A Little Enthusiasm Please
Richard Bradley
Luke 1:59-66
Enthusiasm is a wonderful thing don't you think? I don't know anyone that likes dull and boring. Dull and boring activities tend to put us in the worst of moods. On the other hand, those activities we enjoy, we're enthusiastic about, tend to do just the opposite. They put us in the best of moods. You should see some of our people watching a football game. Talk about enthusiasm! Jumping up and down. Throwing stuff!
What is it that keeps us from having that kind of enthusiasm about the things of God? Here's the answer. While we tend to internalize things like football games almost as if we were participants, we tend to experience the things of God as spectators. During that first Christmas there were no spectators. There were only participants.
Our story of Christmas enthusiasm surely begins with the story of John the Baptist.
Read Luke 1:59-66
ZACHARIAH'S ENTHUSIASM WAS SMOTHERED BY HIS LACK OF FAITH
18 And Zacharias said to the angel, ''How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.''
It's a shame that Zachariah had to wait for about a year for his enthusiasm to catch fire. Put yourself in his sandals. He's in the Holy Place in the Temple, the second holiest place in the whole world next to the Holy of Holies. This is the place where God has promised to come down to meet with His people in His Shekinah glory. Not only this, but while he's there doing what priests do, an angel, God's spokesman, appears to him and announces that the priest is going to have a son. Even in that holy place, speaking to an angel, Zachariah still doubted. Personally, I think I'd be inclined to believe anything someone from heaven told me.
Forget about Zachariah and the Temple just now. Think about yourself. As we approach the Christmas season is your enthusiasm for the things of God and the Christian life what it ought to be? If anyone should have been enthusiastic abou ...
Richard Bradley
Luke 1:59-66
Enthusiasm is a wonderful thing don't you think? I don't know anyone that likes dull and boring. Dull and boring activities tend to put us in the worst of moods. On the other hand, those activities we enjoy, we're enthusiastic about, tend to do just the opposite. They put us in the best of moods. You should see some of our people watching a football game. Talk about enthusiasm! Jumping up and down. Throwing stuff!
What is it that keeps us from having that kind of enthusiasm about the things of God? Here's the answer. While we tend to internalize things like football games almost as if we were participants, we tend to experience the things of God as spectators. During that first Christmas there were no spectators. There were only participants.
Our story of Christmas enthusiasm surely begins with the story of John the Baptist.
Read Luke 1:59-66
ZACHARIAH'S ENTHUSIASM WAS SMOTHERED BY HIS LACK OF FAITH
18 And Zacharias said to the angel, ''How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.''
It's a shame that Zachariah had to wait for about a year for his enthusiasm to catch fire. Put yourself in his sandals. He's in the Holy Place in the Temple, the second holiest place in the whole world next to the Holy of Holies. This is the place where God has promised to come down to meet with His people in His Shekinah glory. Not only this, but while he's there doing what priests do, an angel, God's spokesman, appears to him and announces that the priest is going to have a son. Even in that holy place, speaking to an angel, Zachariah still doubted. Personally, I think I'd be inclined to believe anything someone from heaven told me.
Forget about Zachariah and the Temple just now. Think about yourself. As we approach the Christmas season is your enthusiasm for the things of God and the Christian life what it ought to be? If anyone should have been enthusiastic abou ...
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