Services/Sermon in Rockford 23.12.2018

This morning we have a wedding prayer on behalf of Emily Sarah Plough and Bryce Timothy Lufty, who will be married on Saturday, December 29, 2018. Let us pray on their behalf.

Dear Heavenly Father, God of love, we pray on behalf of these two that they will be wedded according to your holy and righteous will, and that they would make their home a Christian home. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, let us quieten this morning in opening prayer and thanksgiving.

Dear Heavenly Father, holy and righteous God, we thank you for this beautiful Advent Sunday morning when we've again awakened to this new day of grace, with this joy and peace in our hearts that we were protected through the night as your children, and being granted this day again to gather around your holy and precious word.

And we pray, dear Father, for your service blessing. You who know all things, you know each of us, because you have given us life. You know of our journeys, the trials, the temptations that we experience. You also know of our hope and our joy. All of this has come from your loving hand.

And on this Advent Sunday, we again pray that you would reveal and teach us again of the greatest gift and blessing of Christmas, when you sent into this sinful world your only Son, who you sent to redeem man from their sin, to be the King of your kingdom, and to fulfill that holy and righteous law on this day. Amen.

On our behalf, so that we, weak and faulty travelers, would be given hope that one day our journey will end there in the glory of heaven.

This morning, dear Father, we also remember loved ones who are not here with us. Protect them in their place of watching. Give them strength to endeavor another day, another step, homeward.

We also remember those prodigal ones who are not endeavoring in living faith, who do not own that Christ child in their heart, who do not own the peace of Christmas. Return them, dear Father, to the place of worship. Amen.

Father, to the house of your children, this kingdom of God here upon earth, grant them grace to believe again one day.

But this morning, dear Father, as we gather around your word, we pray for your service blessing. Send your word unto us that the Holy Spirit would bring you feed and uplift and carry. Break those crumbs of grace so small that even those weak ones, tired travelers, would be strengthened and fed on their journey home.

We also include our unspoken thoughts into that prayer that your Son has taught when we say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Today, being the Fourth Advent Sunday, the theme of today's text speaks about how the birth of the Lord is not the birth of God. The birth of the Lord is not the birth of God.

A few more days, Christmas will be here, and that long-awaited day that you children have been so anxiously awaiting, maybe not just the children, but perhaps all of us, even us older children, wait for to celebrate with our loved ones, families, and friends around the celebration of Christmas.

Today, the text, the Gospel text for this Sunday, is found in the first chapter of Matthew, beginning with the 18th verse. And I will read these words in Jesus' name.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child.

Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.

But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife. For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us.

Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife. Amen.

When we read from scriptures, and we consider how God has done his work throughout all generations of time, it is very humbling to witness, or to read, or to study.

When we think of God's majesty, his power, and his glory, there's nothing that we as people can do to approach God in any, even in the smallest way, as far as matching him in power or majesty.

The Bible says that God's ways are not man's ways, and man's ways are not God's ways. As high as the heaven is above the earth, are God's ways higher than man's ways.

We see this when we read from scriptures. The first page of the Bible says, God created everything that we see, everything that we hear with his word.

In those days of creation, there was nothing until God created it. And he only created it when he wanted it. You children remember how in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

But He also promised that that Word, as the Apostle John has recorded, this Word would be made flesh. And this Word was made flesh. This Word is Jesus Christ, our Lord.

When we consider the matters of creation, it's very humbling. Who of us, as in Scriptures even teaches, were mindful enough to tell God or to teach God or instruct God how things should go, and how things should be?

The psalmist, in the book of Job also, these questions were asked that where were you when God created the heavens and God created the earth?

God created both the visible and invisible world. So God has done all according to His time and His will.

We also remember from those early pages of the Bible, how Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent, and they fell. They fell into sin, and they were separated from God because of this sin.

But God loved His own. He also continues to love His own. He loves each of you today, dear brothers and sisters and friends.

He loves you so much, as John has written, that He gave of His only begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him shall not be condemned, but all would have eternal life.

This promise that was made in the early times was also spoken of by the prophets. The prophets of old, they spoke of this Savior that would be sent.

Those words were read by God's children of the Old Testament era. They were read, they were pondered, and they were considered.

And I would guess that when those Old Testament believers read and heard from God's Word, they would have asked, similar as to how we've asked, that how can it be so?

This prophecy of Jesus, the prophets, many of them, all of them, spoke of.

