Welcome to PowerPoint with Jack Graham. You belong to God. You were made to know him. You may have wandered a long way from God, doing your own thing, living your own life apart from God, but God in Christ came looking for you. On today's PowerPoint, Dr.
Graham brings a message about how you matter to God no matter where you've been.
Now here's Dr. Graham with his message, a Christmas story. Again finding the 50th chapter of Luke.
So much of the Christmas Season is wrapped up in stories, and I enjoy the stories about Christmas, around Christmas. But of course, none of it would take place were it not. for the story of Christmas. The real story of Christmas. And if you were beginning a series in the Gospel of Luke, particularly on Christmas and the season of Christmas, you no doubt would turn to Luke chapter 2 because that's the Nativity story.
That's the story of the birth of Jesus, the announcement of his coming to the Virgin Mary and the birth of Jesus and when God came down and heaven exploded and angels sang and Shepherds worshiped and light has come and life is given. This is the incredible story, the amazing story of Christmas. The greatest event, the greatest experience in human history is when God came down in the person of Jesus Christ and firmly planted his feet on this planet. On a search and rescue mission for each one of us. And the story of Christmas is that story of God coming to seek and to save the lost.
In fact, you don't have to wonder why Jesus came, why all of this. Because in Luke 19 verse 6, he said, I have come to seek and to save that which is lost. to seek and to save that which is Lost. And this is the story. of Christmas.
All the religions of the world, all the philosophers have anguished as to how man can know God, how man can experience God, how man can believe in God, how man can get to God. And all religion and all philosophy ultimately is man's search for meaning, man's search for God. But the Christian faith is not man's search for God, but God's search for man. That God became a man, that He lived among us in order that He might reconcile us to God, redeem us as His own. Jesus made God knowable.
Jesus made God touchable. When you look into the face of a baby born in Bethlehem, you see the face of God.
So you would presume that a Christmas series would Cover Luke 2. But in fact, Luke 15 beautifully illustrates This great theme, this great truth. about Christ, about Christmas. That once I was lost But now I'm found. Once I was blind.
But now I see. Verse 1 of chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke.
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him. to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumble, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.
So he told them this parable. What man of you? Having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, Does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost. Until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost. Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need. No repentance. Or Second story. What woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?
And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and her neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me. for I have found the coin that I had lost. Just so I tell you. Jesus says. There is joy before the angels of God.
over one sinner. Who repents? Jesus would move on. to the more famous story of the prodigal son. or the prodigal sons because there were two sons.
Astrang's for their father. And that's the story of Christmas as well. The story of lost sheep. The story of a lost coin. And the story of lost sons.
It's all about Christmas. Lost. And found. And why these three stories? Because Jesus came.
Loving us because every person matters to God. Every person is treasured and cherished and loved by God, just like one sheep who had gone astray, just like one coin that was lost in the house, just like sons who had rebelled against their father, yet all. Precious.
Now let me give you a little background of this story. The Pharisees are lurking here. as Jesus is enjoying a meal with his friends. Tax collectors. and centers.
Tax collectors were typically extortioners and liars and thieves. despised. Sinners here is a general word, but these were the outsiders. These were sinful people. These are the bad people.
These were the people excluded from the religious system. from the religion of its day. And while Jesus is enjoying the company and associating with these sinful people, these outsiders, the Pharisees, the insiders, The religious Proud. They're grumbling. These guys were the original Grinches that tried to steal Christmas.
Because they're grumbling, they're grouching. They're grinching. And complaining, and they give, they hurl a very strong accusation at Jesus. And what was intended to be a strong criticism ends up being one of the most beautiful things you could ever say about our Lord. They said, this man eats with sinners and he is a friend of sinners.
Hallelujah. It's a good thing that Jesus ate with sinners or he would have eaten alone every meal. Because, whether religious or irreligious, every human being on the face of this earth. is a sinner. Separated from God.
And Jesus is the friend. of sinners and welcome these sinners.
