December 7, 2025 • 52 mins
In Song Of Simeon, part two of the Expecting series, Mark Medley opens Luke 2:21–35 and shows why one elderly worshiper could hear God in a long silence, recognize the Messiah at first sight, and die satisfied. When Simeon lifts the infant Jesus and sings of a salvation prepared “in the presence of all peoples,” he also names the tension at the center of worship: this child will be a cornerstone for some and a stumbling stone for others. Mark frames that paradox honestly—Jesus is a sure foundation to those who trust him and an offense to those who resist his way.
Mark traces Simeon’s life of devotion—righteous, Spirit-led, grounded in Scripture—and honors Anna, the prophetess whose perseverance kept her near the presence of God. Their quiet faithfulness far from the spotlight is a template for us: corporate worship overflows with strength when private worship has already done its deep work. Simeon didn’t come to the temple to “get” the Spirit; he came in the Spirit. That posture still opens doors.
The message also names a thief of worship: offense. Unmet expectations, confusing seasons, and delayed promises can cool our praise. Mark walks through the story of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 to show what persistent faith looks like when faced with a hard word—she climbs over the stumbling stone and finds mercy on the other side. God is not cruel; he is revealing what rules our hearts so he can heal it.
To help us bring a true sacrifice of praise, Mark offers a simple framework he calls PRIME. Prepare throughout the week so Sunday isn’t culture shock. Repent quickly, standing in the cleansing of 1 John 1:9, so accusation can’t mute your voice. Invest your whole self—voice, body, attention, encouragement, even your broken heart. Minister to God by fixing your attention on Jesus and starving audience distraction. Enter in quickly from the first note; don’t wait for your favorite song.
Mark closes with the deepest contrast of all: Lucifer grasping upward—“I will ascend”—and Jesus pouring himself out in humility to death on a cross. That is the heartbeat of Christmas and the reason heaven exalts the Lamb. We don’t bring sacrifices to earn acceptance; we bring them because we are already accepted in Christ. If you’re ready to move from spectator to participant and guard your praise from distraction and offense, watch and step in with courage and joy.
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Mark Medley (00:05):
This is our second uh sermon in our Christmas
series, which is calledExpecting.
I thought it was just kind of alittle bit funny this morning
because Brooke was playing theguitar.
You know, Brooke is expecting.
And uh in just a few weeks, andit was just funny that she was
playing the guitar off to herside like this because she
couldn't play it like this.
(00:25):
That was beautiful, actually.
Um but this this series is aboutuh Christmas, but it's really
about growing to uh growing inour on our journey of learning
how to worship Jesus better andbecome a better, better
worshiper of Jesus.
So we're learning through thesongs of the Christmas story how
to expect Jesus to speak to us.
(00:47):
And whether we're in our familyin worship uh at home or
individual worship in home or acorporate gathering here.
So last week we learned fromZechariah's song, how we can
enter into worship and hear God.
Zechariah heard the voice ofGod.
Um and this week we're studyinga different, another uh kind of
(01:08):
a character that gets overlookedsometimes, but he has a song
too.
His name is Simeon, and he's aman who knew God and he heard
the voice of God, and hededicated himself to the service
of God and to the temple and hada lifestyle of worship, and out
of that came this song thatbrought glory to God.
So if you'll read with me inLuke in chapter 2, starting
(01:31):
verse 21, let's read Simeon'ssong and the story around it.
And at the end of eight days,when he was circumcised, he was
called Jesus, the name given bythe angel before he was
conceived in the womb.
And when the time came for theirpurification according to the
law of Moses, they brought himup to Jerusalem to present him
(01:55):
to the Lord, as it is written inthe law of the Lord, every male
who opens the womb shall becalled holy to the Lord, and to
offer a sacrifice according towhat is said in the law of the
Lord, a pair of turtle doves, ortwo pigeons, two young pigeons.
Now there was a man in Jerusalemwhose name was Simeon, and this
(02:16):
man was righteous and devout,waiting for the consolation of
Israel, and the Holy Spirit wasupon him, and it had been
revealed to him by the HolySpirit that he would not see
death before he had seen theLord's Christ.
And he came in the Spirit intothe temple, and when the parents
brought in the child Jesus to dofor him according to the custom
(02:39):
of Allah, he took him up in hisarms, and he blessed God and
said, Lord, now you're lettingyour servant depart in peace
according to your word.
For my eyes have seen yoursalvation that you have prepared
in the presence of all peoples.
A light for the revelation tothe Gentiles, and for glory to
(03:05):
your people Israel.
And his father and his mothermarveled at what was said about
him, and Simeon blessed them andsaid to Mary, his mother,
Behold, this child is appointedfor the fall and rising of many
in Israel, and for a sign thatis opposed.
(03:27):
And a sword will pierce throughyour own soul also, so that the
thoughts from many hearts may berevealed.
Father, this morning we thankyou for your word, and we pray
that through your holy sonJesus, the thoughts of all of us
would be revealed.
(03:49):
That you would go into thedepths of our hearts, the
thoughts and intentions of ourhearts.
Let your word divide, and youwould speak to us, Lord, as you
want to this morning.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Okay, so here in the midst ofthe Christmas story, we see uh
this song rising out of theheart of this servant of God, a
(04:11):
man who devoted himself to God,devoted himself to the temple,
who leaned in close to Jesus tohear the heartbeat of Jesus, and
who even was given a promise bythe Holy Spirit.
And you know that's that happenswhen you're that kind of a
(04:32):
person, when you're a person wholeans in, who is devoted to the
Lord, God gives promises tothose people.
He gives privileges to such aperson.
Even today he does.
Simeon was a man who knew God inhis daily life and even knew him
further in his worship in thetemple.
So he's not the only one,though, in the story.
(04:54):
If we read a little further,we'd also see that Anna was
involved in this.
She didn't have a song, or atleast she didn't have a song
that Luke recorded for us, butshe was just as devoted as
Simeon was.
And she was a widow, advanced inyears, a prophetess, it says,
who apparently lived in thetemple, it says, and worshiped
(05:15):
the Lord with fasting andpraying.
And she also came into the sceneat the exact same time that
Joseph and Mary brought Jesusin.
Here comes Simeon, here comesAnna, here comes uh the parents
of Jesus all into the temple.
First of all, I'm reallygrateful for the seasoned saints
(05:35):
of God, older people who arefaithful to come to church to
serve in the church.
And um, we have some Annas andSimeons here today.
You know that?
We've got some really faithfulpeople, and the scripture says
to give honor to whom honor isdue.
And so um, we're not gonna callyou up, but uh we want to honor
you.
We want to thank you foreverything that you do, your
(05:57):
service, your faithful servicethrough the years, and you know
who you are, and uh if you don'tfeel old enough, just ignore
that.
But if you feel old enough, thenwe want to honor you.
We thank you for valuing thechurch, valuing the kingdom of
God.
And you know how to worship yourLord with your entire lives,
(06:20):
with all of who you are.
And so thank you for beingdedicated to him and to his
church.
But everyone in the story isgathered around the temple.
Everyone in the story had acustom of going to church.
They attended church.
And so this morning, uh, asbecause they valued the
gathering of the saintstogether, we're gonna talk about
gathering together in worship.
(06:41):
We're gonna talk about worshipthis morning, but specifically
when we gather here in corporateworship together.
And um, so let's see what theLord can speak to us out of this
verse, this passage concerningthat.
So you know that worship, as wesaid last week, is a revelation.
It's a response, and it's arelationship.
God, in his kindness, opens ourhearts to see him, opens our
(07:05):
eyes to see him in differentways, and that causes response
to come from us.
It's a response from our soul,our spirit, our minds, our
bodies.
We respond in some way as we seehim, and that response
eventually it leaks out into ourentire life.
And so it's really arelationship.
The whole point of it all, ofworship, is relationship with
(07:28):
God.
Right?
And God revealed himself toSimon, to Simeon.
We see him as God revealedhimself as a God of purpose
because he said he has a missionnot only to the Jews, but to the
Gentiles.
And we see that God revealedhimself even, he revealed a
little secret to Simeon.
(07:48):
Right?
You're not gonna die until yousee uh the Christ.
And the response of Simeon was alifestyle of worship that he
brought into the temple, and umhe was moved by the Spirit.
It says, moved by the Spirit, hewent to the temple.
So this was his pattern.
(08:09):
His pattern of living was beingfaithful to attend church.
We could say it that way.
And his relationship was that hewas devoted to God.
So Simeon means the one whohears and obeys.
That's what his word, his namemeans.
One who hears and obeys.
So when we say that he has arelationship with God, we mean a
(08:30):
few things.
First, we mean that he had awalk with God.
A walk with God, scripture fromthe beginning of Genesis all the
way through the end of theBible, there's this word in
there, walk, which which has uhis application toward our
relationship with God.
It's a walk.
It's and a walk is, as you allknow, because you walked in here
(08:52):
today, is a step and a step anda step, right?
It is taking steps day by day.
It is making decisions day byday, little decisions on a
journey with Christ.
Little decisions that are thatare consistent with your
commitment to God, and more thanthat, consistent grounded in his
(09:14):
commitment to you.
Because he's committed to you,you commit to him.
That's a walk.
We take step, step, step, takingsteps of obedience, um, honoring
the Lord day by day.
And this is what we see inSimeon.
He was full of the Spirit, itsays, He was full of the word
because when he when he spokeand his prayer and his prophecy
(09:37):
to Mary was uh from scripture.
He's quoting the Old Testamenteven while he's speaking.
So his relationship means thathe had a walk with God, but also
his relationship means that heattended church.
He went to church regularly, heknew where to find God.
You can find God among hispeople.
His life was grounded infellowship with other people.
(10:00):
And also his relationship meansthat he heard God.
And he heard God when God wasmostly silent.
Because there had been 400 yearsof silence between the last time
a prophet spoke from God and thetime that Jesus came was 400
years.
