Notice that no less than three times the scripture is sure to point out that the baby Jesus was lying in a manger.

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The song "Away in a Manger" began as a poem written by Martin Luther in 1535. He put the words to music as a "cradle song" while trying to sing his youngest son to sleep on Christmas Eve a few years later. The title and point of the song is to emphasize the fact that we should not push Jesus "away" as had happened during the night of his birth when there was no room in the inn of Bethlehem. The last stanza of lyrics makes this clear:

Despite it's simplicity as a child's rhyme, "Away in a Manger" has become one of the most beloved Christmas songs by those of us today who realize the truth of it's words. We who have also come to love and worship Jesus Christ, do not want Him to be "away" from us, but to forever be with us and to one day forever stay with Him! A simple kid's song presents a perfect truth of how we feel and thus we cherish this tune even today. Would that the world -- beginning with everyone of us here today -- would get the revelation to not push Jesus out of the crowded inns of our lives. To not fill our lives with things, and friends, business, and anything else so much that we do not have room for Jesus to live within us! The story of Jesus' birth makes the truth so clear: Jesus will come only to those who make room for Him. It doesn't matter how lowly the stable. It doesn't matter your pedigree or family name or wealth. Those things are not the things that determine whether or not the king of kings in born into your life. What matters is simply if you are willing to provide Him room. If you are willing to push things out of your life that would cry out for attention. That would perhaps bring more immediate joy than a new born baby.

The basic question of Christmas is simply "is there room in your life for this child?" Simply accepting the fact that He is a king and was born is not enough. Simply celebrating Christmas from afar is not enough. Too many people today would rather have Jesus "away." They choose to keep Him a fair distance from their everyday lives and their secret desires. They would rather not have Jesus in the house with them because they are ashamed of what He might see. They do not want to change anything about their sinful ways, so Jesus and His church and His life is kept just close enough so that they feel religious but yet not fully committed. They don't want to fully turn Him away, so they offer a stable -- a distant place of their life -- but keep Him well away from their heart and their base desires. Simply put, if you keep Jesus "away" in a manger, then you do not have Jesus as the center of everything, and if you do not have Jesus the center of everything, then you really do not have Jesus at all. Don't you find it curious that even though shepherds and wise men came from outside the town to worship, that not once do we find someone from the nearby inn -- whose horses and cattle shared the stable with the babe -- ever coming to bow and worship Him? And the simple fact is that they did not worship because they probably did not truly grasp who He was and is! It's a principle that is still true today: people who are satisfied to keep Jesus "away in a manger" and out of the center of their life, never truly worship Jesus as they were created to do, and never grasp the importance of who He really is. You can know that He was the Messiah, but you don't really know Him until you have had center of everything of your life. You will never really know Him when you have pushed into the stable on the outskirts of your life!

The other fascinating lesson about Jesus being "born away" in the stable is that the Bible goes out of it's way to tell us that His first cradle was a "manger." That means that the first bed of this great King was a feed trough. A shallow wooden basin where hay and oats were tossed to feed the appetites of the cattle and horses and sheep. The inn didn't have room for Him. They were not looking for a king as a baby nor were they hungry for the Messiah to be born as the wise men had been. So Jesus was born in a stable and the lowly hay manger was His bed.

Accident? I think not. It is a scriptural principle that only those who are truly "hungry" will be filled. If you are not truly hungry for the Holy Ghost, then you will never receive it. If you do not hunger and thirst after righteousness, then you will never truly experience the complete life-changing power of Jesus Christ. God is moved and responds to hunger. So when the spiritual appetite of those in the inn were not seeking after Him, He was laid in a manger. A place where whoever is hungry can come and taste and see that the Lord is good. The cows and the sheep were having to fast, because upon their feed lay a much greater food. Not food for the natural fleshly man. Not food to be consumed in the literal stomach and digested for energy. But this food was spiritual food from heaven. This baby laying upon the hay had come to bring much needed spiritual nourishment to the world.

Later on Jesus would teach much the same thing and it would become one of the most misunderstood of all His teachings. The gospel of John records His words:

To the natural thinking Jews, it sounded like Jesus was promoting cannibalism! They didn't understand what He was saying because they were thinking in the natural. These verses marked the end of Jesus' second year of ministry with these words:

Jesus lost more followers because of these words than anything else. The man who had began His life lying in the manger was still the only spiritual food that could provide nourishment. Jesus wasn't promoting cannibalism, but was basically asking His followers a question: Do you hunger after me? Is my righteousness the object of your "feeding?" Do I lay upon your manger? Am I the one to whom you turn to fill your emptiness? Am I the one who satisfies all of your secret desires and dreams? Am I the one to which you turn to make it day to day? In other words, "am I the center of your hungering?" Or do you hunger and thirst after the things of this world so much that there is no room in your spiritual appetite for me? Am I thrust into the stable of your life "away" from the center of your life?