In our text, it speaks of a reference to prophet Isaiah, where prophet Isaiah spoke of the virgin birth of God's Son.

I would expect that those Old Testament believers, when they read those words, they pondered that how could this possibly be? How could a virgin give birth? How could a child give birth?

I have wondered, and I have wondered, and as I've read God's Word, that what might this be compared to today?

Today we read from God's Word, and much of what we read has already happened.

The Old Testament writings, most of that which is written in the Old Testament has already taken place.

There is also prophecy of the end times, for example, in the book of Daniel. That hasn't taken place yet. But we read them in awe or in wonder.

When we read from Jesus' own account of His farewell sermon and His last speeches that He kept for His own, He spoke about how He would return a second time.

Have you ever pondered that how would Jesus, and how will it be when Jesus comes a second time?

It says in the Bible that Jesus will come in all of His glory, all of God's glory.

How will this take place? We surely don't understand that how could Jesus come from heaven? How will it be that Jesus, again, in the form that we would recognize would come at God's appointed time from heaven?

But yet, by faith, we believe that. And we hope for that. And we live for that.

Because we know when Jesus comes a second time, He will bring with Him the reward that God has given to His own. He will give to them eternal life.

Brothers and sisters, that is why today, we believe. Faith is that which makes us heaven acceptable.

In this text that we read, we read of Mary and Joseph. And when we look at the life of Mary and Joseph, again, we see how God does things in His own miraculous and ways which are beyond human understanding.

It doesn't say the ages of Mary and Joseph. But yet, tradition, the Jewish tradition, both of these were Jewish people, Mary and Joseph.

The tradition was that many of the ladies would be married around 14, 15, 16 years old.

It doesn't say how old Mary was. But I'm sure there's many of you young sisters here today who are 14, 15, 16, 18 years old.

Mary was this kind of a believer that she accepted and she believed God.

Joseph, perhaps, was a bit older. It doesn't either say Joseph's age.

But neither does it get into, in this text, neither does it speak so much of those things of which Mary and Joseph pondered.

In fact, very little does it tell us in scriptures about what Mary thought.

The book of Luke, in the first and second chapter of Luke, it gives us a little glimpse of what Mary was like when it says that Mary kept all of these things and pondered them in her heart.

And it isn't really so important that we would understand the inner thoughts of both Mary and Joseph.

But I suppose as God's children, at least myself, I ponder often that what would have Mary's thinking been when the angel Gabriel came to her and told her that you shall bear a son.

I think for all of us, those of us who have experienced the birth of a baby in our homes, it is a life-changing event when husband and wife or man and woman are joined together as husband and wife in marriage.

And then God gives life and a baby to that wedded couple.

I remember with so many thoughts many, many years ago, over 40 years ago, when we first were given the news that we were going to have a child.

I wondered and I pondered that what will my own child be like? Will I be able to love that child? Will I be able to teach that child? Would God give me strength? Would He give resources?

All of those things came as questions to me as a young, upcoming father.

But this was much different. Even although these blessings are God-given.

For Mary, who wasn't yet married, to be given this kind of news that you are going to have a child.

What would you, dear sisters, think? How would you understand this to be a possibility?

What gave Mary the ability to accept this? It wasn't her own strength, her own wisdom, but it was rather God's gift of faith to her.

And I think the story of Mary and Joseph is a story of faith.

And how both of them as God's children accepted the will of the Heavenly Father as their own.

Joseph, on the other hand, it does give us a little bit more of a glimpse as to what Joseph was thinking.

And of course, these two were not yet married. Joseph and Mary.

Society in those days, much different than our days.

Today, pregnancy out of wedlock is quite common in the world.

But I think that's not a good thing. It's not according to God's intention.

But rather, the world has stomped on the sanctity of marriage and looked down on what and how God has taught to the degree that in some ways even babies born out of wedlock are thought to be no problem in our society.

Perhaps this is also one matter that will separate God's kingdom from the kingdoms of this world as we near the end of time.

How in God's kingdom, the sanctity of marriage is upheld as a very high and important thing.

Marriage is important. It is God's gift. It is God's blessing.

But also in marriage then are God's gifts and blessings given those children.

And it is God who gives life and God who takes life.

This is also being minimized in the world around us today.

We've seen so sadly in our day divorce and abortion and all of these things that are so consciously and literally contrary to God's word and the teaching of God's kingdom.

It gives pause and it causes worry and fear in the heart of a child of God.

