Looking Forward
Happy New Year! My name is Zack, and I’m one of the pastors here at City Awakening. I’m so glad to see you here this morning. I know some people are still traveling and enjoying time off, but I’m thankful that you chose to be here this morning, the first Sunday of the new year. If you’re watching online, we’re glad you’re with us, too, and we look forward to seeing you next week….
The bad news this morning is that the Christmas season is over. The gifts, the time off, the decorations, the get-togethers, have had their moment, and now it’s back to normal. Maybe the worst part about the season passing is that the anticipation goes with it. A big part of what makes Christmas so great is the anticipation. There’s so much to look forward to, whether it’s a gift you hope to receive, time with friends and family, Christmas movies, lights, parties, fruitcakes…. There’s a lot of anticipation that comes with Christmas. Even in our faith, we celebrate Advent, which is all about anticipating the arrival of the Messiah. But when Christmas goes, it can feel like there’s now nothing to look forward to. It’s back to work, back to school. Your next vacation is probably at least several months away. Chances are, your favorite team probably isn’t going to make it to the Super Bowl, and statistically speaking, you’re only a couple of weeks away from failing at your New Year’s resolutions. Honestly, January can be kind of depressing. Another year has come and gone, and things in life don’t really seem to be getting much better. Welcome to 2026…
Which is why.… I want to challenge you with a different perspective this morning. I want to help you get excited (or at least hopeful) about the new year, and not based on a vacation, or holiday, or resolution, but on something much bigger… We all want something to look forward to, but what if we could live with a holy anticipation? What if we had the faith to believe that God is at work in our lives, and we had a posture that made us ready to participate in that work? Then, we could be confident that what we’re looking forward to is not just temporary come-and-go experiences, but the unfolding of an eternal story.
I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Luke 2. We’re not reliving the Christmas story, but we are going to pick up right after it, where we see two people who live with this holy anticipation. We’re going to read starting in verse 22.
22 And when the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were finished, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (just as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every firstborn male will be dedicated to the Lord) 24 and to offer a sacrifice (according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons).
This gives us the context for the story. The Jewish ceremonial law required a period of cleansing for a woman after she gave birth, 40 days for a son, and then she was to go to the temple and offer a sacrifice. So, that’s what Mary and Joseph did. They went to the temple to complete Mary’s purification and to dedicate Jesus to the Lord.
25 There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking forward to Israel’s consolation, and the Holy Spirit was on him.
Simeon is the first of two characters that Mary and Joseph encounter at the temple, and they are going to be our focus this morning. There are a couple of things we notice about Simeon. He was righteous and devout, which means that he was serious about his faith. This was not a man who just showed up at the temple a couple of times a year. He didn’t live like a pagan during the week and then come to offer a sacrifice on Saturday. He was a man of noble character, and he was committed to following God. Secondly, the text says he was looking forward to Israel’s consolation – that means Israel’s comfort or salvation. That’s important! Simeon was anticipating what God was going to do. He believed that God would fulfill his promise to send the Messiah. The phrase, looking forward, means ready to receive….much like we anticipate all the things of Christmas. We prep our house, ready to receive family and friends. We gather around the tree, ready to receive gifts. We get ready with anticipation of what’s coming, and this is how Simeon lived. He was looking forward to welcoming the Messiah.
The other thing Luke says about Simeon is that the Holy Spirit was on him. This is before the gift of the indwelling Spirit that came in Acts, so during this time (and in the OT), we see God place his Spirit on people when he was equipping them for a special work. You can see this with men like Samson, Samuel, Saul, David, the prophets… Simeon was anointed by God for a purpose, and if we keep reading, we see what that purpose was.
26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform for him what was customary under the law, 28 Simeon took him up in his arms, praised God, and said,
29 Now, Master,
you can dismiss your servant in peace,
as you promised.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation.
31 You have prepared it
in the presence of all peoples—
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and glory to your people Israel.
