What’s your stress level this season
builder2024-01-06T02:10:22+08:00Talk BRO. AUDEE VILLARAZA: May the Holy Spirit use these words to convict us today. I want to ask you a real question just now: What is your stress level this Christmas? I’m going to ask you to rate your Stress Level from 1 to 10-- 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. All those with Level 1 Stress, raise your hand. Really? (No one…) I’m expecting only the 4-year-olds to raise their hands. How about those with Level 2 Stress? Raise your hands. All right, we’ve got a few persons… Level 3? Okay, we’ve still got a few. How about if I shoot it up…Level 8 Stress? Really? This is the place where we’re in… How about those who have Level 9 Stress? All right (those who raised their hands) you’re my people… How about those who’ve Level 10 Stress? Ha-ha! That’s all of us, right? Irony of Christmas You know what’s so ironic? ... Thank you for being honest, by the way… The irony of Christmas is this-- listen to me for a few moments: Christmas is supposed to be the peaceful season of all… (But) the very first Christmas Eve wasn’t exactly peaceful. This is the image of Christmas: Silent Night, Holy Night… And yet go back 2000 years ago, to the very first Christmas Eve… Joseph and Mary were fleeing from Egypt, to go to Bethlehem… Why? Because they were being threatened-- that they would be killed. All the mothers, raise your hands…if you can relate to this: Mary was up to term and she was riding a donkey. Was that comfortable? No. I mean, that’s a lot of stress. And nowadays, you know, when you go to the hospital, they’ve got all these technological innovations to make it comfortable for the moms. They’ve got those machines that are hooked up to the mother so that they can tell when a contraction is coming…They got all those sanitized magic instruments to cut the mom open. They got all these things. They got the epidural to ease her pain. Mama Mary didn’t have any of those. So, can you imagine the pain she was going through? Now, what is point? My point is this: That Jesus was born surrounded by conflict and chaos. Let me park that for a few moments. I’m going to go back to that point in a moment. I want to give you our big message today. And I guarantee you it’s going to bless you… Here’s the message: I want you to turn to the person at your tight. Doesn’t matter who that person is. And tell that person, “Peace is with you.” Now turn to the person at your left and say, “And also with you.” How many of you believe that Peace is with you? We’re going to open the Bible right now, to the book of John. John narrates Jesus giving this message: You know my Friends, peace is a word that I believe we throw