Come and See - Here I Am to Worship - Part 4 - Christmas Eve Gathering

All right, welcome, friends and family, old and new to Christmas

at Real Life Church. I invite you to stand to your

feet. We're going to start off with

worship today. I'd like you just to sing and

sing boldly for Jesus this afternoon.

Come on, won't you join us? Unto you this day a baby's born.

His Christ, Messiah, King and Lord.

All the earth can now rejoice. The King is here.

The King is here. Hey, hey, the shepherds have

come, the angels sing. They follow the star, the three

wise kings to coming back on bended knee.

The king is here. The king is here.

Hey. Hear good tidings of great joy

unto you. A Saviour is grow in a major

place. Christ, the Lord all have come

to adore, to worship Him. Our Savior, the King is here.

The King is here. Hey, hey.

Hear good tides of great joy unto you, a Savior.

Is. Here good tidings of great joy

unto you a Saviour is born. Glory to God in the highest.

Glory to God in the high, Highest peace on earth and

goodwill toward me. Glory to God in the highest.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Man, can we give it up for

Jesus? Oh, come on now, just do it a

big There we go. There we go.

Merry Christmas, real life. Hey, you guys got to do better

than that. If you guys heard Logan last

week, you guys know I'm a Bah humbug, but hey, I'm good.

It's Christmas Eve, we're in the spirit.

So one more time, real Merry Christmas, real life.

There we go. Man, I don't know how you walked

in here today, but man, my prayer for you is that you walk

out radically changed by the message of hope that God came

and He's our Savior and our King.

Man, it is going to be an awesome day today.

Hey, so we have a lot of new people with us there in person

and online. Can we show those people some

love? Give them a round of applause.

Man, if you're new, thank you so much for being here.

Hey, take 30 seconds and greet somebody around you.

We're getting ready to worship again real big in a minute.

Hey, want you guys to know if you are newer, newer with this

man, we've been praying for you and we've been planning for you.

So thank you so much for being here.

I'm not going to ask anything from you today except for this

one small little thing, man. all right, you guys can stay

standing. The We would just love an

introduction. And if you grab the connection

card that's on your seat sometime during our your time

with us today, if you fill that out on the top section, that an

opportunity later on to drop that.

But you know, if you fill that out, what we'd love to do is

just share with you a little bit about who we are in real life.

We're not going to show up your door, do anything crazy, but we

want you to know that God loves you and we care about you.

So man, we would love for you guys to fill that out at some

point during the day. We do all of that and everything

that we do week in week out is because we love to say that we

are a church on a mission. Isn't that right?

Real life man? And that mission is this is to

see people far from God discover the real life and their purpose

in Jesus. Now again, we know that this is

a great season, but this isn't great for everybody and

especially not great for people that don't have Christ as their

Lord. And so today, no matter where

you're at, no matter who came in, this is a place where you

can belong. God's called you to have a

purpose. Jesus wants to to provide that

for you. He's created you to be in

relationship with him. And this is what we're going to

talk about today. This is going to be the message

that you receive. So this is a community you can

feel safe in. If you've been far from God, you

can call real life home. So thank you so much for being

here. I want you guys to, to, to know

what's going on today, give you a little expectation.

So in a minute, man, you guys are going to get an awesome word

of hope straight from God's word from Pastor Sean.

And then right after that, we're going to have a candlelight

service, candlelight worship. And then after that, you guys

could go hang out, take pictures.

There's pictures with Santa. There's a cocoa bar if you guys

love cocoa. And man, it is going to be just

a great time. This, this, this gathering is

going to last for just a little over an hour.

So no matter how you walked in today, I want you guys just to

buckle in because God has a purpose for you in this moment.

And we're going to worship big here moving into this moment and

acknowledge that God is Emmanuel and he is here with us.

So, real life, can we enter into this moment and let's give God

back some worship as we worship Emmanuel.

Of the world treasure of heaven bring like the stars in the

winter sky, joy of the father rage through the darkness, shine

across the see the shudders to the.

From the beginning, the tragedies of the time, with no

match for you, with the great heights of glory you saw, my

story got you into the beginning one of us.

To the light of the world. Right up the wood, crowning a

Ranger born forth because to suffer to save high King of

Heaven. Death is the poorer we are, the

rich by the price that he pits. Sing Hallelujah.

Sing Hallelujah for the things He has done.

Come and truly count on before you.

Sing Hallelujah to the light of the world, the world.

He's the light of the world, the light of the world.

Soon will be coming with fire in his eyes.

He who? Runs on his own, the clouds he.

Will leave let. Us straight to the Reed, and

there he shall reign forevermore, oh, forevermore

sing. Hallelujah sing Hallelujah, sing

Hallelujah for the days he has. Done.

Come and of Julie. Come.

Time before him. Sing Hallelujah to the light of

the world. He's the light of the world,

light in the time. Amen.

He is the light of the world we've been walking through the

last few weeks, just the journey of those people who have come to

worship Jesus as he was born in Bethlehem from Mary and the wise

men and the shepherds, and every single one of them had a

response of bowing in worship to our God.

