"A Savior Is Come" By Brother Parrish Lee December 7th,
2014
Ain’t
this just some kind of
awesome? Just to be
in the House of the
Lord, this is a beautiful time this morning. Giving
honor to God, who is the
head of my life. Giving
honor to our
founding pastor; giving honor to he and his family.
To our pastor, he and his family.
Giving honor to all of those who have stood
in the gap, to make up the hedge, and giving honor to all of you who
are here
to present yourselves, who have some to receive a Word from the Lord. My
name is Parrish Lee; I’m one of
the two fellowship leaders here. Before
I go another step, I’d like to—the other fellowship leader is Brother
Andy
Giebler. Normally
he is—I’d tell you
he’s the more modest; he’s more quiet than I am, but he ain’t really
all that
quiet. Where are
you, Brother Andy? I
want to see Brother Andy and Sister
Sonia. I want them
to come up here and
just feel the love—they weren’t here last week.
Can we show them how much we love them?
Andy:
We
spent time in worship at another church with my parents last week, and,
you
know what? I missed
being here. I
missed this.
Amen.
Thank you. Sonia:
It
really is good to be home. We
enjoyed
visiting Andy’s folks; we love our family, but, there’s something to be
said
about God’s family, and I’m so thankful.
If I haven’t told you lately how much you all mean
to me, and how much
you’ve advanced my life. I
want to say
it from up here: I
love you and miss you
all, even though I don’t say it on a regular basis.
It’s great to be home to worship with you
all. You
may be seated. You
know what somebody told me? They
said that they see you, Parrish, up here
a lot, but they don’t see Andy and Sonia enough.
Enough. They told me that
recently, bro, and we
really have to take that to heart, because you can’t imagine the load
and the
burden that my co-workers, my leaders, have shown and proven and have
encouraged both to me, and to all those who are here.
I just want to come up and give y’all a shout
and some props. It’s
nice to be loved,
right? You want to
be loved, but then
you want to know that you’re
loved. Amen? Amen. So,
we took for ourselves—the
theme for this month is going to be from the Book of Luke: Luke 2:10-11
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. Of
course, our intention is to
have a wonderful holiday season, a wonderful Christmastime, but you
really
always want to remember the reason for the season.
Amen? Our
Scripture thought for today: Isaiah 9:6
For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son
is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name
shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father,
The
Prince of Peace. If
we could just bow our heads for
a moment. Lord,
it’s—it just goes beyond
words, what You do for us, how much You love us, how much You show to
us,
Lord. We just
present ourselves to
You. God, we thank
You for the time that
we could come into Your presence, enter into Your gates with
thanksgiving and
praises to show You. We
thank You, and
we love You, but, God, Your love and mercy passes all our understanding. God, we just enter, more
and more, into our
presence. Bless us
in all our endeavors
as we wholly seek You with our whole heart, and our whole soul, and our
whole
mind. And, at this
time, Lord, we pray
that You would add Your blessing to the reading of Your Word, God, that
it may
do exactly as You said, that it would not return unto You void, but it
would
accomplish that to which You sent it.
That it might nourish us, God; that it might nurture
us, God; that it
would build us up to be more of the person that You would have us to be. Less fear, more strength,
God, more
anointing, more power, more humility to walk before You. We pray, and thank, and
claim all these
things in Your name, and everyone said, amen.
Amen; amen. Part #1- The Promise
Is Found By Those Who Looked For It. Isaiah 9:6
For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son
is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name
shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father,
The
Prince of Peace. We
start our message today with one
of the most famous scriptures from the book of Isaiah, , in fact,
truly, so
much so, that it has been used as a standard in nations, in nations,
and
houses, to bring hope. That
is a lot of
what our message is about today, a message of hope.
At the time that this Scripture was given to
Isaiah, Israel was in captivity; Israel was in bondage.
Israel was under the auspices of another
nation, they were under Babylon at this time. When
you are in a captivity, when you are held
prisoner, when you don’t have a will of your own, so to say, you look
for
something very specific, you look for deliverance. This
message, this Scripture came to the land
of Israel: “For
unto you a child is
born, unto you a son is given...”
