[0:00] boys and girls and adults as well, who can tell me next Sunday what we're celebrating?
[0:11] This is the first question. That's a little bit easy. Christmas. That's exactly right. We're celebrating Christmas. So today in our church service, we're going to be thinking about Christmas time and we're going to be thinking particularly about presents.
[0:34] Did someone say presents, Tim? Yes. Oh, did you say presents? Oh, I love presents. I love presents. I love bones, like ribbons, Tim. And oh, you get it on the Christmas day and you don't know what it is even though it's shaped like a bone.
[0:46] And you go, oh, how did you know? And then you open it up and it's there and you chew on it for a while. That's lovely. I like presents too, Scruff. Boys and girls, do you like presents? Yeah. Do the adults like presents as well?
[0:57] Yeah. Yeah, I think we all like presents. But today, we're not just thinking about any old present, right? We're going to be thinking about the best present that the world has ever seen.
[1:10] Oh! What do you think that would be? Oh, I think that would be a bone that goes from here to the end of the church. And oh, I'd love it. Or it could be free running Paul Barker's house just running around there, you know, running around.
[1:25] Love it. It could be, but it isn't. It isn't? No, as exciting as those things are, this is even better. A really big prime steak then, Tim. No, no, no, no, not a prime steak. Actually, I've got kind of a representation of this present back here.
[1:40] A representation, Tim? Well, it is a present. How fancy. But I've got the present. And you see, this is the world's best present, the greatest present the world's ever seen. And I've got a little label on the top that you might be able to see there that says, to everyone from God.
[1:56] Because this present, which is the greatest present the world's ever seen, is a present from God to all of us. That's a very big present, Tim. Yeah, it is. That's a big present. What could be in that, Tim? Two people, including Paul Barker, have asked whether it's for them this morning.
[2:09] But it's for everybody. Really? So it is for them. But I'm going to put it just down there. Okay. No, we won't grab at it. We'll just leave it down the front there. Okay. To everyone from God.
[2:21] And this present was given on the very first Christmas. Oh, Scruff. What do you think it could be? Well, it's a big present, Tim. It could be a power saw. It could be a power saw.
[2:32] It could be a dead cat, Tim. I like that. No. No, no. No, that's terrible. Sorry. Boo. Okay. I don't know. Okay. But the thing is, right, we don't have to guess what's in this present and just kind of think, oh, it could be a power saw.
[2:48] It could be a bone. It could be something else. Because if I spin it around, oh, look at that. Clues. Clues. Because you see, you see, God in the Old Testament, in the first part of the Bible, he gave us lots of clues about what this present would be.
[3:09] Lots of clues preparing people so that when the present came, people would be ready. Okay? And they'd be expecting it. Now, Scruff, are you good at solving clues?
[3:20] No. No. No. No. Not good at all, Tim. That could be a problem. But I know someone who is, Tim. You do? I do. Just wait here. Oh. Oh, he's disappeared.
[3:30] Who do you think he could be going to get? Do you think he's got a friend who's good at solving clues or something like that? Oh. Oh. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
[3:41] Good morning, Scruff. What are you doing with a hat and a magnifying? No, Tim. I'm not Scruff. I'm Scruff Mick Scruff. Private eye. Oh. In the tradition of Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Clueso, and Inspector Gadget.
[3:56] The world needs a detective, Tim. Yes. I am that detective. Well, that's great, Scruff, that we've got a detective, a private eye to help us.
[4:08] Ah! Tim! What? I've got it. What? It's a magnifying glass, Tim. Ah! Well, yes, that's a good start. But do you think, Scruff, that you might be able to help us, the boys and girls and the adults and me, to solve these clues from the Old Testament and work out what God present to us might be?
[4:30] Tim! No mystery shall remain unsolved with Scruff Mick Scruff on the case. Okay. I'll uncover mysteries never before. My hat fell off, Tim.
[4:42] It did. Thank you. Never before uncovered by dog kind. Okay. Very good. Well, shall we start with the first clue? Let's start with the first clue, Tim. Okay. We'll take the first clue off.
[4:53] There we go. And the first clue says Micah 5-2. Micah, chapter 5, verse 2.
[5:04] Micah, Micah, Micah, Biker, Hiker, Hiker, Hiker, like a piker, Pike, Lisa Pike! It's Lisa Pike in the box, Tim! It's Lisa Pike! It was elementary, Tim, and my hat's just fallen off again.
