A gift worth receiving (Part 1)

I want you to turn with me this morning to Luke chapter two night's not on yes on I just my heart's just with these children.

Wow.

Amen.

God is so good.

God is so good.

In Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Everyone have a worship guide?

Anyone that does not?

All right.

Because I want you to keep these worship guides on these four messages this month.

Put them in a special place so that every Christmas you can bring them out.

And just I know a lot of you reading through the book of Luke for Christmas.

That's always a joy to do.

And nothing like Christmas.

The story of Christmas and the Bible, the stories are awesome.

And in Luke chapter 2, let's read verses 21 through 33.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Let's stand for the reading of God's Word.

And when eight days were completed before his circumcision, his name was then called Jesus.

The name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

And when the days for purification, according to the law of Moses, were completed, they brought him up to Jerusalem, him being Jesus, to present him to the Lord as it is written in the law of the Lord.

Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.

And to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the law of the Lord.

A pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.

Today I want us to look at, you may be seated.

And I really need to give you a little in the introduction biblical background here.

Because here for every Jewish male went through three basic events and ceremonies, as Jesus did also.

And this is the story of Jesus going through a couple of these ceremonies.

It really is.

First of all, Jesus and his parents participated in, first of all, the circumcision ceremony.

Every Jew, Jewish male was circumcised.

And this rite was so sacred and important to the Jewish tradition that even if the eighth day fell on the Sabbath, they still would do the circumcision.

It was that important.

It really was.

And on which the Jewish people never worked unnecessarily, but with circumcision they would.

Now in verse 21, when it talked about our Lord's circumcision, it said his name was then called Jesus.

It was on the day of circumcision that the male was officially named.

And we think of officially naming their children, especially male children, in the hospital before they come home.

But now we know that the name of Jesus, though, if you remember, was given to Mary by God himself prior to this day, even though they named him Jesus, but they already knew that his name was going to be called Jesus.

And we know that in Luke 131.

In other words, who named Jesus really?

God named his son.

And his name was Jesus, which means Savior.

It means Joshua.

It means Jehovah is salvation.

But we see here that Mary comes before and comes to the temple to officially name Jesus and to perform the circumcision of Jesus.

So, very important ceremony.

The second ceremony was called the redemption ceremony.

And what that meant was the redemption of the firstborn.

See, in Jewish tradition, the firstborn male was given to God, and a lot of times as possibly to go into the priest's ministry.

So once they, the Jewish male was born in the redemption ceremony, they would come to the temple and they would come to offer really shekels back to the priest in order to honor and to redeem their firstborn child back.

And so that was very important that you understand that.

So that was what they called the redemption ceremony, and it was important to them.

Kind of like we think of dedicating our children to God and bringing them before the altar.

And we do that on that 22nd.

Not only that day will we have a sweet service and giving our love gifts back to Jesus that morning, but if you have any children that have not been dedicated to the Lord, we do dedication on Easter with children, and we do dedication on around Christmas.

We call it our Christmas service.

So if you would like your children to be dedicated, we would love to do that on that same day.

But you need to let Tabitha know, please.

So it's kind of a way of coming and just offering the firstborn male to God the Father.

And uh so the parents brought to the temple no less than 31 days after their birth.

So a month, so uh a month would literally pass by before they brought that male to the temple to offer and to buy uh to redeem their son back from the priest.

And then there was a third ceremony called the purification ceremony.

And this is what Mary was doing here when she came to Simeon in the temple.

Now, the purification ceremony was that was that for the 40 days after childbirth, the mother could not do anything in the temple or of a religious nature till after those 40 days had passed.

In fact, the mother basically would just stay home.

Uh, but on that 40th day, if it was a male child, she would come to the temple.

Now, if it was a female child, she had to wait 80 days.

Uh, it took twice as long to purify if you had a girl than if you had a boy.

And that kind of says something about the Jewish society, probably and their traditions.

But anyway, but after the 40 days, the mother would come bringing two symbolic offerings.

And truthfully, one was a burnt offering and one was a sin offering.

And this gets into the Old Testament uh history of offerings, but I'm not going to spend time there.

