{"id":18226,"date":"2016-12-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-24T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/2016-christmas-eve-sermon\/"},"modified":"2016-12-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-24T06:00:00","slug":"2016-christmas-eve-sermon","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/2016-christmas-eve-sermon\/","title":{"rendered":"2016 Christmas Eve Sermon"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[87],"series_event":[441],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18226","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-luke","series_event-christmas-eve-services","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"2016 Christmas Eve Sermon","sermon_date":"20161224","sermon_month":"12","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":"","sermon_slides":"","sermon_mp3":4174,"sermon_id":"1224161956384","series_or_event":441,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":87,"chapter_and_verse":"2:7","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nSUGAR LAND BIBLE CHURCH\n\n2016 Christmas Eve Sermon, Luke 2:7\n\nDecember 24, 2016,\n\nHappy Christmas Eve!\u00a0\u00a0 Merry Christmas Eve to everybody; I\u2019m looking forward to saying Merry Christmas tomorrow and we invite you to join us to worship the Lord here on Christmas morning.\u00a0 I\u2019m sort of excited that Christmas fell this year on Sunday and we\u2019re going to be meeting tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.\u00a0 Note that, not 11:00 a.m.\u00a0 If you show up at 11:00 a.m. you\u2019ll think you missed the rapture or something.\u00a0 But we\u2019re going to be looking at Christmas through the lens of the Old Testament tomorrow.\n\nBut for this evening let me just share a few thoughts with you from the famous story in the Gospel of Luke, if you have a copy of your Bible with you, I don\u2019t know if you can see with the lights down but don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll read it.\u00a0 You can open your Bibles to Luke 2:7, and it says this:\u00a0 \u201cAnd she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.\u201d\n\nThat, to me, is sort of a staggering verse because here the King of the Universe is born into our world and there really was no place for Him in an ordinary inn so He had to be laid there in a manger.\u00a0 And you know, we\u2019ve seen the manger scene so many times on Christmas cards and things like that, that we have a tendency to glamorize the manger but the fact of the matter is the manger is really not a place of pride or boastfulness; it\u2019s a place of great humility.\u00a0 And this is where Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and our Creator was born.\n\nHow was He born in a manger?\u00a0 Well, the Bible says very simply \u201cthere was no room for Him in the inn.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0[Luke 2:7, \u201cAnd she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.\u201d]\n\nHow was there no room for Jesus in the in?\u00a0 Why did He have to be born in a manger?\u00a0 Well, probably some very good excuses were given, the inn was full, people were too busy to really pay attention to this man, Jesus Christ, their schedules were packed, they were involved in commerce, they were involved in religious activity and the world 2,000 years ago was really just too busy for Jesus.\u00a0 And consequently Jesus now has to be born in a manger rather than given a proper place in the inn.\n\nAnd I started to kind of think about that Luke 2:7 and I started to see that really as sort of a microcosm, if you will, of humanity\u2019s reaction to Jesus, because the fact of the matter is, although this story historically occurred 2,000 years ago would you not agree with me that the world really hasn\u2019t changed that much since then?\u00a0 The world today, by and large, is just too busy for Jesus.\n\nLook, for example, how we celebrate Christmas.\u00a0 Most of us would acknowledge that our culture once understood that we celebrate Christmas December 25th<\/sup> because we\u2019re acknowledging the birth of Jesus Christ and yet look at what our culture has done to Jesus Christ.\u00a0 We have pushed Him out of almost everything, we have pushed Him out of the schools, pushed Him out of government, in some cases we\u2019ve even pushed Him out of the church.\n\nAnd look also at the commercials related to Christmas. What are they glamorizing in these commercials?\u00a0 They don\u2019t really glamorize Jesus, the Savior of the world.\u00a0 Christmas has sort of turned into family time, family reunions, emphasis on family.\u00a0 Of course there\u2019s nothing wrong with that, it\u2019s important to have strong family bonds and a good family nucleus but family reunions and eating and feasting and these kind of things are really not the original purpose of the holiday.\u00a0 It was rather there to push or to promote this man, Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And even in the school system today we don\u2019t call Christmas \u201cChristmas\u201d any longer, they have more of a generic expression; they use the expression winter holidays.