Purpose of Christmas

Purpose of Christmas - Rick Warren

The 1st purpose of Christmas is to CELEBRATE.  - Session 1

GOD LOVES YOU.  God's love is based on who He is.  Not what you do.  John 3:16.  Romans 8:35-39.  Nothing can separate us from God.  NOTHING.  The 2nd reason to celebrate Christmas is GOD IS WITH YOU. God is with you all the time whether you feel it or not.  Hebrews 13:5 " I will never leave you and I will never abandon you".  GOD IS FOR YOU.  He wants you to win.  He wants you to succeed and give your life purpose and meaning.  John 3:17.  God did not send His son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.  Don't condemn the world, point people to the way, the truth and the light.  Jesus didn't come to condemn it, he came to save it.   Jesus came to save us not to scare us!  "do not be afraid".

YOU DON'T NEED TO BE AFRAID.  God says I love you, I'm with you, I'm for you!  That's the good news of great joy!

The 2nd purpose of Christmas is SALVATION - a personal Savior. - Session 2

Statistics show 90% of people pray, this tells us that people recognize there is something bigger than ourselves.

What do you need to be saved from this Christmas?
traffic
chaos
busyness
spending too much money
shopping
inadequacies
family members

Salvation is 3 dimensional:  

1.  Save us FROM sin.  Sin is an attitude, it's a pride problem.  Sin is saying "I want to be my own boss, I don't want to follow God, I want to serve my purpose not yours."  We have these attitudes at different times of our life.  We all fall short of God's glorious standard.  EVERYONE.  Sin separates us from God.  Our sins are the roadblock between us and God, this is why our prayers aren't being answered.  That's why he sent Jesus as a savior.  Jesus came to set us free from our sins.  We need to be set free from ourselves.  We are our own biggest problems...our own reactions and inadequacies that cause us to do dumb things. Welcome to the human race!! Apostle Paul understands, Romans 7:24-25. Answer to our problem - Jesus.  We need a savior.  That's what Christmas is all about.

2.  Save us FOR a purpose:  Ephesians 1:11-12.  God has designs on us for glorious living.  God has a plan and a purpose for our life.  He's had it all along.  As our creator he knows what's best for us.  He saves us for a purpose he wants us to fulfill in our life.  We have to find out how make it come to pass in our life.  You can live at survival level, success level or the significance level.  We were made for more than success.  We were made for significance which comes from God.  Are you tired of living an unfulfilled life.  God longs for us to move from success to significance.  It's not about you/us!  Our culture says it's ALL about us...so this is counter-cultural.  You won't find satisfaction for living for yourself.  God did not wire us to live this way and we will always have a hole in our heart until we realize this.

3.  Save us by HIS grace:  We can't buy our way into Heaven.  We don't deserve to be saved.  Jesus, who is perfect, came to do.  He will give us His grace.  God gives us what we need, not what we deserve.  Grace says I'm going to take your problem and make it my problem.  God's Riches At Christ's Expense (GRACE).  Eph 2:8  "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift from God..."  God gave us the greatest gift.  He sent us a savior.

A Time for Reconciliation - Session 3

Celebration - Good news of Great Joy

Salvation - A Savior is born

Reconciliation - "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace good will to men"

RECONCILIATION - Peace on Earth

Where do you need peace in your life this Christmas?

family

friends

taking time out to enjoy what's important

happy

focus on Christ and His birthday

everywhere

No peace in the world until there is peace in the Nations.  Communities won't have peace until peace in families.  There won't be peace in families unless there is peace in individuals and that won't happen unless we allow the "prince of peace" to come into our hearts.

What type of peace does Jesus gives us?  3 kinds

1.  Peace with God - Spiritual peace.  If you are trying to live without God, you are at war with God.  You need a peace treaty with God - you need reconciled with God.  Jesus came to be the bridge...the reconciler between you and God.  When you trust in JESUS, he will make all the conflict go away.  Come on home!  Have you made peace with God?  If you haven't, you need to...one day you will stand before him.  How do you make peace?  Not by promising to be perfect or saying you will never sin.  You make peace by faith.  Faith in God's grace.  Once you make peace with God, you get the 2nd kind of peace...

2.  The peace of God - Emotional peace.  This is the one you need on a daily basis.  Stress goes down in you life, not as angry, things don't bug you as much.  More patient, more joy, more forgiving.  You have the peace of God in your heart.   Phil 4:6.  You have two choices:  Pray or Panic.  Which will it be?  Worship or Worry - Your choice.  worry has never solved a single one of your problems, it doesn't change anything.  Prayer will change things though.  Pray about everything.  Tell God what you need and thank Him for all that He has done.  His peace will guard our hearts and our minds through Christ Jesus.

3.  Peace with others - Relationship with others:  End the war with everyone else.  Be a peacemaker.  2 Corinth 5:18-20.  He is committed to us the message of reconciliation.  God has given us a ministry and a message and it is reconciliation.  Be gracious to others.  Cut people some slack and don't hold them to such a heavy standard.  "Blessed are the Peacemakers, they shall be called the Children of God".  Matt 5:9.  If you know Jesus personally, you are going to be a peacemaker not a troublemaker.  Build people up, don't tear them down.  Love people the way Jesus loves the people.  Christmas is the perfect time to show grace to other people.  

