Remember: The Rescue Mission of Christmas

Well, you know, there's a lot of prep that goes into Christmas. I mean, you think about the choir and the orchestra and the voices of Mobile, the amount of preparation that it takes for them to do something like this. You think about our own Christmases. There's just so much preparation that goes into it. You got to go to the store and buy the food and you got to prepare the food for the meal and you got to go to the store and you got to go shopping. You got to find the perfect gift. You got to wrap the gifts. [00:47:24] (24 seconds)  #HolidayPrepHustle

There's just so much preparation that goes into it. You got to go to the store and buy the food and you got to prepare the food for the meal and you got to go to the store and you got to go shopping. You got to find the perfect gift. You got to wrap the gifts. Yes, and in our household, you know, there's all the decorating that goes on. I am the pack mule, basically. I don't do any decorating. I just haul the stuff out of the attic, bring the stuff into the house, take the empty crates back up. Everything else is done by my wife who does all the preparation for Christmas. [00:47:37] (29 seconds)  #ChristmasPrepTeam

The first Christmas was that way too. There was a lot of preparation that went into the first Christmas. I mean, there were hundreds and hundreds of years of prophecy. There were countless times in which God saved the lineage of the Messiah in which Jesus would be born and all of those generations that came that proved the chain that went from David all the way to Jesus because he would be the son of David. There's all this preparation that goes into Christmas in order for Jesus to come. Not for us to have a midwinter festival. Not for us to enjoy some nice music. Not for us to even be with our family and friends. [00:48:06] (40 seconds)  #ChristmasWasForJesus

What Christmas is really all about is that God loves us so much, that God cares for you so much, that God demonstrates to you that you matter so much that he sent his only begotten, his one-of-a-kind, unique son, on a mission to rescue you. And I believe that that has to start with an understanding of a word in the Bible. And it's a word that we would almost like to avoid. It is the word lost. [00:49:22] (26 seconds)  #ChristmasRescue

You see, we need rescue because we are fallen and lost. That is why we need rescue. Jesus says he came to search and to save those who are lost. Now, when we use the word lost, we usually think it means like to misplace something. And there is a sense in which that's true in this word. But the Greek word that the New Testament is written in, the word that Jesus said for lost, actually doesn't mean so much misplaced as it means ruined. It means destroyed. [00:49:48] (32 seconds)  #JesusSearchesAndSaves

Now, when we use the word lost, we usually think it means like to misplace something. And there is a sense in which that's true in this word. But the Greek word that the New Testament is written in, the word that Jesus said for lost, actually doesn't mean so much misplaced as it means ruined. It means destroyed. It means beyond repair. [00:50:01] (21 seconds)  #LostMeansRuin

It means beyond repair. You see, sin didn't just wound us. Sin wrecked us. That's what sin did. God creates this perfect world. He puts two sinless people in the world, Adam and Eve, and he gives them one commandment. You got one rule. And they promptly break it. And as a result of their rebellion against God, all of their offspring, which includes all of us, would inherit a sin nature. [00:50:20] (33 seconds)  #WreckedBySin

God sent his son to save us from our own lostness. We deny our lostness at our own peril. We are lost. We are not just exploring. We are sinful. We are not being our authentic selves. We are broken. We're not just on some journey. We are lost. We are wrecked. We are wounded beyond self-repair. This past Thanksgiving, there was a tragic story that came from West Texas. [00:51:52] (30 seconds)  #SavedFromLostness

We deny our lostness at our own peril. We are lost. We are not just exploring. We are sinful. We are not being our authentic selves. We are broken. We're not just on some journey. We are lost. We are wrecked. We are wounded beyond self-repair. This past Thanksgiving, there was a tragic story that came from West Texas. An elderly couple had left their home in Lubbock and gone to the small town of Panhandle, which is right outside Amarillo. [00:51:56] (33 seconds)  #DontDenyLostness

I mean, law enforcement agencies, everybody's looking for them. The long story short, five days later, there was a tragic ending. They found their car, and they found their deceased bodies in a remote pasture outside Tucumcari, New Mexico. Somewhere along the way, they took a wrong turn and got confused and wound up lost. You see, we like to think of lostness sometimes when we hear these messages in churches. Someone who's defiant against God. You don't have to be defiant against God to be lost. You just have to drift. You just have to go your own way. And if you go your own way, you end up lost without any way to save yourself. [00:53:21] (52 seconds)  #LostByWrongTurn

