Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: will we trust and obey Jesus in the real decisions of everyday life? Christ forms us through truth received, repentance practiced, and obedience lived out.
Main Points
Faith and Obedience
happy birthday to me happy birthday to me what okay so my birthday is not for another 325 days but what can i say celebrating birthdays is awesome welcome back my friends we are in our series main event where we're talking about the real reasons we have to celebrate this christmas season before our lesson though let's take a moment to pray that's us talking to god thank you for the bible thank you that we can look at your word and learn about you and what you've done we ask that you'd be with us in jesus name amen thanks for praying everybody now it's time to open up those bibles today we're going to be in the book of luke in chapter 2. now what do you think is luke in the new testament or the old testament new testament that's right luke is actually one of our four gospels very good who tell about the life of who it's not luke it's jesus the gospels are all about jesus so today we'll be in luke chapter 2 and we are gonna read about one birth story in particular with a baby that's unlike any baby who's ever existed in all of history at this point in the book of luke we've got mary and joseph who are engaged to be married mary has a baby that's almost ready to be born and now we get a little bit more of their story as we go into chapter 2. at that time the roman emperor augustus decreed that a census should be taken throughout the roman empire all returned to their ancestral towns to register and because joseph was a descendant of king david he had to go to bethlehem in judea he took with him mary to whom he was engaged who was now expecting a child and while they were there the time came for the baby to be born she gave birth to her firstborn son she wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger because there was no lodging available for them a lot of us are familiar with this birth story but remember this isn't just any baby this is jesus but all this gives me a great idea for a game time okay i'm calling this one birthday card simple enough what i'm going to do is ask you to pause and grab some materials so that you can write or draw your very own birthday card for jesus we're going to celebrate the birth of jesus right now so you can draw a picture you can write a note or a bible verse or a piece from our story however you want to do it make a special birthday card to jesus and make sure he knows that you're thankful that he was born how'd your card turn out i'm sure it was great i'd love to see it go ahead and post a picture of it to our facebook group so we can all share them together before we keep going in the story let's take a moment and sing happy birthday to jesus but let's see if we can do it really fast see if you can keep up with me ready let's go one two three happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear jesus happy birthday to you pretty good we can celebrate each and every birthday of every human being because every person is special but remember today we're talking about the birth of jesus and if anybody's birth is worth celebrating nobody's more so than that of jesus remember this birthday is different than every single one that ever came before it or after it the birth of jesus was special and it even was promised beforehand so there was a prophet of god a man who gave promises of god and spoke on behalf of god named isaiah and hundreds of years before jesus was ever born isaiah gave this promise from god look at isaiah chapter 9 with me for a child is born to us a son is given the government will rest on his shoulders he will be called wonderful counselor mighty god everlasting father prince of peace his government and its peace will never end this baby is special mighty god wonderful counselor prince of peace reigning and ruling as king forever that doesn't sound like just any baby to me i want us to think about one of the true reasons we have to celebrate every year around christmas time is because god became a baby the son of god jesus was born into the world and remember what we read about mary and joseph they weren't rich they didn't even have a place to stay the day that jesus was born they had to put him in a manger god did that for us so today let's be thankful that we have jesus and we can celebrate the fact that he was born into the world so the plan of god could come to fulfillment and we could all have the savior that we were waiting for okay everybody that's gonna be it for this time continue to celebrate the joy of the season as we remember the real reasons that we have to celebrate and make sure you're sharing that good news share it with your friends and your family your neighbors anyone you get to talk to share about the birth of jesus and why it's so special to us all right i'll see you guys next time god bless you have a good one all right this next song is old song classic song called this little light of mine so if you guys know it i want you to be singing and i want you to be doing the hand motions if you know those as well so follow along here we go all right you ready oh let it shine till jesus comes up all right great job everybody hello everybody we're gonna be singing jesus's love is bubbling over and every time we sing and once we sing the song once we um are gonna take one word out and put a sound in its place so if you know it please sing along one two three jesus love is love is ah um uh you
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.