Well, let's bow in prayer together. Let's ask God's blessing upon all that we do. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can gather in this simple way amongst friends that we have. And we come and ask that you would visit us in a most remarkable way. We are gathered to seek your face. We are gathered to ask of you. We are gathered to thank you and to praise and to worship you. We ask that we might know and feel as though somebody special is here amongst us and the specialness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We come confident that you will meet us for your word says to us that where two or three are gathered in your name, there you will be in the midst. So come amongst us, and bless us, we pray, our Heavenly Father, for we ask these things in our Saviour's mighty and matchless name. Amen. Now we're going to read together from our Bibles, and we're going to read from John's Gospel, Chapter 3. And we're going to read from verse 1, and these are familiar verses to many of us. So, John 3, beginning at the very first verse of that third chapter. John 3 in verse 1. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night. and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. And so is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said to Him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly I say to you, we speak what we know, and testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? no one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven that is the Son of Man who is in heaven and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life for God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now we leave that reading of God's Word at that point. Our Heavenly Father, God over all, Maker, Defender of your blood-born people, such are many here today, We come now before you. We come to praise you for all that you are. We come to thank you for all that you do. We bring our sinful selves before you, asking that you will admit us into your most holy presence. We've never been in the presence of absolute perfection. We might have seen beautiful sights, we might have heard beautiful sounds, but we've never heard perfect sounds. We've never seen perfect things, we've never feasted our eyes on perfection. But as we come before you now, we ask that you would take every faculty that is ours, our thoughts, our feelings, and that you would act upon them and leave us with the sense that you, our Father, our Saviour, and our Comforter, are indeed the grandest and the glorious perfection that we seek. We want to ask that you would come to us in a special way this morning, We long that our sins might be washed away, that we might, that those sins might be forgiven. And we trust in the shed, prized blood of our Saviour. He died, we're thinking of His birth over these next days, but we know that He was born to die. And that death of our Saviour means that we can see Him as He really is, if we would but trust Him. Enlarge our capacity, our Father, to love, to worship, as it need be to forgive. We pray for every person here this morning, every man, every woman, every child, every young person, for as sure as everyone will one day stand before your throne of judgement, prepare us for that day, make us ready, and give us that ability to say, in the presence of God this day, I am ready, because I know Him as my Saviour. For those who are not prepared for that day, make us fit for that day, because if we're not prepared for that day, we are really unfit for this present day. So help us. Bless this season too as our Father. This whole Christmas season, there are so many things that go on. Things on the radio, things on the television, things in the shops. Our minds can be diverted, but we ask that you would bring them back to the Saviour. We ask that you would bless this assembly of men and women and young people. We pray for its leaders, we pray for its members. We ask that this new year would be a special year in its history. We ask that you would bless all that we love, all our friends, all our families. Most especially we pray for those who do not know you or love you or serve you. Be near to them and grant that something special might fall upon them at this time. For we ask all these things in our Saviour's mighty and matchless name. Amen. Christmas has and probably always has brought many urgent things to the minds of men and women. And I want to tell you a story of a young American couple. A young fellow called David and his wife Terri. David and Terri Schaefer. A number of years ago, Terri had set her mind on what she was going to buy her husband Dave for Christmas. And so she went out to do her Christmas shopping. She knew exactly what she wanted to buy her husband. And she went to a certain shop in the city, town of Maldine in Illinois to buy what she wanted. And after a few minutes, because she knew exactly what she wanted to get Dave, she found it in the shop. And she picked it up and she took it to the shopkeeper And she said, how much is this? And the shopkeeper smiled and she said, it's $127.50. Now, to those of us that are not familiar with financial things, about 80 pounds, something like that. And Terry's eyes dropped because she couldn't afford that. It was a little bit too much. So she said to the man, would you keep it for me and I could pay you so much a week or a month until it's paid for and the man said to Terry I'm afraid we don't do that sort of thing here and her heart fell her husband