The Present | Roman Kotelevskiy | Dec 21st 2025

Father, we just thank you for your goodness. God, thank

you for these wonderful children that just sang the most

amazing songs. And God, we just come together here this morning,

and more than anything, we're just filled with gratitude at

who you are, what you've done in our life, and

we just say thank you for the best gift ever,

the only gift we truly need, which is you, Jesus.

Thank you for your wonderful sacrifice for your life. Thank

you that you love us so much, and thank you

that you're here in this room right now in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen.

Okay, So I'm gonna I'm gonna quickly mention that as

I was getting ready for this morning, understanding that the

theme is more related to Christmas, the Lord reminded me

of the very first Christmas gift that I ever received.

And so I'm gonna share you, share with you the story,

and I hope that you'll be blessed.

And I think that by the time we're done here,

God's just gonna touch our hearts in.

Very unique ways.

When I was about five years old, I had several

siblings and I still have these siblings, most of them.

What happened was my.

Parents gave us the green light to go to the

corner store and buy some some kind of dessert or

some kind of candy, or it was a donut.

I don't remember the specifics.

I think it was a donut there that we all

really wanted. And they said, you guys can go, but

you guys have to go together. Now, I come from

a family of twenty five. I'm kidding, we only have ten.

It's not that much really, but I'm the youngest of

these ten. And so they sent myself, my brother who

was two years older than me, and my sister who

was two years older than him. So I was about five,

my brother was about eight, and my sister she was ten.

And so when they said you can go, that was

a presentent and of itself were like, let's go.

And so they just they booked it. They they ran, I.

Should I should let you all know that we just

came to America, probably two years before this moment, so

we're like fresh off the boat.

If you don't know what that means, that means we

just came to America. That's all I can say. We

just got here.

We don't know much except everything grows on trees. Like

money grows on trees. Everything is fabulous here. You want food,

you go to the food bank. You don't have to

starve this winter. That's what we understood. And so we're

going where. They book it out of the door, and they're.

Faster than I am.

You can imagine five year old, eight year old and

ten year old, those two rascals, they're gonna go much

faster than this five year old, and so.

They book it. They get to their little bikes and

they're much faster.

Not only on feet, but on the bikes too, And

so by the time I get to my bike, they're

already almost at the street with their bike. And so

I'm like, wait, guys, wait for me. But in Russia,

and I'm like wait please. Because I was five, I

don't even know English at that point.

And so.

I get to my bike and out of this terrifying

feeling like I'm gonna be left behind, like Jesus is

gonna come and I'm gonna be alone, you know that feeling,

Like that's the feeling I had. I don't know why

you can remember certain details when you're younger.

Some of you know what I'm talking about, Like.

There's things you remember that you don't know everything around it,

but you remember certain things. I remember thinking like, oh,

they're leaving me behind. I feel so abandoned. Nobody cares

about me. That's the feeling I had, Like they're gonna

eat all the donuts before I even get there.

Like that kind of feeling.

And so I get on my bike and I'm going

as fast as I can. Boy, I remember that feeling

like you're gonna give it your all. And so I

get on my bike and I'm riding. And before I

get to that street, it's a health Orn Street and Tacoma.

Anybody know Hewthorn Street and Tacoma. We got several of

you that do. It's a health Oorn Street in Tacoma.

And I'm it's not a big street, like there's no

through traffic really there. It's a street with houses on

both ends. And if two cars are going one way,

one's gonna have to go to the side. You know.

It's a small street. It's a safe street.

So I get on my bike and before I'm five

years old. But God gave me enough wisdom. When I'm five,

I'm gonna look behind me. And so when I get

onto the street, I look behind make sure I'm not

gonna get ran over by no cars. And I get

on this street and I'm riding my bike and I

look behind make sure nobody's there.

I actually, if I remember.

You know, memories kind of spotty these days, if I

remember correct, I checked twice like I was riding, and

then I look back again to make sure that nobody's there.

By this point, my my two little siblings were at

the end of the street, already by the corner store,

and I'm just in the beginning, and I feel like,

oh boy, I'm gonna catch up to them. And I

probably felt like I'm gonna give him my knuckles or something.

I don't know what I felt. But as I'm riding

this bike, the next thing I can remember is a

certain sound and he goes er.

Boom. This big O'SUV hits me.

And I don't know how long I was unconscious for,

but I know that this guy was hold cradling me

in his arms. I was terrified that my whole body

was in shock. I was so confused all this stuff.

