Jesus Moved into the Neighborhood (Jake Enns)

Our sermon title this morning is Jesus Moved into the

neighborhood. Often times when people move

into a community, one of the very first questions that comes

up is what kind of neighborhood is that?

What kind of neighborhood is it or what kind of neighbors would

you have? And I'm not saying that's a

totally wrong question. There is a, there's a place in

time when we need to be conscious and aware where we're

moving to have you have kids, small children, what the

environment is. And it's not wrong to be

concerned in some sense. And there are people sometimes

that shouldn't be moving into next door.

That happens, that's true. But there's another side to this

coin and that is the people that are in the neighborhood who's

coming to move in next door to me.

I know there's there are sometimes people who actually

move away from where they live because somebody else moved next

door they can't stand. I'm not saying you've ever done

that, but I remember many years ago we moved into town and and

church. One of the ladies asked you have

good neighbors and I don't know exactly how our conversation

went, but I remember saying something like I think it's just

as important that I think what kind of neighbor will I be to

the neighbors I move to that kind of kind of died there, but

it's important. Our sermon this morning want to

focus on Jesus being born in Bethlehem.

What kind of neighborhood was it that he moved to?

But then more importantly, secondly, want to look at what

kind of neighborhood does Jesus move in today, now here, What

kind of neighborhood has he got in US?

And I know the question doesn't really work because Jesus is not

here in the flesh this morning, as we would say.

And we don't have to worry about somebody named Jesus Christ

who's going to move in next door to me.

But I want to just imagine that for a moment.

Let's say he did, let's say Jesus would be physically

present in our town and he would knock on my door one day, says

Jake, I know, you know, you got a spare bedroom downstairs.

I'm moving in. Uh oh.

Would that impact me in a way that I wouldn't like or would

say, well, I, I, I'm sorry. It's, it's, it's actually, it's

not available. You have a spare couch in your

office. It's a, it's a folder.

I'll sleep on that, but I'm moving in.

Would I like it? Would he be welcome?

I would have all kinds of reasons and excuses and ideas

why it's not a good idea. And hey, we can be good friends,

but just keep our distance because honestly, so many people

who claim to be followers of Jesus, they keep him at a

distance. He's a good friend, saved me

from my sins and all. I go to church on Sunday morning

and say hi and pray and sing, listen and dutifully do my

things. But that's about the extent to

which it goes. And let's say Jesus would come

in and says, by the way, I'm going to come to your work.

I know you drive truck and I'll be riding a shotgun with you.

Or when you make this trip to London, I'll be sitting beside

you. Would that impact how I would

drive or maybe my office work, how I would what I would do on

my computer? Or maybe it's a mother raising

your children and how the children will get treated with

Jesus sitting around, hanging around.

What if Jesus was physically our neighbor?

I know it makes us uncomfortable at some level.

Maybe we'd say I don't want him. He's too intrusive, too

invasive, interrupts my schedule.

There's an old song, an old hymn that illustrates in a very good

way this idea of Jesus being born into our culture and our

time. This.

I'll read the song. Actually, I'll just read it.

It's the title, you know, Well, you've sang it many times and

it's familiar to us. And I'll read it and then I'll

focus in on the last verse. There's, there's 4 verses.

Let me just read it. O little town of Bethlehem, how

still we see the lie above thy deep and dreamless sleep.

The silent stars go by the everlasting light.

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight,

for Christ is born of Mary and gathered all above.

While mortal sleep, the angels keep their watch of wondering

love. O morning stars together

proclaim the holy birth, and praises sing to God the King,

and peace to men on earth. How silently, how silently the

wondrous gift is given. So God imparts to human hearts

the blessings of His heaven. No ear may hear His coming, but

in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him, still

the dear Christ enters. In that's neighborhood there's

one more verse and when Jesus is welcomed into our hearts, this

is what it's like. And I want to read this last

verse, verse 4, O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us.

We pray, cast out our sin and enter in, be born in US today we

hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell will

come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.

This encapsulates the whole story, how Jesus came and He

didn't come loudly, boldly came peacefully, silent, meek and

humble. No noisy fanfare, no allowed

announcement of His arrival. Instead, hope helpless, not

hopeless, helpless and vulnerable as a baby.

No one in the town at that day knew what was happening.

