Christmas Day Service 2016

♪ Bethlehem ♪ ♪ Come and behold Him ♪ ♪ Born the King of angels ♪ ♪ O come, let us adore Him ♪ ♪ O come, let us adore Him ♪ ♪ O come, let us adore Him ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ Sing choirs of angels ♪ ♪ Sing in exultation ♪ ♪ Sing all ye citizens ♪ ♪ Of heaven above ♪ ♪ Glory to God ♪ ♪ Glory in the highest ♪ ♪ O come, let us adore Him ♪ ♪ O come, let us adore Him ♪ ♪ O come, let us adore Him ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ Yea, Lord, we greet Thee ♪ ♪ For this happy morning ♪ ♪ Jesus, to Thee be all glory given ♪ ♪ Word of the Father ♪ ♪ Now in flesh appearing ♪ ♪ O come, let us adore Him ♪ ♪ O come, let us adore Him ♪ ♪ O come, let us adore Him ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory to the newborn King ♪ ♪ Peace on earth and mercy mild ♪ ♪ God and sinners reconciled ♪ ♪ Joyful all ye nations rise ♪ ♪ Join the triumph of the skies ♪ ♪ With angelic hosts proclaim ♪ ♪ Christ is born in Bethlehem ♪ ♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory to the newborn King ♪ ♪ Christ by highest heaven adored ♪ ♪ Christ the everlasting Lord ♪ ♪ Late in time behold Him come ♪ ♪ Offspring of the virgins ♪ ♪ Filled in flesh the Godhead see ♪ ♪ Hail the incarnate Deity ♪ ♪ Peace is found with men to dwell ♪ ♪ Jesus, often then you will ♪ ♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory to the newborn King ♪ ♪ Hail the Heft born Prince of Peace ♪ ♪ Hail the Son of Righteousness ♪ ♪ Light and life to all He brings ♪ ♪ Risen with healing in His wings ♪ ♪ All He lays His glory by ♪ ♪ Born the God no more we die ♪ ♪ Born to raise the sons of earth ♪ ♪ Born to kill the sacred poor ♪ ♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory to the newborn King.

Please remain standing as we hear part of the Christmas story this morning. And you're gonna notice that we have three different generations who will be reading a couple different times this morning. And this is just a beautiful picture of us being family all together. So let's all listen in.

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about. His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph. But before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he'd considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you will to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us. Matthew 1:18–23.

♪ The first Noel ♪ ♪ The angel did say ♪ ♪ Was deserted ♪ ♪ For shepherds and fields as they lay ♪ ♪ In fields where they lay keeping their sheep ♪ ♪ On a comentous night that was so deep ♪ ♪ Noel, Noel ♪ ♪ Noel, Noel ♪ ♪ Born is the King of Israel ♪ ♪ Then look at Him ♪ ♪ And saw the star ♪ ♪ Shine in peace ♪ ♪ Beyond them far ♪ ♪ And to the earth it gave great light ♪ ♪ And so it conceived for day and night ♪ ♪ Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel ♪ ♪ Born is the King of Israel ♪ ♪ So here I am to worship ♪ ♪ Here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪ ♪ You're altogether lovely ♪ ♪ Altogether worthy ♪ ♪ Altogether wonderful to me ♪ ♪ Light of the world you step down into darkness ♪ ♪ Open my eyes let me see ♪ ♪ The beauty that made this heart adore you ♪ ♪ Hope of a life spent with you ♪ ♪ Here I am to worship ♪ ♪ Here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪ ♪ You're altogether lovely ♪ ♪ Altogether worthy ♪ ♪ Altogether wonderful to me ♪ ♪ King of all days oh so highly exalted ♪ ♪ Glorious in heaven above ♪ ♪ Humbly you came to the earth you created ♪ ♪ All for love's sake became whole ♪ ♪ Here I am to worship ♪ ♪ Here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪ ♪ You're altogether lovely ♪ ♪ Altogether worthy ♪ ♪ Altogether wonderful to me ♪ ♪ I'll never know how much it cost ♪ ♪ To see my sin upon that cross ♪ ♪ I'll never know how much it cost ♪ ♪ To see my sin upon that cross ♪ ♪ So here I am to worship ♪ ♪ Here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪ ♪ You're altogether lovely ♪ ♪ Altogether worthy ♪ ♪ Altogether wonderful to me ♪ ♪ Here I am to worship ♪ ♪ Here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪ ♪ You're altogether lovely ♪ ♪ Altogether worthy ♪ ♪ Altogether wonderful to me.

