Christmas Eve 2015 - Christmas

It's time now for the rope with Astro Teacher Devo.

Men and women, Christmas is about the birth of a king.

Christmas is about the coming of a kingdom.

Christmas is about one who would rule over all kings and all rulers.

He's the king of kings and the lord of lords.

Listen, God's total answer to man's total need is this king and this kingdom.

Welcome to another edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Steve is the head pastor of The Road in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

It's our vision to make wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ and to see you grow in the grace and knowledge of his love.

If you're in the area, we meet at Chapel Hills Church, located at 2025 Parliament Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80920.

You can go to our website at theroad.org for service times.

That's theroad.org.

Here now with today's message is Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

So I don't know how many of you are here because you were invited.

How many of you are here because this is worship?

And sometimes for us at Christmas, there's just that combination, isn't there, of the commercial side of it and the worship side of it.

And I pray that even as we go into God's word here for a few minutes together, that you will close your heart to the sounds of commercialism, close your heart to the sounds of the gifts that you haven't gotten yet, and that you'd open your heart to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Let's pray.

Father, I want to thank you so much for the opportunity for us to gather together here and join literally billions of people around the world who love you and are worshiping you in huts, in prisons, on the streets, and in beautiful, beautiful cathedrals.

And we join them, Lord, because something changed.

Something happened 2,000 years ago in that little town of Bethlehem that has changed the world.

And so, Father, as we worship you.

Come, empower this time, and use us, Lord, to be reminded of the transformation that comes through the kingdom of God.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Here's the Wall Street Journal for today.

Some of you may get the Wall Street Journal, but right here on the front page, it says in big letters, celebrants around the globe get into the Christmas spirit.

And it shows a picture of a candlelit ceremony of tens of thousands in a soccer stadium.

Men and women, we are joining millions, if not at least a couple billion in the world who celebrate Christmas.

We're coming together because of what Christ came and what he represents when he came, billions around the world.

And, you know, I've heard so many Christmas sermons.

You've heard so many Christmas sermons, and they're, you know, really cute sermons.

And I've given a little cute sermons, and they're about a little baby and everything.

And, you know, we know about baby Jesus from Talladega Nights and such uh great movies like that.

And I decided to do something different uh today, and and I'm not gonna talk about baby Jesus because baby Jesus is is really worn out because I don't really worship baby Jesus, I'm not really into baby Jesus, and uh I think it's cool that he came as a baby, I really do, and and that's part of the incarnation.

It's a beautiful part of the story, and maybe next year we'll cover baby Jesus.

But this year I want to talk about King Jesus.

I want to talk about a king who came, and he came to announce the kingdom of God.

You know, you can't be a king unless you have a kingdom, and so he came announcing a kingdom, and our Christmas uh worship songs depict that.

We have 700 years before his birth, Micah prophesied of the coming king, and he said, A ruler will be born.

Isaiah wrote, the government will be on his shoulder.

He will rule over the throne of David and over his kingdom.

The Magi, the wise men who came, came to Herod announcing that somehow a king had been born.

Paul, in writing to Timothy, addressed Jesus as the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen.

The writers of our most famous and beloved Christian hymns speak of Jesus as King.

In heart the herald angels sing, the chorus says, Glory to the newborn king.

In angels from the rims of glory we sing, Come and worship, worship Christ, the newborn king.

In come all ye faithful, we sing, come and behold him, born the king of angels.

In what child is this, we sing, this, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing.

In the first Noel, in the chorus we sing, Born is the King of Israel.

Men and women, Christmas is about the birth of a king.

Christmas is about a coming of a kingdom.

Christmas is about one who would rule over all kings and all rulers.

He's the king of kings and the Lord of lords.

Listen, God's total answer to man's total need is this king and this kingdom.

And so to know this kingdom is to know this king.

And to know this king is to know the personal relationship we can have with Christmas.

It's not once a year.

It can be something we experience in intimacy throughout the whole year.

In Jesus, the kingdom of God was no longer an intimation, but became the incarnation.

You see, for the nation of Israel, they thought the kingdom was in nationalism.

They thought it was in the nation of Israel.

They were still confused after three years of following Jesus.

We know in Acts chapter 1 that as Jesus was explaining the kingdom of God, their request to him in the first chapter of Acts was, well, when is this kingdom coming to Israel?

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Because there's always that tendency in our lives to associate the kingdom with our nation, or our kingdom with nationalism, or our kingdom, or the kingdom with a political party.

But that's not the kingdom.

The kingdom of God came through a king, and his name is Jesus, and that kingdom is unshakable.

