Keion Henderson - Christmas Cuts

I want to talk about this subject today-a very simple subject but a very complex message. God told me to name this «Christmas Cuts.» I’m going to discuss Christmas Cuts. Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh upon me. Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh upon me. Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven, feed us until we want no more. In Jesus' name, we pray. Somebody say Amen.

You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. Have you all noticed that the celebration for Christmas is getting earlier and earlier? When I grew up, the calendar was Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Some of y’all are little young Thundercats, too young to know when we used to go to stores like Sears. Y’all don’t know nothing about that! Sears used to have a catalog that was about this thick. You could get anything from some socks to a refrigerator. Walmart thinks they’re doing something, but Sears had that thing going on! You could even get your oil changed at Sears. When we would walk into Sears, they would have their Christmas trees up around Thanksgiving, but now here’s the truth: I was in Cracker Barrel, and they had a Christmas tree up in September! There is a buildup for Christmas; it is commercialized.

It’s about commerce- billions and billions of dollars-not in celebrating the birth of Jesus, but in the culmination of all of the feasts, whether they be Jewish feasts or Christian feasts. There is this commercialism surrounding the holiday, and we spend three, four, five months building up to Christmas. You hear music playing everywhere; it’s the most wonderful time of the year! Everybody 's excited; there’s Christmas music. And the Christmas Hold On music is so strong, you can’t make any new songs. You just have to sing the twelve we already have. Let somebody come up with a new Christmas song, and people will say, «Ah, that’s okay, but what about O Holy Night or Jingle Bells?»

It’s the same thing year after year after year. We build up-September, October, November-we get through December, only to realize that Christmas was coming a year ago. Then on the 23rd in the mall, you’re thinking, «I got to get these people something!» Hiding in the closet, putting them in places where you don’t think people look. We know what you’re doing; that’s why you disappeared. It’s the same thing over and over again, and then all of a sudden, December 26th comes, and it’s over. A man called me the other day and said, «Mr. Henderson, we’re going to come and take the lights down next week.» It’s almost as if the day arrives, and then it’s over. You spend all that time building up for it, only for it to just be over. It’s like going from having the lights on or having them on an automatic timer to the day after Christmas.

Either they stay on for five days, and you don’t notice, or they don’t come on at all. It’s almost as if the birth of Jesus has no meaning after we celebrate it. And God forbid all the stuff that’s on the shelves before Christmas-$500 for this, $300 for that, $1,000 for that. The day after Christmas, the same things are cut. How is it that I can buy it cheaper one day later? That means its value was the same the day before, but there is something about the expense in the buildup that doesn’t carry over. Everything is cut: the lights are cut, the prices are cut, the store hours are cut. You know they give you longer store hours during the holidays, then it’s over, and everything gets cut after Christmas, including Jesus. For the Bible says, eight days after He was born, He was circumcised.

So, the prices get cut, the store hours get cut, and so did the Savior-circumcised on the eighth day. As a minister of the gospel for 28 years, I have stood in the sacred place and preached the message of Jesus on Christmas to the point where, when it comes, I find myself asking, «What else can I say about a boy whose mama was a virgin?» What I just said should have made you fall! His mama was a virgin! I’m going to say it again-you know what you have to do to get pregnant, right? So, you know what you cannot be when you give birth. Thank you! And Joseph is looking at his wife’s protruding stomach, and he says, «Uh, now Mary, I know I don’t know you, and you’re pregnant.» She replies, «Oh Joseph, don’t worry about it; that’s the Holy Ghost baby.» Fellas, now I know you believe in God, but do you believe in Him like that? You come home, and your wife says, «Baby, we’re having a baby.»

You say, «But we ain’t never…» Oh, don’t worry about it; it was Jesus! Every year, I get asked the question-y’all got time today? Every year, I get asked the question, «Why do we celebrate Jesus’s birthday on the 25th?» Every year, I get the same question. After 28 years of preaching, I get the same question, and my answer is always the same: «I don’t know.» And I know you think, «He’s a preacher; he should know!» Nobody knows. There are three theories as to why we celebrate the birth of Jesus on the 25th. Number one, Sextus Africanus said that Mary conceived on the 25th of March; well, nine months from March 25th is December 25th, but that’s his theory. Another philosopher came behind him and said, «No, He wasn’t born on the 25th; He was born in the springtime.»