Embracing Christmas: Gifts, Freedom, and Shalom
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Sermon Clips
"We want to welcome everyone to the House of the Lord here at John Wesley Methodist Church. I'm Marty Dunbar, one of the pastors. Great to see everybody. I want to just say Merry Christmas. And I want to thank the Ingram family for lighting our Advent Christ candle. And so here in just a minute at the end of our service, we will take the light from the Christ candle and pass it throughout this entire room at the end. And we will sing Silent Night. It's going to be a beautiful sight to behold. And it's always a peaceful, peaceful moment in the lives of each and every one of us as we move into Christmas Day." [00:22:30] (34 seconds)
"But there's something profound in just the question of the gifts to the Christ child. They weren't random. They tell a story. Christmas tells a story for us, doesn't it? And it tells a story. It tells a story to all people. It doesn't even matter if you have faith or not. It doesn't even matter if people out there have faith or not. It still tells God's story. God has a story that he's trying to tell. Now, let's think about those gifts. Gold, okay? That was one of the first gifts. And it's a gift of the king." [00:45:52] (38 seconds)
"Jesus, we believe, is king of kings. That's what we believe one of his titles is, a king of kings. And he reigns in people's hearts. He was never born into this world to reign over an earthly nation at all. He's supposed to reign in people's hearts. And he takes away our very brokenness that we cannot fix ourselves. That desire that we have in our lives, it seems very natural to live outside of God's design. So, Jesus was... He was a spiritual warrior king who brought the gift of shalom to the souls of people. That's our king." [00:46:08] (47 seconds)
"Then there was frankincense. This was a gift of worship or a gift for worship. So, you have this high-quality oil or incense that was burned. And when frankincense was burned, it was symbolic of the prayers. And the praise that are rising to God. Jesus, we believe, as Christians, is also what we would call our high priest. We don't need a high priest on earth. We have a high priest in heaven. And he reconciles and repairs humanity, brings this shalom to our relationship with God." [00:46:55] (42 seconds)
"Now, he is the only one also worthy of worship and praise. Then there was myrrh. Myrrh was a gift of sacrifice or for sacrifice. It was a spice that they used to anoint dead bodies. This was that foreshadowing of the story of that sacrificial death that Christ would make for us on a cross. God displaying his true love on a cross. So, there was this depth of love for all of creation. There was part of that Christmas story." [00:47:57] (38 seconds)
"But first, let me talk about how the story is more than shepherds and angels and wise men. The story is a story of freedom and shalom. It proclaims freedom and shalom or peace into a world that seems to be gripped by fear all the time. Fear is this universal experience for all of us. We have fear of failure in our lives. We have fear of not being enough, not even close to what we want. We have fear of failure in our lives. We have fear of not being even being enough for God. We have a fear of being alone. We have a fear of being unknown." [00:48:49] (41 seconds)
"We have a fear of the future. We have a fear of not being in control of life. We even have a fear of God. We've talked about that a couple weeks ago. We have this fear, an unhealthy fear of God. But fear makes us then fear the wrong things. The Christmas story has fear included in it, doesn't it? Because Mary and Joseph, they probably had a lot of fear about their future. And the shepherds, they had a lot of fear about from the angelic messengers that came and showed up. They were freaked out by that. But Christmas speaks directly to fear." [00:49:57] (40 seconds)
"How does it do that? It's just proclamation, a declaration of fear not. Do not be afraid. We heard it. Pastor Trish read it to us. It makes us chase the wrong things a lot of times. We tend to want to chase power or perfection. We hear in our world that we need to chase approval. Or maybe it's just safety or comfortableness or happiness or status. But we chase. This chase can leave us empty. It can leave us isolated. It can leave us fearful, actually. Fear can be exhausting, can't it? I've been there." [00:50:05] (42 seconds)
"And it leaves us tired. It leaves us longing for more, desiring some sort of true peace deep down. And that's what I love about Christmas Eve. We kind of get a glimpse of that true peace and shalom that God wants for all of us. Especially later on when we sing Silent Night, the room is dark and faces are lit up with candles. And there's just sort of this peace that our souls feel, our spirits feel. See, God's gift of Christmas addresses the real things, the root things that we should be fearful of." [00:50:38] (41 seconds)
"Fear, as we've been talking about in the last few weeks, disrupts spiritual peace. It disrupts shalom in our life. And fear actually feeds sin, and then sin feeds fear, and it's sort of this vicious cycle. There's fear and sin are these great oppressors that enslave us. They actually stop us from truly living life to the fullest, because we are fearful, or we don't want to move out into the world. They're great occupiers of space in our life as well. They create this space that disconnects us from God." [00:51:10] (42 seconds)
"So, there's these dual gifts of Christmas, and they're not the gifts, you know, given by the wise men. They're given to all by God, and that's freedom, and that is shalom. So, these gifts speak of the good news. These gifts speak of the mission of Christmas, which is God is constantly trying to demonstrate his love and acceptance towards you. Now, the first gift, if we think about it, is freedom. This is often one we don't think about. Christmas time, we think, well, Marty, that's for July 4th, you know, that's for another time in our year." [00:52:06] (42 seconds)
