God's Indescribable Gift

Isn’t the Christmas Season a great season of the year?

Good morning..

I love Christmas… I love the mashed potatoes...,

Isn’t the Christmas Season a great season of the year?

I love Christmas… I love the mashed potatoes,

I love the mashed potatoes, the turkey, or tofurkey for those vegetarians out there, .. the cookies, …I love it all. J

the turkey, or tofurkey for those vegetarians out there, .. the cookies, …I love it all.

It’s a great season. Some of the things we say some of the things we do…Ahh I just so enjoy.

Did you know that a man goes through 3 stages in his life.

Stage 1- He believes in Santa Clause

Stage 2- He does not believe in Santa Clause

Stage 3-He is Santa Clause ..

It is such a fun season… and during this season obviously different people have different expectations and different perspectives.

There was a little boy who wanted a bicycle for his Birthday.

He got down on his knees and prayed for a bike and then his birthday arrived no bike.

But then he thought, ahh but Christmas is only a couple weeks away...

I will have a second chance. Got down on his knees and began to praying for a Bike for Christmas.

Then he thought “Nooo, I prayed for a Bike for my Birthday and I didn’t get one.”

Then he got up started walk around the house… then he saw a statue of Mary.

He had an idea. Took the statue down, wrapped in a blanket.

Put it in the drawer. And said “Jesus if you want to see your mom again you better get me a Bike.”

I don’t know whether you are the negotiating type...

but there are people who kind of think they can negotiate with the Creator of the Universe.

And Christmas is high negotiating season with some.

Story of mother:

There was a mother who said to her daughter, “darling what mommy hopes to give you this Christmas is a little baby brother.”

But it will actually be quite painful for mommy to do this.

And Mommy has to be rushed out to the hospital.

And she explained some details regarding the labor and the birth.

sure enough as Christmas approached mommy was rushed in the hospital...

gave birth to a little baby boy...

and there was great rejoicing in the family home at Christmas time.

The following year at Christmas, mommy asks her daughter,

“darling what would you want for Christmas?”

She said mommy if it’s not too painful I would like a pony.:)

I have noticed over many years that there are different versions of Christmas.

There is lots of hustles and bustles.

But it is good to just stop to take some time out and stop. And say “lets go back to the original script.”

What did the original script.. actually say?

The only true reason for celebrating Christmas is the Birthday of Jesus Christ.

But nobody celebrates the birthday of a dead person.

You only celebrate the birthday of someone who is alive.

It is because Christians believe and know that Jesus Christ is alive that there can be a true celebration of his Birthday.

Now, Just imagine it’s your birthday, you are having a party.

All your friends, all your family are going to come to your party.

The doorbell rings, you open the door, they are all standing there, Holding presents.

They all say, “it’s your birthday!” You say,.. “it is my birthday! Come on in.”

You say,.. “it is my birthday! Come on in.”

They all come in, and they all say, “It is your birthday!”

You say , “yeah yeah, we clarified that it’s my birthday.”

And Then they all get their presents out and give them to one another.

Does that remind you of anything?:)

The only true reason to celebrate Christmas is the Birthday of Jesus Christ...

so we all get presents out and give them to one another.

That is funny isn’t it? I think that is really funny!

Someone said Christmas means giving presents…

NOOO, Christmas doesn’t mean give presents.

But Of course we do give presents because it is Christmas.

When we go back to Scripture, we learn that there were a group of people known as the wise men.

And they brought their gifts to baby Jesus. Go with me to (Read)

Have you ever wondered what would’ve happened had there been wise women?

…I will tell you.

If there were wise women they would have asked for directions and arrive there on time.:)

I don’t know if you know but the wise men arrived there quite late.

If they would’ve been wise women, they would have brought a casserole,

If they would’ve been wise women, they would have brought a casserole,

they would‘ve helped with the delivery,

clean the stable and they would’ve brought far more practical presents.

But the original script says they were wise men.

Now that has nothing to do with academia, its not about intelligence its about Understanding.

They understood.

They understood.

When they arrived where Christ was… they bowed down worshiped him and gave Him gifts.

