Back to the Future

Cyndi Johansen & Bree King share with the children.

Conclusion: Pastor Jerry shares

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God So Loved the World

We can find out how much God loves us by reading in the Bible.

Jerry explaining the Cross & Manger

¹⁴ As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; ¹⁵ so that whoever ^a]believes will in Him have eternal life.

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A Return to Bethlehem

The Kidz Zone Time Machine with Cyndi

Cyndi & Jody sit with the children and share about the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ birth.

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Welcome Home: Inviting Jesus to Make My Heart His Home!

A Home of Joy

Nehemiah 8:10 & Luke 2:9-14

Something interesting you may not know about my family is that years ago Kimberly and I named our home. This is the first house we have ever owned, having previously rented or lived in military housing. The naming of our house didn’t happen for years, but after the first five to six years of pastoral ministry here in New Castle, we decided to call it, “The Haven.” The definition of a haven is, “any place of safety and shelter.” Some synonyms for the word haven are “retreat, anchorage, cover, harbor, sanctum, or sanctuary.” We want our home to be a space for grace – a sanctuary where God is at work in and through us, a retreat to find rest for the soul, a safe harbor from the storms of life, a sanctum from the insanity of the world, a cover from the attacks of the enemy, a sacred place where we will love and disciple our children to walk in the ways of the Lord.

Additionally, years ago, we named our home school, “The Little House Discipleship Academy.” This merges our family’s heritage with my sixth (or seventh) Cousin Laura Ingalls Wilder and her famous series of books, The Little House on the Prairie, and our focus on raising our children in the Word to train them to walk in a manner worthy of their calling. As a family, we intentionally and diligently protect our home to be a home of hope, love, joy, and peace. To do this, we must very intentionally and diligently walk in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ so that our hearts and minds are a haven of God’s presence before we can work together as husband and wife to create a home that lives up to its own namesake, “The Haven.” Friends, nothing happens by accident nor happenstance; you must be diligent.

This Christmas, I am inviting you to surrender your heart to be Christ’s home so that your home may become a home of hope, love, joy, and peace – a place where the weary of mind and body, a place where the heavy-burdened of heart and soul, can come and find rest (Matthew 11:28-30). If you want to transform your home, you must start with your own heart – you must become a person of hope, love, joy, and peace.

In the first two weeks, we focused on transforming our hearts into homes of hope and love, today, the message will focus how our faith invites Jesus Christ to transform our hearts into havens of joy. There is great joy you receive through a relationship with Jesus Christ! This is not only the joy of our eternal salvation, secured through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but this is the work of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of God’s presence in and though our lives that gives us a joy that will empower us through the mountaintops and valleys of our emotions and life experiences.

To illustrate my emphasis on our hearts being havens of joy so that we can create homes of joy, I want to emphasize the famous passage from Nehemiah 8:10, “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” As most of you know, I am currently studying the book of Nehemiah for my daily devotional phone calls, which then is transformed into the material for my Seize the Moment devotional books with AGF Publishing. As I was studying this passage, I wrote this devotional for this coming week’s daily phone call:

Dry Tortugas National Park is one of the most remote parks in our national park system. It is seventy miles off the coast of Key West, and you can only get there by seaplane or boat. As part of its natural wonder and historic significance, Dry Tortugas is the only deep-water safe harbor in that vicinity, making it a strategic location when ships were the key to both commerce and security for our growing nation. For this reason, Fort Jefferson, a massive stronghold, was built on the island, to protect American ships and sailors.

Whether it’s from the storms of life or the dangers of enemies, we all need a safe harbor – a stronghold to find shelter or refuge. Inside the stronghold of Jerusalem, with its finished walls and restored gates, Nehemiah the governor and Ezra the priest taught the nation of Israel where they would find their safe harbor – not in a walled city, but in God’s Word. Nehemiah 8:9-10 captures the moment they first heard the Torah:

“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, “Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

The Hebrew word translated “strength” means stronghold, refuge, or fortress. The joy of the Lord is both our safe harbor from storms and our stronghold from enemies. As Psalm 18:2 declares, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”

Seize the moment and find shelter in the safe harbor of God’s joy – put your faith in Jesus Christ!

