Sermon Central
-
Have Yourself A Mary Little Christmas (Outline)
Contributed by Dr. Ronald Shultz on Dec 3, 2001 (message contributor)
Summary: Wrong focus, wrong day, wrong practices. Full text to follow.
Have Yourself A Mary Little Christmas!
I. By forgetting the flurry!
A. Jesus just wants to be received. Vs. 38
B. Martha was distracted. Vs 40
C. Martha was irritable and critical. Vs. 40
II. By focusing on first things!
A. The things troubling us will pass. Vs. 39, 41
B. Our Time with Christ is needful and eternal. 39,42
III. By focusing on the facts.
A. He never asked us to remember His birth. I Cor 11:23,24
B. Every day is to be a holy day. I Peter 2:9
C. Our traditions are not truth. Mark 7:13
We are in bondage to our traditions. To break them is to be a Grinch or Scrooge.
1. Does He get any gifts?
2. Almost all of the trappings are Pagan that the Catholics brought into the church.
1st Century Christians would have abhorred Christmas.
The Puritans outlawed it.
Revelation 2:6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
[The deeds of the Nicolaitanes] These were, as is commonly supposed, a sect
of the Gnostics, who taught the most impure doctrines, and followed the most impure
practices. They are also supposed to have derived their origin from Nicolas, one of the
seven deacons mentioned <Acts 6:5>, where see the note. The Nicolaitanes taught the
community of wives, that adultery and fornication were things indifferent, that eating meats
offered to idols was quite lawful; and [mixed several pagan rites with the Christian ceremonies.]
Augustine, Irenaeus, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Tertullian, have spoken largely concerning them. See more in my preface to 2nd Peter, where are several particulars concerning these heretics.
(from Adam Clarke Commentary)
3. Date is not even close.
4. Do we help the lonely? Suicide highest at Christmas.
5. Are parents a failure if they cannot provide gifts?
6. Are we mainly emotional or spiritual?
7. Are presents premier even to adults?
8. When its is over are we spiritually enthused and recharged or emotionally exhausted and overcharged?
Conclusion: If we truly want to wish Jesus a Happy Birthday then let us give Him gifts of our heart, our, time, our ears, and our lives. Trees and trinkets do not interest Him. Won’t you have a Mary Christmas and find the needful things that will stay with you all year, all decade, and all eternity?
