Jesus

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great and called Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
Luke 1:30-33
 
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like the son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
Daniel 7:13-14
 
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forever more. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this.”
Isaiah 9:6-7

 
Merry Christmas to you all! This is a special year in that Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday morning! A special time to gather, worship Jesus our Lord, and see new Christians come for baptism. Let’s be reminded that Christmas is about the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the inauguration of the coming of the Kingdom of God. These are important Christian realities that we need to understand. Incarnation means “in flesh.” At Christmas we don’t celebrate the beginning of Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ, the Son of God, humbling Himself and being born as a baby. The prophet Isaiah proclaims this coming of Jesus with the name Immanuel, meaning “God with us.” Jesus Christ is the eternally existing second person of the trinity. He does not begin with His divine conception in Mary. By His mercy, great love, and according to the determined will of God the Father, Jesus is born in flesh to live amongst us and begin His Kingdom that will never end.
             
The Christmas season is filled with wonderful family gatherings, feasting, lights, and gift-giving, but we must strive to keep our focus on Jesus. As Christians we must press to keep our focus on the glorious salvation by grace alone that Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. Jesus must never be reduced to one of the pantheon of Christmas season characters, but ever be exalted in our hearts as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We must see Immanuel – God with us – as the fulfillment of the promise of God to send His Son as the Savior of the world. It is Jesus who has begun a work that will never end.

People often struggle with the sin, death, brokenness, and corruption of this world. It is through the salvation of Jesus that people are being saved out of this world. It is through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that new birth comes to our hearts, and we are made new passing from death to life. It is this salvation that began to be accomplished when Jesus was born into this world. This salvation was announced by angels at its beginning and at its completion. A salvation that proclaims Jesus as King. He who was born in complete humility is now exalted in heavenly glory! His name is great and the work He has begun with His first coming, He will certainly complete in His second coming.

This Christmas exalt Jesus to the first and highest place in your heart. He is a merciful Savior and a mighty King. He is a Wonderful Counselor, and He is coming on the clouds to call His people to Himself. Make this a practical reality through prayer and scripture reading at family gatherings. Pile the family in the car and join others to worship Jesus our Savior on this Christmas Eve!
 
May joy, peace, and hope overflow in your home this Christmas,
Pastor Vic

Suicide


“O God, from my youth you have taught me, and still I proclaim your wonderous deeds.
So even to old age and grey hairs, O God, do not forsake me until I proclaim your might to another generation, Your power to all those to come.”
Psalm 71: 17-18

 
This week the National Center for Health Statistics reported suicide numbers for 2022. Nearly 50,000 Americans killed themselves in 2022, marking the highest suicide count in one year ever recorded. This should be a grim and sobering reality to all of us. Within these statistics certain markers jumped out to me. Men are more likely to actually commit suicide, but women more often report suicidal thoughts. Of the various age brackets, the age category of over 75 reported the highest number of suicides in 2022. This is such a tragedy.

I want to spend some time asking and attempting to answer the question, “How can the most affluent and stable senior group in the world lead the way in record-breaking suicide numbers?” Though there is no clean or simple answer to this question, we must ask and strive to understand what has gone wrong. If all too often the heritage being passed down to younger generations is one of death and despair, in short order this malignancy will begin to multiply in younger generations.

I believe the right place to start is to focus on the general ungodliness of seniors in the US. The Bible tells us that for those truly in Christ, “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). This speaks to the reality we should see in truly Christian seniors. We should see people who are growing physically older through gradually failing health, but whose souls are growing more beautiful in godliness as they make progress in the faith and grow closer to heaven. When you are around this type of Christian senior, you know it! Though they still struggle with sin (as we all do!), there is a powerful sense of godliness that transcends their aging and broken body. Their hope in Christ and desire to convey the gospel to younger generations is overt and inspiring.