When
you’re in captivity, you
are not the main
people; the oppressors, the captors, they are the main people. You are the lesser people. So, therefore, when you
are in captivity,
your main goal is to have deliverance.
To
have deliverance, you have to have hope. So,
where could the Children of Israel, at
this time, get hope from? After
all,
they’re in captivity. Where
in the world
are you going to get hope from? And,
yes, this message is not just for thirty-five-hundred years ago when
they were
in captivity under the auspices of Babylon.
This message is very real for us, today.
So, as they looked for hope, they had to say, “In order to have hope, we have to be able to hold on to something.” At this time, there weren’t a whole lot of tangible things—after all, this was after the Temple had been decimated. This was after all their great kings were put down. This was after their wonderful Law and their victories seemed to not be able to do them a whole lot at this point. They had transgressed and God had let them go into captivity, that they might learn how to come back to God. So, what do you hope for? Well, at this point, God had given them something that they could hold onto. He gave them something that sets everything else apart. God had given them a promise. God gave them a promise. Always, with a promise, if you believe it, if you believe that it’s able to happen, then you have hope. I promise, if you lift these weights, you’ll get stronger. I promise that if you eat that banana pudding, you could get happier. I promise. I promise that if you wear the right tie, you’ll get compliments. I promise, if you study, you’ll get better grades. Always, the promise if hope; it’s hope. So, they have been looking for this hope for a long time at this point. They had been looking for this hope—after all, they had been in captivity for many years. Their fathers, and their father's fathers had looked for hope. Their father’s father's father's father's fathers had looked for hope. So, with the promise, comes hope; and the promise simply was: Unto you would be a child born, unto you will be son given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And His name would be called Wonderful, wonderful. His name will be called Wonderful. Wonderful meaning miraculous, stupendous, marvelous… His name would be something that you could wonder at. His name would be called Counsellor. In other words, a leader, a guider, someone to advise, someone to give purpose. His name would be, easily, the Mighty God. The Mighty God, and that is exactly what it means. A God who is mighty, a God who is strong, a God who can. His name would be everlasting Father. Everlasting Father; exactly what it says: A Father who will never desert you, never go away, never leave you stranded, and never not know what to do. Everlasting Father. And, of course, His name would be Prince of Peace. Prince of Peace; a ruler who could bring a comfort, a ruler who could bring completeness. Prince of Peace. Now,
a promise is defined as a
binding declaration that gives the person to whom it is made a right to
expect,
or claim, the performance, or the forbearance, of a specified act. Once again:
It is binding declaration that gives the person to
whom it is made a
right to expect either the performance, or the forbearance, of a
specified
act. That is a
promise. So, this
promise that was made to them, to
them, it was a guarantee. “I
expect that
to happen. I expect
that, whoever this
child is, he should be able to handle this government.
He should be wonderful—better than
wonderful. He’s got
to be wonderful; it
was a promise. He’s
going to be able to
counsel me, lead me, to guide me, to give my life purpose. He’s going to be able to
be a Mighty God over
my life. Nothing is
going to be able to
take Him down. He’s
going to be able to
be a great Father to me; I have an earth father, but He’s going to be a
great,
everlasting Father. He
is really, truly
going to be able to bring me the kind of peace that I haven’t known. Great day in the Morning. What we did was, we just
went over part one. Part #2- The
Man: There Are Those Who Are Told and Therefore Seek Luke 2:25-32
And,
behold, there was a man in Jerusalem,
whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting
for the
consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
And it was revealed unto him by the Holy
Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's
Christ. And he came
by the Spirit into the temple:
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after
the custom
of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,
Lord,
now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen
Thy salvation, Which Thou
hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the
Gentiles,
and the glory of Thy people Israel. Yes,
this is a Christmas
message. When you
get right to
Christmas. We have
here, Simeon, a man,
the Bible says he was a devout man.
