Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Special Services / Advent 2002

12/24/02 Christmas Eve

Intro: Everyone wants Christmas to be perfect.

 -All the family home for the holidays with everyone smiling and getting along at least on Christmas day.
 -A layer of newly fallen snow on the trees, but not enough to block travel on the roads or to have to shovel the driveway.
 -Everyone loves their gifts, and lets you know it
 -And..there are lots of gifts, right Morgan?

 But it doesn't happen like that does it? Our dreams of a perfect Christmas rarely come true.

ILL: Read article in 'Focus on the Family'

 Perhaps you never had a Christmas that ...imperfect. But, for many of us, Christmas never even gets close to our ideal, often Christmas is just too much! Too much shopping and wrapping, to  much baking and cooking, too much house cleaning, decorating, and entertaining. And by the time the holiday season is over, we are often physically, emotionally and financially spent.

 Just what was it that went wrong? Perhaps we came into the holiday season looking for the wrong thing. There are many different feelings and expectations that influence the way we approach the Christmas season. Past Christmases, cherished childhood memories, and the abundance of  advertisements and personalities like Martha Stewart, who tell you what to do to   have a perfect Christmas.

 The demands to achieve the perfect Christmas seem never ending. Pretty soon Christmas is little more than checking off items on a To Do list. We often don't stop long enough to find what really makes Christmas meaningful? I think this story says it all.

ILL: 'After all the packages have been opened, I noticed my son sadly slumped on the couch. What's wrong, sweetie? I asked. Aren't you happy with your gifts? Yes, he replied, but mom, I got everything I wanted and now I don't have anything to look forward to.'

 Ever felt that way? It's because the perfect Christmas isn't found in the gathering of loved ones, the wonderfully decorated homes and smell of the fireplace, it isn't found in the giving or receiving of packages placed neatly under the Christmas tree.

 But, the perfect Christmas can be found in a gift. One amazing yet understated gift to the world..a tiny baby born in a non-descript manger. Whose sole purpose in life, was to reconcile us with God. That single solitary gift makes the perfect Christmas a reality. If there ever was a one size fits all, a gift you just can't do without, that gift would be Jesus.

Read: Luke 2:11

 Jesus was given to us..to you, by Almighty God Himself, to be your Savior. One who will save you from the penalty of your sins. Since everyone sins, everyone needs Jesus. That's why is He the perfect gift.

Read: Gen. 3:15

 Way back at the beginning of time, God promised to give us this gift. Like He always does, God kept His promise.

Read: Gal. 4:4

 God sent His gift of Jesus at the perfect time and in the perfect way. He was born as a baby, just like you and me. He grew up just like you and me. He experienced everything we experience in life...because he was like us, yet without sin, the Bible tells us.

Read: John 3:16; Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 6:23

 Since everyone sins, everyone needs to be forgiven to be reconciled with God. We, could never be good enough to please God, But Jesus, was good enough. And his life was the greatest and most meaningful gift he could ever give...and it's a free gift. It's costs you nothing. It is yours for the taking.

Conclusion

ILL: ' It was the week before Christmas. Parking spaces were hard to come by. There were long lines, crowed stores, rude people and grossly inflated prices. In a checkout line in a crowded department store, a man was heard to say 'They should kill the guy who started Christmas.' One wise and godly woman in line said 'They did, they hung him on a cross.'

ILL: Martin Luther, the great German reformer once said 'Christmas consists of three miracles. The first is that God became man, the second is that a virgin was a mother and the third is that the heart of mankind should believe this.'

 The perfect Christmas is the gift of heaven given to us by God through the birth of Jesus Christ.

 Perhaps, for many of you here tonight, this wonderful gift, is still unwrapped, and remains unopened.  But the gift still has your name on it. You open the gift through faith, by believing Jesus was born and died to bring you forgiveness, to bring you life, eternal life in heaven.

 That's the greatest gift for the perfect Christmas.

 God became flesh, heaven came down to earth, forgiveness and life is offered and we had nothing to do with it. It is a gift we did not earn or pay for.

 Let your search for the perfect Christmas begin at the manger and end at the Cross.Jesus, God's perfect gift...for you!
 

Luke 2:11 'Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.'

Genesis 3:15 'And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.'

Galatians 4:4 'But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law'

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.'

Ephesians 2:8-9  'For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.'

Romans 6:23  'For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.'