We are in the midst of December and that means we are surrounded by Christmas. The lights, the shopping, advertising, music, movies and other programming seem to fill every space all the time. And then there are those well-wishers everywhere telling us to have a Merry Christmas and hoping we will respond in kind. Christmas has captured the imaginations of a world that often only gives lip service to the worship of God. Even though we don’t partake in the celebrations going on around the world, it is important for us to understand the fixation people have for it.

For most people, Christmas is a great celebration and nothing more. But for some, Christmas is the one time a real they really feel they are worshiping God. A recent Pew Research Poll found that although 9 of 10 Americans celebrate Christmas. And while most people believe in God, only 54% regard it primarily as a religious celebration. Younger Adults are far less likely to view Christmas from a religious perspective even though they were brought up differently. 74% grew up attending religious ceremonies where only 54% will do so now. For younger adults, traditions are more important that religion. I work with one of these people that admitted to me that he believes in God just not religion. He sees Christmas as a time to remind ourselves to do better.

Yes, he knows that it is self-indulgent but he makes the sacrifice to be better anyway. He knows about the origins of Christmas and he is not deterred in the slightest. He simply does not care about why it is celebrated now and in this way. He loves the music, the lights, the pomp and celebration of it all. After Thanksgiving, we are subject to four weeks of Christmas songs on the radio, Christmas programs on the TV, crowded stores and a lot of activities at work and school that can cause stress for those in the Church of God. This time of the year is mostly dark, the shortest days of the year when very little grows and without light you cannot see to get around you would think it is the last time of year when people would want to celebrate. But man has taken care of that with millions of sparkling Christmas lights all around.

They make what would ordinarily be very dark and depressing and turn it into a carnival atmosphere and the world takes its cue each year with celebrations and holiday cheer. The question we have to ask ourselves is, how do we let our light shine during this time of year? The title today is: How do we become a light to a world awash in Christmas lights? Over the years in the church I have talked to a great number of God’s people about their thoughts and attitudes toward this time of year. Some disengage from society much the way we do when we shut off the porch lights on Halloween and keep a low profile till morning. It can be difficult to deal with the stores, coworkers and schoolmates when they try to share their Christmas cheer. How do we deal with this each year Brethren? Are you more likely to share your understanding or less likely? God has called us out of this world for a purpose. Now all who have been in the church very long know Matt: 24:14.

Matthew 24:14 14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. But how does this apply to this time of year? Should we try to disrupt the long-held beliefs of a world and try to straighten them out? Maybe you have already tried with Relatives when you came into the church. Have you ever tried? How far did you get? If your experience was anything like that of my parents you probably didn’t get very far. Why is that? The reason is important to understand if we are going to get anywhere trying to reach people in this world. For the people of the Christmas lights, this time of year is about celebration but it is also about hope and if you try to teach people the truth you are basically taking away their hope. Now, you would agree that hope fits into the nativity story but since Christ was not born at this time of year you might discount this. We know that the trappings of Christmas far predate the birth of Christ and since Christ was not born at this time of year then Hope should have nothing to do with it right?

But even if you peel back the many layers of beliefs and traditions about this holiday, and many of you have; deep in the dark recesses of pagan origins of this holiday is the basic idea of Hope. When the days were getting shorter and many believed the sun would no longer show its light and the world would die, there was hope. This was a misguided hope in false gods by a people that did not know God’s true plan to save mankind. The Roman god Janus with two faces, one looking forward and one looking backward is the namesake for the first month of the Roman calendar and was worshipped at the beginnings of the harvest and planting times, as well as at marriages and deaths. Today people look to the New Year with hope and well wishes for a better year. Do we want to be in the business of coming between people and their hope, whatever it is?

Where I work someone put us some Christmas lights around the cubicles and placed a small decorated Christmas tree in the mist of the office. But even as they discussed how some of the lights were a little over the top one of them looked over to me and said, “Hey, I’m doing my part to bring back the sun, but Jeff’s not doing his part”. People understand that and they are fine with it. In fact, they just don’t care where these customs come from. They have whatever hope they take from the season and hold tightly to it and they will not take kindly for you or anyone trying to take that from them. Just look at the war on Christmas that is going on right now. There is a battle going on between political correctness and those that just want their holiday as they remembered it from their youth. I have been in the church since I was 10 years old and before that time I remember Christmas filled with all of the hope and wonder a small boy could muster. I looked forward to this holiday like any other kid. We all talked about what we wanted and looked forward to the festivities.

