Waiting for Christmas | Christmas Eve Message

Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie encouraging you.

If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. Well, it's only hours away now. Now let me take a quick poll. How many of you have finished your Christmas shopping? Nothing left.

Raise your hand up. All the packages wrapped. Good, good. How many of you still have to do a little more Christmas shopping? A little bit more. It's usually men.

Yes, it's men. Yes. How many of you not started your Christmas shopping? You're going to do it after church?

How many? Just admit it. You're going to have a lot of fun at the mall today. I can tell you that. Well, that's how it is. You know, sometimes friends and especially family members will tell us what they want. I always want to get a person what they want for Christmas, not something I think they want. Now my grandkids, they send me links to things to get for them. And we had all of them over the other night.

Four girls, one boy. And so we had a little pre-Christmas event at our house and we gave them everything they asked for. And then some were saying, can we get through this? We want to exchange it. Wait, you sent us the link. Now I'm not going to say anything about girls changing their minds, but you know, it does happen occasionally, right?

But sometimes you can drop a hint and the person won't get it. I heard about a wife who said to her husband, honey, last night I had a dream and in my dream I received a diamond necklace for Christmas. What do you think the meaning of that dream is? She said, okay, I see what's happening here. You'll find out on Christmas Eve. She was so excited. Christmas Eve came, she opened up the little box, a very nicely wrapped box under the tree and it was a book from her husband titled The Meaning of Dreams, okay?

He missed it, unfortunately. Then there's the big letdown. I hate it when we have to pretend to like something we don't like, right? So we have to effectively lie at Christmas.

Oh, amazing, really? And pretend, or pretend we're seeing it for the first time when we knew you got it for us all along, right? So there's all these things happening at Christmas and I think sometimes we put too much focus on the opening of the present. I find the in-between moments are the greatest moments of Christmas.

You know, just sitting around talking, laughing, telling stories, of course reflecting on the greatest moments of all stories. Now, I think if you can't wait for Christmas, if you can't wait for Christmas morning, you're probably a kid. And if you can't wait for Christmas to be over with, then you're probably an adult.

So I want to talk to you in this message about two people who were waiting for Christmas. Some of us are waiting for family members to show up. Some of us are hoping certain family members don't show up. By the way, every family has them. That weird person that everyone hopes doesn't show up.

And I have to break this to you, some of you are that weird person. So there's a lot of waiting, a lot of anticipation. I'm gonna look at two people who were waiting and what Christmas meant to them. I think the problem with Christmas is, well, you know, it can't live up to the hype. Christmas cannot live up to its promises, if you will, but Christmas really is a promise.

It's something greater. It's not just a promise of an event, it's a promise of Christ himself. And ever since I've been a little boy, I believed in that promise of Christmas. I didn't have a lot of great Christmases growing up. I've told you this story before. But I was a little boy, and I got up one, there I am. See, I was kind of cute, wasn't I? So I got up, and I found my mother passed out from a night of drinking.

With a little color wheel slowly turning still on this little artificial tree. The room smelled of tobacco and drink from the partying of the night before. And as a little kid, I just looked at this scene, and I thought to myself, on my little kid mind, it's gotta get better than this. And it did.

It did for me, for sure. It wasn't merriment I was longing for. It was the Messiah.

It wasn't presents under a tree that were gonna fill that hole in my life, but it was God's presence in my life. And that's really why Jesus came. Jesus, go ahead, yes. Only if you mean it, right? Jesus was born so we could be born again.

C.S. Lewis put it so succinctly when he said, quote, became a man to enable men to become sons of God, end quote. Jesus left his home so we could have a heavenly home. Jesus left his home in heaven to make a home in our hearts.

And Jesus said, I'm going to church. This study revealed that people who go to church have a mortality rate that goes down to 20 to 30%. In other words, they live longer lives. They live healthier lives. And if you attend church regularly, I might add, you're more optimistic in life. You have lower rates of depression and you're far less likely to divorce.

You have more self-control and a greater purpose in life. People that go to other things like a country club or belong to something else and the benefits of that are not anywhere close to being in the church. And let me just for a moment do a little promo for our church, for you that are visiting. God has blessed this church. We just celebrated 50 years as a congregation together.

It was a big milestone in our history. The church called Harvest was born out of a spiritual awakening. It came out of the Jesus movement, the Jesus revolution. And in case you don't know it, there was a movie made about our church called Jesus Revolution.

