Christmas and Worship

Christmas is only four weeks away. Some of us have even finished our shopping. The Christmas spirit infects just about everyone. During the Christmas season this year, dedicate this Christmas season to a time of holiness and worship. We don’t often connect Christmas, with its hustle and bustle, gift giving, shopping, decorating, and preparations, with holiness and worship. This is unfortunate because at no time of year except perhaps Easter is the love of Christ more tangible than at Christmas.

Strangely, some of our outlines and guidelines for holiness and worship come from Old Testament times.

Commandments are spread throughout the Bible, and there ARE more than ten. The books of 1 and 2 Kings are history books. These books recount the falling away of the Israelites after they were rescued from slavery. God had rescued them but the Israelites persisted in doing every kind of evil thing in the sight of God. Idol worship became a national obsession. They sacrificed babies in fire. They practiced sorcery and magic. They worshipped astrology. Prostitution was rampant. They did every kind of wicked thing, even in their temples. All these terrible things were done by God’s chosen people.

God continually put up with all this. And He continually told them what they should do. 2 Kings recounts these awful things the Israelites did and how God kept telling them what they should do. In the middle of this historical account we find that God gave them and us a commandment about living a holy and worshipful life.

In verse 36, we have a commandment that deals with how to live a holy and worshipful life all year long. In this verse, we find that God speaks to us about fear, worship, and sacrifice.

When we think about God and how much He loves us, we only need to remember how the Jews fell away from God over and over again. Yet, in God’s love, He sent them and us a baby, born in a stinking manger where animals were kept, to save us and give us eternal life.

The FIRST ingredient in living a worship-filled Christmas season as well as a worship-filled life is fearing God. When we fear God in a healthy way, this fear is not the shaky leg kind of fear. Fearing God in a healthy way requires that we be mature and realize that God is power. We must realize that God is power over us, under us, within us, and all around us. In addition, the power that God is, is love. Certainly, we have no fear when we hold the baby Jesus in our hearts. When we read about fearing God, this fear is the awe, the "A-W-E" kind of fear. This fear is the fear where we are dumbfounded by God’s power of love. This is the experience we would have if we could be transported back in time to the manger scene and see Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus on that first Christmas. If we would go to that place and time, we would be humbled to silence. When we are humbled into silence we realize that God is in charge and we are His conduit, His pipeline to send His love to all those around us. We are to send out His love not just at Christmas, but all year round. We have some power, yet we are still called by God to be an instrument for Him to do His work in the world. In addition, being an instrument or conduit for God to use is a million miles from holding your hand out to God wanting God to do innumerable things for you. We can choose whether we want to be a conduit or a kitchen sink. When we are a conduit transporting or sending God’s love we can worship and experience the real power of God flowing through us. This fear of God is the respectful kind of fear.

Fear of God also carries with it the idea of respect. When we respect someone we do not get up in his or her face and tell him or her what we think. Instead, we are hesitant to speak our mind because we have a healthy regard for them. We regard the person as a person with a space around them. This space is theirs and theirs alone. When we respect someone, we do not violate him or her in any way. We do not violate their beliefs. We do not invade their space. We do not violate their life or physical being. We do not interfere with them. We honor the person enough to be polite.

If you fear God in this respectful way, you do not tell God what you think He ought to do. You might be angry with God for whatever reason. You might be disappointed with God, but you do not attack Him. Not only am I describing how we should worship and respect God, but we should also respect other people.

If you were in an auto accident at a critical time, and if you had to be at a once in a lifetime event…and the accident was clearly the fault of the other person…if both you and the other driver got out of your cars, and you are really steamed…if the other driver was 6’10" and weighed 400 pounds, you might not let off some of that steam…instead you might be respectful.

Treating God with respect is what we are called to do. However, we must also treat other people with respect. People who do not treat other people with respect both have problems and create problems. All people deserve to be treated with respect. "All people" includes our own children, senior citizens, the sick and disabled, the homeless, the poor, the downtrodden, everyone. At Christmas, because His love is so prevalent and tangible we reach out to people we normally ignore during the other time of the year. This year, let us continue our Christmas spirit by reaching out and showing others and our God worshipful respect.

The SECOND ingredient of a holy life is worship. When we worship God, whatever little power we have, that power should be put aside when we worship. True worship requires that we express our love for God. In addition, when we express our true love for God, we do that on our knees. We express our thankfulness when we worship. Though we call a normal church service a time of worship, your whole life should be lived as if every moment was a moment of worship.

True worship means we are in a state of adoration, devotion, and honor. When we truly worship, we are expressing our adoration, devotion, and honor to God. We express adoration, devotion, and honor to God because we love Him. It is at Christmas, with the image of the baby Jesus in the manger, that we come close to expressing our adoration, devotion, and honor. We cannot be selfish when we express adoration, devotion, and honor. When we truly worship we come to God on our knees and let God be in charge of our lives.

The THIRD ingredient of a holy life is sacrifice. At Christmas, we do not focus our attention upon what we can get, but upon what we can give. All three of these parts of this commandment require us to be unselfish.

To do these unselfish acts of fearing God, worshipping God, and sacrificing to God you have to be in charge of yourself. If you are not in charge of yourself, you will be very selfish. Our natural instincts or our need to survive tells us to take care of No.1 But our progress as a Christian faith has been built on sacrifice.

To sacrifice means to offer something in homage or respect. It means to give up something that you highly value. In baseball, a sacrifice hit is when you give up any chance of scoring yourself, so someone else can score.

