradition this is a season of anticipation, as we in a sense look forward to, remember, and mark the coming of our Lord. And so the predominant theme then in our Advent hymns is that of desiring the Lord Jesus to come, such as in the hymn we just sang, the Wesleyan classic ‘Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus,’ and many others. 

This longing for the Lord to come is a desperate desire for His saving presence. It is a cry for the Savior of the nations to enter into our sin-soaked world and to deliver us from our shame and misery. 

And this longing for our Lord’s coming must not be confined to tidy church calendars and liturgical seasons, useful as they are. Rather, it should be one of our foundational prayers throughout the year and in all circumstances. Our most fundamental need is for the Lord Jesus to come.

In every trial, in every temptation, in every moment of suffering – we need to earnestly turn to the Lord desiring for Him to break into our lives again and again. And the good news for you this morning is that this is exactly what He has done, and it is what He promises to do, until He appears again to judge the living and the dead. 

So make this your earnest prayer. Make this the humble posture of your heart in this Advent season and throughout this next year:

Come, thou long expected Jesus,
Born to set thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in thee.