But they would bring, here's what they would do: they would bring a lamb and a young pigeon or dove, depending on their wealth, basically.

In other words, they called it the poor man's offering, if it was a pigeon or a dove.

And the rich man offering, if it was a beautiful lamb, without blemish.

And so you notice that Mary and Joseph brought a poor man's offering.

Very important you understand that.

This is how Jesus came.

He didn't come as a wealthy king, he came as a poor little baby.

Because he came to identify with the world, not just the wealthy.

Amen?

He came to identify with the world.

So that's a little history that you need to understand.

And in fact, look at verse 25.

Well, we will in a minute, but the purification offering was Mary coming to offer herself as being purified and also to circumcise Jesus, to name Jesus.

So there's a lot going on here that you needed to understand.

Now, with that, I want us to look at this morning.

There are five observations about Simeon's interaction with the Lord that are powerful.

They really are.

When Simeon saw the Christ's child in the temple, he recognized that he was the gift to the world.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

And he realized not only was it a gift to the world, but it was worth waiting for and worth receiving.

Now I want us to look at uh, I call it the observations about the gift of Jesus to the world.

Look at number one.

Here we go.

Those who look for Jesus will find him.

Those who look for Jesus will find him.

Look at verse 25.

Whether during Simeon's lifetime or if 2,000 years later at CCW on a December morning, those who look for Jesus will find him.

Look at verse 25.

And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout.

Now notice this next word.

Looking for the consolation of Israel.

And the Holy Spirit was upon him.

Looking is an interesting word.

It means looking with an intent to find.

It means eagerly looking.

It means eagerly waiting, thinking for something that's going to happen, something that he's waiting to see.

I'm talking about literally see.

To be able to touch.

He can't wait.

And he's been looking, waiting, expecting.

My first observation about Simeon is that he saw Jesus because he was looking for Jesus.

See, we see what we look for.

You know that?

Let me give you an example.

If you're looking for God, you're going to find him.

That's why people can come into this service this morning and you can leave.

This group can leave, and some will walk out of here and say, Man, I didn't get anything out of that service.

That is the most boring service I've ever been in.

Or that same group of people, you have some people walk out and they'll say, Wow, oh man, that was awesome.

God really spoke to me.

Did you see what?

Let me show you what God showed me.

I meant, wow, they can't, they just, God has just so spoken to them, giving them a verse, giving them a principle, giving them a direction.

What is the difference?

One's looking and one's not.

One's looking and one's not.

Some are just coming because they have to.

Some are causing are coming just because, hey, hey, they know it's the thing to do.

And then some are coming because they eagerly are looking for Jesus to talk to them, to worship him in spirit and in truth.

They come to church because they want to eagerly worship the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and knowing that God's going to speak to their hearts.

And they're going to get a chance to speak to Him.

Do you come to Sunday mornings ready or Wednesdays ready for God to speak to you?

Have you gotten up early instead of waiting for the last minute and rushing around?

You get up early and for me, I get up early and I pray and I get my coffee.

I review my message, but I pray and I just say, Lord, get my heart ready.

God, give me the words to say.

God, all that I've put in this week, let it be obvious that it's all through me.

I look for Jesus every day when I go to the Word of God.

Oh, it's so important.

I want us this morning to compare Simeon's intentional search with Bethlehem's apathy.

Why was there no room in the inn?

Why was there no room in the inn?

This is pretty good.

We're going to look at the contrast.

First of all, why was there no room in the inn?

Why is there no room maybe in our life or in some of people's lives in Chelsea and Westover?

Why is it?

Because why do they not see Jesus during this time of the year?

Why do they not see the Christ child during this time?

Understand who Jesus is.

Because they're too busy.

Busyness.

Write that down.

Busyness.

Everybody was rushing around this Christmas time.

There was a census to be taken as quickly as possible.

And I thought about that.

So many times we get so busy doing good things, not bad things, doing good things, we miss the main thing.

I mean, you can get so busy.

Now, this Christmas, and I can remember when I was the president of Tennessee Temple, when I was vice president of Liberty University, all those that every night we would have something.

