“When they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.” [1]
We plan for Christmas. We shop, we decorate, we enjoy the music, the message, and the warmth of the season, but Christmas doesn't last long. It's like diving from a steep cliff; for a moment after jumping you soar suspended in the sky. No doubt it's an exhilarating feeling, but it doesn't last—it can’t last. After the songs, the gifts, and time with loved ones, will we really go back to our lives as they were before the celebration? Will we actually return to things as they were before Christmas? Or has Christmas burned a new fire and a new hope into our souls that causes us to want our lives to be different, to be better?
Reviewing the biblical account of Mary and Joseph we witness how Christmas can be made practical. After the angels had returned to Heaven and after the shepherds had left, Joseph and Mary faced the responsibility and the privilege of rearing a son. In responding to the new demands they faced, Mary and Joseph demonstrate for us that we must carry the lessons of Christmas into our homes. More is learned about God in the home than any other place. It is not in Sunday School, or in worship services, or in Bible studies, but in the home that we learn about God. Through what we teach our children, by our attitudes and actions, and by the way we live at home, our families and our friends will learn about God and how important, or unimportant, He is to us. What will you teach your children and grandchildren about God in the coming year?
In addition to our homes, we must realise that we either carry Christmas into the workplace or we demonstrate that all we have done is observe another fête. We know that Joseph was a carpenter. His trade involved hard work and not enough pay. It seems quite likely that Joseph's work took on new significance after the birth of Jesus. One has to believe that Joseph's hammer was not as heavy and his saw cut a bit easier after Christmas. What I mean is that Joseph knew he was God's servant and his work was sacred. Likewise, Mary had clothes to wash and meals to prepare, in addition to nurturing her child. There was a new joy in these tasks after Jesus' birth. Like Joseph, we must believe that Mary understood that through her work, she was offering service to God. What would be done henceforth was not routine, but sacred.
As you look toward a new year, I hope you will ask how you can serve God through your work, whether it is for pay or as a volunteer? If Christmas is to impact our lives in the days and months of the coming year, we must carry the meaning of Christmas into the arena of our faith. Mary and Joseph would need to remember Bethlehem often because there would be moments in their lives when their faith would be sorely tested. They would have to flee for their lives to the strange land of Egypt. Scripture appears to suggest that Joseph died at some point and Mary was left alone with the tremendous responsibility of bringing up their children. When she witnessed her son hanging on the cross, she undoubtedly remembered Bethlehem. And as she remembered that strange night, we must believe that she understood that God was at work in the world. She did not know how God worked, but she knew that God did work. Mary lived by faith, confident that the God who had appointed her to serve as the mother of His Son would always be with her.
Christmas reveals that God is always where we are; He is always with us. This knowledge is especially important to the one who walks in the way of the Son of God. We may not always see or feel His presence, we may not always understand how He is working out His will in our lives and through our lives, but as we experience Christmas, we may be confident that He is always near. We are not forgotten and we are not alone—and we need that assurance, especially in this day. Christmas shows us that we can go on regardless of the difficulties we face as long as we keep our eyes on the Son of God Who has come to dwell with us. We are confident that He knows the way because He is the Way.
OBEDIENT TO THE LAW OF THE LORD — “When [Mary and Joseph] had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth” [LUKE 2:39]. Jesus was Jewish; He was born into a family of observant Jews. They were not fanatical, but they were careful to honour God through making every effort to fulfil the Law. This was the home into which Jesus was born; He was raised in an environment in which His parents honoured the words of Moses and in which they knew what the prophets had written.
Here’s the important lesson we need to take with us as we review the life of Mary and Joseph following the birth of the Christ child. Mary and Joseph were careful to honour God! They appear to have taught their children the tenets of the Faith, seeking to honour God in their manner of life. It would be easy to presume on the knowledge Jesus possessed as He carried out the various rituals required under the Law. We could say that He knew what was required because He gave those laws—and that is true! However, it does not obviate the fact that His parents accepted the responsibility to instruct their children in God’s requirements for worship. Joseph and Mary sought to fulfil all that was expected according to the Law. They began their new journey of parenting by ensuring that they began with God. In short, this young couple sought to do what is pleasing to God. They were far less concerned with what the neighbours might think or even with gratifying their own desires—they sought to please God!
