Advent 2013: Love

Advent 2013 (Copied from December 16, 2012

Advent 2012:  A Wonderful Love

Luke 2:1-7, et. al.

SIS—The Wonderful Love of God changes everything.

If you google the word, “love,” you will get millions of hits.  “Love” is very popular because love is very powerful.  A person can get through some really tough times in life if he or she is experiencing love.  George Bailey and his new bride, Mary, didn’t have much and their first house was . . . well, not much.  But, they had love.  Let’s peak in and see that love.

PLAY CLIP:  Romantic scene at the old house.

That’s the power of love!

Even psychologists understand the power of love.  Here’s what Psychology Today reported in an article:

Love is as critical for your mind and body as oxygen. It's not negotiable. The less love you have, the more depression you are likely to experience in your life. Love is probably the best antidepressant there is because one of the most common sources of depression is feeling unloved.

Love is powerful, but few people really recognize just how powerful and transforming love can be.  Even fewer people understand the “ultimate, transforming power of God’s love.”
God’s love literally changes everything.

The Christmas Story is the “Ultimate Love” story.  It far surpasses the dark love of Romeo and Juliet or the human love of Robert Redford and in “A Love Story.”  God’s love is the “ultimate transforming power” in the universe.  Let’s read of that love in the Christmas Story.

READ LUKE 2:1-7

The most remarkable aspect of God’s transforming love is that it


1.  Makes us VALUABLE
but to lay down his life for a friend. (John 15:13)

Think of the “stuff” in your life.  The stuff that you love the most has the most value.  Unfortunately, many people love the “stuff” in their lives more than they do the people in their lives.  But that’s another sermon.

God’s love makes us valuable.  In fact, the Bible says this about how valuable we are to God:

God loved us so much that he showed it in this way:  He sent His only Son to die on the cross in our place. (John 3:16, paraphrase).

That’s a pretty special demonstration of how valuable God thinks you are.  I don’t think many people make the connection these days between Christmas and Easter, but they are two sides of the same coin of God’s love.  This reminds me of the verse:

Greater love has no man than this has no man than to lay down his life for a friend.

When I think about how God’s love makes people valuable, I think of the shepherds in the hills that night.  Look at verses 8-15 again:

⁸ In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. ⁹ Then an angel of the Lord  stood before  them,  and the glory of the Lord  shone around them, and they were terrified.  ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid,  for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people:  ¹¹ Today a Savior,  who is Messiah  the Lord,  was born for you in the city of David. ¹² This will be the sign for you:  You will find a baby wrapped snugly in cloth and lying in a feeding trough.” ¹³ Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: ¹⁴ Glory to God in the highest heaven,  and peace on earth  to people He favors!  

We’ve heard that story so many times.  I don’t think we in this modern industrial age, separated from that Bethlehem night by over 2000 years, really appreciate just how marvelous this part of the Christmas story really is.

The contrast between what the world thought about shepherds and what God thought about them is a contrast of cosmic proportions.  Shepherds were part of the lowest rung of society in the first century.  They were held in such contempt that they were not even allowed to be a witness in a court of law.  They were considered, “shady characters with very low morals.”

Also, the Jewish community held shepherds in particular contempt because not only were they “shady citizens,” but their occupation made them ritually unclean because of their constant contact with animal waste, as well as dead and sick animals.

The shepherds were outcasts in society.  Nobody in the community valued the shepherds.  But God valued them.  God valued them so highly that they were not only “witnesses” to what happened, they were the first witnesses.  And, God not only told them what had taken place, but God treated these lowly shepherds to the most glorious choir that had ever given praise on earth.

Perhaps God valued them because He understood that shepherds would have a keen insight to what it meant for Jesus to be, “the Lamb of God sacrificed for the whole world.”

This is a truly remarkable part of the Christmas Story and proves that God’s love makes a person VALUABLE.

2.  God’s love makes us PURPOSEFUL

Every soul that enters this world is created with PURPOSE. It doesn’t matter whether you are born rich or poor, famous or obscure, or whether anybody outside of a few close friends or family ever know you existed—you have a God-given purpose for being born.

Consider Joseph and Mary.  I’m not sure you could have found a more ordinary couple in all the world.  Joseph was a hard-working carpenter and Mary was a teen-ager probabably not more than 16 or 17.  They were from a very obscure village called Bethlehem.  This place is so small and obscure some scholars doubted it even existed.  But, of course it does.

