[0:00] Well, good morning and a very warm welcome to you all to our Christmas Club family service. It's good to see so many of our young people here together today at the front.
[0:11] It's great to have you with us and it was a great day yesterday at the holiday club. I hope you all enjoyed it, those who were there. And we're going to be following on with a theme from that today as well, thinking about the time of year it is and the gift.
[0:24] Gifts that we receive in Christmastime are special, but we're going to think today of the greatest gift of all. So we're going to come to that in a moment. But just for your information, there's a few things on the notice sheet to highlight.
[0:38] After the service this morning, the children are going to go out to the door to my left here, going through into the hall. And the hall is set up there for tea and coffee for everyone. And the children are then going to lead us in some of the songs that they were learning yesterday together.
[0:53] So everyone's very welcome. Please do stay behind for that. If you can, there'll also be a slideshow of some of the pictures taken yesterday. So you'll see pictures of some of the activities that they were involved in throughout the day.
[1:08] So do stay behind for that if you can. Just go through to the hall next door. This evening, the YF meets in the MA Hall. That's on this evening. Friday the Free is on this coming Friday.
[1:21] I'm just highlighting that as well because it's holiday time. There may be families with children who maybe want to come along to that as well on Friday between 12 and 3. I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who was involved in the Christmas Club.
[1:36] Not just yesterday, but in the days and months leading up to it, there was a lot of hard work put into it. Very practical ways. People were organizing online sign-up sheets, printing sheets, baking, preparing all the crafts and different things.
[1:52] And then yesterday, so many people involved. Too many people to mention, but just a thank you to everyone who was involved. And especially we thank God that we're able to pray and that everyone can join in in praying for it and continue to pray that everything that we do, the Lord would bless.
[2:08] So thank you to everyone who was involved in that. And today's service is a slightly different format to the usual. So all the children, you'll have these question sheets. There's some questions.
[2:19] There's some activities. There's all the singings we have and the readings are all in here as well. So everything's in this booklet for you just to use going through. There's some questions. So when we go through to the hall, I'll maybe ask a few of you to see what answers to the questions you put.
[2:34] Because there's some questions. I'm not sure what the answer is. So you might have to help me out with that. So I'll see what you put in the question sheet. So the format's going to be slightly different. And we'll be having readings and singings and a message at different points throughout the day.
[2:50] But we're going to begin by singing to God's praise. We're singing in Psalm 100. It's the Sing Psalms version. If you have the psalm books, it's page 131.
[3:03] Psalm 100. We're going to sing the whole of this psalm. The tune is Selma. And it's a psalm that reminds us that together we come to praise the Lord as we come today, not just here, but people throughout the world.
[3:16] We lift our voices together to praise God. So we'll stand to sing the whole of this psalm. And we'll sing the whole of this psalm. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[3:27] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All new to earth belong Adore the Lord with joyful hearts And come to Him in song Of that the Lord is God He made us lost His own We are the sheep for whom He cares His people will follow And God is mixed with praise
[4:30] His courts with thankfulness Your praises gladly sing to Him His name forever bless What God the Lord is good His love is never true His constant truth and faithfulness Through every age and youth Well we bow our heads in a word of prayer Now let us pray Our Father in heaven
[5:31] We thank you for this day We thank you for Sunday As the Lord's day A day when we are able to come Together in this way of worship And praise to you We thank you Lord That you have given us so many good things We thank you for all the times of great joy We enjoy together As we think back even to yesterday To our time in the holiday club together We thank you for your peace and blessing upon us there And for all who came along And for all that was done And for all the enjoyment that we had And above all Lord We thank you that as we come together in these ways We come to hear of a precious Saviour One who we pray will become more and more precious To every one of us here Today and in all the days ahead That our love for our Lord Jesus Would grow and blossom in all our lives From the youngest to the oldest here For we thank you that as we come We come not looking to give praise to ourselves
