SEEKER FRIENDLY

Amen. Sorry I almost came out late. I was, too busy eating the peppermint on the side of my hot cocoa- anyone like hot cocoa when it's 80° outside, anybody? Yeah, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Matt. I'm the lead Pastor here at Orbit Church.

We started at- actually, I, you could say we- started Christmas Eve 2023. Technically, we started on February 25th of this year, but our first ever service was Christmas Eve. And how many I, I want, how many of you- were here last Christmas Eve? Yeah, hey, let's just celebrate what God's done in a year. I'm super excited, but I also know how Christmas Eve goes for people and the spiritual music's behind me.

But I'm going to have fun today. Is that okay? Just say Amen, awesome. We got the new lights. I'm getting used to the lighting, cuz I can't see any of you, which is actually good.

In the name of Jesus, today I'm excited, to communicate something to you that God has placed on my heart, but I got to ask you a very important question: do you open gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Who does it? On Christmas Eve? Everybody's like I ain't saying nothing cuz it's both all right. Listen, how many of you all open presents on Christmas Day at some level.

Just say amen, amen, all right, cool, this class you ain't got to raise your hand, unless you're worshiping really, really heavily. But how many of you open some presents on Christmas Eve? Just say amen, amen, meet too. There was a season there where I'd open every present on Christmas Eve, but then every Christmas Day I would be putting those said presents together and it was miserable. So we changed it up.

We opened one present, I think, on Christmas Eve. This year I was real good. I'm assuming my son is sitting here, Lucas, are you sitting in here? You are okay, cool. So I got to be limited in what I say, but I put together the gifts early.

This year. Any of you wise in this room put your gifts together over the weekend so that you could enjoy your Christmas, the rest of you going to be up all night putting together your stuff that that Santa, that Santa brought. I'm excited about Christmas. I know how Christmas Eve goes for you. Some of you are going to eat today, some of you will eat tomorrow, so I promise those of you who are here on Sunday that I'd be quick, and I promise I'm going to be quick.

We're going to jump into our Candlelight vigil moment where we celebrate the light of the world, but I do want to share something that God has placed on my heart. We will be in Matthew, chap 2: 1-2. I'm going to read those for you real quick and then I will refer back to them as I'm communicating a few points that I think will be helpful. First off, starting in verse one, Matthew, Chapter 2, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the East came to Jerusalem and asked: where is the one who has been born King of the Jews, which is an interesting question to the king of the Jews, Herod? At the time, we saw his star when it Rose and have come to worship him.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

When King Herod heard this, he was Disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's Chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was supposed to be born, and they said: in Bethlehem of Judea. For this is what the prophet has written. But you, Bethlehem and the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will Shepherd My People, Israel. Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.

He sent them to Bethlehem and said: go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report it to me so that I too may go and worship him. Enough, you, some of you in here, had enough Bible stories to know that's not really what Herod wants to do. Verse 9: after they had heard the king, they went on their way and the star they had seen when it, Rose, went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were Overjoyed.

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrr and, having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. Let me pray for us. God, I thank you for today. I thank you for this message, this message that is often communicated as a-, fun Christmas Bible story but is saturated, with lifegiving Scriptures.

God, I pray that today, you would use me, you would use this text, you would use this moment to reinvigorate an excitement about your son Jesus's birth that is not rooted just in Christmas Nostalgia but goes so deep that it would change our lives. God be with us. Today we pray these things in Jesus's name and we all celebrate it on Christmas Eve by saying amen. Today I want to talk to you with the sermon title Seeker friendly. I love this passage and we've been going through what I would call a miniseries over the past couple of weeks, talking about how God can use any one.

He can use any situation, and I think today I'm going to talk about how he can use anything to get you where he wants you to be. When I first became a Christian and got serious about it, you know there's like sometimes a gap between when you follow Jesus and when you actually like care about that entire thing. So when I started caring about that thing, I got real serious. You know those people who are so serious that if you make a joke that seems like lightly sacriligious, they like tell you to get out of the house. Yeah, that's how serious I was at the time and I got so frustrated.

That's not what Christmas is about: giving gifts and putting up Christmas trees and all this other stuff. Like I was kind of like the Caren of Christmas and at some point God revealed to me he was like man, I can. It doesn't have to be perfect for me to be able to use it. And so that that's the idea of this message is that God can use anything. We see at the beginning of this, that Magi from the East.

