Christmas: A Day For Others

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.