Don't Be Foolish - Eph. 5:15-20

I have to start out this message by telling you a story about starting out this message.  When I have a title or even a main theme of a message, it’s not uncommon for me to Google it just to see what pops up.  Sometimes nothing comes up or at least nothing interesting but sometimes I see a picture I can use for the bulletin insert or an illustration I can include.  Once I even realized that whatever phrase I put in was being used by kids inappropriately and so I left it out altogether.  Who knows, right?

 

So, I did that with the title of this message.  I just typed in the words “Don’t Be Foolish”, just to see what would come up and if you are familiar with the computer, you know that a long list of websites popped up with a few words of explanation about each one concerning “Don’t Be Foolish”.  And the vast majority of these websites were talking about the Snoop Dogg song with that title.

 

Now, how many Snoop Dogg fans do we have in the house this morning?  How many of you have never heard of Snoop Dogg?  How many of you have and wish you had not?  That’s me.  I know who he is but not much else and I did not know that he has a rap song with that title.  I assure you I will not be using any of the lyrics of that song since the first line or two of the song was shown on the computer screen.  I didn’t click on any links to any websites but I saw enough.  And I wish I had not.

 

What struck me as interesting, though, was his encouragement to not be foolish was mixed in with the most awful lyrics I have ever seen and in the most foolish way.  I unfortunately understood the words but the way he used them was, to me, very foolish and immature.  I’m sure he will be crushed when he hears I called him immature.  And one of the websites showed his picture right there on the Google page and you talk about foolish!  Give me a break Snoop!

 

Have you ever noticed how few people actually think of themselves as foolish?  Everybody sees other people being foolish but few ever think of themselves as fools.  Sure, we all do something or say something every now and then that we immediately think, “Wow, that was dumb.”  That’s actually pretty common with me.  But nobody ever says, “I am a fool.  I have always been a fool and I guess I will always be a fool.”

 

Nobody wants to be a fool with their time or their money or any resources.  Nobody, except maybe Snoop Dogg, gets up in the morning and says, “I think I want to look like a fool today.”  And certainly nobody wants to stand before God and be judged as a fool.  So, how do we keep from being foolish?  What can we do about the times in our past when we have been foolish and how do we keep from doing it again?

 

Let’s look at some advice from the Apostle Paul about this and see what he has to say in the wonderful little book of Ephesians, chapter 5:15-20.  What better place to start in a quest against foolishness than this great book of wisdom?  We talked last week about how God is our Wonderful Counselor who gives good advice and this word from Paul is God-breathed good advice.

 

¹⁵ Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

 

Paul is writing to the Ephesians as friends.  He spent 3 years there; had lots of “adventures” there but is writing not to address any certain problem like he does with some other letters.  He wants to keep them from getting into any trouble or developing any bad habits.  So, as he sometimes did, he spent about the first half of the book talking about theology and what God wants, and then the last half talking about practical ways to actually accomplish it.

 

And I am so glad he does this because the way my brain works, I want to know the how, why, where and who of something if there is a problem.  I’m like a little kid who constantly asks “Why?” until it drives you crazy.  But I don’t want somebody to just tell me that the bridge is out.  I want to know why it happened and also, the most important thing, what do I do now?

 

So, when I read a passage like this, my thoughts are, “Ok, Paul, how do I keep from being a fool?”  Paul makes plain 3 ways right here in these scriptures and I want to elaborate on:

 

1)      making the most of every opportunity

2)      understand what the Lord’s will is

3)      be filled with the Spirit

 

The first phrase is “making the most of every opportunity” which literally means “to buy up the time”.  How do we buy up the time and why should we?  Those were my first questions.  “To buy up the time” is done just like you would buy anything else.  If you are going to buy a coke at the store you would pull out your wallet and you would trade something valuable (a dollar) for something you want more (the coke).  It works basically the same with time.  You trade something valuable (your entertainment, your comfort, your hobby) for something you would rather have (more time to do something else).

 

My next question was, “Why should we do this?”  My entertainment, comfort and hobbies are valuable so why should I trade them for more time to do something else?  The King James uses an interesting word in verse 15.  It says we are to walk “circumspectly” instead of in foolishness.  The word is the same root word that we get “circumference”.  No, it’s not telling us to walk in a circle.  It means that we should walk while looking around.  We should always be aware of what’s around us.  This is wise advice when you are leaving the grocery store or taking stock of where you might be walking in foolishness.

 

So, I have 2 practical ways that you can make the most of every opportunity.  Knowing that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion looking to devour you, and knowing that you don’t want to be foolish with your resources, look at your past and have a plan for the future. 

