December 25, 2016

The first Christmas gift was Jesus. I need we celebrate that every year and we celebrate by giving gifts because the very first Christmas. Add the very first Christmas gift. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son and so we celebrate that very first gift the gift of Christ was much more than just the baby Jesus that we think of my Christmas card. Sometimes I think just like in the video we kind of comically isolate Christmas and we celebrate baby Jesus and we don't really celebrate more than that. But the gift of Christ was so much more than just Jesus as a baby on that card. It was the whole Jesus from birth to life to cross grave and resurrection and he's received with and through our whole life not just as a security decision for eternal life. And I say that last part not the kind of Pope at the average person who maybe has incorrectly thought while I've got my salvation like an insurance policy but instead it's really the church and preachers and leaders who have too often presented Christianity as this proposition. And we said if you'll just say the sinner's prayer if you'll just assert with a decision. It's all been about making that decision and then we kind of say well you're saved and let's move along but in reality, it's so much more than that and the challenges to to see Jesus properly receiving the gift of Jesus is accepting a life-changing relationship with God.

Do you see the Simplicity and the logic of that? Receiving the very first Christmas gift to gift of Jesus isn't simply saying well, I got my salvation secured and now I'll move on with life to receive. The gift of Jesus is to receive all that God has offered us. And at the top of that list is a relationship and I'm going active life changing relationship with him. Go to receive Jesus is to receive that offer to step into a relationship with God. We can't really say I want to receive Jesus and get saved in and be a Christian but I don't want to have this ongoing relationship with God. I don't want to have to maintain that or or do these things they're organically connected to receive Jesus is to receive God's offer for a relationship with him. We've been studying the life of Mary and Mary models receiving the gift of Jesus. Really when we looked at the passages the past few weeks throughout Lou. We saw Mary model for us what it means to receive this gift from God primarily in Luke 1:38, when the angel comes to her and says you a virgin are going to give birth to a job that will be the savior of the world and she says how can this happen in the original language? It's not disbelief. It's saying how I believe you you're an angel your messenger from God. I'm not doubting that but man. Because I'm a virgin an angel says God is going to be the father of this child and by the end of that passage. She's she's heard this word from God from this Angel and she says in Luke 1:38. May it be to me as you have spoken? I am your servant and so she hears this word from God and she obeys this word from God and that is the foundation to receiving Christ to beginning that relationship of God is to be somebody who hears the word of God listens to the word of God sets at the word of God As a student and obeys. I love it when Pastor Paul from India are missionary said the scriptures not just for devotion is for action is for obedience. It is for Devotion to study and Ponder and hide in our heart and memorizing treasure absolutely but the design of having the word of God coming to our ears and into our heart is so that we like Could respond with obedience passage. It says she immediately hurried to be with her relative Elizabeth and she rejected the idea of isolation or Independence that we can so quickly gravitate toward and that's such a universal human Tennessee. We see it in our culture in a rampid way where we really just want to say just me and Jesus. You know what my faith is private. Just leave me alone. I don't want to have to get involved in serving or giving or participating. I just want to have just me and Jesus we can't we can tend toward isolation especially in a moment of being overwhelmed be tempting for Mary when she got this news just to kind of go close the door and say this is overwhelming but she models for us this wisdom. And I even think it was divine that at the End of This Moment the angel said to her by the way your your relative Elizabeth And she immediately soon as the Angels gone. It says she hurries to Elizabeth. She immediately Embraces that relationship with another who is also obeying God who is also being used by guy that Kindred fellowship with one another she models that for us and that's part of receiving Jesus.

I don't believe that you can receive Jesus and reject his body.