[5:17] Well, look, Scruff. Maybe if I just hold the magnifying glass. No, maybe. We'll put the hat there. It's a very heavy hat, Tim. Okay. Well, look, I don't think it's Lisa Pike. Of course it's Lisa Pike.
[5:28] No, no, for two reasons. Two reasons. Two reasons, right. One is, I'm not convinced that she'd fit in the box. Well, no. And secondly, she's sitting over there. Where?
[5:38] Just over there. Right. Okay, so it's not Lisa Pike. It was a test, Tim. And, you know, I think one of the children down the front here might be one step ahead of you because they said we should look it up in the Bible.
[5:51] Look it up in the Bible. Well, you've been to Sunday school, haven't you? All right. So what we might do, thank you. What we might do is we might look up Micah, chapter 5, verse 2 in the Bible.
[6:02] All right, let's do that, Tim. And I'll read it and we'll all listen to it. And we'll see what clues God gives us about this great present. Okay, are we ready? Here we go.
[6:13] Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are one of the smallest towns in the nation of Judah, but the Lord will choose one of your people to rule the nations.
[6:25] Someone whose family goes back to ancient times. That's a clue. Now, I'm going to write up on the board. I hope people can see on the board. I'm going to write up these clues as we read them in the Bible.
[6:38] Excellent, Tim. If I can find my pen. We will assemble the facts, Tim. We will. We will assemble the facts. And we can work it out. So I think there's two things we should write out. That God's present is a leader.
[6:50] A leader. And this leader is going to be born in Bethlehem. A leader, Tim.
[7:00] A leader. A leader. Born in Bethlehem. A leader. A leader. A man who leads, possibly. It's Paul Arca. Paul Arca's in the books.
[7:11] Paul Arca's going to open the box up. He'll pop out. He'll laugh. It'll be great. Elementary, Tim. Hang on. Hang on. Elementary. Right. Scruff. Scruff. Don't get excited.
[7:22] Well, let's check. Let's check. Let's check. Paul, were you born in Bethlehem? Close. Whereabouts? Sydney. Sydney. No. Sydney. Well, it's further north than here.
[7:32] Okay. Well, it's not Paul Barca, but it's a leader born in Bethlehem. Yes. Well, I think some people are maybe starting to get it.
[7:43] Have you worked it out, Scruff? No, Tim. No. Okay. We need to consider the facts more closely. We need to consider some more facts. That's right. You keep it in your head there, Bryce. We'll have a look at the second clue.
[7:54] Okay. The second clue says Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14.
[8:05] Tim. What? I've got it. What? This is my deduction. What? We should look up Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14. It's elementary, Tim. Well, I think you're learning, Scruff.
[8:16] You're becoming a better detective every time. I am. Okay. So, we'll look up in the Bible, you think? Yes. In the Bible. Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14. Okay. We ready? We're all listening? Here we go. This is what it says.
[8:28] But the Lord will still give you proof. A virgin is pregnant. She will have a son and will name him Emmanuel. Okay.
[8:39] So, this leader born in Bethlehem will be born to a virgin.
[8:51] That means that his birth is going to be very special. He's not going to be born in the usual way. But God is going to give this baby. And the other thing, Scruff.
[9:05] Do you know what the other clue is? No, Tim. Is it written on your script there? No, Tim. Okay. That's your line, Tim. Okay. It's my line. Okay.
[9:16] You fooled him. The other thing is, he'll be called, be called Emmanuel. Emmanuel.
[9:27] Who, very clever down the front here, can tell me what Emmanuel might mean? This is a really super hard one. You have to be super, super, super clever. What about one of the adults?
[9:39] That's on my script, Tim. I can tell you. Okay. What is it, Scruff? It means God is with us, Tim. Oh, very well done. My little grey cells are working overtime, Tim. Okay. God is with us.
[9:52] God is with us. Why would a leader born in Bethlehem be called God is with us? That's a bit of a puzzling clue, isn't it? You think you might know? Well, hold on, because we're going to go through these clues a bit later on.
[10:04] We're going to go through the clues, though. Have you worked out who it is yet, Scruff? Well, Tim, let's go through what we know. It's a baby. Yep. And it's a special baby. Yep. Born in Bethlehem? It's a cabbage patch doll, Tim.