So let's lift him up. Where?

Would I run with you? The throne of mercy.

Where would I live that this cross agrees?

How great the love, a strong hand that holds us beautiful, so

beautiful. So here I bound to live too

hard, and Jesus belong, horrifying all things for all my

life. I am yours forever yours.

'Cause there is a king who bore the scars of hearing, And there

is a son who came in grace and drew and tall.

Great. The love that carries us to

blindness. Wonderful, you're wonderful.

So here I vow to live too high. Jesus below, refining all things

for all my life. I am yours forever yours.

Let this up to him, James. Be God here and now, be lifted

high and right here and now. Be the love if I God of heaven

and God who brought me back to life.

Be live behind and right here and now.

Be alone by God of heaven and earth, God whom I'd be back to

life. I am yours forever yours.

So here I vow to live, to hide Jesus being lovely, fighting all

things for all my life. I am yours forever yours.

Don't hear I bore to live too high.

Jesus below refined in all things for all my life.

I am yours forever. Come on, give Jesus a hand.

Father, we bow down today just recognizing that it's not an

accident God that you broke into humanity for us.

That's not an accident that you used even a a Pagan world, the

Romans to call a census to come home to Bethlehem be born.

It's not an accident that the end was full in your place of

the Manger. And God's not an accident here

tonight, God, that you made a way to find us.

We have no way find you. So God, we lift you up, we give

you glory. God, we worship you.

God, we lay ourselves down. God, as we surrender to you

tonight. She reminded the reason for

Christmas is all the promise that God fulfilled in Jesus.

So God, we lift your name up, the name above all names, the

name of Jesus. And the church said Amen.

Come on, you got big for Jesus today.

Come on, you guys may be seated. I wish you guys a very merry and

faithful Christmas. On behalf of my family, our

staff, our leadership, we love you guys.

Appreciate you guys are here. I noticed a lot of new people in

the house. They brought a family member or

friend. Maybe you saw her stuff on

social media. I see friends from the past that

are here tonight, people that are dear to my heart.

I want to say I love you guys. Our church loves you.

And if you're new with us, man, we're so glad you're here.

And I hope you feel the presence of God.

I hope you just sincerely just leave this full of joy.

It's reminded of the power of Jesus as love for us.

So give it up. Everybody's new day.

Let them know you love them. Come on, real life church man,

it is my honor and privilege. I can't blame him saying this

for the 9th consecutive year to preach He had the truth up here.

Wow, there's a lot of stuff and tear down, right?

For the 9th consecutive year to preach the power of Christmas,

of the virgin birth that God in the flesh came for us and how

much he loves us. And to encourage you guys,

there's only one name above all names that we bow down to.

His name is Jesus, Amen. And so this is the day we're

just going to celebrate big and I want to encourage you guys.

We have some people that are actually going to worship and

really in a in a way of surrender this next Sunday.

This is pretty cool. We've been talking about people

getting baptized and as best as I can, to my knowledge, we have

19 people getting baptized this coming Sunday.

Is that pretty cool? Is that pretty cool?

Like, I mean, we usually as baptized on Easter on our

birthday, we're like, man, we're trying to get 50 people

baptized. Let's let's just add one in on

the 28th and see what the Lord does.

So glad we did that. Amen.

So that puts us at 46 people this year that will be baptized

here at Real Life Church. Is that pretty cool?

It's amazing. You know, it's interesting as a

pastor because when you put a church ad out, it's always

interesting to see the comments you get.

And if you scrolled the comments, it's great, you know,

I kind of hear everything in the world, but it's so interesting

because you got to kind of come to the real life and check out

what we do here. I don't think we water down

anything, including the coffee. Amen.

And I, I think 46 people that that's almost one person every

Sunday that would get baptized. That, that that's, that's,

that's mind blowing. And so I want to encourage you

guys, God is on the move of doing something great.

We, we are four people away from 50 by the way.

So if you're like holding out, like, man, I don't know if I

should get baptized. Well, now's the time.

Come on, somebody. Regardless if we hit 50 now,

it's not the point. It's just that we're trying to

honor God and to see what he's doing.

He's just incredible. So give it up for those who are

going to get baptized this next Sunday.

It's pretty cool, man. It's pretty cool.

You know, the most humbling truth about Christmas is that

God did not wait for us to come and find him, but he came to

find us. I mean, the Bible says so clear,

we're stranded in sin, yet helpless and Christ died for us,

but there was no way of us finding God, but God made a way

for us to find him. You know, people ask this

question all the time, where is God?

And this question is asked not just by unbelievers, but by many

believers. And sometimes we walk through

some really hard seasons, like where it doesn't make sense and

we're confused and we try our best and that their best isn't

good enough and we don't feel like we're making a making a

difference or impact. If you back up to January of

2025, your goals, if you set goals, it may not look anything

like what you actually got. Like it went unexpected.

I always kind of joke like I said, a goal will lose 15 lbs.

I got 25 lbs to go. Come on, somebody right?

