Keion Henderson - The Soundtrack of Salvation

I want to use as my subject today The Soundtrack of Salvation. I want to use that because I love Christmas; I just love Christmas. It’s «The Most Wonderful Time.» How y’all know I was gonna say that? I thought it was an original statement. It’s «The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,» and I love everything about it. Yesterday, I saw Santa Claus. Well, not the Santa Claus, just the man ringing a bell in a hat, but he didn’t have a sleigh; he was in a Mercedes Sprinter. So, he changed his vehicle, and that’s a true story. I love Christmas music. I start listening to Christmas music on Halloween, truthfully. I think if your tree goes up at the end of November, you’re already late. Ain’t no sense in putting it up for two or three weeks. I think that thing ought to stay there for a while, and I think it needs to stay after Christmas. Yeah, I think that thing should hang on until the 15th or 16th. How do I know? I know, I know, I know. Oh, there goes that preacher worshiping that pagan holiday. I understand. But here’s what you’ve got to understand: none of us know what day Jesus was born. We celebrate on the 25th according to the Gregorian calendar, but none of us know the exact day he was born, so every day is a day of Thanksgiving. Every day is a day of Thanksgiving, and I am absolutely certain that my hope is not built on Santa Claus; my hope is not built on the elves. It’s not coming from the North Pole. This is about Jesus. Any good parent in here, you encounter that conundrum: when do I tell my kids? Any kids in here? I don’t want to ruin it. Well, they are already in here. So, you get there, and you don’t know what to tell them. Now, my mama, she waited a little bit, and she said, «Let me just tell you something. I’m Santa Claus.» She said, «Ain’t no man coming down the chimney.» I don’t know why I didn’t know this, but we didn’t even have a fireplace. I don’t know why it took me so long to learn that Santa didn’t come down our chimney, 'cause I never lived in a house that had one. So, if Santa came in our house, he broke in. Mama, she waited. Y’all, let me tell you, she waited till we went to sleep, and I was the kid that woke everybody up at 5:00 a.m. to get these presents. Then she finally told us Santa wasn’t real. He might not be real, but you can still do what you’ve been doing. Let me go to sleep and have something there for me when I wake up. She did it, and our house was marked. This is how you knew that it was Christmas time: you hear in my mind, «So you know how to see!» Look at that, look at that, look at that. I want you to be free; you know, right? It’s a church song. You can sing it. «Use your O, so bright!» That’s what we knew! And I’m telling you, there ain’t no album like The Temptations' album! I don’t care what you say, you little young Thundercats, you little new-school people. You better get you some Temptations. Ain’t nothing like Luther Vandross! How many of y’all love big Luther and little Luther? I want all the Luthers—Martin Luther, all of them! Donnie, oh, Gladys Knight and the Pips! You got the O’Jays! See, these young folks are waiting on me to say one thing: what about Chris Brown’s «This Christmas»? He did amazing! Chris is my guy; he sung «This Christmas» better than anybody’s ever sung it. But I was raised on that old-school stuff. I remember when it got new school, and Boyz II Men got in the game. How many remember them? Well, look at all these young folks; they don’t even know what I’m talking about! I say, «Eddie Kendricks,» and they talk about what team he plays for. «Is that the Thunder?» No, no, he was the lead singer of The Temptations! We listened to it! My mother would play the music, and we would sing it. To this day, I still play it. Yesterday, I made my wife listen to James Brown. What’s that song we were listening to yesterday? A terrible one— «You got your nerve»! Y’all remember James Brown? Say, «It’s Christmas time! It’s Christmas time!» Y’all ain’t never heard that? It’s all right; ain’t my fault you don’t know what you’re doing! I love Christmas music. I love it. I love it. I listen to it all year long, and if somebody tries to give us a new Christmas song, we don’t even want it! They’ve been trying, but we don’t even want it because Christmas is about nostalgia. We think about those songs, and they bring back memories of where you were and what you’ve lost. For everybody, the holidays aren’t a good time; some have lost loved ones. This is both a gift and a curse for some—it’s up and down. I was telling them in the earlier service that we’ve been saying that Jesus is the reason for the season, and I believe that he is the reason for the season. But there was a preacher named Donald L. Parson out of Chicago, Illinois, who said if we look at it a little…