Each year, Christmas comes...and I love the “feel” of Christmas. The hustle and bustle. The decorations. The music. The movies. The food and the smells. The time off, ha! And I love the fact that, like it or not, everyone is talking about the birth of Jesus Christ. It’s called the “most wonderful time of the year,” and for me, it is certainly my favorite time of the year.

Christmas brings floods of memories. Memories of family. Of Christmases past. Get togethers and occasions of joy. Family traditions and such. Now, how many of you remember the gifts that you received? (Ok we remember some. Like Nintendo! I remember getting a Nintendo in the late 80’s, living in Corbin, KY! And then a SEGA! OH YEAH! Circa 1994!) But it’s amazing! Such emphasis each year is placed on gift giving but really, check this out, I can’t tell you one thing that I got for Christmas just last year! In the future of it all, as we enjoy and peruse our memories, it’s amazing what matters. And what I find, is that it’s the little things.

Turn with me to Luke Chapter 1, verses 26 – 38. (Read) A familiar story. A wonderful story of a miraculous fulfillment of prophecy. Prophecy? Yea, what we just read is a clear fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. How old? Well Jeremiah 23:5 tells us that the Messiah will be from the lineage of King David. That one is about 600 years old at the time of Jesus’ birth. Isaiah 7:14 tells us that the Messiah will be born of a virgin. That one is about 700 years old at the time of Jesus’ birth.

In fact, where He was born, to whom He was born, how He was born, when He would be born, why He would be born…all specifically and in detail laid out hundreds of years before through the Old Testament Prophets. Mathematically impossible and also, logistically, physically, humanly impossible! One may be able to bring about fulfillment of prophecy during someone’s life…but to fulfill prophecy with your own birth…impossible.

Get this, we’re talking about His birth today for sure in celebration of Christmas but do you know how many specific prophecies Jesus fulfilled in His birth, life, death and resurrection? Including the prophecies foretelling His coming, over 400! Now keep in mind that some of those are humanly impossible to fulfill on your own…concerning specifically one’s birth, and one’s death…I mean it is pinpoint to the day man in the scriptures! The probability that one man could fulfill just 8 of those (over 400) was once calculated by a man named Dr. Peter Stoner. The number is 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000! That’s 1 in 10 with 29 zeros behind it!

Do you know the probability of having a meteorite land on your house? 1 in 18 with 12 zeros behind it! You see this 1 in 10 plus 27 zeros, do you know what they call that? Impossible. And I would agree. Only one problem, or really one truth very much due our attention, one Gospel if you will…He did it. You just said that it was impossible! For realz I did, but Gabriel hooked us up in verse 37, right? You know what else is impossible? For me to have a life with purpose. For me to not be wrought with worry and fear for tomorrow. Especially with what we see on the world scene! It’s utterly impossible for me to be made clean man…because sin is not what I do…sin is what I am man! But God…He is in the very business of showing us the impossible and then trampling on it like it’s nothing!

I am filled with purpose.   With power and strength. With reason and with love. Joy and peace man. I am not wrought with worry when I awake each day. I’m filled with mercy man and in all that, I am well clean and pleasing in His sight. Close communication with my very Creator through the Savior Jesus…the One who came into an impossible situation, through impossible odds, and accomplished the absolute impossible. He snatched my sin right up off me and took the penalty so that I could go free, man…

All those prophecies, hundreds of years old, thousands of years old, perfectly accomplished to the tiniest details in the coming of Jesus Christ.

Now check this out…what we just read in Luke and talked about together is a fulfillment of the very first prophecy in the Bible. Given by God Himself all the way back at the very beginning. Thousands of years ago in the Garden of Eden. Turn over to Genesis Chapter 3. Look quickly at verses 13 – 15.

Notice there. God defines the Destroyer of the serpent. The One that will crush his head and ultimately defeat him…and God’s description, there in verse 15, “her Seed.” But you see, the seed is not in the woman but in the man, right. And so here we have what is called the protoevangelium. The first proclamation of the gospel because this indeed speaks of a virgin birth. That on one seemingly small day, one little insignificant click on the calendar, a Savior will be born and this Savior would be the Son of God, not of man…and he would be God wrapped up in skin man…stepping from perfection down into this mess to take sin and death and decay and destruction and crush its head… come to make right what went wrong…all the way back at the beginning of it all.  

But notice, back in Luke Chapter 1, the discussion between Mary and Gabriel…verses 32 and 33, “He will be great, He will be called the Son of the Highest, He will be given the throne of David, He will reign…” But Mary first, He will simply be a little One. A baby. He will know dependence upon another. He will know the bond between mother and child. He will be and do all these things, but first…He will be little. Precisely what happened…

Turn with me to Luke Chapter 2. Read Luke Chapter 2 Verses 1 – 20.

A baby born. A fulfillment of impossible odds. Just a little one. Little swaddling cloths…little manger…not hotel…little crowd, no hype, no announcement, virtually no attention…yet the most impactful, eternal, important moment in the entire history of history. You see it’s the little things that in the end of it all, are the big things. We just don’t see it, we don’t know it, we concentrate so often on the wrong things…until we look back. And realize, it’s never the aspects of our worry, the focus of our calories, the center of our attention that ends up accomplishing the impossible…it’s the little things.

One little thing about Christmas, within all that is going on…all the parties, all the presents, all the people…one little thing that you can’t miss man…is that Christmas at its core is about one thing only, the Father’s love for you. Maybe you’ve missed that. Not just at Christmas but man at life.

Life’s a mess. Work’s a mess. Family is a mess. Hope is hardly to be found and fear and worry and anger haunt your days. You have goals, plans…you work and you strive for what needs to get done each day yet days come and go and you’re no stronger, you’re no happier, no more hopeful today that you were yesterday…you see, our nature is to concentrate on the big things…when it’s the little things that define our tomorrows…

Someone once said, “The devil is in the details.” Interesting idiom but it’s a lie. The details, the little things man is where the impossible is either solidified and days are lost, families are lost, jobs are lost, ministries are lost, lives are lost or where the impossible is achieved.

Man, in the details, eternity is lost by so very man…

He was just a little baby, born in a little manger, surrounded by a little crowd, with very little attention…yet this is the story of the coming of the Son of God, the Prince of peace, the victory over death, the deliverance from sin and the escape of hell.

Have you missed it? Have you concentrated so much of the big gifts that man mean nothing next year? Have you focused on what you think is big man when what is needed is so very simple…a little attention to the little details.

D. L. Moody once said, “There are many of us that are willing to do the great things for the Lord, but few of us are willing to do the little things.”

Listen, let me tell you, the Christmas story, the coming of God, the big IS the little. When you do the little thing well, you will automatically do the big thing well. See that? Doesn’t work the other way around, did you know that? Maybe your focus is off this morning…maybe you don’t know that God understands precisely where you’re at, and man He understands, “there’s no room for you!” He understands betrayal, pain, loss, hunger, hurt…He sees you now…all that you’ve done, all that you’ve become, and calls to you still.

To once again do the impossible…to set you free.