Brother Gary Sunday Morning 12/14/14

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 12/14/14

Luk 2:1  And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

Luk 2:2  (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

Luk 2:3  And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

Luk 2:4  And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

Mic 5:2  But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

The birth of Christ was ordained back in eternity.  The prophecy was written 5 or 6 hundred years before the time of Christ. 

Everlasting: from eternity.  Jesus was ordained to come from clear back in eternity.  The name Bethlehem means the city of bread.  Jesus, who was ordained to be born there, is the bread of life. 

Bread is satisfying.  Yesterday I was trying to work outside and I began to smell these aromas from inside the house.  My mouth can water at just the aroma of things.  I went into the house and Karen had pumpkin bread cooking.  Before long there were smells of hot, light bread.  There is nothing that smells as good for me as hot bread.  I could take it for the appetizer, the main course, and then again for dessert.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  It was a small town of only 3,000 people.  It was a little town 6 miles back off of the main road, located on the top of a mountain.  Joseph and Mary had traveled about 100 miles to get to Bethlehem. 

Luk 2:6  And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

Luk 2:7  And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

We don’t know how many days they had traveled, but they came from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  A lot of others had come to Bethlehem and there was no place for them to be housed.  God always makes a way.  The manger where they stayed is where Jesus was born.

Luk 2:8  And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

Luk 2:9  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

The shepherds were visited by one angel first.  Every one of us in our lives experience times when we sense that there is a presence very close to us.  In this account it was an angel, often times I believe in our lives it is an angel or Jesus himself, it can be God the Father, or the Holy Spirit of God.  We sense that we are in the presence of the divine.  We perhaps don’t know exactly why.  Sometimes it is later that day or that month, but God has a way of showing Himself to us.

The angel said, “Fear not.”  When GOD draws nigh…, He will draw nigh today.  He will draw nigh in days to follow if you and I live. 

God will never ask anything of you that will not be the very best.  God will not take anything from you that will leave your life impaired. 

As God is drawing near, does He want to lay a special burden upon me to fulfill His special plan in this world?  It may be, but the grace of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you.  God’s way is always best.

Luk 2:10  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

God’s message was sent to show the greatness of the heart of God.  He sent Jesus to all people of every nation, to be the savior and the sanctifier.

Luk 2:11  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

Jesus as the savior, the deliverer:  Everyone that is born into this world and comes to the age of accountability needs a deliverer.  Romans 3:23 tells us that sin is a common denominator of everyone that reaches an age of accountability. 

“He that knows to do good and does it not to him it is sin.”  When we have done that which disobeys God and we know it is wrong then that is sin.

We are delivered from sin and from our self.  We were probably taught that the worst enemy we can have is not one that is out there but we can do things to hurt ourselves and to hurt others.  The deliverer delivers us from the power sin and of the devil.

He is the rock.  From Old Testament to New Testament teaching, it shows Jesus as the Rock.  It is wonderful that there is a savior that is a rock that we can build our lives upon.  Times change, God doesn’t.  Principles that were right and have been right will be right.

When you stand upon that rock, on His Word, all the promises are yea and amen to them that believe.

This savior is Jesus that makes one whole:  We live in a world of emptiness.  Lives are so empty, faces are so empty, and relationships are so empty.  Jesus the savior came to fill the emptiness of life.  Lives are empty that appear to have everything.  If you are interested in whatever it might be in life, you can have those things, but there is something on the inside that is still empty.

I read a Christmas card that said, “Jesus came to fill the hole in the heart.”  There is a vacancy in each heart.  It is in the heart off a child, the heart of a young person, the heart of an adult.  We can all reach a certain age and think, “I am more mature than I was.”  We can all gain understanding and growth and mature that way, but no matter the accomplishments or the failures, without Jesus there is a great hole and a great void.

DS Warner said, “Sin had made my life so bitter, but Jesus makes it pure and sweet.”  Brother Bill Cornelison sang, “I’ll never be lonely again.”  Brother Bill and Sister Doris are going through a difficult season of their life.  Sister Doris is slowing down a little more every day.  Those are tough times. 

The story I know of Brother Bill’s life:  very young, he lost his mom.  Some of you in this audience have lost your mom or your dad.  Those are great losses.  Only Jesus can fill that emptiness.

“I’ll never be lonely again.”  There is something in all of us to get lonesome.  That is natural.  Some may say, “I am really missing my sister and I will never see her again on this side of eternity.”  You that have lost children feel that pronounced loneliness.  Someone said, “I have one that makes me whole, I will never be lonely again.”

It is Christmas time.  Heaven taught us that the Father gave the very best gift.  He gave His only begotten Son.  Jesus was not born in the best of birthing facilities or the best of facilities in that day.  He was born in a lowly manger and he is the one that satisfies that craving that we feel today.

When you feel that craving for something that isn’t tangible, that is God, it is how He made us.  Jesus is the one that makes us whole.  He fills the desires.

The desire of all nations shall come:  there is something missing everywhere where Jesus isn’t.  Where Jesus is not in the heart, there is something missing.  Jesus, the savior, the governor of our heart gives strength to do well.

Some in this audience are very taxed.  There is a source of strength.  That source is Jesus.  The bible doesn’t tell us how many times Jesus was strengthened by an angel, but He was.  He came, and early in his ministry he faced unbelief and rejection.  He faced lots of challenges. 

