Finding "your people" and your TRUE HOPE!

As presented to the Women’s ministry of Waterbrooke Church’s Christmas Brunch, December 6, 2025… Theme: “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” hymn by Charles Wesley*

Grab a cup of coffee and a treat and you will feel like you were there with us as you read!

“Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.” Such a beautiful hymn that I honestly don't even remember hearing or singing before we chose it for our theme! But now I love these beautiful words, and I hope you will too! 

We just heard that the hymn writer, Charles Wesley, liked to ask these questions in his ministry, “Does this hymn mean anything to you? Is the biblical story about long ago events, or about what’s going on in your life? I want us to think about those questions too. 

“Come Thou Long Expected Jesus!” Jesus was the Promised Messiah—which means the anointed one or chosen one, the one who would come to rescue. The prophets spoke of the Messiah all throughout Old Testament, which is the story of God’s chosen people. It’s fun to look back at these prophecies. There are many advent reading schedules available online that will bring you through many of these prophecies, including my favorite, Isaiah 9:6-7, "For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Even though we now know that these words are clearly talking about Jesus, they were written many, many years before Christ came into the world!

So back to the Wesleys’ questions, what was going on in the time when Jesus came? 

Well, our women’s bible study just finished studying Exodus. (Which was awesome, by the way! We used Jen Wilkin’s studies.) Exodus is the story of God's chosen people, the Israelites. We see them living through long times of hardship—as slaves under the Egyptians & wandering through the wilderness (for 40 years! the Bible says)—mostly because of their own failure to trust that God’s ways were best for them. Instead, they often chose to take things into their own hands, wanting control. Hmmm...do we ever do that?  We need to listen to God too! 

I know it’s no coincidence that my own person devotional reading this week has been in Hebrews. (This is what our women’s study will be doing in the spring—Lydia Brownbeck’s study.) Anyway, Hebrews is full of Exodus references. Just yesterday, I read this in chapter 3, vs 7-13. It’s both a warning for us and a description of the stubborn Israelites who did not listen and then paid for their choices! Vs 7 “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you hear (God’s) voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test... for forty years. 10 Therefore, I was provoked with that generation (provoked—give way to a strong unwelcome emotion), and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” God’s punishment for many of the stubborn Israelites, was that they did not get to see the reward, the peace & REST of crossing into the Promised Land! 

Many times, God got fed up with the Israelites and gave them over to their enemies. In the time when Jesus came, they were suffering under the oppressive Roman rulers, desperately waiting for their promised Messiah to come & save them! Come Thou Long Expected Jesus! We know that there were about 400 years between the last time God spoke through the prophets at the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament when Jesus came into the world as a sweet little baby! 400 years of silence and persecution, you can imagine they were pretty down, defeated, hopeless… 

What about us? The Wesleys’ question, “Does this Christmas song, this biblical story mean anything to you? About what’s going on in your life?” 

Have you ever felt down, defeated, hopeless? 

I don’t know about you, but at Christmas time, I can fly through so many different feelings/emotions even in a single day—the many lists & tasks make me feel anxious & stressed. On the other hand, sometimes we can have beautiful moments, in “the Christmas mood,” with light snow, Christmas music playing, our children happily doing all the fun traditions—not poking at or bothering each other, not selfishly making their wish lists longer and longer and longer! In fact, they’re asking how they can help, “Mommy, you look stressed, what can I do to make your life lighter right now?” HAHAHA! No? Maybe for a few moments some of that dream will come true. But, for many people at Christmas, there can be a lot of grief—longing for a loved one who’s passed away, grieving a broken relationship, or distance if you live far away from family or friends. There can also be grief in longing for a relationship you haven’t found yet—I lived through singleness for a long-time during med school & residency—I feel you on that one! But sometimes the sorrow is on-going, related to current suffering in your life. Being a mom of littles can feel this way when you are so exhausted you don’t even know who you are, or what day it is! And sometimes, it is grief/sorrow because you are in the midst of caring for someone who is not easy to care for—a child with a disability, or someone—maybe even yourself—with a difficult medical diagnosis, or mental illness or neurodiversity. You love them dearly, but the reality of your days is exhausting and isolating, and you don’t feel like anyone understands what you’re going through or would believe it if you did try to talk about it?  

