A GIFT WORTH RECEIVING
John Maxwell
INTRODUCTION:
Luke, chapter 2 the last two Sundays, not this Sunday but the last two Sundays before. In celebrating the Advent and the lighting the candle, we had Simeon come out, and from his perspective, tell us about the birth of Jesus. Well, this passage in Luke, chapter 2 is the story of Simeon as I continue this Christmas series, this message, entitled, "A Gift Worth Receiving." Let’s begin with verse 21 and I’m not going to read all the verses. I’m just going to read about four of them right now. I’ll give you the introduction and then kind of walk you through the passage.
"And when 8 days were completed before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. And when the days for their purification, according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord as it is written in the law of the Lord. Every first born male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.
I think we need to stop right there. And let me just give you enough biblical background to kind of help us to really understand the setting of this story; in fact, when I listened to Simeon the last 2 Sundays, I kept thinking, I can hardly wait to preach the third message so people really understand the significance of Simeon and what was happening as he was giving it from his perspective.
Every Jewish male went through three basic, ancient-type of ceremonies of which Jesus did also. And this is the story of Jesus going through a couple of these ceremonies. Let me give you the three:
1. Circumcision.
Obviously, every Jewish male was to be circumcised. This rite was so sacred and so important in the Jewish tradition that they would, even, if that 8th day fell on the Sabbath, they would circumcise that male on the Sabbath. And, of course, the Jewish people did no work unnecessarily on the Sabbath. But if that 8th day of the birth of that male, that Jewish boy, was on a Sabbath day, they would even circumcise on that day. This was a very important rite in the Jewish tradition.
And so when it speaks concerning, if you notice in verse 21 when it talked about His circumcision, our Lord’s circumcision, it said that His name was then called Jesus. It was on the 8th day of circumcision that the male would be officially named. We think of officially naming the male child in the hospital, you know, before it comes home. But here they did not name the child until the 8th day. And so on the 8th day when Jesus was circumcised as a Jewish male, they named Him, officially, Jesus.
Now, we know that that name was given to Mary way before the birth of our Lord, because He was to save the world from their sins. But on that 8th day of the circumcision of Christ, that’s when they officially named Him Jesus. That’s the first rite that every Jewish male went through.
2. Redemption of the first born.
And let me explain to you the redemption of the first born. This is speaking again of the male child. The first-born male of the family was very, very special; in fact, in Exodus, it tells us that the first born male belonged to God. We think of dedicating our children to God. We think of bringing our children before the altar. We do that here. And we dedicate them to the Lord. Well, that first born male, it was already accepted in Jewish tradition that that male was God’s and what happened was the parents would come to the temple. This was always to be done not before the 31st day after their birth; and so, there was, literally, a month to pass before this was to occur. But they would come to the temple and they would, literally, give an offering to the priest and in that offering they would symbolically be purchasing that child back into their family.
That’s exactly what they did with Jesus. In fact, they were coming to the temple to do one of these two things. They were coming to the temple and they were to purchase back Jesus, the first born male in this family, they were to purchase him back. It was the fact that that earliest male belonged to God and the parents would come back and through a small offering, not a large offering, a small offering, they would symbolize the purchase back of that son into their family.
3. Purification after childbirth.
This is what Mary was doing in the temple when she came to Simeon. When Joseph and Simeon brought Jesus to the temple, they were going through the purification ceremony. Now, the purification ceremony was that after 40 days, the mother of a male child for 40 days could not do anything that would be in the temple or anything of a religious nature. In fact, the mother would just, basically, stay at home. But on the 40th day, the mother would come to the temple if it was a male child. Now, if it was a female child, it would be after 80 days. It took twice as long to be purified if you had a girl than if you had a boy. Says something about the Jewish society, probably, and their traditions. But after 40 days, the mother would come and when the mother would come, she would bring two symbols of an offering. Well, truthfully, one was for a burnt offering and one was for a sin offering. It gets Old Testamenty and I don’t want to get into that. That’s not necessary for you. But they would bring a lamb and a young pigeon or a dove.
Now, there was known in the Old Testament as a poor offering. Many of the people were so poor they couldn’t afford a lamb. And so if they were that poor, they would bring, like, two pigeons or two doves. Now, that’s what Mary did. Mary brought a poor offering. Her and Joseph had no money; and so, therefore, when they came to the temple and when they brought Jesus to Simeon, it was the purification of Mary that they were bringing Jesus to the temple to and they were bringing the two doves with them.
