Hebrews 1:13-14

 

“And did he ever say anything like this to an angel? Sit alongside me here on my throne until I make your enemies a stool for your feet. Isn’t it obvious that all angels are sent to help out with those lined up to receive salvation?” Hebrews 1:13-14 (The Message)

 

“Some have extended hospitality to angels without ever knowing it!” Hebrews 13:2 (The Message)

 

I. Angels Are Created Beings

 

II. Angels Do Not Have Wings

 

III. What Do Angels Do All The Time?

 

IV. Not All Angels Are Good

 

“I will give you angels to protect you and be in charge over you.” Psalm 91: 11 (NIV)

 

John 5: 1-16

 

“After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Aramaic, which has five colonnades. Within these lay a large number of the disabled – blind, lame and paralyzed. One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time, he said to him, Do you want to get well? Sir, the disabled man answered, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me. Get up, Jesus told him, pick up your man and walk. Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat and started to walk. Now that day was the Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, This is the Sabbath. The law prohibits you from picking up your mat. He replied, the man who made me well told me, pick up your mat and walk. Who is this man who told you, pick up your mat and walk? They asked. But the man who was healed did not know who he was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. After this, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, See you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you. The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.” ~ John 5: 1-16 (NASV)

 

I. Admit You Have A Problem

 

“So Jesus said, Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth. For you say, I’m rich; I have become wealthy and need nothing, and you don’t realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.” ~ Revelation 3:16-17 (CSB)

 

Romans 7:18 “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”

 

II. Determine You Will Be Obedient

“Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek Him.” ~ Hebrews 11:6 (CSB)

 

III. Determine You Will Trust God

 

The writer of Proverbs wisely said, “Trust in the Lord with your whole heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.” ~ Proverbs 3:5-6 (CSB)

 

IV.  Share Your Faith

 

Matthew 2: 1-12

 

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” ~ 2 Corinthians 8:9 NASV

 

“You are familiar with the generosity of our Master, Jesus Christ. Rich as he was, he gave it all away for us – in one stroke he became poor, And we became rich.” ~ 2 Corinthians 8:9 Message

 

“you know the grace that has come to us through our Lord Jesus, the anointed. He set aside his infinite riches and was born into the lowest of circumstances. So that you may gain great riches through his humble poverty.” ~ 2 Corinthians 8: 9 New English Version

 

I. The Cost of Christmas

 

“though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor.”

 

Colossians 1
“We look at Jesus, the Son of God and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank of angels – everything got started in him and finds
purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment.” (NASV)

“Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human. Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He did not claim special privileges. Instead he live a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death, and the worst kind of death at that – a crucifixion. ~ Philippians 2: 5-8 (Message)

 

Cling – literally means to grasp with all your strength

 

II. The Result of The Christmas Story

 

III. We Have Access To All The Riches Of Jesus Christ

 

“IF OUR GREATEST NEED HAD BEEN EDUCATION GOD WOULD HAVE SENT AN EDUCATOR. IF OUR GREATEST NEED HAD BEEN TECHNOLOGY GOD WOULD HAVE SENT A SCIENTIST. IF OUR GREATEST NEED HAD BEEN MONEY GOD WOULD HAVE SENT US AN ECONOMIST. IF OUR GREATEST NEED HAD BEEN PLEASURE GOD WOULD HAVE SENT US AN ENTERTAINER BUT OUR GREATEST NEED WAS FOR REPENTANCE SO GOD SENT US A SAVIOR” A. W. Tozer