Oh Come Emmanuel - Pastor Bradley Peters

Advent is a holy pause between promises made and promises fulfilled. I invited us to resist the rush to arrive at Christmas too soon and instead to dwell in the hope, peace, joy, and love that mark this season of waiting. Isaiah 7 shows a king, Ahaz, who refuses God’s invitation to trust, yet God still gives a sign: a virgin will conceive, and his name will be Emmanuel—God with us. This hope is rooted in God’s covenant with David (2 Samuel 7) and blossoms in Jesus (Matthew 1), who steps into our real history and secures a future that is more certain than our fears.

Advent trains the heart to live in the “already and not yet”—to celebrate what Christ has accomplished and to long for what he will complete at his return. Jesus’ teaching on the faithful servant calls us to a readiness that is active but unhurried: giving food at the proper time, attending to ordinary faithfulness, and refusing the anxious, distracted life that crowds out love. This season is a gift that reorders our days so we can remember: God is with us, and God is coming to us.

I also urged us to disciple our young people (and ourselves) in an Advent-shaped vision of desire. Holiness is not merely a binary checkbox of clean/unclean; it is the stewardship of longing, the honoring of a gift within its covenant home, and the cultivation of anticipation without premature grasping. Even where innocence has been wounded, grace is stronger. Christ, the Bridegroom, washes his church with the word; his cross claims our failures and gives us a new future. Romans 8 reminds us that all creation groans for redemption—and so do we. Revelation 22 ends with the Spirit and the Bride saying, “Come.” That is our Advent prayer: Come, Lord Jesus. And in that prayer, we find courage for today and hope for tomorrow.