 

The new year is a great time for looking at what you did in the past and seeing how well you accomplished your goals.  If you didn’t, where could you improve?  Did you share Jesus with anybody this year?  Did you invite anybody to church?  Did you speak the name Jesus to anybody outside of church this past year?  If not then I believe Paul would encourage you to make the most of every opportunity in this next year and you do that by making a plan.  Set some goals for yourself.  I don’t ever make New Year’s resolutions but you might set some goals such as trying to be a little better friend with your neighbors so that when the opportunity comes, you will be ready to share Jesus with them.  Look at the past and have a plan for the future.

 

The next thing Paul says to do if we are not going to be foolish is to understand what the Lord’s will is.  And here is where the irritating little kid comes out in me.  “Um, Paul, I have a question.  How?  How do we understand what the Lord’s will is?”  Thank you for that question, irritating little kid.  And the answer is two-fold.  First know where not to look and secondly, know where to look.  Easy, huh?

 

You first need to know where not look and the first place many people look is their own intellect.  “This is how I would do it if I were God.”  Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”

Another place people look for wisdom is in their emotions.  In I Kings, Elijah was ready to die.  He was tired and he had been threatened by Jezebel and while just a few hours before he had seen God do a huge miracle, now his emotions told him all was lost. 

 

In Mark chapter 4 the disciples were rowing across the lake when a huge storm came up and the waves were crashing over the boat.  They were frantic.  Their emotions told them one thing but then Jesus calmed the storm and told them something completely different. 

 

God gives us our intellect and God gives us our emotions but neither one are the place to look for God’s will.  James 1:5 tells us where to turn to find God’s wisdom and his will.  “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”  The first place to look for God’s will and his wisdom is to go to the source.  Ask God what His will is.

 

Worldly thinking is that if you try real hard and think real hard and weigh the pros and cons then you can figure out the best way but Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

 

E.M. Bounds said, “God’s will and His glory are bound up in praying.”  John Wesley said, “Give me 100 preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God and I don’t care a straw whether they be clergy or laymen.  Such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven on earth.  God does nothing but in answer to prayer.”

 

I have heard it said that true wisdom is making the choice that God would make and you can’t know what decision He would make if you look to yourself.  You have to ask Him.

 

The last thing Paul says to do if we are to be wise and not foolish is in verse 18.  Be filled with the Spirit.  And how are we filled with the Spirit?  I want you to see the contrasts in this passage.  Paul contrasts being unwise and wise in the first part but then contrasts being drunk with wine with being filled with the Spirit.  In verse 18, Paul’s warning against drunkenness is not just good advice echoed throughout scripture about getting drunk.  I believe his real intention is to compare how you are when you are drunk with how you are when you are when you are filled with the Spirit.

 

If you were to go to an AA meeting, I’m pretty positive you are not going to hear somebody stand up and say, “My name is Todd Blair and I’m an alcoholic.  Even though I have never actually had a drink I am an alcoholic.”  No.  What you might hear is somebody stand up and admit that they are an alcoholic but then say, “It all started with that first drink.  And that led to another and another and another and pretty soon my life was saturated with alcohol.  I was consumed by what I was consuming.

 

Being filled with the Holy Spirit is the same way.  When we give our lives to Jesus and commit to being who He wants us to be; admitting that we are sinners and confessing that we know that He is the only way we can get forgiveness of those sins; believing that it is through His death, burial and resurrection that we can have eternal life; then we have the gift of the Holy Spirit come into our life.  That’s the first drink.

 

But that is not being filled with the Spirit as Paul is talking about here.  Being filled with the Spirit means that you are consumed with Him.  He is everything to you and not just a choice you make on Sundays.  When D.L. Moody became a Christian somebody told him that the world has yet to see what can happen when someone is completely sold out to God.  His response was, “Well, let’s find out!”  He wasn’t content with a little bit of the Spirit.  He became a God-aholic.  His life was saturated with God, His word and His will. 

 

He didn’t want a taste or a little sample.  He bought up the time by trading what was valuable for what he really wanted.  He knew better than to trust his intellect or emotions.  He did like they did in Acts chapter 4 where it says the apostles raised their voices together in prayer and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.  Moody knew that the only way to keep from being a fool was to be saturated with God, to be filled with His Spirit.

 

When somebody has had a lot of alcohol they act differently.  They are not their normal selves.  It’s the same with someone who is filled with the Spirit.  You know what happens when a believer becomes saturated with Go, His word and His will?

 

They start “speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

Let’s do that right now.

 

“Confessions of Christmas – the Prophets” – Isaiah 9:6-7

A number of years ago, Peter W. Stoner and Robert C. Newman wrote a book entitled Science Speaks. The book was based on the science of probability and vouched for by the American Scientific Affiliation. It set out the odds of any one man in all of history fulfilling even only eight of the 60 major prophecies (and 270 ramifications) fulfilled by the life of Christ.

