Why I have a problem with American Christmas celebrations.

I have a feeling that some of what I am writing won't jive well with every one of you. Most of you will agree with all of it, but I don't want you to just agree with me. I want you to be moved to action. That's my purpose for writing.

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of celebrating Christmas? The second thing? Third? For many of us we think of family, gifts, food, (In my opinion; very bad) music that we all know and love, and the sweet lil' Jesus child. I have a strong feeling that the top three things that we associate with Christmas celebrations are in that list. If you are a Christian, and I really hope you are, then those answers are not full enough. Seriously, they aren't, there must be more. The story of Christmas isn't just that o little town of Bethlehem played host to the most miraculous birth the world has ever seen, or that angels we have heard on high proclaimed that birth to poor shepherds tending their flocks by night.

The story of Christmas is that mankind sinned against a holy God and was therefore condemned to be without Him for eternity. A truly holy God cannot accept sin. His hatred of it only speaks to His overwhelming goodness and purity. Mankind, because of it's own failures, was destitute and enslaved to the very sin that brought about it's condemnation. This holy God, the one who created man, looked upon His creation and offered salvation in the form of Himself, the Son, Jesus. That Christmas day, over 2,000 years ago is amazing, not because angels were singing or that wise men were traveling with expensive gifts, but because heaven and earth collided in a glorious way that would bring salvation to sinful man. God provided a way for man to escape righteous wrath and damnation by personally stepping into time and bearing his own wrath so we may be justified to Himself. I have no problem with celebrating the manger but our celebration should never end there. The proper celebration for a Christian should always go to the cross and the empty grave. Paul never boasts in the manger, he boasts only in the cross of Christ. He never celebrates the birth of Christ, but makes much of His death and resurrection. Christ's birth means nothing without the cross.The cross is a nasty, ugly symbol of death and is totally opposite from what American society thinks about Christmas, but it is the fulfillment of Christmas.

So when we, Christians, think of Christmas, we should always consider the cross. If Jesus really was born, lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death, was raised on the third day, defeated death and sin, and awaits the promised time when he will reconcile all of creation... if this is real, it changes everything. For those of use who claim to believe it's real, it has to make a difference in the way that we celebrate the birth. Our celebrations should be vastly different from that of the rest of the world. So what should this look like? How should we be different from the world at Christmas time? I'm not going to sit here and claim that there is a certain way that we should all act. There are certain things that should be different. I have many awesome memories of Christmas as a child but they all revolve around what I received; my presents. My parents did a great job of trying to promote the story of Christ every year, but looking back, I don't think what we did was the best way to celebrate Christ. But it didn't matter how often I was serenaded with the name of Jesus and the fact that He is the greatest gift the world has ever gotten, I always merely looked forward to the gifts under the tree. I know this was mostly a personal heart issue that I had, and continue to struggle with, but I think there is a better way of going about celebrating Christ.

I didn't need a single thing I've ever received for Christmas. Half of it was stuff that I didn't even want until I got it and then 3 weeks later I didn't care about it anymore. Why is it that we have allowed the materialism of our culture to invade our worship of Christ? How about instead of just giving gifts to our happy families, while we sit around a Christmas tree that is decked out with all kinds of bling, we go out and serve those who have actual needs? Instead of proclaiming to ourselves the good news that the angels brought to the shepherds, shouldn't we proclaim it to the lost?  Wouldn't that be a much better picture of the way Christ has changed us than exchanging needless gifts with each other? We have one purpose for existing: displaying the glory of God; we are here to share the gospel with the world. The traditional gift giving ceremony isn't a great way of accomplishing that purpose. I hear too many Christians complain that America is quickly going down the moral drain without realizing that we are huge contributors to the problem. We have succumbed to the idols of materialism and greed and have forgotten that we have been given gifts by God so we may share them with the world; namely the gift of the Gospel. I'm not calling for a redistribution of wealth or anything silly like that but for God's people to make a stand and display His love to the earth in ways that don't make sense to our culture. Be the difference in the world. Be love to the broken. Bring healing to the hurting. Take the Gospel to the lost.


Make the Gospel the gift you give. Let that be your motivation and purpose. Helping the poor without the gospel is like putting a band-aid over a cannon wound. At the same time, proclaiming the Gospel without taking care of physical needs is also pointless. We must do both.  So this Christmas, do something radical. Go feed the homeless. Invite a poor family into your house and use those gifts under the tree to bless them in amazing and unexpected ways. But most of all make sure Jesus gets all of the glory and praise from whatever you do. Let your celebration be focused on the distribution of the Gospel. #beChristlikethischristmas

(P. S. I'm not against giving gifts to those we love. I think it is important to do so, but we have let that become way too important during Christmas. Christmas should always, and only, be about taking the amazing, beautiful Gospel to those around us.)