33 His father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him.
This is a Lion King moment… You can just imagine this old man takes Jesus from Mary and gives this powerful confirmation of who Jesus is. Because the Holy Spirit was on him and because he was anticipating it, Simeon recognizes that this is the Messiah, Israel’s salvation. What he’s been waiting for has now been revealed, and this brings him so much satisfaction and peace that he says he’s now ready to die. I think this really helps us connect personally to Simeon because we can empathize with his waiting. Sometimes it feels like God is never going to come through. Sometimes it seems like we’re never going to see God answer our prayers or work or move, and while we don’t know all the details of Simeon’s story, we can assume that he’s been waiting for this moment for a long time…but he didn’t give up. He was still looking forward, still believing, still committed, and in his grace, God allows Simeon to see and recognize Jesus. There’s a call there for us to persevere; an encouragement for us not give up on God, and a challenge for us to ask where we’re placing our hope. When Simeon saw Jesus, it was enough for him. Many of us have seen who Jesus is, but we’re still trying to put our hope in something else…as if there’s something that will bring us more satisfaction and fulfillment than salvation through Jesus? Simeon knew there wasn’t.
34 Then Simeon blessed them and told his mother Mary, “Indeed, this child is destined to cause the fall and rise of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be opposed— 35 and a sword will pierce your own soul—that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
Simeon is fulfilled, but he leaves Mary with some heavy words. He tells her that Jesus is going to bring salvation, but also opposition. Some will accept him, but many will reject him. His truth will reveal the hearts of men, and his suffering (ultimately on the cross) will cause suffering for Mary as well. So, while we can empathize with and learn from Simeon’s waiting, here we can empathize with and learn from Mary’s suffering. This shows us that just because God is at work, and just because he allows or even chooses us to be a part of that work, doesn’t mean it will be easy or pain-free.
Mary was clearly chosen by God for a very big role in the story he was unfolding, but she experienced a lot of hardship because of it…she was pregnant before marriage, she and Joseph were essentially poor (we know because of the sacrifice they brought), she had to watch her son be mocked, rejected, and then crucified… It was not a life of ease and luxury. When God works in our lives, it’s rarely without cost, and that’s because his work is in opposition to the broken world and our sin-infected lives. It’s kind of like the difference between new construction and remodeling. New construction goes up pretty easily; remodeling requires some demolition and fixing what’s broken…you have to rework what’s there. God’s new construction was done in Genesis 1, so when he works in our lives and in the world, he’s remodeling…which, as anyone who’s done it can tell you, can be a painful process, but the outcome is worth it.
The good news is that God is gracious in that work, and he put Simeon in Mary’s life to assure her of what God was doing, and then to give her even greater comfort, he sends Anna.
36 There was also a prophetess, Anna, a daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well along in years, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 and was a widow for eighty-four years. She did not leave the temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayers. 38 At that very moment, she came up and began to thank God and to speak about him to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
There are only a few female prophets mentioned in the Bible, so this is a significant moment. And there could be several reasons God uses Anna. First off, she is a second witness and verifies Simeon’s message. If this were during a time of daily prayer at the temple, there would have been a lot of people around, and for not only one, but two prophets to come up and speak to Jesus’ identity would have been very impactful. Secondly, this confirmation coming from a woman might show that the salvation through the Messiah would be for all people, not just men or the spiritually elite. And the fact that female prophets were rare makes this even more significant for Mary and Joseph. That this is not just a fluke thing and Simeon is not just some deranged man hanging out at the temple, they should dismiss…. this is something they and everyone around needed to pay attention to. And Simeon only spoke directly to Mary, but Anna addressed the crowd, specifically those who were also looking forward (there’s that phrase again). Just like church today, there were some there who were just going through the motions, just checking the box, but there were some who believed…. some who were holding on to God’s promise, and after 400 years of silence, they were still anticipating God’s work.
