Thanksgiving has come and gone. Do you believe it? And here we are on the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is what we call the Sundays between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Advent is that special time of looking forward to the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Even though you just got through with all the planning for Thanksgiving, are you already planning for Christmas? Maybe so, maybe no. Just like all the other holidays, it will come and go before you know it. Remember when you were little and it seemed to take forever for Christmas to get here. And as we get older, it’s, “Already? It seems like we just got through with Christmas.”
This is such a wonderful time of the year. And I am pretty sure that I don’t have to preach about the Christmas season being so much more that giving and receiving gifts. The children would disagree with me when I say that but as we grow older, we tend to look more at the general feelings of friendship, or closeness, or just the expression of love, and peace, and joy, and hope that fills the air.
There’s always a lot of planning that goes into the Christmas season. The choir has been working on the Christmas cantata since September. This morning was just a sampling of it. There are usually Christmas parties that are planned for different groups within the church. Some of the Sunday school classes plan some kind of event. The deacons and yokefellows have their Christmas celebration planned. And if you’re not part of any group in the church then I encourage to get involved so that you don’t miss out.
But there is a church wide Christmas party next Saturday here at the church. It’s our ugly sweater party. So, dig deep into your closet and pull out the ugliest Christmas sweater that you are brave enough to wear and come.
Tonight, we have our Hanging of the Greens Christmas service. You will enjoy that. Most everyone in the church has a part in decorating the sanctuary for the Christmas season. The service begins at 6PM and there will be narratives given by certain individuals, singing, decorating, and just coming together as a church for a festive Christmas occasion.
We will be involved with delivering the Angel tree gifts to over 100 children in our community that many of you have helped with your donations of toys.
We are going to be delivering the food stuffed backpacks that we have been preparing for the past month or so. We deliver them to Salado to the children so that during the Christmas holidays, when there is no school and hence no lunches, the children will have food items for each day so they won’t go hungry.
Our Christmas worship service will feature our choir performing the Christmas cantata that they have been working on. That will be at the evening service on Sunday, December 22 at 6pm to get that Christmas week off to a good start.
So much planning goes into all the events for Christmas, not just here at SEBC but around the world. And all of it is designed to help each of us get rid of that humbug attitude that so easily sets in each year and fill our days with a festive spirit.
But you know, all of the planning that goes into Christmas wouldn’t even exist if God did not implement His plan. God’s plan was to get our attention and remind us that there is so much more for us that what we see and experience here on earth. God had to somehow get our attention so that we would focus on Him.
Now, God could have come down here Himself but there would be so many mixed reactions if He did. It would scare some to death. His appearance might convince some to be in awe and to listen to His message. But there would still be some that would see and still not believe.
So, what could God do? He came to this earth in the form of a baby. Most every human being has a positive reaction to a baby. We see a little baby and all of a sudden, we start talking funny. Have you ever noticed that? (Imitate)
So, God, in His perfect plan, comes to us in the form of a tiny baby. And this got the attention of those who knew the prophecies of old. Isaiah 9:6 reads, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
Now, you must know, that Isaiah’s prophecy was given some 700 years before Jesus was even born. So, we think, “God planned on Jesus coming to earth 700 years before.” Almost correct. God had His prophet Isaiah ANNOUNCE it some 700 years before Jesus was born. God planned all this long before that.
If you look at the genealogy of Jesus you can see how long and how far back God had Jesus’ birth planned. The 1st chapter of Matthew traces Jesus’ ancestry back to Abraham. The 3rd chapter of Luke traces Jesus’ ancestry back to Adam. So, since the beginning of the creation of all we know, it was God’s plan to come to earth in the form of Jesus Christ as a baby.
So, all that we will be celebrating from now until Christmas day, God had planned since the beginning of time. I find that amazing. It’s God’s plan. Do you even realize how much God knows and how much He plans?
Let me ask you, “This past Monday morning, did you know that you would be here in this worship service right now?” God knew. God had a plan for you to be here for whatever reason. God’s plan for us is good, is future oriented, and gives us hope. And hope is what this Advent Sunday is all about.
You know, we as Christians, are no different from anyone else when we lose a loved one, in that our hearts are broken. We miss that person. We know as we stand by the graveside as the funeral service is going on that there will be no new memories made with that person. But there is a huge difference between we who believe in Jesus Christ, and those of the world. And that difference is HOPE.