Who do you need to rebuild a broken relationship with this Christmas?  Who do you need to reconcile a relationship with?

If you can't forgive someone, then you need Jesus, which is why you can't forgive.  You need to be filled with the love of Christ in order to let it go.  You are holding it in and it's hurting you.  Some of you are still letting people to hurt you from the past.  This is dumb.  The people of the past cannot hurt you any more unless you hold onto the hurt.  LET IT GO!

You are going to have to let Jesus fill you with His love, so you can love others the way He does.  Let him fill you with HIS forgiveness.  Until you truly feel forgiven, you can't forgive others.  You had some bumps, heartaches and hurts....it's all pointing at this moment right now.

God says:  You matter to me.  I love you, more than you ever know.  I have been watching and waiting for you to love me back your entire life.  I want you to know me.  I want the rest of your life to be the best of your life.  This is the good news of Christmas.  I love you, I'm with you and I'm for you.  I want to save you from your past, for a purpose and save you by my grace for all eternity.  If you let me do that, I will give you the peace between you and me and make you a peacemaker. 

Acts 10:35 - The door is open - if you are ready.

Jesus Christ is God's Christmas gift to you.

Heavenly Father, thank you for Jesus, thank you for all the things you've done for me so far and will continue to do in the future.  Thank you for the peace you have given to me and allowed me to pass on to others.  Continue to build in me the peacemaker heart so that I may glorify you to everyone who I come into contact with. 

*notes from Pastor Rick Warren "Purpose of Christmas"

Loneliness - Causes and Cures

2 Timothy 4, The last words Apostle Paul ever wrote, he's dying in prison in Rome, he's struggling with loneliness.

4 common causes of loneliness:

1.  Transition - life is a series of transitions.  Any major change can bring on a tinge of loneliness.  Always a loss with every change.  That loss can bring on a little loneliness.  Any life change can bring on loneliness.

2. Separation -   The price of independence is loneliness.  It's rampant in our society because we are separated from those we love for many different reasons.

3. Opposition - when you are under attack by others.  Temptation to build up walls and in order to not let people hurt us again and end up making our self lonelier.

4.  Rejection - When you feel forsaken, abandoned by people you trusted.  We all have a need to be accepted by other people.  When we don't get that it causes enormous pain.  Rejection is the worst thing you can do to a person.  Maybe someone walked out on you.  God cares about the heartache in your heart.  It matters to Him.

You were designed by God for a deep emotional need to be accepted by others.

People who are lonely try getting unlonely by self-defeating ways....like workaholics...so we don't have to think about the lingering pain in our heart.  We think, "If we can just stay busy I can avoid the pain".  Materialism, "I will buy peace".  Sexual escape to compensate for loneliness.  Life becomes a series of one night stands, bar hopping.  Escape into fantasy and try pornography and they dream about a relationship they are dying to have but it's just isn't there and isn't satisfied.

Most people will fall into depression.  They get into a spiral that takes them lower and lower and build buffers around themselves and no one can get around them and they live in a perpetual state of depression.  People build walls around themselves of solitary confinement.  God made us to be in relationship with Him and with others.

What do you do when you go through this season of loneliness?

1.  Utilize your time.  Make the best of a best situation.  Resist the temptation to do nothing.  Take action - any kind of action.  If life gives you a lemon - make lemonade.  Try to think of creative ways to take advantage of the season you are in.  When we are lonely or depressed we don't take care of ourselves very well.  Do the best you can to take care of yourself.  Ask yourself, "What can I do now that will be difficult to do with others now?"

2.  Minimize my hurts - don't rehearse it over and over.  Refuse to become resentful.  Bitterness will eat you up.  Play down the hurt.

3.  Recognize God is presence.  God will not leave us comfortless.  He is with us always even in the end of the world.  We are never really fully alone.

Loneliness is often a FEAR of love.  Afraid to be vulnerable, afraid to step out and risk rejection.  The biggest problem of this fear of love is we don't give ourselves away and we build walls around ourselves.

Loneliness is a time to become better acquainted time with God.  Prayer is a powerful antidote to loneliness.  You can talk to God anytime, anywhere and anyplace.  He cares.  Emphasize others needs.  Focus outward on others and stop focusing on yourself.  Find a ministry where you can use your talents and gifts to help other people.  The loneliness person is a person who is wrapped up in themselves...the selfish and self-centered person.  If you want to break out of loneliness and stop saying "I don't have any friends" and start BEING a friend.  Give yourself away.  See a world that is waiting for friends.  Emphasize other's need.  A lot of loneliness is just a fear of love.  We are afraid to be open, to be vulnerable to share how we really feel and step out and risk a relationship because we may be rejected - when we do this we fear love and we don't give ourselves away.  Stop building walls and start building bridges between you and other people.  TAKE A RISK and begin to help other people.

Regardless of why you feel lonely, God says this to you, "I made you...I put you on this earth for a purpose, I care about you....I LOVE YOU, I have a plan for your life."

The fact is, we expect other people to meet needs in our life that only Jesus Christ can meet.  No man or woman can meet those needs because they are TOO DEEP.  No matter how much a person knows you they will never know you completely like God does.  Loneliness is homesickness for God.

*notes from Pastor Rick Warren, "The Season of loneliness"