Jesus, the Reason for the Season

(CFRA broadcast date: December 11^th, 2011 - #656)

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Broadcast Notes:

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Jesus, the Reason for the Season

Do you agree, or would you say that the reason for the Christmas Season is: 

·         Family

·         Love

·         Giving

·         Receiving

These answers all sound good but we must keep the main thing the main thing…..  Here’s a news alert!

Yes, as families we all love Christmas as a time to renew our love for each other and participate in giving and receiving ….

all that is great…. but if that’s the goal we could get caught up with what many are doing…..

that is, focusing on:

·         Commercialism

·         Materialism

·         Me-ism

Again, let me be very clear….  We need to focus on the primary reason for the Christmas Season and that is

·         The celebration of the birth of the Christ-Child

·         His coming to planet earth

This is a primary focus on His ‘first Advent’

I say this because now, as we are to focus on His Second Advent or the Return of Christ.

I love it when people say:  ‘Happy Holiday’….

When they say that I respond by saying:  ‘Yes indeed it is’

What are you doing to celebrate His birthday?

That question opens up great conversations and really gets people to thinking……

Yes, Jesus is the Reason for the Season

John 18:37

Jesus said:  ‘for this reason I was born

And for this I came into the world to testify to the truth.

Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’

The truth is Jesus is the Christ of Christmas.  And when we celebrate Christmas we are celebrating His birthday and His arrival.

Today, I want to share the real meaning of Christmas.

Let’s begin by talking about:

1   The Joy of Giving

Many today are suffering from Cirrhosis of the Giver

I’m told it is an acute condition which renders the patient’s

hand immobile when he/she is called upon to move it in

the direction of the wallet or Purse and then to the offering

Plate.

It is clinically observable that this condition does not occur

Ii other places such as a hockey game, or while shopping or restaurants.

One minister stood in front of his Congregation one Sunday morning at the time of the Offering. 

This is what he instructed his people to do.

Reach forward to the person standing in front of you and reach for their wallet or purse and open them. And this is what he said:

‘In the name of Jesus, I challenge you to now give as you always wanted to but felt you could never afford.’

Alright now, let’s get back to the message.

First of all we need to remember that Christmas is about the joy of giving……  do you realize what joy our Heavenly Father must have had by giving His very own son to the world.

Listen to John 3:16

‘For God (the Father) so loved the world that He gave His very own son, that whoever believed in Him, would have eternal life’

Wow!  What a gift!

God the Father made this promise about giving His own son years before Jesus was born of Mary.

Listen to God’s Word:

‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace.’                          Isaiah 9:6

‘Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.

The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel’.  - Isaiah 7:14

‘This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about:

His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

Then the angel said to Joseph, Mary will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet.  The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel which means, ‘God with us’.

Matthew 1:18, 21, 22, 23

Christmas is a time of celebrating the Birthday and Arrival of God the Father’s only begotten Son.

Who was he?           -  Immanuel   -    meaning:  God with us!

What is His name?  -  Jesus         -    Savior

Listen, this is the Christmas truth.

Christmas is about God Giving us:

·         His very own Love

·         His complete and constant Forgiveness

·         His eternal Hope

Christmas is about our Father giving us:

·         His very own Son

Christmas is about our Savior giving us

·         His life resulting in our freedom from the bondage or debt of sin…..

Remember…. Jesus paid the debt that He did not owe

                         To cancel the debt that we could not pay.

2 Corinthians 9:15:

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

Christmas is about each of us giving God

·         Our hearts

·         Our love

·         Our lives

·         Our time

Christmas is about each of us giving each other the gift of:

·         Friendship

·         Forgiveness

·         Faith

·         Affirmation

·         encouragement

2   The Joy of Receiving

American Express did a survey recently and found that 31% of people said that receiving a “fruitcake” would be the worst gift of all. In fact, more people indicated that given a choice between a fruitcake and receiving nothing at all, they would choose “nothing.”

The survey then went on to find out how people get rid of a gift that they don’t want.

·         30% hide it in a closet

·         21% return it

·         19% give it to someone else

·         One of the best ways to get rid of a gift you don’t want is to  have a white elephant exchange.

