A Story To Change The World

The Story Teller

Intro: Christmas is a special opportunity to reconnect with the magic of story telling. Have you ever heard a master story teller? They have a way of drawing you in. Story telling is a part of every culture in all the world. Whether the story teller is seated in a chair in the living room by a fire place, or they may be around a campsite, or in a classroom, or on a stage, there is mystery and intrigue that draws us in. The art of story telling communicates history, myth, and wisdom, it allows us to learn and to share as a community and culture.

Do you have a favorite story? I wonder what it is? One of my favorites is The Tale of Two Cities. I often imagine Charles Dickens, the master story teller, with his pipe and glasses and a low inviting voice that from his first sentence “It was the best of times it was the worst of times”

The Greatest Story

Christmas is a time to lean in. After all, that is what the best stories do to us don’t they? They sweep us up and we can’t help but to lean in, waiting with great anticipation for what might happen next.

The story of LOVE that came down at Christmas is a story filled with dramatic characters, intrigue, suspense, and resolution. It has all the makings of a story that transcends time and place.

To this day, the Bible is the most popular book ever distributed. The story of Jesus is known on every continent in the world. Jesus is the most recognized character in all history. The story of Christmas has brought us to wonder from childhood. If you have not had the opportunity to share in the story of Christ come to the world, I invite you to experience it today.

Christmas isn’t just a story.

It is the collision between heaven and earth as the Spirit of Christ came down to the world to an unlikely couple to do the impossible. It is an epic through and through. The word epic, in its literary context is a description of how the struggle get more and more. Like Frodo and Sam trying to get to Mordor so we see the work of God manifest in the world through the nativity of the Christ Child. His arrival sparked controversy and majesty. Great leaders bent their knees in worship and others sought to end his life.

The Nativity of Christ comes out of nowhere. God interrupts history to get involved with humanity. God, sends Christ to be in the world. God leaves the heavenly domain behind to step into the mundane, the ordinary, pedestrian, the day to day life of people. Why? Because our lives, our history is not from our hands but rather God has written the story of history to include each of us.

God has written himself onto the pages of our lives. Jesus, has come, born to a virgin named Mary who is betrothed to a carpenter named Joseph, in obscure village, in a country riddled with upheaval to exalt those whom have been separated from God.

God got involved!

God wrote you into HIS story!

Because God through the birth of Jesus, whom we celebrate today rewrote our story. God took what should have been a tragedy and turned it into victory!

Once upon a time we were destined to be destroyed by our sin. Our separation from God meant that death, eternal death was our only option.

Jesus, who being God did not consider equality with God to disqualify him from service, humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore he is exalted. By the power of his life, death, and resurrection the name of Jesus became the name that every knee shall bow on earth and in heaven and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD. (Phil. 2:5-11)

God could not sit by as the author of history and allow us to destroy ourselves. God did what we are unable to do, bring us into righteousness in order to share an existence with His creation.

This is what God has done because of who God is. Love came down at Christmas. 1 John 1:1 “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—”

it is not a fanciful tale but one built from truth. The author of the world thought of you so much that He stepped down from on high, he left heaven for you. Christ the LORD is our gift and this story is powerful.

Today, let us praise God for the life changing work in the story of Jesus Christ. let us bless God with our lives. Just as Christ is our gift let our hearts be His gift. Let the story of Christmas be written on your hearts for all time.

Share this story with any who will listen! Go and tell it on the mountain tops, the shopping malls, the office hallways, the community events, the team functions, at family gatherings, tell the story of how LOVE came down at Christmas.