Top Ten Things That God Delivered...

To begin my sermon, "God Delivers," for the Christmas Eve service, I'm offering the top ten list found below...

The Top Ten Things that God Delivers

(with apologies to the Late Show and David Letterman.)

10. God delivers important news through angels and prophets only occasionally resulting in the receiver of the news becoming mute for several months (ex. Lk. 1:11-22)

9. God delivers rain and He does so to both the righteous and the unrighteous (Matt 5:45), otherwise the whole flood thing would have played out much differently.

8. God delivered Noah, his family, and a lot of animals from a global flood aboard the ark (Gen. 8:16-22). That took a whole lot of “Gopher Barky, Barky.”

7. God delivered Joseph from his brother’s plot, Potiphar’s seductive wife, & prison among other things. God then used the delivery of Joseph to deliver Jacob and his other sons from famine. (Gen 37 ff) Nothing like getting more bang for your buck.

6. After delivering the Israelites into Egypt, God then had to deliver them out of Egypt on dry ground through the Red Sea. (Ex. 13:17-14:31) Mark that one “Return to Sender.”

5. Once in the wilderness, God delivers a buffet of manna to the Israelites in the desert six days of the week for 40 years. (Exodus 16:31-36) Eat your heart out Golden Corral.

4. God delivered the 10 commandments to Moses on two stone tablets on Mt. Sinai. (Deut. 9:8-10)

3. God delivered the 10 commandments to Moses on two stone tablets on Mt. Sinai, AGAIN. (Deut. 10:1-6) Temper, temper Moses.

2. God delivered the Holy Spirit to the apostles gathered in the upper room on Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4) Nothing like a lot of wind and tongues of fire to make an entrance.

1. God delivered his son to earth through a virgin’s womb and eventually used that delivery to deliver the whole world from ourselves. (John 3:16-17). Dominos doesn’t have anything on that!

I will also include these honorable mentions that didn't make the list...

A. God delivered Daniel from the Lion’s Den. (Dan. 6:19-23) Of course, the lions may have seen it differently since they probably thought the king had delivered their supper.

B. God delivered Shadrach, Meshach and Abendago from the fiery furnace. (Dan. 3:24-28) Who needs flame retardant clothing when you’ve got an angel to walk through the flames with you?

C. God delivered Jonah from the belly of the whale on to Ninevah. (Jonah 1:17-2:10) Nothing like being whale vomit to open your eyes to God’s mercy.

If you were to write a top ten list of things God has delivered, what would it include...