You can still watch it on, it's on Netflix, it's on Apple streaming platform, on Amazon, other streaming platforms as well. Reached a lot of people. I think probably 25 million people have seen it around the world.

And it tells the origin story of how this church came about. And I want to show you a scene from the movie. Most of you have seen this scene, but some of you maybe haven't. How many of you have seen the Jesus Revolution film? Raise your hand. Okay, that's a lot of you. Very good.

You don't have to applaud for yourself, but that's good. How many of you have not seen it? You have not seen the movie yet? How dare you? That's so hurtful. No, that's hurtful.

No, it isn't. No, but go see it. We want you to see it. But here's a little scene from the film. So Kelsey Grammer plays the role of Pastor Chuck Smith and he did a beautiful job of it, I must say.

And then Joel Courtney played me in this film. And so this is a scene toward the end of the film when Pastor Chuck comes to Greg and he effectively tells him about his new church. This is sort of how our church began.

So check out the screen. It's a little church up in Riverside. Pretty near that place where you did that Bible study. And it seems that their leadership had an issue about something and they ended splitting up. They took everything and they left an empty, abandoned building where a church used to be. Seems a shame, doesn't it? But that's what people do sometimes.

They lose sight of what's important. Fortunately, God has a long history of using flawed people. I'm sorry, son. I didn't stand up for you and I should have.

I was wrong for that. Thank you. So what happened to that church?

Oh, I bought it this morning. It's like an empty canvas. Seems perfect for an artist like you. You want me to work there for you? It's not my church. It's yours.

This movement started at Calvary, but it can't stay here. So go build something great. I don't know what to say. Say yes. Yes. Pass your truck. I don't think I can ever do what you do. No. You do better. You do better.

Great scene. And this is a great place to make a recommitment, a great time, because we're at the end of 23, we're at the beginning of 24, and to say I'm going to be a regular part of this church. You know, the trend in America right now is to attend church less, not more. You know, people that used to attend four times a month now attend three times a month. Those that attended three times a month attend two times a month.

Those that attended one time a month now attend twice a year. We call them CEO Christians. CEO Christmas and Easter only. Okay, so I don't want to throw anyone under the bus and make you feel bad for being at church. I'm glad you're here, but what a great time to make a commitment to say I want to engage and be a part of what God is doing.

And we have something called Harvest Groups that are small groups, basically. We study the Bible together, and we've taken a little break for Christmas, and we're jumping back into our groups again, and we're going to start a brand new series on the book of Genesis. That's the first book of the Bible. The title of this series is It All Starts Here. Such a foundational book for everything in life, for creation, for the family, for so many things that God wants us to know about.

And not only is that going to happen on Sunday mornings, but also in our small groups where you will have a great curriculum, and you'll meet new friends, and it'll make a big church, a small church for you. But it's about home. It's about coming home. And I want to talk to you now about two people that were waiting for Christmas in the Bible. You might say they were waiting for Christ. And no, it's not Joseph and Mary. It's two people that are not talked about enough in the Christmas season. And those two people are Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

I want to do an in-depth study on, no I really don't, no. These two people you may have never heard of before, but they're very much a part of the Christmas story. Their names are Simeon and Anna. They don't appear in any nativity scenes, but they were there. They were waiting for Christmas as well. In fact, they preceded the wise men. I hate to mess with your nativity scenes that you have, but the wise men did not come for probably two years later, visiting the young boy Jesus in his house, not the newborn Jesus in the stable.

But eight days after Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph took him to the temple to be circumcised. And so these two characters enter the story at that point. So let's kind of pull the camera back, get the big picture, establish the timeline, and then we'll see where Simeon and Anna enter our story.

So of course we all know the beautiful Christmas story, most of us by heart. The angel Gabriel appears to Mary living in the little town of Nazareth. Nazareth was a city renowned for its sin, for its wickedness, and it was also sort of an unknown place out in the middle of nowhere. So Mary was effectively a nobody living in the middle of nowhere where the most known event in human history was about to unfold. Gabriel comes. Now when an angel shows up, it's a big deal.

When Gabriel or Michael show up, it's a super big deal. But this was a special message to announce to this young woman, probably around 14 years old, that she was going to fulfill Bible prophecy. She was going to be the very mother of the Messiah. But of course, Joseph wasn't buying the story.

They were espoused, engaged, and he thought that Mary had been unfaithful to him. He was going to put her away privately, but then an angel was sent to Joseph to reveal to him that this was all done by God. But now we have Caesar Augustus entering the narrative because the prophecy said the Messiah would not be born in Nazareth but in Bethlehem. You Bethlehem, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth one whose origins have been from everlasting, Michael 5-2 says.

