Gift of Advent Weekend!

This weekend our church held a Christmas Vacation Bible School called “The Gift of Advent.” This was out first time doing anything like this and I was really unsure about how the weekend would unfold. I am so glad that we stepped out and tried it! It was such an amazing weekend and it was exciting to see the kids get excited about hearing something “real” about Christmas. Not that there is anything wrong with Santa, Frosty, Rudolph, The Grinch and all the holiday specials (we do all these things in our own home), but it was great to see the kids anxious to learn about Advent and why we celebrate (or at least should celebrate) Advent.

Advent is the four weeks before Christmas that we anticipate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to us in the form of a baby. Without Christmas, we would never have Easter, but it’s amazing to me how many people I talk to that do not make that connection. Christmas is a special time where God came to us in human form, sent us His Son to come and be a sacrifice on our behalf and die for our sins. It is my hope and prayer that we as Christ-followers never take that lightly! Without Christ coming  to redeem us and call us back to Him we have no purpose or meaning! That is what I am taking away from this past weekend. That the children we ministered to will one day come to saving faith in Jesus Christ and strive to “imitate Him” (Ephesians 5:1) in all that they say and do. I hope that Christmas becomes a season of anticipation for a Savior instead of a guy who “makes a list and checks it twice to find out whose naughty or nice.” Jesus Christ will never make a list and check it twice, He is willing to forgive you and me of our sins and make us clean and call us His child. Jesus Christ brings hope and light to a darkened world. He says in the gospel of John that He is the light of the world!

Let me encourage you to remember that today and the rest of this Christmas season. If you do not know Jesus, then let me encourage you to spend some time seeking Him, investigate the truth of His existence. Don’t just rely on what the world says or what science teaches (because it is usually their own agenda.) However you celebrate Christmas I wish you and your family a very, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Three Things People Should Hear in Every Sermon You Preach

This is a wonderful and encouraging article and also a helpful reminder!

What Does the Text Say?

There are some things that should be standard practice in every sermon. To learn to do these every time will take preparation and practice but they will make you a better, that is, a more Christ-centered and text-driven, preacher.

1. “Look at verse _____.”

You should develop a habit not only of making sure that each proposition you offer comes from the text, but also making that connection clear when you preach so that those who hear are certain that you’re preaching the text rather than your thoughts and ideas.

One of my favorite things about preaching is seeing heads drop every time I say, “Look at the first word in verse 3” or “Notice that the sentence continues into verse 4” or any number of things like this. I love seeing those heads drop to look at the text because it not only means that I’m getting this right…

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Why Jesus Came

“Because God’s children are human beings- made of flesh and blood- the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.” Hebrews 2 14:-15, NLT

Hebrews 2:14-15 is worth more than two minutes in an Advent devotional. These verses connect the beginning and the end of Jesus’s earthly life. They make clear why he came. They would be great to use with an unbelieving friend or family member to take them step by step through your Christian view of Christmas. It might go something like this…

“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood…” The term “children” is taken from the previous verse and refers to the spiritual offspring to Christ, the Messiah (see Isaiah 8:18; 53:10). These are also the ‘children of God.” In other words, in sending Christ, God has the salvation of his “children” specially in view. It is true that “God so loved the world, that he sent [Jesus] (John 3:16).” But it is also true that God was especially “gathering the children of God who are scattered abroad” (John 11:52). God’s design was to offer Christ to the world, and to effect salvation of his “children” (see 1 Timothy 4:10). You may experience adoption by receiving Christ (John 1:12).

“…he himself likewise partook of the same things [flesh and blood]…”

Christ existed before the incarnation. He was spirit. He was the eternal Word. He was with God and was God (John 1:1; Colossians 2:9). But he took on flesh and blood and clothed his deity with humanity. He became fully man and remained fully God. It is a great mystery in many ways. But it is at the heart of our faith and is what the Bible teaches.

“…that through death…”

The reason Jesus became man was to die. As God, he could not die for sinners. But as man he could. His aim was to die. Therefore he had to be born human. He was born to die. Good Friday is the reason for Christmas! This is what needs to be said today about the meaning of Christmas.

“…he might destroy the one what has the power of death, that is, the devil…”

In dying, Christ de-fanged the devil. How? By covering all our sin. This means that Satan has no legitimate grounds to accuse us before God. “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies” (Romans 8:33). On what grounds does he justify? Through the blood of Jesus (Romans 5:9). Satan’s ultimate weapon against us is our own sin. If the death of Jesus takes it away, the chief weapon of the devil is taken out of his hand. He cannot make a case for our death penalty, because the Judge has acquitted us by the death of his Son!