Like it just went different. And all sincerity like this year

has been difficult for many people and it's just the season

how it goes. There's empty chairs to the

table. I was thinking about a man in

our church even as we sang worship song today about how

this the first Christmas but out there and I think of prodigal

children just working with people in our church and there's

children that may not come home for Christmas and those who have

kids at home and they're coming home.

Amen. Praise God, Hallelujah.

Some of you got your kids here even tonight at church.

But it can be difficult season to ask where is God.

And I would encourage you that God is close enough to whisper

that they got us near they got us here that the story of

Christmas is a is a story of God coming to us.

Even the name Emmanuel means God.

With us and so I encourage you if you draw close to God, God

will draw close to you there there was a man that posted I I

just I don't know why you know critics math you know, 1000

compliments plus one critic equals 1 critic right just how

it works. And so I'm scrolling our thing.

I'm like just leave the negativity on there because

maybe maybe it does glory to God because he can see some patients

on our side. But somebody talk about

Christmas wasn't a good tidings because now all those people

know about Jesus. And I'm like, man, that star

that God sent was seen by all humanity.

God is not playing a sick game of hide and seek, Amen.

He he wants himself to be known by all people.

And we have an opportunity even tonight, as we always do, to

walk into God's presence. You know what's interesting

about Jesus and about Christianity?

It's the only religion in all of history where God came to us.

If you think about all the other religions, all the times there's

angels that would talk to Muhammad or talk to Joseph Smith

and you know, here's your prophet, Here's the thing, and

here's how you work a way to God, Earn this, do this, keep up

your good works, pray, chant, meditate, all these things.

But Jesus is completely different.

It was God who came to us, and the angels actually came to

worship the Lord himself who came to die for us and be our

Savior. That's good news.

Amen. This was so special about

Christianity. And so I would encourage you

guys tonight, maybe a night where you've not really worship

Jesus full heartedly before, or maybe it's been a season even as

Christians were like I, I know the song or whatever, but to

truly remember like this is the essence of Christianity.

It's really the name of Jesus. And to get full worship back and

surrender and really ourselves. We we talked about this series

dying allude to it about a we've talked about Mary, we've talked

about the wise men. We've talked about the shepherds

and they all worship Jesus. Tonight is really our response.

It's about you guys. You guys are going to finish the

series with worship. You're going to lay yourselves

in front of God. I don't encourage what worship

looks like and just kind of minds a few of the stories, but

Mary's worship, she's moved by God in the worship.

So Luke 130 says this. Do not be afraid, Mary, the

Angel told her, for you have found favor with God.

You'll conceive, you give birth to a son, and you will name him.

Who? Jesus.

Jesus. You guys remember what the name

Jesus means. The Lord saves, the Lord saves.

There you go, let's pick it up. He who laughs, laughs, thinks

the slowest. Come on somebody right, the Lord

saves and it's significant because this name Jesus, I just

want you to focus on the name Jesus tonight says he'll be very

great and he'll be called the sun, the most High.

The Lord give him his the throne of his ancestor David.

It'll reign over Israel forever. His Kingdom will never end.

And Mary asked the Angel, but how can this happen?

I'm a virgin. An Angel replied, the Holy

Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will

over shadow you. So the baby to the born will be

holy and he'll be called the Son of God.

Here's Mary's response. She said, behold, the maid

servant of Lord, I'm yours. I'm going to be able to call

yourself a servant of Lord. She's a handmaiden, a maid in

the Lord. Whatever you want, Lord, like

I'm yours. I'm a instrument in the hand of

a Redeemer. Amen.

It's just let it be to me according to your word.

It's interesting. Her worship move chaos into calm

like that's that's crazy news. She she's not married.

She she's engaged her whole life's going to be sideways.

She's going to be pregnant with the son of God.

It's just nothing she planned for or could imagine or dreamed

of. And it would've been chaotic.

But instead she said, no, I worship you.

I know God. You've got a plan and sometimes

in this season, like it looks nothing like we'd expected, but

we trust the Lord has a plan and she cries out and worship.

And it's the song we talked about a few weeks ago, Luke 146.

And Mary said my soul glorifies the Lord.

That's worship. Amen.

You know, it's one thing to sing a song.

That's another thing for your soul to sing.

It's the one thing to raise your hand.

It's nothing to raise your heart.

It would be fully devoted. That's where it came from.

Just my soul just worships you, Lord, and my spirit rejoices in

God. My who?

That's interesting because she knew the name of Jesus meant the

Lord saves, and she's already worshipping what Jesus is going

to do, for he has been mindful of the humble state of the

servant on herself. And from now on, all

generations, including us, will call me blessed.

And she's blessed because she's going to deliver the one who

will eventually deliver us. And that's the only way that she

feels blessed. It says, for the mighty One has

done great things for me. Holy is his name.

His mercy extends to those who fear Him from generation to

generation needs to hear the worship in their lips.

And then she says something that most people have forgotten or

don't understand about the essence of God.

She gives us declaration in verse 51.

He says He has performed mighty deeds with His arm.

