The sermon encourages students to focus on the true meaning of Christmas by examining Luke 2:7, where Jesus is born and laid in a manger. Matt compares the crowded scene of Jesus' birth with modern distractions, using a personal anecdote from a crowded Formula One race to illustrate the point. The core message is to 'make room for Jesus' in our hearts during the busy holiday season, emphasizing the importance of understanding Jesus as God in human flesh, born of a virgin, and placed in a humble manger.

00:00 Introduction: Finding Focus in the Crowds

00:12 A Personal Experience at F1

01:23 The Crowded Scene in Luke 2:7

04:27 The Importance of Making Room for Jesus

06:46 Understanding Jesus as God in Human Flesh

09:44 The Miracle of Jesus' Birth

13:03 Jesus Laid in a Manger: Humility and Sacrifice

17:05 Consequences of Not Making Room for Jesus

24:10 Final Thoughts and Prayer

We're going to look at a scene in this verse as you're turning to

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Luke 2 7 where there's, there's a very

crowded area and there's going to be a

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lot that's, that's going on that we got

to, we got to cut through the clutter and

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focus on what's, what's really cool here.

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And I had a bit of a similar

experience where I was at a place

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where it was insanely crowded.

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Um, in 2021, I got to go to

Circuit of the Americas, which is a

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racetrack down in Austin, and they

were hosting a Formula One race.

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Formula One is just basically one

of the coolest racing organizations

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on the face of the planet.

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And this was truly a once in

a lifetime experience for me.

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It's miles of track.

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There are only, there are over 750,

000 people there that, that weekend.

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And it was an event that

spanned over, over three days.

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And again, miles of track, but

throughout everything you've got

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almost a million people just milling

about going to different areas

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and seeing different exhibits and

getting different food and buying.

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Merch from the place.

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I mean, it was, I felt like I was in a, in

a pack of sardines or something like that.

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Like it was, it was tight.

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It took us over four hours to get out of

the parking lot after, after the race.

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I mean, literally just sitting there

waiting for, waiting for cars to move.

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And I was like, it wasn't even

getting back here to Dallas.

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You know, that was another couple hours.

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It was four hours trying to

get out of a parking lot.

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Imagine doing that.

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That was not that much fun.

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Um, but again, we're going to look here

at Luke 2 7 for another scene that's,

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that's very crowded and in, in the crowds

and in everything that was happening,

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it's very easy to, to lose sight of

what's actually important, which is

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we're, we're sitting in turn one, which

is where all the fun stuff happens.

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We got a good seat, um, where we

set our stuff down on the hill

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and we were like, all right, we're

just going to, we're going to camp

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out, we're going to enjoy this.

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We're not going to let how crowded

and how busy everything is distract

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from what we came here to see.

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I think we're going to find a

similar message in this passage.

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So by way of that long

introduction, I'm hoping we've had

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enough time to get to Luke 2 7.

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And we're, like I said, we're

just looking at one verse tonight.

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So Luke 2 7, you can read along with me.

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It says,

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And she gave birth to her firstborn

son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths

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and laid him in a manger because there

was no place for them in the inn.

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And this is, a Christmas sermon.

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And most of this stuff that we're talking

about here with, there's the birth

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of Jesus, and he's wrapped in these,

in a swaddle, and he gets put in a

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manger, and there's no room in the inn.

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We're all, we're all super familiar

with this story, I imagine.

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And so that, that means that because of

our familiarity, we can really struggle

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to wrap our minds around how important.

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Hm.

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All of this is here.

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What's actually being said here,

because we just know about it.

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We struggle to grasp how impactful

it is to us, and I think this is

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really important because Christmas

is a season that's designed to

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celebrate Jesus and to focus on him.

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We're celebrating his birth and his,

his advent, as we say in Christianity,

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as we're his, his first coming.

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And the danger with having all

of this busyness is that if.

