Sermon
What Will You Find At Christmas?
December 18-19, 1999
Pastor Ralph Huddleston

What do you want for Christmas? You all have a list. I know you do, and most of them are impractical. But that's the kind of things you ask for at Christmas. The impractical things, the things you might not buy for yourself. I'm amazed, I have two grandsons and I'm sure that they're a pretty good example of little boys. They have taken some old characters like, I guess they used to call them the Power Rangers, and they have a new generation of those, and what we loved once the old Star Trek stuff they have new characters there, and so they're buying all those kind of guys. The kids call them guys. They have to have a guy in each hand, and then there's just to myriad of them, and I'm amazed that they can even focus on what they want. 

Have you been to Toys R Us lately? It just boggles my mind. Those poor little things walking down those aisles. One eye is going to this way, one eye is going this way, one hand is this way. They don't know whether to go up the aisle or down the aisle. There's just so much offered to them. It's amazing. I don't know how they ever settle on anything. Of course, you know, after Christmas is all over and all the toys they get are in one big pile and they usually have the broken one in their hand. That's the one that they cherish. I don't know why that is. It always seems to be though. 

There's a little boy, true story, named Brian that for weeks has been bugging his parents about getting a watch for Christmas. And finally he mentioned it so many times that his dad told him if he mentioned it one more time you're not going to get it. He kind of spilled the beans, didn't he? Quit bugging us. Well Christmas Eve came and they asked little Brian to lead in prayer before dinner, and Brian said I'd like to quote a Scripture verse before I pray. It's out of Mark 13:37 he said. I say to you what I have already told you before watch. A man after my own heart. I'm not sure if Brian ever got the watch, and we don't even need to go there, but an appropriate use of Scripture I think. I believe we spend most of our Christmas season searching. Some of us searching for the perfect gift and some of us searching for the perfect bargain, searching for the right decorations, but for the most part we're all searching for a parking space really is what we're looking for. And many people, I believe, at the very first Christmas missed the very first Christmas because they were too busy. 

They were much like us, just too busy. I am sure that the politicians missed the first Christmas and the business community missed the first Christmas. I am positive that the innkeeper missed the first Christmas. I wonder if he had any hindsight as to what had happened. That he almost had the Nativity scene in his hotel, but he missed the Christmas. He was busy with something else, like all of the rest. The only people who enjoyed the very first Christmas 2000 years ago were the people who were looking for it. People searching for Jesus. The people seeking Jesus. There in Luke 2, and I think you have that in your bulletin as your outline. It's a big full green sheet. The Angels told the shepherds you'll find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. And the shepherds said let's go and see. They found Jesus because that's what they were searching for. They knew something big was about to happen. 

Later on another group the wise men found Jesus because they were seeking Him. They said we've come from the East, and this is what caps it off, not only to find Him, we've come from the East and we have come to worship Him. They were seeking Jesus. They found Jesus and they did the only thing that they could do when they did find Him, and that was to worship Him. What are you going to find this Christmas? What are you looking for? I'm equally convinced that whatever it is that you're looking for you'll find it; good, bad, or indifferent. 

What is your focus? Because of that thought on the negative side that's why so much of the body of Christ has said we're through with Christmas. This thing is an abomination, and in many respects it is, but we the body of Christ can take back Christmas from what it is. It is up to us to do that to embrace Christmas to put our focus back on the Nativity scene, on that tiny little what would then be an unassuming little baby and refocus. We can also enjoy the partaking and the giving of gifts, but to pull back and really search and find Jesus Christ; believer, nonbeliever. It's relevant to us all. 

In our society there's a great new and exciting emphasis on spiritual things, and the media has finally caught on to it. Here in a few magazines I'll kind of describe what the front covers have on them. This is over the last couple of years. One cover says life after death, another is a clear view of heaven, another is who was He with the huge picture of Jesus Christ on the front of it. Another one says who wrote the Bible? Who was God? And then there's the search for the sacred. They don't put these kinds of covers on magazines unless they will sell magazines. It really does confirm my mind and my heart and it should in yours that the lion's share of people are searching for these things. If they've not already found Jesus Christ, they're on the hunt. And those of us that have already found Him should remain on the hunt to know Him better, to know Him more intimately. 

