From Prophets to the Prophecy

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A few weeks ago, one of our faithful church members pulled me aside and encouraged me not to worry about trying to do too much in my Christmas sermons. He said, “just preach Jesus, and it will be good” (my paraphrase). Then a week later, I read this post by Kevin DeYoung, “Pastor, Don’t get Cute this Christmas.” It was very interesting because I usually try not to “get cute,” and I usually try to preach Jesus. However, during special days like Easter and Christmas, there is a temptation to think that Jesus’ story isn’t enough. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s a real temptation for pastors. In certain moments of my pastorate, I have found myself telling Jill that my Easter sermon was simple or not profound enough. Her pointed and faithful reply to me has always been, “the story of Jesus is enough.” And she’s right. I’m reminded of a quote by John Quincy Adams that I heard recently, “Duty is ours. The results are God’s.” My job is to faithfully deliver what God has already delivered. My job is to be faithful to God and His word. It’s His job to do the rest.

With that said, I’m incredibly grateful for a church and members like this brother who encouraged me to preach Jesus. Our church is full of people like this. They are gentle and gracious, and they love Jesus. They are committed to His word. It is one of the main portraits of God’s grace in our church. And I am glad that this church has been patient with their pastor through the years. I’ve preached some bad sermons through the years where I’ve tried to be too cute. But they have faithfully expected me to preach Jesus. I’m glad that this is the expectation.

A Reminder

Sunday’s sermon from Isaiah 9:6-7 was so much fun. It was fun because of the example I just gave. But it was also fun because our series from the Minor Prophets that we had just finished prepared us for some of the history of Isaiah’s text.

One cross reference that I didn’t add to the sermon was this one from Hebrews 12, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (12:22-24, 28).

This text perfectly summarizes this expanding, growing Kingdom that the Son of God oversees. “The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven,” and “A Kingdom that will not be shaken.” This is the kingdom that Jesus inaugurated and will complete. And “The zeal of the Lord of host will accomplish it” (Isaiah 9:7).

Christmas Traditions

One of the fascinating things about getting married is how family traditions clash or come together. Every family has their traditions. In our house, every Christmas Eve, we have minestrone soup with Jill’s dad and step-mom. It’s such a fun thing to do. Jan makes a minestrone soup that is a family recipe. On Christmas night, our kids usually sleep in our room on the floor until this year because they’re all so old now that their backs hurt from sleeping on the hardwood floor😂. I’m usually the one who’s awake before everyone else, and since I set the time to get up the night before, I can’t wake everyone up! Once everyone is awake, we have a family devotional, pray together, and start opening our stockings and gifts. Then in the afternoon or early evening, it’s off to Jill’s brother’s house for Christmas dinner and our gift exchange. It’s a full, fun day. It’s also what Jill and I have done for 27 years together, so it makes it the “norm.”

But I remember early in our marriage when our two family traditions collided. Her family opened gifts one at a time so everyone could watch and enjoy. But my family dove in, and we were done in about 20 minutes! That might show you where my impatience has come from😉. So, we had to unite to make up traditions that fit our family values and culture. It’s interesting to hear our kids remind us of a tradition that we skipped or changed. But these traditions are what make family, feel like family. Even if your family traditions are spontaneous and never the same, that’s a tradition.

As a pastor, I’ve been asked if there are right or wrong ways to celebrate Christmas. I think the only wrong way is to forget Jesus completely. And I think that if you seek to keep Jesus central to our Christmas season, then I say enjoy Christmas, like a Christian! God has given us these things to enjoy and one of the best ways we can do Christmas right is by enjoying it because God gave it to us.

From the Cheap Seats

The day after I sent my blog to Perry last week, the news that Mike Leach died hit. I was shocked. I found myself watching highlights of his great news conferences. If you want to watch a hilarious, yet serious football coach, give yourself 11 minutes and watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9CCvfvCeig.
I cannot remember a weekend of NFL games where there were such huge comebacks. Vikings come back from 33 down. And it was topped off by the Jags coming back to beat the Cowboys after being down 27-10.
How cool is it that Messi won the World Cup? And some have said it’s one of the best soccer games ever played. It was unreal. I’ve never seen anything like it, especially with the importance of the game. And Messi and Mbappe were phenomenal.
This statistic stunned me several years ago, but it continues to go up. Viewers for the Super Bowl = 103.4 million, which is a lot. Viewers for the World Cup Final = 4 billion. For those of us, like me who are NFL fans, this means NFL is not that big of a deal🤣 .