\n\nAnd sort of the way we celebrate Christmas today is\u2026 if I can use this analogy, it\u2019s like having a birthday party for somebody and you get a whole bunch of presents and you get a whole bunch of party favors and you get ready to celebrate but you never really invite the person whose birthday it is to the celebration.\u00a0 We\u2019re just having this big celebration and we\u2019ve lost sight of whose birthday it is we\u2019re supposed to be celebrating.\n\nAnd of course on of the tragedies in my lifetime is seeing this expression, people in the department stores that work behind the counters, they no longer say Merry Christmas, they say what?\u00a0 Happy holidays, you know\u2026 I always just say Merry Christmas right back to them, and then when I say it back to them they\u2019re like relieved that they can say Merry Christmas and reciprocate and not be offended.\u00a0 By the way, the derivation of \u201cholidays\u201d is holy days, so that\u2019s religious too.\u00a0 So maybe we should get rid of the phrase \u201cholidays\u201d altogether.\u00a0 And we\u2019re living in this culture where it\u2019s kind of spirituality is in, there\u2019s a lot of \u201cGod-talk.\u201d\u00a0 But what I don\u2019t\u2019 see is a lot of \u201cJ\u201d talk, Jesus.\u00a0 And in fact, you know as well as I do that if you want to destroy a conversation stop talking about the \u201cG\u201d word and start talking about the \u201cJ\u201d word and watch the conversation suddenly stop.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about God, He\u2019s obviously central to the whole thing but the holiday is about God the Son, Jesus Christ.\n\nSo just as there was really no room for Jesus in the inn two thousand years ago the world really hasn\u2019t changed much in the last two thousand years.\u00a0 There\u2019s really no room for Jesus in American culture.\u00a0 There\u2019s really no room for Jesus in our world.\u00a0 And many of us, if we looked at our hearts would have to acknowledge that we are so caught up with our own schedules, our own plans, our own busyness that we really have a tendency to push Jesus out of our hearts altogether.\n\nThat\u2019s what I mean when I say Luke 2:7 is kind of a microcosm of humanity\u2019s reaction to the Son of God.\u00a0 And as you begin to track this theme through the Bible what you\u2019ll discover is this is actually the major theme of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.\u00a0 Man, humanity, in his or her sinfulness, has the tendency to push Jesus out.\u00a0 If you go back to the book of Genesis, chapter 3, this is how human history began after the fall of man.\n\nGenesis 3:8-10 says this: \u201cThey heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. [9] Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, \u2018Where are you?\u2019 [10] He said, \u2018I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Right there at the dawn of human history man is not embracing God; in fact, man is running from God, pushing God out, no room for Jesus in the inn.\n\nAnd you would think that when the Lord comes back a second time, and by the way, do you all know He\u2019s coming back a second time?\u00a0 His Second Advent is going to be just as real as the event we\u2019re celebrating here, His First Advent.\u00a0 And\u00a0 yet when He comes back a second time what is going to be the reaction of people towards Jesus?\u00a0 It\u2019s the exact same reaction.\u00a0 Revelation 19:11 talks about the return of Christ and it\u2019s very clear it\u2019s talking about Jesus because John says, \u201cAnd I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Revelation 19:16 clearly identifies the rider on the white horse as Jesus because He\u2019s got a title written on Him, \u201cKING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 19:16, \u201cAnd on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, \u2018KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.\u2019\u201d]\n\nHe\u2019s not just one of many kings, He is the quintessential King, the ultimate King.\u00a0 And what is going to be the reaction of the people on the earth at that time?\u00a0 Revelation 19:19, shockingly, says this: \u201cAnd I saw the beast and the kings of the earth\u201d that would be every major king on planet earth at that time, \u201cI saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.\u201d\n\nJesus Christ comes into the world the first time, there\u2019s no room for Jesus in the inn.\u00a0 Jesus comes back to the world the second time and this time the world is actually going out and fighting the return of Christ.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing, isn\u2019t it, the capacity of the human heart to push God out of their thinking and out of their lives.\n\nNow I\u2019m a pastor of a local church and so I\u2019m always thinking about well, what\u2019s the state of the church?\u00a0 I mean surely the church of Jesus Christ would have a place for Christ in His own church, wouldn\u2019t that be true?\u00a0 Yet we read these frightening words in the book of Revelation, chapter 3 and verse 20, concerning the church at Laodicea, and this is what it says: Jesus is speaking, \u201c'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.\u201d\n\nAnd this verse is commonly misunderstood as an invitation for salvation but when\u00a0 you study this verse in its context what you\u2019ll discover is this is not a salvation verse; this is not Jesus outside the heart of the unbeliever knocking on the heart of the unbeliever asking for admittance.