Special Christmas Message

Come on, let's sing this out together.

You go before you are the last for us.

The star before declare your glory.

Glory in the high glory in the high Glory in the heart from Here is a bright morning star.

Your name will shine for all sea.

You are the one.

You are my glory.

Can we just lift our hands?

Glory in the highest.

For over 2,000 years ago, in a little town called Bethlehem.

The house of bread.

That's what Bethlehem means.

And how appropriate for the bread of life to be born in the city called the House of Bread.

So, Father, we thank you this morning.

We love you this morning.

And we exalt you this morning.

Oh, what an awesome God you are.

Father, we love you.

We we just thank you for all that you are.

God, we need you this morning.

We ask you to show up in power and in glory.

And Father, as we come to you on this Christmas Eve to celebrate your birthday, God, we ask you every word that's said will be honoring and glorifying to you.

Open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and Lord, our hearts to receive.

And we'll give you all the glory and the praise and the honor because you're so worthy.

And all God's people said.

Let's give Jesus a clap offering this morning.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

You may be seated, and let me just say welcome.

What a beautiful day.

It was supposed to be sunny, but that's okay.

Hey, it may be dreary on the outside, but my heart's full on the inside.

Amen.

And what a day to be in the house of the Lord.

Last year, we had Christmas on Sunday, and uh that comes every seven years, and now this year, Christmas Eve.

It's gonna be a beautiful service today.

Got a lot to do in this service.

So uh get you in.

But we're not in a hurry, but we won't be, I won't keep you much over an hour, I promise.

But it's gonna be awesome.

And then we're gonna go spend some quality time with our family.

Can I get an amen?

Amen.

We'll be traveling to Tennessee and then back and then to California for a few days.

So that's where all my grandkids are.

And they're saying, hurry, Poppy, hurry, poppy, hurry.

And uh so I can't wait to see my kids.

But let me say welcome to all our first-time visitors, many of you here, several for family, uh for the baby dedication.

It's gonna be a beautiful dedication service here in a moment.

And uh, so if you're a first-time visitor, would you raise your hand?

We have a gift that we'd like to give to you.

Yes, I've read.

Keep them up, keep them up, amen.

Barry here on the front row.

Barry's probably one of the best uh mechanics I know, and uh helps my nephew.

Uh when Trent messes it up, Barry fixes it.

So that's pretty good.

And uh, but we praise the Lord for all our first-time visitors.

We love you in the Lord, and uh it's exciting to see what over here.

Yes, Larry, that's exciting, it really is.

And let me just say uh again, from our staff, a lot of our staff's gone.

A lot of we got a lot of people gone.

If I had all the people here, we wouldn't have any room to put you, but uh praise the Lord.

We we got great plans coming.

We're building uh soccer fields are starting.

Jeremy back there is gonna be siding it.

We're gonna have soccer leads this summer, mom's day out program, and uh eventually we're gonna be building a multi-purpose building that'll be our worship center, and hopefully we're gonna try to do that within the next couple of years so we can uh double and triple the uh the size of our worship center because we're out of room.

We've been out of room, but we're excited about our new educational facility.

So, this new year's resolution, I want you to plan to start off in January coming to Bible study at 845.

Uh, we've got five rooms.

We're gonna have a new discipleship class for everybody.

I want everybody to church eventually to go through our discipleship class that's gonna be led by Brother Barry back there.

We're excited about that.

And uh we just it's exciting things happening.

And Wednesday night we're gonna have other Bible uh study programs going on on Wednesday night, along with our wana and our youth program.

It's just gonna be so exciting around here.

It really is.

So uh again, and we we feel like we have one of the best children's ministry in this whole region, and we praise the Lord.

There's so many young couples here in our region, and we love that, and we design our programs to reach young families.

In fact, let me tell you what I'm preaching Sunday week, my first Sunday in January.

Are you ready?

You've heard your pastor say.

And then we're going back, we'll be in chapter 10 uh in Revelation, picking back up there in uh mid-January.

But let me tell you what God has laid on my heart after studying for this baby dedication.

You know what he's laid on my heart?

You hear me say there is a storybook ending done the storybook way.

And the storybook way is the B-I-B-L-E.

That's the book for me.

So the first message I'm gonna bring to this new year is gonna be titled, How to Have That Storybook Ending.

It's gonna be powerful for a new year's resolution.

You don't want to miss it, I promise you.

But again, welcome.

Welcome to our visitors.

What I'm gonna do at this time, I'm gonna ask our families that are dedicating their children to the Lord to come on down.

We're very excited about this uh part of the service this year.

