Home for Christmas: Make Room for Jesus in Our Hearts

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Check out Virtue, our website for Christian women.

Go to harvest.org forward slash virtue. Pastor Greg Laurie points out we need to make room for Jesus, not only in our nativity sets, but in our hearts. Effectively, Jesus is saying, mi casa su casa. My house is your house. Make yourself at home. It's something we often say to guests.

Hey, make yourself at home. And their presence in our homes brings us certain blessings and benefits. Well, today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out that when Jesus makes himself at home in our hearts, we'll notice. We'll see what kind of difference it makes in how we live our lives for the Lord. It's the first message in a series of presentations for the Christmas holidays.

It'll help us focus where we should. All right, well, grab your Bibles and turn to John 14. The title of my message is Home for Christmas. I heard about a couple who had been married many years, and their adult kids had moved out of the house and had their own families. And so the husband and wife wanted the kids, who live now out of state, to come and visit them for Christmas. So they invited them, and both children said, we can't come. So the father called up his son, who was living in New York City, and he said, son, I have bad news. Your mother and I are divorcing. The son called his sister with the bad news about their mom and dad, and then the father got a call from both of their children, and they said, don't do anything.

We'll be there tomorrow. So the father hung up the phone, and then he went into the kitchen where his wife is making dinner, and he said, honey, good news, the kids are coming home for Christmas. And best of all, they're paying their own way. Right. So you know, when we think of the holidays, we think of home. There's all those Christmas songs like there's no place like home for the holidays. I mean, just think of all of the songs with the word home in them. Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Take Me Home, Country Roads, John Denver, Homeward Bound, Simon and Garfunkel, Please Come Home for Christmas, The Eagles, and that heartwarming Christmas song, Take Your Whiskey Home by Van Halen. Maybe that's why Loretta Lynn sang, don't come home a-drinkin' with lovin' on your mind.

Well, I think maybe he did come home with whiskey and lovin' on his mind, and that's why The Beatles wrote, she's leaving home. So anyway, but I don't know what you think about when you hear the word home. You know, honestly, for some, reuniting with family can be troublesome and difficult, and there's a lot of conflicts maybe that are there, and every family has a few strange family members. The hard thing to accept is that you might be the strange family member in your family, but when I grew up, I didn't really have a home. I lived in a house here, an apartment there. Sometimes we lived in a hotel room as I ran around with my mother with all of her marriages and divorces.

And so my mom was gone pretty much every night, so I went out and got my own dinner. I went to a place called The Snack Shop, later to be called Coco's. Now it's called Ruby's, where I used to go, and I would get the same thing every night, a hamburger, fries, and a vanilla shake. Funny thing, when I go to In-N-Out Burger, I still order that today.

I'm really fixated on it. And I remember I'd tell my friends at school what I did every night, and they'd say, you are so lucky, man. We have to go home and sit at the table with our family, and you get to go out and have a hamburger and a fries and a shake.

You know what? But I wanted their life. I wanted a family structure, and sometimes I would even go over to my friend's home just to see what it was like to have a family meal, and I didn't even like their food. But I remember one point in Christmas memory where it was Christmas Eve. I was probably around 12 years old.

We had one of those white artificial trees, and we had one of those little colored lens things that turned slowly, and the light came through it on the fake Christmas tree. My mom was passed out from drinking. The house smelled of stale smoke and booze, and as a 12-year-old, I sat there thinking, it's got to get better than this. And it did get better.

It got better when I asked Christ to come into my life, and the course of my life changed. And then it got even better than that when I met Kathy, and we got married. And we had a house together, and it was a home. It wasn't a fancy home. Our furniture was threadbare, most of it from the Salvation Army. But we raised our two sons up to love the Lord, and for the first time in my life, I understood what the word home actually meant.

It was a positive thing, not a negative thing. And I think you can have a beautiful house and not have a home. On the other hand, you can have a very simple structure you live in, but it's a beautiful home. I think of an occasion when I was called to visit a family because the mother had taken her own life. They lived in a beautiful gated community with an ocean view, and tragically, this lady had taken her life behind the wheel of her luxury car in her garage. She left neat little notes to every member of the family.

