ICCS クリスマス行事/Christmas @ ICCS

祈りの道のり　１２月２０日（月）

小手指と所沢を歩きながら祈ります。１０時半に教会に集まりましょう。

Prayer Walk: December 20 (Monday)

Meet at ICCS at 10:30 for a prayer walk around Kotesashi and Tokorozawa.

シンガポール料理教室　１２月２２日（水）午後３：３０～５：３０

とてもおいしいシンガポール料理を習いますので楽しみにお越しください。２か３人のグループで申し込んでください。各グループはガスコンロ、調理道具とお弁当箱を用意して自宅に持ち帰れるようにしましょう。素材は用意されます。一人５００円かかります。お子さんを預けることができます。詳細と申し込みは遠藤アンまで、endofam@gol.com

Singapore Cooking Class: December 22 (Wednesday), 3:30-5:30 PM

Come enjoy a demonstration of delicious Singapore cuisine. Please try to sign up in groups of 2-3. Each group should bring a gas cooking stove, utensils, and obento boxes to take your dinner home. Ingredients will be provided. Cost is ¥500/person. Babysitting provided. For details and to sign up, contact Ann Endo, endofam@gol.com

子供会　１２月２３日（木、祝日）午後３時から５時まで

子供達やお友達をお連れ下さい。シンガポールから来た伝道チームの人たちが楽しい集いに招いてくれます。

Children’s Party--December 23 (Thursday, National Holiday), 3-5 PM

Please bring your children and their friends to this fun event led by the visiting mission team from Singapore.

キャンドルライト礼拝とキャロリング　１２月２４日（金、クリスマスイブ、午後７時より）礼拝、軽食、榎町の人たちと喜びを分かち合います。

Candlelight Service and Caroling--December 24 (Friday, Christmas Eve, 7 PM~)

Worship, light refreshments, sharing our joy with Enoki-cho.

シンガポールのみなさんとのクリスマス会　１２月２５日（土、クリスマス、午後零時から３時まで）

私たちと交流のあるシンガポールから来られたみなさんとICCSにて、まことのクリスマス本来の意味を分かちあい、シンガポールのおいしい食事を供に楽しみましょう。

Singapore Community Christmas Party--December 25 (Saturday, Christmas Day), 12-3 PM)

Share the real Christmas spirit at ICCS with guests from our community, and enjoy delicious food from Singapore.

Week 3. God’s Protection and Delight

Zephaniah paints a picture of love

Big Idea: Let nothing keep you from having joy in the Risen Christ today.

If you are looking for a book in the Bible that few read, look no further than today’s passage. Zephaniah may not be one of your favorite books—and many may not have even read it before, but the last part of Chapter Three contains a wonderfully moving description on God’s love.

According to a French philosopher, Simone Weil (died in 43) there were only two things that could crack open the human heart: suffering and beauty. This picture in Zephaniah’s writings is designed to crack our hearts open with its beauty. This is not what we deserve. It isn’t what we have coming to us, but this is the Love God offers us.

Let’s read the passage first and then let’s pray together.

Zephaniah 3:14-20 (niv)

Sing, Daughter Zion; shout aloud, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away your punishment, He has turned back your enemy. The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm. On that day they will say to Jerusalem, “Do not fear, Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

“I will remove from you all who mourn over the loss of your appointed festivals, which is a burden and reproach for you. At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you. I will rescue the lame; I will gather the exiles. I will give them praise and honor in every land where they have suffered shame. At that time I will gather you; at that time I will bring you home. I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes,” says the LORD.

Lord God, may the words spoken today give encouragement to those who need it and light to those who are in darkness. May our spiritual ears hear Your songs of love sung into our hearts. Thank You that these are words of comfort and words to restore us. Thank You that we are to be built up in Your sight. In Jesus' Name, amen.

Who is this Zephaniah? And what is his story? From the opening verses, we learn that he is a man who God spoke through. In a little bit, we are going to see that his message was as right for then as it is for us today. Wait and see.

He lived in Jerusalem during a very critical time in Israel’s history. Verse one says he lived during the reign of King Josiah. For about 57 years before this king, Israel had two very bad and evil kings: Manasseh and Amon. They did not follow the teachings of the Lord and truly drove Israel away from God. Two bad kings and then one of them fathered this young man who started to clean Israel’s house in a big way.

The reforms has just really started under King Josiah. The prophet was not happy with the slow response of the Israelite people. Listen to this very strong statement: “‘I will sweep away both men and animals … I will destroy every remnant of Baal worship … (and) those who turn back from following the LORD.”

