FREE.CHURCH - FREE CHURCH OAK PARK
FREE.CHURCH - FREE CHURCH OAK PARK
The Business and Busyness of Christmas // Pastor Chuck Colegrove // December 8th, 2024
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Well, what's up? Free Church hey, you look good man, you sounded so good man, I could have just sat in that moment of worship for Amen. There are just moments that sometimes, when you just get in God's presence, you're like you know what Nothing else matters. Take the whole world, but give me Jesus and I can promise you whatever you've been going through this week, no matter how difficult it may have seemed, what God has been doing in these last few moments is enough to set it straight. And I believe that you know we've had quite a week around here. We've had some ups and downs and some sicknesses, but here we are, standing in the presence of God and we know that man, just one moment in God's presence can turn it all around. In God's presence can turn it all around. Just one touch from a healer can change it, just one word from the creator can set it in order. And I just believe God is up to something so special. And I just want to encourage you just keep pressing in, keep pressing in, don't push back, but press in, because God is about to do something in our lives. But listen, I'm ready to preach God's word. Are you ready to receive it today?
Speaker 1:The year was 1993, and it was my birth year. That was when you were born. 1993 was the year that Ershon and I got married, I think right, yeah, I'm joking, it was a joke, I just want to see how you would respond to that. So 1993,. We were married in February and in June we moved to Dallas, texas, and then it became December and it was going to be our first Christmas together. So we went Christmas tree shopping and we went to the local grocery store to buy our first tree. And it wasn't the tree we wanted, it was the tree we could afford. And then we went and I remember Urshana saying well, now we need lights and we need things to decorate it with. And so we went and I was just watching money, just, I was just watching money, just for decor. And then we got to buy one another. We had to go shopping separately to buy our first Christmas presents for each other that year.
Speaker 1:I think I always win when it comes to what I get compared to what I give. I need to learn to do better after all these years. But maybe, guys, can you relate. It's like we go in, we make our gift purchase and we're out of there as quick as we can. And then our girl shows up and it's like, oh man, I should have put some more time into this. But it was our first Christmas. And then we had our first Christmas meal together and we have pictures from from our first Christmas morning and it was just the two of us. It was so sweet.
Speaker 1:And then you can fast forward a few years and we started adding kids and then preparation and getting ready for Christmas changed. It wasn't like you go to the grocery store and buy whichever tree you can afford. You have multiple trees in the house you got to have. And then you don't just buy a few gifts, you buy what seems like the entire store out and it's so much fun and so much excitement. But those are the years that I learned that there is something really special about getting ready for Christmas, for Christmas, and that when you do get ready for Christmas, the gift is almost greater of getting ready than what we receive. But what we receive is great. Or you might say it this way when I do what I'm supposed to do, god will always do what he can only do. Why don't you turn to your neighbor and say we're getting ready for Christmas, yep. Why don't you turn to your neighbor and say we're getting ready for Christmas, yep, and just lean over and tell your neighbor you need this more than I need this. It's the Christmas season.
Speaker 1:I'm certain I bet I could ask the question how many of you are finished Christmas shopping? Just raise your hand. Five of you I hate. I pray for you, but I hate you. It's just not right. I don't really hate you. That's a bad word, strong word, wrong word. I don't really hate you. That's a bad word, strong word, wrong word. How about how many of you went out on Black Friday, crazy Day Friday? How many A couple of you went out early? It's kind of changed right. Like we do it all online Cyber Monday. Oh, by the way, let me just brag on you, church, for Giving Tuesday over $7,000 given in one day, giving Tuesday to advance the vision of the church convoy of hope, doing some great things with them. So you'll hear more about that later. So just the whole process of this Christmas season.
Speaker 1:There is these two things. There is the busyness and the business of Christmas. The business is something else. If you ever pay attention to the business of Christmas, I was studying this week before Thursday and I told the twins. I was like, can you guys believe that 30 million Christmas trees will be sold this year? 30 million Christmas trees, that's a lot of Christmas trees Somebody who's like us? They put more than one tree up. That's a lot of trees. And I read this that last year 950-something billion dollars was spent in the US just for Christmas. That was with a B billion and if the trend continues, that's about a 5.3% increase. That would mean this year US citizens will spend over a trillion dollars getting ready for Christmas. Come on, somebody. That is crazy. That's the business of Christmas. It's become quite a business.