I doubt when Mary was born that her parents thought:  “one day, Mary will give birth to God!”  Now, I know parents can have great hopes and aspirations for their children—and parents should have great hopes and aspirations for their children—but, “giving birth to God” probably never crossed their minds.
And, what about Joseph.  He was just a lowly, blue-collar, dirt under his fingernails craftsman.  Do you think his parents said when he was born, “One day, he’ll be the step-father of God!”  Wow!  I get chills just thinking about that.

Not only does the love of God make you “valuable,” but it makes you “purposeful.”  Everything we know about the universe demonstrates that it is “highly designed.”  Everything has a purpose, especially human beings.

Everything about Christmas demonstrates the highly purposeful, greatly detailed plan of God at work.  Joseph didn’t meet Mary by accident.  It was all part of God’s plan before the “foundations of the world were even created.”

Ephesians 2:10 spells it out clearly,   For we are His creation, created  in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time  so that we should walk in them.

Did you catch those words, “prepared ahead of time!”  I have a little sister named Becky.  She is the baby of the family and, according to my Mom, she came as quite a surprise.  Many children come as a “surprise” to the parents, but I want you to know that “nobody comes as a surprise to God.”
Every person on earth is created to fulfill a unique purpose.  Do not forget that.  God makes this clear to Joseph in a dream because Joseph was having a little trouble with Mary’s story.  Let me give you Mary’s story in a paraphrase.  One strategic moment Mary came to Joseph and said, “Joseph, I have something very important–and very strange to tell you.  Please hear me out.  Please don’t get angry.”  Everything we see of Joseph in the Word of God (which is not much) indicates that he was a very kind and gentle man. Joseph replied, “Yes, dear.  What is on your heart?  You can tell me anything.  I love you more than life itself.”  Mary continued, “I’m pregnant.  But, it’s not what you think!  I’ve not been unfaithful.  I’m still a virgin.  This is God’s child.  It’s a miracle.”

Well, for a devout young Jewish man, this was devastating news. How many men would have bought Mary’s story?  Not many I suppose.  So, God intervened to reassure Joseph that all this was according to the purpose God had for Joseph’s life.

Mat 1   ¹⁸ The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After His mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit.  ¹⁹ So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man,  and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.  ²⁰ But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit.  ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Jesus,  ^b because He will save His people from their sins.” ²² Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:  ²³ See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name Him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.”

Christmas is about the transforming power of God’s love.  God’s love makes us purposeful.  God had a purpose for Joseph (and everyone else in the Christmas Story), and God has a purpose for you.

3.  God’s love makes us WORSHIPFUL

Some of the most interesting characters in the Christmas Story are the Three Wise Men, or the Three Kings from the East. 

Matt. 2   ¹After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived unexpectedly in Jerusalem,  ² saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?  For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

Quite a bit of folklore has arisen in regard to these strange travelers.  They have even been given names.  "according to Western church tradition, Balthasar is often represented as a king of Arabia, Melchior as a king of Persia, and Gaspar as a king of India."   Of course, this is nothing more than folklore.  The Bible doesn’t name the Wise Men.  In fact, the Bible doesn’t even say there are three of them.

Most scholars feel that “from the East” refers to Persia, or modern day Iran.  There is a very old tradition that these “Wise Men” (magi, in Persian) came from Chaldea, or modern day Iraq.  The Israelites had at one time been captives to both these countries. 

Regardless of the exact homeland for these travelling men of influence, they travelled very far.  By the time they arrive in Bethlehem, Jesus is no longer a “brephos,” or infant, but a “paidion,” or toddler.  The Holy Family is no longer in a stable but in a house.  So the journey was very long.

Whatever their origin, the reason for travelling to Bethlehem was crystal clear.  Verse 2 says the Wise men, “came to worship him who was born the King of the Jews.”

Worship is a translation of the word, προσκυνῆσαι, which means to “bow in honor or adoration.”  Worship is not so much something we do, but it is an attitude that we have toward God.  It is an all-consuming desire to interact with and work for Almighty God.  I define worship as the attitude, “All of me, for all of Him, All the time.”  True worship is something only a true believer can give.  It transcends “religion” and involves a deep and abiding relationship with God because of Who He is—the King of the Jews, the Christ, or the Messiah.  All these terms refer to Jesus Christ as being Almighty God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.