The probability that Jesus of Nazareth could have fulfilled even eight such prophecies would be only 1 in 10¹⁷. That's 1 in 100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000.

Stoner claims that that many silver dollars would be enough to cover the face of the entire state of Texas two feet deep. Texas is a very big state. Who in his right mind would suppose that a blindfolded man, heading out of Dallas by foot in any direction, would be able, on his very first attempt, to pick up one specifically marked silver dollar out of 100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000? (Christiananswers.net)

But the truth is that the life of Jesus fulfilled every one of those prophesies; specific prophesies that include that he would be born in Bethlehem, born of a virgin, die on the cross and be raised back to life.  These prophecies were written by many different people from 400 years before He was born to over 1000 years before He was born and yet Jesus fulfilled them all.

That in itself should bring hope and peace to you since if everything predicted about Jesus in the Bible came true then everything to come will come true and as we all know, in the end, we win.  So, as we continue with our series entitled “Confessions of Christmas”, I want to look at the confessions of the prophets, specifically the confession of the prophet Isaiah in his book.

Like I said, there were a lot of prophets who prophesied about Jesus.  Abraham, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Micah, and Zechariah all foretold his birth, life or death.  And Isaiah made other predictions as well but I ask you to turn to the book of Isaiah chapter 9 and let’s read verses 6 & 7.

⁶ For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.⁷Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Isaiah is writing some 700-plus years before Jesus was born and these writings must have brought great peace and joy and celebration to the Israelite people who later read these words, all the way up to Jesus Himself.  I have always wondered what it must have been like for the young boy Jesus to read these words in the scrolls at the temple, knowing that He was the one about who was being prophesied.  Just add that to the things to ask Jesus when we get to Heaven.

But for the Israelites, it had to be a great hope.  It had to bring peace.  It would make you want to celebrate that the beloved people would once again be remembered and blessed by the Messiah.  You know, sort of like it makes us feel even today.  We celebrate Christmas 2700 years after this was written for the same reason that the Israelites celebrated.  The tragedy is that so many of the people of the nation to which this was written fail to recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

But for us it brings great joy and peace to think that what Isaiah is confessing came true and will continue to be true.  In fact, if you remember throughout this whole series of “Confessions of Christmas” each of the confessions was intended to bring joy and peace.  When Gabriel went to Mary and told her the good news that she would be the mother of the Christ, it brought joy and peace.  When Elizabeth reacted to Mary’s visit by saying, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear”, that brought joy and peace.  And what about the joy and peace that Simeon had when he held the baby in the temple?  He had so much peace he told God “you now dismiss your servant in peace.”  He was ready to die after seeing the One about who is prophesied here in Isaiah.

Most of you have heard my testimony before.  I came to a relationship with Jesus when I was a child and lived that way for a long time but as I grew older I slipped out of that close relationship and started living just for myself.  And I have to admit that it was pretty fun most of the time.  I had a lot of friends and we had lots of fun but deep down I was miserable because I had no joy and no peace.  I knew the life I was living was wrong because while I had fun sometimes, my life wasn’t worth living without the joy and the peace that I had known.

We have talked lately about how the Holy Spirit works and that is a huge part of it.  The Holy Spirit guides us and directs us and people who don’t have the Holy Spirit often wonder how that happens.  If He doesn’t speak to you audibly or show you a physical sign then how do you know it is the Spirit that is guiding you and not just your conscience or that pizza you ate last night?  The bringing of or the absence of joy and peace as we start to make a decision is often how that happens.

I don’t want to run out of time this week like I did last week so let’s look at the 4 names Isaiah uses here to describe the Messiah we now know as Jesus.  I want to focus just on the 4 names this morning.  No, this does not do this passage justice to only concentrate on such a small part but when have I ever done that?  And besides, this is more than enough for today.  The first name Isaiah uses to describe the Messiah is Wonderful Counselor.

Since there was no punctuation in Isaiah’s written language it is sometimes difficult to translate every nuance and particular meaning but we might do well to put a comma right after “Wonderful”.  That may be a correct translation but we don’t know and for today I want to combine it like it is in most Bibles.  “Wonderful Counselor” – what do you think of when you hear the word “counselor”?

The original Hebrew word simply means one who gives good advice.  This would have been of utmost importance in the days of Isaiah.  They were going through a rough time where the leaders of the country had turned away from the one true God and had started worshipping false gods or no god at all.  And there was pressure from the community and from society to follow the lead of the kings who were going in the wrong direction.  Sound familiar?

