Christmas At The End Of The World | Look Up
In Today’s world Christmas is…
- A Time to share
- Family
- Joy
- Presents
- Food
- Lights
- Peace
- Love
All these things are good things!
- But they are not the right things
Today, I want to look at Christmas from a new angle
- Instead of starting with the story we all know, I want to start somewhere else
- IN THE BEGINNING
IN THE BEGINNING…
- God created
- God created the world
- God created the World and Created MAN to RULE over it
GOD CREATED A GARDEN
- The Garden was a temple
- Every ancient Jewish temple reflected this in its design
- Adam and Eve were priests of God
The Priests of God had ORDERS because everything God does has ORDER
Stepping out of that order is to step into chaos and destruction
Those orders were:
- To RULE over the creating in partnership with God
- To be fruitful and multiply
- To not eat from the tree in the middle of the Garden
Things were going well for a while, but then came the crafty liar
- A fallen being in the form of a snake
- This being was an ENEMY OF GOD and His Creation
- This enemy already had a keen sense of lying
The serpent spoke to Eve
- The enemy of God never tells FULL LIES – but partial truths
- …You will not die
- The woman was convinced and took the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Bad and ate it
- Adam did the same
At this moment, it’s not JUST about Adam and Eve disobeying God
- That is certainly part of it
But they took THEIR fate into THEIR OWN HANDS
- They CHOOSE to be GOD
- They CHOOSE to define GOOD and EVIL for themselves
You must have a good understanding of the Garden story to understand the CONDITION of HUMANITY
- We are STILL CHOOSING TO DEFINE GOOD AND EVIL FOR OURSELVES
Here’s what I know…
- I will choose my good OVER your good every time
- You will do the same
- We do it all the time – Choosing ourselves over others – Over God
Because their choice was literally THE END OF THE WORLD
- The end of God’s order
- The end of God’s chosen design and plan
- The end of a close relationship with God
- yes, the End of the world
So back to Christmas
In all the broken we are surrounded by every day, Christmas offers a moment to stop and see another way
But instead, culture has tried to capture even this moment by telling half-truths
- Trying to steal the power of what we are celebrating
The enemy tells us to do things like…
- Look Inward
- Look to yourself
- How can you be a better person
Christmas is NOT about BEING a better person; Christmas is about A better person
- Because that is what the world needs…
Not “Better people” but people who have given themselves over to this BETTER PERSON
The psalmist said it this way…
Psalm 121
1 I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
We’re not to look INWARD but UPWARD
My Challenge for all of us today is to LOOK UP!
Christmas can bring so many things to our lives
- Stressed – Look Up
- Hurting – Look Up
- Depressed – Look Up
- Disappointed – Look Up
- Mourning – Look Up
Our help isn’t found “IN HERE” but “IN HIM”
- In Christ
Back to Genesis for a moment
In The beginning, humanity said NO to God’s authority
But God did not say NO to humanity
- Instead, He Gave a promise to the wicked agent who told the original lie
Genesis 3
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
At this moment, the end of the original design
- At the end of Adam and Eve’s world, God gave a promise
The Promise that Christmas WILL COME
- That He will make a way
Let’s look at another woman who didn’t look IN but Looked Up
- After the angel gave Marry the news that she would carry the Messiah, she prayed this prayer…
Luke 1:46-55
46 And Mary said: My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 because he has looked with favor on the humble condition of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 because the Mighty One has done great things for me, and his name is holy.
50 His mercy is from generation to generation on those who fear him.
51 He has done a mighty deed with his arm; he has scattered the proud because of the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has toppled the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly.
53 He has satisfied the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering his mercy
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he spoke to our ancestors.
Marry didn’t think that she possessed anything special for this task
- God had CHOSEN here for this purpose
Because God was fulfilling a promise that he had given long ago at the end of the world
And that’s just it, Christmas ALWAYS COMES AT THE END OF THE WORLD
- Especially our world
Our world of:
- Self Preservation
- Self Actualization
- Selfish intentions
- Self-seeking
- Unloving
- Harshness
- Brokenness
Christmas is the answer to everything that is wrong in the world
Not the “LOOK INWARD” Christmas
- But by “LOOKING UP”
Psalm 121
1 I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Key question:
Where are you looking when life gets out of hand?
Are you looking inward, thinking the answer lies there?
- That you can be your own authority?
- Your own God?
Are you looking Around?
- Letting culture be your guide
- Letting every new whim of our world tell you who and what you are
Or are you looking UP?
- To your maker
- Your Lord
- You God
Because Christmas is when we choose to come to the END OF OUR WORLD
- When we give our life up
- Give up our way
- Give up our autonomy
To the one who it always belonged to…
Jesus Christ – The King Of The World!