03 Dec Born Is The King | Part 2 “The First Noel”
Key Verse: Luke 2 ESV
Luke chapter 2 opens with the very first Christmas. God sends the Good News to the shepherd. He does this because He is a Shepherd.
Q. What are some of your earliest memories of Christmas and can you describe what your first Christmas was like where you knew Jesus?
‘A sign for you’. God gives them a sign. Before God wants something from us, he wants something for us. Jesus came to do something good for us. He wants to pour out blessings into our lives. Sometimes, we give credit to God for what the devil does. The devil is a thief and a liar. He says to us, ‘God did this to you’. Our God is good and wants good things fo us. He wants us to have joy and be kind, but not before he shows His goodness and kindness to us.
Q. When have you blamed God for something and why?
Simple rules for recognizing a sign from God:
- A sign is something you wouldn’t normally see.
- A sign from God will not contradict the word of God (forgiveness, giving, tithing, serving etc.).
- A sign is typically a smaller picture of a larger reality (the sign is pointing to something, you follow where it leads you, you don’t hang at the sign).
Q. What kinds of signs have you been looking for from God? Do the signs you are looking for ( or had been looking for) line up with the Word of God?
Don’t fall in love with the sign; fall in love with what the sign is pointing to. The baby in the manger was a sign.
Modern manger:
Manger with hay and swaddling clothes in old stable
Actual manger:
The stone had to hold water and the shepherds knew this. They understood the sign of Jesus being born in a manger because He came to be the the Living Water.
POINT ONE: FILLS OUR ETERNAL THIRST WITH JESUS.
We try to fill our thirst with everything we can. We search from one ‘fountain’ to the next looking for what will fill our thirst. There is only one Fountain that can fill us.
Q. What things had you tried ( or are you trying) to fill your thirst with other than Jesus and why?
He wants to satisfy our eternal thirst. Don’t hold dearly to the things of this world. Don’t make good things ultimate things and serve God instead.
The water we drink isn’t going to fill us. The shepherds saw the eternal fountain that night.
POINT TWO: GOD MAKES OUTSIDERS INSIDERS THROUGH JESUS.
Caesar wasn’t there. Some of those that were there were shepherds (outsiders). That night, they became insiders. Now, Caesar is on the outside and the people no one wanted to be around were now on the inside.
Q. Have you ever felt like an outsider? How has knowing you are an insider in the Kingdom of God changed your view of once being an outsider?
Our names are written in His palms! When God writes your name, it is staying there!
POINT THREE: GOD TURNS ENDINGS INTO NEW BEGINNINGS THROUGH JESUS.
Jesus was laid in a stone box, wrapped tightly. He appears dead. Joseph (his father) picks him up out of the stone box, he is alive.
Jesus was laid in a stone tomb, wrapped tightly. He is dead, but His Father picks Him up, HE IS ALIVE!
THROUGH JESUS GOD TURNS THE TOMB INTO A WOMB.
PRAY FOR EACH OTHER, THE CHURCH, LOST, CAMPUSES, NATION AND LEADERS.
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