But on the other hand, when we consider how God has cared for us in God's kingdom, in His kingdom, how He has kept these things as so important and so blessed that we can even thank God for these gifts that He has given.

Joseph, when he found out that his espoused wife, his wife that he was engaged to, was pregnant with a child.

You men would understand what this would mean.

In your own thoughts, in your own minds, in your own innermost often corrupt thoughts, what would it be if you thought your wife to be unfaithful?

But God did not leave Joseph. Joseph was one of God's children. And God cared for him also.

And He sent an angel to speak to Joseph around these matters.

It says in the 20th verse, but while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

We have heavenly angels still around us today, dear brothers and sisters.

There are invisible angels, ones that we don't see, but we know are there.

Sometimes we have felt the touch of angels protecting us, caring for us.

We often see those artists' images and depictions of how angels care for God's own.

How those angels come and protect us in those most vulnerable times.

But we also have these heavenly angels that we can see. Our brothers and sisters in living faith.

Those heavenly angels are those that are also God given and sent from God.

Each of us in our own time is faced with heavy trial.

You know with me of what those trials can be like.

And during the heaviest times of trial when those angels from heaven come, I wonder if it would be the same as Jacob when he dreamed of those angels ascending and descending on that ladder where he was able to say of a surety this is God's kingdom.

One dear brother who was faced and sister who was faced with heavy trials today have openly said they wanted to believe their whole life that this is God's kingdom.

But now in the heaviest of trials they know and are assured this is God's kingdom.

God's kingdom is that kind of kingdom that cares for its own.

And that is the kingdom that God has given us.

Patient, long suffering, forgiving.

This is the nature of God's kingdom.

The beauty of God's kingdom on the other hand is only seen through the eyes of living faith.

Joseph was able to see God's kingdom.

His loving wife to be Mary was also able to see and trusted in God's promise.

So the angel told Joseph to fear not but rather to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

And she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

And now I wonder of Joseph when he was able to visit and hear from the angel and he had perhaps heard what the prophet Isaiah had promised and written.

And he said, I will see you in the kingdom of God.

I wonder now if it became even more of a surety that this is God's kingdom and God's word is even being fulfilled in my eyes.

We think of that old man Simeon who had waited and gone to the temple day in and day out for many years waiting for the consolation of Israel.

And when baby Jesus was brought there he rejoiced in his heart and said, now mine eyes have seen my salvation.

It was comforting for him and God gave him that moment to be able to see for himself.

God also gives these kinds of helps and moments for ourselves.

He doesn't want us to be doubting and fearful but rather he wants us to be with faith and confidence in our hearts that he is our God.

He is our protector. He will provide all things that we need for this life.

So when Joseph heard these things, this sermon, this teaching, surely would have resonated where he would have heard from scriptures, behold the Lord, the virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us.

In the Bible text it says Joseph when he was raised from his sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife.

Now dear brothers and sisters when we put these matters into our own experiences in our own life Joseph and Mary were victorious not because of their own human reason or understanding but rather their victory was through faith.

And that victory of faith over their own mind.

When a child is born into our homes it is also given as a reminder for us of what faith is.

That child, remember when Jesus was faced with those, the disciples came to Jesus and of course they would ask and debate who is the greatest.

Jesus took that child in his arms and he said except you become as a little child.

A child is that picture of faith.

And, what is a child? And how is that faith seen in a child?

Faith is an open hand taking whatever God gives.

A child simply takes what the parent gives.

The child is such a picture of innocence, of faithfulness.

And this is the reason why Jesus has said that this is the greatest in God's kingdom.

But nonetheless it is a trial of our faith.

In this life that we live we have and we are faced with many different trials and temptations.

What God gave Joseph, the power of faith.

To be able to accept that which God had prophesied.

And although the birth of our Lord Jesus was strange in those days, Joseph was ridiculed, Mary was mocked, and we will hear more about that as we celebrate Christmas, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

How when Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem there was no room for them in the inn.

Joseph would have surely been looked at, even by his own family, as some great sinner.

Because before marriage, Mary was with child.

Even in this way, God allowed his mysteries to go according to his will.

No way could any man now take credit for the birth of Jesus.

Jesus was conceived by God, by the Holy Ghost. Not in any man.

Even in this we see how the mysteries and the miracles of God continue even today.

That there is nothing as God's children that we can do even today for our own merit of salvation.

But rather, God's kingdom has been let down to earth.

God's matters of salvation are here among God's children.

This kingdom of God to this day is not viewed by those on the outside of God's kingdom as that beautiful of a place.