But the greatest miracle to ever happen on planet earth happened

that evening on the on the on the Christmas Eve, Jesus the

Messiah came to live among people, and the little town of

Bethlehem slept right through as if nothing had happened.

And we can't blame them for it, because that's not what God

intended for them to make, to make a loud noise.

But that does not take away from the value of the event or from

its importance. While the town slept, angels

were not sleeping, and they came to the shepherds and presented

them with the good news. And God did not focus on how

loud the gift would come, the celebration that it would have,

and so on. God's focus was to send His Son

as a gift, silently, quietly into this little town.

I want us to pause just for a moment and reflect on this

fourth verse that I have on the slide here where it says be born

in US today. That's a prayer.

That's a request. Imagine Jesus being born into a

human family. He was entering the human race

at the deepest level. We cannot imagine a more

vulnerable, emotionally dependent, physically dependent

state than the state of being born as a helpless newborn.

That's how he came. Yeah, of course, we know the

story. I've talked about it the last

few Sundays. Jesus choosing God, choosing

Mary to be the mother. She was engaged to be married.

That was a big interruption for her.

She wasn't married yet, was going to be.

Now this kind of comes in the way.

And then Joseph, him not being sure what's going on with my

fiance, Mary got to have to divorce her.

And that culture, That's how engagement could be broken.

That's the only way it could be broken.

Huge interruptions, one thing after another.

From a worldly point of view, nobody knew anything.

But in heaven was a big deal for Mary, it was a big deal for

Joseph, it was a big deal. It was a big deal for the

angels. It was a big deal for Jesus.

But Jerusalem, the capital, the news didn't even reach it until

much later, when the wise men from the east would come and

they would ask, where's this king of the Jews that's supposed

to be born? What king of the Jews?

He calls this Pharisees over anything about the king of the

Jews to be born? Oh yeah, And Bethlehem and

Judea, there's a son of David will be born there.

And then he says to the wise man, go and check it out and

then tell me and then let me know and I'll come worship too.

Meantime, he wanted to kill them, kill him.

And he did kill the boys because he got awaited.

Any one of us here, all of us here have been born into a

family to someone we call father, mother, sister, brother

and so on. Jesus choose to become part of

that. Now imagine if God would tap you

or me on the shoulder one day and say something like, OK, I'm

sending you to become part of a family and such and such a place

that needs help and your responsibility.

And your task is to love that family as you love yourself and

and care and teach and train. And then in the end, most of

them will turn against you and they will kill you, but I will

raise you back to life. Now I know I'm just making

things up here, but this is an essence.

What would we would go through? We would bristle, we say, Oh no,

I don't want to. Now, of course, God will never

do that because we're not Jesus. But nevertheless, when he left

this earth to bring the gospel here and start as a baby, that

was a huge deal. God has done big things before.

It wasn't just Jesus that that was the biggest thing he ever

did. But even in history and the Old

Testament, the greatest character we have is Moses, and

we know Jesus. Moses talked in the Mount of

Transfiguration, and so they had something together.

But think of him as a as a man. He would have never guessed at

age 80 that the greatest task of his life was before him.

You see, that's the thing. When people get close to God,

all of a sudden things start happening in their lives they

had never imagined, never dreamed.

That's what happened to Zechariah in a small way, to

Mary in a small way, and to Joseph.

And no, God's not asking us to be any of one of those

characters, but he's asking us, you and I, today to welcome him,

walk with him, be his witness, allow Him to lead us so that

other people will see, take note, and they too will want to

follow Jesus. In essence, that's what it's

coming down to in John chapter one, verse 14.

See if this slide works. It does work.

The Word became flesh, flesh and blood and moved into the

neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own

eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like son, generous

inside and out. True from start to finish.

That's Eugene Peterson's translation paraphrase, but I

like the way he says it in simple English.

The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.

You see, God has always wanted to be part of humanity in the

Garden of Eden. He wanted to be part of Adam and

Eve's relationship there. And he was until they sinned,

and then that was it. Then that was over.

They had to get kicked out of the garden.

And the whole Old Testament was a journey back to that.

And John the Apostle says God moved into the neighborhood.

He's still busy moving into the neighborhood.

The question we want to ask ourselves is, is this

neighborhood accepting? Am I accepting him?