Speaker 1:But then there's also the busyness of Christmas and it's this everybody has a Christmas party they have to go to and everybody has a Christmas party they have to host. And you have your work party, your neighborhood party, you have your friends party, you have the youth party, the witness party, the monastery party, the church party. There's so much going on. There's just our schedules get just they go in overboard. Then there's all the school plays that you got to go to and not to discount. All the time you're going to spend Christmas shopping. And then it's like during Christmas season I've said this before I don't understand it, but it's like everybody who has a license gets in their car and drives. In the month of December it's not busy normally driving here or there, but over the next two weeks it's going to be the busiest traffic we've seen all year long. And then after Christmas everybody's going to put their keys away and go back. We don't know where they disappeared to, but just in December, because it's the busyness of Christmas.
Speaker 1:And let me just give you one more thing. That's not busy and not business, but next week you want to be sure to be here for family Christmas. It's going to be incredible worship the team has been preparing. There's some beautiful songs, the choir our biggest choir ever. I think it's a massive choir and you're not going to want to miss it. So that's all the business and the busyness of Christmas.
Speaker 1:But I want to just tell you, god knows about the business and the busyness of Christmas and I want to frame this idea for you over the next few weeks of getting ready for Christmas. This idea for you over the next few weeks of getting ready for Christmas, and today it's going to seem really, really, really like entry level, but I think it's important for us to understand it on this level so that we can build a foundation and maybe have a Christmas like we've never had before. That's kind of my goal at the end of this month as we make this journey together. But God is aware of the busyness and the business of Christmas and I want to just frame this to you in this question and I want to just make sure that I get it right. Did you ever consider what God had to do to orchestrate or prepare or to get ready for the first Christmas? So when we think about the business and all the things that we're spending and when we think about the busyness and all the time we're expending but God knows all about that, because he was involved in the process for the very first Christmas, because he was involved in the process for the very first Christmas.
Speaker 1:And the Bible says that we serve a God who neither slumbers nor sleeps and if you've had a few of those on Christmas Eve, you know. But God understands the entire process of getting ready for Christmas. In fact, it starts 700 years in advance of the arrival of Jesus when Isaiah records this in Isaiah 7 and 14. And I think we have it in our notes. Isaiah 7 and 14 says Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. That prophecy was 700 years before the arrival of Jesus.
Speaker 1:God didn't just wake up on Christmas Eve and think, oh, I better go get some presents, oh, I better go make everything right. No, god, for 700 years he announced his plan that there would be a Savior, an Emmanuel, god with us, jesus the Messiah, for 700 years. And then he continued to orchestrate. And it began with the uprising of Alexander the Great. And Alexander the Great brought in this new culture and language, and it was the Greek language, and that would become the language that the very first Bible of the New Testament, the New Testament, would be all translated in Greek because that was the language of the day. And then, after Alexander the Great, then the Roman Empire rose to prominence, and we know the Roman Empire. One of the things they were really good at, for some reason, was crucifixion, and we all know the story of where Jesus is heading. But it was the Romans who first categorized this phrase don't forget the tree for the crucifixion. And here we are. Don't forget the tree for Christmas. So it's God orchestrating all that. So it starts with Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire. Well then there's the census that is required and there's a demand for everyone to be counted back in your hometown and everybody has to return. So Joseph and Mary have to return back to Bethlehem, where Joseph is from, and the city to return. So Joseph and Mary have to return back to Bethlehem, where Joseph is from, and the city of David, and that is where Jesus would be born, church.
Speaker 1:Can I show you that God took time to prepare the business and the busyness and get ready for the very first Christmas and did you know that, even before the angel, and get ready for the very first Christmas? And did you know that, even before the angel showed up to speak to Mary, that really, god had been silent for 400 years? God did not speak for nearly 400 years until the angel appeared before Mary and said Mary, you're highly favored and you're gonna have a son and his name shall be called Jesus. And you know what's amazing about that is? I've showed you already in advance that God, even though he was silent, it didn't mean he wasn't working, and even though you couldn't see what was happening doesn't mean he's not doing something good. Doing something good even when you can't see it. He's working for you. So God understands that, and God has showed us how to get ready for Christmas. And then I would continue to go moving in this direction. Galatians 4.4,.
