Agendas: Do You Have God’s or Your Own?

Agendas                                                                       Captain Kelly Durant  12-27-15

Do You Have God’s or Your Own?

Matthew 6:33

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you

2. The beginning of the year we always focus in on agendas. Every one sets goals and new resolutions of what they would like for their lives this year. To make more money, to work more or to work less, to buy a new car or not, etc. Goals, resolutions and agendas are like dreams; we all need them to survive. With God’s agenda though, we can have all of what we need! 

There are many people, however, that live without a plan or an agenda, or a dream and they are like a cork on the water going one way one day and going the other way the next day. But nothing great was ever accomplished without someone making a plan, having an agenda and then being constant and faithful to make it happen.  God does not intend for us to live without plans, His plans or doing His will.

Prov 29:18

18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. We all need something to live and die for. And Jesus gave us that vision, He gave us the vision to live as He lived, to extend the Kingdom on God by telling everyone the good news! But this means forsaking your self and your agenda in order to take up your cross to follow God.

3. Let’s examine a few cases of people coming to Jesus with their own agenda. One was a rich young ruler.

Mark 10:17-23 17 And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?

18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.

20 And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth.

21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

23 And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!

There are many people that come to the churches but very few are willing to do what it takes to have riches in heaven. They come to God with their agenda to be rich and the sad thing is there are many churches that do not ask people to give to the poor, to help them as the Salvation Army does.

These churches that misrepresent the will of Jesus Christ, that teach people to be rich and then ask them their tithes so they can be rich, will have to answer to God for this terrible sin! There are people that have visited our church and they have not stayed because they do not want to leave behind their agenda of only making money in life. They feel uncomfortable with our church with its history of serving the poorest of the poor. Some people have the agenda of being rich and our Salvation Army, our humble representation of the Kingdom of God does not go with their agenda.

4. The only agenda that will ever fill your soul is the one of Jesus Christ! What He said by, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, was a command to live forsaking your own plans to promote Him and His agenda. I had a friend that dreamed to have a chopper motorcycle and he finally got it, but God had called him to give it up to do mission work but he would not. He soon afterwards had a crash and the bike got totaled and now he thanks God that God took away his idol so he would serve Him!

Jesus gave us the vision to reject this world and all its empty, unsatisfying vain abusive and material values, in order to gain a whole new world, now among ourselves, our brothers, and forever in the future! Jesus agenda for us is to promote God’s kingdom of love where we will spend eternity! He gave his life on the cross to be an example to show there is no limit to what you can give up for God!

Let’s look at some other cases of a people who would not follow Jesus because they put their family before the will of God.

Luke 9:59-62

59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.

62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

5. Jesus wants to be first in your life, even above our loved ones, and He takes no excuses! Your life this year must center around the will of Jesus and doing His will through you, you must be doing His agenda, not your family’s, nor your own will for wealth. Jesus wants us to obey His will here on earth and he needs to use you and me as his Soldiers and brothers to make it happen.

How do we do Jesus agenda?  What was Jesus agenda? (people answer) He first wanted us to love and worship God! That is the main agenda and after that is in place in your life, once you are saved and reborn, and you are a new creature, everything else in your life will fall in line to start serving Him as He shows you.

There is the command to love God and the rest of the command is of equal importance which was to love your neighbor as yourself. How did He want us to love? He taught us to visit the sick and give to the needy and do unto others as we would have them do unto us. He also told us to go and preach the gospel to every creature, to leave all behind binding things in order to do that. Our agenda is to tell others about heaven and how they too can live in love and peace and happiness forever!  This is the formula for happiness on this unhappy earth!

6. Now you have an agenda for 2016: you have Jesus’ agenda! People that do the will of God, which is Jesus’ agenda, the people that serve God and others are those that will be blessed! But what happens to those that put their own agendas before God?  The get deceived and fool their selves that they are fine, but they are not. These same ones often get fooled by exploiters of false churches as well. 

There are churches that have money as their God and there are people who are attracted to the big and prosperous churches thinking that they must really have a great spirituality because they are so rich but the reality may be to the contrary. And some churches today are like those of feudal times taking from the poor so they can live rich and oppress, and they are not representing the kingdom of God, and they expect all the poor people and middle class to give up everything to them so they can have huge buildings and live in luxury. We must be wiser and more mature in the Word of God than to accept this!

