A Baby Changes Everything
Isaiah 1:18
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/BabyChangesEverything.html
A man and a woman marry and start a life together. They are young and immature, and understandably, are fairly self-centered in their lifestyle. And then a baby comes along, and changes everything! Nothing makes you grow up quicker. Nothing changes your priorities more. Your sleep schedule changes. Your social life pauses indefinitely. Your love life must alter. Your house is not as quiet. It also smells different. Your money vanishes. You must humble yourself to degrading tasks. A baby changes everything, so you make changes as necessary, and, indeed, the baby does need changing every time you turn around. You think you are changing them, but really they are changing you. You want to mold and shape this new life, but at least at first, only YOU are being transformed! A baby changes everything.
The wife's pride was in her hair, which she could spend hours shaping. Now it's cut short, pulled back, and washed about as often as in pioneer days. She always wanted more curves, now she's got them! A baby changes everything! The husband used to watch football in his easy chair, now he's a gopher, running plays called by his new life coach from the sidelines, and he can't afford to drop the ball, because it's his child which he cradles in a football hold, trying to make the colic stop! A baby changes everything.
Next, the baby starts pulling up, so the knick knacks must be moved higher or put away. We tried so hard to get them to walk and talk and suddenly we are telling them to... "sit down and shut up!" A baby changes everything.
Twenty years ago we lost our first, just entering the 2nd trimester, and even that experience greatly changed us. 5 years later little red came along, just a warm up, for his Noah's ark nursery proved to be prophetic when 2 years later babies started coming 2 by 2, male and female! 3 babies in diapers change everything!
And every stage of their lives includes fascinating changes, and they are all special needs / high maintenance in ever-changing ways. You think the costs might go down over time? Think again! I think teens cost more than adults. And then they go to college like Ethan and Nick, whose parents are now suffering from maltuition! Costs gradually increase over the years until they finally reach their peak, which is the night you go bail them out of jail and bring them back to the basement you refinished for age 20-40! And all this started on a night we can't remember...from decades ago? A baby changes everything!
I used to write song parodies. No longer. They say that the mark of a true gentleman is a man who can write song parodies...but doesn't. But last week's "Sound of Music" Live reminded me of an old favorite which I will now share, to the tune of "Climb Every Mountain." It's called, "Drink from the Fountain," because our church in Savannah, Georgia had a lot of babies being born, and was pastored by a man who joked that it was all caused by the church water fountain. He wanted to grow the church, and so he encouraged all young couples to drink!
"Drink from the fountain, conceive a child
cast off inhibition, take a walk that's wild
Drink from the fountain, do not abstain
follow pastor's wishes, 'til you find your dream
A dream that will be, first a baby, then a kid
suddenly he's a teen, would you look at what we did!
[pointing at Kimberly]
Don't drink from the fountain, until it's time
Take every precaution! Sip not...and we'll be fine!"
Now, these truths are real, though tongue in cheek. We've taken much more time than usual with frivolities, but let's make some serious points:
Satan knew the Messiah was promised to come, and was watching carefully. And so, God smuggled His Son into the world in an obscure barn via the womb of a teenage virgin. And for Mary, everything changed...
"A Baby Changes Everything" by Faith Hill
A teenage girl, much too young
Unprepared for what's to come
A baby changes everything
Not a ring on her hand
All her dreams and all her plans
A baby changes everything
The man she loves she's never touched
How will she not lose his trust?
A baby changes everything
She has to leave, go far away
Heaven knows she can't stay
A baby changes everything
She can feel He's coming soon
There's no place, there's no room
A baby changes everything
---
Shepherds all gather 'round
Up above the star shines down
A baby changes everything
Choir of angels sing
Glory to the newborn King
A baby changes everything
My whole life has turned around
I was lost but now I'm found
A baby changes everything
What difference has the birth of Jesus made in history? Did His birth make any difference at all? Oh yes!
Isaiah 1:18
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
The birth of Jesus and most of His life was exceedingly simple. Jesus was born into the poorest of circumstances, to a working class family. He spent the first thirty years of His life as a carpenter in relative obscurity working with His dad. He never made much money. He never traveled more than about a hundred miles from His home. He never wrote a book. He never ran for a political office. He never married. He never had children. At the age of thirty, He commenced His ministry which lasted only three years. He was, for the most part, homeless during those years. However, in that short time He did miracles, fed the poor and cared for the sick demonstrating that He was in fact God, walking into human history without sinning, His words filled with power, love for people, and life-changing grace. That’s not to mention His death, burial, and resurrection. For He was born to die, that we might live!
