Would you show up to someone else's birthday party with a gift for yourself? Sounds crazy right but at Christmas we do this when we ignore the fact that Christmas is not your birthday, it's Jesus birthday. The story of the Wise men show us that we should first put the attention where the attention is due and that is on Jesus because after all it's His birthday we are celebrating. When we do this we will then discover that Jesus gives us the best gift of all at Christmas as He gives us His life and we discover that at Christmas we are the reason for the season.
Date: 12/24/2017
Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12
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From Series: "Enjoy Christmas"
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas??? Have you ever wondered how Christmas got to be so crazy? When did the thought of actually relaxing and enjoying the Christmas season become so unrealistic?
Now, let’s face it. We all know we’re far too busy during the holidays. We have To-Do lists with a million things on them and a very short window of opportunity to get everything done and checked off before “the big day.” Even though stores stock their shelves for Christmas earlier and earlier each year, enticing us to start and even finish our shopping well before ”Black Friday,” we still end up frantic on Christmas Eve trying to get everything done.
It was, of course, never God’s intention that we race through Christmas just to “git ‘er done.” But it can seem overwhelming, if not impossible, to approach Christmas any other way! What can we do about it? Where do we start?
Enter Advent.While the rest of the world jumps right from “Back to School” to Christmas, God encourages His people to be patient. To stop. To wait. To anticipate.
Advent – the four weeks leading up to Christmas -- is meant to be a time for us to exercise patience, learning to wait, anticipating the wonderful celebration that is to come. Instead of running through the season, God’s desire is for us to walk through these four weeks, allowing the reality of the birth of His Son, Jesus, to wrap around us, rather than “coming unwrapped” when our checklist doesn’t get done.
If you’re ready to get off the holiday treadmill then you won’t want to miss even one Sunday of our new, upcoming sermon series on Advent. You know that God would much rather have you in church each Sunday of December (and Christmas Eve), than see you frantically trying to do just one more thing. This new series will give you the encouragement and tools you need to say “no” to the world’s busy-ness and “yes” to God’s business and enjoy, perhaps for the first time in a long time, Christmas.
Choose to make 2017 the year that you slow down and make a concerted, prayerful effort to focus on the little babe, born in a manger . . . Emmanuel, God with us.