Many people come and leave church because they are unwilling to do the agenda of Jesus Christ! It is easy to just sit in a church and give money without any commitment and compromise, but that is man’s agenda, not Christ’s. Jesus invites you and me to give up everything, time, family, and money for Him and to get busy helping others and saving their souls!

7. Some people come to the church hoping to get a blessing on their own agenda, but God does not bless those with their own agenda, He blesses those with His agenda! Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you

All of us should only care about the agenda of Jesus Christ and winning souls for His Kingdom! Those that get the vision and get on board with us to create and do programs that get the unsaved interested in Jesus are those that are right with God! Do you have God’s plan and agenda doing His will and plans above your plans?

Don’t go away today sad as the rich ruler did. Do God’s agenda! Don’t give the excuse that you must serve your family or someone else first, reject that and do God’s agenda! Don’t make personal plans, find a plan where you can serve in God’s kingdom. Today is a day of rededication. If you want rewards in heaven, then dedicate this year to the Lord! Come and pray.

Christmas: Glory to God, Peace & Goodwill to Men

Christmas: Glory to God, Peace & Goodwill to Men   Kelly Durant   Dec 20,2015

Luke 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

2.  Did you notice in the stores all the mess on the floors? Everything all mixed up, it’s crazy, right? Trees, lights, and gifts abound with bells ringing outside of the stores! And this is all because of a baby, baby Jesus!  It will be Christmas time this Friday! Enjoy it at home with friends and family! It is quite a miracle that Baby Jesus actually survived as one in 3 babies would die in that time period without medical attention in those days! Let’s hear a story (not Christmas) of a baby that died, and of a baby that lived.

Let’s go back to the O.T., I Kings 3:16-28. Do you recall that King Solomon was considered wise? God offered him riches but he chose wisdom. The Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes in the Bible are full of wisdom.

How many of you know the story of when they brought to King Solomon a situation of 2 mothers with 2 babies about the same months old? These 2 ladies lived in the same house and in the night one of the babies died. The problem is one lady claimed the other one stole her baby so you did not know who was the mother of the living baby and who was the mother of the dead one!? They went to the judge, King Solomon.

In his wisdom he said, “Split the baby in 2 parts with a sword and give each woman half!”. Shocked, one lady yelled, “No! Don’t do that just give it to the other woman!” The other lady in her bitterness said, go ahead kill it and give us half each. But then Solomon in his wisdom said, “Wait, the woman who is willing to give up her baby, this is the real mother! The baby is hers!”

3. I find that one can compare this same wisdom to baby Jesus of today. There are around us in the world, God’s children, people who are kind hearted doing many things for others, willing to give up anything for the sake of life and love. This time of year these people want to see Baby Jesus honored and special.

These are true people of honor, the ones that understand God’s gift to the world, that Jesus inspired us to love everyone, no exceptions. These people are the ones who will have life as the have Jesus, and they always choose to do good because they love God and His Son!

4. But like the mother who preferred to see a baby cut in two rather than share it, there are those amongst us of this nature that are greedy, evil, and cold hearted. They do not care for life or baby Jesus at all and only care for their own selfish consumption and material appetites giving no respect for what the Holiday of Christmas means!

These carnal people would prefer to see Baby Jesus and Christianity die and go away! These are people who are bitter against God and they hate the happy people who make Christmas special. They disrespect and profane all things pure and beautiful. These kinds of people with unrepentant hearts, full of hate are in essence comparable to being murderers and thieves, and as the Bible states are as condemned dry wood ready to be placed into the fire as this is what they deserve. 

1 John 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. God is just and has hell reserved for the souls of these people who reject Jesus. People without Jesus are horrible! They cause all who live near them to go through hell due to their angry, bitter, confrontational, vulgar, lying spirit. But God has heaven reserved for those that accept baby Jesus and become innocent and pure like He is!

5. Going back to Luke 2:14, the very first message from God through the angels when Jesus was born was “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men”. This short sentence inspires me so much! There are 3 points.

