I'm Dreaming Of A Right Christmas

I’M DREAMING OF A RIGHT CHRISTMAS

Matthew 1:21

INTRO: What does Christmas mean to you? To some people it means hard work. The stores are crowded with shoppers, the post office is overflowing with mail, and the trains and busses and planes are carrying record crowds. To some people Christmas means a visit home. Surely this is the best time of all the year to be with loved ones. To some people Christmas means a sad memory. They look back over the year and think of the loved one who has left them behind. To some people Christmas means revelry. They talk about Christmas liquor, they connect whisky with the blessed Name of the Saviour. But to millions of people, Christmas means nothing. They do not know Jesus. Dec. 25th for them is just another day.

But Christmas means everything to the real Christian. It means that God loves him with all His heart. It means that God has regarded his lost condition and has done something about it. It means that God has given him the best Christmas gift that even God could give. Now, if we are to have a “right Christmas,” certain things must be placed in that Christmas.

I. A RIGHT CHRISTMAS INCLUDES MAKING ROOM FOR JESUS.

When Mary and Joseph came to the inn, the inn-keeper said, “We have no room for you.” Oh, he was the man who missed Christmas and all of its meaning! He had many guests in his hotel, but they were soon gone and forgotten. If he had allowed Jesus to be born there, this would have changed his hotel and his whole life.

So today, if you say, “I have no room for Jesus,” if your heart and life are filled with other things, you miss everything good. Wouldn’t it be a good thing this Christmas for you to throw out all else and make room for Christ?

This means not only the sins of the flesh, but the sins of the disposition. Maybe you are envious of someone, maybe you hate someone. Maybe you have an unforgiving spirit toward someone. What a wonderful experience you could have on Christmas morning if you would cast every evil thing out of your heart.

ILLUS: Gf-369 WHALING BOAT CAPTAIN The captain of a wha1ing boat went to church one Sunday. The preacher talked to him later and learned that the sermon had made absolutely no impression upon him. “To tell the truth, sir,” replied the captain, “all the time that you were talking I was thinking about where I could likely find my next whale. I have no room in my heart for anything else but whales.” (Sermons for Special Occasions, Ford p. 118).

Is this true of you? Is your heart so full of other things that there is no room in it for Jesus?

As you travel along the highway you see the sign, “No Vacancy,” on the front of many motels. Some of you have hung out the same sign so far as Jesus is concerned. You have said to Him, “There is no room here for you. My heart is all filled up. Go away.”

II. A RIGHT CHRISTMAS INCLUDES WORSHIP.

When Jesus was born a wonderful miracle of nature took place. The heavens opened up and an angel came down to speak to a group of shepherds on a Judean hill (Luke 2:11-12). The shepherds went to town, found the baby and knelt down and worshiped Him. If you are to have a right Christmas, you must come and worship Him also.

Has worship any place in your life? It is a lost art with many Christians. They don’t have time to stop and look up into God’s face and worship Him. They never enter God’s house — they say that they can worship God just as well outside the church. But they never worship Him anywhere. The heathen looks up to the sun and worships. The dog worships as he gazes into his master’s face. The baby worships its mother. But God’s children, saved and blessed in a million ways, go on and on, never lifting their hearts to God in praise.

ILLUS: It is said that Longfellow could take a worthless sheet of paper and write upon it a poem worth $6,000. Rockefeller could sign his name to a check and it would be worth millions. The mechanic can take $15.00 worth of material and make it worth $500.00. The artist can take a cheap piece of canvas and paint

a picture which in future years will be worth thousands of dollars. And God can take a worthless, sinful life, wash it in the blood of Christ, put His spirit in it, and make it a blessing to the world.

Are you one of those who is leaving the church out of your life? who has no time for worship? As Christmas comes, make a commitment to place Him first.