Are you ready for Christmas?

Have your Bible and I hope you do go and make your way to 1st

John chapter 3, first John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention 1 John 3 · chapter mention

Before we dive into the sermon, let me just kind of Orient you

to. What's left for us after we.

Spend some time in God's Word this morning after worship

through song. We're going to immediately

observe the Lord's Supper after the message, so I just go ahead

and invite you. To prepare your heart to

partake. If you are a born again,

baptized believer in Jesus Christ and I want to invite you

to participate in that, and then following our time of the Lord's

Supper, we'll have a time of invitation in response to what

you've heard and and what you've seen before.

We celebrate some things together this morning towards

the end. So, but I hope you've found your

way to 1st John chapter 3. My my question if you're looking

John 3 · chapter mention

on the inside of your worship. God, follow along in the notes.

The question the title of the sermon might catch you off

guard. 3 1/2 months in advance are.

You ready for Christmas? Might be wondering what all

that's about. I'm causing some of you.

Anxiety just by. Asking the question that I

didn't really mean to. Of course that means different

things to different people. If you were to ask any one of my

3 kiddos, are they ready for? Christmas.

The answer was they were ready. On December the 26th.

Of 2024, all right. Now, if you ask me if I'm ready

for Christmas, that means it's my Christmas list.

The you know the word. Document updated with hyperlinks

and. Prices and the right sizes for

all the people. And family that request it.

You'll think I'm kidding, but I'm actually not.

I'll send it to you if you want it.

And it means I've. Done all my Christmas shopping

which I've not all right. No, that's that's not.

What I mean right? I'm obviously not asking about.

Are you ready for that kind? Of Christmas, is that what?

We're trying to talk about. No, definitely not.

So what do I mean when I ask Are you ready for Christmas?

Well, in order to be ready for Christmas, we have to know what

Christmas really is. And so we're going to listen to

1st John three one through 10. And as you listen, I want you to

listen for Christmas as we read this text.

Because it's there. All right.

And then we're going to use that to connect with what John is

trying to teach us in these verses from first John three one

through 10. Here we go.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should

be called children of God. And so we are.

The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not.

Know him? Beloved, we are God.

'S children now. And what we will be has not yet

appeared, but we know that when he appears.

We shall be like him. Because we shall see him, that's

Jesus as he is, and everyone who thus hopes in him, hopes in

Jesus, purifies himself as he. Jesus is pure.

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices

lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.

You know that he appeared in order to take away sins.

And in him, in Jesus, there is no sin.

No one who abides in him, that is in Jesus keeps on sinning.

No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him, Jesus, or

known. Him.

Little children, let no one deceive you.

Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he, Jesus, is

righteous. Whoever makes a practice of

sinning is of the devil, for the devil's been sinning from the.

Beginning the. Reason the Son of God appeared

was to destroy the works of the devil.

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's

seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because

he's been born of God. By this it is evident who are

the children of God, and who are the.

Children of the Devil. Whoever does not.

Practice righteousness is not. Of God nor.

Is the one. Who does not love?

His brother. Did you see, did you hear

Christmas in this text? If not, I'll point it out to

you. But starting in verse 5, this

sentence here, you know that he appeared to take away since

that's Christmas in a sentence, you know that he Jesus appeared,

took on human flesh, left heaven, came to earth, the

miracle of the incarnation where he who was the Son of God fully

God became fully man, remaining fully God born of a virgin so

that he can live a sinless life for us, die on the cross as a

sinless sacrifice in our place and defeat death for us.

This is Christmas in a sentence he came to take away sins.

In fact, when the Angel told Joseph what they were to name

their son, it goes like this. He says you shall call his name

Jesus, for he will save his people from their from their

sins. Jesus came to take.

Away sins, but in addition. To verse 5.

Christmas is also in verse. 8 Did you see it?

The reason the Son of God appeared was to I love this by

the way, destroy the works of the devil man.

Jesus came on a demolition mission, love that.