Your home becomes a space for grace when you have become a safe harbor of God’s joy. This happens by inviting Jesus Christ to make your heart His home. The Christmas story, in Luke 2:9-14, foretells the purpose for Christ’s coming into the world:

And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

Christ came to bring us “great joy!” This is as applicable for your heart and your home, as it is for world peace. Let’s do a quick survey about what the Bible teaches about God’s joy:

Joy is not a response to circumstances; joy is the rock of our well-being – a firm foundation from which we can experience all other emotions and respond in covenant faithfulness to God, according to His promises for our lives. When joy is the deep bedrock of our souls we can experience the human realities of anger, grief, and sadness without being displaced from the rock of God’s joy into the shifting sands of human emotions. You can experience the hardships and injustices of real life while finding the security of God’s stronghold, which has been strategically built in the only safe harbor to be found out in the open seas of life. The King has made a way for this to be done for you! You can respond authentically as a child of God, and authoritatively as a soldier for Jesus, because you are secure in the Father’s love and safe in His sovereign grace.

It takes diligence to make your home a haven of joy! It’s not a response to our circumstances, it is the stronghold of our lives, the haven of our sanity, the sanctum of our peace, the rock on which we build our lives – it is the victory of our faith in Jesus Christ! Always remember, joy is the fruit of the Spirit, not a manifestation of the flesh. It is so much more than an emotional response to our circumstances. I close with this prayerful exhortation from 1 Peter 1:3-9:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.

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Welcome Home: Inviting Jesus to Make My Heart His Home!

A Home of Love

Ephesians 3:14-19

Kevin Stonerock to share about and play special song: Black Diamonds.

This song speaks to a situation that has been playing out for generations, in many shapes and sizes. There are the lost stories of the Civil War and World War I veterans who came home. There are the whispered stories of the World War II & Korea War veterans who came home. There are the loud stories that I grew up with of the Vietnam veterans who were homeless and struggling with substance abuse. There are the sensational stories of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans coming home lost to themselves and their families, with devastating suicide rates.

These stories of veterans coming home from war and struggling to transition back into their families and communities have a theme – the soldier may have left the war to come home, but the war didn’t leave them just because they came home. We’ve said, “Welcome home!” Now let’s welcome soldiers home from war in a way that invites them to experience the qualities of a home of faith that will be healing to them and to all our families. A home characterized by the four virtues of the Advent season – hope, love, joy, and peace.

There is a lot of preparation that goes into a homecoming, for both those at home and the soldier who is returning. The home itself must be actively prepared to be a home of hope, love, joy, and peace, just as the soldier must intentionally work on transforming his mind and heart from a posture of hyper-vigilance (called “Battle Mind”) to being in a posture of rest. Jesus wants to make His home in each of our hearts and in all our homes, and it is His presence in our hearts and homes that transforms us.

This Christmas, I am inviting you to surrender your heart to be Christ’s home so that your home may become a home of hope, love, joy, and peace – a place where the weary of mind and body, a place where the heavy-burdened of heart and soul, can come and find rest (Matthew 11:28-30). If you want to transform your home, you must start with your own heart – you must become a person of hope, love, joy, and peace.

Last week we focused on transforming our hearts into homes of hope, today, the message will focus how our faith invites Jesus Christ to transform our hearts into homes of love. Our Scripture for this message is Ephesians 3:14-19:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Let us pray and ask the Holy Spirit to fill us to all the fullness of God so that we may know the love of Christ and be transformed by it, so that we, and our homes, may be homes of love.