Sadly, there are far more seniors that were nominal Christians in their middle age, going through the motions and saying the right words, but never earnestly believing in Jesus as Lord. Who we really are is revealed when the fire of pressure is turned up in our lives. For millions of nominally Christian Americans, as the body grows old so does the care to keep up any pretense of false religion. As the body fades so does the soul of the unbelieving. Instead of “partaking in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) through holding fast to the promises of God, unbelieving seniors grow in all forms of ungodliness: selfishness, anger, pride, despair, jealousy, strife, drunkenness, and sexual immorality. (The last category may surprise you, but it’s for good reason the largest US retirement community – The Villages, FL -is infamously known as the STD capital of America.) Combining the factors I’ll mention below, this leads countless seniors to a place of despair, from which some act to end their lives.

Though the root of despair is a rejection of the gospel of Jesus Christ, there are many contributing factors to the hopelessness of many American seniors. I would like to challenge our thinking as a church. First, the prevailing US fixation on retirement. What retirement means for many people is the ceasing of meaningful work. It’s a vision of endlessly, selfishly entertaining yourself with no obligations. It’s like a perverted version of heaven on earth. This is not a Christian ideal and will lead to all kinds of despair and dysfunction, rather than the happiness one expects. God created human beings to be involved in meaningful work six days a week and worship one day a week. This does not mean that seniors need to be working the same full days as in their youth, but it does mean that their lives should revolve around regular meaningful work instead of endless entertainment. This work may earn income, or it may not. It may be volunteer charitable work, work in the church, or work in the home actively helping the next generation. To this, relaxation is appropriately added for refreshment. This type of life brings meaning through Christ-centered service. A life of Christ-centered service builds relationships and treasured friendships. A life of Christ-centered service works to sanctify the soul and deepen our relationship with Jesus. All this, brings joy! American self-absorbed and self-entertaining retirement contributes to despair.

Second, family isolation. We are more spread out than ever before through transient job culture. As family members we need each other. What it looks like to be near each other is a difficult answer. However, we need to meaningfully live life together as family. Consider how to make necessary sacrifices to live closer together as parents and children. This is very common in other cultures but growing less common in America. Part of this involves bearing with one another in patience. This patience comes through Christian sanctification. The two play into each other as we work out our God-given obligations to care for family members.

Third, end of life medical decisions. Ever-advancing medical technology is widening the gap between what is possible and what ought to happen. Again, this relates to godliness and spiritual wisdom. The unbelieving are often terrified of death and will go to any length to put off the inevitable. The Christian seeks always to live a full life unto the Lord but is not afraid to die and enter into eternal life. Before extreme old age, senior Christians would be wise to have frank and prayerful conversations with their spouse and children concerning what extent of medical care they wish to receive. A type of tortured existence can be sustained by machines long after a person a few generations ago would have died a natural death. What can happen and what ought to happen, are not always the same thing concerning end of life medical decisions.

Fourth, we would be wise to learn contentment from joyful Christian seniors. Christian seniors from just a few generations ago did not live lavishly like we do now. Their houses were smaller, their cars and clothes were simpler, and their schedules were less crowded – and on the whole – they were happier. The “American Dream” of unending material gain and entertainment is not satisfying our souls. Let us go back to simpler times and take seriously the claims of Jesus Christ. Hear the words of JC Ryle, “To have a place and a title and a position in society is not nearly so important as people think. It is a great sin to be covetous and worldly and proud: but it is no sin to be poor. It matters not so much what money we have, and where we live, as what we are in the sight of God. Where are we going when we die? Shall we live forever in heaven? These are the main things to which we should attend.”
 
Let us grow old and die well in the hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Pastor Vic

Provision

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
Psalm 81:10 

             
What an amazing verse! This verse points to the absolute dependence of Israel on the Lord when they were brought out of slavery in Egypt. The Lord delivered them from slavery into complete dependence upon Himself in the desert. Most of Israel hated this condition and complained against it constantly. The purpose of this dependence was for the Lord to glorify Himself through providing for the people in a way they knew it was the action of God in their midst. The picture is of a hungry person standing and looking up, opening their mouth, and waiting for the Lord to fill it. That’s dependence! The way the Lord met this need for a generation in the desert was by providing daily bread – manna (Exodus 16, Numbers 11, Deuteronomy 8, John 6).
             