No official word through a majorprophet is recorded there.
(10:26):
And yet this man was tuned in tothe Holy Spirit.
When there was a famine of theword of God in the land, he
still heard the voice of God.
He heard the promise that wasspoken to him.
So Simeon knew the voice of Godspeaking from the scriptures,
and he knew the voice of Godspeaking to his own heart, his
own spirit.
And he responded.
(10:47):
He kept the light, the lamp ofprophecy burning even when there
was no prophecy in the land.
It was almost snuffed out, butit wasn't.
And those who are devoted to Godcan hear his voice.
And then he responded to Godimmediately.
This is interesting.
God spoke to him and heresponded right away.
(11:10):
As he walked with God, he lookedfor the fulfillment of that
prophecy.
It says he was expecting theconsolation of Israel.
So he was expecting, just likewe're expecting, he had a
promise from God, as all as didall the Jews, that there would
be a Messiah who would come, whowould save them.
And so he was expecting thatprophecy to come to pass,
(11:32):
especially because God said,You're not going to die until
you see this.
He had a little incentive to goto the temple.
So God moves in timing.
God has perfect timing for hispurposes.
And this is why it's importantfor us to, when we hear him, to
respond immediately.
(11:54):
Anna came to the temple, Simeoncame to the temple.
Joseph and Mary came to thetemple, and there's where this
whole story converges.
But they're responding to God.
First time obedience is reallyimportant.
Okay?
And those of you who havechildren and you're trying your
best to get your kids to obeyyou the first time, there's this
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principle of obedience, right?
It's not obedience unless youactually do what's told.
So do what I say, do all that Isay, do it when I say it, do it
with a happy spirit.
This is this is our goal, okay?
This is what we're going for.
You don't have doesn't happenimmediately, but this is what
(12:38):
we're going for.
And we train our children to dothis because we want them to
also respond to God that way.
When they learn to hear God'svoice, they do it completely,
immediately with a happy spirit.
So what you're doing in uh intraining your children to
obedience is you're trainingthem to obey God.
(12:59):
If you don't train them toobedience, you're training them
to disobey God.
Because God says to them, theonly real commandment that He
gives to them is honor yourfather and mother.
So we have to hold the standardof obedience to teach them to
honor their parents so they'reobeying God and that they hear
God's voice later on.
(13:21):
And then Simeon's relationshipwith God, his being faithful to
God, led him to the point wherehis faith became sight.
He saw and he held the promisedMessiah in his arms.
I don't know what that was like.
It must have been must have beenbeautiful.
Must have been beautiful.
But he held the promise in hishand.
(13:42):
We don't always get to hold thepromise in our arms.
Sometimes God moves a littledifferent way, or sometimes
we're praying for somethingthat's going to come up, come to
pass in a time later, you know.
But sometimes we do get to holdthe promise of God in our arms.
And Simeon did.
And as he held the Messiah, hisheart just burst out into this
(14:04):
song.
And his song tells us a lotabout him.
His song says that he understoodthat God is in control.
God is sovereign, he keeps hispromise, and that he understood
mission.
God has got a big plan.
God is not only concerned withthe Jews, but also with all the
nations, including us today.
(14:27):
He was praising God, and hispraise turned into prophecy.
Remember, last week we talkedabout, we talked about how as we
praise, the voice of God beginssometimes to move prophetically.
And this is what happened.
He's just focused on God andwhat God has done.
And then he turns and has thisprophecy to Mary.
He turns to Mary and he says,This child is for the rising and
the falling of many in Israel,so that the hearts of many would
(14:52):
be revealed.
So, a lifestyle of worship withGod, one of the things that
happens is God begins to revealour hearts.
As we love him, he loves us, andhe wants to turn our hearts more
toward him so that we live theblessed life he wants us to
(15:14):
live.
So Simeon was quoting a prophecyhere.
I don't know if you caught that,but he was quoting from Isaiah
chapter 8, the Messiah would bea stumbling stone, a rock of
offense.
But Isaiah also prophesied thatthe Messiah was going to be a
foundation.
I lay in Zion, this is inchapter 28, I lay in Zion a
(15:37):
stone, a tested stone, aprecious cornerstone, a sure
foundation.
So the Messiah was going to be asure foundation and a stone of
stumbling.
Wow, how does that work?
It sounds a little strange tous, doesn't it?
That the rock that is ourfoundation is also a stone of
(16:00):
stumbling for others.
And it depends on your heart.
The state of your heart.
So I'm I would say 100% surethat everyone here has been
offended by a person.
Is that right?
Is anybody not?
I'm looking.
(16:21):
Okay.
Never been offended by a person.
Okay.
All right.
Okay.
Well, I know that's not true.
Yeah, it's yeah, you have.
But have you been offended byGod?
Have you ever faced acircumstance in your life that
you could not reconcile with theconcept of a loving and
(16:43):
sovereign God?
He's full of love, He's full of,He's in control, and yet this is
happening.
Have you ever been offended byGod?
Have you ever experienced thingsthat have shaken your faith?
If not, I think maybe youhaven't followed very far.
Because this is the way ofthings.
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It's the normal way of things.
Jesus is a sure foundation, buthe is also a stumbling stone.
And sometimes, sometimes Godwill throw down a little rock, a
little stumbling stone to testour hearts.
It's not cruel.
It's wise.
(17:26):
And it's good.
It's out of the goodness of hisheart.
He wants to reveal our ownhearts to ourselves, to us.
He wants us to mature.
He wants to move us further intohis purposes, but it doesn't
feel like that when it'shappening.
It just feels like I'm offendedwith God.
The religious leaders who wereopposing Jesus and the common
(17:50):
people who heard Jesus gladlywere oftentimes in the same
crowd as Jesus was talking.
And one group was deeplyoffended by his words.
And the other group were filledwith hope and joy and wonder at
his words.
And Simeon says, Behold, thischild is appointed for the
(18:11):
rising and the falling of manyin Israel, that the hearts of
many would be revealed.
The word of God divides asundereven the soul and spirit and the
thoughts and intents of ourhearts.
So I was thinking about thatthis week, and I thought about
the story that Matthew told usin Matthew 15.
Do you remember it was aCanaanite woman, a
(18:32):
Syropharenician woman who cameto Jesus, and she had a daughter
who was being oppressed severelyby the devil, and she came to
Jesus because she believed Jesuscould do something about it.
And she said, Jesus, would youplease heal my daughter?
And Jesus said, I was only sentto the house of Israel.
(18:54):
And it's not good to take thebread that belongs to the
children and give it to thedogs.
Okay, what is he saying?
Is he calling her a dog?
Is he being racist, the Jewsversus the Gentiles?
What's he doing here?
What is that?
It's like if we if we callpeople up for prayer at the end
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of the service, you know, wehave a whole line of people, and
it's like, okay, we're we'regonna pray for healing.
Whoever needs healing, comeforward.
And so we're praying.
Oh Lord, thank you.
Bring your healing completely,Lord.
We lay hands on this one.
Would you just please heal thisone?
We come to you and we go, uh,it's not for the dogs.
And we come over here to thisnext one.
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Well, what would you do?
Well, what you do reveals yourheart.
What did she do?
She said, Yes, but Lord, eventhe dogs get the crumbs from the
table.
Something falls to the ground,and the dogs get the That.
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And you know what Jesus did?
This I'm paraphrasing.
Okay.
He said, Well done.
Well done.
I see your heart.
You stepped past that stone ofstumbling.
You went with your faith overthe top of that stumbling stone.
And what you want, you're gonnaget.
And her daughter was made wholefrom that hour.
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Okay.
Okay, why does God do this?
Because God knows our hearts.
He knows where we're at, heknows what it takes to get us
from here to there, to the nextplace, to the next level of
maturity and knowledge of Himand ability to bless other
people.
So if there are things in yourlife this morning that are
(20:45):
confusing or causing you to beoffended, take a pause and ask
God, what is it?
Is there something in my heartthat you need to show me?
Do I need to change?
Is there something of my actionor my attitude or my thoughts or
the way I'm thinking about you?
Or is there something you wantto change in me?
(21:10):
Is God getting your attentionbecause there needs to be
correction?
Could be.
Simeon could have been offendedbecause it had been years and
years since he had this promise.
He's never seen the Messiah yet.
And Anna could have beenoffended because she was a
widow.
Her husband died.
And for many, many years.
She's by herself.
(21:31):
She could have been offended,but she came to church.
And she saw the Savior.
Offense.
They were in the temple, they'repushing past their offense, and
they're not letting it stealtheir worship.
And this is the thing thismorning.
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Offenses, it's one of the majorthings that steal our worship to
God.
We get offended at God or atpeople, and we let that get in
the way of our worship.
And Satan is a thief of worship.
He's a thief.
If you look at the origin ofSatan in the scripture, there's
(22:14):
some passages in Isaiah 14 andEzekiel 28 that talk about
Lucifer, about how he fell, howwhat he was before, and how he
fell.
And apparently, there's a littlebit of mystery here, but
apparently there's an indicationthat he was like an anointed
archangel that covered thethrone of God and was was um
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part of his job was taking theworship of all creation and
reflecting it back down to Goduntil he decided to take a
little bit of that for himself.
He was exalted in his own beautyand in his own eyes, and he he
was lifted up.
And the scripture says, You saidin your heart, I will ascend
(23:00):
into heaven above the stars ofGod, I will set my throne on
high, I will sit on the mount ofthe assembly, I will ascend
above the heights in the clouds,I will make myself like the most
high.
But you are brought down,brought down to hell, to the far
reaches of the pit.
(23:21):
You see, his heart was, I will,I think I deserve a little bit
of this credit.
I mean, look at me.
I'm pretty special.
I'm an angel over the throne ofGod.
So he was lifted up in hisbeauty.
