11.29.2015 How to be People of Light and Life this Christmas

11-29-2015 from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

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Advent – coming or breaking in – there is a sense of expectance – we are waiting and looking forward to the celebration of Christmas – in Ancient Israel, they waited and waited, for hundreds of years, for the coming of the Messiah – His advent. And we look forward to His coming at Christmas, and His coming again.
I am going to read the most famous Christmas verse:
John 3: 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
He gave… a demonstration of His love and mercy and grace. He gave His Son out of love that we might have life in Him. Not that the world would be judged, but saved. There is a giving and a sending. God’s love demands that God send.
God is always sending, coming, seeking, or going. It starts that way in the Garden – God came to them immediately. God shows up – and seeks them. We see all the stories of Jesus focused on God’s desire and seeking of people to be brought into relationship with Him. The focus is on God’s desire to save the world, and His love acts as the foundation and everything He is comes out of His love for the world – and that is seen in the Christmas story.
We look at verses like this – and the Christmas story – and there is a misunderstanding of how it works. In John 1:
Let’s pray – Lord, thank You – this Christmas, for the opportunity to turn our eyes to You. Free our hearts and spirits to hear from You – in the midst of the busyness – that our hearts would be drawn to You – that we would understand why You came to earth – and how deeply You love this world – and we would understand our part in the work You have to do in this world. Lord, I think Christmas opens up an unbelievable opportunity in our culture to live for You and reveal You to a watching world. Help us to be people in whom others see Jesus Christ. In Your name we pray. Amen.
John 1:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome (or comprehend) it.
This is John’s Christmas story. The people who are reading this story know Who he is talking about. Unlike Luke and Matthew, John goes even further back – to the Beginning – He is the Creator of all things –and He has come into this world – from the beginning God’s intent was to enter His creation as one of us – it was not a secondary plan. It was what God always wanted from the beginning of creation – to be a part of what He created as one of the creatures. Think about it! It is unfathomable! Then to spend all eternity as a part of His creation.
What God does in Jesus is come all the way down here to join us – and it is just awesome – to think that our God would do that! There are many parallels to creation in this story – and it shows us His creativity –
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.
Genesis 1:1 – in the beginning – darkness and void –
Good and bad – Light and dark – we use this terminology – the sea was considered to be evil – darkness over the sea – and then – LIGHT! And it was good! That is a picture of this world that is complete darkness until the light enters into the world.
And it tells us – this world – there is no good without the light of Christ. Apart from Christ coming into this world – the light shines in darkness.
Advent – just in the wording – it is an INVASION! Think of it that way – God invading this world – but it is a benevolent invasion! It is not an army to destroy – like John 3:17 – it is not to JUDGE the world – that is not why the light entered the world – but to SAVE the world – and this invasion is one of SALVATION – and it is an invasion of peace, joy, forgiveness and love.
When we talk about the mission of advent, we are talking about a mission of love. Everything He does is done out of love. All the other aspects of God flow out of His love. All the good things we know about Him come out of His love. And our mission – and His – is to reflect His love for humankind. Everything we do must come out of an understanding of His love for us. Paul said the love of Christ must motivate and control us – it must be the foundation for everything we do in life. Moral people can only be moral to the extent he understands and reflects God’s love. A person who is moral but does not reflect God’s love is totally lost. How do we know that? The Prodigal Brother. The older brother did everything right – he was moral – “I have done everything I was supposed to do!” – and yet he was completely lost in his ability to comprehend God’s love.
God’s love is like the offensive coordinator of a football team – without it – we saw what happened last week.
For Christmas – can you let God’s love motivate and control your life? Start there! Whatever happens in your day – God loves me and must fill me –
Jesus started his mission – “This is My beloved Son! Listen to Him!”
We must live our lives by those words – that we are loved by God – and in all the hecticness and busyness – and all the evil out there – there is a lot! And it will fill the news for the rest of our lives – the darkness is not going away – we live in a dark world – we need to live and enter into that dark world with the love of God burning in our hearts and souls – How we respond to people!
You may have heard of the young pastor in Indianapolis whose wife was murdered – He chooses love and not fear and hatred. This is a time for us to choose love.
The light shined in the darkness and they did not receive it.
The world rejects light. When we think of light – like This little Light of mine – a great song – but it doesn’t say it – it is NOT a little light – but a flaming torch – BONFIRE! This enormous bonfire – and our little children – if they know Christ – have a bonfire – not a little light – but like Jesus said – like a city on a hill that cannot be hidden – or a lamp that lights an entire room. We have a blazing fire that we take into the world – but so often, our blazing fire is barely flickering. We live our lives like the world – but we are called to be different from all aspects of the world and culture. We are to be different to all of it.