Now, I just felt that it was important for you to understand a little bit of background and this is where Simeon comes into play as far as his interaction with the Lord.
Now, there are five observations. And again, I keep the Christmas messages as simple as I possibly can, because it’s a beautiful message and it should never be complicated. But there are 5 observations I give to you in light of Simeon when he saw the Christ child in the temple, realizing that this is a gift. The gift of Jesus to the world is a gift that is worth waiting for, it’s a gift worth receiving. 5 observations. Let’s go.
1. Those who look for Jesus, will find him.
The first observation I get when I look at Simeon in verse 25 is those that look for him, whether it’s in the day of the birth of Jesus and Simeon’s life or if it’s 2,000 years ago at Skyline on a December morning, those who look for Jesus will find him. Look at verse 25 with me, would you please? "And behold there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon and this man was righteous and devout," Now, notice this next word, "looking for the constellation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him." That word "looking" is an interesting word. That word "looking" means, looking with intent to find what you’re looking for. It’s not a casual observance. It’s not scanning. It’s not kind of just in your perspective thinking that you might see something come within your eyesight. This word "looking" means that Simeon was intent. He was intent. It was as if he was on a search looking for the Christ child.
Henry David Thoreau said that, "Many an object is not seen though it falls within the range of the visual eye." You probably read that part where Thoreau talks about the fact that if it is not seen with the intellectual eye it may not been seen with the visual eye. And he talks about the fact that it may be in front of us, but we may not see it. How true that is. Many of us have had experiences where we’ve passed somebody and not really seen them; and yet, maybe, they were really very close to us. Now, why was that? Well, it’s because we weren’t looking for them. Maybe our eye was preoccupied. We were somewhere else, thinking mentally, and we just passed something that was, maybe, familiar to us, and we didn’t even see it.
Well, all I’m saying is, my first observation about Simeon is he saw Jesus because he was looking for Jesus. We see what we look for. I’m here to tell you this morning, my brothers and sisters, if you’re looking for God, you’re going to find him. He is so observant to the searching heart and searching mind. That’s why, by the way, two people can be in a service, the same service Sunday morning, hear the same message and one walk out and say, "Oh, it was fantastic. God really ministered to me." And the other person say, "I didn’t even sense God." What is it? One was looking and one wasn’t looking.
Compare Simeon’s intentional looking and searching to God. Compare that with Bethlehem’s story when the Christ child was to be born. Last Wednesday night I went up to the Pines up beyond Alpine, for the Joint Ventures Christmas party, and there were 250 wonderful, marvelous, young couples there. And I spoke to them; in fact, I brought to the pulpit my little message to them last Wednesday night. It was interesting. Last week I pulled out all the messages I’ve ever preached on Christmas. I have between 60 and 70 different Christmas messages that I’ve preached over the years. And all of a sudden it hit me that I’ve never preached on there’s no room in the inn. That’s one part of that Christmas story that I’ve never touched; and so, therefore, I kind of did a little thing for the Joint Venture party. And I’m not going to take you through the lesson, but what I want you to do is contrast Simeon’s looking for the Christ child with the attitude in Bethlehem when there was no room for him in the inn.
And I just wrote down that there are at least 4 reasons why they probably had no room in the inn for Jesus when he came to Bethlehem and the first reason is just busyness. Everybody was rushing. Everybody was running around. There was a census to be taken and there was just a sense of "I’ve got to get this thing done as quickly as possible." And the busyness and the rush of the moment, I’m sure was one of the reasons why there was no room in the inn. And all I’m saying to you and me is, boy, isn’t that a temptation at Christmas time. Just busyness. Even somebody that’s doing the Lord’s work. I mean, somebody that this is my livelihood, but I mean, when I think of all the work that I’m doing in the Living Christmas Tree and all that time and the busyness, and I started last Thursday night, I think I’ve got 14 or 15 nights taken for the next -- I mean, it just doesn’t stop. Busyness. So busy maybe even doing the things of God that we really don’t really look and see him and sense him like we could have.
