Advent commences on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and last Sunday was the third Sunday in Advent this year.The preacher Peng Yonggang reminds believers to think what we should do to meet the savior of life upon the arrival of Christmas in a Sunday sermon in Tongzhou Church, Beijing.
Peng shares that the core of Christmas is the baby who was born in a manger and we should see the baby in the manger through all rites. Meanwhile, he reminds the congregation that do not let Jesus who comes for us fall again in a manger but meet him.
So what should we do to meet Jesus Christ? In the Bible, three Magi from the east came a long way to worship "the born king" with gold, incense and myrrh as gifts to meet the savior. Peng pointed that God lacks nothing because the world was created by Him. God may not show favor in the expensive things in our eyes. What God wants are a broken and contrite heart and bearing fruits of repentance. It is now to change at the moment hearing the gospel.
He believes that the blessings of God are in our change and when we choose to be meek men or women as God tells, his blessings come upon us. But if we hear that without believing or believer without obeying, we can't be blessed.
He says there are many people who only want to be blessed but don't repent for sins and turn to God. Repentance is not just saying but an action. We should produce fruit in keeping with repentance and live out goodness, mercy, gentleness and love in daily life. He emphasizes that this doesn't mean forbidding us to work but means returning to life and produce the fruit of the Spirit by the power of the Spirit.
To prepare for meeting Christ is to become the "light" and "salt" Jesus was talking about in family and the society and walk into the world with the gospel but not to stop working. "Let what we do and think is in God' will. Let our Christmas not be a secular day but a day of welcoming the newborn king." Peng encourages the congregation in the end.
