Hello Friends,
Don't you just love the Christmas season? I do. I especially find meaningful the Advent emphasis of preparing for the celebration of our Savior's birth.
"Why Jesus Came" is our Advent theme at Royal Palm Church this season. In this message, I invite you to open with me Isaiah 40:1-5 as I combine it with John 3:16-21 to remind us that Jesus came NOT to condemn the world but that the world might be "ReCovered." In other words, Jesus came to make it possible for us to live, by faith, under the covering of our Heavenly Father.
The "Covering" is a highly important teaching from the Old Testament. In short, it provides believers with all of the privileges of being a child of our Eternal Patriarch. With God's Covering we have no identity, no status. Without the Covering we are vulnerable. I go into the teaching about the Covering in this message, but I get excited that Jesus came to give you and me, by his grace, this Covering.
Listen to what Holy Spirit will say to you in this message. And may God bless you as you respond to His Word. And share this word if you find it helpful.
Merry Christmas, Kirk McCormick
“ReCovered”
Question: Why did Jesus come?
Answer: To Recover his own.
Dictionary says:
“Regain Something”, “Return to Right Position”
- this is true for us… when Christ came we:
- · Regained all the Father wanted for us
- · Returned to right relationship with Father
Bible: “Recovered” = Be Restored under the “Covering” of the
Patriarch
· “Covering”
was necessary for people in Bible.
· Without it had
no status, rights, privileges… became less than human in many ways.
· This is why
Jesus said that pure religion meant taking care of the widows and orphans.
o
Under Law as interpreted/applied by Pharisees/Scribes,
these were without covering…so went neglected
Hazards of Being Uncovered
Hazard 1 - Exhaustion
** Humans can sustain things on their own for only so
long… then our resources run thin or are depleted…
…and Exhaustion sets in.
· physical
exhaustion – serving foreign kings
· emotional
exhaustion – living away from home, no identity
· spiritual
exhaustion – felt distant from God
Isaiah 40:2 – “Speak
tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service [in slavery]
has been
completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
Matthew 11:28 – “Come to me, all you who
are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Hazard 2 – Condemnation
“Condemnation” = to be permanently sentenced
for living in darkness of evil
John 3:19 – “This is the verdict:
Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because
their deeds were evil.”
Point: Under the Covering of Jesus,
there is no condemnation…
John 3:17 – “For God did not send his Son into the world
to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Romans 8:1 – “There is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Blessings of Being Recovered
Blessing
1 – Comfort
Isaiah 40:1 – “Comfort,
comfort my people, says your God.”
App:
Christ Came to speak tenderly to us the Words of his Father…
Peace I give you…my peace I
give you…not as the world gives do I give to you (i.e.: can’t find this peace
in the world)… SO…do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be
afraid.
Blessing
2 – Conviction
Note: Difference between Conviction and Condemnation
· Both let us
know we’ve done wrong…or on verge
· But
Conviction leads to a repented heart as God calls us to correct/avoid sin.
· Condemnation
is the sense we can never be forgiven…that God is done with us.
Note 2:
Conviction is a gift from God calling us back.
…Sense of Condemnation is a trick of Satan telling us
God will never take us back.
John 3:21 – “Whoever lives
by the truth comes
into the light,
so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through
God.”
Point: Christ came to forgive, to
welcome…
…not to condemn, but to convict us so we
might live a Recovered life under his
blessing.
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