\u00a0 This is actually Jesus outside the doors of His own church and the church is having church, money apparently is coming in because Laodicea was a very prosperous church, attendance was up, all of the signs on the external, on the outside, were there but when you actually look at what\u2019s happening you see Jesus outside the door of His own church, knocking on the door of His own church, wanting admittance.\u00a0 It\u2019s speaking of the church in the\u00a0 last says that has whose lives have become so full and so crowded that the church itself didn\u2019t even have room for Jesus Christ.\u00a0 In fact, the words Laodicea are interesting to me, it\u2019s a compound word, it comes from two Greek words, Lao<\/em> meaning people, and dikeo<\/em>, meaning to rule, and Laodicea literally means the people ruling.\n\nWe\u2019re having Christianity without Christ; no room for Christ in the inn, no room for Christ when He comes back, no room for Christ (apparently) even in His own church.\u00a0 And, you know, we\u2019re getting ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ here at Sugar Land Bible Church tomorrow morning and I\u2019ve been sort of depressed at reading some of the e-mails: well, you\u2019re going to keep the message short, aren\u2019t you?\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019ve got lunch plans, we\u2019ve got gifts, we\u2019ve got this, we\u2019ve got that.\u00a0 And the answer is we will not be keeping the message short, we\u2019re going to be dealing aggressively with the First Coming of Jesus Christ from the Old Testament.\n\nAnd isn\u2019t it interesting that an athletic event can come on Christmas; I\u2019ve watched basketball games, sometimes the NBA has games on Christmas day and people can sit there for two and a half hours glued to a television set and watch an\u00a0 entire basketball game and yet coming and sitting and listening to the teaching of the Word of God for an hour is (in many cases) too much of an encumbrance.\u00a0 And I notice the Denzel Washington movies coming out tomorrow, on Christmas day, people will be packed in the movie theaters giving unencumbered attention to a two hour movie.\u00a0 And yet on Christmas day we can watch a movie, we can watch an athletic event but we just can\u2019t have time in our schedule for worshipping Christ the way He deserves to be worshipped.\n\nSo you see, this issue of \u201cno room for Jesus in the inn,\u201d it\u2019s a microcosm of a problem that really relates to our human hearts.\u00a0 Why are we this way?\u00a0 Why is it that we push God away all of the time?\u00a0 It really has to do with our original condition, our sinful condition in the First Adam.\u00a0\u00a0 This is what John\u2019s Gospel says in John 3:19-21, it says this: \u201cThis is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.\u00a0 [20] For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. [20] But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.\u201d\n\nThat is an amazing Scripture to me because Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, shows up on planet earth to save us.\u00a0 And you would think the reaction of the human race would be to stand up and applaud\u2014yea, Jesus is here!\u00a0 And yet John tells us that that\u2019s not the reaction at all, people have a tendency to hate the Light.\u00a0 He does mention a remnant that embraces the Light, but by and large the people of the world are not interested in the Light, the Light is actually something that bothers them because the closer they get to the Light the more they can see their own sinfulness by way of comparison and exposure, and so the Light is sort of a disturbance.\n\nAnd so we, by nature, Romans 3:11 puts it this way, \u201cTHERE IS NO ONE WHO UNDER\u00adSTANDS, THERE IS NO ONE WHO SEEKS GOD;\u201d\u00a0 Our natural capacity as fallen human beings is not to embrace God, not to embrace Christ, but rather to push Jesus out.\u00a0 It\u2019s a story that begins in Eden, it\u2019s a story that continues right on through to the Second Advent of Christ; it\u2019s a story taking place in the church of Jesus Christ today.\u00a0 And this is exactly what was happening with the birth of Jesus Christ\u2014no room for Christ in the inn\u2026 push Him out!\n\nYou say well, this is a very negative message.\u00a0 Why are you being so negative on Christmas.\u00a0 Because I want to challenge\u00a0 you as I\u2019m getting ready to conclude here, I want to challenge you with this, that it doesn\u2019t have to be this way.\u00a0 John says \u201cas many as received Him,\u201d he doesn\u2019t say everyone will receive Him but he does hint at a remnant of people that by and large do want to embrace Jesus Christ and let Him reign the fullest He wants to reign in our personal lives, no\u00a0 longer making excuses, no longer saying we\u2019re too busy, no longer annoyed that God interrupts our plans but just letting Jesus Christ have that reign and authority that He wants to have in our lives.\u00a0\u00a0 [John 1:12, \u201cBut as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,\u201d]\n\nAnd you know, for the unbeliever it\u2019s possible you could be here today and have never entered into a relationship with the God that made you.