And seconds later I look in the fire departments on

the street too, like I don't know how long you

could be laying there by the time it's called in

I don't even know if they had cell phones back then.

This is almost like thirty years ago, and so I

don't know what it was. But firemen came and I thought,

boy boy, they're gonna take me from my family. That's

one thing we were afraid of, that the government's gonna

take your kids.

I don't know why.

Maybe it's where they came from, or maybe they didn't

know anything about the laws here. They're like, don't do

anything wrong. Maybe they'd said that to keep us disciplined.

That's probably what it is.

I just gotta revel ay I'll I'm calling her right now,

where's my pault.

That's probably what it was.

So they're like, don't don't do anything, don't go anywhere,

don't say anything, because they're gonna take you from us.

So you live in constant fear that it's what you do.

And so they're holding me. The fireman's coming. I don't

know what they're saying. I'm trying to break out of

their arms and I can't break out, and they see

I'm trying to go somewhere, so they let me leap

them to the house, and.

My parents like, oh my god, what's going on? What

did he do? Whose house did he burn down?

You know, like they probably think of that, but then

they found out I got hit by a car and

all that stuff. I don't remember much after that moment

until Christmas time. Okay, several months after that, we come

to the most wonderful time of the year, Christmas, and

there's a noteck at the door, and this man that

hit me is at the door and in his hands

is a wonderful gift similar.

Size to this, and he said this is for little.

Roman, and boy, oh boy, that feeling you have when

somebody gives you a gift and it's like unexpected, but

it's a gift and it's for you, especially as a

little boy. I remember it and it meant something to me,

and I'm like, this.

Is for me.

Me. When you're the youngest of more than three, you

understand everything you have was passed down to you. When

you're the youngest of ten, there's something that your old

oldest sibling.

Had that you still.

You know you anyway, So when something is given just

for you, oh that feeling. Oh, it felt so good.

And as I was opening it, lo and be old.

It was a helmet. Oh, man, if I know now now,

if I knew then what I know now, boy, he

would have been still getting sued. And I'm kidding, O,

kiddy as a boy, this helmet was the most beautiful

thing I've ever seen because it was mine, and it

also had a lot.

Of meaning for me. You see, the deeper the meaning,

the greater.

The gift, the greater the value of the gift, the

deeper something like a helmet means to a kid like I.

At that time, its value for me was probably.

That moment infinite, Like if my brother tried to take

my helmet, he would get a beating and.

Iron care if I was half his size. You know

what I'm saying.

It just meant everything to me because it was my gift.

And so I've come to realize in the ecosystem of

gift giving, it's not necessarily as much about the giver

than it is about the receiver. So the way I

like to give gifts, I'm thinking, like, for example, we

did a Secretsanda with my wife's family and on my babe.

We know our budget.

It's very simple for that budget, you go get three

Amazon gift cards, give it to them.

They'll be happy. That's all they need.

She goes, no, we're not doing that, because that's something

that you would like.

But when you give a.

Gift to someone, what do you have to do? You

have to think about what they might like. And it

seems like she has to coach me on this every

year because I forget. And when you're giving, the value

system more relies on the one who is receiving than

the one who is giving.

For when you give a gift, it is no longer

yours and a gift.

If you think about a gift in and of itself,

it is something that you don't have.

To give, you can give.

And sometimes we forget that in this season, we feel

like we're obligated to or it's a necessity, or it's

become a tradition, or it's now for a lot of us,

become a religion. But the truth is it's not a necessity,

it's not a requirement, it's not even a tradition. It's

a privilege that you and I get to partake in.

But when we give the gift, there's a transaction that happens,

and gifts I must remind you they are free. You

don't have to do anything.

To receive gifts.

So if you give a gift with the expectation of

receiving a gift, you've created a religion and that's not

a true spirit of giving. You can walk out of

those words. That's enough, praise the Lord. But I'm telling you,

when you give, don't expect back. If you get it,

praise the Lord. It's even better. Great, Thank you God.

But here's the beauty that happens when you give. You

partake in something that is related to the Kingdom of Heaven.

And let's get into it.

Okay, all right, So I'm gonna quickly jump into some things.

I asked my wife yesterday. Sorry, babe, I'm bringing you

up a lot. I was like, Babe, you know what

Christmas means. She's like, Babe, it's so simple. It's Christ's moss,

like more of Christ's moss. And Spanish is more so,

more of christ christ moss. And I'm like, I realized

in that moment that I married a Latina girl wrapped

in Moldovian's skin. I'm telling you she likes She like

Mexican food, she likes all the Aspetic culture. I ask her,

you want boy, She's like, no, I don't want any

of that Slavic food. Give me some tacos. I want

some tacos right now. I'm like, yeh, that's my girl.