The love of God is transformational. When Jesus Christ makes your heart His home through faith, then you become rooted and grounded in love. In other words, the love of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, transforms your story – God changes you and begins the process of changing your life, your marriage, your parenting style, your motivations for work, and your inspirations for living. Our entire life becomes a dialogue about the breadth and length and height and depth of God’s love because we are supposed to bring the love of God into every area of our life.

Here’s the secret to all of this, you don’t know something until you put it into practice. Teachers know that you haven’t learned the material until you can teach it. By the same principle, you can’t know the love of God until you express it, share it, give it in each circumstance of your life. The transformative quality of God’s love is a positive feedback loop. As you grow in spiritual maturity and learn more about God’s character and His love, you can ‘teach’ or demonstrate His love more and more through your actions. God transforms your understanding of His love as you grow in Christ, and that doesn’t mean that God or His love has changed because He is constant. Rather, it demonstrates the importance of our progressive sanctification. We must pursue the relationship to experience the fullness of the transformation so that we “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.”

You are transformed by the love of Christ because the Holy Spirit fills you to the fullness of God. This is when your home becomes a space of grace for returning soldiers, when you are a person in an ongoing conversation with God about His life and what His love looks like in every situation of your life. You are transformed by love by practicing the love you were first given, and, in doing so, you become a loving person. It’s kind of like this, if you are looking for friends, be one. If you are looking for good people, be one. Love transforms you through the giving and receiving of love. It’s not a theory, it’s an action that is constantly explored, a way that is walked, a life that is lived. If you don’t know how to react to a situation or person – love! It’s the golden rule at work, as Jesus taught us in Matthew 7:12, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

The love of God is not transactional – it is freely given! The motivation for the Christmas gift of Jesus Christ is explained in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Our salvation is an action of love. You could not be saved today, if God had not taken His essence of love and expressed it in action. You are transformed because God first acted toward you, as Paul explained in Ephesians 2:1-10:

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Therefore, because of God’s love, you are to walk in the good works of love – the activity of our salvation should be an expression of that same love He first gave you. Just like we give gifts at Christmas because God for gave to us on that first Christmas, our lives become love because we are transformed by His first love! The beloved of Jesus said in 1 John 4:7-5:4:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.

The love we are to fill our homes with is the love that overcomes the world; it is the love of God that comes through faith, not the love of the world that comes through the flesh; it is a fruit of the Spirit’s work in you, bringing God’s fullness into your life (Galatians 5:22-23). If you want to make your home a safe place for the soldiers to come and find rest for their heavy hearts and weary minds, then don’t give them a counterfeit love for which they must perform. Rather, give them the love that flows from the throne of grace.

When we give this to one another, then we proclaim the gospel of peace for all the world to see, as Jesus taught in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Welcome home our soldiers by giving them a soft place to land, a space for grace to experience the security of love that will help them transform from being in a hyper-vigilant battle mind, always looking for the worst in other people, watchful for attacks and ambushes. Help them be restful at home, always looking to be their very best for other people, as they experience the peace and rest of a love that cannot be earned, and one that will never end because of that first Christmas gift. As the song O Holy Night teaches us, “Truly He taught us to love one another / His law is love and His gospel is peace / Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother / And in His name all oppression shall cease / Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, / Let all within us praise His holy name.”

Never forget, we can’t love with God’s love until we experience God’s love personally. I pray that you will accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and begin to experience the love of God for yourself personally; that’s where it all begins for each of us. For those who have already experienced God’s love, I pray that your home may become a great laboratory of learning to love as God first loved you. May you be transformed as you put into practice God’s Christmas gift to you and to me, and to all of humanity.

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Welcome Home: Inviting Jesus to Make My Heart His Home!

