what those Christmas songs, some of them are
really hard to sing, but it helps when you have
a great pianist. We thank the Lord that we do
have a good pianist. I don't tell her that enough,
but we are certainly proud to have Macy. If you
have your Bible today, you can turn to Isaiah
chapter 9, Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6. That's
in the Old Testament, kind of toward the middle
of your Bible, a little past the middle. If you
open up Psalms, just keep on turning, you'll
eventually get there. Isaiah chapter 9, verse
6. We'll get there in a second, but we're going
to pray. We're going to pray, and then we're
going to get started. Dear Lord, I thank you
for being good to us. I thank you for these people
that are in this place today. I thank you for
the love and the smiles and just the joy that
there is. There's a lot of joy in here today,
but maybe there's some today, God, that this
is a tough season for them, that this is a tough
day. Maybe they just got a lot of stress with
work or life or Christmas shopping or whatever
it is, dear Lord. I pray that we would all leave
here. rejoicing in you this morning, dear Lord.
I pray that you'd free us from the distractions
and the worries of the world, God. And I pray
that in these next few moments that we can just
be reminded of what matters, dear Lord. We need
that often because as humans, dear Lord, we just
get caught up in the world and we just need help.
And so I pray, God, that today you would just
help us to reset our focus on what matters. And
that's Jesus Christ. And I pray that in these
next few minutes that your Holy Spirit would
be with this service and everything it has said.
All for your glory and your kingdom. In Jesus'
name I pray it. Amen. It is Christmas time and
it is one of my favorite times. of the year.
Now, some people love Christmas. Some people
don't like Christmas. Some people think it's
a Christian holiday. Some say it's not. We won't
get into all that. There's a lot of stuff that
goes on at Christmas, and yeah, I'll admit to
you, there's no command in Scripture to celebrate
the birth of Jesus or do any of the things that
we do, but that doesn't mean that some of our
traditions and things that we do at Christmas
are bad. There are plenty of great things that
we do at Christmas that I love, that I look forward
to every year, one of which is sausage balls.
It's the only time I get sausage balls is at
Christmas. I love to get presents. I love to
give presents. I love family. I love to be able
to get together. I love church family. I love
that we can get together and have hot chocolate
and light up lights on the church. And some people
would say, you shouldn't put Christmas lights
on the church. Well... I don't know about all
that. But I know that love is good. And I know
we love each other. I hope we do. But what I
know more than anything is that God looks at
the heart. And so maybe it's not always about
the actions that we're doing as much as the heart
as we're doing them with. And so while there's
no command in Scripture for us to put up trees
or lights or get together with family, I don't
know that all those things are necessarily bad.
I think it's a good season when we can come together
and love one another and eat good food and exchange
gifts with one another. It's a good, warm, fuzzy
feeling, and I enjoy this time of the year. But
we also have to realize that maybe sometimes
we kind of blend our praise of Jesus and our
celebration of Christmas in ways that maybe aren't
always healthy. And sometimes I think we just
have to take a step back and we have to realize
it's okay for us to do some of the things that
we do, but we never want the things that we do
to overshadow Jesus Christ. And that's not only
true at Christmas. That's true all the time.
There are constantly things in our lives throughout
the year that we can get too caught up in that
can kind of overshadow what is most important.
And that is Jesus Christ. And so Christmas in
some way is just another reminder that we need
to praise Jesus. We see that all throughout the
scriptures that talk about Jesus' birth. We see
a lot of praising. We see Mary praising the Lord.
We see the shepherds, they're rejoicing. We see
the wise men come to praise Jesus. There's a
lot of praise that goes on throughout these characters
in the Christmas story. Simeon and Anna. And
those stories are a reminder to us, not just
at Christmas, but always, that when we recognize
the greatness of Jesus, that we should be those
who praise him. I'll tell you one of my favorite
things, and I probably shouldn't say this, this
probably sounds bad, but one of my favorite worldly
traditions that I like about Christmas, I like
getting gifts, I'll just be honest with you.