And probably during the year we've not spent that kind of quality time. It's been on a lot of other things, much like the innkeeper and the politicians and the list goes on and on and on. How have we spent our year? In a recent article out of the search for the sacred to in Newsweek it says maybe it's just a critical mass of baby boomers in the contemplative afternoon of their lives, or maybe it's the anxiety over the coming millennium, or maybe it's general dissatisfaction of materialism in the modern world. For these reasons and more millions of Americans are embarking on the search for the sacred in their lives. The bottom line of this article is saying that people are simply asking, is there any meaning to my life? Does my life count? Is there a God? And if there is a God, can we get to know Him? I pray to God that that's what people are asking. It's like a dream come true, not only for us, but for the sake of Jesus Christ. That's what Christmas is all about. 

Christmas is you getting to know God. God says I know everything about you. I know your good, your bad, your ugly, your past, your present, your future, and I want you to know Me. And Scripture is very clear about how we come to know God the Father. It has to be through the Nativity scene. That's where it starts. It's essential. Later in that article it says a lot has changed in the last half-century we've stripped away what once our ancestors saw as essential, the importance of religion and the family. And people feel they want something they've lost, but they just don't remember what it is that they've lost. But they've left a gaping hole. That in essence is the seekers quest, to fill the hole with a new source of meaning. What is our purpose? What is our existence here on earth? 

Yesterday I had a long talk with my brother-in-law, Scott, from Dallas TX. That's where my sister and her family have settled for the last ten years. God only knows how they got there or why they would stay there, but they'll get over it once we get them back here. And I asked Scott, I know that his business had taken him there and it's the same business that's bringing him back, but he had a choice. He didn't have to come back. I said Scott, why? He says, you know what, he says work is wonderful and the successes that I've had there have been wonderful, he says, but the loss of that family unity, both sides of our family has really hurt us and we're just dying to get back home. Now they are people of strong faith so that never was in jeopardy. However, some things happened while they were moving out, and now that they're moving back and that has really stretched their faith. But it's all those things that become the important issues in life as time marches on. 

People are seeking. Believers are again not taking for granted their relationship with Jesus Christ. They are searching Him out for more. That's what Christmas affords us. Where do you think these ideas come from? From Satan? Not on your life. He would never put those kinds of questions in your mind. God is putting those questions in your mind because He is creating in us a desire and a thirst for Him. He's using Christmas to reach us, the believer and the nonbeliever. Again God knows all about you. He wants you to know Him, and there's no better time than at Christmas. At Christmas we get gifts, but God gives us three significant gifts. In your outlines you'll find them there. You can find forgiveness if you seek for it. You can find peace of mind if you seek for it, and eternal life if you seek for it. 

There in Luke 2:11, it says today your Savior was born. He is Christ the Lord. Circle Savior there. Jesus didn't come here to scare us. He came here to save us. By His existences, if as a power out of the heavens He came, it could scare us. Have you ever known anyone to be afraid of the little infant? He came as one of us that He could better illustrate who He is, and how we are to act in following His actions through His life, following the words, following the commands and obedience to the commands. 

Why do I need a Savior? Well, the Bible says that heaven is a perfect place. That there are no mistakes. No inconsistencies. But because of that only perfect people can go there. But if you let one imperfect person go there, that would destroy heaven. And that means I don't stand a chance in a million of getting there, and neither do you. We lost that chance a long, long time ago to get there on our own. So God had to come up with a plan B. God is good for plan Bs, isn't He? It's usually us with a plan A, and He has a plan B to respond to our plan A. He sent as a Savior. Someone we could get in on their ticket. That's the only way that we were going to achieve forgiveness, and peace of mind, and eternal life. 

