[Propertalk] Fw: Sermon Resources for December 19 - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

Sermons for Advent 4



Matthew 1:18-25 - "The Christmas Promise: God with Us"

Matthew 1:18-25 - "Have a Jolly Imperfect Christmas This Year!" by Leonard Sweet



Matthew 1, the sermon titled "The Christmas Promise: God with Us" 



G. K. Chesterton, the noted British poet and theologian, was a brilliant man who could think deep thoughts and express them well.  However, he was also extremely absent-minded and over the years he became rather notorious for getting lost.  He would just absolutely forget where he was supposed to be and what he was supposed to be doing. On one such occasion, he sent a telegram to his wife which carried these words: "Honey, seems I'm lost again.  Presently, I am at Market Harborough.  Where ought I to be?"  As only a spouse could say it, she telegraphed back a one-word reply "HOME!"



This is precisely what this classic passage in the first chapter of Matthew does for us... it brings us home... 



-- Home to the real meaning of Christmas 

-- Home to the most magnificent truth in the entire Bible

-- Home to our Lord's greatest promise 

-- Home to the reason we celebrate Christmas   



Namely this: "GOD IS WITH US!" When we accept Christ into our lives, nothing, not even death, can separate us from God and His love.  It is what Christmas is about.  God is with us. The great people of faith have always claimed that promise.  Just think of it: 



-- Moses caught between the Pharaoh and the deep Red Sea in a seemingly hopeless situation believed that God was with him and he went forward and trusted God to open a way and He did! 



-- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego went into the fiery furnace into a seemingly hopeless situation and they trusted God to be with them and He was!



-- Little David stood before Goliath.  What chance could a small boy with a slingshot have against this giant of a warrior?  But David believed that God was with him and it made all the difference!



Now, it's interesting to note that when the writer of Matthew's gospel wanted to capture the meaning of Christmas, the meaning of the Christ event, the meaning of Jesus in a single word, he did a very wise thing.  He reached back into the Old Testament, pulled out an old word, dusted it off, and used it to convey the message.  The word was Emmanuel.  That's what Jesus is about "His name shall be called Emmanuel" which means, "God is with us."



The impact of that Christmas promise is incredible.  When you believe that, when you accept that, when you claim that promise it will absolutely change your life.  Let me show you what I mean by bringing this closer to home.  Let me underscore three ideas relating to this great promise of God's presence.  I'm sure you will think of others, but for now please consider these. We can claim the great Christmas promise God with us...



1. When We Are Frightened. 

2. When We Are Lonely.

3. When We Are in Sorrow.



The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by joining www.eSermons.com.

_______________________



Matthew 1:18-25, the sermon titled "Have a Jolly Imperfect Christmas This Year!" by Leonard Sweet 



Some Christmas's stay forever in our hearts and minds because they were so beautiful, so magical, so perfect. 



*You got your Red Ryder BB gun or Malibu Barbie. 

*The time the Christmas pageant went off without a hitch. 

*The year when everyone got to come home. 

*A blanket of snow on Christmas Eve draped everything in white and wonder.



But other Christmas's are forever etched in our memories because they were so IMPERFECT. 



*The year it flooded and Christmas was spent at the neighbors who lived on higher ground. 

*The year no one noticed the oven turned off and the turkey ran with blood-red juice when carved. 

*The year it snowed TWO FEET and a family of happy relatives became a snarling, surly captive audience for a full week. 



Christmas disasters! 



Maybe. Maybe not. Sometimes it may be those Christmas's where everything seems to go wrong that we find the most authentic of our Christmas experiences, where we discover the Christ child most firmly in our midst.



The first Christmas would never make it into anyone's family photo album of perfect holiday moments. In Luke's gospel there are a lot of details about everything that went wrong when Jesus was born. Joseph and Mary had to hit the road for Bethlehem. There was no room at the inn. The baby was born in a barn. Some random bunch of smelly shepherds horn in on the new family. 



In this week's reading of Matthew's gospel we learn that things were "messed up" way before Jesus was even born...



The rest of Leonard Sweet's sermon can be obtained by joining www.Sermons.com 

__________________



His Name Says It All



Matthew doesn't want Joseph or any of us to get stuck in the dream. Matthew wants to bring us back down to earth, back to our waking reality, by invoking the name of Immanuel. Because if the Jesus, whose name was given to Joseph in a dream, is to do us any good, he'd better meet us and be with us in all those times when dreams end and when the crushing weight of a miserable world comes crashing down around our shoulders again. If he is only Jesus, the one who saves us from our sins, it would still be too easy to turn him into the one who also saves us out of the real world. But if he is Immanuel, then we realize we don't have to go anywhere to meet him other than the hurly-burly reality of our Monday mornings and our Thursday afternoons. We don't have to go find him in some other realm because he has already found us in exactly this realm and this world.

Immanuel is God-with-us in the cancer clinic and in the Alzheimer's ward at the local nursing home. Immanuel is God-with-us when the pink slip comes and when the beloved child sneers, "I hate you!" Immanuel is God-with-us when you pack the Christmas decorations away and, with an aching heart, you realize afresh that your one son never did call over the holidays. Not once. Immanuel is God-with-us when your dear wife or mother stares at you with an Alzheimer's glaze and absently asks, "What was your name again?"

Ever and always Jesus stares straight into you with his two good eyes and he does so not only when you can smile back but most certainly also when your own eyes are full of tears. In fact, Jesus is Immanuel, "God with you" even in those times when you are so angry with God that you refuse to meet his eyes. But even when you feel like you can't look at him, he never looks away from you. He can't. His name says it all.

Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations
____________________________



God Does Not Desert Us



I find it strange that God has never deserted me. I don't understand that kind of grace frankly. I do not deserve his eternal presence, nor do you. Yet, God has forever identified with the human dilemma. There may not be a soul in the world who truly understands your feelings. God understands. All in your life may fall away. God will never fall away.



In Tom Brokaw's book The Greatest Generation, a story is told of Mary Wilson, presently of Dallas, Texas. You would never know by looking at this modest woman that she was the recipient of the Silver Star and she bore the nickname "The Angel of Anzio." You will recall that when the Allies got bogged down in the boot of Italy during World War II, they attempted a daring breakout by launching an amphibious landing on the Anzio Beach. Unfortunately, the Allies got pinned down at the landing site and came dangerously close to being driven back into the ocean. It looked like another Dunkirk was in the making.



Mary Wilson was the head of the fifty-one army nurses who went ashore at Anzio. Things got so bad that bullets zipped through her tent as she assisted the surgeon in surgery. When the situation continued to deteriorate arrangements were made to get all of the nurses out. But Mary Wilson would have none of it. She refused to leave at the gravest hour. As she related her story years later, she said: "How could I possibly leave them. I was a part of them."



Our God is a good God. He does not desert us in our hour of need. He hears the cries of Israel. He hears the cries of the church. He hears the cries of His children. Christmas is about God's eternal identification with the human dilemma.



Staff, www.eSermons.com 



____________________



A Tough Question



When I meet with a couple in preparation for their baby's baptism, I always ask this question: Have you prepared a will and have you specified in it who would rear your child if you were removed from the picture? Young parents don't like to even think about such a possibility, but life's uncertainties make it necessary. It's a tough question. Whom do you trust enough to rear your precious child? God had to answer that question when he decided to send his son Jesus to planet earth. God had to select a mother and a stepfather for his son.



Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com 



____________________________________
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20101216/658b0838/attachment.htm>