Children are naturally curious. Childhood encompasses the formative years. Our children are learning during these years, and they are watching all that goes on around them. During their formative years, especially, children are taking in every act and seeking to model themselves after what they observe. God takes advantage of this from earliest days. As an example, note these instructions for observing the Passover. “Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. And when you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, “What do you mean by this service?” you shall say, “It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.”’ And the people bowed their heads and worshiped” [EXODUS 12:21-27].
The Passover was not merely a ritual to be observed as though it served solely as a means of cultural identification for Israel; the Passover was a vivid reminder of God’s mercy and an invitation for all who seek God to worship. The observance was pregnant with meaning that would naturally encourage anyone observing what was taking place to worship the LORD who delivered His people from slavery. And the LORD anticipated that His people would explain what they were doing as their children asked what was happening.
Christians have an analogy in our observance of the Lord’s Supper. When we observe the Lord’s Table, it is natural that children ask what we are doing. They may wonder why they should not have some of the bread or be able to drink some of the juice themselves. Observing the Meal provides a perfect opportunity for a parent to tell the child what they are doing, explaining that when the child has come to a mature age and understands that Christ has sacrificed Himself because of their sin, they can follow Him. Then, believing the Saviour and having followed Him in baptism as one who believes, they will be admitted to the Lord’s Table. The curiosity of the child becomes the vehicle for training them in the truths of the Lord.
It wasn’t only the Passover that provided opportunity to instruct the children; rather, every ritual prescribed in the Law was to be viewed as an opportunity to train the children in the truths of the Lord. As Moses was preparing the people for His departure, he drafted a final book, which we know as Deuteronomy. In that Book, Moses has written, “When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us’” [DEUTERONOMY 6:20-25].
Every facet of worship was meant to point each participant in the ritual to look to the Lord GOD. As all witnessing the worship would be directed to turn their thoughts to the LORD by what was taking place, so children observing their parents at worship would begin the process of learning about the Lord GOD through the actions of their parents. The curiosity of the children provides a vehicle to teach them of God’s mercies and of God’s grace. All the rites given by Moses had one great design, and that was to point to the Lord and to His grace. The same is true of the two great ordinances we have received as followers of the Christ. Baptism points to the mercy of God and the confidence that is ours as we follow Him. The Lord’s Table points to the grace of our Lord and the confidence that is ours as we obey Him.
The great danger in making this emphasis at this time is that the unthinking sometimes imagine that we can find licence to focus on ritual without accepting responsibility to teach our children why we do what we are doing. In short, our natural tendency is to adopt rituals without recognising the presence of the Lord. It requires little of us to mindlessly go through the motions of the rituals; but the consequences are disastrous both for us and for those who look to us for guidance. Mindless repetition of the rituals of the Faith ensure the destruction of the congregation, and that sooner rather than later. Emphasise in your mind that ritual divorced from faith destroys the soul. Mere ritual is deadening to the life of faith.
Let’s bring the focus back to us who are followers of the Christ. You know very well that Jesus demanded obedience to His commands. You will remember that the Master demanded of His disciples, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” [JOHN 14:15]. Emphasising this truth, the Apostle of Love would later write, “By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” [1 JOHN 2:3-6].
We must always be conscious that we are to be obedient to the revealed will of the Lord. Moreover, we must know that when we are obedient, those who have not yet come to faith in the Son of God will be drawn to look to Him. It is only when the will of God is reduced to a mere formality that outsiders are repulsed. This means that if we are to reveal the grace and power of the Lord through obedience to His will, we must know what the Lord’s will is. And the way in which we know the Lord’s will is to read what He has given us in His Word. We hear the voice of the Living God speaking through His Word. The wise servant of the Lord hears what is said and determines to obey what God has revealed through His Word.
