Title: How to Keep Christ in Christmas
Text: Philippians 2:4-11
Introduction
One of the hot topics at this time every year…for schools, shopping malls, government facilities…is the topic of …“keeping Christ in Christmas”.
Do we call it a Christmas concert or do we call it a holiday concert?
Do we call it a Christmas tree or a holiday tree?
Then there is the big one…
Do you say “Merry Christmas or do you say “Happy holidays?”
And even though I’m …preaching to the choir this morning I think it would be beneficial for us to look together at the topic of keeping Christ in Christmas
Text: Philippians 2:4-11
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! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
1.God wants us to be passionate about keeping Christ in Christmas.
How do we know God want us to be passionate about keeping Christ in Christmas?
Notice in verse 9 that God did 2 great things for Jesus
"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, "…(v9
.
He first of all exalted Jesus to the highest place. Secondly He gave Jesus the name that is above every name…
Whatever God does for Jesus - the enemy tries to undo
The enemy comes against Jesus’ place
The enemy comes against Jesus name
There are 2 times of the year in particular when the enemy tries to undo what God did for Jesus
One time of the year is Easter and the other is …Christmas
He does this Every Easter and every Christmas
Remember His strategy is simple-
He tries to undo what God has already done for Jesus
Even though he knows God has exalted Christ to the highest place –
the enemy tries his hardest to replace Jesus as the center of Christmas
He tries to replace Christ as the center of Christmas with something else.
He doesn’t care what that something else is as long as it’s not Christ
And even though he knows God has given Jesus the highest name –
the enemy tries his hardest to remove the name of Christ out of Christmas
Call it anything else just don’t call it Christmas!
Question: Why is the enemy trying his hardest to keep Christ out of Christmas?
He tells us that he is doing it because he doesn’t want people being offended.
The real reason he tries to keep Christ out of Christmas is that he doesn’t want people being saved.
So the last thing he wants is the real story of Christmas getting out there!
How 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.
The real story of Christmas is this…
Christ became like all of us so that all of us can -become like Christ
He came to earth so that you and I could one day go to heaven…
He died for our sins so that we could live forever through him
The bottom line: We need to fight back against the enemy by remembering to keep Christ in Christmas
How do we go about keeping Christ in Christmas?
Here are some suggestions
1. By taking this time to personally get to know Christ better
“Each one of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (v4)
What I think that this verse means is this… What are you and I going to do this Christmas in order to get to know Christ better?
Am I only interested in doing my own thing this Christmas or am I interested in doing a God thing this Christmas?
In the Christmas story am I a shepherd or am I a sheep?
The shepherds went to see Christ –the sheep stayed behind
Christmas is not about focusing on the gifts as much as it is about focusing on the giver…
Maybe it might just be that you read the Christmas story again…
Keeping Christ in Christ is really all about being interested in knowing Christ better
Keeping Christ in Christmas also means
2. Having the right attitude about Christmas
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” (v5)
Every one has an attitude about Christmas but not everyone has the same attitude that Christ has about it.
What is the right attitude to have about Christmas?
I believe it is this :To reflect on what we already have and not be caught up on what we don’t have
The world has programmed us to spend the first 24 days every December thinking only about what we don’t yet have-
What does that end up doing to your attitude?
When God would tell us to better spend that time thinking about what we do have
That’s what Jesus did!
“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing…”
Jesus didn’t get all caught up in what he didn’t have…
Before coming to earth he had everything even equality with God
And when he came to Earth- Jesus made himself nothing
Jesus’ attitude never changed. He was the same whether he had everything or whether he had nothing
Finally keeping Christ in Christmas means
Living out the Christmas story…
“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Living out the Christmas story means 2000 years later we do the same things to Christ that the shepherds and the wise men did.
They got excited about the birth of Christ and so should we!
They responded a certain way to the birth of Christ and so should we.
Are we really keeping Christ in Christmas if we don’t find ourselves acting like the shepherds and the wise men did.
So remember keeping Christ in Christmas means
1. Taking this time to get to know Jesus better
2. Having the right Christmas Spirit
3. Living out the Christmas Story
