[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so my message title is, Emmanuel, God with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, and if you take notes, you can jot that down.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want to start this out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a confession to make.
[SPEAKER_00]: A confession, I've shared this with my wife.
[SPEAKER_00]: She preface this that I could say it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But my wife and I, we've gone a little over the top, this Christmas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone feel that way?
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, a little over the top of this Christmas.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, just us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well,
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me just share my burdens here with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But every year, most years, we talk about it ahead of time, and I'm talking about over the top, like Christmas presents and stuff for the kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because every year, we talk about it ahead of time, we try to set a plan, like how many gifts is the right amount, or what's too much, or I try to set a budget, or at least a target of what will spend there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we say something this year, we say, like, this is going to be simple.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to keep it simple.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you ever felt this or thought this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone that might just speak into myself here?
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I got one in our online audience.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure there's a lot that understand what's going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: But every year, this happens, we talk about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Christmas shows up and we go hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: We go hard in the paint, you know what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, you guys, you guys need some coffee.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys are like, no, man, I don't get nobody gifts, who cares, Bahumbuk.
[SPEAKER_00]: But no, we go a little too hard in.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's with good reason, and I'm sure some of you can at least relate to this is, it's with good reason we love our kids, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys love your kids, and we love each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Me and Amber all say, we're not gonna get each other, something we're gonna get like one big thing that we'll use for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then we end up getting each other a couple gifts anyways.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's not with bad intention or without reason.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when we have the opportunity, we love to bless our kids and bless one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as we pivot a little bit to the Christmas message, this should point us to something bigger and greater than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to know this today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if it's your first time at church or your thousandth time.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you have a heavenly father.
[SPEAKER_00]: who loves you and who went way over the top on the first Christmas for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, that's not just for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, oh, Nick, that's good for you and that's for the church people.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's for everyone, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's for everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you have a heavenly father in heaven who loves you, cares for you and he went way over the top for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not with gifts under the tree, but with the greatest gift the world has ever known.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many of you know this verse, John 3, 16 says,
[SPEAKER_00]: that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
[SPEAKER_00]: God didn't hold back and say, I'm on a budget.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll cover some sin, but not the other sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a little too pricey.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't hold back.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gave it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't give the leftovers.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gave his son, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you put it that way, and start to think of it, it kind of makes you want to go all in on Christmas, doesn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you are like, I need to go get some more gifts.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's my son, Judah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But today, tonight, this afternoon, we're not just celebrating a holiday, and some of you have come here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's Christmas.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to go to church, your friends or family, invited you, and we're glad to have you, but we're not just celebrating a holiday.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're celebrating God who loved us enough to come near to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, my message title is, Emmanuel, God with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've been with us for this past year, visited any time pretty much from May to the last Sunday, we've been going through our pop quiz, what book have we been going through?
[SPEAKER_00]: Exodus.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, and it's been a bit of a journey and we went through Exodus 40 last Sunday, briefly.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk a little bit about it today.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's been some incredible things that have happened through Exodus, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: The Israelites, they're enslaved, they're freed.
[SPEAKER_00]: God worked in miraculous, the ten plagues happened, they're freed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're wandering in the wilderness and then eventually God gives instructions to Moses on the mountain right to go build this tabernacle to tell my people how they're to live, this life that would be set apart different than anybody else.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then what we saw last week is that the people, they built,
[SPEAKER_00]: the Tabernacle, they came together and Exodus 40 verse 34 says, then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.
[SPEAKER_00]: For you guys visiting this first time at church, this might not mean much, it might not seem like a big deal to you, but let me assure you,
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a huge deal, and it's going to point directly forward to the Christmas story, which is then going to point forward to us here today, and eventually what's still to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's a big deal because this is God's dwelling place among his people, remember in Exodus, it said that God's heart was to dwell with his people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know if you believe this today or you wrestle with it, but I want to tell you that God wants to dwell with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, no, he doesn't care about me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I've done too much, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: God can't love me, you can't forgive me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he can.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he loves you, he cares for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he wants to dwell with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is God's heart all throughout Scripture.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's from the very beginning.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you guys, kids, do you guys know what's the two?
[SPEAKER_00]: The man, the woman in the garden.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kids, anybody?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, whoa, whoa, no, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: Adam and Eve, who said that?
