O Come all ye faithful, Stay faithful

Oh, come all you faithful.

This is the uh the only time I could find this in the Latin, the original the song, Adeste Fidelis, being played, and that's Bing Crosby in that clip.

How many of you have been watching your Christmas movies?

You've been getting your fill.

How many of you like you've had enough?

Anybody there?

But I was doing some research on O come all ye faithful, this song, and the writer John Francis Wade's endeavor as you look through the song was to take the singer on site to Bethlehem.

And so, as you think about those words of that song, he's trying to take you on site there.

He says, Oh, come all ye faithful, to this little town in Bethlehem.

And what he's doing is trying to get you to picture the scene.

And I think about Christmas, I think Christmas impacts the world.

Every year, Christmas impacts this world.

Um, some statistics, 160 of 194 nations observe Christmas as a national holiday.

And it's the Mass of Christ, literally means day of Christ shortened to Christmas.

And that's a beautiful time for families, friends, our traditions, and we love those things.

But as we think about Christmas, uh something interesting, it quite literally impacts the world.

It's the greatest stimulus to the economy every year.

Christmas provides.

And I was thinking about that thought and talking to Heather, and it was like even though Christ is in heaven, he still impacts our world in the greatest sense every year.

Every economy, because of Christmas, the day of his birth, is stimulated through all the retail and things.

So Christ is still having his way, and uh, it's interesting, even though he's having his way in much greater ways.

But Christmas yesterday came to an end.

And we're all sad.

I was hoping today that I had at least 11 people in church.

Because Christmas came to an end, and as we got ready for today, but what if we could take Christmas with us a little while longer?

When I think about this song, and when I think about what Christmas really means to me and hopefully to you, hopefully it can go a little while longer with us.

Let's pray and we'll dive in.

Father, we thank you for Christmas.

We thank you for a day, a culmination of the celebration of the baby Jesus, the birth of Lord, what is so much more than just a baby, Lord, a Savior.

And God, I pray that you would help our church this morning.

Lord, I pray that you would hide me behind this message.

God, I pray that this message would permeate our hearts.

And God, um, Lord, I pray that Jesus would stay with us, Lord, not in a sense of salvation, but Lord, the celebration, Lord, would go with us every day.

Lord, help it to be so full in our hearts.

We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So if I can set the scene for you in Luke chapter 2 as you turn your Bibles there.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 2, as we set the scene, the we saw the shepherds had come, and Pastor Danny preached on that in the first week of this series.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

The shepherds came and they sang, Glory to God in the highest.

And then last week he preached on Mary, did you know?

And and Mary and Joseph took on this amazing uh journey to be the virgin that would conceive this child.

And and later on, okay, we're we're in a scene today that's before this last word.

Later on, I preached on the wise man who came probably about two years later.

But right there, packed in between that, there's a couple of verses in Luke 2.

If you just, you probably, if you read the Christmas story, you didn't even go to these verses.

You would have stopped maybe before it yesterday.

But I want you to go to Luke chapter 2, and if you'll look down at about verse 25.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Now, Jesus, the scene there, Jesus is presented in the tight the temple.

This is about 40 days after the birth of Jesus.

They would wait for eight days for his circumcision, and there was a purification process for Mary post-birth, and so about, which they said was 32 days, so about 40 days after his birth, we come in contact with what seems almost like an obscure scripture.

Um, you like I said, most people wouldn't read this in the Christmas story, but it's much a part of it.

And this is what we see.

First thing this morning, Christmas is exalted through the faithful.

Let me read verse 25 through 28 here.

It says, And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.

And this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.

And the Holy Spirit was upon him, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

So he came by the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms, and he blessed God.

And so we see first Christmas is exalted through the faithful.

It is clear in Scripture that faithfulness is held in high regard.

In fact, uh there's no other place that you see this in Scripture, but in Hebrews chapter 11, it seems like there is a biblical hall of faith for the faithful.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

And the names of people are put out throughout that passage, and it says names like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, says names like Noah and Moses and Joshua and Gideon.

It says these great names of the Bible, David and Samuel and Daniel, and so.