And many disciples walked away, because they had been following Him for the miracles. They had been following Him for the promises. They were in it for the blessings. The only ones that stayed were those that were in it because of their hunger. Those who deep down inside realized a basic element of their spiritual man: I'm hungry for more of God and only putting Jesus Christ in the center of my life and making Him the source of nourishment for my soul will I ever be satisfied! Those are the ones that stayed. The ones who were truly hungry for a change. Who knew that they could turn to no one else to satisfy the longing in their soul.

And it is still the hungry that make it today. You won't live for God long just for the miracles because eventually you will go through a dry season. You won't live for God long if you are in it for the "goosebumps" and the blessings, because those will also come and go with the seasons of life. Those who make it are those who have a true revelation of this King lying in the feed trough. Those who realize that this baby lying in the manger is the only thing that can ever satisfy my spiritual longing and emptiness. Not relationships, they won't fulfill that appetite. Not perversion, that won't either. Not money, power, or prestige. Not fame, acclaim, and praise of men. There are men alive who have all of those things and yet man still searched for something more. Those of us who have not pushed Jesus Christ "away" and have made Him the center of our lives know what that the "thing" that they are looking for is the very baby for which the world did not have room. His first throne in our lives was the manger of our life. We serve Him simply because we have "tasted" and found out that "the Lord is good!" We have tasted and found out that He alone can quench and fulfill the longings of our soul! Whatever you do, don't push this King "away!" Learn the important lesson found in the kid's Christmas song of long ago! Make room for Jesus in the center of your life!

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Our other text, however, reveals to us that there is another lesson to be learned from this simple children's carol. Martin Luther did not plan this revelation because the original text of the poem was written in the German language. When translated into English, one of those chance(?) happenings occurred to where a play on words of a phrase is as equally true as the phrase itself. You see not only did the people of Bethlehem force Jesus to be born "AWAY in a manger," but this baby was also "A WAY in a manger." It's the other side of the Christmas story and why it is so important to not push Jesus aside. When you push Him away, then you pushing aside the only WAY to success in life. The baby truly was "A WAY in a manger!"

As He got older, Jesus frequently talked about there only being one WAY to heaven. That there was only one way to true happiness. That there was only one way to eternal life. Finally Thomas asked about such curious language:

Again these words of Jesus were misunderstood by many because they were not viewing it through the events of His birth. We quote these words all the time, but realize the importance and impact of what Jesus was saying. He alone is the way, the truth, and the life. You cannot approach God any other way besides through Jesus Christ. This child that was born, laying in the hay, was really "a way in a manger." In fact, He was the ONLY way in a manger. The people of that time had been trusting in religious ritual to try to achieve eternal life, but the baby boy was now the only way to eternal life. From the point of that birth, the way in the manger would be the only thing that would truly bring eternal life.

Even today, some people still trust in religious ritual for their salvation. Can I tell you that religious ritual is still NOT a substitute to having Jesus in the center of your life. In fact, religious ritual is the easiest way to get Jesus OUT of the center of your life. If you pray to a statue, then that idol has pushed Him aside. If you trust in a priest to forgive your sins, then that priest has misplaced Jesus. If rely upon rituals invented by traditions of men to save you, then those things are the center of your religious existence. But can I tell you about A WAY in a manger. It's very simple: come worship the King yourself. You need not a go between. You don't need Mary or a saint to intercede for you. You need Jesus. You need a personal relationship with Him directly. Only through such a relationship, can you have Jesus the center of your life!

The angels that appeared to the shepherd that night, commanded them to go find Jesus. They said nothing about Mary. The wise men fell down and worshipped Jesus. Mary and Joseph were just onlookers. Were they blessed to be there? Yes. But they were just human onlookers as the others were. Jesus was the center of everything. He was the object of worship. When you pray to Mary you push Jesus aside just as the world has done for years. He alone is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He alone is A WAY in the manger! Worship Him alone!

Jesus was "A Way in a Manger" and He still is. The people of His time were still trusting in blood sacrifice for salvation. They had been commanded of God since the time of Adam's sin to bring a blood sacrifice to pay for their sins. Yet, the scriptures plainly say in Hebrews:

The blood of every sheep and goat and bull slaughtered was imperfect blood. It only pushed the sins of the people ahead for another year and after 360 days of the Jewish year had passed, their had to be another animal slaughtered. Only a perfect sacrifice could completely pay the price of sin. Only a perfect human being could be a perfect sacrifice. Only if God were to come in flesh Himself, would there ever be a perfect human being. And so the God of glory who was Spirit only, did just that. He became flesh and bones by being born of a woman. The miracle of that son lying in the manger was that He was "God revealed in the flesh" as I Timothy 3:16 clearly states. And He was the "image of the invisible God" as Colossians 1:15 declares. He was the "mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace" as foretold by Isaiah 9:6. That baby was born to be "A WAY." He was born to be "A WAY" that man could become clean in the presence of God again. He was to be "A Way" that man could have a close relationship with God again. His blood was to be shed so that the high price of sin could be paid!

