<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18975">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY leftMargin=0 rightMargin=0 topMargin=0 bgColor=#ffffff>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Sermons for
Advent 3</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Matthew 11:2-12
- <STRONG>"Are You the One Who Is to Come?"</STRONG></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Matthew 11:2-12
- <STRONG>"Time to Unpack"</STRONG> by Leonard Sweet</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Matthew 11, the
sermon titled "Are You the One Who Is to Come?" </SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">In his book
Horns and Halos, Dr. J. Wallace Hamilton tells about one of the weirdest auction
sales in history; and it was held in Washington, D.C., in 1926, where 150,000
patented models of old inventions were declared obsolete and placed on the
auction block for public auction. Prospective buyers and on-lookers chuckled as
item after item was put up for bid; such as a "bed-bug buster" or an
"illuminated cat" that was designed to scare away mice. Then there was a device
to prevent snoring. It consisted of a trumpet that reached from the mouth to the
ear; and was designed to awaken the snorer and not the neighbors. And then there
was the adjustable pulpit that could be raised or lowered according to the
height of the preacher.<BR><BR>Needless to say, this auction of old patent
models was worth at least 150,000 laughs; but if we would look into this
situation a little deeper, we would discover that these 150,000 old patent
models also represent 150,000 broken dreams.<SPAN> </SPAN>They represented
a mountain of disappointments.<BR><BR>It may seem inappropriate to talk about
broken dreams and disappointments this close to Christmas. After all, this is
the season to be jolly. But it's not jolly for everybody, is it? For those who
have lost loved ones this is the loneliest time of the year. And in a world that
glorifies materialism, those who are struggling financially may find it to be
most disappointing.<BR><BR>Our friend John the Baptist knew about
disappointment. John is in prison now and he's looking for a sign - a sign that
the long-awaited Messiah has really arrived. That's ironic, don't you think?
John the Baptist is the one who first proclaimed his coming. But much has
happened to John since we last saw him preaching and baptizing people in the
wilderness, and now his heart is cast down.<BR><BR>You'll remember John's
message was, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." This message
burned in John's soul. John wasn't afraid to proclaim his message to religious
leaders and royalty alike. He wasn't even afraid to proclaim it to King Herod
himself. That was why he was in jail.<BR><BR>This was not the King Herod who was
the ruler at the time of the birth of Jesus; this was his son, Herod Antipas,
who turned out to be worse than his father. Herod Antipas seduced and later
married his brother's wife, but first he killed his brother. The nation was in
shock. John the Baptist condemned the king's behavior and was placed in prison.
While in prison John realized that his career as a prophet would soon be ended.
His life would be over as well.<BR><BR>There was one thing that John wanted to
know before he died. John wanted to know beyond a shadow of a doubt if Jesus was
really the Messiah. Can you blame him? He had given everything he had -
including, in a matter of days, his very life. He wanted to know, has it all
been in vain? Is it all an illusion - a dream? In the wilderness John had
believed Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, but in the face of certain death he
has some doubts. He wanted to know for sure. So he sent some of his followers to
find Jesus and ask him, "Are you the one who is to come or are we to wait for
another?"<BR><BR>You see, John the Baptist found himself in a disappointing and
disheartening predicament. Things were not working out like he had expected.
Sometimes that happens. Disappointment.<BR><BR>Particularly at Christmas. This
is not an easy time of year. A few years back there was a haunting country song
that went like this, "If we make it through December...." Some of you know the
meaning of those words. "If we make it through December...." It was December for
John the Baptist. He was hurting in Herod's prison. He was hurting physically
and he was hurting emotionally. He was gripped with disappointment.</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">1. He Had
Different Expectations of What a Messiah Would Do.</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">2. He Was
Looking for All the Wrong Signs.</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">3. He Didn't
Give God Time.</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The rest of
this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by joining
www.eSermons.com.</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">_______________________</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Matthew
11:2-11, the sermon titled "Time to Unpack" by Leonard Sweet </SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Advent is an
intentional season of "preparedness." We think of Advent as a "journey," to use
Oprah Winfrey's favorite word. We think of Advent as a progressive path we take
in order to arrive at a destination - the sleepy village of Bethlehem.
</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Preparing.
Making plans. Charting a way. Scouting and scoping the landscape. Assessing and
overcoming obstacles to avoid or override. </SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Sounds like
life as usual. Sounds like something we can get our heads and hands and hearts
around. Sounds like something we can get down and get done.</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">But wait a
minute! Advent is not our journey. We are NOT in charge. Advent is not a journey
we make, a journey we prepare for, a road that we navigate. </SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">No, Advent is
the journey GOD makes. Advent isn't a trip we prepare to go on. Advent is the
time we prepare for God's trip to us. Advent is the time we ready ourselves to
RECEIVE God. The God who, against all reason and for our redemption, is making a
journey TOWARDS us.</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">This week's
gospel text reminds us just how long God had been preparing for this journey.
Before the baby Jesus was even born, God had arranged for the ideal advance man,
the perfect prophet to be conceived and born and nurtured to adulthood.
Generations before John the Baptist there were other prophets whom God provided
with selected slices of insight, like a freeze-framed GPS map. Moses and Isaiah,
Malachi and Daniel: all provided peeks at the pathway God was
paving...</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The rest of
Leonard Sweet's sermon can be obtained by joining www.Sermons.com </SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">_____________________________</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Knee Deep In
Alligators</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Did you ever
hear the expression, "When you're knee-deep in alligators and copperheads, it's
hard to remember that your primary objective was to clean out the swamp?" That's
how I imagine John the Baptist must have felt as he stared at those damp, cold
walls of Herod's dungeon, day after day, knowing in his heart that only a
miracle would allow him to leave this place alive. Wouldn't you be scared in
that predicament? Wouldn't you begin to question your "core beliefs" if you knew
that those very beliefs were responsible for your impending doom?<BR><BR>Johnny
Dean <BR>__________________________________<BR><BR></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Timing Is
Everything </SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">I was reading
about steamships. It was a wonderful article in which the author said that the
dream of a self-propelled ship had been a dream of humankind for hundreds of
years. Then one day the time came when it was theoretically possible, but it was
still not practically possible. The dream was kept alive for another hundred
years or so by inventors and experimenters, some of whom were considered to be
eccentric. Later on people looked back and said of them, they were just ahead of
their time. </SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Then the times
changed. The next person to come along was Robert Fulton. It was not so
much that Fulton invented the steamboat, but that he just happened to be there
when the time was right. As the author wrote, "The inventor's eminence may be
more a trick of chronology than anything else, due to being active at the very
moment when fruition was possible." It's a wonderful statement. It tells you
that timing is everything. </SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">That's what we
learn from the Bible. Look at our lesson for this morning. The disciples of John
the Baptist come to Jesus, and ask, "Are you the one, or do we look for
another?" It is a critical question for John. John has preached that the time
has come. The Messiah, he said, is about to appear, so repent, get ready, put
your lives in order. He has devoted his whole life to the belief that the time
has come. But he is in prison now. He is about to lose his head. So he sends his
disciples to ask Jesus, "Are you the one that we have been waiting for, or do we
still look for somebody else?" </SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Mark Trotter,
Collected Sermons, <A
href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=aelnpceab&et=1104033936790&s=45429&e=0013lkBd87ia2i8EFQNsSvx4YtdcdKeHzgCSFBAJcwbntieddbhwgYGEl9J9UmevaymKLv3-aypNOEMrrDln_-0bIyuSBdwu1KthCBTbA2uLsQtAxZbijPVYA=="
shape=rect target=_blank>www.Sermons.com</A></SPAN></P></BODY></HTML>