And so God needed to move Joseph and Mary from A to B. So Caesar Augustus gives a decree. Caesar Augustus is the first of the Caesars to declare himself a deity. The word Augustus means of the gods. Funny little thing about Caesar Augustus is history tells us that actually he was a little bit on the short side, about five feet, seven inches.

I'm sorry, I'm not criticizing you if you're 5'7", but he was probably that height. So it gives new meaning to the words Little Caesar, right? And you've heard of his pizza, Little Caesar.

Pizza, pizza, right. So Little Caesar, a relatively small man who was big in his own mind, gives a decree that all the world should be taxed. Not realizing he was merely a pawn in the hand of God Almighty to bring about the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

So Mary and Joseph make the difficult journey as Mary is late in her pregnancy to Bethlehem. Now the Savior is born. Now the announcement must be made. Who will the announcement be made to? Seems to me you would want to make the announcement to Caesar in Rome, the man who thought he was of the gods.

And say to him, there is born in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. But the announcement was not given to Caesar. Or the religious leaders perhaps. No, the announcement was given to shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night. Now we tend to romanticize the shepherds and we don't understand their role in society. Back in this day, the lowest person on the social ladder was the shepherd.

It was so bad that the testimony of a shepherd was not even allowed in a court of law. So if we were to update it, instead of saying shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, it would be used car salesmen watching over the car lot at night. Or telemarketers calling people late at night. I am not criticizing telemarketers or used car salesmen.

Actually I am. But you know these are not professions we hold in high esteem. And the same was true of a shepherd. But God came to the lowest of the low to give the greatest of all messages. There is born unto you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And that is who the message was given to.

Now the little one is born. Jesus is eight days old and so as the custom is Mary and Joseph go to the temple to have him circumcised. And they meet the two people who are waiting for Christmas. Starting with Simeon. Simeon was a godly man who was eagerly waiting for the arrival of the Messiah. God had revealed to Simeon that he would not die until he personally laid his eyes on the Messiah. You get those gifts at Christmas.

Do not open until Christmas. Simeon effectively had this message given to him. You won't die until you see Christmas. Or until you see Christ himself.

So he is living this godly life. And this was not a godly time. Rome had effectively bludgeoned the world into submission. They had the most powerful military of all time up to that point. They ruled a good part of the world. They had established a Roman road system.

A common language that people now spoke. And you better submit to the power of Rome or you will die. They established something called Pax Romana.

A forced peace on the people. And they conquered the Jewish people living in Judea. Now sometimes as we look at the conflict in the Middle East today we hear it described as Palestine. Palestinian or Palestine is not a biblical word. God called it Judea. When the Romans conquered it they changed the name to Palestine which is derivative from the root word of Philistine. So they actually as an insult to the Jewish people took their name away Judea and made it Palestine or like under the rule of the Philistines.

So that is where that word came from by the way. So now the Romans have conquered them. The people are living in a time of conflict. A time of corruption. A time of intrigue.

And if you got the morning paper carved on a stone tablet by Fred Flintstone in his stone quarry you would read similar headlines to what you read today. It was not a great time to be alive. It was a dark, bleak, sad, tragic time. And it is in this place that the message was given of the arrival of the Messiah. It was all in God's timetable. I love the way Galatians 4 for sums it up. When the time was just right. God sent forth his son born of a woman made under the law to redeem those that are under the law that they might receive the adoption of sons whereby we cry Abba Father.

So here is old Simeon. He is just waiting. Waiting for it to happen. Hanging on to the promise of God. The last book of the Old Testament.

Malachi gave these final words and the words were simply this. The son of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. But it had been 400 years since God had spoken. 400 years since there had been a single Hebrew prophet speaking for God. 400 years since there had been an angelic appearance. 400 years since there had been a miracle. But old Simeon believed God's promise to him that he would personally see the Messiah. You know I think sometimes we wonder why God doesn't speak to us more.

Maybe it is because we always have our headphones on or we are always looking at our phones or we are watching the TV or preoccupied with other things. I think you need to unplug electronically and plug in spiritually. You might be amazed by how much God will speak to you starting with opening this book, the Bible. Open it up and say Lord speak to me today and he will. He will make the scriptures come alive in your life. I think sometimes just getting outside too.