He decided to reach out andsteal some of that, which was
(23:43):
only deservedly goes to God.
And he wanted to take some forhimself.
And that is the reason that hefell.
And so that's not that's what hestill does.
He still does this thing tryingto steal worship.
He tries to steal our worshipnow.
And he has many tactics he triesto do to steal what rightfully
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belongs to God.
And remember the story that weread this morning takes place in
the temple where we gathertogether and worship like a
church building.
So, how can we guard ourselvesagainst our worship being stolen
when we're together?
How can we bring an acceptablesacrifice to worship God
(24:26):
together?
I'm glad you asked.
A lot of people fail toexperience the fullness of what
God wants them to have inworship because they fail to
prepare and bring a sacrifice.
You know, in the Old Testament,nobody ever came to worship God
without bringing something.
There were offerings they weresupposed to bring.
So they brought the offeringthat was prescribed.
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They brought it the best theycould afford.
Sometimes you have provisionsfor people who are poorer.
You can bring this or you canbring this, whichever one you
can do.
And so they're bringingwhatever's specifically
prescribed, the best they canafford.
Like David said, I will notoffer to God something that
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costs me nothing.
This is the attitude of aworshiper.
I want to bring something.
How can we worship him in thatsame spirit?
How can we have that attitude?
I want to bring something toGod.
For all that God has done forme, I will come not only to
receive, I will come to give.
I'll bring something, bring asacrifice.
Now, we know we don't bring asacrifice to God, excuse me, to
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be right with God.
There's already a sacrifice forthat.
It's Jesus Christ, the righteousone, who was offered for us the
perfect sacrifice that makes usacceptable to God.
So we don't come with asacrifice so that God would
accept us.
We come because God has alreadyaccepted us in Christ, and we
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bring something out of a pureheart of motivation, of love.
So, but you but we are calledupon to bring something when we
come to worship.
So I want to give you somepractical steps this morning
about how to prepare yourself,how to bring a sacrifice when
we're worshiping together.
Okay.
So I may try to make it easy foryou.
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So I made it into an acronymacronym.
And it's in the letters spellout the word prime, P-R-I-M-E,
prime, as if you were going toprime your praise pump.
Okay.
So we're going to prime ourpraise pump this morning or
learn how to do it.
You know what a pump is, right?
You remember the old, is anybodyanybody used an old pump?
I mean, now we just turn thefaucet on, right?
This is like that's not reallymuch.
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But but it, you know, if youhave a pump and a well and
there's there's water under theground and you got to get it up,
and you have to prime the pump afew pumps so the water comes up.
Then the water's there and it'sready and it's flowing, right?
But you got to do a little bitof work to get that water up
here.
Okay, so we're gonna talk aboutpriming your praise pump this
morning.
So P is for prepare.
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Prepare.
Now it says of Simeon, there wasa man in Jerusalem whose name
was Simeon, and this man wasrighteous and devoted.
Devoted or devout.
He was devout.
So that means if you're devotedto something, it means you,
your, you, your life revolvesaround that something.
Whatever it is.
(27:22):
There's some people who are sodevoted to their own hobby,
whatever the hobby is, that liketheir whole life is focused on
that.
All of their time, all of theirenergy, much of their money,
it's poured into whateverthey're devoted to.
He was devoted to God.
He was not just coming to thetemple out of habit, he brought
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his habit to the temple.
Okay, that's that's good.
You guys, yeah, I'll leave thatup there a minute.
Maybe you want to take a pictureof that.
That's good.
He wasn't coming to church outof habit, he was bringing his
habit to the temple.
He came by the spirit into thetemple.
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He was doing, he, what healready was, he brought there.
He didn't come there to get thespirit, he lived in the spirit
and he came to the temple.
That's that's called preparing.
That's called your lifestyle dayby day makes you into the person
that you are, and you bring thatperson into church.
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And together, it's powerful whenyou do that.
He was already ready before hecame.
So, how can we prepare?
All week long, stay in anattitude of worship.
Play some worship music duringthe day.
Worship the Lord.
Um, let the word of Christ dwellin you richly.
Be sensitive to the mind of theLord.
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Walk with God.
And this way you come into theservice with an idea of what God
is already speaking.
You'll never get the most out ofyour Sunday corporate worship
experience if you're not livingday by day in worship.
So, and can I ask you, can I askyou to adjust your schedule?
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I know a lot of us are here ontime, a lot of us can't be, a
lot of us have you know kids,it's kind of hard to get here,
those kind of things.
But you can adjust yourschedule.
I mean, there's there's grace,but but you can adjust your
schedule.
Some of us go to bed really lateon a Saturday night because
there's some kind of ballgame onor something.
I don't know.
And we get up really late Sundaymorning, and like, oh my gosh,
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we're running through theshower, we're grabbing something
to eat or not eat, just grab acup of coffee or something, and
maybe get the kids together andlike in the car, and you're
driving slightly over the speedlimit to get here, and you get
here and you're a little bitlate, so you gotta park up
there, and then you gotta walkin.
You slide in the back door backhere, uh, and the during the
third song of worship, and yeah,and then you're okay.
(30:02):
Oh, what is this I'm feeling?
Oh, yeah, it's the presence ofGod.
I felt this last week.
I remember last week, lastSunday.
This is so good.
Oh, it's over now.
It's over.
The last song is over.
Oh, you what if you came early?
I'm just uh it's just a littlesuggestion.
What if you came early?
(30:23):
So I was talking to myson-in-law Evan, who's from
Ghana this week, and he said hewas because he was an usher in a
church there, and in thechurches in the villages in
Ghana, what they'll do is whenthe worship starts, they lock
the door.
And if you come late, you youhave you're outside.
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You're standing outside.
Now, when it's over, becausethey don't want anybody to like
distract in worship, and thenthe worship is over, they'll
unlock the door, you can come inand hear the preaching, but you
have to stand outside.
It's a little bit awkward.
So we're gonna institute policynext week.
I think if it's good enough forAfrica, it's good for here, man.
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So it's gonna be our littlecounter's gonna go five, four,
three, two, one, click.
And if you're not in, you'reout.
And you have to be out there inthe cold, and then after the
worship's over, we'll we mightlet you in.
No, we're not gonna do that.
We we're not gonna do that, butwhat if you came early?
(31:28):
That's all I'm really saying.
What if you came early andready?
What if you brought your habitto the temple?
Once you're prepared, your wholesacrifice is already prepared,
your mind is in the spiritbefore you come.
What if you live it all weeklong?
What if you're accustomed to itwhen you walk in?
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Yeah, there's no culture shock.
This is what preparing does.
It saves you, prevents us fromSunday morning culture shock.
Oh, oh, this is the spirit ofGod.
This is the presence of God.
I love it.
You can have that all week long,by the way.
It keeps culture shock fromstealing our worship.
Okay, P.
R is for repent.
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Repent.
It's now again, it says ofSimeon.
There was a right there was aman in Jerusalem whose name was
Simeon.
This man was righteous anddevout.
Righteous.
Righteous and devout.
Simeon was right with God.
He came in right with God.
And a lot of us are hinderedfrom the presence of God because
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of a guilty conscience.
You know, we do have an accuser.
And he talks a lot.
And even if we didn't, some ofus have our own little thoughts
in our head.
We're accusing, we getaccusation from both sides.
And we're all feeling a littlebit guilty.
We have a guilty conscience, ormaybe we have a maybe I'm
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possibly guilty conscious.
You know, I can't think ofanything I've done, but I just
surely there's something, and II don't, I just somehow feel
like I'm I'm guilty all thetime.
Some people sort of live thatway.
So what's the answer?
1 John 1 9.
If we confess our sins, he isfaithful and just to forgive us
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of our sins and cleanse us fromall unrighteousness.
He is faithful.
Oh, but I haven't been faithful.
But he is faithful.
And we try to, we walk in thelight, but if we sin, we repent
quickly.
And he's faithful and just toforgive us for our sins and
cleanse us.
He wipes it clean.
He wipes it clean.
You can you can live in thecleanness of God.
(33:37):
This is what Jesus has done forus.
We're grounded in the grace ofGod.
We approach his throne throughthe blood of Christ.
This is it.
We restore our relationship withGod quickly, or our relationship
with our brother or sister, orwife quickly.
We do it quickly so that thisaccusation of the enemy is not
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stealing our worship.
So repentance preventsaccusation from stealing your
worship.
So I is invest, P-R-I, invest.
Look what it says about Jesus'parents.
They brought him up to Jerusalemto present him to the Lord, to
offer the sacrifice according towhat is said in the law of the
Lord, two pair turtle doves ortwo young pigeons.
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Okay, they didn't comeempty-handed.
The law required them to bring asacrifice.
And so they did.
They did.
Now we understand Jesus is oursacrifice, but I want to ask
you, what sacrifice did youbring here this morning?
Or did you come with a mindsetof bringing something this
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morning?
I'm going to invest in thisservice.
I'm not just coming to receive,I'm coming to invest.
When you invest, you have aninterest in what you invest in.
And you're looking for a returnon your investment.
And so when you invest in theservice by preparing beforehand,
(35:07):
by coming in with an attitude ofbringing something to the Lord.
What did you bring this morning?
Maybe you brought the fruit ofyour lips to give thanks.
Maybe it's your words.
Maybe it is your heart ofservice to help your brothers or
your sisters or encourage them.
You invest with your body.
You know it's scriptural.
(35:27):
What we do, uh there'sscriptural forms of worship.
When you're clapping, this is inthe Bible.
Oh, clap your hands, all youpeople.
Clap to the Lord.
When you're singing, when youare lifting your hands, this is
in the Bible.
When we're kneeling, it's in theBible.
When there's times of silence,all of these are forms of
worship.
And we are investing with ourbody.
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You know, sometimes because someof you probably don't think you
sing real well, and so you justdon't sing.
This is a sacrifice that you canbring to God.
