“The Gift Of Significance”
The Gifts Of Christmas – part two
TODAY is our second week in a series of messages that I’m calling The Gifts Of Christmas. OUR goal in this series is to keep the real meaning of Christmas at the forefront of our minds AND at the center of our hearts.
Last week - we were helped out by the GRINCH; WHO after hearing sounds of joy coming from Whoville - WHO - after realizing that the Who’s Christmas came without ribbons, it came without tags, it came without packages, boxes or bags… LEARNED that Christmas doesn’t come in a store – The Grinch learned that Christmas means something more…
AND PART of that something MORE of Christmas - we unwrapped last week as we talked about the gift of joy. LISTEN - When the angels came on that night nearly 2,000 years ago – they came with good news of great, of mega joy for all people…
AND UNDERSTAND - that this ‘all people’ includes you – and it includes me.
YES JOY – is most definitely part of the Christmas story – BUT – many times joy is hard to hold to, especially this time of year. AND BECAUSE joy can be so elusive, what we did last week, was take the word GRINCH and make an acrostic of 6 things that will help keep joy in our Christmas…
LISTEN you will experience joy at Christmas
and year round for that matter; WHEN YOU
GIVE your worries to God – {quote 1Peter 5:7}
Refuse to focus on what you don’t have
Include time for rest
Never forget the reason for this season [“a savior has been born to you”]
Consider your future [heaven is going to blow your mind]
Hold your thoughts captive [don’t let negative thoughts in]
QUESTION – how has your joy been so far this Christmas season? Have you followed these 6 guidelines to joy? Are you putting them into practice? Are you giving God your worries? Are you getting rest? Are you considering your future? AND - are you using the, “Keeping The Reason In The Season,” devotional guide?
TODAY – I want to talk about another gift that is part of the Christmas story. The gift of significance…
NOW - I am convinced that everyone wants to be significant… YOU want, who YOU are and what YOU do, to count, YOU want YOUR life to matter, YOU want to be important at least at some level… THINK – about the dreams you had when you were small, think about the things you fantasized about & pretended to be… Most boys dreamed of being a hero; of hitting winning homeruns, of scoring winning touchdowns, of flying in space, of winning gold medals, of leading their platoon to victory…of being the President…stuff like that.
LISTEN NO ONE – desires to be insignificant - no one wants to feel like they don’t count, No one sets as their goal in life, to feel like they don’t matter… BUT UNDERSTAND – if we use the world’s standards, very few of us, will ever measure up, AND even if we do, we won’t measure up for long.
FOR YOU SEE, BEING SIGNIFICANT in this day & time, is like climbing a greasy pole – EVEN – if you happen to make it to the top – you won’t stay up there for long… Before you know it, you’ll slide right back down to the bottom, to the valley obscurity… (Babe Ruth, Johnny Unitas, Willie Mays…)
QUESTION – what makes someone or something significant in our day and time?
On Thursday afternoon, I went over to Barnes & Nobles – and I walked past the magazine racks… There were hundreds of them… Now I imagine if many years from now an historian was to come across these magazines, they would conclude that those who had their faces on the cover were significant people, important people – people whose lives mattered … As I glanced at the magazine covers I saw; Tom Cruise, Will Smith, The Rock, Rudy Guliani, Ben Stiller, Michael Jordan, Shaq, U-2, Justin, John Travolta, Janet Jackson, George W Bush, Oprah…and a bunch more (my head was spinning with all the covers).
AND on the front of this week’s People Magazine, there was a picture of Brad Pitt & Jennifer Aniston, I imagine if you have you picture on the cover of People magazine you must be pretty significant. I skimmed through the article about them, it talked about; How at their wedding last year, there were 50,000 flowers, 4 bands, a fireworks display – AND get this, their wedding ceremony cost 1 million dollars. It talked about their six bedroom French Provincial House in Beverly Hills that cost $14 millions dollars and the 11.5 acres of beach front property that they bought near Santa Barbara for $4 million dollars. It talked about his movies and her popular television show…
LISTEN – Brad Pitt & Jennifer Aniston, have all they have; money property, fame etc, because the world feels they are significant and it pays them tons of money because of it... they are celebrities. Part of America’s royal family.
