“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” asked Nathaniel.

Later the religious leaders said “Look in to it.  You will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee.”

There were people who doubted Jesus’ authority, because they saw him as a nobody from nowhere.

So did they have it right.  Is Jesus disqualified as the son of God because he happened to live in Nazareth?  Or does that all the more qualify him as a wonderful example for any person from anywhere to follow in his footsteps?

Listen to the message and see what you think.

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Do you love Christmas?  How would you like to keep Christmas alive all year, every year?  Would that be a good feeling to have all the time?

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What Child is this who, laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Do you know who Jesus is?  He wants you to know him.  He gave his life to draw you close.  Will you come to know the Savior?

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Have you ever felt like you were at the end of your rope?  You didn’t know where to turn or what to do?  You felt trapped and powerless?  It’s a state that many have been in.  And people have made many attempts at escape from it.  But the only real release–the only real freedom is found in Jesus.  He is the only one who can open the door to true peace and fulfillment.

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The Christmas season can be a time of emotional stress and depression and definitely a drain on finances and energy.  But that’s all due to people missing the reason for Christmas.  The world has secularized the holiday, so it is nothing more than a time of shopping and overindulgence and making up stories about where kids’ presents come from.  But for those who actually celebrate the birth of the risen Savior because He has filled their hearts with peace and their lives with love, Christmas is a joy rather than a drain.

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There are some people, who obviously haven’t ever studied the teachings of Jesus, who say he was simply a good, moral teacher, which is just goofy, because if they had read the things Jesus said and still didn’t believe that he was the Son of God, they would have to call him a total nut-job or a wicked deceiver.  The religious leaders of Jerusalem didn’t kill Jesus because he was a good teacher.  They killed him because he claimed to be God, and people were following him and believing in him and that made the leaders extremely jealous.  And then Jesus went and rose from the dead and made things extremely inconvenient for the establishment.

Obviously, Jesus was a moral teacher, but it’s impossible to leave it at that…unless of course you have an agenda to deny any truth that might cause you to have to face the reality of your personal responsibility for your choices to break God’s law and live a sinful and selfish life.

Just sayin’.

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I’ve heard people talk as if the Bible were just a myth, to be compared to fantasy works such as Homer’s Odyssey or On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.  But the Apostles wrote specifically to give evidence for their faith.  John said he wrote so that the reader may continue to believe.  Luke said he wanted to write down a detailed history of the life of Jesus and the early church.  The writers certainly weren’t presenting myth.  But I have found that when people are presented with a truth they don’t like, they often try to find ways to reject it.  So it would make sense that people who live their lives in opposition to the Bible would try to discount it.

Unfortunately for such people there is an abundance of evidence to support the truth of Scripture, and one day truth will come crashing down upon them like a ton of brimstone.  I hope that doesn’t describe you!

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Have you ever thought about what it means to have the Lord as your shepherd?  Jesus said “I am the good shepherd.”  He said other people might play the part and pretend to be like that.  But nobody will ever care for you like Jesus, because they’re only like hired hands.  When trouble comes they’ll take off and leave you to fend for yourself.  They’ll let the wolves eat you because they’re just in it for the money.  They’re not willing to put their lives on the line for you.  But Jesus already gave his life for you.

It really is good to have a Good Shepherd.

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Are you content with your life right now?  Could you die today, happy?  Are you ready for the end?  Are you ready to meet your Maker?

We’re all going to die, but so many people are completely unprepared for that destiny.  In spite of the fact that we never know when our final day may arrive, so many people live in denial of death.  How about you?  Are you ready to expire, to pass on, to perish, to peg out, to push up daisies, to become extinct, to pull the curtains, to be deceased, to meet your demise, to depart, to be as a doornail, to check out, to shuffle off this mortal coil, to kick the bucket, buy the farm, cash in your chips?

It happens to the best of us?  Are you ready?  Would you like to be?

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Luke 6:43-45 “A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. ⁴⁴A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. ⁴⁵A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.

⁴⁶“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?

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