And you know why I love to do it at Christmas?

Honey, hand me my water, is let me tell you why.

Remember when we were we've been preaching on Christmas, and we talked about in Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Just bring the children on down, just come on.

Yeah, yes, come on.

People want to see how pretty they are.

Actually, yeah.

Y'all come on up, come on up, Brad.

Come on up, yeah, yeah.

Come on up here.

So y'all can see.

Got grandpa's coming too.

Amen.

Grandpas, moms, grandmas.

And really the charge, I'm excited.

I was up, I couldn't go to sleep last night because God was dealing with my heart about the baby dedication.

And uh, but from that baby dedication, God birthed in my heart that message on how to have that storybook ending.

That I'm gonna preach my first message in January.

But it's exciting because as they're coming up, let me kind of give you the background here.

In Luke chapter 2, you remember Jesus had just been born.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

And then Jesus was circumcised.

Mary and Joseph had Jesus circumcised, and then there was a purification process for Mary after having the baby according to the law of God.

And then after the circumcision, after the purification with Mary, they said, and I'll pick up the story, in verse 21 in Luke chapter 2, and it says, and when eight days were accomplished for the circumcision of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished.

Now, watch this.

Here's the significance of the message.

They brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.

As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.

What that means is that the first male child born to the Jewish family was to be dedicated to the Lord.

To be brought to the temple to dedicate their children to the Lord.

And they brought them to Simeon.

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

And that same man was just in devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.

And the Holy Ghost was upon him.

And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he saw the Lord.

And he came by the Spirit into the temple.

And when the parents, as they have done today, brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law.

Then Simeon.

Hey, the godly, devout man of God, took he him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now let thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.

For my eyes have seen the salvation.

So the Lord Jesus, in that time of Christmas like today, was brought to the temple to be dedicated to the Lord Jesus.

I meant Jesus was to be dedicated to God the Father.

And here's what, there's no doubt in my mind, Simeon.

Here's the question I asked myself this week.

What would that devout man of God have told Mary and Joseph?

Turn, bring up Jason, Psalms 127.

One of the greatest chapters, only five small verses in the Bible about the charge of parents and grandparents.

By the way, I'm a grandparent.

And grandparents, we have that responsibility to help our children bring our grandchildren up in the nurture and admonition of God.

And listen to what it says.

The first verse says, Except the Lord build a house, they labor in vain that build it.

Now notice the word they labor.

It's a mom and dad thing together.

It's not just, hey, the mom does all the rearing, which in the Old Testament, most of the time that was the case.

They had the most important role.

But the husband and wife, they labor together together.

And I wrote to myself a little note here.

I'm sure Simeon would have said, however, all work must be in conjunction with God.

He must not be excluded from our labor, or our labor will be in vain, useless, without value, and it will come to naught.

In other words, parents, grandparents, we are to build our house on Jesus Christ and the Word of God.

And the foundation is the Word of God.

And then notice he says, Except the Lord be the watchman.

Hey, he says, Keep the city.

The watchman walketh but in vain.

Here's what he's talking about: all the watching.

In other words, we're to protect them, we're to watch for them, we're to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of God.

We're to bring them up in the ways of God's word and not the world.

The Bible says the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God.

And we don't want that foolishness to be raised in our children and in our families.

We want the foundation of God and his word.

And then notice what he says.

It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of SARS, for so he giveth his beloved sleep.

Here's what he's saying there.

A lot of people read that and they don't understand it.

What is he talking about?

If all you're doing is building your house and working day and night and not having time for your family, not having time for the Lord, it's useless.

And here's what else is gonna happen you're gonna be struggling the whole time.

You'll be worrying about this, worrying about that.

But if you build your house on the rock, Jesus Christ, he says, I'm gonna give you sweet sleep, I'm gonna give you comfort, I'm gonna give you peace.

What a beautiful thought.

The peace of God that passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

What a beautiful exhortation.

And then notice what he says.

I love this next part.

And he then he brings the value.

He says this in verses three through five, and I love it.

Notice what he says.

Children are a heritage of the Lord.

Here we see the promise of children.

We see the prize, the fruit of the womb is his reward.

Now, here's what he's talking about.

Now, watch what he says.

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man's order, children of the youth.

Here's the main part.

These little children, these little men, these little girls, they are like arrows.

Arrows.

And back in Jesus' time, arrows were very important.

They had to be cut right, they had to be sharpened right, they had to be the right length, they had to be the right strength.

All those things had to be just right.

For those arrows to be strong and sturdy and strengthened.

So what is he charging us as parents and grandparents?