In other words, God is ready to really clean house.

Why would God be so upset? Well, the list was pretty short. The people did not know which God (gods) to serve. There was the Creator God who loved them and provided all good things for them and had a promise of even better things to come. OR the destructive, empty, angry goods called Baal and Moleck—who required child sacrifice and who’s priest were full time male and female prostitutes which were connected to a worship of sexual orgies. (1:4-6).

Another factor was that whenever God’s people turned away from God, they also forgot about the poor and the uncared for in the society. Their ‘care-level’ ran really short on care. The rich devoured the poor and the powerless (3:3-4). Those in power could care less for those in need. They wallowed in apathy and walked around with deep arrogance. They also did not like to listen to correction from anyone. (3:2). This lead to …

THE DAY OF THE LORD

Because God cared deeply for the People of Israel, He and His prophet could not just put their head’s into the sand. They were going to act and the way they were going to act is call: “The Day Of The Lord.” That phrase was used at least 25 times in 53 verses. It’s meaning? God will not stand by and tolerate all this ‘stuff’ in the world. God will set things right. It is something like a Shake Up, this THE DAY OF THE LORD.

Back to football for an illustration: Notice I will not brag on the New England Patriots, but I will pick on the Minnesota Vikings. For a while, the team could not win a game yet the fans were celebrating with wild and uncontrolled parties. In short, something like a riot. To combat this bad behavior of the fans and of the team, the front office fired the coach and trading the quarterback. If you are familiar with AA and other addiction treatments, you might see this as an intervention. When a family member or someone you love sinks into an addition and can’t see his way out of it, someone needs to step in with an intervention. Someone needs to get in his face and say, “Look, you’re killing yourself and you’re hurting everyone around you. We won’t let you do this anymore!”

THE DAY OF THE LORD refers to a God-Size, global, earth-shaking, all time life-altering shake-up intervention. The Mother of all interventions happens. It starts with us (personal) and grows to governments and nations (social). This books looks at THE DAY OF THE LORD as something intense: “I have destroyed nations; … strongholds are demolished…they were still eager to act corruptly…pour out My wrath on them…all my fierce anger, the whole world will be consumed with the fire of My jealous Love.” (3:6 and 8) Not much like a love letter, is it?

GOD’S LOVE IS FIERCE

You might be thinking, “I thought God was all love! I thought He was Love! Would His Love just crack my heart open with love’s beauty?” If you feel that way, you are not alone. So there are a few things about God’s Love we all need to know and understand. God’s Love is beautiful but it is not mushy. His Love is comforting but it is not cushy. His love can be strong and even fierce. Vs 17 The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

When it all comes down to it, our God IS a warrior. Looking back in the OT, we find such evidence when the Hebrew Children were leaving Egypt-through the Red Sea, they said in Exodus 15:3 “The Lord is a Warrior” they cried, “the Lord is His Name”.. Jesus is a Warrior for His People. He will fight for our freedom and for our deep joy.

See how He fights for us? Sometimes He fights AGAINST things in our lives that would destroy us. He sometimes has to fight through our sin to get us back. Like the intervention the football front office did, they took it all away and forced them to face the problem face first. You take the bottles away from the drunk, the credit cards from the over spender, the drugs from the addict and you sit down with him and offer him a better way. You give him a chance to wake up.

How does the friend respond? He might be confused and even angry. He might feel like you are against him; you’re taking his life and the source of his joy away. You’re stripping him of real happiness. But, in truth, you and I both know that you’re fighting for your friend’s life. You had become a warrior on his behalf.

If we don’t get to feel and see the fierce, warrior-like love of God for us, we may often feel confused about Him. We all need intervention from time to time. Our addictions will kill us. In Zep. 3:6, God says that He will demolish our strongholds. He will take away the lesser things that can never give us joy. God is really fighting to give us real joy.

GOD’S LOVE IS DELIGHT-FULL

He is not always hard on us. He is also filled with delight for us. Verse 17? “He will take great delight in you.” Here’s a question: Do you believe God likes you? Does He have anger toward you? Disappointment? Contempt? Try and remember that He is not your earthy Dad.

Repeat this please: God takes delight in me. Believe it today! When you take communion, hear that sentence and feel the joy.

Read with me: Zephaniah 3:20 At that time I will gather you; at that time I will bring you home. I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes,” says the LORD.

This honor can go both ways. You and your life honor Him and He honors you with new life. He has better days for you!

GOD WILL QUIET YOU WITH HIS LOVE.

