Now we're going to take our Bibles and turn together to the book of James.
In the month of January we are talking about stewardship.
We'll get back to Romans in February, the Lord willing, but for this month of January
we want to talk about the importance of stewardship.
Last Sunday we talked about four principles of stewardship.
If you were not here, we have tapes that are available that you can borrow so that you
can listen to that message and get caught up with us.
I asked those who were present last Sunday to do something for me, to memorize two verses
which will kind of be our theme through this month.
The verses are 1 Corinthians 6 verses 19 and 20.
Many of you have those memorized already, but if you weren't here last week, let me
encourage you to write those verses down and get them memorized this next week.
I wonder how many of you were here last week and memorized the verses, 1 Corinthians 6
verses 19 and 20.
I see a few hands.
Yes, now there are more of them.
That's good.
Others of you already know them, the real emphasis there that I'm after is, you are not your
own.
You are bought with a price.
He gives the reason for that and some elaboration on it.
Memorize those verses.
Allow the Spirit of God to sink that truth into your heart.
Then I ask you to do an inventory also, using a piece of paper write down your abilities
that you believe you have, the time that you have, waking hours, for some people that's
not too many, and then the amount of money that you have that God puts into your hands
every month.
Then the second column to write down how you're presently using your abilities, your time,
your money.
Then in column number three, your commitment for 1983, what you believe God would want
you to do so that you can be a better steward of all that he puts into your possessions.
You see everything that we have is God's.
Our stewardship is a sacred trust given to us for which we are personally responsible
and for which someday we must give an account to God.
It's important for us to keep track of our stewardship, see how we're doing, and this
is a normal good time of the year to think about those kinds of things.
Today we're going to talk specifically about the stewardship of life.
Beginning in James 4.13, it says, Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we shall go
to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make profit.
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.
You are just like a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
Instead, you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we shall live, and also do this or that.
But as it is, you boast in your arrogance.
All such boasting is evil.
Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does it not, to him it is sin.
W.E. Channing observed, Life is a fragment, a moment between two eternities, influenced
by all that has been and to influence all that will be.
James tells us here that one evidence of worldliness is a careless attitude toward life, ignoring
the proper place of God in life.
In fact, he says it is sin when we do not give God His proper place.
Even though one may be keen in planning for the future, for example, in business, as he
suggests here in verse 13, if one's plans for the future do not take into account God's
place, that planning is evil.
Why is that?
Because planning without including God assumes something that ought not to be assumed, and
that is the continuance of life as it is.
James says that life is like a vapor.
It appears briefly and then vanishes quickly.
And you know life is more than lifetime.
That is, it's more than hours and years.
Life includes a force, an influence, it's a dynamic, it's the effect of one's God-given
personality.
That is life.
My point this morning is this.
What kind of an impact is your life making?
Or as James says, what is your life?
Could it be that the impact of your life will be greater for the good if you were to be
a wiser steward of the privilege of life?
How can I make the most of my life?
I can only live it once.
How can I make the most of it?
The hedonist says, get all the gusto you can, whether it be in alcohol or in drugs or sex,
whatever gives you pleasure, get the gusto while you can.
The moralist says, to get the most out of life, do all the good you can.
Stop war, preserve the environment, help the poor.
The politician says, if you want to make the most of your life, climb as high as you can.
Power is the key to it all.
It makes no difference who you step on or what the cost is.
Get position and power.
The materialist says, to get the most out of life, accumulate all that you can.
The revolutionary says, if you want to make the most of your life, change all that you
can.
And the sluggard says, do as little as you can.
But what does God say?
After all, God is the creator.
He is the origin of life.
He ought to be able to tell us how to make the most of it, wouldn't you think?
Well, indeed he does.
God says that I can make the most of my life by following the counsel of his word.
And in his word, there are several actions which he gives to us by which we can make
the most of our lives.
Let's follow through some of these.
I can make the most of my life, number one, by yielding to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
That's James' perspective, isn't it?
James doesn't say that planning is bad.
He doesn't say that business is bad.
But he says to do those kinds of things and to leave the Lord out is bad.
It's evil.
He says what you ought to say is, if the Lord wills, we will do this or that.
In other words, James is saying to us that the lordship of Jesus Christ is preeminent.
He views life as a stewardship from God, which only God can fulfill directly and properly.
Life is not my own to do with as I please.
Christ has died for me to save me from the ruin and guilt of my sin.