As I sat there looking around, everything was in its place. It was decorated beautifully, and I thought, this is a house, but it's not a home, and it's a sad home. Then I think of a number of years ago when I went to Ethiopia, and I visited a pastor there.

I was speaking at a pastor's conference. He invited me to his home. He didn't have carpet. He had dirt, and he didn't have a stove. He had literally an open fire, and so he made us some food, which I was a little reluctant to eat, to be honest with you. But I prayed, Lord, help, and I'm not going to say no to this gentleman offering a meal, and he even brought me a glass of milk that he got from his cow that he just milked. I saw him milk the cow, put it in the garden.

That's fresh, but a little scary, kind of used to getting it in cartons. I don't know what to say. Everything was great, though, and I thought, this isn't much of a house, but it certainly is a home, and it really comes down to what is going on in that home. Well, when Jesus walked this earth, he really had no home. You could technically say that Jesus Christ was homeless. He even said, birds have nests and foxes have holes, but the Son of Man, speaking of himself, has nowhere to lay his head. But in heaven, Jesus had the greatest of all homes, because in John 14, where I asked you, did I tell you to turn to John 14? Okay, good. Well, he says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, though where I am, you may be also. A better translation of this statement from our Lord would be, in my Father's house are many rooms. The phrase, my Father's house, suggests an estate, spaciousness.

I guess think Downton Abbey or something like that, a big spread. But then he says, in my Father's estate, or in my Father's house are many rooms. Rooms suggest coziness, a private space. Effectively, Jesus is saying, mi casa su casa, right? My house is your house, which brings me to my first point. Jesus left his home in heaven so you could have a home in heaven. Jesus left his home in heaven so you could have a home in heaven. You know, we've so romanticized the Christmas story, and by romanticized, I mean we've sort of taken away the reality of it, and put a lot of sentiment into it, but let's not miss the simple fact that God Almighty came to this earth and was born in a stable, in a manger, surrounded by animals in very unsanitary conditions.

That does not diminish the Christmas story for me. It enhances it to realize all that God left when he came to this earth to be born among us. Again, Jesus left his home in heaven so we could have a home in heaven. Number two, Jesus left his home in heaven to make a home in your heart. Jesus left his home in heaven to make a home in your heart. Or another way to put it, he was born so you could be born again.

Or as C.S. Lewis put it, quote, the Son of God became a man that men might become sons of God, end quote. And that would include women, of course, as well.

But this is the whole point. When Jesus comes into a person's life, he takes residence in their heart. Some would say, well, I don't know if it's really biblical to say, ask Jesus into your heart. I actually think it's very biblical, because Jesus said over in John 14, 23, if anyone loves me, he'll keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Also, John 1-12 says, for as many as received him, he gave them the right to become children of God. Again, Jesus left his home in heaven to make a home in your heart. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. To be ministered to every weekend.

Join us for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. Today, Pastor Greg is kicking off a short series of messages to help prepare our hearts for the holiday. Today's study is called Home for Christmas. Point number three, when Jesus is at home in your heart, you will be at home in the church. When Jesus is at home in your heart, you will be at home in the church. Remember, Jesus at the age of 12 was in the temple.

And what did he call it? My Father's house. Reminding us that the church is a family. In fact, the first time I really felt at home was when I was in a church with fellow Christians. And many times the word home and church are linked together. David wrote, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Or another translation, I have a home in the house of the Lord forever. So, think of this as a family, because it is a family. And when families get together, what do they generally do? Well, they often have a meal together. A healthy and happy family will eat together.

And that's what we do every time, pretty much, we have a service here. We have a meal, but our meal happens to be the word of God. Job 23, 12 says, I've treasured his words more than my daily food. Just as you need food on a plate, or in your lap if you're going takeout.

You need that physical food. You also need spiritual food each and every day. And you know, the early church feasted on the word of God.

The Bible says they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, the breaking of bread, and in prayers. And so, it is here feeding on the word of God that our family is strengthened. We develop friendships that last a lifetime. Marriages, too. I can think of a number of people that have met, oh, so many over the years at church. Now they're married. Now they have children.