But what it says at the beginning of Hebrews 11 6, it says, without one thing, it is impossible to please God.

Anybody know what that one thing is?

It says, without faith.

It says without faith.

And so most things that we look at, maybe today you've uh done some Christmas presents and you put out um some toys and you found this out.

Most things that you have powered by batteries, right, have an on and off switch.

Okay?

So if if something is powered by batteries, if it comes if the package, I like packages that says batteries included, right?

Then there's not a child upset on Christmas morning.

It's like, what a big, you know, deflation.

I got a present.

And then you look at it and it needs something, and everything's shut down.

Well, if the batteries are included, that's great, but it still has to be activated by a little switch.

It's ready for immediate use, but you have to activate that switch.

And as a Christian, faith is our switch.

When we activate our faith, we access the power of God.

But we have to be activated by faith because the scripture says without faith, it's impossible to please God.

He wants to know that you believe and trust that he can.

And so, verse 25, we're introduced to a man of faith.

How do we know that?

A couple of things it says about Simeon.

Letter A this morning is this Simeon is full of the Holy Spirit.

It says he was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit, verse 25, was upon him.

Well, the word Simeon, the name Simeon means something.

And you know, if you study scripture, names mean things.

Simeon means one who hears and obeys God.

Now, every believer upon salvation, church, listen to me, hear this.

Every believer upon salvation is given the gift of the Holy Spirit of living God.

It says that Simeon was full of the Holy Spirit.

So that means Simeon believed he was a believer.

You are indwelt when you come to know Christ with all the authority of God in that moment.

Okay?

All of it.

You don't get a part Holy Spirit, and sometimes you get all of the Holy Spirit.

That's why salvation has to involve change.

Okay?

You cannot stay the same person but have the living God living in you.

And so it involves change.

When a man becomes a Christian, John 1 12 says that as many receive him, to them gave he power to become sons of God.

So we take on this adoption of a change.

We become a different family member.

And I was thinking on that, you know, I'm a right.

Okay.

It's in my blood.

I could change my name, but that's my family.

And uh thinking about Christmas and Christmas times together, um, one of the funny stories in my family, I can't deny being a right.

And mostly, and I'm not, Heather gets mad at me for doing this, but mostly I can't deny it because of look at my size.

Okay?

When you see my family, and this is the funny thing about in my family, I am the tallest person outside of one cousin that's blood related.

Okay, I have a cousin who's about five foot eight.

And so when I was growing up, we would have Christmas gatherings, and one time in particular, I can't remember if it was an aunt or a grandma, but I came walking in the room, and my grandma literally, what is whichever one of them was, said this.

Oh, look, here comes the big guy.

And so I can't deny my blood.

If you look at me and my family, that's something that you see.

But I want you to understand when we become a Christian, we can't deny that.

Believers, we have been bought through the blood of Jesus Christ.

And it's almost as if the Holy Spirit is a marker of that transmission of change.

Because it says in Ephesians 1, until the day of redemption, until the day of our death, we are sealed by that Holy Spirit.

And so when that changes, it's almost like it comes into our bloodline.

I was a right, and if Jesus' last name were Christ, then now I'm part of Christ.

I'm a little Christ.

That's what Christian means.

I'm a little Christ.

And so all of a sudden, my bloodline, I've been adopted, I've been changed, and now I have the Holy Spirit.

And so what this scripture says is that you are full of that Holy Spirit.

I want you to understand this concept, and I'm going to show you a picture of it in a second.

You're full of that Holy Spirit upon salvation.

Simeon was faithful and he was full of the Holy Spirit.

But you may be full, but you still need filled.

That's why Paul wrote this, that we be not drunk with wine, which is excess, but be filled by the Holy Spirit, to be filled with things.

And he says here, a couple of more things about Simeon that talks about how we see who he is.

It says he was, let me read it to you.

It says, there was a man in Jerusalem, Simeon.

He was just and devout.

So it talks about who Simeon was.

He was just, devout, he was faithful, the Holy Spirit was on him.

