God's Christmas Plan

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Do you believe it? And here we are on the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is what we call the Sundays between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Advent is that special time of looking forward to the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Even though you just got through with all the planning for Thanksgiving, are you already planning for Christmas? Maybe so, maybe no. Just like all the other holidays, it will come and go before you know it. Remember when you were little and it seemed to take forever for Christmas to get here. And as we get older, it’s, “Already? It seems like we just got through with Christmas.”

This is such a wonderful time of the year. And I am pretty sure that I don’t have to preach about the Christmas season being so much more that giving and receiving gifts. The children would disagree with me when I say that but as we grow older, we tend to look more at the general feelings of friendship, or closeness, or just the expression of love, and peace, and joy, and hope that fills the air.

There’s always a lot of planning that goes into the Christmas season. The choir has been working on the Christmas cantata since September. This morning was just a sampling of it. There are usually Christmas parties that are planned for different groups within the church. Some of the Sunday school classes plan some kind of event. The deacons and yokefellows have their Christmas celebration planned. And if you’re not part of any group in the church then I encourage to get involved so that you don’t miss out.

But there is a church wide Christmas party next Saturday here at the church. It’s our ugly sweater party. So, dig deep into your closet and pull out the ugliest Christmas sweater that you are brave enough to wear and come.

Tonight, we have our Hanging of the Greens Christmas service. You will enjoy that. Most everyone in the church has a part in decorating the sanctuary for the Christmas season. The service begins at 6PM and there will be narratives given by certain individuals, singing, decorating, and just coming together as a church for a festive Christmas occasion.

We will be involved with delivering the Angel tree gifts to over 100 children in our community that many of you have helped with your donations of toys.

We are going to be delivering the food stuffed backpacks that we have been preparing for the past month or so. We deliver them to Salado to the children so that during the Christmas holidays, when there is no school and hence no lunches, the children will have food items for each day so they won’t go hungry.

Our Christmas worship service will feature our choir performing the Christmas cantata that they have been working on. That will be at the evening service on Sunday, December 22 at 6pm to get that Christmas week off to a good start.

So much planning goes into all the events for Christmas, not just here at SEBC but around the world. And all of it is designed to help each of us get rid of that humbug attitude that so easily sets in each year and fill our days with a festive spirit.

But you know, all of the planning that goes into Christmas wouldn’t even exist if God did not implement His plan. God’s plan was to get our attention and remind us that there is so much more for us that what we see and experience here on earth. God had to somehow get our attention so that we would focus on Him.

Now, God could have come down here Himself but there would be so many mixed reactions if He did. It would scare some to death. His appearance might convince some to be in awe and to listen to His message. But there would still be some that would see and still not believe.

So, what could God do? He came to this earth in the form of a baby. Most every human being has a positive reaction to a baby. We see a little baby and all of a sudden, we start talking funny. Have you ever noticed that? (Imitate)

So, God, in His perfect plan, comes to us in the form of a tiny baby. And this got the attention of those who knew the prophecies of old. Isaiah 9:6 reads, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

Now, you must know, that Isaiah’s prophecy was given some 700 years before Jesus was even born. So, we think, “God planned on Jesus coming to earth 700 years before.” Almost correct. God had His prophet Isaiah ANNOUNCE it some 700 years before Jesus was born. God planned all this long before that.