I don't believe that you can say yes, I would like Jesus and I would like salvation but the church the body of Christ. I'd rather just

I believe it. It's it's all together. You know, it'd be a kin to maybe getting married to somebody and say well I accept you but none of your friends none of your family. I want nothing to do with them that person would say that's that's part of who I am when you're accepting me. You're accepting my family. You're accepting if I've got children you're accepting my children, you're accepting my friends. And so it all goes together all those think she modern for us and Luke Chapter 2 Simeon prophesy. Look Mary this this child is going to be a savior to the world, but they'll be many because of his message who will reject God and they'll be paying in his life and it'll be like a sword in your own saw. And just a few verses after that we get the record where Mary is already wondering about Jesus. He he separate from them during his childhood and they're anxious about where he's at and when they find him, he's a why were you even thinking about worrying about where to look for me when you know that be at my father's house. And it says it look 250 once that Mary treasured and pondered all these things in her heart. And I think that's another example of what it means to receive Jesus. She modeled this sort of patients. She didn't immediately rehab for one things resolved right in that moment. She took what happened and took this word that it says that she pondered them in her heart. She thought about him she had this sort of patience this waiting upon God and we speculated last week in the sermon. That's that may be at Key moments in Luke 8 when Jesus is preaching and teaching and they come and say your mother and your brothers are here in Jesus is who are my mother who are my brothers? It's those who hear the word of God and Obey it. Which made Mary indeed his mother but so was anyone that kingdom was that winding that large anyone could have Jesus as their brother anyone could have Jesus as their savior anyone who hears and obeys but we wondered in moments like that. Was that one of the moment where she thoughts there's that sword. It is redefining. Family in a certain way that it her own submission to him. We talked about John Chapter 2 when she wants him to do something about the wedding and he says woman it's not my time. I may be her demeanor changes for the traditional Jewish mother who is kind of getting her son by the ear thing do something about this and she says to the service do whatever he says.

