Speaker 1: You know, I saw a TV show this week that
Speaker 1: is called the Miracle of Christmas. And what's so miraculous
Speaker 1: about Christmas? I mean, it's just the birth of the baby,
Speaker 1: isn't it. Well, actually, there are four big miracles that
Speaker 1: happen at Christmas. The first miracle is who came at Christmas.
Speaker 1: The second miracle is how he came at Christmas. The
Speaker 1: third miracle is who he came to, and the fourth
Speaker 1: miracle is why he came. So what's the first miracle
Speaker 1: of Christmas? The first miracle is that very issue, God
Speaker 1: came to earth. God came to earth. He said, well,
Speaker 1: I thought it was just a birthday of Jesus. With
Speaker 1: Jesus is God. Let me show you some verses from
Speaker 1: the Bible. Colossians chapter one says, this Christ is the
Speaker 1: exact likeness of the unseen God. He existed before God
Speaker 1: made anything at all. And in fact, Christ himself is
Speaker 1: our creator who made everything in heaven and on earth.
Speaker 1: You know, some people think, well, I believe Jesus was
Speaker 1: a good man. The problem is he couldn't have been
Speaker 1: a good man, because no good man would claim to
Speaker 1: be God. You see, if I stood here today and
Speaker 1: I said Hi, I'm Rick Warren and I'm a good teacher.
Speaker 1: You might say, yeah, okay, I might believe that. I
Speaker 1: might even say Hi, I'm a man of God. He said, well,
Speaker 1: I don't know about that, but maybe. But if I
Speaker 1: stood up here and I said, hi, my name's Rick Warren,
Speaker 1: I'm the son of God. I'm God in human form,
Speaker 1: now you've got a decision to make. I'm either telling
Speaker 1: the truth or I'm crazy, or I'm a liar. You
Speaker 1: cannot be a good man and claim to be God.
Speaker 1: Jesus was either who he was, or we should just
Speaker 1: close up everything and go home and forget Christmas and
Speaker 1: all the big celebration that's going on. You know, today
Speaker 1: most of the world is focused on this single event
Speaker 1: that split our calendar. All the offices, all the stores
Speaker 1: are shut down. Everything else becomes secondary. Why because God
Speaker 1: invaded earth, Jesus didn't start in a state. Notice that
Speaker 1: verse we just read it said Jesus was the creator.
Speaker 1: Jesus was the creator who created earth. And noticed what
Speaker 1: Jesus said about himself in this verse John ten, verse thirty,
Speaker 1: Jesus said, we are the same father and son, he
Speaker 1: and me and I and M in him If you
Speaker 1: want to know what God looks like, you look at Jesus. Now,
Speaker 1: the second miracle was not the fact that just God
Speaker 1: came to earth in human form, but it was how
Speaker 1: God came to earth. And what it was is he
Speaker 1: became a man. That's even more mind boggling. The Bible
Speaker 1: says it like this in Philippians chapter two. Christ gave
Speaker 1: up his place as God and made himself nothing. He
Speaker 1: was born to be a man, and he became like
Speaker 1: a servant. This is God. And when he was living
Speaker 1: as a man, he humbled himself. Now, just think of
Speaker 1: all the ways could have revealed himself human beings. I mean,
Speaker 1: he could have written it in the sky in fiery letters,
Speaker 1: he could have used thunder, and he could have invented
Speaker 1: world satellites two thousand years in advance and beamed it
Speaker 1: into everybody. But he didn't. Of all the ways God
Speaker 1: could have come to earth, he came as a baby.
Speaker 1: God entered the world the same way you and I
Speaker 1: entered the world. Everybody in the world ended the world
Speaker 1: by being born into it by birth. Now, why did
Speaker 1: God come to earth as a baby. I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1: Because he came to save us, not to scare us.
Speaker 1: And nobody is afraid of a baby. When people look
Speaker 1: at a little baby, then they can they're not afraid.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's tenderizing, it's loving, it's compassionate. You see,
Speaker 1: I can't relate to some impersonal force in the world,
Speaker 1: but I can relate to God in human form. See.