[6:32] Or to anyone else But to come giving praise to you As we have sung We are to come and enter your presence With joy and thankfulness For all of the goodness that you have shown to us For all the great and wondrous things that you have done And so we pray today that as we turn to your word As we thank you for it As we thank you for the Bible And for all that it teaches us About who we are and who you are It teaches us about the gaps that exist in our lives And we don't know you But we thank you that it teaches us too For the way that that gap is filled When we come to put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ We thank you for this time of year And all the things that we enjoy When there is so much activity around us And in our own lives too As we think of the schools And all that is happening in them With concerts and school meals And pantomimes And all sorts of things going on just now We realise that it's a busy time of year And we just pray your blessing on the schools
[7:34] Upon the teachers and staff And all the pupils just now And as we look forward to the holidays this coming week We pray that you will bless them In their time off And there will be a time to enjoy Enjoy together with family and friends But we realise too Lord That this time of year Is often a sad time of year for many Many will feel lonely Many will feel sad at this time of year Because of different things going on Or different things that have happened In the past year or in the past years And we do remember Lord That we are to look out for one another To encourage one another To help one another And we thank you that your word teaches us that too That we are to pray for and to encourage one another As often as we can And so we thank you Lord For the very fact that you are with us That that is above all what we remember At this time of year That you sent your son into this world You sent him as the greatest gift of all And we pray that in everything else
[8:35] That goes on in our lives just now That you will help us to remember you And to remember your great love towards us To remember your son Christ Jesus And to come and be able to call him Our Lord and our God Help us to trust in him With all our hearts So may you bless our time together here And also as we go through to the hall later We pray Lord that you will bless us As we continue to worship you And to praise you this day For all your goodness to us Remember us and all our families All who we love and care for And indeed even those we see as strangers around us Lord we pray for you to bless us And watch over us We give thanks to you for all of these things And ask it all in Jesus name With the forgiveness of our sins Amen Well it's a special time of year just now When there's so much activity going on around us And it's a busy time of year
[9:37] Hands up if you're feeling a little tired today For a busy day yesterday Most of the adults are putting up their hands And some of the children as well Because it is a busy time of year There's a lot going on There's a lot of activities going on Even around us in school There'll be busy things going on When you have your Christmas lunch You'll have your Christmas parties Christmas concert All of these things going on And then even when you're at home You're maybe sitting there Looking out the window To see if the postie or woodies Or DRs appearing at the door Seeing if they're bringing cards Or presents to you Because it's this time of year And we exchange presents And that's one of the most exciting things At this time of year Isn't it?
[10:22] As we were thinking about yesterday It's exciting when you see Maybe under the tree Lots of Christmas presents Appearing And you're beginning to wonder What's inside them Maybe you're starting to have a little peek Just starting to open up the presents Not just the young people I know some older people Who enjoy doing that as well They start shaking the partials Wondering what's in it Or start just ripping a little corner To see if they can see what's in it And you'll be looking at things like this Maybe there's these kinds of boxes Appearing in your house And under the tree And you start wiggling it around And wonder what's inside this But is this the greatest gift At this time of year?
[11:06] We think of how often We're asked that question What do you want for Christmas? Have you been asked that question? What do you want for Christmas?
[11:17] And do you have an answer for that question? Maybe you've asked mum or dad Or granny or grandpa Or one of your friends This is what I want for Christmas This is what you could get me for Christmas But is what do I want The most important question?
[11:32] Or is a more important question What do I need for Christmas? What do I really need in my life for Christmas? And maybe it's not the gifts That appear under the tree I hope that's not what we think Is the greatest gift of all Because today I want us to think About this special time of year But to remember It's not just about gifts That appear under the tree Or that come on the post Or in the partial service It's to remember What God has given to us The greatest gift of all And what has he given to us?
[12:08] Who has he given to us? Do you want to answer that question? Hands up if you want to answer that question You can just shout it out Go on then Who has he given us?