And that kingdom continues to grow around the world, and that kingdom is astounding.

And that kingdom is awesome.

And that kingdom is transforming nations all the time, starting with individuals.

The other day I was at Schlotskis.

I've been in Schlotsky's like once in the last 10 years.

But I was in Schlotsky's, and actually they have really good sandwiches.

And I saw a guy there that I haven't seen in 10 years.

And I had seen him twice that day.

I'd been in Panera.

When you don't have an office right now, you kind of move from coffee shop to coffee shop throughout the city.

So I had gone from coffee shop to sandwich shop.

And so I'd seen him there, and he came up and greeted me.

And um and then I went to Swoskies and he was there too.

And so we started greeting each other and we're talking and everything.

And uh and I was encouraging him in his new work, he was telling me about his new job, about the power to rule.

And I was explaining to him from Daniel 1.20 that God calls Christians, I'm giving you a little bit of heads up for in two weeks when we do our time together on the three days, the power to rule.

I believe that believers should be ten times better at whatever they do than anybody else.

And I believe through the power of the Holy Spirit, God has called you to rule over your circumstances and to be better than anyone else because you have the Holy Spirit and the grace of God increasing in your life.

And so Daniel's an example of that.

So I explained that to him, and then I said, you know, the church is becoming more and more powerful as the years go by.

And then he said to me, Well, I think an individual Christian that's true of, and I said, That is the church.

Folks, you are the church.

And so you're the church, you're the embodiment of Christ, you're a part of the body of Christ, it says, and he's the head, and you're the body, and you have Christ living within you.

There's no reason why you can't walk naturally in the supernatural through the king and through the kingdom of God.

Jesus made his central message.

If anyone were ever to ask you, what's the main message of Jesus?

The main message of Jesus was the kingdom of God.

Luke mentions the kingdom of God.

That would be the book, the gospel of Luke, as well as the book of Acts, 53 times.

Jesus called the gospel the kingdom of God.

Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God over 100 times.

Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom of God was at hand through him.

The greatest sermon ever given, considered by both secular and Christian theologians and educators, is a testimony of the kingdom of God.

Matthew 5, 6 and 7.

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he instructed them to pray, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, making the kingdom coming and the will of God the same thing.

At one sitting, Jesus gave eight consecutive parables on one topic, the kingdom of God.

It is the theme of the entire New Testament.

Jesus taught his disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God is at hand.

Jesus was accused of being a king and hunt on a cross for being a king.

Jesus taught us, men and women, here at Christmas in 2015, to seek first the kingdom of God.

Jesus was the incarnation of the kingdom.

We see what the kingdom of God looks like by looking at Jesus.

We see how the kingdom of God acts by looking at how Jesus acted.

2,000 years after the birth of the King of Kings, our world is changing.

Has anybody figured that out?

Our world is changing, experiencing one of the greatest cosmic shifts in the history of humankind.

Ideologically, militarily, politically, religiously, racially, and socially.

There is a cosmic shift happening in the heavenly realm.

The cosmic shift is affecting everything we believe about the globe and the earth.

Governments are confused, borders are confused, racial groups are confused, and yet the writer of Hebrews, chapter 12, says this.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Now this, yet once more, indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Next verse.

All the absolutes that we thought we could count on are crumbling, being shaken, being dismantled, religions, borders, political parties, maybe your company, and certainly your future.

All the alternatives to Jesus are being tried and found wanting.

All the philosophies of our day of the last generation, communism, socialism, religions of Buddhism and Hinduism, and now jihadism, they're all breaking down and they're being broken down because they're in a cataclysmic encounter with the kingdom of God.

Christmas, men and women, is about the unshakable kingdom.

Politicians and kingdoms will change, presidents and prime ministers and premiers will change, social and economic ideologies will change, nations will rise and fall, but the kingdom of God is unshakable.

That's what Christmas is all about.

Not this yet once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace.

Here's what we have, men and women.

This Christmas.

We have an unchanging king and an unshakable kingdom.

We have an unchanging king and an unshakable kingdom.

And wherever Jesus preached the gospel, the bodies were healed.

Demons were cast out, and lives were transformed.

So what is the kingdom of God?

Here's the definition of the kingdom of God.

It is the rule and the reign of the unchanging king and the unshakable kingdom.

It is absolute where Christ rules.

It means God having dominance over a rim, God ruling.

It is the unchanging person and the unshakable rule of God.

This Christmas, I want to challenge you.

Are you under and in relationship with the unchanging person?

Are you under, are you in relationship with the unshakable kingdom?

