Rev Gideon Lee
A special group of TOPians are in Sarawak today, this morning, right now, they probably already at the service. Service starts at 9 o’clock and probably almost end of the service like in our church. Remember to pray for them. Church, I want to encourage you to join them in prayer. Because Monday, today is Sunday, they will be going to the long houses and they will spend about five days in the long houses coming out only on Friday. So continue to cover them in prayer.
Luke 3:1-6
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. 5 Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. 6 And all people will see God’s salvation.’”
Now church, I know we are an Assembly of God church. But, I just want to share a little bit about something, some of the traditional churches do observe that I think, which I feel that as an AOG church, we at least know about what are those things that are happening.
For one, do you know we are in this period call the advent? Do you know what is advent all about? In the Christian calendar, there are certain events that I think are significant for us and while we don’t really observe them, but as Assembly of God church I want us to know so that you understand the significance and we understand how meaningful it can be for us. That’s the reason why I am mentioning it, not I’m doing this so that we can observe a tradition. I am not doing this so that we can do something or follow some tradition but I want to do this this morning is because I want to share this so you understand that we can know what season we are in and how meaningful it can be for our life.
Let me start by saying this, our Christian season of Christmas actually begins on Christmas Eve and lasts for actually twelve days ending on 6th January. Some people say that is where we get the song the 12 Days of Christmas, but actually it is not true. This one came first before the song ever came.
Basically when we talk about celebrating Christmas, Christmas is basically twelve days, starting from Christmas Eve all the way until 6th of January. This is what we do when we talk about celebrating Christmas. But however, the time before Christmas is what we call advent. And basically what advent means is a season of preparation for Christmas. Advent is a season in the Christian year that lasts about four weeks before Christmas. So four weeks counting down before Christmas is this time call advent. And it is very significant, I need you to understand these four things, why I am talking about all this is because it going to tie-in to the message that I am going to share this morning.
It begins four Sunday before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve. So it means four weeks before Christmas is this period which we are actually observing call advent, today is actually the second Sunday of advent, and is a season of preparation for Christmas. When we talk about preparation, we are reminded of how much that we ourselves also need our Saviour. When we look at advent in respect and prepare towards Christmas, we are preparing towards His coming. You understand what I am talking about? We are not just preparing towards an occasion, we are not just preparing towards a public holiday, we are not just preparing just for a time of celebration, but we are preparing to remember His coming and not only His coming more than two thousand years ago, but His future coming which is going to be anytime soon as the Bible says.
So, advent is basically a time when we remind ourselves how much we need our Saviour. How much we need a Savior? And as we look forward to our Saviour's second coming, even as we prepare to celebrate His first coming at Christmas. What we are actually doing is we are looking forward during Christmas the second coming of Christ, as He did come more than two thousand years ago. The word advent come from a word in Latin call "adventus" which mean coming or visit. And the season with this thing, we keep in mind both advent of Christ, first in Bethlehem, and the second yet to come. So, the question I want to ask you this morning is this “How prepared are you for Christmas?” I am not talking about your physical preparation. I know many of us already done our decoration in our houses, but we have been preparing toward Christmas, I hope we have. But more than just physical preparation, this morning, I want to share with you that we should prepare ourselves spiritually as we look forward to Christmas because advent is a time next 2 weeks or 3 weeks, we prepare ourselves for not only that Christ came more than two thousand years ago but we are also looking forward to His coming in the near future.
Luke tells us the coming of John the Baptist is a fulfillment to the prophesy of Isaiah. And, what Isaiah says is a voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight the path for Him, every hill shall be filled in and every mountain will be made low, the crooked road shall become straight. And the rough ways smooth and all people will see God’s salvation. Here as we just read, Luke tells us of John the Baptist and the coming of John the Baptist or the birth of John the Baptist was in fulfillment to the prophesy of Isaiah. And friends, we need to understand this. Back in those days in Bible times, whenever a king was going to enter a city, the people who live there would build a special entrance that was always straight and smooth. They will not allow the king to come into their city on a crooked road or a small lane or a lane or a road which fill with potholes but what they will do in preparation for the king coming to their city, coming to visit them was to build a very wide and straight road, smooth road.
