So, all the presents have been unwrapped and even some of the gifts have been exchanged. The leftover turkey is all but gone and we have had to let our belts out a notch or two. All seems well and we are happy as can be – or are we?
Many people find themselves depressed during the weeks following Christmas. We call it the “After-Christmas Let Down”. For some, it is a brief pause; a time to catch our breaths and meditate. But for others, it is a lingering feeling of being overwhelmed by life itself.
I sometimes wonder if Mary and Joseph didn’t feel some of that, too. What would it have been like for them? Jesus had been born, the shepherds had already come and gone, the angel had gone back to Heaven, and the Magi had gone back to where they came from. And now they were left to raise a not-so-normal young boy in a normal world.
We sometimes forget that they were people just like us. They had to live the day-to-day life like we do. Joseph had to go out and earn a living and Mary had to do the same things that other mothers and wives did. They had to deal with the daily routine - just as we still must do today.
Sometimes, we feel overwhelmed by it all and tend to get down. We succumb to the discouragement of the enemy. He does that so it will take our focus off the Lord.
We should understand what the word ‘discourage’ means. The Greek word for ’discourage’ is ‘hâtat’. The Greek definition of that word is – "To beat down – to make fearful – to frighten – to shatter – to destroy."
Yet, I see in Mary, one of the keys to coping with this problem. The scripture says she “treasured all these things quietly in her heart”. I think that as she got back into the swing of life, she kept all those feelings fresh in her mind. I don’t think she put the experiences on the back shelf, as we tend to do.
Have you ever heard a tune that just keeps repeating over and over again in your mind? No matter what you do, it is in your thoughts all day long. I think Mary did that with the promises Gabriel gave her when he told her how she would conceive the Messiah.
I raised my kids myself, and as a single father, I would sometimes get overwhelmed with the everyday sameness of things. I would get up; get the kids ready for the sitter; then drop them off on my way to work; and then like clockwork, I would pick them up on my way home from work. I would spend a little time with them as soon as we got home and try my best to make it quality time.
Then, I would head towards the kitchen to cook dinner, clean the kitchen, straighten things up; and then get them ready for bed. After all of this, I would manage to sit down and rest for a while then go to bed myself. Tomorrow would start the same process all over again.
I think I can relate a little to how Mary may have felt. Whenever the daily routine got overwhelming, I would sit back and picture in my mind how my kids would be when they reached adulthood. I tried to imagine what they would accomplish in their lives and what kind of personalities they would have. I looked ahead to the promise of their fulfillment. I think Mary did the same with the baby Jesus.
We need to do the same with our lives. Every one of us has had a storm in the past year or so, and some of us are having one right now. We need to sit back and imagine what our lives will be like after the storm. Will we just go through this storm reacting, or by acting? Will we just go through clinging to the norm, or will we start putting a real faith to work?
Will we actively seek God’s face in this storm, or will we put our blinders on and just tread forward like we have in all of our other storms? In short, will we rely on God or will we rely on ourselves?
As we descend from the high we felt at Christmas, we need to remember the promises of our Lord. This morning, I want to offer you some words straight out of God’s love letter to us that can help you adjust back into the real world of monotony.
Our main text is LUKE 1:68-79. [READ ENTIRE PASSAGE]
There are three things I think we can take from this passage and hang onto.
1. WE CAN REMEMBER WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR US
The passage I just read is actually a Psalm of praise, and focuses on a number of things that God has done for us. In verse 68, we see the first thing God did.
“…He has come and has redeemed His people.”
The idea of ‘redemption’ is a buying back of something, a rescuing at a great cost. It was a term of great significance to the Jews of that day, who were once again under severe oppression of a distant government. We see several hints in Zechariah’s Psalm of his political situation, but the overall essence is purely spiritual.
Now, some say that Zechariah was looking for the political redemption, but I think that, even though he may not have totally understood, he was really looking at the spiritual redemption that he knew God would give us.
In verse 69, it talks of a ‘horn of salvation’. Horn is used here as a symbol of strength. To paraphrase it in today’s English, we could say that ‘He has provided us with a mighty Savior.’
Now this is very significant. Many people miss this next thing. Zechariah begins by prophesying over his son, John (later to be known as John the Baptist) but ends up focusing on Jesus as the Messiah. He is telling us that God has furnished us with a mighty Savior.
