Hope in Exile

**Adam Wiggins** (0:00)
Well, amen, Matt and band, thank you guys for leading us in worship this morning. Man, it's been a good morning already, hasn't it? Hey, if we haven't had a chance to meet before, my name is Adam. I have the privilege of serving as the group's pastor here and lead several of our discipleship environments. And if you're looking for a way to get more connected to Storyline, I would love to talk with you after this, or if you're a visitor, and this is your first time here, we'd love to meet you and get to know you. We'll be at our resource center after that, and I'd love to just get to know you a little bit. This weekend has been a really fun weekend in the life of our church. Raise your hand real fast if you were able to make it Friday night to our Christmas night of worship. Yes, it was incredible. Glad you were able to make it. If you weren't, we sure hope that you'll be able to come to our Christmas Eve services, and we'll celebrate again together at that point. If you were here Friday night, you might have noticed the way that Matt kind of organized the night with the order of the songs and some of the readings. It is actually the way that our entire Advent series has been organized, and really it's journeying through the story of the Bible. And so the night kind of began, and our series has kind of begun in sort of a dark place with Genesis 3 and sin entering the world, and really kind of a place of longing, right? And over the weeks, as we've been progressing through this series, it's moving to a place of hope, as we look forward to the hope that comes with Christ at Christmas. And so this morning, we're continuing on our Advent series, and we're basically finishing up the Old Testament this morning. So we're gonna look at several different kind of highlight passages that help us sort of wrap that up. But the theme that we're really looking at is exile. And so this is not like the warm, fuzzy Christmas sermon that you might have been hoping for and expecting this morning. Although I will say that the way the story ends in the passage we're gonna look at is it ends with hope. And it ends with looking forward to Christ and looking forward to God's faithfulness.
Well, when I was growing up, there was a plaque on the wall somewhere in my house, and it said, this old adage, home is where the heart is. Home is where the heart is. And maybe you have that in your house, too. We don't actually know where that saying even came from, but it is true, right? Like, there's definitely an element of truth to that. And I feel that most whenever we go out of town, whether we're gone for like two days or 10 days, whenever we're gone, like on the last day or two, I'm just like ready to get back home. And I'm a bit of a homebody. Maybe you can relate to that. But I'm always like, as great as vacation might be or a trip, like I'm always just ready to get back home because there's nothing quite like home. That place where you belong and the familiar and being with your people, right? Sleeping in your own bed. Like, there's nothing quite like home.
But the situation we find ourselves in in the Old Testament is one where God's people are taken away from their homes.
And so, can you just imagine for a moment the feeling you would feel if you were taken away from your home and you knew you would never get back there? Like, what would that feel like? Right, to be far off and to know that you would never be able to return home. And that's kind of what they're feeling. But even worse than being gone from their homeland in the Old Testament as it is, the people of God are separated and they're away from the presence of the one they long for most. They're away from the presence of God. And so one of the things we're gonna see this morning is that for God's people, home is actually more than just a place. It's more than just geography. It's tied to a person. And for the Christian, it's tied to the presence of God in our lives. And so this is not just true for the Old Testament people of God. It's also true for us this morning. And so that's the first thing I want us to see as we kind of pick up in the middle of this story. Here's the first point. God brings, excuse me, God's presence brings life. God's presence brings life. And so like I said, I want us to look at several passages as we kind of journey through the rest of the story of the Old Testament. And so if you have a copy of the Bible, go ahead and turn with me to 1 Kings chapter nine. 1 Kings chapter nine, we're gonna read that first and then go on to another passage. But as you're turning there, in case you're just joining us in this Advent series, I wanna catch us up from where we've been over these past few weeks. Now we began, what, three weeks ago, with Adam and Eve. And we saw Genesis one and two and three, right? They were at home in the garden enjoying the very presence of God. We even saw this language that God would walk with them in the cool of the day. So from the very beginning, we see there's this intimate relationship between God and his creation, his people, and so their home was the garden because that's where God himself was. But as you know, it doesn't even take long into the Bible story, right, for everything to end up in disaster. So Genesis chapter three, we saw that as they rebelled against God, we saw sin and death and poverty enter into the world. And so they were kicked out of Eden, separated from God, and sent out into the wild. And if you remember from that week, as they were sent out, God made them a promise. And he promised them in Genesis 315 that one day, one day that he would send someone to crush the head of the serpent, of Satan, that great deceiver, that one day there would be a deliverer who would come and save his people. And so then after that story, we fast forwarded a little bit to this guy named Abraham. All right, and so Abraham, God took him from a foreign nation and brought him into his own family, and God made another promise. And he promised Abraham that his name would be great, that he would have many descendants, that he would have a place to call home. And overall, God said, Abraham, out of your offspring, I'm going to bless the entire world. And so again, we see this promise, right? We saw this a few weeks ago. There's this one who's coming, who's an offspring of Eve, who's gonna be from the line of Abraham, who's gonna come and deliver his people. Well, last week, we left off with King David, right? A man after God's own heart. And what we saw is that as David was looking around at his palatial surroundings, right? Then he looked over at God's small tent, and he thought, this isn't right. And so he said, God, I'm gonna build you a new house to live in. And God says, well, not so fast, right? You're not gonna build me a house. I'm actually gonna build your house. Your house, meaning your descendants. And so God made another covenant, another promise to David, and he promised him that one day, from David's line, there would be a king who would sit on the throne forever. And this would be a good king. A king who would actually bring peace and justice, and he would reign in righteousness. That one day, David's son would be a forever king. And so, as we pick up today in 1 Kings 9, we see David's son, named Solomon, all right? And Solomon has just built this temple for God, this new house for God to live in. And so look with me at 1 Kings 9, we'll begin in verse one here, and I want us to see the first six verses and what God is saying to Solomon. He says this, he says, as soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord, that's the temple, and the king's house, and all that Solomon desired to build, the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, just as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. And the Lord said to him, I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. So I have consecrated this house, the temple, that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. And as for you, if you will walk before me, just as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and of brightness, doing it according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever. Just as I promised David your father, saying, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel. And so this passage is incredible, isn't it? That Solomon has just built this glorious temple. And as we read the Old Testament and we read about this temple, if you were to walk inside, you would have seen that there was artwork and golden etchings and even sculptures depicting vines and plants and fruit. And what would that have reminded them of? The garden, right, from Genesis 1 and 2 And so with this temple where God himself lived, where his presence was, it was a reminder, you see the connection here, right? That God would be with them, it was like paradise. And so God was saying, I'm gonna be your God, and you're gonna be my people. And they enjoyed this relationship. And can we just pause for a moment and recognize the significance of this? Like, the God of the universe, who spoke galaxies into existence, galaxies into existence actually wants to be near his people, sinful though they are.