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If you miss Jesus during Christmas,

if you're looking at all of the other

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stuff that's going on, and you, like,

all the pomp and circumstance, and

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all the fun things, and if you miss

Him during Christmas, it's gonna be

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very easy for you to miss Him forever.

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Again, in a season that's designed

to worship Him, and to celebrate Him,

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and to focus on Him, if we let our

hearts get crowded with other things,

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and we miss worshiping Him, it's going

to be very easy for us to not be able

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to focus on Him when there's not a

holiday, when it's not exactly in season.

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And so that's why I want in this

Christmas sermon to go over some of

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these important things that we see in

this verse so that we can give special

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attention to it because I don't want

us to miss Jesus during this season.

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Again, I'm going to key in on a

specific phrase here that's going to

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frame the entirety of this message.

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And if you If you look here, it's

something that, again, you've heard

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of before, but it's this phrase that

there's no place for them in the inn.

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There's no room.

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There's no space that they have.

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And the idea that I want us to key in

on is, I don't want our hearts during

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this season to look like Bethlehem,

or like the racetrack that I was at a

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couple years ago, where it's so busy.

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And has so much going on in it that

we can't actually focus on the main

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thing, the super critical, super

important thing that's happening.

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We got to make room for

that reality to take root.

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And that's, that's point number one.

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Again, I'm cheating because I got four

sub points, but there's only one main

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point that I want you to have tonight.

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And it's just this, make room

for Jesus, make room for Jesus.

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If there's anything that you

remember about this sermon, it's

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just this, make room for him.

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And what do I mean by, by make room?

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And we talk about there, there's, there's

no space, there's no room for them in,

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in the inn for Jesus and his family.

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I think the idea of making room, like

if you think about, like if you go

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to a barbecue or something like that,

and you, you go to the front of the

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line for like a buffet type thing,

they got all of the fix ins, and you

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just like see the salad at the front.

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And then you're like, no, I'm not

loading my plate up with that.

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You know, like who even wants that?

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And you go and use Mac and

cheese, baked beans, brisket ribs.

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You just fill your plate up

with stuff that you love.

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You fill your plate with

stuff you care about.

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And then, you know, you

go, you eat all of it.

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You come back for dessert and

you never touch the salad.

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Right.

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Cause like no one wants

salad on your, on your plate.

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You're going to make room

for the stuff that you love.

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You're going to make room for

the stuff that you really want,

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that you really care about.

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You're going to give

special attention to it.

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And in this case, making room for Jesus,

there's that idea of giving special

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attention to Him during this season, of

submitting to Him, of putting your faith

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in Him, of entrusting yourself to Him.

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There's a lot of different synonyms

for this that I can use, but that's

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the core of what we're going for.

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So let's take a look at a couple of the

ideas that are present in this passage

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that I want us to keep track of, that

again, you're probably familiar with.

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But I really want us to take time to

think about these realities and have

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them make room in our hearts so that

they're not overcrowded and busy with

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all of the other stuff that's going on.

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Because we don't want to miss Jesus

during this season when he's celebrated.

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So sub point A, when we're making

room for Jesus, we got to make

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room for Jesus, God in human flesh.

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Make room for Jesus, God in human flesh.

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That's one of the things that's

going on in this passage.

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So.

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Go ahead and look back at it.

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I'll put it up here on the screen

so it's easier for you to see.

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And it says that she gave birth to

her firstborn son and wrapped him in

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swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger.

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Notice all the words that

I highlighted up here.

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So, Mary, Jesus mom,

physically gives birth.

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Jesus is a firstborn son.

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She wraps him.

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And then she lays him down.

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You might be like, okay, we

know, we've heard this before.

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Like, I get it.

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It's obvious.

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Like, you just basically

read the passage again.

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But it's really important to think

about because if you've ever watched

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Star Wars, have you ever seen this?

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That Princess Leia, when she's

the holograms, help me Obi Wan

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Kenobi, you're my only hope.

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She's not like physically

embodied at this point.

