Looking For Something More? (Christmas) Series

Looking for something more, this Christmas?

Carols by Candlelight Sun 21 Dec 2003 pm

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer retain their antlers till after they give birth in the spring.

Therefore, according to every historical rendition depicting Santa’s reindeer, every single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen- had to be a girl.

We should’ve known. Only women, while pregnant, would be able to drag a fat man in a red velvet suit all around the world in one night and not get lost.

Contributed by: SermonCentral PRO

So there you have it! Some of the ‘popular’ Christmas story is not historical!

A COLA CHRISTMAS

In fact- you may have heard, to your horror, that maybe even Santa’s red and white colours aren’t the real thing! (ooooh!)

It’s all still a lot of fun, though

- and I know none of you here would mix up that stuff with the reality of Christmas

o but people do, you know! Seriously.

 I honestly think some think it really is ‘for the kids’

• About presents, family, food etc

• (just those good things)

Truth is it is DREADFUL what Christmas does for some folk

- memories. Huge sense of emotion.

- Can’t stop themselves spending

- After Christmas- huge letdown

- Great poem: “Twas the month after Christmas, and all through the house Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.” (not me, personally)

The truth is- THIS side of Christmas CAN’T satisfy. It’s not designed, to

- to make people into good consumers you’ve got to make them into people who get satisfaction by consuming/buying/getting

o but it has to be temporary… or they won’t come back to consume, more!

Typical of last minute Christmas shoppers, a mother was running furiously from store to store. Suddenly she became aware that the podgy little hand of her three year old son was no longer clutched in hers. In a panic she retraced her steps and found him standing with his little nose pressed flatly against a frosty window. He was gazing at a manger scene. Hearing his mother’s near hysterical call, he turned and shouted with innocent glee: "look mommy! it’s Jesus - baby Jesus in the hay". With obvious indifference to his joy and wonder, she impatiently jerked him away saying, "we don’t have time for that!"

SOURCE: From "THE WONDER OF CHRISTMAS" by Glenn Pease. http://www.intohisword.net/luke/luke17.shtml via www.sermoncentral.com

I’m not blaming all that on money and marketing. It’s the nature of worldly things. Good things

- they are fun… but they can’t satisfy. They’re not designed to

So, naturally, you’re left – ‘looking for something more’

- out of life and Christmas

Or… maybe because life has treated you rough… or you’ve never been brought up to ‘think beyond the material’..

- … you conclude there IS nothing more. And chuck in the cola fizzy Christmas… and all the other bits of it

Greg Lake (of ELP) did. (V2, 3 of ‘I believe in father Christmas’)

They sold me a dream of Christmas

They sold me a Silent Night

And they told me a fairy story

’Till I believed in the Israelite

And I believed in Father Christmas

And I looked to the sky with excited eyes

’Till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn

And I saw him and through his disguise

I wish you a hopeful Christmas

I wish you a brave New Year

All anguish pain and sadness

Leave your heart and let your road be clear

They said there’ll be snow at Christmas

They said there’ll be peace on Earth

Hallelujah Noel be it Heaven or Hell

The Christmas we get we deserve

= Tragic, actually. Hopeless! But here’s the truth

- Cola Christmas may let you down

o But the REAL THING won’t!

- Greg Lake may think he has rejected ‘the Israelite’

o But hasn’t rejected the ‘real Israelite’

 Just caricature of Him

- When people are introduced to the ‘real thing’ you find they love Him not leave Him

THE REAL THING

The real thing satisfies. If you can get to the core of the real Christmas story- in their you will find LIFE

- and it’s NOT the story about sentimental love… and all war being over between nations etc

o the real Christmas story culminates in EASTER

 for a reason you must understand

o the real Christmas story is God taking flesh in a cold field, laid in a manger, into a war-torn area

 fleeing for his life to Egypt because of Herod

But the REAL THING satisfies