Okay, good morning everybody. Great to see you. If you don't know me, my name is Kevin and one of the elders here.
It's great to be with us together this morning.
Now, let's see if you can finish this famous Christmas sentence.
The Christmas sentence goes like this.
Glory to God in the highest and on earth...
Okay, sorry, I didn't hear that. Okay, try that again.
Glory to God in the highest and on earth...
And you got it. Okay, peace and goodwill to all mankind.
Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill.
That means kind-heartedness, bigness of heart, generosity of spirit to all mankind.
These famous words are spoken by the angels at the time of Jesus' birth.
There are some shepherds out in the fields outside of Bethlehem.
And an angel comes and says, I bring good news of great joy.
Today, in the city of David, the town of Bethlehem, a Savior has been born.
And he is going to save the world.
You'll find him lying in a manger.
And then all these angels burst into song.
Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill to all mankind.
We are three days away from Christmas, which is a wonderful thing.
But we also find ourselves at a time in our city and a time in the history of our city
when peace and goodwill amongst us as a city seems to be remarkably absent.
Not only in our streets and our universities, but also in our homes, around dining room tables.
If there was ever a time when we as a city needed peace and goodwill to all mankind,
this would be a great time.
Now this morning, what I want us to do is I want us to look at the book of Philippians,
which Theo and Janet read to us.
And I want us to see how Christmas gives us the resources that we need
to heal the divisions in our hearts and in our lives.
How Christmas gives us the resources that we need
to heal the divisions in our hearts and in our lives.
Okay, so we've got one point this morning.
That's the one point.
That's all there is.
Okay, let's go home.
No, let's look at the passage and see if we can make sense of this.
So, Theo and Janet read to us this amazing passage from the book of Philippians.
And the book of Philippians is written by the Apostle Paul
while he's under arrest in the city of Rome.
The Apostle Paul is a missionary.
He's a preacher.
He's just left the city of Philippi.
He's on his way back to Jerusalem.
And in Jerusalem, he gets arrested because he's preaching the gospel, etc.
He's disturbing the peace.
And so he has this trial.
And while he's on trial, he says,
I'm a Roman citizen.
I appeal to Caesar.
I want Caesar to hear my case.
And so he gets shipped off to Rome where Caesar is going to hear his case.
And while he's there, he's under arrest for two years in house arrest.
And while he's there, he writes these letters to the various churches
that he started and founded around the world.
And so he writes this letter to this small church in the city of Philippi
that he had just visited recently.
And he writes to encourage them and to strengthen them in their journey.
Now, in the book of Acts, we actually see how this city,
how this church in Philippi founded.
And the way it started was this.
It was Paul and his companions are traveling in the area,
and they don't know where to go.
They try and go up north.
They can't go there.
They try and go south.
They can't go there.
To the west of them is the sea.
And so they stuck.
And one night, Paul has a dream.
And in his dream, this man from the city of Philippi says,
Paul, come over and help us.
And so the next morning, Paul wakes up,
and he says to his companions,
I think God wants us to go to Philippi.
And so they go to Philippi.
And when they get there, they don't know what to do.
They don't have any contacts or friends.
Paul just had this dream.
And so they go down to the river where they expect to meet a bunch of men praying.
Generally, the men would go down and pray at this area.
But they don't find any men praying.
What they find is a businesswoman, a lady called Lydia.
And Lydia is a trader.
She sells cloth and material.
And she's a businesswoman.
And so they start to talk to her about the wonder of Jesus and the gospel.
And she believes.
She becomes a follower of Jesus.
And she gets baptized straight away as a sign of her following Jesus.
And then Paul and his companions spend a few days in Philippi.
And they are followed by this young lady who's a slave girl.
She's owned by some other people in town.
But she is under the controlling influence of a demonic spiritual power.
She's kind of controlled by the spiritual power.
And so she follows Paul and his companions everywhere they go.
And she's calling out saying, these men, they come from the one true God.
They're telling you how to become Christians, how to get saved.
And she's causing problems for Paul and his companions.
Because they're trying to have these real meaningful conversations.
And while they're trying to have conversations with people,
here's this lady that's calling out in the background.
These men are from God.
They've got a message for you.
And Paul gets so annoyed that one day he just turns around and he says,
evil spirit, come out of her.
And she's automatically brought to her senses.
She's no longer under the controlling power of this demonic spirit.
And she's just this normal young lady.
Now, it's possible that she becomes a follower of Jesus.