We could stop there when recounting the things God has given us. We could just sit back and do as Mary did. We could ponder these things quietly in our hearts. But, God is not done yet.
In verse 70, he reminds us that God promised us a Savior long ago. In verse 71, he again expresses the theme of salvation for his people. Verse 72 introduces to us one of the most motivating characteristics of God. It tells us of God’s MERCY.
Before we go on, let me explain mercy. Many people think that mercy means kindness. Mercy does have kindness in it, but that is not the theme of mercy. Mercy means: "to bestow great kindness or concern to someone in considerable need who does not deserve it." That is mercy. It goes way beyond simple kindness.
We must always remember that God showed concern and loving kindness to us, an undeserving people, in our time of great need. And, God is still doing that today, 2000 years after sending His Son to us as a sacrificial lamb to cover our sins.
In verses 72- 75 Zechariah boldly brings up the promise God gave to Abraham – to rescue the nation of Israel from the hands of their enemies.
And there is something very important for us to remember in verses 74 - 75. It tells us that God enables us to serve Him without fear! Without fear! Fear is one of the most devastating things to a Christian. Fear of persecution, and that persecution can range from rejection, to physical threats or even death. Not only does it say we can serve Him without fear, but it says we can do so in holiness and righteousness for our entire lives.
I think that serving God is seen today as more of an obligation, or a chore if you will, than a privilege. It should be the top most priority of each one of us, but too often, today’s Christian does not do too much serving. It becomes a duty, and is therefore seen as negative rather than the positive that it really is.
That is the reason very few Christians in America are willing to serve Him. They are much to entrenched in their daily lives – all of their ‘I have’s’ to just serve Him. What I am left to ponder is this: What are those same people going to do when they lose every single thing they have in this life?
I know several people who have been going along in their busy lives like the rest of us do. Then, out of nowhere, with no warning, they lose everything they have. They lose their families, their homes, their jobs and pretty much their personal identities that they had spent so many years working for. What then?
One man I know in that situation could not seem to get his mind off how much he was suffering. Of course, by thinking about it all the time made it much worse. He lost his job, which made him lose his home and possessions, and that caused him to lose his wife. He viewed himself as a total failure, not worth anything. He soon committed suicide. He forgot two very important things he had left. He had a wonderful daughter who still misses her daddy after nearly 30 years. He also forgot that he had God waiting for the man to grab his hand.
I know a woman who pretty much went through the same thing. The woman took a different route. She grabbed God’s hand. And now, she has more than she ever had before. She has the Holy Ghost in her heart, and she now has her treasures in Heaven, waiting to be claimed when she goes home to meet Jesus in person.
In the days of Jesus, serving was viewed as an honor, a distinct privilege. Today, it is viewed as something we have to do if we are to be a Christian. In Jesus’ day, they looked forward to bringing their offerings into the storehouses of God. Today, we cringe at the thought of actually giving the 10% God told us to give. I heard a man say once that if God were as stingy with His gifts to us as we are with our gifts to Him, we would not even have had Jesus in the first place.
Since we seem to have lost a lot of the feelings and perspectives of true worship, it then becomes no wonder that we have also lost the true vision of how the Holy Spirit comforts us, guides us, loves us and prays for us when we don’t know what to pray for. Maybe that is the reason we tend to get very down and discouraged. Maybe we need to step back, review the promises God gave us as Mary did, and just take time to quietly ponder them in our hearts.
In the days before Jesus, people had to go to the temples, and get cleanses of their sins by the shed blood of an animal before they could worship. Since Jesus came, we can worship anyplace and anytime because we are always in the presence of God’s Holy Spirit.
Where we were once overjoyed at the privilege of serving the God of everything, we now are so reluctant that we get ashamed to admit we know Him. And then we wonder why our lives are so full of trouble and turmoil.
Zechariah had the right outlook. God gave us a most beautiful gift. The gift of allowing us to worship Him and serve Him. We should gladly grab onto the many opportunities we have to serve Him and worship Him, in and out of the local churches. We should realize that the giving of tithes is an opportunity to serve Him. To serve in the youth departments or the praise and worship teams is a golden opportunity.