How could Luke see that the Holy Spirit was upon him?

Remember the meaning of his name, one who hears and obeys.

So there was something seen different about Simeon.

And I want you to understand, those who have Christ in them should reflect something different.

Says verse 26, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit.

He was given revelation by the Holy Spirit.

In verse 27, it says he was led into the temple by the Holy Spirit.

So Simeon was full of the Holy Spirit of God.

I'm not talking about salvation.

I'm not just talking about he was saved.

He was saved, but he was filled.

And so I got thinking about that.

Okay, I want to show you a little picture here.

Whatever you fill yourself with, whatever you fill yourself with is what you're going to be full of.

I'm saved, but you know what?

I can take this every day and work on filling myself full of that, right?

And I can put that in.

Or I can be saved, but I can be so full of this.

Man, I just got to get as much education in my life, and then I will have reached the highest levels, right?

I can get myself so much of that.

Or maybe I am very consumed with all of the pleasure I can get.

And so I fill myself with every opportunity for pleasure in my life.

That's what I'm trying to fill with.

Or maybe I've got some of that money, and I'm just trying to get stuff.

And I'm filling myself, just trying to get as much stuff.

Or maybe I've got stuff, but I want to get higher in rank or power.

And so I need more trophies.

I'm in sports or at the job or in the workplace or in education, and I'm trying to climb the ladder in the ranks of life, so I'm just full of that, or maybe, man, this is just running my life.

So it's relationships, it's this person, it's that friendship, and I've got to get full of that because then I will feel so full.

And I want you to understand something.

As we come across the world and we're a Christian, we're full of lots of things.

You see how much of that is left?

And so, whatever I fill with, all of a sudden, this is what I got to give to the world, and I'm pouring out what I'm full of.

But I have the opportunity every day to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit in Scripture often is talked about in terms of water, the water of the Spirit.

And when I fill up with this when I wake up in the morning, and when I fill up with this as I'm riding to work, listening to worship music, and when I fill up with this when I take a break or I talk about scripture, when I fill up with this, guess what's coming out of me?

Man, I'm filling up for the world.

And you know what happens when I'm full of the Holy Spirit?

Man, the Holy Spirit Spirit's in me.

I'm full, and that's coming out of me.

You see, Simeon was a person that it was evident, it was evident what was filled in him.

And I want you to know, Christians, it it's pretty evident what you talk about.

It's pretty evident what you love, it's pretty evident what we're full of today.

And Simeon was a person full of the Holy Spirit.

Well, we need to move on to the next part of this.

Go past verse 27.

Simeon was full, let her be, not only of the Holy Spirit, but he was full while holding salvation.

Look at verse 28.

I want to read it and I want to share with you a picture of it.

It says, He took him up in his arms and he blessed God.

I remember the first time I held each one of my children.

You that are parents, do you remember that moment when you grasp your child for the first time?

What a feeling that was.

And every one of them, you guys that are, every one of them changed your life, did it not?

You guys that have a lot of kids, did it not?

But it doesn't matter.

If you had one, it changed your whole life.

It changed the way that you do everything that you do.

If you ever thought that, you know, as a parent, if you think you're selfish, like you, you were really selfish before you had children, right?

You don't have much opportunity to be selfish like you used to.

And so now you have this thing that depends on you.

But I remember, man, the first time I held my daughter, my little girl, it's my first girl, and that feeling looking down on her.

And then I had my firstborn boy, and I had that pride.

Now the name goes on.

And I held him close to me.

And then I heard held Weston, and Weston, I mean, this child smiles and it draws people.

He did that as a little baby.

I would hold him in the lobby of our first church, and he would just smile, and people would just start walking.

And I know that babies do that anyway, but I felt special like it was just my child.

And so, but I remember holding them and that feeling like, man, can life be any better than this?

Is there anything really that's going to be better than this moment?

And so imagine this scene, and don't miss the wait, okay?

The Holy Spirit has told Simeon, before your death, you're gonna see the Christ child.

Now, Simeon is old, so that's part of the picture.

Simeon has lived an old and faithful life, but I believe Simeon is brimming with excitement about what's up and coming.

