Christmas: A Day for Others
Dec.16, 2001
Pilgrim Baptist Church, Vancouver
Here are the top ten things that you tell u CHRISTMAS IS ALMOST here
10) There are more pine needles on your carpet than on your tree
9) The credit card is smoked along with the turkey and ham.
8) It’s A Wonderful Life has been shown for the 13th time
7) A trip to the mall and back is more challenging then the Indy 500
6) The Salvation Army bell ringers start accepting credit cards
5) You are pulling an all-nighter because of the words "Some Assembly Required"
4) Your Christmas list is written in black while your check book balance is written in red.
3) Santa’s belly is not the only thing shaking like a bowl full of jelly.
2) The NFL referees are not the only ones giving away games
1) The infamous fruitcake returns from it’s 12 months of hiding.
Christmas, is great ain’t it? But I trust that Christmas is also a time when you think of others.
Phil.2:1-11 (NLT)
Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and sympathetic? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one heart and purpose.
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. 4 Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.
How do you think of others as better than yourself? The Bible tells us we need to do that. But how? I think Christmas is a time we ought to think of others, right? Usually we have high opinions of our own, we even make our opinions known, we have foot in the mouth disease at times. Usually everyone else is wrong, I am right, attitude prevails. That’s why we have terrorists today because they believe they are right and they would use violent means to prove they are right and have their rights respected. Obviously, we do not want to be a terrorist or else u won’t be here. So, how can we think of others as better than me, myself and I. This is how according to God: the Christmas story!
5 Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. 6 Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. 7 He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.
Here it is in a nutshell what Christmas is about in Philippians passage. It is not about shopping, not about Santa, not about the Grinch, Scrooge or the Lord of the Rings or a host of other things, or a roast of a certain beast,it is not even about the weather…
DAVE BARRY said this:
To avoid offending anybody, the school dropped religion altogether and
started singing about the weather. At my son’s school, they now hold the
winter program in February and sing increasingly non-memorable songs such as
"Winter Wonderland," "Frosty the Snowman" and--this is a real song--"Suzy
Snowflake," all of which is pretty funny because we live in Miami. A visitor
from another planet would assume that the children belonged to the Church of
Meteorology.
Dave Barry in his "Notes on Western Civilization", Chicago Tribune Magazine,
July 28, 1991.
But the Christmas story did not stop at the manger. Just as the Lord the of Rings trilogy did not end with just the Fellowship of the Ring, there would be two more books… It goes on…
8 And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross. 9 Because of this, God raised him up to the heights of heaven and gave him a name that is above every other name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus showed us - No need to demand a long list of rights – he led a non-demanding lifestyle. “he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form”. He came born a defenseless human baby that Herod wanted drawn and quartered. He could have easily come as an adult , He could have lord it over us, demanded His rights as a king, as the Creator, as God, yet He chose to be a servant by experiencing what it is like to be like one of us right from the get go. Wow! And God the Father must have said the same thing to Jesus as He gave to Jesus the name that is above every other name. Kinda like a proud papa, picture Armindo beaming over Giovanna, get the picture? Most of all Jesus lived a life of servant. When he came he could have had a palace, but he born in a some hole among smelly beasts.
Look at what he said in Matt. 20:25-28, and especially v.28
But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that in this world kings are tyrants, and officials lord it over the people beneath them. 26 But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must become your slave. 28 For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many.”
Big reason he came the way He did was to give His life for us, to serve us and meet our needs:
If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator;
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist;
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist;
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer;
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.
So what’s wrong with this world that God had to go through this extraordinary measure of becoming like a human being born a babe in the manger? As God looked into the world he sees things for eg in Brazil
Four Brazilians crushed in rush for Xmas gifts says caption on Toronto Star News story in Dec.15 website
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Hundreds of people fighting to enter a building where state officials planned to hand out free Christmas presents today created a crush that killed three children and a woman in northeastern Brazil.
Police couldn’t hold back the mob of people, some of whom had waited for as long as a week enter, and they began pushing at one of the gates as soon as it opened, police spokesperson Jose Carlos Avares e Silva da Cruz said.
There were 45,000 people waiting to enter the exhibition building in Aracaju in the impoverished state Sergipe, about 1,700 kilometres northeast of Rio de Janeiro, Silva da Cruz said, but the crush took place at only one of its 10 gates.
A further 16 civilians and four policemen sustained light injuries, he said.
Sergipe’s state government planned to distribute 40,000 gifts in what it called a Solidarity Christmas for the poor. Once calm was restored, the distribution proceeded, police said.
He looks in Gabon where 11 has died as result of the Ebola virus outbreak.
He looks in Middle East where many lives are lost as Israelis and the Palestinians bomb each other.
He looks at our country where many are more concerned about who is on Canada’s Olympic hockey team.
