Tis the Season

Good morning. I am so glad that we can be gathered together this morning to worship and celebrate the coming of Jesus this morning. Today has been a special day and it is one that fills with me with so much hope and joy. I am excited for what the future holds and all that we can do together.

The Perfect Gift

We all have it. Or we have all experienced it in our life time. We have that one gift that we just know will be the perfect gift that year. If we get this one gift it will make our Christmas so amazing. In fact every year many of us will watch a movie that is centered around this very idea.

A Christmas Story!

This story about Ralphie who wants that perfect gift for Christmas.

“I Want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two hundred shot range model air rifle!”

Which the natural response of the parents or teachers is, “You will shoot your eye out”.

I always loved watching this movie every year because I had a strange tradition surrounding it. I never watched it from start to finish. For years I would watch every part of the movie but I would watch a segment of it and than come back to it later that day and watch a different part and so on until it I had seen the whole movie. It wasn’t until just a few years ago that i watched it from start to finish in one sitting.

I always loved though the various ways that Ralphie would scheme and plan to get his Red Ryder BB Gun. From writing his theme for his teacher to planting advertisements in his mom’s magazines he had a goal a Hope to get that Red Ryder.

It is Ralphie’s hope for this one present that reminds me of how much we look forward to this time of year with hope. Hope that we can spend time with family. Hope that it is happy time of the year. Hope that we have the coming of our savior and all that means for us. This morning though i want us to examine some scripture and see where and why we have the hope that we do.

Turn with me to Romans 15

On a side note as you turn to the chapter. IF you haven’t noticed that on the first slide of the sermon we will always have the passage of scripture that we will be primarily out of in the sermon. If you want to follow along in your Bible please turn there. If not I will also have the scriptures on the screen for you to follow along.

Let us read

Romans 15:4–13 NIV

4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. 5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed 9 and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of your name.” 10 Again, it says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.” 11 And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; let all the peoples extol him.” 12 And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope.” 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Hope in the Scriptures

One of the greatest things that we have for us is the scriptures. The Scriptures provide for us a great source of hope in our lives as Christians. We are called to look on the scriptures and to be encouraged by the words within them.

One of the greatest things that we have for us is the scriptures. The Scriptures provide for us a great source of hope in our lives as Christians. We are called to look on the scriptures and to be encouraged by the words within them. That we can look at these passages and we can see the connection that the scriptures point us back to Christ and the power of seeing the prophesies about his coming. It provides us hope and strength.

That first section was a simple one it was straight forward and to the point. It is one of those passages that makes it easy for us preachers. However, this next section we need to dig a little deeper.

Hope...Together?

Now together is a tough question. More and more we talk about in our society and culture this idea of division.

We are divided as a Country.

We are divided in our families.

We are divided in our churches.

We are divided in so many ways. I think i should also offer some clarification. I do not think we are divided her at our local church level but I instead am speaking of the Church universal, Or the entirety of the Christians church. When i Speak about the Church that is what I am referencing.

When we read passages like this we can’t help but get hung up on the ideas that there are challenges within the Church.

Romans 15:6 NIV

6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are called to be of one mind. To share in one voice. For some that makes it difficult for us because we look at all the different denominations and churches that we have and we can’t help but wonder if we are of one mind and of one voice why can’t we all be in church together.

The truth is there are lots of different views and beliefs in the Christian church. We all like to think that we have it all right.

What if i told you that there is a chance we might be wrong about some things?

I like to think we have it right but the truth is i also recognize that we are human and we probably have something wrong somewhere in our belief system.

What if I told you that we gather together here in this place because we hold to common beliefs and practices that we think are important?

For the Wesleyan church we have a strong emphasize on Holiness. That is the hallmark of what defines our belief system. We believe we are called to live a life that is Holy. This isn’t anything that we do but it is a work that God does in us.

Other denominations and or independent church gather together because they might center around different ideals or focuses within their church.

Paul and the apostles knew that they would face challenges with different focuses within each church. In fact the letters that are being written to the different churches address the fact that there are differences from place to place. Galatia was different than Corinth and Corinth was different that Rome. Some Practices would change because some churches had more Jewish converts than others. Some churches would look at things differently because they had more Gentiles than Jewish believers.

You want to know what else Paul and the other Apostles knew.

They knew the main reason why we gather together.

They knew the most important reason why we gather together.

They knew that the little differences don’t matter as much as we might think as long as this one thing was at the center of our Worship.

One Mind, One Voice so...

The knew that the church needed to be of one mind and one voice in proclaiming the good news that Jesus Christ came died on the cross to forgive us of our sins and that our lives and our actions should be like those of Christ. That all of our lives should be lived in such a way that we bring Glory to God.

It isn’t about fighting over the minor details or beliefs. It is abotu recognizing that God is Lord over our lives.

We are called by God to accept and lvoe one another just as Christ accepted us.

Think about that for a moment.

Did we deserve to recieve forgiveness of our sins? Do we deserve the fact that Jesus came down to this earth as the perfect Gift?

Do we deserve that?

Honestly no!

However, he came down as that perfect gift and we celebrat that this time of year and are reminded of the hope that brings to us because we have been accepted by Christ and he became a servant to us. We know this because...

God Keeps his Promises

God kept his promise to the Jewish people in sending the Messiah to them. Jesus came first for them on behalf of God’s truth. He didn’t come only for them though.

Romans 15:8–9 NIV

8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed 9 and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of your name.”

We have been given the same promise. It is because of that we can praise God that he is faithful. We can gather together and take hope in the promise that he will one day return again to free us from this world and that we will be in his presence once again. It is here that we can take hope and we can Rejoice because we know that

Romans 15:12 NIV

12 And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope.”

WE have hope because he fulfilled his promise and he will fulfill all that he has promised.

Living in the Overflow

Paul closes out this section of scripture with what in many ways is a closing benediction. He is coming to the end of an important message. This is the hope that he wants to share with all of us.

Romans 15:13 NIV

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Living in the Overflow

One of the funny things that happens sometimes when you are writing sermons is how you can have some strange coincidences. I was reading this particular verse when a song came on as i was writing. It is by Charity Gayle and its name is Living in the overflow. It is an upbeat song that Sings about the joy of blessing the Lord and the fact that when we live in the overflow of the Spirit it is truly an amazing place. It is here that we find ourselves at Christmas. We live in the Spirit of hope and joy in the coming of the savior. Bound together as one church with our fellow brothers and sisters reminded that we need to love God and to love each other. That as long as we confess Jesus we can praise him and glorify him.

Communion

One of the practices of the early church was communion. The church has a long history of breaking bread together. I am a firm believer that this is an essential element of our faith to remember the Last meal that Jesus shared with His disciples before his death and to help us to draw together as a community to share in the grace that comes through taking the bread and the cup.

Let us now take and break bread together and to be reminded of the hope that is found in Jesus.