The Love of the Chase
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Humble Beginnings
Humble Beginnings
“The only thing that can dwell in the presence of God is humility”
C.S.Lewis
We know how much God loved us because he did something complelty and utterly humbling in coming down to earth as a human…In many ways all love begins with Humility
(video)
You Know so Much?
You Know so Much?
Take a look at the Nativity set sitting right here… One of the smartest things one of the wisest things we can do is remember and realize that we are not the center of the Christmas Story...
(red rider B B Gun example)
Look at this scene everything in it points to what matters in the story of Christmas. The Wise Men are no exception.
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. So he assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Messiah would be born.
“In Bethlehem of Judea,” they told him, “because this is what was written by the prophet:
And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah:
Because out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.”
Then Herod secretly summoned the wise men and asked them the exact time the star appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you find him, report back to me so that I too can go and worship him.”
After hearing the king, they went on their way. And there it was—the star they had seen at its rising. It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overwhelmed with joy. Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
The Wise Men knew enough to realize that someting special was happening and so they went to the logical place where a king should be born and asked a logical question of a logical person the current king.
Herod didn’t have a clue but he found some people who did and instead of hearing the prophesy and rejoicing he had other plans...
Hit the Pause Button
Hit the Pause Button
The wise men did something we should all do…The hit the pause button on all that they had going on in life. The found out what mattered more than anything and they changed direction, changed the course of their lives to focus on the most important thing.
(drill down)
Useless Facts
Useless Facts
The wisemen were leanred men of their day and yet all that they knew paled in comparrision to what they were learning now. They knew they had to worhship they knew they had to bring things to Jesus they knew that had to bring the best they could so they did so bringing gifts of God and Frankinsense and Myrrr not to Mary, not to Joseph but to Jesus…Christmas is about what we bring to the center of the story.
It’s easy to get this twisted in our lives. Easy to decide that we deserve things that we should be served that we should be respected that we should be heard. We should be recognized our rights our freedoms our wants our our our. These things happen all year long and betray the space that our live tends to lie. .(drill down)
But none of that really matters. The guy in the video was smart enough to know that all the stuff he knew wasn't nearly as important as who he knew and what he was supposed to to with that knowledge. Humbly serve..just like Jesus did.
Paul shows us what Jesus did.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.
Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,
who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be exploited.
Instead he emptied himself
by assuming the form of a servant,
taking on the likeness of humanity.
And when he had come as a man,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death—
even to death on a cross.
For this reason God highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow—
in heaven and on earth
and under the earth—
and every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Our place in the story
Our place in the story
The wise men worshiped…we should do the same by realizing the need to bow to the King of Kings often to serve him daily to love him daily by serving and loving others others. The best way for us to do this is to fade into the background and push ohters forward to get to see better.
(putting a kid on your shoulders to see better)
ONe of the greatest reminders of what this is and looks like is found in a verse we’ve already talked about once in this series.
John 3:16 (CSB)
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
(light the Candle)
GOd loved and gave us to the world to save it…no that’s not what it says. The central part the truth of the Love we have is that He gave Jesus to the world so that the world that you and I cold be returned to the realationship we were designed for.
Communion
This Week’s Challenge
This Week’s Challenge
Step back. Step back this week and buy a gift and a meal for a stranger to be delivered Christmas Day.
(talk about operation hotel