Now, if you know that you're a sinner, say amen. Then good news. Jesus came to save sinful people. In fact, his name is Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Even though we deserve the wrath of a holy God because of our sinful rebellion, even though we have broken God's commandments and are separated from Him, He welcomes sinners.
He receives us to Himself. He is the friend of sinners. And the very thing that these Pharisees condemned, today we celebrate. That He included us. Sinful people.
and we are welcomed at his table. The stories that we will be sharing at this Christmas season, like Christmas itself, is to celebrate that truth. To celebrate. A God who loves us and gave Himself for us to redeem us, to reconcile us. Religion resists.
and puts people out. But Jesus invites us in. Jesus brings us Mm-hmm. People matter to God. Therefore, God celebrates and we all to celebrate every single one who comes home.
to him.
Now The problem in these stories is that people are lost. And to be lost is a bad experience.
So, Jesus. Talks about what it means to be lost, and he uses an illustration of a sheep here. One sheep that wanders away and in the wilderness is separated from the shepherd.
Now it is no compliment to call a human being A sheep. Because sheep are among the dumbest animals on planet Earth. They talk about directionally challenged. They'll just follow their nose anywhere. A clump of grass over here, a clump of grass over there, and before you know it, they're separated from the rest of the sheep.
They've left the shepherd behind and they're on their own and they're facing predators and dangers and they can't find their way back. And unfortunately, sometimes sheep will follow other dumb sheep. Does this sound familiar? You know, like one sheep is just going towards a cliff and the sheep looks over the cliff and said, Come on, gang, follow me. And the sheep jumps over the cliff and said, Come, follow me.
It's not so bad, you know, as they go down. And sheep are like that. Sheep are dumb animals. And then You know, sheep are defenseless. I mean, they're weak animals.
And it's dangerous. out there alone. Jesus said that's what it's like to be lost. In fact, in Isaiah 53 and verse 6, Isaiah 53 is the gospel according to Isaiah. And it's the Christmas story found in Isaiah chapter 53.
Verse 6 tells us, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've all turned to our own ways. But the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. Sheep get lost. They're weak.
They're defenseless. and they can't find their way home. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message: a Christmas story. We all know Christmas is right around the corner. During this Advent season, will you join Doctor Graham in preparing our hearts to celebrate the arrival of King Jesus?
If you're up for celebrating the reason for the season with us, just take your phone out and text the word ADVENT to 59789. Again, text ADVENT to 59789. We want to remind you that your support today will be doubled by a $250,000 matching grant to help ensure PowerPoint finishes the year strong. ready to reach more lives with the gospel in 2026. When you take advantage of this match, your generous gift will be worth twice as much to help proclaim the life-changing message of Jesus around the world through PowerPoint's TV, radio, and online outreach.
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Now let's get back to today's message, a Christmas story. In Jesus' Yeah, this other story. about a woman who had ten coins, probably a necklace. And one of the coins was lost. You know, if the sheep were lost naturally, because that's what sheep do, they just.
wander off. The lady lost the coin and the coin was lost. carelessly. It was right under her feet, but she couldn't find it.
So Jesus says, she tears the house upside down. Searching For this one coin. You know, it's possible. To wander away from God and go into the distance without Him.
Some of you have had that experience of abandoning your God and abandoning your faith. Wandering away from the shepherd and finding yourself alone. and alienated lost, disconnected from God. Others get lost right in the house. You're in church?
the church house every week, but Your heart is far from God. You can be lost at church.
Some are lost carelessly. You weren't born in a Christian home. Maybe you were abused, or maybe you were lost at the house, or maybe you were dropped through the crevices of life in some way. It doesn't matter your loss. And to be lost is a word that actually means, in the Bible, it means to be wasted.
But the story of Christmas is that God. Has made the connection by seeking after us, searching for us. He left. Heaven. Imagine that.
The God of glory who was worshipped by angels every day. Who is high and lifted up. The glorious God of the universe. stepped out of heaven. On a search mission, not a search and destroy mission.
but a search and give life mission. And he went after sinful people. Lost sheep. Lost coins. People who are lost.