The whole month of December, from December the 1st up to Christmas Eve, and then we'd have the candlelight Christmas Eve service.

I mean, we had something every night, every night.

And I had the possibility of getting so caught up in all these good things that I missed the true meaning of what Christmas was, and that was that the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, was born on that Christmas morning to come and to redeem the world.

But we've not done that here.

I made up intentionally.

We don't wear ourselves out.

We keep our mind focused on the right thing.

Amen.

But we see they were busy.

I got to thinking about this.

And I was doing research, going back through my notes and doing research.

There was a pastor in California.

And he did some research.

And here's what he said.

He got up that Sunday morning and said, No wonder we're so busy here in California in our county.

He said, Let me read you some updated statistics in our county.

Are you ready for this?

This is awesome.

He said, I have run across some absolute infutable statistics that show exactly why you and I are tired.

And brother, it's no wonder we're tired, he said.

There are as many people, and I love this, there aren't as many people actually working as you might think.

Then he paused.

At least according to he says to the survey.

And then here's what he said.

Recently completed, the population of this county is 200 million, 84 million over 60 years of age, which leaves 116 million to do the work.

People under 20 years of age total 75 million, which leaves 41 million to do the work.

Then there are 22 million who are employed by the government, which leaves 19 million to do the work.

Then there's 4 million are in the armed services, which leaves 15 million to do the work.

Then deduct 14 million, 800,000 in the state and city offices, and that leaves 200,000 to do the work.

There are 188,000 in hospitals and insane asylums, which leaves now only 12,000 people to do the work.

Now it may interest you to know that there are 11,998 people in jail.

So that leaves just two people.

Two people to carry the load.

That's you and me, brother, and man, am I tired?

Busyness.

Just so tired, so busy that we just don't see Christ.

Remember Martha?

Wasn't that Martha in Luke chapter 10, verses 38 through 42?

Luke 10:38–42

Remember the situation when Jesus came to her house?

She is so busy trying to make sure everything's right, you know, to feed Jesus and to make sure the house is clean, make sure every chair's in the right place, no dust, no clothes strode anywhere, the bed's made, all that.

And the whole time Jesus is there, he's sharing his heart, and Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus, and Martha's just running around, and all of a sudden she's had all she can have, and she stops and she says, Jesus, Jesus, this isn't right.

Mary's sitting down while I'm doing all the work.

My wife tells me that sometimes.

And I've got words of wisdom.

I've got words that'll change your life.

I've got words that will encourage you.

I've got words that will lead you.

I've got words that will, hey, make you what I want you to be.

Now, are those other things important?

Absolutely.

But they're not the main thing.

So this Christmas, don't get so busy that you miss the true meaning of Christmas.

Second thing.

Preoccupation.

There were, hey, the innkeeper, they were preoccupied with so many other things that they missed him with work, with serving people, with getting the inn ready, making money with themselves.

No time for Jesus.

Do you really think that that innkeeper, if he had known that it was really the Son of God fixing to be born, don't you think he would have had a different attitude?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

He would have.

But he was just too busy.

And then the third thing, inconvenience.

If that innkeeper had known that Mary was pregnant with the Christ child, I promise you, he would have found her a room instead of a staple.

Guaranteed.

But see, it wasn't convenient for him.

He had so many members, so many guests, so much going on.

I'm sure he's singing about the dollar sign, boom, boom, boom, all this going on.

It just he didn't have time to fool with them.

He didn't have time.

You know.

We got parties here, we got parties, we got family coming here, we got this, we got that, we got to go here, we gotta go there.

Everybody's gotta come.

You know, we just don't have time for church right now.

We'll wait and first of the year, we'll make a new year's resolution and we'll get back in church.

Just the convenience.

No, it's not convenient right now.

I'm too busy.

I wonder what Jesus thinks about that.

I'm just too busy.

I don't know why they were dropped all maybe the birds or whoever was just too busy.

Not convenient for me to go.

I'll drop again at all.

Hello.

How many times have I seen it happen thousands of times over 40 years a minute?

Not convenient.

When we stand at the beam of judgment seat, how can we look at Jesus and say to Jesus, just wanting a good time?