The Christian Faith consists of so much more than occasional attendance at scheduled services of the congregation. The Christian Faith entails living life in such a manner that God receives honour. This is life invested in building up the saints and calling the lost to faith in the Risen Saviour. The Faith of Christ the Lord consists of a life of dependence upon God and His grace, refusing to surrender to our own base desires. It is a life that is prepared to seek peace with all, and yet refusing to compromise integrity and righteousness for momentary advantage.
I do want to take a moment to voice an observation growing out of my own life. Living a life of obedience to the will of the Lord our God is not a guarantee of peace with everyone you may know. I am well aware of the Proverb that informs us,
“When a man’s ways please the LORD,
he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”
[PROVERBS 16:7]
The statement is a generalisation. And to be certain, living a godly life will deter some from attacking the child of God. However, this particular Proverb must be viewed in light of the words Jesus spoke, cautioning, “You will be hated by all for my Name’s sake” [Mark 13:13a]. I am fully aware that the fulfilment of this prophecy looks to a dark time during the Tribulation; however, the application is apparent for this present age as well.
These cautionary words are nothing less than a summation of the more extended version of warning which Jesus delivered to all disciples, when He taught us, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me” [JOHN 15:18-21].
How stunning is the warning that Jesus delivered to all who wish to follow Him, when He said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” [MATTHEW 10:34-39].
Do you want peace in your family? Don’t imagine that following Christ will guarantee peace. Those who reject Christ will have no deep filial love for you if you commit yourself to serve the Lord. A son will reject his father because of that son’s hatred of Christ the Lord. He’ll make his father’s commitment to Christ the excuse for his own rebellion against the Saviour. A daughter will be enraged against her mother because that mother attempts to serve the Saviour. She can’t actually articulate the reason for her rejection of her own mother, but she will justify her rage because her mother isn’t “godly”. Let me say this very clearly. Christ does not permit you to create your own standard of godliness and then attempt to apply it to others in order to justify your own rebellion. You are either a follower of Christ, seeking peace with all, or you are a rebel to grace, always subject to your own emotional whims.
BACK TO THE ROUTINE — We are poised on the cusp of a new year. Things will either go as they have always gone, (and that can be marked by an absence of God as we conduct our lives according to our desires), or we can determine that we will ensure that we make room for God to direct our lives in all things. We can either review the manner in which we carry out our daily routines to ensure that we are seeking God’s presence to bless us, or we can adopt the view of this dying world, which seems to be, “If it feels good, do it.” The choice is ours.
The quiet manner in which Mary and Joseph went about their lives following the birth of the Christ provides a model for our own families after Christmas. We witness the words Paul wrote in the Letter to the Christians of Ephesus, and we read, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” [EPHESIANS 6:4]. I suspect that most Christians to whom God has entrusted children have focused at one time or another on the first part of that admonition. In the initial words of the Apostle we see him urging Christian fathers to avoid driving their children to anger. Clearly, we are not to be overbearing, deliberately provocative, grating or irritating. However, I want to direct attention to the latter portion of the apostolic admonition at this time. “Bring [your children] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord,” is the charge given to parents.
Fathers, especially, bear an awesome responsibility for ensuring that their children are brought into the discipline of the Lord, trained to understand why we honour Him and trained to obey Him in all things. Fathers are more than mere adjuncts to mothers in raising children. Fathers and mothers are to be united in the holy work of raising children who will honour God. I realise that we live in a time when increasing numbers of children are raised in single-parent homes. I would never depreciate the efforts of the single parent. I was raised in a single-parent home. I will note that grandparents can be a source of strength when one parent is absent from the home. Nevertheless, God’s ideal consists of a father and a mother.
“[Mary and Joseph] returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth” [LUKE 2:39a]. Just because the family was Jewish doesn’t mean that they didn’t have responsibilities in the world. Because they were Jewish, Mary and Joseph assumed great responsibility to care for their needs, to properly provide for their family, to integrate themselves into the society in which they lived. Joseph was a carpenter, which meant that he would need to work in his chosen trade in order to provide for his family and in order to be a productive member of that society. What is important for our study this day, and what is important for us if we will learn from the example we are provided in Scripture, is to note that the family returned to what some would consider mere routine. They again took up the task of doing what was necessary and proper.