You know take a walk by the ocean or by a lake or in the forest. Somewhere in God's creation say Lord I need to listen to you because God has things that he wants to say to each and every one of us. I don't know if you read this headline the other day. It really intrigued me. The headline was scientists claimed they had a 20 minute conversation with a whale. Did you see this?

This is surreal. So this article says that some scientists broadcast a greeting through underwater speakers and a whale approached and responded with its own greeting. So the whale adjusted to the frequency they were communicating on and this lasted for 20 minutes. Scientists have a conversation with a whale for 20 minutes. I read the article.

It's not answering my real question which is what did you talk about? I want to know the thoughts of a whale. I'm very interested. How did that conversation go? Scientists said hello whale we are humanity and it's good to finally speak with you. What do you have to say to us whale? The whale might respond like yo what's up with all that harpooning in the 18th century? You know that did not go over well in the whale community. And by the way we don't like it when you refer to our weight as blubber.

We call that fat shaming. By the way did you know we could just eat you if we wanted to? We did eat a dude named Jonah once and we didn't like the way he tasted and we spit him out.

Maybe some wasabi and soy sauce would have helped. We don't know. But what would they even talk about?

That's not even mentioned. Well I'd like to have a conversation with a whale. But even better I'd like to have a conversation with the God who created the whale. And he wants to speak to each and every one of us. Jesus said my sheep hear my voice.

So here's old Simeon. He's close to God. He's waiting on God. He believes God is going to keep his promise. And by the way the promises of God are true and trustworthy. 2 Peter 1 says he's given us great and precious promises. 2 Corinthians 1 says all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding yes. You know someone pointed out there are 8810 promises in the Bible to the believer. Now I've not counted them.

I cannot say that figure is certainly true. But that's a lot of promises. Over 8000 promises. The promises of God are a lot like gift cards. Do any of you receive gift cards or have you given gift cards for Christmas? I can't use all the gift cards people have given me. I have quite a few gift cards for In-N-Out Burger and Krispy Kreme Donuts.

I think it's because I referenced those two places in my sermon. If I were to cash in all those gift cards I would be the guy you call blubber for sure. Right? But we have unused gift cards. I read recently that there are billions of dollars, 45 billions of billion dollars of unused gift cards out there.

I think the whole industry probably builds their business model on that premise. But it's just like the promises of God. Unclaimed, uncashed, unutilized. God has made promises to use to claim them.

You say well what are they? Well how about this one? God has promised to supply all of your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. That's a good promise. Do you have a physical need? Do you have a spiritual need?

Do you have a financial need? God promises to provide for you. How about this one? Romans 8 28. We know that all things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to his purpose.

How about this one? Jesus says I'll never leave you or forsake you. And then in Matthew 28 he says lo I am with you even to the end of the age.

Another translation combines those two verses to say this. Jesus speaking, I will never leave you, never. And I will not loosen my grip on your life and be sure of this. I am with you every day to the completion of the age.

I like that. The promises of God. And God has promised to hear and answer your prayers. Jeremiah 33 3 God says call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

Coming back to Simeon. His very name means God has heard. This man was waiting for Christmas or effectively waiting for Jesus.

And one day the promise came true. He is there in the temple and there appears Mary and Joseph and Jesus. How did he know it was Jesus? How did he know it was the Messiah?

Simple answer. They all had halos. We have seen the paintings. Jesus had a little baby halo and Mary and Joseph had halos. Whoa look at those people. Halos.

That is cool. Or maybe they glowed in the dark. There they are. No they did not glow in the dark.

They did not have halos. They looked like any other couple. In fact like any other peasant couple because they were very poor, reflected in the offering they brought. But he knew because he was a spiritually perceptive man. And he takes the newborn baby Jesus into his arms. And in Luke 2 32 he says this in this prayer. He is a light to reveal God to the nations. He is the glory of your people Israel. Mary and Joseph were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed him and he said to Mary, the baby's mother, this child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall and many others to rise.

He has been sent as a sign from God and many will oppose him. As a result the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed and a sword will pierce your very soul. Imagine the reaction of Joseph and Mary.

They are taking this all in. What? I mean they knew Jesus was the son of God but it was unfolding to them what this really meant. And that statement of Simeon and Mary, a sword will pierce your own soul.

What does that mean? Oh Mary, what a sacrifice she made. She could have said no to Gabriel. She could have said sorry.

I don't want to go through life having people think that I had a baby out of wedlock. And that is what many thought about Mary throughout her entire life. She had to live with that reputation. And ironically she was a very virtuous, godly, moral young woman. But not only that but as Jesus grew she realized that he had a work to do. Like when they went into the temple and found him reasoning with the religious leaders and he effectively corrected Mary and Joseph. When they said, why didn't you come home?

