Families Under Fire IV, The Great Reconciler

Your notes. If you're from out of town, I've met a number of folks that are here visiting with their families. It's just good to have you with us. I'm grateful that today it's not really snowing. We've been blessed to avoid the worst of the storms for all the presentations. Hopefully it'll continue that way forever. That would be my vote. But as we come to Christmas and you come to today's message, particularly on Christmas Sunday, you've got to know where I'm going with this. You probably thought, I bet Pastor Jay is going to talk about the baby Jesus today. And you're right. Here's the thing. I can read that story. Every time I read it, I get something more out of it. How about you? I don't ever say, I've heard that before. There's something about it that continues to feed me. Let's turn together to Matthew 1. Matthew 1. If you don't have a Bible, look over at the person next to you. See if they're going to share their Bible with you. If not, just go ahead and pound them on the shoulder. And say, this is church. Share with me. And if all else fails, look up at the screen. Matthew 1.18. This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. Let me pause here. I haven't said this before. Notice that it took an angel to appear to Joseph to convince him. I mean, so, we often think that, well, you know, Joseph sort of rolled, I mean, I think Joseph was, he was shocked. And it took an angel to appear to him to get him to change his mind about the situation. She will give birth to a son, verse 21, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Why was he named Jesus? Say it with me. Because he will save his people from their sins. The name Jesus means deliverer, redeemer. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Jesus. So we're going to talk today about the name Jesus, the name which literally translated means savior, redeemer. It's the same as the Old Testament name, what? Joshua. Yeah, it also means savior, deliverer. And you see, God had Jesus, the son, his son, named that name because that's what he came to do, to be a savior. And here in America today, that's not a really cool word. People don't talk about wanting to be saved or wanting to know the savior. They're much more comfortable with other words that are kind of less in your face about the whole proposition. They like to talk about being spiritual. Spirituality, by the way, is popular in America. It's on the rise. Spirituality, but not the kind that you and I are talking about. So I want to talk today about a savior. And I want to talk about that in reference to what we've been involved in the last weeks in this series on reconciliation and family because all of us have to begin at the point of realizing that we need a savior. We have an outline. Look at it. Why do I need a savior? Let me talk about this for just a couple of moments. Why do I need a savior? Here today, most of you probably believe that you do, but I'm sure that some of you aren't convinced, and I know that you're going to know people and be with people in the next few days that don't really buy it, don't pay. What do I need a savior for? I'm a pretty good person. Right? I mean, I'm not evil. I'm not a terrorist. What do I need a savior for? Well, we need a savior because sin, the power of sin, which, by the way, has permeated the entire human race, has created division or separation in us from our design in Almighty God's mind from the foundations of time. God wanted us, for example, to be able to be united with all people. In fact, the Bible says when Jesus comes, look, He's going to reunite all things in Himself. You see, the will and vision of God is for all things to be in union. How many of you know someone that's not in union with someone else? Well, we all do. I mean, we hear about it every day in the news. I mean, it's extreme form. Our enemies are terrorists and people who are out there to blow up civilization as we know it. But all of us have struggles, don't we? Caring for people that we don't like. We're separated from people that we don't like. I mean, for you, the enemies that Jesus talked about there in Matthew 5.44 might not be a terrorist. It might be the guy whose dog comes over to your yard instead of their own. Or it might be the person that you work with that's just cutting the corners and being a tad unethical, and you're frustrated because this person, he's getting away with it and doggone. God calls you to love him. You're having a hard time with that. Or maybe it's the person that owes you money and it's a client that hasn't paid you and they're just delinquent in their bills and your business is going down. And God says, love your enemies. Now, it doesn't say to just say, well, forget it. It just says to hold an attitude of love toward them. Whatever it is. But we all have those kind of people. It's the guy that cuts you off to get your parking place here at church today. Or the guy that won't let you out when you want to get out after the service. It's those people that just kind of turn you the wrong way. But more profoundly, we are separated by sin from the people that we love the most. Now, this is what we've been talking about for the last three weeks, isn't it? People, and I've been getting e-mails and letters and just all kinds of