When someone comes to recognize Who Jesus really is, that person cannot help but want to worship. A desire to interact with God and serve Him becomes the all-consuming passion of those who come to realize that Almighty God loves us.
The transforming love of God makes us Worshipful.  The power of God’s love as demonstrated in the Christmas story makes us valuable, purposeful, worshipful, and most importantly of all:

4.  God’s transforming love makes us ETERNAL

For most people, in America especially, Christmas is just a date on the calendar and an occasion for fun activities.  But, Christmas is more than lights on the tree, treats baking in the oven, or even the annual presentation of a church Christmas pageant.

Christmas is about Christ.  This may shock you but Christmas is not so much about the “birth” of Jesus as it is the “death” of Jesus.  Unless one comes to understand “why” Jesus was born, then Christmas loses the most important aspect of it’s wonderful, transforming love.

Christmas is not about a baby being born, but it’s really about you being “born-again.” Look at Luke 2:11:

Today a Savior,  who is Messiah  the Lord, 
was born for you in the city of David.

The angel could have identified Jesus in many ways:  Teacher, Healer, Miracle-Worker, or Prophet, among others.  But, in the inaugural message of Jesus’ birth, Jesus is identified as “Savior.”  There is no article (a, or the) in the original text, which is a means by which Greek puts an emphasis on a noun.  The most important designation for God the Son Who became a man was “Savior.”

The word, “savior,” from “soter,” refers to someone who delivers others from peril.  It was often used for medical workers in the first century, doctors if you will, because they delivered people from disease.  It was even used of philosophers who would deliver people from ignorance.  The most often employment of the word was for a military general who would deliver people from an enemy.
In the Christmas sense, it is used of Jesus who would, as John the Baptist would later say, “be the Lamb of God Who would die to take away the sins of man.”

I’m sure there are a lot of things you think you need this Christmas—and you are probably correct.  But your greatest need cannot be filled with anything material, or temporal, or of this world.  Your greatest need is “Eternal.”  God’s transforming love makes you Eternal—that is gives you eternal life.
In a sense, everyone is “eternal” the moment one is born.  Everyone will continue forever.  Death is the end of the body, but not the soul.  Everybody will be going one of two places after death—an eternal heaven, or an eternal hell.
Christmas is about God’s plan to give you eternal life.  That first Christmas God gave us all the most important gift He could ever give – The Savior.  We are all condemned by our sin.  We are all in bondage to sin.  We need a Savior, a Deliverer, A Rescuer, a Messiah.  Jesus is that Savior, Deliverer, Rescuer, and Messiah.
Christmas is about a lot of things I suppose, but right up at the top of the list, Christmas is about the Wonderful Love of God.  I’m afraid that within a week, for most people, Christmas will be boxed up and put away for another year.  That is a great tragedy.  Christmas is not about a “day,” but about a Wonderful, Loving God Who came to earth to invite us to heaven.

On Sunday, December 22^nd, on the last day of work before Christmas break, Carnell Taylor was working on a crew repairing the Interstate 64 Bridge over the Elizabeth River in Virginia.  The road was icy, and a pick up truck slid out of control striking Taylor and knocking him into the icy river. His pelvis and several bones were broken.  Joseph Brisson was the captain of a river barge that was on the river that icy day.  Brisson saw Taylor get hit and knocked into the river and made a split second, life or death decision.  He knew Taylor would die quickly in the swift, icy waters.  Brisson dived into the water fighting the current to swim to Taylor.  He grabbed Taylor and said, “Don’t worry buddy I got you.” The current was too strong to swim to safety and eventually the cold caused Brisson to lose his grip on Taylor.  So Brisson wrapped his legs around Taylor’s waste to keep him afloat in the current until a rescue team in a small boat could reach them.  It took thirty minutes for the rescue team to reach Brisson and Taylor.  The team pulled the two into the small boat.  Taylor was hospitalized for broken bones and Brisson was treated for hypothermia.  A loving act saved a dying man.

This story illustrates the Christmas Story not just because it happened at Christmas time, but because it demonstrates the truth that we are in peril and God acted in a loving, selfless love to send us a “Soter,” or a rescuer, deliverer, Messiah. 
The sacrificial, loving act of sending Jesus, His Only Son, to earth changed everything for anyone who would accept that Christmas Gift.  The Wonderful Love of God changes everything.  Let it change you!


