God gave His only Son to answer the troubles of this world. Sin and evil fill houses, but Jesus comes right in with the arm of salvation. He came to save. He is the greatest gift given to this world. Give Him all of your life. Isaiah 59:14-18

Speaker: Thomas Schaller
Date: 2019-12-24
Time: Wed 7:30pm

P. Schaller –

Before you sit down, here’s the big, the point of worship I feel. That was beautiful and this is a
beautiful assembly tonight. God gave his Son and Christ came. Has that meant anything in your
life? How has that affected your life? Has it affected your life? God came, was incarnate, came
into this world for you and me and has it affected our life. Some may be new believers and you
might say I haven’t yet seen the whole thing.

Some of us are older in the faith and we haven’t seen the whole thing, but have you seen anything? Have you seen anything? Has it affected your heart and mouth and eyes and ears and feet. Has it affected your love, your forgiveness, your words. We celebrate that. You could say, no, I don’t see it. I don’t know what it means. I
don’t know why there is this celebration, but we can say with such clarity that it is everything.
He came so we could have God with us.

His name is Immanuel, God with us. Has it affected your life? Has Jesus affected your life. Before you are seated – the lights are down and that’s on purpose. I can’t see you but here we go. Has it affected our lives? Yeah. Amen. Think of one or two or three things and share it with your neighbor. Say I’m celebrating tonight worshiping
Jesus Christ because God came. He came for me. After you do that for a minute, you may be
seated. So great to have you out tonight. It’s a joy because we on purpose celebrate this great
Christmas feast, Christmas. Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!

Praise the Lord! The meaning of this feast is important to us. Apart from being with families and no arguing or fighting and giving gifts and love and cookies and cakes and on purpose being real well behaved for 8 hours
or 2. The children love it because of the mystery of Santa Claus and Christmas and reindeer and
Christ coming into the world, the essential message. That God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten Son. God incarnate. What a mystery. it brings lightness, childhood mystery,
thanksgiving and praise to God for the gift of God is eternal life.

Psalm 90:10 we will fly away. Absent from our body, present with the Lord. That might happen to some of us this year. Some of us here tonight that might happen. In any case, we are prepared because he who has the Son
has life. We have already passed from death unto life. Death where is your sting? Grave, where
is your victory? You are under our feet. I’d like to say a few things that might provoke us in our
faith and help us.

We’re going to ask to put the verses us and I’m going to ask you to digest
them. I don’t want you to hear my sermon without getting into the verses. Isaiah. 59:14-18. We’ll
draw a diagram to help you. It’s a house. All my diagrams are houses! There is the door. Help
me. Judgment is turned away backward. I’m going to put a person here. He is turned away
backward. Next one: justice stands afar off.

Put a person here. Where is justice? Far away. Truth is fallen in the street. I’ll put truth here. It’s got to have a beer belly. Where is truth? Fallen in the street. Equity cannot enter. We’ll put equity here and he cannot get in. He cannot
enter. What is the meaning of the verse. God cares about this house. In the house, there is
something wrong that is going on in the house. I’ll put in here the word “evil.” An evil man has a
family. An evil man is a tyrant, angry, unjust.

An evil man is in charge of the household. Children are afraid. Mom lives in terror. The daughter is abused, sexually molested. The house is a bad picture. The house is in trouble. There is something wrong in the house. Where is judgment? It’s there. It sees it but turns back. Where is justice? Far away. What is going on in the house?
There are people broken. They’re broken. They’re oppressed. They’re afraid. That’s the picture here.

Vs. 15. Where is truth? Truth is somewhere maybe on its knees. It can’t do much. It fails.
If I try to get out, I’m a target. Get back here. Get back here. You have no right to be free. You
are under my authority, my jurisdiction. God looks at this world this way. There is something
wrong here. Truth has fallen in the street and there isn’t anybody that can show up and do
anything about it.

There isn’t anybody. You can take that house and make it a country. You can
make it a country like the communist world. Some years ago and of course in Cuba, China and
other places. But it can even be, I don’t know, in some way if there is any lie and people are
getting away with the lie, they can’t see it or realize it. It happens in my psyche. It happens in
my own soul. I’m afraid of truth. I’m afraid if anyone faces the real issue then what will happen
to me? Be quiet. Don’t say anything.

This is normal. Don’t make a problem. You’re make a problem. This is status quo. Look at the next verse. Vs. 15. Imagine the world, little enclaves of bondage and fear. Places of bad habits and oppression. Places where people can’t get free. They don’t know what freedom is. Vs. 16. He saw there was no man. Brothers and sisters, guess
what? It’s Christmas. You know what it means. There was now a man. That’s what it means.
There is now a baby. He’s not afraid of this thing. He is the answer. It displeased God when he
saw the condition of the world and the human race.

He’s always been planning. This is our orientation because we live in time. If we lived in eternity, we wouldn’t be having Christmas on the 25 th of December. We would understand it in a fuller context. Not in the context of time.
Because we live in time we need to realize that God had to come in time at a point, and in
coming he already came because he was never satisfied with sinners and the devil not giving a
damn about truth falling in the street or justice turning backward.

