Will Christmas Make A Difference
12/21/2008 Matt. 1:18-2:12 Isaiah 9:2-7 Text Isaiah 9:6-7
How many of you here are doing something this week you would not regularly be doing but you’re doing it because Christmas is coming? When asked will Christmas make a difference in your life, one man responded, “yes it will. I will be in more debt after Christmas than I was before it arrived.”
Christmas will make a difference in many of our lives by turning us into frantic shoppers, talented decorators, family peacemakers, hectic cooks, and giver of presents. All year we have had the theme, “Made For A Mission.” How we approach Christmas is part of being made for a mission.
Some of you recognized part of that mission in your giving gifts to the Angel Tree ministry on behalf of parents who are in prison. Some of you saw your Christmas mission was to sponsor a needy family here in church with secret gifts. You know you are growing in Christ when you see opportunities to make a difference in the lives of others as a privilege rather than an obligation.
The world would have us would have us believe that Christmas is the happiest time of the year, and that we are all going to have a great time, with great gifts, and great get togethers. We think that the lights, and the decorations, and the beautiful trees, and the presents are going to transform our lives into some kind of miraculous peace and joy and happiness. We expect that Christmas is going to do this all by itself, because it’s Christmas.
The reality however is that when Jesus Christ is left out of Christmas, nothing really changes. More people will feel lonely
this week than any other time of the year. More people are going to commit suicide this week than any other time of the year. This year, more people have lost their jobs probably than any year since the Great Depression. Our nation is in an economic crisis. There are many people who will not have a job after Christmas as more and more businesses close.
During the next two weeks, more people are going to lose family members killed by drunk drivers than any other time of the year. There will be parties and alcohol and drugs will be abundant, and more wives and children will probably be abused this week because of them than any other time of the year. We need the presence of God in our families more than ever.
This Christmas is going to be hard for some of us because it
will be the first one we spend without our mother, our grandmother, our husband, our wife, our children, our brother, our sister or our real good fried. The family get togethers that many of us will have, are not all going to be pleasant. We all have family members who sometimes just act the fool and keep stuff going that should have been let go a long time ago. Some of us know that once so and so in our family picks up the bottle, its going to mean misery for every body else around.
Some of us are going to go through undo tension because we don’t have the money to get our children the things they wanted. We hate to see the disappointment on the their faces because we we would get it, but we now know that we can’t.
Some of us are going to be hurt because someone we love very much, is not even going to take the time to have purchased us just a little gift. My friends the way we celebrate Christmas, opens the door for a lot of pain, hurt, rejection and loneliness to pour into our lives. That hurt overshadows the gift of God, and somehow some of us will just want the day to hurry up and be over. Yes Christmas is going to make a difference.
Did you know that God wants Christmas to make a difference in your life. God had a different view in mind when He gave us Christmas. In our Scripture reading today it says in Isaiah 9:2 "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned."
While some of us feel the light of God beaming around us, others of us are living in the land of the shadow of death. When we are hurting , and we are lonely, and we are disappointed, God wants us to know that the darkness around us is not all there is. The difference of Christmas is that a great light has come into the world. We may feel as though we are in shadow of death, but God wants to shine His light and give us a new dawn. What is this light?
Jesus says, I am the light of the world. How are we going
to deal with our problems? By allowing the light of Jesus Christ
to shine upon our lives and to give us wisdom in the decisions
that we must make, we can be changed by Christmas. Let us recognize that the greatest change that needs to take place in our lives is not in the size of our incomes, but in our attitudes. We have more going for us, that we think we do. We just have to recognize it. The Word tells us, “let this mind be in you, which also was in Christ Jesus.” If Jesus’ mind is in you, then you are going to allow him to have control of your attitude. Don’t give up. Just wait a little longer. Keep the right attitude.
Chuck Swindoll gives us a little insight on how we can improve our attitudes. He says, “The remarkable thing is that we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. Life is 10% what happens to us, and 90% of how we react to it. We are in charge of our attitudes.
A lot of useless arguing and complaining is going to take
place in the next week. "You spent too much on that. Why can’t we go over there this time? How come you took so long shopping? Why did you spend so much time with them? and the list goes on. " A bad attitude can ruin the best planned Christmas.
I want you to join me on a making a difference with my attitude for this Christmas. Let’s decide right now to make this Christmas as enjoyable as possible for those in our family and in this church by turning our attitudes over to Jesus Christ? Can we agree to accept the light that Jesus Christ wants to pour into each of our lives?