[12:21] Jesus Isn't it? Yeah? Jesus That's what we were looking at At the holiday club yesterday The greatest gift of all Given to us Is Jesus Because you see With all the other gifts We get at Christmas time And indeed any other time Maybe we get birthday gifts as well You see Jesus isn't just for Christmas He's for every day of the year But when we think of every gift That we get So often What will happen to them They will break after a time Or they will grow old And we lose interest in them We just put them away in a box Or very often They just end up Going into the scrap We put them away We forget all about them But that's not what we are to remember Or how we are to remember Jesus The greatest gift of all We should never grow tired Of Jesus Or think that he's not important now He's not special now Because he's always important And he's always to be special for us Because he blesses us in so many ways He looks after us here
[13:22] And he promises us And all of us That if we put our trust in him It's not just for here and now But forever For eternity As the Bible says He sent us the greatest gift of all A saviour Who is Christ the Lord That's the verses That we're going to look at Together today Because when we read in the Gospel of Luke We hear about the angel And we're going to read this in a wee while That we hear the angel saying to the shepherds Fear not For behold Born to you unto this day In the city of David It's a saviour Who is Christ The Lord And that's what's important That's our greatest need Somebody put it like this If our greatest need Was information God would have sent us an educator If our greatest need Had been technology God would have sent us a scientist If our greatest need Had been money God would have sent us a banker
[14:22] If our greatest need Had been pleasure God would have sent us an entertainer But Our greatest need Was forgiveness Forgiveness from all our sins And so God sent us A saviour That's the greatest gift That we're going to think about today So we're going to read In the Gospel of Luke But before we do We're going to say The Lord's Prayer Together Now the Lord's Prayer You find it on The Order of Service We're going to say The Lord's Prayer Together Our Father Who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth As it is in heaven Give us this day Our daily bread And forgive us our debts As we forgive our debtors And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom
[15:24] And the power And the glory Forever Amen Well we're going to turn to read Our first reading Well all the readings are going to be From the Gospel of Luke But we're going to spread the readings out Into three parts So our first reading is in Luke Chapter 2 We're going to read from verse 1 Down to verse 12 So you find this on your Order of Service Or in your Bible Around page 1032 Luke chapter 2 Reading from the beginning In those days A decree went out From Caesar Augustus That all the world Should be registered This was the first registration When Quirinius Was governor of Syria And all went To be registered Each to his own town And Joseph Also went up From Galilee From the town of Nazareth To Judea To the city of David
[16:26] Which is called Bethlehem Because he was of the house And lineage of David To be registered with Mary His betrothed Who was with child And while they were there The time came for her To give birth And she gave birth To her firstborn son And wrapped him In swaddling clothes And laid him in a manger Because there was no place For them in the inn 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 fear And the angel said to them 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 A saviour Who is Christ The Lord And this will be A sign for you
[17:26] You will find a baby Wrapped in swaddling clothes And lying In a manger And so on And may God bless That reading From his word Well the first part Of our service Just now We're going to think About the gift That God has given us The gift Of a saviour When we look At these verses here Especially verse Verse 8 Down to verse 12 There we read We're reading about The shepherds Who were out in the field The night Jesus Was born And I'm sure This is a story You've all heard before Or many of you At least have heard before And the danger Of hearing A story again And again Is that You can think Oh it's just the same Old story I've heard it all before And you can become Maybe bored of it You say I've heard all this I don't want to hear it But listen again To what
[18:26] Verse 10 to 12 says And the angel said to them 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 A saviour Who is Christ The Lord And this will be A sign to you You will find A baby wrapped In swaddling clothes And lying In a manger These are really Special words For us This is a reminder To us Of such A special day When God Sent his son Into this world And he was born Into this world And he was born As a saviour To the world Somebody put it Like this We are to Hear this Clearly So we are to To listen To this Clearly Even if we have to Put our hand up
[19:27] To our ear And say What did you say Can you tell me again We are to listen To what he is saying Here And then somebody said We are to feel it Powerfully So we are to feel it In our heart To feel the power Of God's word To us To see Here is The greatest Thing that we need And God has Given us This gift The gift Of our saviour So we are to feel it Powerfully But as we come To this word We come prayerfully Asking God To speak to us In a powerful way And then they said We are to go away And ponder it Deeply So we are to go away And we are going to Think about What do these words mean This is a really Special word To us God remembered The world God remembered me And he gave His son For me He sent him Into this world And this is Good news Of great joy What's the best news You've ever heard
[20:28] I think Duncan Norman's Best news Yesterday was Hearts won They beat Celtic That's the best news That he'd heard In a long long time But other people We hear good news At different times During the year We maybe hear of Somebody getting engaged Or getting married We hear of somebody Having a baby We hear of Lots of different things That make us happy But what's the Greatest news You could hear What's the best news You could ever hear Well the shepherds Here In Luke They hear the Greatest news They could ever hear Fear not For behold I bring you Good news Of great joy A saviour Is born To you Have you ever Been afraid Hands up Have you ever Been afraid I'm sure Lots of people Have been afraid I'm afraid Of heights Even up here I'm looking down I'm thinking My knees are getting A little bit wobbly You're so So far away from me
