How do you respond to Christmas? Is it through excitement, lights, music and shopping? In this message, Tony Evans reminds us that we are also to bow down in worship. If you really want to get the most out of Christmas, submit yourself to the worship and recognition of Jesus Christ. The Passion of Christmas | Tony Evans Christmas Sermon #christmas #sermon #tonyevans Part 1:    • The Person of Christmas | Tony Evans …   Part 2:    • The Purpose of Christmas | Tony Evans…   Part 3:    • The Perspective of Christmas | Tony E…   —————————————————————————————– If you would like to download two encouraging, FREE full-length MP3s of Tony’s popular sermons: “The Sovereignty of God” and “How to Handle a Crisis,” you can do so by clicking on this link: https://share.hsforms.com/1atT9MJvXQN…

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Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.

what is Christmas it’s a fresh

opportunity to remind you as you

approach this New Year bow down

recognize his lordship and confess it if

we confess him we get delivered by him

that means you can’t be a secret Asian

Christian and Christmas is a reminder to

come out and be known as a follower of

Christ that I belong to Jesus Christ and

that I bow

[Music]

down

I hope that this has been a meaningful

series uh thus far as we’re completing

our four-part series on the on the

meaning of Christmas it is my contention

that its real meaning has gotten lost in

our culture in our lives and even some

to some degree in our churches and I

just want to remind us of things we

probably already know but but need to be

reminded of about what makes this

holiday so powerful and so special uh if

you are are are viewing and you have not

seen the previous three sessions where

we dealt with uh the person of Christmas

where we dealt with the purpose of

Christmas where we dealt with the uh

perspectives of Christmas uh then feel

free to contact us at the urban

alternative and get the the whole series

on uh the meaning of Christmas because

this is a most important holiday because

it surrounds a most important

person everyone who knows me knows that

I love football football is my favorite

pastime I’m passionate about it when I

was young I was passionate about playing

it when uh my son came along I was

passionate about following him when he

played it uh so I’m passionate about

football everyone who knows football

looks at football follows football

understands that it’s all

about the

football I mean everything in the game

is about this pig

skin uh first downs are determined by

where you place that football

touchdowns whether that football breaks

the plane of the goal uh incomplete or

complete passes did you catch the

football the placement of the ball is

where the ball was when the when the

runner fell

down uh when you have field goals it’s

did the ball go between the

uprights is all about this football it’s

it’s

amazing that

this piece of

leather has spawned a multi billion

dollar

business I mean it’s made millionaires

out of people it’s brought sponsors in

people eat and drink around it

televisions are turned on to it all

because of the

positioning of this one little thing so

this one little thing is bigger than

this one little thing

yes

Christmas it’s about this one little

thing that isn’t so little because it’s

affected the

world you think about

it Jesus Christ never wrote a

song that there more songs written about

him than any person in

history he never wrote a

book but his book The Bible has

outsold every other book in

history um he never traveled more than

300 miles from

home yet you can’t go anywhere in the

world where his name is not

referenced and where he is not

recognized on some

level so this is not an ordinary name

like a football is not an ordinary ball

it it has spawned all kinds of of things

from

it all in his

name because Christmas is about Jesus

Christ at

our church I have a master

key and this master key unlocks all the

doors individuals have individual keys

but I have a master key that can go

anywhere in our

facilities because it’s designed to work

everywhere

Jesus Christ is the master key to

understand Christmas but how do you get

this master key to unlock doors in your

life how do we make Christmas and its

meaning practical and prevalent for your

everyday life and your everyday

living well we’ve been using Matthew

Chapter 2 chapters one and two really

but chapter two and I want to look at

one verse we talked about the wise men

who who brought content into Christmas

because they came to worship

him and then when they come to where

Jesus

is after they found the way to

go they had seen the Star Verse

n and they came and stood in the place

where the child was remember he’s a

child now by the time they arrive and

coming into the house he’s in the house

he’s not in the

in he’s a toddler now

with Mary uh the

mother it says they fell to the

ground and they worshiped

him how did they worship they fell to

the

