CAPITAL BIBLE CHURCH December 23, Carols. Away in a Manger. Luke 2:10, 11

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1 CAPITAL BIBLE CHURCH December 23, 2012 SERMON NOTES PASTOR BILL HAKEN Carols Away in a Manger Luke 2:10, 11 Intro: We ve been doing a series on carols that reminds me. Do you know how what some kids think the carols are saying? Thought you might enjoy this if you hadn t already heard it: This is how some of our Christmas songs sound to kids: Deck the Halls with Buddy Holly We three kings of porridge and tar Later on we ll perspire, as we dream by the fire He s making a list, chicken and rice Olive, the other reindeer Oh, what fun it is to ride with one horse, soap and hay Good tidings we bring to you and your kid Sleep in heavenly peas You ll go down in Listerine Or my favorite, "Chipmunks roasting in a forest fire..." Some of you are laughing, but now it s your turn. Let s see how well you do on this Christmas Carol Quiz. It s a brainteaser so you re going to have to listen carefully. Here s the first one: Give Attention to the Melodious Celestial Beings - Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! Embellish the Entryways - Deck the Halls Nocturnal Noiselessness - Silent Night Leave and Broadcast From a High Elevation -- Go Tell it On the Mountain

2 Jubilation to the Entire Terrestrial Orb - Joy to the World Alas, Diminutive Settlement in Israel - Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem The Duplex of Two Psychiatrists - Nutcracker Suite Well, today we're going to look at some truth from a classic carol, Away in a Manger. Let me give you just a little context of this and then I'll let you experience the song, like you probably never experienced it before. This song was first published in a Lutheran Sunday School curriculum in Now, there's a lot of controversy around who wrote the lyrics to this song. A lot of people think that it was Martin Luther, the father of the Great Reformation; but after more study, most people say that isn't actually who wrote it. And so, there's mystery as to who wrote the lyrics of this amazing song. But, there is no mystery that this song has touched hearts for decades and decades. So, I want you to experience this carol performed by one of the worship leaders, Dameon Aranda, from LifeChurch Midwest city. And I've just got to warn you, this isn't how we sang this song when I was growing up! Both of those guys are crazy talented! Something about imagining Jesus born, God stripping Himself of His glory and being born in the lowest place, showing that none of us are too low for His grace. There's a phrase that's used over and over again in that song that I want to focus on. And my hope is that for years from now, as you worship to that song or maybe hear that song, that God will bring to your memory what we've experienced today and would jolt you back into a place of alignment with His Spirit. And I want to focus on a phrase, where over and over again it says, 'The little Lord Jesus'. The little Lord Jesus, Unfortunately, in some ways, focusing on just the Baby Jesus may be a little disservice to us. Jesus isn't just the dear six pound, eight ounce Baby Jesus, there's so much more to what God intended. And so, rather than focusing on the size of the Baby, what I want to do is focus on the Lordship of Christ. So the key thought of this message, if you would look at the first point in your outline is: JESUS IS LORD. Everybody say that on 3, one, two, three: Jesus is Lord. In fact, 740 times in the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as Lord, 740 times. Today, I want to look at one of the classic Christmas verses, one of the most quoted verses from Luke's Gospel dealing with the birth of Christ and show you the very first mention of the Savior's birth, we see Him called Lord.

3 Luke, Chapter Two, the context: The shepherds were watching the flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared and said: Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:10-11 The news they'd been waiting on for centuries and the angel said, 'Who is He?' Everybody: He is Christ the Lord. At the very beginning of the story it's established that Jesus the Son of God is born, He is the Savior of the world. He is Christ the Lord. The big question that I want to deal with today is, what does that mean to us? If Jesus is Lord, what does that mean in everyday life? If we're married, what does it mean in our marriage? If we're dating, what does it mean when we're dating, if we're finishing finals, what does Jesus is Lord mean in our finals? If we're buying Christmas presents, what does it mean, Jesus is Lord, while we're buying Christmas presents? What does it mean to make Jesus your Lord? There's a Greek word in your notes that is the word translated as Lord. kurios (koo'-ree-os); supreme in authority, controller, Lord. Now I can already imagine, for some of you the word controller is going to be a challenge because if Jesus is the Controller, He's got some competition in you, because you want to be in control. Thankfully, I don't have that problem at all, I'm not a control freak whatsoever, not a bit, as long as everything goes my way and everybody does what I say, I don't have a problem with control at all! Okay, so I've got a problem with it, okay? I want to be in control of everything, whether it's driving the car, I can't even, I honestly can barely sit in the passenger seat because nobody drives right. TV remote, don't even think about touching it if you are ever at my house! Put down the remote and everybody will be fine! I don't know how it will be for you, but chances are a lot of you, you want to be in control. Whether it's, I want my day to go this way! Some of you list makers, how many of you are list makers? List makers, don't jack with my list! Okay? I've got it on my list, it's like I've got to be...or, it's I want my kids to do what I want. I want our Christmas to be just perfect. The kids will come down, their hair will be brushed, we'll read Luke, Chapter Two, nobody will fight, angels will sing, you know!

