FAMALIA
Pastor Carolyn Sissom (410 views)
FAMALIA
"And In You Shall All The Families of the Earth Be Blessed."
Genesis 12:3
Preached by: Carolyn SissomSunday, December 27, 2009 Christmas is the joyful season of the year when families gather together to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In honor of his birthday, we exchange gifts of love to our family and to friends. Our Lord reflected dignity upon family life by subjecting himself to the conditions of the home in Nazareth, with parents, brothers and sisters. He bestowed a blessing by his presence and gift at the wedding in Cana. As we have come from a glorious week of visiting with family and friends, we can all say that from year to year, there are sorrows, losses of loved ones, sicknesses, perhaps loss of jobs; financial challenges; and/or those who are troubled either by addictions, emotional pain, or physical pain. In our family, this year we face the loss of a husband and father, and the changes his illness has made and will make in our family. However, we will continue in love and rejoice in life. That is the way he wants it. I won’t bore you with our personal Christmas, but we did have a joyful Christmas ordered by the Lord. I believe I walked out the prophetic message of what the Lord is saying to the churches. I have been on my usual rocket-ship ride during Christmas week. As a matter of fact, my life has been a rocket-ship ride for as long as I have been serving the Lord. On Sunday mother arrived. She is 89 and drove down with friends from Missouri. We celebrated Christmas at church that same day. On Monday, Kelly, Chris and my three grands arrived. They started opening their gifts on arrival. (That made me smile). Monday night mother and I attempted to assist the grands by making three ginger bread houses. Only one house survived. As Colin said, “a hurricane hit the others.” They had their list of want-to-dos. Bungee jumping was on the list. Brooke and I did some last minute Christmas shopping. Chris took the boys bungee jumping. When Brooke and I finally arrived at the bungee jumping locale, the boys had left. Chris had my cell phone, so no one knew where we were. After Brooke bungee jumped, we decided to take in a movie, “The Princess and the Frog.” I have not been to a movie in years. I recommend this movie. The Princess destroyed the Ole devil. I like that part a lot. The movie is set in New Orleans and Cajun country. The accents and scenery are exactly like Southern Louisiana. On Wednesday, mother returned to Missouri. Kelly, Chris and my grands return to Louisiana and Shanna arrives from Midland. After going to visit her father, we decided it would be very nice for us to drive to Galveston on Christmas Eve, see the Festival of Lights, stay overnight at Hotel Galvez, have dinner at Gaido’s and Christmas brunch at Galvez. This we did. On arrival in the hotel lobby, Shanna notices this sign, “Hotel tours to discover Hotel Ghosts.” She says, “ MOTHER DID YOU SEE THIS?” Well, of course, I did not know there were resident ghosts!!! I said, “Shanna I am not going to tangle with any ghosts tonight!!!!” When we arrived in our room, I pled the Blood of Jesus, anointed the doors and windows and never gave it another thought. Christmas Eve was cold in Galveston, but we caught a ride on a golf cart, wrapped up in quilts, drank hot chocolate and enjoyed the Festival of Lights. Shanna was doing a little murmuring. I said, Shanna, this is a test as to whether you will be allowed to go to Africa with me. When you go on a missionary trip, there must be no complaining.” Within the next few minutes, our golf cart approaches large Christmas lights with Africa written out over our heads. She says, ‘MOTHER – I made it to Africa!!!” Shanna returned to Midland Saturday afternoon. It was a sad goodbye to her Father. He seemed to know she was crying. He was trying to shush her and comfort her as well as he could. Yes, every year we have our joys and face our sorrows head on. Both change from year to year. Rose Kennedy once said that she treats success and failure as equals. Neither one stays around too long. However, the Joy of the Lord is permanent and is never affected by our sorrows and failures. Once we know our way into this Joy, we will never allow our sorrows to rule over us. I have found this key to the Joy of Christmas and hope the whole world will receive this Joy through the Person of Jesus Christ. As people search year after year for the joy of Christmas, Jesus still visits and bestows His blessing on the family. The Lord established the family before he established the church. This first family of the whole earth was Adam and Eve. Male and female created He them. And God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion. This is the Great Commission for establishing families. “The Old Testament begins with the book of the first families of the world, but the glory of the New Testament excels that. It begins with the book of the generation of Him that made the world.” (M.H.) In Luke 3-23-38, Luke takes the family of Christ all the way back to Adam. Matthew goes no higher than Abraham. His purpose was to show that Christ was the son of Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth are blessed, and