And verse 28, as all that's going on, it says, He takes him up.

I don't think that was like he walked in and was like, Oh, there's a baby.

May I hold him?

I think, I think Simeon, it says he takes him up, and Simeon holds in his arm.

Do you get that, church?

Maybe not the depth.

Simeon was privy to a feeling like no other person.

Can I tell you the affection of my child?

There's not much like it.

Uh my day can be very dreary, and one of my children can make me totally feel different.

I can look at my child, pause all that's going on in my head, and go, I have a whole lot of purpose when I look at my child.

A child, my child can be affectionate towards me, and I'm telling you, it can cut back tears that I've been fighting through the day.

I can be so discouraged.

And Simeon takes his child and says, He took him up.

He held him close.

And listen to this there was Jesus tenderly resting in the arms of Simeon, and Simeon tenderly resting in Jesus' salvation.

Let me say that again for you to hear.

Jesus was tenderly resting in the arms of Simeon, while Simeon was resting in the salvation of Jesus all in one moment.

The wholeness of the omnipotent and omnipresent, matchless King of Kings, contracted into the sum of the span of a child, is now held to his chest.

Can you imagine?

He is in contact with perfection.

In this overwhelming moment for Simeon, look at his words.

He took him up, and look at verse 29.

Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.

He says, All a man could ever hope to have is Christ close to him.

All a man in this life, all that a man could ever wish for in this life is to be so close to Christ.

And Simeon, full of the Holy Spirit, faithful, an older man, has this Christ, embracing the Savior, and he says in the Latin, the nun Dimitis, which means now depart.

I'm ready to go home.

What else could there be but this?

And he holds him close to himself with that thought.

But may I submit CCW?

There are a plethora of things vying to be held to your chest.

There's many, many things in this world vying to be full in you, and trying to take your time and trying to take your treasure and trying to take all that you are and live and being at the altar of your chest, but nothing, nothing compares.

It says he took him up.

And scripture says, If I be lifted up, all men will be drawn to myself.

And so how could Dr.

Luke look at this and see it?

Because this man was a man that lifted God up.

The Holy Spirit was in him, and he lifted him up, and he says, Wow.

This was a different kind of man.

Well, we could take that verse right there and probably end this story because there was plenty right there.

But Simeon had a word to share, and I want to share that with you.

And point number two this morning is this Christmas edifies through the faithful.

How can Christmas continue?

It encourages through the faithful.

Look at verse 31.

Or verse 30.

It says, For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared prepared before the face of all peoples.

I like to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.

And Joseph, his mother, marveled at those things which were spoken of him.

Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against.

Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

What is he saying?

This is an encouragement, and I want you to understand that through the faithful, people are edified.

They're built up, and that's what he's used to do.

He's given a word, he's blessed.

And I want you to understand, church, that our spiritual gifts are for the use of edification.

Scripture says that, Ephesians 4.12, that for our edification is spiritual gifts.

In fact, Ephesians 4 29 says, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is used to edification, building people up.

You know, there's a statistic that I was looking up in Alabama, okay, for our students.

20.9% of Alabama students have.

Reported being bullied in high school.

17%, a different 17% reported cyberbullying.

79.3 million US workers reported in 2019 workplace bullying.

Practically what that means is we live in a mean world, right?

It's the mean one.

It's Mr.

Grinch, right?

We live in a mean world.

And so don't we, CCW, have an opportunity?

I can't overstate why you're so important.

You are the light of the lighthouse, bearing the light.

And he says, let your light so shine that the world may see it and glorify your good works for your Father which is in heaven.

And so it's talking about being a light in a world that is so discouraged.

We're not here to be a social club.

We're here to be a hospital.

We're here to be a refuge.

And when you take what God's given you and you feel it, you take that refuge out.

It's not just in this building.

I hope for sure when you come in here, you can be encouraged.

But I hope as you go out into the workplace, you are that light to other people.

Edifying, encouraging, uplifting.

And so Simeon blesses them.

This is what I want to do.

I want you to take 10 seconds.