Luke tells us the coming of John the Baptist is a fulfillment to the prophesy of Isaiah. And, what Isaiah says is a voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight the path for Him, every hill shall be filled in and every mountain will be made low, the crooked road shall become straight. And the rough ways smooth and all people will see God’s salvation. Here as we just read, Luke tells us of John the Baptist and the coming of John the Baptist or the birth of John the Baptist was in fulfillment to the prophesy of Isaiah. And friends, we need to understand this. Back in those days in Bible times, whenever a king was going to enter a city, the people who live there would build a special entrance that was always straight and smooth. They will not allow the king to come into their city on a crooked road or a small lane or a lane or a road which fill with potholes but what they will do in preparation for the king coming to their city, coming to visit them was to build a very wide and straight road, smooth road.
That is why Isaiah said prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him because we are preparing for the coming of the King, our King, our Lord. And so as we prepare for the coming of our King, we need to make sure that our paths are wide, our paths are straight. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low, and the crooked road shall become straight, because we are welcoming the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. That was what John the Baptist was supposed to do, he was to prepare the way for Christ. He later on in these few verses he says that, I baptized you with water but there is someone who will come to baptize you in the Holy Spirit. Someone greater than me whose shoelace, I am not worthy to tie. John understood his calling. Let us look at how he came in fulfillment of prophesy of Isaiah that his main task was to prepare the way for Christ.
This morning, as we go on, you know John the Baptist is a quiet character. In the Bible, we know he live in the desert, he eats locust and honey, and then he goes around with cloth made out of camel hair. And he is preparing the way for the Lord, that is his calling. So, we need to understand that back in those days as the king visit a city, that was what the citizens had to do.
This morning, as we go on, you know John the Baptist is a quiet character. In the Bible, we know he live in the desert, he eats locust and honey, and then he goes around with cloth made out of camel hair. And he is preparing the way for the Lord, that is his calling. So, we need to understand that back in those days as the king visit a city, that was what the citizens had to do.
Now, I am sure as we look at our country Malaysia, we are quite good in building road systems. We design quite good road systems but what I want to say this morning is this, John the Baptist wanted to build in the people at those time a road into their hearts. Not the road we are driving now but he was preparing the way for Christ. And just as how a city would prepare for the visit of the King by making straight the road, making wide the road, smoothing the road, that was what John the Baptist came to build a road into the hearts of man and women back in those days. And he is still doing that today with the Word of God. What John the Baptist wanted to do, he did not come to make a road of tar, or bricks, or concrete but he came to build a road of righteousness, repentance, and justice. That was what John the Baptist is famous for in his message? His message was repent and be baptize. So he came with a message of repentant, he came with a message of righteousness, he came with a message of justice, his goal was to prepare the people of Israel for the coming of the Messiah, and he went into the country, into all of Jordan preaching the baptism of repentant, of forgiveness, of sin.
Today, on the second Sunday of advent, friends, as the celebration of Christ's birth comes near, John the Baptist confront us with this critical question, what I asked you just now, have we build a straight highway into our heart for Christ's coming? Are we prepared for the coming of our Messiah? Are we prepared for Christ because that is what Christmas is suppose to be for us, not only just a time of celebration, not only just a time of gathering your friends, but remembering that He came more than two thousand years ago and He is going to come back soon. This is what Christmas means to you and me. So friends, it is important that today that we ask ourselves this question. Why?
