Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
Jesus wants us to come before him in worship with a willing heart, offering ourselves as we are. He values us, not our perfection or material gifts. The sermon series "Christmas Playlist" explores popular Christmas songs to illustrate the truth and hope of Christmas. Jesus didn't seek power or money, but showed love and acceptance to the outcasts and sinners. He came for everyone, regardless of their status or flaws. Jesus wants us, not what we can do for him. The beauty of Christmas is that Jesus came to give us eternal life. That's all that Jesus wants from us. A heart that is willing to come before him in worship. That says, I have no gift to bring, but I'll give you what I have. I'll give you me. In all the ways that I've messed up my life, Jesus is just saying, just come before me and bring all that stuff. Because I'm interested in you, not your perfection, not what you have to bring. Welcome to Elevate from Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama with Pastor John DiQuatro. We hope it builds your faith and helps you to live a life for God that you've always wanted to live. We hope it inspires you to be a fully devoted, authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Enjoy the message and welcome to Elevate. We've been in a sermon series called Christmas Playlist. And it's something that has been a fun way to share together during the Christmas season. And we've gone through different popular Christmas songs and have used those songs to illustrate a truth of Christmas and to show us the hope that Christ brings. If you remember, we went through Santa Baby and we went through Grown Up Christmas List. And it's the most wonderful time of the year. And last week we went through You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch. And I would encourage you, if you didn't get a chance to be here for any of those messages, I would encourage you to go online or go to the Church Center app or go to our Facebook page and go back and watch those. The Lord's really been speaking to us during this holiday season. We have another song for today. So let's see what song is on today's Christmas Playlist. He gives me a rum-pum-pum-pum Our finest gifts we bring Rum-pum-pum-pum He gives me gifts He gives me Rum-pum-pum-pum Rum-pum-pum-pum Rum-pum-pum-pum So His heart and hands Go rum-pum-pum-pum For He is my God I am a baby Go rum-pum-pum-pum I am a poor boy Go rum-pum-pum-pum I have no gifts to bring Go rum-pum-pum-pum And if you give me Go rum-pum-pum-pum Rum-pum-pum-pum Rum-pum-pum-pum I'll wait for you Go rum-pum-pum-pum All my life All my life All my life Our finest gifts we bring To lay before the King So to honor Him when we come Little baby I am a poor boy too I have no gifts to bring That's fit to give the King Shall I play for you On my drum Mary nodded The ox and lamb kept time I played my drum for Him I played my best for Him And then He smiled at me Me and my drum You didn't know there were so few lyrics to that song, did you? There's so many pa-rum-pa-pums And sometimes all the pa-rum-pa-pums And all that stuff that we sing We kind of lose the meaning And we lose the story that's being told In this song And maybe you never thought about it But in the story of this song There's a boy that has no gifts At least he has nothing of monetary value to give He has nothing that comes in a box Nothing that he got on sale On a Black Friday Nothing that can be wrapped or Stuffed into a stocking He's just a poor boy With nothing to give Except he does have something to give His talents His heart And his kindness And so this song Harkens back to the familiar story Found within the Christmas story Of the wise men We find that in Matthew chapter 2 When it says this When they saw the star They rejoiced exceedingly With great joy And going into the house They saw the child With Mary his mother And they fell down And worshipped him Then opening their treasures They offered him gifts Gold and frankincense And myrrh You see when Jesus is born The gifts that are brought to him Are costly And they are of great value I've heard some actually speculate That the amount of gold That was brought to Jesus At his birth Was enough to finance his entire ministry I don't know if that's true But I do know that in those days These gifts Were big ticket items They had value But here's the thing About Jesus You see Jesus knew about the Lavish gifts That were given to him He knew all about those things I'm sure Mary recounted The entire story with him as a child And he could have used that Momentum To really become Somebody in the world's eyes Like I was important I was that important as a baby You mean that people Brought me gold? Important people Came to where I was born And brought me gold? I must really be somebody But as we look at the life That Jesus lived And as we look at the ministry That he offered to the world We see that