OKAY - BACK to our question – what makes someone significant? Well according to the standards of this time & culture - you are significant;
IF – you have a lot of money (@ least a million – but a billion would be better…)
IF -- you have a huge house
IF -- you are physically attractive
IF – you have what society deems as an important career like; sports, television, politics, music, movies…
IF -- you come from a wealthy family or famous family
IF -- you have influence
LISTEN – everyone wants to feel significant (including you) – NOW - you may not want to be a celebrity BUT I am sure that everyone here, wants to feel like their life counts. BUT unfortunately by the world’s standards most if not all of us, don’t really measure up.
UNDERSTAND – if you buy into the world’s standards of significance – you are going to feel pretty lousy about yourself & your life most of the time… BUT – the good news is this - God’s standards of significance are not the same as the world’s.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts..” Is 55:8,9
LISTEN – God’s standards of significance are radically different than the world’s – they are much higher. AND these standards are often times surprising. REMEMBER – when the prophet Samuel went to anoint the next king?
He was sent by God to the house of a man named Jesse. Jessie had 8 sons. And when the oldest son, Eliab, was brought before Samuel – he stood there tall, strong, handsome. When Samuel saw him he said, “yeah baby this is the one…” NOW - I love what God said in response (it’s one of my favorite passages in the bible);
“Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, BUT the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
YES – God’s standards of significance are surprising (He doesn’t look at the outward appearance – He is not swayed, moved or impressed by the fluff…) And in the story of Christ’s birth – God is once again full of surprises – He once again shows us how his ways are not the ways of the world, how his thoughts are higher than our thoughts…
LET BE HONEST – with you, I want to be significant, I want to count, I want my life to matter, I want to be important at least at some level… AND I have a hunch, that you feel the same way….
BUT – sometimes though I know better - I use the wrong measure of significance (even in my ministry) and I get bummed out…and begin to feel pretty small…
THAT why it is so important for us to receive what God wants to gives us today. What he wants to give me/you… BECAUSE – true, lasting, eternal significance is only found when we connect in a powerful way with the one true God. There are 3 surprises in the Christmas story – 3 surprises that underscore in vivid detail, what is and what is not, of significance to God…
NOW – I doubt that one day when I will walk into Barnes & Nobles and walk by the magazine rack that I’ll see our pictures there on the cover… It’s probably not going to happen…BUT that’s OKAY because as we will see one of the gifts of Christmas is the gift of significance.
THE WAY – I want to approach this study – is to look at some of the events and people of that first Christmas in Bethlehem, talk about them and see what we can learn about true, lasting, eternal significance…
PRAYER
ALRIGHT – let’s roll,
Jesus Parents
First let’s take a look at what Jesus’ parents teach us about significance…
Suppose God gave us the job of selecting the parents for the Messiah -- if we are honest we would have to admit that we would not have chosen Mary and Joseph in a million years.
We would have selected wealthy parents, so that the Christ child could have the best of everything. We would have selected parents who were mature, so we could have been sure of protection and wisdom. The parents we would have selected, would have been people of culture, poise and influence, So that the Messiah would have the right education and be trained in the right manners. Look around at the people who make an impact on the world. Usually they are wealthy and influential people.
Many great Americans of the past and present came from wealthy families: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John F Kennedy, George Bush. Now there are exceptions and Sometimes, a rail splitter becomes president but that’s rare.
Remember when the wisemen came to Jerusalem searching for the Messiah? Where did they go? They went immediately to the palace and the said, "WHERE IS HE WHO IS BORN A KING?"
QUESTION – why did they go there? BECAYSE that was an obvious place to look -- after all, Royalty begets royalty, AND AN OBVIOUS PLACE TO LOOK FOR A KING IS IN A PALACE, RIGHT?.
But the first Christmas presented an incredible surprise. God selected 2 unlikely people, a teenage girl named Mary and a poor blue collar worker, named Joseph? Joseph was just a carpenter from the backwoods uncultured town, of Nazareth (not known for it’s greatness)... Do you Remember what Nathaniel said when he was first told by Philip about Jesus, "CAN ANYTHING GOOD COME OUT OF NAZARETH."
The parents of Jesus were surprising; Mary a teenage girl... and Joseph a poor carpenter, from a town with a bad reputation. FROM human appearance – these 2 don’t appear to BE: ‘significant’ enough, ‘important’ enough to be chosen as the parents of the most significant child ever born…
OKAY – SO what’s the lesson, what is God trying to get us to understand about true significance… LET’S unwrap this gift of true significance..
In choosing Joseph and Mary God was saying (and he said it very loud) it is NOT; education, money, family, background, or even natural ability - that makes someone significant…
LISTEN - Joseph teaches us that one of the things that make us significant in God’s eyes is, having a heart of FAITH (a faith that trusts God and humbly obeys him regardless) ….
