Letting off the Pressure at Christmas Time

Proverbs 18:10 KJV 1900

10 The name of the Lord is a strong tower: The righteous runneth into it, and is safe.

Isaiah 32:1 KJV 1900

1 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, And princes shall rule in judgment.

Isaiah 32:2 KJV 1900

2 And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, And a covert from the tempest; As rivers of water in a dry place, As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

Introduction.

When I was a kid my mother had us go get a rooster out of the yard so she could cook it. We cut it’s head off, but then it took off headless around the yard, running in circles. It always reminded me of folks at Christmas time. they lose their heads.

The Message of the hour helps us keep our balance at Christmas time.

The birth of Christ should bring peace on earth, but the season in which we celebrate His birth often brings disappointment, loneliness and pressure.

In 2014, NAMI found that 64% of people with mental illness say the holidays make their conditions worse. A 2021 survey showed that 3 in 5 Americans feel their mental health is negatively impacted by the holidays. (NAMI.org)

We are living in a neurotic age, nervous tension. Everybody is racing here, and going there, and going nowhere. It’s just to that kind of an age. And I know this church would be plagued with it, as everywhere is plagued with it. Tabernacle is plagued with it, everywhere, the whole world.

It’s a day of pressure. Hurry, hurry; hurry, hurry; hurry up and wait. Drive ninety miles an hour, and then to get home for supper, and wait two hours till it gets ready. That’s right. It’s a time. And in that rushing and speeding, it gets you to a nervous tension.

The wife say something a little contrary, you want to fly off: temper. Husband say something, you’ll pat your foot and tell him to get in the room. See? “Well, now, husband, I don’t want no words with you. Go out there.”

“Wife, oh, I’m so nervous.” See? Why? What’s the matter? All this, together, this tension building up, then the results of it is: doing something wrong, and acting out of place. That’s right.

Now, it’ll make the poor act that way. It’ll make the middle-class act that way. It’ll make the rich act that way. It’ll make the wrong act that way. It’ll make the pretty good act that way. And it’ll make the good act that way.

Because, it’s tension, steam, built up. Got to blow it out somewhere. See? You don’t, you blow the boiler up.

Now, we find that. It builds up as the day goes. You talk to your boss, if you’re working, “Oh, so-and-so!” And if you speak to the kiddie, “Come in here!” “Mama! I’m…” See?

There you are. It builds it up. Oooh! My! See? You feel like you’re going to…head is going to come off. I know. I’m with it, every day, so I know what it means. It builds up. 62-0513E - "Letting Off The Pressure"

How do we deal with this pressure? Get to the city of refuge.

(Explain)

And then the nervous neurotic age that we’re living in! And you know, in all of this, the doctors don’t have the answer, ’cause they’re plagued with it, too. They don’t have the answer. They don’t know what to do.

You say, “Oh, doctor, I’m just about to blow my head. I don’t know what to do. I…”

“Well,” he’d say, “I am too. Well, there is nothing you can do.” He would give you a tranquilizer. When that wears off, you’re more nervous than you was in the first place; like a drunk man, taking an extra drink, to get over his drunkenness. You see? So you can’t do it. There’s no answer. They don’t have it.

But, God has the answer. That’s what we want to take, talk about, to have the answer. God has got the answer. He is the answer. Christ is the answer to every problem we got. 62-0513E - "Letting Off The Pressure"

Well, I want to say something, the people here, if you’re not a Christian. I come to this city of Refuge, about thirty-one years ago. And, brother, I’ve never wanted to go out. Oh, I come into Christ. Everything that I longed for was in Here. I don’t want to go out.

I pray daily, “O God, I’m so happy here. Just let me stay.” I never want to leave, and I know He will never leave me. I know He will never leave you. And the pressure gets great, if it does, then He is our outlet, so we don’t have to worry about it.

If you’re all pressured up, and don’t know where you’re going, what’s going to happen to you after death; and you know you’re going to die sometime, you’ve got it to do; then the thing to come, is come to Christ, the Refuge, and let off the pressure. Settle it, once for all.