The Bible says it's more blessed to give than
to receive, and I like to give, but I sure do
like to get. I'll tell you, I got a gift this
morning. I got this this morning. This was a
gift to me. This is a tiny Jesus. Yeah, little
Gordon girls gave me this. I've seen these all
over, and I wanted one, and I never had one,
but I've got one now, so thank you, girls, for
that. I got my own little tiny Jesus. I brought
another gift. I've been holding on to this one.
for about 35 years now. I still got it. I got
this gift when I was probably about seven years
old. Now, I longed for this gift. I'm telling
you, I couldn't wait to get this gift. I don't
know how it was at your house, but on Christmas
Eve nights, all our gifts would be placed out
on the couch. My sister had a couch that her
gifts would be on, and I had a couch that mine
would be on. And there was one year that I asked
for Double Dragon 2. And some of you are saying,
what in the world is a Double Dragon 2? Well,
I'm going to tell you what it was. It was a video
game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. This
is it. This is it right here. This is my copy
that I got in 1990. Christmas of 1990. You cannot
have it, by the way. It still works. You can
come to my house and play it. My Nintendo is
still hooked up. You can play it. But you can't
have it. But I wanted this. So, so bad. I never
had wanted anything worse. If I could only get
Double Dragon 2, then I would never want anything
else in my life. Right? Y 'all have probably
never felt that way about anything, right? And
so I remember, I would always wake up at 3 o
'clock in the morning, and then I'd ease in there.
And I didn't want to turn the lights on and wake
anybody up and get in trouble. So I eased in
that living room. And I knew the shape of a Nintendo
game box. And so in the darkness, I'm feeling
around. And I feel it, and I said, wait a minute.
I think this might be it. And so I get that box,
and I ease over to the window with the moonlight
coming through. And I look, and I see his Double
Dragon 2. I'm like, yes, I've got Double Dragon
2. And I went, and I placed it back on the couch,
and I went and got back into bed, and I just
laid there. And I was like, is it time to get
up yet? And I could not wait to get up. and play
Double Dragon 2. We get excited about gifts.
Some of you probably have gifts under your tree
right now. As a matter of fact, we actually have
a few gifts here this morning. Some of you may
have noticed this, is these stockings were hung
with care, and there are some gifts this morning
that I would like to share with some of our church
members. Now, the first stocking that we have
here, it's got, that's Mr. Fred. Mr. Fred's got
a gift in this stocking. Let's see what's in
here. Oh, yeah, well, I don't know about this
one. I'll say this. Sometimes you get gifts you
don't ask for. But nonetheless, you've got to
accept them. And Mr. Fred's talking this year.
Let's see what he got. Mr. Fred, now let me tell
you this. He was a professor at LSU for many
years, a big fan of LSU. And for Christmas this
year, he got a Lane Kiffin. Mr. Fred got a Lane
Kiffin. Yeah, I'm going to tell you, getting
a Lane Kiffin, it's kind of like when you do
a pirate Christmas. You know, you might get the
present. You might get him for a little while,
but pretty soon somebody else is going to come
steal him. Well, that's going to be Mr. Fred's
gift. So Merry Christmas. You can pick up your
Lane Kiffin on the way out. But that's not all.
We have more gifts. We got another one here.
This one says Randy Wall. Now, if y 'all don't
know this, Randy, he does a great job keeping
our grass cut. I don't thank him enough. And
we don't ever acknowledge that, but he does such
a good job. He was up here this morning when
we got here about 8 o 'clock, 7 .30, 8 o 'clock,
blowing leaves off. He came. And he's always
keeping things looking pretty. And so for that,
you're going to get a gift. So we are going to
look. Oh, yeah, he's going to like this. Randy
is going to get some jalapeno puff. I know he
likes these. I saw him get them at the dollar
store one day. Thank you all very much. Now,
one bag is not enough to thank you for all the
work you do, but that's all that would fit in
this stocking. So make sure to get your present
before you leave. Thank you all very much. And
we got one more present. There's another one
here, and this one says it's for Jerry Toler.
Now, Jerry Toler is an important part of this
church, and we are glad to have him for all that
he's done through the years and continues to
do. And so he's got a gift, too. Would y 'all
believe it if I told you there's keys to a new
truck in here? Let's see what's in here. Oh,
dear. A lump of coal. Wait a minute. There's
something else. There's something else in here.
Oh, never mind. It's just another lump of coal.
We like the stuff that goes on at Christmas.
We like the gifts. We like to laugh and we like
the fellowship. We like the fun. We like all
of these things. And all of those things are
well enough. But what we have to remember is
that there's something more than Nintendo games
and all the other junk in this world. And what's
most important and what needs to be most important
every day of our life needs to be Jesus Christ.