Dave was a policeman and he wasn't paid a lot of money and the man must have seen something in Terry's look and he said to her if you really want it you can take it with you now and pay me when you've got the money so she was over the moon and so she took it and that night she gave it to her husband Dave You need to know the time of the year. It was the 1st of October, about 12 weeks before Christmas Day. Dave Schaefer went on duty that night and he took this present with him. When he got to the police station, a radio message came through to say that there was an armed robbery going on. There was a man with a gun who'd shot two people, I think it was, in a shop, a certain shop in Moline. And so Dave was in his car, switched the siren on, whatever it goes like in America, and he drove off to the place where he went, where this robbery was going on. As he got there, he saw a car speeding off and a man had jumped into the car and then he'd sped off. Dave, I think, assumed that this was the man that had killed the two people in the shop. So he was off after his car, followed the car. After just a few minutes the car suddenly stopped curbside and Dave stopped after him and waited a few seconds to see what was going on and then eventually he pulled his gun out and he got out of the car and he walked over very gingerly to the car that he'd chased and a few seconds later and he's now just a few feet, no further than I am from some of you here and the car door of this villain's car shot open and the man shot out with his gun drawn and shot Dave. No two ways about it. At seven o'clock the following morning a day shift policeman knocked on the door of the Shafer's house. Terry had just got herself up and she'd expected Dave coming knocking on the door but she saw it wasn't Dave. looked quite different even through the glass panels in the door, she knew something was wrong. And the policeman told her that something was wrong. And as this policeman drove Terry to the hospital, Terry was very calm, very calm, but she was also very glad that she had given Dave his Christmas present early. because what it was was a piece of body armour, sort of a waistcoat thing that you put on. And the bullet that hit Dave on the chest didn't go through this. Dave had a bruise on his chest where the bullet had gone, but it didn't go through. The raider had shot Dave but didn't really do him any great harm. He was knocked over, he was shocked by what had happened, expected it, but it didn't really do him any harm. This incident actually happened a good number of years ago, but it does have some interesting things to say to us at this Christmas season. Christmas seems to have become a day of giving and receiving presents. And there's nothing wrong with that unless you're going overboard, unless you're expecting a new Jaguar for Christmas present. Santa doesn't usually drive in Jags and that sort of things. But a number of things are interesting here. First of all, the cost of presents. The cost of presents. Terry thought the cost of the present that she'd bought for her husband Dave was too much. It was too much because she couldn't afford it at that point. And it may be that when children say to us, Dad, I'd like one of those, or when husband says, my dear, darling, you know what I would like, and you try it yourself. But... Sometimes it becomes so expensive. Teddy tried various ways but the price of what she wanted was too high for her. The things that God offers us could never be bought. They have a price tag on them that could not be matched by what's in our pockets or bank accounts. So hold on to that thought and we'll develop these in a moment. The second thing that I believe comes out of this story is that Terry's gift to her husband Dave was needed that very night. Now, 12 weeks had to wait and we've all known something like, well I've got you that new whatever it is that you wanted but you can't have it until Christmas Day. It is somewhat frustrating when that happens, but Terry couldn't wait for Christmas. She couldn't wait 12 weeks to give Dave this present. It was that very night that the present was needed. And in this wonderful way, Terry gave Dave this present too early. but not too early as far as his need were concerned. I'm sure that every one of us will have Christmas presents coming in one shape or another, they'll come from friends, they will come from mums and dads, they'll come from brothers and sisters, or whatever, but sometimes we forget that God is the greatest giver of all. The greatest giver of all. to those of us that know him, to those of us that have received something from God. He gives remarkably. He gives remarkably, and what he gives is far better than we could ever ask or think. And it's these things that I want us to dwell on for a few minutes. First of all, what does God give us? Well, he gives us a number of things, but the first thing that I want us to dwell on is a passage that found for us in John's Gospel chapter 1 and in verse 12. And verse 12 of John 1 says this, as many as received him, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, to them he gave, he gave, and he gave the right or the power to become children of God. who believe on his name. There is a time when God gives remarkable presence and one of these presence we could say is power. Power. The right to become a child of God. The right to become. Now the word right or power though it's a strange word. Sometimes when we say something to somebody, we have to widen out