What’s does Jesus want for Christmas?

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5 ESV)

The American celebration of Christmas is a very selfish holiday. It has turned into a worship of self and desires. Think about it, on the very day we set aside to be thankful for what we have delivered to our door steps hundreds of ads for things we “want.” Black Friday sales has now consumed half of Thanksgiving day. Instead of talking about how thankful we are for what we have, we look to see what we can get at a really good deal, for Christmas.

From a child we are raised with the question, “what do you want for Christmas?” We go to a really decorated store and stand in line to sit on some old guys lap where he makes a bid deal about what you want for Christmas. I am as guilty as the next, hoping and anticipating getting something pretty awesome for Christmas.

Christmas is not about you

Well it is and it isn’t. You aren’t the focus of the story or the holiday. Jesus is. It’s the time we focus on His coming. It is about you in the fact that you (and me) are a sinner and needed rescuing. If it wasn’t for our sins, Jesus wouldn’t have had to come.

Our sins separated us from God. Sin taints all of us, from birth until death. Everything we do we do as captives of sin. God cannot look upon our sinfulness and accept us the way we are. He chose to do something about it, provide a means of forgiveness and righteousness that we could not do for ourselves. He didn’t have to send Jesus. Jesus didn’t have to die for us. He chose to come. He chose to die.

Christmas is about Jesus

When we understand that Christmas is more then the yummy food, the bright lights and the gift exchanges (although those are all good), and fix our eyes on Jesus, Christmas becomes more then we can imagine.

The Bible says it was the “fullness of time” when God sent His Son. God had waited for the precise time for Jesus to enter our story. Though His entry was humble and in a manger, it changed everything. Our understanding of history is centered at that moment when God entered the World.

It’s His birthday that we are celebrating. What can you give back to Him for what He has given you? What’s does Jesus want for Christmas?

He wants you! 

Think about that. With all your sins, mistakes and failures, He wants you! He knows your worst thoughts, your secret deeds, your biggest insecurities, and yet He wants you! When everyone else would want to run away, He runs to you. He came into this world to redeem you from your sins, to bring healing and to bring hope. He offers redemption and adoption into His forever family!

Will you give yourself to Him this Christmas? The choice is yours.

No Regrets

This week will conclude our very brief look at the book of Ecclesiastes. We have learned that God is sovereign and has given us a purpose, that life has a point. Last week we saw that a close relationship with God is the true answer to loneliness and failed expectations. This week we are looking at living without regret.

Solomon at this point is an old man looking back at his many years. He has accomplished much, but he has many regrets. He sees his many mistakes and longs to teach us not to get caught up in the trappings he did.

In chapter 12, he begins his final remarks with the imperative to, “remember your Creator in the days of your youth.” He’s not simply saying to acknowledge God intellectually and move on. No, he’s saying to revere God and seek Him while you are young. Don’t waste your life pursuing the meaningless things He talked about throughout the book, but set a goal to fix your eyes on Christ all of your days.

Solomon poetically discusses how death will one day begin to take over the body and your time will be up. Don’t wait until it’s too late to serve God. One day your hearing will be gone, your vision will be bad, your strength will fail and you may be left with regret, unless you begin today to seek the Lord and serve Him.

Begin with the End

Solomon’s advice is to consider the end of your life and begin to make decisions today to pursue God and make the best of this life. You have a Creator and He knows what is best for you.

What type of person do you want to be?

No, not what job do you want, or how much money do you want, but what type of person do you want to be at the character level?

Character building doesn’t happen by accident. You will not wake up one day and find yourself being godly, gracious and happy. You have to intentionally pursue Christ and His Word to find the instructions for life (2 Peter 1:3-11).

In order to end well, you have to run well. As we conclude 2015 and begin 2016, what has distracted you from pursuing Christ this year? What has been an encouragement? What goals should you set for the New Year?

Set SMART Goals for each area of life.

In Luke 2:52 says that Jesus grew in 4 areas: Wisdom, Stature, Favor With God and Favor With Man. How can we follow Jesus’ example in our own growth?

What are your intellectual and academic goals?

What are your physical and health goals?

What are your spiritual growth goals?

What are your social goals?

Think of goals for life and goals for 2016. Here’s a grid to help you make good smart goals in each of these four areas. Think short term and long term.

S – stands for Specific – you should be clear about what you want to happen

M – stands for Measurable – you should be able to track your goal

A – stands for Action – what small specific actions must you take to achieve this goal

R – stands for Realistic – can you actually achieve this goal? Is it doable?