The LORD of Hosts - Malachi 1

The following is the manuscript from the sermon I preached on January 9th 2011 at Kings Baptist Church in Vero Beach, Florida. I have written it in a way that, I hope, is easy to read and comprehend. Sadly, I don't think it gets the message across as strongly as I think my actual preaching did. Hopefully soon I will have access to either a video or at least the audio of the sermon and I will post that on here as well.

The LORD of Hosts – Malachi 1

Introduction

Out of all of the passages of Scripture that I have taught and preached through, which are honestly not all that many since I am still a very young man, I have never been as strongly affected by any of them as I have this. It is difficult for me to even describe the way that I have felt the anointing of God on this passage and how He led me on how He wanted me to preach it. I have never in my life been so sure of anything as I am so sure of His direction in this message. It is always a humbling experience for me to be able to preach the Word of God but this just brought me to my knees so many times in adoration and worship. I pray that it would affect you in much of the same manner. The purpose of this teaching is to lead us to have a fear of God. Throughout Scripture we are presented with people who fear God, and it is always regarded as a correct response to Him. A couple of examples:

Isaiah 66:2

This is the man to whom I will look, that he is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My word.

Psalm 25:14

The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear Him.

Hebrews 12:28-29

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, (29) for our God is a consuming fire.

Psalms 2:11

Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

The book of Malachi (and first chapter that we will be looking at here) deals with the improper worship of God by His own people, the Israelites. They, who have been given so much more than any other people on the planet by the God who has made a covenant with them, turned their backs to Him and scorned Him. They still keep the basest parts of the covenant; they still offer sacrifices and burn incense at the alter but they are not doing it out of a love of God but instead as a sense of duty. They mock and despise Him by their so called acts of worship. They do not have any sense of fear and awe for this Being who is ruler of all things. To be blunt, this is really stupid of them and makes no logical sense at all. (I will be attempting to show that we are all guilty of this same problem.)

Part of loving God is fearing Him. So many times the idea of “fearing God” is one that is described as something that isn’t a big deal or something that we don’t have to spend too much time worrying about because we shouldn’t REALLY fear Him, it’s treated more as having respect for what He can do. That’s certainly part of it, but I think that we should actually have a real fear of Him. Of course a large part of that fear deals with having a good respect for what He can do. But when we consider the God that we claim to serve and to love, do we approach Him with fear and trembling? If we could but get a glimpse of Him we would die. Our earthly bodies can’t handle it. C.S. Lewis says that God is outside of time like we are outside of a book. All he has to do is to look at it to see what is going on. The major difference is that God made the book, and is always looking at every page in it at the same time, which is all the time, yet it has nothing to do with time because time is what He is holding. Confusing? It should be, and we have hardly scratched the surface of His power and all that He is. Consider it like this: if this God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-everything that is worth anything, what can our response be to Him? If we really start looking and considering who He is, that knowledge has to affect how we live. That has to become the main focus in our lives. If He is as powerful as we claim that He is then shouldn’t our main focus in life be on how to please Him? Shouldn’t we constantly strive to never anger Him? How can we ever think that we can get away with not giving Him our best and our everything? This is an act of complete stupidity, yet I dare say that every single one of us is guilty of doing it, I know for a fact that I am.

The LORD of Hosts

“The Lord of Hosts” (in the NIV it is translated as “the Lord Almighty”, which I believe is a poorer translation of this title) is stated 8 times in the first chapter of Malachi. When God declares that He is the LORD of Hosts He is making a claim of power. He controls the hosts/armies of Heaven. Humans are unable to harm an angel. It doesn't matter how many bullets we shoot, how tanks we have, or how many missiles we fire we can't harm a single angel. Just one of these invincible heavenly beings could wipe out the entirety of humanity and God controls millions of them. They also serve Him perfectly. Every single one of His commands are followed exactly how He directs. God controls millions of these angels that perfectly fulfill His will and just one of them can kill us all. The title “the LORD of Hosts” is a title that exudes power. God is making it clear that He is in control. There is no other way to look at it. God is claiming 8 different times that He is supremely powerful, He controls the armies of heaven, He controls all armies, there are none that can stand up to Him. He is the ruler of all. There are none like Him, no one even kind of close. His Word is absolute.

