Open with youtube video of Christmas lights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F44d2IzCrKo
(beautiful synchronized Christmas light display featuring “Carol of the bells”)
APPLY: The light show you just saw was put together by the Holdmans of Pleasant Grove, Utah. For the past few years 1000s of people have driven by their home to observe the 15 to 20 minute display.
Wouldn’t you like to have a display like that in your front yard?
I would.
But there are a few things that make that difficult for me.
Number one, I don’t have the money.
Two, I don’t have the time.
But (pause) the most important reason I couldn’t do that in my front yard is that my house isn’t wired for it.
The Holdman family has an on-line tutorial where they describe some of the wiring they’ve used.
· They have 22 dedicated outlets. Those outlets are solely used for this light display… and each outlet was on a 20 amp breaker.
· But even as well wired as their home is, they still have a problem. The entire display requires 470 amps of power… but the maximum amount of electricity they can generate is about 300 amps. Thus, if everything in their display were on at the same time - it would draw 470 amps. So they have to be careful what they turn on at any given time because if they didn’t, they’d end up blowing fuses and tripping breakers.
What the Holdmans have accomplished is a beautiful and wondrous thing.
They literally light up the night.
(pause) But my house isn’t wired for that.
About 2000 years ago a beautiful and wondrous thing took place. Jesus, the Son of God, was born. And when that happened God lit up the night with 1000s upon 1000s of angels who announced to the Shepherds that the Christ had been born.
APPLY: Now, in our text this morning, we read that one of the reasons God lit up the night that evening was because this Jesus would “be great and (would) be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God (would) give him the throne of his father David, and he (would) reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom (would) never end." Luke 1:32-33
Jesus came to establish a Kingdom.
And every Kingdom has citizens that belong to it.
But WHAT is this Kingdom that Jesus came to establish, and WHO would be the subjects in this Kingdom over which He would rule and reign?
Well, Colossians tells us that Kingdom He was born to lead - was the Church.
Colossians 1:18 says that Jesus “… is the head of the body, the church…”.
THIS was the Kingdom He came to rule and reign over.
And the subjects of that Kingdom?
That would be us.
Colossians 1:13-14 says
“… (God) has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the KINGDOM of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
This Kingdom was so important to God that He lit up the night when Jesus was born.
And Luke 15:10 tells me that the heavens continue to light up again and again every time a person decides to join His Kingdom.
In Luke 15:10 Jesus said, “…there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Whenever a sinner repents, the angels rejoice… and the heavens explode with light.
(pause) God lights up the heavens when it comes to His Kingdom.
The question I want to ask this morning is this: are we wired for that?
What I mean is this: this Kingdom – this Church - is so important to God that if I’m going to be prepared for Christmas, I need to get serious about my wiring. If I really want to show Him I love Him I’ve got to put in more than just a half hearted effort into wiring my life for it
Jesus said: "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.’ Luke 9:23 NKJV
And again, He said:
" whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:27 NKJV
ILLUS: Now, when I decorate my house for Christmas, I don’t put a lot of effort into it. I don’t need to be wired for it, because I don’t put up a great many lights. In fact, if I put up a couple strands of lights outside of the house… I’m a happy camper.
But then, I’m not real serious about decorating for Christmas.
I enjoy it… but it’s not THAT important to me, so I don’t generally put a lot of effort into it.
It’s only if something is important to me that I care how much effort I put into it.
What Jesus tells me is this: if I want to be His follower, it NEEDS to be important to me.
I need to be serious enough about it to rewire my life.
So, how do I do that? How do I prepare for this Christmas with the wiring of life?
Well, when the people came to John the Baptist they came knowing he was there to prepare them for the coming Christ. So they all asked the same question:
“What Should We Do?
How do we need to rewire ourselves to be ready for the Holy One of Israel?
· So, he told the crowds: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8)
· He said that if they had “… two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."
· To the tax collectors, John said “Don’t cheat people.”
· To the soldiers he said “Don’t misuse people.”
John’s message to people was always the same: if you want to be prepared for the coming Christ, they you need to begin by considering others better than yourselves.
* If they have a need – meet it.
* If you can help them – help them.
* Don’t hurt anybody, don’t misuse anybody.
Rewire yourselves to think of others before yourselves.
Jesus summed this up in the Golden Rule:
What is the Golden Rule? (“Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.”)
There are people in this world who think Jesus’ Golden Rule was nice but not original.
They try to say that Jesus merely borrowed the idea from others
ILLUS: I once saw a poster that tried to say that.
* Confucius (some 500 years before Jesus) said: "DO NOT unto others what you would not wish done to yourself."
* The Buddhists (who also existed before Christ) have a saying, "Putting oneself in the place of others, KILL NOT, nor cause to kill."
Old Testament Apocrypha (Tobit, written before Christ): "DO NOT DO to anyone what you yourself hate."
Rabbi Hillel (20 B.C.): "What is hateful to you, DO NOT DO to anyone else. This is the whole law; all the rest is only commentary"
That poster was trying to imply that Jesus’ teaching wasn’t all the different from teachers that had come before… but that poster was wrong, Does anybody see what those human teachers taught different than Jesus did?