It would have been important then just as it is important now to be able to rely on someone who gave good advice.  Have you ever gotten good advice?  Somebody tell me in a sentence or two.  Have you ever gotten some bad advice?  I’ve heard it said that a wise man seeks much counsel…and a fool listens to all of it.  Why is that?  Is it because people are stupid?  Is it because they are mean and want to see you fail?  Maybe sometimes but that’s probably rare.  More often it’s because they are human and see through human eyes.

It’s amazing to me how the Holy Spirit comes back into our conversation at this point.  The Holy Spirit is our Counselor and as I said he whispers to us through our peace and joy about making the right decisions but the word “counselor” can also rightfully be used of an attorney or lawyer.  Have you thought about that?  Yes, the Holy Spirit is our attorney who not only gives us wise counsel but also stands for us before the Father.  Revelation 12:10 says that Satan stands before God accusing us all day long and the sad thing about is, while Satan is the father of lies, some of what he says is probably true.

And so I need a good attorney.  I need a really good lawyer.  I need a Wonderful Counselor who will stand before God and say, “Your Honor, what has been said may be true but that crime has been atoned for.  That price has been paid and while I may be the Counselor I am also the one who paid the price.  This man is no longer guilty!”  THAT’S a Wonderful Counselor!  I don’t need a lawyer with a nickname like “The Hammer”.  I need one who is known as the Wonderful Counselor.  That brings me joy and peace.

He is not only the Wonderful Counselor; He is also the Mighty God.  The name means strong warrior or even hero.  Do you think about God as being a warrior or a hero?  At this time of year it is appropriate to think of Jesus lying in a manger, helpless and sweet.  But at the same time, He was and is the warrior in chief.  He is the head general in this battle and as such He has everything under control.

Psalm 45:3 says, “Gird your sword upon your side, O mighty one; clothe yourself with splendor and majesty.”  And Revelation 19:13-16 says, “¹³ He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. ¹⁴ The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. ¹⁵ Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”^[a] He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. ¹⁶ On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”

And while He is a mighty warrior, I have one more passage to help us understand the nature of this Warrior.  Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”  The Mighty God, Hero God, Ancient Warrior who is all-powerful loves us so much that He rejoices over us with singing.  That brings me joy and peace!

 

He is a Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God and Everlasting Father.  Family-life specialists Delmer W. Holbrook and his wife have conducted surveys across America.  In a survey of hundreds of children, the Holbrooks came up with 3 things fathers say most in responding to their kids.  “I’m too tired.”  “We don’t have enough money”.  And “Keep quiet”  (Illustrations for Biblical Teaching)

I don’t know what your earthly father was or is like.  For me, I have to say those exact things to him.  “I’m too tired.  Keep quiet!”  J  No, that’s not true but whatever your fatherly role model, it’s time to quit falling back on that because we have as our Heavenly Father an ancestor, teacher, advisor, priest and protector.  That’s what the words “Everlasting Father” stand for.

Now any of you that are parents know that there comes a time in almost every kid’s life that they start to pull away from Mom and Dad.  First, you can’t kiss them goodbye when you drop them off for school and then they don’t want you to even drop them off.  They would rather walk than be seen with you.  Then, as older teens, most kids finally leave the nest.  They think dear old dad is just stupid and they can do it better on their own.  Until what?  Until they need something, right?  Until they can’t figure out what to do or they have no other option and then they come back asking for help.

The shooting in Connecticut was beyond comprehension.  Nobody can understand how somebody could do such a thing and nobody can comprehend how to keep it from happening again.  You have heard the argument that we need fewer guns or more guns or better mental health programs or less video games or blah, blah, blah.  But you know what happened as soon as the news broke that the shooter had gone to that school and killed those children? 

We prayed.  We as a nation prayed.  The president prayed.  The school teachers prayed.  The TV news anchor prayed!  Because we don’t know what to do and we have no other option, just like kids who have left the house and now we are in trouble, we come back to the Everlasting Father and we cry for help.  The same people who just the day before said there is no God or God is stupid or how could God do this or that are now saying, “God, help us.”

And do you know what God says?  Do you know how the Creator of the universe responds to us when we do that?  Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”  That gives me such peace and such joy.

And it should bring us peace because He is the Prince of Peace.  He is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace.  Oh, how those words must have comforted the Israelites back in the day.  A prince is a representative of the king, a ruler or an honored person and to know that the Messiah would soon come to save them from their enemies had to be comforting. 

I went to Israel probably 25 or so years ago and do you know what?  It had not changed much in any way from those days when Isaiah made this prophesy.  Everywhere you go there are soldiers in uniform carrying high-powered weapons and while the weapons of war may have changed not much else has.  There is still no peace.  There are still being attacked every day on all sides from people who want to take their land.  Psalm 122 tells us even today that we should pray for the peace of Jerusalem but there will be no real peace there until the Messiah comes back.

