Sunday, December 27, 2009

 

Announcements -- 106 teens and chaperones coming in for teen bash this week
Rey Rivera is at CMC with a ruptured esophagus
Sylvia Yanez had surgery last week
Keith Currie's mom passed away last week

 

Communion -- Nate & Kim James
Jer 29:11-13
Kim -- relying on her own strength instead of God
one by one- all her talents were stripped away
like a child rolling in poison ivy - a disease on her soul
go through extreme measures because God doesn't want her to risk her salvation
Nate -- we measure God by our biggest problem
God doesn't need our help.
Jesus in the garden - but if that's your plan, I'm good with that
Heb 2:18 he can help us when we are tempted
Heb 3:1  how big was the problem Jesus had to face to fix us
Jesus has been there, he's felt it, he understands
We just have to be faithful that he will take us where we want to go

 

Rick Maule
Matt 2:1-12   the Magi
familiar Bible story -- too familiar
this is not just a Christmas pageant, this is history
What does this have to say to us today?
Don't know if there were three of them, don't know that they were all men
The Bible doesn't endorse astrology.   These were stargazers.   God takes us where we are at. 
They had open hearts to spiritual things.
They dropped everything to look for the new king. 
There are men and women in Charlotte searching for God. 
We were motivated to look for God, even though we looked in the wrong places
They have issues -- so did we
They had a spiritual hunger
They wanted a star, God gave them a star
He gave them a dream to go home another way
We're having regional services to find other people searching
vs. 11 Jesus lived in a house

1)  They were urgent to find God
-- they had to do it now
-- they had a plan, a timetable, they sought information and guidance

2)  They had a willingness to sacrifice
-- they spent money to honor and seek God
-- they opened their treasures to Jesus
in 2010, we need to give God our treasures, our best

3)  They risked their lives
Herod was not known as a good King
are we willing to risk our lives to build the church?
are we wanting to cruise on into glory or lay it all on the line for God
we need to be a church willing to lay our lives down

4)  they were willing to give their hearts
they were not astronomers, they were astrologers
They didn't want to do an experiment on Jesus, they wanted to worship him
vs. 10  full of joy/overjoyed -- jumping up and down joy, not calm
some of us have morphed on Rick, from an eager, new disciple with joy to an older, jaded adult
The magi were not little kids, but they still had great joy
Gen 1:28  God created man in his image, he gave them dominion, to dominate or lord
We're made to be a lord over our own little realm, the kingdom of us
You can control what you do right now
God gave us the power to be lord over self

Movie  "Invictus"   -- based on poem by William Ernest Henley written in 1875

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

God made you a king -- Herod was a king
some of us are Herod
he didn't want to hear about the new king - one king too many
he takes extreme measures to kill him, get rid of his rival
When we're prideful, we can do things unspeakably evil

 

what life path will you take?
Be like the wise men -- humble out
Be like the king -- kill all opposers

 

Jesus in the Temple with Anna and Simeon
Simeon was talking about a baby
He's the king or I'm the king -- two roads
Jesus is destined for the rising and falling of many
no neutral ground
join him or fight him

 

1-- you stink at being king
we really don't know how to run this thing
we have freedom and dominion but we also have consequences
a guy was impersonating a Panther this week, all will be revealed
every time you leave God to be your own king, you will go through the same hell

 

2 -- you need a good king to rule your life
ever take the wrong road?
we're reluctant to take advice, then we're humbled
there's no greater guide then God
Jesus is Lord of my Life
that's what Herod needed to do
that's what the wise men did

 

I'm fine, I was baptized, you say
like the US in Iraq, everyone's happy, but the battle's not over
we are not ruling every area of Iraq
we are not ruling every area of our lives
Jesus has won the war, but we need to conquer the enemy
the Bible gives us the end of the movie
Every knee will bow
Luke 2:14  two kings going to war
Do we suffer like Herod or rejoice like the Magi?
God's way is the right way
Let us resolve to be wise men and women