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[ Music ] [MUSIC] ♪ Lord of love, Lord of love, Lord of love of Jesus ♪ ♪ Lord of love, Lord of love, Lord of love of Jesus ♪

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♪ If we'll ever lose ♪ ♪ Ah ♪ ♪ Oh, the blood ♪ ♪ Oh, the blood ♪

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♪ Of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, the blood ♪ ♪ Of Jesus ♪

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♪ Oh, the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ It will never lose its power ♪ ♪ He was despised and rejected ♪ ♪ Man of sorrow, acquainted with grief ♪

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♪ He was wounded, wounded for our transgression ♪ ♪ He was bruised, he was bruised for our iniquity ♪ ♪ But early one Sunday morning ♪ ♪ He said I've got all power in my hand ♪

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♪ Calling back to his father in glory ♪ ♪ But it's soon, but it's soon to come again ♪ ♪ Oh, the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, the blood of Jesus ♪

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♪ Oh, the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ For the blood of Jesus ♪ ♪ It will never lose its power ♪

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♪ He was despised and rejected ♪ ♪ Man of sorrow acquainted with ♪ ♪ He was wounded, wounded for our transgression ♪ ♪ He was bruised for our iniquity ♪

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♪ But I tell you that early one Sunday morning ♪ ♪ He said I've got all power in my hand ♪ ♪ And going back to my father in glory ♪ But it's soon to come again.

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Oh, the blood of Jesus. Oh, the blood of Jesus. Oh, the blood of Jesus. Oh, the blood of Jesus.

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The blood of Jesus. Oh, the blood. ♪ For the cross ♪ ♪ Of Jesus ♪

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♪ It will never lose ♪ ♪ Its power ♪ ♪ It will never, never, never, never, never ♪ ♪ It will never lose ♪

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♪ Its power ♪ ♪ Oh no, oh no, oh no, it will never ♪ ♪ He'll never lose his power ♪ - Amen.

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- Amen. Hear this word. Waiting and watching for the coming of the Lord. This is the first Sunday in the Advent season.

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And this season is a season of waiting and watching. Many of us find ourselves growing impatient when we have to wait. When we have to wait for some event or some person,

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and we don't know exactly when they are coming in some instances. In other instances we know when they said they would come, and they do not arrive according to plan. Some time ago I had an engagement in an area near the city of Philadelphia,

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in the suburbs, and I called several times before leaving leaving and I could not get the person that had invited me and I had to transfer. I called again I still couldn't get him and I finally arrived in Philadelphia and I called the church and could not get him and I took a cab out there and I found the church was locked

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and I had to wait some more and I finally after some investigation discovered that the janitor lived across the street and he got in touch with the pastor and I waited and waited until he arrived. When you have to wait it is a good lesson in patience. patience. The psalmist says, "I waited patiently on the Lord,

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and He inclined unto me." So, this Advent season is a time when we will do well to cultivate patience. While we wait for the bus, we wait for the airplane, we wait for the train, and we even

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have facilities known as waiting rooms just to wait. So a great deal of our time is spent waiting, waiting to be born, waiting to grow up, waiting to go to school, waiting to get a job,

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waiting to get married, waiting to graduate, graduate, and then at the end, waiting to die. So life is learning to labor and to wait. So we approach this season with an atmosphere or an attitude of watching and waiting, waiting

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for the end. That's what Advent is all about, waiting for the end. And the end is Jesus Christ. He is the sum total of for which we wait, waiting for the end. We hear a great deal about when the end is going to come. Numerous groups arise from

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various places and they predict when God's going to bring all of this to an end. And so from time to time we read of a group gathering at a particular point at a particular time and they said the world is going to come to an end. This has been a question that was faced by every generation. So even in the first century, soon after Jesus

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had ascended to heaven, this questioning was a question that was on the minds and in the hearts of his disciples. And Matthew tells us what Jesus has to say about when the end is going to come. In other words, we don't know. No one knows. Even angels in heaven know when the end will come. So this exact time is not known. It

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is ours to watch and wait. We had a movement on in our convention, in the Southern Baptist Convention, on true love True love waits. True love waits.

