Old Lea Bethel Baptist Church

Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

On this Christmas morning, as I reflect on the Christmas story, the birth of Jesus, and the greatest gift ever given, I’m struck by the instructions given by the heavenly host just before departing the shepherds on that glorious night. Glory to God in the highest first… then peace and goodwill toward men.

How often Christmas becomes about the tree, the dinner, the presents, the in-laws. While certainly beautiful decorations and nice presents are fun,and gathering with family and friends can be nice, God instructs us to bring (at the least) two gifts on Christmas day, He doesn’t leave us guessing – We are to first give glory to Him for the wonder of Christ’s birth. That is our first focus on Christmas morning – praise and glory to His name for the gift given long ago.

After we give Him glory, we are to bring out the second gift – Peace and Goodwill to those around us. This is a choice and completely independent of whether anyone else shows up with their peace and goodwill or not! This is not a gift swap. This is a time for us to give regardless of what we receive.

This peace is to be to ALL, not just those we like. This Goodwill is to be to everyone, even the person who said ugly things about our sweater last year. The peace and goodwill is another worship to God. It is a second worship and, by it’s very practice, Gives Glory to God in the Highest! We are accomplishing the first command, while exercising the second command. It sounds oddly reminiscent of Matthew 22:37-39 – Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ We love God by loving others. We give glory to God when we love others.

Today, bring the two greatest gifts. Before anything else, Give Glory to God in the Highest. Then, continue to give Him glory and praise by bringing Peace on earth and Goodwill to all men and women, everywhere you roam.

Merry Christmas.

Luke 2:49 And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

In context, Jesus asked this of His parents when they found Him in the temple talking with the scholars. They’d found Him missing and understandably were scared that their child had wandered off. They admonished Him and this was the answer He gave.

This is a question every believer must answer in our walk with the Lord – “Why did you seek Me?” What do we hope to find? What does following Jesus mean to us? Who is He in the “everyday” of our lives?

Believers will inevitably hit rough water… sickness, financial problems, family crises. It’s a fact of life. Jesus is not bubble wrap for our comfort. Why did we seek Him? Rough waters allow us to grow into a deeper understanding of why we sought Him. Hard times challenge our faith. Pain and grief cause us to grow into more intimate relationship with Him. It’s when all our worldly safety nets are failing and our earthly anchors are coming loose in the storm that we seek God desperately and with a brokenness of heart that receives the seeds of His change.

Yet, we don’t like these rough waters. We fight them. It’s during these times that Jesus asks us the second question – “Did you not know I must be about My Father’s business?” Think about this question. This is Jesus’ eyes looking directly into our soul. Talk about a showstopping moment.

What is the Father’s business with us? It is to change us into the image of His Son. It is to cause us to serve one another. It is to grow us in relationship with Him. It is to get us to trust and draw closer. It makes sense then that, given the fact that rough waters, tribulations, and persecutions cause us to draw closer, that Jesus will allow into our lives exactly these things.

Why did we seek Him? To obtain a deeper and richer, more fulfilling relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Well, since this is our goal, why does it amaze us when Jesus goes about doing just this in our lives? Why does it amaze us when our faith is challenged? Did we not know that He would be about His Father’s business? Did we believe we could seek and find, yet never experience the business side of our walk? We knew He must be about just that. If nothing changed after we sought Jesus, did we really find Him?

The questions still echo down through the ages to every believer today. Jesus wasn’t just asking His mother and father. He asks us, when we become frustrated with life and it all seems too much – Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?

Why indeed? Did we not know these days would come?

Luke 10: 38-42 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Christmas can become a very stressful time when we allow it. There are decorations to hang, gifts to purchase, plays to attend, business to finish, family situations to navigate, food to fix, and the list goes on endlessly. Many are the givers and more are the receivers. It can be a frantic time.

Though not technically a Christmas story, the story of Mary and Martha is indeed a story that plays out in families and organizations at Christmas time. Everyone knows a Martha. Martha is frantically trying to decorate the perfect house, buy the perfect gift, take the perfect Christmas photo, and be all things to all people. Yet, Christmas holds little joy. It holds far more resentment. There’s resentment of a sibling not doing a perceived part or a spouse not “stepping up”. Thoughts race about overwork and under-appreciation. Anger simmers. Joy slips away. This plays out year after year in human gatherings everywhere.

Yet, Jesus is very clear. Choose Joy. Choose the best part. Choose to maintain joy in service to others. He says that Mary has “chosen” the good part. She has chosen to focus, not on the world and all the “have to” items in it, but on the things of God. 

Do we choose to be Joyful at this time of the year? Do we serve with Joy? Is the money, present, decoration, or photo what we’ll recall? Or will we recall the warmth of a grandparents hand, the hug of a child, the laugh of a newborn, or the unplanned picture of silly happenings? 

This year, choose to be Joyful in all that Christmas has to offer. Start with Joy at Christ’s birth. Each cookie baked, each concert attended, each card addressed – be sure that Joy is present. If it is a requirement, an expectation, or drudgery, reframe it to something Joy-filled and Joyful.

It’s easy to become Martha – worried and troubled about many things. Jesus says that we must choose the good part. We must choose to have a smile in our hearts that matches the one on our lips. When it all becomes more trouble than it’s worth, we need to consider why we’re doing it? Who are we serving? Others…. or our ego? 

