Today I'm going to give you a little quiz on the Christmas story in the Bible.
Are you ready?
I'm just going to say something and you would you tell me if it's true or false.
Here we go.
True or false:
Three Magi came to visit Jesus.
The Bible never tells us that there were three of them so you can't say that it's true.
True or false:
The innkeeper told Mary and Joseph there was no room in the inn.
We also can't say that that's true because the bible does not mention an innkeeper.
True or false:
Jesus was born in a stable.
We can't say that that's true either because the Bible doesn't mention a stable.
True or false:
There were animals around when, when Jesus was born.
It may be true but we can't say for sure because the Bible doesn't mention any animals.
Last one. Ready?
True or false :
The baby Jesus never cried.
I assume that he did but the Bible never says that.
It never says that he didn't.
There's the song, "Away in a Manger," the line that says, "no crying he makes," but the Bible doesn't say that.
I give that quiz to some of my students that I teach every year around Christmas
and I find that they get most of those questions wrong.
There's a lot that, that we get wrong about the Christmas story for one reason or another.
And that brings up just an important thing to keep in mind about the Christmas story.
That the reason Christmas happened is because something went wrong way back in the Garden of Eden.
The reason that there is a Savior needed to be sent was because someone needed to be saved.
It was, it was Adam and it was Eve.
Something was wrong in the Garden of Eden
and it was Adam
and it was Eve.
Adam admitted as such basically when God came looking for them in the Garden of Eden.
And he cried out to them
They hid from God
because he was afraid.
He knew there was something wrong with him.
He tried to hide it.
It's gonna happen around Christmastime too.
Around Christmastime it's, it's easy to hide behind the nice gifts that we give,
the parties that we go to,
the friends and the family that are around,
all the different television specials that we get to watch,
and the Christmas shopping.
And all those kind of things we can occupy ourselves so much in an attempt sometimes
to hide from the truth of what we feel every morning when we look in the mirror.
And we know there's something wrong with us too.
Christmas doesn't take away that truth.
In fact, sometimes even highlights it.
Christmas can bring to mind memories of past Christmases where we let someone down,
or where we hurt someone.
We carry around deep guilt in our hearts about how we, we weren't, we weren't there for someone.
We didn't get quite the right gift.
We didn't remember something important.
Christmas can be a time of pretty, pretty heavy hearts,
just like it was for Adam when God approached him.
And Adam, who was once so confident in God's presence, was afraid.
He hid.
He was afraid to approach God and so God approached him.
God approached him and Eve, saw their sin, saw their guilt,
and gave them a tremendous promise that the seed of the woman would come
and not be afraid to face Satan himself.
And will not be ashamed to hang on a cross and call himself guilty of sins that did not belong to him;
sins that belong to you,
and sins that belong to me.
Just so you could be here today, knowing
that you're forgiven.
God does not hold your sin against you.
In God's eyes, you have no reason to feel guilty anymore.
The Savior came so that you could be set free
from the heaviness of your heart that comes from guilt,
that comes from fear,
that comes from shame.
The Son of man came. He was born so that you could be free.
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