7 Blessings of Christmas | Christmas Service | December 20th,2020

I would like to warmly welcome you to KCC and our Christmas at KCC Home.

It's not a surprise that today we're going to be speaking about Christmas.

It is an incredibly exciting time of the year for all people, young and old.

It's a great time of the year.

And we're going to be sharing with you, along with some of our pastoral team and their wives, a message entitled The Seven Blessings of Christmas.

If you carefully read the Christmas story, there are actually seven words of blessings surrounding the birth of God's son, Jesus.

Seven different people either received a word from God or gave a word from God right after the birth of Jesus.

So in Jesus' culture, the number seven is a number of completion.

It's like a confirmation of his son, Jesus' birth.

We read about this in Matthew 1 and 2 and Luke 1 and 2.

And we read the different blessings from God speaking.

Now, what we need to know is that these blessings are in your Bible and they are for you.

So you can hold on to them, you can receive them, and you can apply them to yourself and to your family.

And by reading what God spoke to us at the time of Jesus' birth, there's a word that stands out as a blessing to us.

As a team, we're going to just discuss these seven words with you today.

It's going to be great.

So the first word today is salvation.

And this word salvation came to a man named Zechariah.

He was married to Elizabeth.

His wife was barren.

She wasn't able to have children.

And he would pray for her to be able to have a child.

One day, when he was praying, he was visited by an angel, and an angel announced and said, Zechariah, your wife is going to have a child.

And Zechariah was a really smart man.

He said, If you haven't noticed, I am old.

And my wife is advanced in years, a really smart man, knows how to phrase that term.

But Zechariah refused to believe that his wife would have a child, even though he had prayed for it.

So he didn't allow that word to reside in him of faith.

And because of that, he became mute and he couldn't speak.

And it wasn't until the moment that Elizabeth had her name being chosen, and she said, I'm going to name him John.

And they were discussing whether or not that was a good name or not.

Zechariah pulls out a tablet and he writes, His name will be John.

And at that moment he began to speak.

And the first words he began to speak were a prophetic word, a word by the Spirit.

And this is what it said in Luke chapter 1.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

It said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who came and set people free.

He set the power of salvation in the center of our lives.

And in the very house of David, his servant.

Just as he promised long ago.

So there was salvation that had come.

And of John, his son's purpose, he said, This boy will present this offering of salvation to people.

And they will find forgiveness of their sin.

And this word of blessing I want you to hear today is the word salvation.

Here's what I want you to think about when you think about Christmas, salvation.

Don't forget, Christmas represents, what is it?

Salvation.

It's God sending his son Jesus to this world to save us from this condition called sin.

Providing the forgiveness of sin.

It's the main priority of Christmas.

See, the world had a problem, and the problem was sin had created a void, a chasm between men and God.

And no amount of work, no amount of money, no amount of good deeds could fill that void and create a proper bridge.

But Jesus came to bridge that gap, to bring men to God, salvation.

His name actually means Jesus, means I am God, your salvation.

It's one of the reasons why the religious people disliked him so much.

He said, I am the door, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life, I'm the good shepherd, I am your salvation.

That was his purpose, to bring salvation.

So please don't ever forget this.

This Christmas season, as you're celebrating during this Christmas season, that Jesus came to bring salvation.

And that's a blessing to you and to me, to our family.

We receive that blessing of salvation.

Yes.

And in a prophecy given to Mary in Luke 1, 26 to 28, it says, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man, Joseph, a descendant of David.

The virgin's name was Mary.

The angel went to her and said, Greetings, you who are highly favored.

The Lord is with you.

Blessed and favored are you among women.

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered, What kind of greeting might this be?

But the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary.

You have found favor with God.

Favor can be understood as grace, and grace is favor in the eyes of God.

And I want to remind you today that this is what God was saying when his son was born.

Grace.

This is the season which means that God has you as one of his favorites.

And you know, you can have more than one favorite.

Growing up, my dad would always tell me that I was his favorite redhead daughter.

And the thing was is that I was his only redhead daughter.

And sometimes you can joke within your families that maybe you have a favorite auntie, uncle, or grandparent or sibling.

But any good parent would say, You're all my favorite.

And a favorite is one where favor rests.

In the ups and downs of the seasons that we're finding ourselves in, I want you to remember that you are God's favored and it's God's favored season for you and your family.

As we continue on our journey of the seven blessings of Christmas, we have two words we want to share with you.

One is guidance, and the other happens to be blessing.