T – stands for Time – set a time frame for you to accomplish this goal

If you take Solomon’s challenge to not waste your life, but to remember your Creator today by setting goals to grow, you will live a meaningful and purpose filled life. Don’t wait until tomorrow. Don’t wait until you have a “real job” and a family. Don’t wait until college. Start today and bring glory to God!

 

The Fulfilled Life

As we continue to look at the book of Ecclesiastes we learn so many truths about life. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, was not without his faults, but being wise doesn’t mean being perfect. True wisdom comes to those who learn from failure and reflect on life in such a way that leads to growth and maturity.

Ecclesiastes is a book where an aged Solomon looks back at all the pursuits of his life and shares the lessons he learned. He remembers being caught up in the temporal and immediate desire for pleasure, power and wealth. Yet the cost was great and he experienced the consequences for pursuing fleeting goals.

Nearing the end of the year, Solomon’s words of wisdom help us examine our own lives, particularly the events of this past year, in hopes of walking closer to God in the coming world. This week I want to look at two of our biggest problems and the solution to our problems.

Loneliness

The holiday season can be a great mask to cover some underlying struggles. There are parties and dinners to look forward to, but sometimes that’s not even enough. Perhaps the hardest struggle to overcome is the despairing sense of loneliness.

Have you ever been in a sea of people and felt like no one can see you? There are times we are with our closets friends and family and yet deep in our gut we feel alone. After all, the Triune Creator made us as He is, relational beings. Even before the Fall of man, God said that it is not good for man to be alone.

The deepest longing of our hearts is to know and be known. Yet most of us never want to acknowledge this truth to others. We want to be known, but we fear being vulnerable will cause others to withdraw from us.

Think through this past year. How often did you feel lonely?

You see we all feel it. The brokenness of this world magnifies our pain. Solomon felt it too. Look at what he writes in chapter 4:9-12. He remembers being alone and without help. “Woe to him who is alone…” and has nobody to get his back. It’s a terrible place to be in, but one we all find ourselves in.

Once I heard a good definition for ministry: “Ministry can be defined as helping someone feel less alone in this world.” What could be more impactful then helping someone with one of the most basic human needs?

Solomon hits on something more in this passage then companionship. He says, “a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” I believe this to be pointing to healthy relationships with Christ at the center.

If we are not careful, our desire to not be alone could cause us to use people for our own purpose. But when we follow Christ, He brings ultimate healing and companionship to us. We are never alone when we belong to God (Hebrews 13:5).

When you find fulfillment and happiness in Christ, your friendships and relationships take on so much more. You can share the love of Christ with others and watch God build strong relationships that are not easily broken. It takes both parties pursuit of Christ to build the strongest and most authentic friendships.

Think again through this past year. Who are your closest friends? What are your most rewarding relationships like? How do you keep Christ at the center?    

Failed Expectations

Solomon also understood the problem of failed expectations. Read 4:9-14. Here he remembers back to a time when he “had nothing and a fresh start.” Innocence and ignorance led to less stress. Later he has “everything” but the burden gained from getting everything robbed him of joy.

What failed expectations did you have this year? Did you get the position you longed for and found out it wasn’t what you expected? Did you make the team and realize that you didn’t get the respect you thought you were going to get? Did you finally get into the relationship you wanted only to find out the person is a disappointment?

Yes, Solomon felt those pains too. His encouragement is to remember how to take advice. Always be learning and look for ways to improve. Don’t get to the place where you are cynical and skeptical. Don’t allow the pain of the present to rob you of finding joy in the future.

When we place a high expectation on what we can achieve for ourselves, we will find it leaves us empty. Pursuit of Christ and seeking His Will leads us to fulfillment in this life and the next.

Authentic Worship

Solomon teaches about so many other areas in our life that we fail at and have problems in. Yet in this book, what can seem depressing and sorrowful, are nuggets of wisdom and joy when we look for them. He knew and experienced the lowest of lows, of loneliness and of failed expectations. But he also experienced a closeness to his Creator. He knew that nothing in this life could compare to worshiping God.

Solomon knows that our tendency is to go through the motions and allow the frustrations of life to rob us of intimacy with our Creator, so He gives us some clues on how not to allow our worship to be meaningless.

Be Prepared

Do you ever get prepared for worship? Do you take some time Wednesday before youth group to ask God to meet you in worship? Sometime on Saturday night or Sunday morning do you pause and reflect to ask God to speak to you during service?

Probably not. I know that it doesn’t happen much in your life, because I don’t do it enough in my life. But Solomon is telling us to be prepared for worship if we want it to be authentic.

He says, “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.” This seems reminiscent of God telling Moses to “take off your shoes for this is holy ground.” We get prepared by remembering that God is holy. Prepare your mind and heart to encounter the living God. Remember who you are, where you came from and what He has forgiven you from. Confess any sins that may bar you from worship.

