Luke 2: 1 – 20 / Where Shall We Find Him?
Intro: Sometimes I get the feeling that we are like folks who decided to throw a party to honor a very special friend. They sent out invitations, decorated the hall, & had the food catered. All the people came together at the designated time, but to their surprise, the guest of honor was not there. Finally, they made the embarrassing discovery that no one had bothered to invite the guest of honor. Is that what happens at Christmas? Do we go through all the decorating, buying presents and preparing elaborate meals; but, somehow forget whose birthday we are really celebrating?
I. Take a look at the Christmas decorations in your neighborhood. Isn’t it true that you can look at the vast majority of them without ever having the slightest clue that the season has anything to do with Christ Jesus?
A. What should Christmas look like?
B. You know Christmas is here when:
1) there are pine needles on your carpet
2) your credit card is smoked along with the turkey or ham 3) your Xmas list is written in black & your checkbook
balance is written in red.
4) you pull an all-nighter because of the words “some
assembly required.”
II. Zig Ziglar tells about his traveling brother who cam to a hotel asking for a room. The manager told him they were full. “Now be honest with me, If the President came through the door and asked for a room, would you find a place for him to stay?”
A. “Well, if the President needed a room, I’m sure we’d find one for him.” Ziglar’s brother said, “That’s great! I know for a fact that he’s not coming, so I’ll take his room.”
B. If Mary and Joseph had been more influential people perhaps there would have been a room fro them, too. But they were just common people like you and me. They had no place to stay.
C. Would you make room in your home for the President or some other influential person? Would you make room in your home for the homeless man or woman stuck out in the cold with no shelter? After all, Mary and Joseph were homeless that night so long ago. Would you have taken them in?
III. Christ Jesus wasn’t born in Mt. Sinai Hospital in Jerusalem, surrounded by gynecologist, nurses & assistants. Rather, He was born in a stable, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.
A. The announcement of the birth of God’s son is made to humble shepherds. If God cares about them, does God care about you and me?
B. Children 12 & 13 years old in orphanages need to hear that God cares when younger children are adopted and they realize they will probably never be. Mothers of children without husbands need to hear that God cares. Lost souls who drink away their fears need to hear it. People who are lonely need to hear it. Husbands who have lost their wives in death need to hear it. Church people who feel useless & empty need to hear it. We all need to hear it.
C. All of us have known feelings of being left out, abandoned. Christmas comes. The light shines & God says, “No! You’re wrong. I made the announcement to shepherds, & I make it to you. “Unto YOU a Savior is born!”
Conclu: Are you asking yourself, “Where shall I find Him?” Surely not in the mall, not in the fancy hotel; but, perhaps in the alley close to the dumpster or huddled next to a heating vent. Christ the King comes in the humblest and least expected places. --- “Where shall I find Him?” --- Look in your heart!