That’s right. They all said “DO NOT”
Jesus said, “DO”
The world focuses on the negative. It sets rules of what you shouldn’t do here and you shouldn’t do there. And that’s not all bad. But Jesus goes further than that by focusing on something far beyond the thinking of mortal men. Where men merely say “don’t” do something, Jesus goes further and tells us we need to “Do” something!
Jesus didn’t borrow the idea from anybody.
This idea lies at the very heart of what it means to be His Disciple.
In fact, Jesus drove this message home to His disciples when He called them together and said:
"You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" Matthew 20:25-28
Jesus said: If you’re going to be part of my Kingdom get used to the idea of rewiring yourself so you DO for others, so that you put others first. So that you consider OTHERS almost better (more deserving) than you are.
And that phrase is used in Philippians 2 where we’re told:
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look NOT ONLY to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!” Philippians 2:3-8
Jesus thought of YOU first…
Therefore He expects you to think of others first.
And the church here does what it can to give you the tools to do this. We have collected coats for needy children. We are asking you to adopt a child and buy a Christmas gift for specific children in the community. We have “Take a Sack and Bring It Back” where you take a grocery sack home and fill it with groceries for the needy that we can then take to families this Christmas.
But this is just focusing on the Christmas season. These are the types of things we Christians should do all through the year. And to set the tone for preparing for the coming of Christ, these are tools to help you and I focus on the things that are important to our Saviour.
So, in order to prepare for Christ, you and I need to rewire ourselves by putting others first.
But we also need to rewire ourselves… by putting Jesus first.
In Mark 10, we’re told the story of rich young man who came to Jesus and asked the same question the crowds asked John the Baptist:
“What Must I Do?”
Mark tells us Jesus looked at this man… and loved him.
Here was a man who asked the right question: what must I do?
Now Jesus knows this man’s heart, so he sets up the conversation by reciting 10 commandments.
“You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother." Mark 10:19
This incident is recorded in Mark, and Matthew and Luke and each story tells us Jesus deliberately left out the LAST of the 10 commandments. Do you know what that last commandment is?
“You shall not covet” Exodus 20:17
Now why would Jesus leave that last command out?
Did He just forget?
No… Jesus left it off, because this was the man’s problem.
This man loved his money. He loved his possessions. He loved… being rich.
And so Jesus turns to him and gives him a command He never gave to anyone else:
"One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." Mark 10:21
And you remember what the young man did? (He turned away)
“At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.” Mark 10:22
This man loved something more than he loved Jesus.
And Jesus wasn’t about to have a man follow Him who loved something more than Him.
To paraphrase the writings of William Barclay:
Jesus did not say come “have a discussion with me”; he said “follow me.”
We do not make terms with Christ; we surrender to Him.
We do not compromise with Christ; we submit to Him.
Christianity does not mean being interested in Jesus Christ; it means taking an oath that says:
"I am completely and totally yours."
SO, if you’re going to prepare for Christmas… you need to realize Jesus takes 2nd place to no thing. In fact… IF you love anything/anyone more than you do Jesus… you’re not worthy of Him.
Jesus said: "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:37-38
Why is that?
Well, in order for us to live for Christ Jesus must be my King/ Lord/ Highest Priority. If you and I are not willing to put Jesus first… we won’t be worthy of Him.
And we’ll never really be wired properly for Christmas.
So – if we’re going to be properly wired for Christmas we need to put others first in our lives… and we need to put Jesus first.
BUT, in order to PUT Jesus FIRST… we must FIRST belong to Him
We need to be part of His Kingdom and be wired for salvation.
ILLUS: The church began on Pentecost… 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead. On that day God sent His Spirit down upon the Apostles with the sound of a violent wind and something that looked like flames of fire came to rest on each of them, and they began to speak in languages they’d never learned, praising God in the languages of the many Jews who had come from across the known world to worship at the Temple.
A large curious crowd gathered and then Peter stood up to preach. He preached a powerful message - proving that Jesus was the Messiah sent by God to mankind, and that those in the crowd had called for His crucifixion. His message was so powerful that the audience became convicted of their guilt and interrupted him. And they asked him the same question the rich young ruler had asked Jesus and that the crowds had asked John the Baptist:
“What shall we do?”
How do we rewire ourselves to please this Jesus?
And do you remember what Peter told them?
"Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38
You see the basic problem with our wiring is that it’s bad.
We’re all sinners.
AND, in order for us to rewire, we must first get rid of the old wiring and replace it with God’s kind of wiring. That begins by our realizing the wiring IS bad and repenting - pulling out the old sin that has corrupted our connection with God.
That begins with repenting of our sins - admitting we’re wrong - and then by dying to our past and burying it in the waters of Baptism.
CLOSE: In the final analysis, how your life is wired makes a difference to God. Because how you are wired will influence the message from your life.
· If you are wired for Jesus – you’ll love others
· If you’re wired for Jesus – you’ll live your life for Him
· AND if you’re wired for Jesus – people will see His Amazing Grace in your life
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnk0KjWxgMA
(A youtube clip of the Holdman house with another synchronized light display – this time featuring “Amazing Graze”. Note to those who use this: you should begin at 3 seconds and fade the music right after 40 second mark – before it gets in the techno version of the song).
