Advent: Rise and Shine

From a sermon delivered on December 5, 2021

 

Isaiah 60:1-5

This second Sunday of Advent we focus on the word of God through the prophet Isaiah. We are to rise and shine. It’s an opportunity for believers to impact lives by seeing the darkness of evil. Shine by reflecting the love of God and where we can swell with joy with all that faith in God brings. 

See the darkness for the blindness it brings to people. Isaiah 60:2 

Darkness figuratively means evil, wickedness, misery, destruction, death, sorrow and ignorance. A very bleak picture of the reality of the world. Isaiah 59:9-10 gives a good description: “So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, we walk in deep shadows. Like the blind we grope along the wall feeling our way like men without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead.” Direct response of God. But the Lord Adonia “the existing one. The Lord’s glory splendor, his abundance and riches.

Shine by reflecting the love of God. Isaiah 60:1

A call to “get up”! Like Israel God’s chosen we as followers of Jesus are established, fulfilled and powerful. A call to “light up” the glory of the Lord rests on us. We are His workmanship. Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”Tell people what they need to hear God’s love Jesus’ forgiveness. A call to share Jesus loudly! The glory of the Lord is in us. 

Swell with joy the has brought to us at Christmas. Isaiah 60:4-5

Look around darkness has taken so many lives. Let others come to you because of the joy that is in you. Let you joy explode in your heart. You are destined to an eternal relationship with God!  

Many are on a quest find light in the darkness of this world. Most are looking in all the wrong places. Self-medicating, self -gratification and religions that offer little. See the reality of the darkness, Shine the light that is in you. Swell with the joy of God in your heart. Christmas is a little town called Bethlehem in a hidden shelter for animals Emanuel came. God with us it’s what people must hear and experience. Darkness is being lighted with the presence of God in each of you. Shine and share loudly God’s love and Jesus’ forgiveness and the peace that only God can give.