Malachi 1:1-14 (1) The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

This verse is correctly translated as “The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.” This word “burden” is a key to understanding the importance of the rest of this chapter and message. The word of the LORD is not a lightweight trivial thing, it carries weight and importance. The Word of the Lord is always a burden. For those who love the Word of the LORD and embrace it and live by it, it is still a burden, though a light one, as Christ claims in Matthew 11:30 “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” It is furthermore a burden for those who love it because when we are given the Word of God we are to share that news with the world yet the world doesn’t always treat the Word as the good news that it is. It is most often met with scorn and rebuke. This is also a burden. But the Word of the LORD has meaning to all people. When God speaks, people must listen or be condemned. It is a burden to all people because His Word always has substance and power behind it. The word of God is always heavy with truth and power. He never speaks in vain but always with a purpose and all creation listens, except for sinful men.

Hopefully you have a Bible. You are probably aware that we call it the “Word of God” but have you really thought about that? You are holding the Word of God. That’s crazy! God spoke the world into existence. He said, “Let there be light” and light happened. If I say “Let there be light” I’m typically answered by a voice from the darkness, “You know where the switch is, turn it on yourself”.

When God speaks even stuff that doesn’t exist obeys. His Word is power. In Him rests all authority. All things are from and are to Him. His Word carries weight, it has substance in a way that nothing you or I can ever attain. It is with this kind of power and majesty that Malachi writes, because he is writing the Word of God.

(2) "I have loved you," says the LORD. But you say, "How have you loved us?" "Is not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD. "Yet I have loved Jacob (3) but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert." (4) If Edom says, "We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins," the LORD of hosts says, "They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called 'the wicked country,’ and 'the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.'"

This is an astounding passage to me. God begins it by stating His love for His people. The first thing that He establishes is that He cherishes and honors them, He loves them! What an amazing statement that God claims His love for His people. Yet they ask how it could be possible that He has loved them. If I were God I would answer their question with incredulity and would then begin recounting all of the things that I have done for them: send them to Egypt so they can have food to eat during a famine, bringing them out of Egypt and saving them from the hand of Pharaoh, sustaining them in the desert, giving them His law, making a covenant with them to be their God and they will be His people, bringing them into the Promised Land, and then giving them that land for their own. I would have mentioned all of times that I sent judges to rescue them from their oppressors and then raised up David to sit on the throne. I would have reminded them about all of that and more. God doesn’t do that. Instead He merely reminds them that there were two brothers, actually they were twins, and He chose one of them to love over the other one. He reminds them that He chose the younger twin, Jacob, and his descendants to be the people of God instead of the older twin and his descendants. Not only did God choose to love Jacob but He hated Esau. At this point I’m sure many of you are rechecking your Bibles to see if it actually says that God hated Esau. Yes, it says that. No, I’m not going into that here so you will have to live with it for now. The best explanation I have read is by John Piper in his sermon on Romans 9:13 which is where Paul quotes this exact passage. So go online to www.desiringgod.org and check that out if you want to get a good understanding of what is going on here, I’m going to keep moving on with the rest of the chapter.

(5) Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, "Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel!"

God states that the proper response to witnessing the way that He loves the descendants of Jacob and actively works against and, as He says, “hates” the descendants of Esau, is a response of worship and praise. God is making a claim of His absolute sovereignty. He is saying that it doesn’t matter what men may do, they cannot do anything that He does not allow to them. He is in control of everything. Our plans mean nothing to Him when they are not in line with His plans. With our eyes we see how God works for those who are His people and that should cause us to worship. When we see how God works against those who are against Him, that should also cause us to worship. The proper response for the people of God when they witness Him doing anything at all is to worship. How can we not worship this great and powerful God? Who can stand against Him?

(6) "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name.

How often do we call God “our father”? For many of us it is every single time that we pray. This is a correct view of God. When we think of God’s fatherhood over us we tend to focus on all of the ways that He provides for us and loves us all so very much. The point of this message is not to discount those precious truths, because it is complete truth that God provides everything for us. If it wasn’t for Him we wouldn’t exist, we couldn’t breathe the breath that we just inhaled. If He wasn’t caring for us then no one would be able to understand what I’m saying, because we wouldn’t have discovered language. Your heart is beating away there on the left side of your chest and that’s only happening because God is allowing it. You had breakfast this morning because God provides for us. What a wonderful truth for us to know and cling to. God loves us!

I stand before you today to claim that God, the one who holds trillions and trillions of stars in His hand, loves you. He loves us despite the fact that our entire existence, outside of Him is spent in complete rebellion against Him. He loves us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus to bear His wrath against sin so that we might be saved from it. I stand here today to declare that God loves you very much! God pursues you with His love. I don’t want you to lose sight of the love that He has for you.

I never want to forget that He loves us more than we can begin to comprehend, but that isn’t the only way that we should view God. God is more than just a God of love. He is Supreme over everything.