That’s the “simple” life of Jesus Christ, so how did this baby’s coming change anything?
The legacy of Jesus Christ is by far the most profound and planet transforming legacy of anyone in history. Jesus Christ is the most transformative person who ever lived.
Human history literally divides time at His birth: into BC – Before Christ – and AD – Anno Domini, Latin for “in the year of our Lord.”
Even atheists have to tell time by Him!
About Jesus Christ, more songs have been written and sung, more books written, and more art work commissioned than anyone who has ever lived.
Today, billions of Christ followers [some misguided] around the world gather weekly celebrating, worshiping, adoring, and studying the life and words of the God-man Jesus Christ, who forever changed this world.
Those who love Jesus and those who don’t must agree on this one fact: In all of human history no one has made the difference Jesus made and continues to make. Stephen Neal, a Historian, said, “He who says Jesus also says history.” All of history is HIS story! H. G. Wells said, “I am a historian, not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure of all time.”
He came to the mid-east, to children of Abraham, who are surrounded on all sides by many other children of Abraham [Muslims...via Ishmael]. And daily, the NJ sized nation of Israel, which makes up a tiny fraction of one percent of the earth's land mass, regularly takes up one-third to one-half of the international section of the nightly news.
Without a doubt, nothing compares to how that baby changed everything. Whether you are a Christ follower or not, Jesus changes and benefits your life.
The very birthing and founding of America was actually a religious experiment by people desiring religious freedom to worship Jesus Christ according to the Scriptures. Revisionists and secularists who are trying to erase that glorious history can only make their wild claims because of the freedom of speech granted to them by the Bible based principles upon which our great nation was founded. And those who deny Him can only do so because they are allowed breath and strength by the One they blaspheme, who is too long-suffering and loving to strike them dead for it...just yet. Our Declaration of Independence is saturated with Christ’s influence. Our very law was founded upon Moses' moral codes, given to Him by God in the commandments.
And whom did God use to make America great? It was Christians who labored for literacy through the dark ages. It was Christians who travailed for the education of boys and girls. Nearly every one of the first one hundred and twenty-three colleges and universities in America were founded by Christians, for the purpose of training preachers of the gospel. Harvard, Dartmouth, Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Princeton, William and Mary, NYU, and many more were founded by Christians to train people and spread the love of Jesus Christ through education. It’s ironic that many well educated people who argue against Christ received their education from learning centers founded because of the very Christ they attempt to disprove.
It was Christians who labored to establish hospitals and quality health care. Even today many of the hospitals you and I visit originated from Baptists, Catholics, and others who name the name of Christ.
It was Christians who labored for orphanages. It was Christians who labored for the elderly and poor. It was Christians who labored for women’s rights. It was Christians who labored for civil rights.
Think of the great architecture and cathedrals inspired by Jesus Christ. Think of the great movies, great books, or anything of great value and inevitably you can trace it back to Jesus! Oh yes, the internet came from Al Gore, but where did he come from. Well ok, the devil, but, you get my point!
Wherever Christianity has spread, mercy, love and health increase.
The point to communicate today is that Jesus Christ, who came as a baby two thousand years ago, changed everything. There is not one aspect of life that Jesus Christ has not improved for the positive. No one has made a difference for rich and poor, for young and old, for black and white, for the simple and the wise, like Jesus Christ. We can easily say, A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING!
The important question today is not so much "What difference Jesus Christ made in human history?" That’s obvious. The better question is "What difference has He made in your history?"
When did you meet Jesus? Many know of Him, but do not actually know Him. They know the world is a better place because of Him, but do not know what a difference He can make in their personal life.
Before I got saved I did not know He would love me, bless me, forgive me, and give me wisdom. He has made all the difference in my personal history. It affected my parents, my childhood, the woman I married, the children I am raising, and the way I live my life. Every aspect has been transformed by the One who came as a baby.
What difference has He made in your life?
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
9 ...neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
I look around the room and I see that a baby changes everything!
Isaiah 1:18
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/BabyChangesEverything.html