We don't know exactly whether she became a follower of Jesus.
But the men that owned her are now very upset with Paul.
Because she used to make a lot of money for them as a fortune teller.
She would go around town saying,
here, this is what's going to happen to you.
And he would give money.
And they'd say, Ellen, I'll tell you your future if you give me some money.
And so this lady made a lot of money for her owners.
And now she can't do that anymore.
So the owners go to the magistrate and they say,
these guys, Paul and his friends, are causing trouble in our town.
We better arrest them quickly.
And so Paul and his friends get thrown into jail.
And while they're in jail, they start talking to the jailer.
And the jailer becomes a Christian.
And he starts following Jesus.
And he and his whole family become Christians.
And they get baptized that very day.
And so here you have, in this town of Philippi,
the two founding members of this church,
and possibly a third one.
You have this wealthy businesswoman who's a trader,
and she knows how to make money.
You have this jailer who's pro-establishment,
working for the central government.
Remember, Philippi is a city in the Roman Empire.
He's working for central government.
He becomes a follower of Jesus.
And possibly the third member of the church
is this slave girl who, until recently,
had a demonic spirit controlling her.
Now, I've been thinking quite a lot recently
about church planting.
At Watermark, we've spoken about it for a long time.
And I would love for us as a church
to plant a church sometime in the next couple of years.
To take 20 or 30 people from Watermark
and say, hey, why don't you guys go start
a new church in Hong Kong somewhere?
We'll support you and encourage you.
I love the idea of us planting a new church.
But one of the things I've been thinking about
is how do you get the perfect core team together,
the right team that's going to start off a church,
the team that you can train them and equip them
and are on the same page and think the same way.
Because if you get your core team right,
you have the most chance of success.
Think about the core team of this new church in Philippi.
You have this jailer working for the government.
You have this businesswoman that's a trader.
And you possibly have this lady that was just demon-possessed,
a slave girl, uneducated, who has just been delivered.
One theologian, a common scholar, put it like this.
These early converts were the most diverse
and unlikely group of people with which to ever start a new church.
And so this is how the church begins.
Right from day one, the Philippian church is diverse,
it's multicultural, it's multi-socioeconomic
from different backgrounds, different cultures, different careers,
and they've come together because Jesus has worked in their hearts.
Now, that's a wonderful thing.
One of the most beautiful things about the local church
is its diversity and its complexity
and its multicultural and multi-ethnic component.
The church family is a family, but we're a diverse family.
We're an eclectic family.
And what unifies us as a church is not our personalities or our preferences.
I like the soccer team.
You like the soccer team.
Hey, let's join the same church together.
What unifies us is that Jesus has worked in our hearts.
But that diversity does come with its challenges, right?
There's misunderstanding.
I think one thing.
You think a different thing.
I like this thing.
You like that thing.
I think we should do things this way.
You think we should do things that way.
So our diversity is a beautiful gift, but it does come with complexity.
It comes with challenges.
There can be misunderstanding.
There can be diverse views on how we should do things.
Let's be honest.
It's so much easier just to gather with a group of people
who think like you and talk like you and act like you
and dress like you and are just like you.
But when we come together, diversity brings its challenges.
Friends, isn't this what we see in Hong Kong a bit at the moment?
Diverse opinions, diverse political views,
diverse ways on how the current empire should be handled.
Diversity brings its challenges.
And diverse opinions and views can lead to a lack of peace
and a lack of goodwill amongst all mankind.
When you look at the book of Philippians that was read to us earlier,
one of the things we see is that this church is starting to experience
a little bit of division in the church.
It's not massive.
It's not huge.
But there's people that have got different opinions.
And Paul writes the book of Philippians to them
to encourage them to be unified in their faith.
If you've got your Bible, turn to Philippians,
and you're going to have to follow with me.
There's a couple of verses I want us to look at.
Look at what he says in chapter 1, verse 27.
He says,
Paul's emphasis here is on their oneness,
their oneness of mind, oneness of heart, oneness of unity.
And he says,
Don't be fighting against one another.
It's not me against you.
I want you to be standing next to each other,
shoulder to shoulder, united for the cause of Christ.
He appeals to them to be one.
Look at chapter 2, verse 1 and 2.
He says,
If there's any encouragement in Christ,
any comfort from love or participation in the Spirit,
complete my joy by being of the same mind,
having the same love,
being in full accord and of one mind.
So he says,
My dear brothers and sisters,
I long to hear that you are unified and one
in the way that you are operating together.
Look at chapter 2, verse 14.
He says,
Brothers and sisters,
do all things without grumbling.
Without disputing.
I know there's reason to have differences of opinions,
but try and do things without grumbling
and disputing together.
And then look at chapter 4.
This is a very famous verse.
In chapter 4, verse 2, he says this,
I urge Yodia and I urge Sintiki
to agree in the Lord.
Yes, I ask you, my true brother,
to help these two women
who have contended for the gospel at my side.
Isn't that a remarkable thing?
That for some reason,
God decided to preserve for all time,
for all cultures,
for the rest of time on earth,
these two ladies' names in the Bible
who couldn't get along together
and who are disagreeing.
I'm so glad my name isn't in the Bible.
I'm so glad my name isn't in Paul.
Just Kevin and Theo,
just sort yourselves out
and get along better, right?
And for all time,
everybody's going to know
these two guys.
Paul writes,
and he says,
Dear ladies,
I know you've worked with me.
I urge you to see it out,
to be of one heart and one mind.
Paul writes this very warm and loving letter
to this church
to help them deal with the divisions
and to restore the peace
and the goodwill amongst each other.
Now, here's the question I want to ask you.
Paul writes to encourage this unity.
To what does he appeal?
What is his argument?
What is his flow?
What is his reasoning
that he gives them
why they should be unified
and why they should be humble
and selfless
and serving towards one another?
What's his argument?
Well, look at chapter 2,
verse 3 and 4.
Remarkably,
Paul appeals to Christmas.
He appeals to the Christmas story.
Look at what he says here in verse 3.
He says,
Do nothing from selfish ambition
or conceit,
but in humility,
consider one another's
more significant than yourselves.
Friends,
imagine living in a world like that.
Imagine living in a family
or an office
or a city
in which everybody,
the prevailing decision of our minds
was not what's in it for me,
not how can I advance my cause,
but how can I advance your cause?
How can I help you
succeed in life?
Verse 4,
Let each of you look
not only to his own interests,
but also to the interests of others.
That's a remarkable statement.
Imagine we lived in a world like that
where everybody thought,
It's not about me,
it's about how can I serve your interests?
Verse 5,
The reason why I should adopt this
is because this is the attitude of Christ.
Verse 5,
Adopt the same attitude
as that of Christ Jesus.
This is what Jesus was like
and as followers of Jesus
we are learning to become like him.
Now Paul,
what do you mean
that this is what Jesus was like?
Do you mean that
when Jesus was arrested
he didn't retaliate?
Is that what you mean?
Do you mean when Jesus
was betrayed by Peter
and denied him
that you forgave him?
Is that what you mean?
Well,
those things are coming
but before Paul even gets there
he starts off
with the story of Christmas.
Look at what he says here
in verse 6.
For Jesus Christ
who though he was
in the form of God,
now when it says
the form of God
that doesn't mean
he was like God.
It doesn't mean
he was similar to God.
It means he was
really and truly God.
The NIV says
by very nature God.
So Jesus Christ
who though he was
by very nature God
did not count equality with God
something to be grasped,
something to be seized,
something to be exploited
for his own advantage.
Remember Paul's writing
to Philippians here
and he's encouraging them
because they're tempted
to look at life
through the lens of
what's in it for me.
How can I make the most
of my life?
How can I make sure
that I come out
of this situation on top?
How can I make sure
that I don't suffer
in the decisions
that I make?
And Paul writes
and he says
remember Jesus.
Jesus was God
and Jesus looked
or approached life
though he was equal to God,
though he was God,
he didn't consider
how he can grasp
or seize
or make the most
of his godness.
He didn't hold on
to or take advantage
of the fact
that he is God,
that which he is entitled to,
that which was only
fair and just.
He didn't exploit that
but rather,
verse 7,
he emptied himself.
He emptied himself.
The word empty
doesn't mean
he was no longer God.
It means he deprived himself
of something
that he was entitled to.
Jesus didn't stop
being God or divine
when he was born to Mary
or lying in the manger
outside of Bethlehem,
but he put aside
his glory and his rights
that intrinsically came
with being God.
Remember the wonderful
Christmas carol?
Mild he lays
his glory by,
born that man
no more may die.
And this is Paul's point.
Jesus,
in coming to us
as a man,
in taking on human form,
he emptied himself.
He lay aside
his glory,
taking the form
of a servant
born in the likeness
of humanity.
One theologian
explained it like this.
said equality
with God
is something
that was inherent
to Christ
before he became
a man.
Nevertheless,
Godness,
the fact that
Jesus was God
didn't mean
that Christ
was a grasping,
seizing being
as it would
for the gods
and the lords
of the Philippians world.
It was not something
to be seized upon
to his own advantage,
which is what you
would normally expect
from lordly powers.
Rather,
his equality
with God
found its
truest expression
when he emptied
himself in his
incarnation,
becoming a man.
Friends,
think of,
the last couple of weeks
we've been looking
at the book of Revelation,
right?
And think of the
emperors in the time
of the Revelation.
Domitian,
one of the things,
the laws he passed
was that when he
comes into town,
everybody must say,
Domitian is lord,
Domitian is god.
Think of,
when the emperor
goes past,
everybody bows down
and worships him.
The lords of that day
demanded that you
serve them,
you honor them,
you exalt them,
you lift them up
and you humble yourself
before them.
But what does Jesus do?
Jesus doesn't exalt himself,
he humbles himself,
God becoming man.
Jesus born in a manger
with shepherds and cattle
as his very first observers.
Friends,
do you know the feeling,
what it feels like
when somebody has been
condescending towards you.
Do you know what the word
condescending means?
Condescending means
when somebody treats you
smaller or less worthy
than you deserve.
Somebody speaks down at you.
Maybe you feel like
somebody's speaking to you
and they're treating you
like a child.
I had that recently.
Somebody spoke to me
and I wanted to say,
by the way,
I'm not three years old,
right?
I'm not a child.
You can talk to me as a peer.
Do you know that feeling
when someone's been
condescending towards you?
They make you feel small
or inferior
or unworthy
or they're disrespectful
towards you.
One of the words
that Bible scholars use
for Jesus coming to earth
is his condescension.
Friends,
when Jesus was born as man,
no one was condescending
towards him.
Jesus chose
of his own free will
to condescend,
to be made smaller,
to come down
to our level.
Not because he had to
but because he chose to.
Or maybe think about
what it feels like
to be humiliated.
Have you ever been humiliated?
Treated shamefully
or made to feel
less worthy
than you deserve?
Look at what it says
here in Philippians.
It says,
Jesus embraced
his humiliation.
He humbled himself
taking on the form,
there's our word again,
of the very nature
of a servant.
Friends,
it's remarkable
to think that the God
who made all things,
who brought everything
into existence,
the one who thought
of the molecular structure
that the wood
by which the manger
is created,
in which he's lying,
the God who designed
that and came up with that
and thought of that
in the first place,
this sovereign,
majestic God,
the divine,
infinitely glorious God
would become a baby,
a crying,
helpless,
dependent,
nursing baby.
One Christmas carol
said it like this,
Behold within the manger lies
the one who built
the starry skies,
the one who created
all the universe,
lying in a manger.
And the reason why
is because of his
profound love for us,
because of his love for us.
And friends,
this is the apostle Paul's
encouragement.
Let that soften our hearts.
Let that produce
a gentleness,
a humility in the way
that we deal with
and handle one another
and view our differences.
But that's not all.
Look at what he says
in verse 8.
Jesus becoming a man,
what would he do
with his humanity?
The fact that Jesus
is now a human being,
what would he do?
Would he use his humanity
like a Trojan horse
to crush his enemies?
You know the story
of the Trojan horse?
Some men want to go
and attack the city of Troy,
I think it is.
Is that right?
And they don't know
how to get in there.
And so they build
this majestic horse
and they come to
the city of Troy
and they say,
we've got a present for you.
We have built
a horse in your honor.
But they don't know
that inside this wooden horse
soldiers are hiding.
And so the city of Troy
opens its gates
to welcome in
this big majestic horse
and as they wheel it
into the city center,
all the soldiers
jump out the middle
and they attack
and they defeat
the city of Troy, right?
Is that what Jesus did?
Did Jesus say,
let me hide myself
in a man
and then once I'm a man
I will destroy my enemies.
What did Jesus do
when he became a man?
Look at what verse 9 says.
Verse 8.
Being found in human form,
he humbled himself further,
becoming obedient
to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
You see friends,
the Christmas story
doesn't end
with three wise men
bowing down on their knees
with gold and frankincense
and myrrh.
The Christmas story
doesn't end
with the wise men
hearing that Herod
actually wants to kill Jesus
and so they sneak off
a different way.
The Christmas story
doesn't end
with Joseph and Mary
evading Herod
by running off to Egypt.
Friends,
the Christmas story
ends 30 years later
with Jesus being nailed
to a cross.
Jesus dying
and taking the sins
of the world,
your sin and my sin,
my brokenness
and my self-centeredness,
my guilt
and my shame,
my self-glory
and my pride
and my self-righteousness.
Jesus took it
upon the cross.
Jesus took the very worst
about me
and he took it
on the cross
and there he cried out
and he said
of those that were
hanging in there
and he said of us,
Father,
forgive them.
They know not
what they do.
Friends,
Jesus took upon himself
the sins of the world,
your sin
and my sin
so that we can be forgiven,
acquitted,
set free.
Jesus is in
a magnificent love
for us.
The Christmas story
ends with him
dying on the cross.
Only of Jesus
can it be said
the reason he was born,
he was born in order
that he may die.
And friends,
the degree to which
we see that
and understand that
and feel the graciousness
and the kindness
of Jesus towards us
is the degree
to which we will offer
grace
and compassion
and tenderness
to those around us
when they hurt us
and they let us down
or when we have
differences of opinions.
Said another way,
friends,
the degree to which
I have anger
and bitterness
and animosity
in my heart
is the degree
to which I don't understand
the kindness
and the grace of God
towards me.
Think about how
Peter writes this
in 1 Peter.
He says,
he says,
bless those
that persecute you.
Pray for those
that revile you.
When someone
is evil towards you,
don't be evil back.
Pray for them
and bless them
and love them.
And what's his reasoning?
What does he appeal to?
Why should we do this?
Look what he says
in verse 18.
For Christ suffered
once and for all
the righteous
for the unrighteous
that he might
bring us to God.
Friends,
the reason that we can
respond to antagonism
with grace
and gentleness
is because
once upon a time
Jesus responded
to my antagonism
towards him
with unbelievable
grace and tenderness
hanging on the cross
taking my sin
and my guilt
for me
so that I can
be reconciled
to the Father.
I'm sure many of you
saw this.
In the last year,
there was an amazing story
that came out of the US.
September last year,
September 2018,
a young African-American man,
he's 26 years old,
he's sitting in his apartment block
in Texas.
He's watching TV one night
and a white lady,
an ex-police officer,
comes in the apartment
and shoots him dead.
And what happened
is that this lady
has just come off duty,
she's tired,
she's maybe worked all night,
she comes in the apartment
and she thinks
she's on the fourth floor
of the apartment block
but she's actually
on the third floor.
And so she goes to the door,
she's surprised
that it's not locked,
she walks in
and she sees this man
in her house
and she thinks
he's a burglar.
And so her first instinct,
she reaches for a gun
and she shoots him dead.
And as she sees
what's happened,
she looks around
and she realizes
she's not in her apartment,
she's actually
in his apartment.
And so she's just killed
this innocent man.
And she's panicking,
she phones 911
while he's busy dying,
she tries to get
an ambulance there
and the ambulance
doesn't come in time
and before the ambulance
gets there,
this man dies.
Anyway,
she's obviously guilty,
she hands herself in
and she goes on trial
and she's sentenced,
she's convicted
of manslaughter.
And before she's sentenced,
there is a thing
called a victim impact statement
which means
one of the victims,
someone who's been affected
by the crime,
can speak to the jury
about how this crime
has affected them
so that the jury
can give an adequate sentencing.
And so the victim's brother,
this young man,
he's 23,
24 years old,
he makes this victim
impact statement
and he goes
and he's standing
in the dock
to speak about
how this crime
has affected him
and how he thinks,
you know,
traditionally how the jury
should ramp up the charges
and the sentencing.
And this young man,
he doesn't speak
for very long
but he takes the stand
and this is what he says.
he looks across the room
at this police officer
that's killed his brother
and he says,
if you are truly sorry,
I want you to know
that I forgive you.
I can't speak for others
but speaking for myself,
I want you to know
that I still love you
just the way
I love any other person.
I do not hope
that you rot and die
like my brother died.
Right now,
I want the very best for you.
He says,
I wasn't going to say this
in front of anybody else.
I don't want to see you
going to jail.
In fact,
I want the very best for you
because that's what,
I know that's exactly
what my brother Botham
would want for you.
I think giving your life
to Christ
would be the very best thing
that Botham
would want you to do.
He looks her in the eye
and he says,
I love you as a person
and I don't wish
for anything bad
to happen to you.
And then he turns
to the judge
and he says,
am I allowed to get up
and give this lady a hug?
And the judge
doesn't know what to do.
It's like unprecedented
and breaking
all sorts of conventions
and so there's silence
for a few moments
and he asks her again
and eventually the judge
says,
okay, you can.
And this man gets up,
walks across the courtroom
to this lady
and he gives her this hug
and he says,
there's no bitterness,
all is forgiven.
I'm so sorry
that this has happened
to you.
And you can see
on the video
the judge pulling out
some tissues
and she's just crying
at what she's witnessing
before her.
Now friends,
what led to that?
What motivated
this young man to do it?
When you see the video,
he didn't have a script.
He wasn't premeditated.
He hadn't written out.
He's just sitting there
in the dark
sharing from his heart.
And what he says is,
I don't want anything bad
to happen for you.
I want the best for you.
I love you
and I forgive you.
What causes this young man
to do this?
Friends,
it is that his heart
had been so melted,
so softened
by the love of Christ
towards him
that he looks the person
that killed his brother
in the eye
and he says,
I love you
and I want the best for you.
Now,
we may say,
yeah,
but if we just go around
giving grace
and forgiveness to everyone,
where's justice?
Where's the justice in that?
Someone once said this,
mercy and grace
is like a stick of dynamite
that brings down
the walls of our hearts.
Friends,
mercy and grace
don't deny justice,
but they do rid our hearts
of the anger,
of the resentment,
of the bitterness,
of the hardness
that causes disagreements
and differences of opinions
to become divisive
and damaging.
Friends,
Jesus Christ on the cross,
we see mercy and justice.
Justice because the full weight
of my sin
and your sin
was put upon him.
Justice because the full wrath
and the anger of God
was poured out on him.
justice because none of it
was swept under the carpet.
Every evil thing
that was done,
every bit of wrong
that was done in the world,
every bit of pain
and wickedness
was fully dealt with,
fully punished on the cross.
But on the cross,
we also see extravagant mercy
because on the cross,
God,
there Jesus died
in our place
to take our sin for us
so that we don't need to.
Friends,
where there's division
and disagreement
in the church in Philippi,
where brothers and sisters
can't see eye to eye
and adults couldn't,
young adults couldn't see eye to eye
with their parents.
Paul doesn't write to them
and say,
come on,
you Christians now,
sort yourselves out.
You should be better.
Paul doesn't write to them
and say,
listen here,
.3, .2 of the membership document
says you shouldn't disagree
with one another.
Now just pretend to get along.
What does he do?
He reminds them
of the humility
and the kindness of Jesus.
He says,
Dear brothers and sisters,
do nothing from selfish ambition,
but in humility
count others
more significant
than yourselves.
Lower yourself
and lift others up.
Let each of you
look not only
to his own interests
but also to the interests
of others.
Remembering Jesus,
remembering his condescension,
remembering his humiliation,
remember his coming
to us at Christmas,
remembering his crucifixion
on the cross.
Friends,
this year,
many of us
are going to get
Christmas cards
that say words like
love and peace
and joy and hope
and all these good things.
Where do we get
those words from?
We get them
from the stunning
announcement
of the angels.
Glory to God
in the highest
and on earth,
peace and goodwill
to all mankind.
Friends,
because all this,
because God decided
to become one of us,
to take on human form,
to lay his glory aside,
born that men
no more need to die,
and ultimately
to go to the cross.
Friends,
this Christmas
and this next year,
with all the difficulties
going on in our city,
may the good news
of great joy
melt our hearts,
bring down the walls,
flood us with his grace,
that we too
can offer peace
and joy
and love
and grace
to those around us
and those in our city.
Let's pray together.
Father,
oh, heavenly Father,
we so desperately
need your gospel
to come and take root
in our hearts.
Father,
this Christmas,
we don't just need
to be told
what to do
or how to be nicer
kind of people.
God,
we need the good news
of Jesus
to flood our hearts,
to flood over us again.
God,
we need the kindness
of God
to melt our own hearts.
God,
to bring down the walls
in our lives.
Jesus,
I pray this Christmas
amongst all the festivities,
amongst all the food,
the presents,
the meals,
the hanging out
with friends,
God,
may you,
in the quiet place
of our lives,
may you,
Jesus,
reign supreme,
we pray.
We pray these things
in your wonderful
and your powerful name.
Amen.