The
Bible says that he had a promise to him, also, that he would not see
death
until he had seen the Lord's Christ. What
kind of a promise that must have been.
So,
I can imagine what kind of a life Simeon must have had.
Who knows how long that was that he had to
wait? Who knows how
long of a time it
was between the times that he had the promise and he had the fulfilment. But, how it must have been. How it must have been when
the Spirit moved
him and sent him to the Temple—it says he was moved by the Holy
Ghost—It sent
him to the Temple and allowed him to open his eyes and be able to see
the
Lord’s salvation incarnate. What
must
that have been like to somebody who was waiting all this time? You know, when you’re told
that something’s
coming, you tend to have an expectation for it.
So, Simeon had to be looking, “Is today the day? Is today the day that I’m
going to see this
wonderful thing that the Lord bringeth?” We
have some Simeons here today,
whom God has really touched their lives and has already let you know
that He is
not going to leave you comfortless.
He
has already let you know that you are not going to be left forsaken, or
abandoned,
and, you’re not going to be left without answers.
You’re not going to be left without a path or
a way. You’re not
going to be left to
die before God shows you His beautiful will for your life. Yes, we have Simeons here
today. Part #3- The
Woman: There Are Those Who Desire and Therefore Seek Luke 2:36-38
And
there was one Anna, a prophetess, the
daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and
had
lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; And she was a
widow of
about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but
served
God with fastings and prayers night and day.
And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise
unto the Lord, and spake
of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. So,
here we have Anna the
prophetess, 84 years young—the Bible says she was fourscore and four—84
years
young. Here she is, a woman who comes into the Temple. It says that she served God
daily, night and
day. How must this
have been? She was
a prophetess; she came to the Temple
daily… No, she
wasn’t told, “You’re not
going to die until you see the Lord's anointed.”
No, she sought for God’s promises.
She looked for it.
The truth of the matter is, you have those
that were told, and you have those that take it upon themselves, “I’ve
got to
know.” They look,
and they seek, and
they search, and the Bible says that she came in that instant, and told
them,
“Yes, this One is for the redemption of the nation.”
Anna, the prophetess. Yes,
we have some Annas here today,
who don’t have to be told. You
don’t
have the blinding light strike you up and move you.
You don’t need to have a great big hole for
you to be knocked down, but who say, “I’m going to find him, anyway. I’m going to look, and I
don’t need to wait
for a sign. I have
the burden in my
heart.” So, the
question would be, why
would they be so excited about a baby?
Why all the stir over a baby? The
truth of the matter was, it wasn't the baby that they were excited
about, but, it
was the promise- and whenever they saw that babe, they saw the promise.
You
ever find yourself looking for
something to happen? Something
that
would be a blessing for your life?
Have
you ever found yourself, that you were looking and waiting for God to
do something
for you or with you? Maybe
you asked God,
“Please help me pass this test,” or, ”Lord, you know money’s kind of
tight at
this time and I really need some help with these bills,” or maybe,
“Lord, me
and somebody else, we have a rift between us, I pray, Thee, Lord, patch
things
up between us so that our relationship could be better,” and, you know,
when
God does those things, you're very happy about it, you’re very
thankful, and you
say, “Thank You, Lord, thank You. I
really appreciate it, God; nobody like You,” and you move on. You go forth, you go
forward, because God has
given you that blessing. Well,
this
particular blessing was different form all those other blessings. This particular blessing
was different: it
wasn't just getting delivered from a
battle, it wasn't just about getting bills paid, or even getting the
right job,
or getting transportation, or patching up relationships, it wasn’t
about
that. This particular blessing was
about a Deliverer
that would keep on delivering. This
particular blessing was about a healer that would keep on healing. This one was about that
whole everlasting
Father thing, about a Savior who would keep on saving. This one was different from
all the rest of
them, and, you know, somewhere along the line, you have to say, “Thank
You,
God, not just for the things that You’re doing for me know, but I know
that,
just as You spoke it, it is forever written.”
