"The Blood that Jesus Shed for Me" By Chris Ulrich December 20th,
2015
Good
to see everybody this
morning. I
appreciate the music; I
appreciate your style, this morning, Malcolm.
Could you just stand up here? (Malcolm was wearing a
green jacket with
red slacks) I didn’t even know you had red pants, but, I tell you what,
very
stylish, and very Christmas appropriate, I’ve got to say. Appreciate that. Good to see everybody this
morning, and I
know it doesn’t look like Christmas out there, yet, but, it felt like
it a
little yesterday morning, we got a very little dusting, here. But, not much; not very
much at all. The
forecast is for a little bit warmer than
usual. Yes, after
the last couple of
years-anybody that was here the last couple of years, I know; if you
haven’t—you remember, two years ago, all I can say is, “Oh, my God.” That was the coldest,
snowiest, windiest
winter I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’m from western Mass. I mean, I gets cold! It gets cold out there, we
get a lot of snow,
but, that was something; that was something.
But, not to dwell on that, not to dwell on that. The
theme of the month has been,
“He Gave Gifts to Men.” You
don’t have
to stand, but I’m going to ask us all to read that together, this has
been our
theme of the month: Ephesians 4:7-8 But
unto every one of
us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
Wherefore He
saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave
gifts
unto men. Thank
you. So, we are
getting close to the end of 2015,
and, again, the theme of the month, it’s appropriately titled, “He Gave
Gifts
to Men.” I know
that, traditionally,
December, it’s a month of giving and receiving, and there’s nothing
wrong with
that. But,
Christianity is more than about
traditions; it’s about living this life all the time.
Our brother, Parrish Lee, who is in Baltimore
visiting family this week, he talked about the gifts of God these past
couple
of weeks, and shared about how God brings us deliverance, and takes
away those
things which held us captive. He
also
shared about the life of Christ, and how everything he said and did
had, and
has, significance. And
that’s past and
present tense. There
were no wasted
moments. In other
words, Jesus didn’t
come here just to hang around and kill time, and do something here that
was
short-lived, but something that was on-going; something that was a
permanent
everlasting difference in our
lives,
and the lives of anybody that’s going to come afterwards. But,
right now, I’m going to ask
Brother Jose G. if he could make his way up, and I’m going to ask him
if he
could lead us in a prayer this morning. Jose:
Heavenly Father,
God, we want to thank You, Jesus, for preparing our hearts to hear your
Word,
Lord. God, that is
the most important
thing that You have given us, and You left it behind, Lord, is Your
Word,
Lord. Jesus, we
pray, God, that we would
put it in our hearts; keep it in there, Lord Jesus.
Lord, we ask, Jesus, that You will bless us,
Lord God. We ask
that You bless this
messenger, Lord Jesus. We
ask, Lord God,
that Your blood, Your Spirit, Lord God, will abound in us, Lord Jesus. God, we claim the guys
that’s here, God, that
they may be leaders of their homes, God, and lead their children. And us, Lord God, as
people, as adults, that
we would take You with us, no matter where we go, Lord Jesus. Help us, God, to be great
examples. Lead us,
Lord Jesus. We need
Your love; we need Your presence in
our life, Lord. Shake
us up, in Jesus’
name. Amen. Thank
you. So,
there’s three points, that are
going to be the main points of the message, this morning, and the first
one
is: “Jesus Is the
Only Reason for the
Season,” and I think, Malcolm, along with your outfit this morning, you
must
have seen that, since you mentioned that, earlier, about that He is the
reason
for the season. The
second is going to
be, “We Need to Hold to Jesus, and Not to the Things of the World.” And the last point is,
“Joy to the
World. Point 1:
Jesus Is the Only Reason for the Season Isaiah 44:1-10 Yet now hear, O
Jacob My servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen: Thus saith the LORD
that made
thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O
Jacob, My
servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen. For
I will pour water upon him that is
thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour My spirit upon thy
seed,
and My blessing upon thine offspring: And they shall spring up as among
the
grass, as willows by the water courses. One
shall say, I am the LORD'S; and another shall call himself by the name
of
Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and
surname
himself by the name of Israel. Thus
saith the LORD the King of Israel, and His redeemer the LORD of hosts;
I am the
first, and I am the last; and beside Me there is no God. And who, as I, shall call,
and shall declare
it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people?