The good news is though, that peace is not necessarily the absence of war.  Those favored people, the Israelites, can have personal peace right now through a relationship with the Messiah and so can we.  The last part of that passage says that the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.  That word “zeal” means his eager desire is to make all this happen.  God has an eager desire to have a relationship with you; a relationship that means no more guilt and no more shame.  Those things get replaced with peace and joy.

Make that your confession today.  Come before the Everlasting Father and say, “God, I need help.”  Accept His mighty power, his good advice and the peace that passes all understanding even in the midst of war; even in the midst of everything going on in your life.  That is God’s Christmas gift to you this year if you will only accept it.

“Confessions of Christmas – Simeon” – Luke 2:21-35

I want you to go back in history with me for a few minutes.  I want you to think back through time to a very dark age; a time where political officials were corrupt, morals were almost non-existent, people seemed to have no regard for how their actions might impact other people and everybody was out to do what seemed right for them and had no care for others.  It was a time many years ago where selfishness and pride ruled men’s’ hearts and it seemed like God was almost silent as His Laws were trampled and He was deaf to the cries of His people.

 

How do you carry on?  How do you remain Godly in an ungodly world?  When violence and immorality are the norm, where do you, as a believer turn for consolation?  In fact, who or what could possibly console you at such a time? 

 

We are going to see the answer to that in the book of Luke this morning because while you may have thought I was talking about the dark days of just last week here in the United States, I was actually referring to the period between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Approximately 400 years go by after the last writings and prophesies of the Old Testament and before the time of Jesus when the New Testament was written. 

 

It was a dark and difficult time for someone to be a believer in the one, true God, especially for a Jew in Israel.  The once great and powerful nation had been conquered and had a new king who was not in the line of David and their national pride had to be at an all-time low.  But when things were at their worst and it seemed as if a Jew had no where to turn for consolation, there comes, as it says, “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

 

Turn to Luke chapter 2 and we will continue with the 3^rd in our series of “Confessions of Christmas” and this week we hear the confession of a man named Simeon in Luke 2:21-35. 

²¹ On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.²² When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ²³ (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), ²⁴ and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” ²⁵ Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. ²⁶ It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷ Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, ²⁸ Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: ²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. ³⁰ For my eyes have seen your salvation, ³¹ which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: ³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.” ³³ The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. ³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵ so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

I have to say that up until Friday I would have told you that this was a good past week.  I felt like I got a few things done.  I was encouraged by our worship last Sunday.  We had a real good Bible study Wednesday and I had a great time of worship Thursday with my biker buddies.  Even the weather seemed normal and right for December.  But by mid-morning Friday, you couldn’t turn around without hearing about the horrible shooting in Connecticut that left some 27 people dead including 20 small children.  Words just don’t cut it.

As if that wasn’t bad enough I started to think about other friends and loved ones I have lost; some right around Christmas and others this will be the first Christmas without them.  I watched the news about how the Republicans and the Democrats can’t see eye to eye and now we are all going to pay for it.  Thousands of innocent people in the Middle East are being killed every day.  Some guy in China slashed 22 kids with a knife and lawmakers in Chicago want to give you 6 months in jail for feeding the pigeons!  This place is crazy!  And it was about to make me crazy!

But then I read this passage over again.  And while it doesn’t make this nasty old world any easier to understand, I, like Simeon, found consolation.  I, like Simeon, found peace.  And I, like Simeon, owe it all to Jesus!  And that is my confession as we continue our look at the confessions of Christmas and we see that Simeon here makes actually 4 confessions surrounding the baby Jesus.  If you have a bulletin you should have an insert with an outline that shows those 4 confessions.  Let’s look at the first confession of Simeon that there was a promise.

To understand this promise, you first need to understand a little about Simeon; and that is all you are going to know is a little because that is all we are told.  But what we do know is that he was “righteous and devout”.  Evidently, his behavior with respect to men and God was the object of God’s approval.  We assume that Simeon was an elderly man, although it doesn’t say it.  It would just seem strange for a young man to say, “I can die in peace now.”

The other thing about Simeon that was remarkable was that he had been given a very rare and special blessing.  In some manner, even now before Pentecost, the Holy Spirit rested on him and he was constantly influenced by it.  That same Comforter had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Christ.  What a blessing that was to have a promise like that!