May all be seated. Matthew 2:1–12. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chiefs, priests, and teachers of the law, they asked them where the Messiah was to be born. "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written. But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel." When King Herod called the Magi secretly, and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared, he secretly sent them to Bethlehem. "Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him." After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. They opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

Well, right now, we're gonna do something a little bit different, but something that's really fun. And so I wanna invite any of our kids who are with us this morning to come on up to the front and have a seat on our steps up here. So if you're a little kid, if you're a big kid, you're welcome to come up, and we're gonna sing a couple songs together that are special just for you guys. It's gonna be a great time. So you don't have to come if you don't want to, but we would love to sing with you if you'd like to come and have a seat. Yeah, just find a seat on the stairs, that's great. Yeah, you can keep them coming, that's great. Who had a great Christmas morning? Did any of you open up presents this morning? What? That's amazing. Who got something that was really fun? Good, that's awesome news. Me too. Santa came to my house too, that's really great. Well, one of my favorite songs to sing when I was a kid was a song called "A Way in a Manger." Did any of you guys know that song? Really? Would you wanna sing it together? Awesome, okay. Does anyone know what this instrument's called? Dylan, what is it? A ukulele, that's exactly right. It looks kind of like a guitar, but it looked like a guitar that got put in the dryer and shrunk. It's kind of a more kid-sized looking guitar, right? Yeah, okay. All right, well if you know the song, I'd love for you to sing along. Here we go. ♪ Away in a manger ♪ ♪ No crib for a bed ♪ ♪ The little Lord Jesus ♪ ♪ I remember ♪ I know the words. ♪ The stars in the sky ♪ ♪ Look down where he lay ♪ ♪ The little Lord Jesus ♪ ♪ asleep on the day ♪ All right, some of the cattle. ♪ The cattle are lowing ♪ ♪ The baby awakes ♪ ♪ The little Lord Jesus ♪ ♪ No crying he makes ♪ ♪ I love you, Lord Jesus ♪ ♪ Look down from the sky ♪ ♪ And stay by my cradle ♪ ♪ 'Til morning is nigh ♪ Be near me. ♪ Be near me, Lord Jesus ♪ ♪ I ask thee to stay ♪ ♪ Close by me forever ♪ ♪ And love me, I pray ♪ ♪ Bless all that e'er children ♪ ♪ Invite tender care ♪ ♪ And fit us for heaven ♪ ♪ To live with thee there ♪ That was beautiful. Okay, we're gonna sing one more song, but for this song, I really need your help. Are you guys good helpers? So this is a really fun song, but I kind of need a band. Does anyone wanna be in my band? Oh, phew, okay, well, we have a lot of fun instruments, and you know what, they're all cool instruments, so we're gonna hand one to you, and whatever one you get is like the best instrument. It's awesome, so we're gonna feel excited about whatever instrument we get handed. Oh, wow, you guys are gonna be awesome. I can tell already, so many fun sounds. Check your instrument, make sure it works, yep. Oh, good, we got some drums, we got some jingle bells, some triangles. Oh, yeah, those are fun drums. Oh, awesome, okay. Does anyone not have an instrument? Everyone has got one? Perfect, okay. We're gonna play a really cool song called Angels We Have Heard on High. Have you guys heard this song before? Well, even if you haven't heard it, it's gonna be awesome. So I'm gonna count us in, and then we're all going to play it at the same time. And if you're really talented, you might even be able to sing while you play. But if that's too much, just focus on playing your instrument. It'll be great, okay. Are you ready, are you all tuned up there? Okay, one, two, one, two, three, go! ♪ Angels we have heard on high ♪ ♪ Sweetly singing o'er the plains ♪ ♪ And the mountains e'er we pied ♪ ♪ Echoing their joyous fame ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ Yet excelsies day ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ Yet excelsies day ♪ Oh, it sounds so beautiful. Shepherds! ♪ Shepherds why this jubilee ♪ ♪ Why your joyous strains bode ♪ ♪ What the glad sometimes be ♪ ♪ Which inspire your handsome ♪ Here we go! ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ Yet excelsies day ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ Yet excelsies day ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪ One more verse, now play this one real loud! ♪ Come to Bethlehem and see ♪ ♪ Him whose birth the angels sing ♪ ♪ Come my darling hand in need ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord the blue-bonkey ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ Yet excelsies day ♪ It's a big finish! ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ Yet excelsies day ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ Wow! You guys are an amazing band. Thank you so much for playing with me. Merry Christmas!

