Christmas - A Time of Joy or Despair?

Things that you've given us Lord. We thank you for the good health to be able to gather in your house for worship today. Lord I pray that you will help us to never take that for granted Lord. I pray that you will be with all those who are involved in our Healthcare System right now Lord, give them the extra strength and stamina. They need to work the long hours in the long shifts and many days in a row Lord a caring for other people or I pray you will protect them and help them during this time and Lord we pray for all those who we all know in our families and friends Lord that are struggling with covid-19 now Lord, it's a difficult thing because some people that has no effect on and some others Lord. It has life-altering effects. Lord we pray you'll be with all those who are struggling with it and Lord help us as a church family to remember them daily in prayer and Lord to do whatever we can to. Assure them and bring them comfort and peace. And Lord just help us all as we hear your word today Lord. I pray that you'll be with all of us Lord and just help us each to hear the message that you have for us today. We pray this all on your most. Holy name. Amen.

You know. I titled my message Christmas A Time Of Joy or despair. You know Christmas can be a very different time for many people for a lot of people to time filled with great. Joy and friends and family, but there are also times that it is the most difficult time of year for people. Because of maybe the lack of friends or family are the recent loss of a loved one. It can be a struggle and I thought you know this year all of those things are amplify. The despair can be much more. apparent to us because well we've been separated for people's for so long and we just want to get together with them and maybe we can so it might rob some of the joy that we typically associate with this season, you know a time that's normally filled with parties and Gatherings and getting together with friends and family that maybe we don't get together with any other time of the year than now and when you take that away It can be difficult. And today we're going to look at some very different reactions that people had to that first Christmas. We're going to look at the reaction of King Herod and the reaction of the Wiseman. Listen to the reaction of the Wiseman to that first Christmas Matthew Chapter 2 verses 10 through 12. Since when they saw the star they were Overjoyed on coming to the house. They saw the child with his mother Mary and they Bow Down and Worship Him. Then they open their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh, and having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod they return to their country by another route.

Now what contrast that with the reaction of King Herod? In Matthew Chapter 2 verses 16 through 18. It reads when Herod realize that he had been outwitted by the Magi. He was Furious and he gave orders to kill all boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under in coordinates with the time. He had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the Prophet Jeremiah Was fulfilled a voice was heard in Ramah weeping and great morning Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more.

You know these two passages of scripture represent very different reactions. To that first Christmas to that birth of the Christ child.

You know, we hear that the Magi were filled in with Wonder and overjoyed and then we get the very negative reaction of King Herod, you know Herod presents a very negative side of the Christmas story one that we don't normally focus on. You know, everything else is so positive. You know, like I said, we have the shepherds in the wise men worshipping the Christ child. We have the Angels announcing his birth and singing with great joy. You know, we have the whole Miracle of birth. The joy of God's love in the radiance of his life. But in the midst of this whole wonderful Christmas story that we all know and love so much. There's that one negative person with one very negative reaction. Your hair it sees the birth of Jesus as a fret almost as a curse, you know, the total opposite of how everyone else is singing it. So he issues this order. That all the little boys 2 years and younger be eliminated because he sees them as a threat and in horror we here that we think how could anyone ever issue something like that? You know back when the Mad driver first coming in and first came through he gave them the impression that although I would like to know where this young king is so that I can go see him and that I can worship Him and celebrate him when really all the time. He's thinking how good they'll find him for me and then I can go and eliminate this other king that's been born this threat to my power this threat to everything that I hold dear.

PS he knows we look at the way haired reacted. You know, we have to wonder why. and I think as we look at it we can get a peek at why he reacted in such despair to the idea of something that brings most the rest of the world great joy. But so often like I said this time of year is actually that way for a lot of other people instead of filling them with the joy that it should it only brings him more to spare.

I think the first reason for hair it seems to be that Harold was so wrapped up in himself that nobody else matter.

You know when Herod looked in his mirror, what did he see? He saw a king that was had great power great Prestige great wealth. So by all the world's standards. He would have been accepted as an extremely successful.