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It's a hologram of her.

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You could swipe it and she'll go away.

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Like, it's not anything of

physical substance, right?

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And that's what's really important because

in this passage, we have to understand

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that Jesus is actually a real person.

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He's not a hologram.

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He doesn't appear to be

having a physical body.

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He doesn't just look like

he's living in space and time.

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He just, he doesn't just look

like a baby that you were

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looking like, Oh, is that a baby?

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And then you like go swipe over him and

you're like, Oh, it's a hologram of Jesus.

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Like.

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It's God in human flesh,

that this is real.

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Again, he's firstborn.

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He's a son.

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But the point is that this baby born

in a manger, though being totally

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real, is not like everyone else.

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He's truly God, and he's truly man.

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He's not under the curse of sin,

and yet he's in this manger crying.

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Thank you.

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with the pangs of hunger

and of being tired.

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He's reliant upon his mother and

his father to take care of him.

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Again, we need to make room for this.

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We need to understand that for God

to come in human flesh, to be the

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one who walks the earth in our place.

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As you've heard us talk about so much

in this ministry, the only one qualified

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to take our place, to take on our

sins and our wrath has to be a real.

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physical person, not a hologram,

not just an idea, but God in

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human flesh, truly God, truly man.

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We have to make room for this.

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We need to really contemplate this.

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Again, it's God in flesh crying

with the pangs of hunger and

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tiredness, but not just that.

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We need to make room for Jesus

born of a virgin as well.

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We need to think about this as Jesus.

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If you look back at the text, you'll

see it says, and she gave birth, right?

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That's what we've, I've already read this,

but she being married, I think we're all

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familiar with that, but she gave birth

like physically and really gave birth.

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And you might be like, okay, cool.

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What's so special about that?

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Well, this is, this is a miracle.

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This is very plainly

and obviously a miracle.

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I mean, I think we make a lot of.

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exceptions for what we

consider miracles today.

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Like we just look at stuff

that's kind of cool that happens.

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We're like, Whoa, that's such a miracle.

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I don't know if you've ever seen

videos of like celebrities surprising

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their fans and how they're all just

like, Whoa, like this is so awesome.

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This is like so life changing.

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This is so miraculous that I got to, I

got to meet Harry Potter or whatever.

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You know, it's, I mean, if I can be

that excited seeing Harry Potter, that'd

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be pretty sweet, but I don't know.

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So.

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We look at stuff that's kind of

common, and we can say that it's

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super miraculous, but you know

what would actually be miraculous?

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If you were like, actually,

you're gonna meet Beethoven.

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You're gonna meet Kobe.

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You're gonna meet these celebrities,

and you're like, um, problem with

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that, they're not exactly alive.

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That would be kind of tough if you were

gonna, if you were gonna meet them.

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But if you said, no, I promise,

I've got them in the flesh, raised

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from the dead, alive 100%, you're

like, that's an absolute miracle.

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That would be life changing

to know someone that has come

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back from the dead like this.

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The nature of Christ's birth, that he's

born of a virgin, of someone that hasn't

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had a relationship with a man to produce

a baby, that he's divinely given by God

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into Mary's womb, this is a true miracle.

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You see, Christ is born in these

miraculous circumstances as a

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divine stamp of approval saying,

he's the one who's qualified.

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He's God in flesh.

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But it also shows us that there are no

lengths that God would not go to, to save

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us and to love us and to care for us.

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That he comes in flesh and he doesn't,

he doesn't say, nah, I'm too good to

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be born to this probably teenage girl.

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I'm too, I'm too good for that.

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But he gets the stamp of approval.

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We need to really consider what this

means that God will go to such extreme

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lengths to solve our sin problem.

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That this baby is born in miraculous

circumstances, and that he does

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miraculous things, and ultimately

deals with our sin on the cross.

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Again, Christ's birth being something

where he is born to walk a life of

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suffering in our place, and then to

die in our place, and to rise again.

