Liberty students encouraged to ‘wait and see’ what God has planned at annual Advent Convocation

Christmas spirit filled the air during Liberty University’s annual Advent Convocation on Friday, the final Convocation of the semester before finals start on Monday.

The service began with Christmas-themed music and worship, led by several university music groups, including the Wind Ensemble, conducted by Dr. Zachary Bruno, and other students and faculty from the Liberty University School of Music. The Liberty Worship Collective performed songs from its new EP, “Wait and See,” which was released at midnight. Three songs were based on traditional hymns for the Advent season. (The EP is now available for streaming on Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music.)

Vice President of Spiritual Development Josh Rutledge then delivered a message on remaining steady on the pilgrimage of Christian life. He compared the Christian walk to the settlers in the 19th century who journeyed the Oregon Trail. Just as these travelers braved incredible hardship on the road in pursuit of a future better than their current life of sickness and death, he said Christians must be willing to seek the Kingdom of God instead of being content with earthly treasures.

“To become a Christian is to become a pilgrim,” he said. “It is to come to the realization, like those settlers in the 1800s, that you can’t stay because you realize you have inherited this fallen nature and a cursed world, and the only thing that awaits there is death and darkness.”

Recognizing that the Christian life can be difficult, Rutledge said the Christmas season provides the perfect opportunity for believers to realign themselves with God’s calling.

“The value of the season of Advent is it anticipates Christmas is it’s there to remind you that you are a pilgrim,” he said, noting several examples in Scripture of key biblical figures who were themselves pilgrims. “You and I are living in the here but the ‘not yet.’ You can’t get to the joy of Christmas unless you’ve walked through the depth of Advent.”

Rutledge said there are two primary temptations that seek to steer Christians away from their journey: turning back to one’s previous life, similar to how the Israelites in the Old Testament sought to return to slavery in Egypt, and turning from the road and pitching your tent off to the side, settling for something less than God’s design.

Rutledge said this second temptation is most prevalent in modern Christianity and seeks to distort the truth of the Gospel.

“Liberty, do not fall for the lie of the progressive Christian temptation,” he said. “As a Christian and as a pilgrim, I plead with you, in your life, do not settle. Do not settle for anything less than the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, the city that does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it because the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. Never forget the promised hope of the Christian is nothing less than Emmanuel, God with us. Eternal life in the presence of a very real Jesus, who you will see face to face as surely as you can see me right now.”

“The promise of Scripture,” he said, “is that when you and I cross the final mountain ridge of our pilgrimage and we see what God has prepared for those who love Him, it will prove that our pilgrimage, no matter how painful or difficult it was, was actually a light and momentary affliction.”

To combat the trials of the trail, Rutledge encouraged Christians to find other believers who can encourage them and serve as a “wagon party of God.”

At the end of the message, he shared about a Liberty student who lost his father to cancer earlier this semester and, in ministering to the student, he told him to “wait and see” what God has planned for him. This advice eventually served as the crux of the Liberty Worship Collective’s new song, “Wait and See,” which was played in Convocation in memory of the student’s father.

President Dr. Dondi E. Costin concluded the service by emphasizing God’s love for every student.

“God’s love for you is not based on your situation, it is not based on your circumstance, it’s not based on your money, it’s not based on your grades, it’s not based on your giftedness. It’s based simply in the character of God,” he said.

“Because of the love of God for you, you have no right to be ordinary. God has in fact called you to be extraordinary. The best is yet to come. Wait and see.”