[21:29] I'm so high up here In so many ways I'm really scared Of heights Some people are Really scared Of the dark And you can imagine What it was like For the shepherds Here when they were Out in the field At night It was dark And suddenly There's this host Of angels All around them There's all this singing And light going on Around them And it's They were afraid And it was natural For them to be afraid We would all be afraid If something like this Happened to us But look at what They said to them They said The angel said Fear not Don't be afraid I have good news For you A saviour Is born To you And these words A saviour Christ The Lord There's three words There that are Really special The first is A saviour He had a purpose In coming
[22:30] Remember yesterday At the holiday club There was a picture Of a helicopter Up on the screen And there was this man Coming down on the wire To rescue someone Because someone Was in danger Maybe they were In trouble at sea The boat was sinking And they were Needing rescuing So this was like A saviour Coming for them Well this is what Jesus has done For us He's come down From heaven Come down To earth For us For his people To save us So he's a saviour He is Christ It says here The word Christ Means he's been anointed Earlier on this year In May We got a new king King Charles And there was a special Ceremony for him When he was crowned king He was publicly made king Over our nation While Jesus While Jesus Was anointed He was made king Over all the world Over all the people
[23:30] He is the Christ He is our king And he is Christ The Lord He has authority Over all things He has power Over all things This is who we are to come And see as our saviour Not just anyone In this world But Jesus He is the greatest gift Of all to us The gift Of a saviour There's another passage In the Bible In Ephesians chapter 2 And it speaks about Our salvation there It says For it is by grace You have been saved Through faith And this is not From yourselves It says It is a gift Of God It is God's Greatest gift To us A saviour Who is Christ The Lord Well we're going to To sing together Now before we come To our second part We're singing In Psalm 89
[24:32] Psalm 89 We're going to sing From verse 1 to 5 And the tune is Done firm line And again It's a psalm That reminds us That we can ever sing To God For all his goodness To us God's mercies I will ever sing And with my mouth I shall Thy faithfulness Make to be known To generations All We'll sing From verse 1 to 5 And we stand To sing To God's peace Amen God's mercies I will ever sing And with my mouth I shall Thy faithfulness Make to be known To generations To generations More For mercy
[25:35] For mercy Shall be built Said I Forever To endure Thy faithfulness To hear Me to David's born of high.
[26:29] God, I see established shall forever to remain.
[26:43] I will to generations all thy throne built and maintained.
[26:57] The praises of thy wonders, Lord, the heavens shall express, and in the congregation of saints thy faithfulness.
[27:22] Amen. We'll just read on some verses in Luke's Gospel, chapter 2. We're reading at verse 13.
[27:34] Again, you'll find this on the order of service. Just a few verses from verse 13 to verse 15 as we continue to see what happened with the shepherds. So at verse 13 it says, 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 among those with whom he is pleased.
[28:01] When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds 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.
[28:14] And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. So we're continuing to see what's happening with the shepherds here.
[28:27] They'd been afraid. They'd heard these angels singing, and now they're singing a whole host of them together. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.
[28:40] And here we see another gift that God has given to us. If we see Jesus as the greatest gift of all, the gift of a Savior, we see secondly here the gift of peace, that peace that Jesus is able to give to us.
[28:57] So I hope you're beginning to realize that the greatest gift isn't a gift found in a box like this one. The greatest gift is a gift we find spoken of in the Bible, the Word of God.
[29:15] When God is speaking to us here, he is reminding us of all that he is able to give to us, not just to the shepherds back in this day, but to all God's people down through all the generations, he's able to give peace.
[29:32] God's Word, someone described it like a treasure chest. A treasure chest is like a big box, but it's usually locked, isn't it? And you need a key to get into the treasure box.
[29:46] So how do we get into God's Word if we think of it as a treasure chest that is locked? Well, the key to get into it is faith, to believe in what we are reading here in God's Word.
[30:01] Because it is through faith we will begin to realize that everything that God says to us in His Word is true. And that even when we live in a world that so many sad things happen, day after day we hear of sad news around us here or in our country or even in the world, we are always hearing of sad news, sad things that are going on.
[30:25] But the gift that God has given to us through Jesus is the hope of peace. Something that can often seem so far away for so many people in this world.
[30:37] And yet it's something that God is promising us through His Son, Christ Jesus. For example, in another part of the Bible, in a book called Romans, it says this, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him.
[30:56] May He fill you with all joy and peace. And that's what we were seeing here, the angels singing to the shepherds, Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom He is pleased.
[31:10] God gives us so many wonderful promises in His Word that are able to give us peace even when there are sad things going on.
[31:22] Do you remember a song that we were learning yesterday? We're going to sing it through in the hall, the song, The Blessing. Well, in that song as we sang it, it's actually singing words from the Bible, from the book of Numbers, chapter 6.
[31:36] The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you what?
[31:47] What's the missing word at the end there? Give you, anybody want to answer that question for me? The Lord give you peace. Peace is what is in that song.