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A Penny in My Pocket

11/24/13  (Adapted from 9-11-11)
Giving Series:  Part 1, “Trust is Everything”

Hebrews 3:1-19                                                        Notes Not Edited

SIS – Thanks-giving, like all giving, is at its foundation a matter of trust.

People don’t often make a connection between “giving thanks” and “giving money.”  There is, in fact, a deep spiritual connection.  Generosity is a response to God’s provisions.  All giving, whether to a homeless man on the street or through the church, or through whatever avenues of charity one uses, all giving is related to trusting God.

When we are generous it says that we trust the Performance of God.  As he has provided in the PAST, He’ll continue to provide in the present and future.  Generosity is a response to the PERSON of God.  When we reflect upon Who God is, especially God in Christ, we see that God infinitely exemplifies generosity.  We can trust God because providing for the needs of His creatures is the very heart, the nature of God, as demonstrated in Christ.  Finally, all giving, including thanksgiving, is a response to the PROMISES of God.  We know God will provide for us in the future because He has provided for us in the past and at the present and has promised to do so in the future.  God never breaks a promise.  When we give sacrificially what we are really saying is, God will take care of my needs if I take care of the needs of others.

So, the season of thanksgiving we celebrate really demonstrates what we believe about God—and, about us.  Do we really trust God?

Suppose you go to a Doctor for your annual check-up.  The Dr. is likely to start poking at you in various places and asking, “Does that hurt?”  Now, the poking and prodding may cause pain because the Dr. has been insensitive and poked too hard.

Or, the more likely, the Dr.’s poking has found a sensitive spot indicating that something may be wrong.  The Dr. may say, “We have to order some more tests because it should not hurt when I poke you there.

Friends, it is always my intent to preach the truth of God with great love and care for those who will hear His message.  I do not wish to be insensitive or poke too hard.  If you feel any discomfort from these Bible-based messages on giving money to the Church, then I would pray that you ask the Great Physician, Jesus Christ, why you feel pain in that area of your Christian life.  I pray you will ask Jesus to diagnose your problem and prescribe a remedy so that you may receive the “full reward of your faith” (2Jn. 8).

SIS – All giving, including thanksgiving, requires we trust in God.

Very few people (I being one for sure) like to go to the Dr.  According to a news article I read, a few years ago there was a man in London whose mistrust for Drs. was a bit extreme.  In London there was an accountant who was sixty-three years old. It had become apparent that this accountant had a bladder problem and needed a simple surgery to correct it.  His extreme mistrust (even fear) of Drs. drove him to do something that is unthinkable – he decided to operate on himself!  He read up on the surgery and set forth to take matters into his own hands – literally.  Surprisingly, he survived the surgery.  But, and infection set in and he died a few weeks later.  In a news interview the local coroner who examined the accountant’s body said, “Unfortunately, his drastic remedy went wrong.  A simple operation in a proper environment with a certified Doctor would have solved the problem.”  The man died not from bladder problems, but from “trust issues.”  The man did not trust doctors and hospitals.

Friend, if your spiritual life shrivels up and dies on the vine it will not be because you did not “give enough money” to God through the Church – it will be because you never learned to “trust God.” 

SIS—Giving to God through His church is not about money – it is about trust. 

“Do you trust God enough to give thankfully and expectantly to His work?”

I hate to carry change around in my pocket – especially pennies.  A penny is not much money.  You can’t buy much with a penny.  In fact, the United States Treasury has considered not even minting anymore pennies. President Obama has noted that he would favor doing away with the penny—he’d rather have our nickels and dimes anyway.  A penny, for the most part, is a public nuisance.

But a few years ago something struck me as I looked at a penny.  I realized that it was the most valuable piece of the world that I could ever possess.  So, I almost always have a penny in my pocket.  With that penny in my pocket I realize I am the richest man in the world!

How is a penny so valuable?  It is not the little bit of precious copper that makes a penny.  It is the four words that are printed on the penny that make it immensely valuable:  “In God We Trust.”

Friends, that little penny you received when you came to church this morning holds the key to everything good that could come into your life – if you learn how to “trust God.”

I have a simple statement to make about “trusting God.”  Trust is EVERYTHING!