He says, did you not know I must be about my father's business? The sword began to pierce. But most of all when she saw him hanging there on the cross bearing the sins of the world, the sword pierced deeply. But Mary was willing to make this sacrifice to bring forth the son of God from her womb. So while this is all happening they are listening to Simeon give this prophecy, here now comes Anna.

Anna has been waiting too. God revealed to her that she also would see the Messiah. She is an elderly woman.

She is 84 years old. She never left the temple. She literally lived in the temple because she knew the Messiah would come there.

And then she makes this announcement to everyone, I found the Messiah. You know in a way she is reflective of what every Christian should do. We often tell Christians if you want to grow spiritually there are four things you need to know. Number one, read your Bible every day. Number two, be actively involved in your church. Number three, have a prayer life.

And number four, tell others about Jesus. That is exactly what Anna did. She effectively lived in the temple. She believed the word of God. And once she knew that Jesus was the Messiah and had arrived, she said in Luke 2 38 she talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.

So amazing. So they were waiting and we are waiting too. We are not waiting for Jesus to come the first time. We are waiting for Jesus to come the second time. And we should be like Simeon and Anna and we should be expectantly, anxiously awaiting his revival. It said of Simeon in Luke 2 25 he was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel.

The Holy Spirit was upon him. We too should be eagerly awaiting for the Messiah to come. Hebrews 9 28 says he will come again for those who eagerly await him.

Listen to this folks. We have never been closer to the return of Jesus than we are this Christmas Eve of 2023. Christ is coming again. All around us are the signs. I don't know if you have noticed how all of the wickedness and depravity and evil of the world seems to be in overdrive right now. Every time you turn around you are thinking I can't believe they are saying this. I can't believe they are doing that.

Yeah they are. Things are dark as the Bible said they would be before Christ comes again. And I think our reaction to the imminent return of Jesus is a real revealer of where we are at spiritually. I think when you are close to the Lord you look forward to his return. When you hear someone say Jesus is coming you say Amen. And if you are not walking with God as you ought to and you hear someone say Jesus can come tonight you go uh oh.

That should change. Because if you are right with God it will have a purifying effect in your life. First John says of the Lord's return he that has this hope purifies himself even as he is pure. See the first time Jesus came in a manger.

Next time he is going to come back in glory. In his first coming he was wrapped in swaddling cloths. In his second coming he will be clothed royally in a robe dipped in blood. In his first coming he was surrounded by animals and shepherds. In his second coming he will be accompanied by saints and angels.

In his first coming there was no room for him in the inn. In his second coming the door of the heavens will be opened to him. In his first coming he came to us as the lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.

But in his second coming he will return as the ferocious lion of the tribe of Judah bringing judgment to the earth. Are you eagerly waiting for Jesus? You should be.

We should be. But what does it mean practically? Does it mean we quit our job and climb up on our roof and stare at the sun?

No it does not mean that. It means living our life with an awareness that he could come back at any moment. Living with eager anticipation. So Simeon and Anna patiently waited and waited until they found what they were looking for. And they died with hope. They died holding hope. This might surprise you but death and Christmas are inseparably connected. We don't like to think of that, I know.

But it is important to. Because that beautiful little baby Jesus really was born to die that we might live. It is hard to think of the fact that those sweet little infant hands of the Lord Jesus, and we sang about it earlier, away in a manger, no place for his head, the little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.

Yes. But those little hands would grow into the hands of a strong man who would have spikes driven through them voluntarily. He would lay his life down.

No one would take it from him. Those little baby feet in which he took his first steps with would be the feet of a man who would be nailed to a cross where he would die for the sin of the world. The fact is the shadow of the cross was over the manger of the baby Jesus. He came with a purpose. He didn't just come to be the greatest teacher who ever lived, he was that and far more. He didn't just come to do mighty miracles though he did those as well. He came with the express purpose of dying on a cross for the sin of the world. He was born to die that we might live. He came to die for the sins of the world and for your sin. I love how the apostle Paul personalized it and said he loved me and gave himself for me. Jesus said I came to give my life as a ransom for many. It is all contained in the angelic announcement that was given to Joseph when the angel said of Jesus he will save his people from their sins.

It is hard for us to accept that but this is why he came. He died on the cross. He rose again from the dead.

