O Holy Night
The Gospel Through Carols • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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CAROLS—1
O HOLY NIGHT—B
Mid 1800s. Priest asked a man to write a poem to Luke 2. Placide Cappeau—French wine merchant and poet He was not a Christian Known for being kind of a bad guy. He was the guy who would raise a lot of problems and get in the way.
Priest liked it so much he asked someone else to write the music. The Guy who wrote the music wasn’t a Christian either.
It ran through the Catholic church and everyone loved it until it got to a place and they realized it hadn’t been written by christians so they tried to stop it, but they couldn’t.
1906, Candian Reginald Fessenden, 33 yr old university professor—impossible
HE invented AM Radio
Xmas eve, New type generator—mic—broadcast voice over airways.
He read this scripture
1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.
Luke 2—Played this song—first song on his violin First song ever broadcast on the airwaves.
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Play Song
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O Holy Night—the night when Christ was born.
If you can only imagine what it would have been like to been there that night…
Manger scene gives us this amazing image it promotes these feelings in our hearts and minds…
And we have the baby Jesus there, and Joseph and Mary, and cows that are lowing whatever that means… and it almost does a—disservice—
You have this virgin teenager and her and her teenage husband are travelling that is there and she was was pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. And thats a different story.
And they are travelling 80-120 miles while she was 9 months pregnant on the back of a donkey. Joseph in all his wsdom wanting her to not walk throws her on the back of a donkey, I don’t know about you guys but I have driven a pregnant woman to the hospital quite a few times… Its not always the most comfortable trip in the world.
I cant imagine how horrible of a trip this must have been
No room in the inn and they end up staying most people believe was a cave… the place they would have sent the animals to keep shelter from teh rough weather. IT would have been a horribly unclean environment for giving birth. Im sure she would have been screaming in this little cave. I envision the first time Jennifer gave birth with Josiah, and I am sure yo ucould have heard her three floors away…
But I want to look at one line of this song and my hope as we continue forward in this series and we pul out these little phrases is you start to look at the words a little differently and it helps you to worship a little differently as you think of these lines of the song.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
Say that with me… weary world….
and I think we could describe our society this way today we live in a weary world.
The job market is awful, groceries cost more than a car payment, and we have so much going on that makes us weary… but it says a thrill of hope
And in the middle of this night in all of the craziness and emotion and torment of the moment there is a thrill of hope… everything the Jews had waited on and wanted was about to come to fruition in these moments.
And my hope as we look at this song and this story is we will find there is still reason for us to rejoice, there is still a thrill of hope to look forward to… we still have hope in Jesus to hang our hat on and hold on to for the future.
It says
Thrill of hope—weary world rejoices—new and glorious morning
And so we dont need to think of just that night but the next morning
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A NEW AND GLORIOUS MORNING
And the next morning everything looks greater.. becasue one day with Christ everythign looks better…and I want to just focus on that for a minute what happens with Jesus is when he comes in he can absolutely change everything. One moment one new and glorious morning life begins to look better with Jesus… so lets look back for a minute
All the way back to the book of Lamentations
After fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC— people were distraught… the city was destroyed and the people didn’t know what to do, they were all hurting so we get this prophet and he is lamenting… just like everyone else… and he has this moment where he goes from lamenting to having hope and he says this prophet Jeremiah writes
20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
And he is acknowledging there is some serious difficulty around them. IT isnt all rainbows and butterflies but he begins to change it… look at the very next line
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
And he is saying it isnt at the front of his mind it is something he is going to have to remind himself of… because at the front of his mind and the things that are plaguing his thoughts are the things he is seeing every day and I think we can be just like this, the things that plague our thoughts are our situations and waht we see everyday. Our job that sucks, our co workers, our daughter in laws…mother in laws… we can keep that in the fore front… and we need to call it to mind the hope that we have… and sometimes we need to preach to ourselves we have to call it to mind what we have going on and the hope that we still have in Jesus
22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
And all of a sudden he is so overcome with hope and emotion he almost loses himself and he is talking to God about God and he says
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
And I want show you three hopes you can hold on to from this text what a
A NEW DAY WITH CHRIST BRINGS you… the first thing you can see it giving you is
1) EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED.