A joyous Christmas is not going to be determined by the size and the number of gifts. It’s going to be determined by how much we allow Jesus to be Lord of our tongues and our actions. A kind word all day on Christmas day is priceless. An ill spoken word or an unkind deed can spoil the gift of a diamond ring. The choice to not complain about anything may be the best gift we give to the family on Christmas.
You see life is not found in things, as nice as things may be. The Bible tells us that life is found in Jesus Christ. There is no greater celebration of Christmas anywhere, than to be in a home where the presence of Jesus Christ is lived out by the people in it. You may be the only one in your family that’s a Christian. That’s enough to make a difference on Christmas day for everyone else in the home.
God has already made provisions for our change this Christ
mas season. We find in Isaiah 9:6-7 "For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoul
ders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. {7} Of the increase of his
government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on
David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this."
This prophecy of the birth of Jesus Christ came hundreds of years before Jesus was born. Surely if God could plan hundreds of years into the future with detailed accuracy, God can effectively plan to see us through our problems and our difficulties. Job losses, unexpected pregnancies, and health problems do not catch God by surprise. God never says, “now how did I let that slip up on me without knowing about it.”
Some of us didn’t know how we would make it this far, but we’ve made it. Some of us lost our jobs this year and was scared in it all, but we’re still here and God has not forgotten us. Some of us went through the pain of divorce, and others the agony of a separation, but God has not left us. Some of us went into the hospital and wasn’t quite sure we were coming back out alive, but we are still here.
God’s love is still with us. Some of us paid a price for the decision to choose to sin and it hurt others, but God did not walk away from us. God’s love is still here. We’ve gotten back up on our feet and decided to start again to make a difference for Christ. We were knocked down but not knocked out. Jesus is still on the throne.
Christmas should change us by giving new focus and direction in our lives as we ask God, "Lord, what would you have me to do." We are never going to know what life is until we ask "Lord what would you have me to do to make a difference?" And then my friends, we must be willing and go forth and do it.
I don’t know you circumstances, but I cant tell you what’s God will is for you this Christmas. It is God’s will for us to be forgiving this Christmas, for the Bible says forgive one
another as God in Christ forgave you. It is God’s will for us to
give to those who have nothing this Christmas for the Bible says, look out not only for your own concerns, but also for the needs of others.
My friends, God wants Christmas to change us. God knows that the changes can only be done by allowing Jesus to have control over us. God is not simply interested in a change for Christmas, God is not trying to touch us with the Christmas Spirit for a 7 day period. God wants to touch us with the Holy Spirit to change us for a life time.
The funny thing about Christmas is that the change it brings can be risky. Christmas made a difference for Mary and Joseph. They lost their good reputation because of Christmas. Very few people believed that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit any more than we believe some young girl got pregnant by the Holy Spirit today. They also had their lives threatened and would have been killed if they had not escaped with Jesus to Africa before the soldiers could find them.
Christmas made a difference for the wise men from the east They lost their comfort of being at home with their families and friends. They may have followed that star for months. Traveling in those days was anything but easy and but pleasant. Christmas changed their lives. They were a lot poorer
materially when they left Jesus, but they were spiritually richer.
Christmas can cause people to trip out on you. When the wise men first came through the city, King Herod was glad to see them and welcomed them in. But when it was time to leave, that same King was ready to torture them to the point of death if necessary to force them to tell him where Jesus was so that he could go and kill the child. Christmas changed them by giving them a new sense of hope while at the same time putting their lives in jeopardy.
Christmas made a difference in the lives of the shepherds in the fields. For all of us who do not want to get to close to the wrong kind of people in church, we need to ask the question, why did God go to the shepherds, but not to the people who had religion. You see shepherds were at the bottom of the social ladder in the first century.
They were the ones with the felony convictions of our day. Shepherds were considered thieves and were not allowed to come into the city. People didn’t want them in their synagogues or churches for us. You wouldn’t want to trust them in your building with your family members. They were the foul mouthed, cussing you out, and beat the daylights out of you crowd.
But God wanted the shepherds there at the birth of Jesus. The wise men were the rich and famous, but they did not show up until about a year or two after Jesus was born. But the shepherds were there on the very night of the birth. God wanted people with the felony records present, God wanted people who others distrusted on the scene, God wanted people who had been made to feel like they no longer belonged because of what they had done, to know that this baby Jesus, was to be their Savior as well.
The religious people had to live with knowing God came to the people they despised with the good news of Christmas. The religious people could not boast of some special connection to God.
That’s the kind of church we want us to be. Anybody can come see Jesus in this place, and if you’re willing to allow him to make a difference in your life, you’re just as good as the rest of us. For all of us have sinned and fallen short. How dare anyone look down on anybody else?
