Story & Song: Spirit Of Christmas

December 6th, 2020/The Lookout

Question: What do you think of when you hear “The Spirit of Christmas”?

Personal Story: Teaching our kids that there is a higher perspective. There’s more to the story. There’s a great purpose.

Story: Lottie Moon

November 1st, 1873 “The harvest is very great, the laborers oh so few.” 24 years before that the Foreign Mission Board (Now IMB), had a policy that no single woman could be sent as a missionary. Lottie believed that everybody had a part to play in reaching every nation with the Gospel regardless of gender and that every church had a part to play regardless of size or resources.

In 1888 the Woman’s Missionary Union began a Christmas offering for missions, and in 1918 it was named for Lottie Moon. Southern Baptist churches still take it every Christmas. This offering would go directly to foreign missionaries on the field that are reaching some of the most unreached parts of our world with the Good News of the Gospel. I have visited many of these countries myself and can confirm that these missionaries are some of the brightest, most well equipped, and humble people you will ever meet. Many of them speak up to 5 and 6 languages, including the heart language of the people they are trying to reach. Many serve bringing clean water, food, and medical aid to some of the poorest regions of the world. And all are working to help translate Scripture into every language and disciple people in what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Many churches today don’t use the term “Lottie Moon Offering” and simply call it a Christmas Offering. But as I reflected on the characteristics of this very small, fiery, and brilliant missionary called Lottie Moon, I felt that it was important to highlight her life as an example for us today

Charlotte Digges Moon, also known as Lottie, was a 4’ 3” woman from Virginia. She was born on December 12th, 1840. She came from a very affluent family and was raised with the best education. She became proficient in Greek, Italian, French, Latin, and Spanish, then she took up Hebrew. By the time she finished school she had been referred to as the most educated woman in the South. At age 18 Lottie heard about a revival meeting that was happening near her school, one night she attended the school to mock what was happening. At that service, with many praying for her by name, Lottie was born again.

After some time Lottie had met some missionaries to China and she would regularly donate money to their cause. Churches and preachers in this time would not have thought to teach that a single woman could be called to be sent. In 1872 a separate organization was born where women would raise money for missions, and with the significant amount that was raised, grew the organization in influence. A single woman from the Moon family appealed to go, but it was not Lottie, it was her sister Edmonia. After Edmonia spent some time in China, she began to invite her sister to join her.

In February of 1873, Lottie Moon heard a sermon that pleaded for more laborers to go and reach the nations. Anna Safford, Lottie’s Presbyterian friend sensed the same call and they both chose to go. Many remarked “A waste of such excellent women on the uncaring heathen. Why go to China when these good southern girls in Georgia need education so desperately.” On July 7th 1873, Lottie Moon was officially appointed a missionary with the Foreign Mission Board (now IMB). She was sent to serve in Tengchow in China, where she would spend the next 39 years of her life.

Tengchow was surrounded by millions of people and villages where the Gospel had never gone. It wasn’t uncommon for locals to call westerners “foreign devils”, and Lottie was always patient and kind with the adults, but she would not tolerate it with the children. One day some boys were taunting her and she gave them a stern lecture. Afterwards she sat down with them and 30 minutes later had them chanting catechisms and singing the hymn “Happy Land”. She would travel around teaching and evangelizing. At one time she had visited 44 villages in 11 days.

Lottie set up a school and traveled village to village teaching the Gospel. One man Lottie started studying the bible with, named Lea Chow Ting, came to Christ and would later become one of the greatest evangelists of North China, personally baptizing upwards of 10,000 people. Persecution was becoming a greater problem and there were Christians getting beaten for converting to Christ. Word came to Lottie about a church that this was happening to, so Lottie stood in front of the persecutors and stated “If you try to destroy this church you will have to kill me first. Jesus gave Himself for us as Christians and I’m ready to die for Him now.”

By 1912, Lottie was seventy-two years old, and her health was in very serious decline. Her physical and mental health had been broken by overwork and the pressing needs of the famine-stricken people of Shandong. She gave almost all of her money and food to the Chinese, and it is often told that she stopped eating so that her impoverished neighbors could be fed. She loved the Chinese, and they loved her. But one of the missionary doctors decided Lottie must return to America to regain her health. Sadly, Lottie Moon never made it to America. She died in the harbor of Kobe, Japan, on December 24, 1912.

In her final hours, she sang “Jesus Loves Me” with the missionary nurse who accompanied her. Lottie made one final gesture, pushing her fists together in the form of the Chinese greeting. She was welcoming some unseen guest. On Christmas Eve, Lottie Moon passed into the presence of the Savior who loved her and whose name she had made known. She had fully given her life to Christ and to the spread of his gospel. Her life is an example that inspires us to live for what truly matters.

Pray:

Title: Spirit Of Christmas

Big Idea: The example Lottie followed was the example given to us by God through His Son, Jesus.

Main Points: I want to look at 3 examples that we can follow so that we can truly live out the Spirit of Christmas

1. Sent
   1. “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” - John 3:16-17 NLT
   2. The greatest need that we have is to know and receive the greatest story that has ever been told.
   3. The story of Christmas is the story of Christ with us, Emmanuel.
   4. “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” - John 17:18 NKJV
   5. “So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” - John 20:21 NKJV
   6. Calling over career
2. Serve
   1. “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” - Mark 10:45 NLT
   2. “No one is to seek his own good, but the good of the other person.” - 1 Corinthians 10:24
   3. “Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.” - Philippians 2:4
   4. Compassion over consumption
3. Sacrifice
   1. “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” - John 15:12-13
   2. “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” - Hebrews 13:16
   3. “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” Ephesians 5:1-2 NKJV
   4. Christ over comfort

Closing: Spirit Of Christmas

Lottie Moon Offering

Last year 157 million dollars was raised.

Pinewood Christmas Offering

$15,000 - Lottie Moon

$5,000 - Local Businesses

Invitation