correspondence about people saying, you know, it just so hurts me to realize that the people I want to love the most are the people I have the greatest difficulty really loving. And so it's, I have daughters talking to me about their dads, and I have mothers talking to me about their sons, and I have husbands and wives, and I have brothers and sisters and step-parents and this and that. And it's this long list of people that we're closest to that we have the most difficult time. And even though we want to reconcile, the people are saying to me, I just don't have it in me to do it. I can't go back to them. I can't face it again. I don't want to get rejected. And you see, we're separated. Sin has had its work in our lives and in their lives, and so sin has separated what God wanted to bring together. As I was thinking about it this week, you don't even have to look outside of yourself to realize what sin has done. Sin has also, letter C, separated you within your very selves. How many of you find yourself not always doing what you want to do, and sometimes doing things you don't want to do? What causes that? Why can't you, I mean, even, listen, this is what's weird about it. We make up our own sort of ethical code of behavior, don't we? Let's be honest about it. Very few of us have a real, I mean, we don't, we take the Ten Commandments, we pick seven or eight of those, because those are the good ones, and the other three are too hard, and then we mix in three or four of my mama saids, you know, because that's important, you know, those kind of things. Mama said, do it this way. And then, you know, those just sort of common sense things that we think are in the Bible, and somebody like Ben Franklin said, like, God helps those who help themselves. I heard a national TV commentator say that two days ago. He made this big point, and the Bible says God helps those. No, it doesn't say that. Who was that? It was some pundit, you know, or some philosopher. So we mix all this together, and that's our ethical code. And that's how we sort of live, and, you know, we sort of just, we modify it to fit who we are, thinking that, you know, we're doing pretty well with it. And here's the weird thing. Even that, we can't keep. Even that, we fall short. Even that, we find ourselves separated. Or is that just me? You're looking real holy. I know that you're just like me. I, you know, I just, things happen, and so, you know, whatever it is for you, what part of your life isn't quite where you want it to be? I mean, maybe your temper just gets a little bit short, and you just, all of a sudden something, and one more thing happens, and boom! There's an explosion. Or maybe it's just stress. Stress gets you to the point where, you know, you just, you know, things, and you do pretty well, and you, you know, you figure out how to quote verses, and do all this stuff, and sing praise music, but still stress builds up, and then something happens, and poof! And then you just say, oh, and then you know, man. This happened to me a couple days ago. I was getting ready to come over to the office, and I just couldn't get all my, I was making multiple trips back and forth in the car, putting in this, you know, this basket of that, and this coat, and this, that, and then I couldn't find my glasses and my keys. How many people have glasses and keys? Those two things should be somehow affixed to us. And in the meantime, see, Carol was up, and she was working on this basket of something. It must have been a really important basket. I don't know what it was. But she's working on it, and putting things together, and about my fifth trip up and down the steps, I said, could you put the basket aside for a second, and help me find my keys? And she said no. And um, that was that, you know, okay, and I got in the car, and you know what I said? I need a Savior. I mean, I need a Savior. I just do. And maybe for you, it's something else. You know, maybe for you, it's work. And you work so long, and so hard, and even though you want to pull back a little bit, you just are so driven, and your kids are suffering, and your family's suffering, but you just keep working. You know, maybe for you, it's spending. You just find yourself, well, this time of year is terrible for you, because everything's on sale. And if it's on sale, you gotta, I mean, you gotta buy it now. And it's just piling on, and piling on, and piling on, and you wish you could pull back. Maybe for you, it's alcohol. And even though you laugh about it, and you go out and have a good time this time of year, you know you drink too much, and the people around you know you drink too much, and you know what happens at the end of the day? You can't stop. And you want to stop. And if you could push a button and make it all happen, you would, but you can't do it. And it could be a lot of other things. It could just be that you're just real, like, real distant from everybody. And you don't help out, and you don't volunteer, and you don't serve, and you don't care. And you just come and do your thing, and you know, you're real, and you wish that somehow you had more initiative, and more, and you just don't. And you can't. You see, all those things are indications that we need a savior. We need somebody to help to reconcile ourselves, to bring us together