Christmas made a difference for the shepherds. Now their sheep was the same as their bank account. Their money was completely tied up in their sheep and if they lost sheep, that was money down the drain. Yet after the angel told them about a Savior being born in Bethlehem, they said to one another, "Let’s go to Bethlehem and see thing this thing has happened, which the Lord told us about." Then they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph. Christmas changed them so much, they
left all their possessions at risk in order to see Jesus. There
may not have been any sheep left when they got back to the
fields.
Christmas made a difference for Herod. Herod was changed by Christmas. He had been a king who felt secure in his thrown until one day the wise men showed up asking where is this new king who is to be born for we have seen his
star in the east. The wise man naturally thought that the King
would be born in the King’s palace.
But Herod learned the prophecies said the king was to be born in Bethlehem. Christmas changed Herod’s ability to sleep at night. He could not allow this new born king to live and challenge his authority to rule. At first he was only going to kill Jesus. But instead he changed his mind and killed every male child in Bethlehem under two years of age to make sure he got Jesus in the process.
Is Christmas making a difference for us. Are we like Mary and Joseph, willing to risk being made fun of at being
a Christian in our family, at school, or on the Job? Are we
like the Shepherds, our lives being in a mess, without much
intention of serving God at all, yet open to the call of God on
our lives? Are we like Herod, refusing to allow Jesus to do
anything that might upset our authority to do what we want to do, how we want to do it and when we want to get it done?
I close with a paraphrase of a prayer my mother gave me one
Christmas. Let us stand and pray it together. Our Lord and our God, help us to be grateful for being alive right now. Help us to realize that no matter what our problems may be, where there is life, there is hope.
Help us to have faith and to realize that thousands of
miracles are happening every day. Help us to pray and to remember the times when prayer and You, brought us through. Let us be better listeners and less self centered.
Help us to realize that If we get our minds occupied by helping and cheering up other people, we will be healthier than if we were always checking our own pulse. Let us realize that we cannot change others. Only by living for Jesus Christ and setting a good example may we influence someone to change their behavior.
Let us realize that You have a plan for each of our lives, and that You are always with us to guide us and comfort us. May we allow your love to flow into our lives, that we may in turn pour it upon others. For it is in the name of Christ that we ask it. Amen
Sermon Outline—Pastor Rick
Will Christmas Make A Difference
12/21/2008 Isaiah 9:2-7 Matt. 1:18-2:12
A. There Will Be Some Changes
1. From This To That
2. Made For A Mission
3. Generosity-Angel Tree & More
B. Christmas—What Can It Do
1. The Happiest Time ?
2. The Need For Christ
3. Economic Crisis & Others
4. Loss Of Loved Ones
5. Family & Tensions
6. Opens Door For Hurt
C. God’s Alternative Christmas
1. Isaiah 9:2—Darkness To Light
2. A Great Light Has Come
3. Light Comes With Wisdom
D. The Power Of Attitude
1. Let This Mind Be In You
2. Chuck Swindoll
3. Useless Arguments
4. Make It Enjoyable
5. Jesus Lord Of The Tongue
6. The Power Of Words
7. One Can Make A Difference
E. God Has Made Provisions For Us
1. God Plans In Advance
2. Our Circumstances—God’s Help
3. Knocked Down But Not Out
4. What Would You Have Me To Do
F. God’s Will For Us This Christmas
1. Forgive, Give, Change
2. The Holy Spirit
G. Christmas Changes Can Be Risky
1. Mary & Joseph—Ridicule—Threats
2. Wise Men—Loss Of Comfort—Death
3. Shepherds—Rejection—Outcasts
4. God Wanted The Rejects
5. Challenge For The Religious People
6. The Kind Of Church We Should Be
7. All Of Us Have Sinned
8. Shepherds Risked Bank Accounts
9. King Herod—Became Insecure
10. A Murderous Plot
H. Where Do We Fit In The Difference
1. Are We Mary & Joseph
2. Are We Shepherds
3. Are We Herods
. Our Lord and our God, help us to be grateful for being alive right now. Help us to realize that no matter what our problems may be, where there is life, there is hope.
Help us to have faith and to realize that thousands of
miracles are happening every day. Help us to pray and to remember the times when prayer and You, brought us through. Let us be better listeners and less self centered.
Help us to realize that If we get our minds occupied by helping and cheering up other people, we will be healthier than if we were always checking our own pulse. Let us realize that we cannot change others. Only by living for Jesus Christ and setting a good example may we influence someone to change their behavior.
Let us realize that You have a plan for each of our lives, and that You are always with us to guide us and comfort us. May we allow your love to flow into our lives, that we may in turn pour it upon others. For it is in the name of Christ that we ask it. Amen