“A Home of Hope”

Psalm 62:5-8

He was fresh out of the military and multiple deployments oversees. He saw ghosts during the day and fought them in his sleep. He saw the eyes. The eyes that never blinked. The eyes he would never forget. The eyes that looked back at him every time he shaved. They weren’t his own, but they were the eyes through which he experienced the world. The drinking helped, but it was never enough. He was desperate for peace but found none. He told himself he was unforgiveable for what he had done; what those eyes saw him do. What he knew he was guilty of. His buddy told him that he had found some peace after becoming a part of a group that met a couple times a week. He said they talked about real life, prayed about real struggles, read from the Bible, and found real answers, helped each other out in real ways. He was happy for his buddy. God knows everyone needs a little peace in this hell of a world we live in. But they weren’t him and they hadn’t done what he did. He had to be cursed because it sure did feel like his demons were getting the best of him. He called up his buddy, not knowing where else to turn. It was late, really late, he couldn’t sleep, he didn’t want to sleep. Nights were hard. His buddy answered the phone. They were going to meet at Steak-n-Shake in 30 minutes. His buddy told him that he had been praying for him and that he had been waiting for this moment. He told him that he had some good news to share with him. God knows he needed some good news. He wasn’t sure how much more he could take of this hopeless existence. He walked out the door to go meet with his buddy, hoping to feel hope for the future again.[1]

This is a situation that has been playing out for generations, in many shapes and sizes. There are the lost stories of the Civil War and World War I veterans who came home. There are the whispered stories of the World War II & Korea War veterans who came home. There are the loud stories that I grew up with of the Vietnam veterans who were homeless and struggling with substance abuse. There are the sensational stories of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans coming home lost to themselves and their families, with devastating suicide rates.

These stories of veterans coming home from war and struggling to transition back into their families and communities have a theme – the soldier may have left the war to come home, but the war didn’t leave them just because they came home. We’ve said, “Welcome home!” Now let’s welcome soldiers home from war in a way that invites them to experience the qualities of a home of faith that will be healing to them and to all our families – a home, which is characterized by hope, love, joy, and peace.

There is a lot of preparation that goes into a homecoming, for both those at home and the soldier who is returning. The home itself must be actively prepared to be a home of hope, love, joy, and peace, just as the soldier must intentionally work on transforming his mind and heart from a posture of hyper-vigilance (called “Battle Mind”) to being in a posture of rest. Jesus wants to make His home in each of our hearts and in all our homes, and it is His presence in our hearts and homes that transforms us.

This Christmas, I am inviting you to surrender your heart to be Christ’s home so that your home may become a home of hope, love, joy, and peace – a place where the weary of mind and body, and heavy-burdened of heart and soul, can come and find rest (Matthew 11:28-30). If you want to transform your home, you must start with your own heart – you must become a person of hope, love, joy, and peace.

Today, the message will focus how our faith invites Jesus Christ to transform our hearts into a home of hope. Our Scripture for this message is Psalm 62:5-8:

My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest; the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.

Selah invites us to take a breath, pause, and pray. So let us do that. Let us be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10). Let us pray.

As we see in our passage today, a home of hope is a place of patience – a people who have learned to be still, to wait in silence, to trust God in the uncertainty and unknowing. We create a safe place for soldiers to come home when we are a patient presence for them and create space for grace amid the struggle and turmoil of stress, uncertainty, insecurity, and fear.

We come to know that God is our refuge only after we have learned how to hide ourselves in Him. It is easy to hide yourself behind a façade of success, a busy schedule, a nice appearance. But hiding in anything but God only leads to a loneliness that seeps into our souls. We hide in God so that we can risk being seen by others.

We come to know that God is the rock of my strength only after we have learned to build our lives firmly upon Him – the rock, the only secure foundation. It is tempting to build our lives on our jobs and reputations, our volunteer efforts and good works, and our pleasures and hobbies. When we build our lives on anything other than God, we are building our lives on shifting sands. We build on the rock so that we can risk being involved in real ways in real life.

We come to know that God is our salvation when we learn to put our trust in Him alone. It is preferable to keep ourselves as the center of our lives, to fight for control, to carry the full weight of responsibility for our own destinies, but when we do so we never learn to trust anyone else, and we end up crushed by our inability to carry the load to the finish line. We trust God alone for our salvation so that we can risk loving and trusting others in everyday life.