The most important gift that God the Father has ever given you is the gift of His very own Son.

The most important gift that God the Son has ever given you

is the gift of His life and love as He went to the Cross for you and me.  And rose again on that third day to guarantee that He has the power over death and He and He alone holds our future.

Now allow me to ask you these very important questions:

Do you know that the gift of Salvation is being offered to you?

Do you know that gift comes from the heart of our Heavenly Father and is guaranteed because of the Cross of Jesus Christ?

Have you received God the Father’s Love gift?

Have you opened your heart in order to receive His gift?

This is the very best gift you will ever receive.

John 1:12

‘yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, He gave the right to become children of God…. children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or a husband’s will but born of God.’

1   The Joy of Giving

2   The Joy of Receiving

3   The Joy of Belonging

Belonging is one of the ‘basic needs’ of humanity.

Here’s the good news……  you are invited to be part of the Family of God…..

Can you say today?….

I’m so glad to be part of the Family of God

I’ve been washed in the fountain

Cleansed by His blood.

Join heirs with Jesus,

As I travel this sod

I’m so glad I’m apart of, the Family of God.

This happens when you receive the given gift from the Father…

His Son Jesus Christ.

Have you received Him…… 

why  not give God the gift of your heart this Christmas…

4   The Joy of Knowing

John 17:3

‘Now this is eternal life:

that they may know you, the only true God

and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.’

Three types of people close themselves off from the Christ of Christmas:

·         The Proud

·         The Powerful

·         The Pacified

One day the Proud will be humbled

One day the Powerful will be helpless….

Remember you can’t take your pride or power or money to Heaven……

You can’t buy your way in… nor can you take those things with you.

One day the Pacified will come to realize the ‘void’ in their live.

This happens when

·         Family leaves

·         Friends die

·         Finances are depleted

We truly need to focus on the Real Reason for the Season…..

Jesus Christ!

Happy Birthday Jesus…..

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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

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Lessons from the Magi

(CFRA broadcast date: December 4^th, 2011 - #655)

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Broadcast Notes:

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Lessons from the Magi

Theme from: Matthew2:1-12

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A survey a few years ago asked people if they were looking forward to Christmas.

While most answered "Yes," far too many said "No."

When asked why, they gave a variety of answers,

"Christmas reminds us of things that ought to be, but are not. Christmas is a time of love, but we feel very unloved."

"Christmas is a time of giving, but we don’t want to give, or can’t afford to give.

Christmas is a family time, but there is anger & hostility within our family circles."

You see, Christmas is a time of peace & good will, but too many are at war with themselves & with others.

This caused someone to rewrite the words of a familiar Christmas carol:

"O little town of heartaches,

how troubled we see thee lie.
Throughout thy deep & dream-tossed sleep

our fears go marching by.
And in thy dark thoughts dwelleth

our everlasting fright.
The dread & tears of all the years

are visiting tonight."

The Christmas Challenge

·         To impart not impress!

·         Give your treasure to God!

1   Three Reactions

·         The Reaction of Anger  

According to all the standards of the world, Herod was an

immensely successful king. (47 BC – 4 BC.

Born into a politically well-connected family, Herod

was destined for a life of hardball and power brokering.

He ruled for more than 40 years – until he clashed

with another King – one who was also called,

The King of the Jews.

          

Herod exhibited 4 classic characteristics:

1.    Preoccupation with Power.
Herod was addicted to power.

At 25 years old, he was named the governor of Galilee,

a high position for such a young man.

The Romans were hoping that Herod could control the Jews who lived in that area.

In 40 B .C. the Roman Senate named him “King of the Jews.”

It was a title the Jews hated because he was anything but religious.

2.    Preoccupation with Possessions.
Herod wanted it all.

He wanted everything a Roman Caesar had.

Herod built

·         7 palaces

·         7 theaters ­ one of which seated 9,500 people. 

·         stadiums for sporting events ­ the largest could

      seat 300,000 fans!

·         He even constructed a new temple for the Jews.

