Welcome to this edition of the Weekend Sermon. I am glad that you have taken the time out of your day to read the sermon. I hope that everyone is having a very good week.
I've been enjoying my job, and I've been getting a lot of hours. I thank the Lord for this job, and I am also thankful that there has been a lot of writing work to keep me busy as well.
I would like to ask for your prayers in one matter. I am having some pain in my wrist. Please pray that this will get better and that it won't affect my job in any way. Thank you for your prayers.
As you pray this week, please remember to pray for those in the Congo who are in the midst of the Ebola outbreak. Pray that those who are sick will recover, and pray that the virus does not spread.
In the United States, there have been many children who have been separated from their parents when the parents come over the border from other countries seeking asylum. Please pray that these children will be reunited with their parents.
Continue to pray for peace in the troubled areas of this world. Pray for peace in Syria, Libya, South Sudan and Afghanistan. Remember to pray for those in France who were involved in the terrorist attack. Please pray for an end to terrorism.
For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for Cambodia and Kuwait. Please pray that many will hear of the love of Jesus in these two countries.
Last week, we finished our series of messages on the last few chapters of the book of Romans. Today and next week, I will be posting messages based on the Advent season.
Today, I would like to focus our attention on what happened when Jesus came to be born on this earth. To begin this message, I would like to post four important passages of Scripture.
Matthew 1:23 -- "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call his name Immanuel which means God with us."
Galatians 4:4-5 -- "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons."
Colossians 2:9 -- "For in him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily."
Philippians 2:6-7 -- "Who being in the form of God did not consider equality with God something to be used his advantage, rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness."
Throughout the entirety of the Old Testament, the prophets spoke of the fact that a Messiah was going to come and redeem the people. The first prophecy of the coming of the Messiah is found in Genesis 3:15.
When the right time came, God sent His Son into this world. Jesus is completely divine and completely human. He humbled Himself and came to this earth in human form born of the Virgin Mary on Christmas day. The one who was the King of the entire universe, came to us as a helpless baby. He came to serve and not to be served. He came to show us how to live the way that we are supposed to live in this world. Philippians 2 will go on to tell us that Jesus suffered on the cross to redeem us.
Jesus came to redeem us from our sins and to bring about the restoration of all things. The birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus brings about the salvation of our souls. It brings about the possibility that one day all will be as it was before sin entered into the world. One day, when Jesus returns to this at His Second Advent, the process of the restoration of all things will be completed. All will be as it was originally intended to be.
What is so amazing to me about Christmas is that the God of this entire universe would come to be among us. He loved us so much that He came to show us the way. Jesus is the one who shows us what God is really like. If you want to know what God is like, you look to Jesus. If you want to know how to act and live in this world in the right manner, you look to Jesus as the ultimate example because He lived a life without sin and only did that which was perfect, right and good.
God came among us at Christmas time in order that we might find perfect peace in and through Him. We can find peace for our souls by finding forgiveness through Him. We can find peace for the struggles that beset humanity by looking at and following His teachings recorded in passages such as the Sermon on the Mount.
Immanuel has come. We must look to Jesus as the way, the truth and the life. We must keep our eyes fixed on Him in all things and follow Him fully.
I hope that during this Christmas season that you will truly realize what happened on Christmas Day. God fully revealed Himself to us in the person of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came to show us the way and redeem us from our sins. Please meditate on this during the holiday season.
Next week, I will bring another message based on Christmas. The sermon will be posted on Saturday next week. I don't like to keep changing the day that the sermon will be posted, but my schedule at work keeps changing. I don't know from week to week if I will have to work on Friday or Saturday. I will post the verses on Monday, and I will have a review on Wednesday. I am in the process of finishing up a cat book. May God bless you all. Amen.
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