And when I trusted him and yielded to him as my Savior and Lord, at that moment I gave
all that I was to him.
Now he lives so that my life can have meaning and purpose.
Because he lives, I can face tomorrow.
Dwight L. Moody said, let God have your life.
He can do more with it than you can.
What I'm saying now is a prerequisite for everything else I'm going to say this morning.
It's the foundation.
If you want to make the most of your life, yield it to the lordship of Jesus Christ.
For some of you, that will mean becoming a Christian, taking the first step of receiving
Christ into your life, that your sins might be forgiven, that he might give you eternal
life.
For others of us who have made that commitment in the past, it may mean reaffirming his lordship
because we've taken control of our own lives and tried to direct ourselves.
But if you want to make the most of your life, it involves taking this step of making sure
he is lord.
How do you know if he's lord?
One way to find out is to ask yourself how much time you spend in his word.
It's ludicrous to say Jesus Christ is my lord if we're never in his word.
How much time do I spend talking to him, communing with him, getting to know him?
How can I say Jesus Christ is my lord if I never talk to him?
Jesus said, why do you call me lord, lord, and do not the things that I say?
Are you doing the things that he says to do?
Do you know what he says to do?
If you want to make the most of your life, that's where to begin, by making sure that
Jesus Christ is your lord today.
Here's a second action you can take if you want to make the most of your life.
It is to invest your life in the ministry of a local church.
I'm not saying as a pastor or a staff member necessarily, though God may call you to that,
but to invest your life, that is its influence, its powers, its capacities, in the ministry
of a local church.
Turn back a few pages to Hebrews chapter 10 and look again at these verses that are familiar
to some of us.
The writer says in verse 24 of Hebrews 10, let us consider how to stimulate one another
to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of
some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near,
the day of his coming that is.
What is the writer saying to us?
Well, he's suggesting in the first place that even in that day, in the first century,
it had become the routine, the habit of some, to neglect the assembling of the saints.
Now, I don't know how many times a week they met.
It may have been once a week.
It may have varied with the cities.
Maybe they met every night.
Maybe it was three times a week like we seem to have gotten into in this particular age.
But when the church assembled, there were people who routinely and habitually neglected
it.
They forsook it.
And so we see first of all the importance of being at church in worship, in fellowship
with the saints.
And that may mean more than once a week.
For some of you, it would mean coming again on Sunday, on Sunday night.
You've never gotten into that important habit, that routine.
He says we're not to neglect that aspect of it, but it's more than just coming.
The emphasis really here is upon serving.
He says stimulate one another to love and good deeds.
Encourage one another.
Why?
Because we need each other.
You need other people.
You are not an island isolated to yourself as a Christian.
God has made us a body.
We have needs for others.
And I have those needs met when I come to the assembling of believers.
I believe that God has promised to bless the church in this age.
This is what God has committed himself to, to see the church built.
Indeed, it's the only organization really that God in His Word has promised to bless.
There are other organizations that work outside the church.
Sometimes they're called parachurch organizations.
Personally, I am convinced of this, that parachurch organizations are only valid as long as they
work with and assist in building up the local church.
Otherwise, they lose a legitimate reason for existence.
Because this is God's work, building up the church.
Now, I realize that that runs counter to some teaching these days.
But I believe that it's faithful teaching of the Word of God.
I believe that God intends for every Christian, without exception, to be related to a Bible
teaching God honoring local assembly of believers.
And to be faithfully attending, supporting, and serving in that church.
And to not to do so is sin.
James says the one who knows the right thing to do and doesn't do it, to him it's what?
It's sin.
Let me be a little more personal about this and just talk about Grace Roseville for a
second.
I thank God for the growth that we have seen in our attendance and in other ways in the
first year and ten months of our existence.
And it has cramped us a little bit, as you are altogether too familiar this morning sitting
here in this auditorium.
I thank God for the growth and for the problems, the challenges that have come with that.
It's been good for us.
It stretches our faith and it gives us some things to shoot for in this year of 1983.
But frankly, as we have grown numerically, there has not been a commensurate growth and
commitment.
And that is in the numbers of those who are committed.
And the numbers of those who are committed here at Grace can't go on carrying the load
for those who want to come and be spectators only.
We are not involved here in building an arena for spectators.
We're not involved in building a preaching center.
God hasn't called us to do that.
God has called us to build a church.
And a church takes commitment and involvement.