Speaker 1:The Bible says that when the time, when the right time I was going to say when the time was just right, but when the right time came God sent his son, born of a woman subject to the law. At just the right time, god sent his son. So how do you get ready for Christmas? How do you get ready for Christmas? Well, here's the introduction, right here.
Speaker 1:The book of Mark, chapter 1, beginning with verse one, says this Mark one, verse one. This is the good news. Oh, we sang that song today. Isn't that crazy how the Holy Spirit works. We sing songs that actually end up in the message without any communication or talk back on that. That's all the Holy Spirit. This is the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. It began just as the prophet Isaiah had written oh, did we already read that passage? Look, I'm sending you my messenger ahead and he will prepare your way, okay. He is a voice shouting in the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord's coming. Clear the road for him. The messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. What a powerful image.
Speaker 1:As we talk about preparing for Christmas, the very thing that happens is John is sent as a messenger in front of Jesus, and John is there to show us, to show us who Jesus is. John is the one that said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So John shows us. John actually shows us, and then he also shakes us. John was the one who preached a pretty strong message. He called a group of people a brood of vipers. He didn't back down from declaring that there was coming a day when people were gonna have to turn from their wicked ways, that they needed to repent. That was a new message to people who thought they had it all together, people who were sitting in the pews and in the seats on Sunday thinking everything's okay. And here comes this guy who has just crazy hair and eats locusts and honey, and then he's telling you repent, that there's a better way, that he's baptizing in water, but there's one who's gonna baptize in fire. And John is the one who shows us who Jesus is, and John is the one who shakes us that we need a savior. And then John is the one who shows us who Jesus is, and John is the one who shakes us that we need a Savior. And then John is the one who sends us, he points us, he's making a way, he's preparing a way for Jesus. What were the two things that John wanted us to know? Number one John preached repentance, repentance.
Speaker 1:John preached repentance, repentance, repentance of sin. You know, I've thought about it over this week Sin I've said this over and over again sin is not just something that we do, although sin, it forms itself in action, it just shows itself, it displays itself in action. But sin is really, really about location. It's about where I am compared to where God is, and sin is that gap that is between me and my heavenly father. And what I can tell you is, as long as my habits continue in a certain direction, continue in a certain direction, as I'm going in this sinful path that we're all born into, as long as my habits continue in that same direction. The gap is widening and sin is such that it cannot be satisfied. Sin is such that it just it kind of it's like a snowball. You roll a little snowball down a hill and it begins to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And sin is like that.
Speaker 1:Sin is something that might start out small, but the more that you hide it and you cover it up, it does greater damage. The more you try to keep it in the background, it does greater damage, the more you try to keep it in the background. And man, my mom, my mom was a saint. My mom and Mary probably are like side by side in heaven. But my mom used to say this and I think it's because she knew I probably had done something wrong through the day and she'd say but remember, your sins will always find you out, like you cannot hide it, because eventually it's going to come out in the open, and that there is a space, a gap between you and your heavenly father.
Speaker 1:And John came to preach this idea of repentance. And repentance is not necessarily being sorry for your sin, although godly sorrow leads to repentance but the fact is that there's this idea that repentance is all about turning. So, instead of continuing on the same path that I'm in, that keeps getting me in more trouble and extends the hole in my heart and the gap between me and God, repentance is stopping and turning. It's a 180. I'll never forget as a youth pastor I was so fired up preaching and I think I said turn the 360 turn. Well, that's not, that wouldn't be a turn at all, that would just be a circle. And then you keep going. But it is a 180 turn from how you're headed and what you're doing, to turn towards a Savior who is the only one who spans the gap between our sin and our heavenly Father, our sin and our heavenly father. It's a picture of him on the cross that should forever be etched into our mind. That his arms stretch so wide for us is really what closes the gap between us and our heavenly father.
