The LORD's Day, November 29, 2009 First Sunday in Advent

Its Christmas Time!

Isaiah 9.1-7

I was coming out of a restaurant on Main Street last weekend with my granddaughter, Emma. The Christmas decorations were all up. She said to me, “Look at this Poppa! The Christmas decorations are all up and it isn’t even Christmas yet!”

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it is the shopping season “officially”. I went by Best Buys and Toys R Us Thanksgiving evening and saw the huge lines. These next four Sundays are what has become known in the church as Advent, the time of commemorating the waiting for Jesus to come the first time. On this first Sunday of Advent we see in Isaiah’s prophecy that:

1. Christmas Time is a Time of Light v.2

The world when Jesus was born was very dark.
There hadn’t been a Word uttered by God for 400 years. Four centuries of waiting from the last words of the Old Testament until Jesus was born.

There was widespread sin and the oppression.

There was a sense of hope but it was dim.

We see two people in Luke’s account who were waiting. Luke 2.25-38 Simeon and Anna. We wait for Jesus to come while we watch Him work.

Christmas is a time of Light And Life.
Paramedic Jane who brought the baby back from death two weeks ago.

2. Christmas Time is A Time of Joy v.3

Joy to the world!

Listen to these words of the prophet. They were given to people who had seen a lot of pain and suffering. Northern Galilee had seen its share of war and the ravages of it.

This is a time of great depression today.
People who lost loved ones feel deep pain
People separated from family hurt.
People facing financial problems feel bad.
All these and more were part of the lives Isaiah was speaking this originally to. Yet when times are tough, God speaks of the hope of joy coming.

3. Christmas Time is a Time of Peace v.4-5

We are told He is the Prince of Peace. He is our peace. It is not an absence of war as horrible as war is and it is horrible! My friend Rudy is involved with an organization which assists families who have lost loved ones in battle and those who have loved ones who are severely injured. He spoke of some of them to me this week. God bless them.

Jesus is speaking about a peace within. Peace in our hearts and mind that as we spoke of last week transcends all understanding.

Jesus came so He could become our Peace!

4. Christmas Time is a Time to Celebrate Christ Jesus’ Birth v.6-7

Its sad many don’t know what it means but we do! Let’s celebrate! Put up the decorations, write Christmas Cards - do something outrageous! Give, love worship! The Magi traveled many miles to worship Him. When they found Him it was a celebration! This where we get our gift giving idea and it is a good one. Warm the hearts of loved ones and people you care about by doing something wonderful for them! It doesn’t have to be expensive to be meaningful. It can be though!

5. Christmas Time is a Wonderful Time to think about Who He is! v.6b

He is the Wonderful Counselor! Sometimes He can help us with a one word answer like “Wait”

He is the Mighty God! He can do anything and nothing is too difficult for Him!
Computer message: We were unable to perform your request.

He is the Everlasting Father. We all need fathers and the LORD is our Forever Father.

He is the Prince of Peace.

Basic things this morning. Things we know but how we need to have our minds refreshed and our hearts stirred over these truths of Christmas. We need to keep these truths close to our hearts. The enemy is very subtle when it comes to these things and stealing them from our lives. People feel overwhelmed at this time of the year. Most miss the true meaning of the season. Don’t let this happen to you. Christmas is a celebration for us!

LORD, may this Christmas our hearts be focused on You. May we remember that You came and why You came. May we worship You!

The LORD's Day November 22, 2009

A Benefit of Thanksgiving

Philippians 4.4-9

Forget not all His benefits Psalm 103

Prayer is so helpful with anxiety. So often we have said after a time of prayer, “I feel like a load has been lifted.”

Thanksgiving is another way, part of prayer yes, but a further way to replace anxiety with peace.

God is giving us secrets to life here in His Word.

1. Counting Your Blessings

Thank God for them. Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow.

Forget in Psalm 103 “wither” Don’t let your memory or your awareness wither.

