Harvest Bible Church Greenville Texas

.

.

.

Last week I pointed how odd it was for John to begin his sermon by calling his audience a family of snakes. These people had come from all over the region of Judea, no doubt some had traveled a long distance a great personal expense. You would think that John would have begun by saying: “Howdy folks, thanks for coming I know the journey must have been long and hard, I appreciate you coming” But Luke tells the reason for this harsh rebuke, · they had come to be baptized; however, they had no real repentance, · they were trusting the fact that they were dependents of Abraham

Today, we talk about two aspects of John's ministry, I want to note the miraculous nature of his ministry, and then I want to talk about his message.

.

In this section of Luke, we come upon one of the most speculated about pierids in the life of Jesus. When you read the apocryphal gospels accounts of the childhood of Jesus what we find are wild stories that do not fit with how Jesus is portrayed in the New Testament. Stories like: · Jesus turning Clay into birds in order to play with them · Jesus cursing a kid · In one of the stories, he kills a child for bumping into Him and when the child's parents complain to Joseph and Mary about killing their child, He blinds them Christian have rightly rejected these documents over the years because they clearly contradict the rest of the Bible and because they were seen as forgeries There is a gap between what is reveled to us by the Holy Scriptures in the New Testament, and what our human curiosity wants to know. The writers of the fake gospels took advantage of this curiosity to put forward wild stories about the childhood of Jesus, which are all made up. The reason I take the time to mention this is because it gives us a chance to talk about one of the most important lessons we can learn when studying the Bible. Which is, when the Bible is completely silent about a subject, we should use extrema caution. Put another way, if God would have wanted us to know more about the childhood of Jesus, He would have told us more. Trying to read between the lines and fill in the gaps have done much damage to the Church throughout the years and has led many astray So, what we find here in our text today is not as much as would satisfy our curiosity about the adolescent years of Jesus, however, we do find all we need to know in order to grow in faith

There were countless things that Anna was unable to do, she was a widow, she was elderly, however, none of that mattered because she did what she was called to do. Everyone has a calling, there is something that God has for you, and what gets some of us in trouble is that we are too busy focusing on the things that we can't do, and we forget about what God has called us to do.

Spurgeon said this about Psalm 131 “It is one of the shortest Psalms to read, but one of the longest to learn”. Psalm 131 is about humility, which is fitting because the pervious psalm is about forgiveness. The fact that God has forgiven us should make us humble. It should teach us not to judge others when we ourselves have been forgiven so much

Simeon first sings a song, then gives a prophecy. First, he praises God for the fact that the Israel's consolation has come. He then prophecies what the ministry of Jesus will look like

The setting in which this story takes place is Joseph and Mary going to the temple to fulfil the requirements of the law. While they were in the temple, they come across a man named Simeon. Luke tells us that he was led by the Spirit (vs 27 “And he came by the Sprit”) to come to the temple that day, he then sees Jesus and takes Him in his arms vs 28 and blesses the Baby Jesus. By the way, we're not told whether or not he asks if he could hold the baby, only that he sees Jesus, recognizes who He was by revelation of the Holy Spirit and then takes Him in his arms. Other than this, we know next to nothing about this man, some have speculated that he was a priest. However, we do not find that in our text. We do not know this his age, there is a tradition that says he was 112 years old, but this tradition may not be reliable. Some, people think that he was an old man because of vs 29 when he says after seeing Jesus, “Lord now, let thy servant depart in peace”. But, again, Luke doesn't suggest this in our text. Luke does tell us something about his spiritual condition. Today, I want to draw your attention 3 things about this man Simeon 1. He was just and devout 2. he was expectant 3. He was blessed

“God set the whole world in motion… millions of people going to their own cities to be enrolled for the taxation, in order that one prophecy in the Old Testament might be fulfilled on time, and that Christ might be born in Bethlehem of Judaea.[1]” A.T Pierson once said “Augustus Caesar was ruling, but God was in charge[2].” Here we see that history is really His-story. God was at work in the mundane ordering of government bureaucracy to bring about His plan. Most of have never been encouraged by the red tape of government officials but let me invite you to take great joy in this bureaucracy by quoting a vs Hebrews that says that “Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever” meaning that He doesn't change. God is still at work in the world. Right now, God is working through every action and inaction of government officials to bring about His plan. President James A. Garfield called history “the unrolled scroll of prophecy.[3]” [1]Henry Iornside commentary on the Gospel of Luke [2]I'm quoting this from A.T Pierson, taken from William Barcaly's commentary on the book of Luke [3] Warren Wiserbe commentary on the Gospel of

.

.

This is in response to God's blessing. The word translated “magnify” meant to make great, or to enlarge. The point here is that Mary wanted to, by her life make God more fully known. She wanted to “magnify” God in the same since that a telescope magnifies the object it is fixed on.

Mary, the mother of Jesus was blessed and highly favored, and so are you if you have the faith that she had.

.

Today I want to talk about God's providence, I want to give two perspectives, the first is from 30 thousand feet, I want to look at God's providence from the perspective of history. The second is from the ground level, I want to look at God's providence from the perspective of ordinary people like Zacharias and Elisabeth and how providence worked in their lives. In doing this hope to make two points:

The people of God were waiting for His promise to be fulfilled, but they haven't heard from Him in centuries. It is this gloomy backdrop that Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist lived

There is a tendency in scholarship to want to either see Luke as Historian or theologian. However, neither view is the correct, Luke, like all of us, is capable of being more than one thing. He is not only a historian, he is also a theologian, doctor, and friend. Over the course of our study of the Gospel of Luke we will be concentrating mostly on Luke the historian and theologian. What we find in Luke's account is not just a list of brut facts about the life of Jesus, Luke also points us to the meaning of those facts Which mirrors our purpose here today exactly, not only do I want for us to understand the historical facts the Luke preserved about Jesus, I want us to understand what those facts mean.

Today we talk about we become courageous

Today's sermon is about why we fail act on what we know to be true

Cowardice is the opposite of courage, if courage is doing what's right in the face of fear, then cowardice is allowing fear to override your convections. Courage demands us to make hard decision every day, whereas cowardice says to us, “put off your decision for a time when it is convenient”. This is the opposite of what the Bible tells us, the Bible yells from Genesis to Revelation, Today! Today! Today!

In order to do anything worth doing in life, you will need courage. It takes courage to stand and tell the truth when no one around you wants to hear it. It takes courage to lead your family the opposite direction from society. It take courage to stand for what's right when the world around you hates righteousness. In short, if we are going to be the people that God wants us to be, then courage is a must!

You will at some point in your life find yourself in a situation where you have no clue how you're going to make to the other side. When you look to the future, all you see are question marks. When you reflect on the present, all you find is chaos. In times like these the importance of seeking refuge in God becomes vital. Psalm 46 gives us the encouragement and instruction needed to find peace

This week I want to talk about what to do when you fail. Now notice I didn't say “if”. You are going to fail. You are going to mess up. And not just a small scale, you are going to mess up in ways that are breathtaking. You're going to do things that are unexplainable. People will ask you, “why did you do that?” and you'll be able to say, while being completely honest, “I have no idea”.

There is a aspect of salvation takes place in a moment. One moment we are lost, the next we are found, we were blind, but now we see, we were children of wrath, now we are objects of God's love and affections. All of this takes place in a moment. However, there is another aspect of salvation that takes a lifetime. Yes, we are saved from the consequences of sin, however the power of sin is still at work in our lives. That is, we still have a sin nature. Today's sermon is about how to deal with the Old Nature

Psalm 120 Encouragement for the Pilgrim

The Fool Hath Said in his heart there is no God.