[0:00] So, welcome one and all, and in light of all the things going around that are respiratory issues, I want to give praise for God for all of you that aren't staying home in bed with the sniffles.
[0:16] Yes, some of you are here with the sniffles, that's okay. We're glad you're here, God bless you. Today it's very proper to do elbow bumps, okay, so we don't have to hug and kiss, but anyway, glad you're here, God bless you.
[0:30] Well, what an interesting video, and funny too, right? I love those skit guys. If any of you haven't ever watched them, just Google sometime or YouTube, the skit guys, and they have a lot of great little skits that really point out things about the Christian life, but with some humor.
[0:52] So, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Well, Lord, we just saw a video that kind of really shows us what Christmas is not about, but what's it about.
[1:03] And so, Lord, we pray now that you meet with us, speak through your word, and Lord, speak through me. And Lord, I just pray that you help each of us to encounter Jesus Christ this morning again.
[1:22] Amen. This is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. So, we're going to talk today about what is the meaning of Christmas. And, you know, there's a lot of talk about that every December.
[1:36] What does it really mean when people get lost in all of this stuff? And so, we're going to talk about that some. Well, I can tell you in one Bible verse what Christmas is about.
[1:47] Next slide, Mark. The true meaning of Christmas comes down to when the wise men said, Where is the newborn King of the Jews?
[1:59] We saw his star when it arose, and we have come to worship him. There you've got the meaning of Christmas. It's about worshiping Jesus.
[2:12] Now, you've already got the whole sermon. We can just stop right now. You can go on home. You've got it. If you will do that, and you'll remember that Christmas is about worshiping Jesus.
[2:25] That is what it's all about. That's why we have it. Praise God. But, of course, I couldn't quit that easy. So, if you want to, I'm going to ramble on for about 20 minutes.
[2:37] Okay? And really end up saying the same thing. I want to really begin, though, with some words. And, by the way, I've got a cough drop right in this pocket over here where some of you keep your snuff.
[2:51] And ever since we got back a month ago, when we were in New York City, I picked up a sniffle, and I've still got a little cough left over. Well, I want to start off with reading an excerpt from one of this century's great theologians who wrote extensively a book on the subject of Christmas.
[3:17] His name was Dr. Seuss, and the book was How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We're not going to reread the whole story, but you remember how Grinch decided he could stop Christmas.
[3:30] And so he goes into town, and he steals all the presents, and all the decorations, and all the special food, and then he's just sure he's up there waiting to see how sad the people, and there'll be no Christmas.
[3:43] And then the story kind of ends this way. Every who down in Whoville, the tall and the small, was singing without any presents at all.
[3:58] He hadn't stopped Christmas from coming at all. It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags.
[4:10] Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
[4:22] Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. Hmm. Well, when we were on our mission trip in New York, and we have a lot of visitors today, I'll tell you what we were doing there.
[4:37] The state of North Carolina collected in the Baptist churches of almost 10,000 winter coats. And different churches sent groups to New York to help hand out those coats to people that needed them.
[4:52] I'd hate to be in New York City in the winter without a decent coat. And so our church sent 11 people there, and there were just a lot of other churches sent people, and we were up there handing out winter coats.
[5:04] Excuse me. Well, one night while we were there, we had some free time, we decided to take a walk through a neighborhood called Diker Heights, which is famous for Christmas lights.
[5:20] And here's some pictures I took. Next slide, Mark. Here's some pictures of what it was like over in Diker Heights, which fortunately was not... Wait a minute, my cough dropped.
[5:33] I just wanted to jump under my tongue. Did that ever happen with your snuff? You know, yeah. So, anyway, Diker Heights is a neighborhood that the houses are probably 80 to 100 years old, and it's a really big neighborhood, blocks and blocks and blocks.
[5:50] And the whole neighborhood goes crazy over Christmas. And they decorate almost every house to the max. I mean, just as you see here, I took a dozen pictures like this.
[6:04] I just picked four of them that show you how, you know, not only the houses, but the whole yards, everything. And it turns into quite a carnival. There's not only hundreds and hundreds of houses there decorated.
[6:17] There are hundreds and hundreds of people that go to Diker Heights to walk up and down the streets at night and see all these lights. And so we're out there with all these other people. That's probably who I caught a cold from.
[6:29] And we're out there walking up and down the streets. And there's even people out there with food trucks set up and stuff. And they're selling ice cream and hot chocolate and cookies.
