Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
December 24, 2006 - W0652

Happy Birthday Jesus! Merry Christmas! What a wonderful occasion to celebrate. Many of us observe this holiday by decorating our homes with lights. We go to the mall and buy Christmas presents, then wrap them with elegant colors and pretty bows and place them under the Christmas tree. In America, we are so fortunate to observe Christmas, where we get the day off from work.

And then there’s food and Christmas parties to attend. Yes, we enjoy holidays. But is it an excuse to party? If you think about it, partying has nothing to do with the holiday it was intended for. It’s a good time to reflect and ask ourselves if celebrate holidays for ourselves.  

Take for instance the Fourth of July. Not too many would stand up and say the pledge of allegiance or read the story of our fore fathers to their children or grandchildren. Or better yet, sing the Star Spangled Banner. Instead, the tendency here is to celebrate with eating and drinking without regard to the holiday itself. The same can be said of New Years, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving celebrations. And yes, we even do the same for Christmas.

This Christmas holiday let us honestly ask are we celebrating just for ourselves? Songwriter Joni Mitchell wrote in a song, “Why does it seem to go that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.”  Isn’t it true that the realization of a great gift is when we no longer have them? 

Fortunately, the Christmas season helps us realize what is precious to us before it’s gone. From there we can then appreciate all that we have which are life’s greatest gifts. Did you know that we already have the greatest gifts? Yes we do, we just need to realize it. Catch this, the greatest gifts are not the ones we’re waiting to receive, but the ones we already have!

The problem is we live in a society with Madison Avenue skills that inundate us with ads saying that we need newer, shinier, faster, and nicer things than what others have. Yet all it really does is leave us empty just wanting more. We later discover that we’ve discarded the greater gifts for lesser ones.

For instance, isn’t it ironic that we’d be willing to stand in line the night before for at the store to buy the latest video game? Yet we are impatient to wait a couple minutes for a loved one. Or we will spend two hours downloading into Ipods, but grumble because we are unwilling to give eighteen minutes to allow God to download His truths into our hearts during devotions.

Often, we don’t realize that our family is a great gift until they’re gone. Great are the gifts of our spouse, health, church, faith, kids, friends, second chances, skills, and home. Yet, we often trade those greater gifts for lesser ones and call it Christmas. Our greatest gifts are not the ones we hope to receive. Rather, they’re the ones we’ve already received. And if we’re not careful, we’ll quickly discard them for lesser ones.

I guess we’re raised in a society where intangible things like health and family are taken for granted. And we foolishly take for granted and believe they’ll always be around without any maintenance, commitments, or help from us.

The Bible gives us an example of this in Exodus 15:22-25: “Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, what are we to drink? Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet”.   

It was a piece of wood that made the waters drinkable. Just imagine, this piece of wood may have been a branch on a tree where the people sitting under. It could have been a branch that may have been stepped on or kicked aside while walking. Nevertheless, the branch was already there. It didn’t just appear from nowhere. Yet it was the branch that healed the waters. It’s funny how the people grumbling to Moses about what they didn’t have were blind to see what they already had.

And we are like the Israelites sometimes too. We fail to recognize that Christmas is about the gifts we already have. I remember in high school I wanted a camera so bad that I could taste it. My dad was a photographer and had four or so cameras. Being that the cameras were so expensive, my dad didn’t want to give me any of them. I was upset about this and thought my dad was selfish. Later, I got a telegram saying that my mom had passed away from a kidney failure. My parents were already divorced and I wasn’t living with my mom. Funny thing is I didn’t want a camera anymore. I just wanted my mom back. And it wasn’t until she was gone that I realized I hadn’t contacted my mom or written to her. Therefore, the mass emptiness in my heart was great.

So appreciate and treasure the gifts you’ve been given. They may be the ones that have been ignored for far too long. This is what Christmas is about! Here is the greatest gift from God, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”. (Jn.3:16)

Christmas to God is all about relationships. So much so that Jesus Christ, His Son came and shed His blood for you and me. It was through Him that our relationship with God was repaired. This is the gift God has given to all mankind. All in all, Christmas is having a relationship with God first and then recognizing the relationships we have with others for these are gifts which we already have and must treasure them!

A story is told of an eighteen year old man named Micah. He loved surfing which he had learned from his father. Micah was a young man with lots so friends and had everything he could have from his father including a truck, four surfboards and electronic games. On one occasion before Christmas, Micah’s dad informed him that he was leaving on a business trip and that he would make it up to Micah when he got back. Micah questioned his dad about the new PS3 and a motorcycle he wanted. But since he already had a truck and a PS2 and both were still working properly, his dad said no to his request. Micah was upset about this and walked away from his dad.

The next morning while in the kitchen his mother briefly spoke to Micah about his conversation with his Dad the night before. Micah just couldn’t understand why he could not get newer and better things. His mother then asked him what was important to him. Thinking a bit, he said his friends were important. She then sadly told Micah that his father had just found out that he had cancer and would be starting chemotherapy immediately upon his return. Shocked and upset about this news, Micah stormed out of the kitchen and went to his bedroom not wanting to believe what his mother told him.

Later, Micah realized that this may be his Dad’s last Christmas. So he went and talked to his mother about what he could do to help and offered to pick his dad up at the airport when he returned from his business trip. Micah made a step toward repairing his relationship with his dad and while his Dad was in the hospital, Micah visited him. He brought his ipod downloaded with music that his Dad liked. His Dad was pleased and appreciated Micah’s compassionate gesture.

“Why does it seem to go that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone?”  Nothing in this world lasts forever. “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.’” (Mt. 22:37-40) Don’t trade the greatest gift God has given for lesser ones. This is what Christmas is all about.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

  "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong with our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.”       (2 Tim. 3:16-17 NLT)

 Sermon Notes Ministry: Debbie Chang, Doreen Rabaino, Leighton Loo,

                                                Jay Tsukayama & Rhonda Pang