One of the biggest problems we all face in our fractured world today is that we are all restless. We are anxious and uptight almost all the time. We can’t relax; we live with constant sense of being anxious and hurried. Am I right? Answer quickly!

The people 2,500 years ago in Zephaniah’s day were the same. They had placed all their hopes in Assyria and now Assyria was fading and Babylon was in the wings ready to strike. The Prophet said the fall and the exile was only 20 years away. When that happened, everything becomes unglued. Nothing is the same.

Everything around us changes. You can’t control it. People change. Health changes. Jobs change. Children grow up and leave. Children who have grown up return. Nations change, taxes change, Church changes. You look around and there are some people here you just don’t know. Nothing seems to be stable. Our hearts and lives are restless and anxious. Time for some good news!

One thing that will never change: God’s Love for you. Stable, rock solid. Permanent. He says to us: Turn to Me and be quiet with Me and My love. Make it a practice during this season and beyond: Rest in His love. Let Him quiet your anxious hearts.

HE WILL REJOICE OVER YOU WITH SINGING

There is not time today to cover this in detail, but look at the end of 3:17: “He will rejoice over you with singing.” A while ago, there was a C&W song about a Dad and his little girl. Every time I hear it I’d cry. Told my girls that I will cry at their wedding esp. if they play that song. God, too, has a love song He sings over you all during your life. Birth, school, hurts, joyful times, marriage, birth of your first-your seventh, your parent’s death, your dying moment-He is singing over you with songs of His Love for you.

Lastly, THE FRUIT OF GOD’S LOVE: JOY!

At this time in our talk, I do hope that God’s love is starting to crack open your hearts. As that happens, know that the end result of all of that cracking…is JOY. 3:14 Sing, Daughter Zion; shout aloud, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem! This is life! I’chayim To LIFE!!

No matter who you are this morning, God gives you joy. That is His gift to you. You might be saying “I can’t rejoice in God, I am such a mess!” Verse 15 Says: “The Lord has taken away your punishment.” Jesus took it on the Cross and it is gone. Let nothing keep you from having joy in the Risen Christ today. Mother Teresa once said that “Let nothing so sadden your heart that it takes away the joy of the Risen Christ.” That is just what Zephaniah is saying to all of us today. There are better days coming and the Joy of the Lord will be ours. But to make it your joy, you need to be in Christ. Sitting next to a Believer won’t get this joy in you. Being born in a Christian home won’t do it. Taking communion won’t give you His Joy. It is only found in the Person of Jesus, the Christ.

CONCLUSION: Three questions for you as we close:

1. Have you experienced the truth of Verse 15? When Jesus died on the Cross, He took our punishment and set us free. Are you trusting in that this morning?

2. Is there anything that is robbing you of joy today?

3. How would your life change if you could believe, receive and rest in all the wonderful promises of Zephaniah 3:17? “He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Thanks to Matt Woodley for most of the material today.

Week 4: The Peace Jesus Brings. Micah 5:1-5

He Predicts the Coming Messiah. He brings SHALOM and call us to join him.

Week Two The Refining Love of God

The Big Thought:
God allows suffering for our holiness and happiness.

We have been looking at the promise that was given…not yet seen, just around the corner. God would send His Son to claim us back to Himself. We spoke about the definition of Hope as being something that is a vision for better days that changes us now in the present. Today, we are going to look at a promise for better days in the book of Malachi.

Sometimes a sports coach acts like a HAMMER. He pounds the basics over and over again into the athletes. “This is a Football” and it doesn’t get much basic than that! He becomes a hammer in his driving home the real need to know the basic steps of playing the sport. He used video, white board, getting physically in there with the boys and shows them, in and out of the locker room, the very fiber of football to the boys. They begin to dream about what the coach has been talking about. Their actions on the field become automatic.

What would happen if one of the players began to look out the window and start to yawn? He sees something shinny and his mind goes on a trip…and the coach sees it? The coach would walk over to the player and grab his jersey and shout in his face: “You’re acting like you are not interested in the game! If you don’t change your attitude, I’m going to pour gasoline down your shorts and light you on fire! You get that Boy?” All of a sudden, the student has motivation and he is focused. He has the boy’s attention!

Much like what we have here in Malachi. Problem was their hearts were cold. They were playing the game of Faith. The people were unmotivated in their spirit. They were uninspired by their faith. Their lives were spiritually boring. They felt distracted in life. They were really unmoved by God’s holiness. God was a bother to them. They yawned in His face. It was like them saying: “You have no authority on my life whatsoever!” “You are so boring!”

And these were called the People of God!