[6:40] And some people have figured out how to make a buck in front of their house. And they're out there selling baked goods and everything. I mean, it's just kind of wild. And it was also fun.
[6:50] Well, after we had passed about 15 or 20 houses, I finally saw a nativity scene, a manger scene. And I went, well, I'm going to keep counting these.
[7:02] And so we passed, I don't know how many houses, dozens and dozens and hundreds. I counted 11 manger scenes. 11 out of all of those neighborhoods, out of all of this Christmas celebration.
[7:17] And then I began to notice a strange thing in some of those manger scenes. And I took a picture to show you.
[7:28] I didn't know it was going to end up in a sermon. But I didn't know. I thought sometime we might do a mission report. So here is a picture of some manger scenes that were there. Mark, next slide.
[7:40] And the question is, where is baby Jesus? It reminded me of this video that Pat Pasteur sent me this week. That's where I got that skit guy video from. And these manger scenes, these nativity scenes, didn't have a baby Jesus.
[7:56] And I thought, gee, that is really strange. Now, in their defense, perhaps there's a local custom or something that you don't put the baby in there until Christmas Day or something like that. But it just struck me, isn't that what's wrong with America's celebration of Christmas?
[8:11] We've just kind of left baby Jesus out of it. And we've taken everything else. So what then is Christmas about? Next slide, please.
[8:22] Here's probably what it's not about. Is it really about Santa Claus and gifts? And more gifts and more gifts and more. And go and buy and have a wild shopping spree and go deeper in debt.
[8:35] I heard a thing on the news this month that something like 20% of Americans are still paying off their credit card debt that they ran up last Christmas.
[8:47] And now they're using their credit card to buy for this Christmas. And they haven't even paid off last Christmas. I thought, there's something crazy about this. It's like we're trying to purchase peace, joy, love, goodwill toward all men.
[9:04] Ho, ho, ho. Bring on the Grinch. You know, I mean, it's just kind of crazy nonsense that we have fallen into. Now, for some people, Christmas is all about special foods.
[9:18] I can relate to that some. You know, we've got some special treats we like to eat, especially at Christmas time. For some people, Christmas is all about family getting together.
[9:30] That's the big deal. And I can relate to that. We ended up not having all of our family come together because so many people got sick with so many different things. We decided not to make that our Christmas gift to each other.
[9:43] So it's been kind of a different Christmas weekend than we expected. For some people, Christmas is all about Christmas music.
[9:57] I heard on the news this week. This was weird. It has nothing to do with my sermon. Mariah Carey wrote that song and released it in 1994.
[10:10] The song about all I want for Christmas is you. And every time it gets played, she gets a percentage, a royalty.
[10:21] And last December, 2022, Mariah Carey made $3 million on that song. Lord, if you want to give me a song like that.
[10:36] Wow. So for some people, it's all about the music. My personal one that makes me cringe if I have to hear it again. Last Christmas, I gave you my heart.
[10:47] The very next day. That song just drives me bonkers. I've heard it too many times. Okay, well, moving on. For other folks, Christmas is all about what new sentimental movie are they going to release?
[11:04] And how many Christmas movies can I watch? Oh, wow. And they try to watch one almost every day. Some people, I used to have a secretary when I worked in the community college.
[11:18] And for her, she started the day right at Thanksgiving. And she had a different Christmas sweater to wear every single day right up to Christmas.
[11:30] For her, it was all about her Christmas wardrobe. And there's a lot of things. But at its worst, Christmas is also a very stressful and depressing time of the year for some people.
[11:42] For some people, it is the season to get divorced. The divorce rate goes up some right around December and immediately after.
[11:54] For some people, it's the season of alcohol and drug abuse. For some, it's the season of suicide. Suicide rates go up around major holidays.
[12:06] And that is Christmas at its worst. It's certainly not supposed to be about despair and loneliness. All of this hubbub that we've added on top of Christmas drives people to depression, to desperation.
[12:25] We're losing the meaning of Christmas. I read a story. I don't know. This was maybe 20, 25 years ago. This was published in the...
[12:37] Let me make sure I got it right. The San Jose Mercury News. It was a daily newspaper. I don't know if it's still printed or not. It's in the San Francisco Bay area of California.
[12:48] And this was a story. Now, warning, this is a little bit of a sad story. There was a family of very wealthy people. I mean, it was in the newspaper.