He has scattered those who are proud in the most thoughts,

which is what God still does. He has brought down the rulers

of their Thrones, but has lifted up the humble.

So he scattered the proud and He's lifted the humble.

That's good news, Amen, because we all can choose to be humble.

We're all qualified if you choose to be.

Verse 53 He has filled the hunger with good things, but he

sent the rich away empty. I love that he fills the hungry.

It's pretty good. Verse 54 He has helped us serve

in Israel. Remembering to be merciful to

Abraham descends forever, just as he what?

What's to say he? He promised just as he promised

our ancestors. Man, that's worship and there's

something special about God when you get a little peace, like you

pull back the curtain, you start to see God's promises and you

start to see how faithful God is, and you just pull the

curtain back like just a little bit.

All of a sudden your whole life changes.

And I don't know if you remember the first time that like you

pulled the curtain back or saw just a glimpse of God's promises

and faithfulness. Do you remember that time you

came to Christ? Like the very first time you put

your faith in Jesus and your life was forever changed by

Christ. Do you remember that?

If you're like me, I was 15, like I had never read the Bible

ever. I'd never prayed a prayer in my

single life. I've never done anything like

that. I'd never gone to church before.

And somebody shared me from Scripture, this promise of

Jesus, and just pulled back the curtain just a little bit.

And I thought, man, there is so much more truth and

righteousness in story behind all this, that it has to be

true. I, I'd never memorized the

verse. I'd done nothing.

Looks like Jesus, but God saved me, Amen.

Just pulling back the curtain like that's God's promises that

change everything you think about Christmas.

It all changes when you realize Christmas.

And we know this. It's not about gifts.

It's not about Christmas trees, although these are pretty cool

looking trees. Come on somebody, right?

It's, it's not honestly, it's not really about tradition.

It's not ultimately even about family, although that stuff's

really good, Amen. Like we love it when our

family's around and we just share life together and

encourage each other and catch up.

But ultimately you start to realize that Christmas is about

God being faithful to all of his promises.

That's Christmas. And Jesus is the culmination as

a gift to us of all of God's promises coming together.

It's an amazing story. All the Old Testament points to

Jesus and all the New Testament points back to Jesus because

he's fulfillment, the promise, the greatest promises of God.

And he gives us this gift of Jesus.

And it says this in Ephesians 289 very popular passage.

If you don't know this one, you should memorize it, but says for

us by grace you've been saved through faith.

It is not of yourselves. It is a what?

It's a what It's a gift. It's a gift of God out of works

so that no one can boast. It's it's, it's, it's amazing to

me how many people find a way not to accept Jesus because it's

like God is handing you his own righteousness and all you have

to do is accept it. And it's so hard for us to take

something for free. Isn't it like the devil has us

thinking that we have to earn something.

You have, you have to somehow be perfect or, or add up to it.

And there's a shame all over us. But this is a free good to

salvation. And why is it free?

Because Jesus, he did everything, he did all the work,

and there's not a single person who can take any glory except

for Jesus. Amen.

There's there's no other name that there's no other name that

we'd ever say thank you for salvation.

It's only always Jesus and it's just a gift of God to us.

And so this is Mary's response. She she knew this just at the

name of Jesus. She knew the promise of God.

She was probably 14 years old, had looked through Scripture,

her heart focused on God and God just said, hey, I'm going to

choose you. I'm not choosing to come as a

king riding on a horse. I'm going to come in and be born

in a no room in the guest room or the inn and born with animals

and put into a feeding through. That's the humility of God.

Amen. He chose the poor things, the

the the uneducated, but the faith filled to change our

world. Then you got the wise men who

worshipped it says in Matthew 210.

It says when they saw the star, they were what what's it say the

overjoyed? And it's kind of sad that most

people didn't even recognize it. But these people were full of

joy because they knew something was happening.

It says all coming to the house, they saw the child, the stomach,

Jesus with his mother Mary, and they what?

They bow down and worshipped. That's worship at a whole nother

level, right? I mean, bowing down is like, I

don't know if you bow down, we do bow down on their hearts to

things, but to physically bow down to something man, that's

full in, isn't it? You just remember how many gifts

the wise men brought about 3 gifts, right?

They brought gold frankincense and myrrh.

There you go. I like I got this section up

front. Good job, Emery.

The all the all the girls up here John goes.

How'd you get stuck watching all the kids?

I was like, there's no room at the end.

Just stuck here. It's good though, right?

It's fun watching the kids. But they brought 3 gifts.

But but I would encourage you and to think about this.

They actually brought 4, but because before they gave gold

Franklin and Sensen myrrh, they actually gave themselves it says

they, they, they bowed down and worship and that's where people

get all the stuff wrong because they'll say again more comments

I read all the church wants your money.

No money comes after your heart. And these wise men gave

everything to Jesus before they gave what they possessed and

they bowed down and recognized that it wasn't popular.

It still is not popular to bow down and worship Jesus.

It was unpopular, but they did it because they recognized that

Jesus was a promise fulfilled. And the wise men knew these

promises. And there's scripture I want to

give you today about some of these promises that they have

known in the Old Testament. And so if you have your Bible be

in Psalm 22 just for a little bit.