Now, these people were not necessarily Believers in Yahweh, the Jewish God. Right, these were people from the East. We don't necessarily know what they believed. They could have been into zarrian ISM, which is something I'm not going to explain today. They could have been into anything Eastern that is not the one true God.

They were definitely into some form of astrology. So they saw this star rising in the East, which me Scholars think are a comet, and they start following that star because somewhere in all of their searching and reading, they understood that the king of the Jews. I don't know how they got this, Scholars don't know how they got this, they just it's best guesses and they started following it. And if God can use a star, somebody, God can use just about anything to bring you into connection with him. And I think now that I'm still serious about it, but I'm a little more fun with it.

I think God can use all the fun stuff of Christmas to bring us to him. So I'll give you my first point. I think you could write this down if you want to. If you didn't bring a notebook, because it's Christmas Eve, maybe your parents got you a notebook for Christmas. You're going to open up tonight and you're going to write this note down.

Point one: when you are searching, God can use anything. When you're searching, God can use anything, which means just by Nature. If you're not searching, if you're apathetic in the search of understanding your purpose or just about anything, it's hard to find what you're looking for. Many of us us live in this world where we're looking for something. We're looking, but we're not genuinely searching.

But what I want you to know is, when you search for the answers, for the truth, for your purpose, God can be on the other end of it and he can use any person, any situation and anything to get you where he wants you to be. God can use a star for them. I think he can use all of our Christmas stuff for us, and so I want to just celebrate some of the Christmas stuff for a moment. Right like, one of my favorite Parts about Christmas to make fun of is Hallmark movies. Anyone with me?

I think there's. Yeah, there were a lot of great movies that came out this year. Y'all weren't expecting this, right like. There's this one with Lindsay Lohan, there's this one with Chad Michael Murray, who, just, you don't care about this, but when I was 16 years old, girls would come up to me and show his picture and then me, because I'd shave my head and he was in One Tree Hill and they, like, you kind of look like Chad mamore and I'm like, yeah, no, but I don't anymore. I know I got a bunch wrinkles.

This dude aged way better than I did, but there's that movie. And then there's this movie and this movie. This one was called hot Frosty, which I was really hesitant to watch with my wife-, but it's clean, kind of kind of, there's a lot of it's. But it's like Netflix. Right, they took the Hallmark formula and decided to add it to their formula, and so now they're getting tons of money on these Christmas films.

And then I guess Gabby had a Christmas thing. My B, my daughter, could tell me about it later. And then here's the new Die Hard of Christmas. Everybody, yeah, anyone seen that movie yet? What's it called?

Carry on, it's like about a bag that has some stuff in it. It's cool, it's fun to watch, and what I want you to know is that stuff on it, on the surface, it was you who made me watch that movie the other day. It was pretty good, I liked it, but there's like no thought-provoking nature to it, and so it was like what's the point? I'm a superch Christian over here, man, like you can't. I'm just kidding, I'm not, I just screw up all the time.

You see it up here half the time. But it's a Hallmark film. How many of you have Hallmark Netflix Christmas movies in your tradition? How many of you watch Christmas Story every year? See, there's somebody in here- how many of you watch?

Do Charlie Brown have a Christmas thing, or is that just Thanksgiving and Halloween? How many of you watch Charlie Brown Christmas every year? Back in the day, I used to watch those really creepy claymation movies. You know the ones with like Rudolph and they talk like kids and it's really, really creepy because it's claymation and it's like 24p, or 24 FPS, which is super like weird. It's supposed to be cinematic, but it makes me scared and have nightmares at night because that abominable snowman just seems really off pudding.

You know what I'm saying? Well, he's on pudding, but it's off- pudding for my dreams and so, like it was, you get the pudding joke. We all have our traditions and here's the funny thing: God can use them. God can use those traditions, and when you're trying to, it's almost like we, it's like, all right, we get to enjoy the Nostalgia of Christmas. But then then we're going to get serious about Christmas and I just I want to give you some Grace.

Right now you can enjoy all the Hallmark movies, all the ones that are like PG, and you know the good ones, the good Hallmark movies. Watch them. Your wife's going to enjoy it. You're going to sit there, hold her hand while she's drinking hot cocoa with peppermint on it, and you're going to like men, you're going to lightly enjoy the movie and you're going to accidentally tear up, but then you're going to act like you didn't tear up because you know the magic of Christmas, all that stuff. But what happened?