Christ sacrificed himself and went to the Cross. God let Christ be a sacrificed for each of us. Thousands of people were martyrs in the early church. Hundreds of thousands more have died for our faith in the last two thousand years. We must also add the casualties in World War I and II, and other military actions to preserve our freedom of worship. We are able to worship in our many forms and styles because others were willing to risk their lives for us. Sacrifice is the backbone of our faith. Sacrifice is the spine in the body of Christ. Sacrifice is the spine in the character of a human being. No human achievement of any significance comes without sacrifice.

In the Christian faith, where there is no sacrifice there is only show business and hypocrisy. If we are not willing to make a sacrifice and we yield to our human nature, we lose as a person, our church loses, and our faith loses. Sacrifice and lack of self-discipline are opposites. Sacrifice and taking what we want when we want it are opposites.

To be able to have a spine in the way you live and work in our faith requires that you have self-discipline. Self-discipline enables us to sacrifice. However, you do not have self-discipline if you are not in charge of yourself.

We are not in charge of ourselves when we are first born. When we are first born, we work from the survival instincts God put in us. It is hoped that as we grow older we learn to put grabbing and survival instincts aside. If we grow in our faith, we learn to give instead of grab. If we learn true lessons in our faith and our Christian walk, we learn to love others as ourselves.

Sacrifice to God should be made because we adore Him, because we are devoted to Him, and because we honor Him. Sacrifice to God means we put God before ourselves and we give. Sacrifice means we never think about what we are getting. At Christmas, as we should every day of the year, we should think about what we can give, how we can give, where we can give, and when we can give. Sacrifice does not have anything to do with getting what we want and need.

When we fear God, worship God, and sacrifice to God, we take charge of our life. God tells us to do these three things because when we truly fear, worship, and sacrifice, we become new persons. When we do these three acts, we are in charge of our lives. Regardless of all the darkness, pain, and suffering we or others might be going through God still calls upon us to fear Him, worship Him, and sacrifice to Him.

When we fear, worship, and sacrifice we become a conduit for the love and power of God. We are more in charge of our lives when we are a conduit for God’s power than we are when we are when we are always looking out for No. 1 and always looking to receive rather than give.

A conduit is a pipe or channel for conveying fluids, such as water. A conduit is also a tube or duct for enclosing electric wires. The conduit does not decide where the water or electricity goes. The pipe just holds the water or wires, which carry the power. The difference between a metal pipe and us is that we have intelligence and our own will. God made us in His image. And God has had to put up with us ever since.

We are like God in some ways. One of the ways we are like God is that we have a will. We can make choices and decisions. By our choice we can try to put our will aside and let God’s will reign in our lives. When we do choose to let God’s will reign in our lives, we are more in charge of what is going on around us at that moment, no matter what that moment is…than at any time in our lives.

To be able to fear, worship, and sacrifice requires that we be persons of humility. When we have humility, it means we let God have His way rather than insisting things go our way.

George Washington came upon a corporal yelling at his men to move a log out the road; meanwhile, the corporal stood there with his hands on his hips yelling orders. Whereupon, the General got down from his horse and helped move the log. He turned to the corporal and said, "next time you need a log moved, be sure to call the commander-in-chief." It was the humility of George Washington, even when he was a child, that led him to say, "I cannot tell a lie." Rather than arrogantly saying, "I didn’t do it."

When we have humility, it means we really understand that God is in charge of things we cannot be in charge of. However, although we cannot be in charge of many things, we can still be a conduit for Christ' love. In us, and through us, God’s power and love can flow. When we truly become children of God, we should become instruments for God. Every day we have a chance to be a witness.

Every day we have a chance to let the love of Christ flow through us to others. We do not live in a world where we are isolated from other people. The very least any of us can do is pray that we be just a humble person for God. We need to pray that we can show the love of God in our lives, that we can show that Christ died for us in how we live and who we are as people. When we give these gifts away, these gifts outshine any of the gifts we wrap and place under the tree this Christmas or any Christmas.

In the world today, we are told the strong survive. At every turn, we get the message, the strong win out. In addition, in some places in life, the strong do win out. In sports, the stronger team usually wins. In business, the stronger company usually survives and thrives. In our relationship with God, a person with a strong faith is able to withstand the hits and blows of life a lot better than is a person of weak faith. However, the person with the strongest faith is the person who can let God be in charge of the things God is already in charge of. The person with a strong faith is the person who has enough power to put what they want aside and then do for others. A person with a weaker faith tends to do only for him or herself.

Today, humankind is trying to do what God does…from controlling the weather to reversing the aging process. I was once asked if asked if God helps those who help themselves. It took me a long time to resolve the answer, but the answer is "Not as much." God does not help those who help themselves as much as He does those people who truly need His help. God does reward us for being creative and self-reliant in His service, but He does not reward us for being selfish and helping ourselves in a selfish or egotistical way. God helps those who cannot help themselves if these people are willing to put their life in His hands.

2Ch:14:11: And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, LORD, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O LORD, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee.(KJV)

Cal Thomas wonders if we have reversed things. God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. "In a church I once attended, there was a man of tremendous faith. His wife is an alcoholic. His daughter has psychological problems. He was often poor in health. Yet, week after week, he never complained. He always smiled and asked me how I was doing. He faithfully brought to church a young blind man who had no transportation. He always sat with the blind man, helping him sing the hymns by saying the words into his ear ... that man was a ‘Christian leader’ if ever there was one."