The Wonder Of His Love IV, The Wonder Of Reconciliation

There were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. They were terrified. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests. When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. Just two months ago, to the day, we stood with our group of thirty-five North Way travelers on a hillside overlooking the countryside of Bethlehem. It was a Kodak moment I had tried to create. It was very late in the afternoon, the golden sun was setting in the west, there was a slight chill in the air, probably just the way it would have been that night that the angels appeared to those shepherds right over those hills in Bethlehem. As I set the scene for our group to mentally reenact that angelic moment and to imagine what it would be like to have angels appear in the sky and speak to you about the coming of the Messiah, I said, Well, we should sing a song. And what song, naturally, should we sing? Let's stretch it. Oh, little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee fly. And all of a sudden, off to the side, I hear this, oof, oof, oof, oof. And this junkyard dog starts barking in the midst of this moment. I mean, you know, we're trying. And then all of a sudden I hear cars starting to, you know, the horns start to blare. And then the bus that had pulled a little bit away, the wind changed and the fumes started blowing. And, you know, I said, Wait a minute, I mean, there wouldn't be an angel within a hundred miles of this toxic waste dump. And I figured, you know, what's going on? And I said, Well, we're going to sing, you know, above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the diesel trucks go by. And if the moment was stretched, if we never recovered, I got in the bus and I told Carol, I said, It just wasn't supposed to be that way. It was supposed to be powerful. Now, does that ever happen to your Christmas plans? I mean, you set it all up and in your mind, it's going to be a powerful moment. You're going to encounter the Lord or maybe your family has all these arrangements made. And when you finally show up, it just bombs. Does that ever happen to you, anybody? I mean, it's just for this morning. I want us to look at the Christmas story and see what the angels may be saying to us that can help us to address some of those grinches that come into our lives, some of those spirits that may become to pull the joy and the peace and the love. Out of our Christmas and to twist things around, and I believe if we'll look into these verses, especially on a morning like this, God will have something to say to us. The first thing, and if you're taking notes, which I always encourage you to do, is that during the Christmas season, the announcement of the angels would be that it's time to fear not, to release your fears, fear not. Isn't it interesting that every time an angel appears, the first thing he's got to say to the person is, hey, don't be afraid. And isn't the root cause of worry in our lives fear, isn't it? We fear we won't have enough of what we need. We won't get the promotion that we desire. We won't get the grades, the approvals, the acceptances, the love. And so we worry. And although things like that happen year round, somehow at Christmas time, more than any other time, worry tends to creep in and rob from us the very peace and joy that God intended for us to know more pronouncedly at Christmas time. We worry about getting things done. I don't know how many people this last couple of weeks have said, are you ready for Christmas? And what goes through your mind when someone asks you that question? Am I ready for Christmas? By that, do you mean I have all my presents bought? I have all my cards mailed. I have the house decorated, the tree up, the outside all set up. I have my family travel plans laid. The messages are all done for the Christmas season. The food's been purchased. The accommodations made for family. Do I have all that done? No, I won't have all that done after Christmas. I mean, that's just the way it is with my life. So we worry about it. You know what the Latin root word for worry is? It's the word to strangle. Isn't that what worry does? I mean, it just kind of chokes the joy out of our lives. It's not by accident that the angel begins with the announcement, fear not. Three hundred sixty five times in the Bible, God says, fear not. Why? Because, friends, fear paralyzes us. Worry takes from us the very ability to cope with the circumstances that we might face. And I've discovered this. And you know what? I'm going to talk about this because this morning was a classic illustration. Worry, ultimately, when you peel it all away, is simply our attempt to try to control the uncontrollable. When I got up this morning, I said, well, you know, I don't really need any more sermon illustrations, but I got one. And I was telling Carol, I'm getting ready. I said, oh, man, this is going to this is going to cause folks who need to be here for all the technical stuff. They're going to be behind. And all of you will be behind. And there's probably I'm going to guess 300 people today