MESSAGE BY PASTOR DANIEL PARK
FROM BETHANY BAPTIST IN RICHMOND, BC
I invite you to pray with me, Father God hear our prayer, and we humbly cry to you as it is written in your word, Lucas 11:9:” I tell you Keep asking, and it will given to you, Keep seeking, and you will find, Keep knocking, and it will be open to you)” We are requesting healing for our dear members of our family and also dear friends who are suffering from illnesses in their lives fighting and suffering under a lot of pain, You know them by their names; (Gaby P, Vicky O, Nancy R, Tere G, Liz N, Stevie A, Les N, Miguel A H, Socrates D, Sara's mom H, Sergei B, Margarita G, Fega G. Manuel D, Marlen C. Rosy Ch, Richard H,) Also, some of them are tired of spiritual struggles, losing their faith in you, Strengthening their trust in you with a miracle in their lives, oh! Father God, hear our prayer, and we also pray for all the people around the world, especially the children who are suffering from wars, devastation, hunger, pain, hate and disbelieving in you also, bless the ones who are reading this message and their families. Heal the Land of those Countries at war; you love them so much, oh Father God, hear our prayer, we ask you in the name of Our Lord of Lords and King of Kings, your beloved son Jesus Christ. AMEN!
God the Father, we thank you for your response to our prayers with good news
with the recovery of health for some
Strengthen them so that they may regain their faith in you
And that they may be witnesses that you love them and that you
respond when we trust and believe in you
Thank you Father God in the name
of Jesus our Lord of Lords and King of Kings
Praise be to your name
always and forever, AMEN.
Last week, P. Rob ended the message by saying that Jesus was born to give hope.
Hope to the messed up, broken up and those have have given up
And we now DO have this hope - many people in this very room will attest to it
But that’s not all folks
Jesus’ birth was not just the arrival and completion of hope, it was the beginning
The start of a New Kingdom led by the One who is above all powers, above all thrones that have existed until now, above all kingdoms the world has ever known
And everyone who believe in Him will be His co-heirs to receive eternal life with God
“Because the Christmas story doesn’t end at a manger; it ends at a throne.”
The Bible tells us that Jesus sits on His throne at the right of hand of God and HIS throne
Pleading our case with God and convincing Him,
That we ARE worthy to be part of His kingdom and royal family
Not because of anything deserving on our part, but by what Jesus did for us - as was the will of God.
This Kingdom, did not begin 2000 thousand years ago - as long ago that sounds
As Micah 5:2 said, its origins are in the distant past - ancient days
Of course this is referring to the nation and kingdom of Israel
Whose origin goes way back
Back to a promise to one man and his family by an unknown God
Told to go and leave everything and everyone he knew
to the land that God will show
And then that God would make him into a great nation that will be a blessing to others - even the whole world
The obedience and faith of that man to an unknown God led to the birth of a small nation that established itself into a kingdom
Though not without many challenges
And in this ancient history, we will see our story reflected and predestined
Through this kingdom of ancient days God chose to work His many blessings into the whole world
Among them, true peace
It all began with a promise.
The Promise
Genesis 3:1-12
The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
Of course, the man I was talking about before who received a promise from an unknown God was Abraham, originally Abram - who most people in the world know as Father Abraham
Who had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham…
I remember learning to play this song on the guitar in high school music class - a public school .
It’s easy to forget that Abraham was not a Jew, or an Israelite - he was in fact a gentile by biblical standards
God CHOSE Abram, before Abram believed or had faith or even proved himself in anyway
Before Abram had any idea of what’s going on - or especially what was about to happen.
Lets have a look at a basic timeline of the Old Testament to give ourselves some context
We stand here in the Year of Our Lord, A.D 2024 years after the birth of Jesus Christ
David was king around 1000 years before the birth of Christ
Jacob, who later had his name changed to Israel and whose sons became the fathers of the 12 tribes of the people of Israel was born around 2000 years BC
And his grandfather Abraham, was born around little over 2100 BC
Abraham got to his destination relatively soon - the land of Canaan
But there is no organised nation until around 600 years later
It’s around 1000 years until Israel becomes a monarchy starting with Saul, David and Solomon - the prime of Israel as a nation and even kingdom
We often want to know the end before we are willing to commit
To know the reward for the risk I am about to take
This shows our lack of faith or how faith is not part of the picture
Abraham only began to learn after his initial response and continued to learn with every response and interaction with God, who for reasons beyond his comprehension, had approached him first
Honestly Abram didn’t even know that he was chosen
I would say he had no real idea even to his death
It was all possible because of a man deciding to follow a voice that he decided was worth pursuing and believing
But before THAT, it was God who chose to reveal Himself to one man and to bless that man and his family with a view to ALL the families of the world would one day receive that same blessing
To be chosen by God with a promise of life with God
Promise of peace.
2. The Birth
Micah 5:2
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
are only a small village among all the people of Judah.
Yet a ruler of Israel,
whose origins are in the distant past,
will come from you on my behalf.
3
The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies
until the woman in labor gives birth.
Then at last his fellow countrymen
will return from exile to their own land.
4
And he will stand to lead his flock with the Lord’s strength,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
Then his people will live there undisturbed,
for he will be highly honored around the world.
5
And he will be the source of peace.
If you will allow me to share a short personal testimony
By all accounts, I should not be standing here today - in existence, that is
Some time after my brother and then sister were born, my mother became very ill and doctors told her she would not be able to have any more children
On top of that, my parents marriage and relationship was not good - even on the verge of divorce
Then through her mum, my mum was led to Christ and salvation.