But obviously if this man feels threatened by the birth of a baby, he must have been also very insecure not sure of his power. you know Jesus once answered that which I think so ironic being that you know, he was the baby that was threatening him in Matthew chapter 6 19 and 20 Jesus would later say, you know, do not store up for yourselves Treasures on Earth. Where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal but store up for yourselves Treasures in Heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.

You know Jesus was explaining to us that we might value all those things, but we need to come to realize that they are only yours for a moment. And eventually they will slip away eventually. They won't matter. But here we have herot. who I like to think is a parrot is the Forerunner of all the scrooges and all the Grinch's that we ever had about Christmas Herod was the first You know, he said the ultimate bah humbug when he heard of the Christ child, and he issued that decree. to eliminate all the little boys because he did that because he was only looking at what he had in front of him. All of his treasure was in his possessions off. His treasure was in his power in the prestige that came with being a king. Tony heard that this new King has been born in that and I'm sure it didn't help when he saw people traveling from distant lands to come and see this newborn child. He felt threatened. Even by a little defenseless baby. He was threatened because he was so absorbed by the things of this world. He was so wrapped up in himself that he couldn't think of how this could be a good thing.

But you know this we've learned so often God doesn't measure things like the world measure things. You otherwise we wouldn't see it happen the way that it did that Christ Our King was born.

in a Manger too young unwed mother. but you know so often we get wrapped up in the standards of this world and we judge ourselves by those standards and that's difficult because the truth is we should all know that you know, there's always going to be someone who's a little sharper at what we do a little bit smarter than we are somebody who has a little bit more or it's a little bit taller a little bit. Whatever.

But you know, we try we keep trying to do those things. But what we need to come to realize is that your Christmas isn't about you know, how much? Can we spend on our children when we go to the store? This Christmas how many presents are under the tree or you know, can we impress everyone with the meal we have or impress them with the light display that we have out front of our house. It's not about those things. You know, God says those things don't matter to me what matters to him is that we are his children and do we have a relationship with him? The entire reason he sent his son to die on a cross was so that we all could have that relationship.

You know, God loved you enough to send his son to die in your place.

You shouldn't need to know much more than that. You know the second reason I think that hair is heart had become so hard and was that he couldn't his heart has become so hard. He couldn't respond to others in a loving way. And you know, that's something that's can easily happen teach bus. Did you know every time I read this passage of scripture? I do find myself wondering, you know, how could Herod have ever done that how could he ever have gotten to that point?

You know, the only answer is that he had become so calloused by the own sin in his life that he didn't even think about how what he was doing was impacting others. He was just worried about what he wanted and how much it was satisfying him. He didn't even care how it impacted other people. And you know often for people of great wealth or in great power that can easily happen. But the truth is send can do that to any of us. You know the longer we allow a certain send pattern to go on in our life. The more calistar heart becomes in her heart can get so hard that it no longer feels the pain that the sending our life might be causing other people. The struggles that's there that you know, and so we go on with no guilt. No remorse or anything for the sins that we may be committing. Because our heart has become so callous that we no longer feel the impact it has on others and the only way that I can think of that Herod could have issued that type of decree was if his heart was so calloused by that point. It almost felt absolutely nothing. And that is a scary thought to have to think that sin could calluses that much. That there would no longer be any sensitivity to what impact it is having on those around us. But it can certainly happen. I've seen it happen way too many times. Because we all can lose our sensitivity to the things of God when we allow send to continue. When we don't make the decision for it to stop. You know the influences of the world can creep in so slowly that it's hard for us to notice. Sometimes that those influences are changing the way we think. and we never realize that they're also changing the way we feel they're changing the way we react to other people the way that we interact with other people because they creep in so slowly sometimes and so subtly But they kind of slide in under our radar and we don't notice that we're treating other people in that way. We don't notice that we're becoming calloused.

