Third Sunday of Advent

Yesterday was the third Sunday of Advent and I missed blogging and church... Here are my thoughts on the third Sunday anyway. 

Mary and Joseph: Receiving God’s Promise

To have a life filled with God’s power and victory it is imperative that we take the lesson from Mary and Joseph and receive God’s promises. Sometimes God’s promises are a scary and difficult to understand. Mary and Joseph knew that very well.

      When a friend of mine was a child, his parents used to bribe him to get him to study. His parents told him when he was in first grade that if he got all A’s he could get any toy he wanted at the end of the term. As a result he did well very well during that school year, and his parents kept bribing him through elementary school. But when Jr. High came they stopped bribing him. We can all guess what happened, he stopped doing well. Today if I tell you I will give you the car of your dreams when you do your job well, and if I hold the keys in front of you, I believe that you would want to do your vest because you want to get the prize. It is not just solely about the prize but the fact that there is something ahead to look forward to. In the same way, God gives us promises. Not that God dangles a carrot ahead of us to keep us going, but God understands that in the journey of the Christian life, He has to nudge and prod us along. So He gives us promises.

      God promised a Savior through a virgin birth and Mary and Joseph believed that and got to receive it first hand. God gives us lots of promises all the time, to receive God’s promises you have to: know who the Promise Giver and the Promise Keeper is, if anybody makes you a promise, you have got to determine the integrity and credibility of the person. If it is somebody wacky, someone who is not credible, you are not going to take them seriously. The person who gives you the promise has to have credibility and integrity. In this case, the Promise Giver and the Promise Keeper is God Himself. As we study about who God is throughout the Scriptures, we discover that He is Almighty God. Because He is Almighty God, there is credibility in His promises. He possesses all ability, all power and all power to fulfill His promises.

      The word ‘power’ in Greek talks about both dunamis and exousia. Dynamite comes from the word dunamis. There is an explosion, a power, which is the ability to do. But that is not all. God himself also has exousia – the authority or the right to do.

j.    Some of us have the ability to do something, but not the right to do so. Some of us have the right to do something but we don’t have the ability to accomplish it. But God is the Almighty God, which means that He has both the ability and the authority. If God has all power and all might, and He makes this promise to you, you can be sure that He will fulfill it. God always fulfills His promises. The Bible tells us that God is not a man that He should lie  Numbers 23:19), and that the promises of God are “Yes and Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20). But we also need to understand that as God gives us a promise, He waits for us to live within the boundaries of His condition. God loves to give us promises, He wants to fulfill His promises, but He waits for us to meet His conditions. I believe fully that Mary and Joseph both had to have a willing spirit for the promise of Christ to come through them.

      Know what the promise is Besides knowing the Promise Giver and the Promise Keeper, we need to know what the promise is. If you do not know what the promise is, you will not be able to grasp it and experience its fulfillment. So you have got to know what God’s promises are.  I believe that Mary and Joseph knew and understood the intensity of the promise that was about to be brought forth in their lives. Are we open or closed to receiving God’s promises in our lives?

      Seven is the traditional number of completion in the Bible and theology. I believe that there are seven promises that we as Christians need to become more consistent about receiving.

     Promise #1 The Promise of Promotion, Deuteronomy 28:13 says, “ And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail.” You are born to lead. God promises us that you will always be leading. This promise talks about a promotion of God in our lives. The promises of God is putting you and I into a leadership position and He will promote you. Am I saying that you will always be the first, or the boss? No, I am saying that when we are living in the promises of God you won’t be lacking. God will give you guidance and that translates into leadership.

      Promise 2 is you are blessed. You have the promise of purpose through this. Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. You are going to be blessed with all the good things of heaven. You are blessed because God has a purpose for your life. You are blessed to be a blessing.

      Promise #3 You are more than a conqueror this is the Promise of Victory Romans 8: 37 – Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. This third promise deals with victory. It doesn’t matter what situation or difficulty you are in right now; you will be victorious because you are more than a conqueror.

      Promise #4 You will have a way where there seems to be no way [The Promise of Open Doors] Isaiah 43:19 – Behold, I will do a new thing! Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. You will have a way where there seems to be no way. That’s the promise of open doors. God promises you open doors. Sometimes it takes many closed doors to find the open one, closed ones are a blessing that don’t always feel good. Keep believing but He waits for us to meet His conditions.

     

      Promise #5 is the promise of Grace and Sufficiency: you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. Philippians 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. This has to do with God’s grace and God’s sufficiency. You can rise above your situation and say, “I can do all things, because God’s promise backs you up.

      Promise #6 You have a hope and a future [The Promise of Hope and a Future] Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you”, says the Lord, “thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” You have a hope, you have a future. Don’t let the devil chisel you and knock you off your feet because you have hope, you have a future in God.

     Promise #7 the Promise of Peace Philippians 4:7 – And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. God has promised you peace in the midst of chaos. It doesn’t matter what the situation is; it may overwhelming but even in the midst of it, you have God’s peace to anchor you, and you will walk through it successfully. I believe these are promises God wants to release into your life. If you receive God’s promises, they will transform you. They will cause you to live with intent, and living a life of intent will lead you to success. Perhaps we aren’t living with intent in the past. Perhaps you have had some bad experiences. But you can be intentional and experience new meaning in your life starting today. The Promise Giver is God Himself, and His promises are “Yes and Amen”. Receive God’s promises today!