Just wanting a good time.

I had other things more important.

What's more important than worshiping the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and blessing him and seeking him?

It gets back to Simeon.

Hey, I come here to seek him, to hear about him, for him to worship him in spirit and truth, and for him to teach me and to give me all that he is so that I can be all that I can be for him.

Preoccupied.

Not convenient.

Then D.

No expectations.

Unlike Simeon, who expected to see the Christ child and looked for the coming in Bethlehem, there was no expectation.

We all know people whose expector has expired, don't we?

Huh?

A lot of people come to church.

Listen to me, please.

If you get this, it's a change your life.

It's a change of worship and it'll change everything about your worship and your church.

When you come to church expecting God to speak to your heart and to show you what he wants you to be and what he wants you to do, you'll have a different perspective about church.

Well, I don't have to go to church for God to speak to me.

You're exactly right.

But you do have to go to church to be obedient to God.

Not forsaking the assemblings of ourselves together as the manner of some are, but exhorting one another so much more as you see the day approaching.

And we're going to see this here.

I'm going to show you why you come to church.

Well, I come, preacher, when it's convenient.

When I don't have anything else to do, more important or more I want to do.

David said, I was glad when they said, let us go to the house of the Lord.

Psalms 122, 1.

I was glad.

And I got to thinking about that.

Oh, folks, the expectation.

I found another interesting statement in my research on this message.

People just don't expect anything when they come.

They just come.

Or they don't come.

They see nothing.

A South African recently discovered one of the world's largest diamonds.

This was about 15 years ago.

The size of a small lemon.

And he wanted to get it to the London office as safely and as quickly as possible.

So here's what he did: he packed a steel box and hired four men to hand-carry it to London.

When it arrived, they unlocked the steel box, and to their surprise, there wasn't a diamond in there.

Just a black lump of coal.

They were shocked.

But three days later, by parcel posts in an ordinary box, the diamond arrived in the London office.

The owner knew nobody would pay attention to an ordinary box.

Wow.

And I thought to myself, 2,000 years ago, God came wrapped in an ordinary box.

Yet Simeon saw him.

But how many millions missed him?

How can you see the Christ child in an ordinary box?

That ought to be our question.

You got to be looking for him, first of all.

Can I get an amen?

Say this with me, church.

I gotta be looking for him.

The good news of Christmas season is that if anybody's looking for God today, you're gonna find him.

He's not easily hidden.

All right.

Connie, stand up for a minute.

She's got a beautiful red sweater on.

You can see it.

Now look around.

I want you to notice everybody's got red on.

Carolyn's got red pants.

Red, red, red, red, red, red, red, red.

Now, how did you notice those red sweaters and pants?

How did you notice them?

Because you what?

You were looking for them.

You were looking for them.

Man, I see a lot of red now.

Amen?

I see some red flip-flops back there.

Danny's got red soles on his black tennis shoes.

Why?

I'm looking.

I'm looking.

Have you ever noticed you buy a car, a certain kind of car?

And all of a sudden, everywhere you're driving down the road, you see them.

Whoa, that's my car.

There's my car.

There's my car.

There's they've been there all the time.

You just weren't looking for them.

Hello?

You with me?

But now all of a sudden, you've got something that means something to you.

And man, everywhere you go, whoo, look at that.

That's my car.

Ooh, that's pretty.

Mine's prettier.

Amen.

Folks, you come to church looking for Jesus.

You go to the Word in your quiet time looking for Jesus.

It's so important.

Alright, here we go.

I didn't fall, watch.

I did not fall.

I don't know why that does that.

I can play two hours of pickleball and then it doesn't say squat.

I can get up here and start preaching, and it says I fail.

Explain that one to me.

Alright, that's just the devil trying to interrupt me, is what it is.

All right.

Looking for, hey, lessons in looking.

Are you ready?

This is good.

This is gonna be good.

Lessons in looking.

A.

Look through the eyes of faith and not the eyes of fact.

Simeon looked through the eyes of faith.

There are two kinds of people.

One says, I've got to see it to believe it.

They live by fact.

