The Ministry of Simeon

Luke chapter 2, you can remain seated. Uh if you'll just turn your attention toward the screen. Uh Luke chapter 2 verse 25. I've got several verses to read. Uh just to lay a little bit of a foundation.

And please don't uh please don't tune me out when you hear uh the story. You know, this can be read at at Christmas time or earlier around that season. But I do believe that the Lord is has uh orchestrated this for this evening. And behold, everybody say, "There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the same was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.

And the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, the circumcision, then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now let us thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken. And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is set for the fall, and the rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against, yay, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." I feel led and directed of the Holy Ghost tonight to minister. If I if I'm using a title tonight, uh, as I was driving down the road this week, the Lord took me on a journey. And when he spoken to the these words into my spirit, the ministry of Simeon, if I were to use a a subtitle, I would just simply say, "There was a man." There was a man. But I I I want to help us tonight with the power of the Holy Ghost on catching the ministry of Simeon.

There are moments in scripture that seem quite on the surface but carry thunder in the substance. Luke chapter 2 is filled with such moments. Shepherds have already heard the angelic announcement. Mary and Joseph are walking in obedience. And then tucked inside the temple courts, we are introduced to a man, one who never performed a miracle, one who never wrote a book, one who never led a nation.

Yet heaven pauses to record his life. His name is Simeon. And I submit to you tonight that what Simeon had is what the modern apostolic church desperately needs. Again, there is a revelation and a revelatory word that I feel that will go across this pullpit tonight, but it's not going to stop here. It's going to echo through our hearts and it's going to affect the rest of our lives.

For you see the Bible says there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon and the same man was just and devout. This man before we ever see what Sam Simeon did we are told who he was. He was just that means righteous in dealings with men. He was devout. He was reverent and disciplined in his walk with God.

Commentators note that Simeon was not part of the religious elite. He wasn't a Pharisee. He wasn't a priest of rank. He was simply a man. Somebody say a man.

A man who lived right before God when nobody was watching. I believe I can safely say that's where real revival begins. Not on platforms, but in private lives. We have many gifted people today, but fewer godly ones. We have charisma, but do we have consecration?

God is looking in today's church uh not just on Sundays and not just on Wednesdays uh but secar the voice of the spirit. The Lord is looking for a lifestyle. The ministry of Simeon began and begins tonight with character. If I could summarize in point one, the ministry of Simeon begins with character. It matters who you are.

It matters who you profess to be because God's looking and there are others looking at your life and what you profess. Simeon was a devout and just man. He was a man of character. But if you look just a little further that this ministry of Simeon, it was a man who was waiting when others were weary. The Bible says in Luke 2:25, he was waiting.

Somebody say waiting. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel. Simeon was waiting on something most people had given up on. He 400 years of silence. Uh but there was one man that was just and devout.

Israel had endured the 400 years of silence. Uh were no prophets, no fresh word. The oppression from Rome. Religious routine had replaced spiritual hunger. But Simeon kept waiting.

Simeon kept a spirit of faith. And when I begin to read and the scholars suggest that many in Israel had grown cold and even skep sk sk sk sk sk sk sk sk sk sk sk sk sk sk sk sk sk sk sk skeptical uh but simeon refused to let culture uh cancel his expectation. Let me lean in right here into your spirits. Uh when others stopped believing, Simeon kept believing. When others grew tired, Simeon just stayed faithful.

Uh when others settled into routine, Simeon stayed hungry and said, "I believe that I'll see the coming Messiah. I will not let MY ROUTINE GET DULL IN MY PROCESS. UH THERE WILL BE METHOD TO MY MADNESS. UH THERE WILL BE PURPOSE UH IN MY PLANNING. The ministry of Simeon is a ministry of expectation.

The ministry he was waiting. He was expecting. We don't need more casual Christians. Brother Atkins, we don't need it. We need people who are still waiting on God.

I said we need people to believe and wait on God like he's actually going to move again. We got to be patiently waiting and looking upward. We don't know the day nor the hour that that eastern sky is going to split. We don't know when the trumpet's going to sound and the dead in Christ are going to rise first. But I believe that the ministry of Simeon must baptize us uh just like it did him that day.

I know you may get ma. I know you get weary. I know it seems like a lonely experience at times. But we can't lose our expectation. If God ever gave you a promise, we must remain expecting.