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And a number of our young people were involved in this. They took a pledge to wait. To save themselves for sexual purity. And the theme was true love waits.

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Those who were going about said, "If you love me, you will let me." And this group was saying, "True love waits." True love waits. To have the authentic identification with God is to be

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willing to wait on God. So Matthew tells us that Jesus Christ is coming again. We don't know when. He's been here once and tabernacled on this earth 33 years and ascended to heaven and he's coming back to claim his church. One thing is

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certain he's coming back. We cannot set our clocks by the time that he is to come because we do not know. We cannot mark our calendars and we need not wait for a wake up call from the hotel clerk. We're just a wait and wait until the Lord comes. So the time of his coming is clouded by uncertainty. We can see the time, it is covered, we

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We can't see the time because it's covered by dark clouds. His coming is identified, as I said earlier, with the end of time. When will the end come? Nobody knows.

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Prophets may guess, but they don't know. Only God knows. He alone knows when the last will come. He is the infinite one.

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In the movie Green Pastures, Gabriel was to blow his horn. And from time to time, Gabriel would be shown in this movie. And Gabriel would be polishing his trumpet. so he would be ready to blow it.

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As the saying goes, to put one foot on land and the other on sea and declare time no longer to be. In one particular scene, Gabriel has his trumpet to his mouth

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and is almost ready to blow. And the Lord says to him, "Not yet, Gabriel, I'll tell you when." So God has arranged for the end,

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for the goal toward which we strive, that for which we wait. And he says here through Matthew that it is like the time of Noah.

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Noah built his ark to prepare for the flood. of the flood. God did not tell Noah the exact time the flood would come. People walked around, looked at this man building his ark, and they said, "What's wrong with this fellow?" They laughed at him. They ridiculed him. But the flood

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came. The truth of the matter is that Noah was ready for the coming of the end of the world as he knew it. Noah obeyed God. He prepared for the coming of the flood by building the ark and entering into it with his family. So the end is sure. It's sure to come. As our ancestors said, just as sure to come as you're born

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born to die. The end is sudden, just as the rain descended and the flood came to Noah's generation. Since the flood is sure to come, we are warned to be ready to prepare. Be like Noah, build an ark so when the end comes, when the storms of

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are raging. The zigzag lightning is playing its nimble game and the thunders roll like a million chariot wheels on distant battlefield. Be ready. Be ready. Be prepared to float on the waters. As the poet says, other ships may be born and battered, other ships may be so distressed, but the wind that seemed

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to drive them brought to us a peace and rest. Be ready, be ready to wait. So I say hurry up and wait. Find a place in the waiting room, join Captain Noah and wait for the end. Jesus Christ is the end. Jesus Christ is the goal of our striving. Wait and watch, for we do not know what hour the

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Lord comes. His coming is like a thief in the night. There's a of a woman who was always expecting some thief to come to their house. And finally after many years, a thief came. And the husband went in and met the thief and said, "Come in here, I want you to meet my wife because she has been She had been expecting you for 30 years.

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(audience laughing) We don't know. But we must be ready. We must be ready.

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Wait and watch for you know not what hour the Lord comes. His coming is like a thief in the night. Now the thief doesn't notify us. He doesn't send us a letter,

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say I plan to come to your house at such and such a time. He comes when you expect not. The thief comes. And we are expected to be on guard.

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Do not forget to lock the door, turn on the alarm, be alert. Jesus is coming. Be prepared. Be ready.

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Jesus is coming. His Boy Scouts have a motto, "Semper Paratus," always prepared. No matter what may occur, be ready for that,

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whether they're there in the city or whether in the forest, be ready. Be ready. For we cannot predict the exact time of the Lord's coming.