We didn’t feel that we were bad people because we kept the day. In fact, years later I was in grade school telling this girl there was no Santa and I couldn’t believe she still believed in him. It wasn’t a very nice thing to do to a fourth grader but I didn’t like getting picked on so I picked back. It was a bad thing to do to intentionally hurt someone else even if truth was on my side. My light was not shining brightly that day. How do you approach this subject? Our coworkers and classmates might ask, “Why don’t you keep Christmas?” but often what they are really saying is, “What’s wrong with you that you don’t keep Christmas?” And even if they mean well you might still feel backed into a corner. In these situations we can get defensive and blurt out some incoherent message about its all pagan and walk away. If we are to be a light unto a world in darkness we must use wisdom and courage and engage these people. Before we even think about trying to engage people at this time of year you have to first of all see life from their point of view.

A phrase I have heard repeated in a number of sermons in the last few years is this. “People won’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.” That starts with understanding this current world. When you get to know people you usually find a similar pattern of conversation that revolves around hope. Everyone wants a happy life and that means wading through a life of pain and obligations working for and hoping for something better. Many times this involves family where talk is about getting well established financially or around the health and well-being of loved ones. Sometimes it involves their faith and belief that this life leads to something more. It might be about their career and success in life. For many though, hope has been stomped on and their focus might be on getting by in life and what they are going to do this weekend, or this summer.

If you spend any quality time with your coworkers or classmates you will see that element of hope that they look to. Whether their hope is in where they go to college, what job they might get or for the future with grandkids, people hope. People feed on hope and want something better. Now we are no different in this regard, we have pain and struggles in this life but we also have hope. But our hope is in something so much bigger than what this world can produce. Turn to Matthew 5. God wants us to share that hope we have with others. We have a perspective this world does not have. Matthew 5:14-16 14 "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 "Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. So where do we begin? Engaging people with the hope that lies within us is always a good place to start but at this time of year it’s also important to keep another thing in mind. There are forces as work this time of year that we must be aware of prepared for. A few years ago I gave a sermon titled “Coping with the magic of Christmas”.

I chose this title because I believe we have to realize that there are forces at work beyond the fact that the world has been blinded by the god of this world, Satan. NKJ Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. There is a lot of magic associated with Christmas but not the kind of magic usually portrayed in movies like Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life, and a Christmas Carol. You see if God was really behind Christmas then that would truly be a wonderful thing to embrace. There would be actual miracles that God would perform to help everyone get the most out of this Holiday just as many Christmas movies portray. The magic I refer to is not unlike the everyday magic we see from magicians the world over. Whether we are talking about a simple card trick or making an elephant disappear, magic has captivated people since the dawn of time. There are no miracles of God in magic. At best they are simple misdirection and illusion. Simple deception designed to make the audience think one thing with the opposite is true. The author of such is not God. God is not the author of confusion.

All of the references to magicians and sorcerers in the bible are always bad yet people today pay big money to be fooled and to experience the magic and wonder in it all. They fool their kids into believing in Santa Clause, the tooth fairy and any other myth they can come up with because they like to see the wonder in the eyes of their children. My wife and I were blessed to see the wonder in our children’s eyes when we told them about the amazing attributes of a God who is wonderful and true. He performs real miracles and not magic. Magic is meant to deceive. Christmas has much of this kind of magic and children are not the only people fooled in believing in it. Around this time of year there are many movies and TV specials around Christmas. Besides the usual suspects of reindeer and ghosts of Christmas past, there are a lot of holiday movies about love and family. The focus is usually about bringing the family together and some big problem that will ruin the holiday unless by some Christmas miracle, the worst is averted.

These shows speak to the hope that lies within this world. They want something that is often only a myth, a family full of love and togetherness. And this time of year there is hope that it is actually possible to have real happiness. I remember moving to Arizona as a small child and asking my parents how Santa was going to get into our apartment when we didn’t have a fireplace. They told me that Santa had a magic key that can open any lock and I believed it. It was all sleight of hand, I would go to bed expecting Santa to bring toys into the house, and my parents would bring toys from places they had hidden them for days or weeks, right under my nose, and put them under the tree. One night I stayed awake all night to get a glimpse of Santa’s sleigh flying across the night sky only to be disappointed. Upon questioning my mother the next day she finally broke down and told me the truth. That’s when the magic started to wear off.