3.   Preoccupation with Prestige.
Herod loved to make an impression

·         He built entire cities with state of the art  architecture and

     amenities and named them after his superiors.

Several of his 10 marriages were prestige-oriented and

politically motivated. He once married the daughter of his leading

rival in order to gain prestige and power.

4.   Preoccupation with Paranoia.

Ever since an enemy poisoned Herod’s father, who was a king

himself, Herod was beset with paranoia.

He went to great lengths to make sure a secret ingredient

never ended up in his soup.

When he became king, he commissioned tens of thousands of slaves to build over

10 emergency fortresses, all heavily armed and well provisioned.

In addition, he established an elaborate network of spies.

Herod was insanely suspicious to defend his throne he had

his wife and two sons murdered

He eliminated any possible successors to the throne.

Caesar Augustus said of Herod 

‘It was safer to be his pig then his relative.’

He had all popular, prominent, talented, political and prestigious

People in Jerusalem imprisoned.

At his death he had them all Slaughtered…

He ordered that at the moment he died they were to die.

Thus there would be tears when he died one way or the other.

V 16-18 says he had all malechildren, living in Bethlehem

under the age of two years of age slaughtered…

·         The Reaction of Apathy

I can’t think of anything more insidious, or more destructive

than the spirit of Apathy.

·         It causes depression,

·         stifles our creativity,

·         stunts our spiritual growth

·         drains our energy.

It can take hold in every area of life where we allow it to grow,

and it can completely immobilize us.

God hates indifference the Religious Community

They were so engrossed

·         In Temple Worship

·         the beauty of the Temple

·         the power they had

·         that they missed the beauty of the birth the Lord of the Temple

·         The Reaction of Adoration

  the Magi

Historical Account

Herodotus says they were a Median tribe

Medes tried to defeat the Persian Empire

Their effort failed

However, they became in Persia exactly what the Levites were in Israel.

They became a tribe of priests.

The Median ‘Magi’ were the:

·         Instructors

·         Teachers

·         Holy men

·         Full of wisdom

2   Three Gifts

·         gold   for  a  king

·         incense for  a priest

·         myrrh for one who was born to die

In 1994, two Christian missionaries answered an invitation from the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics in a large orphanage.

About 100 boys and girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program were in the orphanage.

It was nearing Christmas and they decided to tell them the story of Christmas. It would be the first time these children had heard the story of the birth of Christ. They told them about Mary and Joseph

arriving in Bethlehem. Finding no room in the inn, the couple went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger.

Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word.

When the story was finished, they gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a crude manger.

Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins that they had brought with them since no colored paper was available in the city.

Following instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the manger for straw.

Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out nightgown an American lady was throwing away as she left Russia, were used for the baby’s blanket.

A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt which the missionaries had also brought with them.

It was all going smoothly until one of the missionaries

sat down at a table to help a 6 year old boy named Misha.

He had finished his manger. When the missionary looked at the little boy’s manger, she was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger.

Quickly, she called for the translator to ask Misha why there were two babies in the manger.
Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, Misha began to repeat the story very seriously. For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger.

Then Misha started to ad-lib. He made up his own ending. He said, "And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma

and I have no papa, so I don’t have any place to stay.

Then Jesus told me I could stay with him.  But I told him I couldn’t, because I didn’t have a gift to give him like everybody else did.

But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift.

I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, "If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift" And Jesus told me,

"If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me." "So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him-for always."

Mishna means  ‘You Matter to me’

Ann Weems, wrote:

"It was a family treasure.

That golden vase, the priceless vase that had belonged to my great-grandmother & my grandmother & now to my mother.

The vase sat on the mantle, out of reach of little fingers. However, I managed to reach it. I climbed to reach it, &I broke it. I broke the family treasure.

"Then I began to cry in loud sobs that brought my mother running. I could hardly get it out. ’I broke the vase,’

I said. ’I broke the treasure.’

"A look of relief came over her face, & she said,

’Oh, I thought that you had been hurt.’ She hugged me, & made it very clear that I was her priceless treasure."

You see, the message of Christmas is that God is our Father, a forgiving Father who stands ready and anxious to take us to Himself because we are His treasures, created in His image, and loved by His Son.