You can sing.
And I'll I'll just tell youprobably the people around you
are gonna be okay if you don'tsing good.
They'll probably be okay.
(36:08):
They'll be all right.
They'll just say, Bless hisheart.
What a joyful noise he's making.
So invest with your body.
Go ahead and open up and investin this service.
Don't just don't just spectateand watch people up here
singing.
Sing! Man, open up your mouth,let her rip, man.
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Let's go.
One person is at I sing byletter.
Open my mouth and let her fly.
Go for it, man.
Go for it.
What do you bring?
What about your broken heart?
You can bring a broken heart anda contrite spirit.
You can lift your hands when youcan hardly lift them, but you do
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anyway.
Man, it's a beautiful form ofworship.
It's a beautiful sacrifice.
Maybe it's the most beautifulkind of sacrifice.
First Corinthians 14 says, whenyou come together, everyone has
everyone, every one of you has apsalm or a scripture or an
encouragement.
So let everything be donedecently in order.
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Okay, so we've got if we've got250 or 300 people here, we can't
let everybody sing a song one byone.
They were doing it in smallergroups.
But you do have something tobring, you have something to
invest in.
What he was saying was, you havea part.
It's not just coming to watchother people do it.
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So when you want to invest yourbody and your prayer time and
your and for the kingdom of Godand to see his will be done,
give yourself to the body ofbelievers that you're a part of,
commit to this church.
This is all this is allinvesting.
And it prevents apathy andlaziness from stealing your
worship.
(37:58):
M is minister to God.
Minister to God.
Simeon took him up in his armsand he blessed God.
He took the Messiah, the Savior,the promise he was given, you
won't die till you see thischild.
He took the child in his armsand he gave thanks to God.
He focused on God.
When we talk about minister toGod, we're saying, we're saying
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our focus is on Jesus when weworship.
The glory and the pleasure ofGod is our only focus here.
Do you remember last week we wetalked about uh Exodus 15, the
very first song in the Bible?
And the very first words of thevery first song is I will sing
to the Lord.
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This is the focus.
The focus is to the Lord.
It's about all that He has done.
It's all of us together.
That's what it was there.
But it was I will sing to theLord, fixing our eyes on Jesus,
ministering to him and worship.
And I'll just say this.
Um of us here suffer from ADD,and not the kind of ADD that
(39:06):
you're thinking about.
I'm talking about audiencedistraction disorder.
You know, because you especiallyif you're not, you know, if it's
one reason sitting in the frontis great because you don't get
so distracted, but you're backthere, it's like you're looking
around and you're like, well,there's brother so-and-so now.
I wonder how it's going on.
I need to talk to themafterwards, and it's just it's
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you're it's audience distractiondisorder, right?
Can't seem to keep from lookingaround at what's going on around
you.
If you need to, move up front.
There's some seats.
It's okay.
This is it's a good thing wherethere are fewer distractions.
And don't worry about whatpeople are thinking about you
because they probably aren't.
I hate to break it to you, butthey probably aren't.
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One time we had this uh uh thisis many, many years ago back on
Dedrick Avenue, Jack.
We had this great service oneSunday night, and I mean.
The worship just took over, andthe presence of God was so
strong, and we worshiped forover two hours.
It was just nothing but worshipthe whole night.
It was, it was powerful andthick, and the presence of God
(40:12):
was so beautiful.
And I was in the middle of thestage, you know, because I was
leading from a guitar, and fortwo hours plus, and right over
the top of me was the words.
And so it looks like the strangethings is when you're here on
stage and everybody's readingthe words, it looks like they're
looking right at you.
Yeah.
They're not, but it looks likethey are.
And it's like, so I'm rightthere.
And I'm leading worship, andthis is such a powerful thing.
(40:34):
And for so long, it was likeimpactful.
And then the next morning, Iremember we came into the
office, and somebody said, Oh,we had such a great service last
night.
Were you here?
And it was beautiful because itlike set me free.
You know, because you think, oh,they're all looking at me for
(40:56):
two hours.
It's like, Were you even here?
Oh, this is great.
Probably people aren't reallythinking that much about you as
much as you think.
Okay.
So raise your hands.
Sing.
Minister to God.
Okay.
This prevents distractions fromthe service itself from stealing
your worship.
Okay, last one, E.
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Enter in quickly.
Jump right in.
It says of Simeon, he came inthe spirit into the temple.
Okay, as we said before, hedidn't come to the temple to
experience the spirit.
He came in the spirit to thetemple.
He was already there, guys.
(41:38):
He was already worshiping beforehe even got here.
You know, worship is, you know,worship is about spirit and
truth.
It's about the heart, right?
You carry this around in yourheart.
It's not about the location orthe style of music or anything,
but we come together, we carrythis worship in our heart.
Don't wait until your favoritesong is played.
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Because what if they don't playit this week?
What are you gonna do?
Not worship?
And what is God's favorite song?
Of course, he likes the one Ilike.
My favorite song is his favoritesong, of course, right?
And so we all just, oh, just notgonna we'll just tolerate all
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those other songs, and we'll getto the one I like, and then I'm
gonna go for it.
Come on.
Enter in quickly, jump in, gofor it.
Right from the first song, no,right from the first verse,
first word, first chord, boom.
I'm here.
I'm here in worship right now.
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You don't have to warm me up.
It doesn't take three songs.
I'm gonna do it right from thestart.
Let her rip.
Let's do it.
Do whatever you do, do itheartily unto the Lord, right?
Okay.
This sets you in a place tointeract with God and other
people here right from the verybeginning.
Okay, so, all right, prime, yourpraise pump.
(43:05):
Prepare, repent, invest,minister to God, enter in
quickly.
This helps us to bring somethingto the Lord, and it helps, it
prepares our hearts and ourbodies, and we guard against
Satan stealing our worship.
He can't steal it unless you lethim have it.
(43:26):
He doesn't have any authority,and he doesn't deserve it.
So don't let him.
So when we glorify God and webecome part of what he's doing
right now, how he's moving amongus today, we're participators,
not spectators.
This is great.
Okay.
So let me end by this.
Because a question came to me asI was studying this this week,
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and I thought, why, what is it,what is it about about Simeon's
understanding of God?
Why did Simeon think God wasworth devoting his life to?
Outside the temple and insidethe temple.
This is a man righteous anddevout, and he came and he lived
this lifestyle of worship.
(44:07):
Why did he think it was worthit?
And I think he thought it wasworth it because he knew there
was a Messiah coming.
As we talked last week, all theJewish people had their own
advent going on.
They were waiting for the comingof a Messiah.
This was in their psyche.
Expecting was part of theirliving.
(44:30):
They were ready, or they werelooking for this Messiah.
And so Simeon saw that God had apurpose in making his salvation
known, not only to the Jews, butalso to the Gentiles, to us here
today.
And Simeon waited for thisMessiah who would deliver his
people from their sins and builda living temple, a holy dwelling
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place, like the prophets hadspoken of.
Gathering called out ones intothis Messiah, a dwelling place
for God.
So let me tell you why the focusof heaven is on a lamb and what
the lamb has done.
I read a passage to you beforefrom Isaiah about the rebellion
(45:18):
of Lucifer against God.
And let me finish today byreading this other passage,
which is actually a song thatthe early church sang.
It's in Philippians chapter 2,starting at verse 5.
Have this mind among yourselves,which is yours in Christ Jesus,
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who, though he was in the formof God, did not count equality
with God a thing to be grasped,but he emptied himself by taking
the form of a servant, beingborn in the likeness of men,
being found in human form, hehumbled himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death,even death on a cross.
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Simeon's song was so full ofglory to God because he
understood the significance ofthis Messiah who was coming, who
he would hold in his arms.
And the heart of Jesus could notbe more opposite than the heart
of Lucifer.
They're totally poles apart.
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Lucifer said, I will be likeGod.
Jesus said, I will let go of myequality with God.
Lucifer said, I will ascend toheaven.
And Jesus said, I will leaveheaven.
I will take the throne.
I will take the form of a man.
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I will take on the likeness ofGod.
I will take on the likeness of aman.
I will be Lord of all.
I will be servant of all.
I will exalt myself.
I will humble myself.
(47:12):
Pour myself out.
I will impose my will.
I will surrender to the will ofmy father.
And this is the message ofChristmas.
God has come to earth as a baby.
(47:36):
This man, Jesus Christ, is boththe stone of stumbling and the
sure foundation.
God does things differently.
He does things sometimesbackwards in the way we think
because he's wise.
And he sent Christ to humblehimself, to take on himself the
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form of man.
Christ humbled himself so thatwe could be lifted into
fellowship with God.
And this is why God has exaltedhim and given him a name above
every name.
And every knee will bow inheaven and earth and under the
earth.
And every tongue confessed thathe is Lord to the glory of God
the Father.
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And Simeon understood this.
This is why his song out of hislife became a praise.
And Simeon died as a satisfiedman.
Because he saw and he held thepromise of God.
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So this morning, come on, comeon up, guys.
This morning, are you are yousatisfied?
Could you die a satisfied personright now?
I think there's a differencebetween contentment and
satisfied.
Sometimes we can be content inour hearts and yet not quite
satisfied because we believe Godis pulling us into something
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more than we are.
But I want to tell you thismorning, there's a promised
Messiah that you can not onlyhold in your hands, you can hold
him in your heart.
You can have him in your heart.
And you can live and dieeventually as a satisfied person
(49:33):
because this Messiah is in yourheart.
This is the message ofChristmas.
You can see his salvation inyour life today.
Right now.
You don't need to go further.
You don't need one more day.
You don't need one more day tobe satisfied.
Today, right now.
Today's the day of salvation.
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Right now.
If you hear the Lord calling outto you, it's not hard.
Yes, Lord.
Yes, Lord.
I surrender.
I surrender.
Your lives can change.