And there's this sort of submission there. I think all that is is tied up in that wisdom. She had to ponder. And to reflect. Here's where I'm tempted to preach and entire aside sermon and because my kids and I've got their voices in my head. We got gifts to open. We've got to get home to exciting day. I'll just do a brief version, but I want to say in our culture. I think one of the biggest things missing in our lives either has the ability to slow down and reflect and Ponder maybe one of the most difficult things to follow in Mary's example as the first disciple of Jesus. Difficult things to follow is that slowing down that pain during that reflecting so many times we just move from one thing to the next one event to the next one thought the next and we don't pause and wonder is God doing something in this moment or am I missing something God is trying to teach me am I not obeying in some way that I could Bo Banks and said, we just move through at such a pace that maybe we miss what God is doing for us. They're not only in Mary's life. But in the early church, we seen this same pattern model of what it means to receive the gift the very first Christmas gift to receive the gift of Jesus in Acts chapter 1 Luke continues riding. He says Theophilus the person to whom he wrote the Gospel of Luke. He says I wrote about Jesus in my earlier book. I wrote about all that he did and talk until the day he was taken up to heaven and tell Lucas gospel is this whole story of Jesus as we know from the very beginning the birth of Jesus Ford and then he talks about what Jesus taught the disciples before he went up to heaven. He continues a little later in that chapter. He says before Jesus left he gave order to the apostles. He had chosen he gave them a command do not leave Jerusalem. He said wait for the gift. My father promised. You have heard me talk about it. And then he teaches moron. They're waiting for the gift and then they come back to the city where the other disciples are a little later in the passage. It says they all came together regularly. Separate the women joined them too. So did Jesus mother Mary and his brothers? Mary's modeling these same principles and we see the early church modeling these same principles. And for me and the others obeyed even without fully understanding just like and loop 1 when she's like, I don't know how this is going to happen. But you've spoken I am your servant let it be to me as you have said the disciples in early Church New the most dangerous place to be after Jesus crucifixion and Resurrection was Jerusalem both the government and the religious leaders were seeking their demise yet. They remembered that Jesus said I want you to stay in Jerusalem until the gifts that my father is sending arrives that I promised you we talked about it. So wait here until the scripture say that they waited even though they had to say this, you know, this is a pulled or wait. You shouldn't we be getting out of town? Should we be going out out into the to the Farms away from the city to be hitting and not seen? And instead even though they couldn't fully understand in that moment. They obeyed. And that Universal characteristic of a disciple who received the gift to Jesus is modeled. Once again, not only an Aries life and Luke one, but in the early Church of life and ask one where they obey even though they're not fully understanding they waited for God to empower them that sort of patients that sort of pondering that Mary model that she treasured these things and she didn't jump ahead. You know, if there's only thing we only see like one incident, like I said, maybe maybe in jeonju marries a little impatient once Jesus to fix the wedding but think of the millions of times that she could have said, what are you doing? You're going to get into the official you're going to get in trouble. They're going to hell you're going to jail. I mean think about it for Mama. Honestly, there were probably a million times that Mary could have said no stop weight as a mother to her son. I think that verses in Luke 2:51 is loaded that she treasured these things. Part of the reason she was the one that was favored when God shows her an angel came to her knowing her character her maturity her obedience. May it be to me as you have spoken? I am your servant. Even seeing her son on the cross trusting in God. So there's a lot in that idea that the church waited. And again, I can print your whole nother sermon. I'll have that the human characteristic do we sometimes not wait on God? I mean, can I get an amen Amber Run ahead and try to solve your own problems without God's answer you ever pray to God on a Monday and if it's not fixed by Tuesday, never mind, I'll take it in my own hands. We push up her sleeves and we end up solving something in a way. That's so far less than what God could have done for us. It's a merry the early church model this this patient's this waiting and then they gathered together again in the midst of Crisis were tempted to isolate ourselves when we get overwhelmed or depressed depressed people seek out groups of people know the very nature of being overwhelmed by things and being discouraged and depressed. If we want to go be alone with our troubles with our sorrows, but Mary modeled in the early church models. This aspect of being a disciple means you're part of the body of Christ. And so you don't isolate yourself instead you engage in relationships you gather together later and scripture in Hebrews that says Don't forsake. Gathering together as some are tempted to do instead all the more as the day approaches gather together and it doesn't say just gather it says and encourage one another build one another up. You've heard me say it before they're 58 one another commands in the New Testament and you've got to have active relationships in order to be obedient to those one another commands. The bear one another's burdens. You don't you can't just walk up to someone you have a relationship. Have relation with anybody tell me your deepest troubles. In order to be faithful to those 58 commands in the New Testament. We've got to be doing what Mary and the early church model. We've got to be gathering together in a significant way where we encourage one another we talked about that in Corinthians. It says let God comfort you so that you can be the person who offers Comfort to others that you have received and so not only do we not isolate ourselves from God. We lean on him we depend on him then we don't isolate yourself from others and they prayed they parade. They hated that call to prayer when they gathered together and called upon. Almost in some ways you can say are these the essentials of the church are these the essentials of being a follower of Christ that you would obey the word of God that you would have healthy relationship and fellowship and encouragement with one another in Christ. That you would have this sort of perspective of waiting and seeing and pondering and looking for God's will to be done in your life and seeking that over your on that you'll be praying regularly forgot to work in your life. Jesus modeled these sorts of things. Didn't he when he was tempted. He said man shall not live by bread alone. What but by the word of God, he modeled that for us. Here's what it's like to be fully human. The way God designed us to be the be the very people that he made us to be is to be somebody who looks to the word of God who obeys the word of God he model these characteristics for seventy disciples that he sent out. He had 12 that he traveled with regularly and were told there were three or four that were extra close to him. A model that sort of gathering that sort of connected that sort of religion if anybody could have said as my two-year-old says to me all the time I do it. Sky is learning to be independent. And so constantly when I want to do something forced don't I do it? I do it if anybody could have said I don't need anyone else. It was Jesus if anyone could have said it and it could have been true if he could have said I do it. It would have been true that he modeled for us these relationships with the 70 and with the 12 and with the three or four this closeness is intimacy this interdependence a model for a Something That We're to follow Jesus knows better than we do.

