Author and pastor Max Lucado gave a sermon at Lakewood Church, led by Joel and Victoria Osteen, on Sunday, Dec. 17. Lucado used the imagery of the Christmas tree to illustrate how God works in our lives, and he ended with an invitation to repent and trust in Jesus.
The pastor, who has preached at Lakewood before, greeted the congregation, saying, “May God’s richest blessings be upon you.” Lucado said he loved the church and the Osteens and that “it’s just an honor to be here.” He opened his sermon with prayer, thanking God and asking him to speak to those gathered.
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Lucado also prayed for God’s mercy on the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, as well as on people experiencing famine throughout the world. Confessing his own sins, Lucado asked that God would “help us to see Jesus, just Jesus.”
Max Lucado: The Greatest Gift and the Greatest Tree
Max Lucado is teaching minister at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio and the author of more than 145 million products in print. His latest book is “God Never Gives Up on You: What Jacob’s Story Teaches Us About Grace, Mercy, and God’s Relentless Love.”
Lucado titled his sermon, “You, Me, and the Christmas Tree,” and observed that while Christmas trees are special, it is difficult to set one up without it leaning to one side. “It dawned on me that God has to deal with this on a daily, hourly, continual basis,” he said. “For don’t we have our share of unattractive bents? Doesn’t our character get tilted and crooked? And so God in his sovereign hand and tender care sets about the task of straightening us out and straightening us up.”
In his sermon, the pastor laid out three commonalities believers have with Christmas trees. The first is, “We are picked.”
“Did you know that God selected you with a place in mind?” Lucado asked. “He selected you with a service in mind. He selected you on purpose for a purpose.” Another word for God giving us a purpose is “calling.” There are places in the world that need light and joy, and God calls each of us to provide his light to those places.
For example, in Jeremiah 1:5, God tells the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” Lucado said that that Sunday morning might be the first time people in the congregation had heard this truth: “When you were in your mother’s womb, God called you.”
“You have been picked,” the pastor said.
Another example from the Bible is in Acts 26:16, where Paul recounts the moment God called him. “One of the most disastrous lies that comes into our world,” said Lucado, “is that we are the result of an accidental combination of chromosomes and circumstance.” He suggested that is why the suicide rate is so high, as well as why anxiety and depression are high among young people.
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