Sermon Central
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Grace At Christmas
Contributed by Joel Arndt on Jan 9, 2020 (message contributor)
Early on in my ministry, I was called to the home of one of the people in the congregation who said they had a Christmas gift for me. Shortly after getting out of my vehicle I heard shouting coming from the house that I was called to. I gently knocked on the door and the woman of the house opened it very tentatively and ushered me into the house without a word. When I got into the living room I could see that it was in chaos. The woman's husband was red-faced and shouting at his children. When I asked him to calm down and tell me what was going on he could hardly speak. He told me that he had said to the children that if any one of his three children looked into the Christmas gifts this year there would be no Christmas in the house. All the children were crying, his wife was crying and honestly, I thought Ebeneezer Scrooge lives. He told me that the previous year the oldest boy had secretly open up all of the gifts to see what everyone was getting. He then proceeded to tell me that he had set a trap to see if the gifts had been looked at this year. "The trap was sprung!" he told me. This man had three sons, a set of twins who were only five at the time and a thirteen-year-old. The thirteen-year-old was known to be a bit greasy when it came to matters of honesty. The husband then told his wife to take all of the decorations down. He then opened the door to the garage and opened the trunk of the car after which he began to unceremoniously throw the Christmas gifts into the trunk. When that was completed he asked his wife for all of the receipts as he was going to take all of the gifts back to the stores where they were purchased from. Then he said to me- come on pastor you can come with me. After slamming the door to the kitchen he looked at me and winked. "I'm going to teach those kids a lesson they will never forget" I left and he simply drove around the block. That year Christmas was on a Saturday this event occurred on a Monday. All week long the family lived with the knowledge that there would be no Christmas in the house that year. On Saturday morning the twins woke up like it was any normal Saturday morning. They would go downstairs to get some cereal and watch cartoons. When they proceeded down the stairs what should greet them but Christmas morning. Did that Father have every right to follow through with his word? Absolutely, yet what he gave them was a much greater gift the gift of forgiveness and grace.
At Christmas, we read about a gift that was given to us a gift of grace and forgiveness. What we deserved God gave to His Son what we receive if we choose it is grace and forgiveness. No wonder the Apostle Paul said, "But thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" (2 Cor. 9:15)
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