That we're to bring our children up, we're to train them up, we're to refine them, we're to strengthen them in the things of God.

So that one day they'll be able, and I love this last part as I close, they'll sit at the gates.

Listen to what he says here.

He says, they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

You know what that literally means?

The one who has children will experience the blessings of seeing his or her children succeed in life and be victorious and influential in the things of God.

Wow.

Wow.

So this morning, I am sure that is what Simeon shared his heart with Mary and Joseph that day about Jesus.

That you've got an opportunity.

You've been chosen by God.

Parents, grandparents, you've been chosen by God to raise these little arrows, to sharpen them, to train them, to make them all that God wants them to be.

And when you do that, when you do that, one day they will stand up in their communities and in their schools and in their region, and they will be a light that's set on a hill that cannot be hid.

And that's what we ask y'all to do.

And that's what we mean when we bring our children and dedicate them to Jesus this morning.

So let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Father, this morning we thank you for this baby dedication.

How blessed we are that all these children are being dedicated to you.

Just as Mary and Joseph brought them to the temple that day to be dedicated.

The charge, except the Lord build the house they labor in vain to build it.

Let these parents and grandparents make a covenant and let them make a covenant with you, God, to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of God.

You tell us in Proverbs 22, 6 train up a child in the way he shall go, and they'll never depart from it.

So, Lord, we thank you, we praise you for this, these beautiful families, and now, God, build their homes and parents, grandparents choose you this day whom you're gonna serve for.

Me and my house, we're gonna serve God.

Joshua 24, 16.

But can we give God a hand this morning?

Amen.

And give these families a hand.

Amen.

Congratulations.

And we have some Bibles for you, and I'm gonna let my wife handle that.

Okay?

Yes.

Amen.

And be careful as you ease back down to your seats.

Give them another hand, church.

Amen.

How beautiful.

How beautiful.

Make sure nobody falls down the steps.

To God be the glory, great things He is doing.

You know, it wouldn't be Christmas today.

If we didn't read the Christmas story.

And we got a little song today.

And first of all, Susan, I've asked my wife to come.

We have a all the years at huh?

I got it.

Yeah, yeah.

In our home on Christmas morning, we had a tradition.

We had a little VHS tape.

Y'all remember those days?

Some of us remember those dates.

We had a VHS of the birth of Jesus.

And Mary and Joseph coming into Bethlehem on the donkey.

And it was about a 20-minute little video.

And we'd play it every Christmas morning.

First thing we did, no presents.

No one opened any presents until we played the little true meaning of Christmas video about the birth of Christ.

And you know what I saw the other night?

Charlie Brown and Linus.

And Charlie Brown said, Linus, what is really Christmas about?

And Linus says, you don't know, Charlie Brown?

He says, no, I don't know.

She said, oh, let me tell you the story about the true meaning of Christmas.

And here's what she said.

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town of Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.

And the virgin's name was Mary.

And the angel went to her and said, Greetings, you who are highly favored, the Lord is with you.

And Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

But the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary.

You have found favor with God.

And you will be with child and will give birth to a son.

And you are to give him the name Jesus.

And he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.

The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.

And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.

His kingdom will never end.

In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.

This was the first census that took place while Carinias was governor of Syria.

And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house in the line of David.

He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born.

And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.

She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid.

I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

Today in the house of David, a Savior has been born to me.

He is Christ the Lord.

This will be assigned to you.

You will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger.

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly hosts appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to men on whom his favor to heaven dwells.

Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?

This child that you deliver would soon deliver you, Mary.

Did you know that your baby boy would give sight to a blind man?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would come a storm with his hand?

Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels try?

And when you kiss the little baby, you kiss the face of God.

Oh Mary, did you know?

Oh, Mary, did you know?

The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again, the line will live, the dumb will speak, the praise is of the night, did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy one day rule the nation?

Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect lamb?

And the sleeping child you're holding is the greatest.

Oh, it's been a long time ago.

I was sitting very similar with a rocking chair, watching my girls and my son Eric and Susan decorate the tree.

That's my job is to watch.

Because I'm, you know, if you need a little more over here, balls over here, you know, somebody's got to be the visual director.

So as I was sitting there that that day, and I was actually kind of in my lounge chair, and I reached over, and God just started giving me some ideas about the tree.

And as they were beginning to put the tree together, I thought to myself, tree, what does that represent?

And in fact, I haven't changed it a bit.

This is what I wrote that evening as they were putting the tree up.

It stands, the tree, when I look at the tree and and think about the tree, I think about the tree 2,000 years ago on a place called Calvary.

I think about the crucifixion.