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Amen.

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We need to consider that His

miraculous origin shows the love of

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God that He would be sent for us.

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The next thing that we need to

see in this passage, that we need

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to make room for, that we need to

ponder in our hearts, we need to

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make room for Jesus laid in a manger.

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Make room for Jesus laid in a manger.

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So you can see here, you see

that there's a really genius

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way of interpreting this text.

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Like when you, when you look at

it, you see that it says, That

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he was laid in a manger, you just

say, yeah, he was laid in a manger.

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Like, it's just, it's just there.

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Right?

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It's not genius at all.

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It's actually, I'm just reading

the, reading the passage, you know?

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But I think this is really important

because, again, we've talked

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about, okay, Jesus is God in flesh.

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We've talked about, he's got this,

this divine stamp of approval.

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That he's, he's the king

and all of this other stuff.

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That he's born in a miraculous way.

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But, this isn't a fairy tale birth.

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This isn't like, okay, like sweet sound.

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The trumpets, God is here.

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This is so hype.

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We're all so excited.

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Like get, get everyone to

come in and, and celebrate.

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The land is going to have

a feast for weeks on end.

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No, there's no, there's

no fairy tale in this.

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There's not pomp.

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There's not circumstance,

but it's actually,

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it's actually very humble.

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It's not what we would

expect from someone.

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with this type of royalty.

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And I think we, you probably know

what a manger is, but I put a

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picture on here just so we could

really, like, think about it.

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Because I don't know about you, but

I would A, not want to sleep in that

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myself, and B, I would definitely

not want to put my baby in one.

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This is literally where pigs

and other animals, they just,

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they just eat out of it.

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You just pour a bunch of slop in there

and they're like, go eat that, you pigs.

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And that's what they do.

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And there's literally no room

for the son of God to lay his

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head except for, for here.

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And that's how he's

breaking into the world.

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He's taking his first cries

as a human being among cattle.

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And though, though he's laid in this

feeding trough as being truly God

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born miraculously, we can see that.

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from Jesus being laid in a manger

that he refused to exercise his

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privileges for our good, right?

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He could have been born to the daughter

of some elite businessman, right?

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Maybe the high priest of, of, of

ancient Israel could have been

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born to Caiaphas's daughter.

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That would maybe make a lot more

sense for the son of God, right?

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To be born to someone who's well

educated and well respected.

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But we see that The Son of God is laid

in a manger that He associates with us

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at our most humble and our most low.

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I mean, I'm guessing none of you

have probably spent the night

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in a manger, I'm just guessing.

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And so in that sense, Christ is

identified with the poorest and the

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most needy among us and shown that He is

gentle, that He is lowly, that He does

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not despise those things, He doesn't

look down upon us in our weakness.

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But that he has truly entered into

it, that he understands any of the

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difficulties or the pains that we go

through suffering in this life because he

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himself was born and suffered in this way.

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Again, these are all things that

we need to make room for because

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we don't, it's so hard to take

time during this season to actually

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think about why this is important.

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Again, I probably haven't said anything.

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new to you tonight.

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You probably haven't heard anything

where you're like, well, I've

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actually never thought of that.

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Or my parents have never told me that,

or I've never heard Pastor Rod say that.

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But the point is not so much to give

you the knowledge, but to show you

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that you need to make room for this.

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You need to allow time for you

to think about this, to submit

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to it, to worship God for it.

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I think this is really important

because as we've said, um,

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This is very hard to do.

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And so I want to just think about

this as we get ready to close.

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I want us to beware the consequences

of refusing to make room for Jesus.

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I know that's a long point,

but that's the last sub point.

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Beware the consequences of

refusing to make room for Jesus.

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Again, we're And we're looking

at this, and we see that

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Bethlehem is just bustling.

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There's so much going on here.

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But the divine Son of God

breaks into space and time.

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That's what's going on in this

passage, that's the Christmas story,

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but Bethlehem is too busy doing

whatever it is they have to do to

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notice and to pay attention to this.