Today, on the second Sunday of advent, friends, as the celebration of Christ's birth comes near, John the Baptist confront us with this critical question, what I asked you just now, have we build a straight highway into our heart for Christ's coming? Are we prepared for the coming of our Messiah? Are we prepared for Christ because that is what Christmas is suppose to be for us, not only just a time of celebration, not only just a time of gathering your friends, but remembering that He came more than two thousand years ago and He is going to come back soon. This is what Christmas means to you and me. So friends, it is important that today that we ask ourselves this question. Why?
Because friends we are all very busy, tell me how many of us here is not busy during this time. Companies probably have your closing, you probably have a lot of things you need to settle in your company, in your account, and so on. Many of us here, we have a very busy time because in our company, probably budget time already almost over but we are preparing for next year. As families, you are busy buying Christmas presents, preparing for the events, as church, we are busy preparing for our Christmas with the Community, we are busy with this, we are busy with that, we are busy with our cell Christmas celebration, we are very busy people. If you don’t already notice it, you are quite busy during this time instead of being quite relax.
But during this period, in our busyness, we forget the reason for Christmas. In our busyness, we can forget why we celebrate Christmas and it is very simple also because you know friends, as you go to the mall to shop, you would see commercially, Christmas has been taken over. It is not Christmas about the message of Jesus is coming or is it about the present that you are going to get for your friends. Commercially speaking, you go to any of the shopping malls, you will see what they are asking you to do is to buy and spend. So, it is very easy to forget about the reason for Christmas. You walk into a shopping mall and you see all these things happening. So it is easy to forget. Not only that friends, remember in my bulletin, I mention that many times, I don’t why they are doing this, instead of saying Merry Christmas, they crossed out the Christ and they put an “X”, Merry X’mas. What does Merry X’mas mean? You know it is so easy to forget the message of Christmas. That is why friends, we are here today to do CWC, our Christmas with the Community, it is to bring the real message of Christmas, that Jesus came more than two thousand years ago, he died for our sins and He is coming back again.
And friends, as we look at this, it is easy for us to understand, how many of you know that in the US that there is this time called Black Friday? Traditionally, it means the Christmas season in the US starts immediately after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving happens on the Thursday, and normally what will happen, the companies will give their employees time off on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a long weekend. Traditionally this is when the time after Thanksgiving, they will begin to shop for all their Christmas presents, and they actually call this phrase Black Friday, where they have tremendous sales in the US. Just to share with you, during this Black Friday, items can be discounted so low and they will extend their opening hours and some of them will open all the way 24-hours on this day to make the sales. And so, traditionally after Thanksgiving, this day of Black Friday in that sense, it become known as the shopping festive activity. You don’t see it much here, but if you read the newspaper, what is happening, you can see people going shopping at midnight and queuing up just to do this.
And friends, as we look at this, it is easy for us to understand, how many of you know that in the US that there is this time called Black Friday? Traditionally, it means the Christmas season in the US starts immediately after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving happens on the Thursday, and normally what will happen, the companies will give their employees time off on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a long weekend. Traditionally this is when the time after Thanksgiving, they will begin to shop for all their Christmas presents, and they actually call this phrase Black Friday, where they have tremendous sales in the US. Just to share with you, during this Black Friday, items can be discounted so low and they will extend their opening hours and some of them will open all the way 24-hours on this day to make the sales. And so, traditionally after Thanksgiving, this day of Black Friday in that sense, it become known as the shopping festive activity. You don’t see it much here, but if you read the newspaper, what is happening, you can see people going shopping at midnight and queuing up just to do this.
And the message of Christmas can be so easily lost. Again, some people asked why they use the phrase Black Friday. They use the word Black Friday because again traditionally it is the time when actually the retailers go into the black. You know what is going into the black? It actually starts making profits. That is why they call it Black Friday because the period before that, they are all in the red, but they somehow have commercialized this day, that so much so that on that day itself, they can actually make their sales and return them back in the black. They call it Black Friday for that. The Black Friday also have the darker side, I don’t know whether you have read paper or not but on Black Friday, there are people who died in the sales.
