P. Schaller

Praise God. A thought on worship. We put our hands up like this.

Lifting up holy hands, 1 Tim 2, without doubting and wrath. Sometimes people are angry. It happens to all of us. An angry man when it comes to worship we have God before us and we put away our anger. Our hands are open. A lot of times we live our life this way, with our hands (fist closed). I have, I control, I keep, I want. We worship with our hands open. We say I need you. You are God and I’m not angry at you, at people, with myself. You love me and fill me. Without wrath and doubt. People have a problem with unbelief. I might not be angry but I have unbelief. Step into faith and what happens is faith increases. You learn to walk by faith and you end up having faith. You use what you have. A little muscle in my arm if I don’t use it, it gets smaller. If I use it, it works. This is how life goes. Worship is a big part of life. It’s an attitude of total dependence on God. We come together and worship God with all our hearts. It is so beautiful. We raise up holy hands without wrath and doubting. Praise the Lord. Merry Christmas. Would you like to practice that with your neighbor? What amazing words (the song, Mary Did You Know?). Those words are awesome. Jean Marie is singing and her son is on the saxophone. You can’t get better than that.

This is the card you bring to work. You take them to work. Did you get what I said? What do you do? You take them to work and your neighborhood and you say you have to hear this song sung by Jean Marie and played by Tim on the saxophone. It’s very firm. It will last forever. Carry it all year long. Come up after service and grab a pile. Go to the entryway and grab a pile. You can have as many as you want. The titles for December. Mary’s Trouble is today. That will be our message this morning, Mary and Joseph going to Egypt. Next Sunday Mary’s Hope. You got the list and on the back is January. January is the month of wisdom, the fear of God. Embracing wisdom. January 27th, Friends in Heart. Having friends. Wise friends. The idea is you would bring people and fill up the seats here.

There’s about 50 or 70 people in Marlboro/ Boston today. They went up to the pagan state of Massachusetts to evangelize and share the message! We were at Sam’s Club giving these out yesterday. People say thank you, praise the Lord. One man said this is the first time I ever saw you without a tie on. I’ll see you Sunday morning. Let’s pray for our message this morning. Neil Lockhart and Maggie many of you know. Neil a good friend of ours was 84 years old. Yesterday he passed. Two weeks ago my wife and I went to the house and sat with him and talked. I said Neil, are you ready? Are you okay? Are you sure where you’re going? He goes, yep.

When we are in the church and the Spirit is our teacher, he is preparing us. This day, this particular time when we are going to go, we are being prepared. The ten virgins and midnight the groom came and we don’t know the hour. Five virgins all had oil. Five didn’t have enough oil. They said to the other five, give us your oil. We can’t. There are things in your life you have to get yourself. Nobody can live your life for you. You go through things yourself. Amen.

Mt. 2, we will talk about it and go to verse 13. I’m hoping all of you are built up in grace and understand what salvation means. All of our messages have the background of grace and salvation that you are confident in what the Spirit teaches us regarding our spiritual life, our new birth. We are born again, so we have this capacity to hear from God. God is how many persons? Three persons. Each person is fully God. God is one. Right? How do we know this? It’s in the Scripture.

Is. 48:16, 17.

Ge 1:26 the plural pronoun us.

Is 6:8 who will go for us? Whom will we send? This is plural. We know that the Father is not the Son. God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son. The Son is not the Father and the H.S. is not the Son nor the Father. You cannot change the order in the administration. The Son did not send the Father. The Holy Spirit was not crucified on the Cross. The H.S. and the Son are one. The Father and Son and H.S. are one. We have one God. This is a mystery. We enjoy it because we see it in the Scriptures. Wouldn’t we expect God to reveal to us something beyond our human sense of reason and logic? With love you have to have three. Wouldn’t there be a mystery when it comes to love. The lover, the beloved and the love. All these explanations leave us wondering about it. It should be that way. He was incarnated as a human being in one place in time. Jesus is in Bethlehem and he is God everywhere present. He didn’t live as God. He lived as a man by faith in the Father. He was always doing the Father’s will. He was always submitted to the Father. He was always thinking with the Father. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.

