12.20.2015 The Light and Dark of Christmas

12-20-2015 from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

CHRISTMAS 2015 December 20, 2015

Luke 2:10
Do not be afraid; For behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people

Matthew 2:18
A voice was heard in Ramah,
Weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children;
And she refused to be comforted,
Because they were no more.

Advent – eagerly anticipating and preparing for the coming of our long expected Jesus. Advent is partly a time when we look forward to the coming of Jesus and now as we look forward to the second coming of Jesus. In previous weeks we have looked at God’s love for mankind, the incarnation, peace. This week we will look at something maybe a bit darker

Let’s pray

Mike offered a couple topics to select from and when I saw this one I just had to chose it.
Other topics he offered: Family – Joy -
The Dark Side SLIDE 2
Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. People are generous and seem happier a bit more patient.
I think this is party due to the season being so flooded with the message of Christmas. There is no other time or event that is as thoroughly documented as Christmas. No other day do we have 2 months where every radio station and store play songs 24/7 explaining that day. Christmas has songs and stories and movies written about every aspect and we hear these over and over. In many ways our Christmas is defined by these songs that we hear. Possibly more so that what we read in the Bible. Many ways our doctrine is defined by what we sing. SLIDE 3 We all know there were 3 kings and they came from Orient Are. NOT We sing it every year.
Does the Bible say there were three? No, there were three gifts. I think there were probably more that came. They were wise men – not kings. Satraps. Orient Are? Well, from the East.

SLIDE 4 We learn of the Angels from realms of glory,
This looks more like the angels of Mordor.
SLIDE 5 that ox and lambs keep time during drum solos, SLIDE 6 that shepherds joyous strains were prolonging, SLIDE 7 an everlasting light shining in the dark streets of Bethlehem,
It was talking not of the star – but of the One who was born…
SLIDE 8 we learn of gold, frankinsense and myrrh. We also learn of information not readily found in the Bible. SLIDE 9 Mutant reindeer, SLIDE 10 runaway snowmen, SLIDE 11 roasting chestnuts, SLIDE 12 reindeer running down our elderly in the streets, SLIDE 13 scrawny Christmas Trees, SLIDE 14 our mothers kissing Santa Claus and of course SLIDE 15 a green monster whose heart grows three times. We learn of people we will never know or meet, Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley, Parson Brown, Farmer Gray, Fanny Bright, and the torch lady Jeanette Isabella. We learn about White Christmas and Blue Christmas and Silver Bells and Greensleeves and Red Noses and a partridge in a pear tree. There are movies and stories and songs from every era and genre.

I think all these stories add excitement and flavor to this special season. I just think we need to be careful to remember the True Reason of the season and that all these others are just fun stories.
You can take the early chapters of every gospel at least the first three and find a song about almost every verse. Except for one story. Amidst all this joy and happiness in the Christmas Story we have a dark story of an evil King. I want to look briefly at that today.
The story I am referring to is about Herod and “The Slaughter of the Innocents”. The story starts with the three kings from orient are following a yonder star. We know Magi from the east saw a star and followed it to Jerusalem. They came to Herod to ask where the baby king might be. Herod had his wise men look into this and they directed them to Bethlehem asking them to return and tell him where the baby is so he can go and honor him as well. The wise men had a vision that they should not return to Herod so they snuck out the back door. When Herod figured he had been duped he determined when the star first showed and then ordered his men to go to Bethlehem and kill all male babies under the age of 2. We know the story how Joseph had a dream after the Magi left warning him and he took his family to Egypt and thus avoided the massacre.
We always think about the ushering in of the baby Jesus as a time of joy and peace and beauty and happiness and carols and wassail. Yet in those days and especially in Bethlehem it was also very much a time of darkness. Great jot amidst great sorrow

You may have noticed that I glossed over much of the story. I don’t want to focus too much on all the dark things that can happen. We all know those when they occur. And they do and will occur. What I want to talk about today is how do we deal with these times?

I sometimes think that from the original creation up until the creation of a new heaven and earth all this time in between is basically a battle between good and evil. There is much good in the world but also much evil and these co-exist just not always amicably. Malachi was the last time God had spoken to Israel prior to Jesus coming. That meant there were 400-500 years of silence. If this whole creation thing is a battle between good and evil then the birth, life, death and raising of Jesus is the pivotal period. I can only imagine that there was a lot of activity stirring, tensions, conflicts. I imagine there was plenty of conflict and insecurity during this point.