7 times like Christmas roll around instead of feeling the great joy that we should feel during the season is for celebrating the birth of Christ. We only feel despair. Because we're focused on the wrong things instead of being focused on the cross were focused on all the things that we may not get. You know, it's children. They were talking about it the other day on wbcl. You know, they wanted to hear your story of the greatest reaction. You've seen to a gift. And they had some good stories of people calling in and then the other one DJ said hey, maybe we should ask people for the bad reactions to because you know those videos you see of the kid who starts crying when they open the gift cuz it's not what they want. And then the other ones like no no, no, we can't do that. Let's just focus on the positive, but you know is I thought about that I thought That could happen to a lot of us this Christmas. I think with all the stuff we've dealt with with covid-19.

That's probably the top thing on most people's Christmas list is here. I want to just have a normal Christmas someplace. I don't have to wear a mask someplace. I don't have to worry about touching people someplace. I can put all that behind me.

But the truth is if we're going to be responsible and think of other people that may not happen that may not be the smartest thing. That should happen. And if I think about that, I think you know, I can understand it. I certainly want to be with family. I want to connect with people.

But should that be what my joy is based off this Christmas?

Or what is the real source of my joy at Christmas?

Cuz no matter how much we have to wear a mask or social distance. That doesn't change that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. It doesn't change that. We're celebrating the birth of the Christ child. And that's what we have to stay focused on not on all the stuff we can't do. But stay focused on the fact we still have the freedom to worship God. We still have the freedom to celebrate the Christ child.

You know a third reason I think that Christmas was a curse for Hair It Is that has never learned that the only satisfying way to live is to live a life of love.

He just didn't get that.

You know, I think Herod thought that his happiness came from being in total control of everything. As king being able to dictate what happened all the time be in control of it all give orders to everyone. That's where his happiness came from. But you know, that's probably how he was raised. I'm sure as he was being raised and they knew that he would be next in line to become king. You know, he'd been taught that the only way to live is to you know, use the power that you have is King to rule over others. To continually exert your will upon them because you know, you have to always be in charge. You have to always control every situation. That's probably what he had been taught.

And if anything gets in your way you take care of it. In his case went to the extreme of eliminating innocent children.

You know, but if we think about it. We've been taught a lot of the same things by the world around us. That we always have to be in control of every situation that no one has the right to tell us what we can and cannot do even if it's in the best interest of public health and safety. No one can tell us those things. And you know, there's a lot of instances where that's right. but there's also a lot of instances where how does it hurt us to think of other people before we think of ourselves and to put others before ourselves?

I think that challenge is more evident than ever this year.

Because you know we need to remember that the way of the world is in the way that the world celebrates Christmas is not what it's all about. You know what? Jesus is trying to tell us is that if we're going to live a life the way that God wants us to live it. It's to live a life of love.

to love God to love others in first John Chapter 4 verses 16 through 18 it says and so we know and rely on the love God has for us God is love whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him in this way love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment because in this world we are like him There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

You know this we read that passage. There's two things that we need to know in order to understand the type of love that it's talking about their the first one is that God is love.

It's one of the most essential things of his nature is that God is love. It's his motive behind everything that he does. He always acts in a loving way towards his children. Now we may not understand how that's loving. That's why he does it. I'm sure that all of you have done something in regards to your children at one point in time that was entirely for their safety entirely for their betterment. But they may not think was very loving. But really that was your whole motivation behind doing it.

Yeah, it's kind of like my dog yesterday are golden retriever for some reason loves to eat rocks. Her particular favorite is nice flat black ones. If she can get a hold of them. She will eat them and she's gotten really good. She can be walking. I just bend over pick it up and you never even know it. I mean, she doesn't break stride anything. She's great at that. But yesterday I was out walking her if she did that I heard it. So I stopped her Pride it out of her mouth and threw it away. She wouldn't look at me for half the day yesterday then. She was mad at me. I mean for half the day she stayed away from me. I'd go into room she'd leave it. She'd go there and then she was not happy.

Because I took her Rockaway. And you know this I thought about that. I thought you were isn't that how we are sometimes even though something's hurting us even though something's not good for us mean a belly full of rocks isn't good for anybody.

But we're upset because we can't have what we want when we want it.

And I think we've experienced so much that this last year the truth is if you know, it's not just healthcare workers who are tired. We're all tired. We've all been through so much with this covid-19. Oh, we're trying to decide at our house who's going to get to be the champion that gets tested the most times throughout this, you know, so far Julie's got the lead with three times.

