Cornerstone Community Church, San Jose Ca

One of the biggest hits on TV over the last year has been the musical comedy-drama "Glee." If you haven't seen it, "Glee" is a show about a high school "glee" club, a collection of kids with extraordinary musical talent who are otherwise considered to be the school's biggest losers. And whether or not you've seen the show, at some time in your life you've heard the music sung on the show, because it's music that comes from every walk of life - from hard rock to Broadway musicals. So this Christmas season we're going to use some of the songs performed by the folks on "Glee" to help us celebrate the birth of our Lord with glee. ...

The first job I ever had was to mow lawns. From about fifth grade through high school I had six or seven lawns in our neighborhood in the suburbs of Minneapolis that I was paid to mow and keep up. Most of the lawns in our neighborhood were fairly large, roughly from a third of an acre to half an acre, so they were pretty big jobs for me, especially when I first started out. But even in fifth grade I knew exactly what was involved in taking care of a lawn. I knew how to use and take care of a lawn mower. I knew how to edge a lawn. I knew how to control weeds. I knew how to trim a tree. And I knew all of that even though I never took a class and never read a book on lawn care.

Have you discovered that there are certain things people don't like to talk about? I, for one, don't like to talk about things I don't understand. When the engineers on our Elder Board start talking about their work, I get very quiet because I understand very little about technology and I don't want to call undue attention to my ignorance by trying to participate in the conversation. Here's another topic most people avoid talking about - their weight. Pretty much everyone thinks they weigh either too much or too little, it seems, so we just avoid the topic altogether.

If you've ever played a sport that involves hitting a ball, you know what it means to find your sweet spot. The sweet spot is that spot on the bat or the club or the racquet which gives you the most power and control over the ball. When a baseball player swings the bat and misses his sweet spot by an inch or two, he might hit the ball well, but more often than not he simply makes an out. But when he hits the ball with the sweet spot, more often than not that ball will end up in the stands. And the thing about the sweet spot is how great it feels when you find it. It just feels right.

We use the word "masterpiece" to refer to any work that is extraordinary, but more specifically a "masterpiece" refers to a work that is considered that artist's very best piece of art. Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece is the Mona Lisa. Beethoven's masterpiece is his Ninth Symphony. Tolstoy's masterpiece is "War and Peace." The masterpiece of television? Well, that's pretty much up in the air since Simon Cowell left "American Idol."

I'm one of those guys who loves motivational posters. Here's one that's hanging in my office - it's called "Opportunity." It's a picture of basketball hoop and it says: "You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

"I didn't hear you." That's what your child said, but you didn't entirely believe him. You suspect he's just using that as an excuse. You suspect it because when you told him to pick up his room you said it loud and clear. You suspect he's just using that as an excuse because you told him to pick up his room a number of times. You suspect he's just using that as an excuse because you are quite sure from how his body slouched lower into the couch when you told him to pick up his room that he really did hear you. And you suspect he's just using that as an excuse because you have used it as an excuse yourself many times in your own life.

Two Special Guest Speakers and their personal testimonies....

There is an old African proverb that most of us never heard of until Hillary Clinton turned the proverb into a book. The proverb says this: "It takes a village to raise a child." Whatever you might think of Hillary Clinton, there is an undeniable kernel of truth contained in that African proverb. Surely you as a parent are the person most responsible for raising your child, but there is no denying the huge influence a host of other adults have played in the process. Teachers, coaches, babysitters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, pastors and youth leaders and others have all been part of the village that has helped raise your child and that helped raise you when you were a child.

As you think about all the things you've prayed for in your life, what do you think you've prayed about more than any other topic? My guess would be that you've prayed more often about health issues than any other particular concern. When people ask us if there is anything they can pray about for us, much of the time the concern we share is a health concern, either for ourselves or someone in our family or someone in our circle of friends. Our bodies matter to us. Our health affects everything else in our lives. I could have had the best day of my life, but none of that matters if I have a sore throat or plugged sinuses or pain in my chest or nausea or any number of other things that can and do go wrong with our bodies. ...

