Away in a Manger

Now, since we are going to do an encouraging and heartfelt one next week, I thought I'd do what I call a 'stick it to you message' this week! So, if you're okay with that just say, stick it to me! Okay, you asked for it, so it's going to happen!

Well, we're talking about carols and 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.

This song was first published in a Lutheran Sunday School curriculum in 1885. 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.

Video of Away in a Manger

That guy is crazy talented! How many of you enjoyed that song growing up? Anybody say that it was kind of a special song? For me, I don't know why, but that song just always touched my heart. 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, there's a phrase, over and over again it says,

'The little Lord Jesus'.

The little Lord Jesus, and I love that phrase! 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 want to write it down is that:

Jesus is Lord.

Everybody say that, one, two, three: Jesus is Lord.

In fact, 740 times in the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as Lord, 740 times. In fact, 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.

Luke 2:8–11 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.

...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.

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 you?

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. It's the word

Kurios.

Kurios means supreme in authority, it means controller, it means 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! It's not perfect! 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?

If I can be technical for just a moment, and I don't want to make anybody feel bad for using this phrase, but 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.

And so, what I want to do in the rest of our time is talk about surrendering to the Lordship of Christ. How do we do it? And I want to talk about two different levels of surrender. The first, if you're taking notes is what I would call:

The partially surrendered life.

The partially surrendered life. And I'm very afraid that this is where the majority of American Christians would live. Many of you in other parts of the world, 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 I wrote, The Christian Atheist; they believe in God, but they live as if He doesn't exist. It's the partially surrendered life. , Jesus was talking about the wise builders and the foolish builders and speaking of the foolish builders he'd say:

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?

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, well, 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 you know, 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 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 , put this from the PSV. Okay, PSV stands for the Partially Surrendered Version of the Bible. Help me out with this, this is how this is translated from the PSV:

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, I just want to say, that's not a real version of the Bible! Okay, just so you'll know, I changed it into the Partially Surrendered 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. 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 thing, keep me out of hell, but I'm going to do whatever the hell I want!

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?

And 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.

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?

For me, for years one of the biggest strongholds in my life, it was the fear of not having enough security and money. I've talked about this before and whether it's in my personal finances or managing the church, I'm like a fanatic, Don't owe anybody anything, save up! Debt free in my personal finances, six months cash in the bank, that's not enough, twelve months cash... And there's just this real fear of not having enough and what I had to do is I had to acknowledge very honestly that when it comes to my finances, I was trusting in my ability to manage money, rather than trusting in God as the Source of all. And in that area I was halfhearted, lukewarm, distant to God's promises, and a part-time follower. I was not doing exactly as He said. Jesus is no part-time Lord and He doesn't want part-time followers.

I want you to be just as honest as I was and say, 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 , he said:

For we don't live for...

Whom? He said:

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. The only time I take it off is once every five years to get it polished because it looks like it's been to hell and back, why? Because I never take it off. I go to the gym, everybody else takes their ring off. You know, I want everybody to know in the gym, everywhere I am, I belong to Amy and she belongs to me. In fact, twenty some odd years ago, I bought her the nicest ring a 24-year-old could buy for cash, 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?

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. Some of you go, You don't belong, she doesn't belong to you, don't be giving me all of that male...

No, no, no, no! She does! You try to touch her, I will kill you! You need to understand that. I belong to her. If I want to go out and go table dancing with a bunch of young girls, can I do that? Not for long! Why? Because I belong to her and she's going to remind me of that! 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.

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, reining King of the universe. Our lives, if you're a Christian, it doesn't belong to us, it belongs to Him.

So with that said, , this is the real version. We're told to trust in whom? Let's just say we're told to:

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 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 fully-committed 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. Amy 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 20-year ago promise, it's an everyday, living, thriving relationship. It's all about relationship.

For me, when I talked about the one area I didn't surrender to the Lord, my finances, what I had to do was 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 overcame my poverty mindset, hoard, etc. is to give, give, give, give, give. And when I gave, I got to know His goodness. And that is, you cannot out give God. And so now, in both my private life and in my personal life, I believe with all that I am that I am a funnel for resources to flow through into kingdom places, because I know the goodness of God, I 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 just want to say this, and I don't want to bring fear where there's no need for fear, but in some cases there needs to be some reverent fear, there needs to be. 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, 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. 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, , speaking of after this life, He said:

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 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 on my own understanding, but in all of my ways I will know Him and He will make my paths straight.

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 our churches, as you're praying today, I want to just talk to those of you first, who really as Christians, you want to live the fully-surrendered life, but you look at it as I do 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 our different churches, those 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, all of our different churches, just give it a name and just kind of under your breath or in your mind, God can hear your thoughts, 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, all of our different churches, 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.'

I want to ask you this, are you in a living, loving relationship with God? I was a churchgoer for years, my family, we were churchgoers, we didn't know God. We went to church, we had a 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 you know you look at, 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.

At all of our churches, there are those of you who recognize, you may have been around the church scene, this may be your first time in church, but you 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.

All of our churches you'd say, 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.

Would you lift up your hands high right now. Lift them high all over the place. Lift them up and say, Yes, that's my prayer.

Right up here in this section, praise God for you. And right back towards the back, right up here, both of you together on the side.

Others of you, I don't know Him and I want to know Him. Right back over here on my right side. Others, right back over here. Others who would say, Yes Jesus, I wholly surrender to you, I want to know you as my personal Savior and Lord! Would you lift up your hands and say, Yes, I surrender to Him!

Church Online, you all click right below me. Let's all pray together. God, everybody pray, heavenly Father, save me from my sins. Make me new. I don't want to just know about you, I want to know you. Transform me, fill me with your Spirit. I believe Jesus died for me and He rose again so I could live for you. I give you my whole life, everything. You are my Lord, you are my Savior. Thank you for new life, now you have mine. In Jesus' name I pray.

All of our churches, would you guys take a moment and worship God, thank Him, welcome those today born into His family!