\u00a0 And if that\u2019s your condition, and a lot of people show up at churches because it\u2019s kind of the religious thing to do, but as I\u2019ve said before, sitting in a church doesn\u2019t make you a Christian any more than sitting in McDonalds makes you a hamburger.\u00a0 God has no grandchildren.\u00a0 I can\u2019t live off the faith of my parents or my grandparents.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got to have my own personal faith in Christ; I\u2019ve got to have my own walk with Him.\n\nAnd so perhaps you\u2019re here today and you\u2019ve never trusted in Christ as your Savior, never reached a place in your life where you acknowledge that your own path isn\u2019t working and you trust exclusively in the promises of Him.\u00a0 If that\u2019s your condition then our invitation to you tonight and our invitation to you basically every time this church opens its doors is to trust in Christ.\u00a0 We emphasize over and over again that there is but one step to God and God outlines that condition very clearly, which is to believe.\u00a0 Believe means to trust, it means to rely upon, it means to have confidence in and it\u2019s the only act on the part of sinful human beings that God will accept as a basis for entering into a relationship with Him.\u00a0 You can\u2019t earn your way into this nor can you buy your way into this; nor will\u00a0 all of those New Year\u2019s resolutions that you\u2019re making, and by March you will have broken three-quarters of them anyway, New Year\u2019s resolutions aren\u2019t going to get you in the door.\u00a0 It is receiving by faith a gift.\n\nYou know, speaking from personal experience, it\u2019s easier to give a gift than to receive a gift because when you receive a gift it requires some humility.\u00a0 And God is only going to accept people on the basis of them receiving what He has done.\u00a0 What has He done?\u00a0 He\u2019s died on a cross for them two thousand years ago, He\u2019s bridged the gap between God and man as only He could bridge, He\u2019s resurrected from the dead in order to validate who He claimed to be and He leaves humanity with a simple message is to trust in what I\u2019ve done.\u00a0 \u201cWithout faith\u201d the Bible says, Hebrews 11:6, \u201cIt is impossible to please God.\u201d\u00a0 So if you\u2019re here today and you\u2019re unclear about eternity,\u00a0 you\u2019re unclear about a relationship with the Lord our exhortation to you is the best you know how, even right there where you\u2019re seated to, in the privacy of your own heart and mind to trust, no longer in yourself,\u00a0 your denomination, your religiosity, your own best efforts, but to trust exclusively in the promises of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And once that happens you become a born child of God.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you\u2019re unclear on I\u2019d love to talk to you after the service is over.\n\nBut the message isn\u2019t over yet because I want to just talk for a minute to the believers.\u00a0 I just said a few words to the unbeliever, what about the believer?\u00a0 What about the believer whose life is so filled with their own way of doing things that God, through Jesus Christ, has never really had the opportunity to reign in your life the way He wants to?\u00a0 The believer who, just like \u201cno room in the inn,\u201d really has a very limited place for Jesus.\u00a0 The book of James, chapter 4 and verse 5 says this:\u00a0 \u201cOr do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: \u2018He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us\u2019?\u201d\u00a0 Now this is Christ\u2019s half-brother speaking here, James.\u00a0 And James says when you trust Christ the Holy Spirit comes into you, we call that the new birth, regeneration, but the spirit which is inside of you envies you intensely.\u00a0\u00a0 And so many times as Christians, and I know this from personal experience, we give God kind of the corner room in the house somewhere.\u00a0 God, you can have the attic, God, you can have the closet but the living room, that belongs to me.\u00a0 And what is God saying to that kind of believer today?\u00a0 The spirit that\u2019s already within you envies\u00a0 you intensely; he wants everything; he wants those parts of our lives that we in our own human depravity have closed off to Him.\n\nAnd so this message, there\u2019s no room for Christ in the inn, that doesn\u2019t just speak to the unbeliever that needs to get saved.\u00a0 This speaks to the believer who needs to start walking by faith, moment by moment and yielding to God moment by moment, and giving up those areas in our lives to Him where we hold onto so tightly.\u00a0 And there have been many areas like this in my life where the Lord has dealt with me and is dealing with me, and what I\u2019ve discovered is this: over the long run God doesn\u2019t take something away without replacing it with something better.\u00a0 God wants to bless you more than\u00a0 you want to be blessed.\u00a0 God wants to use you more than you want to be used.\u00a0 But many times we settle for second best because we\u2019re holding so tightly to our own scripts, our own way of doing things.