Promise Kept 2 – The Seven Christmas Promises Kept in the Book of Matthew
Sunday, Dec. 13, 2020
Pastor Troy Brewer, OpenDoor Church, Burleson, TX
With you faith package came the God-given ability or the grace to become a skillful learner.
Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Developing mastery and becoming skilled at things is also a very important part of your walk. It makes you useful and effective to the King.
Proverbs 22:29
Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank
Psalm 33:3
Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.
7 Skills You Need to Learn, Regardless of Your Profession. Some skills will serve you well regardless of what your goals are. Here are seven of them!
Effective Communication
Organization and Management
Negotiation
Critical Thinking (problem-solving, solution-finding)
Teamwork and Delegation
Research and Analysis
Confidence (self motivation)
7 things you need to learn if you’re going to live a victorious Kingdom lifestyle once you are saved and full of the Holy Spirit.
- Dealing with offense and dying to yourself.
John 17:1
Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come!” - Maintaining your passion and the cause that Jesus has trusted you with.
Revelation 2:5
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent
What needs to change so that God becomes my greatest passion? (Mathew 18:8–9). Think of a time when your spiritual passion was high (Revelation 2:5). What circumstances caused it? Think of a time when your spiritual passion died. What caused that? Learn from the past.
How can I keep my spiritual temperature high when I’m surrounded by cooling influences? Many have lukewarm faith in a world of people with icicles in their souls.
- Encounters and supernatural presence
Psalm 27:4
One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To behold the beauty of the Lord. And to meditate in His temple. - Practical engagement & activation in the Kingdom: serving with excellence–matching your practice with your potential.
Colossians 3:23 (NCV)
“In all the work you are doing, work the best you can. Work as if you were doing it for the Lord, not for people.” - A constant awareness of the Kingdom in all you see and do.
Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
James 1:22
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. - Working well with different kinds of people at different levels of faith to accomplish Kingdom vision
Ephesians 4:4
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope, at your calling… - Prophecy and the promises of God
You will learn to trust the character of God
You grow in your personal relationship with God
The supernatural accuracy and authorship of the Bible
The reliability of the scriptures and the prophetic voice of God
Revelation 1:3 –Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it;
Unique among all books ever written, the Bible accurately foretells specific events-in detail-many years, sometimes centuries, before they occur. Approximately 2,500 prophecies appear in the pages of the Bible, about 2,000 of which already have been fulfilled to the letter—no errors.
The remaining 500 or so reach into the future and may be seen unfolding as days go by. Since the probability for any one of these prophecies having been fulfilled by chance averages less than one in ten (figured very conservatively) and since the prophecies are for the most part independent of one another, the odds for all these prophecies having been fulfilled by chance without error is less than one in 1/2000 (that is 1 with 2,000 zeros written after it)!
Jesus fulfilled at least 300 Old Testament prophetic promises at his birth and all other human beings do not have any control over the circumstances in which they are born. But Jesus is no normal human being.
The Bible has a fondness for the number seven. The number seven is in the Bible more than any other number and it marks “Perfection of Spirit” or “manifest spirit.” It’s one of four “perfect” numbers that illustrates the finished example of what it represents or the perfection of God.
Biblical Perfect Numbers – 3, 7, 10 and 12
For example, there are seven creation days, and Joshua and his men marched around Jericho seven times. And then, the book of Revelation features seven letters written by Jesus to seven churches, as well as seven seals, seven bowls, and seven trumpets. Seven, then, is often referred to as a “perfect number.”
Matthew employs the number seven in the first section of his gospel (Matt. 1:17–4:17). As he describes the birth of Jesus and the period before Jesus begins to preach, he cites seven Old Testament fulfillments:
Seven Old Testament prophesies fulfilled before Jesus entered into ministry listed in the book of Matthew
- The child, Jesus, is born of a virgin (1:22–23)
In reference to the birth of Jesus, Matthew cited a specific prophecy from Isaiah made more than 700 years earlier.
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign:
Isaiah 7:14
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
- His birth is in the city of Bethlehem (2:5–6); Micah 5:8
- The flight to Egypt and the consequent return (2:15); Hosea 11:1
- The slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem (2:17–18); Jeremiah 31:15
- The home-base of Nazareth (2:23); Isaiah 11:1
- The ministry of the forerunner, John the Baptist (3:1–3); Isaiah 40:3-5, Malachi 3:1 & Malachi 4:5
- The start of Jesus’ ministry in the northern regions, where people who walked in darkness saw a great light (4:13–14); Isaiah 42:1-7 Careful checking of each of these seven events will reveal Old Testament prophecies fulfilled.
Christmas, and what follows, lies deep in the Old Testament. At every turn, Jesus was fulfilling a role that was shaped by more than a millennium of prediction. No aspect of the Messiah’s ministry of redemption was without anticipatory reflection fulfillment of expected prophecies
Galatians 4:4
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law.
Our salvation is something God has been planning for a very long time—outside of time, to be exact: in the counsels of eternity, in a covenant that was made between the three persons of the Trinity, namely, the so-called covenant of redemption. Scripture speaks of the Lamb as “slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8).
From eternity, the Lord has loved His people. Christmas is the visible demonstration of it; Calvary, the cost of it; resurrection and ascension, the triumph and effectiveness of it. Little wonder, then, that creatures surrounding the Lamb’s throne in heaven exclaim,
A Seven-Fold Blessing
Revelation 5:12
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
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