Amazing!

Yesterday, our pastor spoke on Luke 2: 1- 7 and the title of the sermon was, "Restore Simplicity in Christmas Chaos." It was a great message with a lot of great points and you can check it out for yourself at www.hhbc.com.

I thought the message was great so I wanted to share some of the key points with you. I don't know about you but I have read/heard these verses so many times but I have never heard it taught quite like this.

In those days of Herod the Great the language was Greek, it was a time of peace (Pax Romana) and roads had been built. All of these things put together made it the perfect time for the coming of Christ and for the gospel to be spread more easily. God worked over a long period of time to make sure everything was just perfect for the birth of Christ. He orchestrated a lot of events working behind the scenes to accomplish his will. Did you know that Micah (Micah 5:1-2) prophesied the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem 700 years before? Amazing! God is never too early or too late. His timing is perfect just like it was when Mary and Joseph had to ride through the barren wilderness to go to Bethlehem for the census. Perfect timing!

God used common people (Mary and Joseph) to accomplish his work. Little is much when the Lord is in it! Mary could have been as young as 12 years old when she said yes to the Lord! In that time she risked her life because a pregnancy out of wedlock could be grounds for death. Joseph was a small business owner who risked his reputation and business to stand by Mary. What do you risk? What do I risk? Do we take the road less traveled and say yes to God or do we feel more comfortable going along with the crowd for fear of rejection and shame? God calls us to put everything we prize in his hands just as Mary and Joseph did. I am sure they valued their lives, their friends, what their families thought of them and their business but they did it anyway because they trusted God.

Now this is amazing! There were 8 prophesies fulfilled in the birth of Christ in Bethlehem and 322 total prophesies fulfilled by Jesus. Math experts have said that the probability of Jesus being born in Bethlehem that night were 1: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (17 zeroes)! Here is something I found in an article that illustrates this.

"To help illustrate the odds of this, it would be like taking 10 to the 17th power of silver dollars and laying them on the surface of Texas. They would cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can go anywhere he wants, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? The same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man."

In a season of busyness, stress, overeating, overextending, overspending, etc. it is easy to get burnt out and miss the whole point of the most amazing gift that can ever be offered to us. It is a free gift and it costs us nothing other than recognizing our need for Jesus to be our Savior. It isn't about jewelry, iPads, iPhones, Ugg boots, Coach bags, etc. It is about Christ! The only one who can give us life eternally with Him in Heaven.