“…and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”

So we are free from the fear of death. God has justified us. Satan cannot overturn that decree. And God means for our ultimate safety to have an immediate effect on our lives. He means for the happy ending to take away the slavery and fear of the now. If we do not need to fear our last and greatest enemy, death, then we do not need to fear anything. We can be free: free for joy, free for others.

What a great Christmas present from God to us! And from us to the World!

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

“When they saw the star, they were overjoyed beyond measure. Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh.” Matthew 2:10-11, HCSB

God is not served by human hands as though He needed anything (Acts 17:25). The gifts of the magi are not given by way  of assistance or need-meeting. It would dishonor a monarch if foreign visitors came with royal care-packages. Nor are these gifts meant to be bribes. Deuteronomy 10:17 says that God takes no bribe. Well, what then do they mean? How are they worship?

The gifts are intensifiers of desire for Christ himself in much the same way that fasting is. When you give a gift to Christ like this, it’s a way of saying, “The joy that I pursue (verse 10) is not the hope of getting rich with things from you. I have not come to you for your things, but for yourself. And this desire I now intensify and demonstrate by giving you things, in the hope of enjoying you more, not things. By giving to you what you do not need, and what I might enjoy, I am saying more earnestly and more authentically, ‘You are my treasure, not these things.'”

I think that’s what it means to worship God with of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

May God take the truth  of this text and waken in us a desire for Christ Himself. May we say from the heart, “Lord Jesus, you are the Messiah, the King of Israel. All nations will come and bow down before you. God wields the world to see that you are worshiped. Therefore, whatever opposition I may find, I joyfully ascribe authority and dignity to you, and bring my gifts to say that you alone can satisfy my heart, not these.”

*This devotional is taken from John Piper’s “Good News of Great Joy” Advent Devotional.

 

 

Peace To Those With Whom He’s Pleased

And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” —Luke 2:12–14

Peace for whom? There is a somber note sounded in the angels’ praise. Peace among men on whom his favor rests. Peace among men with whom he is pleased. Without faith it is impossible to please God. So Christmas does not bring peace to all.
“This is the judgment,” Jesus said, “that the light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil” (John 3:19). Or as the aged Simeon said when he saw the child Jesus, “Behold this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is spoken against… that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34–35). O, how many there are who look out on a bleak and chilly Christ- mas day and see no more than that.
“He came to his own and his own received him not, but to as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, to as many as believed on his name.” It was only to his disciples that Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nei- ther let it be afraid.”

The people who enjoy the peace of God that surpasses all understanding are those who in everything by prayer and supplication let their requests be made known to God.
The key that unlocks the treasure chest of God’s peace is faith in the promises of God. So Paul prays, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing” (Romans 15:13). And when we do trust the promises of God and have joy and peace and love, then God is glorified.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men with whom he is pleased—men who would believe.

No Detour From Calvary

“While they were there, the came for her to give birth. Then she gave birth to her firstborn Son, and she wrapped Him snugly because there was no room for them at the lodging place.”                          Luke 2:6-7, HCSB

Now you would think that if God so rules the world as to use an empire-wide census to bring Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, he surely could have seen to it that a room was available in the inn. Yes, He could have. And Jesus could have been born into a wealthy family. He could have turned stone into bread in the wilderness. He could have called 10,000 angels to His aid in Gethsemane. He could have come down from the cross and saved himself. The question is not what God could do, but what He willed to do.

God’s will was that though Christ was rich, yet for your sake He became poor. The “No Vacancy” signs over all the motels in Bethlehem were for your sake. “For your sake he became poor.” (2 Corinthians 8:9). God rules all things- even motel capacities-for the sake of His children. The Calvary road begins with “No Vacancy” sign in Bethlehem and ends with the spitting and scoffing  of the cross in Jerusalem. And we must not forget that He said, “He who would come after me must deny himself and take up his cross” (Matthew 16:24).

We join Him on the Calvary road and hear Him say, “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you” (John 15:20). To the one who calls out enthusiastically, “I will follow you wherever you go!” (Matthew 8:19). Jesus responds, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). Yes, God could have seen to it that Jesus have  a room at His birth. But that would have been a detour off of the Calvary road.

*Today’s Advent devotion is taken from John Piper’s “Good News of Great Joy.”

For God’s Little People

Today is the fourth day that we celebrate Advent and here is today’s devotional for December 4th.