Speaker 1:And so John preaches this wild message but repentance, repentance, repentance and church. I'm telling you today that you know what we all, we all must come to a reasoning. The Old Testament says come, let us reason together. Though our sins be as crimson, they shall be washed white as snow. And the fact is that we have to come to a realization that we need a Savior and the only Savior. The only name on earth, under the heaven, that men must be saved by is the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1:So John preaches repentance of sin, and what I know is typically the greatest enemy of our own lives is our very own self. This happens in two ways. We know what we've done, and sometimes the idea of avoidance is that, since I know what we've done, and sometimes the idea of avoidance is that, since I know what I've done and how bad I am, it's just never gonna get any better. So why change now? And that is the greatest lie that we fight against. It mirrors the lie of deciding that you'll settle to become what everybody else wants you to be rather than what you were created to be, and so sin is such that it places us in that space. And I just wanna tell you like listen, we all come to the cross on level ground and we all come with.
Speaker 1:The very first step, for every single one of us, is to repent. Even the greatest message that was preached on the day of Pentecost, peter, said repent. Every one of you Repent, turn around, turn away. Don't go the direction of the popular culture, don't go the direction that everybody else says is the easy way Turn around and follow Jesus. So John talked about repentance, and then John talked about baptism and he he declared to people you should repent. And then he baptized people. He even baptized Jesus.
Speaker 1:And when Jesus walked in the water to be baptized by John, john was like listen, you should be baptizing me. But Jesus said, let this be, because this is what has to happen. I need this to happen to fulfill what I've been called to do. And it's at that moment the Holy Spirit was poured out from heaven and Jesus is standing there coming out of the water and God says this is my son, whom I'm well pleased. You know what's amazing? The cross was the public spectacle that Jesus endured for our salvation. And you know what Baptism is the public spectacle that you activate your decision to follow Jesus in it's baptism is this outward display of this inward decision.
Speaker 1:And you're like PC how does repentance and baptism get us ready for Christmas? Well, didn't you know that Christmas is all about the arrival of Jesus? And what I'm declaring to you, church, is that we want to go to the very foundational level of our experience in following Jesus and know that. Hey, listen, I'm gonna make sure. Every single one of you know we must repent and every single one of you know we must be baptized. And here's what I know that when we do this public spectacle two words in one there, this public spectacle of baptism, it actually is so symbolic because it was on the third day they put Jesus in the tomb, or it was in the tomb and it was on the third day that he came out of the tomb. And that is the same when we go down into the water. All of the sin that was laid on Jesus on the cross was no longer evident when he came with death, the keys to death, hell and to the grave. And when we go down in the water, the Bible says that we leave our sins there. We come out as new creatures. So let me just show you this quickly and then we'll be wrapping up. Galatians 3.22,. But the scriptures declare that we all are prisoners of sin. So we receive God's promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ, in verse 27,. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ like putting on new clothes. The first step to get ready for Christmas is to make room for a Savior.
Speaker 1:And the reason why I spent this time to do this message like this is because it's so easy for us to get caught up in the hustle and the bustle of everything else and overlook the most important thing I think about, I think about, I think about this so often that what if? What if we really started living our lives with our minds on the end? I was listening to a pastor share a message and he had planted a church before church planting was popular. And through his writings and different seminars I've listened to and books that I've read, he always mentioned this that he told the congregation on that first Sunday I'm gonna preach a message that says where we'll be in 40 years and if you'll stick with me for 40 years, we'll get there. And it wasn't until that 40 years came.
Speaker 1:When he shared a message and he actually said this and I don't know if he said it in the original message, but he said this. He said there's something so powerful about beginning with the end in mind. End in mind and that's what the real first Christmas was all about was. It was a beginning with an end in mind. It was the beginning of an arrival and a ministry and a person God, 100% God, 100% man, who would take away the sins of the world, but the end in mind was that you would spend eternity in heaven. So if today were your last day and you breathed your last breath today, where would you spend eternity? And if today were your last day, would anybody have known that you ever made that inward decision to follow Jesus?
Speaker 1:It's just simple. It's repentance, turning from your own way. But then it's baptism, and we have baptisms coming up on January 26th again. Last time we baptized, how many did we baptize last? 19? I'm going to say like so many more. It's like did we baptize 59? I've been a little lightheaded the last few days, but I would say, how will you get ready for Christmas this year? And maybe this is going to be, in ways, a first Christmas for you, because it'd be a first Christmas of you making the decision to follow Jesus and for you to make a decision that you're going to be baptized for, declaring that decision that you've made. I just have every eye closed and every head bowed right now.