Sunday 09/08/2020

So, here we go again. Are you ready for another lockdown? Do you have everything you need?

I mean, is that everything you “need” need?

Our freezer is officially full. Are you stocked up on all the essentials? Been to Bunnings? Stocked up on wool or fabric? Plenty of chocolate to get you through? We need it, don’t we?

Really, we want lots of stuff, but do we really need it?

Does this happen to you: You order something, and by the time it arrives, you’ve forgotten why you needed it? Or you do all you research for the very best thing to do what you need to do, then use it once or twice, and then leave it in the shed or the back of a cupboard? I’ve got stuff like that (just over there): used for a few hours, and now collecting dust.

We can spend our lives like that: getting things we don’t need.

You know, I meet lots of families when they’re grieving loved ones. And never have they said to me: ‘I just wish he/she had worked more, or bought us more stuff.’

They cry about the relationships they didn’t work to maintain or repair.

So, what should we want? And what do we really need?

That’s why we’ve come to Matthew 1:18-25, even though it’s not Christmas. Why?

Because God wants to tell you and me today what we really need, and what we should want more than anything:

What we really need is forgiveness, because without it we cannot enjoy any of God’s other gifts. And what we should want more than anything is to be friends with God, because that’s what we were made to be.

God shows us how important forgiveness and friendship with Him is, because they are the reasons Jesus became one of us.