Speaker 1: If God had wanted to communicate the bird, he would
Speaker 1: have become a bird. If he'd wanted to communicate to cats,
Speaker 1: he could have become a cat. If he wanted to
Speaker 1: communicate to cows, he would have become a cow. But
Speaker 1: God wanted to communicate to humans, so he became one
Speaker 1: of us. This is the second miracle of how God
Speaker 1: came to earth. God became a man. Now, Jesus was
Speaker 1: a real man. He was real man, and he was
Speaker 1: real God. He was not a half and half. He
Speaker 1: was one hundred percent God and he was one hundred
Speaker 1: percent man. He's no myth. Did you know that in
Speaker 1: the Encyclopedia Britannica there are more pages on the man
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ than any other subject in Encyclopedia Britannica. The
Speaker 1: Bible says, in the amplified translation, he became like men
Speaker 1: and was born a human being. How was Jesus like you?
Speaker 1: How is Jesus like me? Well, first of this said,
Speaker 1: he was born like us, no flashy entrance. Second, he
Speaker 1: grew up like us. The Bible says he grew in
Speaker 1: wisdom that's intellection, growth in stature, physical growth, favor with
Speaker 1: God that spiritual growth, and favor with man that's social growth.
Speaker 1: Same four ways you grow. Jesus did not walk around
Speaker 1: wearing a halo with a warm glow and radiating, you know,
Speaker 1: like kryptonite. He was just like us. The Bible says.
Speaker 1: He was born like us, he grew like us. He
Speaker 1: was tempted like us. Did you know that? The Bible says,
Speaker 1: Jesus has been tempted in every way you have, and
Speaker 1: yet he never sinned. And that's why he's not offended
Speaker 1: when you talk to him about your temptations. He understands,
Speaker 1: he knows what it's like. He can relate to your struggles.
Speaker 1: He experienced the same needs and the same drives and
Speaker 1: the same pressures, but he never sinned. And then not
Speaker 1: only that, Jesus suffered like us. Jesus understands pain. God
Speaker 1: understands pain. Why because he went through it? He felt pain,
Speaker 1: he felt disappointment, he felt loneliness, he felt betrayal, he
Speaker 1: felt grief, He felt the nails going through his hands
Speaker 1: and being stabbed in the side. He felt what it
Speaker 1: was like when he got tired. And so when you're tired,
Speaker 1: God understands how you feel because he's been there. Here's
Speaker 1: the point, Jesus can relate to everything you're going through
Speaker 1: or will go through in the future because he's been
Speaker 1: there too. You see, God wants you to know him.
Speaker 1: And because he wants you to know him, he wants
Speaker 1: you to know that he knows everything about you. He
Speaker 1: knows every moment in your life. He knows everything that's
Speaker 1: ever happened from the moment you took your first breath.
Speaker 1: In fact, he saw you in your mother's womb. He
Speaker 1: thought you up. The Bible says God planned your days
Speaker 1: even before you took your first breath. You were designed. Listen,
Speaker 1: you were designed for a relationship with God. If you
Speaker 1: want to know why you're alive right now, God made
Speaker 1: you to love you. He made you to have a
Speaker 1: relationship with him. You were not put here on this
Speaker 1: earth by accident. You were put here for a purpose.
Speaker 1: And the first purpose of your life is to get
Speaker 1: to know your creator. Have you done that? If you
Speaker 1: haven't got to know your creator in a personal relationship,
Speaker 1: you've missed the very first purpose of your life. God
Speaker 1: did not put you here on earth just to mark
Speaker 1: things off your to do list. Now, this is the
Speaker 1: second miracle of all. Not only that God came to earth,
Speaker 1: but that God came to earth as a human being
Speaker 1: so we could relate to him. We could touch him,
Speaker 1: we could see him, we could feel him, and he
Speaker 1: could understand exactly all that we're going through his creatures creation.
Speaker 1: Now here's the third beard miracle. Jesus came to ordinary people,
Speaker 1: very common people. He didn't come for a select few.
