Will You Have A Christ-Miss

And in that region, there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. They were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, be not afraid. For behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people. For to you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord. Whether or not we want to acknowledge it, Christmas is fast coming to us. And my thoughts today as I waited on the Lord to share this week are a little bit out of the ordinary for the basic way that I approach a teaching. But I felt really compelled to speak on this whole theme of Christmas. And I don't know what the end. We have a little ritual after every teaching when Guy comes up from back at the sound booth back there and says, well, what's the name on the tape? And I'd say 80 or 90% of the time by that point. I don't know. I've usually changed it and it doesn't usually matter a whole lot. And I thought a lot this week about, well, what am I going to say? What's the name of this thing going to be? I guess the best one I've come up with at this point is how to have a Lousy Christmas. I don't think I'll sell a lot of them, but Walt Spiker will give a lot away. Hallelujah. There are a number of things, a number of forces that are working at us right now to cause Christmas to be an unfulfilling time, in fact, even an angry time in many of us. And I found it really important that we take the time this morning to briefly address the whole thing about Christmas and look at a couple of these specific forces in detail and try to understand why there's such pressure on us as Christians when it comes to Christmas time. This came really alive to me on Thursday evening when I sat down with our home group and I just casually, as we were getting started, raised the question. I said, do we need to talk in our home group about whether or not we'll celebrate Christmas? There was the normal period of questioning. And then one fellow looked and he said, are you serious? He didn't know if I was kidding around. And we had a full gamut of response from that, which, of course we're going to celebrate Christmas all the way to one other fellow who said, I think that's a really good question. I'm not sure. And I would believe Based on what I know of this fellowship and our background, the mixture of our heritages and traditions, that we are all coming at this thing from a slightly different perspective. There are some here for whom Christmas is steeped in a tradition and a certain way of doing things and a lot of participation and celebration. There are others here sitting today, I would believe that have probably avoided any real contact with Christmas time. And it's kind of a precious thing. I have written in the COVID page of the newsletter which you're going to get before you leave today, about the. I don't know if it's on the COVID or not, come to think of it. Probably isn't. Oh, it is. Okay. But anyhow, I've written there about the opportunity that we have to set a new heritage as a fellowship, that we're coming fresh at this thing as a people. And I believe that it's very important that as we come, that we come with understanding, that we come with openness and that we come with a real desire. And I want to say to you, I am really looking forward to celebrating Christmas with you people. What Ray said this morning about friendships and love goes for me too. And I praise the Lord for that. And I believe that if there's anybody with whom I want to spend Christmas, it's my family and you people. And you're going to hear me give somewhat of an apology today. You know that word, using it in the sense of an endorsement for us to have an unabashed, full blown Christmas celebration. Now, many people would want you to think that Christmas is for the merchants. Many people would want you to think that Christmas is for the people who are have a lot of money to spend. Many people want you to think that Christmas is just for kids. I believe that Christmas is for Christians. It's a time for we as believers to celebrate and to share the joy that we know more than anyone else in the world. The reality of the God who is Emmanuel God with us. Now let's look at the three forces or three forces that I think are most relevant right now. And there's probably 10 other ones, but we're going to be focusing on three. The first one is tradition. Now there's two ways that tradition can trip you up at Christmas time. One would be that you absolutely are afraid of anything to do with tradition. People have left churches and come to Northway because they couldn't stand the tradition. How many of you know that tradition can be death dealing? But on the other hand, there's a sense in which if you think all tradition is a violation of the love of God. And all tradition is death at its core. If you find yourself among those who avoid, like the plague, anything to do with a heritage, anything to do with what is preceded, then you may find yourself disagreeing with the Apostle Paul. The word tradition in the Greek is paradosis, which means para means over. And from didymi means to give, to give over. Tradition is something that we give over, that we receive and then give over to someone else. Look what Paul says with me. Turn your Bible to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. I'll give you three minutes to find it. Second Thessalonians 2. Look at verse 15. Uh huh. Time's up. Second Thessalonians, chapter two. So then, brethren, verse 15. Stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter. I never saw that before. You mean Paul was a traditionalist? No, I don't think he was a traditionalist. We like to make institutions out of everything. I just believe that he understood the value of that which has been seasoned and savored and then passed on. We just took some cordwood this week and I'm afraid it wasn't seasoned. So when I tried to light a fire yesterday, I used half a bale of paper. Ever have that? And