4 Well, it's not perfect! Never is, and so, so many of us want to be in control. Well, what does it mean, Jesus is supreme in authority, Jesus is the Controller, Jesus is Lord? What does it mean to make Jesus the Lord of our life? Now if I can be technical for just a moment, technically we don't make Jesus Lord, do you realize that? God made Him Lord a long time ago. He's already Lord. We don't make Him Lord. What we do is we surrender to what already is, we surrender our lives to His Lordship. We don't make Him Lord, God made Him Lord. We surrender to His Lordship. What does that mean? Well, we surrender to the supreme in authority. We surrender to the only One who is really in control. We surrender to the Lord. What I want to do in the rest of our time is talk about surrendering to the Lordship of Christ. Surrendering to the Lordship of Christ How do we do it? And I want to talk about two different levels of surrender. The first, in you're notes is what I ve called: The Partially Surrendered Life The partially surrendered life. And I'm very afraid that this is where the majority of American Christians would live. I believe there's much more devotion in many parts of the world where the persecution is more intense. But where I live, there are so many what I would call casual Christians, or cultural Christians. Like the book Craig Groeschel wrote, The Christian Atheist; they believe in God, but they live as if He doesn't exist. It's the partially surrendered life. Luke 6:46, Jesus was talking about the wise builders and the foolish builders and speaking of the foolish builders he'd say: Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? Luke 6:46 Okay guys, why do you call me... What? He said: Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord'? Why do you call me the Lord of your life? Why do you say I'm 'Lord', and do not... Do what?...and do not do what I say?

5 Why are you giving me this lip service? I don't want lip service, I want life service! I don't want a bunch of talk, don't just talk the talk, I want you to walk the walk. Why is it you're calling me Lord and then you do whatever the heck you want to do? 'This isn't a game', Jesus is saying, let's get it right. Unfortunately today, I believe there are so many people who would say, You know, I believe in Jesus as Lord, but I still want to be in control. I believe Jesus is Lord, but I still want to do whatever I want to do. I believe Jesus is Lord, but I'm just not going to trust Him with everything. And so, before long we end up practically, by the way we live, we just take the Bible and say; You know, when it comes to relationships, I know Jesus says I'm supposed to pray for those who hurt me and bless those who persecute me. You know, I'm supposed to forgive, but you know, after what they did to me, there's no way I'm going to forgive, just forget that! And we take God's Word and we just say, Forget it! And, Oh I know, that I'm supposed to, when it comes to my money, I'm supposed to trust God and not go crazy into debt. I'm supposed to give ten percent. Ten percent, that's the stupidest thing ever! There's no way I'm going to ever do that! And Oh, I know when it comes to my time and the way I live, I'm supposed to give God my time, I'll give Him my Sundays, every now and then when it's not football season, because I'm too tired from the day before, but I'm not giving Him my Friday nights and my Saturday nights! And You know, I'm going to party and sleep...oh, I'm just going to do this...! Some of you right now are about ready to leave the building because you're afraid I'm going to get struck with lightning! Ah, he just ripped up the Bible! Now, let me just remind you if you're highly offended, what I did is I took pages and ink from an old Bible and ripped it up. But many of us, we rip up God's truth everyday with the way we live or don't live. And Jesus said, Hang on, don't call me Lord and then go and just do whatever you're going to do? Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord', and don't do what I say? It's the partially surrendered life. In fact, I've printed for you in Proverbs 3:5-6, I put this from the Reversed Version of the Bible. Help me out with this, this is how this is translated from the Reversed Version: Trust in the Lord with some of your heart, lean on your own understanding, in some of your ways, acknowledge him, and you can make your own paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 (Reversed Version)

