More Christmas Sermons

Another scaled down Christmas sermon outline:

Sermon Title: Make Haste

Scripture Passage: Luke 2:6-17

INTRO:

There are normally two responses to divine encounters in scripture; unawareness and fear. And often times God encounters are often missed out on today because of the same reasons. But in this awesome passage we see that the shepherds were very fearful to start with here – but I love what verse 16 says - And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. And they came with haste.

I like it when people make haste after God.

The shepherds could have missed a moment – if they had waited, or doubted, or hem-hawed around – but they made haste. What was it about this most unlikely group to receive this news that caused them to make haste and not miss what God was doing? So many that we read about in this Word missed what God was doing. All through Jesus’ earthly ministry people missed the time of their visitation – but not the shepherds.

What can we learn from the shepherds?

1. They were able to transition quickly.

I hear people ask questions like – who stayed behind to watch the sheep? But then I think – who cares? You know what – doesn’t matter – whatever it took, whatever it meant for the shepherds to leave and head to the manger, whatever arrangements needed to be made – they made them. They didn’t drag their feet they went for it.

You see the reason why many folks miss revival or miss what God is doing miss what God is doing is because we become– transitionally challenged. Why are we transitionally challenged? Because for different reasons we become content with status quo.

Psalm 119:60 - I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.

Often it seems that churches, movements and individual believers can have an encounter with God, or have one great time in the altar with God – and then never bother to seek more from God.

In Ephesians 1 Paul speaking to the churches at Ephesus said, “I pray that you may have more wisdom and revelation. What does that tell us? It tells us that there is more of God to know. There is more of God to get a hold of. The Bible says that God want to take us from glory to glory. But many times instead of glory to glory – we become static in our relationship with God.

This happens to people and denominations.  Instead of becoming a movement to the future - they can become monuments to the past. But the glory of Christmas is that the God of the universe wants to lead us from glory to glory – from encounter with Him to encounter.

2. They were able to recognize what God was doing.

Verse 15: So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.”

In summary the shepherds said, "God is doing something – let’s go see it."

They were able to recognize that God was doing something. They recognized that this was God.

What is so interesting to me is that for hundreds of years Israel prayed and cried out for God, they prayed for revival – so God sent Jesus and what happened – they killed Him. Why? They didn’t recognize Him. They didn’t recognize revival. God in the flesh shows up – but because he rode a donkey instead of a white horse into Jerusalem – because He wasn’t riding at the head of a conquering army like they thought He would be. Because He didn’t come the way they thought He would – they missed what God was doing.

Jesus pointed this out to them in Luke 19:43: "For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

We must be very careful that we don't miss what God is doing - it's possible to be very sincere in faith and miss what God is wanting to do. 
In the history of the church each current revival or move of God persecutes the one that follows it. Reformers were burned at the stake because they believed a certain revelation that God had given them. Then the Anabaptists came along and believed that baptism should happen after you make your profession for Christ - they were persecuted by the Lutherans. Then the holiness movement springs up out of the Anabaptist movement and the Anabaptist's persecute the holiness movement – then the Pentecostal movement springs up out of the holiness movement and they are persecuted by the holiness movement. At the turn of the century if you were Pentecostal you were considered a cult member and the scum of the earth. My grandmother had rotten fruit thrown at her as she left church from time to time because of her Pentecostal faith. Pentecostal preachers were considered dangerous. Then the Pentecostal movement persecuted the Jesus movement, then the Jesus movement persecuted the charismatic movement, and on and on we go. 

Jesus came with good tidings of great joy that were to all people – peace on earth – goodwill to man. The good news is that relationship with God is now possible. Who wouldn’t want that? Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to pursue that? It's time to have a heart like the shepherds did so long ago and make haste towards Him.