HE BROUGHT YOU OUT TO TAKE YOU IN
Advent Series-Part 1
Acts 7:20-37
Sunday, December 3, 2006
Pastor Brian Matherlee
Read Acts 7:20-37
• THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHRISTMAS TO AMERICANS
The Barna Research Group poll, conducted for the Lutheran Hour Ministries found that:
37% of adults in the national survey (88% of whom identified themselves as Christian) said the birth of Jesus is the most important aspect of Christmas.
More than 75% of evangelical Christians placed Jesus’ birth as of first importance on Christmas.
Only 32% of those who identified themselves as fundamentalists gave that answer.
Only 29% of Catholics placed Jesus’ birth first.
Only 24% of theological liberals said the birth of Christ made Christmas important for them.
44% of the respondents said family time is the most important part of one of the three most sacred days (along with Good Friday and Easter) on the calendar.
26% of respondents ages 18 to 34 said the birth of Jesus was the most important aspect of Christmas.
39% among respondents 65 and older said the same thing.
Only 3% said presents or parties were the most important part of Christmas. The same percentage that said the best thing about Christmas was getting a paid holiday.
"I guess it demonstrates what preachers have been wringing their hands over for some time: Christ has been evacuated from Christmas," said the Rev. William Willimon, a theologian and Duke University chaplain. "It’s good to know where we are. Christmas has been a co-opted holiday."
"Americans are more likely to correctly recall the significance of April 15 than they are to connect Christmas with the birth of Jesus. As America becomes increasingly anesthetized to Christian principles and practices, it seems only fitting that we have contracted acute amnesia regarding the spiritual significance of December 25," said pollster George Barna.
SOURCE: From "Making Room For Christ At Christmas" by Mike Hays. CITATION: www.barna.org
• Nine-year-old Joey was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday School. "Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge, and all the people walked across safely. He used his walkie-talkie to radio headquarters and call in an air strike. They sent in bombers to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved." "Now, Joey, is that REALLY what your teacher taught you?" his mother asked. "Well, no, Mom, but if I told it the way the teacher did, you’d never believe it!"
God delivered a nation through Moses. He delivers the world through Christ. In delivering a people several things that grip us must be broken.
1. The grip of enticement
a. During the days of Joseph the Israelites prospered. After Joseph died and the King of Egypt died a new king came into power that began to despise the Israelites because they had become so numerous.
b. Until the Israelites hated the life they had they wouldn’t cry out to God.
c. It’s no different for us. Unless we see that the life we have is miserable we will not change.
d. Dr. David Wells (GCTS) observes, "Worldliness is what makes sin look normal in any age and righteousness seem odd."
e. Jesus first delivers us from wanting the way of the world more than His way.
f. Is there anything you want more than Jesus?
g. "The true man of God is heartsick, grieved at the worldliness of the Church...grieved at the toleration of sin in the Church, grieved at the prayerlessness in the Church. He is disturbed that the corporate prayer of the Church no longer pulls down the strongholds of the devil."
Ravenhill, Leonard
2. The grip of the oppressor
a. There is always a way free from the things that bind us.
b. But the grip of oppression is never broken by the oppressed but by a deliverer.
c. Think about Peter being ushered out of jail by an angel.
d. Think about Paul and Silas being freed by the angel from their stocks and being taken home and fed by the jailer they led to Christ!
e. Pharaoh was a difficult case. Slave labor departing with no compensation was not a very attractive deal. But God finally broke the grip of the oppressor, didn’t He?
f. John Paton was a missionary in the New Hebrides Islands. One night hostile natives surrounded the mission station, intent on burning out the Patons and killing them. Paton and his wife prayed during that terror-filled night that God would deliver them. When daylight came they were amazed to see their attackers leave.
A year later, the chief of the tribe was converted to Christ. Remembering what had happened, Paton asked the chief what had kept him from burning down the house and killing them. The chief replied in surprise, "Who were all those men with you there?" Paton knew no men were present—but the chief said he was afraid to attack because he had seen hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords circling the mission station.
SOURCE: Today in the Word, MBI, October, 1991, p. 18.
g. What is it that you think has an unbreakable hold upon you?
3. The grip of fear
a. Moses led everyone out of Egypt but only 2 entered the Promised Land. Joshua and Caleb were the only ones to make it because they didn’t give in to their fears.
b. They were brought out of bondage to be led into something better. Something wonderful.
c. Fear will make us do all sorts of crazy things
d. Fear tells us it is easier to go back to the things we knew, even though they brought harm, than forge ahead into the unknown.
e. 1 Corinthians 10 tells us what the Israelites did when they were gripped with fear.
i. When they were afraid they wouldn’t have direction (Moses up on the mountain too long) they went back to idol worship.
ii. They compromised God’s standards of faithfulness and gave into old ways of living—like the people around them and died for it.
iii. They spoke against God’s path during their time in the desert and God sent snakes among them and many died.
iv. They grumbled against God after they had listened to the fearful report of the 10 spies over the report of Joshua and Caleb.
f. What do you do when you are afraid? What do you go back to when you don’t trust God?
i. Do you question God’s plan for you and rely upon your own plans?
ii. Do you question the worth of living by God’s truth and give in to living like the world around you?
g. The only remedy to this fear is the unequivocal trust in Almighty God. You must continue to look at Him. Our circumstances must never shroud the Author of our future.
CONCLUSION
September 11th, 2001, Stanley Praimnath, Vice President for Fuji Bank, was in his office in the South Tower at WTC when his phone rang. “Are you watching the news?’ asked a woman the Chicago office. “Are you alright?” “I’m fine” he said wondering why she had called. Just then he turned to gaze out the window at the Statue of Liberty, as had been his routine. The surreal sight of a low-flying commercial jet, heading straight for his tower disrupted his view. He dropped the phone in mid-sentence and dove to the floor. Curling under his desk he began praying to God, “Lord, help me” he prayed desperately as the aircraft smashed into the tower.
The smell of jet fuel in the air, equipment scattered all around, rubble covering the floor, dust in the air, he began clawing across mound of debris. “Lord, I have to go home to my family,” he wheezed. “I have to see my daughters.” Just then he saw a light and heard a voice from the darkness, “I am here to help you.” He thought, “This is my guardian angel! The Lord sent somebody to help me!” Praimnath’s guardian angel was Brian Clark, a Christian who was an executive 3 floors below. The 2 miraculously climbed out of the rubble to safety.
Praimnath stated, “My Lord has some unfinished tasks for me.” “I took the tattered clothes I was wearing that day, put them in a box, and wrote DELIVERANCE all over it. I told my wife, ‘if I ever get spiritually cold, I want you to bring this box to me, open it up, and show me what the Lord brought me from.”
May we be reminded this Christmas how Jesus brought us out bondage to take us in to the ultimate Promised Land!
