Christmas - God Pitched His Tent

Well, I wanted to speak tonight on Christmas.

So it's Christmas time, it's time to preach on Christmas.

I won't have you stand back up, but if you brought your Bibles it'd be good.

And let's look at John, chapter one, and read out of these verses.

Verse one In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

Verse 14, and the Word became flesh.

The Word was made flesh, or became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory.

The glory is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Verse 16, and of His fullness have all we received in grace for grace.

And verse 18, no man has seen God at any time.

The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father.

He hath declared Him.

And so Christmas.

And then you know, in verse 14, I like the Rotherham translation.

It says and the Word became flesh and pitched His tent among us.

Isn't that good?

He pitched His tent among us and we beheld His glory gazed upon it, full of favor and truth.

I like the message Bible.

It says he moved into the neighborhood.

Jesus moved in.

God moved into the neighborhood.

You know, when I was a Catholic.

I grew up Catholic, considered myself Catholic, even though I wasn't a very good Catholic.

I quit going to church for a long period of time.

Then I went back and kind of, you know, got back in fellowship with the Lord and from that I wound up getting saved, started going to a Bible study by some people that went to Lakewood, and that's how I got introduced to Lakewood and the leader of the Bible study, you know, the very first Thursday night, she said well, who is Jesus?

Tonight we're gonna find out who is Jesus.

And I thought well, I know who Jesus is.

He's the Son of God.

And she reads these verses in John, chapter one says that in beginning was the Word.

The Word was with God, the Word was God.

The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

I had just never.

He said here is Jesus, right here tonight.

You know, and I never.

You know, here I am 33 years old.

Nobody ever told me who Jesus was.

I mean, jesus is the Word of God made flesh, amen.

And he pitched his tent.

God became a man, legally, by birth, by birth, god with skin on, and even though he, as the Word of God, was eternally coexistent with the Father and the Holy Ghost and he was the second person of the Godhead.

He had to become a legal human being in order for redemption to occur.

And the Webster's Dictionary, which I always liked, the 1828 version.

It's closer to when the Bible was written.

You know, the modern dictionaries have a lot of modern words and they've kind of changed some of the.

Have you noticed how words don't mean the same thing?

I mean the left wing and the communists.

That's one of the things they do to take over country is they change the language and they change the meaning of words.

And so do you good to get an old.

You just get an old timey, 1828 version of the dictionary and look up the words in the dictionary and it's usually right out of the King James.

But incarnation is the unity of divinity with humanity in Jesus Christ.

Well, why is that important?

Because any religion that denies the incarnation of Jesus Christ of Nazareth is false.

And we need to understand that here in this country, because we've imported a lot of false religions that don't recognize Christmas for what it really is.

Amen.

I mean, we need to stand up for Christmas, don't we?

It's under attack.

And so he pitched his tent among us.

He moved into the neighborhood.

Come on, let's lift our hands, father, we're so thankful that you're here.

You are here and I tell you, sometimes it looks like he's not here, but he is here.

And so the writers of the gospel record that the glory was full of favor and truth.

In verse 16 in the Amplified.

I like this one, and we all have received his fullness.

Just think about that.

When did you receive that?

When you got born again, you received his fullness and one grace after another, and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, and even favor upon favor in this one, and gift heaped upon gift.

Praise God.

I mean our Christmas tree.

We hadn't even had Christmas yet and there's heaps of gifts underneath that tree.

But I'm gonna tell you something the moment we got saved, we got gift heaped upon gift.

I'm telling you we are loaded with benefits.

Praise God, praise God.

And so he pitched his tent.

And tonight I wanted to get on verse 18 in the Amplified Bible.

We read it in the King James.

Let me read it to you in the Amplified no man has ever seen God at any time, in other words, no human being.

There's not talking about a male person, there's talking about human being no human has ever seen God at any time.

The only unique son, the only begotten God who is in the bosom, in the intimate presence of the Father.

He has declared him, he has revealed him and brought him out where he can be seen.

Isn't that good?

Jesus has brought God, the Father, out where he can be seen and he has made him known.

He's made him known.

See, people don't know who God is.

They've never seen him.

And unless the church manifests because isn't that?

Isn't the church the body of Christ, isn't it?