that just won't make it. And I'm thinking about all the stuff. And all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit, I'd written, of course, this message earlier in the week. The Holy Spirit said, didn't you just say that you were going to tell the people worry is your attempt to try to control the uncontrollable? I sure did. I can't control what's happening out there meteorologically. But nonetheless, our worry, you know, we just tried it. Well, maybe if we just worry enough, it'll stop. No, doesn't work that way. In fact, worry is an absolutely useless emotion. It can't change the past. It can't control the future. All it does is mess up the present. It's a total waste of our emotional energy. The more I analyze worry, the more I discover that the way it gets control over me is in my thought life. And that's why what the angel says next, if you'll look at it in verse 11, he says, I bring you good news. I'm sorry, the end of verse 10. I bring you good news of great joy on your outline there. Good news of great joy. That will be for all the people. Maybe you have an overhead of that, Lee. Put it up, please. This is what our minds need to rest on. I bring you good news of great joy. Say that with me. Good news of great joy. That's for some of us. No, for whom? All the people. Turn to someone and say, that means, I guess it means you. All right. Tell somebody that means you. All right. Good news is for you. The good news is that the grace of God has come into our life to help us deal with those things, which would cause us to worry. Look at these other couple of scriptures. I just jotted down Matthew 6 31. Don't worry at all about having enough. Your heavenly father already knows the things you need and he will give them to you. If you got to circle the word, if, if you give him first place in your life, Philippians 4, 6 and 7. And the J.B. Phillips translation I memorized years and years ago. Don't worry over anything, whatever. But whenever you pray, tell God every detail of your need and thankful prayer and the peace of God would surpass his human understanding. We'll keep constant guard over your hearts as they rest in Christ Jesus. Don't worry over anything. The Bible makes it clear. Friends, listen, I'm going to say it. Worry is sin. We're not to worry. And yet, I got to be honest with you, I still do. This past Tuesday, long day, got up early, about 4.30, quarter to five. I'm in the office of one of our staff members. And another one of the staff members came in and say, started to say, Pastor, can I ask you a question about? And she was going to go on about some mailing that we were doing or whatever. And she said, she turned right in the middle of her sentence. And she said, wow, you really look stressed. How many of you know, when you hear something like that, what goes through your mind is, well, I wonder what stressed looks like. I said, would you excuse me for a second? I went to the bathroom to see if maybe I had this, you know, this forehead strip that said stressed on it or what does stressed look like? Well, I looked in the mirror and, you know, she was absolutely right. I mean, I was, I look worn out. I had like, I just, I look like I should just be maybe not there because all these different things that added up during the day, you know, projects that were behind and stuff wasn't going the way I hoped it would. And you get stressed and you start to worry. And right in the middle of I said, Lord, what am I, what am I doing? I've fallen into that same old trap. I was thinking about all those things and all that stuff and not about the provision of God, not about the supply of God, not about the things that God could do to take that burden off of me. Friends, it's so important because where you put your focus is what you begin to become. Isn't that true? At least a few of you are thinking, well, wait a second, you know, just thinking about the Lord in the midst of that, that doesn't change it. You still have the bills. You still have the things that you're worrying about, the illnesses. You still have the job change or the, the, the conflict at work. You still have the relational problems. It sounds to me like you're saying, Jay, just don't think about them and they'll go away. That's not very responsible. I'm not saying that. I am saying this. Look with me in the scripture or on the outline. The Greek word for to worry is the word Meramnao from two other Greek words, Meridzo and Naos, which means to divide the mind. So when you worry, listen carefully, when you worry, you are divided in your mind between, am I going to trust God or am I going to try to just deal with this on my own? And James 1.8 says that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways and he will not receive a thing from the Lord. What I'm saying to you is if you choose to let your mind just be the thing which carries all of your problems, friends, God will say, well, fine, go ahead. And his grace will be cut off and you won't receive. But if you choose to put your mind on the source of life, if you choose to believe the good news that grace is available to you and