Am I embracing the story? Am I embracing him as a as a

welcome master, Lord and Savior? Well, let's look at the story a

little bit. Go to Luke chapter 2 beginning

Luke 2 · chapter mention

verse one. Luke chapter 2 beginning verse

Luke 2 · chapter mention

one. I want you to read along with me

and you have your phones or your devices, whatever you can follow

there. It says in verse 2, And it came

to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar

Augustus that all the world should be registered.

The census first took place while Carinius was governing

Syria. So all went to be registered,

everyone to his own city. This was not a time of peace in

the sense that there were no problems.

Yes, the Roman Empire had expanded worldwide.

Things were happening and here's a bit of a picture of what it

may have looked like, and that's the picture of Southern Europe,

Western Europe, and North Africa.

Rome basically had all of this in its grasp.

Caesar Augustus ruled this whole empire, the dark Reds where

Italy is, and that's Rome, but all the rest of it.

And if you see to your to your right, that little red piece

there, that's Palestine, and that's where in that little

country, that's where Jesus was born.

Everybody in his empire had to now go and get registered.

And he wanted to know how many people he had.

And rulers like Caesar and governments do this for various

reasons. But one thing that Cesar

Augustus wanted to know is how many people do I have?

And for the purpose of how much taxes can I take?

And maybe how strong am I militarily and what can I all do

with what I have? And she was very, very rich,

very, very powerful, ruled with an iron fist, so to speak.

Now the Jews had the freedom of religion, so to speak.

They could worship Yahweh, Jehovah God, as long as their

religion did not counter or fight against Rome.

And so they had a very delicate dance there, but it worked.

And so here everybody has to go to their hometown to get

registered and it's for the purpose of political gain and

never thinking that this would play right into what God had

planned that he would bring the Messiah into the world through

this through this event. God had prophesied in Micah

Micah 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 five verse 2, the words but you Bethlehem Ephrata,

though you're little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of

you shall come forth to me the one to to be the ruler in Israel

whose goings forth or from of old from everlasting.

This is old prophecy in this event, this registry that was

destined to happen, it was ordered by Caesar Augustus, and

that would put Mary and Joseph right where God wanted them for

the birth to happen. So let's continue reading

chapter 2, verse 47. Joseph also went up from Galilee

out of the city of Nazareth into Judea to the city of David,

which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and

lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his

betrothed wife, who was with child.

So it was that while they were there, the days were

accomplished, completed for her to be delivered, and she brought

forth her first born son and wrapped him in swaddling

clothes, laid him in a Manger, because there was no room for

them. In the end, while Caesar's

focused on power and control and domination and wealth and so on,

God's focused on arranging for the arrival of His son to bring

his Kingdom into this world. Everything about this was

unsuitable. I mean, Mary's pregnant, going

on nine months now to the end of nine months, pretty much not a

good time to travel, by the way, from Nazareth to Jerusalem to

Bethlehem. We don't have exact information,

but as I mentioned in my last few sermons, this distance to

would have been days of travel. She didn't have coach or a nice

vehicle or anything like that in the last days of her pregnancy.

Pregnant women don't walk too fast.

You know, maybe she rode on a donkey, let's say that benefit

of the doubt there, but we don't know that.

Maybe they had a group of people going not there.

Maybe we're not alone. We don't know.

But anyway, this was not an easy trip.

This is not an easy walk. If it was a walk in her physical

state would have been a slow and lengthy journey.

Then they get to Bethlehem and they're kind of everything, just

snowballs. Just think the town is crowded.

The census has caused a lot of people to go to Bethlehem for

the same purpose, to register, to please Caesar Augustus.

And a lot of people are there, and it's a town.

People are maybe milling about, but all there for the same

reason. It makes you wonder, why would

God do that? Could he have not ordained it?

So they went a little earlier, maybe in a month or two earlier,

and so that this could all be taken care of and maybe they had

a there would have been room, maybe rent a house by that time.

God has strange ways of doing things, often uncomfortable,

inconvenient, and disruptive. And it seems as if it doesn't

matter a whole lot to me. I'm not saying it doesn't.

I'm just saying he's using that. So they need a place to sleep

and there's no room in the end. Duh.

What do you do if there's a big sport event in some town, you

want to rent a motel there? You can't because it's all

booked. And that's the case here.