Can you relate to any of these difficult scenarios?  

Let’s look back at our beautiful hymn. I think we’ll discover that the Wesleys are right! This hymn does relate to us! (The words are written at the bottom of this page, take a look, and see which words jump out at you as you think about all that is going on in your life.) 

Even the first word! Come—someone help me, please! 

Long Expected—I feel like I’ve been in this place for so long. Is this ever going to end?  

Set Free—I want that. I’ve felt like a prisoner… 

Fears—I’m drowning in the “what if’s” and the catastrophizing—"If I don’t do this, then I’m never going to be able to ____,” or “If my child doesn’t learn how to___ then he will end up ____!” 

Sins—why can’t I have any self-control? Why do I keep falling into these same patterns over & over?  

REST—oh how I want that…what would it be like to feel content, at peace?  

HOPE—I need some daylight in my darkness!  

Desire/longing—I know I need something, but I don’t know how to fix what I am going through?  

JOY!!!!! Oh, how I want to feel the TRUE Joy Christmas is supposed to bring!!! 

Are you feeling it?  When you see or hear the words, HOPE & JOY, do you instantly long for them? I know I do! 

But what do you do when you are stuck in these hard places? Where do you turn? Who do you turn to? We all have our things, right? Sadly, we often turn to those things that will never satisfy—the Bible calls them idols (anything that take our eyes away from God) …These could be wine, or food, or shop therapy, or even more dangerous addictions. Most commonly in the day to day, we probably turn to our phones, mindlessly getting sucked in, thinking we are giving our overstressed minds a break. But do ANY of these things make us feel better? Maybe for a short time, but they will never fully satisfy. ONLY GOD can satisfy, can fill us up completely. He is enough.  

I really wanted to spend a lot of time talking about the book “The Anxious Generation!” But briefly, the subtitle of the book is “The Great re-wiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.” The author talks about the danger of a generation growing up with high-speed internet & the iPhone. Both of these addictive things mean kids no longer play as much or have face-to-face interactions. They don’t have as much outside time, physical activity, or even sleep. The author’s claim, backed by a ton of research, reveals that these life changing influences have truly led to a sharp rise in mental illness, especially depression, anxiety, & suicide.  

Why am I bringing all of this up right now? Well, to be aware of it for our own kids, AND to help ourselves realize our tendencies to isolate when we are not doing well, and how much worse it truly makes us feel.

My favorite part of the book is when he finally starts talking about solutions. He admits that he is an atheist, but then he literally goes on to suggest that the answers are incorporating more spiritual practices into our day-to-day lives—prayer, silence, enjoying nature, and spending more time in deeper relationships. He literally uses words straight from the Bible—we should be “slow to anger,” “quick to forgive,” and our phone-based lives are taking us from all these things.  Pg 202. I LOVE it when science/research thinks they are coming up with amazing new answers, when really, they’re just describing truths from the Bible—God’s good plan for us! We were made to be in relationship! The Bible says we were created in God’s image. What it actually says in Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, ‘Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness...” meaning the Trinity—the Father, Son & Holy Spirit—in relationship from the very beginning!