What does this bold declaration mean in its totality? If the angels in heaven are worshipping a baby, then that should get our attention, right? They were glorifying God because baby Jesus would become the sacrificed one on the cross and be the savior of the world! The first lesson you and I must learn in life is that we must give glory to God for Jesus! Angels are higher beings than what we are!

Giving glory to God is not just something you say, like in church when people say, praise God, we glorify you God, it is more than that; giving glory to God implies living an entire lifestyle of love! You glorify God by your actions and words, by imitating Him, but serving Him and others, by being as He is, full of love, holiness, and goodwill towards all men (and women)!

6. And where it says, “Glory to God in the highest”, “the highest” refers to the all-encompassing power and authority of God! The universe, and heavens high above us, and the symphony of the cycle of life that is high above our understanding, all imply that God is far beyond us!  He is perfect and all-knowing governing and preserving the stars and all chemical matter, the realms of angels, and the forces of nature and the people of earth! Psalm 113:4 The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. Science reveals how much God is infinitely vast and complex! Everything everywhere proclaims the glory of a creator!

7. Next in the phrase, “Peace on Earth”, what is peace? It is an overwhelming calm where there is safety. You have seen the bumper sticker, ‘Know Jesus, Know Peace.  No Jesus, No Peace’, what a true statement this is! For as long as I have been involved with Christians, close to 40 years now, the thousands of testimonies I have heard all confirm one thing, that the lives of the people before Jesus were a torture and chaotic mess as they lived in a hell of guilt and confusion. But after accepting to follow Jesus their circumstances totally changed, to have a life of peace and fulfillment! Peace with God and peace even with conflictive people.

8. That is true in my life too! I got away from following Jesus when I went to High School and my life went downhill as I drank and partied and smoked pot and played in a rock band, but I was shocked with myself that I was not happy! I was doing all the things that the people of the world were doing to over stimulate my body’s pleasure cells but yet I was dying inside with a restless feeling like I was really killing my soul inside and in danger, feeling far away from God.

I had all the pleasures of the world as a young man but one day I woke up to realize I was just an empty self-indulgent copy-cat want-to-be who should just die to get out of the way because I was just taking up space like all the other rats of the world. I just wanted to end my misery and frustration!

But one day after I prayed the prayer to accept Jesus, my whole world changed! This is why I am here today, to tell you about it, it is true, Jesus will give you peace, a peace that you have never experienced and it is worth the investment to leave behind everything, all your own misguided beliefs, all your way of being, and worthless life!

9. And finally, the last point of Luke 2:14 stated in the Holy Scripture, it is the “goodwill toward men” that many of us fail to capture. Imagine, God giving you and me goodness and wanting goodwill for us and everyone? How is it that God wants good for humanity? Isn’t humanity terrible as we the people seem to always make war and kill multi-millions and we destroy everything with our corrupt cities?

In the end we must let this undeserved goodwill impact us, God loves you and me beyond our comprehension! He sacrificed His son Jesus for all humanity for us to have eternal life! God only wants to give you and me good things in life, making us happy, giving us an eternity of goodness.  Most every Christian I know lives very blessed!

But many people make a train wreck of their lives and then want to blame God or others for their mess, but it never was God who failed them and didn’t give them their dreams! It was their own cruel self! God, all the time has good plans for each of us, but we must listen to Him and convert, and become sacrificial. Sacrificial as in giving up your own baby (figuratively) if you have to, embracing baby Jesus and life, peace, and goodness!

To have God’s good will working in your life, you must be in His will! This time of year at Christmas time serves as a reminder that the very first principle that God wants is for everyone to let the baby live in your heart, to accept Jesus as the savior of the world and as the savior of your soul.