Speaker 1: He didn't come for the elite. He didn't come for
Speaker 1: only the brightest and the best and the most righteous. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: he came for all of us. That's a miracle that
Speaker 1: God came to earth for all of us. He didn't
Speaker 1: come for religious people. Did you hear that he didn't
Speaker 1: come for religious people. He came for all people. He
Speaker 1: came for people who don't even care about religion. That's
Speaker 1: a miracle. In fact, the Bible says that Jesus said,
Speaker 1: I didn't come for the righteous. I came for the unrighteous.
Speaker 1: So if you've ever done anything wrong, if you've ever sinned,
Speaker 1: if you've ever had any regrets in your life, if
Speaker 1: you've ever messed up, Jesus came for you. He said,
Speaker 1: I came for not the perfect people. And by the way,
Speaker 1: there aren't any perfect people. But Jesus came to ordinary
Speaker 1: common people. He shows us even in his original births.
Speaker 1: Where is he born. He's born in a barn, not
Speaker 1: in a palace. Okay, not on a bed of gold.
Speaker 1: And you know we sentimentalized. He said, he was born
Speaker 1: in a manger. Do you know what a manger is.
Speaker 1: A manger is simply the Old English word for a
Speaker 1: cow feed trough. You put the grain when you put
Speaker 1: the hay in there in the cow eats the grain
Speaker 1: and slobbers all over it. That's where he was born.
Speaker 1: He's born in a bond. His first visitors were not royalty,
Speaker 1: those shepherds who were at the low end of the
Speaker 1: totem pole in social class in those days. No political
Speaker 1: figures showed up at his birth. In fact, no religious
Speaker 1: figures showed up at jesus birth. There were some wise
Speaker 1: men from the East and philosophers who came. You know,
Speaker 1: today we treat the shepherds like heroes, but in those
Speaker 1: days they were really zeros. They were the least respected
Speaker 1: people because they smelled like sheep. They're at the bottom
Speaker 1: of the social ladder. They're the outcast of society. They're
Speaker 1: considered dirty, they're considered uncouth. They're treated with contempt by
Speaker 1: the people in proper society. And yet that's who Jesus
Speaker 1: has the angels announce his birth due the improper people
Speaker 1: of society. The point is this, Jesus came for everyone,
Speaker 1: ordinary people like you, like me, like the people sitting
Speaker 1: next to you. Right now, let me give you some
Speaker 1: Bible verses John one fourteen. Christ became a human being
Speaker 1: and lived here on earth among us. He lived among us.
Speaker 1: The message paraphrase, I love. This says Jesus became flesh
Speaker 1: and blood and moved into the neighborhood. He moved into
Speaker 1: the neighborhood. He's not in the fancy house up on
Speaker 1: the hill. He moved into the neighborhood. Now here's the
Speaker 1: good news. Because we could not reach up to God,
Speaker 1: he reached down to us. That's the whole message of Christianity.
Speaker 1: He came down to our level, he became a human being.
Speaker 1: He came to reach to you. And now anyone, anyone
Speaker 1: can have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Do you have
Speaker 1: that relationship? You should not go into a brand new
Speaker 1: year without having that relationship to the one who made you,
Speaker 1: who loved you, who saves you, who died for you.
Speaker 1: The Bible says in Luke two seven Mary gave birth
Speaker 1: and wrapped him in clothes cloths and placed him in
Speaker 1: a manger that feed trough because there was no room
Speaker 1: for them in the inn. And Luke two sixteen says,
Speaker 1: the shepherds ran to the village and found their way
Speaker 1: to where the baby lay. Now, just like those shepherds
Speaker 1: in the very first Christmas, you can come to Jesus.
