We are actually concluding a sermon series.
That we started several weeks ago called the God of the Christmas story.
And so what we've been doing over the last several weeks is looking at the Christmas
story, but trying to figure out what do we notice about our God through this?
What do we see about our Heavenly Father as we examine and study
out a very familiar passage?
Of the Christmas story, and so we've been looking at just the first two chapters
from the gospel Matthew and so in the first one Matthew chapter 1 We saw how the
God of the scriptures is the God of hope and we saw that through the genealogy of
Jesus Then we move forward and we looked at verses 13 to 25 and we saw how God is
a God of mystery by bringing about the birth of his son through the Virgin Mary.
And then last week we talked about the God of invitation chapter 2 verses 1
through 12 and how God when he brings the Magi really is inviting all of mankind
to an eternal relationship with him.
And today we'll conclude by finishing out chapter two and we'll see how God is
a God of provision, a God of provision.
Let's go to our Father in prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity for most of the OC church
to come together on this Christmas Eve and be able to worship you.
God, we've been encouraged just to see friends that we haven't seen in a long
time, to be able to sing songs about the birth of your son Jesus, and God, to be
reminded that you provide in the waters.
Father, it was so encouraging to see Josephine get baptized yesterday.
Father, as she has entered a new life, and we thank you because it
was Jesus who allowed us all to have an opportunity at eternal life.
Father, I pray that you will speak.
Father, it's not about anything else except you.
May you speak to every soul.
Father, put to the side any distraction that can get in the way
from hearing the message you have.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Amen.
Now again, provision means to provide.
Says, we see if God is the God of provision means God is the
God who provides for his people.
So let's get into the scriptures.
Matthew chapter two, starting off in verse 13.
And those in the coastline, south and central ministries.
I know I haven't had a chance to speak in a long time to you or
maybe you've never heard me speak.
So let me remind you of something real quickly.
Then if we want the next several minutes to go well, I
need you to be fully engaged.
And I need a couple of amens.
Oh, my man, what's going on?
It's been a minute.
All right, so we need some amens.
We need some hallelujahs.
You know what I'm saying?
We need some come on and all that good stuff We just don't
need to hear get off the stage.
That's the last thing you need to say All right, if you do that, the
Lord will strike you where you sit.
Okay.
All right.
Let's go ahead Let's get into it Matthew chapter 2 verse 13 It says when they
had gone an angel the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream get up He said, take the
child and his mother and escape to Egypt.
Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.
So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night
and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.
And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet.
Out of Egypt I called my son.
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he
was furious and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem.
And it's vicinity who were two years old and under in accordance with the
time he had learned from the Magi.
Then what was fulfilled then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah
was fulfilled a voice is heard around my weeping and greet morning Rachel
weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no
more after Herod died an angel the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt
and said Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel.
For those who were trying to take the child's life are dead.
So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.
But when he heard that Hercules was reigning in Judea in place of his
father Herod, he was afraid to go there.
Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went
and lived in a town called Nazareth.
So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, he, that
he would be called a Nazarene.
Let's stop right there.
Hopefully you already caught it.
But we see the God of provision on full display in this passage.
And we're going to break it down here a little bit.
And so in verses 13 and 14, we see that God provides provision through
providing protection from Herod.
Again, provision means to provide, and so this God of provision provides in many
ways and provides many different things.
In the first off, we see that God provides protection.
Herod wants to kill the child, Jesus.
And so he tells him to move and to escape, and he's warned in a dream.
We also see God provides direction for the family.
Hey, going over to Egypt.
Later on, going over to Israel.
Now what's interesting and really cool about Egypt is that, you
know, Egypt actually had a large population of Jewish people.
And so this would actually be the destination that many
Jews would go to whenever the nation faced trouble or trials.
Many of them would, would, would leave town and they would go to Egypt.
And so there were large colonies.
And in fact, one scholar said there was probably at least a million
people in the land of Egypt.
A million Jews in the land of Egypt.
And so it's interesting, God says, Go to Egypt.
You got a bunch of people there.
By the time you arrive, you'll fit in.
You'll be okay with your newborn.
And you'll probably have a safer, not safer, but a quicker way to get on
your feet and provide a way of living.
Then he says, alright, I want you to go to Nazareth.
Now we know from the gospel of Luke that that's Joseph's hometown.
So now you can go back.
Don't go back to Bethlehem, but go to Nazareth.
On over to the area of Galilee and Nazareth, hometown, you can probably
get quickly back on your feet and be able to provide for your family.
So he provides direction.
We also see that God provides resources for the trip.
If you remember, the Magi, I know some of you guys weren't with
us last week, but most of us are very familiar with the passage.
But the Magi came and they provided some gifts.
Let's go and look at it again.
On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and
they bowed down and worshipped him.
Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of
gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Now again we understand there's A lot of spiritual implications and symbolism
that took place in these gifts.