let your mind begin to focus on that, wow, then you begin to let the channel of God supply to fix those problems, to meet those needs, to heal those illnesses, to restore those relationships that begins to flow towards you. Some of you have had very difficult years. I've heard people say this week several times, 1996 was one of the most difficult years of my life. I heard that even though economically everyone says, oh, it's been terrific. Some people have said, you know, it's been a very hard year. Some of you lost jobs and accounts and business opportunities. Some of you lost friendships and even loved ones. Some had setbacks and hurts and pain. Some of you saw your dreams go up in smoke. But I want to say loud and clear that God has been with you every step of the way. And I've discovered this, friends, that when affliction and adversity come into our lives, it's because God knows that there's a part of our character that needs to be just conformed a bit more to the image of Christ. And in the end, it's not our careers that we take to heaven. It's our character, our careers. We're not going to walk in and be the CEO of whatever company in heaven, friends. It's our character. It's who we are that God says will establish our eternal position in the heavenly realms. So what should we do? Should we just like blank out? Here's my suggestion. I come up with these things and sometimes I think, well, maybe they're kind of corny, but maybe it'll help you. When you begin to worry, do we have that overhead? It says worry on it. Oh, we have to have that one. I'm not worried about it. Me? No, no, no, no, no, no. Well, you'll just have to use your imagination then. Instead of worry, W-O-R-R-Y, when you begin to sense worry, just move into worship. W-O-R-S-H-I-P. Just change the end of the word. Stop worrying and start worshiping. And in a moment, the whole orientation of your mind moves from worry to God. And then you're no longer a double-minded man or woman, unstable in all your ways. You're a man or woman about to receive the grace of God to help meet that need. Now, how many of you came in today, just real honestly, and there are just a couple of things you're worried about? Okay, let's stand together and let's just exalt our faithful God. Let's put our minds on him. Let's worship him right in the middle of the sermon this morning and let him be the one who carries our worries. And we'll find that burden lifting, that problem being taken away. Sing it with me. Faithful God. Here we go. Faithful God. Faithful God. All-sufficient One. I worship you, my strong believer. As you know, the motions that we learned a couple months ago, let's sing it again. Faithful God, Faithful God, All-sufficient One, I worship You. Shalom, my King, my Strong Deliverer, I lift You up, Faithful God. Lord, we lift You up and we give You praise in this day that You are faithful in all Your ways and we choose to put our worry on Your shoulders and we choose to worship our Faithful God. And everyone say, Amen. Praise God. Let's be seated and don't worry about it anymore. Second thing the angel says, I bring you good news of great joy for all the people for today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. The second thing is that Christmas is time to renew my faith. Renew my faith. The second obstacle to joyful Christmas spirit is quite honestly, simply doubt. And this comes in numerous packages. And friends, I know that some of you, probably not a whole lot in this service, but some of you really just even doubt whether or not God exists or cares about you at all. There's a lot of doubt about God in this culture. On Christmas Eve, I'm going to bring a very short but poignant message about the reality of God that most of our culture is missing. Some of you doubt, is God really there? Is He really the unique Son of God that Christians say He is? Others of you are a little more seasoned in your doubt. You're a little more practiced at doubting. You doubt, you know, well, for example, you doubt will another sermon really make any difference? You doubt, well, you know, I've been dealing with this same problem now for 93, 94, 95, 96, and I doubt that God's going to do anything about it in 97. And we hear the message of the angels saying, wait, I'm bringing a Savior to your life. And yet we doubt. Luke 2.10 again said that the good news of great joy was for how many people? All the people. Let me just summarize it this way. Today, the angel said, to you, the angel said, a Savior. Today, to you, a Savior. Say that with me. Today, to you, a Savior. Say it again. Today, to you, a Savior. And what is a Savior? Well, look at your outline. Flip the outline over. The Greek word, soter, from which we get salvation. Soteria means this. One who rescues another from life-threatening danger, a deliverer, a preserver, a rescuer. Today, to you, a Savior is born. Now, we don't use the word Savior in our culture very easily. We don't refer to too many people as our Savior. Kevin McClatchy was called that. I think we've settled that one for the pirates. Maybe if you're stranded somewhere in a remote country road with