FULL MEASURE 2021 ADVENT CELEBRATION DAY 18

©© by Pastor Jennifer Rousseau Cumberbatch (proprietary)

MODERATOR: Pastor jen Cumberbatch  

Welcome Friends to The Full Measure’s Celebration of Advent 2021

ADVENT CELEBRATION DAY 18, Wednesday 15,  2021

SCRIPTURE: Philippians 4: 4-7

THEME: Joy 

CANDLES: Light 2 purple and one pink candles for each reading this Week 3 of Advent. The HOPE Candle from  Week 1 and The PEACE candle for Week 2 and now the JOY Candle for Week 3

Philippians 4: 4-7 NIV

Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.

Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Reading

Language is dynamic. Language is not a stagnant phenomenon.  It is fascinating how words, and expressions come into being. What was slang in one era, can become elevated to proper speech in another. Funny story:

A devout parishioner upon hearing her pastor read from the New International Version of the Bible, pulled the pastor aside and quietly expressed her displeasure.  She said, “Pastor I highly disapprove of you using any other version of the Bible except the King James Version. If the King James Version was good enough for the apostles, It is good enough for me.”

Language is dynamic.

One of the most salient  human characteristics that reflects the image of God in humanity is the ability of humans to reason.  Like our Creator,  we humans have thoughts, ideas, and ideals.  Take for instance some of the first words in the Bible “And God said, let there be light and there was light.”  Wow! Word up!

Talk about power in one’s words. 

Human thought is represented and expressed by language.  

Ancient Hebrew, like many ancient expressions of thought, was first pictorial. The ancient Hebrew alphabet has very little resemblance to the modern Hebrew alphabet, though the modern did evolve out of the ancient. The ancient twenty-two Hebrew letters were originally pictures of animals, tools or parts of the body.   So, then, language expresses thought and communicates what is  perceived as tangible reality. 

The scriptures declare that God’s thoughts toward humanity are good, not evil. God’s thoughts are to prosper humanity, not harm it.  God’s thoughts, spoken are then animated by the Holy SpirIt and manifested in the earth. 

The Book of Proverbs indicates that one’s prosperity is gained or lost by what one speaks, and that the spoken word is indicative of the disposition of the heart. 

According to the Apostle John In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word  was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all humanity.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 

And the writer of the Book of Hebrews says that in time past God has spoken to us by the prophets, but in these last days, God has spoken to us by God’s Son, who is the expressed image of God’s likeness and the Zenith of God’s excellence.

Throughout our Advent celebration we have talked about the Prophets of old, Malachi, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Isaiah and John the Baptist.  The role of the prophet was to declare  publicly to the people  Thus, sayeth the Lord. They were to use language to express the thoughts of God toward God’s people.  

Now, Jesus represents God’s thoughts, Jesus is the Incarnate one---God and the thoughts of God in the earth. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. If one desires to know what God thinks one needs only to look to Jesus.  And, Jesus ascended and sits at the right hand of God making intercession for us. God speaks our thoughts, our petitions, or requests unto God on our behalf.  

Upon his ascension to heaven, after his resurrection,  Jesus left us the Holy Spirit---the animating force that hovers over God’s word to perform it. And, sometimes words fail humans. We don’t know exactly what to say to God, how to articulate the deepest yearnings of our heart. 

So, the Holy Spirit searches our hearts and sends our petitions to God. The Spirit prays in and through us, sometimes in wordless moaning and groaning. The Holy Spirit knows us far better than we know ourselves, and what we really need and what God’s will is for us in our need.  

The Spirit knows the heart of God toward God’s people and downloads God’s will to our heart and we express that back to God in prayer.  This prayer is according to God’s written and revealed Word, most powerfully and intentionally expressed in Jesus. Hallelujah!

So, prayer is the language of human hearts to the heart of God and the language of God’s heat to humanity.  Prayer is the dynamic language of intimacy with God.  God speaking God’s word to us and us repeating God’s word to God.  Prayer is our amen to the word and will of God, translated by the Holy Spirit. Oh, Beloved,  this is reason to rejoice in the Lord, always. Let me repeat.

Rejoice!

Be full of JOY!

When you pray. When you make your requests known to God. God is at hand,  God is present and the Holy Spirit is downloading God’s thoughts to you, and God’s will to you. And, Jesus intercedes for you. Jesus petitions God on your behalf.  Beloved, when you pray God is using you as a conduit to bring the will of God into fruition.

Don’t be anxious;  Rejoice!

God is agreeing with your prayer and the Holy Spirit is hovering over God’s word to perform it.  

Wow, Man. Word up, Word up!

Prayer

Dear God thank you for the language of Prayer

We rejoice that we can express our thoughts to you and you to us and through this exchange, we find peace, instead of anxiety and  we see your will be done in the earth as it is in heaven. 

Thank you,  for Jesus, the ultimate expression of your thought toward the world.

Thank you that you so loved the world, that you gave to the world, the almost inexpressibly good gift of Jesus your Christ. 

We rejoice, tonight. We are strengthened, we thrive in Christ our Savior.  Your Word to us then, now and for eternity.  With Peace and great joy, in Christ name,  Amen.