The Church of Eleven22 - Christmas from the Manger: Unwrapping Christmas - Wk 4

Episode Date: December 24, 2023

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11 - The Church of Eleven22™ is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To support The Church of Eleven22 and help us continue to reach people around the world, visit https://www.coe22.com/donate

Well, amen and amen. And Merry Christmas Church of 1122. You have found your way to one of the 66 1122 Christmas Eve services at 26 different locations over this weekend. I'm glad you found your way here. I want to give a special shout out, though, to our brothers at Union Correctional, at Columbia Correctional, and to our sisters at Duval Correctional. We love you. You're part of the family. You were not forgotten. as well as a shout out to the 11-20 tours at our 11 services that meet every single week at the senior facilities all around town. Can we welcome them to our Christmas Eve service too? It's a really big deal. Well, Merry Christmas. The reason that we have gathered here

is to celebrate the landed invasion that Jesus came on a rescue mission for you and for me. And that's why we showed Joe's story because it's the most important message that you will ever hear that Joe came to the place he realized that when Jesus died on the cross, it counted for him. And when he breathed his last here on earth, the next time he inhaled, he was in the very

presence of the Almighty God, and he was not in a broken body, and he was not facing pain and suffering. He was face to face with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and he began to join with the angel singing, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty who was and is to come. Amen. Amen. And that is the message of Christmas. Now, if you got your Bibles, and I hope you do, we're going to be in Luke chapter 2,

and if you didn't bring a Bible, I have a gift for you. If you don't have a Bible of your very own, there is one in the seat back in front of you, or if the Bible that you have, your grandmother gave to you back in the day, and the zipper has been rusted shut for a couple of decades, and you hadn't read it, or maybe it looks like it was written by Shakespeare, like the these before thine, except after thou, and you can't understand it. We have an ESV Bible in the seat back in front of you. If you don't have one, this is my gift to you.

Why don't you take it with you, and start reading it. and if you have about four or five of our Bibles at your house, next week we'd love for you to being about three or four back. That'd be cool. Thanks. Even if you're brand new to Bible study, if you know the peanuts and the Charlie Brown Christmas, then you have heard this one. This is Luke's account in Luke chapter two.

He says this, verse one. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar to Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Corinius was governor of six. Syria and all went to be registered each to his own town. And the reality is that everybody living in first century, Israel, they felt the oppression of the Roman government over them. And Caesar Augustus thought he was king. He thought he was Lord.

He thought he was a God. In fact, the declaration that he required from all Roman citizens is Caesar is Lord, and he thought he was in charge. And little did he know, even though he thought he was calling all the shots, that the almighty sovereign king of the universe was using this Caesar like a pawn in the story because the king of kings was on his way. And the reason I bring this up is that even though this corrupt government was in charge and the people were under an oppression, that the king of the universe still had the whole world

in his hands and he still has it today. In fact, God worked out all of the circumstances that needed to happen in all of the universe so that you would be here right now. now to hear the good news, the most important message you'll ever hear in your entire life. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house in the lineage of David. This was to fulfill a whole bunch of prophecies about where the Messiah would come from. To be registered with Mary, his betrothed, kind of like his fiancee, who was with child.

Uh-oh. and while they were there the time came for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped them in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the end. Now, I don't know what your Christmas looks like, and some of your Christmases look like a mess, all right? But the American picture of Christmas

that we're shown on television every single day is that Christmas is supposed to look perfect. Have you seen the public's commercials? If you'll just shop at Publix and get your sausage dudes stuff there and your turkey, then everybody will come together and there'll be pitched on earth and goodwill to men. Does anybody's Christmas look like that?

I know some of your Christmases are a mess and you're sitting next to them right now. In fact, that's why you're at this service. You intended to come to the 9 a.m. service and you've missed all of them, but here you are, praise God. Well, I got some really good news for you. The messier your Christmas is,

the more biblical your Christmas probably is. They didn't plan this whatsoever. You think Mary planned to give birth before she got married? No. Do you think Joseph planned to be betrothed to somebody that would give birth to somebody without him knowing her? No. Can you imagine what it was like for their family to get the news? And then, on top of that, she's nine months pregnant, and she's got to go all the way to Bethlehem on a donkey.

