Don’t Let the Grinch Steal Christmas
Luke 2:1-13
INTRODUCTION
One of the best known Christmas stories of all time is the story written by Dr. Seuss – “How the Grinch stole Christmas”. This popular Christmas allegory has become one of the most popular Christmas movies.
The Grinch is a green creature who just isn’t having any fun. And since he isn’t having any fun, he wants to make sure that no one else is either.
The Grinch in the movie and book wanted to take Christmas away… not just take away a part of Christmas or some element of it. Today’s Grinches don’t want to take away all of Christmas… they want to keep some elements… the commercialism, the paid vacation, the benevolent part, and the lights and festive attitude. Modern Grinches just want to take away one part, the bad part, the offensive part… you are probably thinking about the part where we feel compelled to buy presents for people we don’t even like, we don’t know what to get them and don’t really care, but we know it is expected of us. That is a bad part… but not the bad part that modern Grinches want to remove. They want to remove the part that has snuck in, that doesn’t belong and without which Christmas would be better…. CHRIST, the baby in the manger, GOD!!!!
They want to take Christ out of Christmas. What do you have if you take Christ out of Christmas? Mas????
It reminds me of the woman who was in the mall doing her Christmas shopping. She was tired of walking through every aisle of every store to find just the right present. She was stressed out by the mounting debt on her credit card. She was tired of fighting the crowds and standing in lines for the registers. Her hands were full and when the elevator door opened, it was full. “Great!” she muttered and the occupants of the elevator, feeling her pain, graciously tightened ranks to allow a small space for her and her load. As the doors closed she blurted out, “I think whoever came up with this Christmas junk ought to be found, strung up and shot!” A few others shook their head or grunted in agreement. Then, from somewhere in the back of the elevator came a single voice that said, “Don’t worry. They already crucified him.”
There have always been Grinches. There have always been those who tried to take Christ out of Christmas.
First There was Satan. He tried to keep the baby from being born.
He tried to break up the marriage, taint the birth
Next There was Herod, who tried to murder the baby as an infant
Next There were the false teachers who denied His diety
Next There were the dictators who tried to wipe out all Christianity
Stallin, Mao SeTung,
Next There were Atheists who formed political lobbies and filed suits against anyone who tried to put up any Christian decorations in public places
Next There were the politicians who caved into the Atheists and passed laws that prohibit public displays of Christian religion.
Next There are the courts who interpret everything by their anti-Christian bias and rule in favor of every fanatical, godless, amoral minority.
Now There are the NYC schools who have passed a new policy that bans any decorations that have Christian meaning or messages. At the same time Jewish menorahs and Islamic crests are allowed and encouraged.
Ethan’s (my son) teacher sent home an assignment that said, ”Have your child make a decoration that reminds him of December.” Not make a Christmas decoration or a decoration that reminds them of Christmas. CHRIST is being taken out of Christmas… and now Christmas is being taken out of December. The schools no longer get a Christmas holiday… they get “winter holidays.”
Now Administrators at Fountain Valley High School in California ruled that students could not wear T-shirts with Christian words, messages or symbols. In the same picture were students wearing Muslim scarves.
I guess there are some of you who think, “He needs to get off that soapbox.” I guess it does sound like that.
I’m not on a soapbox today. And I don’t have any intention of ranting and raving against some enemy who seeks to annihilate all that we believe in and hold dear.
I realize that most of the modern-day Grinches are not necessarily anti-God.
SOME ARE!!! We must realize that, and not close our eyes to the fact.
But…
Some are just trying to be all things to all people… like stores… and they just don’t want to offend anyone.
Some are just caught in a system where they have no choice… those over them have ruled that they must take a certain stand.
Some are just scared to death of a law suit... like many public school administrators… and are just trying not to lose their jobs or be sued for every thing they own.
Some aren’t being anti Jesus so much as they are just emphasizing other things… like those who light up their whole yard with 1,000,000 candle watts of light… so much that they trip the neighbors breaker… and they just think the deer are beautiful… or they like the blow up Santa. They did not make a conscious choice to not have Christian symbols… they just don’t think about it.
But all of these people and organizations and groups… collectively, have served to almost completely remove the most important part of Christmas… THE BABY!!!!! Together they make up the GRINCH that seeks to steal Christmas.
So we know WHO the Grinch is. We have also seen How and Why they seek to steal Christmas.
So now we come to the real message of the sermon… DON”T LET THE GRINCH STEAL CHRISTMAS
But how do we stop them.
You can’t go back in time and stop Satan from trying to stop the birth.
You can’t go back in time and stop Herod from trying to kill the infant
You can stop the dictators from trying to wipe out Christianity
You can’t stop the false religions from teaching spurious doctrines
You can’t stop the government from passing anti-Christian laws
Or the courts from anti-Christian interpretations of the constitution.
THEN WHAT CAN WE DO?
How can we stop the Grinches from stealing Christmas?
There are certain things that Satan, government, dictators, and even the Supreme Court can not do anything about. They are TEACHABLE MOMENTS that come with the “winter holidays”. We can USE THOSE MOMENTS!
The courts can pass any ruling they want but from December 1 til December 24… YOU CAN”T STOP CHILDREN FROM HAVING “visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.”
You can’t stop a child from eagerly anticipating, counting the days and hours and moments until that “jolly old elf” comes sliding down the chimney. You can tell them whatever you want about Santa… give them reasons He may not come… but “every mother’s child is going to spy, to see if reindeer really know how to fly.”