[32:02] And that's the peace that we look for. Long before Jesus was born, hundreds of years before Jesus was born, there was a man called Isaiah who told us all about the coming of Jesus.
[32:15] Isaiah said, For to you, for to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. And the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
[32:34] That is what he would give to his people, the Prince of Peace. Jesus is the king who came into this world to give us peace.
[32:46] Many years ago, there was a king in a place called Persia. If you look it up on your maps now, you won't find the place called Persia.
[32:56] But where it was, you would see Iran now. So it's in the Middle East. And this king, he was a good king. And he was a wise king.
[33:06] And he loved his people. And very often, he wanted to know what was happening in the lives of his people. So what he would do was, he couldn't go out dressed as a king.
[33:17] If he did, everybody would see him and know exactly who he was. So what he used to do was dress up as a beggar. So he had dirty clothes, torn clothes on.
[33:28] And he'd go out into the streets and go and visit people in their homes. And this way, he found out what was going on in their lives. And one day, he visited this poor man.
[33:41] This poor man lived in a cellar. And he didn't have much food. And all the food that he had was just little bits of scraps that he'd managed to pick up. But the king, dressed as a beggar, sat with him for a time.
[33:56] He ate a little bit of his food with him, the scraps that he had. He spoke to him in a cheerful way. He tried to encourage him. He spoke kind words to him. And then, after a time, he left.
[34:10] Well, a few weeks later, he went to visit this man again. But this time, he decided he was going to let him know who he was. So he said to this man sitting in the cellar, Do you know who I am?
[34:25] And the man said, No, I don't. He said, Well, I'm your king. And the man was astonished that this was the king who was sitting with him.
[34:35] And the king thought as he spoke to him, Well, this man's now going to ask me for some kind of gift. Because the king had everything. So he was expecting to ask for some kind of gift or some kind of favor.
[34:50] But what the man, the poor man, said to him was, You left your palace. You left all your nice clothes. You left all your good food behind.
[35:03] And you came here into my home, this dark cellar of a place. And you ate my scraps of food with me. He said, That is enough for me.
[35:15] Because to me, you have given yourself. You gave yourself to me. Well, that's what Jesus has done for us.
[35:28] He left heaven. He left his father's side. He left all of that glory behind. The Bible says he made himself nothing. And he came to his people.
[35:40] God sent his son into this world. And they would call him Emmanuel, is one word name given to him. Which means, God with us. Just imagine that.
[35:53] The king of glory, the king of all, has come to us. To be alongside us. To be with us. Jesus himself reminded his disciples just before he was going to be put to death.
[36:09] He said in John 16, I have said these things to you that you may, that in me you may have peace. Because in the world you will have troubles.
[36:22] But take heart, he said, for I have overcome the world. You see, peace with Jesus isn't that all our troubles are going to go away.
[36:34] But peace with Jesus is that we know that he is with us. And again, that's one of the greatest gifts we can experience. To know God with us.
[36:49] But that's the wonder of his gift to us. That he has come to be with us. And that is what we are to remember.
[36:59] So we have the gift of a saviour. We have the gift of peace. And now thirdly, we are just going to read a few more verses in Luke chapter 2 and see a third gift that he gives to us.
[37:13] So we think of the gift here in Luke 2. We are going to read from verse 17 down to verse 20. Again, it's the shepherds and their experience here.
[37:25] Here. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
[37:40] But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen as it had been told them.
[37:56] Well, there's a third thing I want us to see here. A third gift. And it's the gift of praise. We have the gift of a saviour and we have the gift of peace.
[38:12] And if we enjoy these things, what does that make us? What should that make us? It should make us thankful and giving thanks to God and praising his name.
[38:25] And that's what we see the shepherds did here. They went to see for themselves what they had been told by the angels and they saw Jesus in the manger.
[38:37] They saw him just as they had been told. And now it says they returned. They come back from seeing this and it's changed them.
[38:48] It's made such a difference in their lives. They're full of joy. The fear that they'd had when they first saw the angel that is gone. Now they are praising and glorifying God, loving the Lord for what he has done for them.
[39:04] You know, it would have been easy for the shepherds out in the fields to just stay where they were. To think to themselves, we can't go and see this baby that they're talking about, this saviour of the world that God has promised.
[39:20] we can't go and see him. You must have to be really important to go and see this king. You must have to be really special. We'd probably just stay where we are.
[39:34] But that's not what they did. Imagine yourself and it's Christmas morning and you're thinking, I wonder if there's presents under the tree for me.