One more time, Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Oh, man, that just sounds so good, doesn't it? My name's René, and I'm one of the pastors here, and I wanna ask you a question. How many of you, raise your hand if you recognize this. This is a prop that resembles something in my favorite Christmas TV special ever, and shout it out if you know what Christmas TV special this is from. "Charlie Brown Christmas." I absolutely love that show. Now, it's my favorite, but some of you, how many of you prefer "The Grinch?" Show of hands. How many of you like that one the best? How many of you prefer "Frosty the Snowman?" Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer? Okay, you're all wrong, and let me show you why. I wanna show you my favorite scene in "Charlie Brown Christmas." It happens, now I know you're probably thinking, "Well, you're a pastor, your favorite scene is when they read scripture." No, it's not, but it's related to that. It happens toward the end, after all the chaos that Charlie Brown experiences, after all the to-do lists, after all the hype and the busyness and the craziness and commercialism, after all of the arguments, after all the tension, after all the drama, after feeling made fun of and feeling laughed at and left out, Charlie Brown does hear the Christmas story, and then he is moved to do this, and here's my favorite part.

For behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all peoples. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, just Christ the Lord, and this shall be a sign unto you.

That little sequence is my favorite part, and my hope for you is that just the next few moments, that happens, that this is just a little break from all the hype and the busyness and the drama and the arguments and the to-do lists that may have been a part of your Christmas season, and let's just focus again on the Christmas story, and I actually wanna play the role of Linus right here, right now, and just kinda walk you through these verses, because I got a feeling that in the midst of all the busyness around Christmas, it is actually possible to get through the whole Christmas season and not actually read the Christmas story in the Bible. Does that ever happen to you? You actually realize Christmas has been here and it's gone, and I've actually driven by nativity scenes in front yards of houses, but I've never actually visited the nativity verses in scripture, and so I wanna go to Matthew and Luke and John, those are the three of the four gospels that talk about Christmas, and just walk through some verses so that when Christmas is over today, you don't say, "I never read the Christmas story." Here's how Matthew starts. He says, "This is how the birth of Jesus, the Messiah came about," and you heard one of our three generations of readers read this earlier today. His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit, and it says Luke 1.18, but it's actually Matthew 1.18, and this was a bad day for Mary, because it was very, very bad culturally, even more so than it is now, way more. I mean, she could have been executed, certainly ostracized, because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace. He had in mind to force her quietly. In those days, they'd been promised to each other it was like they were married. It wasn't like, "Give me my letter jacket back," or "Give me my ring back." He actually had to go to court, and it was a legal thing, but after he had considered this, after he thought this through, thought, "I don't know what to do, what am I gonna do?" An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what's conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit," and here's what gets exciting for Joseph. "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name," what? Jesus. Now, here's where it gets tricky, because did you know Joseph actually didn't hear the name Jesus, the way we say it? He didn't hear that Latin word or the Greek name, Jesu. Jesus is actually the Latin name. The Greek word is a transliteration of the Hebrew word that we know in English as Joshua, but there's no J in Hebrew, it's pronounced Yeshua, and in English, the very same name that in Latin is translated Jesus is also translated Joshua. I told you it was tricky, but the point is Yeshua, Jesu, Jesus, Joshua, those are all just different language versions of the same exact name. What Joseph heard the angel say was, you are to name him Joshua. You're to name him after that Old Testament hero of the Hebrew scriptures, Joshua, and that's important because the Jewish people believe the Messiah would come in the spirit of Joshua, and just like Joshua was a strong warrior and he vanquished all of the enemies of the people of Israel, so too the Messiah is going to come in in the spirit of Joshua. He's going to overthrow our oppressors and finally we will be free from the Romans. He will save our people from the Romans. That's what they were expecting, but the angel tells