Having ensured that the home was built on the proper foundation, the family turned again to serving the LORD through a godly homelife. And that godly life in the home meant living according to the will of God where they were. We seem to hold the view that serving God is so pedestrian that there is no real purpose. We want excitement, never realising that obedience to Christ brings fulfilment. Jesus’ promise, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” [JOHN 10:10b], is seldom understood in the fulness with which the Saviour meant it to be applied in the life of His people. Nevertheless, walking with Christ is meant to excite His people.
You may recall an incident that occurred shortly after Jesus had risen from the dead. The account to which I am referring has been recorded in the last chapter of Luke’s Gospel, and it will be instructive for us to review what took place as two grieving men were trudging toward a village called Emmaus. These men were grieving because Jesus of Nazareth had been crucified only a few days before. They had pinned their hopes for freedom, their hopes for fulfilment, their hopes for God’s glory on His presence. And now He was dead, having been crucified after a judicial farce. As if that wasn’t bad enough, some women had just reported that they had visited His tomb, only to discover that it was empty. These events were devastating!
Here is the account as Doctor Luke provided it. “That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, ‘What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?’ And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?’ And he said to them, ‘What things?’ And they said to him, ‘Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.’ And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
“So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.’ So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?’ And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!’ Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread” [LUKE 24:13-35].
What a story! These two men had walked with the Risen Saviour, and as they walked, their hearts were set aflame! The experience was so unusual that they couldn’t quite account for what had happened. They only knew that something extraordinary had taken place in their lives. That something had drawn them in and created excitement the likes of which they had never experienced before. They were unable to remain silent; they had to tell others so that their excitement could be shared. They had to speak of the transformation of the mundane, how Jesus was witnessed even in preparing a meal! This was the fellowship of the burning heart!
If you and I share in the fellowship of the burning heart, we will find fulfilment in the transformation of our daily routine. The mundane aspects of our life will become an opportunity for advancing the means to transform life as never before. And we will perform this divine work without seeking some novel venue. We will witness the transformation of our workbench into a pulpit. Our home will be transformed into a church in which all that enter will witness the power of the Living God at work where we live. Our casual conversations will become powerful displays of the wisdom of God. These things will take place not because we planned for the transformation, but because the Spirit of Christ at work in us will ensure that change does occur.
Isn’t this what we are taught as we read the statement which Paul penned to the saints in Corinth in his first missive to them? We are informed, “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” [1 CORINTHIANS 3:18].
We are told of a progression in our transformation when Paul writes, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” [ROMANS 8:28-30].
God is working in the life of His child; and because He is working, we are assured that all things must serve to bring about good for us and glory for God. We who are saved were predestined to this glorious state. Only after the fact are we able to see that God was at work in our life even before we were born. He not only predestined us to this state, but He called us. None of us decided to believe, but God called us. Because He called, we are justified—we have the right to stand complete in Christ before the Throne of God. And because we stand complete in Christ, we are glorified. In time, we struggle. In Christ, we stand complete already. And because we are complete in Him, we reveal the glory of God as redeemed people. Amen.
After Christmas, we return to the routine. However, we who are walking with Christ are a little more like Christ, standing a little closer to the glory of the Father. We are not perfected, perfection will never be accomplished until we have been taken out of this fallen world, but we are being perfected. Christians are taught, “When the perfect comes, the partial will pass away” [1 CORINTHIANS 13:10].
We must never imagine that we will make ourselves perfect. Recall how the Apostle was compelled to rebuke Christians among the churches in Galatia because many assumed, not unlike a surprising number of Christians in this day, that they could make themselves perfect through their own efforts. Paul chastised them, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’” [GALATIANS 3:1-6]?