So I want to end since we'retalking about corporate worship
(50:15):
by worshiping.
But I want to pray for youfirst.
You can stand with me.
Lord, thank you for thisMessiah.
Thank you that we don't have toattend church to be accepted.
We don't have to worship acertain way to appease you or so
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you'll love us more.
We love you because you firstlove us.
But Lord, we want to refresh ourcommitment to you this morning.
We want to say yes to you.
For those who are hearing yourvoice calling them, Lord, I'm
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asking that you would draw theminto a place of repentance and
salvation to you.
If they would just say, Yes,Lord, I believe in you, I
receive you.
Jesus, you are Lord.
I see.
You died for me.
You rose again for me, and Ibelieve in you.
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For those of us who believethat, Lord, we want to turn from
any offense that steals ourworship, turn from any excuses,
turn from our pride, turn fromour good works.
We want to ask you to receivethis worship that we have in our
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hearts for you.
Lord, we want to pray that youwould make us worshipers that
are just day-by-day worshipers,Lord.
So when we come together, itexplodes because we've had it
all week long.
We've lived in it.
And we just lift our offering ofpraise up to you.
As we end this morning, Lord, wejust end with our focus on you.
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We minister to you.
We look to Jesus.
We glorify Jesus.
In Jesus' name, amen.
This is our second uh sermon in our Christmas
series, which is calledExpecting.
I thought it was just kind of alittle bit funny this morning
because Brooke was playing theguitar.
You know, Brooke is expecting.
And uh in just a few weeks, andit was just funny that she was
playing the guitar off to herside like this because she
couldn't play it like this.
(00:25):
That was beautiful, actually.
Um but this this series is aboutuh Christmas, but it's really
about growing to uh growing inour on our journey of learning
how to worship Jesus better andbecome a better, better
worshiper of Jesus.
So we're learning through thesongs of the Christmas story how
to expect Jesus to speak to us.
(00:47):
And whether we're in our familyin worship uh at home or
individual worship in home or acorporate gathering here.
So last week we learned fromZechariah's song, how we can
enter into worship and hear God.
Zechariah heard the voice ofGod.
Um and this week we're studyinga different, another uh kind of
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a character that gets overlookedsometimes, but he has a song
too.
His name is Simeon, and he's aman who knew God and he heard
the voice of God, and hededicated himself to the service
of God and to the temple and hada lifestyle of worship, and out
of that came this song thatbrought glory to God.
So if you'll read with me inLuke in chapter 2, starting
(01:31):
verse 21, let's read Simeon'ssong and the story around it.
And at the end of eight days,when he was circumcised, he was
called Jesus, the name given bythe angel before he was
conceived in the womb.
And when the time came for theirpurification according to the
law of Moses, they brought himup to Jerusalem to present him
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to the Lord, as it is written inthe law of the Lord, every male
who opens the womb shall becalled holy to the Lord, and to
offer a sacrifice according towhat is said in the law of the
Lord, a pair of turtle doves, ortwo pigeons, two young pigeons.
Now there was a man in Jerusalemwhose name was Simeon, and this
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man was righteous and devout,waiting for the consolation of
Israel, and the Holy Spirit wasupon him, and it had been
revealed to him by the HolySpirit that he would not see
death before he had seen theLord's Christ.
And he came in the Spirit intothe temple, and when the parents
brought in the child Jesus to dofor him according to the custom
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of Allah, he took him up in hisarms, and he blessed God and
said, Lord, now you're lettingyour servant depart in peace
according to your word.
For my eyes have seen yoursalvation that you have prepared
in the presence of all peoples.
A light for the revelation tothe Gentiles, and for glory to
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your people Israel.
And his father and his mothermarveled at what was said about
him, and Simeon blessed them andsaid to Mary, his mother,
Behold, this child is appointedfor the fall and rising of many
in Israel, and for a sign thatis opposed.
(03:27):
And a sword will pierce throughyour own soul also, so that the
thoughts from many hearts may berevealed.
Father, this morning we thankyou for your word, and we pray
that through your holy sonJesus, the thoughts of all of us
would be revealed.
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That you would go into thedepths of our hearts, the
thoughts and intentions of ourhearts.
Let your word divide, and youwould speak to us, Lord, as you
want to this morning.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Okay, so here in the midst ofthe Christmas story, we see uh
this song rising out of theheart of this servant of God, a
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man who devoted himself to God,devoted himself to the temple,
who leaned in close to Jesus tohear the heartbeat of Jesus, and
who even was given a promise bythe Holy Spirit.
And you know that's that happenswhen you're that kind of a
(04:32):
person, when you're a person wholeans in, who is devoted to the
Lord, God gives promises tothose people.
He gives privileges to such aperson.
Even today he does.
Simeon was a man who knew God inhis daily life and even knew him
further in his worship in thetemple.
So he's not the only one,though, in the story.
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If we read a little further,we'd also see that Anna was
involved in this.
She didn't have a song, or atleast she didn't have a song
that Luke recorded for us, butshe was just as devoted as
Simeon was.
And she was a widow, advanced inyears, a prophetess, it says,
who apparently lived in thetemple, it says, and worshiped
(05:15):
the Lord with fasting andpraying.
And she also came into the sceneat the exact same time that
Joseph and Mary brought Jesusin.
Here comes Simeon, here comesAnna, here comes uh the parents
of Jesus all into the temple.
First of all, I'm reallygrateful for the seasoned saints
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of God, older people who arefaithful to come to church to
serve in the church.
And um, we have some Annas andSimeons here today.
You know that?
We've got some really faithfulpeople, and the scripture says
to give honor to whom honor isdue.
And so um, we're not gonna callyou up, but uh we want to honor
you.
We want to thank you foreverything that you do, your
(05:57):
service, your faithful servicethrough the years, and you know
who you are, and uh if you don'tfeel old enough, just ignore
that.
But if you feel old enough, thenwe want to honor you.
We thank you for valuing thechurch, valuing the kingdom of
God.
And you know how to worship yourLord with your entire lives,
(06:20):
with all of who you are.
And so thank you for beingdedicated to him and to his
church.
But everyone in the story isgathered around the temple.
Everyone in the story had acustom of going to church.
They attended church.
And so this morning, uh, asbecause they valued the
gathering of the saintstogether, we're gonna talk about
gathering together in worship.
(06:41):
We're gonna talk about worshipthis morning, but specifically
when we gather here in corporateworship together.
And um, so let's see what theLord can speak to us out of this
verse, this passage concerningthat.
So you know that worship, as wesaid last week, is a revelation.
It's a response, and it's arelationship.
God, in his kindness, opens ourhearts to see him, opens our
(07:05):
eyes to see him in differentways, and that causes response
to come from us.
It's a response from our soul,our spirit, our minds, our
bodies.
We respond in some way as we seehim, and that response
eventually it leaks out into ourentire life.
And so it's really arelationship.
The whole point of it all, ofworship, is relationship with
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God.
Right?
And God revealed himself toSimon, to Simeon.
We see him as God revealedhimself as a God of purpose
because he said he has a missionnot only to the Jews, but to the
Gentiles.
And we see that God revealedhimself even, he revealed a
little secret to Simeon.
(07:48):
Right?
You're not gonna die until yousee uh the Christ.
And the response of Simeon was alifestyle of worship that he
brought into the temple, and umhe was moved by the Spirit.
It says, moved by the Spirit, hewent to the temple.
So this was his pattern.
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His pattern of living was beingfaithful to attend church.
We could say it that way.
And his relationship was that hewas devoted to God.
So Simeon means the one whohears and obeys.
That's what his word, his namemeans.
One who hears and obeys.
So when we say that he has arelationship with God, we mean a
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few things.
First, we mean that he had awalk with God.
A walk with God, scripture fromthe beginning of Genesis all the
way through the end of theBible, there's this word in
there, walk, which which has uhis application toward our
relationship with God.
It's a walk.
It's and a walk is, as you allknow, because you walked in here
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today, is a step and a step anda step, right?
It is taking steps day by day.
It is making decisions day byday, little decisions on a
journey with Christ.
Little decisions that are thatare consistent with your
commitment to God, and more thanthat, consistent grounded in his
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commitment to you.
Because he's committed to you,you commit to him.
That's a walk.
We take step, step, step, takingsteps of obedience, um, honoring
the Lord day by day.
And this is what we see inSimeon.
He was full of the Spirit, itsays, He was full of the word
because when he when he spokeand his prayer and his prophecy
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to Mary was uh from scripture.
He's quoting the Old Testamenteven while he's speaking.
So his relationship means thathe had a walk with God, but also
his relationship means that heattended church.
He went to church regularly, heknew where to find God.
You can find God among hispeople.
His life was grounded infellowship with other people.
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And also his relationship meansthat he heard God.
And he heard God when God wasmostly silent.
Because there had been 400 yearsof silence between the last time
a prophet spoke from God and thetime that Jesus came was 400
years.
No official word through a majorprophet is recorded there.
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And yet this man was tuned in tothe Holy Spirit.
When there was a famine of theword of God in the land, he
still heard the voice of God.
He heard the promise that wasspoken to him.
So Simeon knew the voice of Godspeaking from the scriptures,
and he knew the voice of Godspeaking to his own heart, his
own spirit.
And he responded.
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He kept the light, the lamp ofprophecy burning even when there
was no prophecy in the land.
It was almost snuffed out, butit wasn't.
And those who are devoted to Godcan hear his voice.
And then he responded to Godimmediately.
This is interesting.
God spoke to him and heresponded right away.
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As he walked with God, he lookedfor the fulfillment of that
prophecy.
It says he was expecting theconsolation of Israel.
So he was expecting, just likewe're expecting, he had a
promise from God, as all as didall the Jews, that there would
be a Messiah who would come, whowould save them.
And so he was expecting thatprophecy to come to pass,
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especially because God said,You're not going to die until
you see this.