Jesus never actually Sought out the rich Or the famous Or the important He wasn't constantly trying to get The biggest offering Or schmooze with people That would be most The most advantageous to gain The largest following See Jesus didn't look for somebody To bankroll Jesus Christ of Nazareth ministries In fact the only flashy thing That Jesus ever did Was to turn water into wine At the wedding in Cana But that was He only did that to honor his mother He wasn't trying to make a spectacle Of himself And so Jesus Although he comes into the world He comes in a lowly place But these lavish gifts are given to him And wise men Sought him out at his birth He was never interested in power He was never interested in money And he certainly didn't give The rich and the powerful Much Time of day But let's look At who Jesus did turn his attention to In John chapter 8 Jesus Is presented with a woman That's caught in adultery Now in those days If you were caught in adultery That was punishable by death And so we read the story Of the woman caught in adultery And she's dragged out Into the town square And there are people That are more religious than her apparently And more holy than her Holding rocks Wanting to stone her to death This is a woman who Who would have been considered An outcast Of society A sinner The worst of the worst But yet somehow God Jesus Captured the faith And the heart of this woman And she walked away with an undying Love and faith In Jesus Christ Because Jesus was willing to accept her Just as she was We read in John chapter 8 Beginning in verse 10 we hear Jesus say Didn't even one of them Condemn you? No Lord she said And Jesus said neither do I Go and sin no more Jesus didn't come with a power trip Jesus didn't come to condemn Jesus came to give life Jesus came to lift up The lowly We find another story in Luke chapter 19 There's a A man named Zacchaeus And he's a tax collector And Jesus invites himself To this tax collector's house Now we go what's the big deal If his job was a tax collector The big deal was They were being occupied by Rome And Rome was the one collecting the taxes And Zacchaeus Was Jewish he was a part of Israel And he was working for Rome To collect these taxes But he wasn't just collecting the taxes for Rome They allowed these tax collectors To have surcharge to all the taxes That they collected Which means that this dude was a thief He was stealing from everybody And he was doing it under the authority Of the Roman Empire Tax collectors were hated People in those days Yet Jesus says Zacchaeus I'm coming to your house And we're going to have a meal together And Zacchaeus says come on let's do it And by the end of that meal Zacchaeus And his entire household Became believers In Jesus Christ In John chapter 4 We see Jesus Comes across a Samaritan woman As he's going to a well for water And if you understand Samaritans back in those days They were not fully Jewish They were half-breeds And so the Jews and the Samaritans There was racial tension And racial conflict between the two Jews and Jewish people Hated Samaritans Samaritans were oppressed By the Jewish people But Jesus Being a Jew Spends time with this Samaritan woman And he begins to speak to her And he offers her Living water And then he prophesies to her And then he sends her off With the name of Jesus On her lips To anybody who would listen One final example Of the type of person that Jesus Sought out to minister to During his time on earth In Matthew chapter 8 We find that Jesus is approached By a centurion Now a centurion Was an officer Of the Roman Empire That was occupying Israel They had conquered Israel And so they had a military presence Within Israel Imagine if In the United States Martial law was enacted And there were soldiers in the streets And police And everything you did was controlled By this military regiment Well that was kind of what it was like For them And so this was an enemy Of the conquering nation But as this centurion Comes to Jesus My servant is sick And needs to be healed But don't come to me I'm not worthy of you coming To me I know that you can just say the word And my servant will be healed And Jesus said this about the hated Roman centurion He says I've never found greater faith than all of Israel And this enemy soldier Believes in Jesus Christ He believes in the world See these are the types of people That Jesus was seeking out He wasn't looking for the important He wasn't looking for the rich And there's countless other stories in the bible If you're familiar with the gospels Where we read Jesus coming upon lepers And demoniacs And the unclean and the outcasts Of society You see Jesus may have been greeted Upon his coming into the world With gifts, costly gifts Given by men of high stature And esteem But he sought out those Who were the least Who had nothing to give back Some that were on the brink of death Some that were hopelessly lost in sin Or had made a