[12:59] So I'm assuming this is a true story. And they decided that they were going to have a special party for the christening of their new baby. And they got the Catholic priest there to do the christening.
[13:12] And they invited... They were super wealthy, lived in a mansion somewhere in San Francisco. They invited a few hundred friends to come for the big shindig christening party.
[13:22] And so as they were coming, they were all... It was wintertime. And they were dressed in their finest. They were all wealthy people. And they were coming in, taking off coats and wraps and stuff.
[13:33] And a servant was there grabbing all these things and putting them on a bed, in the bedroom there on some beds. And just back and forth. And finally they had about 150, 200 guests there.
[13:44] And everybody was settled down. And they said, okay, to the nanny. Go get the baby. It's time for the christening. So the nanny goes up to the nursery, the crib there.
[13:57] And comes back and says, the baby's not in the crib. And then they're all, well, where's the baby? And they go running around the house looking in different rooms. What have we done with the baby?
[14:09] And finally somebody remembered, oh, I laid the baby down to sleep on one of the beds. And literally they had piled all of those coats of the people arriving on top of the baby.
[14:28] And when they dug down, that baby had smothered to death at the christening party. That's a terrible, sad story. But isn't that a little bit of what we've done with Jesus at Christmas?
[14:41] We have buried him under all of these other things until we can't even find him anymore in American Christmas celebration.
[14:51] But what's the real meaning of Christmas? Well, here's the next slide, Mark. We'll be another good verse on that subject.
[15:02] The true meaning of Christmas. The heart of those verses you're reading there is the angel saying what Steve quoted for us this morning.
[15:13] I bring you good news of great joy for everybody. A savior has been born. We need a savior.
[15:26] That's the true meaning of Christmas. That's the good news. I bring you this, the angel announced. In what way did he do that?
[15:37] Oh, here's another neat story. I came across this story recently. I went, man, that's so good. I've got to work that in a sermon one day.
[15:50] Y'all know all those stories. Well, there was this grandfather. And he went to visit his daughter and the grandchild.
[16:00] And so while he was there, you know, they'd been whatever, visiting, whatever. And then he hears his little two, three-year-old grandson screaming and yelling in his bedroom.
[16:11] And so he goes in there and the little kid is in a play pit. And he's just kicking up a fuss. And he sees his grandfather and he says, Out, father!
[16:21] Out! And you know how a kid hates being in a play pit. So his grandfather, in all the goodness, he goes over and he picks him up. And the little boy stops crying immediately. And the granddaddy's over.
[16:33] Well, as soon as he stops crying, his mom comes and sticks her head around the corner and says, Oh, no, Johnny, you're being punished back in that play pit.
[16:45] Now, here's the granddaddy. He's in the real effects. This little kid cries and it's his little grandson. He's got his chubby little hands and his chubby little cheeks.
[16:57] And he doesn't want to put him back in that play pit. But there's his daughter, who's the law. And the kid has been misbehaving in some way. And he deserves some kind of punishment.
[17:10] And she's the mama. And so that's got to be honored. And so he comes up with a perfect solution. He puts the kid in the play pit.
[17:21] And then he climbs in the play pit with him. Isn't that what God did for us at Christmas? God came as Jesus Christ.
[17:33] And he climbed into our humanity with us. Here we were in a mess of war and sickness and jealousy and all kinds of problems and human trafficking and child abuse and poverty and disease.
[17:57] And here we are with all of our sin and all of our difficulty. And we're trapped in it. We don't know how to get out of it. And so God himself came in the person of Jesus Christ because he loved us so much.
[18:13] And he said, I will come. I will get in that playpen of sin with you. And Christ came. And he lived what we live.
[18:25] He lived sickness, pain, rejection by friends. He lived all of the same heartbreaks and disappointments that we have.
[18:39] And that's why we have that verse of scripture that we sang about this morning. Emmanuel. O come, O come. Emmanuel. Now, somebody remind us, what does the word Emmanuel mean?
[18:53] I believe Glenn made that pretty clear to us last week. How many times did we repeat God with us? Of least ten? God with us.
[19:05] He got right into the pen here with us. He didn't keep us at arm's length. The love of the Father had to be balanced with the discipline and the punishment of the Almighty God.
[19:21] And the only way to do it was for him to come and get into humanity with us. Paul said it this way in Philippians.
[19:32] Next slide, Mark. This is in the message translation, which I thought expressed it pretty well. Christ, that's Jesus, was truly God.