There's a letter written to Santa Claus that I want to share with you. It says, Dear Santa, there are three boys living at my house; Jeffrey is 2, David is 4, and Norman is 7. Jeffrey is good some of the time. David is good some of the time. Norman is good all of the time. I am Norman. That's the problem. None of us are Normans. We just cannot be a Norman. None of us bat a thousand. None of us are perfect, and none of us are always right. I think if we had, if we could turn these giant screens, and maybe one behind me, and use them to show and to display for each other everything that we thought and said or done in 1999, that most of us would be extremely embarrassed. That's why this message is for you and for me just as well. We live with a sense of regret because none of us is perfect, and that's why we need a Savior. And that's why Christmastime is no finer time than to refocus our lives and to begin searching Him out again. Maybe a lot of Him we've taken for granted this year. It may have been a prosperous year. It may have been a very difficult year for you. But for whatever reason may be He's not been your focus. If our greatest need had been information, He would have sent us an educator. If technology is what we needed, He would have sent us a scientist. If money is what we had needed, He would have sent us an economist. If pleasure is what we needed, He would have sent us an entertainer. That isn't what we needed. We needed forgiveness. And He sent at the Nativity scene, a what? A Savior. You might ask, with all that I am and all that I know and all that I do, how can I let Christ save me? It's the really neat answer. Really simple, relaxed.

You may relax and don't worry about it? No, I didn't say that; just relax, relax and simply trust Him. Acts 10:43 says all who believe in Jesus' name will be forgiven of their sins through His being. That should be enough to make all of us relax. I don't care what you've come from. You just believe, let go, admit it, admit that you need it, and that process starts. Maybe as a believer it's been a long time since you thought those thoughts, since you've allowed yourself to dig deep into your own soul and taking inventory, and honest inventory. 

You know one of the most difficult things for a lifeguard to do is to save someone. And as someone who spends a lot of time in the water, I always have in the back of my head. I hate the thought of having to rescue someone. Not that isn't fulfilling when you to, but it's difficult. Because that person who's on the verge of death is thrashing. They're beating the tar out of water and anything that surrounds it. And you literally have to wait until they are so exhausted, so spent, that they just relax and resigned themselves to death, and then you can just simply slip in and your arm through their shoulder around their neck and you just very easily take them into shore. It's really quite easy then, but it is difficult to save someone when they're busy, too busy, saving themselves. That's the problem that Jesus had all through eternity. All through these 2000 years. This Christmastime could be a different Christmastime for many, many folks. 

Second, you can find peace of mind. Psalm 119:165, it says those who love Your teaching will find true peace. I think this word peace is a word that our world uses a lot, but doesn't have the foggiest idea of the true meaning of peace. Not the slightest idea of what genuine real peace is all about. Peace of mind; if you need to call it peace of soul. Simply put, that means that way down deep the waters are flat. It's tranquil. It's a place of peace. There's not an unrest anymore. For many peace of mind means drinking so much that they haven't got a clue what's going on, or drugs might be their answer, or work being so busy, so tired that when you come home you just crash and burn, and you wake up the next morning and that process starts all over again. Maybe yours is workaholism, achieving, and all the attributes and all the rewards that come with that make you feel like you're somebody. But when you wake up, why are you screaming inside that you feel like and nobody? When if your search was for Jesus Christ first, you would be somebody. Real peace of mind is having a relationship with Jesus Christ. It literally means becoming friends, bonded, and through Him knowing God. That's what Christmas affords us. 

It's a huge season. It doesn't just come and go in one day. That's the marvelous thing about Christmas. There's a huge window of opportunity and for the most part we waste it. Real peace means no matter what happens in the year 2000 I know that God is going to give me the strength to handle it. It doesn't matter what happens one minute after midnight on January 1. Real peace is living God's word, the Bible, so I can avoid a lot of the needless hurts and hang-ups and habits of my life. Real peace is teaching my children, and as a grandfather, teaching my grandkids God's word as a foundation for life. And then watching them grow up and make decisions, I can step back and look and say I'm proud of that. That's peace of mind. They're making decisions on their own.