He looks at devastation of Sept. 11
The London Times asked a number of writers to write essays on the topic “What’s wrong with the world?” G.K. Chesterton sent in the shortest and most to the point essay:
Dear sirs:
I am.
Sincerely yours,
G.K. Chesterton
What keen insight eh? Don’t need to write a doctoral dissertation to find out what’s wrong with the world, do we? I trust we need not be rocket scientists to find this out.
A poll done by The Minneapolis Star Tribune a few years ago found that 65% of the people in Minnesota believed in hell. That is a pretty high number. Only 15%, however, said they knew someone who would be a sure bet to go there, and only 3% felt that they themselves deserved to end up in hell. In other words, most folks accept hell as a reality, they just don’t see it as a danger. Very few even see the biggest thing wrong with the world is u and me, it’s what eating this world away like a cancer. That’s why Jesus pursued the life of being born of a woman that 1st Christmas, to serve us by saving us from our sins. He saw our need, he can’t just sit still in heaven with a remote, he had to come. He saw the danger we are in and He has come to save us. What a hero, a true hero!
Do u know what the name Jesus means? Matt 1:21 (NLT) says: “And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
The real problem in this world is that no one really pursues the true Spirit of Christmas, is it not? Jesus came to save to serve us, finally to die on the cross to pay the price for our sins. He thought about us… The Bible tells us long before the world was created He thought about us BUT Everyone thinks ME Me Me and Mine and I. I trust you will see Jesus thought nothing of Himself. He saw what wrong, and He volunteered to fix the problem eventhough it would mean humiliation, born into a world that would nail Him to the cross. Yes, all the power of the Universe squeezed into a little itty bitty baby body, for us.
Ah! the attitude of Jesus Christ, what an attitude! It is about humility, it’s not about who has go the most gifts, best presents, the hottest toy.
Did you read the email that made the rounds the week of September 11th? It was called “What a Difference a Day Makes." It is a good reminder:
On Monday, we e-mailed jokes. On Tuesday, we did not.
On Monday, we were fussing about prayer in school. On Tuesday, we would have been hard pressed to find a school where someone was not praying.
On Monday, our heroes were athletes. On Tuesday, we relearned who heroes are.
On Monday, there were people trying to separate us by race, sex, color, and creed. On Tuesday, we were all holding hands.
On Monday, we were irritated that our rebate checks had not arrived. On Tuesday, we gave money away gladly to people we had never met.
On Monday, we were upset that we had to wait 5 minutes in a fast food line. On Tuesday, we stood in line for 3 to 5 hours to give blood for the dying.
On Monday, we argued with our kids to clean up their rooms. On Tuesday, we couldn’t get home fast enough to hug our kids.
On Monday, we went to work as usual. On Tuesday, we went to work, but some of us didn’t come home.
On Monday, we had families. On Tuesday, we had orphans.
On Monday, September 10th, life felt routine. On Tuesday, September 11th, it did not.
What a difference a day makes. On Christmas day, we are reminded of the difference God’s visit to our sin-ridden broken down world, and what a difference He made. We are reminded with the birth of Jesus that we matter. You only serve someone if they are significant, you don’t give the time of day to a worm. God took the time and the pain to be like us, serving us and I believe He believed in us that we are worth saving, worth His pain, worth His humiliation, worth dying for! O if we believe in Him, we will belong to God! If we believe in Him then we are not our own, but bought with a price. Hear this simple words again, fresh and new, “God loves you” that’s the reason for true joy this Christmas.
Remind ourselves that each day we live, is a sign of God’s grace powerfully working in me. Each day is God’s way of saying “go make a difference like I did.” Let’s not create fuss over trivial issues, for the most what’s wrong with the world is, you and me when we forget about Jesus, about His attitude of servitude, looking to others as worthy of love. So let’s get down to real business of why God left us here, shall we? Serve somebody in Jesus’ name, especially the unchurched, touch someone else so that the true Spirit of Christmas lives on in us, as we remember God’s incredible grace, for He has come to serve and not to be served!
Will you agree to love another, even though it hurts at times, and work out with the one heart and purpose of Christ?
Will you think only good of others, just as Christ now thinks of us as His own children?
Will you be humble and serve wholeheartedly one another to build the other person up, even if it comes to some personal costs (usually our self protection and pride)?
In the bulletin, every week if we read it, we are reminded of our purpose statement - As a Christian community we exist “To please God by reaching people, and building them as disciples of Jesus Christ who are able to disciple others also.” So if we can help you in anyway to know Jesus and follow Him, let us know. We invite your participation in the life of this church. As the Bible says: “When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation… (each one of u gifted beautiful gift to make an awesome contribution to one another, give then the gift God gave u to each other this Christmas) Let all things be done for building up” (1 Cor.14:26, NRSV).
Let me read again from the Bible:
Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and sympathetic? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one heart and purpose.
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. 4 Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.
May God bless u!