He know the source of strength and He received strength.  The birth of Jesus Christ was a fulfillment of many prophecies.

Zec 13:1  In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.

There is nothing more wonderful than a bath.  Having worked hard, lived through the occasions of the day: whether handling sooty things, sawdust, hay bales, or whether your job is mental challenges, it is wonderful that we live in an area where water is not restricted and you can have a literal bath and feel clean. 

More wonderful is that God prophesied through Zechariah that there would be a fountain opened for the cleansing of sin.  We are all boggled by the sin of our day.  Jesus dealt with that.  Any individual that feels unclean, when they come to Jesus repenting, the Father looks at it like, “I have opened a fountain through my Son that will make the vilest of sinners clean.”

Jesus came into the world because of the love of God.  It is a marvelous thing that God can love the unlovely so much.  God himself knew that it would take more than laws or the slaying of individuals.  There is something about the love of God coming to you and me. 

God sent Jesus, He could have done a lot of things, but He chose to come to bring a savior to us.  He didn’t choose to cause all of us to be born deaf, or to cause all of us to be stricken with poverty, He chose His love. 

May God help me to be as DS Warner said, “Would my soul could more encompass Heaven’s love …”

Oh the Love of God!  The love of God in our heart, that came to our heart!  The reason that you and I have a testimony that cannot be denied is because of the love of God to us. 

No matter how deep you are in this or that, if you can only know the love of God, it changes our very atmosphere and the goodness of God leads us to repentance not to be repented of.

Jesus came because mankind needed a savior.  Jesus does a lot of things, but the first thing that He came for was because mankind needed a savior. 

He came to give true liberty and true freedom.  That is not to obey the dictates of our flesh and mind.  It is to be free to worship and serve God.  To be His disciple.

He came to bring fathers to children.  I have so enjoyed the thought of John the Baptist.  We can imagine what the dark days were before Jesus came.  There was a man sent by God, John the Baptist.  God ordained that he would come to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers.

Oh what a difference it makes when a child loves God and prays for his parents.  The best thing that you children can do for your parents is to pray for them.  The prayer of a child!  There is not an equation that will tell the strength of that prayer. 

The prayer of a parent!  I think of the prodigal son: he left, but the father was home praying.  John the Baptist came to turn the hearts.

Jesus, in Matthew 13, told of how the days were in John the Baptist’s time: that many hearts would be calloused, “but unto you it is given to understand the mysteries”.  There was a ‘but’ there.

Jesus prayed for the home.  It is wonderful to have a home.  If you feel that you have a house full of children then you are blessed.  Jesus came for the home.

It is designed that the home be built upon the Rock of the savior.  Jesus came so that we could really have the savior.  He makes all the difference in the world.

He came to be a ruler, a governor with the heart of a shepherd.  Psalms 23

This savior is also a shepherd in this thought: I’ll carry the lambs.  If you are just starting out serving God, He will carry you close. 

They tell me that when a baby is born the best thing you can do is bring that baby back and put it right with the mother.  When we get born again then the best place is right with the shepherd.

The shepherd of the sheep said that He would come to the fold and let you know that He is coming.  He puts his own sheep out and goes before them.

He came to break down the middle wall of partition.  We all come from different places, with different thought patterns, different filters for our mind and speech.  But there is no middle wall of partition.

We have different priorities.  Not everyone would pay $5 for a loaf of bread.  I tell my wife that her bread is worth $10.  This morning I had it up to $11. 

He came to break down that middle wall of partition.  Every one of you children are different.  You come from different homes.  You all learn to love each other and there is never to be “I’m better than you, because of whatever.”

Jesus came to forgive sin.  He came to bring His Word to wash us.

There was a little lady, she was a very gifted lady and may have been a professional entertainer.  She was somewhere in England and by the time she was about 35 she had exhausted all her resources.  She became an invalid, confined to a bed.  One day a Swiss evangelist came to the town and someone told him about her. 

He was able to contact her and told her about Jesus.  After he got done telling her about what Jesus the savior came to do and had done for thousands or millions.  She asked the question, “How can I come to Jesus the Savior?”

There is only one way to come and that is just as we are.  We must come with the willing and obedient desire, “God I want a savior.”  I looked for a savior in myself and I didn’t find one, in people, in successes, in jobs, in vacations, and the list goes on and on.  I tried to find something to satisfy.

He was born about 2,000 years ago on a hill in Bethlehem.  The savior came, He was announced by the angels.  He hasn’t lessened in being a savior today.  He is still the same today.

The only way to come is just as you are.  We all come to the position in our journey of life, “God I really need a savor.”

After we get saved and there are many things pressing in, “Can I find what I need in friendship, in this or that?”  There is a savior that sticks closer than a brother.  Life has taught me something that my mother tried to teach me and I didn’t grasp.  My mother told me, “It is a lonely road being all by yourself.”  God chooses that our road be lonely sometimes so that we realize that “I need a savior.”

Some of you with children think, “Lonely?  It could never happen.”  Ask some that are here.  They had children.  Now they are grown.  Can they be lonely?  Yes.  But let me help you remember, He puts the sheep out and goes with them.

You may feel the pains of loneliness.  You will feel them.  “Oh if I could only go home.”  Wherever you are this morning, God knows.  He sent His Son to be a savior and He sent Him because He loved.

What an impact love makes.  Charlotte Eliot said, “How can I come?” 

Can anyone reject the love of God?  I don’t want to reject Him.