weekly sermon
12-16-07
He Is Coming
This is the third of a four part series that we are doing for the Christmas
holiday. Let us reflect on the first and second parts of the series to get you
caught up, in case you are just joining us. In the first we talked about the
reason for the season, being that as the gift we should give and receive, the
child that was born, died, and rose to give us the greatest gift of salvation.
In the second message of the series we spoke about depression because this time
of year is the time of year when we would find the most depression because of
the circumstances. If we looked past our own happiness to other folks we could
possibly see the cause for such depression. We must be able to look at the
depression of the person and do all we can to give a piece of ourselves as a
gift to help them in their times of need.
Let us start now by looking back in the past to see that our first Christmas
gift was coming and what it was going to be when it arrived. I want to turn back
in time to around 525-550 years before Christ. Turn with me to the book of
Malachi chapter 3. This book was written by, Malachi, one of the prophets after
Judah had returned from exile. Here Malachi spoke about the responsibility of
the coming of Christ and of tithe.
There just a couple of things of I wanted to talk about in this chapter. The
first one is in verse one.
Malachi 3:1, "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way
before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even
the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith
the LORD of hosts." Malachi prophesied the first coming of our Lord. Malachi
stated that the messenger of the covenant would be coming. Now remember, this
was told over 500 years before the birth of Christ. The verse spoke of a
messenger that would come to prepare the way for the Lord. The person that
Malachi was talking about here was John the Baptist, that can be shown, but in
another message, and the mention of the messenger of the covenant is our saviour
Jesus Christ. Malachi tells us a few things about this coming messenger so that
we would know that He was the one spoke about from these things. Let me explain.
There are 3 prophecies that have already been fulfilled: 1) I will send my
messenger to prepare, 2) The Lord will come to His temple, and 3) He shall come,
saith the Lord. Then there are 5 unfulfilled prophecies: 1) Jesus shall sit as a
refiner of silver, 2) He shall purify the son of Levi, 3) Then shall the
offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant to the Lord, 4) Jesus will come near
to you to judgment, and 5) He will be a swift witness to the sorcerers and
adulterers. So when Jesus comes back, and if your not sure it is Him, then look
on these things. So we know that on this first Christmas morning would be born a
child that would be called Jesus. This was the greatest gift that God could give
us, that of His son. God gave us a special gift, and we should give Him back a
gift. This gift that we should give, is the second item that we should talk
about from the book of Malachi. We can find this gift in verse 10. Malachi 3:10,
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine
house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open
you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that [there shall] not
[be room] enough [to receive it]." If you truly want to give the gift of
Christmas, then give of your tithe. Bring your tithe to the church that the most
important gift can be given to the rest of the world. The reason this is the
most important gift is because the tithe you give will share the message of
Christ with the world that they may find salvation.
The tithe, is a tenth of the income in the household. If we look back in that
time, the tithe was a tenth of what "was" income to those folks. They gave the
first and best of their flocks, or of their crops, or whatever the income of
that particular family. Most folks that do NOT pay their tithe will ask
you, "If God doesn't need money then why do we have to pay tithe?" God does not
need money, but the TV station that airs the gospel wants money. The money that
we send to the church is then used to spread the gospel to those that are lost
that they may be saved. After all that is the one true gift that we should focus
on. Every ministry, no matter how big or small, has to have some sort of backing
that the ministry may proceed with the spreading of the word that shows that
Jesus is the Lord that will save our souls. If one soul is all that we touch
then it is all worth it.
If you look at this verse closely you will also find one thing that you will
never find anywhere else in the Bible. The thing you will find is that God is
telling you to tempt Him. I know, some of you will say, it says in the Bible not
to tempt God. This type of tempt that He is talking about is the type that will
prove to you that He is still in control. What I mean is, if you read the part
that says "and prove me now herewith...", this says make God prove that if you
give your tithe the way He wants, then He will open windows that will over flow
you with blessings beyond your wildest dreams. God says that if you give the way
He wants you to give then there will NOT be room enough for you to hold
it all. Do not stop at the tithe. Give until it hurts. Well, I heard it put best
once when someone said, do not give until it hurts, give until it feels good
again.
We now know that the first gift given on Christmas was the gift of a son that
would come to save the world from its sins. Then we learned that the second gift
is the gift we return to show that we truly want to be just as Jesus Himself.
Worldly gifts that are given and received will one day not even be remembered,
but we can give the one gift that will give the true gift of eternal life.
Matthew 6:19, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: (20) But lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves do not break through nor steal:" If we look at these two
verse, we see that we should not hold on to worldly possessions, but instead
store up our treasures in heaven so they can not be taken or rot away. The
treasure in heaven that it speaks of here is the gift of salvation. Once we pass
on to our next life, what good is the money or material things we have now?
There will be no use for any of these things in the next life. It only makes
sense to me then that we focus more on how we are going to spend eternity
instead of what we have in this short life.
We know that we celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas, but what I really
want you to know is that He is coming again. This is why I titled this message
"He Is Coming". He is coming, so let us give and receive the greatest gift. The
saving blood of our Saviour, Father, and Friend, Jesus Christ.
If you know that you have received this gift, then send your tithe to a Bible
based church, that it may do the works that it was called to do, sending the
message that they may have full salvation. If you have NOT received that
special gift, then all you have to do is say this small pray with me.
Dear Lord, come into my
life and forgive me of my sins, and give me the gift of everlasting life. Amen.
If you have said this simple prayer, then we believe that you have received
salvation. We would love to rejoice with you, so please drop us a note, in our
link, to let us know and confess Jesus before man, so that we may send you a few
things that we hope will help you in your new Christian walk.
With Love in Christ,
Pastor Stone