He had a little incentive to goto the temple.
So God moves in timing.
God has perfect timing for hispurposes.
And this is why it's importantfor us to, when we hear him, to
respond immediately.
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Anna came to the temple, Simeoncame to the temple.
Joseph and Mary came to thetemple, and there's where this
whole story converges.
But they're responding to God.
First time obedience is reallyimportant.
Okay?
And those of you who havechildren and you're trying your
best to get your kids to obeyyou the first time, there's this
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principle of obedience, right?
It's not obedience unless youactually do what's told.
So do what I say, do all that Isay, do it when I say it, do it
with a happy spirit.
This is this is our goal, okay?
This is what we're going for.
You don't have doesn't happenimmediately, but this is what
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we're going for.
And we train our children to dothis because we want them to
also respond to God that way.
When they learn to hear God'svoice, they do it completely,
immediately with a happy spirit.
So what you're doing in uh intraining your children to
obedience is you're trainingthem to obey God.
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If you don't train them toobedience, you're training them
to disobey God.
Because God says to them, theonly real commandment that He
gives to them is honor yourfather and mother.
So we have to hold the standardof obedience to teach them to
honor their parents so they'reobeying God and that they hear
God's voice later on.
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And then Simeon's relationshipwith God, his being faithful to
God, led him to the point wherehis faith became sight.
He saw and he held the promisedMessiah in his arms.
I don't know what that was like.
It must have been must have beenbeautiful.
Must have been beautiful.
But he held the promise in hishand.
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We don't always get to hold thepromise in our arms.
Sometimes God moves a littledifferent way, or sometimes
we're praying for somethingthat's going to come up, come to
pass in a time later, you know.
But sometimes we do get to holdthe promise of God in our arms.
And Simeon did.
And as he held the Messiah, hisheart just burst out into this
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song.
And his song tells us a lotabout him.
His song says that he understoodthat God is in control.
God is sovereign, he keeps hispromise, and that he understood
mission.
God has got a big plan.
God is not only concerned withthe Jews, but also with all the
nations, including us today.
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He was praising God, and hispraise turned into prophecy.
Remember, last week we talkedabout, we talked about how as we
praise, the voice of God beginssometimes to move prophetically.
And this is what happened.
He's just focused on God andwhat God has done.
And then he turns and has thisprophecy to Mary.
He turns to Mary and he says,This child is for the rising and
the falling of many in Israel,so that the hearts of many would
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be revealed.
So, a lifestyle of worship withGod, one of the things that
happens is God begins to revealour hearts.
As we love him, he loves us, andhe wants to turn our hearts more
toward him so that we live theblessed life he wants us to
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live.
So Simeon was quoting a prophecyhere.
I don't know if you caught that,but he was quoting from Isaiah
chapter 8, the Messiah would bea stumbling stone, a rock of
offense.
But Isaiah also prophesied thatthe Messiah was going to be a
foundation.
I lay in Zion, this is inchapter 28, I lay in Zion a
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stone, a tested stone, aprecious cornerstone, a sure
foundation.
So the Messiah was going to be asure foundation and a stone of
stumbling.
Wow, how does that work?
It sounds a little strange tous, doesn't it?
That the rock that is ourfoundation is also a stone of
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stumbling for others.
And it depends on your heart.
The state of your heart.
So I'm I would say 100% surethat everyone here has been
offended by a person.
Is that right?
Is anybody not?
I'm looking.
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Okay.
Never been offended by a person.
Okay.
All right.
Okay.
Well, I know that's not true.
Yeah, it's yeah, you have.
But have you been offended byGod?
Have you ever faced acircumstance in your life that
you could not reconcile with theconcept of a loving and
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sovereign God?
He's full of love, He's full of,He's in control, and yet this is
happening.
Have you ever been offended byGod?
Have you ever experienced thingsthat have shaken your faith?
If not, I think maybe youhaven't followed very far.
Because this is the way ofthings.
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It's the normal way of things.
Jesus is a sure foundation, buthe is also a stumbling stone.
And sometimes, sometimes Godwill throw down a little rock, a
little stumbling stone to testour hearts.
It's not cruel.
It's wise.
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And it's good.
It's out of the goodness of hisheart.
He wants to reveal our ownhearts to ourselves, to us.
He wants us to mature.
He wants to move us further intohis purposes, but it doesn't
feel like that when it'shappening.
It just feels like I'm offendedwith God.
The religious leaders who wereopposing Jesus and the common
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people who heard Jesus gladlywere oftentimes in the same
crowd as Jesus was talking.
And one group was deeplyoffended by his words.
And the other group were filledwith hope and joy and wonder at
his words.
And Simeon says, Behold, thischild is appointed for the
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rising and the falling of manyin Israel, that the hearts of
many would be revealed.
The word of God divides asundereven the soul and spirit and the
thoughts and intents of ourhearts.
So I was thinking about thatthis week, and I thought about
the story that Matthew told usin Matthew 15.
Do you remember it was aCanaanite woman, a
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Syropharenician woman who cameto Jesus, and she had a daughter
who was being oppressed severelyby the devil, and she came to
Jesus because she believed Jesuscould do something about it.
And she said, Jesus, would youplease heal my daughter?
And Jesus said, I was only sentto the house of Israel.
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And it's not good to take thebread that belongs to the
children and give it to thedogs.
Okay, what is he saying?
Is he calling her a dog?
Is he being racist, the Jewsversus the Gentiles?
What's he doing here?
What is that?
It's like if we if we callpeople up for prayer at the end
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of the service, you know, wehave a whole line of people, and
it's like, okay, we're we'regonna pray for healing.
Whoever needs healing, comeforward.
And so we're praying.
Oh Lord, thank you.
Bring your healing completely,Lord.
We lay hands on this one.
Would you just please heal thisone?
We come to you and we go, uh,it's not for the dogs.
And we come over here to thisnext one.
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Well, what would you do?
Well, what you do reveals yourheart.
What did she do?
She said, Yes, but Lord, eventhe dogs get the crumbs from the
table.
Something falls to the ground,and the dogs get the That.
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And you know what Jesus did?
This I'm paraphrasing.
Okay.
He said, Well done.
Well done.
I see your heart.
You stepped past that stone ofstumbling.
You went with your faith overthe top of that stumbling stone.
And what you want, you're gonnaget.
And her daughter was made wholefrom that hour.
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Okay.
Okay, why does God do this?
Because God knows our hearts.
He knows where we're at, heknows what it takes to get us
from here to there, to the nextplace, to the next level of
maturity and knowledge of Himand ability to bless other
people.
So if there are things in yourlife this morning that are
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confusing or causing you to beoffended, take a pause and ask
God, what is it?
Is there something in my heartthat you need to show me?
Do I need to change?
Is there something of my actionor my attitude or my thoughts or
the way I'm thinking about you?
Or is there something you wantto change in me?
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Is God getting your attentionbecause there needs to be
correction?
Could be.
Simeon could have been offendedbecause it had been years and
years since he had this promise.
He's never seen the Messiah yet.
And Anna could have beenoffended because she was a
widow.
Her husband died.
And for many, many years.
She's by herself.
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She could have been offended,but she came to church.
And she saw the Savior.
Offense.
They were in the temple, they'repushing past their offense, and
they're not letting it stealtheir worship.
And this is the thing thismorning.
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Offenses, it's one of the majorthings that steal our worship to
God.
We get offended at God or atpeople, and we let that get in
the way of our worship.
And Satan is a thief of worship.
He's a thief.
If you look at the origin ofSatan in the scripture, there's
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some passages in Isaiah 14 andEzekiel 28 that talk about
Lucifer, about how he fell, howwhat he was before, and how he
fell.
And apparently, there's a littlebit of mystery here, but
apparently there's an indicationthat he was like an anointed
archangel that covered thethrone of God and was was um
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part of his job was taking theworship of all creation and
reflecting it back down to Goduntil he decided to take a
little bit of that for himself.
He was exalted in his own beautyand in his own eyes, and he he
was lifted up.
And the scripture says, You saidin your heart, I will ascend
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into heaven above the stars ofGod, I will set my throne on
high, I will sit on the mount ofthe assembly, I will ascend
above the heights in the clouds,I will make myself like the most
high.
But you are brought down,brought down to hell, to the far
reaches of the pit.
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You see, his heart was, I will,I think I deserve a little bit
of this credit.
I mean, look at me.
I'm pretty special.
I'm an angel over the throne ofGod.
So he was lifted up in hisbeauty.
He decided to reach out andsteal some of that, which was
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only deservedly goes to God.
And he wanted to take some forhimself.
And that is the reason that hefell.
And so that's not that's what hestill does.
He still does this thing tryingto steal worship.
He tries to steal our worshipnow.
And he has many tactics he triesto do to steal what rightfully
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belongs to God.
And remember the story that weread this morning takes place in
the temple where we gathertogether and worship like a
church building.
So, how can we guard ourselvesagainst our worship being stolen
when we're together?
How can we bring an acceptablesacrifice to worship God
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together?
I'm glad you asked.
A lot of people fail toexperience the fullness of what
God wants them to have inworship because they fail to
prepare and bring a sacrifice.
You know, in the Old Testament,nobody ever came to worship God
without bringing something.
There were offerings they weresupposed to bring.
So they brought the offeringthat was prescribed.
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They brought it the best theycould afford.
Sometimes you have provisionsfor people who are poorer.
You can bring this or you canbring this, whichever one you
can do.
And so they're bringingwhatever's specifically
prescribed, the best they canafford.
Like David said, I will notoffer to God something that
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costs me nothing.
This is the attitude of aworshiper.
I want to bring something.
How can we worship him in thatsame spirit?
How can we have that attitude?
I want to bring something toGod.
For all that God has done forme, I will come not only to
receive, I will come to give.
I'll bring something, bring asacrifice.
