Sermon Tone Analysis

Call to worship

I want to welcome everyone this morning and invite you to listen to the Word of God:

The Psalmist said,

“Praise the Lord.

Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.

Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their King.

Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp.

For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory.

Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds.”

(Psalm 149:1-5)

Let us stand and raise our voices this morning to our great God and King!

“O Praise the Name”

Words and Music by Leeland

PRAYER

Father, we praise You this morning because You are our God.

We praise You for sending Your Son, who bled and died for us, so that we may know You.

We long for the day when Jesus returns and that we may dine with Him at His Table.

Help us to clear our minds and hearts so that we may be transfixed on your face.

We know that You have been preparing us even before we entered this room, and we thank you for that.

We ask these things in Jesus name, and all God’s people said, AMEN!

“O Little Town of Bethlehem”

Words and Music by Christ Tomlin

LIGHT ADVENT CANDLE

Jesus came into this world as a light in the darkness and we light these candles during the advent season to represent the great light of Christ.

Our candle today is called the Bethlehem candle and it represents peace.

Bethlehem was small town outside of Jerusalem, the smallest of the clans of Judah, yet was God’s perfect choice to bring His Son into this world.

Micah said that Jesus is our peace, and today we celebrate that peace that only Jesus can give.

“What Child is this”

Words and Music by Chris Tomlin

LOOKING FORWARD TO CHRIST’S SECOND COMING

As we sing and reflect on the first coming of Christ, we also remember the promises from Jesus that he is coming again and look forward to His Second Coming.

Peter reminds us in his letter that as we wait anticipating that great day, we are to be found in peace and living lives of holiness..

[ON SCREEN]

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!

But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, (2 Peter 3:10-14)

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION

Lord, we long to hear from You today.

We ask at this time that You would send Your Spirit to saturate this room.

We pray that You would remove every distraction from this place and open our hearts and minds so that we may internalize the words that You have for us.

We ask that Your Spirit would make application into our lives and You would teach us how to become more like Jesus.

We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.

SERMON

Introduction

Last week we talked about hope from the book of Isaiah.

And we read the prophecy of the coming Messiah who would be a Light in this dark world.

This week we are going to study another prophecy about Jesus from the book of Micah.

I am specifically choosing these passages from the OT because they are the very important prophecies about the coming of the Lord Jesus.

And we as the people of God need to know these, because when we the devil begins to sow doubts in hearts, we can go back to these Scriptures and be strengthened by God’s Word.

Only God can predict the future.

And the Word of God has demonstrated this over and over again.

It has been said that Jesus has fulfilled over 300 prophecies during His ministry.

So when we know these prophecies and understand them as referring to Jesus, It grows our faith and moves us to trust God with more of our lives.

This morning we are going to look at a tremendous prophecy that tells exactly where the Messiah would be born.

In fact, this is the passage that the religious leaders used to determine just where Jesus would would born.

God who sees everything revealed to the prophet Micah exactly where the Messiah would be born, and what life would be like under His rule.

Turn with me to Micah 5

God uses the least likely things to do incredible things

Background

This is a picture of Israel without the Christ

They were under siege

Micah could see visions into the future of what was coming

This is how the prophets would write their prophecies.

God would show them visions of what would come and they would proclaim it and write them down

Micah sees troops surrounding the walls of Jerusalem

And he calling for the people to prepare themselves for battle

They were humiliated

to be struck on the cheek isa metaphor for humiliation

These were the people of God whom should be leading all nations and here they are being overtaken by them

And soon they would be taken into captivity

“BUT” draws a contrast to their present condition and the future hope os a coming Ruler

This “One” will be far superior to any king Israel ever had

And notice he will come from a place that is so insignificant that it is hardly recognized

And this is where God chose to bring the greatest man who ever lived

Notice God is speaking in verse 2. “One will go forth from Me”

Micah is speaking in the rest of this passage, but here it is God who speaks

What dos this mean?

God has a pattern of using insignificant things in big ways

God chose David, the least of his seven brothers to be king over all of Israel

He was the smallest

He was the youngest

David was so insignificant that he was not even considered when Samuel came to his house

And do you know where David was born?

IN Bethlehem (the place that was not even considered among the clans of Israel)

God used Gideon

Gideon had 32,000 soldiers and God said thats too many

Get rid of them until you have only 300

And God gave them the victory!

God chose Ruth

Ruth was not even an Israelite!

She was a Moabite widow whom God selected to be the grandmother of king David and in the line of the Messiah

God chose Peter and Andrew who were uneducated fishermen to expand the gospel all over the world!

God chose Matthew who was a sinful tax collector to do mighty things and write a gospel account of Jesus’ life!

Why?

God takes the insignificant of this world and does great things through them, so that He will be glorified

God does the impossible so that all men will know only God could have done that

Application

If God you think God cant use you because you feel you are insignificant, YOU ARE MISTAKEN!

You are the exact model God would choose because it will bring Him the most glory!