Baby Jesus was born in humility and poor, He lived a modest life, and then He died in great pain to rise again in order to take away the pain and emptiness in the souls of all men and women, or better said, in you and me! Let Jesus do that for you today! Give Glory to God, accept His peace, & live in the goodwill He has for you in your life! Prayer…

The War On Jesus: Expose The Hypocrisy of Haters

The War On Jesus: Expose The Hypocrisy of Haters                                           Kelly Durant

Matthew 24:8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

2. How many of you can say, “I love Jesus”? Now imagine a person with a knife or sword on your neck saying, “Say that one more time and you die!” Would you say it again? I pray I would remain faithful and say, “I love Jesus!” because the alternative would be to have to live with your own humiliated wretched soul submitting to another person’s murderous erroneous imposition of who or what they believe god is! (Satan inspires murder!) This life or death decision to renounce or confess Jesus has been the case for countless millions of Christians ever since Jesus came to earth! We never know when this type of horrific persecution may come to our doors, this is why we must rally the troops and let out a “war cry” for Jesus to keep proclaiming righteousness, love, salvation, and God’s will for humanity.

The name of Jesus has power and His name invokes love, healing, or comfort but in the case of demons who hear His name, His name invokes hate, violence, and fear! Some people cannot stand to hear Jesus’ name because it makes them very uncomfortable or offended. When someone is offended or uncomfortable, doesn’t that beg the question as to why? Why are some people offended to hear His name? Doesn’t their premise of prejudice seem absurd, futile, and infantile?

What could ever be the cause for an offense with the name of Jesus? Why is there a war on Jesus every Christmas and a war on Him throughout the year, year after year? Is hatred and prejudice against Him an idea that one’s parents taught? Why are the so called “tolerant” people not “tolerant” referring to Jesus? It’s very hypocritical, right? Is rejection of Jesus something that other religions teach? If so, why? Or also, is it the fact that Jesus’ Holy name can invoke a feeling of dirtiness and guilt in the soul with sin? But once a soul is clean, the name of Jesus fills the soul with an in indescribable joy! True, right?

3. Let’s look at the scripture today. Jesus makes it clear that the whole world, all the nations, would be persecuting us, the Christians, for proclaiming His name, the name of Jesus, when the time of the end is near (context of the chapter). Persecution, execution, and the murder of Christians started happening ever since the original apostles preached Jesus and these atrocities against humanity and these innocent holy messengers continues on today. Innocent men, women, and children are murdered in horrible fashions, so what does that tell you about the Christ haters? I thank God I will not have hell to pay for killing one of God’s children! “No murderer has eternal life!” I John 3:15

The first persecutions after Jesus presence were carried out by the Jews, Romans, and Greeks. Paul’s answer to them responding to their persecutions and errors of misjudgments is recorded in the New Testament.  Basically the Jews hated Jesus because He was not the Messiah they had hoped for granting to them world dominance. The ruling class Jews at that time instead of being a pure holy people perfected to rule the world were rather an arrogant corrupted breed whose murderous sins were exposed by Jesus. Jesus name represents humility, love, and sacrifice which is everything the Jews did not want anything to do with. They were extreme hypocrites, and they were warned of losing heaven. Matthew 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

The Romans and Greeks were extremely proud of their dominating wealth, power, and intelligence as well. They were offended by Jesus’ name and teachings because He represented the opposite of the arrogant values their culture was trying to impose on others. Jesus was simplicity, modesty, and His adoration was not to men or to strange invented gods but rather to the one and only Father God Jehovah. Jesus name represents purity, and the arrogant impure do not want to be reminded of their impurity. Basically Jesus rejecters then and now are hypocrites as they believe they are superior to Him and His followers foolishly believing that they are gods while they actually are inferior nobodies as their non-altruistic actions and selfish indulgent life-style reveals their carnal self-absorbed debauchery.

4. There is and always has been a war on Jesus, a war even on just saying His name! But Jesus still has 2 billion followers today because His name has power! In His name miracles do happen, people do get healed, and horrible destructive people get saved and get a complete life change with a new purpose! The Salvation Army’s drug and alcohol rehab centers yearly turn out thousands of transformed men and women freed from their chains of addictions because of the transformative power of Jesus’ name! The evidence of Jesus effect on others cannot be denied! The demons of this world war against Him incessantly! These demons are in high places in society and maybe within your own family!

Consider this as well, how can anyone with sane logic claim that they are offended by the innocent baby Jesus at Christmas or any other time for that matter? How stupid to be afraid and offended by the influence of a baby born in poverty over 2,000 years ago, right? But King Herod was afraid of baby Jesus to the point that he had all the babies in Bethlehem killed! Matthew 2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.

