Mark Burgin spoke this morning on the transforming salvation which God brings through His power. In Isaiah 61:1-4, we see that God can turn situations around, rebuilding ruins and bringing good from evil, beauty from ashes and joy instead of mourning. There can be a restoration of heart and mind. There is provision for grief, but as God restores us, He lifts us up and puts us back together.

These verses are sometimes called the ‘divine exchange’, for God gives us so much more. Instead of sackcloth and ashes, there is celebration; there is the oil of joy for mourning. God transforms and His anointing brings joy. Recent events have ‘sucked’ joy out of many people, but we do not have to stay in this position, for God is able to give us joy in all circumstances.

We are given new garments of praise instead of despair and discouragement; there is hope when God is around!

As we enter the season of Advent, a time when (in the words of the Christmas carol) we are to ‘let every heart prepare Him room’, a time when we prepare for Christmas and the arrival of the baby Jesus at Bethlehem, we are going to be looking at different themes connected with the word ‘Advent’ itself. Each week we’ll look at these themes using the acrostic poem and will see what the Bible has to teach us about this season of preparation.

Anticipation

Devotion

Value

Enjoyment

Nativity

Thankfulness

Advent is very definitely a time of anticipation and preparation, based on the sure knowledge that Christmas is coming. As we allow anticipation to build in us, the hope we have in Jesus Christ can be a fuel to motivate and move us and help us to live for God always.

The Borg, an alien species in the ‘Star Trek’ series, sought to assimilate others into a collective and had the mantra, ‘Resistance is futile.’

Many of us act as though we were living in a Borg collective, preferring a herd mentality to independent thought, secretly believing that resistance is futile and adopting a passive attitude that says one person can’t make a difference. As Christians, we often equate pacifism or a desire for peace with passivity.

The Bible tells us, however, that we are in a spiritual battle (Eph 6:10-20) and that we are to overcome evil by good. (Rom 12:21) It speaks of subversive resistance through love, forgiveness and a willingness to embrace God’s way of doing things (the way of the cross.) The methods of resistance which Christians adopt may well be very different to the world’s methods – which often involve aggression, violence, manipulation and deceit – but resistance to evil is a fundamental part of the Christian faith. We are not called to lie down and let evil go unchallenged. We are called to be salt and light, to dance to a different tune, to live in ways that are distinctive and different.

This is not easy. Loving our enemies, leaving room for God’s wrath, can seem a very wishy-washy response to people steeped in activism and protest. But the way of love and righteousness, of sacrifice and self-denial, will always be God’s way for us to resist evil.

We must not believe the Borg lie that resistance is futile, but our resistance and protest against evil must reflect Christ’s, rather than simply resorting to the world’s tactics.

J-P spoke tonight from Phil 4:10-20, entitling his sermon ‘Return on Investment.’ In the financial world, this refers to the profit made on investment (e.g. if you invest £1000 and your return is £1200, you have a 20% return on your original investment), but of course, investment does not just apply to the financial world. We invest in many things, including our families and the kingdom of God.

For a parent, what investment is made in your children’s lives? This is not just the financial cost (which was estimated to be £71,611 for a couple to raise a child to the age of 18) but those nights without sleep, the provision of transport to and from activities, the prayers and plans which every parent knows well. We invest in our children and grandchildren because of our love for them, and we reap a return through our ongoing relationship with them. In terms of investment in the kingdom of God, Paul had much to thank the Philippian church for. His evangelism (resulting in the conversion of Lydia and her whole household and the Philippian jailer and his household), told in Acts 16, led to the formation of the church there and in this letter, he was extremely grateful for their generosity and financial support. He was not dependent on them, but understood that their service and sacrifice to God would be rewarded (declaring that God would meet all their needs).

We can never outgive God. To the Corinthians, Paul said, ‘you will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.’ (2 Cor 9:11) When we invest in God, He invests in us and blesses us in ways we can’t imagine. All we have is from God, but the question remains, what are we going to give to Him? He’s not just interested in our money, but our whole lives!

Garry spoke this morning from Gen 40:1-23, continuing his series on the life of Joseph. This focuses on the time when Joseph was in prison and interpreted the dreams of the cupbearer and the royal baker. His interpretations proved correct, but the cupbearer, who was restored to his royal position, did not remember Joseph. We can imagine Joseph continuing to linger in prison and wonder how he reacted to this – with disappointment and even discouragement, perhaps, but what is clear is that there was no room for bitterness in his response.

Bitterness is an understandable and often predictable response to hardship (think of the Israelite slaves under the Egyptians in Ex 1:14 or Naomi on the loss of her husband and two sons in Ruth 1:19-21). The steady drip of misfortune often erodes faith and leaves us with bitterness. Joseph had plenty of reasons to be bitter, having been betrayed by his brothers, falsely accused, wrongly imprisoned and now forgotten, but his lack of bitterness is one of the most remarkable things about his life. Bitterness is often likened to a poisonous plant (see Deut 29:18) and seeps through into every area of life, touching, influencing and contaminating everything. Heb 12:15 reminds us not to allow any bitter root to grow up as this will cause trouble and defile many. God’s grace must be allowed to permeate through into every area of our lives.

It is our choice to be bitter; Eph 4:31 urges us to get rid of all bitterness. If we do this, like Joseph, we leave room for God to work in our lives. We can only do this as we live with an eternal perspective. There is much in life we cannot control or influence, but we need to spend time with God so that He can speak into our lives. God was foremost in Joseph’s thoughts; he could leave his everyday situation (even in prison) with Him. He suffered much, but he let go of his pain and focussed on God, the result being God’s blessing on him and the fulfilment of God’s plan for his life. We are to give no room to bitterness but to give room to God.

As part of National Safeguarding Week, we held a fun day entitled ‘Safe As Houses?’, looking at how to build your life on solid foundations. We told the story of The Three Little Pigs and The Wise & Foolish Builders to show us that where we build and what we build with are both important, and reminded ourselves that if we’re wise, we’ll build on the words of Jesus so as to be able to withstand the storms of life.

We had fun building with biscuits and marshmallows and straws:

We painted our own houses:

We had fun building with dominoes, Jenga blocks, Megablox and Duplo and making cardboard houses:

We also used lollipop sticks to make houses and had fun playing in tents!