Then if this verse is true, how many believe this verse is true?

Then, if this verse is true, then we should be all about declaring who God is.

We ought to bring him out in the open and reveal him.

We ought to bring him out so that he can be known.

And when people falsely accuse our God and tell that tragedy comes from God, well, god allowed it.

God said that you ever watch Little House on the Prairie.

I mean, there's hardly anything on television nowadays that you can watch, but Little House on the Prairie is kind of harmless.

I mean, it's a cute little, you know.

And they're Christians as much as they can be, I guess.

And, mr Edwards.

You know he's a gruff old guy and he comes into the story and he's a friend of Charles' Charles Engels, the dad, and Mr Edwards is just real keen on the little one half pint and they get to have a good relationship.

You know, it's a sweet little thing.

And here's this guy that's kind of and he's kind of sweet on the lady in town.

She's a postmistress in town and she's a woman of prayer, a woman that goes to church, and finds out that he doesn't go to church.

And so he asks this woman.

He says let me ask you something.

You go to church.

He said I just don't.

I don't have anything to do with God.

He ignores me and so I ignore him back.

He said can you tell me how a God could let my wife and my child die?

Now he can take them.

See, he's a perfect example.

I know it's a television program, but there's a whole lot of people that think that way.

They think God killed their children, or God killed their wife or their husband.

God sent this tragedy.

God sent this earthquake.

God sent this tornado.

It's an act of God.

That's what the insurance company says.

God sent this death in destruction.

God didn't do that.

Isn't it a shame more the church doesn't know who God is, but we're here to bring him out in the open and reveal him and let people know.

Thank God for Jesus, thank God for the church, amen.

And so we're here tonight.

And the whole Christmas story is about light and, amazing thing, about the light that we see in Matthew 4.16 and the message it says over Jordan and Galilee crossroads for the nations, people sitting out their lives in the dark saw a huge light Sitting in that dark country of death.

They watched the sun come up, amen.

I mean, just think about Jesus coming back.

He didn't come back in a corner, he didn't come secretly.

I mean, people were looking for him.

Anna and Simeon, they were looking for him.

You know, the wise men were looking for him.

Herod was looking for him.

The devil was looking for him.

He wanted to snuff him out.

He couldn't.

And I believe it's much the same now, because we're in the days I believe, the end time when Jesus is coming yet again.

So let's be of those that are watching for him, that are looking for him, that are assured at this time of the year.

Think well, this is Christmas, it's not Easter.

Well, you know, we have to get off of all this liturgical ideas.

I mean, this is the compression of the ages.

People out there need to know what we know.

Let's not take for granted the knowledge that we have, and so I want our precious worship team to come back.

We're going to have the lighting of the candles and let's just think about, as we're lighting the candles and singing Silent Night together, think about it one time, how you were lived in darkness.

I still think about what it was like when I was lost.

I lived in darkness, but now I've been born again.

His light came on the inside, and then light is a symbol of that burning love that God has for us, that we ought to have for each other.

You know, the world should know us by our love that we have one toward another, and then God's light and love are the reason why, no matter how dark it is, no matter how dark it is, there's still hope.

Don't give up hope.

Don't give up.

Don't give up on our president, don't give up on our country.

It's not over until it's over, and it ain't over.

Amen, praise God, amen, thank you.

Happy night.

All this car, all this music.

Oh, let's worship him Round and round through to the ballerina.

Holy infant, so tender and mild.

Sleep in heavenly peace.

Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, holy night, shepherds' way at the side, holy streets of heaven, afar, heavenly home, see alleluia.

Christ the Savior is born.

Christ the Savior is born.

Silent night, holy night, son of God, love's true light, radiant breeze from high, holy face With the dawn of redeeming grace.

Jesus Lord at thy birth.

Jesus Lord at thy birth.

Silent night, holy night, god.

Rest our lives by thy hand With the angels, let us sing Hallelujah to our King.

Christ the Savior is born.

Christ the Savior is born.

Noel Noel Noel Born is the King of Israel.

Noel Noel Noel Born is the King of Israel.

Christ the Savior is born.

Christ the Savior is born.

Oh, hallelujah, Merry Christmas everyone.

We love you we love Jesus.

Amen be safe as you're going home.

Be blessed.

We love you.