Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Are there any announcements?

The Revelation Bible Study will start back up on Thursday January 13 at 6pm.

Please pray for the Brent and Vicki Knowles as they will be traveling to Florida and will be gone for the next 5 weeks and also for Ryan and Crystal who are in Arizona until April.

The evening of worship will be rescheduled.

Communion

Prayer

Lord, as we ponder the depths and riches of the meaning of the communion table, we ask that you would examine our hearts because we desire to take communion in a worthy fashion that only glorifies you.

Our desire in to honor and remember your sacrifice upon the cross and worship you forever.

Please come and examine us now.

Pause>> Silence

Lord, we pray that You would still our minds and quiet our hearts as we approach the table today.

We ask that You would draw each one of us into ever closer fellowship with Yourself, as we partake together of the bread and wine, in grateful remembrance of what You did for each one of us, on Calvary’s cross.

Help us Lord, to approach this communion table with reverence and godly fear, as we share together in the bread and the cup.

Lord, we remember how on the same night that You were betrayed You took a piece of bread, and blessed it and broke it, and gave it to Your disciples and said.

“eat this in remembrance of Me.”

We also remember how You then took the cup and told them.

“this is the new covenant in My blood, do this in remembrance of Me.” Lord, we partake of this bread and drink this cup in remembrance of what You did on our behalf, on Calvary’s cross, and praise and glorify Your holy name.

In Jesus Name

So here church we see the Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) mentioned.

This is a Jewish festival celebrating the exodus from Egypt and the Israelites’ freedom from slavery to the Egyptians.

The night of the first Passover was the night of the tenth plague.

On that fateful night, God told the Israelites to sacrifice a spotless lamb and mark their doorposts and lintels with its blood (Exodus 12:21–22).

Then, when the Lord passed through the nation, He would “pass over” the households that showed the blood (verse 23).

In a very real way, the blood of the lamb saved the Israelites from death, as it kept the destroyer from entering their homes.

The Israelites were saved from the plague, and their firstborn children stayed alive.

From then on, every firstborn son of the Israelites belonged to the Lord and had to be redeemed with a sacrifice (Exodus 13:1–2, 12; cf.

Luke 2:22–24).

Jesus is the spotless Lamb church who takes away the sins of the world and gives us eternal life.

Let us take together...

Prayer

Lord, we thank you for your broken body and poured our blood for us!

And we now ask that you speak to use through your Word.

The psalmist asked that he would behold wondrous things out of your law and we do this same.

Speak to our hearts we plead dear Lord and transform our lives!

In Jesus Name we love you amen!

Read Matthew 2:7-15

We have come as far as verse 9, but before we dive into the text, I wanted to review the last few weeks to lay the foundation of this text:

REVIEW

In looking back, we discovered that there was not enough room in the INN for the Messiah church and therefore we needed to ask ourselves the question is there enough room for Him in my heart, in my life?

Or are we just too busy for him and we will catch him at a later time?

Last week we talked in great detail about the Chief Priests and the Scribes (Lawyers) who were the religious leaders of the day.

We learned that the wise men sought out King Herod to find where this Child was.

Herod was troubled because this Child could take away his power and prestige, therefore he sought out the Chief Priests and Scribes (lawyers) who were the religious leaders of the day and they shared with him Micah 5:2 , that the Messiah would be born 5 miles away in the little town of Bethlehem (House of Bread).

Sadly, they new this, but did not act as though it was a big deal, but remained complacent and did not budge.

The wise men must have noticed that these teachers of the law were unspiritual and unworthy men, for they had so little interest in the birth of Israel’s Messiah that they did not even accompany the Magi to Bethlehem to investigate his arrival for themselves

Herod sent the wise men to go and Search Carefully for the young Child and as I shared last week, Jesus is no longer a baby but a young Child .

The Greek word for young and baby are different.

Herod had asked them to bring back the news if the wise men found the Child so he could worship him, but his motives were not pure.

In fact, later in the text we see that he wanted him dead.

So even though this wicked King was being used by God to fulfill prophecy, even though his motives were not pure, but rather wicked, the text says that the star appeared as they began to search.

In fact, the star went before them.

Church, we can glean a few nuggets from this text here.

The Lord goes before us:

Church, Our Heavenly Father is the same way with us His children.

He wants what is best for us and no matter where we go or what we do, He is always ahead of us.

He fights our battles so the enemy won’t triumph over us.

He makes crooked places straight so that by the time we get there, the path is already cleared so our journey can be safe.

2. I find it interesting that the Lord used a star.

Because when you go back to the OT we see the Lord leading Israel by a pillar of cloud by day and fore by night.

And here we see him leading by a star.

How is God leading you?

The Lord speaks to His children church, the only question we need to ask ourselves is are we following his voice.

The wise men stepped out in faith and were seeking the Messiah and they were not going to let anything get in their way of doing it.

The same Star that was leading them, leads us today, his name is Jesus and he does this through the Holy Spirit.

They stepped out in faith, and so must we because the Bible says:

Charles Inglis, the well-known evangelist, relates the following remarkable incident:

"When I first came to America thirty-one years ago, I crossed the Atlantic with the captain of a steamer who was one of the most devoted men I ever knew; and when we were off the banks of Newfoundland he said to me: 'Mr.

Inglis, the last time' I crossed here, five weeks ago, one of the most extraordinary things happened that has completely revolutionized the whole of my Christian life.

Up to that time I was one of your ordinary Christians.

We had a man of God on board, George Mueller, of Bristol.

I had been on that bridge for twenty-two hours and never left it.

I was startled by someone tapping me on the shoulder.

It was George Mueller.

Captain,' said he, 'I have come to tell you that I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon.'

This was Wednesday.

It is impossible,' I said.

Very well, if your ship can't take me God will find some other means of locomotion to take me.

I have never broken an engagement in fifty-seven years.'

I would willingly help you, but how can I?

I am helpless.'

Let us go down to the chart room and pray,' he said.

"I looked at this man and I thought to myself, 'What lunatic asylum could the man have come from?

I never heard of such a thing.'

"'Mr.

Mueller,' I said, 'do you know how dense this fog is?'

No,' he replied, 'my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God, who controls every circumstance of my life.'

"He went down on his knees, and he prayed one of the most simple prayers.

I thought to myself, 'That would suit a children's class, where the children were not more than eight or nine years of age.'

The burden of his prayer was something like this: 'O Lord, if it is consistent with Thy will, please remove this fog in five minutes.

You know the engagement You made for me in Quebec for Saturday.

I believe it is Your will.'

"When he had finished, I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray.

First,' he said, 'you do not believe God will do it; and, second, I believe He has done it.

And there is no need whatever for you to pray about it.'

I looked at him, and George Mueller said this: 'Captain, I have known my Lord for fifty-seven years and there has never been a single day that I have failed to gain an audience with the King.

Get up, Captain and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone.'

I got up, and the fog was gone.

On Saturday afternoon George Mueller was in Quebec."

Did you see the faith with works in this true story?