Stay away. Don’t get involved. Stay away Don’t talk to us about this. When God came, Herod it said he was in a rage
when he found out the wise man left another way and left him hanging. When you find the
baby, come and tell me and I’ll go and worship him. The wise men had the dream. Do not go
back to Herod. They returned a different way. When Herod found out about it, he was in a rage.
He done’s want any king of the Jews interfering with him.

There are people that don’t want God in the mess in their life. They don’t want to come close to God. They don’t want to show up. They don’t want God to show up. There are people that don’t want God. They will take religion
but don’t give me God. They’ll go to church but don’t talk to me like that and get in my life. I
don’t really want it. Vs. 16. That’s Psalm 40. Wow. I was just thinking about it tonight in the spirit
and praising God. You know in our diagram what this means.

Jesus doesn’t fall in the street and he’s not trying to get in. He comes right in and says, hello. I’m not like you. I’m not a liar like you. I’m not deceitful like you. I’m a righteous man. I’m gracious. I have truth in me. I am Christ.
I’m the answer for the world. I’m the living God who came into a sinful world. We said out of
here and crucify him and we did. He came back. He keeps coming. He doesn’t quit. He keeps
coming. You might say in your heart I need him.

And he is saying amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega and everything in between. I have the keys of death and hell. I’m the one you are looking for. I’m the one who will satisfy you. I’m the big long drink of cold water. I’m the one
that satisfied your soul. I’m the one that will speak into your heart. I’m the one that will reveal
righteousness to you. I’m the one that will set you free. Vs. 17. It’s about Jesus. He put on
righteous as a breastplate. He was prepared when he came.

He set the captive free. He hasn’t stop doing that for us. At the beginning of the service I asked has Jesus done anything for you. What has he done? He’s affected our hearts. He has turned the switch on to God. We cry, Abba,
Father. We start looking at the invisible. I don’t see God, but I love him. Remember Thomas said
unless I see and put my hands in his side, and Jesus said here I am. He said blessed are those at
6025 Moravia Park Drive and everybody else in the world that has not seen but still believe.
Thomas, we have a blessing you don’t have.

You have a blessing. You can touch him. We have a blessing. We can’t touch him, but we know him. He’s the one who speaks and puts our house in order and casts the wickedness out. Puts the righteousness in. Though we are not perfect our families benefit from the freedom and spirit. The spirit of Christmas. The Spirit of God. The
Spirit of grace. People don’t know anything about the holiday in any deep way and yet
somehow they catch the spirit of the whole thing.

Somehow they start to feel good about giving gifts and receiving love and spending time together and realizing life is love and forgiveness. Our forefathers in the faith wrote these psalms or songs and they went out in the streets of
England caroling. The writers, the literary writers and song writers they brought in our Christian
culture this amazing sense of love in our neighborhoods. The whole idea of Santa Claus bringing
gifts to children and around the world lightens, brightens the whole thing. It’s not about evil.
It’s about grace. It’s not about fear. It’s about love.

It’s not about bondage in a house. It’s about a Savior who came to set us free. In closing, what is it?

1) Sin.

People don’t realize it. It destroys us. It’s a cancer. Sin. It’s bad bacteria. It’s death. Sin. It works in us like a disease. Sin. It affects my mind. It puts an evil man in this house governing the whole thing and saying stay away from
me. I fear you. I am ashamed. I am afraid. I am guilty. Sin. Sin is the bondage and disease in the
human race. Sin is the evil in the world.

The love of money, the love of sex, the love of power. The human race is saturated with a love for power, money, sex, my lust, my passion. Then I get with others and we are in a house of evil. Justice would like to go in, but it turns away backwards for some reason. They get a conspiracy of connecting with each other and the
support and the wickedness based on wickedness in my own desire and sin nature and the
demons are feeding on it. Not Jesus. He shows up and the demons run in seven directions.
Jesus goes into the house. He sits down and has a cup of coffee.

He starts to love and talk and minister. People start to melt and realize this guy is dead serious. This guy’s got some
ammunition. He’s got some words. He’s got some kindness. The Spirit of God is on him. He’s
drenched with the Spirit of God. When you love something you talk about it. Jesus talks about
his Father. Jesus talks about righteousness. Jesus talks about freedom. Jesus tells parables and
stories to break through. People that are afraid start to realize I love him.

I need him. He loves me. He can help me. I start to realize when Jesus is in the room there is something going on and God sent Christ so people’s lives would be changed. When he died on the cross, our sins were
atoned for by his blood. Real blood from a real Savior who died like a lamb slain, bleeding on a
cross that could take our sin away. When he died on the cross he became our priest and he
took his blood after the death of Christ and took it into heaven and presented it before his
Father.

That blood is sprinkled on our conscience while we are here on the earth. We’re not
guilty of our sin anymore. I once was soul winning in Budapest and I spoke to a man from
Holland. He was a tourist. He was shifty eyed. He was nervous. I talked and he calmed down a bit. I didn’t know what was going on. he said I just got out of prison. I’m on a vacation here for a
week. I said why were you in prison.

