Heaven came down
Yesterday, we read the Christmas story as recorded in Luke 2 as part of the service. I spoke of God’s love for “all people”.
That God would send His Son Jesus to redeem mankind. (God’s love blows my mind)
We saw God’s love was unconditionally for all and God’s love does not go by where we are in life and if we have all our ducks in a row and if all our circumstances are under control.
Tonight, for a moment, let’s look at a paraphrased version of the story as the Angel of the Lord assures Joseph that Mary is being called upon to divinely be the Mother of Jesus the Christ.
Matthew 1:18-24 Read from bible
Introduction-
Can you believe it, another year has gone by.
Here we are looking at another Christmas, another year coming to an end.
If this has not been the greatest of year for you, I know a God that specializes in miracles and changing our circumstances.
God has recently been doing some amazing things in the life of the church and the people of Rosedale. It brings excitement and anticipation when God begins to move in our lives.
If you took a moment and had a flashback of things that happened to you this year- you would experience sadness, gladness and a large chuck of oh yea, I forgot about that because time just flies by, not moment by moment but day by day and month by month.
Time is precious and we don’t always get a second chance to retrieve a moment.
I can imagine Peter remembering the words Jesus said about denying him and Peter emphatically saying I would never do that and at the moment he denied him three times, the rooster crowed and he was reminded of what Jesus had said he would do.
Time flies by, moments get away, procrastination usually wins out in our lives, and we are left with voids in our lives. It does not have to be that way-
Jesus who by choice left the portals of heaven came to fill the void we could not fill without Him.
1 John 1:1-10 Read from Bible
We have “heard” Jesus,
We have “seen” Jesus,
We have been touched and walked the very road with Jesus and so we proclaim to you that He is who He says He is and that all eternity Is waiting for Him to complete what God the Father has sent Him to do and that is be the redeemer of the world to a world that so desperately need one.
He says they proclaim it because now that they met him He has changed their life and they would never be the same.
They now have fellowship with Jesus because He first reached out to them.
They fellowshipped with each other because they have the love of Christ dwelling in them.
That baby in a manger was now going to be the savior of the world.
He was going to fulfill scripture, prophecy, and the command of God to do what we cannot do for ourselves.
(V5) The Christian message we heard, we proclaim and declare unto others because we now have not only heard but apply his teaching and His life in ours.
John wanted his readers to experience what he has experienced and to have fellowship with His God.
“Koinonia” the Greek word for fellowship. To have a common faith to enjoy God’s grace and share and participate in Christ’s goodness to us.
To receive the spiritual blessing of being in the family of God.
Gentiles, each one of us who are not Jewish to receive all that God desired for all people.
Such a rich relationship was to belong to the community of God.
Christ does not only want you to come to church, he wants you to belong to the family of God and participate in relationship, first to Christ and then to other believers.
To experience the Lord and celebrate with the family of God
To fellowship with each other and share the love of Christ to all those you come into contact with.
Apostle John was troubled that some were not having fellowship with the Lord.
He says to fellowship “with us” as opposed to the world that did not hear Him, make room for him.
He wanted all to fellowship closely so that they would not be swayed by the erring teachers that were bring false prophecy, bad teachings, and taking them away from the true Christ and what He wanted to do for them and in them.
Here is the message of Christmas that often gets diluted and overlooked-
“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son purifies us from all sin.”
Christmas gifts are good, I love gifts- a lot of time and effort is put in wrapping gifts only to be ripped open in minutes tonight or tomorrow.
Wrong color, wrong size, and the elephant gifts that you don’t know why someone would give you
The greatest gift is Jesus! The perfect gift from above- it is perfect, no returns needed.
Emmanuel “God with us.”
Showing a world who needs him and often forgets him or dilutes His purpose for coming.
We need to stop looking at the manger an start looking in the manger. There is a big difference.
You have to do something with Jesus
You cannot have no opinion. To do nothing is to reject Him.
The picture we are shown is a pretty manger scene. The animals perfectly sitting around the manger and seem to have a heavenly glow to it.
The stable was dirty, the shepherds were dirty, the animals were dirty and messy and being animals.
God showed up in the flesh to redeem a dirty and polluted world that had got messy and needed Him to clean up the filth.
This year over-
29 million rolls of gift paper
372 million greeting cards
35-40 million Christmas tress- who knows how many strings of lights and how many rolls of scotch tape.
How many confused and irritated “rigging up the lights”
We still need Jesus!
He is the light of the world wither the world accepts him or not.
In Him is no darkness and we are to walk in His light!
He lights our path and when we get out of the light, we are to quickly get back in so as we are to not to walk in darkness anymore.
And when we walk in the light, as He is the light, we have fellowship with Him, and with each other. And he purifies us from all sin. Amen! That is an amazing God!
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
The perfect gift!
“To you is born this day in the city of David a savior, who is messiah, the Lord.”
No matter what gift you open today or tomorrow will have the value or be as precious as the gift of eternal life!
The Grinch tried to steal Christmas- He was offended by the people of Whoville.
Decorations disturbed him
Celebrations disturbed him
The noise of Christmas disturbed him.
He thinks the answer to all that is take it away from them.
They will be sorrowful and lose their joy. Christmas came despite all he did to them.
That is what Satan desires to do to us- make Christmas just another day.
Steal our joy, cause us to look at circumstances-
But the people of Whoville-
They were joyful and singing and even when they did not have presents.
He realized that Christmas was more than all that.
That is what Jesus desires for us- His Presence Matters!
He can change our circumstances.
He returns the focus on a God that redeems instead of a world that condemns
There is no baby Jesus in the Grinch story, but it does show believers there is more to Christmas.
Some gifts you can give this Christmas are beyond monetary value:
Mend a quarrel, dismiss suspicion, tell someone, "I love you."
Give something away anonymously.
Forgive someone who has treated you wrong.
Turn away wrath with a soft answer.
Visit someone in a nursing home.
Apologize if you were wrong.
Be especially kind to someone with whom you work.
Give as God gave to you in Christ, without obligation, or announcement, or reservation, or hypocrisy.
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.
The Unspeakable Gift
Illustration-
Long ago, there ruled in Persia a wise and good king. He loved his people. He wanted to know how they lived. He wanted to know about their hardships. Often he dressed in the clothes of a working man or a beggar, and went to the homes of the poor. No one whom he visited thought that he was their ruler. One time he visited a very poor man who lived in a cellar. He ate the coarse food the poor man ate. He spoke cheerful, kind words to him. Then he left. Later he visited the poor man again and disclosed his identity by saying, "I am your king!" The king thought the man would surely ask for some gift or favor, but he didn't. Instead he said, "You left your palace and your glory to visit me in this dark, dreary place. You ate the course food I ate. You brought gladness to my heart! To others you have given your rich gifts. To me you have given yourself!"
The King of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ, gave himself to you and me. The Bible calls Him, "the unspeakable gift!"
As we close, Don’t’ let this moment of celebration just be about presents, but about a God that cares for you, loves you, and did everything to allow you and I to experience Him and His love.
I am going to ask the worship team to come and prepare a sing.
While they do that I will ask the ushers to come and we will get ready to light our candles.
Ask that you watch children with candles and as the ushers come, you light your candle from them and then allow the person aside of you to light their candle.
Special song /Silent night
Merry Christmas and love for them
Instructions for social