I read this the other night and it’s kind of cute. It talks about the rat race that we live in. Listen to this:
"We have run across some absolutely irrefutable statistics that show exactly why you are tired. And brother, it’s no wonder that you are tired. There aren’t as many people actually working as you may have thought. At least according to the survey that was recently completed, the population of this county is 2 hundred million, 84 million over 60 years of age which leaves 116 million to do the work. People under 20 years of age total 75 million which leaves 41 million to do the work. Then there are 22 million who are employed by the government which leaves 19 million to do the work. 4 million are in the armed service which leaves 15 million to do the work. Then deduct 14 million 8 hundred thousand in the state and city offices and that leaves 2 hundred thousand to do the work. There are 188 thousand in hospitals and insane asylums which leaves only 12 thousand people to do the work. Now, it may interest you to know that there are 11,998 people in jail. So that leaves just two people to carry the load. That’s you and me brother, and I’m getting tired of doing everything myself."
Busyness. Just so tired, so busy that we just don’t see Christ.
Another thing I think that probably kept them from seeing the Christ child in Bethlehem was preoccupation. They were just preoccupied with so many other things. They had their mind on so many other things that they just missed him. And then inconvenience. That’s one of the reasons there was no room in the inn. I know this, if that innkeeper would have known that Mary was pregnant with the Christ child, I promise you he would have found room. I guarantee you that if he would have realized that it was the Christ child that was going to be born that night, I will promise you, if nothing else, he would have moved his family out.
You go back East. You stop at some of these old inns and you know they’ll say, "George Washington slept here." Well, this guy in Bethlehem, if he would have realized this was the Christ child, he could have had "The son of God was born here." That’s good publicity, folks. Back East, also, they have a lot of Mom and Pop hotels, and they’ll have vacancy and no vacancy signs out. And if you’re traveling at 7 or 8 o’clock in the evening, there will be vacancy signs out. But you know, if you’re traveling about 11 o’clock, all of a sudden, just for no apparent reason, all of a sudden that vacancy sign will go to no vacancy. And do you know why? It’s not because all of a sudden that hotel filled up, that little Mom and Pop inn filled up. I’ll tell you why it was. It was 11 o’clock and they wanted to go to bed. And they don’t have the staff to take care of a 24-hour operation. And so you know what Mom and Pop do? Mom and Pop, they’ve got all kinds of rooms, it’s not an issue of rooms. They just push that no vacancy sign so nobody will ring that little bell and wake them up. They’re ready to go to sleep.
I wonder how many times we’ve done that to Jesus? Just kind of flipped up a no vacancy sign, not because we didn’t want to have time with him. It’s just that it wasn’t convenient at the time to spend that time with him.
Well, and then I think the other reason was there was just no expectations. You see, unlike Simeon, who expected to see the Christ child, who looked for his coming. At Bethlehem, there was no expectation. We both know people whose expecter has expired, don’t we? They just expect nothing; and so, therefore, they see nothing. What was it a South African discovered one of the world’s largest diamonds. It was the size of a small lemon. And he wanted to get it to the London office as safely and as quickly as possible. He put it in a steel box, hired four men to hand carry it to London. When it arrived, they unlocked the steel box, much to their surprise there wasn’t a diamond in there. Just a black lump of coal. They were shocked. They didn’t know what to do. Three days later, by parcel post in an ordinary box, the diamond was sent to the London office. The discoverer and owner of that diamond, you know what he thought? He thought nobody will pay attention to an ordinary box.
Now, folks, I want to tell you something. Two thousand years ago, God came wrapped in an ordinary box. How significant. And Simeon saw him. You say, "How can you see the Christ child in an ordinary box?" Very simple, you’ve got to be looking for him. That’s why my friends, the good news this morning of the Christmas season is if you’re looking for God today, you’re going to find Him. I never found anybody that was looking for Him that didn’t find Him. Let me show you what I mean. I want you to look around and I want you to find two or three people that either have clothing or two or three objects in this church that has red on it right now. Now, here’s what I want you to see. Once you see red, you see a lot of red. All of a sudden that color begins to become prominent in your eye. Why? I’ll tell you why. You focused in on red.
Why is it that when we buy a car, a special car, at a special price and a special color and the next day we see about a half dozen of them out on the freeway and before that, we didn’t see that color? What happens? Were they out there on that freeway? Sure they were. All of a sudden we are in tune, visually, to see. Now, that’s exactly what happened to Simeon.
Now, two lessons on looking in Simeon’s life and then I’ll get on here with the rest of this. You see, I only preach once so I have to bring two or three sermons to the pulpit. I just feel guilty not preaching three times this morning. Two lessons on looking.
A. Look through the eyes of faith not through the eyes of faith.
Simeon looked through the eyes of faith. There are two kinds of people. There’s the kind of person that says, "I’ve got to see it to believe it." They live by fact. And there’s the person that says, "I’ve got to believe it to see it." And they live by faith.
