Christmas: Glory to
God, Peace & Goodwill to Men Kelly
Durant Dec 20,2015
Luke 2:14 Glory to God
in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
2. Did you notice in the stores all the mess on
the floors? Everything all mixed up, it’s crazy, right? Trees, lights, and
gifts abound with bells ringing outside of the stores! And this is all because
of a baby, baby Jesus! It will be Christmas
time this Friday! Enjoy it at home with friends and family! It is quite a
miracle that Baby Jesus actually survived as one in 3 babies would die in that
time period without medical attention in those days! Let’s hear a story (not
Christmas) of a baby that died, and of a baby that lived.
Let’s go back to the
O.T., I Kings 3:16-28. Do you recall that King Solomon was considered wise? God
offered him riches but he chose wisdom. The Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes in the
Bible are full of wisdom.
How many of you know
the story of when they brought to King Solomon a situation of 2 mothers with 2
babies about the same months old? These 2 ladies lived in the same house and in
the night one of the babies died. The problem is one lady claimed the other one
stole her baby so you did not know who was the mother of the living baby and
who was the mother of the dead one!? They went to the judge, King Solomon.
In his wisdom he said, “Split
the baby in 2 parts with a sword and give each woman half!”. Shocked, one lady
yelled, “No! Don’t do that just give it to the other woman!” The other lady in
her bitterness said, go ahead kill it and give us half each. But then Solomon in
his wisdom said, “Wait, the woman who is willing to give up her baby, this is
the real mother! The baby is hers!”
3. I find that one can compare
this same wisdom to baby Jesus of today. There are around us in the world, God’s
children, people who are kind hearted doing many things for others, willing to
give up anything for the sake of life and love. This time of year these people
want to see Baby Jesus honored and special.
These are true people
of honor, the ones that understand God’s gift to the world, that Jesus inspired
us to love everyone, no exceptions. These people are the ones who will have
life as the have Jesus, and they always choose to do good because they love God
and His Son!
4. But like the mother
who preferred to see a baby cut in two rather than share it, there are those amongst
us of this nature that are greedy, evil, and cold hearted. They do not care for
life or baby Jesus at all and only care for their own selfish consumption and material
appetites giving no respect for what the Holiday of Christmas means!
These carnal people would
prefer to see Baby Jesus and Christianity die and go away! These are people who
are bitter against God and they hate the happy people who make Christmas
special. They disrespect and profane all things pure and beautiful. These kinds
of people with unrepentant hearts, full of hate are in essence comparable to
being murderers and thieves, and as the Bible states are as condemned dry wood
ready to be placed into the fire as this is what they deserve.
1 John 3:15 Whosoever
hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal
life abiding in him. God is just and has hell reserved for the souls of these
people who reject Jesus. People without Jesus are horrible! They cause all who
live near them to go through hell due to their angry, bitter, confrontational,
vulgar, lying spirit. But God has heaven reserved for those that accept baby
Jesus and become innocent and pure like He is!
5. Going back to Luke
2:14, the very first message from God through the angels when Jesus was born
was “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men”.
This short sentence inspires me so much! There are 3 points.
What does this bold
declaration mean in its totality? If the angels in heaven are worshipping a
baby, then that should get our attention, right? They were glorifying God
because baby Jesus would become the sacrificed one on the cross and be the
savior of the world! The first lesson you and I must learn in life is that we
must give glory to God for Jesus! Angels are higher beings than what we are!
Giving glory to God is
not just something you say, like in church when people say, praise God, we
glorify you God, it is more than that; giving glory to God implies living an
entire lifestyle of love! You glorify God by your actions and words, by
imitating Him, but serving Him and others, by being as He is, full of love,
holiness, and goodwill towards all men (and women)!
6. And where it says, “Glory
to God in the highest”, “the highest” refers to the all-encompassing power and authority
of God! The universe, and heavens high above us, and the symphony of the cycle
of life that is high above our understanding, all imply that God is far beyond
us! He is perfect and all-knowing
governing and preserving the stars and all chemical matter, the realms of
angels, and the forces of nature and the people of earth! Psalm 113:4 The LORD is high above all nations, and
his glory above the heavens. Science reveals how much God is infinitely vast
and complex! Everything everywhere proclaims the glory of a creator!
7. Next in the phrase,
“Peace on Earth”, what is peace? It is an overwhelming calm where there is
safety. You have seen the bumper sticker, ‘Know Jesus, Know Peace. No Jesus, No Peace’, what a true statement
this is! For as long as I have been involved with Christians, close to 40 years
now, the thousands of testimonies I have heard all confirm one thing, that the
lives of the people before Jesus were a torture and chaotic mess as they lived
in a hell of guilt and confusion. But after accepting to follow Jesus their
circumstances totally changed, to have a life of peace and fulfillment! Peace
with God and peace even with conflictive people.
8. That is true in my
life too! I got away from following Jesus when I went to High School and my
life went downhill as I drank and partied and smoked pot and played in a rock
band, but I was shocked with myself that I was not happy! I was doing all the
things that the people of the world were doing to over stimulate my body’s
pleasure cells but yet I was dying inside with a restless feeling like I was
really killing my soul inside and in danger, feeling far away from God.
I had all the pleasures
of the world as a young man but one day I woke up to realize I was just an
empty self-indulgent copy-cat want-to-be who should just die to get out of the
way because I was just taking up space like all the other rats of the world. I
just wanted to end my misery and frustration!
But one day after I
prayed the prayer to accept Jesus, my whole world changed! This is why I am here
today, to tell you about it, it is true, Jesus will give you peace, a peace
that you have never experienced and it is worth the investment to leave behind everything,
all your own misguided beliefs, all your way of being, and worthless life!
9. And finally, the
last point of Luke 2:14 stated in the Holy Scripture, it is the “goodwill
toward men” that many of us fail to capture. Imagine, God giving you and me
goodness and wanting goodwill for us and everyone? How is it that God wants
good for humanity? Isn’t humanity terrible as we the people seem to always make
war and kill multi-millions and we destroy everything with our corrupt cities?
In the end we must let
this undeserved goodwill impact us, God loves you and me beyond our
comprehension! He sacrificed His son Jesus for all humanity for us to have
eternal life! God only wants to give you and me good things in life, making us
happy, giving us an eternity of goodness.
Most every Christian I know lives very blessed!
But many people make a
train wreck of their lives and then want to blame God or others for their mess,
but it never was God who failed them and didn’t give them their dreams! It was
their own cruel self! God, all the time has good plans for each of us, but we
must listen to Him and convert, and become sacrificial. Sacrificial as in
giving up your own baby (figuratively) if you have to, embracing baby Jesus and
life, peace, and goodness!
To have God’s good will
working in your life, you must be in His will! This time of year at Christmas
time serves as a reminder that the very first principle that God wants is for everyone
to let the baby live in your heart, to accept Jesus as the savior of the world
and as the savior of your soul.
Baby Jesus was born in
humility and poor, He lived a modest life, and then He died in great pain to
rise again in order to take away the pain and emptiness in the souls of all men
and women, or better said, in you and me! Let Jesus do that for you today! Give
Glory to God, accept His peace, & live in the goodwill He has for you in your
life! Prayer…
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