and the
things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them. Fear ye not, neither be
afraid: have not I
told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even My
witnesses. Is
there a God beside Me? yea, there is no God; I know not any. They that make a graven
image are all of them
vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are
their own
witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed. Who hath formed a god, or
molten a graven
image that is profitable for nothing? I
know that’s a bit of a long
passage, but that will be the longest passage that we read from this
morning,
but it won’t be the only one. But,
“Thus
saith the LORD the King of Israel, and His redeemer the LORD of hosts;
I am the
first, and I am the last; and beside Me there is no God.” So, now we hear blasphemy
of Jesus’ name constantly,
and then the same people turn around and say, “Oh, there is no God.” Evolution is a very
commonly taught belief
among populations of people. The
Bible
is practically thrown out of supposed institutions of higher learning. Others are angry at God,
for whatever reason. The
list goes on. This
doesn’t sound like a
Christmas message, but, bear with me.
The scripture from Isaiah might sound a little
pushy, when you think
about it, but God’s not messing around in establishing who He is. The reason it might sound
a little bit pushy
is because, as a society, we’ve gotten so much, we’ve tried to water
down the
Word of God so much that any declaration that has any force sounds like
an
imposition. It
sounds like somebody’s
trying to force themselves upon us.
Well, God is the Creator, and Jesus is His name, and
there’s no if’s
and’s or but’s about it. This
is not
something to, like, force upon people, but it is something, because God
is a
gentleman; God does not force Himself upon people.
He stands at the door and he knocks, and he
says, “If any man will listen, I will come in and I will sup with him.”
(Revelation 3:20) But
it also sounds
like a God a lot of people don’t want to listen to.
But, we’re still talking about Jesus is the
only reason for the season. This
has really stood out to me
here recently. This
is a verse that, I
have to say, it’s convicting, because there’s been plenty of times that
I’ve
mentioned the name of other religions.
And
this isn’t about knocking other religions; this isn’t about that at all. This is God speaking: Exodus 23:13 And in all things that I have said unto you
be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither
let it
be heard out of thy mouth. Well,
that’s pretty profound. Because,
I have to say, that, throughout the
course of my lifetime, as a Christian, sure I’ve mentioned them. I don’t pray to them; I
don’t worship them;
Jesus is the only God. But
God isn’t
pulling any pinches, as the old expression goes, and it’s no different
now. The names of
other gods, though,
isn’t significant, because even the Ten Commandments states that we are
to have
no other gods before Him (Exodus 20:3).
That doesn’t mean we go looking for a fight, or we
be disrespectful,
but, it’s about being fully persuaded in our minds that Jesus is the
only
way. We’re
going to look at a verse,
and this is something that’s worth learning.
I mean, I know that we’ve got people that are at
varying stages of their
walk with God, but these are foundational verses.
These are things to put in your tool
box. These are
things to remember,
because, when you come into contact with different people, and you’re
going to
come into contact with a lot of people outside the faith, these are
things to
know that we stand on. John 14:6
Jesus
saith unto him, I am the way,
the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the
Father, but by me. Now,
I know that the theme of the
month is about gifts, so, what kind of gift is knowing that Jesus is
the only
reason for the season? What
kind of gift
is it to know that there are a lot of people who have chosen an ungodly
path in
this world? What
kind of gift is it to
know that we’re the only ones who are right?
Now, I hope you heard that.
I
hope you heard that, because it is meant to be a little bit sarcastic,
and it is
meant to be a little bit thought-provoking.
But, sometimes that’s how the non-religious world
sees us, and they make
excuses not to follow Jesus. So,
how can
we change that? Well,
I have to say, I
honestly don’t know, or have a perfect solution for that. But, if people want to
criticize us about
being certain that Jesus is the only way in this life, then their
argument is
with God, and not us. It’s
not about us
saying, “We’re right! Everybody
else is
wrong! It’s just
us!” That’s not it
at all; it’s about saying Jesus
is the Way, the Truth and the Life.”
