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Asa-Ministries
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A JOURNEY TO JESUS
Matthew 2:1-2
I. Christmas journeys.
A. Many travel long distances on
Christmas.
1) Relatives coming from a
distance.
a) Some here tonight will
travel this year? [show of hands...]
2) Past in Chicago - thousands
stranded due to snow at O'Hare.
B. Magi went on a long journey to see
Jesus.
1) Sparse info.
a) "from
east." Probably Iran/Iraq.
b) "Saw his
star." How did they know? (unknown)
c) No camels mentioned, but
much of journey is across desert.
2) Goal of their journey was
spiritual - worship Jesus.
a) This has often been lost
in modern Christmases.
1> We travel to see
relatives.
2> We travel to buy
scarce toys.
b) But how far will we travel
for Jesus?
II. Others have journeyed to see Jesus.
A. Greeks brought by Andrew. John 12:20-21
1) Almost a tourist curiosity.
2) "We would like to see
Jesus."
B. Middle Age pilgrimages.
1) One hundred thousand went to
Jerusalem.
2) Danger from bandits,
starvation.
3) Also a lot of sinful actions
along the way.
III. All of life
is a pilgrimage.
A. We have to decide what our goal
will be.
1) Are you just along for the
ride?
2) Do you have goals?
3) What are your spiritual goals?
B. We have to decide how much effort
we will expend to reach it.
C. Others will judge if we are on the
right path.
1) Our children assess us.
2) Our friends compare themselves
with us.
D. Like most journeys, it is where we
end up that counts.
1) God is our ultimate judge.
2) Will he say we have done well?
IV. Have you journeyed to Jesus?
A. The journey of a little boy.
When Wendy Zoba's
son, Ben, was much younger, he had heard more
than one sermon about the
importance of surrendering his life
to Jesus.
And Ben seemed well-attuned to the
heart of God; he exhibited the
selfless and kind tendencies
that would take some -- like his
mother
-- a lifetime of sanctification to acquire.
So it disturbed the Zobas when Ben stubbornly resisted their
invitations
for him to give his life to Christ.
He would offer no explanations; he
would simply tell them in his
preschool
English that he wasn't ready.
He resisted for several months.
Then, one morning as they sat
around the kitchen table eating
their Cheerios, little Ben
announced that he was ready to
give
his life to Christ.
He then got up from the table and
went upstairs.
Wendy and her husband looked at
each other and followed him.
They expected to find Ben on
his knees in prayer.
They didn't.
Instead, they found him folding
his Star Wars pajamas into his
Sesame Street suitcase.
They said, "Ben, what are you
doing?"
He answered,
"Packing."
"Why?" they asked.
"To go to heaven," he
said.
They then understood why their
child hesitated to give his life
to
Christ.
He thought that, in so doing, he
would have to leave his family
and
take up residence, literally, with Christ in heaven.
We should all possess the faith of
little Benjamin: we should
have our hearts so fixed on
Christ's appearance that the
attachments
of our earthly life pale in comparison.
For we are "aliens and
strangers on earth...longing for a better
country
-- a heavenly one" (Heb. 11:13).
B. God can put you on the right path
to him.
It was just another normal day at
work for Doug Cone.
Then a young man 31 years of age,
he was his usual ill-tempered,
angry
self.
He says the anger was like a hot
coal in his stomach that never
cooled
down.
A troubled person most of his
life, he held no job for longer
than two
years and was about to be fired from his present one.
His wife had just left him, taking
their only child -- a son he
thought
the world of.
That day, a co-worker named Jim
came up to him, looked into his
eyes, then
stated, "Doug Cone, God has a better way for you."
At first, this encounter had no
impact on Cone.
But he started going over and over
the statement in his mind
for
about a year.
It was the first step in a long
journey.
Eventually God led Cone to a group
of people who shared the Word
of God
with him and he was ready to listen.
Once he had thought he knew it
all; now he realized he didn't.
Lying on his bed one night about 10:30, he kept having troubling
thoughts.
Then he began to remember
Scripture from when he was 12 years old,
when for a six-month period his
mother had made him attend
Sunday school.
Thoughts of Jesus and Bible verses
he didn't even know he
remembered
kept coming back to him.
Cone told God then he wanted to
accept Jesus as his Savior, but
he
didn't want to just become "saved."
He wanted to live the life.
At the moment he was forgiven, he
says it was as if God poured
cool
water over burning coals of anger.
He began to understand some of the
Scripture, and he recounted a
yearning to learn more of the
Bible and to share it with
everyone
he came in contact with.
Cone went back to school, first
Georgia Tech, then Georgia State.
Realizing after a year that
secular knowledge was not what he was
thirsting for,
he enrolled in a Bible college.
A year later he began to teach
Sunday school and feel a call to
the
ministry.
After much searching and a weekend
at a camp meeting in north
Georgia, he could not sleep.
The tug was so strong, he was
exhausted.
The moment he gave in and gave it
to God, he felt the pressure
lift.
After talking to his pastor and
congregation at the time, he
started
a ministry in a nursing home in south Fulton County.
Later, with his wife and two
children -- in a restored marriage --
he
moved to McDonough, Ga.
There he joined Friendship Baptist
Church, was ordained a deacon
and
served two years as associate pastor.
Soon after that, Doug began a
mission church in a mobile home
park.
It was 1992. His first service had nine people.
The following year they moved
into a building of their own.
C. Where do we stand with Jesus right
now?
If you don’t know
Jesus, You can meet him today. Click on This link to accept Jesus as your
personal Lord and Savior.
http://www.asa-ministries.org/accept.html
Let today be your
Spiritual Birthday.
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