I killed a man. It was like an accident. I got in a fight outside a bar room and the man pulled a knife on me and we got in a fight and I killed him with his own blood. He said I see his blood on my hands every day. I said how long were you in prison? I think he said seven years. I’m talking about Jesus and he says God does not love me.
God does not love me. God does not love me. Truth has fallen in the street. I could turn away
from him. Justice turns back. You could leave the guy alone.

Nothing happens in his life. No Jesus Christ coming into his life. We could turn away and he goes home depressed. He’s already psychologically affected by his crime it seemed. He was upset. I tried to calm him down and talk
to him. We had a contact. I felt there was something there. I told him your story reminds me of
Moses. Moses killed a man and I’m sure he saw the blood on his hands. But his life wasn’t over.
Truth comes into that house and truth sets you free.

Truth says you are not your sin. I came and set you free. Truth comes into the house. Hello. I am here. I forgive you. Christ on the cross. It’s why God came. Not just to monkey around and be a philosopher and talk and go away. He
came to do real business. He came to shed his blood and died on the cross and be resurrected. I
said to the man there is another man you remind me of. It’s David. He killed one of his best
friends because of a woman.

By the way, you guys can get in a lot of trouble with women. By the way, all you women you can get in trouble with a lot of the guys and some of them are sitting in this room. They’re all over the place. We get in trouble with each other. We get in trouble just by getting out of bed in the morning. We get in trouble just be waking up. We are
walking trouble. We are trouble incarnated. We are in our flesh living in a mortal body. We
need someone who will show up and he’s not going to be a comedian, an NFL football game, a
recreational paddle ball game.

It’s not going to be a thing in the club. He’s going to show up. It’s not going to be an affair, a pile of money or playing the lottery. No, when God shows up, he shows up. He does. Greatest gift in the world is Christ. The greatest thing you could do is give all your heart to him and trust in him. He will come in and love you. The manifestations of God are many. Sometimes he’s loud. Sometimes he’s silent. Sometimes he’s gentle like morning dew
and sometimes like a waterfall, Niagara Falls.

God shows up, sometimes like a child, like a lamb and sometimes like a lion. God shows up. God shows up in the church. I need to become a church goer. Not a phony, empty, dead thing but the living Christ, the Spirit of God to speak to me from this amazing book and help me. 3) I said to this young man you remind me of the Apostle Paul. He murdered Christians but God wasn’t done with him. Same with you ad everyone sitting here today. I don’t care who you are or what you have done.

There is a Christ that came into the world. Merry Christmas. It has a lot of meaning. It means in January and February and all through the year I have an answer for my life at any time. It means I have a living God that cares fro me in the morning and in the nighttime, when I’m young and when I’m old. It means that he prepares us in this lifetime to meet him one day and we will. When we sing these carols at the end of the service with our candles, we are remembering the boldness, that courage.

I looked for a man and I couldn’t find any so he came. Clothed in righteousness and ready to go right into the thing, right into the hell itself. Right into the devil and say you are a liar. Remember the Wizard of Oz. I love that little movie. The Wizard of Oz. They’re trying to find the Wizard of Oz. There’s Dorothy and the Tin Man and the Lion and they all need something. They need courage. They need a heart. They need a mind. It sounds like the
Christian life. I need a heart. I need a mind.

I need courage. It sounds like that. They go in to see the Wizard of Oz and the little dog is about this tall and he’s barking. He pulls the curtain back. Who is the wizard? A little paranoid man pulling levers. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. He’s a little paranoid man. He’s not a great wizard. This is like the devil. The devil and
the little dog comes in and pulls the curtain back. What? You are nothing. Look at the house
here. The evil man is actually nothing. The terrorist, the murderer has a big bark but no bite. He
cannot take my life. Christ gave me life.

You cannot undue what Christ has done. The devil is a liar. He lies in our culture, in our face day and night. He tells you you cannot get out. You will not get free. You have no answer. The little dog comes in (barking) and pulls the curtain back. Are you kidding me? This mighty man is a little paranoid nobody. They always are. That lie that
holds you bondage is a lie. It has no authority unless you believe it. Let me lie to you right now.
Napoleon Bonaparte you’ve all believed he’s French but he’s Chinese.

Napoleon Bonaparte is Chinese. He is Chinese. Does that mean anything to you? You know he is French. The lie has no power unless you believe it. If you believe it, then it has power. But if you know that I’m a fool
saying such a thing, you will not believe me. It has no influence on you. It’s foolishness. Same in
this life. You should be saying certain things are foolish. They are nothing. They are empty lies.
They are bondages if you believe them.

You cannot get out of that house and truth cannot
enter. You are in a lie. This whole world is about that. There are lies being told all the time. The
devil is the father of lies. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. Through Jesus Christ
amazing manifestation of God in time for us has changed our lives. Follow Him. Believe him in
your heart.

Amen.

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