what we're meaning. And the sense of that word here is that God gives to us a rightful claim to become a child of God. If you would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you can put in your claim to becoming a child of God. Now we're not talking about claims such as PPI that come on the computer 500 times a day on your mobile phones and they say all you've got to do is ring this number and it will cost you more than you can ever imagine to get the money that you've never had a right to. They say you've got a claim and we've all had numbers of this. We've got a claim. God says to us If you have trusted Christ as your Saviour, as Lord, then you have a claim to being a child of God. He speaks like this to certain people not because they are particularly good or kind, but simply because He loves you. This is our God. and he loves you and he says to you, trust me, trust me and become a child of mine. You have my authority to become my child. You have my express permission to become something that you at this moment are not. You and God will share one of the most intimate relationships that can ever be known now that's a remarkable thought he looking down upon you even at this moment and having his heart welled up with what we might call pride although that's not the best word to use but God can look at men and women and young people like us here and say Those are mine. Those are mine. I can remember as a young lad riding on the bus into Manchester. Manchester's got a big park today. But I can remember riding on the bus with some friends. I don't know what we were doing. We were going shopping or something. And my dad was running a motor repair shop just outside at the centre of Manchester. And we passed the garage. And there was my dad, big fella, broad fella. You could see him a mile off. And I would say to these lads, that's my dad. And as far as I was concerned, he was the greatest fella in all the world. He was my dad. Well, God can say something like that to you this morning. You're mine. You're mine. You and God will share that most intimate relationship. This is my son. This is my daughter. You can look up into the face of the maker of this world and you could say, that's my father. If you believed and trusted in him, there will exist a warm and a close and a loving relationship. Think of a court of law where there are proceedings going on in this court of law and it's an adoption proceedings. There's a young couple that find they can't have children of their own and they want to adopt a child. So in this court there are three people or three parties. There's the young couple, the man and the woman, can't have children but want to adopt a child there's the child itself, it's there and there is the judge and all kinds of reports have been given and many issues have been clarified are these people suitable people to become the parents of this child and such like things and then the judge would eventually say to the would-be parents. You have the authority of this court to be the legal parents of this child. And you have that authority. And this child then becomes yours with all of the legal rights and privileges of a natural-born child. And the judge would probably even say to the child, although depending on the age of the child he might not know these things, he would say to the child, little boy, little girl, these are your parents, and this court gives you that authority. And God gives this power to you and to me. And this Christmas season shows us these things. Let's move on, let's go into John's Gospel in chapter 10 and one of the words here is the same. In John 10 and verse 28 Jesus says this, I give them eternal life, I give them eternal life, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hands. Another of God's great gifts is life. I had a friend some years ago who had, I think it was a kidney problem that he had, but it was a real problem. A young man, very able young fellow, and he collapsed at work, I'm not quite sure what he did. He walked in a hospital, I think he might have been a male nurse or something like that, and he was rushed into the operating theatre. And it was determined and decided that he should have a kidney transplant. and strange that they could get hold of one immediately that they said while he was on the table to be operated on he's died and they operated on him because somebody had the ability to think we can do something for this fellow Malcolm was his name and he had this transplanted kidney and he grew strong and able again. God gives life. God gives life. That's another of God's great gifts. All of us here this morning are alive, at least to some degree. Now I'm not saying you're half dead, but what I am saying, I'm not saying that you're looking a bit sleepy, what I'm saying is this. at least one part of you is alive. But you don't only have a body, you have a soul. And that may not be alive. And God says, I'll give you eternal life. I'll make your soul alive. This passage is very interesting and reading some of the commentaries, it says this, Jesus says, I'll give you life, spiritual life, and it will be forever. They shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. And one of the commentators says this about these words, these words are markers of emphatic negation. Now you know exactly what that means. these words are markers of emphatic negation and what that means is this you will never perish you will never perish in physical life we think we feel certain things come to our