Based upon what we know from God’s Word, we know that death is not the end. We have that HOPE of seeing that person again. That HOPE is in God’s plan. And God’s plan should be sufficient for us.
You might have heard the story of an elderly woman, who lived next to an atheist. This woman received a meager social security survivor’s benefit. Even though there were months when she didn’t have enough to buy her basis food needs, daily she would open her windows to give thanks & praise to God.
Finally, one day, the middle of the month arrived and she had not received her check. Instead of complaining, she opened her windows, fell on her knees and began to thank God and pray. The atheist neighbor was sitting on his porch and overheard her praying "Lord although I don’t have any food in my home, I know you will provide!" The neighbor thought to himself, “This is a great opportunity to prove to her there is no god”. So, he went to the store and purchased a carload of groceries.
He brought them to her house and put them on her porch, rang her doorbell and hid in the bushes. Finally, the elderly woman made her way to the door. She opened the door, saw all the groceries and rejoiced in the Lord! About that time the neighbor jumped out from behind the bushes and exclaimed. “You see, God is not real. I bought those groceries.” To this the old woman exclaimed, "I knew my God would supply my needs, but I didn’t know he would make the devil pay for them!"
Philippians 4:19 – “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Depression is a huge problem around this time of year. Most of that depression is related to financial problems. No money to buy gifts or whatever, no family to share the holiday with, basically no hope. God taking care of His people is part of the plan that we need to consistently celebrate and embrace. God has supplied our needs, hasn’t He? He has provided for us time and time again, right? It’s part of His great plan for us!
Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” There’s that hope again.
God has always had a plan. He had a plan way back at the beginning of creation when He created Adam. He had a plan when He saw that “it is not good for the man to be alone” and so created Eve.
God had a plan for a relationship with Adam and Eve that was going well until one day they decided to disobey God and do their own thing. Then sin entered the world through the human heart and soul.
Doesn’t that describe us? God created each one of us. His plan was for us to grow into a relationship with Him. His plan was for us to worship Him. But somewhere along the way, we decided to disobey God and do our own thing. And once again God says, “How’s that working out for you?” But God had a plan – a plan of redemption; a plan to save the human race.
That plan included a people called the Israelites whom God rescued out of slavery in Egypt and told them that they would be His people and He would be their God. And through that relationship God would redeem the human race by sending His one and only Son, Jesus Christ to die on behalf of our sins and thereby make us right with God.
A lot of people were a part of that plan – Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, and … Jeremiah. The plan of forgiveness that God was working out runs right through our passage of scripture this morning when God says, “I have a plan to give you a future and a hope.”
It was tough time for the Israelites. They had been conquered by a foreign power and had lost their ability to govern themselves. Their leaders were taken back to the conquering nation’s capital along with key future leaders. They had become unfaithful to God and now God was discipling them so that they once again would be faithful to Him. As you think about all the STUFF you might be going through right now, have you ever wondered that it might be God disciplining you in order to make YOU better?”
Jeremiah was one of the people that God used to speak to the Israelites during this time. And what God says is really amazing when you stop to think about the situation that they were in. After all, they had disobeyed God’s plans and now were reaping the consequences of that choice. But, God says, “I have a plan! It is a good plan. It is a plan to help you, not hurt you! It is a plan that is full of a future of hope!”
How many of us when we were being disciplined have been told, “I have a good plan for you. It is a hopeful and exciting plan?” Not too many, right? In fact, we probably thought that the plan was not going to be a good plan at all. Some of us were told, “This is going to hurt me more than it will hurt you!” But to be told, “This is part of the plan for you, it really is a good one,” would seem outrageous, right? But that is what God is saying! And that is what God is saying to you today.
I bring this message to you today so that you can experience the best Christmas season of your life. You see, many go through this season and don’t realize what it is that we are really celebrating. They are so caught up in the commercialism of the season that when it’s over, it seems so empty. And it is—that is, without Jesus, the season is empty. And if you don’t have Jesus as your Savior, you’ll be just as empty on December 26th.
But God has a plan this Christmas. And His plan for you is this:
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
Are you hearing it? God loved you so much that He gave. He gave His only Son. And all you have to do is believe in Him. Accept Him for who He is. Believe that He is God’s Son and that without Him you can do nothing. Without Him, you can’t get to heaven. God’s plan for this Christmas is for the bells of heaven to ring as the angels rejoice in another lost sinner becoming a child of God. Will it be you?
Will you come? The choice is yours. Put yourself in God’s plan today.