Someone around you, I want you to go ahead and encourage somebody.

Take 10 seconds right now.

Go.

Whatever that means for you.

Be quick.

Some of y'all just waiting for that person to finish.

Alright, good.

So some of y'all, this is what I noticed.

Some of y'all didn't do it.

I'm not going to say it.

But if you didn't do it, you might need some work.

Some of you say, Well, I just didn't do it because somebody told me.

Well, then you need work in a whole nother area.

That's just like an altar call.

I'm not gonna come.

The preacher said do something.

I'm not gonna do it.

It's our rebellious nature.

I understand.

Okay.

I is that.

I understand.

Somebody says, raise your hand.

I go, Well, I'm not gonna do it unless the Lord told me.

Right?

And so I know, I know, but listen, I gave you an opportunity to encourage something.

I said, Well, I don't know about that.

And so he blessed them.

He is an encourager.

Simeon is encouraging, and he says two things.

One, he praises because of the arrival.

Again, in verse 30 through 32, he says, That my eyes have seen salvation.

This light that was brought to the Gentiles in the glory of he says is for everybody, for the Jew and the Greek, and it was an anticipation of an arrival.

How many of my students in here, man, you were excited about Christmas coming?

Yeah, right?

How many of you, let's just, adults, let's just be real.

How many of you were excited?

Because you knew you were gonna have some gifts, right?

You were excited, right?

Okay.

Look, my grandma, bless her.

Look, to the day she died, she said, I love gifts.

I love getting gifts.

She was real about it.

I love that, okay?

And so there's anticipation, my kids, like, I think we get meaner or meaner, I don't know, but we we we've been sending them, we've got an upstairs room, so we sent them up there at the end of, you know, on the night before.

And uh, so we're able to sleep well yesterday morning.

I guess Wesson had had enough.

He started yelling out the door.

He was like, That day, it's Christmas.

And so finally we get up, you know, but it's all this anticipation.

We go upstairs and we do the Christmas story and we sing happy birthday to Jesus.

But I know as a child they must be like just about to burst.

So the anticipation of something coming.

In verse 25, I want you to go back.

I want to show you a couple of important scriptures here.

Verse 25, it says, There was a man in Jerusalem, Simeon.

He was just about, he was waiting for something.

He had anticipation for something, and that was the consolation of Israel, the coming of the Messiah.

Verse 38, we're gonna look at in just a few minutes, but we see that the same thing, and coming in that instant, she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of him to all those who were looked for the redemption in Jerusalem.

They were looking unto this Messiah.

Seven hundred years before, talk about an anticipation.

We have hours, maybe weeks that we wait on Christmas.

Seven hundred years before, the prophet Isaiah said that the Lord himself will give a sign, a virgin will conceive and bring forth a son, and his name will be Emmanuel.

And so, an anticipation that was long awaited.

So when Jesus arrived, these instances, the shepherds singing glory to God in the highest.

These instances weren't just another year waiting on Christmas.

Seven hundred years since this prophecy, and they've been waiting for a Messiah.

And when the wise men would see him, when Mary and Joseph would hear of this, and so everyone was waiting for this event, this Messiah.

The name means Yeshua.

Messiah, Yeshua, that is to say, Yahweh is salvation.

Jesus means God saves.

See, the problem is in Romans 5.12, for by sin entered through one man into the world, and death by sin.

And like a bad strain of the flu, sin infected every person in all of humanity.

And so sin came.

Romans 3.23 says, For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

So we needed Messiah.

We needed Yeshua.

We needed God as salvation.

And so that verse didn't end Romans 3.23 there, because the very next verse, which isn't quoted often with it, says, And by one man Christ, all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption of his blood.

And so, Messiah was sent, and in the Garden of Eden, man's arrival marked the birth of sin.

But in the Garden of Gethsemane, the arrival of the man Christ, who would blot out and obliterate sin.

That's why Paul could write, O death, where is thy sting?

O grave, where is thy victory?

Because the anticipation of this arrival had come.

He prays because of his arrival.

Letter B, he prays because of what he would accomplish.