He came to take out what was been built by the enemy, right?

The Kingdom set up against his own, and of course, ultimately

sin itself. The author of sin, the author of

evil, is Satan himself, the devil himself.

Jesus came to destroy the work of Satan.

So Jesus came not only to save sinners, but to destroy sin.

So what is Christmas? Christmas is the fact, y'all,

that a child was born to save sinners and destroy sin so that

we could. Become children of God A.

Child was born. To destroy the work of.

Sin and save sinners. So we could become children of

God, that's what. Christmas.

Is all about, so obviously I'm not.

Asking Are you ready for December 25th?

I'm asking if you're ready for something much bigger because

if. Christmas is the celebration.

Of the. First coming of Christ Listen

closely. First, John three one through 10

tells us how to be. Ready for the second coming of

Christ? If Christmas is the celebration.

Of the 1st. This text is how to live ready

and how to live confident. And that you're ready for the

second coming of. Christ, there's two parts.

The 1st. Paragraph verses one through 3.

We're going to see this as a child of God.

God is calling you to live ready.

To live ready for the second coming.

Of Christ, all right. And then now in Part 2, that'll

be verses 4 through 10. As a child of God, God is

calling you to live confident as a child of God.

Ready for the second? Coming of Christ.

So we're going to walk through these things and some individual

things, John tells us. In each part the first one is

this how are we as children of God to live ready in verses one

through three the first thing we learned in verse 1 is this

marvel at God's love which has made you a child of God.

We ought to daily marvel at the love of God, which has made us a

a child of God. The first thing John does here,

you know, is remind us of how in the world think about this.

How in the world did we become children of God, children of the

Maker of all things? Because at one time we were not.

At one time every human being was spiritually dead.

It was, according to the Bible, an enemy of God, separated from

God in their sin, rebels of God at heart we were before coming

to Christ. How in the world is it that we

would become? How are we able to become

children of God if that's who we were?

Something miraculous had to happen that could cause us to

become children of God. And it has happened.

John says see what it is. Consider, realize, grasp, and

marble at the kind of love which God has loved you with.

When you hear the phrase God loves you, what does that mean?

John says it like this. God loves you with a kind of

love so lavish and wonderful and glorious and broad and deep and

wide and marvelous and incomprehensible and endless

that it literally changes your identity from someone who is an

enemy of God, separated from God in your sin, destined for

separation from God forever, a revel at heart, and the kind of

love that would change your identity and make you a child of

God. I wish I had words to describe

this kind of love with which God has loved you with, and yet I

don't. There's really no human earthly

analogy for this. And out of this world kind of

love some of. You are here this morning.

You struggle to believe that this is true, that God would

really love you that much, that God would love you with such an

utterly kind of love that it could change who you are.

That he would love you as you are.

And that he would have the power to change.

Who you are? To make you all he's designed

for you to be. And I'm here to tell you, the

first thing that Bible tells you to be ready for the return of

Christ is to understand and marvel at the love of God for

you. You know, even if you've

realized the love of God for you and you call yourself a

Christian because you've received that love, this ought

to be a daily thing you go back to that you just marvel at when

the sun comes up and there's breath in your lungs and there's

daylight to be seen and life to be lived.

God's love is being showered on you.

You might be struggling with all kind of difficulty or all kind

of pain or even grief or trial or difficulty, and yet.

God has made life. Possible and given you an

opportunity to receive this love to no eternal life to have a

personal relationship with Him. We ought to daily marvel at the

love of God for us. This is Part 1 of how you live

ready right now as we anticipate the return of Christ.

But there's a second thing we need to understand.

It's in the end of verse one and it's this understand why this is

a huge thing in these days in which we live to be ready to

live ready. You've got to understand why the

world does not get you. Look what again what it says

that we should. Be called the.

Children of God. And so we are.

The reason why the world. Does not know us.

That's the children of God, That's believers in Jesus.

