Today I want to talk to you about a broken Christmas.
Acts chapter 3 verse 21 says, heaven must receive him Jesus until the time comes for
God to restore everything as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.
This is the time of the year in California where I live.
We put our best foot forward with the parties that we host, the houses that we decorate
and the gifts that we give.
Sometimes we get this right and other times we fall way short.
It's an optimistic time of the year.
It's a time of the year where there's a lot of fun.
It also has underneath it a deeper level of no matter how hard we strive to attain all
of the things that we want and work for in life, we rarely hit that goal of perfection.
The hope of God, the hope of Jesus, the hope of Christmas, the hope of the gospel revolves
around this one word, restore.
There will come a time for those of us who have put our faith in God when he will make
everything perfect.
Sometimes things on earth are perfect.
We have a perfect wave.
We have a perfect date.
We have the perfect thing that we say to someone.
We even have maybe the perfect moment in the afternoon or the beach, the golf course or
on the field, but rarely do we live inside of that perfect flow state, that area of perfection.
Most of the time we strive for it and we long for it, but we don't live in it.
The great news of Christmas is that one day God will restore everything in our life that
is broken and that feels broken.
Want to encourage you, there will come a day that God will restore all of our relationships.
Now you don't have to live very long before you experience relationships that get fractured.
Sometimes they're our fault.
Sometimes they're the fault of others.
Even right now you might be thinking, wow, I wish I had a different type of relationship
with and you can fill in the blank of that person in your life.
We live with the state of that relationship that we long for and then the reality of what
it is.
Even right now I want to invite you, hey God, would you heal the relationships in my life?
Would you say that with me?
God will hear your prayer.
You know the second thing that God's going to heal someday is our perspective.
It's amazing to me we live in a time where everyone thinks they know everything.
Well, it's impossible for one four pound brain inside of one human being out of eight
billion to know everything and for the perspective inside of that four pound brain inside of
that one person who maybe in the best instance speaks a few languages to get our perspective
about everything right all the time.
You know when heaven will have perfect relationships, we'll also have a perfect perspective because
it won't be skewed by the broken world that we live in.
Thirdly, heaven will be wonderful because all of our assumptions will be healed.
You know we make decisions based on assumptions.
Sometimes we do a lot of research and we're humble and all of our assumptions were spot
on and then the outcomes that we strive for they work out.
A lot of times despite our best research, our most you know putting together the wise
counsel trying to make the best decision, the assumptions that we use to make a decision
they turned out to be wrong.
You know in heaven all of our assumptions will be restored and they will be healed.
The fourth thing is in heaven all of our motives will be restored.
We tend to think that our motives are pure and others are impure.
This is what Jesus is trying to teach us in Matthew 7 you know do not judge lest you be
judged for the measure you measure will be measured unto you.
You know our motives in life, well sometimes they're pure and then sometimes there's a
lot of us mingled inside of those motives.
In heaven we will have perfect motives.
On earth we're always to pray, maybe you want to pray this with me now, hey Lord would
you give me a pure heart?
Would you allow my motives to be about loving you and loving others?
And then the last thing that God will heal someday, he'll fix what's broken is our
habits a lot of time despite our best intentions, our best efforts we pick up habits along the
way in earth, on earth that really undermine what we want and this is part of being in
a broken planet a lot of us pick up habits that undermine all of the productive things
that we're trying to do in our life and instead of admitting the grief and the hurt and the
pain that we have experienced in our life we cover up with unhealthy habits in the hope
that the problems will go away.
You know my friend the beautiful thing about heaven is that one day God will heal and restore
everything.
Today's teaching is an invitation for you to ask God, Lord would you heal my relationships?
Would you heal my perspective?
Would you heal my assumptions?
Would you heal my motives?
And would you heal my habits?
I pray for your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
We know that all things are perfect.
Lord would you make my life a reflection of heaven?
Would you purify my motives?
You know maybe you've listened to these somewhere online or you've watched one of these clips
along the way.
I'd like to invite you to just say to God, Lord would you give me the healing that I
need in my life?
I do this every day.
I pray.
I ask God to help me with the healing that I need.
The beautiful thing my friend is if you have just a little bit of sincerity in your heart
when you pray, God will meet you every single time.
Well I wish you a broken Christmas, an unbroken Christmas.
Thanks so much for watching.
I hope you have a beautiful day.