Christmas Means – God Reveals Himself in Our Everyday Lives

READING FOR STUDY GUIDE: Luke 2: 1-38

Text: Luke 2: 1-38

Thesis: Christmas is the time of celebrating Christ coming into this world to save us from sin and to put us into right relationship with God the Father. Let’s keep Christ in Christmas, so we can experience the full blessing of what God really has for us. God has so much more for us than this world would have us to believe. The Christmas story as conveyed through the Biblical record is not only the story of what God did in the lives of shepherds, Simeon and Anna, it is the story of what God desires to do in your life today!

Christmas Means

Christmas means God does (among many things) the following:

• God deals with your impossibilities!
• God reveals Himself in our everyday lives!
• God directs your life!
• God cares for you!

GOD WORKS IN THE LIVES OF ORDINARY PEOPLE

1. Luke 2: 8 & 25 & 36-37 – “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night…Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon who…was waiting for the consolation of Israel…There was a prophetess Anna…She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.”
   1. The everyday lives of ordinary people are where God reveals God’s self to the world.
   2. The shepherds watched over sheep. Simeon went to church. Anna worshiped and volunteered at the temple.
   3. But when Jesus showed up, the shepherds, Simeon and Anna are all recorded in the most frequently purchased and read book every in history of humankind.
   4. Many of us believe Jesus only reveals Himself in spectacular moments in history to spectacular people and not in the everyday lives of ordinary people like you.
   5. You thought you were ordinary. You thought your life was just a series of common everyday experiences.
   6. But when Jesus showed up your life became extraordinary.
   7. When Jesus showed up your experiences went from common to spectacular.
   8. When Jesus showed up your name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

IN YOUR EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES

2. I Corinthians 10: 31 – “Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
   1. The everyday activities of life, eating and drinking, and walking and talking, are all ordained by God.
   2. Jesus was born into these things and He lived in them as the Son of God.
   3. Matthew 10: 24 – Knowing the disciple is not above his Master, the everyday activities of your life take on a special meaning when placed in the context of your relationship with God the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son.

IN YOUR EVERYDAY TRIALS

3. Hebrews 2: 10-11 & 14 – “In bringing many sons to glory…God should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers…Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him how holds the power of death – that is, the devil…”
   1. Christ suffered the following trials we experience in our everyday lives:
      1. Matthew 4: 3 – He was hungry
      2. John 19: 28 – He was thirsty
      3. Matthew 8: 24 – He was tired and sleepy
      4. John 2: 15 – He was angry
      5. John 11: 35 – He was sad and cried
      6. Matthew 26: 40 – He was disappointed and let down
      7. Matthew 26: 25 – He knew the pain of betrayal
   2. God is at work in your everyday trials.
   3. Steel is the product of iron ore plus fire. Soil is rock plus organic matter and the crushing of glaciers.
   4. In the same way, the development of Christ-like character requires the plus of trials and the presence of God.
   5. A psychological study published in Time magazine found that people who had weathered the repeated adversity of losing their jobs and finding another were incredibly resilient.
   6. Just think of the storms God has brought you through! Jesus calls you brother or sister because you now bear His likeness!

IN YOUR EVERYDAY RELATIONSHIPS

4. Luke 1:39-41 – “…Mary…hurried to…Elizabeth…the baby leaped in [Elizabeth’s] womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.”
   1. The “everyday” represents those who are closest to us who we often take for granted as “just being there.”
   2. The deepest ocean has a shallow shore that meets the land and we so often take the shallow shores for granted.
   3. God works in the closest relationships of family, friends, coworkers, neighbors that we can, if not careful, take for granted.
   4. Jesus started His ministry in His home town (Luke 4: 16).
   5. The disciples were told to start their ministry in Jerusalem (Acts 2: 8 )
   6. The shallows of the ocean are a place of birth and growth. Think of the shallows of your life. What does God want to birth in you? In others?