"A Hallelujah Life"
Sermon Transcript for January 5, 2003 By Rev. Mike Beck
Part Two
I do not remember a series of sermons I’ve enjoyed preaching any more than this Advent series referencing Charles Dickens’ class work, "A Christmas Carol". And I want to express my appreciation to Mainstay Ministries in Chicago who provides these materials for our 50-Day Spiritual Adventure and the last few years the Advent series that we’ve used. Some persons gifted of God’s Spirit there have given us some awful good stuff to work with.We’ve journeyed with Scrooge from "Humbug to Hallelujah". But Scrooge, when he wakes on that Christmas morning, shows us what it means to live out the change that God wants to bring to our lives. We’re going to play a fairly long segment of the movie, "A Christmas Carol"; it will make up about half of the message today. Sometimes I’ll have people say to me, "I don’t think a movie has any place in a worship service." Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but in my mind I’m thinking about Jesus. The people that listened to his teaching said, "He doesn’t teach like the scribes and Pharisees down there in the temple. When He teaches, He tells us a story. And He says, "The Kingdom of God is like…" and then He talks about things people understand." There’s also an old saying that says, "A picture is worth a thousand words." There’s a lot of truth to that. So as you watch the end of the movie this morning, and I think it is important to do that for this reason, poor Scrooge gets a bum rap. Whenever we think of a miser unwilling to share, we think about Scrooge. But, friends, he didn’t end up like that. We forget about the end of his life, the transformation! So as you watch the last few minutes of the movie I want you to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you to say, "What does a transformed life look like? What do I see in Scrooge that needs to be a part of my life? How do I carry on the spirit of Christmas all year long? What are the keys to a hallelujah life? Let’s watch.
VIDEO CLIP
Isn’t that a beautiful picture of why Christ came--if we’ll allow Him to change us and make us new? Scrooge said, "I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all year. I will live in the past, the present, and the future. The Spirits of all three shall thrive within me. I will not shut out the lessons they teach." As we’re wrapping up this series, we’re trying to look at what that means. If you want a Scriptural parallel I suggest this one, Ephesians 5:15-16. The words of Paul who said, "Be very careful then how you live. Not as unwise, but as wise. Making the most of every opportunity." What’s that mean?
We looked last week at the past. We said we could ignore the past but we need to look at the painful truth there. If we don’t learn the mistakes of the past, we’ll tend to make them again so that’s not the way to look at the past. We can regret the past. Regret has its place as a learning tool but we must not stay there. Or we can let God redeem the past. As we look at that slide, where are you today? Ignoring? Regretting? Or letting God redeem? I want you to take your hymnal. For each of these points, I want to use a hymn to illustrate it. Turn to 363. It’s a hymn we used earlier in the series. 363. It’s the hymn, "And Can It Be?" And I want us to look at versus 4 and 5.
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
No condemnation now I dread,
Jesus, with all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine, (not by righteousness, clothed in His)
Bold I approach th’ eternal throne,
And claim the crown, thro’ Christ my own.
How are you doing with the past? Leave your hymnals open; we’ll get back to them in a minute. Let’s think about the present. There are a couple of groups of people I’m really sad for. The first group is those who miss the moment. I have been with brides and brides’ mothers who spend thousands of dollars on the wedding, plan for months, and miss it. Oh, they were there. But they were so wrapped up in the details that they didn’t experience the moment. Don’t miss the moment! The Gaither’s said, "We have this moment all in our hands, to touch as its slips through our fingers like sand. Yesterday’s gone; tomorrow may never come. But we have this moment today." I’ve always been sad in ministry to look at pastor’s who never really pastored anyplace because they were always thinking about the next place they were going to pastor. That’s why I’ve always tried to consider wherever I was; I was going to be there forever. I don’t want to miss the moment.
I also fill sad for those people who let others control them. Now that doesn’t mean we are not sensitive to the needs of others. But a lot of people are miserably bound and they miss the present because they are trying to please everybody. And you can’t do that. Be true to yourself; be true to God. Don’t miss your life; don’t miss the present moment by letting other people control you. Some of you, young parents with children whose parents live away, you’re never going to truly experience Christmas until you learn to tell those parents, "No. I’m going to have Christmas with my kids. We’ll be there at some point." But I’ve watched parents turn Christmas day into a zoo because they think they are expected to be eight different places on Christmas day. Don’t let others control your life!
In terms of the present we can follow our sinful desires most people are going to live. The Bible says, "The end thereof is death. There is a narrow way," Jesus said, "and those who find it, find the way to life." Or we can choose the freedom of following Christ. When we think about old Scrooge—I saw a lot of joy there. And, friends, there are periods of life that most certainly laughter is not appropriate. But if there is no laughter in your life, you’ve missed the boat in terms of the Christmas faith. God came to bring joy, life abundant, a Spirit of generosity. That’s what we saw in Scrooge. There is freedom in following Christ. He made us and it makes sense that the one who holds the blueprints knows what’s best for us.
Turn in your hymnal to number 421. 421, there’s a hymn called, "Make Me A Captive". I don’t know that I want to be a captive; that doesn’t make sense. The gospel doesn’t make sense, but the truth is found in the paradoxes. Look there at the first two versus.
Make me a captive, Lord,
And then I shall be free;
Force me to render up my sword,
And I shall conqueror be.
I sink in life’s alarms
When by myself I stand;
Imprison me within Thine arms
And strong shall be my hand.
My heart is weak and poor
Until it master find;
It has no spring of action sure—
It varies with the wind.
It cannot freely move
Till Thu has wrought its chain;
Enslave it with Thy matchless love,
And deathless it shall reign.
Where are you at in terms of the present? And let me ask you this, "When is a train most free? —When it’s on the tracks that bind it." And then, the future. We can ignore the future. The Bible doesn’t tell us to do that. The Bible tells us to plan. The Bible tells us to count the cost. The Bible says, "We reap what we sow. There is a day of reckoning. Be aware of it." So we don’t want to ignore the future, but also we don’t want to worry needlessly about the future. Jesus said, "Today’s problems are enough in and of themselves. Trust me to take care of the future." So we don’t want to spend needless energy and rob ourselves of the present by worrying about the future. What we want to do is anticipate the future in the hope of Christ. A song came to mind, "Many things about tomorrow we don’t seem to understand, and I know who holds the world and I know He holds my hand." I think that’s what the Gaither’s were talking about in this last hymn we’ll look at, #364.
God sent His Son; they called Him Jesus.
He came to love, heal, and forgive.
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.
(And then Verse 3 is the message of Advent we don’t preach enough)
And then one day I’ll cross the river;
I’ll fight life’s final war with pain.
And then as death gives way to victory,
I’ll see the lights of glory and I’ll know He lives.
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, all fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
Life is worth the living just because He lives.
Would you stand and allow me to use Charles Dickens’ words to set you forth on this first Sunday of the year. "And it was always said of Scrooge that he knew how to keep Christmas well. May that truly be said of us? And as Tiny Tim observed, "And may God bless us, everyone." Go in His peace to be His people. Amen.
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