What Does Your God Want for Christmas?

4th Sunday of Advent, 12/22/24 Hebrews 10:5-10 What Does Your God Want for Christmas? I. Not your endless sacrifices II. But the sacrifice of his Son “What do you want for Christmas?” You probably were asked that question weeks ago, if not months ago. And it originated with your loved ones. They were beginning their preparations for Christmas, and one of them was to make sure that they presented you with a Christmas gift. Being the practical people that they are, they didn’t want to present you with a gift that you didn’t want or need, so they came right out and asked you, “What do you want for Christmas?” And we get it. We tend to do the same. We’re aware that if we ask someone what they want for Christmas, to some extent we’re removing the element of Christmas gift surprise, but we’re practical people. We only have so much time and money. There may be a dozen or more people on our Christmas gift-giving list. If we’re going to attain some level of success in our Christmas gift-giving efforts, we’d like to know what the recipient wants. It’s simply much easier. Plus, it heightens the probability that the recipient will appreciate, enjoy, and make use of our gift to them. So, we come right out and ask them, “What do you want for Christmas?” This morning I’d like you to consider another individual, someone who isn’t likely on your Christmas list. And it’s someone who has everything and needs nothing. How’s that for an impossible person to buy for? But don’t dismiss this person out of hand. Don’t dismiss him because it’s the most important person in your life, or at least it should be. About whom am I speaking? Your God, that’s who. God? On my Christmas gift list? Hear me out. Perhaps you’ve never considered this aspect of your Christmas celebration before, but it’s important that you do. And it’s important that you do so before Christmas arrives in 2 days and is over in 3. Here’s what I want you to consider: What does your God want for Christmas? Never thought of it before? Well, you probably should, since he is or should be the most important person in your life. What does your God want for Christmas? Let’s ask that question as we take to heart these words of our text from Hebrews 10. I pray you’ll receive God’s Christmas peace and comfort and joy as you do so. I. As we begin to focus on the question, “What does your God want for Christmas?” I have a lead-in question to ask you. And it’s a question that human beings have been asking themselves for 1000s of years. And it’s not a question limited to inquisitive Christians; every “spiritual” person who has ever lived has asked it. Here it is: “What does god want from me?” No matter who god is for you, that question is at the very heart of your relationship with him. At the minimum, the answer human beings conjure up within themselves is that my god simply wants me to be good, or to be the best I can be, or to be better than other people are. If I am, then he will certainly accept me. At the ultimate, human beings have gone to the extreme in being certain that their god will be pleased if they offer him the ultimate sacrifice—either themselves or, the unthinkable, one of their children. And you know it to be true. There are religious fanatics who believe that their god will be pleased if they sacrifice themselves as an act of devotion to their god. Sacrificing something for our God is not part of our modern, Christian mindset, but it was a daily part of worship among God’s people of the Old Testament. In fact, God demanded that they be made. Think about that. Morning and evening every day, sacrifices were required. And in between those two daily points, the Jews brought countless sacrifices on every day but the Sabbath. God demanded them from his people. But God seems to do a “180” in our text, or at least the writer says he does. Listen once again to what he states about our God, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire.” So, which one is it? Did God want them or not? It almost seems as if he’s talking out of both sides of his divine mouth. Just what does God want? The writer here is making the point that the endless sacrifices of God’s people are not an end in themselves. In other words, it was never God’s intent for these sacrifices to go on day after day until the Last Day. His people could have offered him rivers of blood and mountains of animals, to no avail. God never intended for his people to think that simply the act of making sacrifices—even costly sacrifices—was what he was really looking for. And yet that’s what his people mistakenly thought and believed. They thought they were acceptable to him as his people simply because they slavishly complied with this daily act of sacrificing, over and over again. So, what does your God want? To state it seasonally…what does he want from you for Christmas? Well, not your endless sacrifices. At first, your less-than-sincere reaction might be, “Pastor, thanks for telling me that. Now tell me something I don’t already know.” We don’t bring our God sacrifices as our act of worship. None of us lugged a sheep or goat to church with us this morning, intending to hand it over to me so that I can burn it up on this altar. But now dig a little deeper inside. Isn’t there a question, at least occasionally, about what God wants from you? What does God expect from you daily? If I want to maintain my relationship with him, what do I need to keep on doing? Maybe we don’t even want to know. We try not to think about it. Or, even worse, we believe the lie we tell ourselves that whatever he wants from us, surely we are giving it to him. This word from our God tells us, “Stop it! Stop thinking you can sacrifice anything to me. Stop thinking you can offer me anything for Christmas that will help your relationship with me.” II. And that’s because Christmas isn’t about what we sacrifice for God; it’s about what God sacrifices for us. Our text states, “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: ‘Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘“Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.”’” Are you having a little difficulty sorting out this divine conversation? Allow me to help you. These words are quoted from Psalm 40, a psalm written by King David about the promised Savior. As such, it’s a fascinating psalm. In it, God uses King David to foretell the person and the work of the Savior even though the first Christmas wouldn’t occur for another 1,000 years. Incredible! And the point of these words is this: Christmas cost God his Son. Think about it for a moment. It’s as if you took the only child you have, handed him over to someone else, and told him that you were going to sacrifice your child’s life for that person. Let that thought sink in for a moment. That’s what Christmas is! This Child was and is God in human flesh and blood. That’s the astounding truth that Elizabeth and Mary were celebrating in today’s Gospel reading. They both realized that the children they were carrying were miracles of God—Mary’s a much “bigger” miracle than Elizabeth’s. And here’s another miracle—one that you share with them as you prepare to celebrate Christmas—they believed what the Lord had said to them about Mary’s child. He was the eternal Son of God now living and developing in the virgin womb of Mary. Astounding! But there’s more—much more. Our text quotes the very words of the unborn Child. He states, “I have come to do your will.” A simple sentence, but eternally astounding. The Son of God states that he enters our sinful world to do the will of his heavenly Father. Just what does that mean? It means it’s his deepest desire to come and place himself under God’s law to live a holy life for us. For the countless times we violate God’s law with our sins, Jesus obeyed it perfectly every time. And then to sacrifice himself. As New Testament Christians, we know about that sacrifice. It’s the very symbol of our Christian faith. It’s the cross. That’s where Jesus sacrificed himself—THE ultimate sacrifice which covered the sins of all people of all time. Who would do that? Which Father’s deepest desire would be to give sinful people his holy Son to sacrifice him for them? Which Son would not only consent to that will but make it his ultimate goal in life—to do the will of his Father in sacrificing himself? And get this—there’s nothing in it for either of them. They don’t get anything for themselves out of this ultimate sacrifice. But the whole sinful world does. We do. You do. So, back to our original question: What does your God want for Christmas? He doesn’t want endless sacrifices from you. What he wants is the sacrifice of his Son. Amazing! Are you tired today? Are you already worn out getting “ready” to celebrate Christmas? Do you still have an unmanageable list of things to do before the official Christmas bell rings this Tuesday afternoon, a little more than 48 hours from now? I understand. We all make sacrifices so that we can enjoy the celebration of Christmas with loved ones. Can I offer you some unsolicited spiritual advice? Just spend a minute or two several times over the next 48 hours and ponder the wonder of it all. Your God asks nothing of you. He demands nothing from you. Instead, he gives you the ultimate Gift—his Son, your Savior. Your Christmas isn’t what you make it; it’s what your God has already made it. In reality, you are on God’s Christmas list. You are what he wants for Christmas, for forever. And he accomplished it by sending you Jesus, the Child of Bethlehem, wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger. What your God wants for Christmas he already received. That’s what Christmas is. Let’s celebrate it! Amen.