Christmas Eve 2023

The manger Jesus was born in wasn’t pretty. God's Son deserved a castle, but his beginning was humble. But why? Why was Jesus laid in a manger?

Luke 2:7

[Mary] laid [Jesus] in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

Because there was no room for Him in the house, so He was born among the sheep. They went home for the holiday and their family didn't prepare them room. - Do you know this song?

Joy to the world, the Lord is come
Let Earth receive her King
Let every heart __________

What does your Christmas schedule look like? Will make room for Jesus tonight and tomorrow? Don't fill it so full of activities that you forget to prepare room for Jesus. - Practically, it means that on Christmas we

Don't over-indulge.

Don't wake up in the new year overly lethargic and tired because you...bought all the stuff and ate all the stuffing... Does anyone else overeat on Christmas because you start a diet in January? Don't do it. - and I love how it's worded:

"prepare Him room"

Tomorrow morning, before you open presents, talk about Jesus. Tell His story. Sing Happy Birthday to Him. - What did John the Baptist tell people to do when Jesus came? He said,

Matthew 3:2

Prepare the way for the Lord.

It's about your heart. So many people recognize a need to have Jesus in their lives, but their hearts are so full of the worries of this world, that they don't have time to think about Heaven.

Life is hard. We all have stuff in our lives that we don't want there. So eventually we have to decide to let things go. Sometimes we have to put past hurts, we have to give up some activities. We have to prepare room.

And we're not just preparing room so we're empty. We're preparing room because we need something more important than all of this stuff. We NEED Jesus.

The problem is, that people don't make room for Jesus because they think this life is all there is, but this life is not all there is. Someday you will stand before God to be judged, and if He has to judge you based on how good you are, you will be found guilty, BUT if you will make room for Jesus in your heart, invite Him in, then on judgment day you won't be judged based on your goodness. Instead, God will see that you are in a relationship with Jesus, and you will be forgiven, forgiven for everything. So will you prepare room in your heart for Jesus today? If so, will you fill out this for us and we will be in contact with you to talk with you about this amazing decision you made?