Now, some may think that that sounds like an invitation not to come, and I don't mean
it that way.
But I am simply opening my heart to you to express the dilemma that we find ourselves
in.
I think some find it comfortable to not be committed to a church.
They feel that it gives them a sense of freedom or liberty.
But I would say this, that that liberty and freedom is not of God.
Because it is God's will and God's plan that we be plugged in to the right kind of a church.
Now, I recognize that it takes a certain amount of time to find out if a church is right for
you or for your family.
And believe me, I encourage making sure before making a commitment.
And I would say that if there are questions that anyone has, that they should ask those
questions in any church to find out the answers so they can settle the issue for themselves
and for their home.
And I would go on to say that if a person has strong differences or problems in a church
where he's attending so he cannot join, he really ought to go to another church where
those questions won't be problems or those differences won't exist.
So that he can get involved.
Why do I say that?
I say that because we need to be involved in a church.
That is part of the stewardship of life.
If we want to make the most of our lives, we do that by investing in the ministry of
a local church.
I recognize too that in this service particularly, I'm talking to a lot of students, and you're
kind of transitory.
You're here for a few months and you disappear for a time and it's tough for you to get involved
in a church.
I recognize that.
We've tried to make associate membership available to you so that you can feel like
that you belong here and you will under that particular plan.
If you have questions about that, by the way, you can talk to some people in the College
Small Church or give us a call at the office.
We want you to feel like you're a part of Grace Church and while you're here in the
cities, you can be associated with us and be plugged in.
We want you to be that way.
We believe it's important even though you may only be here for five months or nine months
a year.
Don't expect any church to be perfect if that's what you may be looking for.
It's unrealistic to expect that.
Someone has said, and I'm sure you've heard it, if you find a perfect church, don't join
it because then it won't be perfect anymore.
There doesn't exist a perfect church.
If you want to make the most of your life, I want to exhort you to give diligence to
this matter of investing your life wherever you may be in the ministry of a local church.
Furthermore, if you want to make the most of your life, you may do that by focusing
on people, not on things.
I believe Jesus gives us a wonderful example in this in his ministry.
As an illustration, remember the occasion when Jesus spent some time with that woman
at the well in Samaria?
His disciples went into the city to get some food.
He stayed to talk with her.
They came back with the food about the same time she left to go into the city to share
what had happened to her.
They said, Lord, aren't you hungry?
Jesus said, My meat is due the will of him who sent me.
In other words, Jesus said, more important than this food is spending time with this
woman meeting her spiritual need.
Boy, I hope that's my attitude and yours.
Focusing on people, not on things.
Again, that runs counter to our age.
But if we want to make the most of life, we must realize that the only thing around us
that is eternal, besides God's Word, is people.
People are going to be somewhere forever.
The things that we so often focus on are even now passing away, the Bible says.
In 1 Timothy 6, we have a command that runs parallel to what I'm saying.
I'd like for you to look at that with me.
You may think this doesn't apply to you, but if you live in this country, in comparison
with the rest of the world, it does apply to every one of us.
It would even apply to somebody who would be on welfare.
In 1 Timothy 6, verse 17, the Lord's Word says, Instruct those who are rich in this
present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but
on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.
Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,
storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future so that they
may take hold of that which is life indeed.
You want to make the most of life?
Then don't spend your time focusing on things and accumulating riches.
Rather, focus on people.
The Word of God is not saying here that it's wrong to have things or even to be wealthy.
That is not sin.
To love money is sin, but to use it wisely is to be a good steward.
What He is saying here is simply this, do not focus on things that are passing away,
but rather, as He says in verse 18, do good, be rich in good works, be generous, ready
to share, meet people's needs, focus on them, share with them, even in a physical way as
well as spiritual.
In that way, you will be laying hold of real life.
In other words, you'll make the most out of the life God's given you.
Where is your focus today?
Did you spend more time thinking about things, about your studies, about the accumulation
of riches and your investments and whether they're paying off or not, the property you
own?
Did you spend more time thinking about those kinds of things than you do about people and
how you can minister to them and show the love of Christ to them?
You have to evaluate that so that we're sure that we're making the most out of life.
If we want to make the most out of life, we will also do that by adjusting the pace of
our lives to allow for reflection.
Turn back to Mark chapter 6 for a minute.
I don't think anybody who's ever lived has faced more pressure from life than Jesus Christ.
He had a great deal to accomplish in his brief years.
