All I Want For Christmas Is Jesus

All I Want For Christmas Is Jesus

Luke 1:26-39 Matthew 1:18-24 December 25th

Today is Christmas, and we find ourselves at the end of our series, All I Want For Christmas Is. How many of you have either given or received forgiveness this Christmas season?

How many of you have either given or received some peace this Christmas season? How many of you have either given or received some hope this Christmas? Today we are going to look at, “All I Want For Christmas Is Jesus.”

The Christmas story does not begin in Nazareth, it does not begin in Bethlehem and it does not begin in a manger. It actually begins in a garden thousands of years before Jesus is born. God had created the heavens, the earth, and all the living things on this planet. God created a man and a woman in God’s own image so that they could have a close relationship with God that was different from any of the other animals God had created. God spoke directly to them, and they likewise spoke directly to God.

God placed them in the garden of Eden which was a beautiful place with everything the couple needed to live and to enjoy life. The couple’s name were Adam and Eve. God wanted them to be free to make up their own minds whether to love God and to obey God or not. God never has ever forced anyone to believe anything about Him.

God told them, you can eat from any tree in the garden you like, but you must not eat fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die. There had never been death before but Adam and Eve, knew whatever it was it must be pretty bad, so they stayed away from the tree for a good while. They had a

good thing going for themselves and they knew it.

Have you ever had something good going for you, and you made a bad decision and lost it. It could have been a toy you had that you took apart and then couldn’t put it back together. It could have been a cell phone you owned and you put it too close to the sink and it fell in.

It could have been a job you had and you did something that caused you to lose it. It could have been a relationship you were in and you chose to look at somebody else for a moment to long and you lost the relationship.

Adam and Eve did okay, until Satan showed up in the garden and basically told them, they were missing out on something good. If they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would be as smart as God, and no matter what they would not die.

Have you ever had somebody try to convince you to do something you know you should not do, but you listened to them a little longer than you should have? The next thing you knew, you convinced yourself you could get away with it, so you went ahead and did it, even though you knew you shouldn’t have done it. Did you discover after you did it, that it really wasn’t all you thought it was going to be?

Well Adam and Eve, went ahead and listened, disobeyed God, and ate from the tree that was forbidden. Up until this time, they had been naked since the day they were created and felt very comfortable in each other’s presence. Once they ate from the tree sin entered into their nature. The first thing they did was to try to hide their bodies from each other. The oneness they had in their relationship was gone. Honesty went out the window.

The next thing they did was to allow fear to enter into their existence. Sin always produces fear. How many of us have done things, and afterwards were afraid that somebody was going to find out what we did. Well some of us are worried about what we did this week and even this morning.

The next thing they did was to try to hide from God. The sinful nature in them did not want to be in God’s presence, because it did not want to obey God. The next thing they did was refuse to take responsibility for their actions. Have you ever tried to blame somebody else for the wrong you have done.

You see what had happened was…. Adam blamed God and Eve for his disobedience. Eve blamed the devil. The only thing that kept them from dying on the spot was God’s mercy.

Even though God had given them a perfect environment, had been faithful in meeting their needs and did everything necessary for them, they chose to reject God for their own plan. But God is so loving that God forgives them on the spot.