that he was the son of David and of the royal family. Luke purposes to show that Christ was the seed of the woman that should break the serpent’s head. There is some dispute among theologians whether the genealogy in Matthew is that of Joseph and the one in Luke is of that of Mary. The dispute is that some believe Eli or Heli to be the father of Mary. However, Luke records him to be the Father of Joseph. Matthew draws the pedigree from Solomon, whose natural line ending in Jechonias, the legal right was transferred to Salathiel who was of the house of Nathan, another son of David, which line Luke here pursues, and so leaves out all the kings of Judah. Luke 3:22: “And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, “You are my beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” Luke 3:38: “Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, which was the son of God?” What a family!!!! You and I have been grafted into this family through the Blood of Jesus. I claim the promise and the blessing that through Jesus, my family is blessed. Your family is blessed. All the families who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are blessed. Last summer the Lord spoke to me and told me, “Satan has called out an attack on marriages.” Within a few days, my telephone began to ring as marriages and families began to be shaken. It is a fact of life, that satan has no authority unless the Lord gives him permission. So, whenever we come under attack, if we obey the Lord in the midst of the battle, he will perfect all that concerns us. However, the walking it out is a Faith walk. That is why it is called “Faith”. I hope to start a study on the Book of Job this coming year. It is the Book of the Mystery of Suffering, or the Book of Blessing through Suffering. When Shanna left the nursing home, she said, “Mother it is cruel for Daddy to suffer like this. He doesn’t deserve this.” I walk in that place of perfect peace and was able to comfort her that all things work together for the Glory of God and we will one day see God’s Glory as a result of her Daddy’s suffering. We don’t know what is being worked out for the Lord’s eternal purposes. Religion would give the glory to satan or call it judgment. No!!!! Not True. Remember we are under the blessing of Jesus Christ, the son of Abraham in whom all the families of the earth are blessed. The purpose of the Book of Job:(1) To deal with the problem as to how the suffering of the godly can be reconciled with the justice and love of God.(2) To set forth Job as God’s example of patient endurance under suffering.(3) To reveal the sovereign grace of God as He deals with every son. I spoke to Don recently that he had earned a Crown of Patience that no man will covet. He has been a patient man through our life together. The Lord reveals his sovereign grace in his dealing with every son. All of us have fee of clay. Job, a godly man, suffered the loss of his fortune, family, and his personal health. He was baffled by his affliction, not knowing that he was the target of a conversation between God and satan. His three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, “comforted” him by trying to convince him that his suffering was punishment from God because of his personal sin. Elihu, having partial light on the situation, explained Job’s suffering as being chastisement sent to purify Job.Job rejects their theory. Instead of accepting their advice to repent and so make peace with God, Job insists on his own innocence and questions the justice of God and His treatment. Only the reader knows that God is proving to the Devil that Job’s faith is genuine. Finally God speaks, putting Job and the others in their place. Job’s suffering was designed, first of all, as a trial in which Job could prove himself in opposition to satan, but since Job did not go through this trial entirely without blemish, it also had the effect of purifying him. In the end, Job was blessed with a double portion of all he had before. Upon this simple plot, an unknown writer of superlative genius has erected a monumental work. The most persistent questions of the relationship of men to God have been given powerful theological treatment. As sons of God, we have all experienced joys and sufferings this Christmas season. Rejoice because through our sufferings will be a Greater Glory. Rev. 21:7: “He that overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be My Son.” What are we to overcome? What is the significance of suffering? What is the purpose of pain? Why calamities? Suffering is providentially allowed (Sovereignty of God is the source). One of the keys to our son ship is our fellowship of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Pattern Son. God has purposely subjected humanity to vanity (Rom. 8:20) that we, through the example of His son, be perfected through suffering and obedience, realizing the complete crucifixion of self, with the result that we might manifest His Divine nature. Eph. 4:13: “Until we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Carolyn Sissom, PastorEastgate Ministries, Inc.Scripture from K.J.V. Bibliography, Matthew Henry, Principles of Present Truth from: Job by Kelley Varner. Comments and Conclusions are my own