Is that it did not know him. Those who have not trusted in

Jesus as their Savior, who don't know the love of God, they don't

understand, they don't get those who have received the love of

God. The Bible says that those who

received the love of God and have seen the truth of who God

is and his Son Jesus Christ have been changed.

We no longer belong to this world.

We don't live according to the value system of this world.

We don't see as the world sees. Our eyes have been opened to the

truth. We're citizens of heaven now,

still living in for a period of time on this earth until Christ

calls us home. But This is why, if we belong to

a new Kingdom and a new savior, have a new identity, a new life,

we're no longer spirit, virtually dead.

We're no longer separated from God, and the world doesn't

understand that. Therefore, the world won't get

those who belong. To Jesus Christ, mark it down.

Jesus puts it more clearly. Than I can put it.

OK, if you. Listen to what he says and John

John 15:18

15 verse 18. Listen to this.

This is just point blank if the. World hates you.

Know that it has hated me. Before.

It hated you. If you are of the world, the

world would love you as its own. But because you're not of the

world, why have you been saved out of the world?

You've been called out of the world.

Your identity has been changed by the love of God.

You're not of the world. I chose you out of this world.

Therefore the world hates you. This past week.

We witnessed A tragic, violent reminder, but the world does not

get those who belong to the Kingdom of God.

The Wicked. Act of the assassination of

Charlie Kirk. Whether or not you agree with

all his perspectives on politics or culture or not, regardless,

Charlie was a man who stood flat footed for his faith in Jesus

Christ unapologetically. And I don't pretend to know or

understand the mind or motive of the of the shooter, but I can

tell you this, The same world that crucified Jesus is the same

world we live in today, which is the same world.

Jesus says that they hated me. Guess what they're going to do

if? You stand for me.

They're going to hate you now, I realized in our modern day, you

know. In the values in which.

Were instilled in the DNA of our country.

In a day where we believe a religious liberty ought to

reign, sometimes we think these things aren't going to happen.

Jesus said they were going to happen because he said if you're

going to stand for me, you're going to be hated.

By the world and we. Saw.

We saw the absolute most violent, heinous example of that

on display for a man who's bold for his faith in Christ on the

front lines. You got to understand as a child

of God why the world doesn't get you if you're a Christian.

We need to keep this in mind because if we seek to live for

Christ, you're going to encounter this.

Maybe not to the extent that Charlie did, but whatever extent

it is, you can't let it shake your faith when Jesus said this

is part of what it's going to involve until we see Him face to

face. All right #3 realize that what

we are now is not all that we will be.

This is amazing verse 2. Beloved, we are God's children.

Now, what we will be has not yet appeared.

But we know that. When he appears, we.

Shall be like him, because. We shall see him as he is.

This. This fires me up, honestly,

because I'm like, man, God's word says we don't even fully

understand all that's coming for us as children of God.

We don't even fully understand all that we will be.

We know we're going to be changed and made completely in

the image of Christ. It's not that we'll be like

identical to Jesus, like we're not.

We're all going to look like Jesus physically, but there's

going to be the striking similarity because our character

is going to match Jesus. Our righteousness is going to

match Jesus's right. Our purity is going to match our

sanctification. We're going to be fully

transformed so that God's very character, through his Son

Jesus, will be imaged in us as we are fully transformed, fully

finally sanctified and glorified with him.

The best is yet to. Come for the believer.

In Jesus Christ, this gives us hope beyond hope.

This is why even if you lose your life for standing for

Christ at 31, it's worth it. It's worth it because 31 years

or even 75 or 90 if given it, can't compare it to an eternity

with your King experiencing life that we can't even fully

articulate. All that it's going to involve

and all the blessings thereof. These temporary sufferings that

we're going through in trials are light, momentary

afflictions. Let me even put it more starkly,

because this is hard to. Fathom but.

One day if his two. Children that lost their father

put their faith in Jesus. They too will realize the

tragedy even of losing their father one day if they live for

Jesus is worth it because they'll be with him around the

throne of Christ one day forever.

