God doesn’t hand you your life and say, “Don’t mess this up.” He says, “You’re not alone—and you’re not the owner.” Everything belongs to Him, and that’s good news: it steadies anxious hearts, humbles our pride, and frees us to manage His gifts with quiet faithfulness for the good of our neighbors.

You have been baptized into Christ. That means where He is, you are. If He has stepped into the sinner’s water and taken your sin as His, then your sin is not free-floating anymore. It has an address: on Him. And if His righteousness is His—and He gives Himself to you—then His righteousness has an address too: on you.

10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. 11 For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. 12 Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.

So what is the Father’s “business”? To send His Servant, His Son, filled with the Spirit, to bring justice, to be a covenant, to open blind eyes, and to free prisoners. That is not a vague “mission statement.” That is concrete: forgiveness for the guilty, light for darkened consciences, and release for people chained to their sins and fears.

The star is a mercy. The Scriptures in Jerusalem are a mercy. But the center of it all is this: God leads people to Christ through the preached Word—through promise, through Gospel, through the proclamation that the Child born in Bethlehem is the Savior for sinners, the Shepherd-Ruler who forgives, rescues, and raises the dead.

God places His salvation in the hands of people the world has already moved past. Not kings. Not managers of religion. Not the impressive. An old man ready to die. An old church lady who will not stop talking. That is the Lord’s way.

2 Thessalonians 2 (NKJV)

1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

13 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.

16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.

The Christian life is not you trying to manufacture a better name. It is you receiving a better Name. And receiving what comes with it: forgiveness, adoption, access to the Father, and a future you did not earn. That’s why Scripture talks about a “new name.” God is not done with you yet. You are being carried toward what He intends—toward resurrection, toward holiness, toward glory—and He will finish what He started. The world measures you by your record. God names you by His promise.

Christ’s kingdom on earth is a cross-kingdom. Not because God enjoys pain, but because this is how He conquers. The throne is a cross. The crown has thorns. The victory is hidden under weakness. And if that is true for the King, it will not be different for the people who belong to Him.

The Word became flesh so that nothing human would be left unredeemed. Not only the “spiritual” parts of you. You. Your body. Your mind. Your will. Your suffering. Your death. Christ has entered the whole human condition so that He can heal the whole human condition.

This is where joy breaks wide open: God is not waiting for you to get your act together before He comes near. He comes near to rescue you. He comes near to carry what you cannot carry. He comes near to take what is yours—your frailty, your vulnerability, your mortality—so that He can give you what is His: righteousness, life, and peace.

If you come tonight with fear, or questions, or weariness, you are not out of place. The angels preached first to people in the dark. If you come tonight with guilt, you are not beyond hope. This is exactly why a Savior is born. And if you come tonight with joy, then let it be this kind of joy: not fragile and forced, but anchored in what God has done.

John is a voice. Not the Word. A voice. And that’s what faithful preaching always is: a mouth that points not to itself but to Christ. John is doing exactly what Isaiah foretold, as the Angel Gabriel proclaimed and Zechariah confessed. Right after that fierce, tender opening, God gives John this work: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” (Isa. 40:1) How does God comfort? Not by pretending sin is small or telling people they’re “fine.” He comforts by sending a messenger who tells the truth and by sending the Lord Himself to save.

If you need one sentence to carry into the rest of Advent—especially when your heart is loud and your faith feels small—take the angel’s Word straight: “Do not be afraid… for nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 1:30, 37).

A culture that prizes quick inspiration tends to neglect patient formation. And a culture that loves information often resists the proclamation that actually claims us and calls us to repentance for the forgiveness of sins. But Christ gives His Church pastors anyway—men called to preach His Gospel and teach His Word, so His people are forgiven, strengthened, and kept in the truth.

1 Thessalonians 5:12–22 (NKJV)

12 And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.

14 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. 15 See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies. 21 Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

Doubts will still come. Until the Lord returns, you will still be tempted to ask John’s question in a hundred different forms: “Are You really the One? Are You really good? Are You really for me?” When that happens, learn from John. Don’t sit alone in the dark trying to crush your questions or nurture them. Send them to Jesus. Bring them where He has promised to be—in His Word, in His Church, in the gifts that bear His name.

In our time, many people feel like they are living inside a casino economy. It is not only Las Vegas. It is in our phones, our investments, our shopping apps, even in the way we talk about “opportunity” and “risk.” Everything starts to feel like a bet. Writers sometimes call this “casino logic.” This thinking shows up in day trading, sports betting, speculative real estate, congregation finances, and even in the way ordinary people talk about retirement and savings. You can feel it: the sense that you must always be “playing” to stay afloat. Paul’s word for this is older and simpler: a snare.

All that judgment that should have burned you to stubble falls on Him instead. The refiner’s fire consumes Him, not because He is impure, but because He has taken your impurity as His own. The wrath that should fall on you for your indifference, compromise, lust, and self-righteousness—that wrath is poured out on Him. He, the Bridegroom, lets Himself be treated like the harlot so that His Bride can wear the white robe. He, the righteous Son, is cut off so that you can be called sons.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:11 (NKJV)

13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive andremain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

11 Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.