But the other says, I've got to believe it to see it.

They live by faith.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things what?

Not seen.

Hebrews 11:1.

Hebrews 11:1

And then B, keep looking even when you may get discouraged.

This is what impressed me about Simeon.

You see, in between this time in the Old Testament and New Testament, 400 years, there had been no prophecies about the coming Messiah.

400 years of silence.

Yet Simeon kept saying, I'm going to see the Messiah.

I'm going to see the Messiah.

I'm going to see the Messiah before I die.

He was believing before it ever happened.

He was believing without seeing.

There was no facts, there was no prophecies that had been fulfilled in front of him, but he knew it was coming.

He knew the prophecy as Isaiah 53.

He knew.

And by the way, over 300 prophecies are fulfilled in the New Testament.

Verbatim.

That's why you know it's God's book.

Nor the books ever made that many predictions and have been fulfilled.

I'm talking about verbatim.

So we see.

Keep looking even when you're discouraged.

Can I get an amen?

In fact, I love, I love what David, the psalmist, said.

He said, I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence my health cometh.

My health cometh from the Lord, which made the heavens and the earth.

My eyes are fixed on thee, O God.

In thee is my trust.

Psalms 141, verse 8.

Psalms 141:8

Man, that's good.

I love it.

I love it.

Don't be discouraged.

I love Isaiah 41, 10.

Write that verse down.

You got to memorize it.

Fear not, for I am with you.

Fear not, he tells the nation of Israel.

For I am with you.

Be not dismayed.

The word dismayed in the that's the King James word, but it's literally, if you got another translation, it means discouraged.

Do not be discouraged.

Then he goes on and says, For I am your God.

Then he says, I will strengthen you.

I will help you.

Now what's this?

Then he says, I will hold you up with my right hand.

Amen.

Is that not good?

Say this with me, church.

He's holding me.

Again, he's holding me.

Amen.

Amen.

Number two, second lesson.

The assurance comes before the answer.

There are times when we know something's going to happen before we receive the answer in our life.

Have you ever had that happen?

Amen.

Sure you have.

If you've been, hey, you just know.

You just know.

God's given you peace.

That happened to Simeon.

Simeon's assurance came to him even before he held baby Jesus in his arms.

Look at verse 26.

And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord Christ.

He knew he wasn't going to die till he sees, hey, till he saw Jesus.

Now, let me show you something.

God gave me this.

After I'd already done the outline, I would have outlined it for you.

Simeon was led by the Holy Spirit.

But let me show you something.

Simeon was, look at verse 26.

He was led by the Holy Spirit.

Now look at verse 29.

Verse 29, he was taught by the Lord's word.

Lord, now letest thou, thy servant, depart in peace according to thy word.

He was led by the Holy Spirit.

He was taught and led by the word of God.

And then notice he obeyed the word of God in verses 27 and 28, when he said, And he came by the Spirit into the temple.

And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now let thou thy servants depart in peace.

So he was, hey, led by the Holy Spirit, taught by the Word of God, and then he obeyed the Word of God.

And then verse 30, look at verse 30, for my eyes have seen thy salvation.

He saw God.

We've got to be led by the Holy Spirit.

Don't miss this.

We've got to be taught by the Word of God.

That's again why you come.

Why do you come to church?

To find Jesus.

And how do you find Jesus?

You find Jesus in the Word of God.

In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1.

John 1:1

Then you obey the Word of God, and then you see the Son of God.

In other words, you see what God is in you and for you and what He wants you to do.

Woo! Can I get an Amen?

You come seeking Him.

And you'll find Him.

You'll find Him.

Number three.

Lessons on looking.

Look through the eyes of faith, not the eyes of fact.

Keep looking even when discouraged.

Number two, the assurance comes before the answer.

Then number three, we must come to the right place to find Him.

Whew, that's good.

Simeon came to the right place to find the Christ child and receive the Christ child.

Look at verse 27.

And he came in the Spirit into the temple.

Oh boy, that's good.

Two significant things.

He came with the right heart and mind seeking him.

Now, if you come to church, the right place, he came to the right place, the temple, with the right mind and attitude, you'll see God.

