Loyal, OK

 
Pastor Leon Seaton

An Amazing Challenge

Sometimes it is hard to get the Christmas story straight. For instance, a little boy and girl were singing their favorite Christmas carol in church the Sunday before Christmas. The boy concluded "Silent Night" with the words, "Sleep in heavenly beans." "No," his sister whispered, "not beans, peas."  Michael P. Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993, p. 57.(www.esermons.com)

Luke 1:26-38

“When you put your hand to the plow, you can't put it down until you get to the end of the row.” -Alice Paul

Imagine for a moment that you are that 15-year-old female – or her 30 year old fiancé. What emotions and struggles would you have as you experienced this amazing challenge from God?

While we do not know the exact ages of Mary and Joseph, tradition is that Mary was probably a teenager – roughly 15 years old. Joseph, her fiancé, is thought to have been older – perhaps between the ages of 30 and 40.

Think about it. One quiet evening Mary was simply minding her own business when an angel shows up! She felt God’s holy presence in a way that she had never experienced… something in her spirit told her that this would be a night to remember! The angel said that his name was Gabriel. Instantly she recalled that Gabriel is God’s right-hand angel.

No doubt, Mary was speechless. We do our best to please God, but we all have doubts about how effective we are.

Gabriel dramatically said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was troubled and disturbed by this announcement. One of us might have asked, “Are you pulling my leg?”

Gabriel understood her reaction, so he explained, (my paraphrase): “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You are going to have a baby. His name will be Jesus. Your Son will be great; He will be called the Son of the Most High. God Himself will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; His kingdom will never end.”

“How will these things be?” Mary asked. And the angel explained.

In most families today expecting a baby is really exciting. We want everyone in town to know. Now-a-days many grandmothers-to-be proudly display the ultrasound readings that their daughters email them. That was not possible 2,000 years ago.

Also, there was some explaining to do. Mary was not married!

However, full of joy, Mary headed off to see her aunt Elizabeth. Elizabeth was the wife of Zachariah, a priest. Six months before this Zachariah had experienced the shock of his life. He was in the Holy of Holies ministering to the Lord. This had to be done right, or the priest would die on the spot. Because of the risk the priest wore bells that jingled while he was worshiping the Lord in the Holy of Holies. No one else could go into that part of the temple. The assumption was if the bells were not ringing he had been struck dead and they pulled his body out with a rope that was tied around him.

That explains the biblical statement “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31)

So there was Zachariah, focusing on his ministry and “poof!” the angel Gabriel shows up promising the old man that he could father a baby! Listen to Zechariah’s response as translated in the Amplified Bible. “By what shall I know and be sure of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”

Now, it’s okay to ask God questions, but don’t challenge him! The “by what means” was this: “You won’t be able to utter a word until the child is born.”

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months before returning home. Imagine Joseph’s surprise when his fiancée returned home and was expecting a Child!  Oops!  He thought she was as pure as the driven rain or a mountain spring, and she returns home from a three-month visit, obviously pregnant.

Apparently she did not defend herself.  How do you explain some things?  Nothing like this had ever happened before.

That night as Joseph struggled with his feelings of betrayal. He did not want to embarrass her; nor did he want to marry her. In a dream Gabriel once again appears and explains the situation. His life was changed forever.

The birth of Jesus Christ was the most exciting birth to ever take place! Wow! What an event that was. Angels announced the birth to the shepherds. The shepherds hurried to the manger, everyone that understood what had taken place worshiped God and worshiped this baby.

It is an amazing story… the Son of God became a little Baby, grew up as we do, and then purchased our salvation.

Please, never tell me or anyone else that you do not have any value if God did all of that for you!

Every baby is born with a great potential, for we are all created in the image of God. Only God knows what he has planned for Destiny Duffy, whom we baptized this morning. As Anthony and Vanessa guide her toward maturity we have committed ourselves to helping them instill in her an understanding of God’s love for her. We pray that she will totally commit her life to doing the work that God is preparing for her to do.

Incidentally, every person in this room today was born for greatness – even you… even me!

We love the beautiful stories that are told at Christmas time. Some are true, many are merely stories that teach us how to love and share with others. A story that floats around the Internet tells of a young mother of three. She has lost her husband and is struggling to stay afloat. Her meager salary and tips as a waitress are not enough to meet the needs of her family. She works the night shift in a truck stop… after she puts the children to bed a kindly neighbor lady comes over to spend the night while she waits tables.