So that baby lying in the manger with blood flowing through it's young veins, was literally born to die! There was no way that man could get things right with God on his own, so God became "A WAY!"

And so that's why Jesus didn't mind being born in a stable. He "fit in" more in the stable than with those in the inn anyway. This precious lamb of God, was born among the sheep and the goats and the bulls that had before born the load of sacrifice! He was born among the sacrificial animals because it was to that purpose that He had come to the world! It was no accident, you see, that He was born in a stable among the sacrificial animals. And it was no accident that He was laid within a manger! As animal after animal came to the normal place where they were fed, only to find a baby lying there, I wonder if within their animal instinct they recognized their creator!? The scriptures do not say, but perhaps creation recognized something that the vast majority of humanity did not! That God had come in flesh to provide "A WAY" out of this sin problem!

Perhaps you know that it is very improbable that Jesus Christ was born in December because the shepherds were out on the fields with their "flocks by night." But perhaps you did not know that the shepherds of the time only kept their flocks out at night under careful watch during lambing time. They only stayed out on the fields at night when it was time for the pregnant ewes to give birth. This reveals to us why of all people and professions, the shepherds were the one to get the angelic host proclaiming the news of this great event. These were shepherds of Bethlehem, only a short journey away from the temple in Jerusalem. Of these lambs that were being born that night, many would end up sold to the sheep market beside the temple to become sacrifices. Many of the most perfect ones would be set aside one year later to become the Passover lambs of Jewish families in the area. And in the midst of the lambing and the births and the careful vigilant care of the shepherds, angels appeared to them in the sky proclaiming a much greater Passover Lamb being born! The Lamb of God was being born nearby in a stable!

"Peace on earth, good will toward men" proclaimed the angels to the startled shepherds. In other words, they were saying "your animal sacrifices has not been the way to peace on earth, and in fact the world is still at war." "Your animal sacrifices and rituals have not caused men to act in good will toward each other." "BUT there is A WAY to get those things, and it is found in the perfect Lamb of God." You can go find Him, and here will be a sign to you: you'll find Him lying in a manger!" This baby will grow up to fulfill all of the law. He would grow up to truly bring hope and life! He would not only grow up to die and shed His blood, but to provide a way to properly apply the blood to our lives! Don't discount the Acts 2:38 plan of salvation of Repentance, Water Baptism in Jesus' name, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost, because that was the way provided for salvation by this baby that began in a manger! You must apply His blood properly in order to His coming to do you any good! You must make Him the center of your life for Him to be able to bring peace! You must be willing -- like the shepherds -- to drop your agenda for your life and push through to worship Him! Don't just hear the Word of God proclaimed on the hillside, and then go on back to your normal life, but be like the shepherds and step out in faith to see if the Word of God is as it says! And when you taste and see that the Lord is good, then tell the world about it!

The next year when those shepherds took their lambs to sell at the sheep market in Jerusalem, they told of what had happened! And so the temple dwellers and sacrifice givers found out before even the kings did! Those that were hungry for righteousness got word of this precious Way in a manger before the rich and political leaders. Oh -- I'm glad that God didn't start by revealing His plan of salvation to only rich or influential leaders! I'm glad that God didn't start with those who were of esteemed heritage. I'm glad that God chose to give the "nobodies" a chance first! I'm glad instead of looking upon the outside, God chose those who were hungry for Him on the inside. Realize that the shepherds fully realized what the angels were saying. They asked no questions. They did not hesitate. They believed that the Messiah was coming. Yet they did not have the prestige of the Pharisees or the learned academic lives of the scribes. Yet it was to those with simple faith that God chose to reveal the greatest event of history at that point. Long before the wise men ever arrived, the shepherd had come and gone! The Lamb of God had arrived and the shepherds were those whom He had chosen to proclaim that message!