But guess what?
They were practical means of transportation.
And by the time they get there, guess what?
Hey man, I got some gold.
I got some frankincense I could, man, can I get, let's, let's
barter, let's exchange so I can provide for my wife and my newborn.
Well, the Lord provides.
I'm sure Joseph was like, thank you, Magi, because a brother needed that coin.
You know what I'm saying?
Some of y'all like, yeah, thank you for that, that bonus this month.
Or thank you just for that extra check that came in.
We also see that God provides reassurance to trust him.
He provided it then, but as Matthew writes this letter for this Jewish Christian
audience, and that we are enabled and benefited to be able to read ourselves,
we are reminded that God provides reassurance that we can trust him.
The Bible is filled with many scriptures saying, Trust God, do not fear.
And we see in the passages here that Matthew decides, you know what,
let's take some of these passages.
We don't have enough time to break down the prophecies and
how peculiar they really are.
But he provides these scriptures to say, hey, you know what?
God has been present the whole time.
God's had a plan the whole time.
God's been inviting his people the whole time.
And God's been providing and still provides the whole time.
Again, we see the God of hope.
We see the God of mystery.
We see the God of invitation, and we see the God of provision as
we examine the Christmas story.
And so God is providing all these things, and here's the great thing about
it, brothers and sisters, is that God is still the God of provision today.
He 2, 000 years ago, I'm not gonna provide anymore.
I did enough.
Even though He could, and that would still be sufficient.
But he's still the God of provision today.
That means he provides for his people now and he will provide.
God provides an escape route from danger in our lives.
He'll provide some shelter and protection from evil that is lurking in our lives.
He'll provide direction for our life.
Support means and necessities to survive, and that will strengthen our faith in Him.
Protection, direction, resources, reassurance, often seen and
experienced today in different ways.
Sometimes the miraculous, sometimes it's just simple divine methods of God.
All available for you and me this hour.
Let's break down a couple of these.
Church, are you still with me?
God provides through his word.
Think about it.
Protection, resources, reassurance, direction for our lives, help, evidence
to trust him, all found in the scriptures.
Also, through his Holy Spirit.
The power, the strength, and direction to make things clear, although the
Holy Spirit does it in different ways on different occasions.
He also provides through his church.
God working through relationships, advice, intangible help, intangible resources.
Have you ever been helped by anybody in the church?
If you say no, yes you have.
How'd you even get here today?
Okay, somebody in the church.
I'm sure the Holy Spirit didn't direct you here.
Maybe he did, but I doubt that.
You see, God provides through his word, through his spirit,
and through his church.
So what does this mean for you?
In me today.
It means we can trust God.
We can trust God's plan and directions for our lives that are found in
scripture or that are directly designed for us in our lives.
God's provided a plan and we can trust his plan to overcome evil and
give eternal salvation through his son, Jesus, and through his return.
Someday we can trust his promises.
We can trust that following His word will benefit our lives,
benefit our relationships, and benefit those around us.
We can trust that.
And so what does that mean we should do then?
Well, I think it's simple.
Trust and follow.
The response to the God of provision is to trust Him and to follow
His direction for our lives.
To trust that He'll provide and then to follow His will.
But see, we have to learn to place our trust in God's protective timing and care.
And so we might have it for a moment, but we need to be reminded of it.
I got into an accident last Wednesday.
I know man.
You telling me it appears that I'm at fault But I've been struggling every
single day, and I'm like I don't know if I was at fault even this morning
I was like Karina I think he cut in front of me But I'm not gonna get
into the whole story because then I'll start struggling okay And I might just
go in some other place spiritually okay, so now we have this hassle of
dealing because it now It's a total loss Raul knows I call Raul like man.
I'm in trouble And so it's a total loss and so now here we are and I'm starting to
fret I'm looking like what should we do?
I'm asking Kenny Barber for advice the other day.
And so I'm there and Karina she's like God's gonna provide She's like
he's always provided for us a car.
I was like you right.
That's true.
That's right Okay, and it helped me.
I did say a hallelujah.
I was like, you know what God provided this car He provided that
car that car that car man got a bit.
He's got a track record Why am I tripping?
Let's see.
We need to learn this again.
We might have it for a moment, right?
The problem is it maybe if you're like me is that we can easily forget and
then we doubt which leads to missed opportunities, which usually lead to
miss blessings in our lives, which can often lead to mistakes that we make.
Send or damage and or damage to our lives or those around us
because we didn't trust him enough.
We decided I'll make this decision.
I won't seek input because I know what's good.
I have a track record and then what happens is regrets.
But if we can go back to the God of the Christmas story and we can remember he's
a God of provision that we can remember, recall and stand firm in our trust.
But then we have to follow his lead and direction.
It's a two parter.
We have to follow God's direction.
Just think about this.
God gave direction to Joseph and Mary.
He gave them a plan, but then he gave them some direction.
