Deo Gloria
December 15, 2021
Advent Sermon
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: 2 Thessalonians 3:5
Theme: Open Before Christmas
– Open Your Heart!
Sarah was bitter. Her husband had been unfaithful to her. He had lied to her repeatedly. He had cheated on her—at least twice, that she knew of. And now he had left, left her to raise their three children by herself. Needless to say, every day was a struggle—working full time, preparing meals, doing laundry, doing dishes, helping the children with their homework. Every night she felt completely drained. Often times she sat on her bed and cried. How could he do this to her? How could he do this to their family? How could he be so heartless? There was a man at church, a single father who had lost his wife to cancer. He seemed to show some interest in her and her family at times, but Sarah was not in the least bit interested. You see, she had closed her heart. She was never, ever going to have a relationship with a man again.
As we conclude our mid-week Advent services tonight, I would like to encourage you to do the opposite of what Sarah did. Instead of closing your heart, I encourage you to open it. As you prepare for Christmas and the coming of our Savior, be sure to open your heart.
Before we go any further I want to get one thing straight. When I urge you to open your heart, I’m not speaking to unbelievers. I’m not speaking to people who do not know Jesus as their Savior. Unbelievers, of course, are not able to open their hearts. They don’t have that power or that ability. Only God can open a person’s heart and lead them to trust in Jesus as their Savior. No, when I say, “Open your heart,” I’m speaking to believers, people who do know Jesus as their Savior, people who do have the ability to open their hearts to what God is saying or close their hearts to what God is saying. And tonight I want to urge you to open your heart, because God has some wonderful news he wants you to hear.
There are two things in particular that can lead a Christian to close his heart or harden his heart to the message of God’s Word. One is heartache or heart-break. When you’ve been cheated on often enough, it becomes somewhat difficult to trust. When people have been unfaithful to you over and over again, it becomes somewhat difficult to believe that God is any different, that he is faithful. When you’ve experienced one heartache after another, one setback after another, one tragedy after another, it becomes somewhat difficult to believe that God really cares, that he actually does love you. And when a person has gone through something like that, the temptation for them is to close their heart, to become very callous and suspicious and skeptical even when it comes to God and his Word.
If this has been your experience, I encourage you not to close your heart but to open it. You see, God is not like that rotten, unfaithful husband of yours, who cheated on you and left you for some other woman. God is not like that rotten, no good father of yours who walked out on you when you were only 6 years old and broke your heart. God is faithful, always faithful. He always keeps his promises. “How do I know that?” you ask. Look at the manger in Bethlehem. There God kept his promise, a promise he had made thousands of years before, a promise he had made to you and to me and to all, a promise to send a Savior. And God kept that promise even though you and I were totally undeserving. Even though we have been unfaithful and broken our promises at times, God kept his promise. Even though we have been lousy fathers and mothers at times, God kept his promise. Even though we were naughty, little brats as children sometimes, completely undeserving of our parents’ love much less God’s love, God kept his promise. He sent a Savior, someone to rescue us from sin and death, someone to give us forgiveness for our sins and salvation for our souls. You can be sure that God is faithful. He will always keep his promises to you. Just look at the manger.
You can also be sure that he loves you. If you’re like me, one thing you often struggle with is what to get the neighbors for Christmas. I mean, you don’t know them that well. You don’t really know what they need or what they could use. Do you give them a plate of Christmas cookies, again? Do you give them a basket of fruit, or maybe a gift certificate? You know, one thing I’ll bet you never gave them is your son or daughter. In fact, I’ll bet that thought never even crossed your mind. You hardly know them. And besides, you love your children. They’re very precious to you. Even though they make you very frustrated at times, you wouldn’t give them up for the world.
Take another look at the manger. Take another look at the gift God gave you for Christmas. God didn’t give you a fruitcake. He didn’t give you a basket of cheese and crackers. He didn’t give you a gift certificate to Wal-Mart. He gave you his Son—his one and only Son, the most precious thing to him in the whole universe. He gave his Son for you and me to be our Savior. Can there be any doubt that he cares about you, that you are precious in his sight and dearly loved? As you prepare for Christmas, open your heart and let God remind you of his great love.
The other thing that can cause a Christian to close his heart to God and his Word is sin. You give in to temptation and indulge yourself in some sin. Over the course of time it becomes a sinful habit or a sinful lifestyle. At first, you feel guilty. You feel ashamed about what you did or are still doing. But as time goes along, you start becoming callous to those feeling and start closing your heart to God and his Word. When the Spirit convicts you in your conscience and urges you to turn away from that sin, you ignore it. When God warns you in his Word and urges you to turn away from that sin, you ignore it. When your Christian friends express their concern for you and urge you to turn away from that sin, you do your best to ignore them too. You push them all away. You close your heart to what your Lord is trying to tell you.
If this is your situation, if you’ve been ignoring God or doing your best to tune him out because you prefer playing around with sin or living in sin, then let me is ask you a question. Is that what you really want? Do you really want God out of your life? Do you really want sin and Satan running the show? Do you want sin controlling your life and eventually ruining your life, because that’s exactly what will happen? That’s what always happens. And beyond that, do you want sin and Satan to ruin your eternity? Do you want to spend the rest of forever separated from God and his love?
I didn’t think so. Then stop closing your heart and open it once again to God and his grace. It does no good to play games with God. He knows what you’ve been doing. He knows about your sins. Humbly and honestly open you heart and repent of your sins. Confess them to God and ask for his forgiveness. And then take another look at the manger.
As a parent, would you allow your son or daughter to go to jail if they were innocent? Would you allow them to be punished for crimes they had not committed? Of course not! You’d hire the best attorney you could find. You’d do everything you could to prove his or her innocence and see to it that those who were guilty went to jail. And yet, that’s exactly what God did. His Son was innocent. His Son never did anything wrong. And yet he allowed him to be punished. He allowed him to be beaten and whipped. He allowed him to be crucified for you and for me, for our sins, for the crimes we had committed, so that we might be spared. Do you see how much God loves you? Do you need anymore motivation to say no to sin in your life? Do you need anymore motivation to live a new life of gratitude and thanks to God? Open your heart. Let him fill it with his peace and forgiveness and let him turn your life in a new direction.
Are the best gifts you receive at Christmas the most expensive ones? No, the best gifts are the gifts you receive from those who love you. Even if it’s something simple like a plate of cookies or a tie or an ornament one of your children made at school, you love it and it warms your heart because it comes from those who love you. As you prepare for Christmas, I invite you once again to look at the manger and open your heart. God has a wonderful gift for you, a gift that assures you of his love and forgiveness and faithfulness. And then may that precious gift of his turn your heart and life in a new direction! May it direct your heart into the love of God! Amen.