Counting Our blessings:
*Refreshes our memory of where He has helped us in insurmountable need and overwhelming situations. Reflecting on the faithfulness of God in the past gives us hope for the future and help with present situations.

*It helps us with “hopeless” situations.
Jesus has never failed us. He has always come through for us. Think About His Love!

* It takes our attention off of our problems and puts them on the Giver of all blessings. We need this. If you are having trouble with anxiety, ask yourself, “How thankful am I?” Thanksgiving helps cure anxiety.

2. Praying over Problems Without Thanksgiving can make us focus on them.

Thanksgiving focuses on the LORD Who has blessed us and is blessing us. It is present and past in its nature. I know I have heard people start praising God before an answer is given but that is not my nature. I have also seen people praising God for healing and a loved one goes to be with the LORD.

Petition is about our present problems, thanksgiving is about what God has done and is doing. Petition is about our struggles and needs. Thanksgiving gives us hope because of what God has done and is doing. It helps from becoming overwhelmed with such great needs we have.

The Feasts in Israel were designed by the LORD to get the nation to remember its past, present and future with God.

The secular radio now for the 2nd time this month has told how being thankful or an attitude of gratitude is therapeutic for depression. One host this week told her listeners to write out on a piece of paper what they are thankful for and it will chase the blues away. Whenever the world tries to take on the truth it comes up short. Write down your blessings in the depth of despair!

We are to give thanks as we present our requests to the LORD.

3. Thanksgiving as we present our requests to the LORD is used by Him to bring our minds to a place where we have peace we cannot explain.

We want answers. God gives His peace.
We want solutions God gives His grace.
We want to escape. He has in the battle.

The end result of this activity is a guarding of our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Not just nice sounding words./An experience beyond words.

Count Your Blessings:

List them.

*Jesus Christ

*God’s Word

*Family
13 ½ hours, 6,882 miles Lucy approaching Alaska as we are here.

*Church Family

*Christian Friends
Not part of this fellowship but in our lives and hearts

*Past Blessings of Heroes of the Faith
Example: My Nana, Brother Hazard, Oliver Wirth

*Special Way this year God came to you
Meeting the Paramedic who saved the little boy’s life last Sunday on South Spur

Bring them Tuesday Night! Bring an Offering for World Evangelism.

The LORD's Day November 15, 2009

Living Up To What We Have Already Attained

Philippians 3.1-16

Our walk with the LORD is a dynamic relationship. He has wrapped it around life. Some people have said, “It would be easier if God will spell it all out for us… one to twenty…” He doesn’t work that way. Our relationship is based on the dynamic of love.

In Ephesians 5, we see the relationship with Christ and the church described as that between a husband and a wife, a love relationship. I love watching couples going through life together, supporting each other, caring for one another. The dynamic of love is wonderful! If it is all spelled out by the husband or wife the spontaneity and excitement of love is not there.

Yet there is an order… Living here means to proceed in a row as the march of a soldier, to go in order
To go on prosperously, to turn out well, to walk, to direct one’s life.

There is an order to love, there are certain things we do if we love someone. While loving and being loved is the most freeing sensation in the world, it is not just feeling. It is doing and being.

There are ten commandments which Jesus said are summed up like this, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself.”

Living up to what we have already attained means that we are doing the things we know to do and not doing things we should not do because a deep, ever growing, abiding love we have for Jesus Christ.

1. This is not perfection v.12

There is no such thing as a perfect marriage. We fall short.

Believers come up short. Paul said that he had not arrived. None of have. We won’t arrive until we get to heaven. We will be like Jesus when we see Him.

Living up to what we have already attained is living up to where we are with our love and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

It isn’t living by a list of rules. Paul had done that well. (vs. 6,9) It is pleasing a Person. It is living by faith and love. A daily quiet time is a wonderful thing. It can be looked at in two ways. It can be looked at something I do and then check off my “to do list” as done or it can be a time of sweet communion with Jesus Christ.

