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Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church
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The Many who Miss His Coming
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Audio version:
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Are you ready for Christmas? Are YOU!!??
A man was driving his truck to town, with his cow in the back, to sell it. And as he was driving along, a car coming in from the side, ran a stop sign, and plowed into the man's truck, the cow was thrown past the truck into a ditch. When the police arrived on the scene they asked the man how he was, and he said he had never felt better in his entire life. One month later he was suing the driver of the car for a million dollars. When the suit got to trial the attorney for the driver of the car was questioning the farmer about the suit.
He said, How in the world can you be suing my client for a million dollars, when according to police records, you told them right after the accident that you never felt better in your entire life., the man responded by saying" Well you need to understand the situation. This car came out of nowhere, blindsided me and ran a stop sign. We crashed and the force of the accident was so great that my cow was thrown out of the back end of the truck and into a ditch and I was thrown out on the other side. When the police arrived, they went over to my cow, in the ditch on the right hand side, and one of the officers said "she's hurt bad" took out his revolver and shot her. Then the police officer with the gun walked across the road and asked me how I felt. Well I told them I never felt better in all my life, what would you have said.
Accidents get our attention. They focus our thoughts. What would it take to focus your thoughts on Jesus this Christmas. Will it take something extremely large, or will a quiet whisper from God make for renewal of your heart this Christmas.
And unknown poet wrote this;
Ready for Christmas,’ she said with a sigh
As she gave a last touch to the gifts piled high.
Then wearily sat for a moment and read
Till soon, very soon, she was nodding her head.
Then quietly spoke a voice in her dream,
‘Ready for Christmas when only last week
You wouldn’t acknowledge your friend on the street?
Ready for Christmas while holding a grudge?
Perhaps you’d better let God be the judge.’
she woke with a start and a cry of despair.
‘There’s so little time and I’ve still to prepare,
O, Father, forgive me, I see what you mean!’
To be ready means more than a house swept clean
Yes, more than the giving of gifts and a tree,
It’s the heart swept clean that God wanted to see,
A heart that is free from rancor and sin,
So be ready for Christmas and ready for Him.
What will it take for you to be ready for Christ, this Christmas. It is not easy.
The reality is that some are never ready for Christ’s coming.
Shepherds: Have you ever wondered how many of the shepherds did not respond to the angelic choir’s announcement? How many did not go the Bethlehem out of fear, or out of indifference, or out of a desire not to be involved in whatever it was all about. “After all,” they would say, “...somebody’s got to look after these sheep.”
The Madji, Wise Men
Have you ever wondered how many of those who studied the stars did not respond? Did not mount up and go on a pilgrimage to find this child king. The rationale behind an apathetic reaction would go something like this:
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well, you know I’ve studied the night sky for years, and stars come and go, here tonight, gone tomorrow night, just a fleeting twinkle in the sky. How was I to know this one was different? |
It happens to people around Jesus all his life. He grows up in
A casual observer could say the same thing of Plains, Georgia, or Hope, Arkansas, or Carthage, Tennessee, or Whittier, California, or you name the place, yet these towns yielded Presidents, Vice-Presidents and Senators of the United States of America.
Take care lest we let the familiar, the routine, (pause), obscure the wonder of God’s special message and of His special presence. It is in the most regular and routine events of the day that God calls to you and to me.
Some Shepherds show up Some Star gazers show up Simeon and Anna: seek out Jesus at the temple: Simeon saying he is at peace in life, even to pass away because he has seen God’s salvation. Anna declaring the joy of Jesus but also the sorrow and loss to come.
Indifference - Yet how many others in the temple that day, the religious leaders, the Bible Study teachers, the Sabbath School superintendents, the Ministers of the Word and servants of the ancient Hebrew scrolls, missed Jesus coming. They were too busy with the daily duties, to miss the moment.
John writes of this in his passage. “He came to his own and his own received him not.” What are some words that describe our risk of missing Jesus? Preoccupation with other things. More often than not, the moment of decisive choice comes in the ruts of the regular. It was true that first Christmas when Christ came. Indifference, seen Jesus been there, done that! Rejection? Is the call to live as Christ did too humbling?
So what is our response. That is key. We will miss his coming if we do not respond in some way.
The third word is Opportunity. It comes John’s text 1: “But as many as received Him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name.
C.S. Lewis said, “The son of God became human to enable all of us to become the sons and daughters of God.”
That is our opportunity, to respond to His coming in a life arresting, life-changing way. Why not? Why not now? why not here? Why not you?
A couple years ago there was an audio tape circulating which was the tape between a disc-jockey and a young woman who had run away from home to find happiness on the streets of Berkeley. Her parents were anxious because she had been gone for a long time. A teenage boy who listened to this tape made this observation about the conversation he heard. He came out and asked why they didn’t just come out and tell the truth--that Marcy was suffering so much from all of the things that warm on the outside, but none of the things that warm on the inside. He went on to say that Marcy had been given everything material, everything to scientifically understand the world, good education, and good style, but nothing spiritual, emotional or substancial. Nothing about God. Nothing about Jesus. The DJ on the tape quickly cut to a commercial, then the next caller: Bob who wanted to know how to go hunt Moose in Canada.
That is where I am headed: with this sermon, We have an opportunity in Christ to become brothers and sisters, united in love, called to love a lost, troubled and struggling world. Communion reminds us of this. A gathering, like the gathering in the upper room. People of all sorts, just like that evening long ago. But God speaks to us in the center of the meal, and it is Jesus birth and life that tell us everything we need to know about God.