B. This is the most important one. Keep looking even though discouraged.
What impresses me about Simeon is he kept on looking even though he was discouraged. Now, when I say discouraged, you see, for 400 years there had been no prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah. There had been 400 years of silence. And yet Simeon kept saying, "I’m going to see the Messiah, the Christ child, before I die.
2. The second observation about Simeon is that many times the assurance comes before the answer.
In other words, there are times when we know something’s going to happen before we really receive the answer in your life. Now, that happened to Simeon. Simeon said, I know I’m going to see the Christ child and that assurance came to him even before he held baby Jesus in his arms. Look at verse 26, "And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ."
Have you ever had the assurance that something was going to happen before it happened? Have you ever just known that, even though you couldn’t prove it yet, you just knew that something was going to happen in your life? I’ve had that many times. Assurance. My brother’s salvation, 15 years before he received Christ and really got some things held spiritually, I knew he would get saved. I’d tell him, "Larry, I still pray for you, but I don’t pray for you in urgency. I’ve already had the assurance you’re going to get saved. You’re a dead duck. It’s just a matter of time now." For my Dad’s healing of a brain tumor in Riverside hospital, I had the assurance. In fact, I went up three days before they were to operate and I went up and told him. I said, "Dad, I just prayed. I know what God’s going to do. I just know." Now, I don’t have that a lot. That doesn’t make anybody super spiritual. All I’m just saying, like Simeon, Simeon said, "I know that I’m going to see the Christ child."
Some of you that are seeking this morning, even though you’ve not found him, inwardly you know that your time is near. You’re about to discover, at Christmas time, all about God.
3. He came to the right place to find him.
Simeon came to the right place, not only to find the Christ child, he came to the right place to receive the Christ child. It says in verse 27, "And he came in the spirit into the temple." Two significant things. He came with the right heart, and the right mind. He came in the spirit and he came to the right place in the temple. Now, you put those two things together. You come to church with the right attitude and the right spirit and the right mind. If you come to church with the right mind and attitude and you come to church, the right place, you’re going to see God.
In fact, I wrote down in my little notes here that the church exists for the Father, therefore, it’s a worship center. We come to worship Him. We come to just lift Him up and sing praises. That’s part of us. It’s a worship center. So we come because it exists for the Father. Secondly, the church exists for each other, for you and me. So therefore, it’s a nurturing center. That’s what the Hebrew writer said, he said, "Don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner some is but exhorting one another and encouraging one another."
And thirdly, it exists for the world; and so, therefore, it must be a redemptive center. It must be a place where they can be redeemed and forgiven and brought into the family of God.
We just did a recent survey in your church. Let me just say, this is not a perfect church. But it’s the most perfect church I know. There could be some, perhaps, pastoral pride here. Like, we have family pride. But I’m telling you, folks, we’re not perfect and we haven’t arrived and we’ve got issues to settle and discuss. We’re not a perfect church, but I’m telling you, you’ve got to go a long way to find a church that has the spirit of Skyline. Amen? I mean, so big and yet so warm and so down to earth and so personable and it’s a marvelous, marvelous congregation.
And Jim Wallace, whose our evangelism pastor, is doing an incredibly magnificent job. He told us just last week that in the last 5 months we’ve had 498 visitors attend this church. Now, when I say 498, I’m not talking about people that are out of the county, visitors. I’m talking about people that live here. What you call the people that are quote, prospects that are looking for a church. And I was shocked at this, of the 498 in the last five months that have attended this church, 198, 13 percent of them, have come back and become regular attenders. That’s incredible. I was thrilled. I was kind of pleased. I was surprised. But let me just, I just brought another letter with me. I get so many wonderful letters from you and from people and I read every one and try to reply every one of them. I don’t think anybody’s ever sent me a note or a letter that I didn’t write them back about. But here’s one:
"Dear Pastor Maxwell, I want to thank you for your kind letter after my first visit to your church. I left the service feeling very fulfilled and very thankful that I had attended. The congregation made me feel very welcome and I left with such an inner peace. It was truly a wonderful feeling." This letter, by the way, is dated December the 7th, so she just came to church two weeks ago, the first time. "I was so very inspired by your sermon on The Gift Worth Giving and you said to give your gift now, and too often we think that we will give it to others but it’s always tomorrow, that I want my children to understand the importance of giving of ones self and to truly appreciate what we have.