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, good stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Adam and Eve, this is God's heart from the beginning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Adam and Eve, they dwell in the garden with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is dwelling with man, but then if you know the story, they disobey, they do what they shouldn't do and what they bring in his sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: since separates us from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can no longer have this close relationship that God desires so much for us because He can't dwell with sin, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's His plan in Genesis and then Exodus is kind of like this second chance, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: where he's bringing his people out of slavery, he's bringing them into a life of following him, trusting him, he brings them through the Red Sea, which we could even say is a picture of baptism and that they've kind of been washed clean and then they're into the wilderness, and God provides for them time after time, bread from heaven, right, water from Iraq.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he proves to them that he is Jehovah, Jairah, God Provider, Lord Provider.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now,
[SPEAKER_00]: The end of Exodus, his glory is dwelling with his people in the Tabernacle.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as I said already, God's desire for you and I is the same today to dwell with his people.
[SPEAKER_00]: You and me, anyone who would call upon the name of Jesus could have God dwell with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let me tell you this, is that this isn't just some day down the road.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of us are like, yeah, we'll dwell with God when we get to heaven or when he comes here.
[SPEAKER_00]: No God wants to dwell with you right here, right now today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you believe that?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so in Exodus, it's a powerful moment when God's glory dwells in the Tabernacle because God has rescued His people from slavery brought them out of the wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's dwelling among them.
[SPEAKER_00]: But kind of at the end of Exodus, it's almost like a cliffhanger, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, we know there's other parts in the Old Testament that would carry the story on Joshua, a good book to go on as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God is present with His people,
[SPEAKER_00]: But he's not fully accessible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember the Tabernacle they had curtains, they had the veil, there was priest, and they could only go so far in.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of rules, a lot of regulations to meet with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now let me just say, this is like, the Tabernacle is the first iteration, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: our first installment of God pursuing his people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it goes on, if you read through some of the Old Testament, you'll see that God starts to reveal progressively reveal himself and his plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the prophets, there's many of them you can read through, but a couple will note today in Isaiah, specifically seven, fourteen,
[SPEAKER_00]: And these prophets, God starts to reveal and promise something more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Isaiah 714, it says, therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign.
[SPEAKER_00]: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call His name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Help me if you know or if it's on the screen.
[SPEAKER_00]: The manual, which means God with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Later on, Isaiah adds, and Isaiah 9, verse 6, he says, for to us, a child is born.
[SPEAKER_00]: To us, a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not just a child, I know a Christmas, we think, oh, cute little baby Jesus in the manger.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's how it started for sure, but he's not just a child, but he is God Almighty.
[SPEAKER_00]: The book of Micah tells us in Micah 5-2, it tells us where this Messiah would be born.
[SPEAKER_00]: says, but you, O Bethlehem, from you shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler and Israel, who's coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even in Jeremiah, another Old Testament book, Jeremiah writes, in Jeremiah 23, five, he says, I will raise up for David, a righteous branch, and he shall reign as King and deal wisely.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are some Old Testament prophecies that were spoken of long before Jesus came in the flesh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I just want you to see,
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the progressive revelation throughout Scripture from Exodus, like how do we go from Exodus to the Christmas story?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, God's Holy Spirit, His presence dwelt in the Tabernacle, Exodus chapter 40, and then throughout the Old Testament, He's just kind of some bread crumbs here, bread crumbs here, leaving some clues.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's it going to look like?
[SPEAKER_00]: And He's telling you that something greater is still ahead.
[SPEAKER_00]: something bigger than this that this is not the endgame the tabernacle and this portable tent church worship sanctuary that's not the endgame he would come he would eventually what he's point two is he would come himself as a man now this brings us to John chapter one again maybe an unconventional Christmas text but I think it will be fitting and you'll see why John
[SPEAKER_00]: word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the word was with God, and the word was God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that's a very packed verse.
[SPEAKER_00]: We could go on for a whole month-long series, which we don't have a whole lot of time to do that today.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the word was with God, the word was God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 2, it says, He was in the beginning with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we haven't got a name yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know, but let me just give you a clue,
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, you know, nine times out 10 if we ask like, who is it's probably Jesus, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kids in Sunday School, it's probably the answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he was in the beginning with God, says all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made in him was life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the life was the light of men.
[SPEAKER_00]: The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you go down a little bit in John chapter 1, verse 14, says in the word, became flesh.
[SPEAKER_00]: and dwelt among us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we have seen His glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Glory has the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now let me tell you, John, he's a disciple of Jesus who writes this down and he's writing it so that anyone who would read it here, it would come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I love that he says this.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
[SPEAKER_00]: The word dwelt literally means tabernacle.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, it's like he tabernackled with us, or we could say it's like he dwelt with us, or he could say he's gonna make a home with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: The glory that once filled the tabernackle, now walks in the person of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the true, the better tabernacle where God has come near to man, again, emphasizing my point that God wants to dwell with his people and he is a relentless, persistent God who will continue chasing after his kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: God comes near.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so why has Jesus come, though, what's the Christmas story about?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just about God's birth coming as a man, but why did He come?