As I've shared before, of the experience of our dear sister, who had sought for God's kingdom for years.

She had gone to many different churches, studied and learned, learned scriptures.

Had heard many different sermons and preaching, many different denominations.

But when she heard the gospel of the forgiveness of sins preached for the first time in her life, she said that she finally found peace.

The mind would say, well it's only the preaching of a word.

And this is what our mind would say.

But the Apostle Paul, he said that he came not with the enticing words of man's wisdom or with excellency of speech.

But he came in the demonstration in the power of the Spirit.

And that Holy Spirit gives life to the Word.

And when that gospel was preached through the power of the Holy Ghost to this dear sister for the first time, she said for the first time in her adult life, she was able to find peace.

This peace is a heavenly peace.

It is the peace of Christmas that God has given to His children to enjoy.

Then when this sister went for the first time to the services of God's children, she looked around and to hear her tell it, it's quite remarkable.

She looked around and she saw all these normal people.

And she asked, really, is this God's kingdom?

And the enemy wanted to plant those kinds of seeds of doubt in her mind that it must be something more than this.

That it sounds similar to what Scriptures teach.

It must be more than this. There must be something more.

But that message of God's kingdom, the forgiveness of sins, preached through the power of the Holy Ghost, gives power for the endeavor.

It gives peace, grants peace to the heart of the child of God.

Brothers and sisters, we are given today as His own children, God's own children, the greatest gift that could be given to man.

The gift of God's dear Son.

And through Him, the strength to believe and to one day make it to the glory of Heaven.

When you come to services today, each of you have come from your own place of watching.

You mothers, I'm sure busy and burdened by all of the concerns that come.

And raising a large family and preparing for Christmas and all of the things that go with it.

You fathers, coming with your own shortcomings and fears and inabilities even in rearing and raising those children with that love that God has instructed.

Feeling your own shortcomings.

You young people, so easily being caught up with the temptations that come from the world.

The enemy of souls bringing so many enticements to leave this lowly kingdom to find some happiness and joy outside of God's kingdom.

Each of you has come in your own place of watching.

But this heavenly message still resounds from God's kingdom today.

Be not doubting and fearful but rather believing.

One day, this journey of faith will end victoriously in the glory of Heaven.

It is okay that today you feel your sinfulness.

It is okay that you mothers feel your own lackings and you fathers also your own lackings.

It is okay.

It is okay that you young people feel tempted.

Because it means that you're still traveling as one of God's own.

I remember many years ago when I was sorely tempted and tried.

And I called a dear brother and I told him that how can it be that I'm even a believer when I am so tempted, so doubting, and so sinful.

This brother assured me that you are because this is the nature of God's kingdom.

Remember what Jesus said. He came not to heal the sick or not for the well, but He came to heal the sick and the sinner.

Brothers and sisters, this is the message of Christmas.

This is the message of God's dear Son.

You can uplift your heart to believe on this greatest gift of Christmas.

The gift of God as your Son.

Your sins are all forgiven in the name and precious blood of Jesus.

There will be gifts with your name.

And you will be blessed with the gift of Jesus.

You will be blessed with the gifts with your name on them underneath the Christmas tree.

But today, your names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life in Heaven.

Waiting to be read on that day of when eternal Christmas begins.

When the author of the book of Revelations was able to see and to hear his name read from the Lamb's Book of Life, he rejoiced.

Nilo Rauola, a dear brother poet from Finland, has often written, "When I hear my name read from that Lamb's Book of Life, can I go and look?"

It almost seems impossible that our name is recorded there in that Lamb's Book of Life.

But this is so.

It is according to God's word.

And confidently believe that.

And travel and endeavor as one of God's own all the way until the end of the journey.

Remain believing.

Sin is doubt forgiven in Jesus' name and precious atoning blood.

Brothers and sisters, I came this morning feeling my own many lackings, shortcomings, my own doubts.

Would I make it one day home? Can I still hear the gospel? Can I believe my sin is forgiven?

I want to believe with each of you.

And I wish for each of you dear friends and loved ones a very merry Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

May the peace of Christmas, the joy of Christmas, as we even say in that very familiar song, melt the frost of the heart away.

Spend it with loved ones.

Remember God's gift and gifts to us.

Remember how carefully and lovingly God has cared for us until this day.

And remember how the promise of that eternal gift of Christmas waits in the glory of heaven.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Let us close in prayer and benediction. Amen.

The Lord bless us and keep us.

The Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.