It is this battle and the struggles that arise from these conflicts that make us the people we are. If you believe that stress is physically and emotionally harmful to you, when stress enters it is likely you will be negatively affected physically and emotionally. Likewise if you see stress and a period for growth you will likely come through the time stronger because of it.

Story of the butterfly and the boy SLIDE 16
There is a story of a butterfly in the cocoon – squeezing and wiggling to get out of the cocoon – it appears to be difficult. I’ve heard that if you open the cocoon for the butterfly, its wings never come out properly – and so the stress is necessary.
I think this is true for us – I used to ask God to take away the stress – but I think it helps us. There was a
I do not want to do a psychology talk but I do want to discuss a bit of our responses to these times. There are times even during Christmas season where dark times occur. In many ways it is known that these last two weeks of the year are the highest level of dark times occurring. And Dark times are amplified during these seasons. Hard times can happen to us or they can happen to those close to us. But they are surely going to happen.
I bowl. I am the last bowler on our team, so I usually need to get more pins – like, I need to get two strikes in the last frame to win – and it causes me stress. I recognize when I am under stress, I get a little adrenaline pump – and I realize I need to slow down and take advantage of that. The adrenaline can help. The things that happen in my body – I can use that to help. It only works in bowling, not in my regular life.
Here are a couple things I cling to. A couple weeks ago Mike started with what he called the most popular Christmas verse John 3:16: SLIDE 17 16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:16 – God loves us so much… He gave everything. The creator of the universe loves us so much. THAT is absolutely true. There are some gray things in the Bible - like how many wise men came from the East – but you can bank on this – you can count on this – God loves you. Sometimes I think – yes, I know you love me… -
The first and foremost thing we always need to remember is that God loves us so much He gave everything he had for our benefit. God loves us. That is the one overriding fact and truth that we must never lose site of. God loves us.

Next we can equally confident that God will never leave us nor forsake us.

SLIDE 18 In Isaiah 41:10 ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

SLIDE 19 Hebrews 13:5 …because God has said, “Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you.”
God loves us and will never leave nor desert us. He is not off somewhere remote doing his God things not really paying attention to us. He is right there involved and concerned. It is not so much that God removes all adversity from our lives and destroys our enemies but more that He is sitting next to you with his arm wrapped over your shoulder saying see that stress over there we can do this together.

Another Christmas story is from Charlie Brown. The famous story when Linus tells Charlie what the true meaning of Christmas is. You know that part we all get all goose bumpy and teary eyed. Charles Schultz took his most insecure and insignificant character and as he spoke he sets aside his trusted security blanket and looks at his true security. Too often I find I still cling onto that blanket.

It takes faith to believe God loves me that much and will never leave me but stick by my side through it all.

These hard times don’t just happen to us but also to others around us. I wanted to discuss some - what are reactions to others should be when they are going through tough times. But I decided to take out that whole page. And I will sum it up with simply a story about my wife. I have been through some hard times and she has helped in different ways.

I want to embarrass my wife. I mean I really want to embarrass her. So here goes. There have been times where we need to make some decision or another I am stressing about the whole thing. Anxious, discouraged, stressed whatever. Now some times men your wives will say something like “We need to talk” I have heard that is the most feared phrase. My wife has either too smart to fall for that or just hasn’t tried it yet. But what she does is t say “I am reading a book…” Sometimes she will approach me with, I have been reading a book where they discussed something similar and here are a few thoughts that you should fix in your life before you can really make this decision. I usually feel more defeated and unclear of what really needs to happen with more burdens being loaded.
Then there have been similar times but her response was simply I know this is hard for you but I love you and will never leave you. Usually the stress disappears and the decision is easily resolved and I feel like watch out world here we come!
Another song we sing – jingle bells – talks about Fannie Brite – I don’t know if it is in reference to Fannie Brice or not – but she is a people- oriented scholar – like Barbra sang – People who need people – we are made in God’s image – and He loves people so much
I don’t think we need to solve someone elses problems as much as share their problem now we solve OUR problem.
SLIDE 20 Philemon 1:7 For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.
Let’s all work to become heart refreshers