When I was just—how you can get on the wrong path: I had been a Christian for
just a little
while, and I had a real good opportunity.
My mom, she used to take care of a daycare center. I went over there to visit
here, and she had
these little kids there, and, it was interesting.
So, I go over there, and they’re getting
ready to put on their Christmas play.
My
mom was there, and she wakes them up out of their nap, because she
wants
them to
perform for her son. So,
I’m there, and
I’m like, “Dogs! If
I’d have been just
five minutes quicker, I could have got out of here and missed this
whole thing.” So,
anyway, there I was, and my mom, she puts
a record on—yeah, it was that long ago—she puts a record on, and they
played
the song, “The Little Drummer Boy.”
I’ve
told this story before, but it bears repeating.
They play this song, “the Little Drummer Boy,” and,
one of the kids, he
had woken up from his nap, and he had a blanket tied around his neck
like
Superman. You could
tell he’d been… He
had a little metal toy drum, and little
plastic sticks. You
can imagine what
kind of sound that must have made.
But,
in this whole little ragamuffin little scene here—wasn’t going to win
no awards
on TV, wasn’t going to be published, wasn’t going to be sent out and
everybody’s going to talk about it; no, it wasn’t going to be that kind
of
thing. It was going
to be something—I
thought it was going to be something for the kids.
As they went on to have their little play,
and as they went on, the song went on, “Come, they told me,
pah-rum-pah-pah-pum, a newborn King to see, pah-rum-pah-pah-pum.” Here I am, just enduring
it, and then it
comes to the part—and it’s amazing how God can give you a message that
nobody
else can see it, because it’s for you right there.
So, here I am, a little Christian; I’ve been
living for God a little while, and I’ve been trying my best—I don’t
know; I
might have been two years in the faith.
They’re putting on their play, and, as the song
comes around, “I have no
gift to bring,” the little boy turns to me, and opens his arms wide, “I
have no
gift to bring that’s fit to give a king.”
Right in that second, God showed me, “Hey, that’s
you. That’s you.
You don’t measure up to anything that I do for you. You are this little child
that you judge as a
little ragamuffin that just woke up and little blanket tied around
because you
think you’re something super sometimes.
Here I am the Lord God Almighty to be over your
life.” I couldn’t
stand it. I had to
walk out of there in tears; I
couldn’t even open my mouth to tell my mom goodbye, because God humbled
me and
showed me how great He was to me.
How
great He was to me. Part #4- The
Angels: Those Who Are Excited About Your Blessing Luke 2:7-15
And she
brought forth her firstborn son, and
wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because
there was
no room for them in the inn. 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.
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone
away from them into heaven, the shepherd said one to another, Let us
now go
even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which
the Lord
hath made known unto us. I
can imagine how exiting this
must have been. I
can imagine this, that
these angels came down. Now,
there’s
something real special about this. People
knew that this was for them, but the
angels, they weren’t going to get part of this blessing. No.
But, the angels were rejoicing at the blessing that
was coming down to
men. I can imagine,
I can imagine how it
must have been, the shepherds out there in the fields, tending to their
flocks. I can
imagine how, when the
angels started appearing, saying, “Fear not, for unto you is born this
day a
savior, in the city of David. Oh,
it’s
going to be great! It’s
going to be
great for you. Dog,
I’m telling you,
you’re going to love it! It’s
going to
be awesome!” And,
as the multitude—the
Bible says that a multitude of the Heavenly host appeared round about
them to
tell them—I can imagine. I
can imagine,
because, you see, the angels had seen something before this whole scene
took
place. They were
there when God spoke
and creation-—fft!—was there. They’d
seen the universe, and they’d seen the galaxies, and they’d seen as God
spoke
and did it. They’d
seen when God formed
and made man and breathed—puff!—the whole breath of life thing. They’d seen the animals as
they came, and
were made, and how the harmony of nature on this planet would go forth. They’d seen the oceans and
creation and all
that. All that that
scientists are
trying to figure out. They
saw all that
happen, and, you know what? they had to say, “God, You rock! You rock, God! You speak it,
and—POW!—it’s there.” So
the angels saw all that, and then they saw
this thing, and they’re singing, and they’re praising God, because
there’s
something different about this one.