[SPEAKER_00]: When the angel announced Jesus' birth to Joseph, if you remember the story, Joseph is the stepdad of Jesus, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Mary, she's pregnant, tells Joseph, or he just recognizes like, hey, like what's going on here and it says that Joseph is gonna divorce Mary quietly because he's like, I don't wanna make a scene about it and
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to divorce her, but then in God comes through intervenes, and he sends an angel to Joseph, and he says this, he says that she's going to have this baby, it's from the Holy Spirit, he says in Matthew 1 verse 21, says, you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why Jesus came in the first place.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't just come to inspire us, give us a cute Christmas story to talk about on Christmas Eve.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't just come to...
[SPEAKER_00]: suggest a better way of living, he came to save us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because again, like Adam and Eve sin separates us from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: You and I, we all deal with sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: It might be different, and it looked different, manifest itself, differently, and each and every one of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: But each and every one of us has sin in our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you ever told a lie, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you ever hated someone, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And just like these are little ones.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we've done these, we've sinned.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Jesus comes to save us, because again, since separates us, sin brings death, destruction, sin leaves us in a state where we are unable to fix ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Jesus tells us later, John 8, verse 12, he says, I am the light of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: The heart of the gospel, and even the heart of the Christmas story, is that the light of the world is come for you and I, who wants to dwell with us, dwell among us, and he wants to save us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what Jesus has done is he's entered into our darkness, if you will, into our sinful world for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: The same Jesus who was born in a manger, who'd go on to die on a tree.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think about that for a moment, we're in the Christmas season.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how many of you have a Christmas tree up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, no, maybe so.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've seen one for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tree with lights wrapped around.
[SPEAKER_00]: And just think about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, you have your Christmas tree full of lights.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or you've seen one.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's gifts under the tree.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is a greatest gift that you and me, anyone watching, listening at all, great gift we could ever receive, was the light of the world who was hung on a tree.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, that's the whole, that's the Christmas story, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's like he was born and he's like, well, I gotta get to talk about his crucifixion while because it's everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if we don't know Jesus, well, then we have to carry our own sin and we'll carry the punishment for sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus, he was born to die for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's born to carry our sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's born to take our place.
[SPEAKER_00]: would not have the final word.
[SPEAKER_00]: So through Jesus, we're saved from sin, saved from eternal death, saved for eternal life with Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: As Jesus said in John 3, 16, he says, whoever believes in Him and Jesus should not perish, but have everlasting life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the good news of Christmas, my friends, and I know maybe this is a heavier sermon than you were anticipating,
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a good news of Christmas that's not just a birth, but this is a rescue mission.
[SPEAKER_00]: By God Almighty, and again, it's underlying purpose, as he wants to dwell with his people.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in order to dwell with his people, he has to take care of the sin, because we have a mess that we can't clean up.
[SPEAKER_00]: You understand?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he comes as a baby, but he's our savior, the savior of the world, and whoever believes, it's an invitation for everyone, each and every one of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the thing, and we're going to kind of fast forward a little bit through the Bible, even.
[SPEAKER_00]: Story doesn't stop, even at the cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't stop at the empty tomb three days later, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, he rose again just as he said he would, because he's God, and he does whatever he wants.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a gangster like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, I lay my life down.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna pick it back up again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody takes my life from me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I lay it down of my own accord, because Jesus is good like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But after Jesus' resurrection, God pours out His Spirit, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: In the Old Testament says that there's going to be a day where He's going to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is where the glory of God or the presence of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's no longer confined to a tent like it was in Exodus, chapter 40, where God's presence dwelt with them, but you can't come near.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Jesus comes, right, God in the flesh, it's the next iteration of God revealing himself dwelling with man.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's here, he's, you could, the people there, they could touch him, see him, talk with them, all those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was confined to a physical body.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then, once he was resurrected and ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit's poured out upon all flesh, or we could say he's made available, because here's the thing when Jesus was crucified, the veil and the temple was torn, which signified that we don't have to go through rituals and through all these priestly things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we can come to God directly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because of what Jesus has done.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the real gift of it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I do know that once you receive Jesus, that you are filled with the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's one verse for your consideration.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, Corinthians 3, 16.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul writes to the Corinthian church, do you not know that you are God's temple?
[SPEAKER_00]: And that God's Spirit dwells in you?