Speaker 1: You can see his glory. He is inviting you this Christmas,
Speaker 1: just like he invited the shepherds the first Christmas. He
Speaker 1: invites you this Christmas to come and see him, to
Speaker 1: come and know him, to come and learn to feel
Speaker 1: his love and to be loved by him, and to
Speaker 1: learn to love him back. Now later on, wise men
Speaker 1: from the east, we know, probably from Babylon area in Iraq,
Speaker 1: came to worship Jesus and bring gifts. The Bible tells
Speaker 1: us that they brought gold representing his kingdomship, and franknsense
Speaker 1: and mrr. Now frank and sense and merge, you know
Speaker 1: what they are. They're spices that in ancient days were
Speaker 1: used to prepare a body for burial. They would use
Speaker 1: franknsense and mrr. It's kind of an incense, and they
Speaker 1: would wrap strips of cloth kind of like a mummy,
Speaker 1: and they would bury them in burial clothes. These gifts,
Speaker 1: gold representing his kingdom and frank Sinson mirror representing his death,
Speaker 1: were actually foretelling what Jesus came to do. He didn't
Speaker 1: just come to live on earth. He came to die
Speaker 1: for us. Now, the greatest miracle is not how Jesus
Speaker 1: came or even who he came to, But the greatest
Speaker 1: miracle is why he came. And this is the fourth miracle,
Speaker 1: is that he came for our benefit. He came for
Speaker 1: our The Bible says that the first angels announced that
Speaker 1: that first Christmas for to you is born this day
Speaker 1: a savior who is Christ the Lord. Believe me, if
Speaker 1: you didn't need a savior, God wouldn't have wasted the
Speaker 1: time sending him at Christmas. He came for our benefit.
Speaker 1: What benefit? Well, let me just share with you some
Speaker 1: of the words of Jesus himself. First, Jesus came to
Speaker 1: tell us the truth. Jesus came to tell us the
Speaker 1: truth that you say, what kind of truth? The truth
Speaker 1: about life, the truth about ourselves, the truth about God,
Speaker 1: the truth about death, the truth about good and evil,
Speaker 1: the truth about your past, the truth about your presence,
Speaker 1: and the truth about your future. You see, if you
Speaker 1: base your life on faulty information, then you've got an
Speaker 1: unstable foundation for your life. You've got to base your
Speaker 1: life on the bedrock of truth. Jesus said, the truth
Speaker 1: will set you free. And here's the truth. I want
Speaker 1: you to listen very closely. Here's the truth. You matter
Speaker 1: to God. It doesn't matter who you are, what you've done,
Speaker 1: how long you've done it, or who you did it with.
Speaker 1: You matter to God. That is the truth that God
Speaker 1: came to tell us. In John eighteen, verse thirty seven.
Speaker 1: This is in the Bible, Jesus says this. I was
Speaker 1: born for this purpose. I came to bring the truth
Speaker 1: to the world. So Jesus came for our benefits. If
Speaker 1: you build your life on lies, you're going to have
Speaker 1: an unstable life, unstable emotions, unstable relationships, unstable finances. But
Speaker 1: if you build your life on the truth, then you'll
Speaker 1: have a solid rock foundation. So many people will lie
Speaker 1: to you, tod age affect you, even lie to yourself.
Speaker 1: You know your emotions lie to you, Your mind lies
Speaker 1: to you all the time. Not everything you tell yourself
Speaker 1: is true. We lie to ourselves all the time. But
Speaker 1: God will never tell you a lie. Jesus will always
Speaker 1: tell you the truth. Second thing Jesus came to do
Speaker 1: is it came not only to give us the truth.
Speaker 1: He came to give us life, to give us life
Speaker 1: in all its fullness. Verse ten says this, I came
Speaker 1: to give you life, life in all its fullness. Now,
Speaker 1: let me ask you a really personal question. Are you
Speaker 1: living life to all its fullness? I mean, really, just
Speaker 1: be honest with yourself. Are you you say, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's nothing better than the way I'm living right now?
Speaker 1: Are you living life to its fullness? See, most people
Speaker 1: really aren't even living, They're just existing. They just get
Speaker 1: up in the morning and go to work and come home,
Speaker 1: watch TV. And go to bed and maybe relax or
Speaker 1: go to a party on the weekend, and they it
Speaker 1: just the same routine over and over. They're not really living.
Speaker 1: You can be so busy making a living you forget
Speaker 1: to make a life. So many people regret the past,
Speaker 1: they worry about the future, so you end up wasting today.