But you know in the scope of everything. That's not that big a deal. We make it a big deal isn't an inconvenience. Yes is an uncomfortable. Oh you bet. If you haven't had that test count yourself lucky.

But you know in the scope of everything as we think about it. We have to realize that you know God is love and it's all about love and I have to believe that this whole thing. Although it may not be God who started the whole covid-19. God can sure use the whole covid-19 to teach has quite a bit. You know, I hope if anything we've learned that even though we thought we could. Initiate and establish every line through every relationship through social media. We're all sick and tired of that by this point, we would rather see some people face-to-face actually shake some hands actually spend some time face-to-face with people. So maybe the good thing out of all this is freaking of value that a lot more.

You know at first it seems pretty good that you can do Church online every weekend right cuz hey, you can sit there in your pajamas drinking your coffee and go to church.

But after a while we miss that interaction with actual human people. my prayer is that as we come through this full value that the second thing we have to understand about God's love is we only know how to love because he loved us first.

That's an extremely important thing to remember.

You know any time we do something loving?

Let's be honest. It's not all just out of our own goodness. The only reason that there's any good within any of us. Is because of God loving us and we need to realize that and that is the source of all those things and when we understand these things about God's love that's when we can perform those acts of pure kindness with the right motivation with the right heart with the right attitude, you know, it's not because we feel that we have two butts because we actually want to because we're filled with God's love we're filled with God's love to the point that it's overflowing out of us and we want to express it.

And you know, I think that's when we truly begin to see that our love for others is that sign that God's love truly does dwell within us. Because when we come when we come through this season, and we can do it in the hard calloused way.

That should scare us. We should realize that's not the reaction were supposed to have to celebrating the birth of the Christ child. Yeah, we might be upset because this Christmas isn't going to be like the last 53 Christmases have been we have to celebrate it slightly differently. But we can still celebrate no matter what's going on in the world. We can still celebrate the birth of the Christ child.

You have to realize in the midst of whatever's going on in our life that God is still working that God is still in charge that God still loves us. He loves everyone. He doesn't just love those who test negative for covet our he doesn't just love those who are positive for those who recover from it those who don't he doesn't do things that way. God's love and salvation is for everyone. And he wants to see everyone saved and he wants us to be able to use this time of year when the whole world knows Christmas is happening. to share that love with others You know harriton understand these things. Herod didn't realize that this king who had been born who he saw as a threat. Could have been the greatest blessing to him. You know if I prepared this week I thought about that. What if Herod had reacted the opposite way?

What if he would have went and knelt at the manger and worship Jesus with the Magi? That's what he told him. He wanted to do. But obviously that wasn't his reaction when he issued the decree to get rid of all the little boys.

Can you imagine how much different his life would have been how much different the world would have been? If he would have had a positive reaction if he would have reacted in love.

We'll never know and we don't understand why God works in those way, but he does. As we go through this Christmas season, we all know people who are struggling right now. He struggle every Christmas maybe that maybe just this Christmas. And you know, we know that they have Hertz we know that they have pain we all deal with stuff like that in our life. But what's share the real gift of Christmas with them?

You know, we may not be able to do it the way we typically would but let's be sure that we celebrate the birth of Christ and that we let others know that that is where our joy comes from.

Not from what we can and cannot do. But from celebrating the birth of our Lord and savior. You know this Christmas I think God is looking at us to see as he does every year of how will we react? How are we going to respond to the greatest gift ever given? Will it be the cold heartless response her hair done or will people see us reflect the love of God? Which one is it going to be? And that's a question. We have to ask ourselves as we approach any Christmas.

And you know when we gather together for our candlelight service, I always think it's probably one of the most special services of the year. And as we gather together for that this year, you know, I pray that we can all feel. The Holiness of it and just sense it of God's presence being here. How do you know if we all know people who might be struggling with things maybe? If we can get them to come to any church service, maybe that's the one we need to try to get them to that. They can feel that sense of family and feel that connection to God on that night. Please bear with me in prayer.

Heavenly Father we pray