Something that is super shallow and basic in some ways brought you together, and now you're thinking about the SE seon and you are that much closer, very similar to the star. It's just a random star that Scholars think are is a comet. That, Rose, and they saw it. You might be thinking: how did they notice this star in the sky? I don't notice when there's a new star in the sky.

Well, they saw a lot more stars than we do because we got tons of light pollution. They saw this thing. This is not normal. This fits some of the things we understand, so let's just get close to it. And they started going in that direction.

When you celebrate Christmas, you're going in that direction. So I say this for two reasons. One, Stop trashing the people in your family who enjoy the Nostalgia of Christmas. I'll promise to stop doing that too. But number two, when they get closer to family, when they get closer to this Nostalgia of something that they wish they had, that they don't have anymore, when they are processing through this season, God can use that thing to get them closer to him.

He can use different things. How many of you have a Christmas tree put up? Raise your hand, come on you. You say Amen, raise your hand. Those two options- silence is not one of them.

You put the Christmas tree up. All right now you can raise your hand for this one, or just be bold and say Amen, like a Astros fan, you know. Like, just do it. Okay, they're Astros. It's, my in-laws are Astros fans.

It's terrible, but they're pretty good. They got one of our players last week, didn't they? Christian Walker. He went over there. That's unfortunate.

Ah gosh, Astros fans are the worst. Anyways, how many of you put up your Christmas tree during December? Amen, raise your hand right. How many of you put it up right after Thanksgiving, amen. How many of you put it up right after Halloween?

Amen, amen. You know why? Cuz I know that Christmas tree is going to get me closer to Jesus. That's why, because I just feel the Nostalgia of it. And then I'm going to sit there, I'm going to stare at the lights for a second.

We put on all those ornaments. We yelled at each other about fluffing the tree and making it look good, and we sit there and we look at it and we're like man. I feel like I felt when I was six and I was waiting on gifts, and again I've taken a step in the direction of nostalgia, but I think a step in that direction can get you that much closer to the true meaning of Christmas. Why? Because God can shape and flip and move anything to get you where he wants you to be.

He can use a star, he can use a Hallmark film, he can use a Christmas tree and he can go beyond Christmas stuff. Many of you, as you approach Christmas, you're not reminded of the Nostalgia of the way things used to be. You're reminded of the loss that you've incurred over this last year. You're saddened by the fact that someone who used to be at Christmas with you is not here. And even in the midst of that, no matter how sad it is, God can take that moment, shift your perspective such that you would recognize something different about the current season and get closer to God.

I'm trying to say these things to help you understand that you're maybe putting pressure on yourself to feel a certain way or do a certain thing, but the God of the universe is able to turn anything he wants to on its head, and he can do the same in your life when you're searching. God can use anything. That's what I love about the story of the Magi. So bunch of random dudes from the East who saw a star and started walking and they happen to be right. When you're searching, God can use it.

I think about the areas in my life where I was searching and God used it and then light following that. I think about how much I screwed up in the process, how many areas that I was dead wrong, but for some reason God was able to use it. Some of you have heard my story when I trusted in Jesus. He used a whole lot of crazy situations- I'm talking crazy, I can't talk about it here there, seven-year-olds in the room- some crazy situations to get me closer to him. And so as you go into Christmas Eve- Christmas Day- I want you to recognize God can use everything that you do between now and then to get you where you need needs you to be.

That should be encouraging to you. That's what I get from the visit of the Magi. But as you get closer to Jesus, as you're searching for him, as you're searching for the true meaning of Christmas, as you're searching to get closer to your family, as you're searching for purpose in your life, maybe you're searching for other things, like a promotion at your workplace. You're searching for a spouse. Maybe you're single in the room.

You're searching for whatever it is as you're searching and you get closer and closer to whatever that is, you'll find that you're going to encounter resistance. That's my second point. When you get close, there's resistance. Everybody look at your neighbor for a second and look at them and say my point: when you get close, it gets hard, get hard. When you get close, it gets hard.

