Be A Living Christmas Display of Faith - Purity 1215

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of the Hiawassee River that along— from along what was once the main way into town before the dam was constructed in 1940, creating Hiawassee Lake, comes to us from Fred Dimmick, who shared this scene on Sunday reporting that the river/lake's water is down about 7 feet for the winter, showing us that man's efforts—a dam—can affect the world, but that try as we might, some things, like the seasons, are completely in God's hands. Well, it's Wednesday, and I share Fred's photo because, uh, a photo which features a reflection of the sky on the water's surface that looks rather mountainous, as a visual reminder that we will be reaching the summit of another work week sometime today. Happy Hump Day to you! Well, it is December 6th, and depending on how you number your days, we either have 19 or 18 days until Christmas, as many consider Christmas Eve to be Christmas, and others base their days until Christmas count on the time of the day that you are counting. Either way, Christmas is coming, and I hope all— I hope that all who read this or hear this message will keep Christ in Christmas, as the more I see of holiday displays that go up, the more I wonder if people know the reason for the season. Driving around the Capital District of upstate New York, I'm delighted to see people decorate their homes for Christmas, but wonder and worry about those who are erecting monuments to secular Christmas or are sharing general, non-specific season greetings that promote peace or joy as general sentiments, but don't share the means to true peace and joy, a covenant relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. I love some of my— some of the cartoons, animated and live-action Christmas TV shows and movies from my youth, but as we have moved forward in time, I fear these holiday classics from years gone by are being elevated a little too high in people's esteem, as huge holiday displays are erected and merchandise is sold that celebrate characters from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Grinch, Elf, Home Alone, A Christmas Story, or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, rather than pointing to the light of the world, Jesus Christ. I fear that as merry as these things may make people, or even cause them to remember fondly Christmases of the past and family gatherings around the old boob tube, they are missing the most important thing about Christmas and about life itself: Jesus. And not for nothing, some of these holiday classics don't even mention his name. Our eternal destiny has everything to do with our relationship to Jesus. And when I see Christmas holiday displays that lack anything that points to my Lord and Savior. I remember those scary verses in the Bible where Jesus proclaims, "I never knew you," to those who thought they were safe but weren't. It is only faith in Jesus that can save us, of course, and our outward expressions of what we proclaim to believe won't matter in the end because it's genuine faith in the heart that is only discerned by God that will be the determining factor of our salvation. But Jesus did say that you would know his disciples by their fruit. And when I see no discernible reverence for or relationship with Jesus, but see lots of general holiday hoopla, I shudder to consider the spiritual condition of those who make merry in December but don't reflect the Lord's light any other time of the year. While I don't know the hearts of men, I have to think that the less of your— less your holiday displays and celebrations have to do with Jesus, the more likely it is that you are on the outside of God's kingdom. Believe me, as a former agnostic, lukewarm believer, cultural congregational attendee, and atheist, I can fully understand the angst that people can have toward quote-unquote organized religion. But no number of negative experiences that we have had with supposed members of the body of Christ, or those pesky hypocrites in the church should ever get in the way of our giving honor and glory to Jesus at Christmas. If we profess to believe in Jesus, we should know that he is the only way to God, and he should not take a back seat to anything else when we go to celebrate Christmas. If we have concerns with those quote-unquote phony Christians or hypocrites in the church, We have to do our part to represent the light of the world by being real Christians, by sharing and showing the love of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ with the way we live our lives. We have to turn from the world's ways to God's ways and let his Holy Spirit change us and demonstrate that God is alive and well and affecting the lives of men on earth. Instead of putting up a big display that celebrates fictional characters of holiday films or TV shows, We should proclaim Jesus, not just with quaint manger scenes, but with the way we live our lives. So draw close to God this Christmas season and let people know the reason for the season all year round by walking and talking with God and by being a living display of his power and glory on the earth every day. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on the church and communion of the saints. And today, uh, we share Jesus's high priestly prayer from John 17:6-26. It's a long passage, and, uh, these are all the words of Jesus. And the word of God says, I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, You gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they have known that all things which you have given me are from you. For I have given to them the words which you have given me, and they have received them and have known surely that I came forth from you, and that— and they have believed that you had sent me. I pray for them I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. And all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world. And I come to you, Holy Father. Keep through your name those whom you have given me, that they may, may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them. Because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one, just as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me. For you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you sent me. And I have declared to them your name, and will declare it, that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them. Today's verses fall under the 17th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on the church, or communion of the saints. And that 17th point is Jesus prays for the church. Today's verses display Jesus's love for us and his desire that his joy be fulfilled in us through our sanctification by his word and in following him. Jesus's high priestly prayer shows that we are not all God's children, as Jesus specifically prays for those who believe in him. And who will believe in him. That's us. As Jesus's disciples, let's be an answer to this prayer by seeking to represent Jesus on the earth by following his example and sharing his message of hope and faith in him alone. This prayer prays that we be one, and we should all be one in celebrating Jesus every day. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we are sharing from God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And today, as I explained previously, we started the, the Advent, uh, this Advent devotional before Advent started, which is on December 3rd. So we are sharing from, from this devotional, which, which has us at Advent Week 2, Mystery Day 4. And Bonhoeffer's message today is called The Scandal of Pious People. And Bonhoeffer writes, the lonely God-man is the scandal of pious people and of people in general. This scandal is his historical ambiguity. The most incomprehensible thing for the pious is this man's claim that he is not only a pious human being, but also the Son of God. Whence his authority: "But I say to you" and "Your sins are forgiven" ? If Jesus' nature had been deified, this claim would have been accepted. If he had given signs as was demanded of him, they would have believed him. But at the point where it really mattered, he held back. That created the scandal. Yet everything depends on this fact. If he had answered the Christ question addressed to him through a miracle, then the statement would no longer be true that he became a human being like us, for then there would have been an exception at the decisive point. If Christ had documented himself with miracles, we would naturally believe, but then Christ would not be our salvation, for then there would be— there would not be faith in God, in the God who became human, but only in— only the recognition of an alleged supernatural fact. But that is not faith. Only when I forego visual proof Do I believe in God? This is from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and this resource today actually shares this following passage from Brennan Manning, the— from the Ragamuffin Gospel. And Manning writes, the kingdom belongs to people who aren't trying to look good or impress anybody, even themselves. They are not plotting how they can call attention to themselves, worrying about how their actions will be interpreted, or wondering if they will get gold stars for their behavior. 20 centuries later, Jesus speaks pointedly to the preening ascetic trapped in the fatal narcissism of spiritual perfectionism, to those of us caught up in boasting about our victories in the vineyard, to those of us fretting and flapping about our human weaknesses and character defects. The child doesn't have to struggle to get himself in a good position for having a relationship with God. He doesn't have to craft ingenious ways of explaining his position to Jesus. He doesn't have to create a pretty face for himself. He doesn't have to achieve any state of spiritual feeling or intellectual understanding. All he has to do is happily accept the cookies, the gifts of the kingdom. That was from Brandon Manning, Brandon Manning from the Ragamuffin Gospel. And our devotional Shares finally 1 Corinthians 1:23-25, and the word of God says, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. That concludes our sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's God Is in the Manger for Advent Week 2, Mystery Day 4, and the scandal, the scandal of pious people. Yeah, today's devotional pointed to the fact that, you know, even though Christ did do miracles, he didn't, he didn't prove himself to the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin when they called him out to And even when he was on the cross, they said, "If you prove you're, you know, you can prove you're God now." But no, he didn't do that. So there's always an amount of doubt to our faith that, you know, well, Jesus should have proved that he was God and, you know, poured out his wrath on those people that tried to crucify him. But that wasn't God's plan. And so we have to believe that they're— even though they're skeptics and people don't believe what the word of God says, we believe because we believe God's word is true. And it's been proven to some of us through, through his presence and the way he's changed our hearts and given us hope and joy. And so that's why we, that's why we did the podcast and the blog, to encourage people to follow Jesus that just believing and going to church once, once a week is a good thing, but the true disciple of Jesus Christ would follow his teacher every day and with the way he lives his life by reflecting on the Word of God, by praying, by just trying to do God's will personally in his life and by doing good works when they, when they have the opportunity to do that. Now, when we, when we stop sinning and following the worldly ways and draw close to the Lord, that's when we find our peace. That's when the fruit of the Spirit really grows in our lives. And as somebody who is lost in more ways than one, I can attest to the truth of the gospel and the reality that there is a God and that Jesus was his Son. There is a very real Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. So we encourage your faith and your decision to follow Jesus with the way you live. Let's see, today we have to work, so— and we have a meeting at the Celebrate Freedom growth group tonight at Starpoint Church. For anyone in the Capital District, you're, you're welcome to come and join us, where we will be teaching about the enemy and the spiritual forces of darkness and their, their impact on our lives and what they have to do with recovery. So if you want to check that out, we already did a teaching, we already did a teaching on YouTube that's available to check out tonight's lesson. And, uh, but if you want to come and in person to fellowship and have community with us, you're invited. That's Star Point Church in the K-3rd grade classroom tonight at 6:30 PM. All right, I do have to work, so let's pray and get there and do those things. Anyway, Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for the joy that we have through Jesus Christ. And, um, for the Christmas season where we get to remember him coming into the earth as a baby. And, uh, but we remember that there's more to the story than just the way in the manger, that, uh, he lived a righteous life and died for our sins, and he, he rose from the dead to show that he was God, and, um, that we, those who have faith in him, will have eternal life, just as He said. So, and for them to have the power to change through the Holy Spirit's indwelling. So, Lord, we thank You for that. We have experienced it, and we share it as much as we can. Lord, we just pray for anyone who's listening today, that they would be blessed, that You would come alongside them and their prayer request and help them to, to live as a Christian, to to walk in faith and the power of your Holy Spirit. And we pray for that for ourselves, of course, as every day we're reminded of our human weaknesses, as we're not perfect, and sometimes we, we don't do everything perfectly, and we can't fix everything. We have to do the best we can and leave the rest up to you. But we thank you, Lord, that in those times, even though it's frustrating— not to accomplish everything we hope to accomplish, that we're loved by you all the same, that we're secure in your kingdom, Lord. So we just pray for you to go before us today, open our eyes to what— the things you want us to see, and lead our steps in the way we should go, because all we want to do is be a living display for all the world to see that Jesus Christ is Lord. He will help us. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.