[19:45] But he did not try to remain equal with God. Instead, he gave up everything, everything in heaven. And he became a slave when he became like one of us.
[19:57] God has come to the earth in a manger. And his name was Jesus. And he chose to come in poverty. He chose to come and suffer with humanity.
[20:12] And why? Because the Bible says we've all sinned. And the Bible says the punishment for sin is the wages of sin is what?
[20:25] Death. Death. Eternal punishment. Eternal separation from God. That is the payment for sin. But that same verse says the payment for sin is death.
[20:40] But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. So in that one verse, we see the punishment has to be somebody has to pay it.
[20:55] But we also see the love of God coming to rescue us and to take that punishment for us. And because of Jesus and what he did for us, we, the Bible says, we who were once far off from God, we've now been brought near.
[21:13] The Bible says we who once were lost by faith in Jesus, now we're found. The Bible says that we who were in danger of eternal punishment that the Bible calls hell, that we have now been promised heaven by faith in Jesus Christ.
[21:35] The Bible says that we who deserve nothing have been given everything in Jesus Christ. That's the good news of Christmas.
[21:48] That's what Christmas is all about. That's why it's worth celebrating. That's why it's worth hanging lights all over a place. We ought to light up the world for Christmas.
[21:59] We ought to rejoice. I'm glad they put lights on the houses in that neighborhood in New York. We need to celebrate. Christ has come. Christmas is about giving.
[22:15] We give gifts, but only because God gave that first gift. And I suppose the most well-known verse of scripture in the whole Bible, God so loved the world that he did what?
[22:28] Gave. There you go. He gave his only begotten, his one and only son. He gave himself. He gave himself to us.
[22:41] And so the true meaning of Christmas actually is the Easter story. Mark my last slide. That's the real Christmas tree.
[22:55] Jesus came into the world. God came into the man. Became a human being. Was born a baby boy in a manger.
[23:08] God himself becoming human. With the destiny of dying on that cross, that true Christmas tree. To take away the punishment and the wrath and the anger of God for all who will believe.
[23:24] Remember the last part of John 3.16. Whosoever believed in him would not perish, but would have eternal life. Believe. And this word believe back in the Greek means to completely trust him.
[23:40] To depend on him. To rely upon him. To rely upon him. To rely upon him. It means we really do surrender our lives and let Jesus Christ be the boss.
[23:51] And we will be his follower. Unfortunately, he didn't stay dead. He completely died. And you see an empty tomb. He was buried. And three days later, the Father God raised the Son of God back to life.
[24:07] And that's why. If Jesus was still in that grave, his name couldn't be Emmanuel. Because he wouldn't be God with us. He'd be God dead in the ground.
[24:18] But he came back to life. And now through the Holy Spirit, Jesus is with every believer. Everyone who has received him. And your sins have been nailed to that cross.
[24:29] What a deal God gave us. He said, if you will place your faith in me, I'll take your sins. And I'll take them on my cross. And I will take the righteousness of Jesus.
[24:43] And put it on you. And I will call you righteous. Because you have faith in the blood of the Lamb. That's the message of Christmas.
[24:54] Emmanuel. God with us. Let's pray as our musician comes. Father. Thank you for Christmas.
[25:06] Thank you Lord that we can rejoice and have a family time. And enjoy the music. And enjoy the good food. And enjoy giving each other a gift. And can even have some fun with playing Santa.
[25:19] And all of these things. Thank you Father. But Father let us never forget. We have come to worship Jesus Christ.
[25:31] And by your death and burial and resurrection. That if we will place our faith in you. And receive you as Savior. And follow you.
[25:42] You will forgive us forever. And we will walk with you. Thank you for Christmas. Thank you. Thank you. We celebrate it today. And tomorrow.
[25:52] And every day. In Jesus name. Amen. So now. Go out this week. And on Christmas day. And every day. Worship the Lord.
[26:05] With your life. Worship the Lord. Amen. Some of you. Some of you know. Some of you don't.
[26:16] I contend to struggle with some depression. Around this time of year. And. There's a scripture in Revelation. I think it's either chapter 11 or 12.
[26:28] That says. We overcome. Basically everything that Satan is trying to do. We overcome that by the blood of the lamb. So that's what Christ did on the cross. His blood was shed. So he's done his part.
[26:39] And the words of our testimony. So we overcome. What Satan is working on. Through the blood of the lamb. And the words of our testimony. And so. Christ told us to go out.