Jn 17 he said I have been with these that you gave me, the disciples, and manifested to them your name. I revealed to them who you are. When they touch me, they touch God. Mary did you know when you touched the baby Jesus’ face, you touched the face of God? Did you know one day he would walk on water and manifest what a human was made to be? Having power over the wind and sea that God made. God made the wind and the sea, the boundaries of the universe, the nature of the laws of the universe, the powers that hold it together. You could take the Pacific Ocean and pick it up and carry it somewhere. How much power would be needed to pick it up and put it somewhere? That power God used when He created the universe is beyond what we can imagine. That is a physical power. What about this power? Your sins and mine are washed away by the blood of Christ. You are a sinner but I have declared you righteous by the power in me through my Son. Legally you are now a citizen of heaven. Your name is in the book of life. You are indwelt by the H.S. and I call you my child.

To as many as received them, to them gave he power to become children of God in Jn. 1:12. We are children of God and it happened with the Trinity doing the whole thing that brings us to this picture here. I draw it diagrammatically. God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one but three persons. Then there is you. How many people are on the diagram? How many persons? Four persons on the diagram. I am one of them. Which person am I usually thinking about? How many persons? Four persons. Which one are you thinking about usually? Myself. I spend most of my time thinking about (me). Is that true? I don’t know if you agree with me. Maybe you don’t understand me. What I’m trying to say, I spend a lot of waking time starting with myself, caring about myself, thinking of myself and ending with myself and this is where we mentally live. I want to change that.

Mt. 11:27 Nobody knows the Son. No man knows the Son. No way you can know the Son is what Jesus is saying. But the Father knows the Son. God is unknown. We don’t know the Son. We end up living with thoughts about ourselves and our life and our trouble and our interest and desires and our world. We are not alone. We are with others in the same world. We are with people talking and planning and scheming and manipulating and controlling and also hurting each other. We hurt people. We suffer with our trouble. Mary and Joseph could be very concerned about their lives and their baby Jesus Christ was born to them miraculously. Just like Mary and we have the birth of a baby. The baby is born. It’s an event. The baby is born but Mary understood the birth of the baby in a larger context. The angel told her this is the Son of God. This is the Messiah. Mary gave birth to the baby and she had an understanding that this is impossible. This is unique. This is different. If this is your life, God is in fellowship with us, the Trinity is in your life and God is leading us to be thinking in terms of the big picture. Wow, Mary, that was a beautiful Christmas story and it is interesting but I live on Sinclair Lane and I got a BGE bill that I have to pay. I have a broken heart and a broken relationship. If you know who I am, pastor, you’d be so disappointed with my life. We are here to tell you some good news. Because of believing in Christ, your name is in the book of life. The Holy Spirit is your teacher and God wants you to have fellowship with him. God speaks to you. He speaks to you. He loves you and cares for you and has a plan for you just like he did with Mary and Joseph.

Mt. 2:13, this is the second dream Joseph has had. He has four of them. In chapter one, he had one. The angel of the Lord appears in the dreams. Gives him direction and definition. We don’t live by our dreams.

Ec. 5 says dreams come from a multitude of business. You cannot trust your dreams. It’s part of the process of the human brain to be recharged through our sleep. There are times in the Scriptures when dreams were important. Daniel and Joseph interpreted dreams. He was called a dreamer. Here is another Joseph who has four of them. We are living by every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth. It gives us guidance. Order my steps according to your word.

The word of Ps 119 is forever established in heaven. Being born again not by corruptible seed but by the word of God.

God’s word produces faith by hearing in Rom 10:17. We need the Bible to speak to us and when the word comes forth, it is building us up in our faith. A witness in our heart.

Is 30:20 There is a teacher before me but the voice behind me is saying this is the way; walk in it. Let me warn you, advise you. There are things you want to know on a human level but God may not speak to you that way. You say I need answers to this. God may answer you in his time. A wise man knows both time and judgment. Maybe God wants to speak to me on this level, build me up in faith and lead me in love. So I’m not relying on human wisdom in life. I’m not depending on myself and my own intellect and sensibility.

I need a wisdom that comes from God in James 3. Say to your neighbor, that was a good word. That was new to me. That’s a good word.