There are things that are going to come to us between now and the time we go to be with the LORD that are going to make us more like Jesus. As we grow God reveals things to us. As we obey we are shown more of Jesus by Himself and are given more to do
John 14.21

We need to see this truth about not being perfect in ourselves as well as in others. We can be hard on ourselves but we can be and often are much harder on others. Every time I find myself criticizing some one I have to look inward and see where I am falling short. Romans 2.1 “… for whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”

2. This is not where someone else is.

Notice how personal this third chapter is. Paul is speaking about his own spiritual journey. He is talking about his own walk with the LORD.

Our walk with the LORD is just that “our walk with the LORD.” Now it is true that some use that as a shield to do their own thing in areas of obvious disobedience. That is not right.

Nevertheless living up to what we have already attained is living up to what we and not someone else has attained. We need to be careful we are not imitating the Holy Spirit. We are to imitate Christ. God will speak to people wonderfully and perfectly. I remember a new believer years ago coming to me all upset. We were at a funeral and one of his relatives who had not yet heard about his coming to Christ found out that evening. Instead of rejoicing, he began to tell him things he ought to be doing. It confused him. Like taking a child who has just learned basic arithmetic and trying to get him to understand algebra or calculus.

It is a walk and some are further down the road in their sanctification than others, simply based on the fact that they have been at it longer. Others because they have been more obedient or because of the measure of suffering in their lives have a closer walk with Jesus.

3. This is where the LORD has brought us.

Luke 7.47 Those with many sins which have been forgiven love much.

Attained= arrive at

Do you have a handle on where you are at on the journey to heaven?

Teach us to number our days aright, so we may gain a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90.12

We have been given a measure of light. We are being called to love (and live) up to that light.

4. This is Living

We do a lot of listening. We ought to be doing more.

A believer should not be able to look back and say, “I was a stronger Christian then. I was closer to the LORD at that point in my life.”

Too many today are living less than they have attained.

Are there things today that you know you ought to be doing? Are there areas of service to Jesus, quiet out of the way things that you know in your heart you ought to be in the middle of? Don’t wait. Right now purpose in your heart that you will. God will give you strength and enable you to do wonderful things in His Name.

5. This is sanctification.

Living in all the light and knowledge you have been given.

Pressing onto what is ahead.
This is not heaven. Retirement and Rest is in heaven. The night is coming, Jesus said, when no man can work. We must work while it is day.

Forgetting what is behind.
This is not always easy to do. God will help us here too.

Live up to what we have already attained. God help us. May we be doing all we know we ought to do. May the LORD give you a spirit of endurance. May we follow Jesus closely.

The LORD's Day, November 8, 2009

The Comfort of Christ’s Love

Philippians 2.1-4

As we said in the Bible Studies this week, this is akin to saying, “If the sky is blue…”

There is great comfort in the love of Jesus Christ. This is part of God’s unspeakable gift for which we all are giving thanks for. In fact in many ways the comfort of His love is unspeakable! Like an old Irish pastor once said, “It is better felt than telt.” You have to experience it.

There are some areas that we know of and can speak about when it comes to this wonderful experience of being comforted by the love of Jesus. Yes Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so!

1. The Comfort of His Love When I Have Failed Him.

We fall short. The more we read the Bible the more the places where we fall short is evident.

I John 1.7-9

We are to confess our sins and He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Jesus doesn’t condemn us.
He picks us up.
He speaks to us gently.

Psalm 131.2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

The word comfort literally means “a persuasive speech”. It is rooted in a word that means to arouse or stimulate, to calm or console.

Jesus spurs us on through the Spirit within our hearts.

He calms us when we are in trouble. Psalm 46.1
His Word calms us.

He calmed the storm in the Gospels. He calms the storms in our lives. He calms the storms for his child or He calms His child in the storm… more often it is the latter.