Now, why?

I thought this would be a good time to interject church.

We come to church seek him, but why don't we come to church?

This is this is this is just icing on the cake.

The church exists for three things.

A?

Look at it.

Church exists for three things there in your outline.

For the Father.

It exists for the Father.

It's a worship center.

Why do we come to church to worship him?

I don't have to come to church to worship him.

You're exactly right.

But he asked you to come to church to worship him.

Hello.

Do you see that, people?

Please.

That is so important.

It's a worship center.

The greatest verse is John 4, 23 and 24, where he says that we come to church to worship him in spirit and truth.

And then verse 24, listen to what it says.

For the Father seeketh such to worship him.

It doesn't get any plainer than that.

It doesn't get any more simple than that.

Woo! That's why I go to church.

I don't care where I am, unless I'm sick or somewhere, I'm going to church.

And if I can't go to church, I will watch it.

And I know a lot of working online.

But I enjoy going to different churches too.

Well, if I'm out of town, we we why?

The worship calls I want to go worship him.

I'm seeking him.

It's his day.

He had set the first day of the week in the New Testament to come and not worship him.

Folks, seven days a week.

What is wrong with one day giving him two hours out of that day?

Come on.

Well, I got this.

I got that.

Convenience.

Well, families coming in.

Thank you! I'm let me tell you what we do.

I don't I'm not legalistic.

I used to be.

Y'all are gonna be glad y'all didn't know me 30 years ago.

Seriously.

I'd preach such a conviction legalistic, bless God.

I'd say if you're not here on the Super Bowl, I'm gonna pray.

God blows you to do that.

Well no, I don't know.

But what I'm saying is, there ought to be a desire and a finder to go and do where God wants you to be so you can worship.

Listen to me.

Benji's dad, David, my best friend.

And I miss him so much.

And I know this probably bothers Benji a little bit, Christy.

I know it does.

But I can't help it.

When I bring back, I'll never forget what he said time and time again.

And here's a man, one of the most successful, dynamic Christian businessmen I've ever.

I never, and I've known some powerful businessmen.

I've had the privilege of being with the most wealthiest, some of them, in the country when I was at liberty with Dr.

Falwell.

I mean, there were two billionaires on our board.

I knew them personally.

I've been with the the big boys.

Sometimes it's not what you think it is, by the way.

But what I loved about David Wilson was he was the most godliest business man I'd ever known.

That's why we loved each other so much.

It was our love for the word and the love for what God wanted us to do in each other.

And you know what he said time and time again in every testimony?

He'd say.

You know why I come to church, he'd say.

Because if it wasn't for church, I wouldn't be where I am right now.

I wouldn't be the number one surpro in the world.

I wouldn't be this, I wouldn't be this if I hadn't have been in church because it was in church where God told me what to do with my business.

Every major decision in my life, David said, I'm talking radical change in his life.

God spoke to him in church.

I rest my case.

That's why I don't want to miss church.

Me.

What if God had something very special for me and it just wasn't convenient for me to be there?

Oh, well, God's He'd give it to you later.

Who says?

How do you know that?

Hello?

How do you know you're gonna get that word again?

Well, if he really wants me to no, no, no, don't say if he really wants me to do that, uh uh.

He really wants you to be there so when he speaks to You'll do it.

Hello.

And I know that's convicting.

It's convicting to me.

But that's the truth.

And you should know the truth.

Truth has set you free.

Secondly, when a church exists for each other, it's a nurturing center.

That's Hebrews 10, 25.

Don't forsake the assembling of yourself together as a matter of some are, but exhorting one another so much as, hey, and encouraging one another.

Folks, I get encouraged by you.

You know why I love just being here and out there hugging your necks when you come and go?

Because you encourage me.

And I get to encourage you or pray with you.

You know me, when you ask me to pray, what do we most of the time what do we do?

Pray right then, don't we?

I'm going to pray right now with you.

Encourage you.

Help me.

Bob McKay, sitting back there, been in the hospital for five days in more pain than you could even believe.