I see it all the time as a pastor, but this is in just about every area. When you get close to that great idea and then you start to share that idea to that first person that you come into contact with to try to get their opinion on that idea, that you feel like was maybe seated by God or seated by tons of creativity, and you're super excited about it, and then you share it with them and they're like: huh, you know what I'm talking about. Or tomorrow morning- I'm going to prep you guys for this- your 8-year-old, your 10-year-old, is going to open the gift that you thought about for hours, you spent a lot of money on and you were really excited to give them. They're going to look at it and be like: and then they, the little ones, are going to go play with the thing you spent two cents on. And then the older one's going to be like: where's the video game?

Right, don't, don't do that tomorrow. Son, I love you, dude, I love you. I forget he's in here. I got to like I know I spent a bunch of money on this dude. I love you, son.

I spent a bunch of money on this dude and he already knows what it is. It's a drum set in his son. Are you excited about it? See, you see what I'm talking about. He didn't say nothing.

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm G to have to go give him some PS psychology when we get home. I love you, son, proud of you, glad you're feeling better. I hope you like the drum set too.

It's going to be good. But that's what's going to happen, right? Something you prepped for, you got close to you, really excited about. Maybe it's a calling or it's the, the next idea that you want to put out into the world. Sometimes it could be as simple, as I think the world should hear what I have to say on this Instagram post and you put it out there and, like, two people like it and you're like man.

I thought I was close, but no one cares about it, because when you get close to anything that's good, but especially when you get close to where God wants you to be, there is something Cosmic that causes resistance. There is resistance, just like. I think there are a lot of ways that Christmas has gotten us so close to who Jesus is. But because of that resistance, we're right on the edge but at able to get to the true meaning. I got a couple examples using some of the same things.

Right, maybe come in here tonight. The reason we did a Christmas Eve is one we wanted to reach as many people as possible, but also because it's Christmas Eve. Right, if I didn't do silent night tonight, someone will write a review and they'd be like they didn't do Silent Night on Christmas. Don't go to this church, but we're going to do it because I love silent night. It's going to be good.

And we're doing a candle light service. Why many of us grow up doing C candl light Services. These are what we do. I'm excited about those things, but so many of the habits and traditions that we have formed. They get us right to the edge.

But we missed the point. How many of you like opening presents? My kids, I? I appreciate this front row y y'all are my on my good side today. I love it.

You like opening presents. It's interesting because the reason we open presents- and there are other reasons for it if you look back into history- but one of the main reasons is because you see, at the end of this passage, presents were brought to Jesus, when the Magi came to him, right. So we give presence out of our own generosity, recognizing that there is something deeper to the meaning of Christmas. We don't just give presence, CU, it was something we felt like doing and, if you want to take it further, yes, St Nicholas provided gifts for Orphans and widows, in the in Med medieval times. But that came from the heart, which was Christ, Jesus's birth.

That's why we do it. But now it has become in our consumeristic society something we feel like we have to do, like I think I got a picture back here of Black Friday from a couple years ago. Like we see, it's nothing crazy. I just got the one with the blur cuz. I didn't want the one with the person laying underneath all the people people's feet.

You know, like we Millennials and gen xers used to be crazy, but Jen Z is redeeming Us in the name of Jesus. We don't do Black Friday anymore, it's just Cyber Monday and, like every single day after Halloween, it's like I'm having a cyber monday deal. Today it's not even Cyber Monday, it's like three weeks before Cyber Monday. They're just capitalizing on what the like, the true meaning is: Christ Jesus and the gifts that were brought for him and what we are called to bring to him in terms of our capacity so that he can use our gifts to do something special in the world. However, all the gifts- I'm not talking mess about the gifts- I hope I get a gift this Christmas.

I bought a bunch of gifts this Christmas, but it's close, it? But there's resistance when you get close. It's resistance when you get close. How about sitting as a family for Christmas dinner? I found in my household- and we try to be a good spiritual household, right, I think that's many of you I know for a fact.

If we sit down all together, we're definitely going to pray over the food. If we're all sitting down together at the same time, at the same table, with the same intent, to eat a meal together without shouting, arguing or complaining about the fact that it's not chicken nuggets today, for the fifth time this week, I know when we sit around the table. We're going to pray and so, in order to get close to that, we sit around the table. But isn't sitting around the table pretty hard sometimes? We got, we tried, we tried, but somebody was yelling, somebody was screaming and crying because it was green on their plate, or I'm busy working, or whatever it is.