Now, we know we don't bring asacrifice to God, excuse me, to
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be right with God.
There's already a sacrifice forthat.
It's Jesus Christ, the righteousone, who was offered for us the
perfect sacrifice that makes usacceptable to God.
So we don't come with asacrifice so that God would
accept us.
We come because God has alreadyaccepted us in Christ, and we
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bring something out of a pureheart of motivation, of love.
So, but you but we are calledupon to bring something when we
come to worship.
So I want to give you somepractical steps this morning
about how to prepare yourself,how to bring a sacrifice when
we're worshiping together.
Okay.
So I may try to make it easy foryou.
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So I made it into an acronymacronym.
And it's in the letters spellout the word prime, P-R-I-M-E,
prime, as if you were going toprime your praise pump.
Okay.
So we're going to prime ourpraise pump this morning or
learn how to do it.
You know what a pump is, right?
You remember the old, is anybodyanybody used an old pump?
I mean, now we just turn thefaucet on, right?
This is like that's not reallymuch.
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But but it, you know, if youhave a pump and a well and
there's there's water under theground and you got to get it up,
and you have to prime the pump afew pumps so the water comes up.
Then the water's there and it'sready and it's flowing, right?
But you got to do a little bitof work to get that water up
here.
Okay, so we're gonna talk aboutpriming your praise pump this
morning.
So P is for prepare.
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Prepare.
Now it says of Simeon, there wasa man in Jerusalem whose name
was Simeon, and this man wasrighteous and devoted.
Devoted or devout.
He was devout.
So that means if you're devotedto something, it means you,
your, you, your life revolvesaround that something.
Whatever it is.
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There's some people who are sodevoted to their own hobby,
whatever the hobby is, that liketheir whole life is focused on
that.
All of their time, all of theirenergy, much of their money,
it's poured into whateverthey're devoted to.
He was devoted to God.
He was not just coming to thetemple out of habit, he brought
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his habit to the temple.
Okay, that's that's good.
You guys, yeah, I'll leave thatup there a minute.
Maybe you want to take a pictureof that.
That's good.
He wasn't coming to church outof habit, he was bringing his
habit to the temple.
He came by the spirit into thetemple.
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He was doing, he, what healready was, he brought there.
He didn't come there to get thespirit, he lived in the spirit
and he came to the temple.
That's that's called preparing.
That's called your lifestyle dayby day makes you into the person
that you are, and you bring thatperson into church.
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And together, it's powerful whenyou do that.
He was already ready before hecame.
So, how can we prepare?
All week long, stay in anattitude of worship.
Play some worship music duringthe day.
Worship the Lord.
Um, let the word of Christ dwellin you richly.
Be sensitive to the mind of theLord.
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Walk with God.
And this way you come into theservice with an idea of what God
is already speaking.
You'll never get the most out ofyour Sunday corporate worship
experience if you're not livingday by day in worship.
So, and can I ask you, can I askyou to adjust your schedule?
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I know a lot of us are here ontime, a lot of us can't be, a
lot of us have you know kids,it's kind of hard to get here,
those kind of things.
But you can adjust yourschedule.
I mean, there's there's grace,but but you can adjust your
schedule.
Some of us go to bed really lateon a Saturday night because
there's some kind of ballgame onor something.
I don't know.
And we get up really late Sundaymorning, and like, oh my gosh,
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we're running through theshower, we're grabbing something
to eat or not eat, just grab acup of coffee or something, and
maybe get the kids together andlike in the car, and you're
driving slightly over the speedlimit to get here, and you get
here and you're a little bitlate, so you gotta park up
there, and then you gotta walkin.
You slide in the back door backhere, uh, and the during the
third song of worship, and yeah,and then you're okay.
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Oh, what is this I'm feeling?
Oh, yeah, it's the presence ofGod.
I felt this last week.
I remember last week, lastSunday.
This is so good.
Oh, it's over now.
It's over.
The last song is over.
Oh, you what if you came early?
I'm just uh it's just a littlesuggestion.
What if you came early?
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So I was talking to myson-in-law Evan, who's from
Ghana this week, and he said hewas because he was an usher in a
church there, and in thechurches in the villages in
Ghana, what they'll do is whenthe worship starts, they lock
the door.
And if you come late, you youhave you're outside.
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You're standing outside.
Now, when it's over, becausethey don't want anybody to like
distract in worship, and thenthe worship is over, they'll
unlock the door, you can come inand hear the preaching, but you
have to stand outside.
It's a little bit awkward.
So we're gonna institute policynext week.
I think if it's good enough forAfrica, it's good for here, man.
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So it's gonna be our littlecounter's gonna go five, four,
three, two, one, click.
And if you're not in, you'reout.
And you have to be out there inthe cold, and then after the
worship's over, we'll we mightlet you in.
No, we're not gonna do that.
We we're not gonna do that, butwhat if you came early?
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That's all I'm really saying.
What if you came early andready?
What if you brought your habitto the temple?
Once you're prepared, your wholesacrifice is already prepared,
your mind is in the spiritbefore you come.
What if you live it all weeklong?
What if you're accustomed to itwhen you walk in?
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Yeah, there's no culture shock.
This is what preparing does.
It saves you, prevents us fromSunday morning culture shock.
Oh, oh, this is the spirit ofGod.
This is the presence of God.
I love it.
You can have that all week long,by the way.
It keeps culture shock fromstealing our worship.
Okay, P.
R is for repent.
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Repent.
It's now again, it says ofSimeon.
There was a right there was aman in Jerusalem whose name was
Simeon.
This man was righteous anddevout.
Righteous.
Righteous and devout.
Simeon was right with God.
He came in right with God.
And a lot of us are hinderedfrom the presence of God because
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of a guilty conscience.
You know, we do have an accuser.
And he talks a lot.
And even if we didn't, some ofus have our own little thoughts
in our head.
We're accusing, we getaccusation from both sides.
And we're all feeling a littlebit guilty.
We have a guilty conscience, ormaybe we have a maybe I'm
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possibly guilty conscious.
You know, I can't think ofanything I've done, but I just
surely there's something, and II don't, I just somehow feel
like I'm I'm guilty all thetime.
Some people sort of live thatway.
So what's the answer?
1 John 1 9.
If we confess our sins, he isfaithful and just to forgive us
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of our sins and cleanse us fromall unrighteousness.
He is faithful.
Oh, but I haven't been faithful.
But he is faithful.
And we try to, we walk in thelight, but if we sin, we repent
quickly.
And he's faithful and just toforgive us for our sins and
cleanse us.
He wipes it clean.
He wipes it clean.
You can you can live in thecleanness of God.
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This is what Jesus has done forus.
We're grounded in the grace ofGod.
We approach his throne throughthe blood of Christ.
This is it.
We restore our relationship withGod quickly, or our relationship
with our brother or sister, orwife quickly.
We do it quickly so that thisaccusation of the enemy is not
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stealing our worship.
So repentance preventsaccusation from stealing your
worship.
So I is invest, P-R-I, invest.
Look what it says about Jesus'parents.
They brought him up to Jerusalemto present him to the Lord, to
offer the sacrifice according towhat is said in the law of the
Lord, two pair turtle doves ortwo young pigeons.
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Okay, they didn't comeempty-handed.
The law required them to bring asacrifice.
And so they did.
They did.
Now we understand Jesus is oursacrifice, but I want to ask
you, what sacrifice did youbring here this morning?
Or did you come with a mindsetof bringing something this
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morning?
I'm going to invest in thisservice.
I'm not just coming to receive,I'm coming to invest.
When you invest, you have aninterest in what you invest in.
And you're looking for a returnon your investment.
And so when you invest in theservice by preparing beforehand,
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by coming in with an attitude ofbringing something to the Lord.
What did you bring this morning?
Maybe you brought the fruit ofyour lips to give thanks.
Maybe it's your words.
Maybe it is your heart ofservice to help your brothers or
your sisters or encourage them.
You invest with your body.
You know it's scriptural.
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What we do, uh there'sscriptural forms of worship.
When you're clapping, this is inthe Bible.
Oh, clap your hands, all youpeople.
Clap to the Lord.
When you're singing, when youare lifting your hands, this is
in the Bible.
When we're kneeling, it's in theBible.
When there's times of silence,all of these are forms of
worship.
And we are investing with ourbody.
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You know, sometimes because someof you probably don't think you
sing real well, and so you justdon't sing.
This is a sacrifice that you canbring to God.
You can sing.
And I'll I'll just tell youprobably the people around you
are gonna be okay if you don'tsing good.
They'll probably be okay.
(36:08):
They'll be all right.
They'll just say, Bless hisheart.
What a joyful noise he's making.
So invest with your body.
Go ahead and open up and investin this service.
Don't just don't just spectateand watch people up here
singing.
Sing! Man, open up your mouth,let her rip, man.
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Let's go.
One person is at I sing byletter.
Open my mouth and let her fly.
Go for it, man.
Go for it.
What do you bring?
What about your broken heart?
You can bring a broken heart anda contrite spirit.
You can lift your hands when youcan hardly lift them, but you do
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anyway.
Man, it's a beautiful form ofworship.
It's a beautiful sacrifice.
Maybe it's the most beautifulkind of sacrifice.
First Corinthians 14 says, whenyou come together, everyone has
everyone, every one of you has apsalm or a scripture or an
encouragement.
So let everything be donedecently in order.
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Okay, so we've got if we've got250 or 300 people here, we can't
let everybody sing a song one byone.
They were doing it in smallergroups.
But you do have something tobring, you have something to
invest in.
What he was saying was, you havea part.
It's not just coming to watchother people do it.
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So when you want to invest yourbody and your prayer time and
your and for the kingdom of Godand to see his will be done,
give yourself to the body ofbelievers that you're a part of,
commit to this church.
This is all this is allinvesting.
And it prevents apathy andlaziness from stealing your
worship.
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M is minister to God.