I love it.

So Christmas is a very interesting thing because Christmas is

made up of two words. Everybody say Christ and then

say Mass. That word mass. We read it as Christ

and an m as, but it actually has another letter.

It's a double s there. It's the word mass.

And if you have Catholic roots you might understand this

a little bit more.

But it's Christ's Mass.

And there's certain things that transpire when you go to

a Mass, and there's prayer, there's reading a scripture, there's

explanation of that. But the whole point of a Mass

is get to a certain point where there is a

gift given. And it's not a traditional way of how

we sense, like you give one person the gift, they

give you another gift.

No.

At Mass, what happens is the people in the congregation

receive a gift from the Lord. And you know what

it is, communion. It's the bread and it's the wine,

it's the body and the blood of Jesus. At Mass,

you receive the gift from heaven and it's the broken

body and the spilt blood of Jesus' sacrifice that is.

The pinnacle of the gathering.

So when you say Marry Christmas, you know what you're saying.

I wish you a joyful time experiencing the anointed One

and the sacrifice of his blood and body that was

spent for you. Every time you say Merry Christmas, say

merry Christmas. Boy oh boy, you can say Merry Christmas

every day and it makes sense. Every day you'll be able,

like when it comes to Easter, here is a happy

Eastern Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas, because that's what it means.

People like in the world don't realize everything they're declaring

every time you declare Merry Christmas. Like, even if you

don't believe in Jesus, what you're saying is may the

body and the blood of the Lamb be enthroned.

In your life.

You know, when you receive communion the body and the blood,

you're coming into union with Him. So when you say

marry christ Union, you're declaring salvation.

Every time you say it.

Boy oh boy, I know we didn't expect an Eastern

story here on Christmas morning, but I got some news

for you. Let's go to Philippians. This is so good

Philippians two, verse six.

That's right here. This is talking about Jesus.

Though he was God, he did not think of equality

with God as something to cling to.

Instead, he gave up his.

Divine privileges divine meaning God privileges, his godlikeness. He gave

that up why and he took the humble position of

a slave and was born as a human being. Jesus

gave up his divinity, his godlikeness, and enslaved himself into

the limitations of humanity. Some I ask, but why would

God even need to do that? Why wouldn't he just come,

rip the skylight open and say, the King is here,

all worship and bow me, bow down to me.

Why? Oh boy, oh boy.

You see, God in and of himself could not die.

God like God cannot die. Do you understand this principle?

Like if you're an eternal creature, you cannot die. So

Jesus enslaved himself in a flesh that can die.

This is the Christmas story.

Jesus gave up his divine privilege of being God and

immortal and came down to be born of a virgin

to enslave himself in yours and my limitations.

It goes on to say why.

When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in

obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross.

Therefore God elevated him to that place of highest honor

and gave him a name above all names, that in

the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in heaven,

on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare

that Christ is Lord.

Merry Christmas. That's such a declaring for the glory of

God the Father. This is phenomenal. As a matter of fact.

Let's go quickly to Luke the first the first declaration

of the coming of Jesus, the very first announcement came

from an angel to the people, and it was to

a certain group of shepherds. And shepherds were considered kind

of lowly at the time. They were like like, they

were kind of like the servants of most people, right,

And the angel shows up to the lowest place and

declares to these people. When the angel showed up, the

glory of God appeared. And these shepherds were terrified and

watch this, But the angel reassured them, saying, don't be afraid.

I bring you good news that will bring great joy

to all the people. It's good tidings of great joy,

good tidings of great joy. Say that with me, Good

tidings of great joy. Next verse, the Savior, Yes, the Messiah,

the Lord has been born today in Bethlehem, the city

of David. This messed me up when I was looking

into this. This is so good.

The Angel just declared some about Jesus.

Angel said the Savior, the Lord, the Messiah. It just

categorized Jesus in three ways. So when he says the Lord,

say the Lord, the angel is talking about his kingship

in heaven, Heaven's King, the Lord, Heaven's King. When the

Angel says the Messiah, that means the coming one, the

promised one, the anointed one, the one who.

Was to come, the one we've been waiting for.

So when he's saying Heaven's King, he's saying the coming

one has come. And when he says the Savior, he's

referencing his death. Wow.

He's saying, listen very carefully, this news is so good.

The whole world's going to rejoice. Heaven's King has come

to die. Wow, Merry Christmas. That's what you're saying.

