Holiday Sale or Christmas Promise

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon
December 11, 2011

I’ve been thinking lately. I think the Des Moines Register should give each and every one of its carriers a Christmas bonus this year. I really do, but I don’t think it should be cash. I think what they need to give each and every one of their carriers is a large bottle of Aleve and a heating pad. Seriously, have you seen the size of the Sunday Register? It is ridiculous this year. I go in with a hand truck each week and pick that sucker up and bring it into the house. It’s about yay-thick, but it’s not full of news. No, no, no, no. It’s full of ads. Is it just me or are there more ads this year than any other year? It’s kind of like everybody’s got a sale. It’s incredible places. It’s deep discounts. It’s door buster time. All of them promising incredible prices, fantastic selection.

We know that’s sorta, kinda true, right? Certainly, you can get a 32 inch LCD TV for $275.00, that is, if you want to stand out in line 24 hours before the store opens and you get one of two that they have per store. Otherwise, we have a fantastic bargain on a better model for only $599.00. There’s always a catch, right? There’s always an angle they’re using.

Have you heard of loss leaders? Loss leaders are when they purposely take a loss on a product. They put on a fantastic price to get you in the door with the belief if they take a loss on that, they’ll make it up because you’re certain to buy other products from them. You see, there’s always an angle. There’s always a catch. They’re just sort of, oh, a little bit not sure. “Yes, it’s a sale, kind of, sort of.” Doesn’t that make you just a little shaded? I understand they’re in business to make money. I don’t begrudge them that, but it makes us a little bit cynical maybe, a little bit skeptical when we hear the promise of a fantastic price, of a great sale.

My worry is we carry that attitude over into the promises of God. Certainly, this time of year, it’s filled with all kinds of promises of God and some of them seem pretty unbelievable, right? A virgin will conceive and bear a child. Honestly? He will usher in peace and salvation. Jesus says to us, “Listen, is life really getting you down, really kind of heavy on your shoulders? Don’t worry about it. Give me all of your cares. Give me all of your concerns. I’ll carry your burdens for you.” You want a stress free life? Jesus says, “No problem. You don’t have to worry. Your Father in heaven knows exactly what you need and He’ll give you exactly what you need.”

Right now, is life going kind of south? Are you confused about things that are happening? God says, “In the end, all things work together for the good of those who love Him.” Those and countless other promises God has given to us, but I believe we need to be careful. We need to be careful to treat them differently than the promises of the world, because the promises of God are always true. The promises of God have no catch. They have no angles. There’s no caveat there. God always fulfills His promises.

God’s promises really are an opportunity for us. They’re an opportunity for us to live by faith and an opportunity for that faith to be strengthened and bolstered, an opportunity to say, “I know God has promised to see me through this so I’m going to step out and live by faith,” thus, opening yourself up to God being faithful to you and your faith then being strengthened and bolstered by that experience.

But how many opportunities do we miss? Case in point: I want to go back to Ahaz. Isaiah was talking to him. He was the king of Judah. Before we get into that, we have to get a little bit of a context of when Isaiah comes to the king at that point. So Ahaz is king of Judah. At this point in time, God’s people, Israel, are split into kingdoms. You have the southern kingdom, which is where Ahaz is at and his central command’s in Jerusalem. And then you have the northern kingdom which is actually called Israel, which I always found completely confusing at times.

But anyway, we have the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom and, as it is, at this point in time, no, really all time, everybody’s fighting over there, trying to control the whole land. Well, the super power of the day was called Assyria, so Assyria decides it’s going to invade and take over the whole region. Well, Israel, the northern kingdom, teams up with this other country called Aram, has an allegiant and wants to get Ahaz into that allegiance to go up against Assyria. But Ahaz says, “Nope, I don’t want to have any part of that.” And God said, “Cool.” He probably didn’t say “cool” but He said, “Yes! I don’t want you to be part of that allegiance with Israel and Aram.”

So that’s the setting. God is in agreement with Ahaz, trying to spur him on. “You’re on the right track,” and that’s when Isaiah comes to him. “So again, the Lord spoke to Ahaz. ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.’” So God is doing an incredible thing here. He says, “Ahaz, you’re on the right track but I want to strengthen you. I want to strengthen your resolve and your faith as you go forward,” so He says, “Ask for a sign, I’ll deliver the sign to you.”

