12/16/07 - Children's Xmas Service - 2 Peter 3:2

LISTEN TO THE PROPHETS
- We stop hearing to them
- The Lord keeps talking through them

Listen to your mother. Listen to your teacher. Listen to the rules. Listen to him - he knows what he’s talking about. Listen closely. Listen carefully. Listen up. Good advice, isn’t it? It’s important to listen to people who speak with wisdom. Not just to hear what they are saying, but to actually listen: to think about what is said, to remember it, and to apply it to your life. In fact, not listening to those kinds of people might be harmful to you in the future because you would not remember what they had said. We have similar advice given to us today by the Holy Spirit in 2 Peter 3:2. “I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets.” A simple encouragement, but one that is extremely important. Listen to the prophets. Don’t ignore them. Don’t skip over them. Don’t skim through them. Don’t just read the prophetic books of the Bible just to read them. Actually listen to them. Think about what is said, commit it to memory, and apply it to your life. “Listen to the prophets” is a simple command, but not one that is easily carried out.
For example: how well have you been listening so far this service? Have you been concentrating on the words being said or have your thoughts been elsewhere? When is the last time you’ve read through the book of Micah? When is the last time you’ve read through the book of Zechariah? Ezekiel? Jeremiah? Numbers? Isaiah? Have you read any of these books in 2007? If you haven’t, that’s far from listening to the prophets, that’s not even giving them a chance to speak - that’s despising God’s Word. And maybe some of you have read through those books. Maybe some of you have read through all of those prophetic books this past year. So then what can you tell me about the book of Zechariah? What description would you give about the book of Micah? What details do you remember from the book of Amos? Anything? One, maybe two details from those entire books? You may have read them, but did you listen? Did you think about what they said? Did you apply their words to your life? Reading through a book of one of the prophets or coming to a worship service or going to a Bible class is worthless unless you listen to the prophets’ words.
There will be times when I’ll be reading through a prophetic book of the Old Testament, and as I am reading my mind starts to wander. Something reminds me of a situation I have to deal with or a conversation I’ve had or something I have to write or teach or prepare. And all of the sudden I’ve read through two paragraphs… but I haven’t really read anything at all. And when that happens - and it happens embarrassingly often - that is not listening to the prophets. That is despising God’s Word. That is not treating it with the honor and the respect and the awe that it deserves. Because God’s Word deserves our absolute and full attention. Something it rarely gets. We do not concentrate as we should. We do not think about it as we should. We do not listen as we should and that is only to our loss.
And it’s not as if these prophetic books contain nothing for us in this day and age. It’s not as if they are obsolete. The very reason I mentioned Micah, Zechariah, Jeremiah, Numbers, Ezekiel, and Isaiah before is because we are using passages from each of these books today in this service. Each one of these books contains direct prophecies about Christ himself. Do not tell me those words are unimportant. Don’t tell me those words can be skipped over. But then we do. We skip over them or we don’t read them or we don’t listen to them. The Lord had these words and all the words of Scripture written down for us in one book, preserving them for thousands of years and promising to keep them around until the end of the world - all so that we can listen to them. The Lord does not go off on tangents. The Lord does not say things that don’t need to be said. Every single word in Scripture is important. And so how many of those words have you neglected to listen to?
And yet here we are: participating in a worship service filled with his words, in a church with a shelf full of Bible’s containing his words, among a group of believers learning his words. The Lord keeps on speaking. We fail to listen more often than not but the Lord’s keeps on speaking! He still allows us to have the written Word in every one of our homes. He still feeds us with the truths of his Word in worship services and Bible studies. He doesn’t take it away! The Lord does not take his Word away from us. Can there be a more gracious Lord than that? How many times does a mother have to tell her child to do something before the child is punished for not listening? How many times does a court warn an offender before there are consequences? How many times would you talk to a person who completely ignores everything you say and does the exact opposite of what you want - until you stop talking to that person all together? But isn’t that how we treat the Lord’s words through his holy prophets? And so what a gracious God we have! He does not stop talking to us. In fact, he talks to us all the more. He points us to his Word again and again. And he reminds us of the very words of the prophets that we haven’t been listening to.
“The Star of Jacob,” “The Shepherd,” The righteous Branch,” “The Lamp,” “The Prince of Peace,” “The descendant of David,” “Immanuel.” These are all words of the holy prophets. And all of these words are in this very service today that the Lord wants us to listen to because these words tell us about our Savior. They predict his coming. They describe his glory. They detail our salvation. Listen to these words and know that these prophecies about Christ are for you. Because that’s the reason for this type of service. To lay out for you a wide range of Scripture passages that speak of the pinnacle of our faith. Passages that get you ready not only for Christ’s birth in the manger but his death on the cross as well. Passages that point us to the Victor of our forgiveness and the Caretaker of our souls. There will be very few worship services you will ever attend in which you will hear so many prophecies all about Christ all at once. So pay attention. Listen to what is being said. And try not to get distracted by who is speaking these words. Do not get distracted by the kids reading and reciting the words of the holy prophets today.
It’s easy to get distracted by that, isn’t it? The younger ones are so cute, the older ones are so nervous, and sometimes you can’t quite hear what they’re saying. But the words that they speak are still the words of God. That’s the amazing thing about it. No matter who speaks these words: whether it was the holy prophets 2500 years ago, your called pastor, or some of the youngest believers in this congregation, you are hearing the words of God. He promises his almighty power works through those words. And he will strengthen us by those words. So don’t forget to listen to them! Make sure your focus is not on the children in front you, but on the words coming out of their mouths. Those words they speak are extremely important. They are beautiful pictures of Jesus our Savior. And they have been written just for you. Listen to these words of the holy prophets. Think about what is being said. Apply these words to your life. And thank the Lord that he still speaks these words to you - and always will.
Amen.