Each week, I go through the same thing. After church on Sunday, I immediately start to think about what God wants me to talk about the next week. There is not a day that goes by, that I don’t bow my head to Him, and let Him know that I know I am not worthy of this honor. I know that I am not qualified on my own to do anything for Him. I know that I am not worthy of even acknowledging Him. But, I also realize that as it tells us in PHILIPPIANS 4:13,
“I can do anything through Him, who gives me strength.”
And that is an honor that I can only repay by serving Him to my fullest. I can only respond by worshiping Him. By relying upon Him. By trusting Him. By loving Him with my entire heart and soul and mind.
I can only respond to my God by realizing that the things I do in my daily life that seem like drudgery are actually royal privileges enabled by God Himself. They are really acts of service to the Lord.
So, as you come down from the Christmas high, and get settled back into the life you normally have, you will occasionally feel the “After Christmas blahs”. It is during these times that you must remember that those daily things that seem to get you down, are really blessings that enable you to use them to worship God.
2. WE CAN REMEMBER WHAT GOD HAS PROMISED US
In verse 76, Zechariah talks of how his son will be a prophet and will go before the Lord. We know that this baby grew up to be John the Baptist, who came just prior to Jesus, and John foretold of Jesus and who He was. In verse 77, he prophesied of how his son would one day proclaim the coming of the Messiah and how that Messiah would offer the forgiveness of sin.
Look at the spiritual state of our city, our country and even the world. Those same promises need to be proclaimed today, also. Many Christians in America have heard the promises and have responded, but need desperately to hear them again. We need to be told over and over about how God’s desire is to forgive us and have us serve Him without shame.
I don’t know what sins you have brought with you this morning, or what guilt you may be suffering from at this moment, but I do know one thing: Jesus Christ offers you the complete forgiveness of all sins just as much as He offered those over 2000 years ago. There is power in the forgiveness of sins and the ability to change to be Christ-like.
But, along with forgiveness, we receive a duty. We have an obligation to God to point others in His direction. We need to boldly proclaim the message of God’s loving salvation for all peoples.
As we wind down from Christmas, we can cling to the promise God gave us. God gave us the promise of eternal life, through His Son, who was born in a manger.
And it is that promise that will lead into the third thing we can hold onto as we prepare for our new year.
3. WE CAN REMEMBER WHERE GOD IS GOING TO TAKE US
In the last part of verse 79, at the very end of Zechariah’s Psalm, he reminds us that God isn’t finished with us yet. He still has more to come. God’s desire is to guide us into the path of peace.
I am so thankful that the best is yet to come. I am so glad that we have not peaked spiritually. And, that is a very important thing to remember as we ready ourselves to enter into another new year.
Let us remember that God does have all kinds of good things in store for us. He has all kinds of new opportunities for us to serve Him, to witness for Him to people we know and meet. We will have many times that we can experience His closeness during times of joy and during times of troubles. We must remember that through everything that lies ahead, God’s single most important desire is to lead our feet into the paths of peace, which is righteousness through Him.
After Christmas, as things get back to normal, we sometimes can wonder what it was all about. It was all about the baby Jesus, born in Bethlehem. The baby who would grow up to be the Savior of mankind. The one who was sent by God to offer us a way to Heaven.
What do you think you will remember most about this Christmas as time goes by? Chances are, it will not be the gifts you received that were under the tree. You will probably remember the gift to you that was hanging on the tree. The tree of Calvary.
You have some decisions to make. It is time. As we step out of one year and step into another year, doesn’t it make sense for us to make sure we do it right and not haphazardly? This year, let’s walk into the new year wisely. Let’s evaluate where we stand with the Lord Jesus, so that when we go into 2007, we go in with Him as our guide. But before we can do that, we must first make a decision to do it. Today is that day; the day of decision.
Our Heavenly Father gave you His Son so that you would be able to spend eternity in Heaven. You must now decide if you really want it or not. If you do, you must reach out and grab that gift. You can best do that by coming forward this morning.
Will the Praise Team please come back up?
Please don’t come forward for any other reason but because God is telling you that it is time; time for you to make a decision; time for you to make your stand. As we stand to sing our song of invitation, I am waiting for you to come up and make a public statement of your desire to live a life that is closer to God. And, if you are in need of prayer, we urge you to come forward this morning so we can pray with you.
INVITATION