The writer of Hebrews guided by the Holy Spirit describes the horrible result of “failing to trust God.”  Read that with me (7-11):

⁷ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear His voice, ⁸ do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, ⁹ where your fathers tested Me, tried _⌊Me_⌋, and saw My works ¹⁰ for 40 years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation and said, “They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known My ways.” ¹¹ So I swore in My anger, “They will not enter My rest.”

The Scriptures clearly teach that one can absolutely miss the blessings of God if one fails to learn how to “trust God.”  There are three aspects of trusting God our text teaches:

1.  Trust has a PAST (vv 7-11; 16-18)

Another way of saying it is this:  Trust relies on the performance of God.

When you came into church this morning did any of you inspect the pew before you set down to see if it would support your weight?  Not likely.  You “trust” the pew will hold you because it has held you before – many times before.  You “trust” the pew based upon it’s PAST PERFORMANCE.

This is also true of God.  We trust him because of His performance in the past.  In the case of the Israelites did in what Hebrews calls, the day of rebellion.  KJV calls it the “provocation” because it provoked God to wrath.

This portion of Hebrews is a quote from Psalm 95.  Psalm 95 was a prophetic reflection on the worst day in the life of Israel, which we read about in Numbers 13 and 14.

You may be familiar with the story.  Israel had been a nation of slaves in Egypt forced into hard labor for over 450 years.  They lived a sub-human existence under the heavy hand of the Pharaoh.  They prayed for hundreds of years for God to send a deliverer to lead them out of bondage in Egypt.  God did just that with Moses, as you recall.  But Pharoah was not giving up on 2 million cheap laborers without a fight.  God had to send 10 plagues:  a river of blood, lice, flies, frogs, dead livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and finally the death of every first-born male child in Egypt.  God miraculously delivered the most insignificant nation from the most powerful nation ever know.  Then, when Pharoah had second thoughts and chased the Israelites to the Red Sea, God miraculously parted the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross and drowned the army of Pharoah.

Then, they rebelled and voted not to go into the Promised Land because they would have to fight for it – eventhough God had promised to give them victory.  Then, for forty years God cared for every need of His people while they wandered around in the Wilderness.  Did they stop provoking God and rebelling against God’s leadership?  The answer is: “No!”

Time and time and time again the Israelites grumbled.  Everytime they faced a challenged they whined and complained and resisted Gods direction.  EVEN AFTER GOD PROVED HIMSELF TIME AND TIME AGAIN – ISRAEL REFUSED TO TRUST HIM.

Sound like someone you know?  Maybe, . . . “you.”  Maybe, . . . me?

God has never let anyone down and we have well over 7000 years of recorded history chronicling God’s faithful “PERFORMANCE” on behalf of His people – but, so many still do not “TRUST” God enough to give at least 10 percent of the money God provides back to Him as a “TOKEN OF TRUST.”

That’s what the “tithe” really is:  a token of trust.  Giving at least 10 percent to God through the Church is an “acknowledgment” that I trust Him to meet all my needs.

SIS – All giving, including thanksgiving, is about trust. 

Based upon God’s performance, we can trust God to take care of our every need.  Think about the “tithe” for a moment.  Giving God His “holy tithe” is the surest way to make sure that the 90 percent He lets you manage will provide all the needs of your family.  Regular giving reminds us not to trust in our stuff—but trust in our Savior.

When we give at least 10 percent (a “tithe”) to God we are saying:  based upon His PAST PERFORMANCE, I trust Him to meet any need I or my family might have. 

Trust not only has a past, but

2.  Trust has a PRESENT (1-6; 12-13; 4:2a)

Another way to say this is:  “Trust relies on the PERSON of God.”

The theme of Hebrews is “The Superiority of Jesus Christ.”  The Book of Hebrews begins by showing that Jesus is superior to angelic beings.  In this chapter (chapter 3) Hebrews is teaching us that Jesus is far superior to greatest figure in Hebrew life:  Moses.

Look at verses 3 and 4:

³ For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house. ⁴ Now every house is built by someone, but the One who built everything is God.

Not only does the Book of Hebrews say Jesus is more superior as a Deliverer than Moses, but it says that Jesus is a more superior builder because Jesus did not just build a great “house” (nation of Israel) but Jesus was God and built everything!

It is not enough just to know the History of God’s Performance in the PAST, but to be a dynamic, fully-devoted, Spirit-filled, sin-defeating, Devil-defying disciple, you must have a “daily relationship with the PERSON of God, that is Jesus Christ.”  This is where most people miss the boat in church – they know all the stories about God, but they do not have a daily relationship with God.  Notice vv. 12-13:

¹² Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil,unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. ¹³ But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.