so we're whole people. And we need that, even in our own self-defined ways I described before, let alone letter D, the fact that we're separated from a holy God. Now, how many of you know what God's standard of righteousness is? It's a whole lot higher than what our own personal standard for ourselves is. God says, be ye holy, for I am holy. He's perfect and sinless, and without any stain or blemish or even shadow of turning. How can you and I hope? How can we hope to be reconciled to a holy God if we can't even be reconciled to ordinary people who are just fallen sinners like us? We've got to have a savior for that. Sadly, people go through their life, my experience, they go through their life just time after time, year after year, going through the motions of religion, and not feeling or sensing peace of any kind. And all the while, what's going on is they're hungering, but they don't know what to do, so they do the religious thing, and they're not reconciled because they haven't discovered God's way. What do we do about it? Because you see, all have sinned. Circle the word all. This isn't just for a few of us. All, letter D, all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So what saviors, number two, Roman numeral two, what saviors are out there? If I need a savior, if I buy that premise, and I hope that you do today, I hope you're at a place where you believe, along with me, that you do need a savior. If you do, where do you turn? Well, turn your outline over, because here's what I've discovered. I've said this in the presentation, but it's worth repeating. There's only one. This never struck me as clearly as it did this week as I was preparing this. There's only one person who came to be a savior. Now, hang on with me a second. How many of you are going to be with somebody this week that maybe thinks that all religions are pretty much the same, and you know, this religion over here is equally good to that one, and you kind of stir them all together in a big pot, and in the end, they'll all make their way to God. And that's sort of the politically correct way to look at religion these days, isn't it? But friends, listen. No one else ever came to this Earth and claimed to be a savior. Someone who would bridge the chasm between us and God. Muhammad never came and said that. Neither did Buddha or Confucius. No New Age prophet. Only Jesus came with the authority to say, I have come to bridge the gap between you and God Almighty. I have come through my cross to be your reconciler. And here's what you need to realize. The reason why we can celebrate Christmas so enthusiastically and so profoundly is this. Look at the verse on your outline in the middle there. Because an angel of the Lord appeared some 2,000 years ago, and the glory of the Lord showed around them, and they were terrified. And the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for I bring you good news. Circle the word good news. Why is it good news? Let me just pause here. The reason it's good news is for the previous two millennia the people of God had tried to be good by keeping the law. Now follow me on this because a lot of people get snapped in this and never get to God because they're trying to do good things. How many of you believe that if Old Testament people could have kept all the law, they would have been acceptable in God's sight? Well, did they keep all the law? In fact, what were most of the Old Testament leaders like? They were fallen sinful people. I mean, you think about what Abraham did, you know, and what David did and what Samson did. You just go down the list and the kings and even some of the prophets, these were people that sinned just like you. They couldn't keep the law. Well, why did God give the law then? Let me share it with you. Turn to Galatians chapter 3 if you have your Bible. If not, again, we'll turn it up on the screens here for you. This is important. This is why it's good news because look, see, Scripture verse 22 of Galatians 3 declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin. Does that include everybody? Yep, the whole world. So that what was promised being given through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now look at this. Before this faith came, this faith in Jesus, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up. See, locked up. The law didn't free. The law held us. The reason why people are never happy trying to be good in order to get to God is because you're never supposed to get to God that way. The law locks you up until faith should be revealed. Now look at this. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ. See, the law came for the purpose of showing us we couldn't keep it. That's the point. The law was given so that we would realize we'll never be good enough. Therefore we need something else. We need a Savior. So the angel came and said, I have good news of great joy that will be for some of the people. Will be for the Jews. No, for who? All the people for today in the town of David a Savior. Someone who can reconcile has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. And the reason why this should be such a powerful expression of your praise and worship is because you have a Savior that's been born to you. And may I just say, if you're here today or if you know someone who just sort of puts Jesus in the religious pot of all the other great leaders of all time, and that's the, again, I want to say, I want to underscore, that's their prevailing mentality in our culture in America today, let alone around the world. Listen, if you know someone like that, here's what they're doing. They are saying, I don't want that Savior. I'll go, well, there aren't any other Savior, so what are you saying? I'm going to save myself. I'm going to save myself. And friend, I hope you have the courage, now listen to me, I hope you have the courage to tell someone that you love, you cannot save yourself. You need a Savior. You need a Savior. And His name is Christ the Lord. Now, I know how hard that is, and can I tell you, I struggle sometimes when I say, Jesus said He was the only way. That sounds like, oh man, narrow minded, but you see, He's the only one, only one who came and proved His authority was from Heaven by what? What did He do to prove who He was? He was raised from the dead. His resurrection is the assurance that what He said about who He was was true. So you see, it all fits together. The birth, the cross, and the resurrection. He's the Savior of all mankind. And I hope you feel confident as you share, He's the Savior. So how does that change us? Finally, how does the Savior change me? Well, you see, you can now be reconciled to God. You can be now one again with God the Father. That's what the Lord came to do. And if you say, you know, well, yeah, I guess that's good. I'm just, you know, I wish there were some other ways. Can I just share with you? God has made it so available. He's made it so approachable. He says, whosoever will may come. I've had people say, you know, I love the Christmas season. And isn't it great to turn on the, you know, quote, quote, secular radio and hear Hark the Herald Angels sing and, you know, you hear the name of Jesus on the secular stations or in the department stores, all that kind of stuff. And they love the season. They say to me, I love the season. I love the love that's out there and the peace on earth. And I love having the family together. I love getting presents. I know, I love giving presents. You know, I love lights and all that stuff. But I'm not sure about this. Do we have to have the Jesus part? Yes. Because He came to reconcile us. And He came to give us the gift. And this is what I love to tell people. He came to give us the gift that we could never earn or never deserve. He came to make us one with the Father. All this, circle the word all, all this is from God. And by the way, you see, if you're, listen, if you're here today and you've never received this gift, can I tell you, you have to take a step to receive it in order to use it. Otherwise, listen, it just lays there. It's no good to you. This happened to me, another little bit of confession. We had this little cupboard above one of the counter spaces in our kitchen where we tend to put some of the mail that we get and we're going to sift through it later. And I was sifting through the stuff recently and I pulled out this little Christmas envelope and there was a nice little gift certificate in there to a restaurant that Caroline liked to go to for, it was a Christmas thing. And I said, wow, this is great. And I was very appreciative. And I looked at it and it says, expires December 25, 2002. It had been in there for a year. It was somebody's gift to us last Christmas. I thought to myself, hmm, what a shame if I got to December 26 and here this lovely gift had been given to us and we hadn't used it. And it wasn't because, you know, I didn't appreciate it, because I remember thinking back, I'd sent a thank you note and the whole thing. But I just had, I forgot about it. I had ignored it. I had neglected it. And it sat there. And it wasn't going to get used. And it was about to expire. I'll tell you where I'm going to be on December 23rd for dinner. And the reason is, friends, listen, I say that because some people, you hear about this gift and you hear the free love of God coming your way. But you know what? You just put the envelope back in the cupboard and you walk out and you say, well, you know, some other time I'll get to it. To be reconciled to God, you have to receive the gift. And finally, the Savior can change your other relationships because the grace that He pours into your life also gives you the strength to be reconciled to others. This has been the focus of the last four weeks of our teachings. And again, I want to say, I know this is a process for many of you, a process that maybe hasn't been too easy. But keep after it, you see? Remember that God didn't give up on you. He keeps pursuing you. And likewise, as God gives you the strength, keep reaching out to those family members, those loved ones who say, well, you know, I don't know. I don't know. I had someone stop me after the first service today and say, I have been at odds with this sister of mine and they named, you know, how bad it had been and they said, and this was the first Christmas in 12 years that they had talked to each other because she had made the initiative to pick up the phone and call her a couple weeks ago after one of the messages. And she said, I don't know how it's all going to end, but we're getting together for Christmas for the first time