6 Trust in the Lord with... What? Trust in the Lord with:...some of your heart,,, And lean on What? Lean on:...your own understanding, in... How many of your ways? In:...some of your ways, acknowledge him, and you can... Do what? You can: make your own paths straight. Now, if you're kind of new to church and all please know that's not a real version of the Bible! Okay, just so you'll know, I changed it into the Reversed Version. But here's the deal, what you need to understand, Jesus is no part-time Lord, and He doesn't want part-time followers. When you come to Him, He asked you to give your whole life to Him. He says: You want to follow me? Take up your cross and follow me. He said: If you want to find your life, you lose it. You give it away, you surrender it. You come under the Lordship of Christ. He is the supreme in authority. He is the One who says what's right and He is the One who says what's wrong. He is the One who is the Controller, He is the Lord of all, and we come under His Lordship. And it's not this pick and choose, Hey I like this being saved, being born again, getting a Guaranteed Reservation if it will keep me out of hell, but right now I'm going to do whatever the heck I want to do! No! No, no! He's really serious, 'Why do you call me Lord and do not do what I say to do?' So, here's what I want you to do, I want you to take a moment and be very open to what God might show you and ask this question very prayerfully, What Have I Not Surrendered to the Lord? What area of my life am I still trying to control? What area am I unwilling to give to God?

7 Now it could be any number of different things, but I want you to be really, really open and honest before God and put a name on whatever it is. Maybe it s your money. No, I know I m supposed to trust God with my money, put Him first in this area, and He will provide, but I ve got to keep control of my money! My finances! For some of you, it might be you know, I'm going to trust God with all of these different things, but not my kids! You know, These are my kids, and by golly they're going to do what I want! And I'm going to worry about it when I want to because I can't...i've got to be in control of my kids! Or, it could be your future. You know, I've got to get it all lined up and baby, it's got to go the way I want it! And, This is what I want to do, I'm going to graduate here and I'm going to go to school there, and then I'm going to get a job and live in this part...and I'm going to be married by such and such time. And if I'm not, then God's not really there! And you just keep control and you won't surrender that. It could be a relationship. It could be that, I'm not going to do what God wants me to do, or I know, I'm dating this wrong person and I shouldn't be dating him. He's not drawing me closer...but I love him baby and I can change him! And you just stay in control. What is it? What is it that you've not surrendered to the Lordship of Christ? I want you to be honest, with God and yourself and ask, What is it? What area am I not fully surrendering to God? What am I not fully surrendering to the Lordship of Christ? Because almost all of us, in one way or another, we're living a partially surrendered life. Let's talk about another level of surrender and that's what Jesus wants for us and I'd call it: The Fully Surrendered Life. Fully surrendered, all in. Not kind of a Sunday Christian, not kind of a when it's convenient, not a God Bless America, and all this kind of stuff. But a full-on, holding nothing back, my life does not belong to me but belongs to Him commitment. In fact, I love the way Paul phrased this in Romans 14:7-8, he said: For we don't live for ourselves or die for ourselves. If we live, it's to honor the Lord. And if we die, it's to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. Romans 14:7-8 For we don't live for... Whom? He said:

8 We don't live for ourselves or die for... Whom? Or die for:...ourselves. If we live,... Now, let me ask you a question, how many of you are living? How many of you are alive? Okay good, a solid 50% of you, praise God! The rest of you, we've got prayer time at the end of the service! How many of you are living? Come on! Excellent, most of you are now! If we live, why do we live? It's to honor whom? It's to honor the:...lord... The Lord, the Kurios, the Supreme in authority. If we live it's to honor the Lord:...And if we die, it's to... Do what? It's to:...honor the Lord. So whether we live or die,... Who do we belong to? If you're a Christian, who do we belong to? Scripture says:...we belong to the (Kurios) Lord. We belong to Him. Our life is not our own. We surrender to His Lordship, we belong to Him. It's a little bit like I never take off my ring. Why? It s a reminder I belong to Jeannette. Her ring s a reminder she belongs to me. I bought it for her when we were in college together, and it was the nicest one a young 20 year old preacher boy could afford, and it's not a big rock but it's the thought that counts, okay! So, I saved up, I negotiated, best ring. When I gave it to her I said, Will you be mine? Will you marry me? 42 years ago we stood at the front of the Canton Baptist Temple and exchanged vows. I said to her Wilt thou Now question, how much did that ring cost her? It cost me a lot, how much did it cost her? The answer is, zero right? It didn't cost her anything. Now, when she received the gift how much did it cost her? It cost her everything at that point, Will you be mine, will you marry me? See, at that point when we stood before God she gave her life to me. Here's the deal, she belongs to me, she's mine. I belong to her, I'm hers. We belong to the Lord, we're His. We belong to each other. This ring didn't cost me anything, she bought it for me, her ring didn't cost her anything, but when she received it, it cost her everything, because she gave her life to me and we gave our lives to the Lord.