There was one infant school Christmas production and the wise men came on.

the first wise men, walks up said here some gold. And off he walked.

The second one said here some Myrrh, and off he went.

The third one came on and forgot his one line.

Now if you ever been a parent in this situation, it is so painful.

you are trying to help them to get the lines, the words out…ohh so painful. hard.

And then all of a sudden the kid remembered Ah, Franknsadness.

Gold… Frankincense…Myrrh

Now why would you give… a child those gifts.

Well its filled with symbolism.

And Behind symbolism are profound truths.

Hence the fact that this group are called wise.

Gold in the Bible is symbol of Kingship.

They had understood that Christ was their King not just a king but their King.

And in the words of Scripture, Jesus is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords...,

in other words the King of Entire Universe the Entire Cosmos.

By giving Gold they acknowledged His Kingship,

by bowing down and worshipping Him, they are saying we want to come under your sovereign reign and rule.

Frankincense in the Bible is symbol of Prayer, it’s a Symbol of communication.

They understood that the King had come to communicate with people.

They were acknowledging that and they were reciprocating...

and they said we want to communicate with you.

Myrrh in the Bible is symbol of burial, it’s a symbol of death.

They understood that the King had come into the world in order to give His life for us.

For us to Really appreciate and understand the relevance of these symbols...

we’ve got to step back and diagnose the world into which Jesus was born.

Do you agree with following statement…that there are problems in the world today? Do you agree with that? yeah

I wouldn’t believe anyone would disagree with that.

There are problems in the world today.

Personally, socially, globally… there are problems at every level.

Now there are many people who are doing what they can to alleviate the symptoms.

The big questions is… what causes the symptoms?

You see if you are only trying to alleviate the symptoms you are always going to have the symptoms.

But if you are going to deal with the root cause. That’s going to deal with symptoms.

What is the root cause that’s everything wrong in the world today?

There was a mother, she was a little bit busy...

and she said to her husband, “darling look out for Anne today. I need to go get a few things...”

There was a mother she was a little bit busy and she said to her husband, darling look out for Anne today. I need to go get a few things..

The father said fine, but he was busy...

and he thought what he could do to occupy little Anne to keep her busy.

He’s flipping through a magazine and he sees a map of the world.

He says Anne watch what I am going to do.

He cut the map of the world in small squares and he mixed them up on the floor..

And says to Anne, “I want you to put the square back together again to make the map of the world...”

And when you are done come find me.

So the Father thought, good that will keep her busy for a while.

A couple of minutes later she says “daddy I’ve done it!”

HE thought well she couldn’t have done it.

He went to have a look, all the squares were put in exactly the right place.

He says, Anne how did you know how to put the squares together?

She said well, when you were cutting the map out, I looked on the other side, and I saw a picture of a man and a woman.

And I thought if I can put the man and the woman back together again, I can put the world back together again.

The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.

That is what is at the heart of everything that’s wrong in the world today.

It is our hearts.

In Scripture, the word to describe that heart condition is Sin. That’s the word for it.

It is because we’ve all got sinful hearts,

That our relationships are polluted, our communities are hurting...,

our society and our world has issues, is because of the sinful human heart.

Story tether judgment:

Let me illustrate it for you in a slightly different way. Imagine it this way.

You are brought in a big theater by an Angel.

A theater with a huge screen, and you are there by yourself in this theater.

All of a sudden the angel says, welcome to the theater of judgment, Relax:)

This is only an illustration by the way.

He says, now watch the screen.

Their on the screen you see a film of your life...,

everything you ever did here on earth. Everything you ever said here on earth....

And everything you ever thought… you see it on the screen.

As you are recovering.:)

The angel comes back and says relax, there is going to be a second showing.

All the people that were featured in the film of your life are all waiting outside.

And we are just going to let them in the theater to see the film of your life a second time.

How would you feel if your life were judged on that basis?

That is exactly how God Judges us. In an instant.

We are judged by everything we have thought, said, and done.

I don’t know about you, but personally I would not want a private viewing, let alone a public viewing of my life.

I honestly do not need convincing...

That I thought, said and done things that I should not have done.