Forever. You all you.

Got to mark it down. It does not.

It does not matter what happens in this life.

It does not matter. Ultimately, what happens in our

lives as Christians under the sovereign control of God will be

worth it to receive His love and to walk in it.

Because the best is yet to come. And on days you get up and

you're discouraged or. You're angry or you're hurting.

You've got to go back and marvel at the love of God for you.

You got to understand Jesus said why the world wouldn't get you.

And you got to realize the best is yet to come and you can put

another foot in front of the other and keep following Jesus

knowing it's worth it. The best is yet to come #4 He

says here to put your hope in Christ and to pursue Christ's

likeness. This is verse three.

He says in everyone who thus hopes in him, that's hopes.

In Jesus purifies himself as he is pure.

John is not using the word hope the way we.

Define it in English. A wishful optimism about what

may or may not happen. Like 5050.

That's not what he's talking about.

He's talking about a guarantee by promise of what is absolute,

a settled certainty, a confident expectation based on the

promises of God. John saying here that everyone

that's placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and the

reality of his return pursues purity because Christ is pure.

In other words, the deal is if you know and believe Jesus is

returning, it's going to change the way you live.

You're living in expectation of someone that you put your hope

in, that you're not like 5050 about, that you know for certain

is coming back, that you have staked your life in this truth,

in this reality. Then it permeates everything

about what you do, everything you think, everything you say,

everything you're living in light of, you're hoping in

Christ. And that hope in Christ is

purifying your life because you're seeking to follow Christ,

not because it's a list of do's and don'ts or a list of rules,

but because you carry a personal relationship with Him whom

you're hoping in. Let me see if I can make this

clear to you. I had a text message come to me

from a young teenage boy recently.

By the way, I just praise God for what God's doing in the

lives of our young people. And seeing.

Seeing. God get a hold of them and

create a fire for His Word and for Jesus and living for Him.

At a young age, this young man text me a prayer request for his

family. And then he.

Also included one for him and he said this.

Also pray for me, I'm going to be honest I still struggle with

lust. And I just.

Realized that I've been lusting. For my own sake.

But now I've got this mindset that I'm stopping to show my

love for Jesus. Everyone who hopes in him

purifies himself as Jesus is pure.

If you hope in Christ and you know with guaranteed certainty

he's coming back for you, guess what?

It's going to change the way you live.

It's going to change the way you do life.

It's going to purify your life. It's going to cause you to run

away from those things that don't honor Christ and run and

grasp at those things with all that God's put within you for

that which would honor. Christ y'all Part 1 as children

of. God, we're called to live ready.

How do we live ready? How do we live ready for

Christmas? 2 point O the return of Christ.

We marvel at God's love #2 we understand why the world doesn't

get us #3 we realize what we are now is not all we will be.

The best is yet to come. And we put our hope in Christ,

and we pursue Christ likeness. There's a Part 2.

And it says the. Children of God, we not only

live ready, we ought to live confident.

We ought to live confident. Not just ready, but confident.

How are we going to live confident?

Well, John is going to walk us through.

A kind of a. Logical thought.

Progression here in this second. Paragraph giving us some.

Things we need to know in order to live confident.

They may not all seem to be related, but they build on one

another to get us to where He wants us.

To be in our understanding. So let's pick up verse 4,

everyone who makes a practice of sinning.

Also practices lawlessness and. Sin is lawlessness.

So lawlessness is a rejection of the law of God.

It's a rejection of the word of God, of the truth of God, right.

So John is saying here someone who lives with a blatant

disregard for God's truth, God's word and for what is right is in

lawlessness. Lawlessness is what I was.

I remember when I was about 8 years old and I was in my.

Living room and it was before church.

One Sunday and my dad, who used to play a lot of golf, was

practicing his putting toward a solo cup in the.

Corner of the living room All right, So what you're doing

waiting on the everybody else to get.

Ready. All right.