So Joseph and Mary, their responsibility and their role was to do what?
To trust him, but not trust him by staying put, but actually following what he said.
Just imagine if they decided we trust you, but we aren't
going to follow what you said.
How would that Christmas story turn out?
I don't know if me and you would be here this morning.
And so what do we learn?
Is trusting is good, but it's not true trust until we actually
make a step in following.
And so what we learn, and this hit me as I was studying this out, is that this, is
that revelation requires participation.
When God reveals something to us through his word, through his
people, through the Holy Spirit, it requires you and me to act upon it.
Just to receive it and do nothing with it is useless and pointless.
So when God reveals his eternal will for our lives on a lifestyle
of holiness, we have to trust him, but then actually follow through.
When God starts to reveal things for your life individually, you gotta trust
him, but then follow his direction.
Because when God provides direction, then the protection
and help we have, we experience.
You see, revelation means nothing without participation.
I'm sure a lot of you, especially you coming from different parts
of town, you probably used GPS this morning, didn't you?
Look, she's nodding her head like, Yeah, I sure did.
I've never been over here before.
She's like, Placentia, is that in Orange County?
You know what I'm saying?
And so you used GPS.
Just imagine if you used GPS and you decide, I'm gonna turn it
on, but I'm not gonna follow it.
I'm gonna have that, that screen on, but I'm just gonna go the way I wanna go.
Where would you end up?
Who knows where?
You might end up in Long Beach.
Riverside, Mexicali, who knows?
But here's the thing, here's what happens, brothers and sisters.
We do this on a consistent basis.
God reveals something, we turn it on, but yet we don't follow it.
Then we end up going, man, I'm lost in my Spiritually, I'm off.
This didn't go well.
Man, this is causing damage and a mess.
But the direction, the spiritual GPS was on the whole time.
We claim to believe it and follow it.
But we decided to veer into our own path.
You see, revelation requires participation.
It requires us to do something.
But that's when we experience the God of provision.
We experience it, we see it, we testify with our own lives.
Once we actually trust And follow His direction.
This is why I need time in God's Word.
This is why you need time in God's Word.
So you can have an understanding of God's will for your life.
This is why we need personal devotional time in prayer with God.
So His Spirit can minister to us.
This is why we need relationships in the church.
Because sometimes we're not listening.
And we need God.
And God's saying, look I'm going to speak through my children to help you out.
You see, God's provision is experience when we trust and follow.
Let, let, let's go ahead and let's come in for a landing here.
Let's get real practical.
Those in the north know we like action steps over here.
And so I want to give us some action steps this week.
You can practice, you can put this into practice in the next 24 hours, okay?
And some will be a little bit longer.
But here's, here's the first one.
Go ahead and thank God for his provision in your life.
Spend some time in the next 24 hours thanking God for providing.
When you start off, you'll end up going down a longer list.
Then you imagined you start there.
I'll just give him a couple minutes And if you start to really think you're
providing you're gonna go down a path and it's a good path And you'll start
to appreciate the God of proof you start to be reminded that God will provide
this week Second go ahead and follow his will in that one area of your life.
You know that area You know that area.
You know that area that God's been trying to minister to.
He's been trying to say something.
But you've been hesitant.
You've been resisting.
Like, I don't know if I really want to turn on the GPS.
I don't know if I really want to listen to it right now.
I want to encourage you to make a decision that you will follow through
in his direction in your life.
Whatever that that area is, maybe it's being humble, forgiving
or asking for forgiveness.
Sharing the love of Jesus with a family member.
Prioritizing God first over school or work in the new year.
Whatever it is, follow His will in that area in your life.
You know, our Heavenly Father is a God of provision.
And we will experience His provision when we trust Him and follow His direction.
We're going to take communion right now.
This is where we have the emblems, the bread and the juice, they represent
Jesus body and blood that was sacrificed so that we could have salvation.
And we remember as we look at the God of the Christmas story is that
He is the God who provided Jesus to be our Redeemer and Savior.
God provided Jesus to be the example on how to live.
And God provided Jesus to atone for our sins.
Let's close out with a very familiar passage in John chapter three, verse
16, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that
whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life for God
did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the
world through him, the God of provision.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for sending your son.
God, you provided.
Salvation through your son.
You provided atonement for our sins through your son.
You provided forgiveness through your son.
You provided hope through your son.
You provided peace through your son.
You provided joy through your son.
You provided the ultimate example of love through your son.
You provided the church through your son.
You provided us the Holy Spirit through your son.
You provided us a new resurrected life through your son.
We thank you for your methods.
We thank you for your decision.
We thank you for your character.
We thank you that we can have an eternal relationship with you.
Thank you, not just for Christmas events and celebrations, but
thank you for Jesus being born.
And God, we thank you for being a God of hope, being a God of
mystery, being a God of invitation and being the God of provision.
We pray in the name of Jesus.
Amen.