Now, if we thought Simeon was devout and had been waiting a long time to see Jesus, Anna raises the bar. If you do the math and assume that she was married at 12 years old (which was the youngest age allowed), she was at least 103 years old in this story! And Luke says that she was always at the temple serving God, worshiping God, night and day. Let’s just be honest, it’s hard to get some of us here for an hour on Sunday morning, forget about being here night and day for 84 years. But the point is not that Anna was super religious or always at the temple…. she was desperate see God. At this time in history, the temple was where you went to meet with God. It’s where you went to pray, to offer your sacrifices, to minister to the Lord. Anna didn’t want to miss what God had for her. Maybe it started because she was stricken by grief after the loss of her husband. Maybe she felt like, as a widow, she had no other purpose. We don’t know. But the text is clear, her priority above everything else was to seek the Lord, and near the end of her life, he rewards her by allowing her to see the Messiah. This is the fulfillment of Psalm 37:4, which says, “Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Simeon and Anna both show us what it looks like to long for, to wait for, and to be ready for the work God is doing. So, I think there are three lessons we can learn and implement in our lives in this new year.
The first is to Anticipate God’s Work.
Anticipation can be exciting, but it can also be hard because it means waiting, and it can also mean disappointment. When I was a kid, I always wanted a go-kart. Every year I put it on my Christmas list, and every year it wasn’t there…until finally, I stopped asking. Sometimes we wait and ask and pray…but things don’t go like we want… Our anticipation can quickly turn into disappointment, and when it comes to God, our faith can turn into frustration, cynicism, and even unbelief. We stop asking and stop expecting God to show up. It would have been really easy for Simeon and Anna to feel that way, and maybe they did at times, but they didn’t give up and move on with their lives. There’s no indication that they wavered in their faith…. they kept looking forward, believing that God was working…but that can be hard to do.
I know for me, it’s easy to think about all the “what ifs” and possible negative outcomes. What if God doesn’t come through? What if he’s not going to do anything? Or….sometimes I get worried about what’s coming, even if it is from God, because I might have a painful lesson to learn. But a verse that’s become important to me is Psalm 112:6-7,
“Surely the righteous will never be shaken;
they will be remembered forever.
7 They will have no fear of bad news;
their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.”
This helps me remember that no matter what comes and no matter what the timing, I don’t have to live in fear of disappointment. I have a firm foundation to stand on, and the Lord remembers me.
And I can pair that with a verse like Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…”
This reminds me that not only is God in control, but he loves me, he knows what’s best for me, and he’s working that out. It may seem like he’s not showing up or he’s doing the opposite of what I want, but what I want is rarely what I need…I have to believe that he is working for my good.
You may be thinking, “That’s great, God is supposedly working, but what am I supposed to do?” The Bible tells us….
Isaiah 26:8 says, “Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.”
Isaiah doesn’t just tell us that we should wait for God, but he tells us how we should wait. We walk in the way of his laws. In other words, we obey God’s commands. Secondly, while we’re waiting, we have to keep the motivation of our hearts in check. What is our goal? What outcome are we hoping for and why? It has to be God’s glory above all else. If at any time, we put our own glory, our own plan, our own kingdom as the priority, then we’re off base. We have to believe that our greatest satisfaction comes when God gets the glory, not us.
One last verse that can help us anticipate God’s work is in Luke 9, when Jesus is calling those around him to follow him. Several people seem like they want to, but they have “stuff” to take care of first…let me take care of my ailing parents…let me take care of some business first….and Jesus says, “62No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
That might seem like a blunt and not very compassionate response, but he knows that these people are coming up with excuses. It’s not that Jesus doesn’t care about their personal lives and what they have going on. He knows that they aren’t ready to let go. It reminds me of a scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. After a race to find the Holy Grail, an earthquake splits the temple, and the cup falls into a deep crevice. Elsa desperately reaches for it—while Indy clings to her hand, barely holding on. He begs her to, “Let it go.” But she won’t. She reaches one last time… and her glove slips off. She falls, all because she couldn’t let go. She kept looking back instead of looking forward.