In April of 2010 I went on a mission trip to Haiti just months after the devastating earthquake. One of my favorite things that happened on our mission trip was the one morning I woke up super early and climbed onto the roof and watched the sun rise up over the mountains and illuminate the sprawl of Port-au-Prince in it’s illuminating and life-giving light. The majesty of that scene is not even a tiny smidgen of a glance of how great is the glory of God’s majesty. The most glorious sight any of us have witnessed is nothing compared to Him.

How often is it that we come before Him in worship and think of Him in the “big warm Santa Clausy” way instead of the as the all powerful Lord of Hosts and the Almighty of Creation? God is a being who is jealous that His name be lifted up above all others. He demands honor as we should honor our fathers. He demands fear as we would fear a master who is in complete control over our lives. For many of us the idea of fearing God is a somewhat foreign one. When we think of God we tend to focus on His love for us, but once we truly experience God in a real way and not just have some emotions that make us feel nice and fuzzy inside during a carefully crafted worship service, (I’m talking about truly experiencing Him and having Him reveal part of who He is to us.) the only response that we possibly can have is one of complete fear and reverence of who He is. I’m not talking about the type of fear that inspires hatred towards the object that is feared. I’m not talking about paralyzing fear. I’m referring to fear that is completely reverential. It is a fear that acknowledges that God is greater than everything combined and can do whatever He wants and is justified in it because everything is His and His alone and that in comparison to Him we are less than nothing. Our sense of self-importance is laughable next to Him.

But you say, 'How have we despised your name?' (7) By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, 'How have we polluted you?' By saying that the LORD's table may be despised. (8) When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts. (9) And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the LORD of hosts. (10) Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.

God says that His own priests have despised His name. How have they done that? They have offered polluted sacrifices to Him. Their acts of worship have not been pure, they have been merely walking through the routines of worship. His priests have been giving God animals that are flawed, they have broken legs, they have mad cow disease or mad sheep disease, mange, and are blind. They refuse to give God their best. They aren’t giving Him the honor that He deserves. They are not fearful of their master who strikes a righteous fear in everyone who experiences Him. By their neglect to fulfill their priestly duties in a God-honoring way they showed that they don’t respect the God that they claimed to serve, but also that they didn't know Him. Their actions which were designed to bring honor to God did nothing to glorify the great name of God but they instead defiled it.

When we approach the throne of God in any way that is not filled with honor and reverence for Who He is, we glorify ourselves. So often our worship consists only of us thanking God for what He has done for us; namely saving us. We thank Him for saving us, but if our worship stops here we are not bringing Him honor at all. We are instead telling Him that He made a wise investment in choosing us. That is only making much of ourselves and is in fact worshiping ourselves. True worship can begin with thanking Him for saving us but it always moves on to the purpose of our salvation; to bring glory and honor to Him. True worship always takes place when we realize that we are not saved merely for our sake, but for His name. There is no higher calling on God’s people than to declare His fame to all the people of the world. The Great Commission is all about making the name of God great among the whole world.

(11) For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.

The day is quickly coming when everyone will acknowledge our God with all the honor that He deserves. Jesus is coming back in the fullness of glory and at that time every single king, president, emperor, senator, governor, doctor, custodian, sandwich artist at Subway, trash collector, pastor, stay-at-home mother, child, senior adult, middle aged people, all the women who refuse to say how old they really are, and everyone in-between will bow at the greatness of His name. When the glory of heaven comes crashing down to earth none will be able to do anything but acknowledge His mighty Name.

On that day it will be pointless to kneel since we won’t even be able to stand. For those of us who honor His name and worship Him in true fear and reverence it will be a glorious day, but an awful day for all others. Those who only walk through the motions of religion will discover that their motions were empty and meaningless. The name of the Lord will be great among the nations, but I fear for the world on that day. This wonderful promise should strike fear in our hearts because we are surrounded by so many people who will be forced to bow on that day and it will be the first time they have ever bowed to our most glorious God and by then it will be too late. This promise should provoke us to carry His name to everyone that we meet.

(12) But you profane it when you say that the Lord's table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. (13) But you say, 'What a weariness this is,' and you snort at it, says the LORD of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the LORD. (14) Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.

Our God is a GREAT KING!! He is above all others! His name be praised! His glory and majesty are above anything we can comprehend. His power is beyond any other. Perhaps the best picture of His glory is found in the book of Revelation. John does his best to describe the throne room of God and it's almost funny how he has such obvious problems finding the right words to use. God is great and powerful, let His name be praised among the nations and may we exist with the sole purpose of bringing Him glory.

As you read this passage from Revelation I want you to try and get a visual in your brain. Try to get an image of the power of this throne. I want you to feel the electricity in the air, hear the thunder, be awed by the presence of the One on the throne.

Revelation 4:2-11 (2) At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. (3) And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. (4) Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. (5) From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, (6) and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: (7) the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. (8) And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" (9) And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, (10) the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, (11) "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."