And
we get on board with Him. We
have to do
what his commandments are. We
have to
live by His standards, and God blesses us in return. This is not just a
one-way
relationship, where God just forces Himself, and forces His
commandments, and
makes it extremely difficult. Even
Christ Himself said, “Take my
yoke upon you, and learn
of me; … For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
(Matthew
11:29-30) This is
the easiest way, and
I’m not saying there aren’t hardships in this life.
There are; there are tragedies, there are
injuries, there is sadness, there’s depression, there’s sickness, and
on and on
and on. I know Kirk
had just
mentioned—and I appreciate you putting that together about the caroling
last
night; we had a good time out there.
We
drove around. It
was a little more
adventurous than I expected, I will say that.
But, it was good.
It was
definitely worthwhile. But,
he had a
furnace go out, and that’s going to cost him a pretty penny. I just had a roof that I
told you last month
that I put my foot through when I was up cleaning the gutters, and that
was a
pretty penny, but, thank God it got done.
But, what I mean, my main point is, there are things
that come along,
unexpected costs, unexpected events that sometimes deter us, and
sometimes
sidetrack us, but, ultimately, we have to look at it like, Jesus is the only reason for the season. But, we also have to look
at it like, we
aren’t the ones who wrote the Bible.
It’s about keeping God’s commandments.
So, if people want to criticize that, to get back to
that point, their
argument, again, it’s with God, it’s not with us.
Point 2:
We Need To Hold To Jesus and Not the Things
of the World Personally,
I really like this
time of year. I
like all the decorations
and lights and gift exchanges, and so on and so forth.
I’ve always liked manger scenes; I appreciate
the fact that Victory hospital, or Vista East has a manger scene at the
corner
of Glen Flora and Sheridan. If
you
haven’t seen it, it’s beautiful! I
mean,
I would have to say, it’s one of the best in the county, I’d have to
say. Like I
mentioned earlier, I grew up in
western New England, and it’s a pretty mountainous area, but we get
real
Christmas trees, and, you know, like, my dad would just go out in the
woods,
and just cut one down—now, I’m not advising that.
I know it’s regulations and these kind of
things, but, it really gave a nice fragrance in the house, you know. We’d keep it in there for
a few weeks, and,
just always a fun time of year. I
guess
I would have to say that. And
there’s
nothing wrong with any of those things.
1 John 2:15-17 Love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world,
the love
of the Father is not in him. For
all
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the
pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth
away, and the lust
thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. I’m
not saying that gift exchanges
or decorating a Christmas tree, or having a Christmas tree, or not having a Christmas tree, or going
Christmas caroling is loving the world.
And, like I said, a group of us went last night, and
had a really good
time. And, I
believe it blessed a lot of
other people, too. That’s
really the
important thing; that’s what it was all about.
And, I shared some childhood memories about the
festivities of this time
of year, and I believe that cheers most people up.
But, we’re not supposed to attach ourselves
to any physical deity, or a splinter of the cross, or a shrine or an
image, or
even the Dead Sea Scrolls, for that matter, and think that that’s going
to
replace our relationship with God.