It's what it says. Psalm 22, this is a prophecy of

Jesus. It's interesting.

It's 1000 years for Jesus was born, 1000 years for Christmas

when God came to humanity. And Jesus would have pinned

these words through David. So it's kind of ironic he's

writing his own story, but it says dogs surround me.

Verse 16, a pack of villains and circle me.

This is time of the Pharisees. It's religious people that

crucify Jesus. If you don't know the story says

they Pierce my hands and my feet.

This remind anything, this is the cross.

All my bones are on display. We we was scourged.

We was whipped with a cat and hindtails says people stare and

gloat over me. They divide my clothes among

them and cast lots for my garment.

Is this not exactly how it went? This is exactly how it went.

Amen. If you read Matthew, Mark,

Lucre, John, the gospels of story Jesus, this happened

exactly this way. Wiseman knew it.

Isaiah 53. They knew us as well, one

through 6. Who has believed our message?

Into whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

He grew up talking about Jesus before him like a tender shoot

and like a root out of the dry ground.

Look about, look at this. He had no beauty or majesty to

attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should

desire of him. Know you watched all the you

paintings and you watched the movies and always pick some

really pretty boy I'm talking about to be Jesus, but that's

not Jesus, Amen. Jesus, one of those guys you

would just unrecognized. You just walked by.

You would have never taken a second thought.

You just been like some some below average person, whatever,

like you would never thought, oh there he is.

And we like to have that blue eyed beautiful face Jesus,

that's not Jesus. I mean how humble.

Like if I was picking how was coming to Mandy, I'm getting

ABS, you know what I'm saying? Like not Jesus.

Jesus is look what it says. He was despised, He was rejected

by mankind, a man of suffering. Some people say man sorrow and

look at us familiar with pain. That's pretty good news for us

that God knows our pain like one from who people hide their

faces. He was despised and we held him

in low esteem and sadly I feel like that's still the state of

the world. The steam of Jesus is much lower

because he is the God of all gods, and surely he took on our

pain and bore our suffering, and yet we considered him punished

by God, stricken by him and afflicted.

But he was what pierced for our transgressions, just like Psalm

22. He was what crushed for our

iniquity. The punishment that brought us

peace was on him in that, in that kind of ironic, the

punishment that brought peace. It's pretty crazy that that we

we were made right with God through the punishment of Jesus.

We're actually made right with each other through the

punishment of Jesus. And ultimately we're actually

made right with ourselves for the punishment of Jesus.

And by his wounds we are what? Yeah, we're made whole from

Jesus. That's pretty good.

In the wise men, they knew this Scripture when they saw that

star. They knew this is him.

That's amazing. It says verse 6, we all like

sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned our own way and

the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all just because

Jesus is the Lord who saves, He took upon all of our sin.

Back to Psalm 22, last two verses.

Psalm 22 says all the ends of the earth, that's all people,

that's including us, will remember and turn to the Lord

and all the families of the nations will what will bow down

before him. All nations, all people will bow

down before Jesus for demanding belongs to the Lord and he rules

over the nations. This is really interesting

because you see us all throughout the Bible, we either

bow down to worship or we bow down into regret.

But we all bow down like there's no mistake about it.

The atheist will one day say Jesus is Lord to the glory of

God, Like we can be wrong in this world and will still bow

down to Jesus. There's no going around this

fact. It says it over and over in

Scripture. So my encouragement to you as

Christians, as Jesus followers, even those who may just heard

the name of Jesus, is we're going to get pretty good at

bowing down to Jesus, Amen. And I want to give you some

encouragement. What that may look like and some

reasons why #1 the peace you're looking for does not come from

comfort. The peace you're looking for

does not look like 2026 getting easier.

It doesn't look like having the house you want and all the

issues just working out and having the finances you want.

All the little things working out your way and having desires,

all those things. The peace you want is only found

from having the presence of Jesus.

This is the reason it's called the Prince of Peace.

Like you can't find peace. Your life is never whole without

Jesus. The Ecclesiastes says there's a

God size shape in our heart the only he can fill.

And so if you're trying to fill with money or sex or everything

else in the world has to offer, it's always going to come up

short. Amen.

Like sin has a way of taking you places you don't want to go and

hold you there much longer, you need to stay.

But Jesus fills us and He gives us his peace.

That's why you can walk on the storm on the water like Peter.

The water does not have to be calm for you to walk on it.

The peace of Jesus when you worship, worship is the end of

striving. That's why you should worship.

It's the end of you trying to be good enough, then of you being

perfect, then of you going, oh look how good I am.

I finally got somewhere. Your validation doesn't come

from your accomplishments, doesn't come from other people

think about you, doesn't come from the critics or the people

who clap you. You're your fullness, your

completion, your wholeness, your healing comes from Jesus and

worship is end of striving is the beginning of trusting.

And so I encourage you to be the greatest worshippers of our time

and not to a song, but devotion to God.

