{"id":1242,"date":"2011-12-15T22:53:18","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T04:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/?p=1242"},"modified":"2014-12-16T11:20:45","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T17:20:45","slug":"who-hath-believed-our-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/?p=1242","title":{"rendered":"Who Hath Believed Our Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 53:1-12, Luke 2<\/strong>
\nWhen we see how far the world has strayed from the true Spirit of Christmas, we feel like raising our voice with Isaiah of old and say, “Who hath believed our report?”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I: Do we really believe that Bethlehem took its place in fulfilled Prophecy?<\/strong>
\n1. Do we believe that there was a purpose and mission that the Christ child came to fulfill?
\n2. Does the Manger point us to the Cross and the Cross lead us to serve Him?
\n3. Does the Christ-childs birthday give us the real Hope of Eternal Peace and Salvation?
\n4. Dare we believe the angels appeared to Zaccariah, Mary, Joseph, and the Shepherds?
\n5. Was there really a star that led Wise Men to that child’s bedside?<\/p>\n

II: “Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah.” Micah 5:2.<\/strong>
\n1. W.M.U: “How far to Bethlehem?”
\na. 5 miles from Jerusalem.
\nb. Rich is sacred History: Jacobs Rachael, Ruth, and Boaz, David anointed King.
\nc. God’s chosen place for His son to be born.
\n2. Let us not measure the distance to Bethlehem by miles, but by Spiritual distance.
\n3. W.M.U: “The lost road to Bethlehem.”
\na. We have allowed the World to crowd in with so many things to dim our eyes that we have lost the way to Bethlehem.
\nb. A spirit of Christmas parade in a Southern city, (The Reporter found not 1 that celebrated Christmas for Christ).
\nc. Traditions have made dim the way Christmas tree from the German’s Yule Festival brought Holly and Mistletoe and Yule log.
\nd. It’s possible here in America for people to celebrate Christmas and never connect it with the birth of Christ, (Religion in Christmas).<\/p>\n

All our decorations shouldn’t rob us of the true Spirit of Christmas.<\/strong><\/p>\n

III: Christmas should turn us back to home and Christ.<\/strong>
\n1. The home was God’s 1st institution made sacred by His presence.
\n2. God used a virgin mother and a new born child to announce His “unspeakable gift.”
\na. He didn’t reveal himself in the royal palace of Herod.
\nb. He didn’t choose to have him appear in the Temple.
\nc. But he chose to send him to poor parents in a humble town and in a Manger!
\n3. How long will we continue along the roads that don’t lead to the Manger?
\na. “The World isn’t held back by bad men, but by good ones who are indifferent and spiritually lazy.”
\nb. Harry Owens: “There is so little of Christ in Christmas that the World doesn’t hesitate in celebrating it with us and to our shame.”
\nc. Indians that sacrificed a pig to their Gods, finally offered only the head with the tail in its mouth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 53:1-12, Luke 2 When we see how far the world has strayed from the true Spirit of Christmas, we feel like raising our voice with Isaiah of old and say, “Who hath believed our report?” I: Do we really believe that Bethlehem took its place in fulfilled Prophecy? 1. Do we believe that there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1242"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1333,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242\/revisions\/1333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}