Part 35: UNASHAMED, UNDAUNTED and UNSTOPPABLE! Part 2 Christmas Series: When God Dared!

Transcription

1 Part 35: UNASHAMED, UNDAUNTED and UNSTOPPABLE! Part 2 Christmas Series: When God Dared! A. Welcome and Merry Christmas everyone! 1. What a great time of the year! Don t you love the Christmas season! I do...as long as I don t have to go to the malls. 2. Speaking of the malls, I ve discovered the perfect gift for everyone. It s always the right color, it goes with everyone s eyes, it s for any occasion, always the perfect size, never needs to be exchanged and it always makes everyone happy. It s called M-O-N-E-Y. 3. Since this is Christmas Eve, I know that everyone is excited about tomorrow and busy with last minute preparations for the big day that s only hours away. 4. I want to thank you for coming to worship the Lord this Christmas weekend. We simply must have church on the Lord s birthday. If there s ever a time we should worship, it s then. B. We are in a new series this month, When God Dared. 1. Our custom on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is to have one hour services, so I m going to quickly get into the Word this morning. 2. Our services are shorter because we all recognize that this is also an important and very busy time for families. No doubt there are gifts to be wrapped, pies waiting to be baked, and turkeys to fry. At our home, there s still shrimp creole and chicken and sausage gumbo to prepare. 3. But even though we re very busy, it is important to stop what we re doing for a while and worship the Lord together. 4. If wise men with demanding schedules and heavy responsibilities could travel for months by camel back across harsh desert terrain to worship the newborn Christ, it s not unreasonable for us to drive a few miles in

2 our comfortable cars to attend a one hour worship service on the Lord s Birthday weekend, right? And we won t even mention how far He came or what He endured for us! 5. There s something in our text I want you to closely notice. It refers to the risks and chances Christ took to come to earth. 6. As impossible and preposterous as it may seem, the Lord of Glory came to the world He created, and His creation would not receive Him. Yet He came, knowing that some would reject Him and not return His love. Texts: John 1:10-12 (KJV) - He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. [11] He came unto his own, and his own received him not. [12] But as many as received Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: John 1:10-12 (NLT) - He came into the very world he created, but the world didn t recognize him. [11] He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. [12] But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. When God Dared to Love! C. From earliest childhood, we have been fascinated by the story of Jesus being born among us. 1. So that we ll never forget what happened that first Christmas morning, I like to read the story from the Bible in our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services. 2. Luke 2:1-20 (NKJV) - And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. [2] This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. [3] So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. [4] Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of

3 David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, [5] to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. [6] So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. [7] And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. [8] Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. [9] And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. [10] Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. [11] For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. [12] And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." [13] And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: [14] "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" [15] So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us." [16] And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. [17] Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. [18] And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. [19] But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. [20] Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them. 3. This is the story of Jesus birth, the One called Emmanuel, or God with us. The word Emmanuel is actually a compound of three words: With Us God. 4. C. S. Lewis, a brilliant Oxford scholar, said: Once in our world a stable held something bigger than our world. With Us God!

4 D. Christmas is the story of the God who came to be with us and His incredible love that made Him willing to risk being rejected. 1. He came into this world to save us, yet knowing that some would say no. 2. That isn t how we usually respond to love. We re careful who we choose to love so we won t be hurt. Before committing too much, we first want to know if the other person feels the same about us. 3. Do you remember in the first or second grade when you liked someone in your class? On a sheet of paper, you would scribble a brief question in your best childish scrawl and then draw two small boxes. 4. The question was, I like you...do you like me? One box was labeled yes and the other no, and this person was supposed to check the appropriate box. Don t you wish love was that easy in later years? 5. As we grew, we quickly learned not to give our love if it would be rejected. Jesus came without checking to see if we would receive or reject Him. He came because we had a problem; we were born in sin. 6. We have all been shocked and appalled by many recent stories about rich, famous, or powerful people. From movie stars to newsmen and women, sports announcers, politicians, coaches, orchestra conductors, celebrity chefs, professors, and even wealthy heads of corporations, we ve read about their shameless and immoral behavior. Suddenly, we ve found that they are just as sinful as everyone else. 7. Have you also found it to be interesting that some of the very people who have set themselves up as paragons of virtue, whose calling was to tell the rest of us how to live, have railed against an occasional bad apple among pastors and rightly so. 8. They have even made movies and special programs castigating believers in the worst possible light. Now, however, we find that those who gleefully chortled about the fall of a few men and women of God, were even bigger hypocrites themselves. While busily casting stones, they were far from innocent.

5 E. One thing has been proven: humanity has a sin problem. 1. The problem is, we were ALL born in sin. And sin causes us to hurt others. a. It s no accident that the middle letter in sin is the letter i. b. Sin makes you concerned only about yourself. c. Sin prompts you to build your world around yourself and make decisions that only consider what you want. 2. That s why a man or woman can throw away their marriage and never think twice about the person they re hurting. They can crush the lives of their children and never look back, because sin makes you think only of yourself. 3. Someone can get angry and take a human life; or lie and cheat someone and then laugh about it. It s not important who was hurt, since they re thinking only of themselves. 4. Under the right circumstances, any of us could be tempted to do the wrong thing. Under the right circumstances, you can do something and then say, What in the world did I just do? Where did that come from? Who is the person that just did that? 5. No one had to be taught to sin. Our parents didn t have to teach us to lie or have a temper tantrum. We were all born with sinful hearts. 6. The heart of the problem is the human heart. F. Because of sin, this world we live in is a very hurtful and painful place. 1. We deal with the effects of sin every day: anger, betrayal, lust, envy, cancer, heart disease, murder, rape, war, hatred, racial division, and crime. These are all the consequences and effects of a sinful heart. 2. Jesus came to conquer sin and establish a righteous kingdom. A new day is coming, not far away, when sin will forever be banished and peace will reign instead. 3. When sin has been banished and Satan punished, those who do evil will face the consequences of their deeds. The lion will lie down with the lamb and nothing will hurt or destroy in God s new earth.