And there in verse 29 Simeon confesses that promise had been fulfilled.  We had a fascinating Bible study last Wednesday night discussing what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit and we talked about all the ways that Spirit, also known as the Comforter or Guide helps us.  We know that because of our relationship with God the Father, through His Son Jesus, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, the third part of the Trinity, to guide us and give us wisdom and to prompt us to do God’s will.  John 14:26 promises us that the Holy Spirit will teach us all things and remind us of what Jesus said. And that would be good enough if that was all the promise we were ever made was to receive the Holy Spirit to guide us here on this earth.

But we are promised so much more.  For starters, we, like Simeon, are promised, as believers, that we will someday see the Messiah!  I Thessalonians 4:13-18 says, “¹³ Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. ¹⁴ For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. ¹⁵ According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

How are you not encouraged by those words?!  If that doesn’t do it then how about from the mouth of Jesus Himself in John chapter 14 where he tells us that He is going to prepare a place for us and that He is going to come back and take us to be with Him.  That’s a promise that we, like Simeon, can claim.  The Bible is full of God’s promises and while that one in John is tops, let me read just a couple of others.

 

2 Peter 1:4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

Matthew 11:28-29 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Philippians 4:19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

John 14:27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

The second verse of the old Hymn “Standing on the Promises” goes like this:  Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God.

I could have just preached on the promises of God this morning.  There are many more and like the song implies and that last verse I read from John says, those promises bring peace.  Don’t they?  I want you to say it.  “Because of God’s promises I have peace.”  Simeon knew it and he confesses it also in verse 29.

He tells God, “you now dismiss your servant in peace.”  According to my concordance, that original Greek word for peace is “eirene” i-ray-nay.  It means to have a harmonious relationship with God and others manifested in friendliness, rest and quietness.  Friendliness, rest and quietness.  Does that describe you?  It should.  2 quotes:

I have been very rich, very beautiful, much adulated, very famous…and very unhappy. Brigitte Bardot

I remember one day sitting at the pool and suddenly the tears were streaming down my cheeks. Why was I so unhappy? I had success. I had security. But it wasn't enough. I was exploding inside. Ingrid Bergman

How much is peace worth to you?  How much would you pay to be truthfully described using the words, “friendliness, rest and quietness”?  We spend billions of dollars every year trying to find the right product that we can consume to bring us peace and yet what happens when our circumstances are not in our favor?

Loudly*  You can’t do that!  That’s not right!  I’m calling the cops.  I’m writing my congressman.  I’m calling the Better Business Bureau.

Now, think about Simeon.  Seeing the baby Jesus didn’t change his immediate circumstances one bit.  Seeing baby Jesus didn’t give him any more money or power or freedom or respect or anything we think we have to have to have peace so what was it about Jesus that brought him that i-ray-nay, that peace?  It is the same thing that brings us peace here today as we fellowship with Jesus.  It is realizing that through a harmonious relationship with God through His Son that everything is going to be ok.  Whatever that means!  It’s going to be ok.

It is having faith that God is not going to put more on you than you can handle.  It is knowing that your sins are forgiven.  It is knowing that God loves you and He hears you and He wants the best for you.  It is knowing that this nasty old place is not our home but that we will spend eternity with Him.  And how do we know those things?  Because they are God’s promises!

God promised Simeon that he would not die until he saw the Messiah.  And when that happened, Simeon knew that everything was ultimately going to be ok.  He had peace because he knew that the little baby he held in his hands would change everything.  His circumstances might stay the same for now but the outcome was going to be radically different. 

2 Tim. 1:12 says, “That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.”

Paul was going through difficult circumstances and yet he had i-ray-nay, peace - friendliness, rest and quietness.  You can too all because of that little baby born so many years ago so far away from here.  You can have peace in this nasty old world where pride and greed are the norm and it is hard to see or hear God in all of the hustle and bustle.

Because God had proven Himself trustworthy to Simeon, he had peace and because God has proven Himself trustworthy to us, we can too.

I obviously don’t have time to preach the other two points this morning so come back tonight to hear Simeon confess the preparation and prophecy.

“Confessions of Christmas – Elizabeth ” – Luke 1:39-45

12/9/12

I. Confession of Blessing

A. Say it.

B. Hear it.

C. Realize it.

　

II. Confession of Promise

A. Know it.

B. Trust it.

C. Live it.

“Confessions of Christmas – Elizabeth ” – Luke 1:39-45

Last week we started by talking about stupid criminals. This week, let me start by giving another example. Waylon Prendergast, 37, of Tampa , Florida , committed a spur-of-the-moment robbery while on his way home from a late-night drinking session. A very inebriated Mr. Prendergast forced his way into the house through an open upstairs window, filling a suitcase with cash and valuables before setting the living room on fire to cover his tracks. He then escaped through the back door and made his way home, chuckling all the way. Only as he turned the corner into his own street, however, and discovered three fire engines outside his house, did he realize that in his drunkenness he had, in fact, burgled and ignited his own property. His comment: "I had no idea I had so many valuable possessions."