\n\nJesus, in the parable of the sower talked about the seed going forth, which is the Word of God, and He talked about it landing on soils, four kinds of soil; soil represents the condition of the human heart.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fantastic parable to study.\u00a0 Let me just read to you about one of those soils.\n\nMatthew 13:7, it says, \u201cOthers fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.\u201d\u00a0 And then Jesus gives the interpretation down in verse 22 of Matthew 13 and he says,\u00a0 \u201cThe one on whom the seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the Word, but the worry of the world, the deceitfulness of wealth, choke the Word and it becomes unfruitful.\u201d\u00a0 My under-standing of that particular soil is these are saved people because the fruit came up, at least a little bit.\u00a0 But when that seed hit that soil it was nearly choked by what?\u00a0 \u201cthe deceitfulness of wealth,\u201d materialism, the worries of the world and maybe you\u2019re here today on Christmas Eve, you\u2019ve known Christ for decades but \u201cthe deceitfulness of wealth\u201d and the \u201cworry of the world\u201d are so powerful in your mind that the Word of God, which has already been planted in you, really is not having the full reign that it wants to have.\n\nSee, the believers are very good, just like the unbelievers, at pushing God out.\u00a0 When we do that? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a01 Thessalonians 5:19 says that we quench, it says, \u201cDo not quench the Spirit.\u201d\u00a0 Another translation says, \u201cDo not put out the Spirit\u2019s fire.\u201d\u00a0 [International Standard Version]\u00a0 The Spirit wants to just light a fire in your life; He wants to bless you beyond what you are capable of even thinking you could be blessed.\u00a0 He wants to use you beyond ways that you even think you\u2019re capable of being used.\u00a0 He wants to walk with you in intimacy and He wants to know\u00a0 you in ways that\u00a0 you never thought possible.\n\nAnd yet the Spirit\u2019s fire so many times is curtailed in our lives because of our own selfishness, our own stubbornness, our own crowdedness, our own planning, our own schedule, our own ideas of how things ought to work.\n\nSo our challenge for the unbeliever is to trust Christ and be saved but our challenge for the believer is this: we\u2019ve got a new year coming up, don\u2019t we, 2017?\u00a0 You know, I don\u2019t know if the Lord\u2019s going to come back this year; I hope He does.\u00a0 But if the Lord tarries we\u2019re going to be sitting at this exact same place with a year passed and my question for you is will you be able to look back on the year 2017 and see it as a turning point in your life?\u00a0 Seeing it really as a year where you just got serious with the Lord?\u00a0 Now I\u2019m not going to push my way around anymore Lord, I\u2019m going to depend on You, I\u2019m going to walk with You, I don\u2019t know how it\u2019s all going to work but I trust Your will, I trust Your plan.\u00a0 This is the year I\u2019m really going to give you \u201croom in the in\u201d that You deserve, the \u201cin\u201d being you and the condition of your heart.\n\nSo as we get ready to conclude let this be something you\u2019re thinking about between you and the Lord as we move into our candle lighting part of the service, thinking about 2017 as being different; thinking about this motif throughout the Scripture of no room for Christ in the inn.\u00a0 And saying you know, in the year 2017 that\u2019s not going to be me; there\u2019s going to be room for Christ, not just in the attic, not just in the closet, but He\u2019s going to reign over the whole house.\u00a0 And watch what the Lord does in the year 2017.\u00a0 I know this much about God, He\u2019s a gentleman; He\u2019s not going to push His way in any more, He\u2019ll convict you but He\u2019s not going to override your will any more than Jesus and his family broke down the indoors and pushed their way in, I mean they were crowded out.\u00a0 Any more than the Jesus standing outside the door of Laodicea pushed His way in; He was just knocking.\u00a0 He\u2019s doing that with you, He\u2019s doing that with me, He\u2019s doing that with all of us, He\u2019s knocking and he\u2019s saying I want to reign, I want to rule, I want to have authority, I want to do things in and through you that you never thought possible.\n\nSo a great time of reflection and thinking as we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Just by way of explanation you guys probably know the drill, we\u2019re going to start\u2026 they actually gave me a lighter, they\u2019re very brave up here, so I\u2019ll light the candles there on the first row and then we just kind of move around and you, as a good Christian, light someone else\u2019s candle and then we\u2019ll have folks at the back beginning to light the candles.\u00a0 And probably once the candles get lit I think we\u2019re going to be singing Silent Night as we glorify our Lord Jesus Christ and then Gabe will conclude us with a closing prayer.\u00a0 So let\u2019s go ahead now and light the candles.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t