And I wrote 1 Peter 2.24, who, his own self, bears sins and his body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live under righteousness by whose stripes we're healed.

And then I thought about another verse.

God forbid if we should glory in anything except the cross, the tree, that Jesus Christ gave his life for, you and me.

Galatians 6, 14.

And then I thought about as I touched a tree, or I was watching them touch the tree, and one of my girls said, Ooh, the needles, the needles on the tree.

And I wrote down immediately, suffering.

And I thought about the scourging of the cattle nine tails that you just saw.

The pieces of metal that's in those leather straps and how it dug into Jesus' back and ripped his back to pieces for you and for me.

Then I thought about the crowns of thorns that they put down on his head and took a wreath and drove those three to four inches thorns down into his brow.

And then I thought about the spear that pierced his side on the cross.

And I thought about all these different verses, but one that they pierced my hands and my feet.

Psalms 22, 16.

When I looked at the needles.

And then I saw on our tree we have a, we always had a big star on the top.

The Bethlehem star, we would call it.

And then I thought about the light of the world.

John 8, 12.

Jesus says, I'm the light of the world.

He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

And then I also thought, though, more than just the light, that you and I are to be that light.

When I saw these little lights on the tree, I thought about us, you and me, that we're to be a light that set on the hill cannot be hid.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which are in heaven.

We're to be that light.

God is our light.

And as He embraces us and encompasses us and fills us, then we are to radiate.

Those who look to Him are radiant.

They should never be ashamed.

Psalms 34, 5.

And then I saw the white ornament.

And I thought about the purity, the purity of Jesus.

The purity of us.

Let us, he says in 2 Corinthians 7.1, let us purify ourselves and let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh, perfecting holiness and the fear of God.

And then I also thought about, oh, come now, let us reason together.

Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be, hey, white as snow.

Isaiah 1.18.

And then I thought about the red balls.

And I couldn't help but think about Leviticus 17, 11.

The life of the flesh is in the blood.

Ephesians 1.7, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

And then the gold balls.

Oh, and we're going to see more about that as we pick back up at Revelation chapter 10.

Revelation 10 · chapter mention

I thought about, hey, the city.

The city was pure gold like clear glass.

Revelations 21:18.

Revelation 21:18

Folks, we're going to heaven.

We're going to walk on the streets of gold.

Can I get an Amen?

Amen.

Amen.

I put the cities in heaven.

The streets in heaven are gone.

The cities go.

The mansions in heaven are go.

The curses go.

The tears dash.

Summer, crying, pain, all wiped away.

That's what Christmas is all about.

That's what the tree is all about.

And then the hooks.

I saw the hooks and I said, Yes, that's my favorite.

Jesus told the disciples they were out fishing.

And he said, Hey, you're fishing for fish, but I want you to come follow me and fish for men.

Oh, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

We become fishers of men.

He who wins soul is wise.

Proverbs 11:30.

Proverbs 11:30

So when I saw that hook, I said, yes, well, that's who we are.

We're the hook people for Jesus.

And then Rosemarie shared this with you, but on our tree we'd put candy canes.

I love candy kings at Christmas.

And she told you what the candy cane stood for last week.

But let me tell you what God gave me that day, that night, as I was sitting there watching them put the tree together and put the candy canes.

Jesus is the sweetest name I know.

Amen.

And then God gave me this verse.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Oh, blessed is the man that trusts in him.

Is that not beautiful?

Psalms 34, verse 8.

Psalms 34:8

And then there was another verse, Psalms 119, 103.

How sweet are the words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth.

So that's what I was thinking of that evening with the candy cake.

And then the stand.

When they put the stand together, that as I was coming back down and I saw that stand, I couldn't help but first think about 1 Thessalonians 3.8.

For now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord.

For now ye live if you stand fast in the Lord.

When you've done all you can do, Ephesians 6 says stand.

Stand for Him.

Don't waver, don't give up, don't, hey, give out.

Stand.

Stand perfect.

Colossians 4 12, stand perfect and complete in the will of God.

So when I look at the stand, I think about that.

Are we complete in the will of God?

Are we fulfilling the will of God?

And then the last thing.

The gifts.

And I thought about 2 Corinthians 9.15.

Thanks being to God for his unspeakable gift.

And then another verse God gave me immediately.

The gift of love, and he says, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of light.

James 1.17.

So this Christmas, when you go home today and you open gifts, and in the morning you start.

You have friends and relatives around.

Right before you open the gifts, tell them the story of the Christmas tree.

And what the Christmas tree really means.

Because it really does mean the gospel.

The good news that Jesus came through his own self.

On the tree.