Imagine, even right after Jesus is born He is getting persecuted! It is obvious the demonic forces in the world were out to destroy Jesus from the start.  The irony and hypocrisy is that Jesus was honored, worshipped, and supported financially by several kings from faraway lands yet He was almost killed by a king from His own land.

5. Let’s continue on with the hypocrisy present in people who are “offended” by Jesus globally and throughout history. Look at the rise of Communism in the past 100 years; these indoctrinating teachings are specific to hating Christians and Jesus while in general disregarding other world religions. The communists in Russia and China murdered dozens of millions of their own people who were Christian hoping to eliminate Jesus name and His followers. Did they succeed? Obviously not, as millions still exist in their nations despite this war or “religicide”. There is mystical invincible power in Jesus name that people refuse to let go of even in the face of death!

Egomaniac despotic leaders specifically hate Jesus because they look at Him as competition for adoration. How ridiculous for any man to exalt himself as a god to the extreme measure that they want to be worshipped so badly that they give the orders to kill anyone worshipping Jesus and not them. To proclaim God and Jesus above all powers is an obstacle an offence to those who want totalitarian control and adoration. Jealous hypocrite murderers of innocent Jesus worshippers are insanely controlled by demons!

Satan inspired Communism as the perfect political doctrine to appear to be more compassionate than Jesus and God’s people taking from the rich to give to the poor. God’s design is for Jesus followers to share all things in love as the first disciples did as in Acts 2:44-45. Communism is a violently enforced governance imitating the compassion of God for the poor yet their murderous record of corruption killing over 100 million this past century proves that men without Jesus are a total murderous terrors.

6. What provokes this? “And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.” Hate breeds murder. This part of the verse implies the persecution of those dedicated to Jesus will increase. In other words, the increased division will come between cultures, societies, races, and people, and in particular against those who confess Jesus within these class groups. Families will divide! Matthew 10:21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.

To get to this horrible point there must be an obvious increasing climate of intolerance to work up to it getting people to hate one another to the extreme. It seems logical that intolerance, being a conditioned response generated by educational/media/governmental perpetrators with anti-God agendas, are preparing the ground on all levels to finally bring it all to a climax to the level of attacking all Jesus followers. And how hypocritical that the intolerant ones demand tolerance?! This defies logic, common sense, and our inherent desire to give and receive respect implying hypocritical people are very blind in their reasoning!

We see this hatful conditioned reaction already at work in societies today as it is not acceptable (And who determines what is acceptable?!) and legally tolerable to reject certain groups of people while at the same time it is hypocritically acceptable to hate and even rejoice over the defamation and even murder of certain other ones. Persecuted groups today include the whites, the police, the rich, and Christians. The hypocrisy is that Christians who teach the opposite of hate are hated, those that teach to love your neighbor as yourself are too frequently not loved back, defended, and given refuge!

7. How is it that Satan and his demons are getting away with the blatant hypocrisy of defending evil ones and persecuting innocent ones through his rulers in high places without getting called out on it by the majority? The majority always get silenced by the minority in power until the pot boils over. Sadly, people ignorant of the Bible are being indoctrinated with the total opposite stances of dozens of the laws and statutes in the Bible.  As Jesus described it, the “blind are leading the blind!”

People are aggressively subliminally and overtly being indoctrinated by certain sectors of the government, by the mainline liberal universities, by the fake news media sources, and by family members void of logic and reason. The bottom line is to get you in the general populous  to reject Jesus while at the same time embrace absurd political correctness and evil postures which implode societies (secularism). There are many world faiths but most are not invading nations for the pleasure of killing in the name of their god, so why the push to tolerate murderous teachings and practice?!

We are living in the time that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 10:21 “And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.” What a horrible betrayal it is to kill your own blood who sacrificed for you and loved you! This pattern of betrayal runs in cycles under dictatorial rule. It happened under Rome, then under the rule of Medieval Kings, then under Communism and Fascism, and now it is rising again but empowered by religious extremists, terrorists, and specifically Christ-haters.