Let's go a little bit deeper, say deeper, what did

the What were the three gifts those wise men brought Frankinson's,

gold and murr.

Get ready, gold.

Represents kings and Heaven's king frankinsense somebody say frankinsonse. It's

a very unique word. But it's a sweet fragrance. It's

a sweet aroma, even used in the temple. It represents

his Messiah, the anointed One, his life, his coming. And

Murr somebody say murr primarily used for embalming. I can

imagine being that wise man who's bringing Murr to a

birth and thinking, I have no idea what in the

world I'm doing, And this is the dumbest gift I.

Could have thought about. But I know I have to

bring this. I don't know why. I don't know why.

I'm following the star that keeps moving, but I know

I'm coming with murder. But they bring gold, Frankinson's and

murder representing the Heaven's King coming into earth to die

for us. Man, oh man, that's the Christmas story that's

so beautiful. Jesus is Heaven's gift to us for God

so loved the world that he I'm just say that again,

for God so loved the world that he gave, And

I find it fascinating, fascinating that after that part of

the scripture in John three point sixteen, he then goes

set and says, for who soever shall believe, will not perish,

but have life everlasting. He's saying, like, I love you

infinitely enough to crush my son for you.

But the ball is in your court that whosoever would

believe and receive.

Like this right here represents a gift. And when Jesus

was walking on this earth towards the end, towards the

end when he would take on the title of Savior

and die and be raised from the dead, he was

speaking plain with his disciples and he says, I'm going

to a place you can't really follow me, but don't worry,

because I won't leave you as orphans. As a matter

of fact, it's better that I go, because if I go,

then I could send the one who's your advocate, the

Holy Spirit that will be with you.

It's actually his spirit in us.

It's better that the Jesus, who is stationary in one

place out of time on this earth, would go to heaven.

So that he could.

Excuse me so that he could send his spirit down

to earth.

That could be everywhere at all times.

It's better that he goes so that the gift can

be sent. And so we have this gift right here.

He's called the Holy Spirit.

And it's amazing that when God said whosoever shall believe,

he's referencing your value system. He's asking each and every

single one of us in this room, how much will

you value what I've given you.

Some of us take this gift. There's nothing in it

right now. Just in case some of you are wondering.

Let's say we receive this gift from the Lord and

we're like, ooh, boil boy. Oh, I'll take that eternal salvation.

That's the gift I will receive. I'm really happy with

this gift. I'm gonna take it. Don't touch my mood,

don't touch my addictions, don't touch my temper, don't touch

my selfishness. But I'll take this salvation. That's the value

that we have. But some of us are like, oh boy,

I can't settle for the salvation.

I need my healing. Give me that healing.

There's nothing wrong with this, by the way, and you

take that healing and you're like, oh boy, that healing

is so good.

Thank you Lord for that gift undeserved. If you got

what you deserve, you'd be boiling in hell right now.

Oh I didn't that. They don't know what they're doing

all this stuff. Trust me, if you got what you deserve.

But we take certain things that we find preference for

and what can benefit my life.

I'm gonna come to church. I don't mean to hurt anybody.

I'm gonna come church Christmas Eastern. That's about as much

as I need from the Lord. I'm gonna go on

living my life and do whatever I need to do.

This is not a shame thing. I'm telling you something

you are missing out.

I'm not saying this is the place you need to

be every time, day in, day out. I'm just telling

you there is gifts beyond measure that you're limiting God

on and I'm telling you some of us take that gift.

We take the blessing of finances, we take the blessing

of a new home, we take that.

We take that.

But oh boy, that patience gift don't leave right there.

Oh boy, self control, I'm gonna work on that. But

I'm gonna leave the gift in the box. Oh boy,

that gentleness I like, how firm I am?

Oh boy, that long suffering or that joy. No, I'm

too used to my depression. It's who I am. Or

I'm too used to this. I'm too used to that.

I'm telling you how much you value this is a

direct reflection on its influence in your life. This right

here the spirit of the living God. The scriptures declare

that he is the same spirit that rose Jesus from

the dead, lives in you. And how much you value

that spirit is how much influence you're.

Giving him in your life. And the gifts are in

you already. But we're pickers. We pick and choose which

ones we want.

But I'm telling you, what if if we take this

bagel bin of infinite gifts where all the blessings in

the spiritual realms are, and we say, Lord, just give.

It all to me.

I want it all, Pour it all down, over it,

let me overflow.

It doesn't matter if I can't contain. Let me overflow,

that everybody.