“In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. This first registration took place while Quirnius was governing Syria. So everyone went to be registered, each to his hometown. And Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, to Judea, tot he city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David, to be registered along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was pregnant.”  Luke 2:1-5, HCSB

Have you ever thought what an amazing thing it is that God ordained beforehand that the Messiah be born in Bethlehem (as the prophecy in Micah 5 shows); and that he so ordained things that when the time came, the Messiah’s mother and legal father were living in Nazareth; and that in order to fulfill His word and bring two little people to Bethlehem that first Christmas, God put it in the heart of Caesar Augustus that all the Roman world should be enrolled each in his own town?

Have you ever felt, like me, little and insignificant in a world of seven billion people, where all the news is of big political and economic and social movements and of outstanding people with lots of power and prestige?If you have, don’t let that make you disheartened or unhappy. For it is implicit in Scripture that all the mammoth political forces and all the giant industrial complexes, without their even knowing it, are being guided by God, not for their own sake but for the sake of God’s little people- the little Mary and the little Joseph who have to be got from Nazareth to Bethlehem. God wields an empire to bless his children.

Do not think, because you experience adversity, that the hand of the Lord is shortened. It is not our prosperity but our holiness that he seeks with all His heart. And to that end, He rules the whole world. As Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He will.” He is a big God for little people, and we have great cause to rejoice that, unbeknownst to them, all the kings and presidents and premiers and chancellors of the world follow the sovereign decrees of our Father in heaven, that we, the children, might be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.

The Long-Awaited Visitation

Today is Day 3 of Advent, so enjoy today’s reading and remember these are not my own, I am borrowing them from John Piper’s, “Good News of Great Joy” Advent Devotional.

“Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and provided redemption for His people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, just as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets in ancient times; salvation from our enemies and from the clutches of those who hate us. He has dealt mercifully with our fathers and remembered His holy covenant…”     Luke 1:68-72, HCSB

Notice two remarkable things from these words of Zechariah in Luke 1. First, nine months earlier, Zechariah could not believe his wife would have a child. Now, filled with the Holy Spirit, he is so confident of God’s redeeming work in the coming Messiah that he puts it in the past tense. For mind of faith, a promised act of God is as good as done. Zechariah has learned to take God at His word and so has a remarkable assurance: “God has visited and redeemed!”

Second, the coming of Jesus the Messiah is a visitation of God to our world: “The God of Israel has visited and redeemed.” For centuries, the Jewish people had languished under the conviction that God had withdrawn: the spirit of prophecy had ceased, Israel had fallen into the hands of Rome. And all the godly in Israel were awaiting the visitation of God. Luke tells us in 2:25 that the devout of Simeon was “looking for the consolation of Israel.” And in Luke 2:38 the prayerful Anna was “looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

These were days of great expectation. Now the long-awaited visitation of God was about to happen-indeed, He was about to come in a way no one expected.

 

 

 

Mary’s Magnificent God

Over the next few days I will be sharing a daily devotional for Advent. These devotionals are from Desiring God’s “Good News of Great Joy” devotional book by John Piper. I pray that has you read and meditate on these daily readings that your heart will be filled with the joy, love and adoration of the one who came to us, Jesus Christ. Advent is for adoring Jesus!

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior, because He has looked with favor on the humble condition of His slave. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed, because the Mighty One has done great things in me, and His name is holy. His mercy is from generation to generation on those who fear Him. He has done a mighty deed with His arm; He has scattered the proud because of the thoughts of their hearts; He has toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. He has satisfied the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. He has helped His servant Israel, mindful of His mercy, just as He spoke to our ancestors, to Abraham and his descendants forever.” – Luke 1:46-55

Mary sees clearly a most remarkable thing about God: He is about to change the course of all human history. The most important three decades in all of time are about to begin. And where is God? Occupying himself with two obscure, humble women- an old and barren (Elizabeth), one young and virginal (Mary). And Mary is so moved by this vision of God, the lover of the lowly, that she breaks our in song- a song that has come to be known as “the Magnificant” (Luke 1:46-55).

Mary and Elizabeth are wonderful heroines in Luke’s account. He loves the faith the of these women. The thing that impresses him most, it appears, and the thing he wants to impress on Theophilus, his noble reader, is the lowliness and cheerful humility of Elizabeth and Mary. Elizabeth says, “Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me?” (Luke 1:43). And Mary says, “He has looked with favor on the humble condition of his slave.” (Luke 1:48).

The only people whose soul can truly magnify the Lord are people like Elizabeth and Mary- people who acknowledge their lowly estate and are overwhelmed by the condescension of the magnificent God.