8. Who are the haters of Jesus today? Many nations contain mega millions of fanatics who hate Jesus!  Here is a web link so you understand the magnitude of those who get crazy violent over hearing the name of Jesus. Christmas is offensive to many, did you know that?  http://www.radixnews.com/2014/11/29/imam-saying-merry-christmas-worse-murder-video/

In this life knowing what we know now of God’s love, mercy, forgiveness, purity, and eternal life in this post first Christmas era, we face the fact every soul on earth is offered a chance to accept, love and obey Jesus, or face the alternative which would be to lived cursed with hypocrisy and hate that which continues from now on into forever. Philippians 2:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth

Matthew 11:6 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. The implication is that the accepters of Jesus are blessed yet those who are offended in Jesus live cursed! And take a good look at the haters of Jesus today, they have nothing to be desired or envied. Current theocratic societies impose horrific abuses and have some of the poorest people in the world. Jesus offers all his followers love, respect, purpose, and value, while Jesus haters are just pawns in the machinery of agendas that offer slavery, carnality, oppression, hate, and reprehensible violent actions. Haters are violent disturbed sous, killers whose spirits will be chained in hell forever judged for their deeds. Jude 1.

9. The Kingdom of God is at war with the kingdoms of darkness of this world! Jesus is the embodiment of all that is good and pure and the mention of His name turns a light on exposing the darkness in the evil, hypocritical, hearts of people.   John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Jesus gave the commandment for us to take to the world his love, salvation, and light to all. Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature”.  Christmas is the best time of the year to have opportunity to retell the story of Jesus. What a beautiful story with angels communicating goodwill towards poor men, with a pure virgin giving birth to a humble child, with kings and shepherds worshipping Him, all of them setting the example for all to know for all generations to come.

This is not offensive, this is beautiful! But some people turn Christmas into an insult to Jesus denying children the Christ in Christmas. Many people teach hatred for Jesus by replacing Him with anything else! Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea

10. The world is on a collision course of self-destruction because people are creating war in the spirit and war in the flesh over what offends them! Some people are offended by certain foods, some by certain religions, some by certain politics, but the real sin is to be offended by Jesus!

Matthew 18:7 Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh! When I learn that my witness of Jesus offends someone do I back down? No! I am changed from being who I was, I cannot deny how Jesus changed me and my resolve to witness His great love in my life! No other person who ever lived accomplished what Jesus did: the conquering of death to bring resurrection to all who believe on Him! I love Jesus for the positive transformation He has given my life! And anyone can have His love and power!  

Don’t worry about offenses in the world, they never end! Worry about offending God by rejecting Jesus, His Son, which is the maximum expression of His love! When you die, will Jesus have been first in your life? John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. The faithful will have a crown of life to rule and reign with Him, but all haters will reap what they have sewn! Come pray and receive Jesus, and then proclaim Him forever! 

God’s Christmas Gift: Fulfilled Prophecy!

God’s Christmas Gift: Fulfilled Prophecy!   Matthew 1:20-23      Kelly Durant

   Do you every think about gifts? It is the season of gifts this time of year and some of you may have even been out buying gifts before coming here. Every gift comes with an expectation. For example a coworker has an expectation that you will spend about $10 on them, whereas a son or daughter expects anywhere from $50 to $100, isn’t that right?

  The gift of Jesus to the world had been in the expectations of the Jews for about 1,000 years! Imagine from generation to generation fathers repeating over and over the story to their children that there will be born a man who will save all of us from our sins and make people right with God! Expectations were high!

  With some people you give them a gift and they give it away, or throw it away!

Like people who you may give a Bible or a study book for Christmas, and they in their ignorance give it to someone else because in their minds God’s word has little importance, they would rather have gotten a gift of a box of chocolates.

   The rebellious Jews, yesterday and today, who despised the gift of God, Jesus, his Son, refused him as gift. Also, today, even in society and in churches, people are despising the Christmas Gift of Jesus and God is storing up for their selves God’s anger and punishment on judgment day.

  When God gives a gift it is supernatural! And expectations are not disappointed! Let us examine all that God did on that first Christmas to make His point that this anointed one.  Lets find.. Matt 1:20-23

 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins."