Around me starts to get blessed. I'm so blessed financially

that those around me are blessed I'm so blessed with

peace that those with anxiety get blessed.

I'm so blessed with joy that.

Those who came in with an attitude all of a

sudden are joyful. I'm so blessed with love that those

who are so selfish become selfless. So this morning, I

don't know what you've come in with, and I don't

know how much of this gift you personally have resisted,

because I feel like to a certain degree we like

to resist them in different ways. So the platform is

kind of across all of our fields. And some of

you came into this room and you've actually never received

the gift of even salvation of what He's done for

You never received Christmas in your life. And the truth

is that this morning you have an opportunity to become

who you've been created to be. From the very beginning,

Jesus had to come in the body and die because

that was the only way for it to happen.

This is the only way for him to take up.

And as a matter of fact, he said, no one

can actually take my life, because in order for your

life to be taken, you.

Would have to sin. But Jesus never sinned.

Never sin, so that even if they kept whipping him

till today, he didn't have to die.

He said, no one can take my life, but I

give it.

So he chose to give it. It was his privilege

to give. When he took up sin, he privilegedly gave.

His life for us.

So here in this room, some of us have never

experienced that privilege of actually knowing, Wow, Jesus, you came

and died for me so that I could believe in

you and receive this salvation that is eternal. I want

you to know that this this morning you can and

for the sake of time, and there's things that we

have to do after the service. We're not gonna We're

not gonna have the Destiny team come up here. But

I'm gonna ask the Destney team members, the Prayer Team members,

that if you would help us and just be kind

of in the back corner over there after service, just

so that anybody who would want additional prayer that they

can come and meet you there and get prayed for.

Please have your lanyard on so that they can recognize

who you are.

But if you're here in this room in just.

A little bit, I'm gonna ask you to raise your

hand when when we'll have every eye closed. But there's

two things I'm gonna have you raise your hand for.

The one is if you want to receive Jesus as

your Lord and savior, the gift that was Heaven's gift

for you and me today, I want that to be

very known.

And that also.

Includes those in the room that maybe you have received him,

but you've been living so far away from him that

you're like, I don't even know where I'm going if

I die right now.

And the truth is, you need to know.

You need to know, you need to He paid a

big price for you to know, and I'm asking you

this morning. I want you to know, and i want

you to consider giving that up to him. The second

thing I'm gonna ask is that level playing field that

all of us are on, the things that are gifted

to us.

That maybe we're resisting now.

Maybe it's unforgiveness and God's gifted your forgiveness through the

blood and sacrifice of Jesus. Maybe it's a healing that

you've given up on, but Jesus already broke his body

for you to be healed. The body men means for

right now, the blood means forever. So whatever your situation

is in this room, if there's something that God could

be highlighting you to you in this moment, I want

you to begin to process with the.

Lord and your mind's eye how.

Receiving his gift is a freeing you from whatever you're

resisting him in cool but everybody in the room just

close your eyes for a moment.

I'm gonna pray something over us.

Then I'm gonna I'm gonna go through my questions. Father,

I thank you for your goodness this morning. God.

I thank you that you are the Christmas in our life.

You are the joy in our life.

God, And I think you that this morning is the

morning of transformation, It's the morning of salvation.

It's the morning of Christmas.

Of receiving that union that you so preciously paid a

price for. So in this room, I'm not gonna call

you up once again. But if you're in this room

and you want to dedicate your life to the Lord

and receive the gift of salvation or rededicate your life

and be saved again, I'd like for you to quickly

slip your hand up and hold it up for me.

If you can, I see one.

Anybody else, raise your hand up high because it's hard

to see I see another. Anybody else, Come on, come on,

anybody else. I'm giving another ten seconds, not a long time.

Raise it up high, Thank you Lord good. You could

put your hands down, would you?

Would everybody pray this Jesus, I give you my life

and I receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now,

if you're in this room and there's something that the

Lord is convicting you of, like a gift that the

Lord wants.

To give you.

Maybe it's a character correction, maybe it's a maybe it's confidence.

Maybe maybe it's freedom from depression. Maybe it's maybe it's

a love, deep love. Maybe you've come in here like

an orphan. God wants to give you the gift of family.

I don't know what it is. But if there's something

the Lord has highlighted to you, I want you to

raise your hand all across this room. I see one, two, three. Okay,

we have tons of hands all over the room. Okay,

Would everybody put your hand on your heart and say, Jesus,

I receive everything that you want to give to me.

I resist in no place in my heart. I give

it freely and Jesus mighty me, hey man.

Come on with you. Give the Lord a hand