Some of your prayers hadn't got answered yet, but you can't lose expectancy. You can't lose the expectancy. Maybe your prodals hadn't come home yet, but you can't lose your expectation. Maybe the miracle that you've been praying for hadn't happened yet, but you can't lose your expectation. We've got to let the ministry of expectation take root in our spirits tonight.

You're on the verge of a breakthrough. You're at the You're right at the tipping point of the miraculous and supernatural hand of God. It's ready to be revealed. But if we're not careful, we'll lose our expectation. And when you lose expectation, you miss the miraculous.

you miss the arrival. I don't want to miss the arrival of the next wave of revival in our church. I don't want to miss the next prodal coming home to the father's house. Expectation keeps you planted and expectation keeps you hopeful. I'm going to tell you, if you keep expectation alive in your life, I will tell you what will happen.

It's the ministry of Simeon. He was number three, a man led by the Holy Ghost. Hard to lead somebody when you're not expecting something. Verse 25 said, "And the Holy Ghost was upon him." This is what separated Simeon from the crowd. Three times in this passage that I read, the Holy Ghost or the spirit is emphasized.

The Holy Ghost was upon him. It was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost. He came by the spirit into the temple. This wasn't coincidence. But when a man is devout and just, that's the ministry of Simeon.

When a man is full of expectation, he can be led by the spirit. Because it wasn't coincidence, it was communion. He had purpose. He had faith. When I read the commentary, it highlighted that Simeon represents a rare individual in a spiritually dry time.

Someone still was sensitive to the voice of God when everybody else had zero expectation. 400 years, no word spoken. 400 years of silence. But there was one man who was just devout and expectant. And God said, "I will lead that man by my spirit.

I will lead him by my holy presence." Uh he didn't just go to church. He didn't just go through the motions. Uh he was led there by the spirit. I want to help somebody tonight. We cannot just come to church just to say we came to church.

We got what if we got in our cars and we left our home being led by the Holy Ghost with expectation. I don't know what he's going to do when we get here, but I come with an expectation even on a Wednesday night. Well, I'll get my expectation on Sunday. I I'll come expect Why can't we expect God to do something on a Wednesday? He's the same yesterday, today, and he's not predicated to a day in the week.

Hallelu. Do you believe that? He didn't just believe in prophecy. He received prophecy. I'm talking about the ministry of Simeon.

He didn't just hope, he heard. I said he heard. The ministry of Simeon is a spiritled life. I don't I don't want to get I I don't want to I'm gonna come down your your row and I don't mean to step on your feet, but I may I may step on some toes tonight. Too many today are driven by emotion.

We're driven by opinion or we're driven by routine, but Simeon was directed by the spirit of God. If we're going to see what Simeon saw, we must be led like Simeon was led. We've got to get hungry to walk in the spirit and not after the flesh. We've got to have a daily daily encounter with his presence. When's the last time you had one of those encounters?

WHEN'S THE LAST TIME WE GOT LOST in the spirit where you begin to speak in that heavenly language? When's the last time you spoke in tongues? I'm trying to help you tonight in the Holy Ghost because when we start walking in the spirit, let me tell you, you will begin to experience the ministry of Simeon. You will begin to experience the ministry. You where's your expectation?

Where's your devoutness? Where your Where's the just devout expectancy? Where is that playing? I promise you if you'll ever if you'll get a grip on being just and devout and you get a grip on if you'll get a grip on this on that spirit of expectancy then you're going to be led by the spirit and when you get led by the spirit you will hold what others miss. Simeon got to hold what others walked by.

Simeon got to experience what nobody else in the temple got to experience that day. Oh, you wonder why this person over here is getting blessed and that person over there's getting blessed. Why? Why ain't I getting blessed? Because God moves in his house.

Uh God moves with his presence. But if I'm not conscious and I'm not expectant and I'm not spiritled, I will not hold what he has designed for me to hold. The Bible said he came by the spirit into the temple and he took him up in his arms. I want you to think about this. Mary and Joseph bring Jesus into the temple.

They're not the only ones there. I believe there's priests in the room. I believe there's worshippers in the room. I believe there's religious people there. But only one man recognized here's the Messiah.

Simeon just didn't see Jesus. He held him. I believe this is the tragedy of religion without revelation. You can be in the right place and still miss the right person. You can be in the right place and God's spirit's moving and it just miss you.