THAT IS A TEACHABLE MOMENT!!!
Tell them about the promise that God made to Adam that he would send a savior to bash the head of Satan.
Tell the about 444 years that Israel spent in bondage in Egypt, waiting for a deliverer.
Tell them about 40 years the Israelites wondered in the desert, WAITING for the day they would enter the promised land
Tell them about 400+ years the Israelites spent WAITING for God to send a prophet, a word, a message of some type. And how the angel promised the birth of John.
And I don’t care how the Grinches conspire to steal Christmas they can’t stop the children from devouring catalogs and sales sheets looking for that special toy for which they will ask Santa. The Grinches like the financial windfall that Christmas… I’m sorry… “winter holiday” brings.
THAT IS A TEACHABLE MOMENT…USE IT!!!
Tell them how that letter to Santa is just like prayer.
It is a statement of faith that He is real, that He knows, that He cares.
It is trusting that there is someone on the other end… someone who will answer.
Use this time to teach them about prayer
Every child knows that “He knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake.”
The child knows there is a direct correlation between being good and getting presents.
I love the commercial where the little boy is writing his letter to Santa…
Dear Santa. I have been a very, very good boy.
Then he stops and remembers messing up his mom’s carpet. So he erases one of the “verys”. Dear Santa, I have been a very good boy.
But then he remembers some more bad things he has done and erases the other “very.”
Dear Santa, I have been a good boy. But then he remembers more mischief.
So he gets up and goes to the plate where he has placed one Little Debbie snack cake for Santa. He dumps out the whole box of cakes… AND GRINS!!!
He knows he has not been good. He fears he will not get presents. And he thinks he can fix it with a bribe.
We need to teach our children that WE ARE NOT SAVED BY BEING GOOD. That does not mean we should not be good. WE SHOULD.
But our acceptance by God, our salvation, is not based on being good… but on being forgiven, being washed in the blood, being covered in His righteousness.
Thursday I got a call from a man in a motel room. He needed help. I went to the motel and talked to him. I asked him if he was saved. His answer was…
“I was saved about five years ago, but now I’m not. I need to get saved again. I was saved but I smoke so I need to be resaved.”
It was obvious he had never understood salvation. I tried to explain to him that God forgives all of our sins. Not just some. He said to me, “You mean there will be murderers in heaven?”
I said, “There will be murderers in heaven and preachers in hell.” It blew his mind. He could not conceive of it.
Someone had sold him a load of garbage called “works salvation” or as I call it, “stinkin’ thinkin’”.
We need to be sure our kids, and everyone understands that SALVATION IS BY GRACE…
For by GRACE are you saved through faith, not of words, it is the gift of God.
John wrote, “These things I write unto you that you might know that you HAVE eternal life.”
Not that you have if for a while, or as long as you deserve it.. BUT HAVE… as a permanent possession.
There comes a day in the life of almost every child when some mean kid or some well-meaning person will tell them that there is no Santa Clause. And then doubt creeps in… and they have the worst Christmas of their life… when they no longer believe.
When I sat with Bob in that motel room it was sad. It was sad to see a man, who called himself a Christian, who was in the waning years of his life… and he doubted his salvation.
He wanted to believe he was a Christian… but he feared that his sin had stolen away his salvation.
I wanted to reason with Bob. I wanted to tell him about grace and mercy. But some of you have dealt with alcoholics. And you know that after the alcohol does enough damage to their brains… even if they are sober… they are still not reasonable.
I was unable to reach Bob. I was unable to undo a life-time of spurious doctrine that teaches works salvation.
Listen: When your children, and mine, come to the waning years of their lives.. we won’t be there. We won’t be there to remind them about grace and mercy. We won’t be there to help with their doubts.
What we have to do RIGHT NOW is to use the teachable moment of Christmas… when they are equating being good with getting rewards… use that time to teach them about salvation by grace.
And the last thing to teach them… in the midst of the hustle bustle is…
The real meaning of Christmas.
The Grinch came so close to learning hat lesson.
The book tells how The Grinch, went down into the town and stole all of the presents from under the trees and in the stockings. Having made off with all the presents from the town of Who-ville, he thought that he’d ruined Christmas for them, and that they would be moaning and wailing, rather than singing their usual joyful Christmas songs. He was confident that he’s succeeded in stealing Christmas away.
But…
He stared down at Who-ville!
The Grinch popped his eyes!
Then he shook!
What he saw was a shocking surprise!
Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming!
IT CAME! Somehow or other, it came just the same!
And the Grinch, with his grinch-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?"
"It came with out ribbons! It came without tags!"
"It came without packages, boxes or bags!"
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before!
"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn’t come from a store."
"Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"
I remember playing a game as a child where we would hide some object and someone would look for it. We would give clues like… “you are getting warmer, warmer, burning hot… colder.”
If we had been giving clues to the Grinch, and he said, "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!"
We would have said, “You are burning up.” He was so close to the truth… CHRISTMAS DOES MEAN A LITTLE BIT MORE!!”
It means OUR WAITING IS OVER… THE SAVIOR HAS COME!
WE CAN PRAY WITH CONFIDENCE THAT HE HEARS AND CARES
WE CAN BE SAVED FROM ALL SINS THROUGH GRACE
INVITATION
Rick Pendleton @ randdp@peoplepc.com
NOTE** I have used bits and pieces of other sermons on SermonCentral. I hope they don’t mind that I used their stuff, and I don’t mind if you use mine.