in 12 years. I just said, you know, that's the kind of thing. Even if it doesn't have a fairytale ending, at least now reconciliation is on the move. And God gives us the grace to do that. And people say to me, well, you know, but Jay, the problem is the people that I care about, they don't even get it. They don't know and so they don't care and I don't want to be heard again and I don't think I should do that. And, you know, I just don't know. It just doesn't make sense to me. And here's how I like to just portray this as I kind of close this out. Sometimes we have to do things for people that they don't understand. Sometimes you have to be mature enough to take the place of doing something that people don't understand, listen, maybe don't even appreciate. Years ago, we lived in a little house in Shaler and we had a garage in the back of the house and a little sloping stone driveway and we had a couple older cars and the one I remember was a little yellow, you guys who are older remember this, a little yellow Plymouth Valiant. Yellow with a black and had a slant six, those little engines that would just run and run and run and run. I don't know how many miles it had on it. And I remember we were going over to my mom's, I asked Carol about the details of this and we'd put David in the car seat in the back and back then, by the way, the car seats were really pretty flimsy little things and Carol and I were still bringing stuff and Amy hopped in the car and she got over behind the driver's wheel, you know, she had her dad's jeans, you know, so steering wheel and she's doing this and so we go and I didn't think about it, came walking out with some more stuff and here I see, we call the car Putt-Putt. I saw Putt-Putt rolling down the driveway with Amy behind the steering wheel going ... And, you know, now the worst that could have happened was it would have, you know, gone down maybe, I don't know, 150 feet and hit a fence in the back but instead it only went down about 25 or 30 feet and then the wheel turned and, you know, Amy just, she didn't have the strength and the wheel turned and the car just slid right into a dogwood tree and the neighbor's fence. And I have to tell you about our neighbor. Our neighbor was a very gruff old Polish gentleman who, he just, the whole thing was he didn't like kids. And he didn't like our kids. So he put up this chain link fence to keep our kids out of his yard. It was hilarious. And he cut the dogwood tree, which is on our property, you know, some of it leaned over. He cut the part that leaned over the fence. He was that kind of guy. And when I saw the thing hit the chain link fence, I said, oh no. So I walked over and I said, Amy, you go over and tell Mr. Olenek you did that. I wanted to do that but obviously she had no clue what she had done. She hadn't intended to do it. She somehow had slipped out of park and whatever. And, you see, here's what happened. She didn't understand. She didn't really know what was going on. What was I going to say to her? You've got to get the car fixed, you know. Give me your allowance for the next 30 years and get the car fixed and whatever. No. I had to basically go talk to Mr. Olenek, take all of his grief, get the car fixed, and then I just, I said to Amy, I said, you know I love you. She said, please don't do that again. Don't get behind the wheel again. She said, okay, Daddy. You see, that's Christmas, really. Christmas is God coming down to a people who don't know what they've done and have no way to make it right. And by His grace, He redeems us and He says, walk this way. I've paid the price. That's you reaching out to people who don't understand. It's you saying, I'll do what I can, even if you don't understand. That's the way of God. That's what the great reconciler came to do. I hope you'll receive that this week. I hope you'll think about it. I hope you'll let God just stir it in your heart, and then you'll act on it. Because God wants you, listen, He wants to send you out now as agents, messengers, the Bible says, of reconciliation. So I want to commission you. And I'd like to close this way. As the band comes out, I'm going to ask you, if you're with someone today, let's just remain seated for a moment. Let's bow in prayer. If you're with someone and you know there's someone in your family or extended family with whom you need to reconcile, just join a hand with the person that you're with that knows that situation. Let's pray right now. Lord, I thank you for reconciliation. I thank you for the beauty of that word. That enemies become friends. That people are made whole with God and others. And I pray now for the families that have hurt and pain, and that this time of year is so difficult for them. And I pray that the great reconciler would enter into those relationships, bring the balm, the healing, the fragrance of hope from the rose in Bethlehem. And I thank you that you are in a position of authority and power, Lord, to bring it to pass. Thank you for meeting us today in Jesus' name. Let's stand together and worship the Lord above all power. Above all powers, above all keys, above all nature and all created things, above all wisdom and all the ways of man. You were here before the world began. Above all kingdoms, above all thrones, above all wonders, the world is heaven.