And he gets out last Friday or Thursday, I can't remember, but but and now he's in church this morning.

Now, why do you think Bob's here?

To impress you?

Absolutely not.

He's here because he's here seeking the Lord.

He wants to hear what God, how God can encourage him.

And y'all need to hug his neck and tell him you've been praying for him.

And that's why we do it, folks.

We're family.

And when you're not here, I hurt.

I miss you.

I want to know about.

Thank you.

At least you tell me where you're not going to be here.

And that encouraged me.

I want to know.

I don't know.

Are you sick?

Are you hurting?

What's going on in your life?

How can I pray for you?

We need each other.

With a body.

You may be an ear.

I may be a hand.

You may be a foot.

We need each other.

Somebody told me the other day, well, you can find a church anywhere.

Yeah, that's true.

But is it a real body?

Do people really care about you?

Do they check up on you?

I don't like people checking up on me.

Well, you don't want to be a part of the body.

People don't know.

Hey, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Oh, we're for each other.

Then C.

Why is the church here?

For the Father, it's a worship center.

For each other to help each other, to nurture one another, to pray for one another, and then C, it's for the world.

It's a redemptive center.

It's a place where people can come and be redeemed and forgiven and brought into the family of God.

Can I get an amen?

You know what I love?

When those little three children came in here.

You know what I'm thinking?

I thought, what an example for this message.

We don't really know who they are, but one thing we know when they walked in here, they were going to be loved, they were going to be taken care of, and we were going to take care of them, love on them, let them know we care and that Jesus loves them.

This is a place where people can come and be loved and not judged for who they are and what God wants them to be.

We're not interested in your past.

I hadn't said this in a long time, but we're interested in your future, and God's got a fantastic future for your life.

Amen.

Then number four, let's wrap it up.

We need to personally receive Jesus.

Look at verse 28.

Can you imagine the feeling in Simeon's spirit in verse 28 when he took the Christ child into his arms and blessed God?

Woo!

He personally received the Christ child.

Not only was he waiting to see him, he's holding him.

Wow.

See, when you're waiting to see him, he may have something more special for you than you could have ever imagined.

All Simeon wanted to do was see him, but now he's got a chance to hold the Son of God.

You don't know when you're sitting here.

You may think God's just going to answer your prayer, but he may have more than just answering your prayer.

He may have something so special you will never comprehend it unless you're there to see it.

This man was spirit-filled, seeking Jesus.

And look what happened.

My goal for every person in this room and in our church this Christmas is for you to know God personally.

Not through your parents, not through your pastors, not through your friends, not through your church.

I'm not talking about knowing God through a proxy.

I'm talking about knowing God personally.

My goal is that you know God so you can say, I know, I know that my Redeemer liveth.

Number five, and I'm through.

Oh man, is it not good?

Folks, look.

Look at the truth.

Just look at the truth we've seen.

And then the last thing, number five.

Then we will be ready to die.

Now I didn't say when you receive Jesus, you're gonna die.

I didn't say that.

Don't go out here.

Preacher said, I'm gonna die if I get saved.

You're gonna die if you don't get saved.

I'm just trying to get you to go to the right place.

Can I get an amen?

Don't panic.

Like Simeon, then you're ready to die.

Look at what Simeon said in verse 29.

Now, Lord, thou dost let thy bond servant depart in peace according to thy word.

Why?

For my eyes have seen thy salvation.

I'm ready to go, he said, because I've seen God.

Psalms 107, verse 9.

Psalms 107:9

He satisfies the longing soul, he fills the hungry soul with goodness.

Woo! Hallelujah.

It's even better than that turnip green soup I ate yesterday.

With cornbread.

Oh, it was good, Miss Lois.

You got any of that left, Lois?

Well, I won't save me a bowl, please.

Okay.

I'll have the cornbread too.

If not, I'll make Susan will make me some cornbread.

She won't eat my turnip green soup.

She doesn't like turnips.

I married a woman, a southern girl, that doesn't like turnip greens or sweet potatoes.

I don't understand that whatsoever.

And I love them both.

I mean, I could live, I was raised on sweet potatoes and turnip greens and cornbread.