Third thing is this is that worship replaces your idea of

happiness with a deep seated joy that only comes from knowing

that Jesus is your savior. There's a deep seated joy that

only happens from knowing Christ.

I am not enough, but he is. I'm not good enough, but he is.

I don't know enough, but he knows.

And so I trust and obey and I follow Jesus.

That's enough for me. Amen.

Matter of fact, that's more than enough for me.

He says blood covers my sins that he loves me.

He wipes away my sin as far as the East is from the West to

never touch each other and the ultimate he died for me and he

cares for me. I'm a son of God, I'm born

again. That's good news, Amen.

And we choose to worship Jesus. I would encourage you.

Maybe you're between churches. Maybe you go to church like once

in a blue moon. Maybe you don't go very often at

all, right? I would encourage you.

What would it look like for you to make 2026 a year of worship?

Like, what would it look like for you to actually know the God

of all gods who created you and to walk with him and to worship

him and to bow down to him and follow him.

So maybe your word for 26 is just worship.

You know, we maybe even bound down the wrong stuff and we're

going to tear down some idols. It's like Gideon went back home

and he tore down an Asher pole and a false idol, the altar to

bail him. And the first thing he had to do

was just a RIP out all the stuff that looked nothing like God and

have some godly confidence. Like what would look like for

you to say, you know, I'm going to get it connected to a church

family to help you grow. Like it's our goal for people to

discover real life and purpose in Jesus.

That's why we're here. Amen.

It's not an accident that 46 people are going to get baptized

this year. It's because God's hand and he's

blessing it, Amen. And so if you need a church

home, you're looking for relationships, not just a place,

but a people, Well, welcome home, Amen.

We would love to have you. We'd love to see you grow in

your worship and devotion to God.

Not because we want more people to show up because we want more

worship to go to God and more people to go out with the glory

of God to a lost and dying world.

Most humbly and true to Christmas that God does not wait

for us to find him because we never would have, but he came to

find us. And here's the mindset of Christ

and you see this in Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

It says have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being the very

nature of God did not consider equality of God something to be

used to his own advantage. We never see that happen before

every politician in the world right says rather he has made

himself what nothing. This is the heart of God by

taking on the very nature of a servant being made in what human

likeness and being found in appearance as a man that's

Christmas, Amen. This is the heart of God.

He lower himself down to nothing.

Before I was former of a servant to be put into human nature to

be appearance of a man. He humble himself, becoming

obedient to death, even to death on a what a cross he said, what

an accident. And this is what happens.

This is what the Father does. It says therefore verse 9, God

exalted Jesus to the highest place and gave him the name that

is above every name that the name of who, the name of who

Jesus, every knee shall bow in heaven on earth and under the

earth and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is

Lord to the glory of God the Father.

It's interesting about this text.

We talk about bowing down in Psalm 22.

We talk about bowing down Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Interesting about this text is that in the Old Testament

there's over 70 names of God. You can pick any name you bow

down to God for all eternity, but he chooses the name Jesus.

You never see the name Jesus in the Old Testament.

The first time you see Jesus, the name of Jesus, it was the

Angel told Mary you'll conceive and give birth to a son and to

call him Jesus. Isn't it interesting that we bow

down to God's human name? Isn't that real interesting?

Like if all the names that we could the name that has the

highest name of all the names you can bow down to you pick

Jesus. Why did you pick Jesus?

Because it's his name doesn't just identify him as oh, that's

Jesus. There is Jesus.

Hi, Jesus. It identifies him as the one who

fulfilled all of God's promises. That's Jesus.

There is hundreds if not thousands of promises in the Old

Testament that point to the one that's going to come and save us

from our sins. It starts all the way back in

Genesis when we fell, we ate the fruit of the tree and disobey

God. And God says we put enemy

intimity between man, their daughter, her son, and that

one's going to crush the head and bruise his heel.

That's Jesus. That's the first mention of the

Gospel, and there's thousands of mentions to the Gospel, Old

Testament, and the New Testament points back to Jesus as a film

of the promise. Amen.

This is Jesus. The name of Jesus, the Lord

saves is the name of which we will bow down for all of

eternity because it's the greatest act of God.

It's Jesus, the Lord saves, the Lord saves, and we'll just bow

down. And whether you're above the

earth or on the earth or below the earth, you'll say Jesus, he

does save. Would he missed it or he found

it? And God's grace act of promises

demands the grace act of worship.

That's what we worship. That's what Christmas is all

about. And so Matthew 121, it says you

are to give him the name Jesus because he'll what he will save

his people from there. He'll save his people through

sins. How many guys are saving your

sins today by the way, you excited about that at all?

If you if you don't know Jesus, you should be looking around

right now and going man, I need to get right with God.

Amen. Because this is a free gift.

There's no strings attached. You know, it's disappointing

that the world and Satan has told everybody that that do all

these things to find Jesus when Jesus has freely given a gift

and today we can worship Christ our Savior, just the name Jesus.

So Father would come before you that help us to worship you

tonight as Jesus followers that we are so grateful we just lift

our hands and worship. Thank you Jesus, I bow down to

you for so many of us tonight. Maybe it's been a long time

since we truly worship God. Maybe it's a long time since we

opened our heart, said Father, I need you.

