In a few days, we will be celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  It’s a spectacular moment when you allow what God has done to impact you.   Let’s read about it.   

Philippians 2:5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death - and the worst kind of death at that - a crucifixion. MSG

Jesus set aside the privileges of being ‘God’ to become human.  Then died as a human to break the curse of sin and death over us.  It’s overwhelming to think that God cares about us so much, He came to rescue us.  

To understand the context of what was happening when Jesus was born, we have to go back hundreds of years.   Isaiah, the prophet, lived around 750 years before Jesus’ birth.  The Jewish nation was divided into two parts, Israel and Judah.  Both countries were going into captivity.  That is when Isaiah prophesied that a Messiah was coming to save the Jewish nation.  

Fast forward 750 years to Jesus’ day, and Rome ruled the world, and that included the Jews.  The Jewish people were patiently waiting for the Messiah, their Savior.  They were expecting a warrior King to come in power and destroy Rome’s oppression.  The Messiah was going to be a visible, political, and military king.  He was going to change everything.  

Knowing that context, what is amazing about the Christmas story is that, in general, no one knew about Jesus’ birth.  Outside of a few shepherds and wisemen, it was a very quiet event.  Even Mary and Joseph were trying to catch up and understand what God was doing through them.  Jesus wasn’t born in a castle behind high walls and gates.  He was born in a barn.  He wasn’t born into family wealth.  His family was ordinary.  The story just seems odd because His birth was so quiet.  And as Jesus grew, we only have one story about his childhood.  It wasn’t until Jesus was thirty years old that Jesus did His first miracle and began his ministry.  

I want you to stop and think about this.  The whole story of how God announced Jesus' coming 750 years before the birth, entered earth to save His people, and took 30 years to grow up seems insane.  The God story was slow, painfully slow.  Jesus’ birth was small and very uneventful.  Jesus growing up in an ordinary family seems weak because there is no noticeable power or success.  Jesus’ story is just ordinary.  And in the three years he walked on this earth telling people that the Kingdom of God was here, Jesus didn’t change anything on this earth that you could see, feel, or touch.  You would think, if you are God entering into your creation to save them, you would let people know about it now and do it in an epic way.  But that isn’t what God does.  

Do you remember what Sam said last week?  When Jesus explained God’s kingdom, Jesus said this.  

Matthew 13:31 The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants. NLT

What?  Mustard seed.  What is that about?  We hate slow.   We hate small.  If I was promised the Messiah to save me, I don’t want to wait 750 years for Jesus to show up.  I don’t want to wait 30 years for Jesus to grow up.  That’s not success to us, that’s weakness.  We want bigger, better, faster, more growth, more excitement.  Isn’t that what gets our attention today?  If it’s bigger, better, faster, growing with excitement, that’s success.  We hate slow and small.  But the story of Jesus is just that, slow, painfully slow.  Small and uneventful.  It seems so weak and lacks noticeable success.

Jesus’ story of being slow and small bugged his brothers.  They tried to explain to Jesus how the real world works.  Let’s read about it.

John 7:3-4 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!” NLT

His brothers are telling Jesus what we hear from experts and people about the church today.  You have to travel to the right places, be seen by the right people, do something spectacular to get their attention, and then you can be a success.  It’s how it’s done in this world.  How does Jesus respond?

John 7:6 “Now is not the right time for me to go.” NLT

What?  When is there going to be a better time?  It’s a big festival with lots of people.  All you need to do is show up in power.  Good grief.  Jesus seems clueless about how the real world works.  We waited 750 years for you to show up.  We waited thirty years for you to grow up.  When exactly will be the right time?  Jesus’ story seems slow, small, weak, and so ordinary.  And when Jesus has a chance to be seen as successful, he says, ‘It’s not my time.’

There is a lesson that we must learn in this.  And it’s a hard lesson to learn because it goes against everything we see and want in this world.  To get on God’s page, it’s going to look different than how the world does things.   To get on God’s page, we must embrace God and God’s timing.  We are going to have to embrace slowness in our lives.  Why?  

Because what is authentically healthy grows slowly, walks through challenges, and can look messy up close.  

Remember the mustard seed.

Let me give you examples.

What makes an amazing marriage?  You don’t accomplish that in year one.  It takes many, many years.  A couple who walk through years of romance, responsibility, pain, and joy.  They face years of ups and downs.  They walk through the seasons of life together.  And in the end, when they have more love for each other, that’s amazing and beautiful.  What is authentically healthy grows slowly, walks through challenges, and can look messy up close.  Remember the mustard seed.  

Who do you want as a surgeon?  The kid who has just graduated last month?  Or, the doctor who says, I’ve done 16 years of schooling.  I served as the head of the hospital's surgery area for over 16 years.  I have done hundreds of these surgeries.   

We must embrace slowness in our lives.  Why?  Because what is authentically healthy grows slowly, walks through challenges, and can look messy up close.  Just a real quick FYI, one of the worst things that can happen to us is quick success because we will lack the character to handle it.    

