Matthew 1:21-23 (ESV)

21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

    and they shall call his name Immanuel”

Matthew 2:5-6 (ESV)

5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

6 “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for from you shall come a ruler

    who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

 

1. Prophecy is a gift from God.

2. Bethlehem is the sign of God keeping his promises to us

3. Jesus is our prophet-mediator.

Matthew 1:1-2 (ESV)

The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,

 

Matthew 1:16-17 (ESV)

16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

The God Of Steadfast Love

Micah 7:18-20

God's Steadfast Love and Compassion

18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?  He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.

19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot.  You will cast all our sins

    into the depths of the sea.

20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers

    from the days of old.

SERMON NOTES

 

1.  God forgives because of his great goodness.

     “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression

      for the remnant of his inheritance?  He does not retain his anger forever,

      because he delights in steadfast love.” (vs. 18)

 

2. God renews his mercy because of his great love.

    “He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot.

     You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” (vs. 19)

 

3. God is faithful to his covenant promises because of his great kindness.

    “You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham,

     as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.” (vs. 20)

 

The God Of Justice

Micah 6:1-8, Romans 8:1-6 (ESV)

 

The Indictment of the Lord

1 Hear what the Lord says:  Arise, plead your case before the mountains,

   and let the hills hear your voice.

2 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the earth,

   for the Lord has an indictment against his people, and he will contend with Israel.

3 “O my people, what have I done to you?  How have I wearied you? Answer me!

4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery,

   and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

5 O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered 

   him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”

What Does the Lord Require?

6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?

   Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

  Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice,

  and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

 

Life in the Spirit

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 

3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the

  likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 

4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according

   to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 

5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live

  according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 

6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

 

SERMON NOTES

 

 

1. What justice is not, Justice in not....

  

2. What justice is?  Yaweh = Justice

  

3. How do we get justice?

 

Micah 2 - The Shepherd God

Micah 2:1-13; John 10:11-18

Woe to the Oppressors

1 Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds!  When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand.  2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.  3 Therefore thus says the Lord: behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your

necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster.  4 In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly, and say, “We are utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people; how he removes it from me!  To an apostate he allots our fields.”  5 Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the Lord. 6 “Do not preach”—thus they preach— “one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us.”  7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob?  Has the Lord grown impatient?  Are these his deeds?  Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly?  8 But lately my people have risen up as an enemy; you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war.  9 The women of my people you drive out from their delightful houses; from their young children you take away my splendor forever.  10 Arise and go, for this is no place to rest, because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction.  11 If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be the preacher for this people!  12 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;  I will gather the remnant of Israel;  I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men.  13 He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate, going out by it.  Their king passes on before them, the Lord at their head.

11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

 

SERMON NOTES

 

1. Oppression leads to poverty.

                 A.  Examples of oppression from the Bible.

                 B.  Examples of oppression in our land.

 

2. Our Shepherd King will lead us.

                  A.  The Shepherd’s care

                  B.  The King’s power

 

3. Our response:

                 A.   Deacons Fund

                 B.   Thanksgiving prayer

                 C.   Serving others

 

The Judgement Of God

Micah 1:1-9, Revelation 20:7-15

 

 

1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

The Coming Destruction

2 Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.  3 For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.  4 And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. 

5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel.  What is the transgression of Jacob?  Is it not Samaria?  And what is the high place of Judah?  Is it not Jerusalem?

6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations.  7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.  8 For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches.  9 For her wound is incurable, and it has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.

 

The Defeat of Satan

7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Judgment Before the Great White Throne

11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

SERMON NOTES

 

Who Is Like God?

God is holy.

Our sins are many

God will judge

God hears our cries for mercy

Ephesians 3:14-21 (ESV)

Prayer for Spiritual Strength

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every familya]">[a] in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Hebrews 13:1-3, ESV

Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.

 

1. Stand together with your brother and sister

     a. Brotherly affection is our motivation

 

2. Stand by showing hospitality

a. Examples of hospitality

 

3. Stand by showing compassion

a. Love also expresses itself in concern

b. Identification with those who suffer

4. Jesus is our elder brother

a. Jesus stood for us

 

James 3 (ESV)

Taming the Tongue

3 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life,a]">[a] and set on fire by hell.b]">[b] 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers,c]">[c] these things ought not to be so.