the reason was is that it hadn't been seasoned, it hadn't been allowed to dry out for a year and to settle. And consequently we're going to be frustrated probably for a couple of months with that. Likewise, a lot of the things that happen to us need a period of seasoning. And tradition is that which has been seasoned either by word of mouth or by written precept. He says the same thing in First Corinthians 11:2, but you don't need to turn there. The same word in the Greek is used paradosis. Now some will miss Christmas because they're afraid of finding themselves trapped by some tradition that they didn't want. Others will miss Christmas this year because somehow in them they are going to be looking back at what they had, wondering where it was and why they can't repeat it. There's a sense in which we can become in bondage to our tradition. I'd expect that that might be the case for some today, that what you're looking for is a repeat of something that you had. Now, a bondage is anything that happens to you, anything that must happen to you in order for you to be fulfilled. That's what bondage is, anything that must happen to you, in order for you to be fulfilled, you may be in bondage to a habit, you may be in bondage to a person, you may be in bondage to a tradition. But if you have to have something take place in just a certain way in order for you to be fulfilled, then you're in bondage to it. How many of you might be in bondage to a candlelight Christmas service? I got to have the candles, and I've, you know, without the choir singing the Hallelujah chorus, I may not make it this Christmas. Silent Night with the candles right now, that's beautiful and lovely and it's precious. We may even have it. But if we don't, I trust that it won't be something that will cause you to be unfulfilled. Because, you see, the only way that we ever go on in the Lord is by not looking back. If you want to make progress as a believer, don't be looking to where you've already been. Paul says in Philippians 3, and I think it's worth turning to, that's to your left, about five pages there, ten pages maybe. He says this Philippians chapter 3, beginning at verse 13. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do let's say it together. Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Forgetting what lies behind. Now, that's not saying that it's all just wiped out, but he is saying that I'm not looking back to see. And gee, I wish I could repeat that experience. How many kids have said to me, boy, I remember the retreat we had five years ago, that it was such a great time, and I just wish we could do that again. And so they've been looking for that same experience for five years, and God hasn't given it to them. So they think that they're getting cold in their faith. For how many of us has 1981 been a tremendously exciting year spiritually? If you've been part of this fellowship, you can't help but be amazed, right? But I'll tell you something. As we move into 1982, I'm not going to be asking the Lord to give us another 1981, are you? We want to keep moving ahead, keep asking the Lord for something new. And you know something, beloved, that is true in every area of your Christian life. If you're trying to repeat your experiences, you're going to be a frustrated person as A Christian, because God is continually. He asks for one thing in you, and that's to be open to new life. If there's been one failure of the charismatic movement of which some of you have been involved, some of you haven't, I think that's been one of the major failures is that they've tried to repeat what God did 20 years ago. God wants to do something new. He's always doing something new. Hallelujah. And he just asks you to be open to it, embrace it, look for it. Okay, so that's the first force that could cause you to miss out on Christmas. The second one. Actually, these next two could come under the umbrella of cynicism. Cynicism. Now cynicism is an attitude among people that is basically skeptical, right? They don't think that what's taking place can be good. And there's two forces that fall under the category of cynicism. One of them, one of those forces has to do with the religionists. That's my word, but it is a word. The religionists, I think who I find. Well, let me ask you, how many of you have found yourself on a mailing list or in contact with a person or group of people who have said something like 5 reasons why Christians should not celebrate Christmas. You don't have to put your hand up, but I've seen this stuff, I've read it over. I know that a lot of it's out there. My brother in law and sister belong to a fellowship. It's a very good fellowship, and I could recommend a fellowship. But they don't celebrate Christmas. They go right through December and on into January. Now, does that mean. Am I criticizing them? No. Does that mean that I think that they're inferior Christians? No. Does that mean that they have the word of the Lord and we don't? No. Does that mean that we do and they don't? No. It just means that there are some who feel very strongly that there's reasons why Christians should not celebrate Christmas. And most of it has to do with something about the origins of the Christmas event and where some of the customs came from. Rosalie Smith gave me an interesting article in Pittsburgh magazine this week if you want to pick up one of those. It talks a little bit about origins of Christmas and some of the customs that we have. Charisma magazine, from a Christian perspective, also addresses some of those things. But the mindset of a lot of these religionists is if we can just get down to the pure thing, then somehow we'll have that which we're Missing. And I for one, contend that you will never get down to the pure root of it. And the effort to always continually be peeling things off of you, to try to get down to the pure root of it will leave you a miserable person. And it will somehow squeeze the life of God out of