But the other thing that the film reveals to us is this...,

not only the sins of commission, the things we have done.

It also reveals to us the sins of ommission..,

in other words the things that we didn’t do, that we could’ve done, but we didn’t.

The things that we didn’t say...,

we could’ve stood up for the voiceless but didn’t want to.

We could’ve been kind but didn’t chose too.

Do you know people are rude sometimes…?

have you ever been in a situation where people just didn’t want to smile...

and threw your lunch or dinner at your, almost missing the table.

We had a few times where it happened to us...

and I truly felt sorry for them how they are at home,

if getting paid to be nice does not help, imagine at home with their spouse or their kids.

We could be kind but we are not kind.

We could be generous, but we choose not to be generous.

You see Christmas is a season for us to think...

is there something I can do to live simply so others can simply live.

You see we are not only judged by the sins of commission...

but we are also judged by the sins of omission.

But the thing is this, that everything on the film has consequences.

Now a lot of people don’t believe that.

There are people who think you can do what you want and it does not matter, it does matter.

All that stuff on the film has the effect of disconnecting us from God.

And that’s why some people say where is God?

But God didn’t leave us, we left God.

God didn’t separate himself from us, we separated ourselves from God.

God never rejected us. We rejected God.

And the thing is all that stuff on the film works a bit like being overdrawn in the bank account.

If you have gotten overdrawn in our bank account...

and I have gotten overdrawn in my account...,

you can’t help me and I can’t help you.

The only one who can help us is someone in credit.

Jesus Christ was the only one in credit.

And that is why Jesus came into this world...,

to do something about your overdraft and my overdraft.

If our greatest need was information then God would have sent us an educator.

If our greatest need was money God would have sent us an economist.

If our greatest need was pleasure God would have sent us an entertainer.

But our greatest need was Forgiveness. That’s why God sent us a Savior.

Jesus Christ came into this world in order to rescue us from this dilemma that we are all in.

Being disconnected from God, having an overdraft.

You see the wise men understood this...,

“Myrrh” you have come to die. That’s why you’ve come.

See, one of the things of the Christmas Season...

is that we can get so preoccupied with the baby Jesus that we miss it, we miss the point.

Yes! The invisible God did make himself visible.. in Jesus.

The unknowable God did become knowable in Jesus.

Yes, God did become a man but sometimes we leave him as a baby.

To really understand the significance of his birth...

you’ve got to move on and look at his life.

And you’ve got to move from the cradle to the cross.

On the cross Jesus Christ purchased for us forgiveness.

As Paul writes in , that “In Him, that is Christ...,

we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

It was as if He was cashing a check, signed with his own blood,

saying here is the check to clear Your overdraft.

You see that is why becoming a Christian is so...

therapeutic, liberating, illuminating because it totally liberates us from the past.

You see people have a broken relationship and get into another relationship....

not all the time, but many times they carry the baggage from the previous one.

They have a bad job they leave, they go to another job...

and they carry the baggage from the previous one to the next one...,

but constantly carrying baggage.

Jesus wants to liberate us from the past, forgiveness from the past, he wants to come into our lives by His Holy Spirit and give us a new life today.

Jesus wants to liberate us from the past, forgiveness from the past...,

he wants to come into our lives by His Holy Spirit and give us a new life today.

And He wants to give us a hope for the future.

This is the gift of Christmas.

The gift of Christmas is Christ. He is the gift.

No wonder Paul told us in , “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

The word Christmas has the word Christ in it...

and if you remove the word Christ you are left with mas.

Left with a mess of troubles if you ask me.

The gift of Christmas is Christ.

And yes we do need to put Christ back into Christmas.

Don’t miss Christmas. Don’t; miss it. Is it possible to miss? it is possible.

Many people missed the very first Christmas.

Did you know that the religious leaders....

Pharisees, the Sadducees missed Christmas.

That astonishes me!! How could they miss it?

Now, the word Bible means library.

As you know, In the library of the Bible there are two testaments...,

the Old Testament and the New Testament.

In the Old Testament of the Bible there are what are called messianic prophecies...,

some theologians would say there are in fact 322 of them.

