The Greatest Gifts

Christmas Gifts

I want to turn our thoughts for the next couple of weeks over to Christmas, and the subject of Christmas gift giving.

If you are anything like me, you have been wondering for a while now, what you should get so and so.

They seem to have everything.

They are the hardest person to buy for.

Sometimes I just go through Amazon putting in strange search phrases hoping that something will come up and that will be it.

I can also tell you that the success that I have had from that method is like .001%

But we are going to talk about Christmas Gifts - and more precisely, the greatest Christmas gifts of all. Those gifts that Our Heavenly Father has given to us through the human birth of his son and our savior, Jesus Christ.

Let’s look at a part of that Nativity Story today.

Luke 2:8-

Luke 2:8–20 NKJV

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 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. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” 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.” And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

Jesus came to give us peace.

Why is that so important today?

because

We Live In A World of Worry!

And here we are in the time of celebrating his birth and it becomes the most stressful time of the year.

We are overly busy - it’s a wonder that we can get anything done.

Man how did we shop and get things in time without the internet?

We run around and see the family, go to the parties, and we just never get things done. The word that I’ve heard so much in the last few weeks in meeting with people and being with people has been “tired”.

We are overextended

In our lives and our time

In our commitments

In our wallets and checkbooks.

Many are hurting

They are alone

They are angry

They are in misery

And yet the angels prophecy about this christ child was that he would being peace and goodwill toward mankind.

Jesus had this to say about worry

Matthew 6:25–34 NKJV

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matthew 6:

I like that. - “Every day has trouble. What are you worried about?”

Boy if we could really understand that phrase, how different would our lives be.

When we worry, we allow our minds to focus on the negatives of life that are actually out of the scope of our control

Which one of you can worry yourself taller?

I don’t know what tomorrow holds

So, I can go home and worry about it all night, and lose sleep

or I can trust the God who says that he holds my tomorrows in his hand and trust him to get me through it.

Thats what Jesus is saying here.

And he gives us three reasons about why we shouldn’t worry:

It’s unnatural - the animals don’t worry about having enough

They don’t worry about a place to live.

They trust God.

It’s unhelpful - We waste so much energy worrying about things and nothing changes..

It is unchristian - Because worry is really a lack of faith in God.

It’s taking life into our own hands

It’s putting our faith in other things that are much less than God is

It’s telling God, I can’t take you at your word.

But Jesus’ Christmas Gift is

He Gives us A World of Peace

Peace as our savior

This is what mankind needed.

The problem that ailed mankind was their sin

The thing that brought the worry to mankind was their inability to free themselves from the ailment.

Isn’t that what we worry about today? Those things that we cannot fix. Those things that we have no control over.

This savior heals that ailment

This savior fixed that worry.

He was the promised on of God

He was to be the fulfillment of all the prophecies that they looked to

He was going to fix the world by fixing the people that make up the world.

Now some would say, well that was a failure. Worry and anxiety are some of the key problems of our culture.

And that would be right, because not everyone has excepted this savior into their lives.

He can only help those who seek him.

But Pastor, even Christians still deal with worry.

And again, you would be right, but if you look deeper into the situations of the believers life, you will see that they only worry about the areas of their lives that they don’t completely turn over to him.

Peace as our King

My brothers and sisters, you need a king in your life.

You need something that will rule you, because left to our own devices, how many have found out that we are a little wacked?

Comeon, right?

Now I know that most of us wouldn’t call it a king, but there is something that overides the decisions of our lives

There is something that drives us and makes us who we are.

We react according to it, we love according to it, we treat ourselves and others according to it.

And God originally designed us so that it would be Him

That we would walk and talk and live life according to Him

But mankind rebelled.

Adam and Eve sinned

And now pretty much we all live according to that sin in our lives

We don’t care if it’s killing us, we still do it

We don’t care who gets hurt as long as it isn’t us

We live life pretty much to ourselves.

So see that which drives you as your king

See that which causes you to make decisions as your master today, because you are always going to answer to it.

Who is it this morning? What is it?

Most important question - Is it Jesus? And if not, why not?

The angels say, Goodwill toward men.

goodwill = is mankind doing good toward each other.

Watch your news each evening and you will see that we need some more good will in the world

But then watch your news in the evening and you will see that we have some great will toward one another.

But it all comes down to doing what Jesus taught when he said that you need to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

So the King has spoken, Are you listening?

You can’t listen if he’s not your king. If this 2nd law of life as Jesus taught is not what you live your life by. If it’s not the driving force of your life, than you will never be involved in the good will of and toward mankind.

So if you want true peace - then accept the King of Peace in your life.

The angels proclamation had a requirement to it, didn’t it.

You must go find the babe. As the Bible says, if you will look, you will find. But you must go.

Where aren’t you searching for Jesus in your life today, brother and sister? Because that will be the very area where you worry about things.

Look at the last verse with me today

Luke 2:20 NKJV

Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

Luke 2:

What had the shepherds seen?

They saw a baby - in a manger

They saw poor parents - Joseph didn’t make very much

The whole scene wasn’t very kingly, or royal

Sure it was holy and I’m sure that there was a deep presence of the Spirit of God there.

But they didn’t totally understand that.

And yet they leave that manger changed.

As they travel from Bethlehem back into the pastures they are glorifying and praising God.

Why? It was as the angels had said

And if the scene was as they had said, then the result of what that child would do was as they had said

This was faith.

They go back in faith. The whole nation had waited over 500 years for this. It had been prophesied about, it had been written down and studied but now it was happening.

This is what I call

Living in Peace.

My brother and sister, if you live out there and work out there and have relationship out there, the one thing that you will quickly discover is that it’s not all that peaceful out there.

But the difference is that we have the king and savior of promise living in our lives.

He brings that peace to our hearts

He makes us people of goodwill toward one another

That’s what Christmas is all about.

If you truly want to celebrate Christmas this year, yes, thank Jesus for giving up his place in heaven to come here in the flesh

Thank him for salvation

But to really celebrate Christmas, live in what he came to do.

It this instance, we are talking about peace/.

Live in peace

The Bible calls it a peace that passes all understanding

A peace that is there when nobody else in the same situation has peace

A peace that is there because you know the Lord of Peace

A peace that is there because you are serving the King of Peace

A peace that is there because you know the savior of peace and your life has been changed.

We don’t have to go out of this place today and fall into the same old chaos of life that maybe even drove us to get here this morning.

We can go out and face the craziness and chaos of the world in the peace that was promised

If he promised he is going to do it.

We should be leaving this place as the shepherds left Bethlehem - glorifying and praising God.

The New King James Version Chapter 2

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

PRAY