Again this week I heard someone say, “God will never give us more than we can handle.” Obviously they don’t know their Bible very well. Just look at those disciples out on the Sea of Galilee that night when the storm blew up. They cried out, “LORD, save us! We are going to drown!” More than they could handle these fishermen were bailing water out but couldn’t keep up with it and finally woke Jesus up as the ship appeared to be sinking. They were looking for another hand on deck but He calmed the storm immediately. What a comfort.

Keep your heart tender.

2. The Comfort of His Love In the Death of a Family Member or Friend.

Difficult when it is both.

There is nothing like this comfort because there is nothing like this pain. There is something about the LORD you don’t know about until death comes.

What are His persuasive words here? I am the Resurrection and the Life.
Calming words. He will come again and take us to be with Him.

Having been on both sides of death- comforting people and needing to comforted myself, I know there is a comfort that only Jesus can bring. When it is there people go on with hope, when it not people go on but without hope.

We are approaching the holy days- days of worship for us as believers. Thanksgiving and the celebration of Jesus’ birth are some of favorite parts of the year. I really in many ways am a kid at heart. I think that is one of the reasons I am enjoying being a Poppa. I get to do things with my grandkids that I love.

Losses of loved ones are augmented during this time of the year. Going through these holidays with many memories and then the cold reality that someone is missing is difficult to say the least. Jesus will come to you who are grieving today and will be close by you as you walk through these next 2 months.

We’ll have my brother’s kids here with us. I love having them. Yet I told my daughter that it is a reminder of our loss. God has been with us and He will be with you in blessed ways.

3. The Comfort of his Love When Thinking About Time and Eternity.

We live in a time of stress. The LORD is with us. Jesus comforts us with His love as we walk.

For those who know the LORD, His return does not frighten us but we long for Him to come. Several people have expressed that desire this week. One of our comforts in death is the LORD is coming back and we will be with all those who died believing. His Word gives us hope-Psalm 130.5

4. The Comfort of His Love All the Time.

Have the same love for others.
v. 3-4 Jesus is like this, being Christlike.
This is perfect love.

In fact nearly this whole chapter is becoming like Jesus, following His example. It is interesting to me how the LORD throughout the history of the church beginning in Revelation, has been calling it back to Him, to reflect Him, to be His representation to the world. He did it in the1600’s with Luther, the 1700’s with Wesley, the 1800’s with Finney and Moody, in the 1920’s with Billy Sunday, in the 1940’s with Youth for Christ, in the 1960’s with the Jesus Movement. He is calling the church back to Himself today. He wants His Church to be like Him.

This is our goal… to be like Jesus. As we are comforted by His love, we are to look to share that love with others.

Jesus was the most selfless human being who ever lived. He had no selfishness or sin like us. He lived for the glory of the Father and for others. When I was a kid in Sunday School they taught us this acrostic the was to have joy is to out things in this order:
Jesus
Others
Yourself

That is the way we ultimately experience the comfort of His love- by sharing it with others. He comforts us- we comfort others and we are moving toward becoming more like Jesus!

5. The Comfort of His Love For All Time and Into Eternity.

When We All Get to Heaven! What a day of rejoicing that will be!
Revelation 21.1-7

Today, let the comfort of His love come to you and comfort others with it!

The LORD's Day November 1, 2009

Giving Thanks For The People God Has Put In Your Life

Philippians 1.3-11

It is Thanksgiving month. It is a national time of giving thanks. We see the Judeo Christian roots in our nation in this holiday which was originally a holy day. Began officially by a proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln, he really just penned into law what Americans had been doing since the Pilgrims celebrated that first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Now as we look back on President Lincoln’s proclamation we realize it was to preserve the original intention of this Holy Day in writing.

We need to recapture the meaning of this holy day in our nation. We, as believers, need to because if we don’t noone else will. A new book was reviewed this week on the radio, WCBS 880. It is about the valleys and mountains of life. The author told of how in the valleys we need to be thankful for all the good things we have. That helps lift us out. However the LORD was never mentioned, not once. Thanksgiving is being expressed without Him today and it is empty and pointless. We need to recapture the meaning by celebrating what it really is. It is already a law. Let’s make it a celebration!