Some of them are even older, and they're grandparents. And so, it's wonderful to see generation after generation meeting the Lord, but also meeting one another in church. Another thing that a healthy family does is they pray together. You've heard the phrase, the family that prays together, stays together.

Did you know there is data to support that statement? Studies have been done that have revealed when a family takes time for prayer together, those families are far more likely to stay together in the days ahead. So, praying with your spouse, praying with your children. It's fine to pray by yourself, and you should, but you should pray with other believers.

Why? Because Jesus said in Matthew 18, 19, I tell you, if two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. So, when you come with a burden, and you see a fellow Christian, it's a good thing to say, hey man, would you pray with me about this right now? I am sick, and I need to be healed. And in that case, you should ask for the leaders in the church to pray for you as well.

Because the Bible says, is anyone among you sick? Let them call for the elders of their church to pray for him, and anoint him with oil for the effectual fervor of a righteous man will avail much. But also, it's bearing one another's burdens.

It's praying together, and such a great thing to do. Acts 12 has a story of Simon Peter thrown in prison. And we read this simple verse, Acts 12, 1. Constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.

There's a lot of truth packed into that simple verse. First of all, constant prayer. They prayed with passion. They prayed with persistence. Was offered to God for him by the church. They prayed together. They understood the power of corporate prayer.

And the prayer was offered to God himself. And you know, really, we are a family. And in many ways, you can have a closer bond with fellow Christians than you even have with your biological family. Or sometimes we call our blood family. But is this not your blood family? Because we've been bought with the blood of Jesus Christ. So we really are a blood family here as well.

So here's the thing, though. As we gather together as a family, we want to continue to reach out to those who are outside of our family. We want harvest to be a loving place for hurting people. We want it to be a safe place for sad people. We want it to be a place for unsaved people to become saved people.

This is something we want to do. We want to reach people that don't know the Lord. Because as I've often said, the church is not a museum for saints. It's a hospital for sinners. We want people to come here and find God.

That's why we're here, among other reasons. I recently received an email from a man named Martin. He has a very interesting story.

Here's what he said in his letter. Dear Greg, I was a practicing Muslim for 17 years. I prayed five times a day. I fasted during Ramadan, and I followed the tenets of the faith to the letter. But I decided to attend services at Harvest on Easter. It was then that I made the decision to accept Jesus Christ, and I felt the power of the Holy Spirit as I never have before. Pastor Laurie, I'm not giving the lion about these things.

I'm telling you, I really felt something, a physical and mental sensation. And then I decided to go one step further and get baptized the following Sunday. I love this guy. So he comes to Christ on Easter Sunday, shows up the next Sunday, and gets baptized. I know people who have known the Lord for years who haven't been baptized yet.

This guy says a week seems about the right time, and he gets it done. Fantastic. And he says, and I was raised out of the pool. I felt a tremendous burden lifted from my shoulders. I felt the Holy Spirit so strongly in the ever-loving presence of Jesus Christ.

I never felt this way in Islam. I know this is where I need to be. And I can say with an insurmountable expression of inner joy that I am now a Christian.

Thank you so much. Isn't that great? So we want to continue to be a light in our community. Now, as a family, we have a house. Now, God does not live in a house because the heavens can't contain him, the Scripture says.

He lives inside of us. We now are the temple of God. But as a congregation, we meet in a house, if you will. We meet in a building that we sometimes call a sanctuary. And just like your home, your house, our building needs maintenance. I mean, if you've ever been at your home, something breaks.

You fix it, right? And as we come to the end of a year, I hope that you will all give generously. You know, we believe that when God guides, God provides, right? But that doesn't mean that money just rains out of heaven. God guides and provides.

God provides for his people to provide through his people to reach other people. But sometimes we miss the joy of giving. And Christmas is a time of giving, is it not? I heard about a husband and wife who had been married many years, and they went Christmas shopping. And he wasn't real excited about that idea.

Most men aren't, actually. And that's why you see them out shopping on Christmas Eve, wandering around aimlessly looking for things to buy. So he was shopping with his wife, and he sort of disappeared. And she wondered where he went, so she called him on his cell phone.

