Receiving A Better Gift

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

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

chapter 9, Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6. That's

Isaiah 9:6

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

Isaiah 9:6

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

Isaiah 9:6

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.