No matter what takes place, Christ is our Refuge. And when we come to Him, we can let off the pressure. You can quit worrying about, “Well, if I die, what’s going to happen to me? What’s going to happen to the wife? What’s going to happen to the husband? What’s going to happen to the children?”

Just come to Christ, and let off the pressure. All, He give us all things. All things are ours, by Christ, so just let the pressure off, the only one way you can do it.

Somebody might give you a million dollars. It would build up pressure.

You might join a church, and it would still build up pressure. Cause, the Methodists will tell you they’re right, “And the Baptist is wrong.” And the Baptist say, “They’re wrong, and we’re right.” So it just builds up more pressure, ’cause you don’t know where you’re standing.

But if you ever come to Christ, you can let off the pressure, ’cause it’s all over then, just settle it down. It’s God’s provided place of safety, where God said, “The Name of the Lord is a mighty tower, the righteous run into It and are safe.”

In a time of sickness, when sickness strikes, and the doctor says, “There’s nothing else I can do about it,” don’t build up pressure.

Let off the pressure. Call your pastor. Let him anoint you in oil and pray over you. “Prayer of faith shall save the sick.” Let off the pressure. See?

He’s our Refuge. While you’re in this Refuge, you got right to anything that’s in the Refuge. And Christ is our Refuge, and everything you have need of is in Him. Amen. 62-0513E - "Letting Off The Pressure"

What are some things the Message teaches us about Christmas, that would help take the pressure off?

Christ is not found in the Tinsel of Christmas

It’s Christmas. All the tinsel, up-and-down the street, of Santa Claus, a German fiction, a Catholic dogma, there’s not one ounce of it true. And it takes the place of Jesus Christ, in the hearts of too many Americans.

Christmas don’t mean Santa Claus. Christmas means Christ. Not some man with a pipe in his mouth, and coming down a chimney! Teaching your children such as that, what do you expect them to grow up to be?

Tell them the Truth, not on some fictitious story. Tell them, “There’s a God of Heaven Who sent His Son, and that’s what Christmas means. And He is near coming again.”

And as the pressure begins to come to the earth, the devil has put out his things, by eyes, what you can see, the tinsel, and so forth. God has put out His, which is Spirit, that you can’t see, but you believe.

Jerusalem had not the answer. Jeffersonville doesn’t have the answers; Louisville doesn’t, America doesn’t, nor the world doesn’t.

God has the answers, and He’s promised that He would manifest them. And I declare to you that that same Jesus, Who was born nineteen hundred years, lives today, from the resurrection, and is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 58-1221M - "Where Is He, King Of The Jews?"

Christmas should not be a Pagan Celebration

In the early church the controversy wasn’t Christmas trees it was eating food that had been dedicated to an idol.

1 Corinthians 8:4 KJV 1900

4 As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.

1 Corinthians 8:5 KJV 1900

5 For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)

1 Corinthians 8:6 KJV 1900

6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

1 Corinthians 8:7 KJV 1900

7 Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

Whatever you do must be done in faith. If it offends your weak conscience, don’t do it.

Romans 14:1 KJV 1900

1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

Don’t let people put pressure on you because you have a tree or don’t have one. Stop giving the idol power to talk.

Quit letting people use scriptures that have nothing to do with Christmas trees put pressure on you. Jeremiah 10 has nothing to do with Christmas.

What did a prophet say about it?

From them first little Christmases, when we hang up our stockings, and Mama would get…We’d probably get an orange, and two or three little pieces of striped candy, and that was a great Christmas to us. But, you know, kids they look forward for them gifts.

We find out that Christmas is to the…is mainly children, they look forward to that nowadays. It’s turned off to the children. But it really should be adults; it should be teaching their children what real Christmas is.

(Christmas could not have been on December 25th)

(Roman Saturnalia)

But what difference does it make? See, today when we are…Even if it’s a…if they was doing it in July or August, or whenever it might be, it’s still the sacredness of remembering that “God gave us the hope that we have in us.”

And now, you say, “Well, the rest of them’s all Santa Claus and going on like they do; why, we just might as well do it.” No, sir!

No, this is not a pagan celebration to us, this is a sacred hour. If there had been no Christmas, there would been no resurrection. If there been no Christmas: there’d been no love, there’d been no peace, there’d been no hereafter for the believer; if there’d been no Christmas.