a flat tire on a five-degree night, and someone stops by, you know, with a fix-a-flat and gets you back on the road, you might say, man, you just saved me. But rarely do we talk about human beings in that sense. What is it then that God says that we need saved from? Why do we need a Savior? Well, friends, the Bible makes it very clear that what we need saved from is the effect of our sin in our lives. The life-threatening danger was our sin, and the wrath of God that was coming upon us because of the sin that's in our lives. You know, for the past several weeks, I've made mention about the issue of God's wrath and the cross from this pulpit. And I've had the gamut of responses from different ones of you. Most of you agreed with me that there's just widespread ignorance in America, in the church in America, about this whole matter of the wrath of God. They don't even know, but they don't even think it could possibly happen. Some of you said, I'm just kind of, you know, are you trying to be Jonathan Edwards or something up there? Well, the fact of the matter is, friends, I think America was a lot better off when there were more Jonathan Edwards out there because they were presenting God as He really is. Remember I said it's not that God has a temper tantrum every time we do something wrong. Rather, it's His unblemished, pure holiness confronting our sinful nature. And when those two collide, just like a warm front and a cold front cause snow to fall, so when the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man collide, His wrath is the result. It's the raining down of the result. And I would be not serving you all as a congregation to somehow allow us to go on thinking that really how we live our lives doesn't matter. Certainly how most of America lives its life doesn't matter to God. Do you read these verses? Could we put up 2 Thessalonians, please, in the Living Bible? And I chose the Living Bible specifically because of the description of this passage. And I want you to read it with me. And so I would say to you who are suffering, God will give you rest along with us when the Lord Jesus appears suddenly from heaven inflaming fire with His mighty angels, bringing judgment on those who do not wish to know God. Do you see that? There's a matter of will involved there. And who refuse to accept His plan to save them through our Lord Jesus Christ. They will be punished in everlasting hell forever, separated from the Lord. Never to see the glory of His power when He comes to receive praise and admiration because of all He has done for His people, His saints. And you will be among those praising Him because you have believed what we told you about Him. Hallelujah. The Bible says that God's wrath for those who trust and have given their life wholeheartedly to Christ, God's wrath has been propitiated, has been appeased. But friends, you see, that's why the Lord came as a Savior. If we needed more money, God would have come as a financial planner. If we needed more education, He would have come as a professor. If we needed more cures, He would have come as a scientist. But we needed delivered from our sin. And so He came as a Savior. And what we really need, the Bible says, is to be reconciled to God. The greatest need in our life today is to be reconciled to God. That word reconciled, interesting word. The Greek word is elasa. It means to change for the better. Or it means, more specifically, you might want to write this in the blank down there in the open space. To reconcile means that enemies become friends. Enemies become friends. And whether or not we want to believe this, the Bible says that apart from Christ, listen carefully, we are enemies of God. It's not that God just could take us or leave us friends. The Bible says that we are disposed with the God of all the universe as our enemy in this life. And I begin to get passionate about this because I think so many people believe that God just sort of looks down and says, Hey, you're not all that bad. And in fact, I've had people say to me, and you've heard this, people say, I thought God was love. I thought God loved me. You people all tell me that God loves you, God loves you, God loves you. Friends, God loves you. But God loves his enemies. As we're to love our enemies. And the fact of the matter is we are disposed by nature to receive God's just judgment on our sin. Until that time when we say, God, I am guilty. I need a Savior. And we bow in humble faith at the foot of the cross. And we say, Jesus, I accept what you received as punishment for my sin. And friends, it's not just the little prayer that you pray. It's the entire reorientation of your life from living for you to living for him. That's what it means to be a Christian. That's what it means to believe in Christ. It's the new center of your life. The problem with many people is they don't picture God that way, so they don't think about him that way. I remember when Billy Graham came to town three and a half years ago, I had in my mind what Billy Graham was like. In fact, I had seen him at a distance at a number of conferences through my ministry. But