Transcript for REJOICE! (Captioned)

Text from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION from

Paul in his letter to the Philippians

where we read from Chapter 4, beginning with

Verse 4: REJOICE IN THE LORD

ALWAYS. I WILL SAY IT AGAIN: REJOICE!

LET YOUR GENTLENESS BE EVIDENT TO ALL.

THE LORD IS NEAR.

DO NOT BE ANXIOUS ABOUT ANYTHING, BUT IN

EVERYTHING, BY PRAYER AND PETITION, WITH THANKSGIVING,

PRESENT YOUR REQUESTS TO GOD.

AND THE PEACE OF GOD, WHICH TRANSCENDS ALL UNDERSTANDING,

WILL GUARD YOUR HEARTS

AND YOUR MINDS IN CHRIST JESUS.

This is the Word of our Lord; let us pray:

This is the day that the Lord has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Amen.

Pastor Dave

motions to the congregation

to be seated

before delivering the sermon

for this third Sunday of Advent: December 13, 2009

Dear Followers of our Lord and Savior,

Jesus Christ.

This week I read an interesting article. An

interesting article about letters to Santa.

And our letters to Santa

in the last couple of years,

have changed drastically.

Probably doesn't surprise us,

that people making lists,

of things that they want,

have become much more demanding ...

much more specific. Some of them even said

at the end: There will be at least one more list to follow

of things that I really have to have,

before the list of things

that you can just give me if you have them.

(A moment passes ...

giving time to consider.)

Kind of interesting, isn't it,

where we've come as a society?

And how easy it is to let that society rub off on us

as Christians. How easy it can be for us to

get caught up in the things of this world

and become so fixated and obsessed and

anxious about what we're going to give

to people this year and what we're going to get from people

and will it they be happy and will it be enough and does it

look cheap and I can't afford to do this. We get caught up

in such turmoil!

The Apostle Paul comes to us

this morning and he says: Rejoice!

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again:

Rejoice!

Be happy! Realize the

blessings that you have and the wonderful opportunity

to be able to give, the wonderful opportunity

to be gracious in receiving.

To be able to share as one of those hearts

as John the Baptist said, of a heart that is truly devoted

to God.

If you have two coats, give to one who doesn't have any.

If you have food ...

share it. Simple acts of faith.

And the Apostle Paul says it's going to help us in this time

of rejoicing in our life.

It's realizing that our Lord is near.

He is ALWAYS with us. The time of His Day of Judgment

is closer today than it was yesterday, but

we're happy about that!

We're one day closer to our own death from this world and

being with God forever!

And we can rejoice in that because we know what God

has done. This morning we celebrated

baptism once again. And the same fact that applied

to me and to you, apply to Brendon as well.

He is one day closer

to his death today than he was yesterday.

But by the power of God and His Word

today he has been given faith,

the forgiveness of sins,

eternal life with God.

What a reason we have to rejoice.

What a reason we have to take our prayer requests

to God with hearts that are filled with joy.

With a reminder that we can

come rejoicing ... not with

a list of demands. Not that we come to God

only when we need Him,

and only when we're sad and only when we're sick

or when there's something horrible going on.

But we go to Him with every single thing that

excites us about our life.

That has thrilled us about our faith, that we have seen Him

working, not only in our life, but in the lives of others

because He is here. He is with us.

Today we have a person to pray for in Brendon.

We also can ask God that He would

inspire us to carry on our ministry.

To fulfill those words that we all spoke

this morning ... about how, with the help of God,

you and I are going to carry out a ministry

that shares the blessing of God with children.

And we carry that prayer request with

rejoicing to God. That we have

Sunday School teachers who can teach that Word.

That we have parents who are dedicated to

sharing God's Word with their children.

Who bring them to our school so that each and every day

they have a Christ-centered education.

That we have parents who will take as much time with their

children about writing a letter to Santa

yet every day they sit down with them and teach them how

to pray. Teach them

about their heavenly Father

and the comfort that we have received. If we're

focused on the joy that we have, the Apostle Paul

reminds us that we're not going to be

anxious about anything. And what good does it do us?

What good does it do us to

worry about what's going to happen this afternoon?

Or tomorrow? Or what we're going to wear? Or what

we're going to be like in five years?

Being anxious about those things does NOTHING to help

the situation. But we go with God with thanksgiving,

with thanksgiving because we know that

He is near us. That He's going to be the One

who is WITH us. Even through

the valley of the shadow of death ...

I ... will ... not ... fear ...

because God is with me.

He is there with ...

protecting us with His angels

each and every day.

But there is something today that I can be thankful for.

There is something each and every day that I can look at

in my heart and say: Dear God,

Thank You! That this day I realize, once again,

Your love. Your grace.

Your compassion. That I have seen You

working in this world. Spreading

that Gospel out to the ends of the earth.

And what joy that brings to me.

And my prayers are filled with that thanksgiving.

Not just with the anxieties of life and the worries

that are there. Just get rid of them!

The problem is we go to God with them and then we

pick them up and take them back to our house.

And we sit there surrounded by them all the time and

they're there, every minute of every day. And

we worry about them and we worry about them.

I don't think we honestly feel that we'd be comfortable if we

didn't have them with us.

But we like to talk about how we'd like to get rid of them.

Maybe some day.

Today's the day.

Today's the day we rejoice in what God has done for us.

And how thankful we are that He is going to

take care of us. And He is going to bless us.

He has given to us a peace

that goes beyond our understanding.

That peace of God

that comes into our life

with the knowledge that Jesus is our Lord and Savior.

That He has washed our lives free from our own sins.

and the filth of that sin and the punishment of

eternal death.

We have a peace, and a calm in knowing

that we live as the forgiven children of God ...

safe in His care.

Protected by His love.

That that peace gives us a calm

in the midst of all of the stresses and the anxieties

and the troubles of this world.

And anyone who is not a Christian

will never understand that.

They CAN'T understand it ... because they don't believe

that there is a God who loves them so much

that He would send His Son to die for them.

That He would call them to be His own.

That by the power of His Holy Spirit, He would work in them,

each and every day to keep them faithful.

To keep them on the path to eternal life.

To be with them ALL the time.

And there is our calm!

There is our peace!

There is the joy that we have in our salvation.

And we know that some day we are going to be rid

of all of this chaos and there will only be

the blessings of heaven. We pray that the Lord

come quickly and take us out of this world.

This world with all of its sin and its corruption and its decay.

to the place where He will wipe the tears

from our eyes.

Where we will be there and live in holiness and

blessedness forever.

Where there is just the joy of being with God and

praising Him for all that He has done.

We are so blessed

by our heavenly Father.

The danger is ... for us to become accustomed to it.

To take it for granted.

We become spoiled little children who only want

more and more and more.

And that's why we remind ourselves today with Paul's

words, that we have a blessed privilege in taking our

requests to God.

Why in our prayer life, we should be active.

That we should be rejoicing!

And thankful. And that we should be at peace.

And then we will hear those words of Paul, not only

in our mind, but they will be coming out of our lips

as well. We WILL REJOICE!

We will REJOICE in our salvation.

We will REJOICE in the gift of God's son.

We will REJOICE in eternal life.

I say it again:

REJOICE!

Amen.

Let us rise. Now may the

peace of God which goes beyond all of our understanding,

keep your hearts and your minds and especially your

lives in the one true faith unto life everlasting.

Amen.