Speaker 1: Jesus that I came to give you life. The greatest
Speaker 1: tragedy is not death. The greatest tragedy is to go
Speaker 1: through life not knowing your purpose. God has a purpose
Speaker 1: for your life, and it begins by getting to know him.
Speaker 1: You will never know the purpose of your life without
Speaker 1: getting to know your creator, because you can't tell yourself
Speaker 1: what your purpose is. Only your creator, your inventor, your
Speaker 1: God can tell you your purpose. Jesus said, I came
Speaker 1: to give you life in all its fullness. Now, the
Speaker 1: kind of life that Jesus wants to give you has
Speaker 1: three different dimensions. It's three dimensional life. My past can
Speaker 1: be forgiven, my present has a new purpose for it,
Speaker 1: and it can be managed. And my future is secured.
Speaker 1: God put a God shaped vacuum inside you, and nothing
Speaker 1: will fill that hole in your heart except God. Augustine said, Lord,
Speaker 1: you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are
Speaker 1: restless until they find our rest in you. You can
Speaker 1: try to fill that hole in your heart with money.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work. You can try to fill it with sex,
Speaker 1: it doesn't work. Status, it doesn't work. Salary it doesn't work. Passion, possession, position, pleasure,
Speaker 1: None of those things work. What you need is God's
Speaker 1: purpose for your life. And that purpose is not found
Speaker 1: in a principle or in a pill. It's found in
Speaker 1: a person, the person of Jesus Christ. Now, he said,
Speaker 1: I came to give you truth, I came to give
Speaker 1: you life, and I came to give you Here's a
Speaker 1: big one forgiveness and salvation for unto you is born
Speaker 1: this day as savior. Who is Christ the Lord. You
Speaker 1: see what do I need to be saved from? Oh,
Speaker 1: we need to be saved from a lot of things.
Speaker 1: We need to be saved from sin, But we also
Speaker 1: need to be saved from ourselves. We need to be
Speaker 1: saved from the habits that mess up our lives and
Speaker 1: the hurts and the hang ups. We need to be
Speaker 1: saved from the lives we believe about ourselves that hinder ourselves.
Speaker 1: In fact, they limit us in a self impost prison.
Speaker 1: You see, if our greatest need had been education, God
Speaker 1: would have sent a teacher. And if our greatest need
Speaker 1: had been money, then God would have sent a banker.
Speaker 1: And if our greatest need had been just physical health,
Speaker 1: God would have sent a doctor. And if our greatest
Speaker 1: need had been you know how to succeed in life,
Speaker 1: God could have sent a consultant or a coach. But
Speaker 1: our greatest need is salvation and forgiveness, so we sent
Speaker 1: a savior. Now let me tell you this. You can't
Speaker 1: save You can't save yourself. In fact, God can't save
Speaker 1: you until you stop trying to save yourself. Many years ago,
Speaker 1: when I was a young man, I was a lifeguard
Speaker 1: for three years. And one of the things that we've
Speaker 1: learned we're taught in Red Cross lifeguarding and I have
Speaker 1: for three years as a lifeguard. When somebody starts to drown,
Speaker 1: you swim out to them in the ocean and they're
Speaker 1: flailing around, and you don't dare try to grab on
Speaker 1: to them while they're flailing around because they may pull
Speaker 1: you under themselves. What you do is you wait until
Speaker 1: they give up. And when they finally just give up
Speaker 1: and they start to sink, then it's actually quite easy
Speaker 1: to save them. You simply put your arm over their
Speaker 1: chest and under their arm, and you use your other
Speaker 1: arm to row back to shore. But you can't save
Speaker 1: somebody as long as they're trying to save themselves. Have
Speaker 1: you been trying to save yourself? Have you been trying
Speaker 1: to save your marriage? Have you been trying to save
Speaker 1: your reputation, or your career or your investments? You know what,
Speaker 1: why don't you just relax this Christmas and accept the
Speaker 1: savior that God sent to you. You may have been
Speaker 1: pretending you didn't need God, but you really do. And
Speaker 1: then the deepest heart of your hearts, you know that's true.