Let me read to you, what I have found out, it says this. There were fatality, the first fatality occurred in Walmart in New Jersey, where a woman repeatedly stabbed a man with a kitchen knife taken from the housewares department to prevent him from buying the last Xbox. Another sad incident happen in Toy R Us, one woman took a baseball bat and beat another women to death, to prevent her from buying the last American doll. Cars are overturned, set on fire in Chicago, a security was beaten to death by an angry mob because the product that was being offered ran out. The DVD was being offered at $17.95 ran out of stock, because of that the people was so angry, they overturned cars and beat up the security guard, that's the bad side of Black Friday. Why am telling you all these? I am telling you all these because we can get so caught up with the buying, spending, with the gifts, with everything else except understanding what is the real meaning of Christmas.
Friends this morning, I challenge you with this, so that we prepare for Christ, a road into our heart. Prepared for Him a highway into our heart, things about righteousness, justice and repentance. Have we done that this morning? Friends, the secular world has almost taken over the celebration of Christmas. It is difficult for us to stay focused, but what I want to say is this, thank you that you are here in church. How many of you go to school and in your school, they have this big signboard “Terima kasih kerana anda hadir ke sekolah hari ini”. I think we should have one outside our church, “Terima kasih kerana anda hadir ke gereja hari ini”. I want to say thank you, I am not making fun of this, but I want to say thank you because you understand what is important and that is why you are here on a Sunday morning. Let me start by also say this, you see friends, the question I asked is are you prepared internally to properly celebrate the birth of our Messiah into this world? Are you prepared internally to celebrate Christmas?
Number one, preparation is a key success in almost everything. You won’t invite your friends to come to your home for Christmas celebration if you’re not prepared. Same goes for Christmas, you don’t want to ask Jesus to come into your heart until you’re prepared. John the Baptist is asking us this, is the people back during those days, have you prepared a pathway for our King? This morning, are you prepared to receive Jesus as you see Him, as you celebrate His birthday on the 25th of December?
Friends this morning, I challenge you with this, so that we prepare for Christ, a road into our heart. Prepared for Him a highway into our heart, things about righteousness, justice and repentance. Have we done that this morning? Friends, the secular world has almost taken over the celebration of Christmas. It is difficult for us to stay focused, but what I want to say is this, thank you that you are here in church. How many of you go to school and in your school, they have this big signboard “Terima kasih kerana anda hadir ke sekolah hari ini”. I think we should have one outside our church, “Terima kasih kerana anda hadir ke gereja hari ini”. I want to say thank you, I am not making fun of this, but I want to say thank you because you understand what is important and that is why you are here on a Sunday morning. Let me start by also say this, you see friends, the question I asked is are you prepared internally to properly celebrate the birth of our Messiah into this world? Are you prepared internally to celebrate Christmas?
Number one, preparation is a key success in almost everything. You won’t invite your friends to come to your home for Christmas celebration if you’re not prepared. Same goes for Christmas, you don’t want to ask Jesus to come into your heart until you’re prepared. John the Baptist is asking us this, is the people back during those days, have you prepared a pathway for our King? This morning, are you prepared to receive Jesus as you see Him, as you celebrate His birthday on the 25th of December?