Joseph he's coming to save the people from the thing that they needed saving from the most, not the government, not the Romans, their sins. He's saying you think you need a government change. You think you need a regime change. You think you need a circumstance change. What you need is a heart change, and this was like mind blowing to Joseph. Now let's skip over to the gospel of Luke. Luke says he went around and interviewed eyewitnesses who actually saw the stuff happen. It wasn't just hearsay. He only put eyewitness testimony in his gospel, and so Luke's gospel does not begin once upon a time or in a galaxy far, far away. Luke's gospel starts with I talked to the people who were there. They gave me their eyewitness accounts. I compiled them. Here they are, and Luke's account of Christmas starts like this. In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. Now Caesar Augustus was the first Roman emperor. Before this, Rome was a republic. He made it an empire, and that meant he had final say over anything, total authority. The first king of Rome, so to speak, and that's important, and everyone went to their own town to register. Now this is amazing because see, Joseph and Mary lived up in Nazareth. Let me show you a map. This is 80, some people say 90 miles away from Bethlehem depending on which route you took, yet the prophets of old predicted that the Messiah would be born down in Bethlehem. But they're not in Bethlehem. They're up in Nazareth, and she's starting to show. In fact, she's very close to giving birth, and they're thinking, we're just gonna have the baby at home here in Nazareth. But somewhere along the way, God elbowed somebody in Rome, and they went to the first king of Rome, Caesar Augustus, and said, we have got to make a census so that we know exactly who is paying taxes. And Caesar said, that sounds like a good idea. And God used the most powerful man on the planet to make sure that his son was born in the right place. And Caesar Augustus never knew it, but it earned him a mention in the story of the birth of the king of the world. How cool is that? So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house in line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. And this was not an easy journey. Now, shout out the answer to this. In all of the picture books and all the movies, Mary is pictured riding a what? A donkey, exactly. Mary's sitting side saddle on a donkey, and Joseph is in front leading them, and they are all alone. Now, do you know which verse of the Bible that that's in? That would be no verse, because it's not in the Bible. But it sure looks good, doesn't it? It looks great. She's on that donkey. They're all alone in the wildlands. Maybe that's how that happened. Or maybe she was on some horrible wagon with wooden wheels going bump, bump, bump, bump, bump over stone roads. Or maybe they were just on foot. I would say probably they were, because they were poor. And almost certainly they were not all alone, because that would have been a dangerous trip. And lots of people, lots and lots of people, were making the journey to Bethlehem to register for the census. So they were with a big group of people all going to Bethlehem. They were probably all in a bad mood, including Mary and Joseph. They were human. They were probably thinking like you would have been thinking, why in the world? I mean, talk about bad timing. God did not appear to them and say, go to Bethlehem. As far as they were concerned, it was some nuisance that the government was introducing to their lives. And they'd say, why in the world would God allow this? But they didn't know they were making their way to the city of David to fulfill a scripture prophecy. And so what looked to them like an interruption actually had cosmic purpose. And I've got a feeling that's the case a lot of times with the interruptions in our lives, too. So while they were there, the time came for the baby to be born. And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. And she wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them. And you know manger means feeding trough. And now we've reached the scripture that Linus quotes in that TV show. And in a moment, I'm going to show it to you. But we asked people with a newborn baby to be here and just let the baby cry. So I want you to-- honestly, I want you to just go, yeah, that's what it was like. The baby Jesus was crying. There is not a chance I'm going to ask people with a newborn baby to leave a Christmas morning church service. Not a chance because that's what happened on Christmas morning, too. That's what it was like. So imagine that as you listen to Linus read the rest of the Luke scripture. Listen to this. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them. The glory of the Lord showed round about them. And they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, just Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest. And on earth peace, good will toward men.