He also says, “draw near to listen…” Think of Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus. Martha was so upset that Mary wasn’t helping with the chores, but Jesus said “Mary has chosen the better thing.” That is to draw near and listen to the truth from God’s Word. This action understands he authority that we submit to. It recognizes the authority God has in our life and in this world.

Let Your Words Be Few

Often our words are full of selfish praise and self-seeking attention. We want to be seen and heard. Pagan religions are full of meaningless words and repetitions, which is why Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 to not use vain repetition as the pagans do.

Instead, our encounter with God should cause a sense of holy awe and wonder. When we see Jesus’ love for us, we should be speechless. It’s not that he is saying don’t say a word, but choose your words wisely and with reverence. Ponder on the person of Christ and speak in a way that reflects your understanding of who He is.

How have you encountered God this past year? Have you been too busy or were you talking so much that you missed out on opportunities? How can you learn to be silent before God and experience Him in the New Year?

When we pause for authentic worship, we will learn the truth that we are never alone, for God is with us. We will never have failed expectations, because God is overwhelmingly good to us. When we worship we will be changed and we will bring about hope to those around us.

Listen to the words of wisdom, from a wise old man reflecting on his life, friends are important, but a friendship with Christ is the most important. Ambitions in life can leave you empty, unless you seek to learn more about God throughout life. Pausing to acknowledge the holiness and goodness of God will lead to intimacy with Him. These are truths that will lead to a fulfilled life.

What's the Point?

It’s here! The holiday season is finally upon us. Yes, Walmart has been setting up Christmas supplies since August, but now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, it’s Christmas time! The Holidays bring a mixture of emotions for all. Some long for and love everything about it, while others dread the holidays.

Life is interesting in that way. No two people are alike. The very things that bring life and joy to one are the same things that bring dread and death. It is rooted in the perspective we choose to look at life from.

As a Christian, Jesus is the point, He is the reason for the season and He is the source of joy and happiness. Admittedly, knowing what I know about Jesus, I can’t imagine going through life with out Him. This is the understanding that Solomon arrived at toward the end of his life when he wrote, “fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

The key to a joyful life is found in Christ, yet sometimes Christians get their eyes off Jesus. Sometimes we live each and every day as if God does not exist. Those days and times we are living as practical atheists. We say we believe in God, but we live like there is no God.

No God

Solomon examines his life and his pursuits apart from God and concludes it is pointless, fleeting and a chasing after the wind. When we loose our focus or if we do not believe in God, life can become boring, bankrupt and even bitter. And why not, what is the point? What brings meaning to life.

In reflecting about life apart from God, Solomon asks, “what does the worker gain from his toil?” If the here and now is all that matters to you, if you don’t have a higher calling and a heavenly perspective then there is an emptiness to life.

Yet you do believe there is something more. The question nags at you, “there’s got to be more to life then this, right?’ The sense that something is next, beyond this life, is there. You may not have the answers for the questions, but deep down you know that there is something.

Solomon again says this is because God created us with eternity in our hearts. “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end”  (Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV).

As an exercise, read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 from a perspective that there is no god. What is the purpose of life? What conclusions would you draw?

Know God

God did not just wire us with a sense of the unknown and a desire to know eternity. He meets us where we are and provides an answer to the deepest longing of our hearts: Himself. Jesus said that He is the way, the truth and the life. He said He has come to give abundant life!

When we live life with our eyes fixed on Jesus, when we have a heavenly perspective, He brings meaning to the mundane. He is orchestrating in our lives a masterpiece to be lived out (Ephesians 2:10).

Reread Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 but from the perspective of 3:11, that God has “made everything beautiful in its time.” God is behind all things and in control of all things. How does this bring hope? How can this perspective bring life?

Instead of a boring life, God brings balance. Instead of bankruptcy He brings beauty. Instead of bitterness, He gives blessings.

God knows you and me. He knows our limitations and He is working in our lives. No matter what we are facing, when we get a firm grasp that God is there and working we see that He makes life bearable.

Reflections

As this holiday season is upon us and the business of school, work, travel, parties, etc. distract you, pause and reflect on your Creator. Know that there is a God in Heaven who loves you and cares about you. He knows that sometimes life is full of death, breaking down, weeping, losing and war. Hold on because He is working to bring life, building up, joy, victory and peace.

When in life you feel down and broken, check your perspective. Do you believe there is a God? Do you know Jesus Christ? If yes, have you been living as if He isn’t there? If no, call out to Him today. Jesus is truly the reason for the season. He has changed my life, He has given me hope and He wants to do the same for you.