Where are you? He says, sorry, I left. You remember that jewelry store we went to ten years ago? And there was that beautiful diamond necklace. And you said you wanted it, and I told you I couldn't afford it. She said, yes.

He says, well, I'm in the donut shop next door to that. Wow. Come on.

Talk about missing your moment, huh? And we can be so busy buying gifts for everyone we kind of miss the memo where the Lord says to us to bring our ties and our offerings into the storehouse. And here is the thing that we have seen, and I have told you this before. Ten percent of an average congregation do most of the giving. And I thank God for that ten percent, but I wonder what is going on with the other ninety percent.

We can be generous and say twenty percent give most of the finances, but what about the other eighty percent? You know my question for you is are you a thermometer or are you a thermostat? A thermometer just tells you what the temperature is.

Thermostat sets the temperature. You know are you a world changer or is the world changing you? And so I think the idea is I want to be a part of what God is doing in investing in the work of His kingdom. Listen, God doesn't want your money. He wants His money.

The problem is He has given it to you to manage for Him. And far too often we think it is mine. I own this.

This is my this and my that. Well, maybe in one sense it is, but of course you will leave it all behind one day. But if you want to get real technical and theological you belong to God. Because the Bible says you are not your own.

You have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God with your body. So as we come to the end of this year I am hoping that some of you who are on the 90% will step into the 10% and help us to finish strong. Pastor Greg Laurie with a good reminder of how our resources ultimately come from the Lord and he has an idea of how we should use them. Good insight today here on A New Beginning. And we hope you will pray about how you might use some of the Lord's resources to help keep Pastor Greg's teaching coming your way each day here on A New Beginning.

This broadcast is completely listener supported. Without listener donations we just couldn't be here. And we are so thankful for your generosity. You know Pastor Greg we hear about the lives that are touched every day here on A New Beginning. They write to us, they call us and their stories are just so moving.

In fact take a listen to this. Pastor Greg, I listen to you every morning on my way home from dropping my husband at work. And I have got to say you have helped me through my hardest times.

I have a little boy with moderate autism and I lost my mom to cancer a year ago. My soul has been so heavy every day. But you have helped me realize that God is who I need more than anything.

Thank you for helping millions of people just like me. Well we are just so thankful to God that we can be of some help to this lady with her challenges that she is facing with her mother who went to be with the Lord and her child. And you know our hope is just to point people to the word of God because we all get down, we all get discouraged. So as you know every day we open up the word of God and every day we call people to Christ. We encourage believers to turn to Him like the lady that we just heard from. And we call non-believers to believe in Him because Jesus is the answer.

No matter what your question is Jesus is the answer. And we are thankful to be able to do that for the lady we just heard from. And we are thankful to do it for you each and every day. So I am going to encourage you to give a generous financial gift to Harvest Ministries so we can finish this year strong and get ready for the opportunities that are before us next year. We have unprecedented opportunities coming our way to expand our ministry around the nation and the world. And the way we can respond to these is if you join with us in prayer and with your giving.

And then we can go into new areas we've never been in before. And it's my way of saying thanks to you for investing in our ministry. I would like to send you a DVD copy of our cinematic crusade that hopefully you saw. And if you haven't seen it you can see it now.

We call it A Rush of Hope. A beautiful film that we made in cooperation with the Irwin brothers that present the gospel in a compelling, artistic, and powerful way. This is going to be a great tool in your hands to reach out to your neighbors, to your family, and the people that you care about. So whatever you can send will rush you your copy of A Rush of Hope, the DVD.

And thanks in advance for whatever you can do. Yeah, that's right. And we hope you'll get in touch today so we can get this DVD on its way to you. And by the way, in addition to the DVD, it comes with a digital download code so you can watch it online right from your computer or tablet or smartphone. That way you can take it with you and share it with a friend.

It's a cinematic crusade right in your pocket or purse. So write us today at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime 24 hours a day. Again, dial 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to Harvest.org. Well, next time, as Pastor Greg continues with good encouragement for the holidays, he'll take us to the book of Romans for what he calls the real message of Christmas. Tune in next time for A New Beginning. This is the day, the day when life begins The preceding message from Greg Laurie was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for Pastor Greg's free daily email devotions at harvest.org.