Some of y'all got to drive to Palacca tomorrow and you're dreading it, right? Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Joseph's like, hey, sorry, we got to go to Bethlehem, and Mary's probably like, well, can you at least book us a room? And he's thinking, why don't you get the Holy Spirit to book you a room? You understand what I'm saying? It's a mess.

You're sitting next to some people that know that God does some of his best work in our biggest messes, amen? That God is not the kind of God that avoids the messy situation, but he's born into it. In verse 8. And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field. keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them,

and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. You see, I don't know what you know about Shepherds. I learned a lot about Shepard this week. I've been studying the Bible professionally for 30 years. And this week, on Thursday, before our first service, I just kind of had about an hour before the service started. And so I turned, I went to YouTube to watch one of my friends

preach, got named Jim Bergen out of Colorado. You know you can learn stuff from people from Colorado. It's crazy. He's actually from Kentucky, so it's worse. And I know some of you are from Kentucky, so welcome, so glad to hear. If you wouldn't mind using the indoor restrooms while you're here in Jacksonville, we'd appreciate that. And so there's a bunch of stuff that he taught that I didn't know. I did know that shepherds were shady.

I knew that. It's like the lowest of a low of jobs. Nobody wanted to do it. The people that owned the fields where the shepherds would tend to their sheep, These were very rich people. Bethlehem had a whole bunch of shepherds because it's only five miles southwest of Jerusalem, and this is a really big deal.

And so most of the people that were shepherds weren't old men with beards like we have in our nativity set. I know we've been jacking with your nativity set the whole time, and I appreciate the pictures that you've sent us of the Red Dragon at the manger scene. Thanks for that. And I also appreciate those of you that have taken the wise men and moved them to the kitchen

because they're not there yet. They're on a two-year journey. I appreciate that. Well, I got one more thing that you probably need to do. You need to take a little marker or something and take away the beards on the shepherds because most of the shepherds were probably about middle-aged, a middle-school-aged boys. You see, think about it. When David goes to fight Goliath, he's a shepherd, and he's a little boy.

You see, when Rome is oppressing Israel, the rich people, there's no way they would stoop down and, like, mess with the sheep. So what they would do is they would hire the lowest of the low, the poorest of the poor, and because of Rome's taxation against families and they couldn't even feed their children, what became popular was to sell a couple of your boys to be indentured servants to be shepherds. So they were probably a bunch of middle school-aged boys. And of all the people that God decides to make,

the greatest announcement of all time, he doesn't go to Jerusalem, he doesn't go to the holy place, he doesn't go to the religious leaders, he doesn't go to the power brokers, he goes to the least of these, the lowest of the low. the shepherds. And the angels say this, fear not, for behold,

I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, who is Christ the Lord. This is the announcement. For all of the Old Testament, we've been getting prophecy.

You know what's better than prophecy? The announcement. Here's the difference. A couple days ago, I'm sitting on my couch shopping. Praise God for Amazon, right? You don't even have to leave home anymore. It's awesome.

It may be the mark of the beast, I'm not sure, but anyway, I'm ordering some stuff for her. And so I click the button and it says it'll be here in two days. That's prophecy. It's coming. As I'm clicking the button, a previous prophecy was fulfilled because the Amazon guy was at my front door. He hit the button, boom, and the thing was there.

That's an announcement. Prophecy, click it. Announcement, the doorbell rings, and the truck showed up and the package is on the step. This is the announcement. It's coming. In fact, in my house, if I open the door and there's no packages, I usually call the FedEx guy just to make sure he's still alive.

You understand what I'm saying? So anyway, the angels show up to these little boy, these middle school-aged kids, these shepherds who are shady, who are low-lives, who are overlooked, and here's the announcement. Fear not. It's the first thing they say. Why do they tell the shepherds to fear or not? Well, first and foremost, we have a grave misunderstanding of what an angel is.