you, that he would be working in you. It's a constant scrutiny of all the things. For example, the Christmas tree. Now, the origin of the Christmas tree is that the Egyptians used to bring palm trees, boughs, into their house. There's another word for them, fronds. Is that a word? Thank you. That's what they used to bring. And they used to bring it in right around the end of December to celebrate the shortest day of the year, which was what? December 21st. They even knew that 2,000 years ago, 3,000 years ago, then the Romans would bring in the pine boughs, and that was something that they used to celebrate the feast of Saturn. Do we celebrate the feast of Saturn? And then the Norsemen would bring in their little pine trees, and that's kind of where we come. Are we celebrating pagan tradition? No, I bring the Christmas tree into my house, first of all, because it's beautiful. And second, I love the fragrance. Don't you love plastic? But third, it sets my heart into a whole series of remembrances that are very precious to me and I enjoy. Has nothing to do with Saturn, Beloved. Really? You can do that? And some of the other ones have similar kind of origin gifts. Some would say, well, the gifts came from. I forget now, but it's something like that where one person wanted to make another person happy, so they brought gifts. Well, I don't give gifts because I want some kind of thing in return. Why do we give gifts? Well, part of it is because we saw the wise men giving the gifts to Jesus. Part of it is just because we love the people that we're with and we want them to know that we love them. You say, well, that's the world's way of expressing love. It's all right. I receive love from that. I give love that way, too. You say, well, I don't want to have anything to do with the way the world does it. Well, the way the world does it, I don't either. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about doing it the way that God calls us to do it. And if the world messes it up, fine, but does that mean we have to forfeit it? I don't want anything to do with presents. And this really gets into the next area, the next force that's welshing people, and that's commercialization. And people say, well, Christmas means spending money to everybody. I'm not going to have anything to do with spending money and buying presents. And they get you on this guilt trip at Christmas time because, gee, I got one in my car, but I won't show anybody. Really. There are people who find it most difficult at Christmas time because to them it means that they're indulging the flesh and the world. Well, the world. All the people in the world are buying presents. And that means I'm not going to fall into that. I'm not going to do what the world's doing. Well, that doesn't hold up for two reasons. One is, that's not my motivation. I'm not doing it to try to win any kind of affection or try to distort the meaning of Christmas. And number two, there are a lot of things that the world is messing up that I'm still doing right and I enjoy. And if you're married, you are, too. Okay? Is that right? You'll get that. Just let it go. Amen. And so beloved, really, those are the wrong reasons. Now understand that I feel with people who are seeking to be God pleasing in this, and I want to put an amen on that. I want us to be good stewards. I pray about the gifts that I buy. I want to be somebody who pleases the Lord in what I do, right down to the giving of gifts. But I don't believe for a moment that we need to be thrown on a guilt trip about that because there are kids who won't have a meal at Christmas time somewhere on the other side of the world or even somewhere nearby. Does that mean I ignore those kids? No, that means I give sacrificially. But if you've been responsible before the Lord, I don't believe for a moment that the Lord is saying, now you have to forego anything of the enjoyment that you could have at Christmas time. And people who heap that on you, I believe, are violating the spirit of the Scriptures. Turn to Colossians, chapter two in conclusion. Colossians, chapter two. Read with me. Well, you read along. I'll read out loud. Verse 16. You got it. This is really important. This says it in terms of this whole thing of cynicism. Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and. And drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come. But the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you. Insisting on self abasement and worship of angels, taking a stand on visions, puffed up without reason by the sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with the growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belong to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things which all perish as they are used according to human precepts and doctrines. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom and promoting rigorous of devotion and self abasement and severity to the body. But they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh. Beloved, I really mean it. I think that some here who would, in seeking to control the flesh and all the things that can come up as sin in us, by a lot of these external things you are heaping a misery on yourself that will have no effect. And I want to urge you, some of you I know personally have spoken. To me about it. Others, I'm sure, are struggling with the same thing. Enjoy what God has given us. Let it be a delight to you. Let it build you up. Soak in it. It's love you say. But I don't want to miss the real meaning of Christmas. What is the real meaning of Christmas? Look back at Luke 2. Here's the real meaning of Christmas. It's that an angel of the Lord appeared to them in verse nine and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, be not afraid. For behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people. And the real meaning of Christmas is that the glory of the Lord comes to you, all about you and you can enjoy it and you're not