On Hampton Plantation in coastal South Carolina there used to live an elderly sharecropper, illiterate but very wise. One of his favorite sayings was this: If you ain't in trouble, your prayers ain't got no suction."

The Bible declares that our extremity is God's opportunity. God is most likely to be found at your wit's end, just when you need Him most, when you have run out of answers and almost out of hope.

Consider the great prophets of the Old Testament: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah. These were not prosperity prophets. No, they were aroused by God in times of crisis, even of national disaster.

Jesus did not visit this planet when we became good enough to receive him. "While we were yet sinners," says the Bible, "Christ died for the ungodly." He faced us at our worst, and loved us anyway, all the way to a cross.

What does this mean for you and me on this first Sunday of Advent? It means this: Those who enter this holy season with the greatest needs stand the best chance of encountering the Messiah. After all, Jesus the Great Physician did not come to heal the healthy but the sick. His mission is not to round up the pious, but to seek and to save the lost. If you are hurting or lost or spiritually hungry this December, the odds are very great that you could encounter the Messiah.

What causes me to believe this? I got it straight from an Old Testament prophet named Micah. Seven hundred years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Micah was called by God to speak his word to the nation of Judah. Though just a simple farmer, he was utterly fearless. The national situation was awful: morals were low, crime was rampant, the government was decadent, the courts were corrupt, most organized religion was formalistic and cold, and the dominant religion was materialism. Yes, that could be a description of contemporary America, but actually I'm talking about Judah in 700 B.C.

To make matters worse, Judah was a tiny nation precariously perched between two hostile superpowers--Assyria and Egypt. The nation had about as much security as a gambler's dollar in Tunica.

At that critical moment, Micah lambasted the nation's sin. But he did much more than that. Inspired by God, he looked out into the future and said: A Messiah will be born in tiny Bethlehem. God is going to send someone great to us. So don't despair. God has good news coming!

Micah and his people could only look forward to the Messiah's coming at some future date. We are much more fortunate. We live in the afterglow of a Bethlehem manger, an atoning cross, and an empty tomb. What Micah could only promise, we can actually receive and appropriate.

Look with me at the specific promises from Micah concerning the Messiah:

FIRST, THE MESSAIAH WILL FEED HIS FLOCK IN THE STRENGTH OF THE LORD.

We must have food to exist, though it doesn't take as much as we might think. Captain Scott O'Grady existed for six days in Bosnia by eating just grass and bark.

We cannot survive without food and water. But to really live we must have spiritual food. Jesus called himself "the bread of life" because we can't live abundantly until we are in relationship with him.

I talk with young adults often who tell me such similar stories that I sometimes refer to it as "yuppie syndrome." It goes something like this: When I went away to college I dropped out of church and left my faith behind. Over the next ten years I tried everything that I thought could really make life good: unrestricted sex, a convertible, making money, traveling, drugs, booze, bungee jumping, mountain-climbing, and yoga. But always in the deeper regions of my consciousness, there was something missing.

So, I decided to give church another try. When I listened to talk about Jesus and began to read the Bible and to pray, something deep within me responded. I discovered that I have a spiritual component, and until my spiritual needs are met, I will always be hungry. It was like when you are really thirsty on a hot day; though other beverages are okay, what you really want is water. Finally, through Jesus, I got some water.

Are you spiritually hungry and thirsty this Christmas? If so, Jesus wants to be for you the Bread of Life and the Living Water. Jesus promised: "He who comes to me I will in no wise turn away."

Let the Messiah feed you during this holy season. Invite him into your life as Savior and Lord. Let his spiritual food be your best gift in the worst of times.

NOTICE SECONDLY THAT MICAH PROMISES THAT THE MESSIAH'S GREATNESS WILL BE OUR SECURITY.

Do you feel insecure as we enter this Advent season? You do if your marriage is less than solid. You do if your job is at risk. You might if you have medical problems. If you have lost a loved-one in the last year, insecurity could be part of your grief.

My friend James Moore tells a story about a young man whose wife had died, leaving him with a small son. Back home from the cemetery, they went to bed early because there was nothing else he could bear to do.

As he lay there in the darkness--grief-stricken and heartbroken, the little boy broke the stillness from his little bed with a disturbing question, "Daddy, where is mommy?"

The father got up and brought the little boy to bed with him, but the child was still disturbed and restless, occasionally asking questions like "Why isn't she here?" and "When in she coming back?"

Finally the little boy said, "Daddy, if your face is toward me, I think I can go to sleep now." And in a little while he was quiet.

The father lay there in the darkness, and then in childlike faith, prayed this prayer: "0 God, I don't see how I can survive this. The future looks so miserable. But if your face is toward me, somehow I think I can make it."

That's what the Messiah came to teach us: that God's face is always towards us. Therefore, let the Messiah replace your insecurity this Advent with the following bedrock conviction: God and you are in this together. Nothing can happen that God and you together cannot manage. Nothing will ever be able to separate you from his love. Now, that's real security.

MICAH PROMISED A THIRD GIFT FROM THE MESSIAH: THE MESSIAH WILL BE OUR PEACE.

How we need peace! America is debating whether it is wise to commit 20,000 young men and women to promote peace in Bosnia. Some of the streets of Memphis resemble a war zone as drugs, handguns, poverty, and anger create an explosive mix.

Tranquilizers are still the most popular prescription drugs in America as people yearn for inner tranquility and the absence of turmoil.

Peace is not placing a policeman on every corner in Memphis. Peace comes when Jesus Christ washes sin from human hearts. Peace is not sending American troops allover the world, though at times that may be necessary. Real peace comes when Jesus Christ opens eyes so that former enemies see each other as brothers and sisters. Peace is not popping a pill when I feel anxious. Peace is a personal friendship with God's Son who said, "My peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled nor let them be afraid."

It's true that during Advent the people who meet the Messiah are often those with the worst problems and the biggest needs. It seems that Jesus seeks them out. Just as Micah declared 700 years before Jesus' birth, God's best gifts are usually given in the worst of times. Which of the Messiah's gifts do you need most this Christmas? Ask him for it. His nature is to give.

One of you told me about your sister Cheryl and her husband Scott and their little daughter Victoria who live out of state. Last Thanksgiving their home burned to the ground. Fortunately they were not home, but everything was lost.

Their next-door neighbors have an 8-year-old son Ian who is a good friend of Victoria. A few days after the fire, Scott returned to the burned house to see if he could find anything useful in the wreckage. He looked up and saw little neighbor Ian coming in his direction carrying a round styrofoam cooler. Ian opened the top of the cooler proudly, displaying thousands of pennies that his family had been saving since he was two-years-old. Ian handed the cooler to Scott and said, "I want you to use this to buy a Christmas present for Victoria."

At first Scott thought he must decline the gift, but something in Ian's eyes just wouldn't let him. The boy's expression was so full of love. So Scott hugged him and said, "Thank you very much."

Thankfully, most of us have not experienced the horror of burned-down houses, but many of us have very definite hurts and longings this Advent season. The Messiah comes to us in the spirit of Ian, offering himself as our gift. How strange it is that when we accept the gift of the Messiah, it matches exactly our hurt and need. When we tie our destiny to this Messiah-King, we can face whatever the future brings, knowing that we are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us.