An angel is not a little chubby baby in a diaper with a bow and error that tries to get you to buy a card in February. That's not what they are. They're also not skinny chicks in their underwear walking around on stage. That's not what they are. These are angelic messengers that come from heaven to fight wars in the spiritual realm and to give announcements from God. And so when they show up, you get a little nervous. You understand? And they say fear not.

The other reason I think they say fear not is these shepherds. There may have been one older guy and then a bunch of middle school age boys. Have you ever been camping with middle schoolers? What you think is happening around the campfire? You think they're giving praise report and singing kumbaya? I don't think so. Here's what I think. I think the angels show up and they think, uh-oh, we're busted.

When you were in middle school, did you ever get your name called over the intercom? This used to happen to me as much as you would think it would, right? I know you did, right? Could you send Jobie Martin to the office? never wants it, I think, you know what, I probably won a prize. Nope. I thought, uh-oh, they know. I think, they think, uh-oh, they know.

And the angels show up and say, fear or not. It's the most commanded thing in all the Bible. Do you know why? Because the opposite of faith is not doubt. If you've got doubts, if you've got unanswered questions, if there's just some things you can't comprehend, if there's some parts of the Bible you don't understand, I got really good news.

You can make a great disciple. Don't believe me, read the gospel accounts of the disciples. There's all kind of things they had a hard time understanding. The opposite of faith does not doubt. The opposite of faith is fear. Because fear comes from taking your trust and putting it in your temporary circumstances. And what faith is, is faith is snatching your trust away from your circumstances and putting your trust in the sovereign king over all of your circumstances

because he can be trusted because he's faithful. They say fear not. For behold, I bring you good news. This is where we get the word gospel. Gospel and good news mean the same thing. And the good news of the gospel is not. God is good. You're bad.

Try harder. I'll see you next week. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus came to take our place. Jesus did not come to make bad people better. He came to make spiritually dead people alive. And he came to do for us what none of us could do on our own. And in fact, two things have to be true for something to be news. Number one is it has to actually happen.

Now, don't apply this to your local cable news network that you like, but for a long time, for news to be news that had to actually happen, and then secondly, it had to be heralded or reported on. And the angels show up and they say, Fear not, for I bring you good news of great joy. Now, I know as Americans, we are on this pursuit of happiness, but the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ offer something much, much better than a pursuit of happiness.

You see, happiness is rooted in happenings. So when the happenings change, then the happiness is gone. But joy is found in Jesus, and he never changes. So regardless of the circumstances, we don't just have medium joy. We have great joy. And listen, I have a prophetic word from the Lord for you right now to prove my point. tomorrow morning by 10.30 a.m. You are going to existentially realize that the things of this world will never fully and finally

satisfy you, especially those of you with little kids. Because you think right now you have conspired with Santa Claus to get the perfect gift that's under the tree, and when they dig into it tomorrow, it is going to fulfill all of the deepest longings of their soul. And finally they're going to fall on their face before. for you and say, mother and father, I pour out my gratitude to you, and they're going to realize what lucky children they are to have you as parents. That's what you think's going to happen. You know what's going to actually happen? The toy's going to be broken by 1030, and

your child's going to go, Mom, I'm bored, and you're going to think you crooked and a brave little sinner. Selah. Yeah, tag me on your post when that happens tomorrow. I'm telling you, why? Because all this stuff can just bring you maybe a little bit of happiness for a little while, but Jesus doesn't offer happy. Jesus offers great joy. That will be for all the people. You've heard it a couple times in this service already, that the Church of 1122 is a movement for all people

to discover in deep enough relationship with Jesus. We didn't make that up. We ripped it off from the announcements, from the angels. That Jesus came for all people. Like if you're really good at being bad, I got good news. Jesus came for you, like the shepherds. He came for bad people. Now, some of you are really good at being good, like Mary and Joseph, man, they're being really obedient.