[10:16] No, it's not a cabbage patch doll. Well, that wouldn't be that special, though, would it? No. No. They're like from Kmart. Okay. Well, we've got one more clue here.
[10:27] Should we read the clue, last clue, boys and girls? Do you want to tell me what that clue is, Jessica? Okay. Isaiah, chapter 9, verses 6 to 7.
[10:45] Okay. Isaiah, Scruff, chapter 9, verses 6 to 7. Well, I think it's pretty obvious what we should do with that, Tim. I think that's right. I think we should read it from the Bible again.
[10:55] So, here we go. We all listening? A child has been born for us. We have been given a son who will be our ruler. His names will be Wonderful Advisor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, and Prince of Peace.
[11:14] His power will never end. Peace will last forever. He will rule David's kingdom and make it grow strong. He will always rule with honesty and justice.
[11:28] The Lord All-Powerful will make certain that all this is done. Okay. So, we've got some more clues. There's too much to write down there, Scruff. That's a lot of clues, Tim. We might have to summarize it so that we can get our heads around it.
[11:42] So, he's got some other names. Right. Names like? Well, we had Emmanuel. And this time we have names like Prince of Peace.
[11:52] I won't write them all down. But one of his names is Prince of Peace, which means he's going to bring peace, great peace to the world. Okay. And he's going to rule...
[12:04] He's going to rule David's kingdom, Tim. David's kingdom. Who's David? David Griffith, Tim. Not David Griffith. Not David Griffith. Another famous David. Who can tell me?
[12:15] I want someone here to tell me. Who's David? Do you know? Do you know? Do you know? He was a king in the Old Testament. He was a king in the Old Testament. That's right. He was a great king.
[12:26] And God had promised that one of his descendants was going to come. So, this person's going to rule David's kingdom. What else, Scruff? I think it says here that his power won't end, Tim.
[12:37] His power will never end. I don't like true energy, Tim. How's that possible? I have no idea, Tim. Power will never end. But that would mean that this person would have to live forever.
[12:49] Yes, Tim. That's a problem. Okay. Power will never end. So, we've got all of these clues here. Lots of clues about this great present that God was going to send.
[13:01] Now, Scruff, have you got any idea who it is? I do have a theory. What is your theory? I have a theory. My theory is that I have absolutely no idea, Tim. Oh, dear. I've completely lost, Tim. Okay.
[13:11] Can you use it? Does the magnifying glass help you at all? No, Tim. No. But your eyes look really big. Okay. How about, have we got some clever people down the front here who might be better detectives?
[13:23] We won't tell Scruff, but maybe you're smarter detectives than he is. Who do you think, or what do you think this great present from God might be, Bryce? You think it might be Jesus?
[13:34] What do you think, Josh? Jesus. You think it might be Jesus, Jess? You think it's Jesus? You think it's Jesus? What do you think? You think it might be Jesus? Should we open it? And shall we see? Okay.
[13:46] So, we'll take the label off. Where are we going to put it? To everybody. This is a present to everybody from God. And I'll tip it so that we can all see as I open it.
[13:59] It says Scruff. Scruff can't see, but that's okay. I can see. Where is it? No. Yeah. Yeah. Here is, here is God's great present to the world.
[14:14] Tim. Can you see Scruff? Tim. I'm sorry to point this out to you, but I feel it's only fair. That's a baby, Tim. It is a baby. What's so special about a baby, Tim? Well, this is God's great present to the world.
[14:27] It's a baby. It's baby Jesus. You look a bit disappointed, Scruff, or not very excited.
[14:39] Tim. Yes. What's so special about a baby? Why would people get excited over this baby? Who? Who would possibly get excited? Well, do you know, boys and girls, that in the Bible reading that we had today, the second Bible reading, we saw someone who got very, very excited about a baby.
[15:00] And I'm going to get one of the adults to come and help me now. Bryce, can you just hold the baby for me? Thank you. And I might get Timothy, if you'd come and help me. You can come over here next to Scruff, and I've got an outfit for you to put on.
[15:19] Thank you. Now, I haven't warned Timothy that he's doing this, but he's playing this special role. There you go. Okay.
[15:37] Because in the Bible reading that we had, we heard about a man called Simeon. And so Timothy's going to be playing the role of Simeon. And Simeon came into the temple.
