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Watch 2022-2023 online sermons » Beth Moore » Beth Moore — Taking Your Treasure Back

Beth Moore — Taking Your Treasure Back



Needless to say there is no more familiar narrative in the entire Word of God than the birth narrative of Christ and you and I are going to look at omething that happens soon after he is born as word begins to circulate through the proclamation of the angels that the Messiah has been born -- the very son of God.

I want to pick up right there in Luke chapter two. You've just seen it in verse seven that Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manager because there was no place for them in the inn. I want to pick up at verse eight, Luke two, verse eight.

In the same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night and an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were filled with fear. The angel said to them, "Fear not for behold I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manager."

And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased."

When the angels went away from them into heaven the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened that the Lord has made known to us."

Verse 16: And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger and when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds had told them.

Some of your translations say that they were astonished at what the shepherds had told them. But Mary -- this is going to be a key phrase right here -- but Mary treasured up all these things pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told to them. But Mary, we're told, treasured up all of these things and pondered them in her heart.

I want you to see something toward the end of the chapter that is just as powerful using some of the same wording. Look toward Luke, I want to drop you at about Luke 2, verse 40 where it tells us in just this one place, it wraps up what is probably about a 10 year period of time.

We have in the gospel of Matthew referenced to what was probably about Christ when he was also a toddler. From that point on, we have only this that stretches us all the way from his toddlerhood to about 12, it says in verse 40. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.

Now we're going to get to the treasuring part in just a moment. But I just want you to push hold on that for a moment because I want to know what he was like at three. I want to know what he was like at six. I want to wonder all of these things. That's all we have to stretch over about a decade period of time.

I want to know all sorts of things. I want to picture what he was like at around one when he first began to toddle. I want to know if the word made flesh to dwell among us, the Logos, I wonder if he first said "mama" or did he say "dada"?

Because that's really a big deal to young parents, who is he going to name first? I wonder if when he was about six years old when he lost his front teeth, and I wonder what he looked like when they came in. And I wonder if they came in straight or if they came in just slightly crooked. Don't you wonder if his face broke out in his teenage years?

These are things I want to know. What did it sound like when the voice, the word made flesh to dwell among us, when his voice changed and he first began to turn in to a man?

I also want to know, did he get really, really tickled? I mean like did he bend over, hold his side and get really, really tickled? There are all sorts of things I want to know. But we're just told that he grew in favor with God and with man.

Then we're told about this scene, pick up with me when it says in verse 41: Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of Passover. And when he was 12 years old they went up according to the custom. And when the feast was ended as they were returning, the boy, Jesus, stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it. But supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances and when they did not find him...

Now just push hold. Let it be a... there for just a moment because I want you to try to gather this in your mind with me. How do you go that far and not realize that your child is missing? How do you do that? Because they traveled in packs. It would have been all sorts of people from this area and this region of Judea that would have come together.

So there is no time in my household that I'm more aware of the babies. My youngest grandchild is two and I'm never more aware of what's going on in the house and whether or not she is being looked after than I am when the house is packed with people because everybody thinks the other person is watching them.

So I'm forever going, "Did someone lock the front door? Where is the baby? Where is the baby?" Now her mother is fastidious but if she is not around and the house is packed, I'm like... is someone watching the kids? Because you always think someone else has got them.

Well, that's exactly what happened here. It says they went a day's journey. One of the other translations says that they went to the evening. What would have happened is that by the time it got time to lay out the mats and go to sleep they were like bringing the kids in and where on earth was he? Can you even imagine?

Don't you know Mary was going, "I knew he shouldn't have chosen me! He never should have given him to me!" Just think of the crisis of that! "Oh, I was the worst choice ever!" Oh, it would have been so upsetting. And don't you know they fought all the way back to Jerusalem. Don't tell me they didn't!

Don't tell me they didn't! They were not even speaking to one another. I think -- now I'm reading this in but if they're like us, they were not speaking to one another when they got there.

And it says that after three days, verse 46, they find him in the temple sitting among the teachers listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding -- that word is important -- at his understanding and his answers.

And when Jesus' parents saw him they were astonished. And his mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold your father and I..." I love that -- I always wish I could remember to say that to the children, "Behold, your father and I...." Behold! Your father and I... I want you to try that next time.

"Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress." He said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?" They did not understand the saying that he spoke to them.

Verse 51: And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them and his mother -- and it says in some of our translations I'm positive the N.I.V. is one of them, but his mother -- and his mother treasured up all of these things in her heart.
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