Mary and Joseph in 2:13, he had a dream. Flee in Egypt. Mary, we’ve got to go. Let me take my time. We’ve got to go at night. The angel of the Lord appeared. vs. 13-15.

The fear of evil is Prov. 1:33. Be quiet from the fear of Herod. He is evil. He will destroy the baby. Mary, what do you think? This started with God and God will do it. I’m just an unnoticed servant. Neil Lockhart and Maggie, all these years, noticed but at the same time under the radar kind of people like many of us, like we are in our spirit and in our heart. We are not here to draw attention to ourselves. We are here to follow him and believe him and trust in him. They are in trouble but quiet from the fear of evil. This is what the Trinity does.

This is what we understand when it says in Ps. 27 – it’s one of those verses I know I’d chop up if I do it by memory.

vs. 1. Whom shall I fear? Herod? Pharaoh? Ahasuerus? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Mary and Joseph get on a donkey and start walking to Egypt. They are in Egypt a few months to maybe up to two years. All that time they are living there. I can’t help but think of us. We know something marvelous happened in our hearts and the Bible is speaking to us but we in ourselves are in trouble and realize it’s okay. God has not started this without finishing it. The promises of accomplishing it. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are revealing to us who God is. We are here and this is our joy. Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden. Learn of me. I am meek and lowly in heart. Take my yoke upon you. My yoke it says in the Hungarian (he gave the Hungarian word) it fits in. You fit in. Your life fits in the yoke. The yoke is easy, meaning it’s comfortable. My yoke fits for you. The world’s yoke is not pretty. I’m constantly so angry about legalizing marijuana. I am so much against that drug. I know what it does to people. I used to do it in college. I was addicted to it. It was a bad drug. When you are in it, you don’t realize it. It steals your time, energy, motivation and mindset. It’s a plague on our country. We must fight a battle by knowing and walking with God in an evil world. The yoke Jesus gives us fits. There are no surprises in it. He reveals what we need to know and guides us in the way.

vs. 14-15. Herod died a short time after he ordered the slaughter of the babies. He died a little later. He was done. He served 33 years, reigned as a great architect, designer, and builder. He was a murderous man. He murdered a couple of his sons and wives. A tyrant, dictator, epitome of an evil leader. A very paranoid murderous type of powerful man. Caesar in Rome said I’d rather be Herod’s pig than his son. They are spelled similarly. In Israel they didn’t slaughter pigs because they are an unclean animal. You’re safer being a pig than his son because he murdered two of them. These are simple little farming people like Joseph and Mary. But where is the power? It’s in that humility, that relationship with God. Just like in your life. Don’t underestimate the importance of being real humble before God saying I need you. I don’t need to be noticed. Your work in this world is the little things. The powerful things God does in small, humble ways. Esther was a queen on the Persian throne with the king. She was humble and available and said if I perish, I perish. Mary is like this, going along, and so are we. It doesn’t mean trouble isn’t next to our face but if it is, we have the Trinity revealing to us his love and the Holy Spirit to teach and guide us. I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, your rod and your staff they comfort me. The sun will not smite me by day or the moon by night. He that keeps me neither slumbers nor sleeps.

Ps 121. He is with Mary and Joseph.

vs. 16. We don’t know exactly when to date this historically but no more than 2 years after Jesus was born based on what the wise man told them when they first saw the star. Jesus was born around the time of the first census…his birth occurred sometime between 6 B.C. and 4 B.C. After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, take the child…..Herod died in 4 B.C. Depending when Jesus was born, his journey lasted no more than 2 years or as little as a few weeks or months. Herod died a short time after slaying the children of Bethlehem. That’s a comment on the history.

vs.17-18. Let me explain that. There is a prophecy in the O.T. when the Babylonians came. They would come and kill and slaughter. This word is regarding that period of time. Rachel is known as the mother of the country. She’s the mother of Israel. She is weeping for the children who the Babylonians killed. The prophesy has a duel meaning that Herod slaughtered innocent children and Rachel is weeping as the mother of the nation. She will not be comforted because they are murdered.

vs. 19. Here is the third dream.

vs. 20. Another word came to them.

