THE GOD OF PEACE

Scripture Lesson: Philippians 4:4-9

Object: A piece of chalk

Boys and Girls, Christmas is a time of peace and good will on earth. At least, that's   what we hope for and long for. The next three Sundays we're going to be talking about pride. Christmas is a time when we honor the lowly things of this world, the little things, the insignificant things, the little town of Bethlehem, the little stable, the little manger, the shepherds. Do you know what pride is? Pride is what causes us to puff ourselves up and think that we are more important than other people. The Bible tells us that that's the source of a lot of our problems.

I read about two passenger ships, just two years ago, in the Black Sea, who collided. Many lives were lost.  They searched through the rubble to see if they could discover why those two ships crashed. The results were very disturbing. They discovered that the captains of both ships knew that the other was approaching. Both refused to yield. So they collided. They played "Chicken" with their ships and people died.

That's a terrible thing to happen. Maybe you've seen it happen on the playground. Somebody draws a line. Suppose I took this piece of chalk and drew a line down the front of the sanctuary and said, "I dare you to step across that line." That's the way boys sometimes challenge each other to fights. I heard about one young fellow, though, who was being bothered by the school bully and he drew a line on the playground. He said to the bully, "I dare you to step across that line." The bully did and the young fellow said, "Now we're both on the same side." It's always better to have people on your side.

It's to want to fight other people just to show that we are tougher than they are. That's the cause of most of the problems in this world--pride. So if we want peace on earth we are going to have to be humble people, like the shepherds, who bowed in front of the tiny babe. Can you imagine that? Not bowing in front of a mighty king on a throne, but in front of a tiny babe. That's the secret of peace in the world. When we humble ourselves and realize that we are all God's children, then there will be peace in the world.