They needed someone to pour gasoline down their shorts. Or, in the words of Malachi, they needed to meet the God who is like a “refiner’s fire” (Malachi 3:2). So God sent Malachi to say: “You were made for better days. You weren’t made to coast in your spiritual apathy. God has better days coming.”

I. The big picture of Malachi

Last week, we met Jeremiah. Here again, we have another historical personality. A real man. That man prophesied the God would send His faithless people into exile. That is what happened. 586 years before Jesus was born, Babylon captured Israel and the city of David. The King of Israel had his eyes gouged out. The citizens were uprooted. They all went into captivity. And as the Lord promised, in 536 BC, the Hebrew Nation returned and rebuilt the city. 50,000 of them returned to their homeland. After 20 years, they finished the Temple in 515 BC. And about 60 years later, still other others from the exile returned and beautified the Temple, creating what appears to be the first worship war in Church history.

Now, Malachi got into the mix. It had been over 100 years since they returned and reality was setting in. They were getting bored. You can read the whole story-(only 55 verses) and you can track their spiritual waning. Their worship became sloppy, careless and, well, boring.

The people were SUPPOSED to bring their very best to God in their offerings. Instead, they brought the leftovers—whatever it took to just get by with God—or so they thought! The whole assembly wandered into the services with long faces, not really expecting anything at all. Malachi suggested that they bring that same attitude to work with them on Monday and see what would happen! Your bosses would not like it! Why, Malachi questioned, do you think God would be pleased with that kind of sloppy worship! You were made for better days!

The worship was so dead and meaningless. God said: I have loved you yet you doubt it. Where is My honor? Where is my fear?

You have despised My Name and Me. How? You offer polluted food upon My altar. You offer blind animals for sacrifices. Lame or sick animals as well. If you gave that to your Governor, would he accept it? NO! Stop lighting fires on My altar. They are in vain as you don’t believe in Me. My Name is honored all over the world, but not here! You profane (disrespect) My Name at the Lord’s Table. All this worship is as a burden to you. Even when you bring sick and broken animals as offerings, you are not satisfied because there is no real worship or love from your cold hearts! “Oh, that you would shut the temple doors!” Just keep the doors locked and go home!

Worshiping of God should be the most important event in your life this week. We should be tripping over ourselves to hear God’s Word, to learn, to grow, to catch a glimpse of God’s Glory, to welcome those who don’t know Christ, to teach our children! It SHOULD be an incredible privilege; instead God’s People were bored out of their minds!

This same attitude that they brought to the worship spread in other areas of their lives as well. Their marriages, their financial generosity, their parenting. Malachi 2:17 says: “You have wearied the Lord with your words.” You have no interest or even the desire to look to Me. Why bother? You have become cold to My Life. You wearied Me!

God was saying to them: I hear your long prayers (or short prayers) with no heart in them. You complain and fuss over life and yet you do not listen to Me. You break the marriage contract as well as do violence toward the wife, so beware! Malachi goes on: You have said that all who do evil are good and that God is pleased with them. These are all lies. You don’t want Me to be around your life. You want Me to leave you alone!

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on a TV show in the US and was asked of her 'How could God let something like Hurricane Katrina happen?' Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response... She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

How indeed, how easily we can live in a spiritual drift and not even know it. Beware, Malachi said. I say, Beware!

II. You are loved.

During the stages of our spiritual lives, the up and down of life, we sometimes need someone to pour gasoline down our shorts and set us afire! That is what this Prophet did! He spoke about the holy, refining fire of God. But see how this book begins? God telling His people: “I have loved you…” And because of this love, I have something to say to you…

We are loved and we are chosen. We are loved before we are confronted; we are chosen before we are challenged; we are embraced and accepted before we are told to change. We see this powerfully illustrated at the Cross of Jesus. God displayed His Holy judgment on our sin and at the same time displayed His Holy love for us. He loved us while we were still sinners.

Why is this so important? Because Love—not guilt, not pressure, not demands or manipulation—is THE best motivation for change.

People who work in Teen Detention Halls/jails find that it is true. The people behind bars are there because they have broken laws. They did something wrong and they go to jail to be punished. Sometimes, they are to do hard work, or washcloths, or even build roads. Almost no change in behavior. In time, they may learn how to do more law breaking activities from the cellmates. BUT, when workers show them unconditional love, the boys’ defenses start to melt away and they open their hearts. It is said: “People will only be real when they feel safe.” I found that true when I worked in a Teenage prison near Columbia, S.C., while I was in college. We loved them and trusted them and they opened up their hearts to Jesus. We may have been the only adults that trusted them. It worked! And God knows that!

