Christmas Preparations

Speaker: Sam Mackwell
Date: 06.12.2009

Reference:Philippians 4:6-7

Christmas is coming only 19 days to go and here we are getting ourselves ready for the next big event of 2009

I don’t know about you but Christmas conjures up so many emotions and different memories – even the word itself can excite some and depress others

But one of the most used words of the season running up to Christmas is PREPARATION.

TV adverts are blaring out messages of gifts to buy and letting us know what is this seasons must have gadget or toy. But let us take a moment and consider what happens in the life of one the families in this church…

Introduce the Wallace Family

Now I work at Hayden’s Bakeries and I get to see everyday how things are put together and I know that the most efficient way of preparing and something is to have a well worked and understood process or production line.

From being in the Wallace’s homegroup I am well aware of the efficient way in which they go about everything – particularly how we arrive at every homegroup with all the children in bed and the house tidy and prepared… so I thought we could use this family to demonstrate to us how they go about wrapping presents for Christmas – something I am sure is a very stress free exercise!

So what are we going to wrap? Well no Christmas feels right without mince pies so I have got some of Hayden’s mince pies and I need the family to wrap them for me…

Wallace family begin to wrap in a process with each person doing a different job.

Now this might look efficient but Catherine soon realises that to do this properly they really need to put the present in a box… and if it is in a box it also needs a ribbon and some decoration… so can we have some children here to help decorate this box?

You see what started as simple starts to grow arms and legs… just think at Christmas how many times a simple idea begun to grow and the stress begin to mount?

Well mince pies isn’t the only thing that is essential at Christmas, we each have things that we think we need to have to make our Christmas complete… well here I have a bag of sprouts - anyone here like sprouts?

So now we need to prepare the sprouts…. What we are going to do is wrap them to demonstrate the time it takes to prepare them.

See our Christmas meals become a bigger and bigger event each year and so Elliott looking at the sprouts thinks that they shouldn’t be placed in a box on their own in fact what would be far better if they were wrapped individually!!

So the Wallace family begins to get members of the congregation involved in wrapping sprouts…

Anyone relate to the Christmas meal getting out of hand? The turkey and the trimmings growing bigger and bigger, your in-laws decide they are coming a week before and yes one of them is a vegetarian and can’t stand Christmas pudding! What’s more all your internet shopping is going to turn up late as Royal Mail have decided to strike again…

Very quickly our best laid out plans get more and more complicated we all get stressed and what’s more the children change their mind on what toys they want and your well laid out process becomes a complete mess and you can’t wait for Christmas to be over…

STOP!!

³¹ So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Sounds good doesn’t it? Matthew 6:31-34 we all know the verses so well but why don’t they count at Christmas? Or do they?

what are we doing? Why has Christmas become so stressful? Why do we fall out with each other and what are the sprouts and mince pies about anyway?

^6-7Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

This passage is from Philippians 4:6-7 (The Message) and it reminds us very simply that God should be at the centre because of Jesus.

How much time to we spend preparing for Christmas but forget to ask the person at the centre of it all what He would like us to do? As a family every Christmas we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus – it is a celebration of His birth and God’s love for each of us.

Would you really throw a party for someone and not even ask them what they wanted? Give gifts to everyone else but not the person whose birthday it was? Let’s remember in all this preparation what this about, and why we having a celebration in 19 days.

Do you as a family put Jesus in the centre of your Christmas preparations, are the presents more important that the one who gives us everything? Is getting all the family together and happy more vital than the one who gave up his son for you?

Are you celebrating with Jesus? Have your plans and preparation started with Him this year?

Let’s now take some time with God to ask Him just that – what are His plans this year for Christmas?

For some of you as a family you have got Christmas completely wrong and you need to refocus and start with him, for others you just need to rest and cut down on the excesses. For others God maybe challenging you to give up your comfort and share His love with those without family this Christmas… whatever we are feeling we need to spend time with Him now and hear his voice.

We are now going to have some time to do that and for those of you who feel you need prayer either individually or as a family please go to the back where people will pray for you – take your whole family or a friend if it is appropriate. For others please use this time to spend time with God…

To help us focus we are going to watch a video which expresses how God feels for us and how no matter how we cling onto things in this life He is the only one who is there for us…

Watch the video – God’s love

Click here to see the video used in the service

God’s heart aches for you

Whatever may come he’ll stand by you

He sacrificed everything for us by giving us Jesus – this is the message of Christmas, this is the gift of love we are celebrating… let us prepare this Christmas by giving ourselves to him first.