We must wait upon God so that this hope gets in our bones, so that our faith is a truth that transcends a propositional statement. Faith is meant to be what upholds us as we learn to hope in what we believe is true and wait upon the God who promises to deliver on our faith. A home of faith gives us the hope we need to be a soft place to land and a space of grace for living.

Hope is a right expectation in God – I wait upon Him knowing that He will show up in my situation. As the prince of prophets taught us in Isaiah 40:28-31:

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.

Hope is not wishful thinking – it is the certainty of Immanuel, God is with us! The Christmas miracle provides you stability during the trials and tribulations of your everyday life. Today, the first Sunday of Advent, we are invited to remember the first coming of Jesus Christ, which was awaited for a thousand years, from the time of God’s promise to King David, and for four hundred years since the faithful remnant of Jewish people received the promise of God in Malachi 3:1, “‘Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

The Jewish people were forged in a long season of waiting. When Jesus Christ came, the messengers of God proclaimed the fulfillment of their waiting in Luke 2:8-14:

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

It’s as if they were saying, “The wait is over! God has delivered on His promises! Your hope has been fulfilled. The victory has been won, and bestowed upon you, through faith in Jesus Christ! Don’t miss it!”

And I say to you, “DON’T MISS IT!” As those who believe in the Christmas miracle, hope is our superpower because hope never disappoints. God’s promises are worth waiting for, no matter how long you must wait for their fulfillment. As Paul promises in Romans 5:1-5:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Hope is a mindset – a mental perspective that anchors your everyday life and situations in the reality of God and His victory over the devil, death, and sin through His Son Jesus Christ. Hope is an “anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 6:19), which allows us make space for grace in our hearts and homes. If we want to welcome home the soldiers, then we need hope to be an essential quality of our lives. This hope is forged into our lives as wait for the Lord’s second coming. We conclude with the declaration of this hope from 1 Thessalonians 5:8-11:

But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] I found this story in my files. I’m not sure if I originally wrote it or if someone else did, but either way I modified it for this sermon. I am happy to give credit where credit is due, if I knew, all glory to God!

“The Sacred of the Ordinary!”

Luke 2:21-40 (NAS95)

The Day after Christmas (1^st Sunday of Christmastide)

These are the events a week after the Christmas miracle of Immanuel, God with us! Then, the story goes silent for twelve years with these two verses, Luke 2:39-40: “When they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth. The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.”

Then, after a short snapshot of Jesus at twelve (41-50), the story goes quiet again, this time for even longer (approximately 18 years) with these two verses, Luke 2:51-52: “And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”

So, with the exceptions of his miraculous birth story, dedication at eight days, and pilgrimage at twelve years old, the epic story of Jesus Christ, is silent on the first thirty years of His life. The next time we see Jesus is at His baptism, ready to fulfill the purpose of His life.

What happened in each of those ordinary days, along the way, in thirty years of preparation for the epic journey of Jesus Christ to the Cross—the gospel story, which is the recording of the most sacred life ever lived! There are some hints in our two passages:

While we normally celebrate the high points of Jesus’ epic life: His conception, birth, dedication, baptism, and ministry for three years that culminated with His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. And while we exhaustively discuss and debate His second coming and His promises for the future, we don’t discuss those first thirty years of preparation—the ordinary humdrum days of Jesus’ humanity in a small community as the son of Joseph and Mary, and then as a carpenter. Those ordinary years that daily shaped and prepared Jesus for his extraordinary ministry that has become the greatest Story ever told—the gospel—were just as sacred as the high days we call Christmas and Easter. Because, without each of those ordinary days, Jesus would not have grown up, increased in wisdom and stature, and in God’s grace (favor). Every day is sacred in the epic story called the gospel of Jesus Christ—the greatest Story!