One of the things I like about the story is that it’s written in the Scripture Ec. 10:2-3 about this silence. A wise man’s heart is at his right hand but a fool’s heart is at his left. Yea, also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he says to everyone that he is a fool. There is a tendency to be foolish when under pressure, to speak out of order when in trouble. Tendency to open our heart and tell everyone about our trouble and frustration and our danger. In social media, you can’t see it anymore clearer than they go on social media and open their heart up. They start talking and expressing themselves out of their emptiness and frustration. Mary, it’s not just that Jesus is born but she knows something more because God is showing her. God is showing her and Joseph. God is saying, Herod is dead. Now, you can go back. I think we could see ourselves unhappy or disappointed or in trouble and lacking the wisdom to discern and recognize the deeper things. Those are the things that will carry us in his will. That’s what I need and want in my life. I want God to guide and carry me in his will. I think people only live here. I’m sorry to say it. We are in Egypt; no way out. We are in Egypt; no way out. The Lord is saying no, I’m sending Moses. I’m bringing you out with a high and mighty hand. We are in the wilderness and we are sick of this manna. I understand it. Wait, no. Be careful. The Trinity, that’s three persons. The Father’s love, the Son’s work and the Holy Spirit’s presence. The Trinity is in our lives. This book. There are three witnesses on earth. Three in heaven and three on earth. The word, the blood and the spirit. This word speaks. The blood speaks you are not guilty of your sin.

I was soul winning in Hungary and met a Dutch tourist. He said I just got out of prison. I was sharing the message about God. He said God doesn’t want me. I got out of prison and came here for vacation to get away. What did you go to prison for? Murder. He said I was in a bar one night and out on the street was a street fight and I was in the fight and killed a man with his own knife. He said he went to prison three years. It must have been a manslaughter charge. He said I see the blood on my hands every day. I said are you suffering from that? He goes, yes. I see the blood every day on my hands. God does not want me. I said, no. Look up at the picture. You know people live here and that’s all they can process. That’s the way it is. The end of the story. I don’t have any future. There isn’t anything there for me. You can’t believe the heartache in my life. My first wife left me. My second wife left me. That’s reality. Wait. There is another reality. Wait a minute. I don’t believe you. There is another reality. God so loved us he gave Christ. If you would live by faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit would teach you and the blood witness to you that your sins are gone. The Bible says your name is in the book of life. You are a child of God.

Four persons in that picture and usually there are the three that are not invited. This is God. He is not invited in my world. Usually we are talking. We go get counseling. We do our stuff and drink our alcohol and pop our pills and go to the doctor. Where is God? There isn’t any. If there is, he is so far away. I have no idea how much he lives in our mud, our sin, and our fears.

I have no idea that God in heaven cares about the heart of that Dutch man I met on that street. Let me tell you. Moses murdered a man and wrote five books. David murdered a man and wrote ¾ of the psalms, and Paul murdered Christians and wrote 16 of the epistles. You are one of them and I am, too. I’ve never done it physically but done it in here (heart). I’ve hated people and would like to take them out to solve my problem. God plants the people in your life that rub you the wrong way, so learn to live like Mary and Joseph. Go down to Egypt and keep your mouth shut and come up out of Egypt and say our God is a living God. We are in the midst of a plan and we know about it.

Luke 2:52 Mary pondered these things in her heart. I must be about my Father’s business.

Next time is Jn 2 at a wedding. They ran out of wine and she wisely says, I’m dramatizing, she says do everything he tells you to do. Let me give you a secret. Do everything he tells you to do to the T. Good advice, isn’t it? That’s amazing. Do everything.

Mt. 2:21, It’s generally understood he is on his way to Bethlehem. Archelaus was insane, murderous, inept, an incapable leader, a very dangerous person.

vs. 22. The fourth dream.

vs. 23. Nazareth was a Roman garrison city. The Jews didn’t prefer to live there because the Romans were gentiles. It was a dumpy little town. Later Nathaniel said, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Christ came out of Nazareth. Micah prophesied and he was brought up in Galilee. The son of David, the Messiah. We got the message across, no matter who you are, labor to see the big picture.

Your life is not in vain. Relate to God and walk with God and you will see more and more. The path of the righteous is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The nature of God is for you. He loves you. Amen.