when he came to Pittsburgh, I was privileged to be on the executive committee that helped to set the whole thing up. And I had an opportunity with some friends and Carol to go have dinner with Billy Graham. And then to stand and meet him. I had in my mind that he was going to be sort of this rather distant guy. He meets a million people and maybe a little stoic and impersonal. And I found him to be the opposite. I found him to be friendly and warm and very tall. And I had a picture taken with him. I thought, you know, he was not at all what I imagined him to be. What I imagined him to be didn't make him what he was. And folks, there are lots of people that you and I know this Christmas season who imagine God to be a certain way. They don't know the God of the Bible. They've not taken the time to read what the Bible says. And therefore, their lives are in jeopardy. And may I say, if your heart begins to burn when you hear this, it's the Spirit of God telling you, investigate, investigate. See if the man's right. Check me out. See if what the Bible says is true. Get the tape from November 24th, where I go into a lot more depth about this issue. Because it has the power to change your life. And one more thing to those of you who know you have been reconciled. That God now has become your friend. And that's the majority in this room today, clearly. My question simply is this. Do you live a reconciled life? Do you live a life where God functions as your friend day by day? Or do you find yourself going in and out in that relationship? Up and down. There's something that God wants to work in us of an eternal change that will revolutionize how we deal in the world today. Oswald Chambers I often refer to, and this is not from my utmost for his highest. Just one little quote that's captured me this Christmas season. The one thing about the Apostle Paul, he writes, that staggered his contemporaries was his uncontrollable joy of spirit. He would not be serious over anything other than Jesus Christ. They might stone him, imprison him, but whatever they did made no difference to his buoyancy of spirit. The external character of the life of our Lord was that of radiant sociability. So much so that the popular scuttlebutt about him was that he was a gluttonous man and a wine giver and a friend of publicans and sinners. This was talking about Christ. The fundamental reason for our Lord's sociability was other than they knew. But his whole life was characterized with a radiant fullness. It was not an exhausted type of life. If a little child is not full of the spontaneousness of life, there's something wrong with him. The bounding life and restlessness is a sign of health, not of naughtiness. Jesus said, I've more abundantly. Be being filled with the life that Jesus came to give. Men who are radiantly healthy physically and spiritually cannot be crushed. They are like the cedars of Lebanon, which have supernaturally abounding vitality. And they intoxicate to death any parasites that try to live on them. Hallelujah. Are you intoxicating anyone to death with your joy? Are you just thwombing the scrooge of Christmas? Be reconciled to God and let that joy overflow. Finally, let me just conclude with this. Be reconciled in your other relationships. Rebuild relationships in this Christmas season. The third thing the angel says was glory to God in heaven and on earth. Let there be peace among men. Ah, man. Many of you are heading into family reunion time. You're having friends over, family, loved ones. You're wondering if your wayward son or daughter is going to come home. Your ex-spouse is going to cause trouble or not. If the year end in the office is going to be full of tension. Or if just your little family is going to get along. Is it really a time of peace on earth? Now, sometimes you can preempt conflict and take a courageous step. Ask for forgiveness. And sometimes the very difficulties you fear never happen. Because you were bold enough to say something. Sometimes it works. Reminds me of a cartoon I saw where Lucy Brown said. Lucy says to Charlie Brown rather. You know, Charlie Brown, since it's Christmas time. I think it'd be good for us just to kind of bury the hatchet. And forget all of our differences. And just try to be nice to each other for this season. Charlie Brown says, you know, that's a great idea. Why don't we do that all year? Lucy says, what do you think I am, some kind of fanatic? It may preempt the pain in your life to ask before it ever happens. You know, take ownership. Ask forgiveness. And you'd be amazed how it can defuse some latent bitterness and anger. But I've discovered something about most conflict in relationships. This is your outline. Always remember that craving underlies conflict. Or cravings underlie conflicts in the plural. Cravings underlie conflicts. Every time there's a meltdown, count on this. The root reason there's conflict is that somebody's craving hasn't been satisfied. They're craving for control, for security, for satisfaction, for stuff. The list could go on. Maybe it's just the craving to be left alone. Cravings exist in the marketplace, in