Three things that can rob you of this peace of mind; it's guilt, and grief, and grudges. Guilt, you don't have to walk out of here with guilt. It doesn't have to be Christmas to be rid of that, but it's a good opportunity. God says I have sent a Savior to wipe away your sins so you can be forgiven. One of Satan's most aggressive weapons is your guilt, as he whispers your guilt in your ear or reminds you or tries to tell you that you're not forgiven, that you are a nobody, that you don't count, that God doesn't love you to, that He doesn't exist. Our encounter with God shakes us so much it's almost like the old etch-a-sketch. You take it and you shake it and you look at it, and what is it? It's blank. That's what that encounter with Jesus Christ does to each one of us. It shakes us to our very core, and when God reads our soul it's clean and the guilt doesn't have to be anymore. What a Christmas gift. Grief. 

You know if we were to know the truth of what was going on in this room, there are many of you that are in major pain right now. This time around Christmas reminds us of some very deep, deep hurts; death in the family, loss of a spouse either through death or divorce, maybe you're grieving through a divorce from the past or one that you're going through now or the possibility of one. And if that's the kind of pain that you're feeling, I'm deeply sorry. But I have to remind you that God cares about your hurt, He sees it, He knows it, and He never meant for you to carry it alone. You were never meant to carry that pain by yourself. You were never meant to handle that hurt on your own. In His word He says cast all your cares upon Him for He will care for you. That you do at the Nativity scene. 

Grudges, resentfulness, bitterness; you've been hurt. Haven't you? People have hurt you. Some people are still hurting you, people from your past, and they don't even know it. Intentional or unintentional it's still going on, and you have to be released from that. You know the tragedy of that resentment and the bitterness that builds up? They're having a nice day. You're the one that's suffering both the injury and the aftermath, and God sent a Savior so you wouldn't have to go through that. You say, well I can't forgive them. You're right. You can't, not without the baby. Not without the Savior. That's one of the things that He saves you from. Give it to Him. 

Some facts of life that we need to talk about, that we're all going to die someday. We talk about that because the third gift that He gives us is eternal life, but you can't talk about eternal life unless you think about at some point in our lives we're going to die. It's not a pleasant thought. I don't think you need to be morbid about it or always be worrying about it, but the fact is we're going to die someday; maybe tomorrow, next year, 10 years from now. It's kind of funny you go through stages in your life. And I don't know what it is after 54, but I know at 54 I'm resigned, I kind of think like Paul did. I really have a dilemma. I'm prepared. I'm not sure I want to go today. I think I would wait until after Christmas because it's such a great time with family, especially with those little guys. 

Paul had the same dilemma. He says I want to go, but he wants to stay. But he was prepared. You're going to spend most of your life on that side of death, more than you'll spend on this side of death. In here you get maybe 60, 70, 80, 90 years max, but on the other side of death you're going to spend, now think about this, you're going to spend your eternity in eternity. It depends on what neighborhood of eternity you want to spend it in. That is what is searching for. We want to know the right way to go. We really do. You strip everything else away, we're all looking for a Savior. You cannot live effectively until you're prepared to die. You can't live with true joy until you're prepared to die. 

Romans 1:17 says God makes us ready for heaven when we put our faith in Christ to save us. The only one who finds life will find it through trusting Christ. That is great. God says I'll take care of your past regrets, your present problems, and your future fears. I'll take care of them all in one felled swoop. All these things we've been looking for when actually what we've been looking for is God, and there He is at the Nativity scene. God is behind all those other things. He waits patiently while we wade through all the crowd of things, and when it parts and there He is and we have Him. Christmas is really a celebration of an invasion. Think about it. It's kind of a close encounter of the God kind. God invaded earth 2000 years ago. Came to earth is a human being so we could know He's not just some big force in the sky. He came as a baby. He was born through the birth canal just like every one of us. No difference. In that way we could relate to Him. We could look at Him and know that's the way I'm to act. That's the way I'm to go. That's the peace I'm to have. That's the forgiveness I can have, and that's how I can spend eternity with Him. 

