Each year the church calendar eventually rolls to December. And with it, your Bible opens to the first chapters of Matthew and Luke, the Nativity stories.

Christmastime can be crazy with a packed schedule and plenty of visitors, but it can also be painful to plan for. While your worship leader and creative team may have a great time preparing songs, skits and staging, you’re left writing sermons from the same texts your audience has heard over and over again. Let’s be honest, the greatest story ever told has been told quite a lot.

Familiar texts should never be a problem for preparing great sermons. Let me share with you a couple of ways to get the most from your messages at this merriest of holidays.

Engage the Culture
Though some may deny it, nearly everyone loves Christmas music and holiday films. Why else would radio stations change their lineup to an all Christmas mix while TV channels play holiday movies all month long? There’s something about the season that people plug into.

“God at the Movies” type series are nothing new, and many churches have employed this marketing approach in December as well. While there are plenty of movies and film clips to highlight the nativity scene or stress a spiritual point, there are even better ways to use movies to help your church. Have you ever considered opening your auditorium to a showing of a kid-friendly and parent favorite movie before Christmas? What a great way to get people into your church who may never attend on a Sunday morning!

Another great way to respond to culture is by using songs that people will be humming all month long. Think of lines from famous carols that can be used as a sermon or series title. “Joy to the World,” “A Thrill of Hope,” and “Home for Christmas” are just a few. By using familiar phrases and verses, you provide a hook for your audience to carry your message with them the rest of the week.

When approaching the Christmas story, start with a theme in mind. Then, as you read and study the passage, look for ways that the particular theme is weaved in and out of the text.

The origins of some famous Christmas carols can be very inspiring. “O, Holy Night” involved the conversion of a nonbelieving artist, while “Silent Night” was written to include children in church worship. Even songs like “O Little Town of Bethlehem” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” have incredible backstories that can help you preach the Word.

Making your messages culturally relevant is a great strategy, but it’s about “updating” the old truth of scripture. It should be seen as a way to present timeless truth in a timely manner. It helps you grab your audience’s attention, then focus it on Jesus. But this is really just the wrapping. What’s inside is much more important. That means your content is the real way to tell the Christmas story in fresh new ways.

Expand Your Content
The Bible is useful in teaching, rebuking and correcting us because it is so expansive and exhaustive. But because it is so large, we usually find ourselves preaching from any given passage only once every five to 10 years. If we do go back to the same text, we usually make the same point we have in the past.

That’s one of the small frustrations with the Christmas story. We feel compelled to use the same texts year after year. And in so doing, we think we’re repeating the same things we said just 12 months ago. How do we get something fresh from the same source? Let me show you an easy way to say something new and engaging using the same scriptures each Christmas.

We all know that each time we come to the Word of God it has the amazing ability to show us something we never saw before. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit within you guides you to new understandings or fresh applications for your particular position in life. It’s the same with our sermon prep. Each time we go to the Bible to prepare a message, we can be led to find something of significance for every occasion.

When approaching the Christmas story, start with a theme in mind. Then, as you read and study the passage, look for ways that the particular theme is weaved in and out of the text. For instance, the narrative of the shepherds in Luke 2:8-20 offers a wealth of material in just a few short verses. Grace and salvation is the main idea of the angels’ announcement, while worship and evangelism are the focus of the shepherd’s response to seeing Jesus in the manger. The shepherds’ standing in their community can be used to show how Jesus comes for all of us, not just the religious elite.

The story of the first Christmas is a classic we can never improve on. But it is a story that deserves a fresh look. Any way you decide to approach this holiday season, as long as the focus is on Christ you can never go wrong. When we make Him the reason for the season, a merry Christmas is in store for all.