That
relationship with God is a spiritual thing, and it’s an ongoing thing. And even in Hebrews 11:6,
it says, “…he that
cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of
them that
diligently seek him.” We
can’t just
accidently find a relationship with God, and think that that’s going to
last. Or, if
there’s no seeking, there’s
not going to be any finding. I’m
here to
say, I think everybody here is pretty well aware of that, too. We’re not supposed to
cling to the things of
the world. This is
one of those things
where, there’s nothing wrong with having possessions, there’s nothing
wrong
with having some nice things, there’s nothing wrong with having some
belongings, but it’s not a matter of, again, clinging to those things,
or
thinking that—you know, I’m going to share something real quickly, as
it
relates to idolatry: When
Moses, in the
Old Testament, passed away, now this was at the end of the Book of
Deuteronomy,
it says that God buried him in a place where no man knows where the
sepulcher
is to this day. Now,
Moses, if you look,
and understand, as far as the Old Testament and New Testament
connection, was
the intercession for the children of Israel in the Old Testament. In
other
words, he was a man of God that was like top of the line. I mean, whatever way you
want to put it, but
the one thing is—and this is, I’m going to share an opinion, but I’m
going to
share it in hopes that it does make a point, because this is not a
doctrinal
opinion, but—if he wasn’t buried by God, I firmly believe that people
would
have dug up the body and worshipped that body, saying…
The same with Christ, and Christ was ascended. Because you have to look
at it from the
standpoint of, “Oh, I’ve got a splinter of the cross,” or, “I’ve got
this, you
know, fragment that was on the ground at the time that Christ was… This speck of dust, here.” And think, “Oh, I keep
that in my pocket, and
I pray to it.” It’s
like, that’s not the
kind of thing we’re talking about—you can’t hold onto those things and
think, “This
is my relationship with God.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 For which cause we
faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is
renewed day
by day. For our
light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of
glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the
things which
are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the
things which
are not seen are eternal. Now,
as I said before, I know I’m
in a room of people who are at various stages.
Some are much younger, some are older, some in
between, and, whether we
like it or not, time does pass by.
I
have to say that, as Christians, it’s not a matter of, like, dwelling
in the
past. It’s a funny
commercial, by the
way, I’ll just share this, that—and, you know what?
I know it’s a beer commercial; I get it—but,
I’m just going to say this, there’s a guy, Troy Aikman, he was a
quarterback in
the NFL. Well,
there’s a guy that comes
up to him, and says, “Oh, yeah, I remember when you were in the league,
and all
those touchdown passes,” and Troy’s like, “Yeah, I don’t dwell on the
past.” Then, all of
the sudden, his cell phone goes
off, and it’s like, “Touchdown, Tory Aikman!
Touchdown, Troy Aikman!”
Then,
the owner of the store, and the customer, look at him, and Troy
Aikman’s like, “I
dwell in the past.” And
I kind of like
that, because it’s like, okay, you know, he’s sort of laughing at
himself. I
appreciate that. I
think we all could use a good laugh at
ourselves from time to time. But,
the
truth of the matter is, we can’t dwell on the past; we can’t live there. There’s nothing wrong with
having
recollections; there’s nothing wrong with having good memories. And I think that’s part of
life. I think you
have to. But, if we
look only at the things which are
seen, which are temporary, we’re going to get sidetracked; we’re going
to lose
track of what God wants for us. If
we
look at those things which are not seen—I know that’s hard to do—it’s
not about
saying this is an easy life. It’s
not
easy to just say—like, Linda, what you mentioned when you were up here
earlier,
and I appreciate—sometimes people just make an off-hand comment, but
what you
had mentioned about, like, we’re going to have a mansion. The Bible says, “In My
house are many
mansions.” (John 14:2) Christ
said, “If
it were not so, I would have told you.”
I appreciate stuff like that, because I think it
adds to the service, it
adds to our vision, and it’s something that we hold on to, and it’s
something
to look forward to. Yeah,
I believe we
have to have something in this life to look forward to; there’s nothing
wrong
with that. But,
ultimately, we have to
look at what does God have for us, ultimately, because this life is
going to
end. I’m
just going to share a brief
account. This was—I
guess I want to back
up a step and say, I don’t want to try to gloss over everything and the
goal is
not to wish our life away, like, “Hurry up and get here!” And the next thing you
know, ten years have
gone by, or twenty, or twenty-five, or however many years have gone by. But, there was a movie
many years ago called,
“Platoon.” How
many’s familiar with
that? Okay, it was
about—Ken,F I know
you’re a Viet Nam veteran, and, I remember seeing it in the theater
when it
first came out in 1986. I
was a senior
in high school, so I’m telling my age.
Well,
even though I wasn’t a Christian at the time, there was a Scripture
in—I’m
going to read this—that appeared at the very beginning of the movie. Now, the movie was about a
lot that went on—you
know, as much as you could put into a two-and-a-half-hour movie, about
the
unbelievable circumstances that these guys endured, and women. But, the Scripture that
appeared at the very
opening credits of the movie was from Ecclesiastes 11:9. And this is all it said. Ecclesiastes 11:9
9Rejoice,
O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of
thy
youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine
eyes: but
know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment And,
like I said, I wasn’t a
Christian at the time, but it—and I’m not saying it hit me like a ton
of
bricks, and I was, like, on the floor repenting.