But Ahaz says, “I will not ask. I will not put the Lord to the test.” Now that sounds noble, doesn’t it? That sounds really pious of Ahaz. “Hey, listen, God, thanks for the offer but really, I’m good. I don’t need that.” Not exactly true. You see, Ahaz has in mind to have an allegiance with Assyria and go up against the other two guys, which God doesn’t want him to do. So there’s nothing noble here. There’s nothing pious in what Ahaz is doing. Instead of acting in faith and saying, “Yes, God, I’m going to rely on your promises,” Ahaz is saying, “You know what, God, I don’t really need you right now. Things are going well. I have this deal off on the side and I’m pretty sure it’s going to work out pretty sweet for me, so I don’t need you right now.” Or, “I don’t really believe you, God. I’m not sure that I’m buying into this.” Or maybe it’s a combination of that and this. He doesn’t want to hear from God. He doesn’t want to hear from God because he’s not sure that God will say what he wants to hear, that God will be in agreement with his plans. But whatever reason, it was an incredibly missed opportunity, an opportunity to step out in faith, an opportunity for God to demonstrate to him His blessing upon his sort of track that he’s on, but “No, I don’t want a sign.” Missed opportunity.

How many opportunities have you missed, opportunities to live by faith and God to prove Himself faithful in your life? I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Well, if the prophet came up to me and said, ‘Hey, I’ll give you a sign, any sign that you want,’ I’d be all over that.” Are not the signs of God all around us? I believe they are. I believe that God speaks into our lives on a daily basis. It’s just whether we recognize it or not or whether we miss it.

God’s promises are throughout all of Scripture and every single one of those promises, God has fulfilled time and time and time again. God is speaking around us and yet, we still miss the opportunity to live by faith, to live according to those promises. Maybe we don’t want to hear from God. Maybe we say, “You know what, God, things are going really well right now. Nice offer. Thanks for that, but I don’t need you right now.”

Perhaps we don’t want to hear from God because we’re not sure that we’ll like what He has to say. So if God says and He promises that He will see to all of our needs, “Yeah, the only problem is I know He’ll see to all of my needs but I have a whole big stack of wants that I kind of consider a necessity. You see, if I really think about it and He forces me to it, my needs are pretty small really but I have all of these wants that I’ve kind of grown accustomed to. I’m not sure that I want to hear from God.”

God says that all things work together for the good of those who love Him, but God’s idea of good might be different than my idea of good. You may be saying to yourself, “Yes, but I want my loved one to get better,” but God says, “I want them in heaven.” You may be saying, “But this is the person I know I’m supposed to be with for the rest of my life,” but God may say, “I have someone else in mind.” You may say, “This is my dream job. I’m finally exactly where I want to be,” but God may be calling you to something different. In other words, God’s idea of good might be different than your idea of good, so maybe possibly you just don’t want to hear from God.

But you’re missing an opportunity. Missing an opportunity to live by faith, to live according to the promises of God and then to have that faith strengthened as God proves Himself to be faithful. And God has proven Himself to be faithful so many times. This time of year, it’s the most dramatic, right?

Isaiah says to Ahaz, “Behold, a virgin will conceive and bear a child. His name will be called Emmanuel, which is God with us.” Seven hundred and some odd years later, an angel appears to Mary and says, “Mary, the Holy Spirit will overshadow you and even though you are a virgin, you’ll be with child and what’s growing inside of you will be the Son of God.”

So through the prophet, Micah, it says, “Bethlehem, you’re this little burb outside of Jerusalem. Nobody thinks too much about you. Yeah, from you will come the Messiah.” So all of a sudden, Cesar Augustus decides it’s a good idea to have a decree and Mary and Joseph travel down from Nazareth to Bethlehem and that’s where Jesus is born.

Promise after promise after promise, fulfilled again and again and again and promises that are fulfilled for you. When we live by faith and step out in faith, it’s an opportunity for God to show Himself to be faithful. The promises of God are an opportunity.

And the promises of God are always greater than what you and I can imagine. They always have a bigger impact than what you and I can think of. They’re always larger. For instance, Ahaz was thinking singular; God was thinking plural. Ahaz was thinking just about himself. He was thinking that this was all about this allegiance thing that was going on and it was all about the things that he was wheeling and dealing with and trying to do and God had something much bigger in mind, much larger in mind.