Friends, preparedness is very important, we must be prepared. I tell you a story. How many of you know in a relay run, 4x100m, this four person take turns to run and they will pass the baton to the next person? And each person is supposed to run a 100m. One day, a coach noticed that during the selection period, there is one guy who actually run quite fast, quite talented. So, he got him on the team as one of the standby. And, when the actual day of the race came, one of the 4x100m runners sprained his ankle while coming to the race and he could not run. At the very last minute, they have no choice but to replace him so the coach motion to this young man. This time I want you to get ready, I want you to fill in this slot. And so the young man you know of course got himself prepared and he fills up the spot and he ran for the 4x100m relay race. But when the turn for him to run and the baton was passed to him, at first he started off pretty well, he ran actually quite fast but as he was at the midway, we could see that he is like losing his grip, it's like he couldn’t run properly or like slowing down, and because of that this caused the whole team the race. At the end of everything, the coach pulled this young man aside and asked what happened out there? I know you can run, I've seen you running but how come today I saw that while you were running, you are like almost going to sleep, you cannot run fast? What happened to you? The young man was very ashamed of what had happened and confessed to his coach. He told the coach this. I have been sitting on the sideline for so long. I know that every time there is a race, I am not called upon, so I just sit at the sideline, just anticipate. I thought today will be just another day like that, and so what happen was when I was sitting there at the bench, the shoe that I wear without putting on my spike because I thought I will just be going to sit there like the rest of the time. And because, he did not put on spike on his shoe, he didn’t bring it, he couldn’t run well, he does not have grip and you know that caused the team to race.
What I am trying to say this morning is this, the key to receiving Jesus this coming Christmas is to be prepared. Are you prepared to see Him? Is your mind focused on Him or not this morning? Or your mind is focus on all the good food for our Cell Christmas celebration. Is our mind focused on all the presents you are going to receive from mummy and daddy? Or is our mind focused on Christ? Are you prepared? The key this morning, the first key to receiving Jesus is to be ready and to be prepared.
I share with you with one more story. How many of you know about the Amish? They are some sort like the Quakers. They are a group of Christians and they practice their faith slightly a little bit different. I would not so much call them as Cult or anything like that. What they do is, they like to live separately, and they also dress differently and so on. One of the things that I perculiar to that of the Amish faith is this, they don’t believe in Sunday morning service. Their services are held, yes on the Sunday morning but you won’t know the venue, until the day before. You won’t know who is going to preach until the day before. You won’t know who is going to worship until the day before. Come Sunday, all of them will just gather at the house they announced a day before. So, someone asked this Amish guy, how do you prepare with this kind of situation, you don’t even know where the service going to be, who is going to give the message on that day and who is going to song lead. That guy answered, we live our life in a state of readiness, that at anytime, that we are call to give a sermon, we are ready to give. Anytime we are call to worship, we are ready to worship lead. Anytime we are called to host where the church is, we are ready. So friends, this morning, as a Christian, are you living a life of preparedness? Are you ready, this morning, are you in the state of readiness?
I share with you with one more story. How many of you know about the Amish? They are some sort like the Quakers. They are a group of Christians and they practice their faith slightly a little bit different. I would not so much call them as Cult or anything like that. What they do is, they like to live separately, and they also dress differently and so on. One of the things that I perculiar to that of the Amish faith is this, they don’t believe in Sunday morning service. Their services are held, yes on the Sunday morning but you won’t know the venue, until the day before. You won’t know who is going to preach until the day before. You won’t know who is going to worship until the day before. Come Sunday, all of them will just gather at the house they announced a day before. So, someone asked this Amish guy, how do you prepare with this kind of situation, you don’t even know where the service going to be, who is going to give the message on that day and who is going to song lead. That guy answered, we live our life in a state of readiness, that at anytime, that we are call to give a sermon, we are ready to give. Anytime we are call to worship, we are ready to worship lead. Anytime we are called to host where the church is, we are ready. So friends, this morning, as a Christian, are you living a life of preparedness? Are you ready, this morning, are you in the state of readiness?
Do you know the royal rangers photos, the ministry that I am serving in, our motto is ready, ready to worship, ready to serve, ready for anything. So, friends, ask yourselves this morning, are you ready to receive Jesus?
Second, is your relationship with God intact? As we look on Christmas, remember Christmas is a time for family to gather, our family all come back, maybe this is not so significant for us, but like Chinese New Year when families come back. Is our relationship with God and with one another intact? Because as much as Christmas can remind us about our family, remind us about all the good times, Christmas also does to a certain extend remind us of some of the relationship that is not intact.