Somewhere along the way, they took a wrong turn and got confused and wound up lost. You see, we like to think of lostness sometimes when we hear these messages in churches. Someone who's defiant against God. You don't have to be defiant against God to be lost. You just have to drift. You just have to go your own way. And if you go your own way, you end up lost without any way to save yourself. This is the story of all of us. [00:53:40] (37 seconds)  #DriftGetsLost

Dead people can't rescue themselves. They don't revive themselves. They can't call for help. They can't restore a broken relationship. And dead people don't seek God. The only thing you contribute to your salvation is the sin that made it necessary. We are dead in trespasses and sins. And only Christ can make us alive again. You know, every now and then, you'll see one of those stories on the news that's like from somewhere else. [00:54:46] (36 seconds)  #DeadInSinNeedChrist

Let me explain something to you. You can do nothing to make yourself alive in Christ. Nothing. Only he can make you alive. Only Jesus can bring you back. Salvation through Christ is absolutely necessary because we are dead in our trespasses and sins, but we're also told in this passage that Jesus alone can restore our broken relationship with God. Only Jesus can do this. You see, Christmas is not just the celebration of this wonderful truth and all the blessings that come because of Christmas, but Christmas also signals to us something that's very important, that salvation, eternal life, spending forever in a great place called heaven is possible only through Jesus Christ. [00:56:39] (56 seconds)  #OnlyJesusRestores

Only Jesus can do this. You see, Christmas is not just the celebration of this wonderful truth and all the blessings that come because of Christmas, but Christmas also signals to us something that's very important, that salvation, eternal life, spending forever in a great place called heaven is possible only through Jesus Christ, through him and through him alone. [00:57:08] (31 seconds)  #OnlyThroughJesus

Other religions always say, here's what you must do to get to God. Here's what you must perform. Here are the religious rituals that you have to go through. Here are the moral actions that you have to take to somehow get in your way to God. And yet, if we're dead in our sins, we can't work our way anywhere. We can't get there on our own. [00:57:51] (28 seconds)  #GraceNotWorks

We can't get there on our own. We need a savior and there is one and there's only one. You see, every other religion says, here's what you gotta do, you gotta do, you gotta do. Jesus says, here's what I came to do for you. Here's what I've done. He is the one and only savior. The Bible echoes that. [00:58:16] (20 seconds)  #JesusOneSavior

You say, Bob, it just seems so narrow and judgmental. Don't you imagine something. You're in a building, maybe an unfamiliar place, but all of a sudden you see smoke and smoke begins to fill the hallways. And you're really unfamiliar with this building, so you're not exactly sure which way you should go to get out of the building. And you're confused, and you become anxious, and you got maybe your family with you, and you got to get out of this building, and you're trying to figure out how to do it. And those hallways are filling up with smoke when all of a sudden you hear this crash through a door, and there's a firefighter who comes to the door, axe in hand, he's chopped through the door, and he looks at you and says, this is the only way out. [00:59:16] (40 seconds)  #OnlyWayOut

That's not judgmental. That's clarity. You see, exclusivity is clarity. Exclusivity is also mercy. It is merciful to say there is one and only way, and his name is Jesus. He is the way to life. Would you bow your heads with me, please? Perhaps you've come here today, and you need to trust Christ as your Savior. You would describe yourself as lost if you were honest. [00:59:58] (44 seconds)  #OneWayIsMercy

Perhaps you've come here today, and you need to trust Christ as your Savior. You would describe yourself as lost if you were honest. Christ came for you. God loves you, and he sent his Son into this world to rescue you. He came to rescue you from your sin and from yourself and from the wrath of God. And all you have to do is cry out to him and say, I, in repentance, turned from my sin, and I trust that Jesus really died on a cross for me and that he really rose from the dead. [01:00:28] (51 seconds)  #RepentAndTrust

Christ came for you. God loves you, and he sent his Son into this world to rescue you. He came to rescue you from your sin and from yourself and from the wrath of God. And all you have to do is cry out to him and say, I, in repentance, turned from my sin, and I trust that Jesus really died on a cross for me and that he really rose from the dead. Father, I pray for those who need a Savior, that today they would sense that, and today they would turn their lives to Christ, trusting him and him alone, for salvation. In Jesus' name, amen. [01:00:41] (55 seconds)  #TurnToChrist