You can just miss it. Your mind can be thinking about what we going to do tomorrow. We're thinking about what we going to do next week. We're thinking about the bills that's got to be paid. We're thinking about the job.

We're thinking about this. But the ministry of Simeon is recognizing Jesus when he shows up. This church cannot exist without a spirit of expectation, a spiritled move of God that when he shows up, we respond. If not, we'll be twice dead, plugged up by the roots. We'll be just like every other church on Highway 36 or Main Street.

But I'm telling you the difference in this househ when the spirit begins to move and the shakina glory fills this room. There are those of us IN THIS ROOM THAT RECOGNIZES IT. WE HOLD IT DEAR. I DON'T WANT US TO EVER LOSE the reverence for his presence. I don't want to be like I PRE PREACHED A FEW weeks ago about Samson.

THE SPIRIT LEFT AND HE never knew it. Right. I wonder how many services we've sat through and how many God moments God moved and we were present but not perceptive. We were perceptive to it. We sat and we left.

We become consumers. What can you do for me, God? What can you show me, God? When's the last time I came with expectation? God, I've come to pour I've come to pour my love on you.

I've come to pour my worship on you. We can't take a service for granted. We must maximize each and every time we gather. I want to be the one that encounters the presence of the Lord. I don't want him to pass us by.

I don't want to come near and not even I don't want him to come near and we not even recognize he's in the room. when we recognize him and experience him or hold him. You ready? This is where some of us are right now. When we recognize him and experience him, we become satisfied by him.

Could that be what's missing in our lives? We are we are just not satisfied because we haven't had a close enough encounter with him. Listen to what's listen to what Simeon said. Verse 29 through30. Lord, now let us thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.

Simeon essentially is saying, "Lord, I can die now. I've seen enough." What kind of life leads to that kind of peace? A life that trusted God's promise and saw it fulfilled. It is noted that Simeon likely waited decades for that moment. Yet, he never grew bitter.

He never lost hope. And when the promise came, he didn't ask for more. He was satisfied. The ministry of Simeon is a life fulfilled by God, not this world. We live in a generation that is never satisfied.

Always chasing the next thing. Get a house that's good for right now, but it won't be long you gonna be wanting something else. Get a new car. Get a new toy. We're we we're moving on to the next thing.

We're getting the next toy. We're getting the next idea. We're moving from job to job to this to that. We're we're ne we we are never satisfied. But Simeon teaches when you truly encounter Jesus, he is enough.

I wish we would get baptized tonight with a good oldfashioned satisfaction of living for the Lord. Because if you'll ever get if you ever get one my If you ever get the real Holy Ghost, I didn't say the showy ghost. I said the Holy Ghost. You get the Holy Ghost, it'll satisfy you. It'll keep you.

It'll hold you. It It'll keep you on the straight narrow. But you got to get satisfied with what he's gave you because satisfaction settles you in and your roots grow down and your branches grow up uh and you become something in him. Why are we looking back into a world for satisfaction WHEN HE BROUGHT US OUT OF that junk? Why are we looking back to the the beggarly elements of the world to bring happiness?

AND NO, IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK. IT'S A TRICK OF THE ENEMY. But true satisfaction comes from a relationship with him through the power of the Holy Ghost. This child is set for the fall. The ministry of Simeon was a man who spoke truth with clarity.

Can you imagine at the dedication of your child that the prophet or the man of God, the servant of God would say, "This child is set for the fall. He's eight days old and rising many in Israel. Simeon didn't just celebrate. He prophesied. He spoke of salvation.

He spoke of division. He spoke of suffering. He spoke of the sword piercing Mary's soul. This wasn't a soft and comfortable message. It was truth because the ministry of Simeon includes bold spirit inspired declarations.

We don't just need people who feel something. We need people who will say something. Not watered down truth, not cultural compromise, but spiritfilled clarity. I thank God for our teachers tonight. I thank God for our leaders of this church.

We are endeavoring to teach and preach what the good book says, not watering down to please men. We can't afford to do that. Every now and again, we need to be we we we need to be challenged and we need to be charged. This world is looking for something real, something authentic, not a form of something, but something real. something real.