Speaker 1: Jesus said this in John chapter twelve. I've come to
Speaker 1: save the world and not to judge it. Some of
Speaker 1: you think if you come to Jesus, he's just going
Speaker 1: to criticize you, condemn you, put you down, give you
Speaker 1: a stern lecture, tell you all the things you're doing wrong.
Speaker 1: Listen to this verse again, John twelve forty eight. I
Speaker 1: have come to save the world and not to judge it.
Speaker 1: Have you ever thought about why we give gifts at Christmas? Well,
Speaker 1: the reason why is because God started the idea. God
Speaker 1: gave the original Christmas gift. He gave himself. He came
Speaker 1: to earth in the form of a human being, Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: and he gave himself to you. And he died on
Speaker 1: the cross for all of your sins so you don't
Speaker 1: have to pay for them. He was hung up on
Speaker 1: the cross. He was hung up for your hang ups.
Speaker 1: You can stop nailing yourself to the cross for all
Speaker 1: the things you feel ashamed of or regret, because Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ already paid for all your sins. Now, imagine if
Speaker 1: we had a christ service where people give you a
Speaker 1: Christmas gift and a year later you still haven't opened it.
Speaker 1: That would be offensive to the giver and it would
Speaker 1: be no use to you. And yet many many people
Speaker 1: celebrate Christmas after Christmas, after Christmas after Christmas and never
Speaker 1: open the gift. They never unwrap the gift. God's gift
Speaker 1: to you is the truth. God's gift to you is salvation.
Speaker 1: God's gift to you is forgiveness. God's gift to you
Speaker 1: is a life, eternal life, purpose in life, abundant life,
Speaker 1: a fulfilled life. These are the gifts God has for you.
Speaker 1: Will you open and receive that gift today. The Bible
Speaker 1: says this in Romans three twenty three. All of us
Speaker 1: need to be made right with God by his grace,
Speaker 1: which is a free gift. That's God's gift to you.
Speaker 1: That's God's Christmas gift. All of us need to be
Speaker 1: made right with God by his grace, which is a
Speaker 1: free gift. We need to be made free from sin
Speaker 1: through Jesus Christ. If you haven't done that, I want
Speaker 1: to invite you to receive God's Christmas gift today. And
Speaker 1: in this service, I'm going to ask that we all
Speaker 1: just bow our heads right now. Okay, just bow your head.
Speaker 1: You don't have to close your eyes, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to pray a simple Christmas prayer. I invite you to
Speaker 1: follow me in it right now, and if you'll sincerely
Speaker 1: meet it with all your heart, God will hear you,
Speaker 1: and this will be the starting point of a brand
Speaker 1: new relationship of God that gives you a new life,
Speaker 1: eternal life, and abundant life. Let's pray, bow your head
Speaker 1: and I just say something like this, Dear God, thank
Speaker 1: you for the miracle of Christmas. Thank you that you
Speaker 1: came to earth in the form of Jesus Christ. And
Speaker 1: thank you that you didn't just come for a few people,
Speaker 1: for the elite, for the super good, or the super rich,
Speaker 1: but you came for everybody, including me. And thank you
Speaker 1: that you came not to scold us, but to save us.
Speaker 1: Dear God, today I admit I cannot save myself. I
Speaker 1: can't even solve all my own problems. I need a savior.
Speaker 1: I need you in my life, and I need you
Speaker 1: to give me the truth. I need you to give
Speaker 1: me the power to make changes that I want to change,
Speaker 1: that you want to see change in my life. And
Speaker 1: I need the power to be forgiven by what you
Speaker 1: did for me on the Cross. I ask you to
Speaker 1: come into my life. I don't understand it all, but
Speaker 1: as much as I know how, I want to follow you.
Speaker 1: I want to learn to love you and trust you,
Speaker 1: and I want this to be the new direction for
Speaker 1: the rest of my life. And I humbly ask this
Speaker 1: that you invite me into your family and accept in
Speaker 1: Jesus name, I pray Amen.