God. I've walked my own way.

I've bowed down to other things. I've trusted in other idols.

I put strength in my own work. I've followed other names.

But God, I'm getting right. Tonight I'm surrendering to you.

Tonight, God, I need you. I worship you.

The courage is pulled back and I trust you.

I'll pray for one group of people particularly, and that's

those of you that don't know you Jesus yet.

I'm going to ask you to do something really uncomfortable,

something that's not normal in our culture, but something that

God has asked us to do. Because you've seen the promise

of God. You've seen just a little bit of

the curtain. You saw Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53.

You saw Matthew chapter 1, Luke chapter 2.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention Luke 2 · chapter mention

You saw just a little bit of these promise of God.

You're like, this is making way too much sense.

I'm going to ask you to bow down to Jesus today, not a physical

way, but with your heart and say, Lord, I'm calling you as my

savior. You heard the stories, you heard

the scripture, you saw that Jesus died for you.

Anyone's relationship with you. This is the reason for

Christmas, because God loves us enough to send His one only Son

to die on a cross for us, that we may have a relationship with

Him on that cross. He became sin for us, who knew

no sin. That we might become the

righteousness of God and that we can walk out of here with a

permanent relationship with Christ.

And His Holy Spirit comes inside of us and seals us and changes

us from the inside out. That Jesus wants to find you

tonight. And so if you need Jesus,

nothing you can do except for accept this free gift.

If you want Jesus and you're willing to humbly bow down in

your heart and say, yes, Lord Jesus, save me.

If that's you, that I'd be looking around.

If that's you, we just lift your hand high in this place.

I need Jesus. Today, Christmas Eve 2025.

That's you. Just lift your hand high in this

place. I need Jesus, your relationship

with him. You feel something, That's the

Holy Spirit calling. You see your hand just speaking

to you, just drawing you in. If you draw dear to God, I'll

draw close to you. If you raise your hand, I'll

just ask you to pray this prayer.

The prayer does not save you. It's your belief.

It's your humble heart. Just cry out to God's sake.

Father God, thank you so much for sending Jesus.

I'm bowing down at the name of Jesus today.

I'm calling the Lord and Savior to save me for my sin, to make

you right in your eyes. God, thank you for the free gift

of salvation. Thank you for pulling back the

curtain. Thank you for your spirit.

Just show me the things I was following.

I need to follow something better.

The truth, which is Jesus and I have a way to heaven.

So God, I give you glory. I thank you for what you're

doing. I praise in Jesus name, the name

of all names, the name that saves the church.

We say Amen. Come on, give it up big this

Christmas Eve, give God some worship.

Come on. Thank you, Jesus.

Come on, man, what a powerful reminder just about the true

gift that Jesus is and just the encouragement to bow down and to

truly worship him this Christmas season.

And some of you recognize for the first time tonight that

Jesus came for you, that God sent his Son to die for you.

And it's a free gift just for you for salvation.

If that's you and you raised your hand and you prayed that

prayer, congratulations. We truly are so excited for you

as you walk out this journey with Jesus.

I mean, we would love to resource you to walk alongside

you. You can grab that connection

card that's on your seat, fill out information on that, but

check that box that says, I committed my life to Jesus.

And you can drop that in the giving buckets as they pass here

in just a few minutes. Just by doing that allows us to

get you a free book in the mail this week.

It's called begin. It really is a great resource

for you as you're taking these steps with Jesus.

And hey, if you prayed that prayer here in the house today,

as you exit the worship center, there is a table as you leave

with some red bags inside the red bags.

It's a free Bible and some other resources for you as well.

But come on, can we give a hand to all those who accepted Jesus

today? So awesome.

And hey, if you're newer in the house with us today, thank you

so much for choosing to spend Christmas Eve right here with

us. We are so glad you came.

We would love to see you back at this coming Sunday.

We've got a one gathering only at 10:00 AM, but we're so glad

you came. We truly don't want anything

from you today except for this. And it's just to simply

introduce yourself to us. And you can do that by grabbing

that same connection card. Fill out your information there

on that top section and just check that box that says first

time here. You can also drop it in the

giving buckets as they pass here in just a moment or you can also

as you exit the worship center, just to your right, there's a

new here booth. You can turn that in there as

well. Somebody would love to greet you

there as well. We want to share about something

special that is coming up for Real Life Church and that's this

coming Sunday, the 28th. We are going to celebrate big at

our year end social. It's right back here at Kentucky

Trail. That's one gathering only at

10:00 AM. But man, it is going to be a day

that you do not want to miss. We're going to have just an epic

charcuterie board here in the middle.

We're going to have some drinks, just sit to hang out, to

connect, to reflect on all that God has done in 2025 and really

to look forward to what we know He's going to do in 2026.

We're going to see 19 or more people baptized, which is just

so awesome and so amazing all that God's done this year.

We're going to see commissioning and sending some people out.

