December 17, 2006
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“The Birth of Hope”

December 17, 2006.  Pastor Matt

 

 

To begin this message, we must begin in the very first book of the Bible.

 

Genesis 1:1.  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

 

A short history lesson:

 

The first part of the Bible…God created the world and everything in it and around it

Genesis 1:26-27.  Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

God also created men and women

 

Genesis 1:25.  The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

 

It was just Adam and Eve before the world became what it is today

Before the world became complicated, Adam and Eve were together in the Garden of Eden

 

Genesis 2:15.  The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.  And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

 

Adam and eve lived together in the Garden

-         Their life was simple

-         They were told to take care of God’s garden and eat

-         They were also given one rule: don’t eat from one specific tree!

 

Oh, and by the way…

 

-         Adam and eve walked and talked with God

 

Before the world was all messed up like it is today, Man and woman lived in a perfect world where they worked, ate, enjoyed the blessings of marriage, and the most important thing…

 

They had God as their best friend and neighbor!

 

-         Life was different when God walked the earth with Adam and Eve

But then Adam and Eve messed up

 

They broke the one rule God had for them.  Breaking God’s rules is called sin.

Genesis 3:21-24.  The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.  And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."  So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.  After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Because Adam and Eve chose to sin, they could no longer live with God.

 

-         No where in the Bible after this point do we see God walking and talking face to face with man.

 

Sin separated man from God. 

 

-         From that point forward, man would continue to sin and distance himself from God.

 

The world has gotten worse and worse because even today man continues to sin.

 

1 John 1:8.  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

 

Humans seem to be stuck in this cruel place called earth where God seems a million miles away.

 

The deeper we are in sin, the farther away God seems.

 

Where is the hope in all of this? 

-         Are we doomed to spend the rest of our lives sinning and getting farther from God. 

-         Sinning and making our world a worse place to live?

 

The truth is… without Jesus there is no hope.

 

 

Thus the importance of the Christmas story

 

 

 

 

 

Since Adam and eve messed up people have been trying their hardest to get to reconnect with God on a personal level like Adam and Eve did in The Garden.

 

Their attempts could not succeed.  Man would never walk and talk with God again

 

That was until Christmas morning over 2000 years ago!

 

-         Christmas is not about Santa. 

-         It is not about a cute baby born in a manger by some woman at some point in time.

 

Christmas is about God, the creator of the universe coming back to the earth for the first time since Adam and eve messed up to walk and talk and live with and be the neighbor of mankind once again.

 

John 1:1-3. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

 

John 1:14.  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

 

God was hanging out in heaven/eternity and then He came to earth as a man. 

God can do anything including implant himself inside a human to be born as a man. 

 

Philippians 2:5-8.  Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross! 

 

God entered our world

 

Matthew 1:18-25. 

 

You see, Jesus was no ordinary child. 

-         He was not the product of a man and woman making a baby. 

-         Mary was virgin.  Jesus was no human product.  God came to earth as a human through Mary.

 

Why does any of that matter?

 

Because…until the first Christmas man was without Hope

 

Until Jesus came, man could not connect with God on a personal level.

Romans 6:23.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

-        Our sin keeps us from God but God sent a gift at Christmas time that would make things right again.

-        He sent Jesus.

 

John 3:16.  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

 

Man’s sin keeps him from God.  But God provided an answer.  Jesus Came to the earth so we can reconnect with God!

 

 

 

I’ve told you who he is and why he came.

 

 

When you understand who he is, and why he came, Christmas is a much more meaningful time of the year.

 

 

Closing

 

For Some of you know God is far away.

-        He is far away when we are living in sin and we need to repent

-        He is far away when we reject Him, don’t believe He is Who He says He is, and don’t give Him control of our life

o       Understanding him and being around those who believe in Him can give you the sensation of being close but never really meeting.

o       Its like have a neighbor you’ve never met

 

What a wonderful time of the year to choose to be close with God again.

 

-        Some of you can just take this time to grasp the awesomeness of God’s decision to come to the Earth as a man to die for you. 

o       His love for you is greater than you’ll ever know.  Thank Him for that!