Listen to how the story goes on: “So Ahaz says that he won’t test the Lord,” yeah, yeah, yeah. “Then Isaiah said, ‘Here then, O house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men when you try the patience of God also?’” You see, God saw through Ahaz and his sort of pious talk there. The next line, “Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign.” Now stop there. It says, “give you a sign.” That’s a plural, not a singular. All of a sudden, God is no longer just talking to Ahaz. He’s talking much bigger. All of a sudden, this isn’t just about Ahaz and giving Ahaz a sign. Now He says, “I’m going to give all of mankind a sign. A virgin will conceive and bear a child and God will be with us.” Ahaz was thinking singular; God was thinking plural.

Are you thinking singular or plural? It’s easy for us to think singular. We get all caught up in the circumstances of our own lives and we sort of limit God, and we can’t imagine that God has anything else going on besides what’s happening in my little world right here. We’re thinking singular, but God is always thinking plural. God always has something bigger in mind.

I believe that God is using people all the time to touch other people, to encourage other people and they don’t even know it. God is using us and using others to speak to His people and they don’t even know that God is using them.

Case in point: About a week and a half ago, I was really having a rotten morning. I can’t really tell you why and the details don’t matter. It just was a rotten morning. Nothing seemed to be going right. I was about four or five steps behind. I was running late, so I decided I’m just going to zip into Subway for just a quick sub, quick lunch. I’m getting hungry. I walk in, I’m like four deep. “Alright, fine. I’ll check my e-mail on my phone while I’m standing here.” The guy in front of me turns around and he says, “Um, are you getting a sub just for yourself?” “Yeah.” He said, “Well, listen, I’m going to order like three of them and I’m not in a hurry. Why don’t you go ahead of me? You look like you’re busy today.” “Really?” “Yeah, yeah, go ahead of me.” He doesn’t know what he did for me and I’m being transparent here.

God was gracious enough to let me see what was happening and my thought was, “God just said, ‘Ron, it’s okay. I’m pulling with you. I know it’s a rotten day. I know you’re busy. I’m still here. We’re still moving in the same direction, buddy. Let’s go.” As I walked out, this guy says, “Have a nice day,” to me. What he doesn’t know is he changed my day. I’m not saying I came back to the office all chipper, but I was better. I was better. God touched my life through him and this guy never knew it.

How many lives does God touch through you and you never know it? When we live according to the promises of God and we live by faith, the way that we react to life, it affects the people around us. Our reaction to the medical news? Good and bad. Our reaction to the job loss and the job promotion? Our reaction to the emotional lows and our reaction to the emotional highs, when we’re living by faith, when the news is bad, it’s the emotional low and we fall back into the promises of God and we gain strength from Him as He carries us on, people see that and lives are touched.

And the emotional highs when things are going well, and we give all credit and glory and honor to God for His graciousness in our lives, people see that and He touches lives through us because God’s promises are always bigger and the impact is always more than what you and I can ever imagine. And God fulfills His promises sometimes in very unexpected ways, ways that we would have never dreamed of.

I have often wondered Ahaz’s reaction when the prophet says, “Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a Son and will call Him Emmanuel,” which he immediately would have known meant “God with us.” What was he thinking? And what were all the other people at that time thinking when the prophet made this astounding statement about a virgin conceiving and God being with us? There’s no way they could have imagined that God Himself was going to go inside the womb of a woman. There’s no way they could have thought that, in reality, a young girl who was a virgin did conceive by the Holy Spirit and she did give birth to the Holy One, the Son of God. Never saw that coming.

Who would have ever guessed that Jesus grows up and He preaches and He teaches and He heals and He performs miracles and just when He is at the pinnacle of His ministry, when He has the most influence, He dies? Who saw that coming? Who could have ever guessed that the promise God made at the beginning of time to redeem His people would come through God taking on flesh and blood and then sacrificing Himself, taking the punishment Himself for mankind’s sin and, through His blood, forgiveness would be won? No one could have ever guessed that. Salvation would come through a manger, His Son and a cross? Yet God fulfilled His promise.

And God fulfills His promise to you. It may not be the way that you expect. It may not be the answer you anticipated or maybe even the answer that you wanted, but God is always faithful and God always is true to His promises. There’s never any catch. There’s never any angle. There’s no misleading information. God is faithful in His promises to you.

In these few weeks as we prepare for one of the greatest examples of God fulfilling His promise, let’s live by faith. Let’s live in those promises. Don’t miss the opportunity. Don’t miss the opportunity to live in faith and see God being faithful and have your faith strengthened at the same time. Amen.