A Good Christmas!

A GOOD CHRISTMAS

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Luke 2:1-14

Introduction: Just what does Christmas mean to many people today? Hard work? Stores crowded with frantic last minute shoppers? Post offices overflowing with mail? Crowded trains, full buses, over-booked flights and congested highways? Alcoholic revelry and holiday depression?

All during this season people go around saying, "Have a good Christmas?" How many times have you heard it said already? But just what is a good Christmas to so many people? Good gifts? Good food? Good business? Good partying? Safe traveling? Festive family gatherings? A number of these things might be considered good in their own right, but just what do they have to do with the true meaning of Christmas? Is that what Christmas is all about?

Having a good Christmas should be much more than any of this.

a Christmas that focuses upon the fact that God loves us with all His heart. That He has given us the very best gift that could ever be given. The golden text of the Bible gives us the only clue we need, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." In case we missed His meaning God had the apostle Paul to say it again, "Thanks [be] unto God for his unspeakable gift." A good Christmas should always include:

Him with us every place we go. Let us determine to truly worship Him. Not only this season, but the whole year through. Let us present the greatest gift of all to Him this year - ourselves in true spiritual service. Let us share the greatest gift of all with those around us who do not yet know Him in personal salvation. The gift of everlasting life - and an eternal home in heaven - where it will really be "Christmas" all the time!

A good Christmas is:

I   A GOOD CHRISTMAS INCLUDES ROOM FOR JESUS.

The inn keeper said, "There is no room!"

What a great blessing he missed on that momentous day! Perhaps he thought there were many "more important" people in his inn.

But the worldly elite and VIPS would all soon be gone and

forgotten. He had turned away the Eternal One.

B. Does the world have room for Jesus today?

1. Thousands of invitations and gospel messages have gone out

this Christmas Season. Many are begged to make room for Jesus.

2. But sadly, millions still say, "We have no room for Jesus. In our

homes. In our nation. In our affairs. In our celebrations.

3. Christmas with Christ, is like an engine without fuel, a tree

without sap, heavens without stars, ocean without water or a garden without flowers. Without Jesus people only exist.

II. A GOOD CHRISTMAS INCLUDES TIME FOR TRUE WORSHIP

A. Does Jesus deserve our worship?

1. A banker can make a blank sheet of paper worth millions.

2. An artist can slap some paint on canvass and make it priceless.

3. A sculptor can take a slab of stone and create a masterpiece.

4. But Jesus can take a worthless life and make it count eternally.

Phil. 2:9-11 "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, . . And [that] every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ [is] Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

B. The first Christmas focused upon true worship of the King of Kings.

1. The angelic hosts welcomed Him with worthy worship.

2. The lowly shepherds went to Bethlehem to worship Him.

3. The Wise Men traveled afar to humbly bow and adore Him.

How many will truly worship Christ this Christmas - this year?

C. Recent surveys show an ever-decreasing interest in the true worship of Jesus-God.

D. Heathens do not hesitate to worship the sun and nature, some

worship the ground others walk upon, dogs even seem to worship their masters, but how many truly regularly worship their Creator?

E. May many people come to know Christ this Christmas and then truly give themselves to worship and praise of Him all the year around.

III. A GOOD CHRISTMAS INVOLVES GIVING

Christmas is giving - but not the tinsel and paper sort.

The wise men gave glorious gifts to Jesus - not to each other.

A. Where is Jesus on your Christmas gift list this year?

1. Yes, let us give sacrificially to Christmas offerings - missions.

2. But more than anything else, as Paul said, Jesus wants us to

B. When the baby Jesus later spoke as the God-man, He said about worship: John 4:24 " God [is] a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth."