The Greatest Gift
Topic: The greatest gift
Date: Saturday 13/12/2008, 2:00pm
Good afternoon and Merry Christmas!
Do you enjoy the performance? I hope you do.
My name is Miriam. I am the assistant pastor of this church.
Have you received any Christmas gift yet? We have something for everyone today.
(Ask all casts to give away flier)
When I was little, I had a set of Japanese comics at home. I do not know the name of the book or the names of the characters because I can’t read Japanese. Anyway, the drawing was really good and that I was able to understand and enjoy the stories.
The main character is a rabbit. He is not an ordinary little rabbit. He is a huge white rabbit that is about the size of a sumo player. His owner is a little girl, probably about 10 years old.
It was Christmas Eve. The rabbit and the girl hung up their red socks and went to bed with excitement, dreaming about what Christmas gifts they would receive.
When they woke up in the next morning, the girl’s red sock was bulging. She pulled out a box and opened it. It was a beautiful doll she always wanted.
The rabbit looked at his red sock. Oh, no. It was as flat as if it had nothing inside. He tipped it over, and a small key fall out. That was it. He was really disappointed.
At the breakfast table, everyone had opened their Christmas gifts and all with big smiles on their faces…except the rabbit. He was really grumpy. He refused to eat his breakfast, played with the food and made the table and floor dirty. When mum and dad finally got sick of his attitude, he loudly complained about how horrible his Christmas gift was.
Dad’s face turned red. He left the table and went to the garage, pulled out a brand new push bike. He was so mad that he decided to return it back to the bike shop immediately. It was at that moment, the girl found a small card in rabbit’s red sock which explained that the key was for him to unlock the garage door to get his new bike.
The rabbit almost missed his Christmas gift because it did not come to him in a shape that he expected.
Jesus is the greatest gift that God has given to us. But he does not come in rapping paper with a pink ribbon. Instead, he is a gift that needs to be unlocked with a key.
If you haven’t received it, let me tell you how wonderful this gift is.
Firstly, Jesus is a priceless gift.
We give people gifts in Christmas. If we give because we have to, we might just buy some random stuff from two dollar shop. But if the person is important to us, we give them more expensive gifts or more thoughtful gifts.
Similarly, God think that we are really important to him; therefore he gave us the best gift he could ever give. This gift is so expensive that no one could ever afford to buy it, no matter how hard they work. So, God gave it to us for free.
Secondly, Jesus is an undeserved gift.
Have you been to the mall and take photo with Santa? When you sit on Santa’s lab, and he asks, “have you been a good boy/girl? Santa don’t give gifts to naughty kids”. And you say, “Yes. I have been good.” But in fact you hope that Santa wouldn’t ask you what you have done to your little sister yesterday.
God knows everything in your heart, what you think, what you have said and have not said. He knows everything you have done. We can never receive this priceless gift from God if we have to be good enough. But because He knows that this gift is really important for us, and it is the only one gift that can really fill the hole in our heart, God decided to give it to us nevertheless.
Thirdly, Jesus is an unlimited gift.
When you go shopping, have you noticed that anything with special price is either limited edition or limited stock? That means not everyone could have a chance to get those gifts.
But the gift that God has given is different. It is an unlimited gift. It is for everyone. You can receive it too.
There are many other reasons why Jesus is the greatest gift of all. But if I tell you everything now, you won’t be able to go home for dinner.
So, how do you receive this gift since it is different from any other gift? Remember that the rabbit in the story received a key that will unlock the gift? We need a key to receive Jesus as well. This key is a simple prayer with honesty.
Just like how Dr Newheart and Erin shared with the 3 patients and nurse Philpott, first, you examine your heart and admit that what’s inside you isn’t very holy. Then you ask God to replace it with something that is, which is Jesus Christ.
Of you have not received this gift of Jesus, this afternoon is a good time. God will be really happy if you would receive this most precious gift that he has prepared for you. So, if you are ready to receive Jesus, please join us to sing the song “come in my heart”.
To refresh your memory of the song, the worship team will sing it once through.
(worship team)
(Loop) (30 seconds)
Now is your turn. If you are already a Christian, please sing louder. And if you are ready to receive Jesus, please sing with a sincere heart.
Come in my heart, make it new
Fill it Lord, with only you.
Take all my sin, so all will see
The Son of God living in me
My heart was sad and filled with wrong
Til he came and made it new
Jesus has given me this song
And it’s one you can sing, too.
(For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.)
If it was the first time you invite Jesus to come into your heart, or if you are interested to know more about Jesus, I would like to ask you to come to see me at the end of the programme. I have got something for you that will help you to get to know more about Jesus.
Thank you.