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Christmas Eve, Dec. 2007
HOW TO BE A KING IN LIFE!
Matthew 1:18, 21
2:1-4, 7-9
A.
An account of Two Kings
1.
First, King Jesus
2.
Jesus has 4 titles in the advent narratives
A. Jesus
B. Emmanuel
C. Christ
D. King
3.
Second, the so-called King Herod, a puppet king placed by the Roman
government
B.
What’s the difference between these two kings?
One is a giver and one s a taker
C.
John 18:33, 36-37--Jesus’ Kingdom is not of this world
D.
We go to two extremes with Christmas, today
1.
Trivialize
2.
Commercialize
E.
Be a GIVER--Jesus said, “It is better to give than to receive”
Acts 20:35
F.
Be a FORGIVER
G.
Closing story--Be a giver, be a King in life
Tony Campolo is a great
storyteller. He has the amazing ability to touch your heart with stories that
challenge you. He tells the story about a homeless man he met on the streets of
Philadelphia. The story goes like this:
One day around noon when he was walking down Chestnut street in Philadelphia.
He noticed a bum coming straight toward him. Tony was wearing his nice
preacher's suit. The bum was wearing layer upon layer of filthy clothing. His
most obvious feature, however, was a tangled beard that hung nearly to his
waist. Bits of rotting food were stuck in the beard. The teeth he had left were
yellow and rotted. He was holding a cup of McDonald’s coffee in his hand. As
he staggered toward Campolo, he said,
“Hey mister, Ya want
some of my coffee?”
As you can imagine,
Campolo really didn’t want any of the coffee but reconsidered and then said,
“OK” and took a very small sip. He handed the cup back to the man and said,
“You are feeling pretty
generous today. What’s gotten into you?”
The man answered back,
“Well, I figure, if God
gives you somethin’ good, you ought to share it with somebody else.”
“Uh Oh,” thought
Campolo, “he’s getting ready to hit me up for five dollars.”
Knowing it was what he
was supposed to do Campolo said,
“Well, you shared your
coffee with me. Is there anything I can do for you?” “Yeah, come to think of
it there is,” the man said. Campolo started to reach for his wallet.
“You can give me a
hug!” Campolo said now he kind of wished the man had asked for five dollars!
But he put his arms around the man. The man hugged him back – and didn’t let
him go. There all of the business people in Philadelphia were streaming around
these two men, a man in a suit and a man in rags, hugging on the sidewalk. Just
as he was ready to push himself away, he sensed Jesus whispering to him, “I
was hungry, did you feed me? I was sick, did you visit me? I was a bum on
Chestnut street, did you hug me? For if you did it to the least of these, you
did it to me.”
God is a giving God and we
are blessed to be called into this adventure of faith. God is challenging us to
be givers in 2008. The kingdom of
God is a place of radical grace and boundary-breaking inclusion. It is a place
where there are no outsiders. The kingdom is a place where we do not erect
boundaries and walls, but provide a place of healing. We're called into a
community in which the circle is expanding ever wider, to welcome all of God's
children and learn to live ever deeper in love and compassion. This is the good
news! This is the church! This is God! Be a giver in this Christmas and in 2008.