Verse 34 and 35.

It says this about his accomplishments.

It says, Behold, Simeon blessed him, said to his mother, Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many and for a sign which will be spoken against.

A sword will pierce through your own soul.

What does that mean, Pastor?

What is his accomplishments?

You know, man is not remembered just by being born.

He's remembered in his life because of what was accomplished.

We have three U.S.

holidays that celebrate a man.

We have uh what's called now President's Day, but you know, when I was growing up, it's Washington's birthday, and they kind of lumped in Lincoln's birthday.

Um Martin Luther King Day, and then we have Christmas Day.

Okay, we celebrate them not because of just the day of their birth, but because what happened in their life that changed the world.

And so what Simeon says here, it seems confusing.

The child is destined for a fall and a rising of many.

What does that mean?

It says in Isaiah that he was coming to be a stone that would reject and receive.

The coming answer is that he was coming, and many is going to reject him.

I don't know why anyone dying would reject life.

How many of you know this?

You know some people that they just don't like the truth.

You got some people in your life that it seem like they just don't like the truth, right?

The Bible says that the truth will set you in uh chains.

Is that what it says?

No, it says that the truth will set you free, but there's some people that for some reason or another they will reject truth.

The gospel's not difficult.

But through the history of time, many have tried to find a better way.

Or make a better way.

If you look through it in scripture, Pharisees and Sadducees and Scribes, they tried to find another a better way than Christ.

The agnostics said that he was here and left.

The atheists said that God he never came.

The Muslims said that he's Allah.

The Buddhists say he can be anything.

The Mormons, the Christian scientists, the Moonis, and on and on and on, people try to make a better way than Christ.

And there's not a better way.

And so he says here that many will reject it.

I want you to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

Turn over there real quickly with me.

Need to see this.

Look down at verse 18.

We'll start in verse 17.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.

For the message of Christ, listen to this, is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

And so we see that for someone who believes in Christ, it's the power of God unto salvation.

But for others, they're looking for some other way.

Some other way for salvation.

Like this, this isn't good enough.

They can't accept that this child was born and would forgive because of his blood on the cross our sins, and we look for some other way.

And so he says that this child is destined for a fall and rising of many.

He says, after that, Mary, he's looking at the mother of Jesus.

He says, A sword will pierce through your own soul.

He said, I thought you said he edified.

I thought you said he encouraged him.

What does that mean?

In a literary term, what happens here is a foreshadowing.

And foreshadowing means sharing of something that's going to happen in a future event.

In John 19, 25, listen to this.

There's a picture, a scene.

If you've ever seen, how many of you here raise your hand and say you've seen the Passion of the Christ?

Have you seen this movie?

And the Passion of the Christ, there's actually two instances in the movie, but in one, they capture Jesus walking down Golgotha towards the place of the cross, and they pan over, and Mary is sort of in an alley, and her eyes meet with Jesus.

And I can't imagine in that moment.

As a parent, what Mary felt as she panned over and seen her son carrying a cross to his crucifixion.

But I think she might have felt a little bit of something like Simeon said here.

A sword will pierce through your own soul.

John 19, 25 says, This now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother Mary.

I wonder if in that moment Mary remembered those words.

Long ago, 40 days after her baby's birth.

Well, it goes on.

In verse 35, he says something at the end of it, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

Well, what does that mean?

That the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.

This is what I read this week.

A commentator said it's the cross of Christ is the great divider or separator of good and evil.

See, the life of Jesus Christ presented in the New Testament either draws people to the Christ, or as they read it, they want to run and turn their hearts away.

And so Dr.

Luke thought this was important for us to understand that many would receive, but many would push away.

And today, church, you may be full of him.

You may have had a moment of salvation, and you filled up with all that you can get.

But I'm telling you what, you can still put things in the way.

There are some people these things have blocked and they have never been willing to receive.

It's a great divider.

Well, you could close with that, but Dr.

Luke thought it was important for every reader to hear the last three verses here of this paragraph.

I want you to turn to verse 36 and 38.

We've been learning about Simeon, but it takes a turn to another person named Anna.