And isn't it interesting to notice that Jesus' ministry to people, his public ministry, did
not even start until he was 30 years of age and then it lasted three years only.
At the conclusion of that time, he said, I have done what you sent me to do, Father.
In other words, despite the hectic schedule he could have kept, despite the pressures
that were put upon him, Jesus Christ lived life not missing a step.
Why?
Because he took time for reflection.
I think we see that illustrated here in verse 31 of Mark 6.
He said to them, his disciples, come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest awhile,
for there were many people coming and going and they did not even have time to eat.
Jesus Christ was not a victim of the urgent, and you ought not to be one either.
Rather you ought to be a steward of the important.
Jesus Christ took time to rest.
He took time to pray.
There were occasions when he fasted.
It seems clear that he observed nature around him because he wove in illustrations from
nature about animals and plants.
When was the last time that you looked at a rose, at the petals of it, and took time
to smell it, to enjoy its fragrance?
Or that you stood out under the stars and you looked at them just to absorb their beauty?
Or you watched a squirrel jump from tree to tree?
You just stood and thought about that.
I believe that you and I need to allow for reflection.
If we do not slow down our pace to do that, we are going to end up wasting a lot of time.
The Apostle Paul, at the conclusion of his life, just before he was executed, wrote to
Timothy and said, I have finished my course.
The world was not evangelized.
It was not that there were churches with no problems.
There were lots of reasons that Paul might have wanted to stay in the world.
You see, I believe Paul took time to examine life and to reflect on what he was doing and
why he was doing it.
Therefore, when he got to the end of his life, he was able to say, I have done what God wanted
me to do.
That is the way I want to live.
I was about 11 years old, but I remember when the news came that five men in their early
30s had been killed in Ecuador, missionaries from the United States.
Some of you were not even born then.
That is hard for me to realize.
I remember that there were some people who said, what a waste.
Those guys should have known that those Indians were dangerous.
When there were some danger signals, they should have gotten out of there.
After all, they had families.
They had small children.
They had their whole life before them yet.
Those men realized that perhaps that was not God's purpose.
As they reflected, and they reflected very carefully on what they were doing, they chose
that their lives would be laid down in death, if need be, for the sake of the Oka Indians.
That is the way it was.
You need to adjust the pace of your life, student.
I know that you have a frantic pace with all that you are demanded to do, but do not mindlessly
rush ahead.
Take time to think and to reflect.
Don't avoid the word of God in prayer when you do that.
If you want to make the most of life, let me suggest something else.
Learn to accept obstacles as God's signposts.
I see this illustrated, for example, in what happened to Paul and the missionary party.
They tried to go one direction, the Spirit of Christ closed the door, and they tried
another direction, and the Lord said no.
Finally, they went to Troas to wait.
I don't know how the Lord said no to them, but God in some way put up an obstacle.
Instead of fighting that obstacle, they took the signpost to go another direction, and
God led them into Europe.
I believe that if you and I would practice the reality of Romans 8.28 in our lives, it
would deliver us from a lot of anxiety.
We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose.
Some of us spend more time fighting God's closed doors.
It's a waste to do that.
When God puts an obstacle in our way, we need to try to discern at that point what God is
saying and to relax in His sovereignty.
God's signposts include stop, detour, yield, and there are others.
So if you want to make the most out of your life, learn to accept the obstacles of life
as God's signposts.
Furthermore, if you want to make the most of your life, make yourself accountable to
someone else.
You know accountability is built into life.
God has built into everything.
It's that way in the creation, in nature.
You may feel that you are not accountable to the law of gravity, but I dare you to go
to the top of the IDS and try to prove that, because gravity will hold you accountable
to that law.
Furthermore, in the organization of humanity, God is established for human government and
expects justice to be carried out.
Why?
Because God wants us to know as human beings that we are accountable for the way that we
live.
Furthermore, at the end there is a final judgment for every man or woman who has ever been born
into the world.
You see, we are accountable to God, and we are wise if we apply that daily and annually
by making ourselves accountable to others.
Let me encourage you to make some goals in your life for spiritual growth.
You know, growth is something that is desired by a child.
My boy is going to be eight years old this week, and I told him last night, I said, now
Michael you are going to be nine years old this week, right?
He said, no dad, I'm going to be eight, but I wish I was going to be nine.
That's a child.
The child wants to grow up.
You know spiritually growth doesn't happen accidentally.
We have to take steps to grow.