So the Gospel, the Good News about Jesus, is all about feeling safe before a Holy God. He is not out there to violate you! There is nothing to hide because He knows it all anyway. Jesus died to forgive it all and the Spirit lives within you to reveal it all.

III. The Love of God Refines Us.

So, our spiritual journey starts with Him loving us and restart it self with Him loving us. Malachi 1:2 “I have loved you.” But if we think that His love will tolerate our spiritual drift and ignore our spiritual apathy, we are mistaken.

God did send someone to prepare the way for His Son. John the Baptist fits that bill perfectly. Malachi then refers to “The Lord you are seeking will come to His Temple.” Clearly, it’s Jesus. He comes to the temple right after his birth. He also comes to the temple right before His Death.

But when He comes into your life, you might not want Him at all. He comes to change you-not destroy you. He does come like a hammer. Malachi 3:3. Who can stand? This refers to a soldier who keeps standing in the face of the intense heat of the battle. He implies that we would fold up and melt away under the pressure of the battle. The situations are too hard. Too powerful! Where is this God who saves us? He must have left the field of battle because I am going through a lot of pain and problems! We may want Him to take care of the problem but we don’t want Him to touch us in the process.

There are two kinds of images used here in Ch 3. Refiner’s fire and launderer’s soap. Both bring purity. But the fire is not like a forest fire—destroying all in its path with great violence. The refiner’s fire is intense but what come out is pure gold, silver and other precious metals. Many of us are afraid God is more like the forest fire. Once you let Him in, He’ll burn up everything and there will be nothing left of you. That is not what He is like. See Malachi 3:6

A refiner’s fire is a slow, patient, controlled process of transformation. We can’t rush a fire like that. God’s love is slow and patient.

The other image is launderer’s soap…not the softest soap in the world. It is called “Fuller’s Alkaline”. Alkaline is hard of plant life and on dirt. Used to wash the hands of a blacksmith and cuts deeply into to stiff clothing. While the refiner’s fire is hot and untouchable, the laundry soap is intimate and close. Get this picture from Malachi: God is like a tribal mother hand washing her clothing in a stream until everything is fresh and clean: grinding & pulverizing the dirty cloth until clean. A hand’s-on labor of love.

God’s love is like the fire—hot, passionate, burning away all that is not gold in our lives. His love is like the soap that He takes us in His hands and plunges us into the soapy water, agitating and turning until the dirt in our lives is out of our lives. This sounds so abstract and impersonal unless we ask: How does God refine us and wash us? One word answer: suffering. And that comes into our lives through: trials. These trials and sufferings are never random acts of pain or works of fate; the loving Hand of God who loves us places them in our lives. We might not like the process, we might resent it and rail against it, but through the refining fire, God is changing us to be more like Him.

Conclusion:

Just four questions: Answer them truthfully and see a good result.

•Do you know that you are deeply loved?

•Do you want to let God change you, refine you, and wash you?

•Do you ask for it and expect it?

•Do you give God your very best, even in less than ideal circumstances?

Much thanks to Matt Woodley for much of today's material.

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Next Week: Advent #3: God's Protection and Delight
Join us at 10:30 AM on next Sunday at ICCS. This is also a Covered Dish Sunday: Bring a covered dish to share in our Christmas Love Feast just after the service.

ADVENT: The POWER of HOPE

The Coming of Christ

Our hope in Jesus will work in and through our lives.

The Christmas story began in the Old Testament. God’s nature didn’t change, nor did ours, and He had our redemption in mind all the time. The prophets Jeremiah, Malachi, Zephaniah, and Micah all proclaim the Christ that was to come. We will be using these themes to lead up to Christmas, and hopefully, to make the holiday more meaningful for you.

Jeremiah 33:14-16

14 “‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.

15 “‘In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; He will do what is just and right in the land.
16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which He will be called: The LORD Our Righteous Savior.’

The Days are coming!

Every day we use that small, magical word-“hope.” It’s tough to live without hope. What is hope? It’s a vision for better days that changes us now in the present. There’s something up ahead, around the corner, in sight, and it’s good. HOPE. But that good future isn’t just abstract. It is real because it reaches in and transforms us in the present. At Advent, we are invited to a journey of better days, a journey of real and lasting hope.

As a child, gifts and toys were given—I sure hoped, that my brother and I would get it all! Hoped for a train, a bike, a sled. Later, computer parts were hoped for. Electric books. No more ties! I had a vision of better things than last year. Looking through catalogs and mags, making list, dropping hints. Hoping for the nice dark blue sport’s coat or car.

