Tag Archive - Advent

He Will Be Called Prince of Peace

December 19, 2011 in Sermons with 0 Comments

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We apologize for the poor audio in this recording. We will try our best to improve future recordings.

Today is the fourth and final message in our Advent series – “He Will Be Called.” We have been looking at the 4 names given to Jesus is Isaiah 9:6. You can follow the links to previous messages below:

November 27: Wonderful Counselor December 4: Mighty God December 11: Everlasting Father December 18: Prince of Peace

Join us on Christmas Eve at Lord of Life at 5pm or 7pm for a special Christmas message: He Will Be Called Jesus!

He Will Be Called Everlasting Father

December 11, 2011 in Sermons with 0 Comments

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Today is the third message in our Advent series – “He Will Be Called.” We will be looking at the 4 names given to Jesus is Isaiah 9:6. You can see the schedule below:

November 27: Wonderful Counselor December 4: Mighty God December 11: Everlasting Father December 18: Prince of Peace

He Will Be Called Mighty God

December 5, 2011 in Sermons with 0 Comments

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Today is the second message in our Advent message series – He Will Be Called We will be looking at the 4 names given to Jesus is Isaiah 9:6. You can see the schedule below:

November 27: Wonderful Counselor December 4: Mighty God December 11: Everlasting Father December 18: Prince of Peace

Wonderful Counselor

December 1, 2011 in Weekly Email with 0 Comments

Happy December! Happy Advent!

We started a new message series last week. The new message series is “He Will Be Called.”

Your name is so important. Yet, you did not choose your name. You had no say in the matter. But God knew your name before you were born. It is your name that is either written or not written in the Lamb’s book of life. And it is your name that you share when you introduce yourself before you share anything else.

In Philippians 2:9 it says there is a name that is above every other name. It is the name of Jesus and it is at his name that every knee shall bow. 700 years before Jesus would be born, the Prophet Isaiah gave Jesus four names in Isaiah 9:6. This verse reads:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

During the season of Advent we will be looking at these four names of Jesus (Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace). Last Sunday we looked at Wonderful Counselor.

Jesus is qualified like no other as the Wonderful Counselor. He has compassion and empathy like no other. He understands what we are going through better than we know ourselves. It says in Hebrews 4:15:

For we do not have a high priest (Jesus) who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.

And even better than knowing what ails us, Jesus knows what cures us. We have no counselor as wonderful as Jesus, our wonderful counselor. As we think about Jesus being our wonderful counselor we want to:

1) Be brutally honest with him. Jesus already knows what we are struggling with. If we are not honest with him, we are only fooling ourselves. He is not fooled. Yet, pride has a way of making us keep our masks on. We hide behind our pride unwilling to admit our weakness and our need for help. The are many who would do well to speak with a counselor but will snot do so, because they are afraid of admitting their weakness. But the best way for the Wonderful Counselor to help us is for us to be willing to open up to him.

2) Listen to him. This takes effort and discipline. The Wonderful Counselor speaks, but in our hurried and busy lives we too often fail to take the time or the effort. Jesus promise is that if we seek we will find, if we knock the door will be opened, and if we ask it will be given. Seek his voice in His Word. Seek him in the quiet. Seek his voice in the gathering with other believers. Seek his voice and the Wonderful Counselor will respond.

3) Do what he says. This is a lot easier said than done. A rich young man came to Jesus and asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus said to keep the commandments. The rich young man said, “Yes, I have done that.” (Mark 10:17-20)

But the very next thing it says is that Jesus looked at him and loved him. Jesus is about to tell this man something he did not want to hear, but something he needed to hear. Jesus knew what ailed this man. It was his love of possessions. Jesus also knew what the cure was. It was to give these possessions away (10:21). But the rich young man was not willing to take this step. It was too hard, even though life was not working out as he had hoped. (Mark 10:22)

How sad, Jesus offered him a better way, but he was not willing to go down that path. The disciples were amazed at this. They asked, “How can anyone be saved?” (Mark 10:26) God shows us the way, but too often we are unwilling to follow.

Jesus response is “with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible!” (Mark 10:27) It is only by God’s power that we are enabled to do what he says. We ask for God’s strength and his Spirit to do what he says. It is not about finding more will power in myself. It is about receiving more God-power on my knees.

He Will Be Called Wonderful Counselor

November 28, 2011 in Sermons with 1 Comment

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Happy Advent! Today we kick off a new message series in preparation for the coming King. the new message series is “He Will Be Called.” We will be looking at the 4 names given to Jesus is Isaiah 9:6. You can see the schedule below:

November 27: Wonderful Counselor December 4: Mighty God December 11: Everlasting Father December 18: Prince of Peace

The First Christmas

December 1, 2010 in Weekly Email with 2 Comments

This Christmas we will set up our Nativity sets. They may all look slightly different, but the usual cast of characters will be there. You will have the Baby Jesus in the manger, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds with their animals, and 3 wise men bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. You might also have a star or an angel hovering over top the stable. It is a scene that virtually every American recognizes and can accurately identify.

But how much of the Nativity scene is actually in the Bible and how much of it is the invention of tradition and our American culture? I imagine most of us would be surprised to see what the first Christmas really looked like. Believe it or not it probably was not a white Christmas! There were no Christmas trees. And Santa Clause was nowhere to be found.