A son or a daughter that have gone abroad, Christmas time won’t be coming back, or someone who have passed away, a loved one, Christmas time remind us of them as well. This morning, the question that we also ask ourselves is our relationship with God intact? Is our relationship with Jesus our Lord and Savior on the right track? As we prepare to receive Him, John the Baptist spoke about building a straight road, the opposite of a straight road is crooked road or I will call a maze.
There is this author, a very famous author, his name is called Max Lucado shared a story. This is what his story says, he took a family trip to the United Kingdom, they visited a castle, in the centre of the castle garden set a maze made out of trees, plants and is quite high leading to one dead end after the other. But the right way to successfully navigate this maze, you will discover a door to a tall tower. And through that door you can actually go out to the tower and you can stand out there and see the countryside and see everything around you. And tried as he might try, Max Lucado could not find his way out, but low and behold he heard a voice and the voice came from above in that sense, but not God. He look up at the voice, he could see from the tower his entitle family except him. His children and all are able to make it out of the maze, and they went to this tower. The daughter was calling him, dad look up, because the moment you look up at this kind of length or level, you will not be able to find your way out of the maze. But what happen is here, his daughter from high up guided her dad, and guess what, Max Lucado listen to his daughter and from there he was able to come out from the maze.
Friends, this morning it is good that we have our relationship with God intact, because God has many things that He want to say to us. Is our relationship with each other what it ought to be? We cannot build a straight road into our heart if we have to build through a lot of obstacles. One of the things like I said early on, I like of Christmas is, I love about Chinese New Year is that you know the fact that all family members whether far or near come back. But that again, during this festive period is also a time also to remember some of our stray relationships that you may have.
There is a story goes something like this which I have read. One day there was this air force pilot, he was growing up, had a very good relationship with his dad. In fact they were like buddy, they could just do everything together. But one day, in a heated argument, the son slapped the father. This kind of thing that can’t be forgiven kind of thing. It is something you should not do to your father, the son in the midst of anger slapped the father. From that day onwards, the father and the son relationship was astray. In fact the father was so angry he wanted to kill the son, they needed the mother to step in to break up the fight, but from that day onwards, the relationship between the father and the son was never ever the same again because of what had happened. The father said, I left him alive today because of you, the wife, but I will never forgive him, he no longer is my son.
There is a story goes something like this which I have read. One day there was this air force pilot, he was growing up, had a very good relationship with his dad. In fact they were like buddy, they could just do everything together. But one day, in a heated argument, the son slapped the father. This kind of thing that can’t be forgiven kind of thing. It is something you should not do to your father, the son in the midst of anger slapped the father. From that day onwards, the father and the son relationship was astray. In fact the father was so angry he wanted to kill the son, they needed the mother to step in to break up the fight, but from that day onwards, the relationship between the father and the son was never ever the same again because of what had happened. The father said, I left him alive today because of you, the wife, but I will never forgive him, he no longer is my son.
Friends, this morning do we have a stray relationship that we need to get right. I don’t know what it is in your life, as Christmas approaches, don’t you think it is good time for us to value the relationship? I don’t know, maybe he has done something, like this person, maybe unforgiveable but what I want to say is with God, it is not impossible, it can be restored. This Christmas, is your relationship with God, with one another is what it ought to be.
Last but not least, friends are you focused this year on the true meaning of Christmas? There is once a cartoon, Charlie Brown cartoon. Charlie Brown in fact is a Christian cartoonist and most of the time we look at his cartoon, that he produces you will see a Christian message in it. There is one cartoon that he produced, the character, you know Peanuts, there is this guy call Linus, he was talking to his sister Sally, look aren’t you amaze about Christmas, isn’t it the time to pause for a moment and listen to God’s voice, this Linus was talking to his sister. Christmas will be something meaningful to all of us and then he went on to listen to Sally that Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem and at that point there was no place in the Roman Empire for them, and all they could find was an inn. Linus continue to say this, the intention of course is to tell Sally what is the meaning of Christmas? And he went on and elaborate Christmas so nicely to the sister Sally. And all Sally could do is, she replied to him, she said, look at Linus and said this, Linus, I don’t know what you talking about, but as far as I am concerned, if this Christmas, I don’t get all the presents I wished for, I am really going to be angry. What I am trying to say this morning is, have we missed the real meaning of Christmas? Is this because of the presents?