Registration is going on. No room in the end, no place to

sleep. Oh, yeah, There's one place.

There's one place to sleep. That barn or that stable, that

part of the house where the animals are kept.

There's a there's a there's a, there's some room there and it's

time for her to give birth. What to do?

There's no hospital to go to. They don't have those in those

days. And so she had gives birth to

this baby, this little tiny baby, wraps him up and puts him

in the feeding through not a lot to give.

And there in that through maybe a stone through as commentators

suggested, might have been where the animals eat their feed their

hay or whatever they had. That's where he's put.

If God would send you and me an omission, what kind of

conditions would we set? A long checklist?

OK, we're going to go if and we're going to go when, and

we're going to only if we have a long checklist of conditions

that have all lined up ducks in a row.

And then maybe we'll think about it and pray about it, and then

we might, we might say, yes. Is that how we do things?

I'm afraid so. Often times that's the reality.

Better timing. Once this happens, once that

happens, we would have thresholds which God would have

to meet for us to obey. Jesus came into a world,

difficult world in a very simple way.

He came as Lord, yes, but in the most humble of circumstances.

He came into the neighbor. He wasn't choosy or selective as

we might be. And God ordained that he would

be born to the simple couple, nothing to offer except

themselves. And I want to say it's safe to

say that Mary, the young mother of Jesus, experienced all the

things that young mothers go through who expect the baby and

the traveling, the stress that caused.

She must have been exhausted, bone tired.

And of the different things we need to learn about Jesus, we

need to be mindful. He doesn't come at our

convenience. Either it's at his call or no

enough at all. If we set the bar, if we set the

conditions, he ain't coming. He's not welcome when it suits

us. He comes when he sees.

We need growth. We need lessons and trust,

lessons and patience. Lessons in humility, lessons in

surrender. And so on.

And as glorious and grand as that event was for the world was

just not even, didn't even exist because the world didn't know.

No local news going on, reporters and TV crews

televising what's going on in Bethlehem.

Those things didn't exist in those days, but it did get

spread. Not in the normal way, however.

Let's continue reading now. There were in the same country,

shepherds living out in the fields.

That's not the people you go to share stories with, because

there's the most unreliable people.

They had keeping watch over their flock by night.

And behold, an Angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory

of the Lord shun around them, and they were greatly afraid.

Then the Angel said to them, do not be afraid.

For behold, I bring you good news, good tidings of great joy,

which will be to all people. For there's born to you this day

in the city of David a Savior who's Christ the Lord, and this

will be the sign to you. You'll find a babe wrapped in

swaddling clothes lying in a Manger.

God wants his news to spread, just not in the way the world

would normally do it. He sent his Angel to some

shepherds who were watching over their flocks.

By night, maybe these shepherds were sitting around a fire.

Maybe they were standing. But anyway, I would assume they

would have had a fire to keep warm during the long hours of

the night, watching the sheep, making sure that no predators

would would get close. And as they had been out in the

field watching many countless nights before and would continue

again doing so countless nights into the future, something

happened that night, totally unexpected.

They're totally not prepared. A bright light comes, an Angel

of God is there, and of course they're afraid we would be too.

Now again, notice that for the shepherds this was a surprise

and not exactly the best time in the 24 hour day to bring good

news. Wouldn't there be a better time

then at night time? I mean, maybe after breakfast

everybody's kind of rested up a little bit ready to go for the

day. Maybe an announcement, some good

news is coming. But think from it about it from

a human perspective. If God had sent notice and said

that He would send an Angel to bring them some good news and

wanted them to set a time, when could I come?

We don't know how it would have turned out, made made any

difference. We don't know that.

But God comes on His timing, not on ours.

It almost seems as if God has no regard for human schedules.

Not with Zechariah, didn't with Moses in the Old Testament, not

with Moses, not with Zechariah, not with Mary, not with the

shepherds. He does things when He wants to

do them. The people He includes in His

plans, they just go along and they get their lives rearranged,

readjusted and turned upside down.

God doesn't call meetings with the people He chooses to carry

out His mission with to see when it works, when we when would we

be ready? He just takes over.

And the people He chooses, they get to go for the ride.

Now here with the shepherds, the news is great.

