Pastor Jason Anderson - Audio

Today I want to talk to you about taking our family

back, whether it's your marriage, your children, your relationship with

your parents, or your extended family. God wants to bring peace to those

areas in your life. Jesus has done a great work to do that. When we talk

about Manger Things – the name of this series – we see the picture of

the manger scene. We see Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus. There's

this coming together, the idea of Christmas – families begin to gather

together. Jesus is a gatherer and He cares deeply about you and your

family. When we celebrate this time of the birth of our Savior we see

families coming in from all over the place. They fly braving expensive

flights or expensive fuel on long drives. I want to talk about God's

desire to bring family together and have peace in your

family.

We can come out of hard experiences with baggage,

battered, or battle hardened, stronger than before. Today you can walk

out of church stronger than before. God didn't do it, but he got you

through it.

Is God in control of everything that happens? What is

God's response to sin? Portions of your life may be rendered powerless

simply because of your ignorance of the covenant you have with God.

David said, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine?" Knowing your

covenant is power. The old covenant had no cross, no Christ. But so many

continue to define God's nature by the old covenant. Your nature is in

the image of God's nature, we fail because we don't know who we are, we

don't know who we are because you have a wrong image of God, in whose

image you were made. When I say words of judgment, wrath and punishment,

I misalign myself from God.

Today I want to tell you that not everything that is

happening is God's will, is from God. So how will He accomplish His

will? If He isn't doing everything, or in complete control, then how

will He get done what He wants? The secret is hidden in this simple

phrase, "Not my will but thy will be done." I can stop God's will in my

life. God needs you, built you, has established you, empowered you,

chose you. But we will not do what He desires if we do not understand

HIS nature, what He wants. If we believe everything that is happening is

from God we neglect the scripture. Isaiah 54:14-15 (NIV) "In

righteousness you will be established, Tyranny will be far from you, you

will have nothing to fear, terror will be far removed. If anyone does

attack you, I didn't do it." Or again Isaiah 54:10 (NIV) "Though the

mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for

you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the

LORD, who has compassion on you. "No one has understood me, and no one

seeks me."

Many Christians believe that everything that happens is

from God, God did it, that everything that happens is part of God's

master plan, and when something horrible happens, maybe we just don't

understand what God is doing. It is reasonable for a man to say, "If

there is God then He must be in complete control of everything that is

happening." Then because we see injustice in the world, hurting, hungry

and death, they reject a God who doesn't seem to know how to run things.

When Little Timmy was eight he was told that God took his mom. Well, God

has afflicted to teach me. Now there are attacks, but are they coming

from God? Sometimes or never?

Today I want to start off in Isaiah 60:1, "Arise, shine;

For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you."

It's a call to action for the church, a resource given and a result. The

call, get up and light it up, cuz I gave you light, and the result, the

glory of the Lord is risen upon you. In the moment we rise and shine, in

that moment the glory is attached, it rises - comes with the new

covenant. It is the substance of hope - the farmer doesn't have rain,

but he sees the cloud, he knows it's a done deal. This cloud has risen

over you!

Today I want to talk to you about putting God's goodness

on display - saying and doing His goodness. We will start by taking a

deep, long look at the glory of God and how an understanding of this

glory is going to impact your daily life. Exodus 24:16, "Now the glory

of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days.

And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the

CLOUD…" Glory is kind of a mystical, misunderstood mystery. What is it?

When does it fall? "GLORY" - it seems like some random far away, I don't

want to really think about it, or does it even matter? But it isn't

random, far away, unattainable, and it is viable, seeable reachable and

powerful, and it is going to impact you exactly where you live, in your

job, in your marriage, in your business, with your family, in your

world. Moses said to God, "Show me your glory." You see, it's just not

that far away or unattainable. What do we know about the glory? My

people perish for a lack of knowledge. The word hope appears 143 times

in the Bible, faith 330 times, love 460 times, and the word glory

appears 502 times. So God is trying really hard to reveal this, we had

best pay attention, maybe try a little harder. I could find no resource

available that will teach you the things I'm going to share today or

next week.

Moses has been talking to God again, and this is not

unlike what is available for all of us. God has called us to enter into

that most holy place, to pray, to approach the throne of grace with

boldness, and so I don't see this conversation as unattainable for any

believer. Exodus 33:18: Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory." I

want to see it Lord, raah, the show me what you got, (Isaiah 60:13 - the

glory of Lebanon was a forest, richness, the best of the land) let me

see your richest, best, show me the S on your chest, flex your biceps,

what you got in there? I've heard you talk about it, but I want to see

it.

On a hot summer day in August of 2015, my dad swung by

to say "hey." He noticed my son's IROC was parked out of the way at my

house and so he asked, "What's up with the car?" I replied, "Oh, the

alternator died a few days ago. I wish I had a minute to get it changed

out; I've been driving him to school." So he says, "Stop wishing, start

doing." My dad is a doer. His philosophy his whole life was "Fire, aim,

ready."

According to estimates in 2013, there were 58 billion

dollars in unclaimed funds held by state and federal agencies - money

that belongs to someone but has never been collected. They hold it, and

it's yours, but you have to get it. I believe there are far more

unclaimed funds in the Kingdom of God. God has given you everything you

need for life and godliness, all provided for you at the cross for

anyone who will believe, and yet so much of our inheritance goes

unclaimed. Today we begin a journey of looking at our

inheritance.