I I want to come to a a conclusion, but it it will not be a quick conclusion. But I will begin that descent. Will you take up the ministry of Simeon? Simeon never pastored a church, never even wrote a scripture he was written about. He never led a movement per se, but when I began to dissect this scripture, he was something quite powerful.

He was faithful when others were not. He was sensitive to the spirit. He was anchored in promise. He was ready when God moved and the spirit led. And because of that, he held the Messiah.

That is ministry. We hold something so dear. We We hold something so holy and so precious. So here is the question. Will we be righteous when it's not popular?

Will we keep waiting when others walk out and quit? Will we remain and stay sensitive to the spirit? Will I recognize when the Lord moves? Because heaven is still looking for modernday Simeons. Men and women who don't need a spotlight.

They just need to believe a promise. They don't need a pull pit. They don't need recognition. We just satisfied with his presence. We don't need applause.

We just need an encounter with him. I want to tell somebody today, you can be a modernday Simeon in your world because Somebody's watching. Somebody's looking. I read a story today. My good friend, Pastor Zayn Isacson, shared it.

He shared it on social media and I I told him I would be using this in my message tonight. It was a story that I read and I was just it literally brought tears into my eyes as I knew what I was to teach. I would close my message with this story. Please attentively listen. My name is Eleanor.

69 years old. Five months after my husband died, a young man I had never seen before knocked on my back gate and ask me a question I still think about every day. Did your husband used to turn on the garage light at 5:45 every morning? At first I just stared at him. My husband Frank died last winter.

Stroke fast. Cruel vinyl. One week he was arguing with me about tomato seedlings and the next I was choosing a casket. Yes, I said slowly. Every morning he would go into the garage before sunrise, make coffee in that little electric kettle he kept out there and listened to the radio while he worked on wood projects.

The man nodded, looking both relieved and embarrassed. "I'm sorry to bother you," he said. "My name is Jonah. I live in the apartment building behind your alley, fourth floor. My kitchen window faces your garage.

I knew that building. Brick, narrow balconies, laundry hanging in summer." He kept his hand in his coat pockets as if he had come only halfway convinced he should be there. For three years, he said, "I saw that light come on almost every morning at 5:45." I waited. "I have panic disorder," he said. bad enough that some mornings I'd wake up convinced something terrible had already happened.

I couldn't breathe, couldn't leave the floor. I worked nights from home, so dawn was almost the worst part. It's too late to call it insomnia, too early to call it a day. He glanced past me toward the yard. But then your husband's garage light would come on.

same time, same square of yellow in the dark. And I'd think, okay, the world is still in place. That man is out there making coffee or sanding wood or doing whatever he does. Morning had started correctly. I can make it to six.

I felt my throat tighten because Frank was not a dramatic man. He was not inspiring in any polished way. He was dependable to the point of being boring. Same boots by the door, same pocket knife, same bowl of cereal at night, same garage light before dawn. I had loved him for 46 years.

But even I sometimes rolled my eyes at how fixed he was in his habits. Jonah gave a small awkward laugh. I know this sounds strange. I never met him. He had no idea.

But on days when the panic got bad, that light was the difference between losing the day and surviving it. I didn't know what to say. He looked down at the envelope in his hand and held it out to me. I wrote some of it down after he died. He said, "I thought you should know." Inside were photocopied pages from a notebook.

Not a diary exactly, more like fragments. January 12th, light on at 5:45, made tea, stayed. March 3rd, panic at 458, garage light at 5:45, breathing slowly. August 19th, saw him light something or saw him lift something heavy and laugh to himself. Strange comfort in people continuing to be themselves.

November the second, light didn't come on. Came on at 52. Felt ridiculous how much it mattered. It mattered. Then the entries changed.

February 14th, no light, snow. February 15th, no light again, worried. February 19th, house dark all week, something is wrong. And then March one, light still off. I think the man may be gone.

I didn't know him. Still feels like losing a landmark. I had to sit down on the back step. Jonah sat on the bottom step below me, giving me the kind of silence that helps instead of hurts. He saved me a lot of mornings, he said quietly.

Not by trying, but just by showing up in his own life. That sentence broke me in a way the funeral had not because Frank would have laughed if he had heard it. He would have said, "I didn't save anybody. I was just in the garage." Maybe that was the point. The next morning, before sunrise, I put on his old cardigan and went out there.