We have to plan for growth.
What are you doing to facilitate spiritual growth in your life?
What new experience are you planning to have this week or this year sometime that will
help you to mature?
What conference are you going to attend, for example?
Or what books are you going to read?
Or how much time are you going to spend in the Word of God and in prayer?
Well, you say, well I have some of those goals.
Well, great.
Now let me encourage you to take one more step.
Share those specific goals with another person, and allow that other person to hold you accountable
for those steps.
Make the steps measurable.
You just say, I'm going to read more books.
More books could be one book.
Say I'm going to read one book a month, besides what I have to read for my assignments or
what I normally read.
One book a month on a particular topic, on a range of topics, and then allow somebody
to hold you accountable to that.
You know what will happen?
Because you have to give a regular answer, you're going to be growing.
You're going to follow through.
So if you really want to make the most of your life, choose a trusted friend to whom
you will make yourself accountable.
The Apostle Paul, I think, was that way.
He was future-oriented.
He said, forgetting those things are behind, I press toward the mark.
He was looking to the future.
Let me encourage you to follow his example.
If you want to make the most of life, then let me encourage you to deal with the hindrances
that retard your progress.
Let's go over to Hebrews 12 for a moment.
After listing for us those men and women of old who made the most of their lives, in chapter
12 the writer says, Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding
us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.
He's picturing here a coliseum, and he's saying as though it were these people of old
are around us in the stands.
There's Noah and Abraham and Moses over here, and they're cheering us on in our race.
He says, if you're going to win the race, you have to fix your eyes at the goal line.
That's where Jesus is.
But first, lay aside the encumbrance.
Every runner knows what that means.
If you jog, you know what encumbrances are, those things that weight you down.
He talks about this, the sin that so easily entangles us.
I think it's the specific sin of unbelief.
What are you trusting God for?
What is there in your life that you cannot do, and you have to trust God to do it?
Do you have anything?
Or do you just give up?
Unbelief is sin.
Lay it aside.
Get rid of it.
Lay aside those things that are holding you back, entangling you, so that you may progress
in the Christian life.
Now, I don't know what that may be in your life.
Maybe it's a lifestyle that you're in, or some pattern of thought.
Maybe it's some things you're doing, some associations that you have, that are holding
you back in your progress in the Christian life.
Listen, if you want to make the most out of your life, get rid of those things.
Deal with those things that are retarding your progress.
And finally, if you want to make the most out of life, work diligently to bring glory
to God.
Self-centered living spoils life.
Nothing will spoil it faster.
First Corinthians 10-31 tells us that whatever we do, it may be drinking, it may be eating,
whatever activity we have in life, do it all to the glory of God.
Therefore, I have to ask myself, does my speech glorify God?
Does my treatment of people around me glorify God?
Do my thought processes glorify God?
Does the way that I maintain my body glorify God?
Are the good things that I'm involved in glorifying God, or are there some better or best things
that I could be doing?
Are you glorifying God in the way you live?
William James said, the great use of life is to expend it on something that will outlast
it.
I know of no better suggestion than the glory of God to fill that bill.
Goethe said, a useless life is only an early death.
Some of you are just hanging around waiting to be buried, because right now your life
is worthless and useless.
My friend, you need to make the most out of your life.
You're a fool if you don't.
That's not too strong to say.
You make the most out of your life by taking steps like we've talked about this morning.
What steps do you need to take to correct where you are now?
Will you take them?
Will you make the most out of life?
Remember, if you're a Christian, you are not your own.
You are bought with a price.
Therefore, glorify God.
Let's pray.
Oh Father, we need this morning to be reminded often of our stewardship of life.
I believe the Holy Spirit has put His finger on many hearts here this morning and given
us some corrective counsel.
I pray that we will do what we've been told.
That we'll recognize how much life is like a vapor and that this one life you've given
us will be lived to its fullest and to the most by following your counsel.
It's in Jesus' name that I pray that you will use this invitation to accomplish your will
in our lives.
Amen.
I'm going to close by singing a hymn.
As usual, it's going to be a hymn.
In the front room, my father was waiting for me.
Son, he said, I've been thinking.
Perhaps you'd better stand guard tonight.
It isn't often we have a horse in our stable, you know.
Then also, we don't really know who these strangers are.
We don't know how trustworthy they are.
And we do have a lot of animals in this stable.
I went out into the courtyard and stood there enjoying the sightment of the evening.