ground they bowed

down how do you respond to

Christmas you bow

down you bow down now the Bible is clear

The Ten Commandments makes it clear you

only worship

God you worship God alone and you bring

no other gods before

him

none and yet they fall down and worship

a

baby now a toddler in a house bringing

their gifts to

him but if you only do that for

God by God’s Own

commandment and you worship the son and

God endorses the worship because he

comes and guides

them right after they

worship then Jesus Christ is recognized

as God because God says you can only

worship God that’s

right and they bow down to him they

yield to

him if you really want to get all out of

Christmas that Christmas is designed to

give

you you want to bow down that is submit

your will your life your purposes your

passions all of life is to surround the

worship and the recognition of Jesus

Christ they bowed down and then Heaven

spoke this is more than going to church

this is more than having a service this

is a recognition of his kingship and

lordship why is this important because

the Bible says that there’s only one

mediator between God and man and that is

the man Christ Jesus he’s the mediator

he’s the in between person he’s the link

to bring Heaven and Earth together when

Jesus Christ is excluded the link is

missing and when the link is missing

then there’s a gap Between Heaven and

Earth God wants to close that Gap

through the Bowing down to Jesus

Christ that’s why I love so much

Philippians

2 which brings out this

principle it kind of summarizes

everything we’ve said in these three

sessions thus far and concluding within

this four

session it says have this attitude in

you which was in Christ Jesus so I want

you to think like Jesus

thought who also he existed in the form

of

God he existed in the form of God that

is he was deity you can’t exist in the

form of God unless you are in fact

God but he did not regard equality with

God a thing to be grasp or held on to at

all

cost but emptied

himself taking the form of a bond

servant the Greek word there is duas and

it meant a Slave

and being made in the likeness of men so

he existed as God but he got made in the

likeness of man remember the hyperstatic

union we talked

about being found in the appearance as a

man he humbled himself by becoming

obedient to the point of death even

death on a cross for this reason also

God highly exalted him and bestowed on

him Jesus the

name which is of above every name

remember he’s

Emmanuel so that at the name of

Jesus every knee will

bow that’s what the wise men just did

remember they fell

down of those who are in heaven and on

Earth and under the Earth and that every

tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord

to the glory of God the

Father

wow if you really want to get all out of

Christmas that Christmas has to

offer bow down now you can bow later

mandatorily or you can bow now

voluntarily but all creation will bow

down he says over the Earth on Earth and

under the Earth there will be no one who

does not bow whether in heaven on Earth

or in

hell all creation will be the

recognition of the

son what is Christmas it’s a fresh

opportunity to remind you as you

approach this New Year bow

down recognize his

lordship and confess it the word confess

means to say the same thing it means to

to agree with God on who Jesus is

that’s why even Paul says in Romans

chapter 10 if we confess him we get

delivered by him he’s talking to

Christians there and I know we use that

passage evangelistically but he’s really

talking to Christians about agreeing

with the son Jesus himself said in

Matthew chapter 10 if you confess me

before men I will confess you before my

father If you deny me before men I will

deny you before my father what is he

saying it is the recognition and

agreement with God about me that gains

you attention in heaven it is the denial

or the refusal to confess me that gets

you signed off in heaven it is the

recognition of the

son that means you can’t be a secret

Asian Christian a spiritual CIA

representative or a covert

operative as I like to say everybody

else is coming out the closet so you

might as well come out too and Christmas

is a reminder to come out and be known

as a follower of Christ that I blong to

Jesus Christ and that I bow

down we talked about the inconvenience

of the wise men how they traveled over a

long

distance we are all familiar with

football

fans let’s look at a typical football

day to make my point

there only 17 minutes of action in an

actual football game 17 minutes of

actual physical

contact now all this attention is for 17

minutes of actual

contact now this 17 minutes is part of a

one hour game the game the game clock is

one hour but there’s only 17 minutes of

contact in that one hour some of those

minutes are people huddling or people

going back to the Huddle on a running

play where the clock does not stop so

it’s a 1-hour game that has 170 minutes

of actual