The garage still smelt like cedar dust and machine oil. His radio was right where he left it. his stool, his jar of screws, sorted by size and baby food containers. At 5:45, I turned the light on. I made tea in that dent dented little kettle and sat on the stool wrapped in a blanket, listening to the faint buzz of the radio between stations.

I did it again the next morning and the next. Three days later, I found a note tucked through the back gate. Thank you. Rough morning. The light helped.

No signature, but it didn't need one. Now I turn it on every day. Not because I think I'm replacing Frank. I'm not. The light belongs to his life, not mine.

But grief is strange. Sometimes it asks you to keep loving someone by continuing the smallest thing they left behind. My husband never wrote a book, never built a company, never gave speeches. He woke up early, made coffee in a garage, and turned on a light. And somewhere across the alley, a stranger stayed alive by trusting that light would appear.

So now before dawn, I switch it on for Frank, for Jonah, and for the fragile people we never know are arranging their hope around our ordinary habits. That story summarizes all that I've tried to convey tonight. The ministry of Simeon is simply one. Be faithful every day until he exper he he remained faithful every day until he experienced what he expected for. How many today are going to be affected by your light and what seems to be just religious routine to you.

Every service you're in your seat every Sunday. I don't have to worry. They're going to be at church. They're going to be in their place. Every Wednesday with the help, we're gonna be here.

But every day your light, every day your actions, every day your spiritual habits. You don't know who's watching when we get over yonder. And Simeon is walking by us. Simeon, I know you were probably the only one that went to the temple every day checking babies out. Is that the one?

Until one day you get you got to hold the Messiah. You got others would come to the knowledge of who he was because of one man's faithfulness. I say it often. I've said it for almost 17 years. I don't want to fall out with God.

and the very one I witness to to about God and about the church then walk in and I not be among the faithful. I don't want to sh I don't want somebody that I invited to the best church in this area when they come. I was invited several months ago. It's been several years and it's just took me a long time to get here. Where is brother so and so?

Where is sister? Oh, they don't they they don't come anymore. What? They told me this was the best place on the planet. I was so looking forward to seeing them.

Their lights went out. They're not shining bright anymore. Oh, what a tragedy. What probably one of the saddest testimonies in time is for that to be said about anyone. That when those that we witnessed to and we witnessed to them about him, when they show up, we're not here.

I challenge you tonight in the Holy Ghost. People are arranging their hope around your ordinary habits. You don't think that little hand wave? You don't think that hallelujah matters? Oh, yes it does.

You don't think your dance, you don't think getting those kids ready for midweek Bible study and driving dozens and dozens of miles to get to the h it matters. You don't think getting here on a Sunday early and serving in the king, it matters. Somebody somebody is watching the ministry of Simeon. Stand to your feet tonight. who will be here Sunday because of an invite from you.

who will walk through these doors, hear this glorious truth, maybe not because you taught them a Bible study, but because you just lived your simplistic life in front of them and they took note every single day. They watched. They observed. They knew h They knew how you weathered that horrible family crisis. They knew how you weathered that unexpected diagnosis.

They watched you with a smile on your face, courage in your heart. They watched. They're watching how you grieve in grace. watching. And on a Wednesday, we're in the house.

You may have got bad news today that nobody knows about. You may be facing family crisis right now that nobody knows about. But you stood among the redeemed tonight and worshiped the worthy holy God who has never left you nor forsaken you. Who is carrying you even in this moment? Would you just lift your hands all over this house if you can?

Would you just lift your heart and begin to utter words? Lord, I believe there is a light that's going to be shining bright in every life. The ministry of Simeon is going to pierce the darkness. The shadows of the night are going to they're going to give way to that glorious light. God, the light of the truth that dwells on the inside of us.

God, you're going to connect us with people. You're going to connect us with individuals uh who are suffering in silence but they are they are arranging their lives around just ordinary people that have experienced the light of the world that have experienced the light of truth. And Lord, right now upon the authority of your word and in the name of Jesus, I pray that you seal this word in the hearts of your people, may we never forget the simple yet profound spiritual concept. Just be faithful until it happens. Just be devout and just till it happens.

Just be expectant till it happens. Just keep letting him lead you and guide you into all truth. Just keep being that vessel submitted, surrendered and satisfied in him. Thank you Lord for this night. this word by your spirit in Jesus name.

Everybody say amen. Hallelujah.