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And sometimes we're too busy.

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Or we don't care enough

to make room for Jesus.

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We hear the word preached on Wednesday

nights, or we hear it on Sunday mornings

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at church, but then we say, no, I, it's

cool for then, but, you know, I don't

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really need to make room for that.

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Like, I don't need to give

my heart space for that.

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And sometimes, We think that we

can give Jesus our leftovers and

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like, Oh, that's super generous.

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Like, that's so generous of me.

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I've just got so much fun stuff

going on during the holiday season.

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I've got, I've got all

these fun parties at school.

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I've got gifts to give.

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All of these, all these great things.

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I've got gifts to get too.

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That's one of the most fun parts, right?

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We're so busy with those things

and they fill up our hearts.

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But it's not, it's not because our

hearts are so big and everything else is

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just so wonderful that it's getting in.

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It's It's oftentimes because we're too

easily contented, that we're cool with

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all the stuff about Christmas until it's

like, okay, well, Jesus gets in my grill.

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I don't really want to think about that.

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That's, that's tough.

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Again, it's not that we have,

it's not that we have big hearts.

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It's that we have Grinch hearts, right?

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The whole point of the Grinch, since

he's all mad all the time is because

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he's got, he's got a heart that's

three sizes too small or whatever,

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probably three, two, three, two.

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Three would be worse, man.

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That would be a, that would be a tough,

that would be a way different movie,

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if it was even smaller than that.

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I mean, it's, it's, we have these

Grinch hearts because we don't, we

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don't want to bring Jesus into them.

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We're content with too little.

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Again, going to, going to F1 was a great

time, but let me tell you, that last

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day, so they have the races on Sunday.

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And we got there.

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It was for sure still dark out.

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It was probably like 4 30 in the

morning and we camped out on turn one.

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Literally nobody around us.

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Like I'm sunburnt to a crisp.

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I looked like a lobster

from the day before.

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I'm feeling terrible, but I'm

like, I gotta, I gotta enjoy this.

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Like I can't, I can't miss the race.

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And so me and all my buddies were

just hanging out there and it still

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upsets me to think about this.

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30 minutes before the race starts.

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We've been there for like

7 hours at this point.

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Literally sitting, occupying territory

on the hill like we're soldiers

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trying to hold the fort down.

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30 minutes before the race happens, a

guy shuffles through the crowd while

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we're all standing at this point because

the race is going to start soon, and

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he just stops right in front of me.

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Just like, I could not see a single thing.

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And I was so upset.

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I literally, I typically wouldn't

do this, but I tapped him.

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I was like, dude, can you move?

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Like what is, what is happening?

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And so, like a very nice man, he

scooched forward about that much.

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So I tapped him again.

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I'm like, dude, what are you doing?

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Like, we've been here all day.

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And he literally, he

literally looked at me.

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I'll never forget this because he

looked at me Bro, we're all just

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trying to do the best we can.

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And I was like, what kind

of a sentence is that?

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Like, you can, you can move forward.

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Like, you're literally standing in front

of my, I'm like, I'm not trying to watch

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the back of your head the whole time.

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I'm trying to, I'm trying to

watch these guys take the turns.

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And he barely moved.

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I just asked him, just make

a little bit of room, please.

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And he kind of refused.

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You see, in this, in this season,

I feel like sometimes we're like,

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we're like that guy when it comes to.

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Christmas.

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Like we've got the Christmas season.

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We've got the month of December.

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We've got Christmas music.

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We've got all of this stuff, but we're not

going to show up to see the main event.

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We're not going to show up to see

Jesus until right at the very end.

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Like we'll roll up on Christmas

Eve and we're like, yeah, I'm ready

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to, I'm ready to praise the Lord.

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Like this is going to be great.

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And we just, we show up at

Christmas Eve and we're like,

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okay, now I give him Christmas.

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And then like, boom, we're done.