[39:46] Are you just going to stay in your bed and think, oh, there's probably nothing there for me? Are you just going to stay away or are you really desperate to see something?
[39:59] To see what there is for you? If you're really desperate, what are you going to do? You're not going to stay in bed. You're going to get up. You're going to rush down. You're going to get to the tree and you're going to pick up the box and you're going to open it and see what there is for you.
[40:13] Well, the shepherds were so excited by what they heard that that's exactly what they did as well. They didn't hang about.
[40:24] They didn't wait to get a special invitation. They were already told that this gift had been given for them. And so what they did, they went to see for themselves.
[40:35] They did three things. They responded. Again, that is what we have to do as well. When we hear this message of a Savior, it's not just to ignore it and to push it away.
[40:47] That's not for me. It is. This is the gift of a Savior given to the world, to all who would believe in Him. So we are to respond.
[41:00] The second thing they did was they rejoiced. They gave praise to God for what He had done for them, all that they were seeing.
[41:12] And then it says they returned. They went back to their homes, to their work, but in a different way. They were full of rejoicing in God.
[41:25] They were full of the joy of the Lord. Their hearts were changed. And that is what we want as we come to see Jesus, to see Him as a Savior, to see Him as the one who is able to give peace, that we would see Him as the one who we can give all our praise to.
[41:46] Yesterday in the club I asked a question. What does God want us to give to Him? And one of the answers that was given was a great answer.
[41:57] It was singing that we are to praise Him in song. And that's what the shepherds did here. They went away praising God.
[42:09] The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen as it had been told them. Well, as we come to hear of the greatest gift of all, a Savior who is able to give us peace, today let us all go away from here.
[42:29] Let us all return to our homes, to our workplaces, to our schools this week, to go to all the concerts or whatever else you'll be doing this week, hearing the Christmas story in different ways, but praising God for His gift of a Savior to us.
[42:48] There's that Christmas carol in the bleak midwinter. We had it in the club yesterday. I just want to share these verses again because it asks us, what are we giving to God for all that He has done for us?
[43:03] He doesn't want us to just give money or our time to Him. These are all important things, but listen to what this verse says. What can I give Him? Poor as I am.
[43:15] If I were a shepherd, I would give a lamb. If I were a wise man, I would do my part. But what can I give Him? Give Him my heart.
[43:28] That is what Jesus asks of us. That as we hear about the greatest gift of all, a Savior given, the one who is able to give peace, the one who we can go away from here today, praising Him for all His goodness to us, we can give Him our heart.
[43:49] And that means believing in Him and trusting in Him and all that His word says, every promise that we have. Because we are told, just as the angel said to the shepherds, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
[44:11] For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. Here it says, a Savior.
[44:24] Our prayer is that you will be able to say, He is my Savior and my Lord. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for all the special, precious gifts that you have given to us.
[44:43] There are so many things that we take for granted. There are so many things that we maybe even choose to ignore. But we pray that as we hear of the greatest gift of all, a Savior born to us, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
[44:59] We pray that we will hear and receive that word and delight and praise in it and rejoice in your goodness to us and that we would come to give your heart to put our trust in you for we ask it all in Jesus' name and for his sake.
[45:17] Amen. We're going to conclude by singing once more, praising God. we're going to sing in Psalm 122 verse 6 to 9, three stanzas.
[45:36] It's a Scottish Psalter version. Psalm 122, the tuner's St. Paul. Again, this is a wonderful psalm that we can sing together just now and make it a prayer for ourselves as well.
[45:53] For the peace of God to reign, around us. Pray that Jerusalem may have peace and felicity. Let them that love thee and thy peace have still prosperity.
[46:05] We'll sing these three verses. We stand to sing to God's praise. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[46:15] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[46:46] Amen. Amen. Amen. And let thy maid, thy palaces, cross-veved, dear retain.
[47:08] Bound for my friends and brethren, saints, peace be in thee, I'll stay.
[47:22] And for the house of God our Lord, I'll seek thy good always.
[47:38] We're going to close in a minute with a benediction. And after that, I'll go to the main door. And the children, you'll be going out the door to my left here, going through to the hall. And get yourselves ready and organized.
[47:50] We look forward to hearing the songs that you were learning yesterday and seeing the pictures. And everybody, again, is very welcome to come through to the hall for that. We'll close with a benediction.
[48:02] Now may grace, mercy, and peace from God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit rest upon and abide with you all now and forevermore.
[48:12] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[48:23] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[48:34] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[48:47] Amen. Amen.