Bible Study - God's greatest gift

Let us adore Him. Thank you, Lord. He alone before me. He's just the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Come on, sing! I like it.

Hey everyone, today we're going to be talking about the greatest gift, and the greatest gift that we know of is Jesus being born. Okay, so we want you to get wrapped up in Christmas, in that Christmas spirit, as we talk about the greatest gift, Luke 2:1-7. So first Let's go through the story of Jesus being born. So imagine yourself opening up your— the gift that you wanted for Christmas. So you're getting the greatest gift. And so just imagine unwrapping this story about Jesus being born. So first, God made an amazing world, but then people turned away from God and the world was broken. But God made a plan to bless the whole world Through the Israelites. But over and over again, God's people kept turning away from God. Eventually, other nations invaded and captured the Israelites. But God had a plan. God spoke through people called prophets who told of the Savior who would come when the time was right. So God sent an angel to a young woman named Mary. The angel told Mary that she would have a very special baby. But then the census came. At this time, the Jewish people were living under Roman rule. The Roman leader Caesar Augustus commanded that everyone should be counted so they could pay their taxes. That meant everyone had to go to their hometown to be listed. In Nazareth, there was a man who was engaged to marry Mary, and he was a carpenter, and his name was Joseph. But Joseph and Mary had to be born into the family line of King David, so they would have to make the week-long journey to Bethlehem, the town of David, in order to be counted. So, but Mary was already pregnant. With a baby whose birth had been announced by an angel. And the angel had said to Mary in Luke 1:31-32 that she would become pregnant. So they took a journey to Nazareth, then they took a journey to Bethlehem, which was about 70 miles, which would have taken a whole week for Joseph and Mary to travel on foot or even by donkey. When they finally arrived in Bethlehem, they found that lots of people had come to be counted as well. There was no guest room where Joseph and Mary could stay. They finally found a place, and that was with the animals. Now let's talk about the birth of Jesus. While Mary and Joseph was there in Bethlehem, the time came for the baby to be born. They named him Jesus, just as the angel had said. Mary wrapped Jesus in strips of cloth to keep him warm and nice and cozy. She placed him in a manger. So God's Son, the best gift ever, came into the world in the most unexpected way. Great story, right? So this baby would actually grow up to teach Heal and show people what God is like. Then Jesus would choose to lay down his, his own life and die on a cross for the whole world. Because of Jesus, we can have a relationship with God that will not just last for a day, but last forever. So it's the greatest gift. Jesus is the greatest gift. He gave us life to be able to continue to have life no matter what happens, no matter what we go through. For him to lay down his life and die on the cross— when we think about the cross, we think about the word, witnessing, fellowship, and being able to worship one God and one God only to help us keep those commandments. So the greatest gift is Jesus. So let's get wrapped up in Christmas to celebrate our Lord and Savior being born, Jesus Christ. So the bottom line to everything, Jesus is the greatest gift. So we want to read the— this week, this month's memory verse. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. So we want to remember that we're celebrating Jesus as God's greatest gift, and we want to stay in this truth: I can trust God no matter what.