My daughters invited their cousins to come to celebrate. So from Albany, Philadelphia and New England travel plans are being made. Lucy will have just returned from China, LORD willing, and we will gather together to ask the LORD’s blessings and celebrate and give Thanks to God Almighty for His goodness to us. We have a lot to celebrate!

Too often we allow circumstances to dictate our giving of thanks. When things are not all we want them to be we can focus on the little negative stuff and miss huge blessings in our lives. We can be facing the first Thanksgiving without a loved one. This can hurt deeply, but it is therapeutic to give thanks. Even in the Valley of the Shadow of Death we have much to be thankful for. The LORD is with us. It is hard, as I wrote to someone this week, even if we know someone we love is with the LORD, because we are without them. But Jesus is with us and for that we can give thanks.

One of the blessings we can overlook and therefore never give thanks for in a tangible way are the people the LORD has placed in our lives.

Paul wrote this letter from a Roman prison. He had a lot to complain about. There are no complaints in this letter because of the joy in his life. Do everything, he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, without grumbling or complaining.

1. Thank God for the People Who Have been a Blessing In Your Life
v. 3-4

Paul was thanking God. Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow!

I thank My God is a phrase we should utter often. It is God Who has blessed us.

He has blessed us with good godly people in our lives! He has blessed us with people who love us and care for us… people who care about our souls!

Thank God for the extra special people who have been a blessing to you in life’s most difficult times. Paul knew lots of people. He helped start many local congregations in major cities throughout the Roman Empire. The Philippian Church was his sweetheart church. It caused him no problems we know of and it helped in his time of need. (4.10-19)

There are people in your life who are faithful. They have been faithful friends. Tell them this Thanksgiving that you thank God for them and then tell them why. That is what Paul, the apostle, was doing here.

2. Express Appreciation to Those Dear Folks V.3

He did what He could. In chains, he wrote- dictated a letter… under house arrest. He was limited. We are not. We can do a lot!

Think of all we could do! Telephone, Computer, Text, Make something meaningful…

He specifically thanked them for blessing his soul.
There are people you know who always bring joy to your heart when you think of them. It is time to express appreciation to them. Begin by thanking God and then…

3. Speak From The Heart

That is tough for those who tend to speak off the top of their heads, or off the tip of their tongues.

Let those who have been a blessing to you know it.

Let the inner feelings and meditations of the heart come out for these folks.

Paul did throughout this letter. It is the most affectionate letter he wrote. He was a man’s man. Tentmaker, apostle, shipwreck survivor, got beaten and stoned and got up afterwards and went back to the city.

But he had a gentle side and he spoke from his heart to this church who had meant so much to him.

4. Here are some ideas

Write a letter to someone who has had a spiritual impact on your life and whom the LORD has used to make you a better Christian. As I am preparing this a person comes to mind for me. Every time I am with this person they challenge me! He will get a letter. I also will take him out for lunch soon.

Write to your family members, or make a card or send a note or say the words. We often take them for granted. Tell them how much you appreciate them. Thanks God for them!

If they live close by make them their favorite dish. Bring something to them you know they will like.

Do something for them to help them out… something they would appreciate.

5. Continue to seek to be the kind of people like the Philippians

This church loved Paul the apostle and they loved one another. This is the mark of belonging to Jesus.

Be concerned about the souls of people. We are to care for the bodies and souls of people. Care for the body is a lot easier than caring for someone’s soul. This takes prayer and work and ongoing effort. We are a community of faith. We need each other and we should look out for one another. Keep on loving for love covers a multitude of sins.

Be generous. Give to those in need. Support the church and missions. Give yourself fully the work of the LORD.

We’ll be reading through the rest of this book up to Thanksgiving. Look for the LORD to speak to you from His Word on how to grow in grace and become more like Him. The Philippian Church reflected Christ.

Bring joy to those serving with you.

Be faithful to the LORD.

Psalm 103.1-14