minds we can move we can recognize certain things and wherever we go whatever we do that some people perhaps some of us here will not be able to do these things and sometimes we'll get to the end where we can't walk about and we can't move and we can't think and we'll die and life will be over but Jesus says to us I can give you life I can give you life and dear ones you might never have thought of this But one day, and it might be soon, there will be nobody in graves, because all the graves in our land and in our world will be emptied. And men and women like you and me will be raised from death. And we will either go to live with the Lord Jesus Christ forever, or we'll go to a place whose name we often use as a curse word, and we'll say it's hell. And Jesus says, I'll give you life. I'll give it to you. I'll donate it. I won't sell it, I won't auction it, I won't put it on eBay, or anything like that. I'll give it to you. Some years ago, it would have been this time of the year, working with the London City Mission in the other side, West London, The London City Mission often had toy services. People would have a toy service and people would be asked to bring a present. And then somebody from the Mission would collect it. And we were always told, when you collect the presents from the church, make sure you open them. And we did. It seems almost wrong to open somebody else's present but we opened presents and there was nothing in them. Some churches had brought beautifully wrapped presents, nothing in them. That's so disappointing. But with the Lord Jesus Christ it's not like that. I'll give you life and nobody will sneak in and snatch your life away. God gives power. God gives life. and God gives you and me, and God gives Christ himself to us. John 3.16, that God so loved the world that he gave, it's the same word again, he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. God's greatest present to you is his well-beloved Son. Having Jesus Christ, having received Him, will ensure that you will never perish. It will ensure that you will never become useless. We've often seen on the television, they tell us that in certain parts of the world where there is fighting and civil wars and just all out wars, and they'll say to us, 27 tanks have been destroyed. But you see somebody going past, one of the men that often is a military correspondent, a Christian fellow. If you're interested in his name, I'll tell you after. But often times you hear, 27 tanks have been destroyed and the camera's gone past them. The tanks are there. They've not been destroyed. They're still there and you can tell they look like a tank. What is it when you and I might be destroyed? We'll still be there. We'll look like a man or a woman. But we've become as useless as a blown up tank. Useless! We've become ruined. You might not know this yet. that the Lord Jesus Christ is the most important presence of all, and He's given, and the things that He gives to us. If you do not receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your gift from God, you will not have power. You will not have power. If you don't receive that life, you will not have life. There will always be a part of you that is not living as it should do. You will not have the Saviour that He gives you. You will be unsaved. And these are awful things. These are awful things. Dear ones, if you want the greatest of all gifts, ask Jesus Christ. to give you what He has promised to so many. And you could leave this place a new man, a new woman. You could leave this place and know that whatever happens in the world, you will never perish. You will never become useless to God. May God help us to know these things. And one of the wonderful things about these issues is what we need to sing in our closing hymn in verse 3 of hymn 211. How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given, and so God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven. No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin where meek souls will receive him still the dear Christ enters in 211 let's sing that as we come to a close O my little town of Bethlehem How still we see thee lie Above thy deep and dreamless sleep The silent stars go by Yet in thy dark streets shineth The everlasting light. The hopes and fears of all the years Are met with you tonight. O morning stars together Proclaim the holy birth And praises sing to God the King, And peace to men on earth. For Christ is born of Mary, And gathered all above. And until he, the angels keep, Their watch of wondering love. Who silently, how silently, How wondrous did His healing, So what it cost to human hearts, The blessings of His heaven. Though easy may he be coming, God in this world loves me. And weak souls will receive him still, when he Christ enters in. O Holy Child of Bethlehem, be sent to us, we pray. Come out from your sin and enter in the holiness we pay. We hear the Christmas angels as they flex my ears there O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel A blessed and eternal God the one who made this world, the one who loved the world in such an extreme way that you were prepared to send your own dear beloved son that he might die to have our sins removed. Come to us over this Christmas season and bless us and fill us with all those marvellous, wonderful gifts that you are able to give. Give us yourself in Christ. Continue with us. We pray our Father throughout this day, for we ask these things in our Saviour's mighty and much-loved name. Amen.