So now he teaches me. He teaches me in this moment how

to grip a putter. All right, So I still remember

he showed me how to grip the putter.

And in my lawlessness, I wasn't saved yet.

I was 8 years old. I got saved when I was 9.

So I walked up and I gripped the putter.

My dad's way or my way? My way didn't say anything and

took my putting. Strike made the putt, looked at

my dad and said dad. I made it my way instead of your

way. Never forget the look on my

dad's face. That's lawlessness.

That's I heard what's right. I heard what's true.

I heard what I ought to do. And I'm going to grip life my

way. I'm going to do it my way.

I believe I know best. I've got a blatant disregard.

Forgot the way God. Says life's supposed to work.

That what? John is trying to tell.

Us here is this first truth, anyone.

Living a lifestyle of sin. Lawlessness is in rebellion

against God. Anyone living in a lifestyle of

sin is in rebellion against God. That's.

One thing you need to. Understand if you're going to

live confident, ready for the return of Christ now verse 5,

right? He says.

That you know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and

in him there's no sin. Again, this is Christmas in a

sentence, right, that Christ came for the purpose of doing

away with sin. This was our problem, right?

Jesus stepped in. Why?

To take away the practice of sin, the power of sin, the

penalty of sin, and ultimately one day even the presence of

sin. Sin was our problem.

It separated us from God. Sin still is your problem if

you've not trusted in Jesus. Christ for salvation and

forgiveness of sin. The problem is sin.

The problem is that you've not trusted in the blood of Jesus to

cleanse you and wash you of your sin.

You say, Kyle, how do I do that? You realize that you're a

Sinner. You realize Jesus is the only

savior. And the Bible says simply.

You. Call on the name of the Lord to

save you you. Literally ask from your heart,

the bottom of your. Heart God, would you forgive me?

Would you cleanse me? Would you be my Lord and Savior?

Would you save me from my sin? The deal here second we need to

know is that Jesus came to eliminate sin and could because

he was without sin. Jesus came to eliminate it

because he was without it. Verse 6 now shouldn't catch us

off guard. Look what it says.

No one who abides in him keeps on sinning.

No one who keeps on. Sinning has either seen him or

known him. If Jesus came to eliminate sin

and never send himself naturally, those of us who truly

know Jesus don't continue to live in a habitual, ongoing

lifestyle of sin. Now, this doesn't mean that once

someone becomes a Christian that they never sin again.

All right, by keep on sinning, John means one who keeps on

living a habitual lifestyle of sin.

A child of God doesn't do this. Yes, singular, isolated

instances of sin can and do happen, but it's not the norm

for them. How do how do you know?

How do you know that Trevor Lawrence is a professional NFL

quarterback? Is it because he's 66200 and 20

lbs? No, there's lots of people that

size that are not. NFL quarterbacks?

Is it because he wears a Jaguars jersey?

No. There's people who wear jerseys.

Who are not on the team, right? So how do you know?

Well, you know, because of his career total of 70 touchdowns,

completion rate of 63.3% at an average of 10.73 yards per

completion. You know Trevor is a

professional quarterback because he consistently normally makes

the play. It doesn't mean he makes it

every time. It doesn't mean he doesn't

fumble. It doesn't mean he throws never

throws an interception. It doesn't mean he never throws

an incompletion, but normally most of the time, Trevor makes

the play. It's the same for the child of

God. It's not that they never fumble.

It's not that they never make an interception or throw an

incomplete pass, but normally their habitual lifestyle of

what's normal for them is. Walking in the ways of God.

This is how you know. So third thing John wants you to

know is that those who know Jesus will not live a habitual

lifestyle of sin. In verse seven and eight, we get

John's purpose for revealing how we can know for truly a child of

God. Do you notice that little phrase

he says They're little children. Let, let, let no one.

What? What's that word?

John does not want you to be deceived.

John wants you to know the truth and how to know it.

How do you clearly know? If you can live confident or

not, If you should be confident or not for the return of Christ.