There are many imprecisions we hold in regards to Christmas. A few of those you can see in the video above. The longer we hold on to those imprecisions the more deeply embedded in our traditions they become.

We might say, “what is the big deal?” Here is the big deal. When we hold on to traditions which are neither accurate nor realistic it brings into question our credibility. Take for example the following picture:

They have got a point! Some of the things in that picture are a myth. And if some parts of it are a myth, who is to say the whole thing is not a myth. If we show ourselves willing to believe things that are simply not true, we show ourselves to be gullible. As believers it is important for us to stand on the side of truth and to strive to present the truth as accurately as possible. Let’s get our facts straight and not mix fiction with reality.

As Dr. Harry Wendt of Crossways International says, “Read the text!” In that spirit I want to invite you to do that with me as we take a look what really happened on the first Christmas according to the Bible to debunk some of the myths that have been added by our culture. You can join me on any one of the following dates and locations for a special hour and a half study on the first Christmas.

  1. Wednesday, December 15 at 6:30pm in the Lord of Life Youth Room
  2. Thursday, December 16 at 6:45am at Papa G’s Restaurant in Elburn
  3. Thursday, December 16 at 9:30am in the large upstairs conference room at Lord of Life.

I am sure this study will give you new insight into this important holiday and will add new meaning to your celebration.

Have a great week!

Psalm 119

November 30, 2010 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

During the last few days I been reading through Psalm 119 in my daily devotions. The Psalmist expresses his affection for the Word of God. An often repeated phrase is I love your commands. In Psalm 119:105 he writes: Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path. This Psalmist wants us to know the Word of God and its teaching are indispensable. We cannot live without them.

One of the really interesting things about this Psalm is not readily evident to English readers. It is much more evident in the original Hebrew. What you will notice in an English Bible is written before verse 1. It is the word “Aleph.” You skip down to verse nine and you will see the word “Beth.” Then again before verse seventeen is the word “Gimel.” These words are the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Every eight verses you will see the next letter of the alphabet listed until you get to the last letter of the alphabet, “Taw,” before verse 169. The purpose of these letters for the English reader is to let us know that if we were reading the original Hebrew we would be able to see that every verse begins with the corresponding letter. Verses 1-8 begin and “Aleph.” Verses 9-16 begin with “Beth.” This pattern continues throughout the entire Psalm.

It is a bit unfortunate we miss some of the poetic qualities of the Psalms when we read them in English. But in the end it is more about the message than anything else. And Psalm 119 carries an important message for us.

In my message last Sunday I spoke about patience. We live in a world of impatience. We get everything in an instant. We thrive on instant messaging. We eat fast food. And when we have had a little too much of that fast food, we look for a quick weight loss program. Patience is something lost on many of us.

We are currently in the season of Advent. Advent is a time of waiting. It is a time of anticipation. God calls us to wait upon him. He doesn’t necessarily offer us a quick fix. But while the world can only offer us a temporary fix, God offers us a permanent fix.

Mature disciples are not birthed overnight. It takes time. It is a process. And most importantly it takes testing. Maybe the reason our faith is so shallow in America is because our faith has not been tested. We have our religious cliches and slogans. We love our best-selling Christian authors and speakers. We love to hear them talk about the Bible. But do we love the Bible itself? In an time when we have so many resources to help us read and understand the Bible, our knowledge of the Bible is more lacking than ever before.

We say the Bible is difficult to read and hard to understand. It is not like that novel you can pick up and read in a few short hours. It takes time. It takes faith. It takes effort and the determination to follow Jesus. Ultimately, it takes the Holy Spirit working in us to give us insight and understanding.

The message I read in Psalm 119 is stick with it. You may not see the quick fix or get the instant relief you are looking for. But in the end the Word will give you insight and understanding and you will receive a greater reward that God has left in store for you.

Happy Advent!

November 27, 2010 in Weekly Email with 0 Comments

In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. Isaiah 40:3-5

Happy New Year! Yes, you heard me right. Happy New Year! It may not be the beginning of a new calendar year yet, but it is the beginning of a new church year. Sunday begins the season of Advent. And with it we begin a new journey to celebrate the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus our Savior. For the next few months we will go through the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter. Each one of these seasons of the church year reveal something new to us about who Jesus is and what he has done for us.

Advent kicks it all off. Advent is a season of preparation and of anticipation. The word Advent comes from the Latin adventus which means “coming”. It is a season of 4 weeks leading up to the coming celebration of Jesus’ birthday on December 25.

We come expectantly to worship, believing God for great things. Advent is a time of the year when we look to the prophecies of Scripture to behold the new thing God is doing. It is a time to be encouraged because we know the Savior is coming to intervene in history and in our lives. Because God intervenes we know that whatever challenges we are facing today, it is not the end of the story. The story is just beginning. God is coming. He is on his way. He is ready to show up and to show off. He is ready to overcome.

So prepare the way for the Lord! Make room for him so he can do his thing. Open your heart and open your mind. He desires to reveal himself to you.

For the next couple of weeks at Lord of Life I will be talking about how we prepare the way for the Lord in our lives and make ready for his return. It’s about how we make more room for him in our busy and complicated lives so that he would be reveal himself more clearly and that he would work more powerfully in our lives. We put up a lot of barriers to get in the way. But with God, nothing is impossible.

So let’s pray together – Come, Lord Jesus, come. Amen