The God of Wonders
Thesis: We need to stop, look, listen and consider the Wonders of God at this Christmas season. Other wise you will miss the whole point of the Christmas season.
Video Illustration of the clips of Matthew of Jesus and the song playing in the back ground the God of Wonder.
Texts:
Job 37:14
“Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God’s wonders.”
Psalm 118:27 “Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders.”
Introduction:
We are full throttle into the Christmas season. I went to the store the other day and stopped – looked – and listened. Let me describe what I saw. The people were hurrying here and they were spending money everywhere. They were rushing from place to place and store to store. They had minds set on shopping for Christmas Day. They were cutting down the trees and decorating them along with their homes. Everyone was in a scurry of flurry, rushing at a mile a minute. No stopping just hopping from place to place. They never stopped preparing, shopping and decorating.
I stopped and looked at these stressed out people with a look of exhaustion on their faces. Few had the joy of the Lord. Many looked like the Grinch had stolen their Christmas spirit. I looked at the decorations on homes there were lights, reindeer Santa’s, elves, angels, candy canes, and even some manger scenes. I looked at the manger and thought there you are Lord “The God of Wonders” laying in the manger but no one stops to ponder that. No one slows down to take a real look at what we are celebrating the birth of the God of wonders.
I also listened to the sounds of the season in the mall. Most of the music spoke either of Santa or Jesus and the babe. But did the people listen to the words about the God of Wonders. It did not seem like it. They just kept running, buying, and moving toward the day but with no thought to the God of Wonders. I listened to the crying kids saying “I want, I want, I want!” Mom’s and dads saying no and yes and maybe and hearing anguish and stress in their voices. Where is the talk about the God of Wonders I thought?
I looked at the Magazines on the rack and discovered to my amazement two magazines had done articles on the God of Wonders. But when I read the first magazine TIME I wad disheartened to discover that they where promoting the false writings of the ancient world which were declared heretical in AD 350. They said this about these writings, “Many people who have left the church-and some who are still in it-are looking for another way of being Christian.” They speak of an individual saying “Had I known the Gospel of Thomas, I wouldn’t have had to become a Buddhist!” They spoke as if these writings were from God and even say that the church banned them because they wanted to hide the truth that Jesus had a physical relationship with Mary Magdalene. No I did not here about the God of Wonder in TIME Dec. 22,2003issue only writers trying to discredit the Bible and Jesus Christ’s deity for their own evil reasons. Then I looked and listened to US News & World Report same date. They promoted Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code just like Time. This book seeks to tear down and cast doubt on the fundamental beliefs of Christianity. They say in the article that many today have accepted Browns view that “the greatest story ever told is, in fact, the greatest story ever sold”(46). The book seeks to discredit the church and to discredit the God of Wonders and both magazines seem to promote that this book is true and accurate and something to be considered. They show the picture of the last Supper painted by Da Vinci and suggest that the Apostle John could be Jesus’ wife. I listened as I read and heard “He was no God of Wonder!”
I came back to Job and Psalms and said America needs to stop, look, listen and consider the God of Wonder. He is found in the Bible and He is revealed as the God of Wonders.
Why is He the God of wonders? And how do I discover Him the God of wonders?
1. I believe He is the God of wonder because he loves us and everyone else on this planet.
a. Psalms 17:7 states, “Show the wonder of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes.”
b. Have you stopped and considered God’s great love this Christmas season?
i. Stop running-stop shopping and look at the manger scene.
ii. Will you stop and look at the baby in the manger and meditate on this thought, “The God of Wonder – the creator of the universe was born in a barn so that He could pay the price for me so that I could be set free!”
1. He came to this earth as a baby and the angels praised him and the shepherds glorified him. The wise men honored him as the king of kings. The world should have erupted in singing glory to the new born king but instead they hurried off doing their own thing
iii. The next time you see a manger Stop and consider that He is the God of Wonders then do the next step.
iv. Look at the baby Jesus – Do you see what He sees?
1. Do you see that he is the one who created the heaven’s and the earth?
2. Do you see that he is the one that has saved you from your sin?
3. Do you see that he is the one that died on the cross for you?
4. Do you see Jesus the Alpha the Omega
5. Do you see Jesus the Messiah
6. Do you see Jesus the lamb that was slain so that he could save you from eternal punishment.
7. Do you see that God sent His one and only Son into the world because he loved you.
8. Do you see that he is the light of the world and the one who leads us out of darkness and into the light of eternity?
v. Listen to the word of God as it talks about this little baby.
1. Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
2. Revelation 1:17b-18”…”Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”
3. John 6:35 “Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
4. Revelation 5:4b-10 ”Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals. Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne…He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne…And they sang a new song: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…”
5. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
6. John 8:12”…I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
Conclusion:
Listen to one more text before we close: 1 Peter 2:9, 10 ”But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Why is this child the God of Wonders? Because He was born to die on the cross for you and me so that we could be free. It was all driven by love what a wonder.
Play song Mary Did You Know!
Listen to this song and put your name in instead of Mary.
My question to you is do you know the God of Wonders if not consider Him today and be filled with His wonder.