Activities at work and school follow suit. You see the decorations, the excitement building and the anticipation is the biggest part of this holiday. Not just for the presents, but for everything that is hoped for in life is riding on this time of year for so many. The anticipation of parties with friends, family get-togethers, and seeing everyone around them trying to be the best they can be. You can’t tell someone that Christmas is bad without stepping on that hope of theirs. For them it is important to them and if, you don’t recognize that importance you will lose them in anything you attempt to teach them. They know something is special at this time of year and they will not easily give it up. So what is it about this time of year? What is this magic all about? There is a master magician at work that has made the world believe in the myth that is Christmas. That deceiver we know is Satan as we read in Rev. 12:9. NKJ Revelation 12:9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Of all the deceptions upon humanity, few rival the totality of this holiday. In so many countries and cultures you find this holiday, or some variance of it celebrated. Have you ever given much thought to the totality of the deception? You may have studied the history of the celebrations of this time of year and how Christianity adopted them. The story is truly astounding. Today, people widely accept Christians replacing the Old Testament Israel as God’s chosen people but most do not know why. But what is worse than simple ignorance is the damage that this deception has done to this world. Satan has given false hope to a world that is blinded to real hope that can transform their lives. Supersessionism is the traditional Christian belief that Christianity is the fulfillment of Biblical Judaism, and therefore that Jews who deny that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah fall short of their calling as God's Chosen people. Supersessionism, in its more radical form, maintains that the Jews are no longer considered to be God's Chosen people in any sense.

This understanding is generally termed "replacement theology." The idea that God has given up on Israel and started completely over was based on thinking of men like Origen, Hippolytus, Justin Martyr, Agustine, Marcion, and even Martin Luther. Over this time the Christian theology was developed, even manufactured into a unique identity apart from Judaism and Old Testament Israel. These men and others took events like the New Covenant, the wholesale Jewish rejection of Christ and many bitter feelings about persecution by Jews and Romans alike and wove a new theology, different from the one practiced by the first century church and never sanctioned by scripture. History is void of the happenings of the church from the end of the apostolic period to the time of Constantine, over 200 years later where the beginnings of the modern day Christian church can trace its roots. That 200 or so years where Christianity changed was a master stroke of the great deceiver.

Before that time, the Christians and Jews were indistinguishable to the outsider. By the third Century, the two could never be confused. In Acts 18:2 we read about an event that shaped Rome for the future of Christianity. NKJ Acts 18:2 And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla (because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome); and he came to them. In 49 AD, Emperor Claudius evicted from Rome Jews and Christians because of the fighting between what Rome considered two factions of the Jews. What they were fighting about was whether Christ was or was not the Messiah. The difficulties of Christians and Jews living in close quarters was evident in the minds of those in Rome no doubt. Paul is addressing the hard feelings that many gentile Christians had toward the Jews both in and out of the church. Paul writes to them about the role of Jewish people in the plan of God. Remember that the main inhabitants of the Church of God in Rome were Gentile Christians.

Paul speaks to them in Verse 13 of Romans 11: Romans 11:13-27 13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. 15 For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say then, "Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in." 20 Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. 22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? So Paul is saying that God has not replaced His People, but rather grafted Gentiles into the original tree to be partakers with those converted Jews. 25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; 27 For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins." God did not give up on Israel and start again with the rest of the world but rather, God is allowing the world and opportunity to join the spiritual family of Israel. As Christians we are all a part of Israel. Not only that, God will graft many of those Jews back into the tree as He Promised. This is an understanding that is lost in this world. You want to talk about hope?

It destroys hope to say that God gave up on Israel and had to start over. It makes people think that God failed. And that is what Satan is going for in his bid to discredit God and blind this world. When you realize that the removing of the Sabbath and Holy Days from Christianity is what allowed room to create Christmas and use it to replace what God has ordained. God sees Christmas for what it is, a counterfeit. These early Christians were deceived into removing what they saw as Judaism from Christianity by Satan himself and every replacement for God’s Holy Days were counterfeits from Satan himself. Now we have talked about the hope that lies within those keeping this holiday but does that hope translate into happiness? When I first got out of College I worked at this steel fabrication company for a number of years as an Ironworker. One of the owners was often hard to work for.

He was an exacting taskmaster in that he was very skilled and expected that quality from those who worked for him. He had a short fuse if you got on the wrong side of him and it seemed that people got on the wrong side of him quite a bit. I was fortunate to be on the right side of him most of the time and it allowed me to get to know him better. I learned quite a bit about the magic of Christmas watching him. It was at this time a year that he actually was nice to everyone. Things didn’t get to him. Many commented that they wished it would be Christmas all year long. He was motivated to be better because everyone else was motivated to be better. He was surrounded by positive images of what could be. He was able to put himself behind others for a few short weeks a year with this hope. But soon the weight of false expectations would catch up to him with the bills and he would return to how he was. One time he asked me about my faith. You see his mother was very religious but his father was not and one evening after work he confided in me that he had a hard time talking to his mother about his late father.