9 Here's the deal, when Jesus shed His blood and died for you, He offered the availability of a free gift to you, salvation. It's by grace that you are saved through faith, it's not by works so that no man can boast, it is the gift of God given to you. Salvation cost you nothing, it cost Jesus everything. But when you say yes to it, you no longer own the rights to your life. Does that make sense? You belong to Him. You surrender to His Lordship. Your life is no longer your own. Your life is no longer your own, you are no longer the controller or the Lord of your life, He is. That's why I'm so afraid and what I see so much today is this kind of casual approach to Jesus, He's just a six pound, eight ounce Baby Jesus. Jesus is my buddy! Jesus is my homeboy! No, no, no, no! Jesus isn't just the little Lord Jesus Baby in a manger, He's not just the Lord Jesus Baby in a manger, He's not just the Lord Jesus on a cross dying for our sins. What you need to understand is He's the soon returning, conquering, reining, ruling, supreme in authority coming back with a sword, with a name written on it that He is the King of kings and He is the Lord of lords. And He means business. Don't just say, Lord, Lord, and then do whatever you want. He is supreme, ruling, reigning King of the universe. Our lives, if we re Christians, don t belong to us, it belongs to Him. So with that said, Proverbs 3:5-6, this is the real version. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 We're told to trust in whom? Trust in the Lord...With how much of our heart? Not with some but:...with all our heart. And we're told to:...lean not on your own understanding; but in all our ways... What are we to do? We're to:...acknowledge Him, and He will make our paths straight. The word acknowledge, I'm not a big fan of the way that's translated. In the Hebrew language, the word that's translated acknowledge is the word yada. This same word is also translated to know. It's the same word that describes the intimate relationship with Adam knowing Eve. I prefer:...in all your ways know Him and He will make your paths straight. Here's the bottom line, the reason so many of us do not surrender some area of our life to the Lordship of Christ is because we don't know Him in that area of our lives. And

10 that's the bottom line. To know Him is to love Him, to know Him is to trust Him. To know Him is to surrender to Him because when you know Him you know He is Ever-Present, He is All-Knowing, He is All-Powerful, He is Good in every way. He is Holy, set apart from us. He is so Holy, mortal man cannot look upon Him in His purist essence and live. To know Him is to surrender to Him because He is the Reigning, Ruling King of the universe. And not only is He some far away powerful God, but He is a relational God who came to us in the name of Emmanuel to be God with us because He wanted to reveal Himself to us. That's why He sent Jesus, so we can see Him, so we can know Him, so we can relate to Him, so we could have a love-relationship with Him. It's all about relationship. When someone asked Jesus, 'What's the most important command?' Jesus basically said, 'It's a relational command.' The most important command is to love the whom? If you know it say it, it's to love the Lord your God with all your what? With all your heart, with all your mind and with all your soul and with all your strength. It's a whole fullycommitted life. It's not a partially feel good, I like this and don't like this, but it's out of the love-relationship, it's because I know Him, because I love Him. Jeannette doesn't stay with me just because of some empty promise, but it's because of this intimate, ongoing love relationship. It's because we know each other, because we've given our lives to each other. It's not just a 42 year ago promise, it's an everyday, living, thriving relationship. It's all about relationship and commitment! Maybe your one area that you didn't surrender to the Lord, is finances, so what you need to do is just search out Scripture and say, I'm partially committed in this area. If I truly believe God is my provider, then I am simply a steward, that's what I am. I am a manager of the resources that He provides. And when I read Scripture, I see that it's far more blessed to give than to receive. And the only way I will overcome my poverty mindset, hoard, etc. is to give, give, give, give, give. And when I give, I get to know His goodness. And that is, you cannot out give God. So now, you can trust Him in this area. And if there is any area in which you are not surrendered to Him, it's because you don't know Him in that area. To know Him is to love Him. It's time to get to know the Lord in this area of your life. The tragedy is, and I m not trying to scare anybody, but in some cases there needs to be some reverent fear, you might need to be scared! I am afraid there are too many people under this church and maybe just visiting here today, that you're under the illusion that things are cool because you joined a church years ago, or because you got wet (baptized), or because you checked a box, or because you say God Bless you when somebody sneezes. And the reality is, there's a lot more to Christianity than that.