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We got gifts.

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We're heading on to the new year.

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This is going to be great.

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And we don't.

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long for this.

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We don't actually make room beforehand.

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We don't get there and we don't

camp out in these realities.

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We don't really consider them for an

extended period of time and we show

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up kind of casually right before

we're supposed to celebrate this.

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And having that kind of casual approach,

like that guy who's going to show up to

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a race with 750, 000 people in attendance

a half hour before, if we have that

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mentality in Christmas and getting

ready to make room for Jesus, it's going

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to be really easy for us to miss Him.

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It's really going to be easy for

us to just get caught up in all

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the other things that we're doing.

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And like I said, if you miss Jesus

during Christmas, it's going to be

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very easy for you to miss Him forever.

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It's going to be so easy for

you to not dial into this.

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Because the whole, the whole

point of going to the racetrack

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was to watch the race.

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It wasn't to go to all of the,

the merch stores that were,

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Extraordinarily overpriced.

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Like when he's 200 for a

hoodie, like, what are we doing?

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And the whole, the whole point wasn't

like, Oh, I'm going to go check that out.

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And I'm going to, I'm going to see like

the, like the formula Z or whatever, like

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the worst of the worst driving around the

track, like the Saturday, the day before

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the actual race, like the whole point was

we're supposed to be there for the race.

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That's the point is if, if this is

what we're meant to look at, And

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we're going to content ourselves

with all these other things.

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It's going to be really hard for

us to get Jesus when we're not

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at the racetrack, so to speak.

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When we're not, when he's not

like the focus of the season,

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he's not the focus of our lives.

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And that's my, my main worry for us that

I hope that I've given you a couple of

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points to start thinking through is if, if

we miss Jesus when he's supposed to be in

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focus, how can, how can we be confident?

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that will respond to the

gospel some other time.

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The whole point is that at Christmas,

Christ is offered freely, and his

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story is told in its fullness.

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So if you miss him now, and if

you refuse to listen now, why

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would you bank on another time?

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The final thought that I want to

leave us with is this, that God

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gives us holidays for a reason.

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It's not just something that, you know, we

made up to make life a little bit better.

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We see throughout the Old Testament

that God gives holidays to the people of

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Israel where they remember the good things

that God has done and they celebrate

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his character and his acts and his

faithfulness throughout all of history.

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He gives us holidays so that we can

carve out time to reflect and to

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align our hearts and minds with him.

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He gives us time to dial back in,

to lose all of the clutter and just

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focus on Him, to make room for Him.

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And so I hope that you can take these

three points, these three sub points,

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and just kind of chew on them a little

bit, meditate on them a little bit.

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Think about why they're important.

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And that you can do that in the

time leading up to Christmas so

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that you can use this time wisely.

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Because you never age out

of making room for Christ.

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This is something that every single

Christian, regardless of their age,

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is doing and is working on doing.

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And maybe you need to make room for

Jesus for the first time this Christmas.

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But with all that being said, my prayer

for you all is that you use this holiday

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season to make room for the King of Kings.

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Let's pray.

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Our Father in Heaven, thank

you for sending Christ.

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Thank you for giving us hope.

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holidays that we can enjoy, and though

you've given us so many other components

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and parts of life to enjoy with the

holidays, I pray that we wouldn't let

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those overcrowd our hearts, that they

wouldn't be like Bethlehem, too busy to

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notice what's going on, or the reason for

why any of this exists in the first place.

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I pray that you would make our

minds attentive to your truth, that

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it would be something that would.

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Stir our affections that would change the

things that we care about, that they would

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make its way down into our priorities.

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All of that, God.

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And I pray that we would be

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weary or wary of the consequences of if we

get caught up in too much of those things.

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I pray that we would give you the

space that you deserve, God, to sit

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on the throne of our hearts this

Christmas season, and that we would

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be worshipping you and adoring you.

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In thought, word, and deed, Father.

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I pray these things in Jesus name, amen.