At least 300 prophecies in the Old Testament that tell you about the Messiah, the King, the Savior coming to earth...,

they tell you how He is going to come to the earth...,

they tell you how he is going to be born...,

where he is going to be born...,

how he is going to grow up, what he is going to say....

What he is going to do, how he is going to die.

We even got details like for the number of coins that are going to be used to betray Him.

Do you know what the mathematical compound probability is of 322 prophecies being fulfilled in one men, of one moment in time is?

One over 84 with one hundred zeros...,

in another words it does not happen every day. This is a rare occurrence!!

This is a rare occurrence!!

The Sadducees and the Pharisees, the religious leaders not only knew the Old testament,

listen to this they not only knew it, they not only knew the 322 messianic prophecies,

they had memorized them...

and yet they couldn’t be bothered to walk the five miles.

That’s all they had to do, just walk five miles to check it out.

I would have walked 50 miles to check it out.

Do you know something, you can be religious and not know the truth.

You can be very religious and not know the truth.

You can even teach religion and not know the truth.

And there are many religious people who haven’t yet encountered the transforming truth of who Jesus is.

The religious leaders missed it.

King Herod, he missed it. Why?

Because he would not humble himself and bow down to The King.

Yes, Herod was a king but Christ was THE King.

And he wouldn’t humble himself.

You see sometimes pride, arrogance prevents us from encountering the true King.

Sometimes we don’t want to admit that we were wrong.

A professor was giving some religious lectures to his class...

and at the end this student comes to him and says...

A professor was giving some religious lectures to his class and at the end this student comes to him and says I like your lecture but personally believe Christianity is a crutch. He looked at him and he thought what is he going to say to him that will be said nicely and affectively. Let me ask you this if you would break your legs would you appreciate the use of the wheel chair to get around. He said I suppose so..

I like your lecture but personally believe Christianity is a crutch. He looked at him and he thought what is he going to say to him that will be said nicely and affectively. Let me ask you this if you would break your legs would you appreciate the use of the wheel chair to get around. He said I suppose so..

I like your lecture but personally believe Christianity is a crutch.

He looked at him and he thought what is he going to say to him that will be said nicely and affectively.

Let me ask you this, if you would break your legs would you appreciate the use of the wheel chair to get around?

He said “I suppose so”..

I said now, if you broke one leg would you appreciate the use of crutches to get around.

He said I would suppose so..

I said I am a broken person and so are you.

I haven’t yet met a person who isn’t broken...

and I am so pleased that I can lean on Jesus while He is putting me back together again.

He said to him you know one thing about Christianity,

Christianity is a crutch for broken people it really is.

If we humble ourselves and admit that we are weak...

and we need to lean on Jesus our lives can be transformed.

The religious Leaders missed Christmas.

The inn keeper missed Christmas.

I mean would that be a good signature to get in the guest book?

Mary mother of Jesus, Joseph’s father....I mean wow,…that would have been a great signature to have wouldn’t it?

They were so preoccupied with their busyness.

And the same way with people today, they are so preoccupied with their business.

One more round to the ladder,

one more round to the ladder...

until they get to the top of the ladder...

and they find that the ladder is leaning against the wrong building.

See there are many people today are caught up the rat race of life.

The problem with the rat race of life is even if you win the race you’re still a rat...

And many people who are preoccupied miss the most important truth of all.

Story:

In 1974, there was a student in London, he was an agnostic,

he didn’t believe in God, wasn’t interested in God,

Then he met a Christian named Andy and Andy started talking to him about Jesus.

Then he met a Christian and he started to talk to him about Jesus.

The Christian gave him a Bible and he told him to read it.

And as he started reading, he started to have lots of questions...

they would talk often about Jesus and the Bible.

Then around Christmas time, Andy asked the student...

“do you send Christmas cards?” he said, “I do actually, every year...”

and he was quit proud of himself.

And he said well make sure they are blank...

He said “what do you mean?”

He said, “well you are agnostic, you don’t believe in Jesus is Christ...,”

you don’t believe he is God ,so you don’t believe all those things, do you? he said, “no I don’t.”

Then you don’t want to be a hypocrite so make sure they’re all blank.