That's where our real hope comes from. And we
get stuff like this and we think it's going to
fulfill us. And we think if I could just have
that thing I want, if my team could just get
the big win, if I could just have this, if I
could just have that, if I could just do this,
if I could just do that, everything would be
great. But the fact of the matter is, is that
the only thing that's going to make us... The
only thing that's going to fulfill us, the only
thing that's going to bring us joy is Jesus Christ.
And in the scriptures, this gift was looked forward
to for many years before Jesus ever came onto
the scene. Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 reads, For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.
and the government shall be upon his shoulders.
Now, Isaiah penned these words hundreds of years
before Jesus Christ would ever come onto the
scene, but he spoke of a precious gift, far greater
than anything that had ever been given before
or anything that would ever be given after. He
spoke of a day that a child would be born that
was going to be the savior of the world. The
Messiah of the world. The one thing that we needed
more than anything. Someone to save us from our
sins. Someone to forgive us. The weight of our
sin is so heavy. And we feel that. Some of you
may feel it today. You may have felt it in the
past. You may feel it in the future. The weight
of our sin is so heavy. But we praise the Lord
that the words that the prophet Isaiah spoke
have come true. And we remember that this Christmas
season and every Christmas season and a lot of
days in between. We know that the Messiah was
born, that a son was born, and his name was Jesus
Christ. When the angel appeared to Joseph, he
said, you're going to name him Jesus. The Lord
saves. And so many words we see throughout Scripture
describe who Jesus is and what Jesus does and
what he accomplishes. Jesus was his name, but
he is God with us. He is the Lord who saves us.
We see in Isaiah some of these words that describe
the Messiah. And his name shall be called Wonderful.
counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father,
the prince of peace. Isn't Jesus wonderful? The
words of Isaiah 2, Jesus is wonderful and the
only way you will ever know that is when you
follow him. If you don't know Jesus today, you
don't have a clue of how wonderful he is. But
the moment you realize that you are a sinner
in need of a savior, The moment that you ask
Jesus to forgive you of your sins, the moment
that you trust in him, the moment that you realize
that the Messiah has been born, and not only
was he born for you, but he died for you, the
moment that you realize the truth of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, what a wonderful moment that
is. The Savior that has come shall be called
wonderful. Counselor. He's going to be called
counselor. He's going to be one who leads and
who guides and instructs you in the way to go
in life. And that is what we need because life
pulls and tosses us and stretches us in so many
different directions. And there are so many times
we say, I don't know what to do. I don't know
what to do. I don't know what decision to make.
I don't know what to do about my family. I don't
know what to do about my job. I don't know what
to do about my church. I don't know what to do
about my health. I don't know what to do, God.
And the only way that we can know what to do
is by seeking the Lord and by being reminded
that Jesus is wonderful and he's our counselor.
And through the Holy Spirit, God would guide
us if we would seek the Word of God, if we would
listen to the Spirit of God. He wants to instruct
and guide us in our life. Maybe there are decisions
that you need to make today, and maybe you need
to realize that you're not going to know what
to do until you start listening to the Lord.
Maybe you've been listening to your own ideas
and your own thoughts, and you've gone your own
paths only to discover that they leave you in
a bad place. But the child who was born to us,
the wonderful, the counselor, is the one who
will guide you on the right paths. His name will
be called Mighty God, Eternal Father. Jesus is
mighty. He is eternal. Everything was created
through him, for him, by him, through him. He's
the Alpha and Omega, another term, another title
that we see applied to Jesus. He is the beginning,
He is the end, and He is everything in between.
He is eternal. He will never, ever disappear.
He has always been, He will always be. That's
the kind of person that we want to follow, right?
Not somebody that's here today and gone tomorrow
and there's only one. Who is eternal? God the
Father and Jesus Christ the Son. That's who we
need to follow in our life. He will be named
the Prince of Peace. What a great promise. The
Prince of Peace. Now you can speak that promise
to any generation throughout any time in world
history. And that would be something that people
long for. There has never been a time in the
history of the world that everyone has been at
peace. Maybe sometimes they've been better than
others. Boy, you look around our world today.