This verse was the lifetime theme verse of a passionate Christian named George Muller. The life and ministry of George Muller has had a profound impact on my life. Muller ministered in Bristol, England during the mid to late 19^th century. He is most well known for his orphan care ministry. Bristol was an industrial town struggling through the late industrial revolution period. There were an abundance of orphans and few social ways to care for them. Muller, and his wife Mary, felt moved to do something about this problem, but did not have the resources to help. The short of it is that they prayed and started to take in orphans one at a time. They specifically did not solicit people for funding but took their needs to the Lord in prayer. They took the posture of Psalm 81:10, for the purpose of seeing God glorified through answered prayer and provision. Muller expressly wanted the hard-hearted non-Christian culture of late industrial England to experience provision that could only be explained through the actions of God. The hope was that provision for these orphans would glorify God by God providing for their needs in a profound way.
             
Over his long ministry, more than 10,000 orphans passed through the ever-growing orphan ministry at Bristol. The stories and fame of the Lord miraculously providing for needs also spread. Over time, through walking by faith, every need was provided for and God was greatly glorified. To quote Muller, “Now if I, a poor man, simply by prayer and faith, obtained without asking any individual, for the means for establishing and carrying on an orphan house: there would be something which, with the Lord’s blessing, might be instrumental in strengthening the faith of the children of God, besides being a testimony to the consciences of the unconverted of the reality of the things of God. This then was the primary reason for establishing the orphan house. I certainly did from my heart desire to be used by God to benefit the bodies of poor children…with the help of God to do them good for this life.” So, by not soliciting funds, while creating real need, Muller wanted to magnify the glory of God through real provision from a real God.
             
At Redeemer Bible Church, the elders have long ago adopted this same stance. As we together pursue local church ministry, we do not solicit funds for the work of the church. We take our needs to the Lord in prayer and ask for the Lord to provide. We actively want the secular unbelieving world of our time to see something radically different and God-glorifying through the financial provision of our church. We open our “mouths” and ask the Lord to supply. This posture requires walking by faith but continues to be the most incredible display of God’s reality.
             
This Sunday (during the member meeting) we will vote on the church budget for 2024. It is only a work of the Lord that all of what is contained in that budget could possibly have come to pass in just over four years! It is an amazing joy to know that over the past year we have taken our needs to the Living God and He has abundantly provided!! It’s also a joy to know that every dollar that has been given has been given freely and from a cheerful heart. Over the past year – by faith and through prayer – all the needs of two churches (Redeemer Spotsy Village and Redeemer Stafford) have been abundantly provided for. We have always run a major budget surplus as a result of generous giving. This abundance has allowed us:

• To fund the adoption of multiple orphans
• To underwrite most of the expense of many people going on foreign mission trips
• To expand into and renovate a new children’s ministry area
• To cover the benevolence needs of those in and around the church (major medical bills, needed home repairs, mortgage help in tight times, etc …)
• To give substantial funding to the Cooperative Program to help fund the International Mission Board, NAMB church planting, the SBC seminaries, and SBC disaster relief
• To expand our part-time staff to expand ministry offerings
• To pay for the design planning of a new church building and save $1.5 million toward building the new building!!
• To carry zero debt as a church

 
This is the provision of the Lord!
 
To close out, let me remind you all clearly that the Lord doesn’t want or need your money. Purely by the word of His power, the Lord Jesus can accomplish anything He chooses. The Lord instead calls for you to worship and love Him with all your heart. It is a far more meaningful action to love a person from the heart, than to give them a few dollars when they know you don’t care about them. Millions of people take this posture with God. He is not fooled. To love the Lord with all your heart, will displace your love of this world. May the Lord be glorified in Redeemer Bible Church. May we overflow with a love of God and the keeping of His commands. May we long first to reach the world with the gospel and sacrificially meet real needs. May we not love the world nor the things of this world.
             
Let’s go forward into 2024 continuing to attempt great things for God, while expecting great things from God! Let’s live in complete dependence on the Lord, and yet without fear or complaint. Only the Lord knows what next year will hold.
 
May the Lord Jesus be glorified in His church,
Pastor Vic