Christmas Love Everyday

Christmas Love Everyday

Luke 2:1-2:16

Here we are it is Christmas morning!

Some of you have opened some presents already.

Some are waiting till after the service. For most, it will be a day of giving and expressing your love for those that are close to you.

I would hope, especially Christmas morning, that you have taken the time to express your love for Jesus.

The greatest showing of love was Jesus Christ coming to mankind and providing a way of salvation.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

James Erwin

“There is something more important than man walking on the moon, and that is God, walking on the earth.”

You take away hope and anticipation and you would have nothing left that is meaningful.

Despair is the opposite of hope.

Without God’s hope and His love, man is incomplete.

I want you for a moment to try to comprehend God’s love.

If you have never loved someone, you could not understand.

If you have nothing to compare it to, you would not know what it is.

Unless your heart has been broken, you will not know the worth of love and whether you would want to take a chance on love.

God’s love is not learned-God’s love is discovered. (Repeat)

The shepherds said- “let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

The verse we have been looking at several services.

In our busyness and our independence, I think it is sad that we are raising a generation that will not hear the Christmas story. They will know more about Frosty the Snowman than the heart of Christianity.

At the heart of Christianity is the invitation to come see what God has done and to pursue Him with all our hearts.

Discovery means that you are willing to go looking for something that is worthwhile and seek it out.

We make a big deal about discovering God, but truth is, if He did not want to be found, we would not be able to find Him.

Every year we battle to maintain Christmas manger scenes and Christmas plays. I want you to understand that if they were priorities in our life, we would not give them up so easily.

God tells us how much He loves us, He shows us every day by desiring to be a part of our lives and interact with us.

Do we show Him the love back? Where does He fit into our lives?

We send out over 2 billion Christmas cards each year. Hallmark and other card companies make billions of dollars and most people do not look at the words that are inside, they just look to see if there is money in them.

The birth of Jesus Christ is foretold- He came in the flesh, “made His dwelling among us.”

To those shepherds, to those that were willing to go look, they experienced the glory of God!

We have to experience that by faith!

We need the Holy Spirit of God to reveal those truths to us.

We cannot live by the faith of others.

We cannot experience the love of God without realizing what He has done for us and seek Him out.

It is our responsibility to discover His love for ourselves.

Until you have a personal experience with God, you will never really understand His love for you.

“lets go see this thing that has happened.”

Isaiah 55:3-

“Come to me, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

Christ came for each one of us- when He says “all” He means all.

Kings to Shepherds, each one matters to God.

Rich or poor, black, white, Asian, in that manger and soon after the cross is diversity, He came for all, He died for all and He cares for all who would take the time to seek Him out.

Jesus made another invitation in Matthew 11:28-

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Come… those who are tired and maybe need to rediscovery the love that God has for us.

Where life has taken us out of the game for awhile. He says come to Him.

We worry about whether Jesus will forgive and receive us

“Whoever comes to me, I will never drive away.”

If the shepherds had delayed, they would have missed it. If the wise men had not pursued the Christ-child by following the star, they would not have experienced Him in His fullest.

Illustration- Shared before