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 9th chapter, 6th and 7th 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.