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So since we cannot pinpoint the moment of his arrival, We need to be ready at all times. A good watchman must be on the job at all hours. So we are to watch and wait.

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But while we wait, we're not just to be idle. That was a mistake that many of the early Christians made. They said, well, Jesus is coming back again He's going to come back during our lifetime.

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So we'll just wait. Fold our arms and wait. Some of them quit their jobs to wait. And it was necessary for Paul to say to them,

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if you don't work, you don't eat. While this waiting period is in existence, while we wait, we must also work. So it behooves us as we are alert,

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as we are mindful of the coming of Jesus Christ again, to be working, working, doing his work, preparing for his coming, prepare the road for his coming. Be ready, be alert, be prepared.

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Work. So the early Christians made a mistake. This word is still here for us to translate into action, to work and to wait, to work and to wait.

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The psalmist gave to us a good word. I waited patiently for the Lord. I waited for his blessed assurance. The Lord has promised to come back

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and God is not slack concerning his promises. I waited. Jesus disappears in the clouds and the disciples are there watching, looking heavenward.

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And an angel says to them, why stand you gazing for this same Jesus? The same Jesus that as a sentient is going to descend, is going to come back one day.

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Be ready for his coming. The famous cowboy philosopher, Will Rogers, was asked this question to sort of scare him. said, if you knew you had only 48 hours to live,

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what would you do? How would you react? He said, well, I'd live them one hour at a time. Oh, yeah.

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One hour at a time. And so we live moment by moment, hour by hour, to treasure every moment that God gives us and to use it in the way that pleases Him.

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So work, work, watch, wait. These three, work, watch, and wait. Be found on the job. Be found that way.

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The Lord has promised, and it is ours to trust in his promise. The time is unpredictable. You don't know.

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We're unaware of his coming. So it's unpredictable. We don't know the exact time. But let us be alert

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That is what Jesus is saying. Be alert, be prepared and on the job, looking anxiously for his coming. Watch and wait. I noticed a man in the airport here some months ago.

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was waiting for someone who didn't come on the flight that he expected him. He stood at the door and he watched everybody who came through that door. He was anxious, they're waiting to see the person that was to come. And every person came and that person for whom he waited was not on that flight. He went up to the

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desk and he asked the agent about the next flight and it so happened I was there when the next flight came and when the next flight came he was still there watching at the door everyone who passed he was there and finally someone came and they embraced oh it was a wonderful meeting just to sit there and watch him

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glorious time because that for which he waited had arrived. And so we have a certainty in our hearts that Jesus Christ is coming back. We look anxiously, we watch, we see the signs all around us that someday, somewhere he will appear and And we can thank God that he is faithful in his promises.

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He is coming back again. So we can say thank God. Thank God for his promise. And as his servants, we can be ready when he comes again.

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So on that occasion, when we come to the end of our way, it will be a joyful time. God, who is sure to come, tells us to wait. Wait wherever you are.

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Wait. Stars will always shine. It may be a dark period now, but there are some stars always in the sky.

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So just wait. Wait no matter how dense the darkness, wait on God. Wait for his healing, for no matter how severe it may be the pain, wait on his healing.

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For those that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

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Wait on the Lord. Have you ever waited on God? You know, they had this play on Broadway, Waiting for Godot. And in the story or the play, the wait goes on and on,

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but Godot never shows up. But I'm so glad that the one for whom we wait is sure to come. that he's going to show up. He may not show up when we expect him

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in the way we expect him, but God is sure to come. And so we can take our stand with the psalmist and say, I waited patiently for the Lord. And he came.

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He inclined unto me. That's good news in a world of bad news. As we come to the hymn of invitation, we extend the privilege to accept Jesus Christ

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as Lord of your life. To respond to the invitation, saying yes, I trust him.

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I put my life in his hands. I want him to be my guide. I want him to be my guard. I want him to be the governor of my life.

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We invite you to come. Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the clay.

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We invite you to come. By letter, by Christian experience, or a profession of faith, come. (choir singing)

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