His birth split history right down the middle. Just think about this, this is going to make your, you know, you play now you see it now you don't, every month you pay your bills. You all do, don't you? You write checks, don't you? History was split right down the middle: A.D., B.C. You write the check out to who and to how much and you sign it and then you date it. And every time you date that check your reference point, there's a reference point to everything of where it started, that reference point is Jesus Christ. Do you realize that? Maybe it will make paying your bills the little bit easier, no more effective, but you'll just have happier thoughts while you're doing that. The whole world at-large when they write out their monthly bills are referencing Jesus Christ every time they put the date on the check. He split all of eternity right in half in a time zone. If it's a joke that He played on the world it's a wonderful one. I like those kind. 

This is what Christmas is all about. He makes a difference. The Bible says that Jesus came to seek and to save. And while you've been seeking, He's been seeking you. It's amazing. The miracle of Christmas is not on 34th Street. It's in Bethlehem. He says I offer to you forgiveness for your past, peace of mind in the present, solid future in the eternity. Those are the gifts. How do you find those gifts? They're wrapped up in Christ right there at the Nativity scene. You will find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. It is telling us that you matter to God. Your problems matter to God. Your pain matters to God. Your potential matters to God. I just don't think it can get any better. He says I know everything about you. I saw your birth. I know when you're going to die, and I know everything in between. I made you for purpose. I have a plan for you in your life. And I'm not talking religion here. Were talking about relationship, a bonding relationship with Jesus Christ. 

You may have a Catholic background, I do as well. You may be Hindu or Buddhist or Baptist or maybe yours is a Jewish background, Protestant. Maybe you have no religious background at all, and it doesn't matter. For you and for me, for all of us, the Nativity scene means the same thing, that we finally found our Savior. That's what matters, to receive the gifts; forgiveness, peace of mind, and eternal life. They're all wrapped up in Him. Can you ever imagine being given a gift at Christmas and never unwrapping it? That never happens in my house. They're all unwrapped, sometimes prematurely if we don't watch real close. It would be silly. Think about it. If you gave me a gift for Christmas and I took it home, and a year later you came over and I still hadn't unwrapped it, what would you think of me? He's a nut. Absolutely silly for not opening it, and if you ask me, I'd probably say well I just hadn't gotten around to it yet. Make this the Christmas that you get around to it. Whether you're a believer are not. If you're a believer maybe some of this you've been taking for granted. Get around to it. Open up these gifts again. Make yourself familiar with what these gifts are.

As we close I'm going to invite you to pray with me. I guess it would be called the seeker's prayer. That you, like the wise men, will say I'm going to seek Christ again. Or I'm going to seek Christ for the first time. Seek and you'll find. You'll find forgiveness, peace of mind, and eternal life. Make this the Christmas that begins a new Christmas for you. Just stand with me and were going to pray. If you'll seek for it this Christmas you'll find a new and deeper understanding of God and of your own life, and even the problems that you're facing. You'll also understand better the answer to some of those problems. You can just pray this in your heart. You don't have to pray it out loud, just in your mind. 

Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing me here today. I've known something was missing in my life, but I just didn't know what it was. I didn't know it was You. Thank you for seeking me even when I have ignored You. God I want to know the truth about You, and about myself, and about life. Jesus Christ, I want to get to know You. I want to put my trust in You, and as much as I know how, as much as I know how, I ask You to come into my life. Please forgive me for all of my sins. I in turn accept Your gift of forgiveness, and I accept your gift of peace of mind, and I accept Your gift of eternal life. I pray this in your precious name, and all of the Saints said, amen. All of the Saints said, amen. All of the Saints said, amen! Amen! God bless you and merry Christmas.