The rest of that warning from the earlier Hebrews passage, ends with this, in vs. 12-13 “Take care, brothers & sisters, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another (exhort means urge someone to do something/encourage) every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” We need to be with other Christians, frequently, who can remind us of TRUTH, & point us back to Jesus, who is always the answer!  (Don’t get me wrong—it is also very helpful when we can come alongside one another if we’ve been in a similar situation and offer true empathy and even advice. That is a loving thing to do! But, if we also start to say things like, “Oh, my son went through something like that, it will all be ok.” We can’t say that! We don’t KNOW it will all be ok!  But we can ALWAYS point them back to TRUTH and HOPE in Jesus and His promises.) Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to live in us, to guide us & unite us together in Christ. Ephesians 5:18-20 tells us we are to “be filled with the Spirit, “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with our hearts, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  

OK, so that was just my intro!?! HAHA! What I really wanted to talk about today is how we can lift each other up in this way? There are many different “one anothers” in the Bible that show us how to interact with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ—serving, building up, bearing one another's burdens, reminding each other of God's faithfulness and most importantly, pointing each other back to Jesus.  

Let's get practical! How do we do this? Well, it starts with being brave—NOT just living our lives online or alone in our homes. It’s so easy to never leave the house! We can have ANYTHING delivered; we can work from home; and we can even go to church online. My family chooses this sometimes. BUT, if this is all we're doing, and we're not getting to real church or small group, or women's Bible study, or youth group, then we’re not having face to face conversations. We’re not seeing real emotion, keeping each other accountable, praying together, helping each other see things in our lives to be thankful for. Sometimes we need someone else to help us see the big picture of God working in our lives. If we’re only at home, it’s very easy to get sucked back into the ways of the world, letting those idols (that will never satisfy) take the front row. It's easy to rationalize things and for the devil to slide in. He loves it when we're distracted and just want to focus on ourselves.  

So, being brave, getting out there, coming to a Christmas brunch that someone invited you to, these are all great steps! Baby steps start with small talk—we can ALWAYS talk about the MN weather! Keep saying hi every week, and as you find more in common, let the Spirit lead, take the initiative of inviting someone to coffee or for a walk. If that seems too intimidating, join a small group, or come to women's ministry on Tuesday nights and be put into a mini group (that's what we call our fun little groups of 3-5 that we get to know more closely). And hopefully, one of you will be brave and will vulnerably share your story with the new friend. Being vulnerable, allowing each other to see through the cracks, into the real picture of our lives, helps us to see that we’re not alone. There are other people going through similar things who have come out on the other side! They can walk with you, encourage you, love you, hold you up in prayer, give you HOPE—by pointing you back to the One who IS Hope! JESUS!

And by then, you’ve found “your people,” those who see you, who deeply love you with the love of Christ. And the next time you’re in a hard moment--when your son is completely dysregulated, & you’re exhausted, scared, don't know what to do, you have someone to text, to send out your SOS, “Please pray for us!” And now, these people you’ve opened your heart to & trusted your stories with will know exactly how to pray for you. They can bathe you in scripture, reminding you of God's love & Presence with you right there in your dark place. “… Encouraging one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…” That's it right? 

And soon, after years of doing "the one anothers” for each other, the memories will come flooding back of when you were pregnant together, and you will realize your BABIES are now teenagers, and you've been doing life together for almost two decades!? It is a privilege and a joy to be in deep Christian fellowship with one another, and we must continue pointing each other back to the Truth, God's Word, to Jesus... 

At Christmas, we celebrate that! “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us… Immanuel, which means “God with us!” 

Thank you, Lord, that you did Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus! Our beautiful hymn reminds us; you set us free from our fears and released us from our sins. You are our strength and our consolation. Help us find our rest in Thee. You are our HOPE; you are our desire, the JOY of our longing hearts. As we go from weariness to rest, from estrangement to presence, and from isolation to community, may we fix our eyes on Jesus, until he has brought us home! Amen!

* “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus" lyrics:

Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free;

From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee.

Israel's strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art:

Dear desire of every nation,joy of every longing heart.

Born thy people to deliver, born a child, and yet a king,

Born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring.

By thine own eternal Spirit rule in all our hearts alone;

By thine all-sufficient merit raise us to thy glorious throne.

-Written by Charles Wesley (1707-1788), 1744