Sermon Tone Analysis

The Holy Spirit Did it!

I remember Christmas of 1985.

I lost my job without warning 3 months before Christmas.

That took with it one of our vehicles and we had to sell our house and file for bankruptcy.

It seemed we had no way to provide a Christmas our two boys, 6 and 7. ........

That is a Christmas I will never forget as one where the Spirit stepped in.

God did that very same thing as He made preparations for that first Christmas.

He went through much preparation to make it special.

A special Christmas that wouldn't last just for a few minutes and be over, but would last for many lifetimes.

What made them so righteous?

The Old Testament prophets were often commanded to give their children names that described God’s dealings with Israel.

Most Old Testament names that incorporate either the syllable “el” or the letter “Y” (sometimes “J” in English) incorporate the name of God.

For example, Joshua (Hebrew Y’hoshuah) means “God saves”; Eli means “my God”; Daniel (Hebrew Dani-El ) means “God is my judge”; … Zechariah (Hebrew Zechar-Yah) means “the Lord remembers”; Isaiah (Hebrew Yeshayahu) means “salvation of the Lord.”

When the angel told Joseph that Mary was to be the mother of the Messiah, he said of the child, “Thou shalt call his name Yeshua (Salvation), for he shall save his people from their sins.”

The name was commanded as assurance that this indeed would be Israel’s Holy One.

Not only does that name mean “salvation,” it means “God saves.”

Not only was the Messiah to be God’s instrument of salvation, he was to be God in the flesh, reconciling his lost creation to himself.

Old Simeon in the Temple knew that.

As he cradled the infant Yeshua in his arms, he prayed, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation (thy Yeshua) which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.”

Yeshua is the Jewish way to say Jesus.

Yeshua is the Jewish way to salvation for all people.

[Jews for Jesus]

The Light of Promises fulfilled.

Over 20 Old Testament Promises were fulfilled by just the birth of Jesus.

Mommy, what does God look like?" asked 5-year-old Timmy.

He put down his peanut butter sandwich & took a big swallow of milk.

"Well, God is a Spirit & we can’t see Him in the same way that we see people," his mother began, not knowing quite where to go from there.

"But if we can’t see Him, how do we know what He’s like?" he persisted.

"Well, suppose you were blind," she suggested to Timmy.

"Would you be able to see Daddy, for instance?"

He shook his head.

"But would you know what Daddy is like?"

He thought for a moment, then vigorously nodded his head.

"You’d know what Daddy is like by the things he says, wouldn’t you?"

He nodded again.

"And we know what God is like, too, by the things He says in His Word.

And you’d know that Daddy loves you, because he would tell you so & do everything he could for you."

"That’s how we know God loves us, too.

He tells us so, & He has given us so much to help us have a wonderful life.

But most of all, He gave us Jesus to take away our sins & to show us what God is really like."

"And even though you couldn’t see Daddy - if you were blind - you could hear his voice & feel when he is near.

And in the same way, through Jesus we can hear God’s voice & feel Him near, too.

That’s why, even though we can’t see God, we can be very certain what He is like."

Little Timmy picked up his sandwich.

"I know," he exclaimed, "We don’t see God outside.

We see Him inside."

Timmy’s right, isn’t he?

Obedience is the key to righteousness, which leads to promises fulfilled.

Several years ago, I heard the story of Larry Walters, a 33-year-old man who decided he wanted to see his neighborhood from a new perspective.

He went down to the local army surplus store one morning and bought forty-five used weather balloons.

That afternoon he strapped himself into a lawn chair, to which several of his friends tied the now helium-filled balloons.

He took along a six-pack of beer, a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, and a BB gun, figuring he could shoot the balloons one at a time when he was ready to land.

Walters, who assumed the balloons would lift him about 100 feet in the air, was caught off guard when the chair soared more than 11,000 feet into the sky—smack into the middle of the air traffic pattern at Los Angeles International Airport.

Too frightened to shoot any of the balloons, he stayed airborne for more than two hours, forcing the airport to shut down its runways for much of the afternoon, causing long delays in flights from across the country.

Soon after he was safely grounded and cited by the police, reporters asked him three questions:

“Were you scared?”

“Yes.”

“Would you do it again?”

“No.”

“Why did you do it?”

“Because,” he said, “you can’t just sit there.”