Now while there is some humor involved with this, it’s also sad. It’s sad because in his drunkenness, he lost all of his stuff but it’s also sad because it took losing all of his stuff to realize how valuable it all was and how he had been blessed. “I had no idea I had so many valuable possessions.” What he is really saying is, “I had no idea how blessed I am.”

Do you think God blesses crazy old drunks? I think it’s safe to say that God blesses all of us in spite of our sin and shortcomings. I can vouch for that. You probably can too. And what a perfect opportunity, right here at the busiest shopping time of the year to think about how blessed we are and how much more stuff do we really need to make us happy?

How many more cd’s and sweaters and electronic gadgets that start with a lower-case “i” do you really need before you are happy? There is nothing wrong with having stuff. That’s not the point of this message. I just hope to encourage you to think about and appreciate all the ways you have been blessed this Christmas and hopefully you will be a blessing to others out of your abundance as well.

We are going to look this morning at someone in Luke chapter 1 who was blessed. I love to go to family reunions. When I see my relatives, it makes me happy. Well, most of them make me happy. But while they seem to enjoy seeing me and always greet me warmly, I have never gotten a greeting quite like Mary gets from her relative Elizabeth in Luke 1:39-45. My relatives and I are happy to see each other but we will see the difference here between happy and blessed.

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, ⁴⁰ where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth .⁴¹ When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.⁴² In a loud voice she exclaimed:“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!⁴³ But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴ As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵ Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

If you were here last week, you remember we looked at the previous passage where the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and confesses to her that she is about to be the mother of the Messiah. In that same visit Gabriel confesses to her that her relative (we think she was a cousin) Elizabeth was also going to give birth and was in her 6^th month. Here we see that Mary has gone to visit Elizabeth but we are not told exactly why. Any of us might guess why. It could have been that Mary didn’t want to be around when word got out that this young woman who was not yet married had become pregnant.

Maybe she just wanted to be around another woman who was pregnant. Maybe she just wanted to tell somebody she saw an angel. Maybe it doesn’t matter why and so the Bible doesn’t say. And that’s ok. There are still a couple of things I want us to see in this passage.

As we continue talking about the confessions of Christmas, I want you to see in this passage Elizabeth’s confession of blessing and her confession of promise.

Have you ever been so excited for somebody else that you couldn’t help but holler? A friend of mine at the biker church got a new trike the other day. I saw it outside and knew it was his and I practically ran inside and then ran up to him and hugged him and realized I was almost hollering as I told him how pretty it was and how glad I was for him. I think I almost scared him but I couldn’t help it. I saw that he had been blessed.

See, blessed or bless-ed means more than just “happy”. “Happy” indicates how a person feels. “Blessed” is what he is. A person is blessed when God’s favor rests on him, when the Lord delights in him. And when Mary came through her door, Elizabeth knew that she was blessed and she said so in a loud voice! In verse 42, she says, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear.”

This is the same thing that Gabriel told Mary in verse 28. “You are highly favored and the Lord is with you!” I’m sure that made Mary happy to hear both of them say that but happiness is a feeling that can fade. Blessed is a fact. And I’m sure it was a fact that Mary needed to hear.

Now there are 3 things about Elizabeth ’s confession of blessing to Mary that I want to elaborate on real quickly. As a blessed people we need to say it, hear it and realize it.

When we see other people have been blessed we need to say it. I love the fact that Elizabeth was so excited for Mary. There was no jealousy. There was no envy. She was truly excited for Mary. Even though she knew through the Holy Spirit that Mary was going to be the mother of the Messiah, Elizabeth was nothing but happy for her and not envious at all. You know why? I Corinthians 13:4 says, “Love does not envy”. Love doesn’t envy.

Elizabeth loved Mary so much she was glad for her and wanted the best for her. Here at Christmas time it is easy for somebody else to unwrap a present or get a great gift and for us to be envious. “Her sweater has two snowmen on it and mine only has one.” When somebody else has been blessed it is important that we not compare and just be glad for that person and to tell them that they have been blessed.

It was also important to Mary that she hear that from Elizabeth and from Gabriel. I’m sure that some people back then were already talking behind Mary’s back about how she was about to be an unwed mother. Rumors were surely flying around about this great scandal and who in her neighborhood was really going to believe the truth at this point? What an encouragement it was to Mary to have a friend who believed and understood and was excited for her!

Sometimes God blesses us in a way that can be hard to understand. It’s easy to see that God has blessed us when we get a new Corvette ZR1 in Velocity Yellow. But other times when God is blessing us with patience or when He blesses us with an affliction that makes us more like Jesus it is hard to believe that it is a blessing at all. Sometimes being reminded that we have been blessed is a blessing itself.