[15:50] Simeon was probably a very old man, so older than Timothy is, but that's okay. He came into the temple, and when he saw the baby Jesus, he took the baby in his arms, and Scruff, do you know what?
[16:02] He was very, very excited. Why was he excited, Tim? Well, let's read what he says. This is what he says. He said, Lord, I am your servant, and now I can die in peace, because you have kept your promise to me.
[16:18] With my own eyes, I have seen your salvation. And foreign nations will also see this. Your mighty power is a light for all nations, and it will bring honor to your people Israel.
[16:32] Wow, Tim. So he was saying as he was holding the baby, that this baby was a saviour. And it was a saviour not just for the people of Israel, who God was talking to in the Old Testament, but it's a saviour for everyone in the whole world.
[16:50] And so he was very excited, and he'd been waiting his whole life to see this saviour. And so he was very excited when he met the baby Jesus, because he knew that that was God's saviour. So Jesus is God's saviour, yeah?
[17:02] Jesus is God's saviour. That's very exciting, Tim. Yeah. Very exciting. Just one question. What's that? What's a saviour, Tim? What's a saviour? Well, that's a very good question, Scruff. A very good question. But a saviour, boys and girls, listening up, because this is very important.
[17:17] A saviour is someone who saves or rescues people. Oh, Tim. That's what a saviour is. Tim, like a lifesaver rescuing, drowning people at the beach. He pulls them out like that.
[17:27] That's right. A lifesaver saves people at the beach. Or like a policeman saves people who've been in a car accident. Yep. Or like a doctor who saves sick people. A doctor who saves sick people.
[17:38] Or like a fireman who saves a cat that's stuck up a tree. Tim. Yes. Who'd want to do that, Tim? Especially not when you put the cat up the tree.
[17:48] It's not by me. Well, you get the idea, don't you, Scruff? A saviour is someone who saves and who rescues people. And Simeon was really excited because he'd met Jesus, who is the saviour.
[18:04] But, Tim, he's a baby. How can a baby save anybody? Well, Jesus didn't stay a baby, did he? I mean, he grew up and he became a man. When he was a man, that he saved everybody.
[18:17] Okay, Tim. Yep. So Jesus, the baby, grows up, becomes a man, saves everybody. Yep. Tim, we said a lifesaver saves people who are drowning. That's right.
[18:27] And a policeman saves people in a car crash, maybe. That's right. And a doctor saves sick people. That's right. What did Jesus save us from? Ah, well, Jesus saves us from our sins, which is all of the wrong things that we've done.
[18:42] Like, maybe, maybe telling a lie. Or maybe not being very nice to one of our friends. Or maybe not doing what mum and dad said.
[18:54] Or maybe putting a cat up a tree. Who told you about that? I mean, that's a terrible thing to do. That's right. That's a terrible thing to do. But you see, boys and girls and adults as well, it doesn't matter what we've done wrong.
[19:09] Because whatever wrong things that we've done, Jesus is our saviour. And he came to save us from the wrong things that we've done. Well, that's awesome, Tim. And Jesus did that.
[19:19] Do you know how Jesus did that, Scruff? No, I don't know that, Tim. When he grew up and became a man, he died on a cross so that we could be forgiven. And he took away all our sins if we put our trust in him.
[19:30] That's awesome, Tim. That's a great thing to be saved. I think I figured out why he was so excited. Why Sonia was so excited. That's right. It was the best present ever. That's right. That's excellent, Tim. It's the best present that God could have given us because by this present, this baby Jesus, we were saved from all our sins.
[19:47] Wow, that's awesome, Tim. That's really good. That's excellent. But I've got to go down, Tim. We've got to go and work on my detector ring. Okay. Work on my detector ring. So I'll see everybody later. Bye. Say goodbye to Scruff. Say goodbye, Scruff. And we might say a quick prayer, thanking God for this great present that he gave us at Christmas time.
[20:04] And then Timothy can take off his dress and we'll go back. Okay. Let's close our eyes and say thank you to God for this great present that he gave us.
[20:17] Dear God, thank you that you love us very much. And thank you that you gave us the best present ever. Thank you that you sent Jesus to save us from all of the wrong things that we've done.
[20:31] And thank you that if we put our trust in Jesus, that you forgive us and we can be friends with you and we can spend forever living with you in heaven.
[20:41] Thank you for this great present that we remember at Christmas time. Amen.