As I was praying and preparing for this message, I knew what God had placed on my heart to share, but I couldn’t come up with any clever, cute, funny stories like I’ve had in the past. Tonight, I’m just going to shoot straight with you if I may. It’s like on those rare occasions when I do drink coffee I just want it straight up, none of that sugar and creamer stuff.
At Christmas our minds begin reflecting on Jesus and his birth in a manger long ago. Jesus, this precious child, was God’s gift to us. Jesus, was God’s tangible way of demonstrating his love to help us. 1 John 4:9-10 tells us:
1 John 4:9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. 10 This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Imagine that, while people thumbed their nose at God, treated him indifferently, ignored him, he loved us anyway and in a great demonstration of his love he sent his only Son, who himself willing chose to leave the beauty and perfection of heaven to enter into our world to be born like one of us, to experience and live like one of us, and die a criminals death for our sin, so we might have life. When John writes of life he’s talking about two things. 1) he is talking about eternal life, living forever with him in heaven, which is something we cannot earn on our own good deeds, but receive as a gift, like our presents at Christmas. 2) But he is also referring to having life more abundantly (John 10:10), life without sin, life without hurting others, life without hurting ourselves, life without self-centeredness and pride, life with hope, life with love (I’m talking real unselfish, giving love, Godlike love), life with peace, life with joy. At Christmas we celebrate this gift to all humanity. A gift for me, a gift for you. Jesus was the light entering our world as one of us so we could leave the darkness and enter into the light.
What troubles me, is that while people have pulled out their Christmas decorations, including their nativities and setting them up in a prominent place in their home, and celebrating the birth of Jesus with Christmas parties with family, friends, and coworkers and worship services, they are missing the true message of Christmas in their lives. The message of Christmas is that God loves us and cares about us; you, me, the guy down at the bar, the drug dealer, the people on drugs, the abused, the abuser, the couple going through a divorce, the couple thinking of divorce, the woman who just lost her mother, the guy who just lost his job. God loves us all, and he doesn’t want to see us suffer from our sin, from us hurting ourselves and others with our words and actions, to be distant from himself so he sent his one and only Son into the world to do what we cannot do on our own, to change us from the inside out, to give us life.
In the last year I have heard of youth, young men and women in our own community, being addicted to drugs, even dying because of it. Alcohol abuse continues to run rampant destroying lives, families, friendships. People can’t seem to control their anger or their tongue, hurting each other, husbands and wives going after each other, kids are caught in the middle, divorce, then there’s those quietly dealing with loneliness, fear, worry, grief.
It pains me to see so many people missing out on the life God gave us in Jesus. While people celebrate the birth of Jesus tomorrow they will then turn around and continue to hurt, hate, abuse, get drunk, fear, worry, or live in apathy without a purpose or direction, when God has given us life abundantly through his Son. There are many in our own community, perhaps even here in this room tonight, who are not experiencing the kind of life God sacrificed to give us in Jesus.
The Good News of the birth of Jesus was that God sent a Savior into the world to deliver us from our sins, our selfishness, our inward focus, our pride to give us life. The angel said to Joseph, Mary is pregnant by the Holy Spirit and you shall call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. God made a way to restore our broken relationship with himself and with other people. God wants to begin working within us, carving out our heart of stone which causes our sad life, and replace it with a heart of flesh, of love for God and others.
God Wants us to Experience Him in a Personal Way
It’s been really bothering me this past year because I see so many people, Christian and non-Christians alike, who are failing to experience the kind of life Jesus came to earth to help us live. It seems so elusive to them. I ask myself and God, why is this, especially for those who believe in Jesus? As we went through our Bible study this past fall called Experiencing God it finally occurred to me. The reason people are not living the fullness of life is because they are not experiencing God in a real way in their life. They do not have a close personal relationship with God.
Having this abundant life is directly related to our relationship with God, as we personally experience God he works within us, and we follow him because we love him. He is our loving heavenly Father. Our passage from John 1 verse 12 tells us, “Yet to all who received him [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” As we receive the gift of Jesus as our Savior, we become one of his children and then we are able to relate to God just as a child would to a loving parent.
Is God a personal Father for you? Or is God more like a remote king ruling from his throne far away in heaven, issuing orders or commands which we are supposed to keep, and punishes the offenders. People tell me they believe in God and Jesus, but is God real and personal to you? God is not a fact to believe in like air or gravity. I believe they exist but in reality they don’t change my life, they don’t cause me to live differently. I believe in gravity, I believe it keeps me held down to the earth, but whether I choose to believe in it or not doesn’t change my reality. I’m not going to start floating to the sky. People lived for hundreds and thousands of years before us without believing in gravity and they lived just fine. Believing God exists and sent his Son born in a manger won’t change anything in your life because God is a real person, a spiritual being who we created us to relate to us. In the birth of Jesus, God the Son, became human. He had a face. God became real, tangible, reachable to every person on the face of the earth, first through Jesus and then through the Holy Spirit. There he was lying in a manger. God wasn’t just some force out there somewhere in the cosmos, he was right here with us. God was sending the message that he became a human being because he wants to relate to us in a real and personal way.
The real change in a person’s life is not what we choose to believe, that is religion. The real change is when we choose to receive God’s Son, and we relate to God in a real and personal way, and he works in our lives to bring us life.
It’s not what you believe about God, or know about God, it is knowing God that makes the difference.
If you struggle with living the abundant life, If you don’t sense God working in your life, giving you more love, or peace, or patience, or kindness, removing fear, worry, anger, bitterness, sharp tongue, addictive behaviors. Or if you don’t sense God’s leading you from within your heart, guiding you, directing you in his ways the first question, isn’t how can I try harder. That’s what New Years resolutions are about, trying harder, guess what, they don’t work, sorry. The question is, how is my relationship with God, do I have a personal relationship with God, following his guidance, his lead, am I personally experiencing God working in my life? If not then you are in danger at the core of your Christian experience and faith.
God doesn’t want religious nuts who obey every command because it’s written somewhere in the Bible. God wants relationship, he wants to adopt children who will love him and desire to follow his commands and have an abundant life. If you’re following a religious belief system without the relationship you are missing out on the whole point of Christmas. God took the initiative, God came to us, God died for us so we can experience his gift of love and life.
Conclusion:
Is God as real to you as the air you breath? Is God as close to you as the infant child Mary held in her arms? Friends, God did not send Jesus into our world just so we can celebrate Christmas every year by giving each other presents, and waiting for Santa Claus. God sent Jesus so we could experience him on a daily basis. Do you have that kind of relationship with God? If you don’t I would hate for you to pass by another Christmas missing the point of the birth of Jesus.
[Pray for receiving the gift of relationship God offers through Christ]
