YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT FOR CHRISTMAS BUT YOU CAN GET WHAT YOU NEED (advent sermon 4 of 4)

This is the final message in our 4-part preaching series on Advent/ Christmas.  The message is a lesson about how: YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT FOR CHRISTMAS BUT YOU CAN GET WHAT YOU NEED.

Listen well.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/   

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 --Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Bailey Tabernacle CME Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog: A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

Email: BaileyTabernacleChurch@comcast.net

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

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Visit the ministry’s website at baileytabernaclecme.org

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Bailey Tabernacle CME Church

P.O. Box 3145 

Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35403

Sermon #4 in the Advent preaching series: IT’S CHRISTMAS. WHERE IS HE?

Listen well and leave a comment.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, AL 35064

MAKING FOOLS OF WISE MEN

Herod, the Roman-appointed king of the Jews, had an international reputation for murdering most of his own biological family because he thought that maybe one of them might also want to be king one day.

Why then did the Wise Men trust Herod with their information about He who has been born King of the Jews (Matthew 2:2)?

Not because they were naive.

The Wise Men weren’t just astronomers or Eastern priests. They had the financial and political resources to spend 2 years looking for a single, unnamed child and then to cross the frontiers between empires on their personal quest to test the validity of their star hypothesis. They didn't just have the extremely valuable gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, they also had the money and letters of royal favor necessary for a caravan of guards, servants, supplies, and the requisite gifts/bribes for a 2 years of 1st century travel from and back to their far eastern home.

The Wise Men/ Magi were rich, smart, well-connected, and politically sophisticated guys. They knew the politics of the world, including the Roman empire.

Why did they believe Herod would join them in paying state homage to a competing heir to his throne ?

And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also. (Matthew 2:8)

You see, Herod was one of those people who was obviously terrible on paper, but really nice in person. When the Wise Men arrived looking for the new King, they asked around in the city not in the palace. Herod had to invite them to the palace (Matthew 2:7). From a distance, the Wise Men knew to keep their distance from Herod. But up close, the man was charismatic and charming. Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. (Matthew 2:7)

Herod gave the Wise Men a private audience. He wined them and dined them and showed them the magnificence of his palace. Herod told them of all the new building he’d built in Jerusalem, all the development and jobs he’d created. Herod listened attentively to them go off on tangents about their work, affirmed how important they were, and asked them to join him in his plan to MAKE JUDEA GREAT AGAIN.

The Wise Men knew they shouldn’t trust him, but once you’d shared wine and steak in his tower, he didn’t seem like such a bad guy. As far as the Magi knew, “Hey, Herod was the one who figured out that the new king was in Bethlehem.” (Matthew 2:3,4,8)

The Magi got Trumped.

They were good guys. They were smart guys. They truly sought and sincerely worshiped Jesus. They just got Trumped. It can happen to the wisest men and women. But here’s the thing. Herod did point them in the right direction. For all the wrong, most evil reason, yes. But God makes all things work together for good for people who are wise enough to love the Lord and follow God's calling. (Romans 8:28)

Enroute to Bethlehem, the star reappeared and led the Wise Men straight to Jesus. 
You gotta see where people are going, not just who started them in that direction. We need to hear what people are trying to do beyond their political affiliation. We meet people who've been on their path long before the last campaign season began.

Scripture defines wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

If they and you are wise in the Biblical sense, then you and they will find common ground and hear common direction. With a little distance from Herod, the Wise Men were able to hear the same warning that Joseph heard.

Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they [the Wise Men] should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel

of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” (Matthew 2:12,13)

No matter how wise we are in the things of the world, we can be trumped, we can be fooled by a particularly charming and charismatic leader. We don’t know we’ve been fooled until we get to a place where we can hear clearly from God.  But once we hear, then we have to move, and the next move is usually in a very different direction.
Here we all are this Christmas with different bumper stickers on our cars.   However we got to this place, may we all be wise enough to hear which way to go from here.

Merry Christmas.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

WISE MEN GO ANOTHER WAY

What should a church or a Christian do when their best, most logical, and wisest choice turns out to be wrong?  How does a believer choose among all the options and advice that seem good and godly and wise --- at the time? The answers can be found a Christmas story about wise men trying to find their way.  Originally delivered at Evergreen Baptist Church in Birmingham, the title of this message is  WISE MEN GO ANOTHER WAY.

Listen well.

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves  #Awordtothewise 

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

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WISDOM, JUSTICE, & THE SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS

The birth of Jesus is more than a pretty story for Christmas  time.  It is a prophetic guide to the missing element in our response to unfair pain and social injustice. 

Learn a new look at the Advent stories of the Wise Men, Joseph, and Herod in a message called: WISDOM, JUSTICE, & THE SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS. 

Listen well.

            

If you can’t get the audio on your device, visit the main podcast page at http://revandersongraves.podomatic.com/

The podcast is on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/anderson-graves-podcast/id918990482

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

You can help support this ministry with a donation to Miles Chapel CME Church.

You can help support Rev. Graves’ work by visiting his personal blog and clicking the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064

DEEPER THAN CRAZY: What the story of Jesus’ birth can teach about the Connecticut school shooting

The Sandy Oaks Elementary School murders happened geographically far away from Montgomery, Alabama, but aspects of this assault still touched close to home.

I was wrestling with the why and how of the Newport, Connecticut tragedy at the same time I was wrestling with a message God was giving me about the birth of Jesus.  In a way that only God can do, the Holy Spirit opened the Word and showed what the Biblical story of Christmas has to say to us about the tragedies that are becoming increasingly common in our society.

It’s not your usual December sermon, but it may be just the Word we need.  The message is called: DEEPER THAN CRAZY.

Listen well.

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---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com  
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If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to:

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116