afraid. And I believe that Jesus came to set us free from fear. Fear of tradition and all that, that we can get tripped up in fear of not being pure enough to ever make it. Isolating ourselves, locking ourselves in a room so that we won't be sorted. You know, really that's the whole root of the ascetic movement. Back in 10, 11 and 12 AD asceticism came out of this thing of the only way to be pure is to completely cut yourself off from anything. And I want to say to you that that isn't the way to be pure. Purity comes from a holiness that comes inside of you, from Jesus love, not from rooting yourself out from everything else, locking yourself up in a room. A pure man is a man that can look in the face of temptation and walk away from it. So I'm saying fear of tradition, fear of this religionism, and fear of being a commercial pig falling into the traps of all the spending sprees. And beloved, I mean it. You sit down with your wife and you pray about the things that you're going to buy. And you make sure that there's extra money in your budget for the people who don't have anything. And you bring a toy next week and you put money in the Salvation army bins and you send money overseas. But enjoy what the Lord's given you, too, because he gave you all things to enjoy. The Bible says if they're done and received with thanksgiving and praise, I'm not here giving some sort of a license for indulgence. And if you're hearing that, then you're not hearing what I'm saying. But what I'm trying to do is to liberate you from fear and to liberate our fellowship. And let us walk into Christmas and see the glory of the Lord round about us and hear the angel of the Lord say, I bring you good news of great joy. Is that what you want? Is it good news of great joy? And the name of that joy is Jesus. We're going to celebrate his life together. Together. Enjoy him forever. Christmas is for Christians. If you stumble and fall some this year, guess what? God is merciful. He'll forgive you. And I believe that there's going to be an outpouring of love around this place like we've never known. And I believe many people are going to come to know the Lord. I believe that through the. The ministry of your giving in that box back there and to other people in this fellowship, that we're going to have a chance to touch scores and scores of people. The zeal of the Lord will do it for us. The zeal of the Lord of hosts Isaiah talks about will perform it. Chapter nine. Amen. Let's pray together. Join hands. Would you please. Praise the name of the Lord, Father? Lord, we Your people so need your guidance and wisdom. Oh, but Lord, I pray that we would be not like the shepherds, not filled with fear, Lord, because you have appeared among us. Lord, I thank youk that yout did appear to shepherds, that yout did reveal yourself, Lord, to the ordinary man. You told them the good news of great joy, Lord, that yout didn't come to some Pharisee holed up somewhere, poring over the scriptures, isolating themselves from all of life. But, Lord, you came to an ordinary person in an ordinary place, and you said, I bring you good news of. Great joy. Lord God, I pray that we, as your people would move in that freedom and that liberty, not indulging the flesh at all, Lord, for giving you the thanks and the glory as we walk. And I pray that your spirit would fall upon us this Christmas, Lord, that love would be known among us like we've never known, Father, that the outpouring of your blessing would be felt in every heart. O Lord, liberate us, Father, from all the fears, all the bondages, Lord, all the hurts. And especially, Lord, I pray for the women and the men in this fellowship, Lord, for whom Christmas is a painful time, Lord, a time of remembering lost loved ones, a time of hurting because of something that's never happened to them, Lord God, all the ones who yearn to have a family to celebrate with. By your Holy Spirit, Lord, enlarge our tents, Lord. Give us the capacity to love like we've never loved, O Lord. And we'll make this good news of great joy known, Lord, throughout the earth, by the enablement of youf Holy Ghost. We give youe praise and thanks, Father. Praise the name of the Lord. Bless your name, Jesus. Hallelujah. Praise God. And all God's people said, Amen. Praise the Lord. Let's conclude by singing Joy to the World. The Lord Is Coming somewhere. It is in here. Butch and whoever else wants to help bring up those newsletters. You can be passing those up the aisles as we're doing that. Okay? Stand and sing. Joy to the world the Lord is come Let earth receive her king Let every heart prepare and heaven nature sing and heaven heaven nature's king Joy to the world the Savior reigns the heavenly song before. No more Asleep and sorrows grow for fortune burst the ground he comes to make his flesh seems cold. He rules the world with truth and praise and makes the nations true the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love and wonders of his love and wonders Wonders of His life Hallelujah. Amen. Praise the name of the Lord Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Well, we can always do another song, can't we, Jan? Praise the name of the Lord Yeah. Let's sing. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. He is the Lord right? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. He is Lord he is Lord Hallelujah. All right, let's sing. We'll just sing all the way through it. One more time. Just once each time. All right, Here we go. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Jesus is lou. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, king. Hallelujah, jesus. Praise the Lord. Be sensitive with one another. If you have a prayer need and we didn't get in our circles today, I want you to be sure to ask the person next to you. Do you have a need I can pray for? So as we're being dismissed, you might spend a minute with someone in prayer. Bless the Lord. Bring your toys next Sunday and we'll see you.