Well, the timing is strange, but the news is great.

And here's the something we want to focus in on a little bit.

He says do not be afraid for behold, I bring you good tidings

of great joy, which will be to all people.

For there's born to this day in the city of David a Savior who's

Christ the Lord. This will be the sign to you.

You'll find a babe wrapped in swabbing clothes lying in a

Manger. The city of David was the place

where the Messiah had been prophesied would be born.

And they were waiting for one. All the Jews were.

But now it had happened, and the most unlikely people to get the

good news first were the shepherds.

Not the priests, not the rulers or the elders of the nation.

Simple shepherds. The Jews had big expectations of

what would happen when the Messiah would come.

To them. That meant freedom from Rome.

No more taxes, independence, no more senses, no more registries,

nothing. Just peace and independence from

the control of Rome. Jesus did not come for what they

expected him to come. They expected a physical,

financial, economic freedom. That was not Jesus priority.

His prayer was spiritual freedom and relationship with him free

from sin and and bondage to sin. And the Angel gave the shepherd

the instructions on where to find the baby.

Go to Bethlehem, you find the baby wrapped in swaddling

clothes and lying in a Manger. That's his residence, a borrowed

feed through. And thinking about this, one

cannot help but ponder and think of how little value, how little

earthly value, God places on earthly stuff.

Earthly recognition, earthly power, everything he lines up to

serve His purpose. It doesn't mean that God's not

interested in celebrating earthly things.

When people have joy and gladness of heart, that's fine,

that's good, but it needs to align with God.

God made a big deal out of this. Continue reading 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, goodwill toward men.

God was very invested, very involved.

I do wonder sometimes what must this have sounded like?

We love good music. I love good music, and we have

people who do great job. Our worship team and others do

very good work. I love listening to good music

online, but I think that must have sounded unique.

Glory to God in the highest and on earth.

Peace, goodwill toward men. That's the message God gave

them. It was for the shepherds, yes,

but also for everybody else. Let's continue reading verse 15.

So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven

that the shepherds said to one another, Let us now go to

Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the

Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste, and

found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a Manger.

Now when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying

which was told and concerning this child and all those who

heard it marvel at those things which were told them by the

shepherds. But Mary kept all these things

and ponder them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned

glorifying and praising God for all the things that heard and

seen as it was told them. So in the night the shepherds

hurry off to this town of Bethlehem define the story is

true. There's a newborn baby in a

feeding through in a Manger, and that's the Messiah.

And so they share this good news.

Simple guys that they were, and as surprising it was to them,

surprising it was to everybody else.

But it didn't reach Jerusalem for as far as we know.

You see, that is not the finish line.

That is not work. Begin, it stands, That is the

starting line. While Jesus had moved into the

neighborhood, he would grow up and 33 years later or so, he

would end up being nailed to a Roman cross.

He would die by crucifixion. But that was still several

decades in the future. But for now, the young couple,

Joseph and Mary, had the privilege and the

responsibility, the opportunity of being mom and dad to the

Christ child. And it wouldn't be easy.

You know the story. They had to flee to Egypt in a

very short while. Well, maybe we would say, well,

we could never do what Joseph and Mary did.

And that's true. We're not called to that, but

the mission for which Jesus came was to give us what we could not

achieve ourselves to take from us what we could not get rid of

ourselves, Jesus came to take on himself.

Our sins is the Lamb of God, and following that he came to give

us his righteousness. When Jesus moved into the

neighborhood, he came to give us the righteous, the righteousness

that we could not attain to free us from their sin, that we could

not get free from by ourselves. Jesus moved into the

neighborhood to give Himself to us.

There never was a better offer than that offer, and it still

stands today. Some people get it, some don't.

We're not questioning whether or not Jesus lives today in our

neighborhood. We know from his teachings he is

here today. We know.

We do not know how He will meet us, we just know He does.

He presents Himself to us in the opportunities we have.

Jesus, the Creator of time and space and matter, entered his

creation, became part of what he had created.

He became the image he had created and entered this world

as the most dependent, defenses, helpless, frail human being

imaginable. A baby.