Is it then no coincidence then, that the term for the local overseer of the church is called a "pastor" or literally "a shepherd?" Just as those shepherds proclaimed what they had seen, I stand before you today to declare to you that there is a way out of the clutches of sin and despair. A Way has been made back to God. And I'm not just telling you hearsay, because I have seen Him for myself. I have tried Him and I know that He will not fail! I'm not proclaiming something that I have not experienced! And like the shepherds of old, I stand before you and unequivocally declare: "There can be no peace without Jesus in the center of your life!" He is not just A WAY, He is the THE WAY! He is the way to happiness! He is the way to truth! He is the only way to fix your marriage. He is the only way to a fulfilled life. He is the only way to find forgiveness and victory over sin. The disciples did not preach another way, but they preached THE WAY! There is only one. And so I preach to you the "ONE WAY." It begins with the commandments of one who began as a baby in a manger. New life is available to you today, but He is the only way to get it! He has to become the center of your life!

It is easy to say "well I believe in Jesus Christ." That is not what I am preaching today. I am preaching making Jesus Christ the center of everything in your life! I am preaching putting Him first. I am preaching not putting The WAY AWAY in your life. That's the point of the Christmas story and that is the point of the most important decision of your life: where will Jesus go in your life? Will He be "AWAY in a manger" or will He be "A WAY in a manger?" Your response to His Word and His Spirit determines that answer!

Too many people consider Him A Way for Salvation ONLY. But can I tell you that He is the way to everything in life. If you want to be successful in business, then you'd better run your business according to His Word: He is the WAY. If you want a successful marriage and family life, then you'd better take HIS WAY in your everyday life. If you want to be truly happy in every area of your life, then HIS WAY is the only WAY. And if you want to live forever, then HIS WAY better become the center of everything in your life. If He is not the most important thing in your life in every area, then A WAY has been pushed AWAY in your life and relegated to second string. And if He is not Lord OF all, then He will not be Lord AT all! Don't fool yourself: you haven't got everything perfect yet: you still need Jesus to become everything to you, no matter what level of God that you are at today! Get a revelation of this baby born in Bethlehem: He is truly "A WAY born in a manger!"

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I close with this:

After the night of this great birth. Long after Jesus had gotten beyond a manger to a crib. After the wise men had finally arrived. King Herod, tried to kill the baby. He did not know the exact location of the child, so the second chapter of Matthew tells us that he decreed that all male infants two years old and younger in the town of Bethlehem and the surrounding areas be slaughtered. That means that every baby of those who had turned Jesus away into the manger and who were still around, were killed. That means that all of those who were not spiritually sensitive enough or hungry enough to worship Him, lost their precious children.

History records more details about the unfortunate and horrible tragedy that the evil Herod performed. He invited all of the mothers of the area with their young children to a special party at his judgment hall. "Childcare" was provided. As the mothers feasted and drank and were having what they thought was the time of their lives, the soldiers took the babies and killed them and piled their bodies in the courtyard of the palace. At the end of the party, the mothers were led to the second story balcony where they gazed down upon the massacre. History records that many mothers leaped to their deaths when they realized what they were witnessing. Others went delirious with fury and anguish.

Please listen to me as we close this Christmas season with such a somber point: this world wants to kill Jesus in your life. It wants to take away your baby. It wants to do away with the WAY to life and hope and joy.

It doesn't come into your house by brute force and try to kill your joy and your relationship with God. It instead invites you to a party. It shows you things that seem to be a good time. They seem to be appealing. It seems to be giving you the time of your life. But just when you are enjoying the pleasure of sin for a season, you will find the memory of the good times will always leave a bad taste in your mouth, because after the party is over, you will find that your precious gift -- your precious promise from God -- has been killed. Living in sin destroys Jesus Christ in your life. Choosing sin's party takes you away from the only one who can bring you happiness and joy in your life!

But oh, that everyone in here would be like Joseph. The scriptures say that the Word of God came to him in a dream and that he obeyed the Word and took the child and Mary and fled to Egypt. He would not let sin kill the WAY. He would not allow sin to kill Jesus in his life. And so to save Jesus, he had to move "AWAY" from sin's domain. He had to leave the kingdom of this world.

Somebody needs to allow hope to spring forth in your heart once more. You first need to get a dream of what your life, marriage, home, career, focus, can be by looking at it through the Word of God. Things don't have to stay the same: A Way was born in a manger that can change even the most hopeless situation! Then you must act upon the Word of God. Just having a dream of what you wish God would do, will not help you unless you are willing to get AWAY from the kingdom of sin. You need to repent of some dreadful habits. You need to ask God's help to change some friends. You must act upon God's Word by distancing yourself from this world's lifestyle that wants to kill this precious baby in your life. Whatever you do, don't push Jesus Christ away. The only way that you will ever have everything that you long for; the only way that you will ever have complete contentment and fulfillment in your life; the only way to have true peace and happiness is through this baby that grew into the perfect sacrificial lamb. Put Him in the center of your life. You will find that He is truly "A Way in a Manger!"