And some of you go to church all the time and you don't even say bad words. All right, you make up your own. You're like, son of a biscuit. And you have all this kind of like, you're such a good moral behavior. Well, I've got good news. You can get saved too because he came to save church folks also. He came to people that have been telling him no over and over and over. Mary and Joseph show up at the end and the innkeeper tells them, I'm sorry, but no.

We can't take you in. And some of you have been to service after service after service over the years, and you have rejected the invitation of Jesus. Well, I'm here to tell you, it ain't over until he says it's over, and you're going to get another invitation to say yes this time. He also showed up for the wise men, the wise men that came from the east, from the Orient. In other words, they did not look like Mary and Joseph. They were not Jewish in background, which means that this Savior came for every tribe,

every tongue, every nation, every, every, every, every, every, every, ethnic group under the sun to the glory of God. They say, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. And then just in case they didn't get it, he says, for unto you is born this day in the city of David. That the angels make it specific to you, not all y'all, not church people, not Jewish people, not religious people, but unto you is born this day in the city of David. David, a savior who is Christ the Lord.

Let me ask you this question. Who is Jesus to you? It's the most important question you'll ever deal with in all of eternity. Do you know him as Savior? Because God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to be a Savior because that's what we needed. We were not misdakers that need to do better. You and I are sinners that need a Savior. You know what God did not send?

He did not send a politician. Thank God. if you think our hope is in the next person that gets elected, oh, bless you. Or as my grandma would say, bless your heart, and for all you Yankees that have moved to town, that means you're too dumb to talk to. That's what that means. He did not send a politician. He did not send a religious leader.

You realize Jesus never gathered together and said, okay, this is the new time we meet, and these are the rituals that we go through. No, no, no, he did not come to start a religion. And he didn't send a power broker. He didn't even send a teacher and a preacher. Although Jesus did preach and teach, that's not what he primarily came to do. In fact, you can never find a place in the Bible

where Jesus is like, all right, if you'll turn to Isaiah, let me unpack what these verses means. No, no, no, no, no. When Jesus would preach and teach, he would not only tell us who God was, but he would have the audacity to preach this kind of message. I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me.

He didn't say, I'm going to show you the way, and I'm going to tell you the truth, and I'm going to help you live a better life. No, no, no. He said, I am the way the truth in the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. God did not send a social justice warrior. He didn't send a lawyer.

He probably didn't have one to sin, but that's another sermon. He didn't send a psychologist. He didn't send a therapist. Never does Jesus say, let's all sit in a circle and talk about how this makes us feel. No, he didn't send a banker. He didn't send us a life coach to get our life in order. But God so loved the world

that he sent his only begotten son as a Savior born in a manger. Verse 12. This is the part I love from Jim Bergen. You ready for this? He says, and this will be a sign. Remember, we studied this in the Gospel of John and in the series, anything is possible.

A sign always points to something greater than itself. And he says, and this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Okay, Charles, you're going to love this. Okay. Bethlehem's five miles away from Jerusalem. It was where the majority of the sheep were raised and the lambs were birthed.

And the reason is because in Jerusalem, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and Jerusalem, the temple's there, is the epicenter of worship and all of Jewish life. Two times every day there had to be a sacrifice in the temple, except on the Sabbath. And on high holy days, like the day of atonement and Passover, Thousands of lambs would be slain. And the kind of lamb that had to be slain in the temple was a perfect, spotless lamb. It had to be perfect. And so, two times a day, the third hour, which would be like 9 a.m., and the ninth hour, which would be in the afternoon. Every single day, there'd be a sacrifice at the third hour and the ninth hour.

So about five miles away, there are lots and lots and lots and lots of shepherds and flocks and sheep. And so when the angels show up and say, this is going to be a sign for you, you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. I hate to continue to mess up your manger scene, but it wasn't like a little wooden lean to. It was a cave.

