Sermon Tone Analysis

Luke 2:15-20 \\  How do we deal with the Christmas Message?

   -- Michael Card in The Promise.

All we could ever imagine, could ever hope for, He is.

...

He is the Prince of Peace whose first coming has already transformed society but whose second coming will forever establish justice and righteousness.

All this, and infinitely more, alive in an impoverished baby in a barn.

That is what Christmas means--to find in a place where you would least expect to find anything you want, everything you could ever want.

Luke 2:15-20

There was an absent-minded man who could never remember in the morning \\ where he had put the things he would need for the next day.

One night, he \\ hit upon the idea of writing down exactly where everything was.

Sitting in \\ bed, he wrote: "My keys are on the night table.

My wallet is in my pants \\ and my pants are hanging on the chair next to the bedroom window.

My shoes \\ are under the bed.

My jacket is hanging in the closet.

My address book is \\ in the inside pocket of my jacket.

My watch is on the mantle piece.

And I \\ am in bed."

When he awakened in the morning, with his notes guiding him he \\ found his keys on the night table.

He found his wallet in his pants \\ hanging on the chair.

He found his shoes under the bed.

He found his watch \\ on the mantle piece.

He found his jacket in the closet.

He found his \\ address book in the jacket/./

/ Then he went over to the bed to find himself, \\ but he wasn't there.

He searched hard, but he just couldn't find himself.//

\\ /That man's dilemma is far from unique these days.

In truth, \\ we all have a need to deal with an "Identity Crisis": the question of how \\ to get in touch with our real self.

\\ "Who am I?" "Why was I born~/Why am I living?"

·         /If we want to "get it all together" and experience abundant life, \\ we must take these questions to heart./

/In six days…The celebration of Christmas…has the answer to these questions!!!/ \\ Having once again relived the events of the Christmas story, hopefully \\ many of us are pondering all these things in our hearts.

Perhaps some of \\ us have been thinking about Mary & Joesph

Ø      First, the \\ nine months of expectation.

Ø       Then, the long, hard journey to Bethlehem \\ where the baby is born under the most difficult conditions.

Ø      Then comes the \\ morning after.

With a newborn baby to take care of and the need to get her \\ strength back, they discovers that she cannot go home again.

Ø      To protect the \\ Baby from the murderous King Herod, she and her family will have to leave

Nine months before, she had known that she was going to give birth \\ to a very special Baby.

She didn't understand it fully but, in a beautiful \\ expression of obedience,

She had said, "Let it be to me Lord, according to \\ Your Will."

Put yourself in Mary's place.

How do you deal with it?

How do you get hold of it?

How do you make any sense of it?

What is it all about, Lord? \\ In one of the most beautiful verses in all the Bible, the Gospel writer \\ tells us that "Mary treasured all these things and reflected on them in her heart" (Lk.

2:19).

In earlier translations we find the word \\ "pondering."

"Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart."

In the original Greek the words which we translate into "pondering" literally \\ mean to "cast together."

Ø      A time to ponder them in our heart.

Ø      A time to begin \\ getting it all together.

How do we deal with the Christmas story?

What's it all about?

How do we make sense of it?

What does it mean for our life?

John R. W. Stott once admitted the truth that many of us have felt but failed to confess:

"The thing I know will give me the deepest joy -- namely, to be alone and unhurried in the presence of God, aware of His presence, my heart open to worship Him -- is often the thing I least want to do."

From Mrs. Lettie Cowman's wonderful book, Springs in the Valley comes this interesting tale from African colonial history:

   In the deep jungles of Africa, a traveler was making a long trek.

Coolies had been engaged from a tribe to carry the loads.

The first day they marched rapidly and went far.

The traveler had high hopes of a speedy journey.

But the second morning these jungle tribesmen refused to move.

For some strange reason they just sat and rested.

On inquiry as to the reason for this strange behavior, the traveler was informed that they had gone too fast the first day, *and that they were now waiting for their souls to catch up with their bodies.

*

      This whirling rushing life which so many of us live does for us what that first march did for those poor jungle tribesmen.

The difference: they knew what they needed to restore life's balance; too often we do not.

I smiled recently when I read about an angry church member who blustered up to his minister, saying, "I phoned you Monday, but I couldn't get you."

The preacher explained that it was his day off.

"What?

A day off?

The devil never takes a day off!" exclaimed the member with holier-than-thou indignation.

"That's right, " said the minister, *"and if I didn't take any 'time out,' I would be just like* him!"

Yes, we do need to rest.

As Vance Havner used to say, "If we don't come apart, we'll come apart!"

 

*   Several years ago, newspapers told how a new Navy jet fighter shot itself down.

Flying at supersonic speed, it ran into cannon shells it had fired only a few seconds before.

The jet was traveling too fast!

*

   You are also traveling too fast, if you don't have time to worship God in regular church services, if you don't have time to read the Bible, if you don't have time to pray.

If you're neglecting any of these, you're probably traveling too fast to hear the sound of God's voice.

You can't tell whether you are in the center of His will.

Better slow down before, like the jet, you shoot yourself down.

One morning, early in her career, a teacher arrived at school early and \\ was surprised to see a youngster anxiously waiting at the door.

"It's \\ locked," the student said as the teacher tried the door.

I began to fumble for my keys, and the child immediately brightened.

\\ "You're a teacher," he said enthusiastically.

"How do you know that?"

I \\ asked.

He hesitated for a moment, then said with respect, "You have the \\ key."

If, you're still going around in circles trying to \\ find your real self, then you have missed the overwhelming statement of \\ the Christmas Event: The virgin shall be with child and give birth to a son, and they shall call Him Emmanuel, a Name that means "God is with us" \\ (Mt.

1:23).

\\ "You have the key!"

You have the key!

Ø      Christ is the key to the riddle of your identity crisis!

Ø      Christ is the key to the real you!

Ø      God is with you \\ in Jesus Christ and He wants to release you from the drudgery of mere \\ existence.

Ø      He wants to open you up to new possibilities: a new birth; a \\ new year; a new life!

Down deep at the center of each one of us there is a longing to be whole; \\ to be complete; to get it all together in our life.

The problem is, we \\ have so many things pushing in on us, barricading us against God's Loving \\ Presence.

But God doesn't give up on us.

He is calling us now.

The message \\ He sent to the shepherds of old hasn't changed: "You have nothing to fear.

\\ I come to proclaim good news to you -- tidings of great joy to be shared \\ by the whole people ... a Savior has been born to you (Lk.

2:10, 11).

Hearing this message, the shepherds "went in haste and found Mary, and \\ Joseph, and the Baby lying in the manger; once they saw, they understood \\ what had been told to them concerning the Child.