In our Advent Candle section this morning, we see the promise given to us by the Prophets of the Old Testament. It was a promise given and not realized by many. Some trusted in the Goodness and Holiness of God; they had hope. Do you?

Hope for Them:

Let me introduce you to a man who had real hope. He was the Prophet of Hope, named Jeremiah. Real person. Around 627BC, he was a Jr High age youth, God spoke to him and told him he’d be set apart to serve God. Jer 1:4 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, I set you apart, I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Go ahead 40 years, he is a leader in his country and the main city of Jerusalem is surrounded by Nebuchanessar. (2 Kings 25:2-3) City was hurting real bad. No food. He tells the king Zedekiah to give up. Either do it the easy way or the hard way—you are going to loose! You can trust God or not. King chooses the hard way. (2 Kings 25:5-7)

The king listened to the wrong men. “You Da’ Man! No one is going mess with you or Jerusalem. Don’t believe Jerry.”

Jerry said to look deeper. Not a military thing but a spiritual thing. The people had rejected God’s Promises, killed the prophets and now—judgment day!

The people forgot to look to the Lord. They set aside their hope in Him. They lost the vision of what the Lord wanted to do in their lives-in their country. They forgot how to really hope in God.

The promise given to them gave them hope for things yet to come. (See Hebrews 11 … by Faith.) A family effort. Hope in line of King David/ not in God Himself! A Branch of Jesse (Jeremiah’s verse). Something was up ahead…not a whim but a fact! Sign post that show us the way; i.e. Pilgrims’ Progress. Personal markers along the way. They had pain and Hardship. Slavery in Egypt. Struggle to get the Promise Land. Blessings of the Land becoming theirs. Joy-Nation of Israel established under King David. And there was a call to remember, as in the Passover, of how His Hand was ever there.

Guiding them. Supporting them.

Hope for them was sometimes realized but NOT the MAIN HOPE! The hope of sins being removed would happen later. Yes, they had the sacrifices on the altar with the shedding of blood. But it was all a shadow of the REAL sacrifice of the Lamb of God. They needed to put their hope in this promise. It was real for them. It was HOPE for them.

The Days are coming!

Hope for us:

As we look at the past and the people of the past, (the good promise is lived out), we might be encouraged. If they could do it WITHOUT the printed Bible in front of them, I can move on in my Hope as I put my trust in His Word.

He will run the city (our lives) as the head of operation. “‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.’” This promise given to them is now HIS promise to us~! He will fulfill the good promise. Based on His Character of Holiness and Righteousness.

We who believe this promise, are placed into, grafted into, the Branch of Jesse. There’s something up ahead, around the corner, in sight, and it’s good.

The Days are coming!

Hope in our Lives:

The Here and Now as well as the time in Heaven. Not a pie-in-the-sky but things will be set right for us for His Glory. This good future isn’t just abstract, because it reaches in and transforms us now, in the present. A motto, a saying. Something repeated in our hearing.

"God Has Set Things Right for Us." ~ “The LORD Our Righteous Savior!”

What we are talking about is a transformed life. Can’t really disregard that someone life has changed. We might inspect it while it is way to young and we see faults and imperfect responses. We jump to conclusion that it does not really work, but we need to wait and see. That Good Thing that is repeated for the last 2,000 years is this: Jesus is Lord of All. He is our Hope. He will direct our hearts and change us. It is the renewing of our minds in Christ Jesus… The new heart is given to a Believer and there will be changes in the heart. And sometimes, the change is fast-other times it is slow. Healed of a drug addition over night or vision is still spotted because of the acid used in that person’s youth. But both people are changed from within. No mistake about that!

The Days are coming!

That ultimate Hope for us is that our Creator God gave to us His only Son as our only Hope to escape the sin-filled lives we find ourselves in. His Birth would give Mankind Hope of Eternal Life. The real hope of Mankind. Expect, trust, anticipate, wish, look forward to…but the dictionary has a somewhat different twist to that word. hope: “to have a wish to get or do something or for something to happen or be true, especially something that seems possible or likely.” Is that Biblical hope?

As a noun: 1. a feeling/ chance that something desirable is likely to happen. … 5. a feeling of trust (archaic) 1. belonging or relating to a much earlier period. 2. used to describe a word or phrase that is no longer in general use but is still encountered in older literature and still sometimes used for special effect. 3. no longer useful or efficient. That maybe why Mr. Webster is not alive today!