22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us."

  A virgin birth is a miracle! God gave the world through the Jewish prophets many signs hundreds of years before it happened how Jesus would come. We will examine just few of them today.

Ist Gift: Fulfillment of  Isa 7:14

14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

  We find evidence of the expectation of the gift of Jesus to come into the world in Matt 2:4 when Herod asks the scribes where the Christ would be born and they answer in Bethlemem.

2^nd Gift: Fulfillment of Mic 5:2

2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me

one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."

  As we know Herod ordered the killing of all infants under age 2 and Jesus with his parents fled to Egypt spending the money of the gifts of the kings to travel there. This fulfilled another prophecy. Look at Matt 2:14-15 and them look at.. Hos 11:1

3^rd Gift: Fulfillment of Hos 11:1

11:1 When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

  When Herod killed all the infants there was a great weeping and sorrow in all Bethlehem and this was prophesied over too. God knows the future, even the future of the acts of the evil people. Look at Matt 2:16-17 and look up ..  Jer 31:15

15 Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.

  Some of you were born in Bogota, Colombia, for example, you travel to the U.S. a few years and live in New York, and then you go to live in Atlanta. Could anyone of your parents before you have predicted the 3 places which would be your home? With Jesus it was predicted this way! He was born in Bethlehem, moved to Egypt, and then grew up in Nazareth.

  What happened was after Herod died, and Jesus returned to the country of Israel, his father Joseph did not want to live in Bethlehem because Herod’s son was on the throne, so he decided to live in Nazareth. Look up… Matt 2:23

23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, "He shall be called a Nazarene."

   4^th Gift: Fulfilment of Isa 11:1

11:1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

   According to Jewish tradition Jesse was from Nazereth, which represents more than a city; the people from there were noble and faithful to God and all of this implies Jesus would be of the same character of the people from the tribe of Jesse. 

   Each of these places has their symbolisms. Bethlehem was a very small village and the most poor of all the cities of Israel. This city expresses Jesus humbleness.

   Egypt symbolizes the riches of the world that trap us into the material slavery. The Jews escaping Egypt through Moses forever meant they were to not love the world and its idols and stop the sinning and worship the true God.

Having salvation for the Christian means the same thing, we escape all the slavery of the idols and love for the material things having Jesus and we worship God who will maintains our freedom as we stay faithful.

    Nazareth, as I mentioned, was a city were people were taught in the old ways of the tribe of Jesse, and the qualities of the people from there were known as faithfulness to God, sincerity, and authentic God worship coming from the purist bloodline.

   We have studied 4 gifts of fulfilled prophecy from Matthew. If you want some interesting home study for Christmas, go home and read Luke now. There are more than a dozen more prophecies fulfilled in those first 2 chapters!

Think of Christmas as the most miraculous, most prophesied over, most expected gift of earth of all time! The greatest miraculous event ever was, of course, Jesus resurrection!

But Christmas should always be special with Jesus as the center of it all.

   We must worship Jesus as the shepherds and the wise men did on that special day! We must also be thankful for the prophets who told us in several dozen ways how Jesus was to come!

   We must thank God that Jesus; the king of Kings has all the characteristics He does. We must be like Him! The 3 main places prophesied over imply this for our lives:

We must be humble, since he was from Bethlehem from a manger

We must be free from sin leaving behind Egypt, which enslaves us to the world.

We must be faithful and noble as those who are from the bloodline of Jesse from Nazareth.

  God gave you the gift of Jesus and for you to give to God, humbleness, holiness, or freedom from sins and faithfulness may take you 1 to 10 years or your entire life! Get started today. Give God the gift of commitment to change your character!

  You know how it is when a musician hears a student who thinks they can sing, but the trained ear knows they really have a long way to go. They sing (off key) “Silent night”. Some people are so proud of their spirituality but they really are not there yet. Some of you are trying to give to God but you are not there yet. You need to do some major work!

God gave you a Billion dollar gift and you are giving him back a $5.00 one in return!

Let’s pray to make Christmas what it should be, a time of sincere worship and change of heart, and thankfulness!