John -1:6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
There is this word that became flesh – and by the way – people are going to be part of this – Like John – God said, I will let you participate in this divine mission. In the same way – we are participants in God’s mission. The challenge is to be on mission for God – on Christmas Mission – a mission of Advent…
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
The world does not really KNOW Him.
11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
He is rejected in all ways…
12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
John 1:11-12 tells us that His own – the people who should have known – the ones He worked with all these years – did not receive Him - BUT – no matter your background or nationality or category you are placed in in this world – all that is required is to receive the Light (Christ) – to become a part of God’s family
Revelation tells us that Every tribe and tongue and people and nation will be part of God’s kingdom – it will be filled with every color – every language –every culture – every personality – that is the message for the world.
Galatians says, speaking of the Kingdom - there is neither Jew nor Greek – male or female – slave nor free – So there is this incredibly diverse kingdom, and He wants His church to be diverse, and throughout the world it is, and He wants us to celebrate that! It is a celebrated thing. In heaven we will celebrate all of the different races and nationalities – even the ones we don’t like! Even our enemies – America’s enemies – but guess what?! We have no enemies! There is neither Jew nor Greek nor slave– all are one in Christ. Peter says, we are a new race.
When we think of race issues – and they are large in our country – enormous and dominate the news – two things must happen. 1) there must be a celebration of diversity – that was God’s choice to create vast diversity of culture and thinking and race – and 2) As Christians – we are first Christian! God wants us to celebrate His incredibly diverse world – but as part of His family – that is what we are first – before anything else. We aren’t first Buckeyes or Americans – but we have more in common with our brothers and sisters in some foreign land where we don’t want to be – than we do with our neighbors who don’t know Christ! That is really hard to comprehend.
This is our family. I don’t think race will ever be solved in culture – but I think it can be solved in the Church – as an example – the Church can set forth and say, here is what it ought to look like – that is our job! But sometimes the church is not the opposite when it comes to these issues.
How to be people of light and life this Christmas:
1) Be a person of giving – for the next four weeks – and beyond Christmas gift giving – give beyond that. I encourage you – give all the giving you can that is non-material. To be counter-cultural – do all the nonmaterial giving you can. Time. Time is much more valuable than material stuff – isn’t it?
Move beyond your family. Find ways WITH your family to give your time to those outside. Whatever works for you.
2) Give undivided attention to people. This requires listening and being quiet and not always having to be active.
3) Give support. Find people’s burdens to bear. How can you bear others’ burdens with them? Over the holidays, many carry heavy burdens – and do what you can to find those people and bear those burdens with them.
4) Get into the spirit! And by that I mean the fruit of the Spirit! Love, joy, peace, patience… - JOY – be a person who celebrates life and Christmas well. It is not about material.
I saw a meme about Thanksgiving and Black Friday – “We are the only people who can take the day we are supposed to be thankful for what we have and turn it into the day we want more!”
5) Self-control – Contentment - to be able to say – I have enough! I do not need any more.
6) Choose to live with a little less so you can give more!
Ask yourself – what do you have in excess – and what can you do with it? I heard of two experiments:
First experiment – not to buy food until the pantry is cleared. How long can you go without buying more food (not counting things like milk)…
2nd experiment – go through all of your clothing without repeating! See how many days – (Even if it looks terrible) – I read of someone who went 150 days without wearing the same clothes! That’s a log of clothes – but probably all of us, if we wore everything in our closets and drawers, could go two months!
Finally – and on this one, will show a video by Ann Voskamp: (6:55-9:26) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTSHtEpMrto
Ann Voskamp: The universal pattern throughout scripture –is this powerful paradox: there has to be a revolution of authentic gratitude for there to be an authentic resolution of issues. They thought when you are finally joyful, THEN you can be grateful. But the Scripture and studies and gratitude interventions proved otherwise – only when you give thanks can you be grateful. You may be thinking the dark is too dark – but Jesus – with an option of supernatural options – what does Jesus do? Broke bread and GAVE THANKS. If Jesus could choose gratitude as elemental in destroying evil … maybe our giving thanks does a radical of good… Gratitude never fails to radicalize the radically grateful. When you are radically grateful by being blessed, you will go to radical lengths to share it and are radically generous to the oppressed. Gratitude starts movements. The world turns by one grace given after another.