Minister to God.
Simeon took him up in his armsand he blessed God.
He took the Messiah, the Savior,the promise he was given, you
won't die till you see thischild.
He took the child in his armsand he gave thanks to God.
He focused on God.
When we talk about minister toGod, we're saying, we're saying
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our focus is on Jesus when weworship.
The glory and the pleasure ofGod is our only focus here.
Do you remember last week we wetalked about uh Exodus 15, the
very first song in the Bible?
And the very first words of thevery first song is I will sing
to the Lord.
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This is the focus.
The focus is to the Lord.
It's about all that He has done.
It's all of us together.
That's what it was there.
But it was I will sing to theLord, fixing our eyes on Jesus,
ministering to him and worship.
And I'll just say this.
Um of us here suffer from ADD,and not the kind of ADD that
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you're thinking about.
I'm talking about audiencedistraction disorder.
You know, because you especiallyif you're not, you know, if it's
one reason sitting in the frontis great because you don't get
so distracted, but you're backthere, it's like you're looking
around and you're like, well,there's brother so-and-so now.
I wonder how it's going on.
I need to talk to themafterwards, and it's just it's
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you're it's audience distractiondisorder, right?
Can't seem to keep from lookingaround at what's going on around
you.
If you need to, move up front.
There's some seats.
It's okay.
This is it's a good thing wherethere are fewer distractions.
And don't worry about whatpeople are thinking about you
because they probably aren't.
I hate to break it to you, butthey probably aren't.
(39:51):
One time we had this uh uh thisis many, many years ago back on
Dedrick Avenue, Jack.
We had this great service oneSunday night, and I mean.
The worship just took over, andthe presence of God was so
strong, and we worshiped forover two hours.
It was just nothing but worshipthe whole night.
It was, it was powerful andthick, and the presence of God
(40:12):
was so beautiful.
And I was in the middle of thestage, you know, because I was
leading from a guitar, and fortwo hours plus, and right over
the top of me was the words.
And so it looks like the strangethings is when you're here on
stage and everybody's readingthe words, it looks like they're
looking right at you.
Yeah.
They're not, but it looks likethey are.
And it's like, so I'm rightthere.
And I'm leading worship, andthis is such a powerful thing.
(40:34):
And for so long, it was likeimpactful.
And then the next morning, Iremember we came into the
office, and somebody said, Oh,we had such a great service last
night.
Were you here?
And it was beautiful because itlike set me free.
You know, because you think, oh,they're all looking at me for
(40:56):
two hours.
It's like, Were you even here?
Oh, this is great.
Probably people aren't reallythinking that much about you as
much as you think.
Okay.
So raise your hands.
Sing.
Minister to God.
Okay.
This prevents distractions fromthe service itself from stealing
your worship.
Okay, last one, E.
(41:16):
Enter in quickly.
Jump right in.
It says of Simeon, he came inthe spirit into the temple.
Okay, as we said before, hedidn't come to the temple to
experience the spirit.
He came in the spirit to thetemple.
He was already there, guys.
(41:38):
He was already worshiping beforehe even got here.
You know, worship is, you know,worship is about spirit and
truth.
It's about the heart, right?
You carry this around in yourheart.
It's not about the location orthe style of music or anything,
but we come together, we carrythis worship in our heart.
Don't wait until your favoritesong is played.
(42:02):
Because what if they don't playit this week?
What are you gonna do?
Not worship?
And what is God's favorite song?
Of course, he likes the one Ilike.
My favorite song is his favoritesong, of course, right?
And so we all just, oh, just notgonna we'll just tolerate all
(42:22):
those other songs, and we'll getto the one I like, and then I'm
gonna go for it.
Come on.
Enter in quickly, jump in, gofor it.
Right from the first song, no,right from the first verse,
first word, first chord, boom.
I'm here.
I'm here in worship right now.
(42:43):
You don't have to warm me up.
It doesn't take three songs.
I'm gonna do it right from thestart.
Let her rip.
Let's do it.
Do whatever you do, do itheartily unto the Lord, right?
Okay.
This sets you in a place tointeract with God and other
people here right from the verybeginning.
Okay, so, all right, prime, yourpraise pump.
(43:05):
Prepare, repent, invest,minister to God, enter in
quickly.
This helps us to bring somethingto the Lord, and it helps, it
prepares our hearts and ourbodies, and we guard against
Satan stealing our worship.
He can't steal it unless you lethim have it.
(43:26):
He doesn't have any authority,and he doesn't deserve it.
So don't let him.
So when we glorify God and webecome part of what he's doing
right now, how he's moving amongus today, we're participators,
not spectators.
This is great.
Okay.
So let me end by this.
Because a question came to me asI was studying this this week,
(43:46):
and I thought, why, what is it,what is it about about Simeon's
understanding of God?
Why did Simeon think God wasworth devoting his life to?
Outside the temple and insidethe temple.
This is a man righteous anddevout, and he came and he lived
this lifestyle of worship.
(44:07):
Why did he think it was worthit?
And I think he thought it wasworth it because he knew there
was a Messiah coming.
As we talked last week, all theJewish people had their own
advent going on.
They were waiting for the comingof a Messiah.
This was in their psyche.
Expecting was part of theirliving.
(44:30):
They were ready, or they werelooking for this Messiah.
And so Simeon saw that God had apurpose in making his salvation
known, not only to the Jews, butalso to the Gentiles, to us here
today.
And Simeon waited for thisMessiah who would deliver his
people from their sins and builda living temple, a holy dwelling
(44:54):
place, like the prophets hadspoken of.
Gathering called out ones intothis Messiah, a dwelling place
for God.
So let me tell you why the focusof heaven is on a lamb and what
the lamb has done.
I read a passage to you beforefrom Isaiah about the rebellion
(45:18):
of Lucifer against God.
And let me finish today byreading this other passage,
which is actually a song thatthe early church sang.
It's in Philippians chapter 2,starting at verse 5.
Have this mind among yourselves,which is yours in Christ Jesus,
(45:38):
who, though he was in the formof God, did not count equality
with God a thing to be grasped,but he emptied himself by taking
the form of a servant, beingborn in the likeness of men,
being found in human form, hehumbled himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death,even death on a cross.
(46:05):
Simeon's song was so full ofglory to God because he
understood the significance ofthis Messiah who was coming, who
he would hold in his arms.
And the heart of Jesus could notbe more opposite than the heart
of Lucifer.
They're totally poles apart.
(46:27):
Lucifer said, I will be likeGod.
Jesus said, I will let go of myequality with God.
Lucifer said, I will ascend toheaven.
And Jesus said, I will leaveheaven.
I will take the throne.
I will take the form of a man.
(46:51):
I will take on the likeness ofGod.
I will take on the likeness of aman.
I will be Lord of all.
I will be servant of all.
I will exalt myself.
I will humble myself.
(47:12):
Pour myself out.
I will impose my will.
I will surrender to the will ofmy father.
And this is the message ofChristmas.
God has come to earth as a baby.
(47:36):
This man, Jesus Christ, is boththe stone of stumbling and the
sure foundation.
God does things differently.
He does things sometimesbackwards in the way we think
because he's wise.
And he sent Christ to humblehimself, to take on himself the
(47:56):
form of man.
Christ humbled himself so thatwe could be lifted into
fellowship with God.
And this is why God has exaltedhim and given him a name above
every name.
And every knee will bow inheaven and earth and under the
earth.
And every tongue confessed thathe is Lord to the glory of God
the Father.
(48:18):
And Simeon understood this.
This is why his song out of hislife became a praise.
And Simeon died as a satisfiedman.
Because he saw and he held thepromise of God.
(48:49):
So this morning, come on, comeon up, guys.
This morning, are you are yousatisfied?
Could you die a satisfied personright now?
I think there's a differencebetween contentment and
satisfied.
Sometimes we can be content inour hearts and yet not quite
satisfied because we believe Godis pulling us into something
(49:12):
more than we are.
But I want to tell you thismorning, there's a promised
Messiah that you can not onlyhold in your hands, you can hold
him in your heart.
You can have him in your heart.
And you can live and dieeventually as a satisfied person
(49:33):
because this Messiah is in yourheart.
This is the message ofChristmas.
You can see his salvation inyour life today.
Right now.
You don't need to go further.
You don't need one more day.
You don't need one more day tobe satisfied.
Today, right now.
Today's the day of salvation.
(49:54):
Right now.
If you hear the Lord calling outto you, it's not hard.
Yes, Lord.
Yes, Lord.
I surrender.
I surrender.
Your lives can change.
So I want to end since we'retalking about corporate worship
(50:15):
by worshiping.
But I want to pray for youfirst.
You can stand with me.
Lord, thank you for thisMessiah.
Thank you that we don't have toattend church to be accepted.
We don't have to worship acertain way to appease you or so
(50:39):
you'll love us more.
We love you because you firstlove us.
But Lord, we want to refresh ourcommitment to you this morning.
We want to say yes to you.
For those who are hearing yourvoice calling them, Lord, I'm
(50:59):
asking that you would draw theminto a place of repentance and
salvation to you.
If they would just say, Yes,Lord, I believe in you, I
receive you.
Jesus, you are Lord.
I see.
You died for me.
You rose again for me, and Ibelieve in you.
(51:19):
For those of us who believethat, Lord, we want to turn from
any offense that steals ourworship, turn from any excuses,
turn from our pride, turn fromour good works.
We want to ask you to receivethis worship that we have in our
(51:43):
hearts for you.
Lord, we want to pray that youwould make us worshipers that
are just day-by-day worshipers,Lord.
So when we come together, itexplodes because we've had it
all week long.
We've lived in it.
And we just lift our offering ofpraise up to you.
As we end this morning, Lord, wejust end with our focus on you.
(52:06):
We minister to you.
We look to Jesus.
We glorify Jesus.
In Jesus' name, amen.
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