Daily Hope with Rick Warren - Tuesday, 24
December 2013 – The Hope of Christmas – “Christmas: God's Great Rescue Plan”
“The Son of Man came to find lost people
and save them.” (Luke 19:10 NCV)
If you don’t understand the purpose of
Christmas, you might as well skip the Christmas lights and decorations this
year. You might as well forget about buying Christmas presents. You might as
well forget Christmas dinner.
If you don’t know why we celebrate
Christmas, all the festivities are pointless.
To find the purpose of Christmas, you
have to fast forward beyond the manger, the Wise Men, and the shepherds. Jesus
told us the reason he came to Earth on the first Christmas: “The Son of Man
came to find lost people and save them” (Luke 19:10 NCV).
Quite simply, Jesus came because people
are lost without God. To be spiritually lost means to be separated from God,
disconnected, and out of whack. Without Jesus, every person in the world is
lost — no matter how much power, wealth, or fame they have.
And our lostness has immense
ramifications on our lives. To know why Jesus came to Earth, we must understand
what it means to be lost. Without God, we’ve lost:
Our direction. We’re bound to have little
understanding of where we should go and what we should do in this life.
His protection. We’re on our own when
we’re not under the Lord’s protection. That’s a huge reason many people are
stressed out. They’re trying to live under their own care and protection
instead of God’s.
·
Our potential. We’ll never know half the
gifts and talents we have if we’re not in a relationship with him.
·
Our happiness. We can have all the money
and power in the world, but without God we will never have true joy.
·
Our home in Heaven. God allows us to
rebel while we’re here on Earth, but there’s no rebellion in Heaven.
But no one who is lost has lost one ounce
of value to God. Even if you don’t have a relationship with him, you have
immense value to God. Lostness implies value. Whatever someone is willing to
spend to recover something that’s lost shows how valuable that item is.
In the most famous verse in the Bible,
Jesus clearly explains our value: “God loved the world so much that he gave his
one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have
eternal life” (John 3:16).
The Good News is God loved us so much he
sent his Son to Earth on the first Christmas to seek and save us.
That’s a reason to celebrate tomorrow.
Talk It Over:
·
How can you keep a perspective this
Christmas that goes beyond the holiday season and helps you remember the
meaning of God’s gift of Jesus?
·
What changes for you when you understand
that Christmas is about God seeking and saving the lost?
·
How do your Christmas celebrations
reflect the true meaning of the holiday?
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Saddleback Community Church
1 Saddleback Pkwy
Lake Forest, CA 92630 United States
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