Our text this morning is Malachai, the fourth chapter,

verses one through three, and I invite you to turn there and follow as I read.

Malachai chapter four, verses one through three. 3. For behold, the day comes burning like an oven when all the

day comes burning like an oven when all the

arrogant and all evil-doers will be stubble.

The day that come shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing

in its wings. You shall go forth, leaping like calves from a stall, and you shall tread down

the wicked, for they will be ashes under the souls of your feet on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.

Sometimes you have to step back in order to see the obvious.

It's true with some remarkable things about Christmas.

And we miss them, just totally miss them, the way we miss the sky and the ground under our feet and the air we breathe.

Indisputable global significance of the birth of Jesus and we hardly ever think about them.

I want to mention three.

Number one, one third of the five billion people in this world call themselves Christians.

It's 1.6 billion people have so come under the sway of the man Jesus Christ that they declare

Christianity to be their religion. Not only that this religion called Christianity is the most universal and widespread of all faiths,

it is found in every single political country on the face of the globe, and in two-thirds of those

223 countries, more than 50% of the people align themselves with the Christian movement.

Why?

Because Jesus Christ was born.

An undisputable historical religious fact. There is no religious leader.

Buddha, Confucius, Moses, Muhammad, who can come close to the historical impact and the extent

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