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's Spirit dwells in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are a believer in Jesus, if you've repented of your sin, you've called out upon the name of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's Spirit dwells in you and I want to encourage you.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the time, the day and age, which we're living right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're living in this day.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're God's poured out of the Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's made His Spirit available through faith in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the key.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no other way.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can try to be a good person.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of good people out there who do good things, but they might not believe in Jesus, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's not gonna save you, that's not gonna cut it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause scripture says our good deeds are like filthy rags, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: God's just like, oh, good, good try, that nice, but that, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, that's not gonna cut it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Jesus has come for everyone and whoever would repent to everyone would believe could not only be forgiven, but we could be filled with God's spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, when we think, well, one day we're going to dwell with God and it's going to be amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there will be another, like, final iteration, right where it says that God's dwelling place is with man.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's in Revelation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be better than ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to see him face to face be known as, or we'll know him as he knows us and it's going to be amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But right now, God wants to dwell with you, wants to dwell with me, and his spirit is available to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are.
[SPEAKER_00]: His tabernacle.
[SPEAKER_00]: John tells us, going back to John chapter one, verse 12, says, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so Jesus came near to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: to make us his children.
[SPEAKER_00]: To bring us into the family of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so today, tonight, I want you to think, if you've never invited Jesus into your life, I want you to consider it, because I know Christmas can be, I guess, busy is the best word I can think of.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I feel like we don't have time for anything, but I mean, the one thing we talked about this a little bit last Sunday, the one thing we should be making time for,
[SPEAKER_00]: is God Almighty.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to dwell with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to dwell with you with me right where we're at.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right in your mess, even.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, well, I got to fix some things, clean some things up first.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, you don't clean yourself up before he comes to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: You just come to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Broken, humble, dirty, filthy, whatever it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: You just come to him and he cleans you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He forgives you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He sets you free.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gives you a new path.
[SPEAKER_00]: and shows you the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you've never invited Jesus into your life, I want you to consider that tonight, that maybe tonight, this Christmas Eve, be the first night when you metaphorically speaking, open up the greatest gift that was given to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, Jesus who came as a man, he died on a cross, he rose again, and he said, come and follow me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like John says, at anyone who, anyone who believed in his name,
[SPEAKER_00]: It can become a child of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's rather incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Savior's come, you can be forgiven, can be saved, you can receive eternal life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, in closing,
[SPEAKER_00]: We go from the tent in the wilderness and Exodus to the baby in the manger, which I know we didn't go over Luke chapter 2 if you want to go do some more studying reading tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: To the baby in the manger, to the cross outside Jerusalem, to the spirit, dwelling in his people.
[SPEAKER_00]: This has always been God's desire.
[SPEAKER_00]: to dwell with us, to be with us, to save us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just hope that you'd be encouraged this Christmas.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, maybe this came off a little stronger, maybe it didn't come off that stride, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But being encouraged that God, he loves you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He loves you so much that He gave His own son that we could be forgiven, that we could receive His Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is not gifts or presents to take lightly or for granted.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so just I hope you'd be encouraged.
[SPEAKER_00]: that you find joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christmas season out there in the world can be very joyless, can it?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, just me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's busy, everyone's got things to do, but it just feels like nobody really cares for each other or it's supposed to be the most joyful time of the year and you go out there and there's the most traffic ever and the stores are crazy and you know, it's the worst time of year, but being encouraged.
[SPEAKER_00]: Find joy in Jesus who never changes.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll only think that change is as you and me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you've drifted away from God, and today is just a day where you need to come back and renew yourself, and say, I want to come back to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to renew my commitment.
[SPEAKER_00]: I realize what he's done for me, who he's calling me to be, that he's calling me to follow him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as we close, I'm going to give us a time to respond.
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, just God, he loves you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's died for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's done everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's gone over the top to make a way for you and me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Father, we just come to you and we thank you for
[SPEAKER_00]: for the story of Christmas, and I know we went through a few texts, and I just pray, Lord, that your point was made, floor that you love us, and we thank you that you do love us, and that you don't leave us stranded, you don't abandon us, you don't give up on ourselves, on us, even though we give up on ourselves the times.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Lord, I just thank you that you've done all the work necessary to make us clean, forgiven, so that we could find joy, could find peace, that we could find eternal life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just pray that this evening, there's any of us who haven't received you, who have not believed in your name.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that tonight would be the first night that they would, and that they would open your gift
[SPEAKER_00]: The gift of you wanting to dwell with them and have a relationship with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: If there's any of us here that have drifted away or we've just, I don't know, we've been overcome by the busyness of the world and we've been distracted.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that we renew our relationship with you tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: or knowing that's you poured out your spirit, Lord, and that if we just repent of our ways and turn to you, you will forgive us, you'll cleanse us of all unrighteousness, and I just pray you'd make us clean, holy in your sight tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: That as we go out, Christmas Eve, and tomorrow on Christmas Day, that we just be filled with so much joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: That even though life may not be going the way we want, or we might not get all the gifts that we think we want, we could be encouraged because we have the greatest gift, salvation, Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we thank you for this and we pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.