He says here, let no one deceive you.

Those who live a consistent lifestyle of righteousness,

think obedience, belong to God. Those who belong or live a

consistent lifestyle of sin belong to the devil.

It's as simple as that. John says the bottom line y'all

is that there's only two spiritual families to belong to.

There's only two. You belong to one of two right

now, and there is no in between. It is all one or all the other.

There is the family of God. There is belonging to the family

of God. Having received the love of

Christ, having called on Jesus for salvation, having been born

again and made alive and transferred from the Kingdom of

darkness to the Kingdom of life. There is that.

And then there is the Kingdom of the devil, even if you don't

know that's to whom you belong. If you never trusted Christ,

that's where the Bible says you are spiritual.

You say, come on, I don't feel in bondage to the devil.

No, you don't, because the devil doesn't want you to feel that

you're in bondage to him. And sometimes you don't even

realize until your eyes are open to the fact of your sin

separating you from God. And that sin holds you in

bondage until the love of Christ opens your eyes and you realize,

Oh my goodness, I am separated from God.

I'm justly deserving of the wrath of what I've done against

God. And the only way to God is

through his Son Jesus Christ, if I call on Him.

For salvation, there's only two spiritual families.

John says that one can belong to.

Which one do you belong to? Satan has been sinning from the

beginning. Jesus Christ came from heaven to

earth to destroy his work #4 what he's saying is this verse 7

and 8 what you do. Proves who you are.

What you do proves who you are. Y'all, this does not mean a

Christian never sins, but when a Christian sins it ought to be

like this. Have y'all ever caught the tip

of your finger on a cheese grater?

God will bless you right there. That ought to be like what

happens in your life when sin happens.

You react to it. It's painful.

You wouldn't do that again if somebody paid you, you didn't

mean to, you didn't want. To and it hurt.

That's. The way sin ought to feel in the

life of a child of God, it ought to grate against your soul.

You wouldn't want to do that again if given the opportunity

you wished you wouldn't have. You do everything you can next

time to avoid it. And so therefore what happens in

the life of a child of God is when it does happen.

Because every now and then we do scrape our finger against the

cheese grater is what we do is we seek forgiveness and we say

I'm sorry and we say I was wrong and we repent.

So it's not that sin never happens in the life.

Of a child of. God, but when it happens.

It's not pleasurable, it's not what you want to do, it's not

what you wish you did. Verse 9.

Why can a child? Of God not continue a habitual

lifestyle of sin, John says Here, listen to it again.

No one born of God. Makes a practice of sinning, for

God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because

he's been born of God. What in the world does it mean

to be born of God? When one realizes your sin and

you realize the truth of what Jesus Christ has done for you,

living a sinless life, dying on the cross for your sin and your

place, defeating death for you by overcoming the grave, walking

out alive on the third day. When one realizes that and one

realizes that in your sin you're separated from God and you

desire to call on the name of God, and you do from your heart

of hearts, you say, Lord Jesus, would you forgive me?

Would you be my Lord and Savior in that moment?

The Bible describes that as what happens as being born again.

Not born physically, but born spiritually made alive

literally. Born of God, a divine birth,

it's called. Regeneration is the fancy word

for it. You're made alive spiritually.

You're made alive from death to life.

If one has been born of God, John says here, then God's seed,

that is the life of God, the Holy Spirit of God literally

abides in you. God is living in you.

If you've been born of God and are alive, and if God's living

in you as one who's been born again and made alive, then such

a person with the life of God in them can't continue to live a

lifestyle of sin and death and sinning against God who's made

them alive. It's not natural to them.

Think about it like this, if God and it's truly given you birth

and he is your father, who are you going to resemble as his

child? You ought to resemble him.

Not perfectly, but there ought to be a resemblance.

I know the proper word in English is acorn.

I don't say acorn, I say acorn. Don't laugh at me.

Y'all do too. Don't laugh at me.

Come on now. But you know what?