Usually when we think about someone being a leader, we think of someone like a manager or a coach or an executive whose job it is to lead the people who work under that leader. But leadership experts tell us that there's much more to leadership than that, that a true leader is able to lead not only those who are under him but those who are his peers. And, the experts tell us, it goes further than that. A real leader is a 360 degree leader, a person who can lead not only his subordinates and his peers but even his superiors. ...

I was sad because we lost the game, but that wasn't the saddest part of the moment. What was even harder to take than the loss was the fact that it was my last high school basketball game. I realized I would still play many more games in my life just for fun, but I knew that once I took off my high school uniform it would never be the same. So I just sat there in our locker room for the longest time, almost afraid to peel off my sweaty jersey with the name of our school and the number I had worn for three years. And when I finally did take off my uniform and headed for the showers, it felt like someone I loved had died. My basketball career was over. The final buzzer that day was the final buzzer on a very special part of my life. ...

Do you ever have one of those nights where your mind just won't shut off? I seem to have more of those nights lately. I've always been a light sleeper; it takes only the slightest noise to wake me up. Most of the time, fortunately, once my mind has identified the noise to my satisfaction, I am able to go right back to sleep. But in the last few months I've had more and more nights where once I've been awakened my mind has started racing. Problems that were minor during the day seem much bigger to me at night. Things that didn't concern me at all during the day for some reason seem to be significant issues at night. ...

One of the best inventions of recent times is the navigation system. Because of the navigation system, I no longer have to spend my precious time trying to fold a map. I always enjoyed using maps. I could always get where I wanted to go using maps. I just couldn't fold them. Now I don't have to, because now we have a navigation system that will figure out how to get somewhere and will tell us where to go. ...

I was 11 years old when a song by a British group "The Troggs" made it to the top of the rock and roll charts - it was July of 1966. The song was called "Wild Thing," and here are the lyrics, lyrics I'm sure you will agree are quite powerful in their simplicity: "Wild thing, you make my heart sing, you make everything … groovy. Wild thing, I think I love you. But I want to know for sure. So come on and hold me tight - I think I love you." And that's it; those are the complete lyrics of that former number one song. So let me offer my apology to my kids for making fun of some of the songs they listen to; clearly the songs of my youth were no better. ...

Dr. Seuss wrote and illustrated 44 books for children in his lifetime, from "The Cat In The Hat" to "Green Eggs And Ham" to "Hop On Pop" to "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" to "Horton Hears A Who." But the book that continues to sell the most consistently year after year is the last book he ever published in 1990. Each spring over 300,000 copies of this book are given as presents to high school and college graduates across our country - "Oh, The Places You'll Go." ...

In the Dr. Seuss story "Horton Hears A Who," Horton the elephant makes an amazing discovery. With his very large ears he is able to detect a noise coming from what seems to be nothing more than a small speck of dust. When he listens further, he learns that the noise is actually a voice, the voice of an extremely small person known as "the Mayor." The Mayor informs Horton that he's not alone on this speck, that in fact a whole civilization calls this speck their home. But when Horton tries to tell his friends in the jungle about this discovery, he is disappointed by their reaction. No one believes Horton. No one believes that there could be people living on such a small speck. And then Horton utters one of the signature lines in the story: "Even though you can't hear them or see them at all, a person's a person no matter how small." ...

A Cornerstone Community Church performance of "Miracle On Gallup Way."

How many of you have ever been in a Christmas pageant at one time or another in your life? I was in five or six when I was growing up - I was a shepherd, I was one of the sheep, I was a star, and once I got to be Joseph. Frankly I was always a little bit scared to be up there in front of all the big people at our church back in Minneapolis, but even though it was somewhat scary I really wanted very much to be in the pageant. ...

It was an old movie even by the time I was born, and yet millions of people watch it every Christmas. "It's A Wonderful Life" starring James Stewart, Donna Reed and Lionel Barrymore. Since it was released in 1947, I don't think I'm taking a risk of spoiling the ending for anyone by telling you the plot. Here's the story. ...