There are these caves in Bethlehem. I can take you there one day, probably not next weekend, but soon, maybe. We'll be able to take you back to Bethlehem. And so they know exactly where to go look. Because when one of their little sheep would get pregnant,

then what they would do is they would herd them into these caves. And the reason that they wanted them to give birth in a cave is because there's predators out there. There's wolves out there, and they were a lot safer in the caves. And then the moment that one of the pregnant sheep gave birth to one of the little baby lambs, the lowest of the low, shepherds, the first thing they would do is they would wash it off and they would begin to inspect the little baby lamb.

And you know what they're looking for? They're looking for a spotless lamb, perfect without blemish. And then the moment they found that one, they knew that was the most expensive one. They could sell that one for more than anybody else. Why? Because that one could be shipped up to Jerusalem to be sacrificed. And so they would take clothes and they would swaddle it. Do you know why they would swallow it?

Remember, like, when you had a kid and they'd put your baby in the little burrito of love at the hospital and hand it to you? It wasn't just so that you could like tote it to the car without fumbling it. No, it was like to keep it from scratching their face, you know, you put their little arms in there. Well, this is what they would do with the baby lamb so that it didn't get dirty, so that it didn't get injured, so that it wouldn't get messed up by anybody else. And then, you know what, they would take it and they would place it in the food trough or in the manger.

So that when the officials from Jerusalem would come through and say, well, which ones can we buy to take to Jerusalem to be the sacrificial lamb? It would be the one swaddled and laid in a manger because it was the perfect spotless lamb to be sacrificed. Now, if you've been around Bible study for a minute,

all the lights on your dashboard should be bled. right now. You see, these shepherds, they were used to this part, but the part they weren't used to is the fact that it was going to be a baby. This is going to be assigned to you, for you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and in a manger. And they're probably thinking, well, hold on what? A baby? Why would you put a baby in the place of the sacrificial lamb? And God had been setting this up for all of Israel's history. You see, in the beginning, when God created Adam and Eve,

and they were in a perfect right relationship with him, and then Adam and Eve's sin, and because God is holy and because God is just, sin must be paid for. The reason God can't just overlook our sin is because he is a just judge, and all sin must be paid for. But as he is kicking them out of the Garden of Eden,

the blood of an animal is slain and covering is made for their sins. And then God, through Moses, sets up the sacrificial system. Again, so that every single day, at the third hour in the morning and the ninth hour in the afternoon, that a lamb is slain. And then all of the prophets for all of the Old Testament are talking about the lamb that is going to come to be slain

for the forgiveness of our sin. And when Jesus shows up on the scene, about 30 years after this event, and his cousin is baptizing people in the Jordan, he says this, behold, the Lamb of God who's come to take away the sin of the entire world. and then Jesus begins to teach and preach. He begins to tell us what it takes to be in a right relationship with God

because a lamb's not going to explain it to us. Stars aren't going to explain it to us. We have to have a revelation from God. And then he lives the perfect life. Jesus, the baby in a manger, grows up to be a man. He fulfills every promise and prophecy of the Old Testament. He obeys every law of God and he's arrested, he's tried, and he's crucified. And when Jesus Christ goes to the cross, not only does he die for us, he dies instead of us.

That Jesus, at the cross, makes the payment that we owe, and God receives that payment, and that payment is satisfied. So at the cross, when Jesus pushes up on his nail-pierced feet, he says these words, it is finished. What is finished? Your sin debt and my sin debt is paid in full. And if you flip over to Mark chapter 15, we find out that when Jesus was crucified, it was the third hour of the day. It was the time where the first sacrificial lamb would be slain. And when Jesus pushes up on his nail pierce feet and says, it is finished and commits his spirit unto God, it was the ninth hour. That Jesus was the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of all the people.

That's why a baby. You see, when the Bible says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, this is when Jesus fulfilled what Isaiah said he would at Christmas. It's Emmanuel God with us. Why did God become one of us so that we could know him as the sacrificial lamb and so that we could know him as the way, the truth in the life? and so that we could know that no one could get to the Father except through him. That's why Jesus came as a baby in a manger. Now, he didn't stay there.

