Christ’s Presents (Presence)
Slide Guide, December 24, 2023
Pastor Clay Olsen
No Fear!
Our world has always been full of both…of both hopes and fears. It often seems like the fears have outnumbered the hopes, in that people are fearful of so many things. There was even a study done on the topic of ‘Fear’, and they found that there are at least 550 different kinds of Fears among people.
People often wrestle with the big fears of the big questions of life, like: ‘Who am I really?’, and ‘Why am I here?’, and ‘What is the purpose of my life?’, and ‘What happens when I die?’, and so on.
Christ came to answer all those fears. And not just to answer them, but to replace them with His Hopes.
Our fears stand down when we give ourselves in trust to that which is bigger than our fears and bigger than ourselves!
No Doubt!
Doubting comes pretty natural to many people.
2 Peter 3:4- “They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.” NLT
The Bible is not only a ‘Promise Book’; it is also a ‘History Book’. So many people know so little of the real history of the world. And because of that they now understand very little about the present condition of the world, and even of the coming future of our world. So all they are left with are a lot of empty dreams and endless doubts.
“Peace be with you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here. Look at My hands. Put your hand here in My side. Stop doubting and believe.” John 20:26-27
Great blessings come to us from God when we replace our doubts from within ourselves to our beliefs based upon God’s Words.
Why is it that we tend to doubt our beliefs, but we believe our doubts?
We should learn to doubt our doubts and believe our beliefs, Biblical beliefs, that is!
Jesus will either soon return for us, or we will go to Him, because He has come to give us His gift of eternal life and His gift of forgiveness.
No Condemnation!
Rom 8:1-2- “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” NASU
Christmas was also a rescue mission to rescue us POW’s…us Prisoners of War…spiritual war. The Babe in the Manger was also the Rescuer from Heaven who had come to set us captives free.
Christmas is Christ reaching out His hand to all who will come to Him…will come and reach out their hand to Him in return, reach out in faith and give their life to Him. And only you can do that…no one else can reach out your hand to Jesus…only you.
The condemnation that was upon us because of our sin has been replaced with God’s righteousness that He placed upon us when He rescued us.
The best clothing we wear is that which Christ gives us because of His Christmas and His Cross…the clothing of salvation. Praise God!
No Separation!
When Jesus comes into your life, He makes this promise: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”!
We can live each day and enjoy every Christmas with the assurance of Jesus’ unconditional love for us and His eternal relationship with us!
There are 87 verses in the New Testament that describe the one who has asked Jesus Christ into their life as one who is now ‘In Christ’! There is not only now no separation for us from Christ, thank you Lord, but there is also now an eternal union for us in Christ
Our ‘Identity’ is now and forever connected with a ‘Shared Identity with Christ!’
A Christian is one who now shares his or her life with Christ. Which means that we now share an identity with Christ. Our ‘Me, myself, and I’ has been forever united with ‘The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit’. Not that we become ‘God-like’ of course, but we can and we are to become more ‘Christ-like’…more ‘Christ-like’ in our character and in our conduct, since we truly do now have a shared identity in and with Christ.
The greatest presents in life are all in connection with Christ’s presence in our lives!