Alone and alienated. And he goes after us to bring us back. to bring us home to him. That's the picture, of course, of the shepherd.
Now There are many shepherds in the Bible. When we go to Israel to this day, you can meet shepherds practicing their trade as it was 3,000 years ago. I've been in Bedouin tents in the Judean wilderness, and it's like stepping back in time. They're still herding their sheep and living like Abraham and the patriarchs. And David was the shepherd boy, and we honored the shepherd king, the great man David.
And of course, those shepherds that came to worship Jesus at the heralding of the angels when Jesus was born. Those shepherds were the first there. But to be a shepherd at the time of Jesus. That was a lowly, humble profession. Most shepherds were irreligious and outside the mainstream of Jewish culture.
So not a lot of people wanted to do it. It was a lonely and lowly job to be a shepherd. at the time of Christ.
So when the Bible tells us that Jesus is the good shepherd, when Jesus says, I am the good shepherd who gives my life for the sheep. It just Demonstrates just how far Our great God has come from the highest of the highest to the lowest of the low. To be a shepherd for us. to shepherd our souls. to bring us to God.
And this beautiful little story that Jesus tells of this shepherd who leaves the flock, the 99. And he goes at personal risk. to find this one lost little lamb, this one lost sheep. Jesus said, when he found him, he put him on his shoulders. I just love this picture of the strong back of our God.
And he Carried a bleeding, bleeding Herding broken sheep. Back to the flock. And it says when he picked him up. He rejoiced. A smile breaks out on his face.
He started singing all the way back. And when he gets back. To his neighborhood, he calls his friends and his neighbors in, and they have a party. And the party is to celebrate the one lost one who had come back home. And Jesus said, when one lost person comes back cherished by God.
Then all of heaven celebrates. Heaven starts a party. What's common between the one sheep and the one coin that was lost? Both were valuable. The coin may be a valuable necklace, maybe a part of the wedding dowry of this woman.
The one coin was precious. The sheep belonged to the shepherd. treasure, cherish, value. You belong to God. You were made to know him.
And he refuses to let you go. You may have wandered a long way from God, you may have been out there a long time. Doing your own thing, living your own life apart from God. You may have been carelessly. dropped through the crevices of life, but you're lost.
But God in Christ came looking for you. And he'll pick you up. And he'll carry you home. Because Jesus is the friend of sinners like you and me. He said, What you need to do is to repent because when one sinner repents, there's joy in heaven.
over those who refuse to repent. Just when one sinner repents, when one person like you or me repents.
Now what is repentance? Repentance means I was going one way away from God. I was wandering far away from God. But when I repent, I turn around. It's a change in direction.
I have a brand new direction. And now I start going in a brand new way. Repentance means it is confession of my sin. It is conversion of my life. I am a new direction.
My life is transformed. I am not the same. I'm a brand new person. If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things pass away.
Everything becomes new. That's repentance. It means to change your mind.
So I have a new direction. I have a new disposition. He changes my attitude. He changes my actions. I have a new dynamic.
Now Christ is living in me the power to live the life as God planned for me, and I have a new destiny. I was on my way to hell, unrepentant. But Jesus turned me around and now I'm on my way to him, on my way to heaven, repentant and full of faith. Zig Ziegler went to be with the Lord. He taught the encourager class here for nearly 20 years.
Faithful member, he and Gene, their family. Zig wasn't always a believer. Zig was not always a Christian. In fact, Zig was struggling in his life and his career and his marriage, and he was drinking too much, and he was going in the wrong direction. 1972.
He met an African-American woman in Nashville, Tennessee. Subsequently, That lady came to Zig and Gene's home here in Dallas. And on a weekend visit, Zig's life radically changed. I'm going to pick up the story in Zig's autobiography. That weekend, Sister Jesse.
Walked into our home talking about Jesus Christ. And for nearly three days, that's all she talked about. She spoke of his love and mercy for all mankind as the Son of God, and of the great sacrifice he made on the cross to save us from sin and death. To be brief, she made a very convincing and persuasive case for me to give my life to him. I listened intently as her words washed over me and was profoundly moved.
