{"id":409,"date":"2011-08-02T16:51:16","date_gmt":"2011-08-02T21:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/?p=409"},"modified":"2014-12-16T11:21:43","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T17:21:43","slug":"christ-in-the-manger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/?p=409","title":{"rendered":"Christ in the Manger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Each unspeakable gift.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Isaiah 9:6, 31:2-3,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cor. 9:15<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> Amid the triumphant shouts of heavenly host, the Christ child entered the Earthly world.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> &#8220;Glory to God in the highest and on earth: Peace good will toward men.&#8221; Luke 2:14.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Jesus came to fulfill God&#8217;s promise to a lost world. Acts 26:6<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> &#8220;In Him was life and the life was the light of men.&#8221; John 1:4, 3:16<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> I: God&#8217;s Gift was not Fancy Wrapped! Humiliation.<\/strong><br \/>\n1. Born to poor parents that didn&#8217;t have prestige enough to get a room.<br \/>\n2. Born in a manger where cattle were lowing.<br \/>\n3. Destined to be a Carpenters&#8217; son.<br \/>\n4. &#8220;He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground; he hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.&#8221; Isa. 53:2.<br \/>\n5. Born to a life of sorrow and grief. &#8220;He is sorrow and acquainted with grief.&#8221; Isa. 53:3.<br \/>\n6. &#8220;But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our inequities the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.&#8221; Isa. 53:5.<br \/>\nLove gave the greatest gift.<\/p>\n<p><strong> II: God&#8217;s Gift was Announced with Power and Glory.<\/strong><br \/>\n1. Gabriel the greatest of angels brought the announcement to Mary and Joseph.<br \/>\n2. The Shepherds heard the greatest choir that ever sang and the greatest hymn that was ever sung.<br \/>\n3. The stars made room for a new member that was to lead wise men thru long days of travel and point out the gift of God.<\/p>\n<p><strong>He came amid the shouts of angel&#8217;s and left while ungodly men cried out for his death, but the stars shone bright when he came and the sun turned dark at his departure.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> Mythical Legends: Alexander the Great claimed that he was begotten by a Serpent cohabiting with his mother. Caesar Augustus: &#8220;While his mother slept in the temple Apollo, she was visited by a God in Serpent form.&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Hercules: &#8220;Jupiter assumed the form of his father while his father was away and Hercules was born.&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Gautama Buddha: His mother dreamed that she saw a white elephant with six tusks, this elephant forcibly entered her side and months later Gautama was born.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> How unlike these was the birth of Jesus.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> III: God&#8217;s Gift was Different from all Others: Virgin Born.<\/strong><br \/>\n1. The Prophets foretold that a virgin would conceive.<br \/>\n2. Gabriel believed in the virgin birth.<br \/>\n3. Elizabeth believed in the Virgin birth.<br \/>\n4. Mary knew that she had conceived of the Holy Ghost.<br \/>\n5. Joseph knew he was not the father and was convinced by the angel Gabriel that the child was to be Virgin born.<br \/>\n6. The Angels that sang at his birth and the star that led the wise men believed in the Virgin birth.<br \/>\n7. Jesus claimed he was virgin born, and if he was not, he was the Greatest impostor the world has ever known.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Greatest Gift is the Most Unusual.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>It cost &#8211; God His only son.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>It cost &#8211; Christ all that he had.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>It cost Christmas, a cross burning his life.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>It cost regret the gift.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Each unspeakable gift.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Isaiah 9:6, 31:2-3,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cor. 9:15 Amid the triumphant shouts of heavenly host, the Christ child entered the Earthly world. &#8220;Glory to God in the highest and on earth: Peace good will toward men.&#8221; Luke 2:14. Jesus came to fulfill God&#8217;s promise to a lost world. Acts 26:6 &#8220;In Him was life [&hellip;]<\/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-409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409"}],"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=409"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1632,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions\/1632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgefindley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}