You get to hear some testimonies and we would love for you to

come connect with us and hang out with us this Sunday right

back here at 10 AM. Hey, if you're a teenager in the

house, maybe you have a teenager at your house, you know, a

teenager, invite him on out to hang out with.

That's like New Year's Eve with real life youth, man.

They're going to have just a fun night.

They're headed over to main Event in Independence.

It really is a fun and safe option to send your team to.

They're going to be doing all the things, laser tag and

bowling. There's an arcade and pizza.

It's going to be a blast. They're going to bust them over

there and then come back to the Hope Center, watch the ball

drop, have some worship, really a powerful message of the gospel

really as they lead into 2026. We would love to have your team

come on out. You can scan that QR code to

check out all the details and to sign, bring them up.

And hey, man, at the heart of Christmas God gave to us.

And then we get to give to others.

And I really want to say just a heartfelt thank you to all of

you who have given here at Real Life in 2025.

You really have given here to move the mission forward and all

that we're doing here. And it's because of you.

We've seen 27 people baptized so far, another 19 plus more

getting baptized this coming Sunday.

We've had over 100 people commit their lives to Jesus and start a

relationship with Him. Man, that's credit to those of

you who have given for every hand raised, every life

transformed. Come on.

You guys have pledged over $1 million towards our first

permanent home this year. That's right, so awesome.

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for playing a part truly

in all that God is doing here. And as 2025 comes to a close, I

want to encourage you to consider maybe giving a year end

gift. We, we truly are funded 100% on

your donations and every dollar you give here truly goes to see

people's lives transformed and lives changed.

And then if you're new with us today, we don't want anything

from you. This gathering truly was our

gift to you. Thank you so much for coming.

If you call real life home, you can check out the screen.

I mean, there are a lot of ways that you can take part in

generosity. The ushers are going to come

forward and pass the buckets here in just a few minutes.

If you or your family find yourself in any kind of

immediate need today, maybe it's food or clothing or shelter.

As these buckets pass here in just a minute, please reach in,

Grab any loose cash that you see.

We really do want to be a blessing to you and your family.

Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for

who you are. God, just the gift of your Son

and the free gift to us, God, so that our eternity can be changed

forever. Father, thank you for the

opportunity, God, to bow down and to worship you.

God, we love you, we praise you. It's in your holy name that we

pray. Amen.

Well, Amen. As we wrap up our time together

here, I can't think of anything better to do than to have a

moment of worship together where we lift up Jesus's name for all

that he's done. And so I'd invite you to find

your candle floating around somewhere around you.

We're going to have this moment just to reflect on Jesus as the

light of the world. So I'd invite you to stand, grab

that candle. If you haven't figured out how

to turn it on yet. You just twist the top of that.

And this candle is just a reminder that Jesus is the light

of the world. And together we get to lean in

and worship him together. So let's give him the worship

that he deserves today, to thank him for saving us, for being

man, the God who saves. So let's worship Him.

Joyful and triumphant Oh, come me, oh, come me to bed the love

come and behold, when the King of the ages Oh, come and let us,

Oh come and let us, oh come and let us.

Exaltation, seeing only citizens of heaven.

Glory to God, the highs. Oh, come and let us hold.

Come and let us go to Him. Hold, Come and let us hold to

Him. This happy morning, Jesus, to

thee be all glory. Give the word of the Father, lie

in flesh of thee. US who come late, Us I join him

who come late, Us I join in Christ.

If you step down Into Darkness, open my eyes and let me see

beauty that made. This hard adore you, home of a

life spent with you. Here I am 2 words.

Here I am to bow down. Here I am to.

Say that you're. My God, you're altogether

lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me, King

of old days, or so highly exalted, glorious in heaven

above. And humbly you came to the earth

you created, and all for Love's sake became poor.

Oh, how they worship you. This Here I am to worship.

Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my

God. You're all together lovely, all

together worthy, all together wonderful to me.

Oh come, let us adore him. Oh come, let us adore him.

Christ the Lord, lift him up. Oh come, let us adore him.

Oh, come, let us and us adorn him.

Oh, come, let us adorn him, Christ the Lord, and we'll

praise your name forever. We'll praise your name forever.

We will raise your name forever. Christ, He's Christ the world,

and we'll praise God's name is Jesus.

Praise your name, for I can't stop saying it will raise your

name for it, but Christ the Lord.

You across. The world.

Because here I am to worship and here I am to bow down.

Here I am to say that you're my God.

You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether

wonderful to me. Here I am to worship.

Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my

God. You're all together lovely all

together loving. You're all together wonderful

to. Me.

Amen. Give him some praise tonight for

today. And it has just been our honor

and such a blessing to worship, to come together to God's

presence, to join here to gather to celebrate his birth, to

celebrate his name and who he is.

And so we want to wish you the very merriest of Christmas from

real life. You don't have to run out of

here. Go and grab some hot cocoa, get

a portrait or picture with your family.

Get a picture with Santa. We'd love to connect with you

out in the Hub. But as this Christmas season

goes, we want you to remember that whoever finds Jesus

discovers real life and purpose. Have a Merry Christmas everyone.