As you get close, there is resistance. Trees Were Meant to symbolize Resurrection, with the star at the top. The star, you know, the star the Magi follow. That's. That's kind of why you put the star on the tree, like I don't know if you knew that, if you didn't, that's great, but that's why they do it.

But we put the star on the tree out of nostalgia and thanks to resistance. We don't think about the fact that the tree was an evergreen tree meant to symbolize everlasting life and Resurrection in Christ, and the star meant to be the star that the Magi followed in order to, you know, appreciate the Son of God we think of. You know, maybe, a Bavarian Countryside with a bunch of evergreen trees, so we can get a Vibe. It's right up here. I got a picture for that one that this is a Vibe we're looking for on Christmas.

Look at that. You don't get that in Phoenix, do you? It's? Just look at that. I typed in: Bavarian Countryside, Christmas and that's what I got.

It might be a I, but that's the vibe I'm going for in my living room, but that's not the point. I'm close. I want the vibe, but I'm missing the point. I'm missing it. Sometimes, the women in our house simply want to be inspired and reminded of the magic of Christmas, and if that's you husbands wanting to watch Hallmark and Netflix movies, that's okay too.

Sometimes you just want to be reminded of the magic of Christmas, to hold your hand and celebrate, true love and the magic of Christmas from some random old guy who who talks to the person and reminds them that they should get back together with that guy that clearly did something that he shouldn't have done in those Hallmark movies. Husbands, just let them watch it and enjoy it together so that you can get that much closer. But when you get close to these things- I'm I've been making fun of my wife all Christmas- it's like: why would you watch that Lindsay Lohan movie? That's crazy. Why would you watch this?

Why would we watch this? Why would we watch with my daughter? What is it called the princess switch one, two and three and three. I think the second one's called switched again. I don't, it's switched again.

What's the third one called Hannah triple switch? Oh, Romancing the star, Romancing the star. My son's got it. You're going to have he be a good boyfriend one day. I don't know why we do it and I make fun of it, but the Lord's been convicting me.

Hey, dude, just lean into it, because if you can go on that route- the same route that the Magi took for this random star, that was, it wasn't random, but I, I mean I'm. If I'm looking at a star, it seems random. They followed it. Didn't know what it would result in. They even went to Herod the Great, who is definitely not the guy if they knew anything about history that they should have gone to.

Like, going to him was not a good idea. This dude wasn't even truly Jewish. They went to him, who's pretty much the puppet that Rome put in place so that they could rule over the people of Israel. Why would these Magi go to this guy? They didn't know what in the world was happening, but on the route they just kept going.

And if you just keep searching, keep searching even when you encounter resistance, like they did. He said: hey, when y'all go, when y'all go find this guy in Bethlehem, won't y'all come tell me about it? And they realized that as they encountered him, that there was some sort of resistance, there was something they needed to avoid. So they just kept going, they kept their mouth shut, and then they arrived and they found the Son of God, the king of the Jews. If you can search and push past the resistance, you're going to find what God has for you in terms of a connection with him, in terms of the purpose of your life, in terms of the type of family you want to build up, in terms of the type of Christmas you want to have.

As you search, push through the resistance, you're going to find him. And when you find him- this is my third Point- bring your gifts. I, I, I. We have a joke. It's interesting.

The gifts that they brought, I, I feel like the gifts that they brought like, sound like- I don't know if you had an aunt Edna who was really, really into like Norwex and Young, Young Living Like That, the kind of- you know what I'm talking about- like that person who's are you in a Young Living- I'm sorry if you are, my wife used to be, so I'm just making fun of her. If it's not you, . But they come over and say, oh my gosh, this frankincense is going to help you with your cold today. Maybe that's not it. Oh, here's some myrr oil that we can put into a diffuser and it's going to help you feel this way and like that's the kind of gifts they brought.

And then the one random guy. He's like: I'm guys, I'm not bringing that stuff, I'm bringing gold. Today it's interesting what they brought him. They had they were coming to a baby don't, don't you think they'd have brought- someone said, diapers that have been smart, 8 lb, 6 o baby Jesus. They should have brought some diapers.

They could have brought him like a, like a, one of those rockers that keeps him asleep. They could have brought him some swaddling claws. I know they already had some, but they probably weren't as good as the ones the Magi from the East who had gold clearly could have bought with that gold. They probably should have brought him something different. But it didn't really matter what they brought him, because God can take anything and use it for his good.