[26:50] And share. The good news with others. And then we see this. Share our testimony. So that's sharing our story. And so I've shared with others. On a need to know basis. And now.
[27:01] With all of you. That I struggle with depression. At this time of year sometimes. And. The world would say. Are you happy or not? And we saw the picture.
[27:11] With all of the presence. And everything. And our happiness. Is based on circumstances. And so. Somebody might say. Well you've got depression. You're not happy.
[27:22] Or you don't have depression. You must be happy. And the fact of the matter. Is happiness. Is quite different from joy. And so. I can have joy. In the midst.
[27:33] Of having some. Depression type feelings. Or in the midst. Of struggling with some memories. From combat. Or whatever it might be. Or in financial difficulty. Or sickness. Or whatever it might be.
[27:45] I can still have joy. Because I can remember. That this is temporary now. But. I have eternity. With Christ. To look forward to. When I'm done with this place. After 60 or 70.
[27:55] Or 80 or 90 years. Whatever it is. Right. And. So I just want to share that with you. So let's stand. And sing this song. About how joyful we can be. Joy to the world.
[28:18] The Lord is come. Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare in a room.
[28:30] When heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the world.
[28:44] The Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ. Wild hills and blood. Rocks, hills and plains.
[28:56] Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat, repeat the sounding joy. He rules the world with truth and grace.
[29:11] And makes the nations prove. The glories of His righteousness. And wonders of His love.
[29:24] And wonders of His love. And wonders, wonders of His love. And the first verse again. Joy to the world.
[29:35] The Lord is come. Let every see for me. Let every heart prepare Him room.
[29:47] Let heaven and heaven and nature sing. Let heaven and nature sing. Let heaven and heaven and nature sing.
[29:57] You may be seated. You may be seated. Does anybody else happen to have a card? All right.
[30:08] Now, especially since we have a lot of visitors with us this morning, we usually take the time just to have prayer for things that are concerns on people's hearts.
[30:20] And we have folks put them on the cards. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to share that concern with you in a prayer. And then there will be a time of silence and you can also pray for it. And this is our way of, as a church body, lifting it up to the Lord and these requests.
[30:36] So if you would, bow your heads with me. Father, we come to you this morning. We praise your holy name, Lord. And we just lift up to you these prayer requests that we have, Lord. These concerns in our hearts.
[30:48] So, Lord, hear our prayers. Father, we lift up Jordan Garrett. We just pray that she would get better. She has COVID. And we pray for her, Lord, and for her family.
[30:59] So, Lord, hear us as we pray for Jordan Garrett. Father, our sister Tammy has shared with us a co-worker, Kendrick Gomez.
[31:27] Her daughter passed away Thursday morning. And we know there's... So we pray and lift up Kendrick Gomez and her family, Lord, for the daughter that has been lost. Father, we lift up our brother, Dr. Hall.
[31:56] Lord, he had a fall this recently and he's broken ten bones. Lord, we know that you use him in the ministry of providing medical help for the homeless in Sanford.
[32:09] So, Father, we just pray that you would be with him and give him quick healing. Father, we lift up our brother, Johnny Carlisle.
[32:32] Lord, right now he's having some problems with dental implants and he's still wearing his heart monitor, too, Lord, for the cardiac issues that he's had. So, Lord, we lift him up right now.
[32:44] Pray for healing and comfort during this time. Lord, we have many that are sick in our congregation.
[33:04] We have a lot of people traveling. Lord, we just pray for healing for all those that are dealing with colds, the flu, whatever, Lord. And those that will be traveling, too, Lord.
[33:14] Just give us safety and comfort. And, Lord, we just praise your holy name. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. I don't want to spend a lot of time on the announcements.
[33:28] There's a lot of you seen before. I wanted to point out one thing. In that sermon, he talked about the cross in the open grave, the empty grave. It's really interesting. In our Sunday school, we've been doing the Gospel of Matthew.
[33:41] And on Christmas Eve, we were anticipating the birth of a child. Where did we finish with? Jesus doing what? Being handed over to be crucified. Yeah.
[33:51] He's in anticipation of him going to the cross. And I just thought that was sort of unique. Because we don't plan anything in our classroom. We just do.
[34:03] All right. Here we go. Tonight, I remind you, at 6 o'clock at New Eden Church, we're going to have our joint Christmas Eve service. That partnership with him is really strengthening.
[34:14] And I just praise God for what he's doing with them and with us that we might glorify. So come on and join us. The same type of program we've always done.