Most Americans have a very Ricky Bobby theology of Jesus. Who doesn't love Jesus in a manger? We want to leave him there, but he grew up and he not only died for us, he died instead of us. That's why he shows up as a man. See that this is an illustration I've used several times, so have you been around, just give me a second, but there's a lot of new folks here.

When I was in college, long time ago, back in the 1900s. This is a minute, okay? I was living in this apartment, and it was a pretty rough spot of town, and the one next to me got condemned, so they tore it down. It was just a big concrete slab right next to us. And under us, there was this family, and there was like a middle school kid that lived there, and he was psycho. In fact, that's what my roommates and I called him, Psycho Boy. And what Psycho Boy would do every single day is he would get his big wheel, and he would go out to the concrete slab, and he would ride around. Now, I know some of you younger folks, y'all don't know what a big wheel is.

It's because you're soft. That's why, okay? Your generation couldn't handle it. That's just a fat, all right? You see, the Gen X crowd, we're like the last of feral children. You know what I mean? Like, who wore a helmet on a bicycle growing up? Are you kidding me?

No way. And we used to, like, stay outside to the light came on. Nobody had a cell phone. There was no tracking device. I mean, we drank out of the hose, and we turned out okay. You understand? I had somebody on Thursday and I'd go, why didn't you just drink out of the faucet?

Because we weren't allowed inside, Cupcake. I don't think you're listening, all right? Anyway. So a big wheel was this toy that is probably outlawed because it was about this tall and it had a huge wheel and handlebars so you couldn't see where you're going whatsoever. So you know it was dangerous.

And it was about that high so when you rode into traffic then the car would hit you right in the head and you'd be done, all right? That's why my daddy always said, if you're going to be dumb, you better be tough. That's why my generation is tough because all the dumb ones are dead.

All right? So this little psycho kid would get on his big wheel and he would do laps around the little concrete pad next to where I live. And there were these carpenter ants that would show up on this concrete pad. And he would wait until an ant would come by and he would go as hard as he could

and he would go as hard as he would just squish right over the ants. Well, surely, after a little while, they'd kind of figure it out and they'd all go and hide. So he would go into his mama's fridge and he'd get a little jar of grape jelly. And he'd take a spoon or a knife and he would just smear great jelly. all over the place.

And sure enough, some ant would get there, and then they would tweet, you know, hashtag grape jelly at the concrete pad, and every ant in town would show up. I mean, this was like Antipalooza. You don't know what Paloza is either, but it was there, okay? It was happening. And then Psycho Boy would wait back here in the corner until they just piled up,

and with all of his might, he would ride through, and he would pull this power brake and just power slide right through the ants, and little thoraxes and pinchers and ant body parts would go everywhere. And I would see this every day when I walked through in the afternoon to go to my afternoon class. That's why we called him psycho boy.

Now, I don't really care about ants whatsoever, but if I did, if I so loved the ants, and I had something to do with their creation, and I wanted to save the ant, then what could I possibly do? I mean, even if I could get their attention, and even if I could kind of get them to trust me, and even if I could gather them all together

and say, hear ye, hear ye, eat ants, pay attention. It's 2.30 in the afternoon. In about 30 minutes, a big old son. school bus is going to show up and psycho boy is going to come off the bus and listen to me when he puts out the grape jelly please please please don't go for the trick you're just going to get your little head squished even if I said things that are true and communicated to the best of my ability all of the ants that gathered around to hear the sermon would simply go look at the size of that boot there's no way I could communicate with an ant I would have to become an aunt be born as an

ant. Learn to ant language. Learn the ant customs. Figure out my place in the little ant world. And then at just the right time, I could get the ants together and say, brothers and sisters, I have a message for you. Psycho boy is on his way. And when he puts out the grape jelly, do not fall for his schemes and his tricks because it's just the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And though it may taste good on your little pinchers for a second, it's going to lead to you getting squished by the big wheel. So fight. Follow me to the promised land, which is across the street, because his mama won't let him cross the street. And I can lead them all to life. Amen?