But is that how you feel about Hope? Is hope outdated? Is that why so many people kill themselves because they don’t want this archaic experience in their lives? I think not. People have lost HOPE and they wish for it! That is why the Suicide Forrest near Mt Fuji is filled with dead people because they had no hope and they gave up.

The Days are coming!

Ecclesiastes 9:4 “Anyone who is among the living has hope —even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!” Don’t give up!

伝道の書 / 9章 4節/ 希望　すべて生ける者に連なる者には望みがある。生ける犬は、死せるししにまさるからである。

(Side note: Ecclesiastes means what? It is from the Greek word ECCLESIA or congregation or church. The Preacher is writing to the Church!)

Let’s take some time now with the WORD of God. God certainly has a great deal to do with the Believers Hope;

Hebrews 6:19.

19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

1 Peter 1:3.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Colossians 1:5.

the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the Gospel.

Romans 8:24.

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?

1 Thessalonians 1:3.

We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 15:13.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

An overflowing confidence!


Titus 2:13.

looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,

The Days are coming!

This Blessed Hope is what the early Church longed for. “Even so come Lord Jesus” was their motto. The Blessed Hope kept them alive with their desire to keep on keeping on when the hard times came along. It was the Blessed Hope that drove them to take this Message of God’s Hope to the corners of the world and to your hearing. Someone believed that message of the Blessed Hope and shared it with you. That all started back in Biblical times and that chain has not been broken. The Evil One would like you to GIVE UP ON HOPE. To cause others to loose Hope. To be despondent. To be negative. To give up. To be one who spreads lies and gossip around. One who spreads discord in the family. Not you? Then the shoe does not fit you but it could fit the person next to you…

Jeremiah prophesies the Movement of God. And it came to be. God has done something in Christ that changes everything. This idea God shared via Jerry is that God’s Promises are of better days, promises that all eventually find their fulfillment in the coming of Jesus Christ!

The Days are coming! And those days are here right now!!

Next Week The Refining Love of God God allows suffering for our holiness and happiness. Malachi 2:17-3:5

(A major part of this sermon came from a sermon given by Matt Woodley. Much thanks to Matt.)

Coming up THIS SUNDAY!

First week of Advent.

Come and find out what this is all about!

PLUS!

エレミヤ書 / 33章 14節16節

主は言われる、見よ、わたしがイスラエルの家とユダの家に約束したことをなし遂げる日が来る。その日、その時になるならば、わたしはダビデのために一つの正しい枝を生じさせよう。彼は公平と正義を地に行う。その日、ユダは救を得、エルサレムは安らかにおる。その名は『主はわれわれの正義』ととなえられる。

10:30 AM Worship Time.
Come and Worship the King!

The LIVING DEAD

Please read: Mark 5:21-22, 35-43

After calming the storm at sea, after setting the demon filled man free, Jesus returned BACK to the other side of the sea to find many there waiting for Him. And in the crowd came a man who was well known in that area. He was the head of the Synagogue named Jairus. He came with a problem. His little girl was sick…very sick. To the point to death. Not dead yet, but he reasoned that IF Jesus could touch her, she’d live. The illness would leave her IF Jesus would come and touch his little girl.

Would that not move your heart? A man, on his knees in front of you, pleading for the life of his child? Who would not be moved? Jesus was so moved. He went with him.

Guess how Jairus felt? Would he not be the happiest man in Israel? Would not his heart be pounding fast and hard? Would he not be so excited that 1.) He found Jesus and 2.) That Jesus would come to his house and touch his little girl and have her live.

Why was he not with his little girl? He was not at home. He was out on the town—he was looking for Jesus.

Are you looking for Jesus? Are you looking for Him to touch a situation in your life? You would consider it a success if you’d find Him, is that not so? And that once you found Him, that He would go with you to touch whatever it is that concerns you. I would imagine that Jairus would be pushing people out of the way to move Jesus along faster!

But then, something happens that stops Jesus. We will look at the interruption another time. (Plain and simple, a woman with a bleeding problem touches Jesus.) But there has been an interruption. Do you like interruptions? Do you feel good when someone interrupts you in a conversation—never mind in a life and death situation like this? It must have really shaken the father up! Consider how you would feel? Put yourself in his sandals. Nothing stands in the way when it comes to the safety of Family. And here we have Jesus, dealing with two situations without missing a beat.

And as Jesus deals with this second matter, the interruption, word comes back to the father that his little girl had indeed died. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.”

Bother? These people really did not know Whom they were standing with in that crowd. He caused the sea to be calm. The winds to be still. A man filled with demons to be set free and now this… bothersome event? Not so for Jesus.

