https://youtu.be/QBBz_34rD-Q

If there is no Christmas, I am still dead in my sin

Matthew 1:18-21 READ

Matthew 1:21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

The greatest need we had was our need for our sin to be satisfied

Jesus arrival is an announcement of our forgiveness. To be released from the penalty of sin and to be in a right relationship with God- His birth is the precursor to his death

Eph 2: 4-5 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

We were spiritual DEAD and we needed a savior!

This is why the Christmas songs sing

Angels From the Realms of Glory -Sinners, wrung with true repentance, Doomed for guilt to endless pains, Justice now revokes the sentence,Mercy calls you; break your chains.

Holy Night- With sin and error pining

God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen- To save us all from Satans Power when we had gone astray

Hark the Herald Angels Sing- God and Sinners Reconciled

The red of Christmas should always remind you of the Blood of Christ which has covered our sin! And you’ve been forgiven. But with no Christmas- no FREEDOM from SIN

Read a story about Joe Bunn. A young man who was convicted of Murder at 14. Corrections officer murdered, car stolen. 27 years later- set free. Tears, joy, Can you imagine?

Now- Can you imagine if you WERE guilty of the crime? You DID it? And THEN you were set free?

You are ALIVE in Christ! I have been set free from the law of sin and death and made NEW

My sins have been forgiven. My past has been erased. My name has been written in the book of life and I have a right relationship with God

This means if you have accepted Christs free gift of grace youI can be excited about Christmas- you can be overjoyed with my inheritance you can be FREE.

But How do we know that DEC 25 is Christmas anyway?

(Adapted from http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-nwsl/crn0056a.txt)

People will argue- Winter Soltice and other Pagan Holidays were on DEC 25- why do we do it?

Christians redeem pagan things- We, in this culture, and in ancient cultures, are surrounded by pagan rituals and practices, and we either take part in them, or we redeem them and make them Christian

Acts 17:22-31 Paul did this when he addressed the Areopagus. These guys were worshipping A god but not THE God of the universe.

Paul used their words against them “in him we live and move and have our being” that they were using from their poets to draw them to “the unknown god” to draw them to worship GOD

He didn’t see a problem with redeeming a bunch of pagans with their words and eventually saying to them

Acts 17: 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

Romans 14:5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.

Col 2:16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.