activity but the one-h hour game with

the 70 minutes of activity is part of a

three-hour experience so if you watch

football game you’re gonna be sitting

there for three hours when you look at

the halftime and the timeouts and all of

that you know clock stops on a pass play

in complete pass so now 17 minutes of

action that’s part of a 1H hour game has

now grown into a three-hour

experience if you go to the

game that’s two hours worth of drive

time right from the time you leave your

house deal with the traffic Park and

walk to the stadium that’s so now 17

minutes of action in a 1-h hour game

that’s a three-hour experience is now a

5H hour day but now you got to get back

home right so you got another couple of

hours because you got to walk to the car

right and you got to work work through

the traffic to get home so 70 minutes

worth of action in a 1 hour game that’s

a three-hour experience has now become a

seven-hour day that’s right

interesting when you get

home if you’re a real football fan

that’s right you’re going to watch

sports center or NFL Network absolutely

to show you clips of what you just saw

that’s

right so 17 minutes worth of action in a

1 hour hour game that’s now a 3-hour

experience in a 7h hour day has now been

expanded to

review everything you just

saw on top of all of

that you’re spending your week with

fantasy football if you’re a real

football fan that’s right that’s right

so you’re spending your week waking

making projections on players and games

and all of that all week long in fact

you’re going to even discuss it at work

around the water cooler that’s

right why

because in your mind and heart football

deserves every

week your undivided

attention and you know why it does that

because you’re not merely a fan you’re a

follower what you just entered into was

bowing down to a worship service around

a pig

skin you have adored it worshiped it

cherished it followed it you even paid

your ti when you walked in the stadium I

mean you know you brought your goal and

frankincense and you you PID the

ti because you’ve decided this ball is

worth me bowing down not only for seven

hours that day but it will carry on my

thoughts all week long and and I will

anticipate my next worship service

right well now if you can bow down to PX

skin and you consider it worthy of all

of

that Christmas had should have no

problem getting you undivided attention

and causing you to be like the wise

men you bow

down a man that who died was one day

having an auction of all of his

valuables and he was a very wealthy man

who passed

away and so everyone knew how wealthy

this man was and so because they knew

how wealthy this man was uh they knew

that all of the things he was going to

be auctioning was going to be very

valuable and

expensive so the day of the auction came

and they all

gathered when they all gathered the

auctioner came and he hit the

gavel and he said the auction auction is

now

open the first thing we’re going to

auction is a picture a

painting of this man’s

son so they were going to auction this

picture of this man’s

son and so the portrait came

out and he said who will start the

bidding no one

responded because they were interested

in all the other expensive stuff this

was just a regular painting of a boy

there wasn’t anything special about this

it wasn’t real expensive

stuff he said the floor is open for a

bid no one bid

it he said does not anyone want this

picture of the man’s

son the man had a servant who had worked

for him when he was

alive and the servant seeing that no one

was bidding on the son raised his hand

and said well you know if no one will

else will take it I’ll take

it the servant said I I’ll take the

picture of the

son the auctioneer said well since

nobody’s bidding on the

sun uh we will let the servant take this

picture of the sun

off of the hands of this

auction when the servant came and picked

up the

son the auctioner hit the

gavel and he said the auction is now

over everybody’s looking around what do

you mean the auction is just all over

you just all you did was bring out the

picture of the sun said I know but in

the will of the father all right he

willed that whoever took the picture of

the son got everything

else he wound up with everything simply

because he took the son

cuz with the sun came everything

else there’s a lot of stuff out here for

Christmas being offered you a lot of

it’s expensive valuable it has the glitz

and the glitter of the

holiday but at the name of Jesus every

knee will bow and every tongue will

confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory

of the father so whatever else you’re

looking for in life and in this world

and during this holiday season

take the

sun because whoever gets the sun gets

anything and everything else God has

prescribed for them if they

bow this Christmas bow down and let’s

discover in this new year what the

everything else is that God has for

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

you