Think about it. Put yourself in Joseph’s sandals. The woman you love says she is pregnant, BUT she keeps insisting that she has never been unfaithful to you… What do you do? Would you buy that story?
Matthew 1:19-24
“When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord commanded.”
LISTEN – there is no way that any of this stuff made sense to Joseph (not from a human standpoint – and that is what Joseph was a human)… BUT - nevertheless, he obeyed God… REMEMBER - we learned a few weeks back that one of the characteristics of a faith that pleases God, is a faith that it obeys God, even when it doesn’t understand… Joseph had this kind of faith… Do you?
NOW - I love what Peter says about our faith in his first letter; “…your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold…” (we might say in light of our present discussion – “your faith is more significant to me than mere gold) Now gold that is pretty significant stuff – if you don’t believe just check out the line at jewelry counters this time of year to buy it…
QUESTION – WHY is your faith so precious to God, why is it so significant? BECAUSE Almighty God is able to work his plan and his will through people of faith – just as he worked his plan through Joseph…
Check out what God say about faith in Hebrews 11:33-39
NOW Mary had the same kind of faith BUT there is something else that Mary teaches us about significance…
Luke 1:26-38
“I am the Lord’s servant and I am willing to accept whatever he wants..”
CIRCLE – “servant” “willing to accept whatever he wants”
LISTEN – Mary had a servants heart and that made her significant…
AND listen – a servants heart still makes people significant today; Checkout what Mary’s son said shortly before his death;
“…You know 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 become first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many…” Mt 20:25-28
GOD says IF you want to be significant – be a servant…
Now, I don’t have to tell you that this is not how the world sees it… To the world it’s the exact opposite - if you have many servants at your beck and call obviously you are significant.
Yes, Mary had a servants heart – do you? AND how do you know? (One of my professors in college, Roger Chambers said; “you know that you have a servants heart when you don’t mind being treated like one”). That’s true….
QUESTION - do you want to be significant in the eyes of God? THEN like Joseph & Mary make sure you have both a heart of faith…and a servants heart….
The Place Of Jesus Birth
Our NEXT lesson about significance comes from the place of Jesus’ birth…
Jesus was born in a small village town called Bethlehem... Now if we were in charge we probably would have chosen a powerful and influential city like: Jerusalem, Rome, Athens or Alexandria... Bethlehem was so small and insignificant that when Joshua (after conquering Canaan) allotted the towns to the various tribes it was not even mentioned... But the prophet Micah 700 years before Christ mentioned the town of Bethlehem, in Micah 5:2,
"BUT YOU BETHLEHEM ... THOUGH YOU ARE SMALL AMONG THE CLANS OF JUDAH, OUT OF YOU WILL COME FOR ME ONE WHO WILL BE RULER OVER ISRAEL, WHOSE ORIGINS ARE FROM OLD FROM ANCIENT TIMES."
Not only was Jesus born in an insignificant town... but he was born in a stable... The King of Kings -- the Savior of the world born in a stable. But when the inn keeper turned Mary and Joseph away it also reveled the plan of God. You see the hotels in that time were not private rooms (no private bathrooms and cable TV). They were more like a rowdy bunkhouse where people WERE jammed together.
One writer says of them.. "INNS IN THOSE DAYS WERE WILD AND NOISY PLACES, PUBLIC BAZAARS, THE BUTCHERING OF ANIMALS, THE SELLING OF WINE, DRINKING, AND THE NOISE OF WILD LIVING THROUGH THE NIGHT WERE COMMON PLACE..."
You see God did not want His son to be born among the leering eyes of the curious and ungodly, He did not want Jesus to be born in that kind of environment... So God took Mary and Joseph and lead them to a quiet stable.
OKAY – So, what’s the lesson about significance that God wants us to understand from the place of Jesus’ birth? Let’s unwrap this gift of lasting significance…
Listen - no place is insignificant as long as Jesus is there.
One of the most popular Christmas Hymns is "O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM, HOW STILL WE SEE THEE LIE.... QUESTION - How many other Bible towns do we sing about today? -- I can’t think of any other... Another popular song this time of year is, “Away in the Manger…” QUESTION – how many other songs do we sing about barn furniture with such passion & love…? NONE
LISTEN - Bethlehem was to the world a small insignificant village full of blue collar workers, nothing special... But Bethlehem was significant and the thing that made it special and the reason we still sing about Bethlehem today is, BECAUSE Jesus Christ was there.