6 4. Cancer and other crippling diseases will no longer rob us of our loved ones or our health. The only hatred will be a hatred for sin, and mankind will love God and each other! G. To make this possible, Jesus came on that first Christmas to save humanity from our sins. But to do so, He had to become one of us so He could die in our place. 1. He came to bear our sins in His body on the cross. Christmas was only a brief interval in His journey to the cross. He came, daring to love us, yet knowing that some would reject Him. 2. This concept astonished John, the Gospel writer. He was so overwhelmed, he remarked that Christ came into the very world He created and His creation knew Him not! 3. The most amazing story of all time is why Jesus would do this for us. He didn t have to.we didn t deserve it and we didn t thank or receive Him. As mentioned, Bethlehem was only a bus stop on His journey to the cross Peter 2:24 (NLT) - He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. 5. Ladies and gentlemen,...that s LOVE! It s a love so great, that in spite of our ingratitude, He willingly risked being rejected. God dared to love us! 6. Because of Christmas, God did something incredible for us by paying our debt on the cross of Calvary. 7. Christmas is spelled L-O-V-E. By coming to earth, God did an amazing work for us. H. Because of Christmas, God not only did a work for us, but a work in us. 1. Having paid sin s penalty, Christ also diminished sin s power. Its hold on us has been weakened and its dominance broken as we grow in Him. 2. As we grow in Christ, He also grows in us and reclaims us for Himself. Because we were created by Him and belong to Him, our lives can bring glory to Him.

7 3. That s why a believer can experience the joy of knowing Christ and growing in Him. If you seek more of Him, He will possess more of you! 4. If you think this is only about salvation, just mark that off your bucket list. You ll find yourself fighting the same battles of the flesh over and over and always losing. 5. If knowing Him isn t high on your list of priorities, failing Him will be high on your list of mistakes. I. This is why we still celebrate the Lord s birthday two thousand years later. It continues to remind that we are loved! 1. When you re in a rough place and facing difficult times, think about this message. As you open the Bible and read the Christmas story, remember that 2,000 years ago, the Savior sent you a note that didn t say, I like you, but... I love you. Do you love me? 2. The Story of the Gold Wrapping Paper. I heard a story about something that happened years ago as Christmas approached. A poor family had one little five year-old girl whose dad worked really hard to earn just enough to put food on the table. The family couldn t afford to spend very much during the Christmas season, so they carefully selected one roll of gold wrapping paper for the few little gifts they intended to buy. When the father came in late one evening from a hard day of work, he discovered that his little girl had taken the only roll of wrapping paper and used it to clumsily wrap a box she had proudly placed under the tree. As you might imagine, it was wrapped as a five year-old child would wrap a present. The gold paper was cut in the wrong places and held together with lots of scotch tape. The dad was so angry, he punished the little girl for thoughtlessly using their only roll of paper and wasting it as she had. Since he worked very hard to make ends meet, there wasn t enough money to buy another roll. So they decided to leave the other gifts unwrapped.

8 On Christmas morning, they happily exchanged their few gifts. The little girl couldn t wait to give the box covered with gold wrapping paper to her dad. It was her gift to him. Proudly she said, This is for you, Daddy, as her eyes beamed with excitement. He smiled, but as he carefully opened the gift, he was embarrassed for his earlier reaction. When he lifted the lid of the box and peered inside, there was nothing there. Angrily, he said, Why did you give me an empty box for Christmas? There isn t anything inside this box. Don t you know it s very unkind to give someone an empty box and call that a gift? Is this how you wasted the only roll of wrapping paper we could afford? But Daddy, she exclaimed sadly with tears rolling down her little cheeks, It isn t empty. I blew kisses into it until it was full, just before I wrapped it, and they are especially for you. As you can imagine, the dad was so crushed, he hugged his daughter tight and apologized for his harsh response. Not long after that Christmas, the little girl was killed in a tragic accident. The heartbroken dad kept the little box wrapped in gold paper that she had given him under his bed. For the rest of his life, whenever he was discouraged or faced a difficult problem, he would take the box wrapped in gold paper from under the bed and open it. He would reach inside and imagine that he was taking a kiss from his little daughter that had been given especially to him. He would remember how blessed he had been to have her as his daughter and the purity of her love. 3. That s what God did for us. He filled the Bible with heaven s kisses, and when we open it and read the Christmas story, it s like receiving another kiss from God. 4. Whenever you go through a difficult place, Christmas reminds us not of a box, but of a book filled with God s kisses that are meant especially for you. Nowhere in the Bible is God s love more clear than the story of Christmas. It s a story of the purest love this world has ever known! MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! God loves you and so do I! Be blessed and enjoy the Lord s birthday.