And now, you say, “Well, if the rest of the world, they just…” Well, see, the forked lightning in the black, cloudy skies, show that there can be light in the time of darkness. These lights tonight prove that, that there can be light in the time of darkness. And when does light shine its best? In darkness.

You turn these lights on in daytime, the sun is shining in, you’ll hardly notice they’re on. But just one little, wee light will shine real bright in a time of darkness.

And right now is the darkness when every Christian should give a testimony of the hope that’s in him, of Jesus Christ the Son of God; not some Kris Kringle that was born back yonder, you know, and some kind of a tree lit up and went down through the forest one night, some fiction story that there’s no bottom to it.

But we believe solidly on the promised Word of God of a coming Messiah, and He was borned on Christmas day, twenty…pretty near two thousand years ago, we believe. 63-1222 - "God's Gifts Always Find Their Places"

Stop Spending Money You Don’t Have on Things No One Needs

Bro. Branham gave gifts and accepted gifts, but he didn’t try to give a gift to every person that gave him one.

He spoke against swapping gifts and giving inappropriate gifts.

Let your gifts be appropriate, and quit trying to buy your children’s favor. I promise they think a lot less about it than you do.

Most years we spend less than $50 each on our children, and they’ve never been deprived.

We want appropriate gifts.

And God spoke that Word, this Son would be there, and there He was, to make It shine. There was that Heavenly Visitor; and they was watching It, and come right straight to It. So they left the old creed, and started on the Supernatural again, and away they went.

How they rejoiced! “They,” the Bible said, “they rejoiced with exceeding great joy when they saw that Light come again.”

Oh, brother, sister, how nice it would be if each one of you, if each one of us, us, me, if each one of us could lay aside all this here Christmas tinsel, see, quit all this swapping gifts, one with another, all of this nonsense of the world; and just take off our pride and lay it down, and stomp the thing under foot, say, “Lord Jesus, guide me to that perfect Light.”

Watch something Supernatural happen. The Holy Spirit will come in a phenomenal way. See?

On they went, following the Supernatural. And what did they leave? They followed the Heavenly Sign of that day, now remember, the Heavenly, God-given Sign. Do all of you believe that that’s true?

That was a Heavenly, God-given Sign. They followed that Sign till they found the Word made flesh. Do you believe He was the Word made flesh? The Heavenly Sign, promised of that day, led them to the Word made flesh.

Brother, sister, He’ll do the same tonight. This great Sign from Heaven, that we have, the Holy Spirit living among us, follow It. 63-1216 - "We Have Seen His Star And Have Come To Worship Him"

Now, watch the gift that these wise men bought…or brought to Him. Today we find that we’re swapping gifts. Everybody has to get a gift, and try to figure out what the next fellow’s going to give him, so he can give him something comparing that much.

And if it isn’t, well, on the New Year’s, he feels he has to make it up. And each one studying and worrying and walking the floor, the millionaires, how they’re going to get by. They give so much to this one and that, when it’s altogether wrong.

Here: there’s only one gift that you can give, and that is yourself. Give yourself to God because God’s already give to you His Gift. Now, there’s only thing you owe back to God, that’s yourself to Him. 63-1222 - "God's Gifts Always Find Their Places"

Let Christmas be a Time of Worship

Matthew 2:11 KJV 1900

11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

Now, God, so anointed Jesus with the fulness of Himself till the…He was God’s Gift to the world. That the wise men are clearly identified, that they’re offering their gift to Him; showed that in their heart they knew who He was, and what He was going to do for them.

So (no wonder) the first thing they did, they fell down, perfectly in order, and worshipped Him. Before they could even understand it, they fell down and worshipped Him and then presented their gifts.

That’s the way to have real Christmas: worship Him, then present your gift; presenting your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. 63-1222 - "God's Gifts Always Find Their Places"

Now, remember, during Christmas, worship the Lord Jesus. Worship Him in the Power of His resurrection. 64-1221 - "Why It Had To Be Shepherd"

Conclusion

Have you found the city of refuge? Let Him be your place of safety.