Get this!! No place, No Person - is insignificant as long as Jesus is there, as long as the King is on His throne that place OR the person IS significant.
QUESTION – is God on the throne in your life? AND how do you know? BECAUSE you live your life the way the KING wants…
LISTEN – Bethlehem was significant because God choose it to be the place where the Christ child would be born… AND UNDERSTAND - God’s presence makes any place significant, (get it?)
The Psalmist writes in Psalm 84 , “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty!” To the Psalmist the dwelling place of God was awesome – it was special, it was lovely, it was beautiful (Almighty God is not going to live in a dump).
QUESTION - Do you believe that the dwelling place of God is lovely? Do believe that anywhere that Almighty God resides is a special place? Significant place? If you answered yes to those questions, you need to check out this verse of scripture; “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is IN you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Cor 6:19). Don’t miss this! Don’t minimize this! Almighty God, if you are a Christian lives in you. YOU are the dwelling place of God!
UNDERSTAND – it is not where you live that makes you significant BUT who lives in YOU… (get it?)
The Shepherds
Our next lesson about significance comes from the Shepherds…
Now, shepherds weren’t the most influential people of the day. As a matter of fact, they were among the lower class of the day. Their vocation was not a career that many people desired – it was just kind of one you were stuck with..
Most were migrants, who ate and slept with the animals, and no doubt smelled like them too. The sophisticated peopled, rolled there eyes and kept their distance whenever they came walking down the road.
If we were asked to send the angels somewhere to make what is without a doubt the greatest announcement of all time (all mighty God coming to live on the earth) we probably would have chosen someone like: the great theologians of the day, the Pharisees, to the Sanhedrin or maybe we would have sent the angels to make the announcement to the Emperor of Rome/King Herod -- and let them know that they better bow their knee because the true King had come...
But on that blessed night THE GREAT announcement came to Shepherds,
Luke 2:8-17
OKAY – So what is the lesson about significance we get from the shepherds? Let’s unwrap this gift…
LISTEN - the world says that if you have the right career – you are significant – God’s says “NOT!”… He says that what makes you significant in his eyes is a heart that is passionate for the kingdom…
NOW – we see this passionate heart displayed in the shepherds in at least 2 ways; first they were passionate to see the Christ… After the angels made the announcement – the y Shepherds said, “Let’s go see this thing that HAS HAPPENED, which the Lord told us about. So they HURRIED off….”
They said let’s go and they took off – what passion… They weren’t going to wait around – when they could see Jesus… QUESTION – have you ever wondered what they did with the sheep…? It appears that they just left them… Much like Peter, James John & Andrew left their nets…
WHY – because to see Christ was more important to them… Why hang out with sheep when you can see the Savior.
ARE you passionate about seeing Christ…? Is being in His presence & serving in his church the most important thing in your life? IF SO – regardless of your career God says you are significant…
Second these guys were passionate about was spreading the good news…”When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child…”
They didn’t keep it to themselves – they told others – and God really gets pumped about that…
TO GOD – your heart of passion is more important then your career….
QUESTION – do you have a heart of passion like those shepherds in Bethlehem…
“I can’t wait to SEE Jesus…”
“I can’t wait to tell others…”
Remember when you were young and you did something you thought was significant and you would say, “hey mom/dad watch me – look…” How did it make you feel when they didn’t look?
YOU KNOW – we really haven’t grown out of that – you see – we buy, we do, we perform and we say to the world, “hey look at me, watch – I matter, I count, I’m significant..” and most of the time the world is not too impressed and usually doesn’t even bother to look AND we hang our head/heart down and feel insignificant…
I really struggled putting this message together – because I wanted to convey your father’s heart and all week even till 7:45 am this morning – I felt unsure…
Listen – it absolutely breaks God’s heart when he sees Christians, His children – feel so insignificant – to feel like they don’t matter…
To see them yell to the world – “look at me…watch…do I measure up now…”
AND your father – says “I’m already watching you – and I think you are awesome!!!! “
I choose you…you are my child… you belong to me…
NO I may never be significant in the world’s eyes – I will never make the cover of people magazine…
BUT I matter to God and just maybe in heaven is a magazine rack that stretches out as far as the eye can see – and it has only one magazine on it – not people magazine - BUT “MY People” magazine and you and I are on the covers…