relationships, in our homes. They exist within you. And when those cravings aren't met, we tend to have big-time conflicts. Boom! Cravings underlie conflict. This past Thursday evening, I had a craving to get to bed. I was tired. I have every reason to have that craving on early morning Friday. So I was craving for some rest, but the gentle peace in our household was shattered that evening, late evening, by the cats. Now you see, if the cats are left to roam our household through the night, it doesn't work because even if we close the door, the 2,000 square feet that they have to roam on isn't enough. They have to come into our 150 square foot bedroom. If we have the door closed, one of our cats, that we cleverly call Miss Kitty, comes up to the door, and she's been declawed in the front, and she just goes this. So we've learned, of course, that there's only one solution, and that is all the cats have to go in the basement. And then Miss Kitty, all night long, just sits in the basement. But I can't hear her because I'm upstairs. It doesn't bother me. Well, I'm getting ready to get into bed, and Carol's trying to get Miss Kitty rounded up because she knows this is coming now. She couldn't do it, so she gets Jonathan. She says, John, would you get Miss Kitty? I've got the other 2 down in the basement already. Well, Jonathan traps Miss Kitty in Amy's bedroom, picks her up in this way, and she's been declawed in the front, but not the back. Carol said, watch her back claws. I heard that out of the corner of my ear. Well, and Jonathan was ready for bed. He didn't have his shirt or anything on. He was just getting ready to go to bed. And Miss Kitty wasn't into going into the basement accommodations. So she lashes out, and her back claws just, you know, like an eighth of an inch scrape right across from Jonathan's shirt. I hear this shriek of pain. I'm in the bedroom now. This is all the distance. Now, in John's mind, he wants to let the cat go and grab hold of his new injury, but he knows that he'll abort his mission. So instead, he squeezes. And I hear him running down the steps, you know, like 3 at a time. And then there's this pause, and some verbal exchange happens at the basement door because Carol's there, but she's afraid to open it because the other two might come out. And John says something, which later becomes cause for another discussion because of a craving he had. And I hear the door open, and I hear this, as Miss Kitty takes the express elevator to the bottom. And the door slams. And that whole thing, that whole incident, I'm talking, that was 10 seconds right there. That whole thing. It took probably a good half hour, 40 minutes for everyone to cool down a little bit, and, you know, the knee is sporing, and all that stuff. And to discuss what cravings were underlying that conflict. And then another hour and a half, and of course, I said to God, Why? You know, I just wanted to go to bed. And God said, You know, I just wanted you to see that the conflict that you participated in is because of your craving to have a peaceful night, your own way. And I just wanted you to have another sermon illustration for Sunday. And so here I am. You'll find that it's true, wherever you are, that cravings underlie conflict. Just a little suggestion as I close. This season, when you sense the temperature rising, starting to boil, when you sense you're just about to blow up with that person, ask the question, What's inside of me? What craving is not being met? Look at James 4.1.2. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? Friends, God's desire is, 1 John 1.7, If you're living in the light of God's presence, just as Christ has, then we have wonderful fellowship and joy with each other. You say, Well, Jay, you don't know how deep my conflicts go. Well, friends, one last thing. The Lord Jesus went to the cross not just to carry God's punishment for your sin, but also to carry upon himself your frustration and your anger and maybe even your appropriate reaction to the hurt that you've sustained as well. And I just want to submit you to the place to take your conflicts is to the cross and let the Lord carry them there. And you'll find that this Christmas season won't be a time when you're full of worry, full of doubt, and full of conflict, but rather you can experience the love and the joy and the peace the Lord intends for you. Would you stand and let's pray together. Lord, we exalt you in this place as our Savior, the one who came to rescue us. With heads bowed, please, throughout the auditorium as I close in prayer. Maybe you came today and it was just because you told someone, hey, I'm going to come to church on Christmas Sunday. But you've been here and you realize that there's something that's just not right in your life. And that something is that you need to be reconciled to God. Friends, the incredible blessing that I can share with you is that God's provided a way and it's through his son, Jesus. And today, if that is something you know you need to do, I'm going to say something I don't normally say. And that is, if you know you need to do it, then do it today.