Some time after, I was conceived But that isn’t the end of the testimony
I was born so prematurely that I went straight into an incubator and the doctors were not sure if I would actually survive
They told my mother to prepare herself.
A pastor from her church came and prayed over me in the incubator and my mother decided that if I didn’t have much longer to live, she wanted to be able to at least hold her son for however long she had and demanded I be released into her care and took me home
You can guess how this part of my story ends - obviously I survived!
I know that there well may be parents here who have lost a child in a similar situation
Have experienced miscarriages
Are unable to have children at all
Some do not want to have any children
There is a lot of pain surrounding childbirth.
But why are we talking childbirth at all?
The birth of the nation and people of Israel literally began with the birth of a baby - Isaac, who would be the father of Jacob, who would later be renamed, Israel
The birth of the nation of Israel is narrated at length and intimately through the births of the children and grandchildren of Abraham
Miracles and drama abound!
God promised Abraham descendants but he still had no children while nearing 100 years old
So Abraham and his wife decide to take matters into their own hands, Abraham having a son through Sarah’s servant - this does not please God
But Abraham and Sarah do have a child of their own, Isaac, who is born when Abraham is 100 and Sarah his wife is 90 years old!
Can you imagine, facing the prospect of losing everything after being obedient because you couldn’t have children
If I was Abraham, I’d be pretty bitter and despondent
Like, what was the point of all that?
Micah 5:3
The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies
until the woman in labor gives birth.
This is a prophetic reference to the state of Israel until Mary gives birth to Jesus
But in the context of the birth of Isaac, I cannot help but also see some parallels
Abraham’s first son that he had with Sarah’s servant, Hagar, is Ismael, who would be there father of the nations that would later be Israel’s enemies
Abraham and Sarah - and even their descendants were “abandoned to their enemies” when they abandoned God and His promises
UNTIL - THE woman gives birth - God’s chosen woman, according to God’s way
This is also the origin of the pain in childbirth, is it not?
The sin of Adam and Eve resulted in death entering the world and a part of that was the pain of childbirth
The pain reminds us of our sinfulness and confirms our need of a saviour
Because only God can fulfil His promises - in ways only He can
Giving Abraham and Sarah a baby at the age of 100 and 90
Giving Hannah, a barren woman a son, who would become one of the greatest prophets, Samuel
Giving Elizabeth who was unable to have children, a son who would be John the Baptist
Choosing a young woman who is still a virgin to conceive and give birth to a son, who she is told to name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins
We need Jesus to save us from our sins and its consequences
And we need God to work in our lives to fulfil HIS promises
And His promise for us is peace
3. The Establishment
Ask any parent or just know any parent and be around them and they will tell you that the pain and difficulty of labour and childbirth does not end after birth
The challenges continue on long after
Of course with lots of joy that is hard to explain and anticipate as well
Growing and maturing actually takes a long time and can be exasperating at times
And our relationship with God, our faith, our spirituality can at times seem to go through long times of… silence
Waiting for direction, confirmation - ANYTHING
Like this video portrays… [Skit Guy video]
If we go back to our Old Testament timeline again - from the time of Abraham receiving the promise from God to Israel, Abraham’s descendants being a strong nation, is about a thousand years
If I count to King David, who is the most important of Israel’s King and his reign is when you can say that Israel was a kingdom
But looking closer, we forget that even for David, specifically chosen and anointed to be king where Saul failed and a man after God’s own heart, it took 20 years from being anointed by Samuel till David was crowned king of Israel.
And during those 20 years, David suffered tremendously
Being the youngest of 8, David was overlooked and almost ignored by his own father
Had to contend with intense sibling rivalry and jealous with his brothers
Speaking of jealousy, King Saul, who David served wanted to kill David out of jealousy and spent years trying to.
Going back to the timeline, less than 300 years after David, the kingdom is no more, the nation split into 2 and they begin 700 years of exile and being ruled by various foreign kingdoms
During this time, the Jews faced real threats of total destruction and annihilation
As we read one account in detail in the Book of Esther. In Chapter 3
The decree was written in the name of King Xerxes and sealed with the king’s signet ring. Dispatches were sent by swift messengers into all the provinces of the empire, giving the order that all Jews—young and old, including women and children—must be killed, slaughtered and annihilated on a single day.
Even after the promise of a great nation was fulfilled, it could have ended just like that - maybe in all likelihood, it should have ended
If it wasn’t for God who is eternal and immutable
Still, as the Jews waited and waited, they even had to endure 400 years of silence from God.
No prophets, revelations, or words
Until the birth of Jesus who is the Christ - the Messiah. Saviour
Micah 5:4 said,
And he will stand to lead his flock with the Lord’s strength,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
Then his people will live there undisturbed,
for he will be highly honored around the world.
And he will be the source of peace.
The Messiah would be different:
He will stand or establish himself as ruler in order to accomplish God’s plan not his
He will be a shepherd who leads, protects, and provides for his people
He will accomplish this because he does all things in the majesty of the name of the Lord God
And the strength of God will be his.
From a nation and people that had been down-trodden for 700 years, will come the new ruler who will forever be highly honoured in the whole world
The hundreds of years of waiting and even suffering was not a waste of time
Same for David and the same for the Jewish people
God was using and preparing them even as they were waiting and suffering
Same for all who believe in Jesus the Christ, the Suffering Servant.*
Our waiting and suffering is our time of refinement
Waiting on God, listening for Him, and seeking Him unceasingly IS faith and we being established as people of God
And in 2s and 3s, 100s, few hundreds, even thousands, the churches fill with such people are establishing the the Kingdom of God - the Kingdom of Peace.
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