11 The gift of eternal life may not cost you anything, but your only reasonable response is to give your whole life, and if you're not giving your whole life, at some point we have to ask ourselves the question, do we really know Him? Do we really know Him? Do we really know Him, because Jesus said some of the most haunting words in all of Scripture, Matthew 7:21-23, speaking of after this life, He said: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' Matthew 7:21-23 Not everyone who says to me... What? Here's our phrase:not everyone says to me... What? Say it:lord, Lord, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord, I've got the bumper sticker! You know: Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord', will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, didn't we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons and perform many miracles?'... In our world it would be, You know, didn't I go to church every now and then? Didn't I give some money to the guy ringing the bell with the red thing at the mall? You know, Didn't I help the lady cross the street? You know, Wasn't I good person? Didn't I do all of these good things, Lord, Lord? Verse 23, Jesus said:then I will tell them plainly, 'I never..' What? He said:i will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you.' We're not in a relationship. You gave me lip service, but we didn't know each other, there's no intimacy. You called me Lord, but you didn't do what I said. You see, there's a really big difference between calling Jesus Lord and surrendering to His Lordship. He is Lord. It's not a game, it's not a, Oh shoot, I tried! No, He's Lord, and we surrender to the Lordship of Christ. He's not a part-time Lord and He doesn't want part-time followers. He gave us the free gift of eternal life and He wants the only reasonable response which is, Hey, here's my life back, whatever you want. Not my will, but your will be done. Therefore, I will take whatever I'm trying to control and get to know Him and surrender it to His Lordship and trust Him with all my heart and lean not

12 on my own understanding, but in all of my ways I will know Him and He will make my paths straight. Prayer: Father, I pray today that you would speak to us in a way that only you can do and that there would be lives and relationships and families and marriages that are transformed because of the goodness and grace of your Son, that we would surrender to the Lordship of Jesus. All of you as you're praying today, I want to just talk to those of you first, who really are Christians, you want to live the fully-surrendered life, but you look at it and you have to say, there's an area or more that's partially surrendered. What I want you to do is I want you to give whatever it is a name in your mind so you can confess this before God, just get real specific with it. Here's what it is, it's a relationship, it's a fear, it's something I want to control, It's something I'm unwilling to give you. Whatever it is, give it a name and today by faith, we're just going to say, God, I surrender that to you. All of you who would say, I've got it, I'm partially surrendered in this area, I'm halfhearted and lukewarm and I don't want to be, I want to be fully surrendered in this area. I want by faith to give this to God today. Would you lift up your hands right now? Lift them up all over the place. God, I thank you for those who came with their hearts sensitive to what you'd want to say and I take great confidence God when we are able to fall under the conviction of your loving Holy Spirit. And so, I pray God that right now by faith we would do something that only you could empower us to do, that we would give this to you and surrender it to you. As you're praying right now, just tell him. Here it is, in your own words, I give this person, I give this relationship, I give my health, I give my fears. Whatever it is, just tell Him, I surrender this to you, to your Lordship. Tell Him that you don't want to be partially devoted, you love Him, you want to know Him in every area. God, help us to know you, to serve you, to trust you. God, help us to be fully devoted, serving you in every way. Our only reasonable response to Jesus is our whole lives, we give this to you today. God, I pray that lives would be different because of this moment, because Jesus is Lord and we surrender whatever we hold back to Him. As you keep praying today, I want you to really take a moment and just be really quiet before God and recognize this, that Jesus said, 'Not everybody who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of God, but only those who do what the will of my Father is.' He'll say to many, 'You called me Lord, but I didn't know you.'

13 I want to ask you this, are you in a living, loving relationship with God? You might be a churchgoer for years, many churchgoers, don't know God. You go to church; you have head knowledge, but not a heart relationship. That's many of you, that's many of you. Some of you, you're not a church guy, you're not a church girl, and someone else would look at your life and go, Well, there's no way they've got a relationship with God! Well listen, the reason that you're here, I believe with all of my heart, is because God loves you. And you may look like you're a long way away, but I'm telling you what, you're a one prayer away from knowing Him, you're a one prayer away from every sin you've ever committed, being forgiven. You are one prayer away from being made new, you're one prayer away from being filled with the Holy Spirit and from knowing God in an intimate and a personal way. There are those of you who recognize, that you really don't know God and you want to. Today we're going to call on His name Jesus, the Son of God born in a manger without an earthly father so He didn't inherit the sin nature, so that He could be our Savior, becoming sin on the cross, shedding His blood, dying, and being raised to life so that anyone who calls on His name will be saved. That's why you're here. Yes, that's me! I want to know Him, I want to serve Him, I need to be forgiven, I want to be in a relationship with Him, I don't want to call Him Lord, I want to know Him as Lord. Pray this prayer with me right now!