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.
III. A RIGHT CHRISTMAS INCLUDES THE GRACE OF GIVING.
Here we see the wise men coming to bring their gifts to Jesus. We sing about the three wise men, but the Bible doesn’t tell us how many there were. In the various Christmas pictures, we see the wise men bringing their gifts to the stable. However, it is most likely that they brought these gifts later on, when Jesus was older, and not to the stable, but to a house.
And what were these gifts? They brought gold, frank-incense and myrrh. Each gift was a gift of value. We know more about Jesus than they did. He has done more for us than He did for them. Are we giving ourselves? Are we giving our time and our talents and our money to Him?
ILLUS: Gf-370 AVOIDING BANKRUPTCY A certain Christian man went to see his lawyer who was also a Christian. The man said to his lawyer, “I am having a hard time and I want you to draw up a bankruptcy paper for me.”
The lawyer said, “I will tell you something better. I will tell you the way to pay all of your debts and avoid disgrace. If you will begin to tithe and give God His part, surely God will bring you out of this difficulty. He promises to pour out His blessings upon those who tithe. You try this method six months and if it doesn’t work, come back to me and I will draw up the bankruptcy papers.”
The man promised to do this and stuck to his promise. He never had to return for the bankruptcy papers. (Sermons for Special Occasions, Ford pp. 120-21)
The matter of giving reached a climax on the Cross. Look at Jesus as He dies there. What is He doing? He is giving — giving all that He has for you and me. We would be on our way to hell if He hadn’t given Himself for us. Yet, we look at the attendance record and find that hundreds of church members have not given one hour, to Jesus in the past year. We look at the financial records and find that hundreds have not given Him a penny in the past year. Is that right? Must Jesus give all and are we to give nothing in return?
IV. THE RIGHT CHRISTMAS INCLUDES THE MATTER OF TELLING OTHERS ABOUT JESUS.
For our picture here, we look up and listen to the angel. For many years men had looked for the Messiah. They had longed for Him to come and fill their hearts with satisfaction and peace and joy. Now the angel announces that He has been born. The long night of waiting is over.
But men are still in the darkness of sin. They are looking for something that satisfies, something which will give them peace and joy. We know what they need, for we have found the Remedy ourselves. They need Jesus.
ILLUS: A young woman applied to our Foreign Mission Board for appointment as a missionary. She said, “I must go to Japan as a missionary. I just must go to Japan.” When they asked her why she felt so strongly that she must go to Japan, se replied, “They killed my brother and I must go and take Jesus to them.” Oh, what a spirit she had!
CONC: A Chicago businessman tells about coming out of his office on a cold, blustery day. The snow and rain and sleet were all mixed up and the wind whipped fiercely about him. He rolled up his collar and ran for his car. But he didn’t reach his car.
In the doorway of a store he saw a 10 year-old boy. The boy was blue and shivering and the man could see that he had been crying. The little fellow looked so pitiful that the man stopped and asked him about his trouble. The boy said, “Nothing, mister, I am all right.” But the man spoke more kindly to the boy and the boy told his story.
“My father sent me for some groceries. He gave me $10 with which to buy them, but my hand was so cold the money slipped out and I lost it. I am afraid to go home.” The man told the boy to go on home — that his father would understand. But the boy shook his head and said, “You don’t know my dad, he will be drunk and he will almost kill me. I’ll have to wait until he goes to bed or leaves home.”
The man told the boy that he would help him, so he went over to the store with him and bought the groceries and paid for them. He told the boy not to tell his father about losing the money. The boy thanked him sincerely and then in a moment of great emotion, he set the groceries down on the counter, put his arms around the man’s waist and, choking up a bit, the boy said, “I wish that you was my daddy.”
Now listen to what the man said, “I walked around four blocks in the rain and sleet and snow to see if I could find another boy who had lost some money, so I could help him.”
But the joy that man felt is nothing compared to the joy we will feel when we serve God.