Her car is worn out, the children have no toys, and the tires on the car are thread bare. On Christmas Eve she wearily drives to work. Only a few customers stop during the night and she worries that the tips will not be enough to so she can make the next utility payment.

But that night the tips are better than usual.

As dawn breaks and her shift ends she walks to the car dreading having to tell her children that Santa Claus did not come after all. It is going to be a bleak Christmas.

But everything changes when she gets to her car. During the night the truckers that frequent her restaurant have placed 5 new tires in the back seat. Packed around the tires are Christmas toys. In the front seat are sacks of groceries.

Yes, it will be a wonderful Christmas after all!

The obvious moral of the story is this: The tires, the groceries, the toys and the increased tips come because God moved on the hearts of her friends. But they had to cooperate with God.

God does not print money; He does not build toys or make groceries. He inspires others to be the givers. It is our responsibility to help those in need.

Ministering to those in need is the message of the story that Jesus told about separating the sheep from the goats at the end of time. Sheep are those that help others; goats are those that care only for themselves.

For a few moments let’s consider the birth of Moses in the Old Testament. When Jesus was born the Israelites were in bondage to Rome. When Moses was born the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. They had been in Egyptian bondage for over 300 years. Pharaoh (the King of Egypt) was worried because the Israelites kept having lots of babies – of greater concern was the fact that most of the babies were boys. He understood human nature enough to know that eventually the Israelites would take over Egypt.

Being a wicked man he instructed the midwives to kill the little boys at birth.  Being godly women they refused…

Try as we might, we cannot thwart God’s plan. Since the midwives would not kill the baby boys Pharaoh commanded that all infant boys be thrown into the Nile River (to drown).

Moses’ parents were not willing to do that, so they almost, but not quite obeyed. They put him afloat in a waterproof basket in the bulrushes along the side of the Nile River.

God had a plan… Pharaoh had a plan. Guess who won!

Without any knowledge of God’s plan Pharaoh’s daughter went to the river to bathe. Through divine intervention she saw Moses’ little ark of safety and had one of her attendants fetch the basket. She instantly fell in love with this cute little infant boy and adopted him as her own son.

Perhaps you have seen the pattern in all of this.  Walking with God it is not always easy.  Walking with God will often get us into a tight spot.  When problems come, God merely smiles and says, “We can handle this!”

Children are wonderful. At one time every one of us was a child… sometimes we older folk still act childish, but that is another message!

We love our children, and rightly so. The old joke is, “You should be nice to your children. After all, they choose your nursing home.”

Tonight is our annual Christmas Program. Wednesday at 11 PM will be our annual Christmas Eve service… and suddenly Christmas will be here again!

God loves us… and wants us to have a wonderful celebration of worship, praise and family time.  But He also has a challenge for us.

In the year 1809 the international scene was in total disarray. Napoleon was sweeping through Austria; blood was flowing freely. It seemed that nobody really cared about babies. Everyone was too busy worrying about the war to get excited about babies… or so it seemed.

Actually, God had other plans. During that year some really significant births took place.

For example, William Gladstone was born that year. Gladstone was destined to become one of England's finest statesmen.

That same year, Alfred Tennyson was born to an obscure minister and his wife. Tennyson had a profound affect on the literary world.

On the American continent, Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And not far away in Boston, Edgar Allan Poe was born.

Charles Darwin was also born that year… many of us regret that he did not develop a better understanding of the God of the Bible.

That same year another newborn infant cried for the first time. His parents named him Abraham Lincoln.

Without doubt at least one newscaster of that day made this statement: "The destiny of the world is being shaped on an Austrian battlefield today."

But, as Charles Swindoll notes, history was actually being shaped in the cradles of England and America.

In a like manner, when Jesus was born everyone thought taxation was the big news.  It wasn’t.  The exciting news was the birth of the Messiah.   Adapted from Charles Swindoll (found at www.sermonillustrations.com)

The truth, ladies and gentlemen, is that we do not know what our future holds, but we do know who holds the future. His name is Jesus. Will you accept the challenge that Zacharias and Elizabeth accepted? Will you accept the challenge that Mary and Joseph accepted? The call may not be as dramatic, but it is as real and it can change the entire world for the ones that God sends you to minister to!

December 21, 2008