So I want to just mention a few things about the scripture that Linus reads here. Do you ever wonder why did the angel appear to shepherds? Well, of course, we don't know for sure, but here's what we know about shepherds. Shepherds were dirty. In fact, shepherds were ceremonially unclean. That meant they couldn't even go to the temple in Jerusalem to worship. 'Cause when you walk around behind thousands of sheep, you step in things, all right? One of the families of three generations that read scripture up here, the Bonn family, they were the first family that read scripture. I have to tell you something funny they told me right before church. They were all at the candlelight services last night. They were at the last one and they said, we felt so beautiful and it was so nice. And then they went home right after the candlelight service and they found that their dog had gotten into their garbage and spread it all over the house. And he'd eaten all their English muffins for Christmas morning. He'd eaten their Christmas candle, it was gone. And he'd eaten their special food that they had bought from Gail's for Christmas today. And their cat apparently watching the dog do all this was freaked out and left evidence of the fact that she was freaked out on the entrance carpet in their house. This is what they walked into when they got home. Can you imagine that? Merry Christmas from your pets. So early this morning, the neighbor children to the Bonns found two very special presents under their tree. They got a dog and a cat for Christmas. No, just kidding. But you walk into that mess and as Laura told me, I just felt like taking a shower, right? Well, guess what? That's what you'd always feel like if you were a shepherd. They were unclean. And if they were in this area, just a few miles from Jerusalem in the temple, they were certainly selling a lot of sheep to people who were taking those animals up to the temple in Jerusalem. And so they're involved in temple worship because they're raising sheep. And yet they're outcast from the very system that they're helping to support being unclean. And God chooses to announce the birth of his son to the very group of people who were never allowed to come into the temple because they were considered unclean. Isn't that cool? And it says they were terrified. And you know what that tells me? It means angels do not look like little cherubs floating in the air, little fat babies with wings 'cause no rugged outdoorsman would go, "Ah, be so afraid of that." They take slingshots at it or something, I don't know. These angels must have looked like mixed martial arts angels, you know, 'cause they were terrified. And then what does the angel say? Today, this day in history, right over there in that town, the thing that you guys have been waiting for for centuries has happened. A savior has been born to you guys, to you guys who thought you might be beyond saving, to you guys who never get included in anything religious, to you guys who feel like outcasts. A savior has been born to you, you're included. A savior has been born. And here's how you're gonna know him. This will be a side to you. You're gonna find a baby, not a king, not a warrior, just a regular baby, a baby just like, a baby like, well, like my grandson, Freddy, just for example. Just a handy example for you. But notice, he did not say, "This will be a sign to you. He will have a halo around his head." Or, "This will be a sign to you. He'll be sitting up blessing the animals in the barn." That wasn't the sign. He said, "Here's how you're gonna identify this special baby. You'll find a baby wrapped in cloth." That wasn't so unusual. They wrapped all the babies in these swaddling cloths. And then the shepherds go, "So?" And the angels kind of go, "We're not finished." And you're gonna find them lying in something you guys, being shepherds, know all about. And here's the punchline. Here's the twist. Here's the crescendo. It's so weird, but we're so used to it. We don't get how weird this was. The sign will be, you're gonna find a baby lying in your own feeding trough that you brought your sheep to a thousand times. There's gonna be a baby in there. And then all of a sudden, when the main angel says feeding trough, that was the cue for this huge group of angels to just start going off. Glory to God in the highest heaven, because God's come to a feeding trough. Glory to God, glory to God. The angels can't believe it. And I am probably gonna offend some people here today, but I kind of pictured all the noise and joy in that moment as something like the scene that you might've seen earlier this morning, something like this. ♪ Ah, freak out ♪ ♪ You see, see she ♪ ♪ Freak out ♪ ♪ Ah, freak out ♪ ♪ Now freak ♪ I