We who look to Christ for the forgiveness of sin have entered into our current state of grace through faith in Him as the Risen Lord of Glory. We accepted the Word of God that teaches us, “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” [EPHESIANS 2:8-10].
We know that the flesh is under sentence of death. To be sure, we Christians want to honour God in the flesh; but we are sceptical of the flesh, never trusting that our flesh is able to be trusted to fulfil the will of God despite the constant struggle to bring our flesh under the reign of Christ our Master. This struggle is revealed as the Apostle writes, “We know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” [ROMANS 7:14-23].
This is not an excuse for our sinful behaviour; but it is confession that we struggle to honour God. We are compelled to turn often to the Father seeking forgiveness for our sinful choices. Paul would cry out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death” [ROMANS 7:24]? The Apostle discovered, just as you and I must discover, that deliverance is from Christ Who frees us from condemnation. Thus, Paul exults, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” [ROMANS 7:25].
SERVING GOD AND PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE — “[Jesus] grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favour of God was upon him” [LUKE 2:40]. Raised in an environment that honoured the Law and a society that esteemed honourable work, it should be no surprise that the lad would grow and be provided opportunities to work as would be true for any other Jewish boy in that day. However, as we’ve witnessed in earlier messages, there was nothing to make this particular boy stand out as superior to other Jewish lads, nor could we infer that he was inferior in some way. We are unable to say that Jesus was distinguished in any way from other boys in that day. He appears to have grown to manhood in quietness and relative obscurity until a day of God’s own choosing for Him to be revealed as the Messiah for whom Israel had long waited.
Isaiah informs us of the unspectacular presence of the young man known as Jesus to those living in Nazareth in that ancient day. Isaiah wrote,
“Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.”
[ISAIAH 53:1-2]
It pleased God that His Son should grow in obscurity while He was being prepared to fulfil the great task that He was assigned—the sacrifice of His life so that you and I could be redeemed. The relevant lesson for each of us should be that what is taking place today is to be seen as preparation for what we cannot know that will occur in coming days. I am convinced that each of us is given opportunity to accomplish some great thing for the glory of God. What is done today is preparing us for that great goal. Your life may seem to be quite humdrum, overly quiet and pedestrian. However, by the choices you are making today, by the actions you take now, you are preparing yourself to fulfil that great task.
I cannot tell you what will happen in days that lie before us. I cannot tell you what one great thing you will accomplish. I can tell you with a high degree of confidence that God will employ you to His glory as you submit yourself to Him. That one great thing may be the salvation of some individual whom you have not even met at this time. Your life, the words you speak and the manner in which you conduct your life, even now is perhaps influencing someone to choose life in the Son of God. That someone may become a great evangelist, or perhaps that someone will be a scholar who instructs others in preparation for a life of service.
Each of us will do well to learn that quietness is necessary for accomplishing great tasks. There is no music in a rest; but without rests, there is no music. Moses was compelled to spend years on the backside of the desert; but without those days tending flocks in the desert, the Great Lawgiver could never have accomplished his great work of delivering Israel from Egyptian bondage. Paul invested three years in Arabia as preparation for his great work of penetrating the Roman Empire with the Gospel of Christ. Where you are at the moment does not tell you what God will do with you, though you are being prepared and refined for God’s own purpose.
I challenge each member of this congregation, just as I challenge each one who listens via that several media that broadcasts this message, make it your determination to be prepared to fulfil the service to which God has appointed you. Make it your determination to accomplish one great thing for the glory of the Living God in this coming year. Determine that by His grace you will honour Him and that you will accomplish some great thing to the praise of His glory. Perhaps Christ will come, calling us to Himself in this coming year. If so, let us determine that we will be found in Him, prepared to meet Him at His return. Until He returns, let us determine that we will labour for His glory, accomplishing that which honours Him.
Perhaps I’m speaking to some someone who cannot serve the Risen Lord of Glory because she or he has never received Him as Master. Let this be the day in which you receive Christ the Lord as Master over your life. He died for you, and He has been raised to life so that you may stand before the Father in purity. Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