I love epic stories! Whether it is a classic tale such as C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, or J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, or a contemporary epic story such as Ted Dekker’s The Circle Trilogy, or Andrew Peterson’s The Wingfeather Saga, I am all in and can’t get enough of an epic story well told! My heart comes alive and my soul years for something better as I join the characters in their story!

Epics spin tales of different worlds while, simultaneously, giving us glimpses into the very best and worst of what lies in each of our hearts. Epics tell us the truth in a way that gets beyond our normal defense mechanisms so that we may hear truths that are otherwise veiled from our eyes or caught in the shadows of our own choices. Epics are stories of biblical proportion and, whether the author knows it, point to the greatest Story ever told, because everything that is good and true and right comes from our Heavenly Father! Epics draw us in and rescue us from living in the humdrum of the ordinary by showing to us the sacred of the ordinary!

I want my life to point to the greatest Story ever told! I want my life to be fully alive—a life that causes other people to yearn for something more for their life. I believe, with every ounce of my being, that we can live this life today! Our stories are intended to point to His Story—the gospel of Jesus Christ! The gospel is the truest story ever told and it pierces the darkness of our souls and calms the storms of our hearts. We come alive when we find ourselves inside His Story! Jesus rescues us through His epic life, so that we may live the epic life today (John 10:10). Jesus calls us to join with Him in the great rescue of all human history—the epic story, called the gospel, to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). Our story points to His Story!

The Apostle Paul was radically rescued by Jesus Christ, and he devoted the rest of his life to telling others God’s epic story come alive in Him through a personal encounter with the resurrected Lord (Acts 9). It was not enough for Paul to experience the grace of God for Himself, it was His deepest desire for God’s people to be strong in the grace of God that comes through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul believed that the epic life of Jesus Christ was available to every person, not just for an eternity, but, also, for today!

The key is to learn how to grow strong in grace like Jesus Christ did, as recorded in our two theme passages of Luke 2:40 & 52, and like Paul did after His encounter with Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. Paul teaches us what it looks like for us to grow in God’s grace in 2 Timothy 2:1-7:

You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

It is from this passage that we are going to launch our 2022 sermon series next Sunday and learn how to grow strong in God’s grace by remembering our sacred call within the ordinary details of our everyday lives. With the same discipline and intentionality of a soldier, athlete, and farmer, we are to grow strong in the grace of Jesus Christ and live the epic life today. In 2011, we learned the life of a champion athlete and, in 2022, we will learn the life of a soldier on mission!

You can listen to Pastor Jerry’s message here:

You can watch the video by clicking HERE.

The Prince of Prophets Points to the Prince of Peace!

Isaiah 9:6-7 (NAS95)

Isaiah’s ministry happened during the time of the decimation of the northern ten tribes of Israel by the Assyrian Empire, culminating in the late 8^th century BC, and the coming power of Babylon who would ultimately destroy Jerusalem in 586 BC, and bring the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the remnant of Israel, into captivity for 70 years, until released by the Persian Empire. These were darks days, indeed, with great political upheaval caused by shifts of political power, warfare on multiple fronts, and the internal disease of religious chaos, caused by Israel’s generational rebellion against God and His Law.

Isaiah was a bold voice for God! He called both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah to repentance, back to covenant faithfulness to the Law of God. Isaiah prophesied against foreign nations who were invading God’s people in the Promised Land. Finally, Isaiah was a voice of hope for God’s rescue and deliverance from their current darkness—there was hope if the people would return to God!

Jerusalem, the City of Peace, was being threatened and coming under judgment! God’s people were living in apostasy and their repentance was coming too late to stop what had been set in play for their judgment. But God… God who is merciful would relent and send a future Messiah who would redeem God’s people from their transgressions, and from judgment. Listen to one such prophecy, one that we celebrate every year at Christmas, found in Isaiah 9:6-7:

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

Jesus defeated the power of death and the forces of evil to restore us back into right relationship with the Father; it is only “in Christ” that we can have “peace with” or “access to” God. When we talk about having peace with God, we must remember first and foremost that peace is the very essence of God—He is Jehovah Shalom (Judges 6:34-34). It is nothing we do; it is 100% His zeal that accomplishes this!