Now, that's not exactly all that happens in the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, but it's close. For God so loved the world. That Emmanuel, God with us, that the son of God became a man, so that men and women could be sons and daughters of the most. Most High God. The gospel writer John says it this way. So whosoever would believe would receive the right to become a child of God. Do you know how you become a child of God? Not by doing better, not by trying harder, but by believing that Jesus Christ came

on a rescue mission for you and for me. And he did everything required of the law. And when he went to the cross for whoever would believe, we would receive the right to stand before a holy and just God, not because of the things that we have done, but because of what he has done on our behalf. Now following after Jesus is not easy, but starting that journey is incredibly simple.

It's as simple as ABC. It's as simple as admitting it. You know what you're right? I'm not just a mistakeer that needs to try harder. I admit it. I'm a sinner in need of a Savior. and B, I believe, I believe. I'm going to take my trust and I'm going to put it in the Almighty God,

and I believe that somehow when Jesus died on the cross, that counted for me. You may have 10 million other questions, but you believe when he says it is finished, that counted for you. And if that's you, the Bible says, then you confess him as Lord. The Bible says all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. All who call on the name of the Lord, all who believe receive. the right to be adopted into his family and called children of God. Have you ever done that?

I want to give you the opportunity right now to be the fulfillment of what the angels announced on that first Christmas. Then unto you, today is born a Savior. Would you bow your heads? Would you close your eyes? And if you would say that you were ready to admit it, that you're a sinner in need of a Savior, that you believe that you believe that you're a God. when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for you.

And today, for the very first time, you were ready to call on the name of the Lord. You're ready to confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Then right where you are, would you raise your hand as high as you can? And from the bottom of your heart, would you say, Father, here I am, save me. If you are ready, would you raise your hand as high as you can and say, Father, here I am, save me? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything. And God, I thank you that you sent your son, Jesus Christ, as the propitiateeating. for our sin, the payment that satisfies, that when he died on the cross, that counted for anyone

who would trust or believe. God, I thank you for every man, every woman, every child, every student in this moment right now that is responding to the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and calling on the name of the Lord. God, we thank you. We thank you for Christmas. We thank you that you came on a landed invasion, a rescue mission to seek and save people like us. We prayed in Jesus' name, amen. The church, the way we're going to end is we're going to do our version of a candlelight service, which means we're going to end the way the shepherds ended. Luke goes on to say this, and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts,

praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased. And when the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherd said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, Luke isn't calling Jesus it. He's saying, when they saw the sign, when they saw this baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger like the perfect spotless lamb that he is, When they saw the sign, they made gnome the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

But Mary treasured up all things pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to do what the shepherds do. We're going to glorify and praise God. I want to invite you to stand up because the gospel demands a response. So would you please stay in? The way we respond around here is in three ways.

One, we bring our ties and our offerings. If you're a regular here, this is the time that we usually do that. About 90% of us do that online. We respond in prayer because he's a good father. He's an everlasting father. He's a good shepherd. And the Bible says, cast your cares upon him because he cares for you. Because of what Christ has done on the cross,

he has torn down the dividing wall between the perfect God and the people of God. and we are invited to just enter into the presence of God. The way we do that around here is we have kneeling benches up here and carpets all over the place. We would love to invite you to come and pray. And we're going to sing. We're going to sing a Christmas song, Silent Night. But don't miss the words at the end that Jesus is Lord at his birth. And we're going to light candles.

And the way we light candles around here, if you would get out your smartphone, please. You have a candle built in. And all you need to do to light your candle is turn on your light. and many of you have been celebrating our candlelight service, most of the service already. And so we appreciate your participation there. We're going to sing, we're going to bring, and we're going to pray. We're going to sing Silent Night. We're going to come and pray.

And then when you're ready, you can turn on your candle. Let's respond.