And that helps us with the next thing and that is realizing that we have been blessed. We need to say it, hear it and realize that we have been blessed. As a good parent, do you give your children everything that they want? I hope not. For the same reason you don’t give your 4 year old a new BB gun for Christmas, sometimes God doesn’t give us everything we want. Oh, I’m sure your 4 year old is mature for his age and he has been begging and pleading and can’t understand why you don’t just buy it. Isaiah 55:8 says His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. And while God is able and ready to give you blessings pressed down and running over He doesn’t always give us what we think we want or need and we need to realize that is a blessing. When we truly realize that everything that comes into our lives is being allowed by God for our good and the good of His kingdom, then we realize how much God loves us and we realize that we are blessed.

Elizabeth makes another confession to Mary in verse 45. She confesses a promise. Verse 45 says, “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.” The promise is that what God said will be accomplished and what God said was that she would be the mother of the Messiah. But the blessing comes with belief.

I talk a lot about BOOCOD – the blessings of obedience and the consequences of disobedience but there is also BOBCOD – the blessings of belief and the consequences of disbelief. Elizabeth knew this well. Her husband Zechariah was given similar news to what Mary received and did not believe Gabriel when he told him. We see this in verse 20 of the same chapter where Gabriel tells Zechariah, “And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time.”

Elizabeth understood the importance of belief. And while some women would think it was a blessing that their husband couldn’t talk for a while, she knew that when God says something you better believe Him. Malcolm Mugridge - "Our 20th century is one of the most credulous in all of history. It is not that people believe in nothing, which would be bad enough, but that they believe in anything, which is really terrible.” 


So, how do we know that the things that God says will, as Gabriel said, “..come true at their proper time”? Well, there are 3 things related to belief that we need to understand. First we need to know it, then we need to trust it and third, we need to live it.

If we are to begin with knowing what God says, then how do we do that? Well, we all know that we need to spend time in His word and in conversational prayer with Him but let’s use Elizabeth as our model. How did she know that God had told Mary she would be pregnant? Look at verse 41. “ Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” How does the Holy Spirit work like that?

Let me give you an illustration. A friend of mine, not me but a friend, cheated on a test one time in high school. And it wasn’t even my, I mean his fault. The guy behind him knew that my friend had not studied and was not smart enough to pass the test so he just whispered into my, his ear the right answer. That is sort of how the Holy Spirit works. You know, without the cheating.

The Greek word for HS is “paraclete” which means “one who stands beside”or “counselor”. Think of Him as an attorney highly invested in His client. So, if we are going to believe what God says then we have to know what God says and how we know it is through Bible study, prayer and, like Elizabeth , through the HS. And you receive the Holy Spirit only by having a relationship with God through His Son Jesus. It’s a package deal. So, if you are not hearing from the HS then you better check your relationship. This doesn’t mean God will reveal everything all at once, of course, but John 14:26 says, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

So, once we know what God says, the next step is to trust it. This is where the real blessing starts to really kick in. John 20:29 says, “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” So, how do we really trust what God says? One word: history. In your own life, has God ever let you down? Has He ever told you something that wasn’t true? Now, I could refer you to the Old Testament and to the prophesies that have all come true but I want you to see it for yourself.

And when I ask if God has ever let you down maybe you are not sure about the answer. Maybe there have been times in your history when you wondered if God had let you down. There was a time like that in my own life as a young adult. I was having a hard time believing that everything God said was true and right and so you know what I did? I looked to other people’s history. I made a concerted effort to look at the lives of the wisest people I knew – not necessarily the smartest but the wisest - to see what they thought. In their history, had God ever let them down? I think you know.

So, to wrap all of this up, if we are to be blessed then we need to believe. And if we are to believe then we need to know what God says through His Holy Spirit. We need to trust Him because history shows that He can be trusted. And since He can be trusted, we need to live like it.

This is my last point. And for al of these points I have tried to illustrate it or give a verse to agree with it but for this point I am going to let you practice what I have been preaching. I want us to bow our heads and close our eyes and just let the Holy Spirit whisper to you what this last point means to you personally. What does it mean for you to live out your beliefs? What has God told you lately that you are not fully embracing because you have not acted on it; you haven’t lived it out?

Maybe He has revealed some great secret to you about yourself and yet you have refused to change it. Maybe He has revealed to you that somebody else needs to hear a word of blessing from you and you have yet to do it. Or maybe God just wants to encourage you with a blessing this morning because He loves you so very much. Use this time to just allow yourself to humbly, yet boldly go into the throne room of the King and seek His face. What a blessing it is to be able to do just that!