We actually think that these two words are very much wrapped up together.

I love how all the way through the Bible, God guided the way through prophecy, words from angels, dreams, visions, a star, wise men's discernment, and we want to ask you: how is God guiding you through this season?

We see as early as Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, that it tells of the coming of the Messiah, a deliverer who will bring blessing to the entire world.

Genesis 3:15

It may go back as far as Genesis, but we want to start in Luke chapter 1 with the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

We want to take you on a journey through parts of the Christmas story to show you how God is faithful to guide every step of the way.

We see right away an angel appear and give Zechariah and Elizabeth the news that they're going to have a son.

You heard Pastor Brody and Natalie talk about it.

Um, they're gonna have a son named John.

They were good people.

This is what the Bible says, righteous, blameless before God.

And as we heard, he was she was way past childbearing ange, uh, but God blessed her with a baby.

And so Zechariah and Elizabeth gave birth to John the Baptist, who is the voice that proclaimed Jesus and ended up being the one that baptized him.

God is all about the details in his perfect plan.

We see this when the angel approaches Mary to let her know how favored she was in the eyes of God.

He explains the next part of the plan to her, affirming that this was indeed from God.

She had to accept the responsibility of the blessing.

An unwed virgin teenager is told she will give birth to the Messiah, the savior of the world.

Joseph, he probably had a lot of thoughts going on in that moment.

He had a few things he had to work through.

This was a cultural no-no.

They weren't married, it wasn't, they were just betrothed yet.

God provided an insight.

It says in the word, an angel came to Joseph in a dream, letting him know that Mary was telling the truth and that he should take her as his wife, and that they were also to call that their baby would be called Jesus.

Then we have the wise men from the east, watching the skies, mindful of the prophecies from years before.

God provided a sign.

They noticed a bright star, and choosing to follow it to Bethlehem, where they would find King Herod and ask him where they could find this baby so they can worship him.

Again we see the shepherds, an angel came to the shepherds, and there was a huge bright light.

Then there was an angel telling them where they can find Jesus.

He was in Bethlehem, he was uh in a manger, he would have been wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Then angels came in behind that angel.

There was a chorus, and there was singing and there was praising, thanking God, even before they saw that the baby, they knew that the baby was there.

An angel appears to wise men in a dream, telling them not to return to Herod, but he tells them to go a different way, which makes Herod mad and wants to kill every baby boy of the age of two.

But yet again we see how faithful God is.

He gives Joseph a dream, and he's told to flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus, and he's to stay there until Herod dies, which fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet that out of Egypt I called my son.

Every step of the way, God was faithful to provide insight and direction.

Psalm 119, verse 105 says, Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light unto my path.

Psalms 119:105

Deuteronomy 31 says, Be strong and courageous.

Do not fear or be terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you, he will never leave you nor forsake you.

I love all the names of Jesus, specifically Emmanuel, which means God with us.

I'm so grateful that in this time he is with us.

His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.

That same God that was faithful to guide Elizabeth, Zechariah, Mary, Joseph the wise man, that same God is providing you guidance through the season that we're in.

Not just guiding you, but guiding you to the blessing of knowing Jesus deeper, or maybe even knowing him for the very first time.

One of the primary reasons for blessing is to acknowledge that God is the source of all blessings.

His birth, his life, his resurrection, our blessings and life given to us so we can be a blessing to the world.

We understand that this 2020 has looked completely different.

It hasn't been our really our favorite of years, but we can't deny God's guidance or blessing through the season.

We've had the blessing of time.

I've got to spend time more with my children than I've ever had in my wife.

Blessing to have a deeper relationship with people around me.

Maybe I have to have a new perspective, that blessing, or have new plans, starting different things.

God gives us the ultimate blessing of restoration, forgiveness, and eternal life through Jesus.

We are blessed to be a blessing.

In verse 8, it starts with this.

It says, There were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

In verse 9, it says, An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.

And it says that they were terrified.

But the angel of the Lord said to them, Do not be afraid.

I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.

Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you.

He is the Messiah, the Lord.

This will be assigned to you.

You will find a baby wrapped in cloths, lying in a manger.

At this point in time, uh, you know, the context around this verse, this was this was not a very good time to be alive.

There was not a lot of good things happening.

It was a very dark time.

Uh, there was oppression from the Roman rule, uh, there was division in the people of Israel among the religious groups, and there's different kinds of uh groups of people that were just fighting and bickering over things, and and on top of that, it felt like there was almost a silence from heaven, and and the word of the Lord had not been spoken in over a hundred years.