mess Of their lives The beauty of what we celebrate At Christmas time Is that Jesus came For all of us He came for the rich He came for the poor He came for the talented For the good looking He came for the nice people He came for the not so nice people He came for the sinners He came for the rejects He's not interested In what you have to Do for him by way of your talents Or your money Or your perfection He's not looking for you to be perfect He's interested in your heart Jesus is interested In you End of story Jesus wants you He came Jesus came to give you Eternal life Not to get something from you That's the glory and the beauty Of what we celebrate And why this story Told in this Cute little song about the little Drummer boy The poor boy who had nothing Of value to bring but he came before Jesus anyway And he came with what he did have A drum And a heart That just wanted to come before The Savior and worship him That's all That Jesus Wants from us A heart That is willing to come before Him and worship That says I have no gift To bring But I'll give you what I have I'll give you me In all my failures In all of my sins In all of my mistakes In all of my addictions In all of the bad decisions That I've made In all of the people that I've hurt Knowingly or unknowingly In all of the ways that I've messed up my life Or have been an inconvenience to my family Or have made mistakes In my job In all the things that I feel terrible About myself Jesus is just saying Just come before me and bring all that stuff Because I'm interested in you I'm interested in you Not your perfection Not what you have to bring Some of you in this room Have lived some Difficult lives You've had Terrible things happen to you You've made Maybe you've made some poor decisions Maybe you've become addicted And you feel like maybe You're beyond the reach Of Jesus Some people feel that way You know how many times have you Maybe tried to invite somebody to church And they say I've got to get a couple of things straight Before I can come But that's not the gospel The message of the gospel is come as you are The message of the gospel Is that Jesus came for Whosoever will For God so loved the world That he gave his only son Whoever will believe in him Should not perish But have eternal life That's the message of the gospel And maybe you do You do feel like Jesus would never accept you But I'll tell you this You are exactly who Jesus came to reach And all you need is the same heart Of that little drummer boy Who said I don't have much But what I have Is yours Here I am Lord Reminded of the words in Psalm 51 Beginning in verse 15 It says open my lips Lord And my mouth will declare your praise You do not delight in sacrifice Or I would bring it You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings My sacrifice O God Is a broken spirit A broken and contrite heart You God Will not despise You might be broken You may not feel good enough For Jesus to ever reach you And if that's the way you feel I'm here to tell you That you're exactly who Jesus came to reach And he wants to reach you Can we close our eyes here for a moment If you're in this room today And you don't have a relationship With Jesus Christ At Christmas time you're celebrating the birth of Jesus But you never really thought about What this gift really means Never really thought about The significance of this baby That came to earth 2000 years ago This was God in the flesh We sang that song Welcome to our world He said wrap our flesh around you God wrapped humanity, human flesh He came to earth And he paid the price for all of our sin So that we Could have relationship with him here But that we could spend eternity with him He wants you, he wants your heart today Mistakes, failures Sins, addictions, all of it He'll forgive all of it He just wants you He just wants you to say yes to him So I'm going to say a prayer I'm going to repeat this prayer And if you've never prayed this prayer And if you've never really entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ Today is your moment If that's you today and you're feeling like I don't have anything to give Jesus He says that's alright I'm not looking for what you have to give me I'm looking for what I've already done for you That you can receive the gift of eternal life He'll take care of all the other stuff As you walk with him He'll teach you So I'm going to say this prayer And if you're saying this prayer It's just you and you just mean it in your heart Everyone's going to repeat it together But if this is the first time you've ever prayed this Or maybe you've not prayed it in a long time And you've not been walking with Christ And you want to just make a dedication A rededication of your life to him Just mean this prayer from the bottom of your heart As you speak it to the Lord Everybody with your eyes closed repeat after me Dear Jesus Thank you Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus
