# Christmas Eve Candlelight Celebration 2009 – Best News ! ( 24 Dec 2009 )

The Message

Dr Robert Harold Schuller

Special Guest

Sharon Kips

Special Music

Hymn:
Hallelujah Chorus
Joy to the World
Silent Night

Solo/ Anthem:
For Unto us a Child is Born – CCM Choir
Sing We Now of Christmas - CCA CHORUS
Mary’s Little Boy Child - SOFIE THURSTON  
Arise, Shine! – CCM Choir
Sweet Little Jesus Boy - CHRISTY SUTHERLAND
Music of Christmas 2008 - ROGER WILLIAMS
O Holy Night - MORRIS ROBINSON

The Message

But tonight I want to share in the few minutes I have, I want to share and talk about good news, bad news and the best news which you can only get in a place where Christ is.

What a year it’s been! How’s it been for you? Don’t answer. I want to share with you tonight how the promise of Christmas was that we would have good news. The angels came to the shepherds and they said we bring you good news, great tidings of great joy for there is born to you this day in the City of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord. And I believe there were angels, literally. I believe they came to bring a message from God to planet earth and I believe that there’s good news for everybody tonight because of that.

Well, what was the news for you this year? It could have been good, it could have been troublesome, I’m not going to rehearse what was aired on television and radio and newspapers across the United States. I am going to stand up before anybody and everybody listening to me in the whole world and that is that tonight believe in me when I tell you there is a God and He came to earth once to prove it in a man named Jesus. He will never do it a second time. They would crucify Him, too.

There’s a famous legend and it comes to me from China. Very important as I talk about good news because we have to know when news happens is it really good news or is it bad news? Is it really true? Is it reliable? The Chinese legend tells of a man, a wise old man, he had a horse. One horse and that made him very wealthy. And he had one son that made him a father and a family man. And everybody knew him and respected him, loved him.

And then the day came when his horse was gone. Lost. The neighbors all came – you lost your horse! Oh what bad luck! Because they’d seen horses that got a longing for the wild and the other horses and left and never came back. So that’s why the old man kept him in a fence but the fence was loose and his one and only horse, all of his assets in one creature was gone. But sure enough, after a few days his horse came back to eat where he was always used to eating. And he led wild stallions with him. Quickly the farmer fenced them all in and all the neighbors came and said oh what good luck! And he said how do you know its good luck?

Well his son picked the tall black horse as his, tried to break him in one day but was thrown off by the wild creature and suffered broken bones from which he would suffer the rest of his life. And all the neighbors heard of the man’s only son now disabled. And they all came and they all said what bad news. The old man said how do you know its bad news? It might be good luck.

Then a Chinese war lord came through town, conscripted every able bodied young man, took them off to give a war fare to a neighboring state, but he looked at that disabled young man who’d fallen off a horse and couldn’t walk straight and left him behind. And everybody said oh your son could not fight – what bad luck. But all the soldiers never came back. Only this man with his disabled son could rejoice that his son was still alive. And the neighbors sensed that and they all came and said your son is alive, your son is alive! What good luck and the old man said how do you know its good luck?

Well the story could go on and on and on and on. The point is well made: if we live life and look at it wisely, we in our human perspective can never say that something is bad luck. Surely I’ll start there as a Christian. Yes, how can we tell if its good luck? How can we tell if its bad luck? By only trusting God almighty and we will know that even what appears as bad luck, He can turn into good luck. He often takes bad luck, turns it into good luck. Bad news and by the time the story finally works its way through, we wouldn’t change things.

God turns bad luck into good luck. He does this by first reminding us that we have a life span. So does bad luck. It doesn’t last. And that we can let it change us because it will change us. How? That’s up to you.

Yes, how can you plan good luck in the New Year about to come? Plan good luck by planting the seeds that will sprout in relationships and in achievements that will seem like good luck. Tonight I can say to you YOU without exception will have good luck next year because you are here tonight and you are praying and giving your life to God for His will. Do you know Jesus Christ? Do you know God? He’s here. You can feel Him in the breathing of the thinking of these people seated here. It’s a fact He was born, it’s a fact He died, it’s a fact that He came alive, it’s a fact that He is reverenced today by over two billion people on planet earth. Yes, a lot of different religions. Yes, there are the Muslims but they believe in the Virgin birth of Jesus Christ, too. Yes, there are the Protestants and Catholics. Add up those two and you’ll have over two billion people that respect the name of Jesus.

Accept Him into your heart and into your life now. Dear God, there are those listening who have never opened their minds to faith. There are those who have never accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and that’s the best news that comes to us tonight! Blessed are we for He has come, lived, died, resurrected and is with us tonight in His holy spirit. That’s the best news. Amen.

 


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