There’s something different about this blessing. I can imagine the angels
as they’re getting
together, and they’re telling them, “Hey, hey, hey!
Gabriel, Michael, check this out!
God's doing it again!
He’s doing it again; He’s making a way out of
no way! He’s doing
the impossible all
over again!” How
great is this
thing? In the Book
of Psalms 145, they
describe it. They
describe it in verse 9. They
describe it. It
says that His tender mercies are over all
His works (Psalms 145:9). Think
about
the angels as they saw the works of God.
They’ve seen the far-reaching planets, and they’ve
sent the probes out,
and they have a vision of the Milky Way, and they say some of the light
that
gets here has taken light-years to get here. Things
that happened centuries ago, we’re just
now getting the light. All
that
creation, and they said that the mercy, the tender mercies of God are
greater
than all of that. So,
when the angels
saw, they said, “Look at what God’s doing this time! He’s making the
Word flesh. Check
that out! How great
a thing God’s doing this time! This
is greater than the universe! This
is greater than the trees, and the
colors, and the harmony! God
has just
made the Word flesh! Flesh!” This is the mercy of God
extended to man, no
wonder they’d say that. Saints,
that’s
the answer. That is
the answer. We’ve
got a lot of things going
on; I was on the way over here, the radio was talking about trying to
get
churches together so they could protest or march or something with the
stuff
that’s going on about—I’m sure, if you looked at the news, you’d see
that
there’s thing going on about that.
Then
there’s the other side, for your rights and for the political thing,
and then
there’s the money thing, and there’s always some thing going on that
needs
attention, and we should be giving attention, but don’t leave the Son
out of
it. Don’t leave the
Word that’s been
made flesh; bring Him to the picture.
That is the answer.
Bring Jesus;
take Him to Ferguson. Take
him to Wall
Street. Take Him to
the schools. Take
the Lord Jesus every place you go, and
watch Him rock. Watch
Him do His
miracle. Watch Him
perform that
miraculous, wonderful, counselling, the everlasting Father, that Mighty
God,
yeah, that Prince of Peace. Take
the
Lord every place we go, in Jesus’ name. And,
why? I’m getting
ready to close, here. Why?
Why the shepherds?
You’ve got
Jerusalem, here. You’ve
got the
rabbinical people, here; you’ve got the Pharisees and the Sadducees
here, if
you will. You’ve
got the kings, and
you’ve got decent families. You’ve
got a
whole town of people in Bethlehem, and Jerusalem, and all about the
place. Why would
the angels go to the shepherds? Ain’t
no great crowds out there. Why
go to the shepherds, when you could go to
the little schools, and the children?
Why go to the shepherds?
According to the Scripture, here, it says in verse
number eight, “And
there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping
watch
over their flock by night.” Those
are
the things that it says about them.
They
were abiding where they were supposed to be, and they were watching
what they
were supposed to be watching. Abiding
and watching. And
the Scripture goes on
to say, after that, “’Let us go and see that which the angels spoke to
us of.’
And they turned around and glorified God.”
Of course, we know that if they would have gone to
the whole political
ring, they would have judged it. If
they
would have gone to the whole king’s ring, they would have tried to kill
them.
Of course, we know all this. But
they
went to people who were going to spread the message; to people who were
going
to turn that into a praise to Almighty God. So,
here we are, Christmas,
2014. The message
isn’t so much about
how many gifts can be put under any tree, it isn’t—Andy, I think you
said it
well, “This is the time of year that people will be nice to people that
they’re
not nice to any other time of the year.”
At least, it used to be that way.
Now, Christmas doesn’t seem to have very much affect
over very many
people at all, except, especially the Christians who take Christ every
place
they go. They bring
Christmas, and they
talk about the reason for the season.
Amen? Amen.
Give the Lord a praise.
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