Service, absent the indwelling of Joy, is a gift to no one. Joy is a gift received, even while it is being given. Christmas is about choosing the good part – Joy, Peace, Love – while we serve one another.

Matthew 7:3-5 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Too often, we’re lightning quick to find the fault in others. The term “toxic” is thrown around these days. We speak about how an environment is toxic or a person is toxic. We talk about toxic relationships. We tear down a person we perceive did us a grievous wrong… never stopping to ask – what was my part?

What a powerless place to live… in a place where someone else holds all the influence and we are simply living at their toxic mercy… poor, poor me.  

Taking personal responsibility for every situation in our life is true power. Power is found in realizing that we are not at the mercy of a “toxic” situation. Ultimately, it’s our responsibility to manage our relationships in such a way as is nurturing to our souls and not toxic. This is true power. This is true self control. This is true growth.

We need not complain about how someone is treating us, when we have not first determined how we demand to be treated. What is allowed once will be repeated. We teach others how to treat us. 

Who then is the toxin? Is it the person acting on what is allowed? Or is the toxin the person allowing the act? It takes a lot of courage to admit that we bear a large part of the  responsibility for how we are being treated. Few possess such courage. It’s easier to tell others to go get fixed, than to look inside and ask, “Why must I tear another down to feel more powerful? What am I communicating that is giving others the idea that I approve toxicity in my life?” 

When we constantly find toxic people in our life, tolerate toxic behavior, frequent toxic places, perhaps we are our own toxin… Perhaps, no one else is really to blame.

Ephesians 5:15-16 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

The Bible is a guide for daily living, offering wise insights into how we are to conduct our lives. Christianity is a faith for daily living, guiding us in how we are to think and act towards all. While Jesus certainly spoke about the end of the world, He demonstrated the Kingdom of God with His walk through this world. 

Not long ago, I had a conversation with a person who spoke of Christianity as though the end of the world was all that mattered. I got the impression that Revelation and Daniel were the only books in this person’s Bible. The whole conversation swirled around the dreaded things to come, prophesied by both the Old Testament and the New Testament. There seemed to be a certain glee in how the world would be judged and “sinners” would get what was coming. It was troubling. 

I left the conversation examining how I live my life daily as a reflection of Christ.  How do I demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit daily? Is my love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control on full display to all I meet? Are these on display to my neighbors of a different color, a different race, a different country, a different generation, a different sexual persuasion, a different political party, or a different economic status? I pray so.

Or am I so caught up in what’s to come that I never put my beliefs into action here and now? Am I so busy thinking about Revelation that I never stop to live out the revelation the Holy Spirit is making in my life daily? I pray not.

Christians are to be living for Christ now. We are to be demonstrating Christ to those around us now. We are to be treating people, some very different from us, with Christ-like love now. Christ says that no one knows when the end times are coming. In Matthew 24, Jesus suggests that the days leading up to the end will be very unremarkable – people will be marrying, eating, drinking,et cetera like any other day. 

In His time among us, Jesus ate with prostitutes and tax collectors. He healed lepers. He talked with those shunned and hated by society. If He were here this moment, He’d be doing the same with the modern day version of prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers, and others cast off from society. If we are like Him, we must be loving the same.

I remind myself tonight, as I sit in the comfort of my warm house, working on my PC, listening to a pastor speak on my TV, that Jesus is for daily living. His words were not for some far off day that I may or may not see this side of heaven. His words were directed to me to guide my daily walk with Him.

When we follow Christ, we’ll encounter those He encountered, those society has rejected. If not, can we say we’re truly following? If I’m truly a disciple, I’ll love them as He loved them, in every thought, word, and deed.  

Luke 8:7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.

In Luke 8, Jesus gives us a parable about the seed and the sower. In it, He told us very clearly that the world and it’s cares will make all attempts to stop our Divine Purpose. The thorns that sprang up were explained in verse 14 – Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.

Many spend much time praying about purpose. Yet, the very things blocking that purpose are not addressed. The price is too high. The cost is too great. There’s pain in following passion. Fears and doubts assail.

God does not till the soil in our gardens… we do. God does not control the thorns… we do.

We either water the seeds or we water the weeds. Water takes the form of focus. We focus money, talents, time, and love through acts of choice. Like plants, that which receives more focus grows in our lives more. That which receives less focus grows less. We control the focus.

How brilliant that Jesus used thorns in the parable – sharp, painful to pull, hard to get rid of, will draw blood when mishandled, will grow out of control when left unchecked. The longer left unaddressed… the more difficult to bring under control. How wonderfully appropriate.

We pray that God will solve our issues, open our doors. When the issues remain and the doors stay closed, we cry out in frustration, griping, grumbling. We blame people. We blame circumstances. We blame God. Surely, the blame cannot rest in our own failure to address the thorns we see growing in our gardens. Surely, the fault cannot be mine.

The question is: are we tending our garden? Are we tearing up the weeds and watering the seeds? Are we braving the thorns and tearing them out by the roots, risking loss of blood and enduring pain in the process? Or are we sitting on the wall and asking God to do it all?

Philippians 4:13 says – I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Notice the verse starts with “I” and ends with “me”. There is personal price in following purpose. Many read this verse as – Christ, You do it all and I’ll watch. That’s not what it says though.

Make no mistake and understand: There is a price in purpose… a cost in calling… a pain in passion. If we want the promise, we must engage the process.