OPEN: How many of you send out Christmas cards?
There was a woman who had waited until the last minute to send Christmas cards. She knew she had 49 folks on her list. So she rushed into a store and bought a package of 50 cards without really looking at them.
Still in a big hurry, she addressed the 49 and signed them without reading the message inside.
On Christmas Day when things had quieted down somewhat, she happened to come across the leftover card and finally read the message she had sent to 49 of her friends. Much to her dismay, it read like this: "This card is just to say a little gift is on the way."
Suddenly she realized that 49 of her friends were expecting a gift from her they were never going to get.
APPLY: Unlike that unfortunate woman … God HAS sent us gifts.
As James 1:17 says: "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
I. Psalm 104 describes for us one of the 1st gifts God gave to us - Creation
"God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Genesis 1:26-28
God created the world for us. It was given to us to take care of.
That woman who had sent out Christmas cards had sent them as a message of her love for her friends.
And, that’s how David viewed creation.
When he wrote Psalm 104 – he was marveling at God’s gift of creation and it spoke to him of just how much God cared for him.
ILLUS: I can picture David up on a hillside with the family sheep feeling the wind on his face, watching the trees blow in the wind. Sitting up on a hillside looking down the Mediterranean ocean. Maybe seeing some mountains off in the distance and streams flowing down through the valley below.
And it strikes David - as he sees all of this - just how wondrous a God he has and just how much God cares him.
Romans 1:20 tells us that "since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities— his eternal power and divine nature— have been clearly seen…"
One the great concerns of people is that they want to feel close to God they want a sign that He’s there and that He cares…
ILLUS: The comic strip BC once had one of their characters praying to God “Send me a sign that you are there!”
And out of the sky drops a marquee with the words “I’m here!”
David understood that it was in creation that God gave that very sign. Our problem is that we often don’t take the time to pay attention.
ILLUS: But those people who DO pay attention see God in all that surrounds them.
Dr. Werner Von Braun (the scientist who helped our nation launch its space program) once wrote: "One cannot be exposed to the law and order of the universe without concluding that there must be design and purpose behind it all… The better we understand the intricacies of the universe and all it harbors, the more reason we have found to marvel at the inherent design upon which it is based.”
Dr. Von Braun concluded that this all pointed to a marvelous creator. He said that it was in “the law and order of the universe” that he saw God’s handiwork.
Now, you don’t have to be a scientist to see (and marvel) at that order of creation.
NEXT TIME YOU GO TO THE GROCERY STORE AND BUY FRUIT
Look at the watermelons: Each watermelon has an even number of stripes on its rind.
Buy an orange and cut it open: Each orange has an even number of segments.
Or next summer walk thru a field of wheat, pluck a stalk and count the number of grains:
Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.
Everything in creation is orderly, methodical and intricately organized.
ILLUS: So much so that an Astronomer by the name of Allan Sandage said he was “almost a practicing atheist as a boy,” but was nagged by mysteries whose answers were not to be found in the glittering panoply of supernovas. Among them: Why is there something rather than nothing? Sandage began to despair of answering such question through reason alone, and so, at 50, he willed himself to accept God.
“It was my science that drove me to the conclusion that the world is much more complicated than can be explained by science,” he says. “It is only through the supernatural that I can understand the mystery of existence.”
And that is only reasonable, because much of what we know of (as science) came into existence because of Christianity
ILLUS: According to an article in U.S. News & World Report back in 1991, "In the West, early science grew out of a decidedly religious impulse: to understand God and his relationship with man. The biblical picture of an orderly creation by a dependable God gave impetus to scientific inquiry. The universe "made sense" because it was overseen by a Supreme Intelligence who made mathematical description and prediction possible."
Did you catch that?
Science was made possible because the Bible declared that the world was predictable.
II. Now, not everyone wants to read "Creation" the same way David did
Romans 1:18-23 tells us:
"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities— his eternal power and divine nature— have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."
Romans is telling us that there are people who look at creation and deliberately ignore God.
ILLUS: Back in 1987, the National Academy of Sciences was arguing against the concept of creationism before the Louisiana Supreme court. They argued that believing the world came into being by Creation "fails to display the most basic characteristic of science: reliance upon naturalistic explanations."
Many - even in the scientific community - look at Creation and refuse to see the Creator. Not because He cannot be seen… but because they don’t WANT to see Him.
III. Why would that be?
Why would people not want to see God?
I believe - in part - it’s because people sin… Sin causes a lot of people to want to hide from God/ or to deny that He exists.
ILLUS: The famed psychiatrist, Dr. Karl Menninger, once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 percent of them could walk out the next day.
In a way… many of these people had run away from God and their sins kept them in a mental prison.
In the beginning, when Adam and Eve sinned by taking of the fruit of the forbidden tree
… what was the 1st thing they did when God came around? (they hid from God! … they tried to get away from God).
And Revelation describes what it will be like when God comes again
Revelation 6:15-17 “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne…”
There is something about sin that separates us from God… that causes us to flee from the God who David believed LOVED him.
IV. But it’s hard to feel the love of God while you are buried under the guilt of sin
And that is why I find it interesting that Psalm 104 was sung by the Jews during the day of Atonement.
The Day of Atonement was a special Holy Day for the Jewish people because it was on that ONE DAY of the year, the High Priest would make a sacrifice for the sins of ALL the people and he would enter into the Holy of Holies… into God’s presence… and place the blood of the sacrifice on the Mercy Seat and the sins of the people would be covered.
When the High Priest fulfilled this task… the sins of the people were forgiven.
It was during this Holy Day that Israelites could sense the closeness of God with all of their hearts.
It was during this Holy Day that the barrier that stood between themselves and God was broken down
AND it was during this Holy Day that the people of God could again sense the God that David described in Psalm 104
A God that was not only there… but who cared for them
CLOSE: I once read the story of a missionary team that had been invited to Russia to teach Christianity. It was Christmastime, and as they taught the story of Christ’s birth at an orphanage, everyone listened in amazement. None of the kids or the staff had ever heard it before.
One of the missionaries wrote: "We gave the children some materials and instructed them to create the manger scene that they had just heard about. All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat; he looked to be about 6 years old and had finished his project.
"As I looked at the little boy’s manger, I was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. I called for a translator to ask why. Looking at his completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story accurately, until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger. Then Misha started to ad-lib his own ending to the story.
"He said, ’And when Mary laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mama and no papa, so I don’t have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him forever.’
"Putting his hand over his face, Misha’s head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed. He had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would stay with him forever."
That’s why Jesus was sent… to complete God’s message of love. Someone once told of receiving a Christmas card that said this:
"If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. But since our greatest need was forgiveness, God sent us a Savior."
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES: CELEBRATING GOD’S GIFTS
The Gift of Life = Psalms 139:1-139:24
Christmas Card From God = Psalms 104:1-104:35
What Did You Get For Christmas? = Isaiah 9:6-9:7
The Gift Of New Life = Romans 5:6-6:14