I hope that we don’t come to a point that if this Christmas I don’t get to celebrate the day I want to and get all the things I want to, you know what? It won’t be a good Christmas. I pray that Christmas will be Christmas for us because Jesus came and He is going to come back again. Amen.
I conclude with this friends, how is your relationship with God this morning? How about your relationship with those closer to you? Family members, your relatives? A voice of one is calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight path for Him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked road shall become straight, the rough ways smooth and all the people will see God’s salvation. This morning as the road be made straight for the coming of the King into your heart this Christmas. I pray first and foremost that you will be ready, always prepared. I pray that your relationship with God will always be intact. I pray that all our relationships with one another, those closer to us should be as it should be good. I pray friends that we always remember the true meaning of Christmas. And what we do is because Jesus came more than two thousand years ago and He is coming back again. I pray that it will not just be about the gifts but also give as it is a time that you appreciate one another, but let not Christmas be just about the gifts. I pray dear friends that this Christmas will be meaningful to you and you will have a wonderful time with your family, that you will have a wonderful time with one another and you will have wonderful time serving God.
Last but not least, friends are you focused this year on the true meaning of Christmas? There is once a cartoon, Charlie Brown cartoon. Charlie Brown in fact is a Christian cartoonist and most of the time we look at his cartoon, that he produces you will see a Christian message in it. There is one cartoon that he produced, the character, you know Peanuts, there is this guy call Linus, he was talking to his sister Sally, look aren’t you amaze about Christmas, isn’t it the time to pause for a moment and listen to God’s voice, this Linus was talking to his sister. Christmas will be something meaningful to all of us and then he went on to listen to Sally that Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem and at that point there was no place in the Roman Empire for them, and all they could find was an inn. Linus continue to say this, the intention of course is to tell Sally what is the meaning of Christmas? And he went on and elaborate Christmas so nicely to the sister Sally. And all Sally could do is, she replied to him, she said, look at Linus and said this, Linus, I don’t know what you talking about, but as far as I am concerned, if this Christmas, I don’t get all the presents I wished for, I am really going to be angry. What I am trying to say this morning is, have we missed the real meaning of Christmas? Is this because of the presents?
I hope that we don’t come to a point that if this Christmas I don’t get to celebrate the day I want to and get all the things I want to, you know what? It won’t be a good Christmas. I pray that Christmas will be Christmas for us because Jesus came and He is going to come back again. Amen.
I conclude with this friends, how is your relationship with God this morning? How about your relationship with those closer to you? Family members, your relatives? A voice of one is calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight path for Him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked road shall become straight, the rough ways smooth and all the people will see God’s salvation. This morning as the road be made straight for the coming of the King into your heart this Christmas. I pray first and foremost that you will be ready, always prepared. I pray that your relationship with God will always be intact. I pray that all our relationships with one another, those closer to us should be as it should be good. I pray friends that we always remember the true meaning of Christmas. And what we do is because Jesus came more than two thousand years ago and He is coming back again. I pray that it will not just be about the gifts but also give as it is a time that you appreciate one another, but let not Christmas be just about the gifts. I pray dear friends that this Christmas will be meaningful to you and you will have a wonderful time with your family, that you will have a wonderful time with one another and you will have wonderful time serving God.
Many thanks to Esther Tham for transcribing this message in my absence. She did a great job on it. Blessed to be a blessing indeed.
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