Because what you've depended on is going to change.

It is being shaken.

If we don't see that, even as we here at the road are going through the book of Joel right now and we're looking at it prophetically, and in a couple weeks we're going to start into the book of Revelation.

And we're going to be studying shakable kingdoms in the last days.

I can get as much information from the newspaper daily as anywhere else about the shakable kingdom.

And then I open up the Word of God and I read about the unshakable kingdom.

Folks, if you do not have a personal, vital, dynamic, growing, intimate relationship with the unchanging person, the unshakable kingdom, you're going to be full of fear this year.

You're going to be full of uncertainty this year.

Because all that we've believed in, even in this nation, seems to be shaking.

But we have an unchanging person, Jesus Christ.

We have an unshakable kingdom called the kingdom of God.

Isn't that exciting?

That's why I'm here.

That's why I worship.

And my joy grows daily as I realize I've got the unshakable kingdom.

So then Paul, in writing to Romans, says this we have received abundance of grace.

And again, this is a precursor to what's coming when we talk about the power to rule.

We have received abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness.

Now listen up, listen to this last part.

And will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.

Now, all of you look at me.

You're not just sons and daughters of God.

You're sons and daughters of the king.

And that makes you in embryonic forming, growing, developing, maturing kings and queens.

Jesus' spirit flows in your bloodstream if you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Now, if you don't, you should come to know him soon because you don't have his blood, his righteous blood, and his power flowing in your spiritual bloodstream.

But if you have Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you worship him, and if your heart is for him, his power and his spirit, what does it say here?

Abundance overflowing grace flows in your spiritual bloodstream.

And it says here, you can reign in life.

You have power to reign over your circumstances.

The dictionary says of a king or queen, listen to this.

Quote, one who is preeminent or supreme over a sphere or rim.

Do you guys remember in Genesis chapter 2, the first command given to Adam and Eve was to rule and to reign on this earth?

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

And that that is being restored through Jesus Christ.

And so here's what's cool about what's happening.

All around us, all across the globe, politically, ideologically, even sovereignty of nations is under attack, and it's shakable.

Because what God is doing is He's preparing through the shaking of the nations the unshakable kingdom.

Through the changing of leaders, the unchanging person.

Through the shaking and the and the changing of political parties, the unshakable kingdom and the unchanging person Jesus Christ.

Wherever the unchanging person takes over, the unshakable kingdom spreads.

And wherever the unshakable kingdom spreads, hospitals get built, schools get established, orphanages are started, mouths are fed, bodies are healed, churches are planted, and lives are transformed.

God's total answer to man's total need is the king and the kingdom of God.

That's what Christmas is all about.

If you want to know what you were created for, you come to know the King.

If you want to know what your life is supposed to be all about on earth, you come to know the kingdom of God.

So Jesus says, because he understands the way we are, and half of us in this room will totally identify with what I'm about to read.

Because you came here super worried.

You came frustrated.

Right now you're frustrated.

You're frustrated with what I'm saying.

Here's what Jesus said.

Therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear?

For after all these things, the Gentiles seek those things.

He's basically saying, the pagans, those who don't know the Lord, that's what they worry about.

For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

And then he says this, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

So when we line ourselves up with the kingdom, then God lines up stuff around our life.

And we start to find a joy, we start to find a power, we start to find a peace, and we start to hear God's voice.

Church, do you realize you can hear God's voice?

Not just in reading the Bible, but He speaks to us through visions and dreams.

He speaks to us in supernatural ways.

We start lining ourselves up with the kingdom, everything in our life starts to line up.

You line yourself up against the kingdom, and everything you believe in is going to break up.

And so line up with the kingdom.

Line up with the king.

Come to know him, experience him.

He's not just a little baby in a manger.

He grew up.

He's the king of kings and the lord of lords.

And that's what Christmas is about.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Steve Holt.

We pray that you've been blessed by the message today.

Our hope is to make wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

And that's why we teach the Word of God verse by verse, scripture by scripture, and precept upon precept.

We're excited about all the things God is doing in the lives of our faithful listeners.

We understand that there are many trials and tribulations in this world, and we'd love to be able to pray for you as you encounter difficult times.

Please drop us a note and let us know how we can pray for you.

Write us at The ROA.

DO Box 88485, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80908.

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Again, the address is TheROAGE.

DO Box 88485, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80908.

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We meet at Chapel Hills Church, located at 2025 Harleman Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80920.

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As always, we cover your prayers.

Thanks again for tuning in today and be sure to catch us again next time for another edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.