Don't let me just make it blunt if you isolate yourself. And strive to grow as a Christian you're rejecting the model of Jesus. And I think he knows more than we do. And I think his model is better and healthier in our lives than our own model and it's rough in North America, especially because rugged individualism is just bread in our culture that I do it is in us from the very beginning but we're challenged to see his example and John 5, Jesus models this sort of pain during the sort of wisdom disorder patients when somebody says, why are you doing the things you're doing? He says look I see what the father is doing and I joined him. That's how I know what to do. He didn't just run off and do whatever he wanted. He didn't just do it without patients eat in just reacting to events are going on to see had this depth this pain during this Reflections to say, what is it that God is doing and how do I join my father and what he's doing? That's what I do. Can you imagine The Temptations that must have been him just to react in the moment? Especially cuz he had the ability to react so many moment tickets that you're really going to say that watch this boom. He could have blown people's minds he could have he could have done so many things but instead he had this patience. This will be is even in the garden when he says I'm overwhelmed by the cross before me. Father if there's any way this cup can pass let it past but none the left your will be done. He modeled this for us again. And again that obedience that patients that wisdom that Gathering and the prayer. All the way to John's gospel in the middle of the gathers of the disciples all weapons at the time of the Cross. What's he doing? Praying with them and praying for them. Even the garden. He says can you come with me and be with me for a while we pray? And the disciples fall asleep. So the challenges were invited to pray and the grace is sometimes we fall asleep with a friend. He never fall asleep from your friends. I'm going to pray before I go to bed. I'm going to pray over everything you make the mistake of getting in bed laying down and I'm going to pray dear lord. It's morning. Well, then just say thank you for a good night. Sleep Lord and pray some more right then extends that sort of Grace to us. They all came together regularly to pray the woman joined them to. and Jesus mother

What's going around directions for me? I've got it.

How it's not working.

Time for some reason it's going backwards. Let's just leave it at that and I'll I'll wrap it up think that's finally our final thing or maybe I'd back it up and didn't know it Mary models for this this sort of obedience to Christ and that first verse we started our whole series with is that example of that obedience that modeling that be to me as you have said and told this morning at as you celebrate Christmas the rest today this week as you have more time, maybe then you do the rest of the year. I invite you to follow Mary's example if there's a place in your life at where you've not said On the Lord's servant may it be to me is you have spoken I challenge you to make that decision during the song. We're going to sing in just a moment. I invite you to make that decision to give your life to Christ the way Layla model for us at the beginning in the baptism saying that you're my Lord I give my life to you. You may have done that but you may realize that there are is you've held back you made me realize there's new areas or other areas. You've got to bring the Lord to say, you know, what you take over this area. I'm your servant. May it be to me as you have spoken? Not only making that decision this week. If you need to make it I challenge you if you've already made that decision to carve out some time for some pain during and reflection this week.

Treasure up in your heart the things that God has done in your life this past year and thank him.

And open up in your heart those things maybe that you're struggling with or that our burdens are there you're overwhelmed with and don't isolate yourself. Bring those two gods and bring those. To another brother and sister in Christ. Ask someone to pray with you or for you. And if you're someone who has done that regularly and you've received the comfort of Christ a 2nd Corinthians says then I challenge you to extend that to someone else this week. Visit somebody who's lonely this week. It's all heightened at Christmas time. If someone's alone and lonely during Christmas, it just feels like there's a spotlight on it and everywhere they go they may be paying for their gas and and you don't know the difference that could be a dad with 16 kids and and he's just paying for his gas. But in their mind if it's somebody who's alone and lonely they feel like there's a spotlight on them every moment during the holiday season thing. I've got no one or I'm alone if you know somebody who's alone. Call them this week. Send them a card go to their home visit with them offer them the comfort that you have received. We even talked to her Bolton last night and again this morning during the holiday season take the time to thank somebody a police officer fireman it a nurse at the hospital that the person in the Drive-Thru window who are the persons the gas station who's there during these holiday so that we can get gas if we're getting low. No one wants to run out of gas on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Do they were thrilled we find that place open we go in bother to say to that person. Hey, thank you.

I know you're away from family potential you're here when you could be somewhere else. I appreciate that. Father to affirm folks who might be struggling this holiday season, and if you're struggling reach out and let someone care for you. Please stand as we sing Our Song of commitment. I'll be in the back for anybody who ever has a decision to make they'll be folks in the back and the front for prayer. If you have prayer concerns or needs come to us and pray during this time, please stand as we sing.