The Christmas Story: Responding To God's In-Breaking Kingdom: Mary/Joseph Series

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Good morning, Merry Christmas. My name is Suzannne Revers and I’m a part of the Preaching and Teaching team, here at The Father’s House, and once in awhile we fill in for Pastor Marty to bring the Sunday message.

So, I’m going to get us started off here with a prayer….

Lord, we thank you for being God above all. We ask that you would make yourself known to us. Lord, Jesus, that you would be here with us today as we gather to praise you, and worship you. And, having the desire to learn more about who you are in our lives, God, we ask that your Kingdom come….break-in on our hearts, and break in on our minds, so that we may experience you today and throughout this Christmas season, Lord we ask, that your Kingdom come upon us……yes!

Kingdom come…….don’t ya just get excited at the thought of it! Kingdom breakthroughs, it’s what we’re praying for right? Yes? You’re open to Kingdom breakthroughs, aren’t ya? Orrrrrrr are you wanting to pick and choose the kind of God stuff you want for your life. Kind of like picking out a food item off the menu? Have you been hoping to find a list of Kingdom Specials to select from in this big book….now there’s an idea….yeah….let’s see where would that be anyway…..probably somewhere in the front, don’t ya think? Ahhhh yes, here it is….mmmmm…looks like some pretty good choices here. I’m thinking I might like the #1 a Miracle just in time. Or, let’s see, maybe I would rather have the #2 a fresh dish of God’s power and strength to get me through the day. Oh wait, #3 this sounds even better yet…..yes, I’ll have the #3 a Healing, well done please, and ”hold” the angels, visions, dreams, and any revelations….gives me gas! And, hey, I’m in a hurry….so I’ll have it to go, yes….“God to Go!”

Ah-ha….we do that don’t we. In our fast-food lives, it’s like we want to order up God when we’re hungry for him. And, we want him to be delivered in such a way that’s most comfortable for us (no angels please, I don’t think I could handle that!) We want him to look like what we would expect. It’s only natural. And, then what do we do when He shows up and He doesn’t look like what we expected? Well, when I go through the McDonald’s drive-through and I leave only to find that they’ve given me McNuggets instead of the burger and fries I ordered, and oh yeah, they forgot the ketchup again…..well, I want to send it back. Oooooooo….do we ever do that with God….send him back. God shows up in our lives to deliver a Kingdom breakthrough and we miss it?

Well that’s just what happened for some in the Christmas story….did ya ever think about that? Some missed the whole thing, and they were right there. How about the folks staying in the hotel where there was no more room….they didn’t have a clue what was happening out in the stable, and here, the greatest Kingdom breakthrough of all time was happening right under their noses.

The greatest event of all of history -- when God, himself, arrives on earth! He leaves his throne in heaven to land in this place that we live and he chooses to become one of us……..fully human, and yet fully God. And, the plan is that he will arrive on the scene as a newborn baby, in the poorest parts, with no grand entrance, no ticker tape parade, but packaged in the smallest of bundles….born in a barn…..in the quiet of the night…..who knew this baby was magnificent?

Sometimes, we’re like the folks in the Inn. We just don’t see the Kingdom breakthroughs happening around us. Well, here’s the good news – Kingdom breakthroughs – we’ll just call ‘em God’s little packages sent from heaven – they’re meant for you….whether you receive ‘em or not. Did you get that? God’s sending you packages from heaven! It’s true! You just gotta look for ‘em.

Well, chances are there were folks at that Inn who had been looking for God. It’s just that they had a preconceived idea of what the package would look like. You see , they were looking for the Messiah, it means “the Anointed One.” Anointed by God and empowered by God’s spirit to deliver his people and establish His kingdom. For many years the word was out that the Messiah was coming, but the people envisioned a political leader. They expected a new King to help them come together and form an army so they could defeat their enemies with force and power so as to bring peace to the land. They expected a war like leader, not a Spiritual deliverer, and certainly not a baby.