We know from the Word of God that He cares for us. Even when we walk in the valley of the shadow of death, He is with us. Even when 500 high priest of Baal have a contest to see who’s god is bigger. Even when persecution comes, He is still with us. He will never leave us. His promise to His Children holds.

Are you His child? Are you in this promised relationship with Him? This Covenant of Promise! Sealed with the Blood from His own Body!

We are living in a world with dead people walking. There are many movies out today that take this theme. Call them zombies. Call them the Living Dead! Few of these movies are based on real truth but on fear of dead people. There is a phobia of the dead. It is called NECROPHOBIA. Some people really get freaked out when this topic comes up. But yet it is all around us and sometimes, it touches us. Fear really could drive a person to deep anxiety: BIBLIOPHOBIA=fear of books. DENTOPHOBIA= fear of dentist. ECOPHOBIA=fear of home. LEUKOPHOBIA=fear of the color white. OCTOPHOBIA=fear of the figure 8.

My friend, Yu Shibuya, Ami’s brother, spoke at CAJ’s chapel this past week. He spoke about how dead people look on trains. And it is true. When you sit there on the train next time, look around and you will see the living dead. People who have given up on really living. Doing things they don’t really like. Being involved with work that they dislike. In broken relationships that they want to end but can’t. Living dead people. Kind a strange when you think about it but it is Biblical.

With out the Spirit of God in the person, he or she is spiritually dead. Separated from God. Much like this little girl. No life in her. Jesus called it sleep, but the people realized that she was indeed dead to them. Parents were destroyed. Mom had already hired mourners to cry and weep loudly to show how sad the situation was.

I have been to funerals here in Japan and in the US. I have been to non-believer’s funerals and I have been to believer’s funerals. One had no hope. No life. No promise. The other had Hope. Had life. Had promise. Why? Because Jesus showed up. He came into the dead person—while he/she was still the living dead and gave real life to them. For the first time in their existence in this good earth, they really breathed the life giving air of eternal salvation. Given to them when they believed that Jesus was the Son of God and that He had died for them—taking their sins away.

And Jesus overheard or ignored what they said and told the father, “Don’t be afraid; just believe”. Now the father is going on a most exciting ride of his life! He is going to see the Power of God in his own house…in his own little daughter.

Jesus takes His small band of followers AND the parents into the room where the little girl was laid out. There would be a soft white cloth over her body. Basins of water and towels are near by for the ladies to wash her ever-cooling body—preparing her for the tomb.

He asked “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” They laughed at Him.

His response was this: “Get out of My way. Everyone, out of the room! Except for the parents and the disciples who were with Me.” He took the little girls cold hand and said to her… “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” The response was immediate. She stood up and began to walk around the room. This 12-year-old girl was now living. No longer a living Dead but alive in the presence of the One who is Life, Jesus, the Christ.

He told them to keep this secret and to give her something to eat. After such an experience, she’d be hungry and they could feed her again and love her again and enjoy their little girl AGAIN. The could be Family, once again!

The Living Dead lives—in Jesus. When I go into a train station like Shinjuku, I HAVE to stand still for a few seconds—on the side—to see the many people rushing this way and that. (Sheep without a Shepard, really.) I think to myself, “It is possible that I am the ONLY one in this crowd that has eternal life! I may be the only one—who is really alive here!” Not arrogant. I know the Truth.

What to do with this Living Dead?

• We could just cover it up. That is one response.
• We could cover our eyes and not look at them. We would then walk into walls and hurt ourselves.
• We could tell ourselves that they do not exist.
• We could tell ourselves that it was their choice and not our problem.
• We could tell ourselves that we need to tell them about the One who can touch the living dead and give living life.

We could tell them about Jesus. We could go after Him ourselves and seek Him with all our hearts. We could go to Him in the privacy of our hearts RIGHT now and ask Him to touch our living dead hearts. Did you know that He promised to replace the dead cold stone-like heart with one that reflects His Joy and meaning?

All because a father wanted Jesus to come and touch his little girl-the one who is very sick—and look what happened? A living dead girl became part of the living again when Jesus came into the picture—came into her life.

He can come into your picture as well. During this time of Thanksgiving, we can be thankful that He did come to earth to walk among us and teach us how to believe in Him. How to put our trust in Him. How to live. In Him. Like Jairus’ little girl.

What is Jesus saying to you? “I say to you, get up!”

Next week marks the first week of Advent. The topic will be HOPE! Stay turned!