The whole premise of the gospel is that Jesus reached out to save us….to grab us by the hand and save us from falling into the pit. But we have to be willing to let go of what’s behind us. We can’t keep holding onto and reaching for all the treasure that we once thought was so important. We have to look forward. Part of the anticipation, the waiting for, and expecting God to work in our lives, is learning to let go of the idols in our hearts that compete for the throne. In his mercy, God gives us time and opportunity to hone our affection for him….to strengthen our faith and draw near to him. He’s a loving father, shaping his children. What we don’t want is to be like the Israelites who got tired of waiting when Moses went up the mountain to meet with God. They gave up and decided to make their own god, a golden calf. God was doing something great, but they were too impatient, and their faith was too weak to stay looking forward. Oswald Chambers wrote, “[God] works where He sends us to wait.” Anticipation tests our faith, but our job is not to force the work, but to look forward and be ready to participate. The first thing we learn from Simeon and Anna is to anticipate God’s work.
The second lesson from Luke 2 comes from Anna, and it is to Align with God’s Heart.
Verse 37 says Anna was serving God night and day with fasting and prayers. We don’t often think in these terms, but the distinction is important because Anna was not in the temple to serve her own needs. She was not there to get something from God. She was there to worship him, giving him an offering of prayer and the sacrifice of fasting. I wonder how often we come to church with a mindset of serving God. How often do we come in ready to give ourselves in worship? I don’t want to meddle too much here and sound like a crochety old pastor, but if we treat Sunday morning like it’s there for our convenience and for our benefit, then we’re missing a big part of why we are here. If you meander in, sit in the back with your arms crossed, and are mostly anticipating leaving to get lunch or watch a game, then you’re not here ready to serve God in worship, but to be served…maybe even entertained.
This applies Monday through Saturday as well. If we treat our relationship with the Lord with the same lackadaisical approach and just go to him when we need something or have some extra time, then we’re probably going to miss the work God is doing or wants to do in our lives because it’s all on our terms.
See, I believe Anna saw Jesus in the temple because she was looking for him. I know that in my own life, sometimes, I miss what God is doing because I’m not looking for it. I get distracted and caught up in me…in what I want, what I need….then my prayers and my time with the Lord can become more about trying to get him to fit into my plan and situation rather than me surrendering to him. Sometimes people will ask, if God knows what we need, then why do we even need to pray? If the purpose of our prayers is to inform God, then we don’t. God knows it all, way more than we do. But prayer is about aligning your heart with God’s. It’s letting go. In his book, Sacred Pace, Terry Looper calls this getting neutral. It’s about getting to a place where we bring our prayers to God, but we can trust him with the outcome…whether it’s what we want or not. That’s much easier said than done, but Anna shows us a glimpse of what that looks like.
This year, as a church, we are going to be putting a big emphasis on prayer. We want to be a praying people. We want to be continually aligning our hearts with God’s. We want to be like the early church in Acts 2, who “joined together constantly in prayer…” We want to bring our requests to God, we want to get neutral and trust his work, but we also want to believe that prayer makes a difference, and we want to obey his instructions to bring our requests to him persistently.
We’re going to provide you with some tools and resources to help you strengthen your prayer life on your own, but we’re also going to learn and pray together. We have prayer calendars that we’ll provide each month that will have an emphasis for each week, so as a church, we’ll all be praying for similar things. We’re going to host monthly prayer meetings that will take place on the 4th Wednesday of every month at 6:30 am at our church office in Oviedo. I know not everyone will be able to participate in those, but it will be a time for us to spend some extended time in prayer together, praying for our church, our city, specific people, and individual needs.
We’re also going to do some teaching on prayer, 21 days of prayer and fasting leading up to Easter, and several other things throughout the year to help us grow in the practice of prayer and to align our hearts with God’s. I want to invite you to join us in that effort. Prayer is an essential part of knowing God and following him, which takes us to the last lesson I want to point out from Luke 2.
That is to Follow God’s Lead. This is about being ready to participate in his work.
Earlier, we read about Simeon that, “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple.