And and all of a sudden, in this one verse, these angels break the silence to these very ordinary shepherds, and they bring a message of hope, of joy, and of good news.

Joy is often mistaken for happiness or an emotion, but but joy actually transcends emotion.

Emotion is usually determined by you know what's going on, things that are happening to me, circumstances and situations.

Um, and but with joy, you can be going through the most frustrating times, the hardest things in life happening to you, and joy will get you through it.

Joy is deeper than emotion, it's it's deeper than a feeling.

And the world around us and situations around us actually has no effect on joy because joy was not given to us by the world, it was given to us by God.

In Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 10, it says, The joy of the Lord is my strength.

Nehemiah 8:10

Our strength doesn't come from anything else, it comes from God.

So let this season, let this Christmas season remind you of that gift, the gift of joy that Jesus brought to us.

A gift that can't be taken away or shaken by what's going on around us, the situations.

Christmas might feel different this year, and it might feel frustrating this year, but just remember that the light of the world lives in you and lives in me.

The sixth blessing of Christmas that I want to share with you is redemption.

The gift of redemption that caused Anna to break out in an anthem of praise and worship.

It says in Luke 2, verse 36 to 38 that Anna the prophetess was also there, a daughter of Samuel from the tribe of Asher.

Luke 2:36–38

She was by now a very old woman.

She had been married seven years and a widow for eighty-four.

She never left the temple area, worshiping night and day with her fastings and praying.

At the very time Simeon was praying, she showed up, broke into an anthem of praise to God, and talked about the child to all who were waiting expectingly for the free of Jerusalem.

Another translation it says that she began to give thanks to God and spoke of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

The meaning of redemption is the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, and evil.

It's also used in the New Testament in both references to the deliverance from sin and freedom from captivity.

You know, and she she was a woman who knew hardship.

She knew what it felt like to be burdened with grief and with loneliness.

And what I love about this is that she got to be a part of bringing forth the good news that Jesus is here, that what it meant for them was freedom and redemption for Jerusalem.

And it means today redemption for you and for me.

Jesus' birth was the beginning of the rest of our lives.

He came down as a baby and experienced life here on earth.

He knows what it's like to be human.

And he bought us the sweetest, most precious gift life with him forever.

A heart that can be restored and a soul that can be redeemed.

And the beauty of this gift is that it's ours for the taking.

It's free.

It's free.

It doesn't cost us anything.

And what I love also is that there's enough for everyone because Jesus, he didn't just have a select few people in mind when he bought us this gift.

He had everyone in mind.

I love that.

The final and seventh word that we want to land on today is the word peace.

Peace comes to Simeon.

Now, Simeon was a devout believer in Jerusalem, and he would go to the temple and wait and pray in expectation for this Messiah who was going to be the Savior of Israel.

And one day, as he was led to the temple by the Holy Spirit, he meets Mary and Joseph, and he's able to hold Jesus.

And he realizes that this is the Messiah.

This is the one that has come to bring peace to the world.

And he says this, God, you can now release your servant in peace.

You can now release him and release me as you promised.

Peace had come to the world.

Now we all remember as well that peace came to the shepherds.

As they were watching the sheep at night, the angels celebrated, and there was a choir in the heavens that said, peace on earth, goodwill towards men.

There's a savior that's born today.

The peace had come to the world.

It doesn't matter if you're young like Mary or old like Simeon, if you're an individual, or if you're a part of a crowd like the shepherds were in a group.

The announcement is there is peace.

Peace has come to the world.

And now that peace has come to the world, we now have this great opportunity to be ministers of peace, bringing peace wherever we go.

Peace between men and men, people, and peace between people and God.

We can facilitate that by introducing people to the peace giver who is Jesus Christ.

So today, when you're walking through the season of Christmas, would you remember that this is a season of peace for you and for your family?

So there you have it.

We have seven blessings of Christmas that you can take home for you and your family.

The first being salvation, favor, blessing, or being blessed and being guided.

We've got the guidance of the Holy Spirit and God on our side.

We have joy, redemption, and peace.

These seven words that can sit in our soul and allow them to be a blessing to us this season.

Well, thank you for being with us today.

And for our team, on behalf of us as a pastoral team and Natalie and I, we want to wish you a very, very merry, very blessed Christmas.

So Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

And may the Lord bless you and keep you, and may his face shine on you.

May he be gracious to you and lift up his countenance over you and give you peace this season.

Amen.

Merry Christmas.