You don't have everything that someone else might have, but what you do have, when you search for Jesus, you find him. Push through the resistance. When you do, he can take what you have. Whatever that is it. It might be a skill, it might be a problem that you've yet to solve- God can take that thing.

He can flip it on his head and put you into a radically different position. I think it would be helpful for you if you brought everything you have to Jesus. It's interesting to me how the magi's gifts could be used, but it's so cool to me to see how God's people's gifts are used when they bring them to him. And many of us. We think we have talents and that's good, but you've yet to see what God can do with your talents.

In fact, you can bring your talent and he can multiply that Talent, increase your capacity. He can share with you your true purpose, rather than one that maybe someone indoctrinated into you at a young age. He can change everything about you. It's like that song, The Little Drummer Boy. I like it.

That kid didn't have nothing but a drum, but he played that drum for Jesus. I was, I, yeah, whoever someone in here. We got like four drummers. I didn't hear any drummers, except for that one celebrating. But drummers are all- yeah, the Little Drummer Boy- super obnoxious about his gift, just like these guys in here.

But you know what he brought that gift? And think about this way: if God can use anything in your life, if he can use anything to bring you to him, picture what he can do with what you bring him. Picture what he can do with what you bring him I. I think about the fact that, like I was, I was not necessarily the most articulate person growing up. I actually didn't know, I had no clue.

In fact, the only reason I even talk in front of people is cuz one day, someone asked me about what God did in my life and they said, hey, you should stand up in front of these people and tell them. And I was nervous as I'll get out- and I told them a terrible story, but I did it like with cohesive sentences, and that was when I realized God can actually use my voice to do something. Some of you, God can use your hands. You're such a hard worker and you're working on things that maybe have not been bringing you true Joy. But when you put your hands to the plow, like God.

What have you do? It changes everything. Bring what you have, bring your gifts. I don't know that the gifts are representative of what the Magi were capable of doing, but they're definitely a result of what they had been doing. They got the gold from somewhere, the frankincense from somewhere, the myrh from somewhere, and I know these are symbolic.

As you look at Scholars, they're symbolic to help you recognize that, hey, the gold is used to dot on royalty, the myrr could be used to en embalm somebody who has passed, and it signifies maybe the burial rituals that would be used later in Jesus's life. And the frankincense was used in reference to worship and burning of incense. Right, like those are cool symbolism, and maybe that's what they brought them for, but the baby sure wasn't going to use them for that, and so that should give you a piece to recognize that if God can use anything, then he can take anything in your life and utilize it for his good, regardless of whether you know the full extent of how he's going to use it. And I don't know how your Christmas is going to go tonight. I don't know how your Christmas is going to go tomorrow.

I don't know which family you're here, which ones aren't. And I don't know what you're looking at when Christmas break is over, at your job or at your school, but I know God can take every minute, every minutia, every portion of your life and do something powerfully with it. So while you're searching, God can use anything and if you can make it through some of the resistance to meet him, he wants you to bring everything to him. But again, the key Point here is search. That's why I called it Seeker friendly I.

I think those who aren't seeking have a hard time finding anything. But if you can take a moment right now to ponder what it looks like to trust in Jesus, I want to give everyone in this room the opportunity to trust him. So if everybody would bow their heads and close their eyes, I want to give you an opportunity to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. You'll remember it because it's on Christmas Eve to at our church, what we do is we pray this prayer out loud together, for the benefit of those who are praying it for the first time, and trusting in Jesus. So if you could, got could just repeat after me.

I'll lead you all in a prayer, repeat after me, say God, I believe, I that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Jesus Christ, I believe he died on the cross, I believe he died on the CR. And Rose from the grave. Rose from the grave, forgive me of my sin. Forgive me of my sin, make me a new creation.

Make me a new creation and I will follow you all the days of my life. Today is my new beginning. Now, everybody's heads bowed, eyes closed. I want to give you an opportunity to let me know that you just placed your faith and trust in Jesus. If that was you, on the count of three, just shoot your hand up.

No one's looking around, but they're going to celebrate, regardless of whether they see you or not. So, at the count of three, just shoot that hand up. One, two, three. Come on. Come on, I see them.

I see them. Come on, let's celebrate those who just trusted in Jesus all over the room.