That really irritated the agnostic student.

But in the midts of the irritation he thought this guy was right.

But as he read more, as he studied more, dialogued more, he was captivated.

He thought wow, This is the most amazing gift that we are being offered.

and so he started to believe...,

but it took him a while from believing to receiving.

But on one evening he received the gift.

When he received the gift it was the most incredible, transforming, illuminating experience that he had.

The light came on. And he told his mother about his conversion.

And his mother told him you are brained washed...,

and he told his mother, mother my brains have been washed.

Mom if you and me knew what was in my brain you would be pleased it got washed.

Don’t miss the purpose of Christmas.

Don’t miss Christmas. I love this season I love everything that is part of this season is great!

I love this season, I love everything that is part of this season, it is great!

But the danger is that we get caught up in the wrappings, and the wrapping paper and we miss the gift.

and the wrapping paper and we miss the gift.

The gift of Christmas is Christ. He is the gift.

A Christmas time when we receive gifts we don’t really need…

God offers us a gift we can’t do without.

During this season of Christmas it is an opportunity to receive the gift -Christ.

Christmas is an opportunity to receive forgiveness.

Many of us need to receive forgiveness.

You know, we have an overdraft of sin.

And we keep sowing sawdust and Christ wants to wipe it clean.

We need to receive Christ and receive forgiveness from the past.

Some of us here need to renew our faith,

we believe, we do believe, but perhaps our behavior doesn’t match our belief.

And we need to renew our faith.

Receive Christ and Renew our faith.

Some of us need to release our fears.

Many people have fears, they carry their fears about all sorts of things...,

about their past, about their future.

There is one antidote to fear and it’s found in , for it says “perfect love casts out fear.”

Yes friends, the perfect love of Christ, casts out fear.

We need to receive Christ and be set free from our fears.

Christmas is a time to rebuild broken relationships.

Christmas can be very difficult for a lot of people...

because they’re encountering relatives who they don’t get along with.

When you have received Christ you are receiving the Prince of Peace.

You will have the Prince of Peace living in you by His Spirit...,

you become the peacemaker.

Some of us need to receive forgiveness.

Some of us need to renew our faith.

Some of us need to release our fears,

And some of us need to rebuild our broken friendships.

Some years ago there was man called Philips Brooks.

And he was sitting on the hillside overlooking Bethlehem.

And he was reflecting on what happened that first Christmas...

he had a sacred experience.

His mind and heart just illuminated as he experienced the peace and presence of Christ.

He was so inspired, he got out a paper and pencil out...

and he wrote down what came out of his heart.

And those words have become a well known carol.

O Little town of Bethlehem. He wrote this:

O Holy Child of Bethlehem Descend to us, we pray

Cast out our sin and enter in Be born in us today

O come to us, abide with us Our Lord Emmanuel

O come to us, abide with us Our Lord Emmanuel

Powerful words, in fact it’s a powerful prayer.

And I know that I need this prayer, this Christmas season, don’t you?

If you know you need to receive forgiveness...,

renew your faith, release your fears...,

or re-build broken relationships would you pray this prayer with me?

Join me in praying this prayer, repeat the words after me, and let’s pray this prayer together this morning:

“Oh Holy Child of Bethlehem, Descend on me I pray.

Descend on me I pray.

Descend on me I pray.

Cast out my sin and enter in. Be born in me today.

Cast out my sin and enter in.

Be born in me today.

Abide with me.

Oh, come to me. Abide with me.

My Lord Emmanuel.

Amen. “

My Lord Emmanuel. Amen. “

In closing, I’d like to pray one of my favorite Christmas prayers.

Prayer: (music soft)

“May God grant us the light of Christmas, which is faith

The warmth of Christmas, which is love.

The radiance of Christmas, which is purity.

The radiance of Christmas, which is purity.

The righteousness of Christmas, which is justice

The belief of Christmas, which is truth

The all of Christmas, which is Christ

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus may God grant you all these things..,

not just at Christmas but also throughout the New Year and all the years to come. Amen”.

I hope that God inspired your heart this morning. And I hope you have a good Christmas.