The truth of what she said found fertile soil in my heart and turned my life around. That's repentance. There was grace in our home that weekend. God was present and leading us. We went to bed reasonably late that Saturday night, and I had still not made my commitment to accept Christ.
Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, but what Sister Jesse said was weighing heavily on my mind. The next morning, when I awakened, I realized with awe and surprise that I was actually now. A different person. There were no bells or whistles, no flashes of light or crashes of thunder. But there was a new piece about me.
And I knew that I would never be the same old Zig Ziglar again. That beautiful clear July 4th night as I lay out In the darkness, I looked up into the heavens and praising God more than praying said, Lord, I know you put this big, beautiful universe together, and I know that one day you will take it all down. And at that precise instant, I saw a star fall and leave a small sparkling trail in the night sky. God impressed on my own mind that he was saying in so many words, that's right, boy, and don't you ever forget it. And I never have.
Look at this quote. On July 4th, 1972. Christ asked me to come to him and I did. And when I made the commitment to Christ, I became a new and better person. I left the old me and my former way of approaching life behind.
I wanted to be like Christ, to follow Christ, and to introduce others to Him, just as dear sister Jesse did for me that weekend. Zig went on to describe how God changed his life and his actions and his habits and how he began to put some things out of his life. He quit drinking was one of the things that God really convicted him about. He began tithing to his church when he joined the church and got faithful. He began sharing his faith.
These are all fruits of repentance. This is the act and the action of a man who has been lost but now found. And that's what Christmas is about. We must never forget that. As long as God gives us breath and God gives us life, He has given us a purpose, and that is to go to the least and the lost and the last.
with this message of life and salvation in Jesus Christ. Because people matter to God. And that's why Jesus came. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and The Message, a Christmas story. With just a few days left in 2025, We want to invite you to give a year-end gift to help ensure PowerPoint steps into the next year of ministry in the strongest position possible.
The good news is that a generous friend has provided a $250,000 matching grant, which means any year-end gift you give by December 31st will be doubled to take the life-changing message of the gospel to more people around the world, people searching for the peace only Jesus gives. Your tax-deductible year-end gift, doubled by the match, will take the message of peace in Christ into more homes, hearts, and lives than ever before. To give your gift, just text the word MACH to 59789. That's MACH to 59789. We all know Christmas is right around the corner.
During this Advent season, will you join Dr. Graham in preparing our hearts to celebrate the arrival of King Jesus? If you're up for celebrating the reason for the season with us, just take your phone out and text the word ADVENT to 59789. Again, text ADVENT to 59789. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?
Okay. All the religions of the world really are about man's search for God, man's search for meaning. But the story of Jesus, which is the Christmas story, is way different. It's about God coming to us and living among us, humanity. It's God seeking us out and giving us hope and love and grace.
The reality is, every single person on earth is lost apart from a relationship with God. Jesus uses the example of sheep walking away from their shepherd. And the prophet Isaiah writes that we all like sheep have gone astray. That you, me, all of us like sheep have wandered away. All of us were lost and separated from God because of our sins and the choices that we have made.
But God didn't leave us lost. He sent His Son, Jesus. He gave us His love. He gave us His Son so that we could be made right with God and spend a life of relationship with Him and eternity in heaven with Him. It's the message that is given so clearly in John 3.16.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. That's the Christmas message right there. God loves you. Jesus died for you. He rose again so that you may have eternal life.
You can know him today if you will trust him as your Lord and Savior. And I invite you to do that at this Christmas season. What a time. To say, Lord Jesus, I welcome you into my world. I welcome you into my life.
and receive you as my personal Savior and Lord. And that is today's PowerPoint. Today, if you prayed that prayer with Dr. Graham and accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, we'd love to hear from you so we can help you begin your new life with Christ. Please text the word Jesus to 59789.
That's Jesus to 59789. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about celebrating God's extravagant love for you. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.