Point number three this morning is this Christmas evangelizes through the faithful.

It evangelizes.

When it's in our heart and we're full of it, it evangelizes.

You know, the Great Commission is our mission.

And I share this almost every time I preach, but your purpose on earth is a great commission.

That's what you and I are here to do.

No matter what your job is or what your field is, we have been commissioned to share the gospel of Christ.

Scripture says, and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

And how shall they hear unless somebody speak?

And so we're commissioned to do this.

Well, I want to introduce you to Anna, letter A.

Anna was a persevering worshiper.

Let's look at verse 36 to 38.

Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phaniel, of the tribe of Asher.

She was also of great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity.

And this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple.

She loved her some church, but served God with fastings and prayer night and day.

And coming in that instance, she gave thanks to the Lord and spoke of him to all who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

So this is the picture again.

Anna comes in, was of great age.

She'd been a widow 84 years, possibly close to a hundred years old, depending on when she would have been married.

And she would not leave church.

That could have been a whole message right there.

Psalms 84 says, Better is one day in God's house than a thousand elsewhere.

According to this CCW, it's better to be in church one day than one thousand vacations.

It's better to be in church one day than one thousand profitable days of work.

One day in God's house with God's people is better than one thousand football games.

One day serving in God's house is better than 1,000 days of education.

Amen, students.

One day, listen, it's not just a pretty saying.

It's not just a catchy statement in Scripture.

He says it's better to be a doorkeeper in the house of God than a CEO in some other place.

It's better to be in God's house.

And this is where Anna was at.

She learned and lived, and because of her faithfulness, she wouldn't leave the church.

Now you couldn't live at church.

So that means she went from her house to the temple every day.

She went to the church.

She did not depart.

It says she did not depart church.

Anna loved her some church.

If you love church, will you look at your neighbor and say, I love me some church?

I love church.

You know, my kids got clothes in the church building over there.

We got there's a there's a trail, surely, with the rights marked on it in that building.

Give us some time.

I'm sure it'll be here.

And so we I love church.

Anna was old and she was without a husband, but I want to tell you something.

She didn't give up.

She kept serving, she kept praying, she kept fasting.

She didn't say, Well, I've served my time in that ministry, and I'm gonna let it up for somebody else.

Day and night she prayed and fasted, and night and day she prayed and fasted.

And this all served as a witness to her beliefs.

And church, I want to tell you, every time you keep showing up, it serves as a witness to who you are.

Every time that you keep serving, it shares as a witness to the type of person, the faithfulness that's in you.

Every time that you are worshiping in this place, it shares as a witness that you are faithful to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

It's a witness when you persevere and worshiping, when you keep showing up.

And let me say this: if you are a widow today, if you're you feel like Anna, listen to me.

Bible has a lot to say about how the church should take care of our widows, our elderly.

But this is the picture.

He says, don't give up.

You have a place.

Keep praying, keep serving, keep worshiping, keep looking for opportunities to serve our King.

And you will be a great testimony.

Look, three verses.

How many people do you see that get to meet the baby Jesus?

And for some reason in Scripture, we get to meet Simeon and Anna, who were elderly, and it seems like all they had was just their life, and they were older, and all they had to give was their faithfulness, and that's what they did.

And now we get to talk about them because they've been faithful.

So persevere, keep going.

Let her be as this.

Anna was a passionate witness.

Look again at verse 38.

And when she walked in in that moment and saw that baby.

And in that instance, she gave thanks to the Lord, and after that, spoke of him to all.

Look at those powerful words.

It says, Spoke of him to all.

After Anna saw Jesus, her cup was so full.

Her cup was so.

I bet everyone she came across.

You know who I saw?

It's like some of y'all.

Oh, you know what I got for Christmas?

Let me tell you.

Oh, let me tell you.

When you get excited about something, you tell people.

That's why it's so easy to know, you know, whether you're filling with things because you talk about it.

You're not shy about what you love.

If you've got a new relationship in your life, oh, just talk to a teen girl when they find their man, right?