love that. Now, some of your parents are going, "Thank you very much, I'm going to be hearing that song the rest of the day in my house." But I see that kind of rapture in this verse. They're opening the present and they're going, "It's unbelievable what God is doing, feeding trough. Can you believe it?" And then let me just pick up where Linus left off and then we'll close. The shepherds say, "Well, let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has what? Happened." Now, this is so important. Look up for here just for a second. It's so important. It happened. We're not Christians because of the Bible. We're not Christians because some people made something up and wrote inspiring stories down in a book. We are Christians because something happened. Something really happened. And when unusual things happen, you write them down because they're just so amazing. And what happened was eyewitnesses told Luke this story and Luke wrote them down and generation after generation, they've been passed down. And sometimes in some generations, people died to make sure this story got to you. We're Jesus followers because this happened. What happened? Well, they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger. And when they'd seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. And then maybe the most important verse in the whole birth story, I love this, but Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. She pondered them, she rehearsed them. She kept going through the details. If you've got a child or a grandchild or a niece or a nephew, you know you never forget the birth story. And she had a whale of a birth story. She never forgot it. And maybe Luke interviewed her as one of the eyewitnesses and she told him her recollections. But you know, it was another gospel writer, John, who took care of Mary when she was an old lady. And then after she passed away, John lived in a city called Ephesus, the early church fathers tell us. And it was there as a very old man that John was thinking to himself. And he was thinking, I gotta find a way to summarize all of this, to summarize why Jesus came to earth. And he was searching for words that the Holy Spirit gave him. And little did he know what he was about to write would be memorized and repeated by generations of children and adults in languages that hadn't even been spoken yet and in countries that hadn't even been discovered yet. John takes pen in hand and he thinks, how can I put it, how can I put the reason, how do I summarize this? And in God's grace, he allowed these words to pop into John's head. And John said, here's the whole point. For God so loved the world, this is the Christmas story, that he gave on that very first Christmas, his one and only son, that whoever, and that means no one excluded, not shepherds, not any, not anybody else, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever, whoever. Whoever what earns real hard and proves himself to God. And whoever believes, whoever trusts with full weight of faith in him will not perish but have eternal what? Life. Can you imagine being the one who wrote that? Someone wrote that. I can imagine John going, will anybody do anything with this? You know, will this gain some traction? And here we are 2,000 years later and most of us can quote that. But it didn't stop there. Here's the next sentence. Here's the part we never memorize as kids. Here's the kicker. Here's the punctuation. Here's why we celebrate Christmas. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Wow, that's Christmas. We celebrate Christmas because God gave us a gift that maybe we didn't even know we needed, but the angel was right when he said it to Joseph. God sent a savior. In spite of what you think you needed this Christmas, God gave you what you really needed, a personal savior from sin. And man, when you believe that, it transforms you. Do you remember how Charlie Brown in that special finds a tree that nobody else loves, a tree that looks like this. And everybody makes fun of Charlie Brown because he really as a person is kind of like that tree, a misfit. And maybe some days you feel like that tree. You might feel like that today. Shepherds surely felt like this. But what happens at the end, the very end of that TV show, all the characters inspired by the scripture, you could say they show grace to that tree. They lavish love and gifts on it, and the tree is transformed. And that's what happens when God lavishes his grace on you. You're transformed because you're loved. And then when you show grace to others, inspired by the grace that God showed to you, others are transformed too. That's the never-ending gift of Christmas, wave after wave of grace. And I will let Linus have the last word.

