A Christmas Story

Now “A Christmas story” is one of the most famous movies of all time. You will see it played on Christmas day pretty much all day. It’s known for lines such as “You’ll shoot your eyes out kid” to scenes such as the kid trying to lick a pole and getting his tongue stuck on it.

Now this might be “A Christmas story” but it’s not “The Christmas Story”.

Today I am going to share with you the true Christmas story. We start with a the preparation of a baby that is born to die. To die and save us all from our sin. This babies name is Jesus!

The bibles speaks to us about this...

Read Luke 2:1-7

No room for a King in a Manger

Now, In the typical play we hear of Joseph and Mary arriving at the inn, and are confronted with a Scrooge of an innkeeper. The problem with that is that there is no innkeeper mentioned in the Bible. The fact that they arrived late at the inn or hotel and they had no rooms available simply isn't true.

The word translated for the inn is the word "Kataluma" which is translated as guest chamber or an upper room so it's not that Mary and Joseph were late but, that they were rejected by their own family. This could be because they were ashamed of Mary being an unwed mother. There simply was no room for the Son of God.

The word for inn is also found in Mark 14:14 to describe "the upper room" the same place where Jesus observed the last supper with his disciples. In biblical days they kept mangers inside the house itself and brought the animals inside at night. So the manger was a very uncomfortable place to give birth. It was dirty, smelled really bad and was a box where food for livestock was placed.

As a noun manger means "food" as a verb it means "to eat" In the book of John it says this "I am the bread of life. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. "The whole picture of the manger scene symbolizes the humility that Christ would show in his life and ministry.

Philippians 2:8 says And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. In today's culture the Birth of Christ has been overcrowded by shopping malls and materialism and we have exchanged service for selfies

No room for a king in our hearts

We don’t make room for Jesus personally, with God being taken out of the schools, media, department stores, and even taken God out of our Churches with our man made religion and our list of do's and dont's.

We have to purposefully engage Christ personally day by day and develop our relationship with him or else we are going to get swallowed up by the world.

We are in a spiritual battle for our souls. We need to be in his world daily and be people who humble ourselves and seek God's face in prayer and be in community with each other and confess our sins and keep each other accountable. We all want God to move in our lives.

The problem is that our lives are so full, that we don’t leave any room for God to work.

We fill our lives with work and play and relationships and hobbies; at the end of the day, we only have a tiny bit left to give to God. Do we expect God to work in our life? We should look in expectation of his coming.

Just like when he came the first time, we should all the more look with expectation of our Savior who will come and restore everything to its proper place. If we want him to move in our hearts we need to allow him and de-clutter the house of our heart and allow his cleansing power to reign supreme.

Why we don't make room for Jesus

It's uncomfortable

That brings up a question, if God is great and wonderful, full of power and might, then why don't we make room for Jesus.

For one, it's uncomfortable because we would rather wear our cross around our kneck then on our back and we have to rearrange our plans and move some things around and for most of us, change is uncomfortable. That is when we need to trust in Jesus.

Do you think he was very comfortable laying in a manger and hanging on a cross? NO. He wasn't but, it is so worth it to step out of our comfort zone and trust in him. It is by faith that we take that step out of the boat. You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore."

Make room for Jesus to eliminate that uncomfortable situation of showing forgiveness to someone,

make room for Jesus by committing yourself to get out of bed every Sunday to come to Church

make room for Jesus by telling your family, friends, and co workers about the gospel of Jesus Christ. That he was born, died, resurrected and now sits at the right hand of the father.

Another reason we don’t make room for Jesus is because...

It costs us something

Usually making a commitment to making room for Jesus costs us something.

It could be money, time, a hobby we love, and a sin that we cling to. Jesus said come and follow me; take up your cross daily. Remember how Mary was at the feet of Jesus, worshiping and adoring him while her sister Martha was busy serving.

Making room for Jesus means that we forget about our agenda and get on his and we magnify him for who he is.

Then in the book of John we have Mary pour an expensive bottle of perfume on the feet of Jesus. This is the true essence of worship.

Have you ever had someone walk in the room and you can smell the nice smelling fragrance even if you're at the other end of the room well, that's what our lives should be to God.

It should be a sweet smelling fragrance and aroma to God that is pleasing in his sight.

Only then, will we be worshippers who worship him in spirit and in truth.

Now, It's easy to live by faith on Sunday mornings at Church and around Christians but, do people know you are a

Christ follower outside of Church and in the community?

Do they see you model Christ with your words and actions?

Are you bold in your faith?

As we reflect on Advent and the birth of Christ we wait and wait and wait for that day to come.

He has given us gifts that aren't even worthy to compare to anything else and those are peace, joy, hope, and love which are shared by all those who place their faith in Jesus Christ for their salvation!

Make room for Jesus in your heart. Let him cleanse you, purify you, and sanctify you wholly.

The baby that was born to die was the same one that holds the stars in place, whose feet and hands were pierced with nails and whose body was flogged for our sin and rose from the dead 3 days later.

One day he will come again. Let's look with anticipation for His coming and until then be imitators of his humility.

We are called to reflect the image of God and this is the end of religion that we love God with all our heart, all our mind, and all our strength. He is either Lord of all or he is not Lord at all.

Jesus is the real innkeeper. He said "I am the door. Those who come in through me will be saved.

THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS CHRIST

The second coming of Jesus Christ is the hope of believers that God is in control of all things, and is faithful to the promises and prophecies in His Word. In His first coming, Jesus Christ came to earth as a baby in a manger in Bethlehem, just as prophesied.

Jesus fulfilled many of the prophecies of the Messiah during His birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection. However, there are some prophecies regarding the Messiah that Jesus has not yet fulfilled.

The second coming of Christ will be the return of Christ to fulfill these remaining prophecies.

In His first coming, Jesus was the suffering Servant. In His second coming, Jesus will be the conquering King.

In His first coming, Jesus arrived in the most humble of circumstances. In His second coming, Jesus will arrive with the armies of heaven at His side.