They're gonna talk about, oh, he's so dreamy, he's so wonderful, he's so romantic, he's so everything, right?

Or you want to talk about something you love, let's just go about after the next ball game.

Oh, there's people in here, I could bring up the date.

And they'd say, Oh, I remember that game.

I remember the date of that game.

Oh, I remember it happened in the third quarter, third quarter, four minutes in.

Remember that past?

Remember that intercept?

I mean, they would they love it.

And listen, there's not anything wrong with loving things.

I'm not saying these things represent you're a bad person, but what I'm saying is you need to love this and fill up with this first, be full of that, and then be a Holy Spirit-filled football, you know, whatever.

Be a fanatic for the thing that you love, but be a fanatic for Jesus first.

And so Anna couldn't help but talk about Jesus.

When I have students in youth ministry, it's like, it's easy to tell which ones love Jesus.

When do they ever post about Jesus?

When do they ever talk about Jesus?

You know, when when you know something, you want to start, you get inquisitive.

And so when a student comes to me and says, Pastor, I was reading this scripture and I don't totally understand it, I'm like, that one, that one at least likes Jesus.

Right?

We it's not hard to figure out what we love because you're filled with it.

And when you're filled with something, it you can't help it.

Your brim gets full.

The other day, this is just me.

This is just stuff happening.

I know somebody else here is like this too.

But I filled my coffee up.

I walked away, and the coffee was filling to the top, and I'm like, oh.

And you know, right there at the place, I could have dealt with it.

It was full, brim full, right?

I could have dealt with it right there at the curry, maybe took a sip of it, but I'm like, I'm gonna take this over to the sink and pour some of this out.

So I'm I'm walking like this with my coffee over to the sink, and you know what happened?

Yeah, it started pouring, and I'm like, ah! It's burning my hand and it's pouring.

And as I get over to the sink, I look at the cup and it's like, you know, it looks like this much has come out.

Like a quarter of an ounce.

I look back at the floor and it's like a flood.

How is there so much all over the floor?

How did this happen?

It's on me, it's on the floor, but it just looks like what I'm saying is when you're full of something, it's gonna come out and it's gonna hit, it's gonna splash, it's gonna affect people.

They are gonna know what you're full of.

It's like it multiplied, right?

If you've met face to face with God and He saved you from your sins, man, you're thankful.

You're gonna get close to somebody, they're gonna get splashed.

Pastor Danny says, I got the can't help it.

I can't help but speak and say those things.

And so, all of these things, man, we talk about relations, we talk about food.

Man, were you at that part?

Did you have that thing?

Oh, it was so good.

And we talk about those things that we love.

Here's the deal Anna was so full.

It says she spoke of him to all.

How did Christmas continue 40 days after the birth?

They got so full of him that they couldn't help but speak of him.

And she was going everywhere speaking of him.

She did this, she prayed, she fasted, she served, and she spoke of Jesus.

She prayed, she fasted, she served until the day of her death.

Why do I get like that, preacher?

You have to make a commitment of spending more time with the thing that you love.

Those other things that you love, you love because you're giving them your time.

Man, can we commit to spending more time reading this book?

Some time reading this book.

Man, can we make that commitment?

Man, tonight, tomorrow morning.

You know, the Bible says Joshua 1.8, if you want success day and night, meditate on this day and night.

Can you make a commitment to be more with him?

Man, some more time with Jesus.

Singing more about Jesus, man, searching more about Jesus.

Make your internet time more about Jesus, your posting time about Jesus.

Man, if you're in the book club, have a Jesus book club.

If you build, build for Jesus.

If you cook, cook for Jesus.

Whatever you do, can you make some time for Jesus?

It'll make you a more passionate witness.

You know, I could sit down with you and spend, I could spend hours telling you about how good my wife is.

I spent a lot of time with her.

And I love her.

Man, there's so much to say.

I could give you 20 years of history.

Do you have years of history with your Savior?

And you just want to tell people.

And I just gotta tell you how good he is.

Well, if you get closer to him, you'll be more passionate about him.

I want you to bow your heads this morning, close your eyes.