They say in the country, acorns don't fall far from the the

tree. If you've been born of God,

God's seed abides. In you when you.

Send it off to great against your soul.

And it all cannot be the lifestyle in which you live.

John says, because #5 A child of God cannot continue to live in

sin because they are born of God.

They are born of God. Verse 10 finally brings it all

together. Listen to this.

By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are

the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice

righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his

brother. John says, how can you know that

you can live confident for the return of Christ?

Christmas 2 point. O Take a paternity test.

Two criteria #1A lifestyle of consistently normally doing what

is right, and #2A lifestyle of love towards others.

A normal. Habit of doing what's right and

a lifestyle of love towards others.

John Stott, famous British preacher, said it better than I

could say it. He says it like this.

Lack of righteousness and lack of love prove lack of divine

birth, lack of righteousness, lack of love.

Prove lack of divine birth number six final thing we know

we. Are children of God if we

practice righteousness and love 1.

Another. We know we are children of God.

If we practice righteousness and love one another, Y know what is

Christmas. It's the fact that a child was

born. To save sinners and to destroy

sin so we could become children of God.

Do you know that? You know you're a child of God?

Do you realize this one born of God, Jesus, who took on human

flesh? Do you realize he's no longer a

baby? He is the.

Sovereign King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the resurrected One

who is alive forevermore, reigning and ruling, and will

return for his own. Have you surrendered your life

to him? Are you ready to live?

Ready. And live confident for his

return. How John's told us here.

The marvel it is love to understand who you are.

Understand those why those who are not, who like you are why

they don't get you. Understanding that the best is

yet to come, understanding that what all we are now, what we

will be, we can't even fully articulate.

But one day we have a hope that can't be taken away from us,

knowing that Christ. And His promise for us, we can

live ready and we can live confident.

By the way, there's no better way, even 3 1/2 months in

advance of Christmas, to celebrate the fact that a child

was born for your salvation than to give your life to Jesus

Christ and be born of God. I'm going to give you a chance

to respond in just a moment, but for now, we're going to turn our

attention to the Lord's Supper. Deacons, I'm going to ask if you

would to position yourselves to prepare to service.

But as we come to a time of the Lord's Table, here's what I want

to invite you to do to prepare your heart to participate #1

what this is about is marveling again at the love of God for

you. And say, Kyle, what is to marvel

at? To marvel at the reality that

what the bread and the cup. Symbolizes is literally the

price. That was required to pay for

your sin and for mine was the price of Jesus's body, His

broken body, and his shed blood. That's the price that God was

the Father was willing to pay to purchase your salvation to pay

for your sin if you've received. That payment by faith in.

Jesus Christ, I'm inviting you to marvel at that once again.

Perhaps you're here this morning.

You've you know deep down you've not made that decision.

I just. Simply want to tell you it is OK

to allow the. Elements to pass you.

By that would be the proper response if you're here this

morning. And you've got anything going?

On in your. Life where just today is not

the. Day you can partake.

It is OK for the elements to pass you by in a moment.

I'm going to give you a chance to just bow your head and close

your eyes to just talk with the Lord about anything that may be

on your heart. You need to deal with anything

you need to. Confess if there's someone you

need to text or go to and say I'm sorry, I need to apologize,

I've wronged you. I can't participate in this and

act like everything's right between me and God when it's not

right between me and a brother or sister in Christ.

This is why the Bible says don't participate in an unworthy

manner. Don't do this in a way that

wouldn't honor God if there's other businesses that needs to

be done 1st and if you can't do that business first, then just.

Let the elements pass you by. That's OK.

I'm going to invite you to bow your head and close your eyes.

Part of what Jesus told us to do, to live ready and to live

confident, is to continually remind ourselves of His love and

His sacrifice through the bread and the cup of the supper.

Physical symbols, the reality that Jesus took on flesh for you

and for me. I'm going to give you just a

moment to sit quietly before the Lord and talk to Him about what

you need to talk about before we pass the elements.