By this point in Advent, many of us are flagging. We have been involved in school concerts, choir concerts, Christmas fairs and special activities. We have bought and wrapped countless presents and arranged deliveries of these to those we will not see over Christmas. We have written endless cards and posted them off. The three weeks of Advent have probably been busier than the rest of the year put together, and still we have carol services and special meals to prepare in the week to come. I’m hugely glad my granddaughter shares her birthday with my Dad’s (Christmas Eve), but it does mean we have birthday activities to add into the hectic mix as we try to make that special for her as well! Joy can seem in short supply at this precise moment in December, or at least it feels stretched thin.

I follow the Bible In One Year reading plan to ensure I read through the whole Bible every year, and I’m always struck by the reading in December which looks at Proverbs 30. That chapter starts, ‘I am weary, God, but I can prevail.’ (Prov 30:1) It always raises a smile in me, as it encapsulates exactly how I feel at this time of the year!

Joy giving us strength (Neh 8:10) is God’s promise to us as we approach the last week in Advent. Christmas Day is less than a week away. We may feel weary, but we can prevail – we can thrive and not just survive! Keep focussing on Jesus; keep lifting your head to gaze on Him. Study how He did it and keep going. (Heb 12:1-3) For the joy that was before Him, Jesus endured the shame of the cross. We have joy ahead; don’t give up.

To end our 2024 Bible studies on the life of David in 2 Samuel 11 is a sobering experience. Here, the king who has made it through the wilderness experience of unjustly being hunted by Saul, who has withstood feigning insanity before foreign leaders and who has shown mercy, grace and forgiveness to many is seen to be an ordinary mortal like the rest of us. The depths of sin to which David falls in this chapter – self-indulgence and complacency leading to lies, deceit, lust, coveting, adultery and murder – remind us that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer 17:9) and that if we think we are standing firm, we must be careful not to fall. (1 Cor 10:12).

David remained in Jerusalem while sending his army out to fight. He opted to stay in bed until evening and ended up lusting after Bathsheba, being prepared to accept the culture’s views on sexual morality instead of following God’s specific commands to kings (see Deut 17:17-20). So often we accept our culture’s ways instead of being led by God’s word; we live in a culture where sexual sin still abounds, where abortion and euthanasia are widely accepted, where God’s laws are being forgotten. Such cultural conformity will inevitably lead to sin.

David shows us that sin mushrooms; there is an insidious, incremental element to sin. We can cover it up and hide our sin from many; we can rationalise what we do so easily, even when it involves deception and murder. The only way we can overcome temptation is to defeat it with the word of God as Jesus did. (Matt 4:1-11)

James reminds us that temptation is not the same as sin (see James 1:13-15). Paul reminds us that God is faithful and will not give us more than we can bear, that He will provide a way out from temptation. (1 Cor 10:11-13) But David reminds us that no one is immune and that the only way back is through confession and repentance.

We will find out ultimately that God is a forgiving and compassionate God (see Ps 145:8-9, 2 Samuel 12) But we end the year with a sobering reminder that sin is always crouching at our door, that the devil is a roaring lion seeking to accuse, deceive and trip us up (see Gen 4:7, 1 Pet 5:8). We must remember that it’s only in Christ that we can overcome the enemy and that we are called to take up our cross daily, deny ourselves and die to sin. (Mark 8:34-35, Rom 6:1-11)

In the Advent wreath, the pink candle, also known as the Shepherds’ Candle, represents joy and is lit on the third Sunday of Advent. This candle marks a shift in the tone of Advent from reflection to anticipation. Joy is often linked to anticipation. We ‘look forward’ to Christmas, anticipating the activities we will do, the traditions we will participate in and the celebrations we will enjoy.

Advent joy is a feeling of happiness that comes from being in the presence of God. It is a joy that is grounded in thankfulness for the first coming of Jesus Christ, and anticipation of his second coming. The first informs the second: because we can look back on that first Christmas, we can look ahead to the second coming of Christ which will see His final judgment and rewards and the end of all sin, death, sorrow and suffering.

Be thankful; look ahead with joyful anticipation. Christmas is not the end of the story. We are still waiting for the return of our King.

This evening, we looked at John 15:1-17 and our identity as friends of God. Last time, we looked at the idea that we are God’s servants, but in this passage, Jesus reminds us that if we remain in His love, we are more than servants; we can be called friends of God, as Abraham and Moses were (see 2 Chron 20:7, James 2:23, Ex 33:11). To be a confidant of God is an amazing thing!

Friendship is a precious gift; we often say that friends are the family we choose for ourselves. We looked at the qualities we value in a friend (such as good communication, being trustworthy, reliable and honest, loyalty, understanding and acceptance) and saw that all these characteristics are found in Jesus. (Ps 145:13, 2 Timothy 2:13, Hebrews 4:15, 1 Cor 10:13, Romans 15:7) Friendships in the Bible such as that between David and Jonathan reminds us of the strength and help we find in good friends, but we are blessed even more to have Jesus as our friend, the friend who loves at all times. (Prov 17:17) All our human needs can be satisfied in God, and so we are then set free to be a friend to others.

John 15 goes on to connect love and friendship very strongly, but the most obvious conclusion we can then draw is that to be a friend of God must result in concrete action, that we live a life of obedience to the commands of Christ. (John 15:9-14) We are never an equal with God in this relationship, but we are offered the opportunity to go beyond a distant relationship with a heavenly teacher and instead come into intimate fellowship with Him. Ps 25:14 says, ‘The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.’ Just as God made known His ways to Moses (Ps 103:7) and confided His plans about Sodom and Gomorrah to Abraham (Gen 18:17-19), so we can know God’s heart and whispers and can be led into a deeper, intimate relationship with Him as we learn to abide in Him and live the way He commands us to.