I want you to think about the story of how God told of His coming, entering the earth, and growing up.   I want to ask you, what if that’s how slow God moves in you?  In your family?  In your church?  We don’t like that, do we?  We want results now.  We want things to look the way we want them to look now.  We want our family to look the way we want it to look now.  We want to have success and the feelings of momentum now.  

When I say slow down and embrace God’s timing, I mean we slow down and surrender our lives to God - two practical things.  First, we connect with God through reading scripture, praying, and growing.  Second, as we live, we embrace the reality that God might be up to something bigger than we understand.  Your life story fits into God’s bigger story that takes hundreds of years to play out.

You can have a high-speed job.  You can double the size of your company.  You can have babies in diapers.  You can have kids in school, activities, and sports.  You can care for older parents.  And while living a real life, we must learn to slow down to connect with God and understand that God’s timing is different than ours.  

I want to read to you what happens when we slow down.

Galatians 5:22-23 When the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. TLB

We must embrace slowness and surrender our lives to the Holy Spirit.  And then, the Holy Spirit produces things in our lives that we can’t create.  Remember what Sam said last week?  Love slows down.  Stress, fear, and anger speed up.  Do you struggle with being loving, being joyful, having peace, being patient or kind, being good, following through on commitments, being gentle, or having self-control?  The Holy Spirit absolutely plants these God qualities into our lives, but what is required is that we slow down and surrender.  And I must point out, we cannot produce these God qualities.  We can’t do it.  

Have you noticed the world you live in?  Do you feel like it is pulling you towards slowness and surrender to God?  That’s a joke, right?  Our culture pushes us to live at speeds that we cannot sustain.  Through social media, it is distracting us more than ever.  Not to mention the damage social media is causing to kids’ mental health, how it changes the patterns in our brains, and how it wastes our time.  And have you noticed that we have new reasons to worry about life?   Our culture is absolutely working against us, making it harder to slow down and surrender our lives to the Holy Spirit.

Do you know what happens when we don’t slow down and surrender our lives to the Holy Spirit?  What happens when we live at speeds that are too fast for us?  What happens when we scroll so much that we are distracted?  What happens when fear and worry pull our attention away from Jesus?   In the absence of the Holy Spirit planting God qualities into us, we live out what we think is right.  Let’s read about it.

Galatians 5:9 But when you follow your own wrong inclinations, your lives will produce these evil results: impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, 20 idolatry, spiritism (that is, encouraging the activity of demons), hatred and fighting, jealousy and anger, constant effort to get the best for yourself, complaints and criticisms, the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group - and there will be wrong doctrine, 21 envy, murder, drunkenness, wild parties, and all that sort of thing. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. TLB

Jesus modeled something for us.  He showed us how to be in step with God.  Jesus’ story seemed slow, small, weak, and so ordinary.  But he was in step with God.  Here is the lesson that we must learn.  To get on God’s page, we must embrace slowness in our lives.  Why?  Because what is authentically healthy grows slowly, walks through challenges, and can look messy up close.  It’s how God works.  It takes Jesus 750 years to show up.  When Jesus shows up, no one really knows about it.  Then it takes 30 years for Jesus to grow up.  When we embrace slowness and surrender our lives, that’s when the Holy Spirit plants God qualities into our lives.  

I want you to hear this. This is big.  The reason this is so important is that when we are in a relationship with people, we can only give to others who we really are on the inside.  Imagine having the Holy Spirit plant God qualities into your life.   And imagine people feeling the God qualities coming through you to them.  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The opposite is true, too.   When we live lives that are too fast, too distracted, too filled with fear and worry, we don’t have God qualities to offer people.  Scripture says we will just follow our own wrong inclinations.  What do we offer others?  When pressure hits us, what comes out of us?  Hatred and fighting, jealousy and anger, constant effort to get the best for yourself, complaints and criticisms, the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group - envy, murder, drunkenness, impure thoughts, lustful pleasure, and on and on.

I want to share with you a quote from Mother Teresa.

"Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world.” Mother Teresa

It’s Christmas time.   And when you read the story, it’s remarkable how slow God was.  Almost like nothing was really happening, and yet, everything was happening.  Remember, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.   What if that’s how slow God moves in you?  In your family?  In your church?  You feel like nothing is happening, and yet, everything is happening.  

Here is what I want you to do.

Regardless of how busy your life is, have a daily moment when you intentionally slow down and surrender your life to God.

And as you live life, relax and enjoy it.  Why?   What is authentically healthy grows slowly, walks through challenges, and can look messy up close.  It’s your life, relax, enjoy it.  It’s your marriage, relax, enjoy it.  It’s your family, relax, enjoy it.  Every good thing takes time.  It will face challenges.  It will look messy.  That’s life.   

Why do I say all this?   Because Christians have a way of trying to make things happen for God instead of waiting on God.  People with good hearts, wanting to do good things, have a way of speeding things up to get the results they want.  And we can miss God.

Our job is to slow down and embrace the reality that God’s timing is different than our timing.  And when we do that, we allow the Holy Spirit to plant God qualities into us.  It’s so important in our relationships because we give to others who we really are on the inside.

I leave you with this question.  This Christmas, in your relationships, what are they experiencing from you?