Peace is God’s presence—the miracle of Immanuel—His wholeness in a situation! That is what shalom means and this is God’s desire for His covenanted people, as the Prince of the Prophets declared in the following prophecies:

It is the promise of Immanuel: God is with us! God gives you peace by giving you Himself! Listen to the Christmas story as the fulfillment of God’s promise of Immanuel. From the Gospel of Jesus according to Luke 2:8-14,

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

Why was the Christmas miracle of Immanuel necessary to fulfill God’s promise of peace? Because of sin, which is rebellion against God! Sin separates us from God (Romans 3:23; 6:23). Therefore, God acted in love to give us the solution, which in a solitary word is Immanuel! God with us! God gives you peace by giving you Himself!

The Prince of Prophets pointed to how the Prince of Peace would bring about our peace. Listen to one of the suffering servant songs, found in Isaiah 53:1-12:

Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.

It was in fulfillment of all the prophecies of the Prince of Prophets that Jesus Christ came that Christmas morning over 2,000 years ago. Once and for all—to fulfill the good pleasure of His Father in Heaven. Jesus came to make a way for our sins to be forgiven so that there is no longer a separation between God and humanity, He took our enmity and gave us His peace! Through His birth in a Jewish manger and His death on a Roman cross, Jesus was exalted above all and given authority over death as witnessed by His resurrection. His shed blood covers the wrath of God for humanity’s sin (propitiation) and forever restores peace between people and God in a redeemed relationship through the forgiveness of sins. This is the work of the Prince of Peace who came so that God may dwell in us and us in Him!

Jesus is our peace, and His peace is to rule our lives. Listen to Colossians 3:12–17:

So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

May the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, not just in this Christmas week, but in each and every day that we are blessed to live in the light of His love and grace.

You can listen to the message here:

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The Birth of Love!

Luke 2:1-20 (NAS95)

Jesus should have been born to an important family in an important location. There should have been no scandal around his parentage or birth location, and the first witnesses should have at least been a class of people who could testify in court.

Jesus’ birth was witnessed by animals, angels, and shepherds as recorded in our Luke 2 reading this morning.

The miracle of Jesus’ birth is not only found in the incarnation and virgin birth, but also in its scandal to the power structures of those God came to save and redeem. The fact that it happened in a way that no powerful person would want the story of his or her birth to be told is evidence of the authenticity of the greatest story ever told!

We’ve talked about this before; Christmas is a scandal of epic proportions to the powers and principalities of this world! Christmas was very different on purpose because it was on Christmas that love was born!

That’s because Christmas was not a power play, like Caesar’s census. Caesar wanted to show the world how powerful he was by counting how many people were under his authority. Instead, Christmas is the birth of love where God entered His creation, compelled by love, to become one of His people to save and redeem His people back to Himself.

Paul explains this in Galatians 4:4-7,

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.

Christmas is the birth of love and the spreading of that love to all nations. The Father sent His Son into the world so that we can share with Jesus in having God as our “Abba! Father!”.

Love compelled God that first Christmas! John declares in 1 John 3:1-3,

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

God’s love compels us to live according to the promise of Christmas, the promise of Immanuel, God with us—the love of God has been birthed into us, full of grace and truth! Listen to John 1:12-14,

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Now we compelled by the Holy Spirit to pass on the love that was birthed in us; we are the evidence of God’s love manifesting in the world! This is commanded to us by the Beloved of Jesus in 1 John 4:7-21:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

This is the command of God for each of us this Christmas season: Give to others what God first birthed into your heart, mind, body, and soul! You are the evidence of God’s love! You are blessed to be a blessing!

To fulfill this call, let us pray in agreement with Mary in Luke 1:46-55:

My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name. And His mercy is upon generation after generation Toward those who fear Him. He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed. He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

You can listen to this message of Love below:

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