[34:24] We've got our readers. And Stephen, I guess, is going to lead the music. So, you know, you've got to look at him again. But anyway. Next. By next Sunday, we're going to undecorate the church right after the services.
[34:39] Put everything away. It shouldn't take long. You guys are experts to take her down. It takes us a while to figure out how to put it up. We can get it down quick. So next Sunday. He's meeting on January.
[34:53] Men's breakfast on the 6th of January. That's Saturday at 8.30. Here at the church. All right. Mission team is going to be on the 8th. We have got some new things like Kentucky shoe boxes and stuff are coming up that we've got information on and we want to talk about.
[35:09] Next. We're going to start something new. January 10th, 6.30. We're going to open the church. That's on Wednesday. So it's going to be the 2nd and the 4th Wednesdays of the month.
[35:21] We're going to have the church open for an hour for you to come in at your own page and do whatever you want to get there and spend some time in prayer. And I think Len's going to have some things on the screen.
[35:33] We'll have a bit more information. So if you need some guidance on some things that you need to be praying about, it'll be available to you. But you can pray about wherever you want for as long as you want. And then after an hour or so, if you're the last one.
[35:47] You know, when you're going to keep your hands fine, just make sure you've got to keep it. All right. That's going to be twice a month. Ladies' breakfast is on the 13th of January at Cheryl's Diversity.
[35:57] And pray for Cheryl. She's got pink on it. Got it from the kids. Let's go skip. Next. TBR. This is the weekend coming up.
[36:07] You've got to make your decision to go to the TBR and get your deposit in and let Jody know that you're going. All right. Is there anything else? Okay.
[36:18] Body blue. We are collecting. I don't know where we are on that, but I know we've collected money on that. Our goal is $1,500. You saw Jillian and the work that's going on there. But a lot of that is just like God said.
[36:30] When we left, He said, you've done your job. Now watch what I'm going to do. And boom. A lot of things happen. All right. Next, I brought one in the bag.
[36:41] We need to get these distributed folks. So if you've got a neighbor or a list out there, pick a thin dress and go give it to somebody. Say, look, we'd like you to know that you're welcome in our community.
[36:54] And if you have, we need to serve here. We can help you anyway. We don't have to make a big deal. All right. We'll have our groups again start in January. Anything?
[37:05] That's it? All right. Any other announcements? Appreciate it. I just want to say something. Go ahead.
[37:16] So, again, thank you for having us. This isn't something that I'm good at or have done. But I just put a lot of stuff together right now. And I think we go through things.
[37:28] And you might be maybe a man. And you may think like everything's all right. You know, you go through things. We battle things, man.
[37:38] We've got to put on this certain thing. We've got to take care of our family. And I'm really struggling going through a really tough time. And things have not bothered me. So I'm just here at this moment right now. But I just put some things together.
[37:50] And, man, I was battling it. I was battling it. I've never let it out. You know. Like things you go through. So mentally you struggle.
[38:01] You know. And I was battling. Yeah, I was battling it. Just like six months ago. Talking to my sister. And I just realized that you.
[38:13] You know. Now, he had to do some combat stuff, too. I love you. I don't know. I love you. I love you. I just realized.
[38:26] You and I. Messed up. Lou. I'm like, shit. You know. That's all right. Everybody. Everybody. You know. God. I'm not. God.
[38:36] You should. God. I love you. So. Thank you.
[38:48] Yeah. That's a lot. We're glad you're here today. Huh? Amen. I'm with you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I was thinking somebody else.
[39:00] I was thinking somebody else. I was wondering what to tell you. I'm sitting here. She's my sister. I was thinking. Yeah. And. The neighbor. It's really God to me.
[39:10] So thank you. God is really good. If you want joy. And you want peace. There's only one place to find it. And we look everywhere else. So like looking for love.
[39:20] And all the wrong places. Right there. So. All right. Let's stand and listen. Lord.
[39:31] We thank you for your grace. And your love. And your mercy. We thank you that you chose. To come. To be born as a baby. Rescue us from our miserable situation.
[39:41] And our sin. Our despair. And our hopelessness. And give us all those things that we need. Life and life abundant in you. Bless us. Now that we leave. I just pray that you'll bless the families.
[39:54] As they gather. If they reflect on you. And understand. The great beauty you gave us. As we celebrate Christmas. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
[40:07] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[40:17] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[40:28] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.