You see a lot of peace? Not at all. There's constantly
conflict and disagreements and arguments. There's
troubles that we have at work. There's troubles
that we see on the news. There's... Sometimes
chaos in our spirit. Not just externally, but
internally we don't have peace. Because of our
stresses and because of our sins and because
of our worries and because of our struggles.
But what we really need in our world, more than
anything, is peace. What we need in our spirit
is peace. And where does peace come from? It
comes through Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.
It doesn't come through our stockings filled
with gifts. It doesn't come through our sausage
balls and through our time with family and through
all of the things that we have. It doesn't come
through that. They may bring us some momentary
enjoyment. Praise the Lord. That's great. But
the real peace that we need, the real peace that
we desire, the real peace that we seek today,
it comes through Jesus Christ and Christ alone.
The scripture refers to Jesus as the light of
the world. So many times in our life, perhaps,
we walk in darkness. Boy, it sure does seem like
there's a lot of darkness in our world. But the
darkness will not overcome the light. Maybe there's
darkness in your life today, but I want to tell
you that Jesus Christ wants to give you hope
that he died on the cross so that your sins could
be forgiven. And that is the gift of God. The
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ. And there
is no greater gift. So this year, when you're
opening up your gifts, let us remember what gift
is more important than any gift that we have
ever received, and that is Jesus Christ. The
question you must answer is, have you received
that gift? Now a gift is only good if you receive
it. You can buy a gift. You can give a gift.
You can leave a gift at someone's doorstep. But
if they don't open it, what good is it to them?
Jesus Christ has come. He was born unto us. He
is the Prince of Peace that we seek today. He
is the greatest gift that God could ever give.
That Jesus would die on a cross so that our sins
could be forgiven. It has been paid for through
Jesus' blood. He didn't just give the gift, He
is the gift. He gave Himself. It has been presented
to you through the Word of God, through the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, that you would know today that
Jesus loves you. That He wants to forgive your
sins. The gift is available. to you today? Have
you received it? If so, then you need to rejoice
in it. If you haven't received it, here's your
invitation. Will you be like so many in Scripture
that saw the gift of God and turned and went
the other way? That rejected the truth of the
Messiah? Will you follow the way of so many of
these we see in the story of Jesus' birth? People
who hear the Messiah has come and they rejoice.
People who seek the King and find him. The greatest
gift that's ever been given is available today
and I pray that you would seek him this morning.
Let's pray. God, we come to you today. We thank
you for your good word. I pray, dear Lord, that
you would help us to enjoy our time that we have
with family and friends this year. All the good
food we'll eat and the good gifts that we get.
And we thank you that we just are blessed in
such ways that we can enjoy those things together.
God, I pray for those that maybe this is a tough
Christmas. Maybe they're memories of the past
that bring sadness. I pray that you just bring
comfort to the folks that may be struggling that
way. But God, more than anything, I pray. that
we always remember the greatest gift of Jesus
Christ. Not just today, not just on Christmas,
dear Lord, but that we recognize how wonderful
of a gift Jesus is every day, dear Lord. That
we are never allowed Jesus to be overshadowed
by the things of this world. And there's lots
of them, dear Lord. They are thrown at us every
day. But I pray, God, that you would always help
us to be grounded. Help us to know the days that
we kind of start to stray and turn from you.
That you'd grab a hold of us. That we would seek
you. That we would come back to you, dear Lord.
God, if there are some today that are already
yours and they've received the gift of Jesus
Christ, I pray that they would rejoice in that
today. But maybe there are some in this room
and maybe they've been to church a lot. Maybe
they've heard the scriptures about Jesus a lot.
Maybe they know all the stories and all the stuff,
dear Lord, but maybe they've never accepted that
gift of Jesus Christ. Maybe today they realize
for the first time that they are a sinner and
that their sins are just so heavy on them. And
they just feel the weight of that. But God, I
pray that you would help them to know today that
there is peace in Jesus Christ, that the Prince
of Peace has come. That he came, that he gave
his life on a cross so that they could be forgiven.
So God, I pray that if there are some that have
not received the gift of love and of grace through
Jesus, that the day that they would repent, that
is turn from their ways that they're living,
that they would turn to Jesus, that they would
pray right now that you'd forgive them, dear
Lord. They would accept Jesus as their Lord and
Savior and receive the greatest gift ever given.
And I ask these things in Jesus' name.