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

Let's pray. Bow your heads with me. Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for sending exactly what we needed, a savior who is Christ the Lord. And Heavenly Father, if it's never been personal before, I pray that it would become personal this day, this Christmas, for everyone here. In your son's name, we pray these things. Amen.

Well, in a moment, we'll take our offering, and I wanna ask the ushers to come forward. And again, like Mark said, invite you to return next weekend as we start our series Habits. Stop bad ones, keep good ones, and start new ones. I'm looking forward to that. And the Daily Devos this week helped prepare you for the start of that series. And now as we receive our offering, you're going to hear a new Christmas song, you could say. This was written by the very person who'll be performing this. Would you put your hands together, and let's thank Elizabeth Honeycutt for leading us in worship. Here's her new song.

♪ Love ♪ ♪ Love is here ♪ ♪ Love ♪ ♪ Love is here ♪ ♪ He will wipe away every tear ♪ ♪ He will cast out every fear ♪ ♪ This is the ♪ ♪ Messiah in the baby boy ♪ ♪ Bringing hope, bringing light ♪ ♪ And you will reign ♪ ♪ Forever in the hearts of men ♪ ♪ Hope ♪ ♪ Hope is here ♪ ♪ Hope ♪ ♪ Hope is here ♪ ♪ He will wipe away every tear ♪ ♪ He will cast out every fear ♪ ♪ And this is love ♪ ♪ Messiah in the baby boy ♪ ♪ Bringing hope, bringing light ♪ ♪ And you will reign ♪ ♪ Forever in the hearts of men ♪ ♪ Heaven came down in a manger ♪ ♪ Thy broken to darkness ♪ ♪ History changed and Savior you're here ♪ ♪ With us ♪ ♪ And this is love ♪ ♪ Yeah, this is love ♪ ♪ Messiah in the baby boy ♪ ♪ Bringing hope, bringing light ♪ ♪ Oh, you will reign ♪ ♪ Forever in the hearts of men ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Love is here.

Let's all stand together as we sing one more song. Here we go. ♪ Joy to the world the Lord is come ♪ Let earth receive her King ♪ Let every heart prepare him room ♪ And heaven and nature sing ♪ And heaven and nature sing ♪ And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing ♪ Joy to the world the Savior reigns ♪ Let men their songs employ ♪ The fields and floods, rock, sills and clay ♪ Repeat the sounding joy ♪ Repeat the sounding joy ♪ Repeat, repeat the sounding joy ♪ No more let sins and sorrows grow ♪ Nor thorns and fowls be thawed ♪ He comes to make ♪ He comes to make his blessing ♪ Far as the curse is found ♪ Far as the curse is found ♪ Far as the curse is found ♪ Far as, far as the curse is found ♪ Far as, far as the curse is found ♪ And he rules the world with truth and grace ♪ And makes the nations cruel ♪ The glories of his righteousness ♪ And wonders of his love ♪ And wonders of his love ♪ And wonders, wonders of his love.

And all God's people said? Yes.

Amen. I'm gonna invite you to have a seat for just a moment because I have a special announcement to make. There is a dear member of our church family who is not only celebrating Christmas but celebrating a special day. Any Christmas babies here today? Well, we have one very special one here. This gentleman, he gives himself to the Lord Jesus like few other people I know. He is here several times a week, in fact, helping out volunteering in our food pantry, volunteering on Wednesday nights. He is here to help whenever there is need. And today, our beloved friend and brother, Robert Green, turns 70 years old. Congratulations, Robert. Stand up, let's thank Robert. Let's express our love for him. Elizabeth, why don't you lead us in a happy birthday? ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ Happy birthday dear Robert ♪ ♪ Happy birthday to you.

Thank you all. And Robert, we wanna say thank you and on behalf of your church family, we love you and we want you to have a wonderful, wonderful 70th birthday. So much so that we are going to have some ice cream out in the lobby to celebrate your birthday with you. So if you can hang out with us for a few minutes, we'd love to wish you happy birthday and to celebrate with you and you're all invited. So God bless you all. Hope you can stick around for that and may you have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas. God bless.