Our city was so packed with people.
The air was still.
There was something about this evening that there was something about the sightment of
the night and my heart beat a little faster.
Just think, back there in the cave, a baby is being born.
Oh, many lambs and calves have been born there, but never a human.
I listened excitedly for a little high-pitched cry that would tell me that the baby was actually
there.
Suddenly, I noticed something.
It was down there by Shepard's Field.
There was a bright light hovering over the field, a very bright light.
I suppose in your generation, you would call it a UFO.
I thought I heard singing coming over the fields, but I could not be sure.
Then I saw Shepard's coming up the road, leaving their flocks alone.
That was unheard of.
I wanted to call my dad, but I didn't since the guests were all asleep.
The Shepard's heard into our courtyard and rushed right past me.
I turned to watch in amazement as they entered our cave.
Suddenly, I saw another bright light right over the cave.
It was all too fascinating to believe.
I pinched myself to see if I was daydreaming, but no, I was really awake.
I followed those Shepards into the cave.
I found them on their knees before the little manger.
I fell on my knees with them.
There was nothing else you could do.
There was an indescribable presence in the cave.
It was transformed.
You know what I mean.
You've been in richly carpeted homes with glittering chandeliers where everything seemed
to be so empty and cold.
By contrast, you've been in unfancy homes where love and warmth and joy and peace were,
and it was so simply beautiful.
Our cave had nothing but the smell of a barnyard, but I tell you, it seemed like the very entrance
to heaven.
I wish you could have seen the look on those Shepard's faces.
Rough, weather-beaten, but so very tender.
Have you ever seen a big, burly truck driver holding a little baby and watched him melt
down and become tender and warm?
Well, that's what these Shepards were like.
They did not pick him up, but they did reach out with the hands of their heart.
I don't know how long we were there, but when we left, one of those big Shepards took hold
of my shoulders and shook me until I thought my teeth would fall out.
And they shouted, whispered, he said, boy, boy, do you know who that baby is?
He's Christ.
I tell you, he's Christ.
We know it.
We are sure of it.
The angels have come and told us so.
Christian, how much room do you have for Christ?
Let's consider, for example, your devotional life.
What is it like right now?
You say, wait a minute, this is no time to talk to me about my devotional life.
There are so many presents to wrap, and we're going to have a Christmas, we're going to
have a church party.
And then there's the Sunday school program, and the Christmas cards must be gotten out.
And it's just not fair to expect too much of me just now.
No time, no time.
That sounds familiar to me.
I made a sign once with the same number of letters.
But let me ask you another question.
What about your neighbors?
You're having guests frequently these days.
Isn't this a good time to reach your neighbors for Christ?
You say, but you don't understand.
My neighbors have lifestyles that are so different from mine.
They wouldn't feel comfortable at all with me.
I understand.
What you might be saying is that you haven't enough love for them.
No love, no love.
That too sounds familiar.
I made a sign once with the same number of letters.
I want to say just one more thing.
If I had to do it over, I would reserve my room for him.
I didn't know who he was.
I didn't know.
But you do know who he is.
Will it make a difference in the way you observe Christmas?
We've appreciated having you here tonight as our guest.
We've appreciated the work that Janice has done in working with all of the Sunday School
staff.
But we want you to take with you tonight the message of Christmas, the real message.
We have a lot of glitter and a lot of tinsel this time of the year, but the real message
is Christ, the babe who was born, the man who lived and walked among us, the one who
was crucified, the one who rose again, and the one who says, come unto me, all you that
labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
Any of you who are here tonight who don't know the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior
don't really know what it is to have life, real life, abundant life.
Any of us who are here tonight would be glad to share with you and to help you to know
in a personal way the Christ of Christmas.
Give us that privilege after the service is closed, if you will, please.
Heavenly Father, we thank you tonight for each boy and each girl who shared with us
the message of Christmas, the message of Christ, the message of hope and of life.
Lord, we pray for each home from which these boys and girls come that each home might know
the Lord Jesus, might exalt him, and might day by day continue to train these boys and
these girls in the things of Christ.
Father, we do pray that your rich blessing shall rest upon each one.
You know the needs of each heart.
And Lord, we pray that each heart might be right in your sight this night, that we might
know the real joy that Christ came to give.
Dismiss us with your blessing, for we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
I'm going to ask that the boys and girls go back to their room and get rid of some of
their costumes and so on, and you parents will find them there.