He's among us as one who came to give Himself and someone whom we

need to give ourselves to. I was reading a sermon recently

by someone that I love to read sometimes and he wrote something

about Christmas. And as I was preparing the

sermon for Christmas Day and going over what the sermon wrote

about, it's not mine. If somebody else wrote it and I

want to read a paragraph of his writing and this is what he

says, I'll read a few paragraphs, is those who believe

in God, once they've seen him in a stable, they can never be sure

where he will appear, or to what lengths he will go, or to what

ludicrous depths of self humiliation he will descend in

his wild pursuit of humankind. If holiness and the awful power

and majesty of God were present, and this least suspicious of all

events, this birth of a peasant's child, then there's no

place or time so lowly and earthbound but that holiness can

be present there too. And this means that if we try to

hide, we're never safe. There's no place where we can

hide from God, no place where we are safe from his power to break

in pieces and recreate the human heart, because it is just where

He seems most helpless, that he's most strong, and just where

we least expect Him, that He comes most fully.

You see, friends, that's what happened in Bethlehem that night

when he came into the neighborhood of Bethlehem.

We know Herod tried to kill him. God rescued him, and he escaped.

But many people did die. Many babies did die because of

this evil king. See, that's how God comes, not

with an army, not with defenses, humble, surrendered, and

vulnerable. And that's where the strength

and the power lies. He comes to us in the same terms

that he expects us to meet him in humble, vulnerable and

surrendered, embracing our struggles.

Let me read him one more paragraph.

He, this writer says for those who believe in God, it means

this birth that God himself is never safe from us.

He comes in such a way that we can always turn him down as we

would crack the baby skull like an eggshell.

Think abortion or nail him up on the cross when he gets too big

for that. Think of crime and injustice.

God comes to us and the hungry people we do not have to feed.

He comes to us and the lonely people we don't have to comfort.

He comes to us and all the desperate human need of people

everywhere that we are always free to turn our backs upon.

It means that God puts Himself at our mercy, not only in the

sense of the suffering that we can cause him by our blindness

and coldness and cruelty, but by the suffering that we can cause

him simply by suffering ourselves, Because that's the

way love works. And when someone we love

suffers, we suffer with him. And we wouldn't have it

otherwise, because the suffering, the love, are one,

just as it is with God's love for us.

The end of that paragraph. Where there's suffering, Jesus

suffers too. Where there's pain, Jesus

experiences too. The pain of his earth is our

pain too, as our pain in this world has pain too.

To Jesus entered a neighborhood of suffering.

That's this world. He's joined us in our suffering.

He's sharing us in our suffering.

He invites us to join him and he wants us to invite Him.

We we have to ask, do we want to be his neighbor?

Do we want him as our neighbor? Jesus teaches.

Without him we don't have eternal life as a man.

He became one of us. He's the one in whom and through

whom we have our future destiny. Whether he comes in the form of

a newborn, the form of a sick person, the form of a lonely

person, whatever it may be, when we have opportunity, we have

opportunity to be a neighbor to him, and he wants to be neighbor

to us. Today is Christmas and he's

moved into the neighborhood. He wants us to receive the gift.

He brings hope and peace and joy and all of that as we surrender

ourselves to Him and lay down our agendas and take His agenda

for our lives. As I've often said and say we'll

say it as many times as I can, He wants a relationship.

That's it. He came to connect with us, to

bring Him some self. No greater gift than that.

But to do justice to this, that's what it requires

ourselves. He came and moved into the

neighborhood. So how is it between me and

Jesus? Between you and Jesus?

Are you the neighbor whom Jesus will find warm and welcoming

with humility and commitment? Can we give ourselves to him the

way he gave himself to US? Open and humble, independent.

The way he gave Himself is the way we need to give ourselves.

He's asking for it all. He gave it all.

He's asking for it all. He wants to be our neighbor.

Today we have that opportunity. So I will encourage us.

Let's give ourselves to Jesus. Invite him in.

Let's spread the good news of what Jesus has done by how we

embrace, encourage, and live among our neighbors and our body

of faith and our community. Let us pray.

Thank you, Lord, for the words of Scripture.

May our hearts be today in tune with you.

We pray that as your people, we will be an extension of your

love and compassion toward the hurting world.

Thank you, Lord, for the work you did for us.

Help us to enjoy, to embrace, and to celebrate the gift this

Christmas season. You've done so much for us.

Lord. May we serve you faithfully and

joining me pray. Amen.