Not exactly what you want… and often what we want and what we need are two different things…
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
Sometimes you have to say to yourself… and you have to say it is bad right now but it will get better. Now you may not want to talk to yourself in public because you may get commited…
but he says the Lord is my portion… what does that mean…
Scholars believe he is going back to the israelites in the wilderness…
Manna… he is enough—extra rots. IF they tried to store up more it went bad… and it was almost as if God was trying to teach them they needed him every day… we can’t store him up.. we have to depend on him each day, and I think that is a good message for us here today… we can’t store him up and we have to depend on him every day. and this is some of the problem with how we try to live our lives as Christians, we try to come one day a week and get all the Jesus we need for the rest of the week and hope it is enough to get us through to the time when we need him again.
And its almost like he is saying just put your faith in me and I will give you everything you need each day.
Thats why Jesus taught us to pray…
Give us today our daily bread.
And you and I need him every single day… and we need to call it to mind… I need your strength.. I need your wisdom… and God is already in the tomorrow… and all we need to ask him for is what we need today…
He is what your marriage needs. If you are Weak/Strength, Lost/Way,
Hurting/Comfort, Down/Joy
SO a new day with Christ gives you exactly what you need and what we need is his presence… we need him to be there for everything we do… I say to myself the Lord is my portion and I will wait for him… but also a New Day in Christ gives us
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2) THE HOPETO KEEP GOING.
The thrill of hope—weary world rejoices
The thrill of hope in a world of Darkness…
25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
The Lord is good to those whose HOPE is in him..
What you can see is you can Live 40 days w/o food, 8 w/o water, 4 min w/o oxygen—but only few seconds w/o hope.
Too many people living in this world without hope… they put all their hope in the wrong things…
Hoping in stock market. Company. Person. Hope is in the wrong place….
And what happens when we do this is often our hope evades us…
Maybe you put your hope in a person that let you down.
And the reason we put our hope in the wrong thing is becasue we have become hopeless. And we think it is never going to be any better because our hope is in the wrong place.-----------------------------------------
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Let us hang on to the hope we say we believe in. Let us cling tightly to the things we say we belive in…
When we Let go of hope—hold onto the fears.
When we let go of what Jesus has promised we start to hold on to fears… we let go of the things of Jesus and start to hang on to the the things of the enemy.
Let go of fears, hold on to hope.
Hold on to the hope you beleive in.
WE have let go of the hope we profess and held on to anxiety. God has promised he’d never leave or forsake us.
We cant let go of JEsus… we can;t hold on to the doubt… we have to hold on ot the hope that JEsus will show up in the middle of our darkest storms… let go of the fears and hold on to hope.
Heard story of pastor close to man in his church… had killed himself… part of the same small group but had no idea it was coming… pastor went and sat with the woman and he was hurting as well becasue he had been so close… and he was trying to figure it out what had happened… and he said he was leaving her house the next morning and he saw the sunrise… and he said if only his friend had held on to the next day he could have seen teh new day dawning and had more hope
becasue a new day with CHrist can change everythign… don’t give up hope…
And finally a new day with Christ will bring
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3) THE HELP YOU’RE SEEKING.
26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Sometimes you just have to wait for it. Some of you need to be saved out of awful situations and all we need to do is wait for it. He has promised us great things and sometimes we have to just wait for it.. its amazing what one day can do with the Lord.
It’s amazing the difference one day can make!
THink about Lazurus dead for 4 days— the KJV tells us he stinketh… and Jesus raised him from the dead. A new day with Jesus changed it. Or think about the Woman with an issue of blood for 12 years—one moment… one encounter with Jesus and healed. 38 year old man—healed at pool
Team
All the stories One thing in common—encounter with Jesus…
A New day with Jesus
if you have been Living in the darkness of the night. You need to know
A new day’s coming!
New 24!
11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
THe night is almost over… the darkness is almost over… the hard times you ahve been walking through are almost over… and the new day with Jesus can give you everything you need.
This morning some of us need to encounter Jesus… we need to allow him to make a difference in our lives becasue he can change everything
Author of hymn knew the story about Jesus birth—didn’t know Jesus.
Song Lyrics
O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
2 O Lord, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress. Isa 33:2
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. 16
May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. 17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us — yes, establish the work of our hands. Ps 90:14-17
92 It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, 2 to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, 3 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. Ps 92:1-3
8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul. Ps 143:8
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. Isa 9:6
2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. Isa 9:2
5 Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. 6 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. Ps 62:5-6 NLT