Friends, a person can never be healthy physically if all they ever eat is “snack food.”  Unfortunately, that’s about all the Christianity most people get in their lives, “a snack of Jesus Sunday morning.”  You tear open a “bag of Jesus chips” and then toss a buck in the plate for good measure.

“Snacking on Jesus” and giving God your spare change will never give you victory in your life.  Look at verse 4:2:

² For we also have received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard did not benefit them.

Most church-goers (so-called Christians) never get any real benefit from going to church because they don’t have a daily relationship with the PERSON of God, Jesus Christ. 

When a plane crashes into the building you are working in, you can’t put your trust ideas, or wishes, but you must put your trust in people.  Over 411 rescuers died running into those burning buildings on Sept. 11^th 2001.  People put their trust in these PERSONS, and many lives were saved.  Yes, many lives were lost, but many lives were saved because people in trouble TRUSTED in people to save them.

Friends, that’s what TRUST is all about:  relationship.  I TRUSTED my father with my life because I KNEW him and had a DAILY relationship with him.

The same is true with Jesus.  You will never trust Jesus enough to give at least 10 percent of your income to the Church, if you are not having a daily, growing relationship with Him.

Trust has a PAST.  We trust the past performance of God.  Trust has a PRESENT.  We rely on the PERSON of God who we have a daily relationship with.

3.  Trust also has a FUTURE (v. 14)

Look at verse 14:

For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start.

Notice the word, “companion.”  This is a word that describes a deep sharing between two persons which supports what I said about trust relying on a relationship with the PERSON of God.

But, there is another translation of this word that perhaps brings out the meaning even more sharply.  The NIV for example translates this verse as: 

We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end.

This verse clearly sets forth a wonderful truth which gives us another basis for “trusting God” in regard to the future.  We could say it like this:

“Trust relies on the PROMISE of God.”

One day, called in this verse “the end” God has promised to give us everything His Son, Jesus, now has.  What exactly is that?

You can sum up what we will share with Jesus in one word:  “heaven.”  That’s what is promised to every person who fully and without any reservation puts his or her trust in God as the Lord of Life and Savior of the Soul.

Heaven.  One day we will receive it either in death or the rapture, whichever comes first for us.  Heaven.  Can I give you a glimpse of glory?  Revelation 21:

¹⁰ He then carried me away in the Spirit  ^a to a great and high mountain  and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, ¹¹ arrayed with God’s glory.  Her radiance was like a very precious stone, like a jasper stone, bright as crystal. ¹² _⌊The city_⌋ had a massive high wall, with 12 gates.
……………………………….

¹⁸ The building material of its wall was jasper, and the city was pure gold like clear glass.  ¹⁹ The foundations of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone:

the first foundation jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, ²⁰ the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. ²¹ The 12 gates are 12 pearls; each individual gate was made of a single pearl. The broad street  of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

Every person that places his or her trust in God, has been given the promise by God, that he or she will one day share everything that Jesus Christ has – not the least of all – a home in heaven.

Wow, with a PROMISE like that, why wouldn’t someone want to TRUST God?

Yet, as wonderful as that promise is, many do not trust God.  If someone cannot trust God enough to give back to Him at least the “tithe” He has demanded, how can that person say they have trusted God enough to save their soul?  I don’t see how it is possible for a person to say, “I trust God for my salvation,” when they cannot trust God for their finances.

This time of year many churches emphasize “stewardship,” which basically means we teach what God says about “giving to His work through His church.”  The Thanksgiving Season is a good time to approach “stewardship, or giving,” because All giving, including thanksgiving, is a matter of how much one trusts God to provide the needs of life.  Today’s message is simply this: “Trust is Everything.”  When we give anything, including giving thanks, we are expressing our trust in God Who HAS provided, IS providing, and WILL provide.

Over the last three years I’ve always had a constant companion with me throughout my day – “a penny in my pocket.”  The penny itself is pretty much useless, but the reminder that graces its surface means everything:  In God We (I) Trust!  I cannot remember all the times I needed this reminder and when I put my hand in my pocket, it was like I was putting my hand in God’s Hand.  He always brings me through.

Israel failed because they failed to trust God completely.  Let’s not fall into that same trap:

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts (3:7-8)

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