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The Lord’s Prayer - Part 7 - ‘Deliver Us’

The Lord’s Prayer - Part 7 - ‘Deliver Us’ - (Series conclusion)

(CFRA broadcast date: November 27^th, 2011 - #654)

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Click on the following link to listen:

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Broadcast Notes:

Yes Lord, deliver us from the ‘evil one’

Deliver us from the power and influence of the ‘evil one’

The ‘evil one’ in scripture is called many things:

·         Adversary            =          A roaring lion - (1 Peter 5:8)

·         Apollyon              =          Destroyer – (Rev. 9:11)

·         Devil

Diabolous            =          Deceiver

·         Lucifer

·         Satan

·         Dragon

·         Serpent

Allow me to be clear on this point

I believe that ‘the devil – the evil one’ is a real being

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Barna Research Group

60% of N. Americans do not believe Satan to be a living being….

The modern world view has made it socially dangerous to admit belief in demonic spiritual powers, but Jesus had no problem talking & confronting Satan’s activity in the world.

Our culture refuses to believe in the real existence of evil while our newspapers are filled with a flood of immorality, violence, drug abuse, and behaviors that destroy human life.

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Let’s recap what we have learned thus far:

1   The Didache

The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,

·         The Didache makes it clear that the early Church always

used the Lord’s Prayer in its public worship services and

did not permit unbelievers to join in the praying.

·         The Didache encouraged all believers to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day.

The first half of the Lord’s Prayer is directed to God:

·         His Paternity                              Our Father

·         His Person                                 Holy is Your Name

·         His Program                               Your Kingdom Come

·         His Purpose.                              Your Will be done

Now we move to our need for:

·         Provision                                    Give us today our daily bread

·         Pardon                                        Forgive us

·         Protection                                  Lead us

·         Preservation                              Deliver us

Lord, deliver us from the ‘evil one’

1   Before his fall

Ø  Ezekiel 28: 12-17

·         Model of perfection

·         Full of wisdom

·         Perfect in beauty

·         Anointed as a guardian cherub

·         Blameless

2   Why his fall?

·         Wickedness was found in him

Ø  Isaiah 14:12-14

The Five ‘I Wills’

·         I Will ascend to heaven

·         I Will raise my throne above the stars of God

·         I Will sit enthroned on the mount or assembly on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain

·         I Will ascend above the tops of the clouds

·         I Will make myself like the Most High

3   Consequences of his fall

·         Filled with violence

·         Filled with pride due to beauty

·         Corrupted wisdom

4   Satan wants us to fall

Satan hates the church and uses every weapon

available to him to:

·         deceive it

·         defile it

·         divide it

·         disgrace it

·         destroy it.

Guess where his attack is focused?

·         Beauty

·         Wisdom

·         Pride

The Evil One’s focus of attack is on the ‘Youniverse’

The ‘Youniverse’

The focus, today, in the Christian World is on books and sermons that are aimed directly on you:

·         This is Your Day

·         You are the Reason for this Season

·         Become a Better You.

·         It’s Your Time

·         The Me I Want to Be.

·         The Life You’ve always Wanted.

Let me encourage you to pray

Find room in your life to spend time before God

Learn to listen……

And as you come together with your brothers and sisters in the Lord…… 

Pray

Our Father, in Heaven

Holy is Your Name,

Your Kingdom come

Your Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven

Give us today our daily bread

Forgive us our sins as we forgive others who has sinned against us

Lead us not into temptation

Deliver us from the evil one.

Amen

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To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

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Thanksgiving thoughts...

At...

Happy moments, praise God

Difficult moments, seek God

Quiet moments, worship God
Painful moments, trust God

Every moment, thank God

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If you look at what you do not have in life,

you don't have anything.

If you look at what you have in life,

You have everything.

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1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18

16 Rejoice evermore.

17 Pray without ceasing.

18 In every thing give thanks:

for this is the will of God

in Christ Jesus, concerning you.

Cultivating the Spirit of Gratitude | jamesrobison.net

Cultivating the Spirit of Gratitude | jamesrobison.net