Simeon was not acting on his own wisdom or direction. He was following God’s lead. I think a lot of times we want to jump straight to this step without the waiting, the praying, the aligning…. I have often prayed, “God, just show me what to do, and I’ll do it!” But we can’t follow God’s lead until we see where he’s going. And as we’ve already said, the temptation is to get impatient and jump out ahead, but there’s also risk in standing still, afraid to follow. Our human or fleshly desires and nature can cause us to do either one, so we can’t rely on that.
But Romans 8:5 says, “those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” Our minds have to be set on what God desires. This is both very simple and very complicated. There’s not necessarily a checklist of things that God desires…meaning we don’t get a master list for our lives that tells us what job to take, who to marry, what house to buy,….but there is a book that gives a whole lot of insight, some of it spelled out pretty clearly, into what God desires. Knowing what God desires is really about knowing God. And the primary way to know God, the primary way he has revealed himself to us in this age, is through the Bible. Luke 2 doesn’t speak directly to studying Scripture, but it certainly goes hand in hand with anticipating God’s work and aligning our hearts to his. So, I want to encourage you to find a Bible reading plan and follow it this year. We pushed the Bible Recap last year. I really enjoyed that plan and am doing it again this year, and I would highly recommend it. But there are a ton of options out there. If you need help finding one, please let us know. We’ll even give you a Bible if you need one.
The Bible doesn’t have a specific answer to every question we’ll ever have, but it does tell us who God is and what he desires, and if we know that, then we can make decisions and live in a way that aligns with him. It is the foundation for participation in the work of God. We are not called to a life of passivity. He calls us to action. He calls us to obedience. Again, Terry Lopper says, “[God] won’t force you to follow His leading, but your willingness to trust His decision and move forward in faith is what separates the gladiators from the spectators.”
What do you want to be in 2026….a gladiator or a spectator? Are we going to sit on the sidelines, distracted by our screens, our problems, our careers…….? Are we going to be looking forward to the next big thing in life, but not be ready for the work God is doing today?
I played baseball for a few years in high school. I wasn’t great, but I was pretty fast. So, when I was in 8th and 9th grade, the coach would sometimes use me as a pinch runner in varsity games. I remember one Saturday in February, we had a game, and it was freezing. I had hand warmers in the toes of my socks. I’d been sitting in the dugout most of the game just trying to stay warm, and all the sudden the coach called me off the bench to run. I went to first base, got a little lead, and immediately got picked off. I wasn’t ready. Needless to say, I sat on the bench the rest of the game.
Here’s the Big Idea: Have faith to believe that God is at work and have a posture that’s ready to participate. Anticipate God’s work and be ready to participate in God’s work. Don’t just be a spectator and then get picked off. It would have been easy for Simeon and for Anna to lose focus and become complacent, but they were alert, always looking forward…like a gladiator. God is always working, and he wants to do great things in your life and through your life.
Maybe for you, that starts with a response to the gospel. Maybe today, January 4, 2026, it’s time for you to surrender to the work God has already been doing in your life…leading you to repentance and confessing your need for him. Here’s what we believe: Jesus lived a perfect life and died a sacrificial death to pay the price for our sins. And the Bible says that if you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth, then you will be saved. That is the greatest work of all. Let today be the day you put your trust in the saving work of Jesus.
If you’ve already made that confession, then let today reignite a commitment and desire to know and follow hard after Jesus… Don’t be a spectator this year. Ask the Holy Spirit to show what changes or shifts you need to make in your life. Anticipate, and be ready to participate.
Communion
Communion is the perfect way for us to look back on the work that’s already been completed on our behalf, and to look forward to what God is still doing. It unites with Jesus and with one another as the Church. If you have not yet put your faith in Jesus, then we ask that you don’t participate in communion this morning. Jesus instructed those who follow him to keep this sacrament as a way of holding on to his justifying and sanctifying work. As you come forward, take time to reflect on the gospel, thanking God and asking him to have his way in your life this coming year.
