Oakbrook Evangelical Free Church

Introduction:

A fairly substantial debate has been growing in our society – do say and promote “Merry Christmas” or do we, in what some might say is secularizing Christmas say instead, “Happy Holidays”.

For those of you who wish others “Happy Holidays” this December, a number of people say, “It’s not a holiday!” For Christians, the season is a time of the remembrance and celebration of Jesus’ birth. It’s “Merry Christmas,” not “Happy Holidays,” they say.

Major retailers like Target and Wal-Mart have developed policies, in some cases controversial ones, as to how their staff should and should not greet customers during this busy shopping season.

The issue is a bit more tricky than we might at first understand.

For instance, for those who replace “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holidays” just a brief word study. Holiday is merely another way to say “Holy Day”. So the secular elitists end up wanting us to replace “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holyday”. Wow! I might add that the way to defeat secularism is not really passing legislation in Congress or protesting. The way to defeat secularism is to transform our culture by reaching people for Christ.

But the issue is every more significantly tricky. For whether you say For “Merry Christmas“ or “Happy Holidays,” you may be in for disappointment. Studies consistently show that for many Christmas is one of the unhappiest and loneliest times of year. Often the surrounding merriment seems forced and we remember how alone, if not actually lonely, we really are.

But that, my fellow believers is exactly the heart of Christmas.

John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” NIV

John 15:9-17

I. Lessons from the Throne Room

A. Giving and Forgiving - The Law of Sacrifice

John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” NIV

Genuine friendship is not expressed by mere words.

True friends are those who are there for you.

They don’t just mouth the words.

They demonstrate their love through personal sacrifice.

Bottom line – friendship is a matter of a heart relationship.

And what more can he do to win our hearts than to lay down his life?

This act of sacrificing everything forever demonstrates the goodness of God. For one reason or another we all have periods of questioning the goodness of God.

Have you read or memorized…

Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” NIV

If God has already given you and me his most precious gift – His Son – why would He start being stingy with us now?

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

John 21 – reconciliation with Peter

1 Peter 4:8 “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” NIV

B. Listening and Learning - The Law of Influence

John 15:14 “You are my friends if you do what I command.” NIV

For as long as I can remember I’ve not reconciled the sense inside my spirit that my misunderstanding produced. At first it seems he is focusing on obedience as the key demonstration of our friendship.

Try putting these pants on the legs of your mind…

What is he is simply stating a fact? That is, if we are truly his friends and hang out with Him our friendship with Him will so influence us that we will obey Him.

One of the simple facts of friendship is influence.

Our friends either influence us for good or evil. And our friendship with Christ will radically change to way we think and live. If I understand Christ correctly, friendship with Him is the heart of my spiritual development and formation!

James 1:22-25 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. “For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. “But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” ESV

Surrender…

“But let us beware of anything knowingly unyielded to Him: of any point where our will remains consciously unsubmitted to God. When we whisper within ourselves ‘I can say yes to God, I can submit to His will, I can trust His love in all except this one thing,’ we may be assured that this one thing will work spiritual disaster in our lives.”

The Surrendered Life, James McConkey, 1903

Christ really does love us passionately.

Nothing is too good for us. He laid it all on the line.

And he really does want to win our hearts lock, stock and barrel.

But that call to “surrender” is not out of obligation or coercion.

It is out of lives deeply centered in a loving friendship with Christ.

A wrong understanding and a wrong view of God here tends to undermine our relationship with Him. We suspect God to be a controlling, overbearing parent who distrusts us.

But do we see the goodness of God’s heart. That he wants to help us, provide for us, take the journey with us and transform us into the people he wants us to be? He is on my side and I can trust Him.

C. Going

Deep Sharing leading to Fruitful Ministry!

John 15:7-8 “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” NIV

John 20:21 “Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”” NIV

John 21:15-17 Do you love me?

Feed my lambs. Take care of my sheep. Feed my sheep!

Philippians 3:10-12 “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, “and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” NIV

Deep in our hearts, we all want to find and fulfill a purpose bigger than ourselves…to know what we are here to do, and why.

Northing short of God’s call can fulfill our desire for purpose. If there is a calling then there is a Caller who has a purpose for your life.

Discovering or rediscovering God’s call on our lives gives us purpose and renews this sense of purpose if we’ve lost it.

Answering God’s call is the way to find and fulfill the central purpose of your life.

II. Lessons for the Battlefield

A. Your Circle of Friends - The Law of “Belonging” or Associa

John 15:19-20 “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. “Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.” NIV

“You’ll never be one of them” - Line in Sound of Music!

“Friends always hang out together.

That is, there is always a network of friends and the interconnectedness of friends.

James 4:4 “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” NIV

1 Corinthians 15:33 “Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”” NIV

Be true to your identity. Who are you? A representative of the king.

1 Peter 4:1-5

B. Your Internal Companion

John 15:26-27 ““When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. “And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.” NIV

Acts 1:8 “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on

you and you will be my witnesses.”

Rev 12:11 “And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb

and by the word of their testimony

and they did not love their life even to death.”

Ephesians 6:19-20 “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make

known the mystery of the gospel, “for which I am an

ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly,

as I should.” NIV

John 16:7-8 “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. “When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:” NIV

2 Corinthians 13:14 “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” NIV

How To Walk by the Spirit:

1. Set your mind on the things of the Spirit

Romans 8:5-7 “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, ” NASB95

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2. Keep in Step with the Spirit

Be alert and responsive to the Spirit’s personal guidance in your life.

Galatians 5:18 “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. ” NASB95

Romans 8:14 “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ” NASB95

God’s Spirit will never guide you in a direction that contradicts His Word.

Areas to think about…

Moral correction – lying, critical spirit

Servant directions –

3. Sow to the Spirit

Galatians 6:7-9 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. ”

Means – participating regularly in the ‘means of growth’

a. Teaching

b. Fellowship

c. Worship

e. Prayer

But the issue is every more significantly tricky. For whether you say For “Merry Christmas“ or “Happy Holidays,” you may be in for disappointment. Studies consistently show that for many Christmas is one of the unhappiest and loneliest times of year. Often the surrounding merriment seems forced and we remember how alone, if not actually lonely, we really are.