I think one of the funniest things to see at Christmas is children opening presents which their parents have spent hard-earned money, and countless hours shopping to buy.  Then that child proceeds to throw the toy aside and begin to play in the box.  Have you seen that?  It’s really hilarious.  Well the same thing can happen for us as believers.  We have been given an awesome gift in our Savior Jesus Christ.  And the gift of Jesus was packaged in a box of historical events that we’re told about in the New Testament … (more…)

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We’re in a season where people are thinking about “all I want for Christmas.” If you’re not thinking about that, you might be consumed with what your loved ones want for Christmas, and what you can afford to buy for them. We’re pushing back against that materialistic pressure and thinking, not about “all I want for Christmas,” but “all I need for life.”   And the message of Christmas is that God knows all we need for life … true life … and He has wondrously provided for that need in the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. (more…)

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Open your Bibles to Philippians 2:1-11. Now here we have one of the great Christmas texts in the entire Bible.  If you want to summarize it in a single sentence, it is that Christ gave up His place in heaven so we could gain a place in heaven.  That is the glorious message of the Incarnation and of Christmas.   Look again at this powerful explanation of the Gospel and what God did for us in Christ. (more…)

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Looking around the room at the beautiful decorations all perfectly lit causes me to be a bit jealous.  The rain has kept me from getting my outside lights up, and I’m getting anxious.  It’s actually become like spiritual warfare for me.  For years we’ve had a lighted nativity scene in our front yard and we wanted to add a couple of angels.  We found some that their wings sort of flapped.  I got the first one out of the box and, though it was like fighting an octopus, I finally got it put together and all the lights burning on it. (more…)

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Let’s open our Bibles to Luke 18:9-14.  If you don’t have a Bible with you today, you can use the one in the pew rack.  Luke 18 is found on p.1038.  Boys and girls, Luke is the third Gospel … Matthew, Mark, Luke. 

ILLUSTRATION – We were at the TCU football game a couple of weeks ago and occasionally the cameras would pan the crowd and catch some unsuspecting spectator doing something really silly … and suddenly they would look up and find that the camera had been fixed on them, and they were now on the giant image mag screens for everyone in the stadium to see.  The spectator has now become the center of attention. (more…)

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