I’m not saying that was the case.
But I will say, it kind of stuck with
me. And it was one
of those things where
you don’t expect to see that, or hear something like that. But it stayed with me. And I believe that that,
along with some other
things, got me to seek God. But,
I want to go with a little
section here, where we’re going to talk about our last point: Point 3:
Joy to the World [Editor’s
note: At this
point, we watched the last few
minutes of the Peanuts special, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Charlie Brown brings back
the pitiful little
tree, and gets yelled at by the other kids.
He says he guesses he doesn’t understand what
Christmas is all about,
and asks if anyone can explain what Christmas is all about. Linus quotes from Luke 2… Somehow, after that,
everything all works
out.] Luke 2:8-14
And
there were in the same country shepherds
abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the
Lord came upon them,
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore
afraid. And the
angel said unto them,
Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to
all people. For
unto you is born this
day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign
unto you; Ye shall
find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was
with the angel a
multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God
in the
highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Nice
kids. I hope you
all liked that. I
like the comment, “Charlie Brown is a
blockhead, but he did get a nice tree.”
Politically incorrect, but funny.
You know, this might seem like a little bit of a
misplaced statement,
especially now, because we just heard about the birth of Christ, but
the blood
of Jesus has nothing to do with the beautiful surroundings, or
Christmas trees,
or anything else, but it does have to do with joy to the world in 2015. The blood of Jesus is
what’s called an
intangible, because we can’t really touch it, and we can’t really see
it, but
we know it’s real. It’s
a spiritual
thing, and we know it’s there. That
happens to be the title of the sermon today, “The Blood that Jesus Shed
for Me.” I know
there’s nothing wrong with trees and caroling;
we pretty much already covered that.
Nothing wrong with Christmas cards and decorations
and I know I’ve
listened to and shared Christmas music the last couple of weeks, and
enjoyed
that. I’m looking
forward to giving and
receiving gifts in the next week.
But,
going back to Ephesians 4:7-8, that God gives gifts to men; in this
case, to
all, men and women. I
know the Christmas
story’s about the birth of Jesus, but, I don’t know that, 2000 years
later,
that we can’t think about it as the birth, the life, the death, and the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. That’s
the
joy to the world. And
I’m not trying to
confuse Christmas with Easter; I get that it’s two separate holidays. I know that’s more about
the ascension and
those things, but, again, this joy to the world, we’re not just
thinking about
just the birth. I
mean, that’s a magnificent
realization. I
mean, there’s Scriptures
we didn’t even cover today, that talks about, “Behold, a virgin shall
be with
child and shall bring forth a son, and shall call His name Emmanuel,
which is
God with us.” (Matthew 1:23) I
mean,
just things like that, that are from the prophet Isaiah, that are just
miraculous (Isaiah 7:14). And
those are
parts of the things that we hold to as Christians.
But, I just know that the gift of God isn’t
complete without the promise of eternal life.
And, knowing that we do have a promise of eternal
life does give joy to
the world. I’m
going to ask the singers to
come, and they’re going to close us in a minute, but, is the joy of God
flourishing
in your life? Is
the path of God shining
more and more to the perfect day?
Because,
if it isn’t, it can be. I’m
not saying
we’re not going to have problems; I’ve already addressed that. We’re all going to have
problems, we’ve all had—I
know, Sister Lena, you buried your mom earlier this year, and your
sister not
long ago, and that’s something that’s—the Bible says we weep with those
that
weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice (Romans 12:15). Sister Christine had just
passed, just yesterday
you had mentioned, Andy. Those
things
are realizations in this world, that, we lose loved ones, we lose
friends and
different people. We’re
going to have
problems every day of our life, I would say, but the joy of God is
real, and it’s
sustaining, and that joy of God will keep us.
So, merry Christmas to everybody and joy to the
world.
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