Christmas Balance

I like to remind everyone this time of the year that it is important that we are consistent as believers. Whatever we do we need to continue be the believers that are balanced.

One of the times of the year we struggle is Christmas time. We often get out of sorts because of the added pressures.

We have studied this passage before in Romans 14:5-19 we are reminded of the fact that their is no requirement to celebrate Christmas.

It is an important passage about holidays and whether or not must observe them. It is up to each and their conscience before God, but certainly not a requirement.

Whatever holiday you do choose to celebrate, it should be something that the Lord would be honored in and something you could celebrate to Him in some way.

That takes some holidays out because there is no way you can celebrate those days and honor Christ. Halloween being one. The pagan easter holiday that most people ignorantly observe, St. Patricks Day, unless you celebrating the fact that he was an Irishman who was kidnapped by the Scotts and when he escaped and got saved, he became a missionary back to the Scotts.

Then there are some holidays that certainly fit within the realm of celebrating that can honor Christ, certainly Thanksgiving, Christmas, even New Years.

But if we are not careful, we can quickly veer off in any holiday. We can get excited about the rituals, the ambiance, the smells, and get this almost holy attitude about the holiday and forget the great meaning and significance it points to.

We need to be reminded from time to time of the importance of not allowing our guard down, of keeping things orderly in our lives during the holidays and especially, Christmas time.

I. The Importance of Temperance and Self-control

Whatever I do for God I must be able to do it, do it well, do it consistently, do it without compromising other areas of my life, or having a detriment in important areas

1 Corinthians 9:25 AV

And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

One of the fruits of the Spirit mention in Galatians 5 is temperance.

Unless you are rich and have thousands of extra dollars disposable, you cannot do everything you’d probably like to.

But why do we give away gifts at Christmas time? Well it is a time to show our love for others, or the love of Christ, in recognition of his great gift to us.

I have no problem with that, but it has gotten out of hand, commercialized, adulterated.

How many gifts and how much money do you need to spend to love someone or to show them your love.

It’s not usually a person’s love for others that causes them to overdo it during Christmas time, rather it is selfishness or should I say at least – self-centeredness.

In what ways do we over do it?

A. Spending too much

Too much on gifts, parties, events, clothing for Christmas

B. Indulging too much

Working to hard to make an event perfect

Endeavoring to have the most Christmas spirit so no one knows how depressed I am

Did Christ ever command a time of worship over his birth – to set aside a day for us to remember that?

Of course he did not.

Some might argue, well, just because he didn’t doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t – agreed.

But we make it as important as the ordinances.

If someone was not to celebrate, people would be flabbergasted and question someone’s Christianity. But people all the time don’t think Baptism is a big deal.

· By the way, the Lord did command baptism and that we would take time often to remember the Lord’s shed blood and broken body on the cross by taking the Lord’s Supper

overspend or go into debt to give gifts, rather it is a self-centeredness, that wants everyone to think that they care.

C. Not fulfilling our obligations as a result

Your heart cannot be bigger than your pocket book, your heart cannot give more than your energy or time either.

What can end up happening is that you steal away something valuable away from where it ought to be spent.

We steal money away from our tithes, our commitments on bills, our money that should be spend in a much wiser way and instead spend it on Christmas shopping whether for gifts or décor.

We steal away time meant for service for God, devotion to our God, spending time for our family and over invest it leaving the other far more important uses of our time shorted.

We waste our energy trying that should be spend on our God, our family, our work and reaching others and instead become exasperated over the Christmas rush that we think we have to invest in.

I’m not trying to get you away from celebrating Christmas. I celebrate it, my family does. But we must tame it, make it a part of our lives, but not let it ever take over our lives.

II. The biggest Investment in at Christmas should be people not things

And when I say spending time with people, I’m talking about spending some quality time, an investment of time

A. Make it about family

· Ministry is about God and man, that is it. REACHING PEOPLE FOR GOD AND TEACHING THEM ABOUT GOD AND THEN WORSHIPPING GOD IN TURN.

· So by Christian life should always, being trying to involve people with my God.

· With family, our immediate family we must be consistent and faithful in all things in spending time with God and talking about Christ at Christmas.

· With those outside your immediate family who may not see eye to eye with, you still need

B. Make it about neighbors and friends

· Try to spend time with people, people are ministry, invest time with people, in things you do or go to do, bring someone with you and talk about God’s goodness and grace during this time of year.

C. Make it about your church

Matthew 12:49 AV

And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!

III. Make Christmas about reality

A. Make it real

Don’t make it like a Hallmark movie, a classic television show, or a fairy tale. Just make it real in your family and allowing everyone touch one another and to care for one another

B. Lower your expectations

A lot of people discourage themselves because of their hight expectation at Christmas time.

They want to have a certain spirit or atmosphere and if they don’t have it they are very disappointed even depressed.

C. Make it not virtual

What I mean is we need less computer interaction that we are usually doing now in our lives and especially at Christmas time.

Be real and effective in your personal skills, in being a blessing an encouragement and being able to get along with real people, not people you know solely online.

Think about it, if those people on line have not called you in a year, are they really your friends. At best they are old friends – but not friends.

Friends watch out for one another, care for one another, weep with one another and get excited about the blessing of the other.

Proverbs 27:10 AV

Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.

Now if you call someone or Facetime or zoom, that is awesome, but we need real friends. Real friends are people we can depend on in our worst time.

Proverbs 17:17 AV

A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

IV. Make Christmas about Christ

In the UK, The Real meaning of Christmas has been lost and it is illustrated in that today's children as nearly quarter believe the 25th of December is Simon Cowell's birthday

If anything, for the believer, the knowledge of the Lord and His birth should bring about some godly things in their lives.

We often speak of the spirit of Christmas and of giving. Did you know that is what the world says who participate in Christmas?

There are lots of people who do not believe in our God, yet, celebrate Christmas:

The LifeWay Research survey found 62% of people who follow non-Christian religions still celebrate Christmas, along with 89% of people who say they are agnostic or have no religious identity and 55% of atheists.

If you ask the general population what Christmas means to them, here are some of the things they say:

CHRISTMAS BALANCE

Romans 14:5-19

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