His mother would tell him that his father was in Hell because he never went to church. But he knew his father was a good man, a good provider, and hard worker. He wanted to know how an all loving God would send his father to Hell because he would not go to church with what he considered hypocrites. I got to share with him some of my hope at that moment. Before that moment he would never have accepted advice or any religious thought from me. I told him that I could never worship a God that punished people for not being smart enough to find him on their own. This spoke to him. I told him the world is full of people that have never really known God and He would not hold that against them. I told him I worship a God that has a plan that will give everyone a chance to really know him. Not through a corner church or missionary, but with a direct relationship with Him. I told him I worship a God that is sending His son back to this earth to fix what is broken. I worship a God who is coming to rescue not just His faithful now, but the whole world. He said he hoped I was right. If we are going to help others we are going to have to love them enough to get to know them.

Learn what makes them tick and what they want in life. NKJ Titus 3:7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. God’s Kingdom is coming and will fulfill every hope that is in the hearts of man. We have that hope that we can share to a world that is often let down by false hopes created by the god of this world. We have been given a great hope. Not just of eternal life for us, but offered to the whole world. This is a real hope for a world in desperate need of it. Not everyone is joyous this time of year. Some people no longer have strong families or friends to fill their lives. They are lonely and without hope. Many find this time of year to be an emotional drain and depression is quite common during this holiday season.

Why People Get Depressed at Christmas Published in the November 28, 2010 of Psychology Today. Author Ray Williams writes We are told that Christmas, for Christians, should be the happiest time of year, an opportunity to be joyful and grateful with family, friends and colleagues. Yet, according to the National Institute of Health, Christmas is the time of year that people experience a high incidence of depression. Hospitals and police forces report high incidences of suicide and attempted suicide. Psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals report a significant increase in patients complaining about depression. One North American survey reported that 45% of respondents dreaded the festive season. You can look online for story after story about depression during the Holidays. In light of the earlier Pew Research poll where 9 of 10 people will still celebrate it even when so many dread this season you see the totality of Satan’s deception.

Many focus on physical factors such as a loss of a loved one, financial problems, Substance abuse, or a bad family history of holiday keeping. Many of the articles try to bolster the reader out of the doldrums with helpful suggestions like get out and breathe some fresh air, surround yourself with positive people, and get lots of sleep. Maybe volunteer to help others. But what I noticed was missing was the mention of Hope. Sure some mention that feeling of hopelessness but what they are missing is this. Christmas time is as good as this world gets and in that critical moment many people realize that life does not match the hype of Christmas. Their hopes are dashed.

• The world is not getting any better. War and threat of war is something we have come to accept. • Crime is not getting any better. Sometimes it seems as though we are one riot away from total civil breakdown. • Families are not getting any closer. Divorce rates are climbing around the world. • We live in a materialistic Society. Those without think that things will bring happiness and those with everything know that it cannot. With such a high focus on material possessions, the futility of life begins to sink in. There is no real hope that this world is going to correct itself. As people become more and more aware of this they often turn toward materialism to fill the emptiness. The sad truth is that materialism destroys hope by replacing what is good and valuable with something that is worthless. Here is where we can offer what people really want, hope. There is so much we have learned about the truth of God that we can put right to work in our interactions with those around us. But it must start with Love. We cannot be motivated by trying to be right and expect God to work through us.

God may or may not be calling the person we are talking to but He will always be pleased when we share our hope, motivated by love, to those in need of it. Just like I shared my hope that my bosses father was not suffering in Hell, we can share hope with those who can benefit from it. We have spent a lot of years in the church focusing on the concept of truth and if we leave out the motivation of Love than the truth will offer not hope for the weary. When someone complains to me about the commercialism of the Christmas holiday, or that families don’t come together the way they once did. I share with them the way my family comes together around festivals that are all about family, not things. We can offer hope, love, and answers to their innermost questions of life.

One question the Christmas season can never answer is “how” God will actually change the heart in man, not just for a short season, while the twinkling lights are burning, but for eternity. You may have a desire to hide away until this season is over, but Jesus never backed away from an opportunity to reach out and give good news to those He met. Everyone you meet has questions of life, love, and happiness that never get answered in a world run by Satan. But we have answers, we have hope, and our light comes from God. And if we let that light shine as God intends, then they will see it even among the Christmas lights of this world.