I’m newly single and I’m raising two wonderful boys, 5 and 11. I want them to understand the true meaning of Christmas and I want them to understand how lucky we are that we can make it on our own. I am so very fortunate. I was one of the very lucky people who will be working in the homeless shelter over the holidays. I have always wanted to give of myself but never took the time to get involved. I was also lucky enough to be able to adopt a family of six from the Salvation Army for this Christmas. I’m so excited to be involved with making sure that this very special family will be able to enjoy Christmas this year. I’m getting into my neighborhood watch group to contribute and family and my friends and everyone is enjoying it so very much. And for this I want to thank you for making me realize and remember that I have the will to make those things happen. And this year I don’t have to say, ’I really wish I could have done something nice for someone.’ Thanks for your inspiration. I am also bringing two other families this Sunday. They are too inspired by my enthusiasm with your uplifting talks. Sincerely."
Folks, folks, I read this letter and I just sat back in my chair and I said, "This is what Christmas is all about." Some dear, I don’t even know who she is. Her first name is Diana. Some lady came two Sundays ago, heard me talk about The Gift Worth Giving and all of a sudden she said, "I’m not going to let this Christmas pass without giving. A single Mom, two boys. I mean she could be feeling sorry for herself. What’s she do? She goes down and helps feed some of the homeless and she adopts a family from the Salvation Army, and you know what, she’s grabbing life. She’s not about to let life pass her by. And then she talks about coming here and just feeling warmth and just feeling accepted and loved. I had a person tell me last Sunday they said that five people literally came up to them and thanked them for coming to church. And they were just a first time guest.
All I’m saying is a special place where we seek God. Every one of us know a couple. You know a couple Sundays ago when I was preaching that message, I think that every person in the service realized that God was there in a special way. Now, folks, all I want to say is this and then I’ll move on. All I want to say is, you know what I covet for this church more than anything else? Not big buildings, not hillsides, nothing. I’ll tell you what I covet. All I covet for us is to be a people of God that come to worship where people who are either hurting or looking or searching, like Simeon, can walk into this church and there they can feel God, see God and find God. Amen? If that can happen here, that’s all we need.
Well, two more things quickly. 4 and 5.
4. He personally received Jesus.
Can you imagine the feeling in Simeon’s spirit in verse 28 when he took the Christ child into his arms and blessed God? Can you imagine the feeling? He personally received the Christ child. And let me just stop here long enough to say this, folks, my brothers and sisters, listen to me. My goal for every person in this room for this Christmas is for you to know God personally. Not know God through your parents, not know God because you affiliate and associate with Christians, not even know God because you come to this church. I’m not talking about knowing God kind of by proxy. I’m talking about knowing God personally. Every one of you. My goal is that you know God and you can say, "I know that my redeemer liveth. Not pastor’s, not my mom and Dad’s, not my husband’s, not my wife’s. I want to personally know Him."
5. When you receive Jesus, like Simeon, you’re ready to die.
Now, I didn’t say when you receive Jesus you’ll die. Don’t panic on me. What I did say is when you receive him, like Simeon, then you’re ready to die. You say, "Okay, God, I’m ready to go." Look at what Simeon said in verse 29, "Now, Lord, though dost let thy bond servant depart in peace according to thy Word." Why? "For my eyes have seen thy salvation." I’m ready to go he said, because I’ve seen God. I’ve seen him. It’s a gift worth receiving.
CONCLUSION
Okay. Put your sermon notes away. Let me read you one more thing. I didn’t read this the other night at the Joint Venture party. I had it in here but we just had such a good time. We parted ways and did some other things. It’s very enlightening not to stay with my sermon notes but once in a while. Just listen. Tune in. This is from a 60 Minutes broadcast from a few years ago. It’s an excerpt of what Harry Reasoner said around Christmas time that I just want you to hear. I’m going to have to read it so just listen carefully. He said,
"Eleven years ago I did a little Christmas piece and it seemed like a good idea to repeat it. The basis for this tremendous burst of buying things and gift buying and parties and near hysteria is a quiet event that Christians believe actually happened a long time ago. You can say that in all societies there has always been a midwinter festival and that many of the trappings of our Christmas are almost violently pagan. But you come back to the central fact of the day and the quietness of Christmas morning, the birth of God on earth.
It leaves you only three ways of accepting Christmas. One is cynically, as a time to make money and endorse the making of it. One is graciously, that’s the appropriate attitude for non-Christians who wish their fellow citizens all the joys to which their beliefs entitle them. And the third, of course, is reverently.
If this is the anniversary of the appearance of the Lord in the universe in the form of a helpless babe, it is a very important day. It is a startling idea, of course. The whole story that a virgin was selected by God to bear his son as a way of showing his love and concern for man. It’s my guess that in spite of all the lip service given to it, it’s not an idea that has been popular with theologians. It is somewhat an illogical idea and theologians like logic almost as much as they like God. It’s so revolutionary, a thought that it probably could only come from God that is beyond logic and beyond theology. It is a magnificent appeal. Almost nobody has seen God and almost nobody has any real idea what he is like, and the truth is that among men the idea of seeing God suddenly and standing in a very bright light is not necessarily a completely comforting or appealing idea.
But everyone has seen babies and almost everyone likes them. If God wanted to be loved as well as feared, He moved correctly, for a baby growing up learns all about people. And if God wanted to be intimately a part of man, He moved correctly, for the experience of birth and familyhood is the most intimate and precious experience that any of us will ever have.
So it comes beyond logic. It is either a falsehood or it is the truest thing in the world. It is the story of the great innocence of God the baby. God in the power of man has such a dramatic shock toward the heart that if it is not true to Christians, then nothing is true.
So if a person is touched only once a year, the touching is still worth it. And maybe on some given Christmas some final quiet morning, that touch will take. The touch of God coming into this world as a vulnerable baby."
Wow! That’s what Christmas is all about folks.
Bow your heads. God, you are a marvelous, wise Father. If we would have been God, we would have come in power. We would have come in splendor. We would have come in greatness and awesomeness. But you’re secure. You’re God and you could have done that. But a secure God doesn’t have to come in power and might and armies. A secure God can come in the flesh of a new born baby. God who created the world becomes helpless.
God who put the stars into existence now lays in a manager totally dependent upon a star to bring people to him. There are many reasons why I love you, God, and this is one of them, that you would come into this world so willing and so desirous to be one of us that you would literally become one of us. Not a God aloof on a throne, not a God that decrees, but a God who says, I will walk with them. I will live with them. I will die for them. And while we were yet sinners. We weren’t looking for you. We weren’t wanting you and when you came, we were so preoccupied we didn’t even know you were here. But you came. And this morning you’re doing something in this service that just thrills my heart. This morning you’re coming for people who’ve been looking for you. And you’re becoming real to them. Maybe up till this hour you’ve been a fact in history. But this morning you’re becoming a personal God and savior.
As you’re in your seats this morning, folks, if you don’t know God in a personal way, right there in your seat, right now, receive him. Receive him. That’s it. Let him do a miracle at this moment. Reach out and touch him. Let him be your God. Let him be your savior. Let him be your comforter. Let him be your strength, your peace. Just receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the power to become the sons of God. The son of God who became the son of men that we who are sons of men can become the sons of God.
With every head bowed and every eye closed as we wrap it up this morning, in your seat this morning, how many of you would raise your hand now and acknowledge me, "Pastor, this morning, right in my seat, I’ve accepted this gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. I personally reached out and accepted God into my life." Head bowed and eyes are closed and you just acknowledge that to me by raising your hands across the auditorium. I knew that was going to happen. I want you to leave this morning realizing that God dwells in you. May the love of the Father, the grace of Jesus, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit be yours on this Lord’s day. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
TODAY’S MESSAGE:
"A Gift Worth Receiving"
Luke 2:21-33
Jesus and his parents went to the temple to participate in three traditional Jewish ceremonies:
1. _______________________________________.
2. _______________________________________.
3. _______________________________________.
Observations about the gift of Jesus to the world:
1. Those who _________________ will ______________.
v. 25
"Many an object is not seen, though it falls within the range of the visual eye."
Henry David Thoreau
Compare Simeon’s intentional search with Bethlehem’s apathy --
Why there was no room at the inn...
A. _______________________________.
B. _______________________________.
C. _______________________________.
D. _______________________________.
Lessons on looking:
A. Look through the eyes of_________, not the eyes of ______.
B. Keep looking even when____________________________.
2. The_________________ comes before the ___________. v. 26
3. We must come to the _______________________ to find him. v. 27
The Church exists...
A. For the ________________. It’s a _______________ center.
B. For the ________________. It’s a _______________ center.
C. For the ________________. It’s a _______________ center.
4. We need to personally __________________________ Jesus. v. 28
5. Then we’ll be ready to __________________. v. 29