"But sin and fear, friends, are great oppressors. They're enslavers. People tend to make Christmas only about forgiveness a lot of times. And forgiveness just brings people back to zero. Covenant, actually, the sacrificial system did that. But Christmas is a gift of freedom. That Jesus came for more than forgiveness. Jesus is the new and the greater Joshua, if you know your biblical stories. He leads God's people into freedom, into the promises of God. He is the spiritual warrior that defeats sin, not with a sword, but with sacrificial love." [00:52:49] (49 seconds)
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"But there's something profound in just the question of the gifts to the Christ child. They weren't random. They tell a story. Christmas tells a story for us, doesn't it? And it tells a story. It tells a story to all people. It doesn't even matter if you have faith or not. It doesn't even matter if people out there have faith or not. It still tells God's story. God has a story that he's trying to tell. Now, let's think about those gifts. Gold, okay? That was one of the first gifts. And it's a gift of the king." [00:45:52] (38 seconds)
"Jesus, we believe, is king of kings. That's what we believe one of his titles is, a king of kings. And he reigns in people's hearts. He was never born into this world to reign over an earthly nation at all. He's supposed to reign in people's hearts. And he takes away our very brokenness that we cannot fix ourselves. That desire that we have in our lives, it seems very natural to live outside of God's design. So, Jesus was... He was a spiritual warrior king who brought the gift of shalom to the souls of people. That's our king." [00:46:08] (47 seconds)
"Then there was frankincense. This was a gift of worship or a gift for worship. So, you have this high-quality oil or incense that was burned. And when frankincense was burned, it was symbolic of the prayers. And the praise that are rising to God. Jesus, we believe, as Christians, is also what we would call our high priest. We don't need a high priest on earth. We have a high priest in heaven. And he reconciles and repairs humanity, brings this shalom to our relationship with God." [00:46:55] (42 seconds)
"Now, he is the only one also worthy of worship and praise. Then there was myrrh. Myrrh was a gift of sacrifice or for sacrifice. It was a spice that they used to anoint dead bodies. This was that foreshadowing of the story of that sacrificial death that Christ would make for us on a cross. God displaying his true love on a cross. So, there was this depth of love for all of creation. There was part of that Christmas story." [00:47:57] (38 seconds)
"But first, let me talk about how the story is more than shepherds and angels and wise men. The story is a story of freedom and shalom. It proclaims freedom and shalom or peace into a world that seems to be gripped by fear all the time. Fear is this universal experience for all of us. We have fear of failure in our lives. We have fear of not being enough, not even close to what we want. We have fear of failure in our lives. We have fear of not being even being enough for God. We have a fear of being alone. We have a fear of being unknown." [00:48:49] (41 seconds)
"We have a fear of the future. We have a fear of not being in control of life. We even have a fear of God. We've talked about that a couple weeks ago. We have this fear, an unhealthy fear of God. But fear makes us then fear the wrong things. The Christmas story has fear included in it, doesn't it? Because Mary and Joseph, they probably had a lot of fear about their future. And the shepherds, they had a lot of fear about from the angelic messengers that came and showed up. They were freaked out by that. But Christmas speaks directly to fear." [00:49:57] (40 seconds)
"How does it do that? It's just proclamation, a declaration of fear not. Do not be afraid. We heard it. Pastor Trish read it to us. It makes us chase the wrong things a lot of times. We tend to want to chase power or perfection. We hear in our world that we need to chase approval. Or maybe it's just safety or comfortableness or happiness or status. But we chase. This chase can leave us empty. It can leave us isolated. It can leave us fearful, actually. Fear can be exhausting, can't it? I've been there." [00:50:05] (42 seconds)
"And it leaves us tired. It leaves us longing for more, desiring some sort of true peace deep down. And that's what I love about Christmas Eve. We kind of get a glimpse of that true peace and shalom that God wants for all of us. Especially later on when we sing Silent Night, the room is dark and faces are lit up with candles. And there's just sort of this peace that our souls feel, our spirits feel. See, God's gift of Christmas addresses the real things, the root things that we should be fearful of." [00:50:38] (41 seconds)
"Fear, as we've been talking about in the last few weeks, disrupts spiritual peace. It disrupts shalom in our life. And fear actually feeds sin, and then sin feeds fear, and it's sort of this vicious cycle. There's fear and sin are these great oppressors that enslave us. They actually stop us from truly living life to the fullest, because we are fearful, or we don't want to move out into the world. They're great occupiers of space in our life as well. They create this space that disconnects us from God." [00:51:10] (42 seconds)
"So, there's these dual gifts of Christmas, and they're not the gifts, you know, given by the wise men. They're given to all by God, and that's freedom, and that is shalom. So, these gifts speak of the good news. These gifts speak of the mission of Christmas, which is God is constantly trying to demonstrate his love and acceptance towards you. Now, the first gift, if we think about it, is freedom. This is often one we don't think about. Christmas time, we think, well, Marty, that's for July 4th, you know, that's for another time in our year." [00:52:06] (42 seconds)
"But sin and fear, friends, are great oppressors. They're enslavers. People tend to make Christmas only about forgiveness a lot of times. And forgiveness just brings people back to zero. Covenant, actually, the sacrificial system did that. But Christmas is a gift of freedom. That Jesus came for more than forgiveness. Jesus is the new and the greater Joshua, if you know your biblical stories. He leads God's people into freedom, into the promises of God. He is the spiritual warrior that defeats sin, not with a sword, but with sacrificial love." [00:52:49] (49 seconds)
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