He is alive and he says now believe in me, follow me, jump into my open arms. A while ago, maybe a couple of years ago, I was watching television and suddenly I heard the voice of my wife Kathy say my name. Greg, look around, didn't see her, just kept watching TV. Hear the voice again, Greg, Greg. I get up, I walk around, she is nowhere to be found. I go from room to room, Kathy, Kathy, where are you?

What am I hearing things? I sit back down again, Greg, it is louder, where is she? So I go outside now, I hear her voice again and I find her up in a tree.

This is a true story. Now we have a garage and right outside of our garage is where we keep our trash cans. It is a very small little area and you open up the door and you put your trash in and you close the door but the problem is the door locks itself. So she went out to empty the trash, the door shut, it was locked and so she determined to climb a tree and get out. But she got in the tree and could not get down from the tree. So I finally find her in a tree, what are you doing in a tree? It is a long story, help me, I said jump and I will catch you. Kathy says no, you will drop me, get a ladder.

Oh man, that is demoralizing for a guy. I wanted to catch her, I would have caught her. My grandkids always jumped into my open arms, jump and they would jump, I would catch them.

Sometimes they would not tell me, they were coming, I would see them mid-air, woke. Now they are older, do not jump on Papa anymore, you will kill him. So I got a ladder and got her down safely but you know we can be that way with Jesus. He says jump, I will catch you, you will drop me.

No he will not. Why would you think that of God? You are never safer than you are when you are in the arms of Jesus.

That is what faith is, it is putting your complete trust in Christ and Christ alone. Like take this platform that I am standing on, all 104 pounds of my weight are on this. Excuse me, why are you laughing?

That is hurtful, even that laugh was hurtful. And that one too, no I meant it to be funny, I weigh a little more than that, not that much more though. What are you saying that I am full of blubber, is that what this is about?

But I am putting my complete weight in this platform, I am trusting this stage will hold me up. That is what it means to believe in Jesus. When the Bible says whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life, it means put your full weight and trust in Christ and only Christ, to jump into his open arms. He was born in a manger, he died in a cross, he rose from the dead, he is alive forevermore and he says believe in me right now.

That is what this season is really all about. The incarnation was so there would be the atonement. The birth of Jesus was so there would be the death of Jesus and then the resurrection of Jesus and ultimately the return of Jesus. So here we sit on Christmas 2023 and for some of us this is going to be our last Christmas because it is going to be the last Christmas for someone and we may never have an opportunity like this again. And God has a gift for you, a gift waiting for you and all you have to do is open this gift. And listen, you will never forget this gift. You have probably forgotten what you received last Christmas and you will forget what you are receiving this Christmas and I know it is the newest version of whatever it is that you are hoping for, a combo drone vacuum cleaner or whatever, cell phone, all the new gadgets they come up with.

It will be outdated, something else will come along to replace it. Fashions will change, styles will change, fruitcakes they never change, they are always the same. As I have already told you there is one single fruitcake on earth being circulated around again and again. But these other things change but this gift that God offers you, the gift of eternal life is waiting for you and only you can open it for yourself. It is a gift that truly keeps on giving and I want to close this message by offering you this gift that God gives to all of us. I already quoted John 3.16 where Jesus said, For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

It is a gift and you must open the gift and enjoy the gift. And all you have to do is say, Jesus I know I am a sinner, I know that is why you came to this world of ours and I need you and I am ready to jump into your open arms and believe in you right now, come into my life. And I would like to close this message with a prayer that you can pray where you ask Christ to come into your life and if you mean this prayer God will hear it and answer it and this can be the happiest of all Christmases for you as you receive the gift of eternal life.

So if you are not sure that your sin is forgiven, if you are not certain that you will go to heaven when you die, if you don't think you are really ready for the return of Jesus or maybe you have fallen away from the Lord and you need to come back to Him again, this would be the time to do that. I am going to pray this prayer and here is what I am going to ask you to do is let's all pray this out loud together. I know most of you have already prayed something like this or you have made this commitment to Christ but others are praying this for the first time. Let's pray it with them and a vote of support for them if you will. But you that need Jesus today and you want eternal life and the hope of heaven and you want to start this relationship with Him, you pray it well.

So let's all bow our heads and let's all pray this out loud together. Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner but I know that you are the Savior. You were born in that manger. You died on the cross. You rose from the dead.

You are coming back again. Jesus come into my life. Be my Savior. Be my Lord. Be my God.

Be my friend. I choose to follow You from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. God bless you. Merry Christmas.