Christmas At Rock Point

Because I don't know about you but sometimes, have you ever had those moments where you're looking for something and it's right in front of you but you don't see it?

I do this all time and and I I'll be looking in the refrigerator for something like milk. Like just the other day, like, where's the milk? And my wife says, it's in the refrigerator. I go, no. Someone drank it all. It's not here. She goes, I just bought some fifteen minutes ago. I go, it's not here. She'll walk by the refrigerator looking at her phone and just grab it and hand it to me and I'm like, that wasn't there. You're a wizard, Carrie. Where did it come from? Yeah, anybody like that? Anybody say, my husband is like that but he won't admit it. It's it's crazy how we can be looking at something. We can look at and and it's it's right in front of us but we miss it. So what I wanna do is I wanna give us a little awareness test. There's and and where you can, like,

see how aware you are to details and stuff. So it's a little video. Just follow this test and and and take it and see how you do. This is an awareness test.

How many passes does the team in white make?

Right, how many? 13. Wow, you guys are pretty adamant. This must be the the the most opinionated crowd here. Anybody get a number other than thirteen and twelve? Ten? Twenty seven? If you got 27, you weren't paying attention. Alright. Well, let let's see if 13 was right. We'll see if you were right. The answer is 13. But

did you see the moonwalking bear?

Did anybody see the moonwalking bear the first time? Did any of you that saw it the first time have never seen this video before? Right? If you've never seen this video before and you saw it, I guarantee one of two things. You didn't wanna take the test.

You refused to count the passes. So, you just sat there and watched the video. That's probably what you did because because think about it. Like, how many of you think that the second video was different than the first one? You you think we changed it? No. We didn't. That was the same one. The moonwalking bear was there the whole time. The whole time. First time I watched this, I I I refuse to believe it. I had to rewatch it. I was like, there is no way. That's actually a commercial from England that that that uses psychological

like like scientific studies that proves that like we have an issue sometimes when we think we see something but we miss obvious things because what we're actually looking at. That's a commercial that say, be aware of of bicyclists

when you're driving because you're not gonna see em. They're like, I didn't see it and it's crazy. Why can you not see the moonwalking bear? It's hysterical once you see it, right? You're like, that is so obvious. That is so obvious. Why did I you know why? Because you're busy counting passes.

So, once again, what are you looking for this Christmas? Because you might be looking for something but you think it's counting passes and you might be missing the answer that's right there in front of you.

It might be right there the whole time and that's what I wanna talk to you about for a few minutes. I'm gonna speak for a few minutes and we're gonna sing some more and and and and before we sing some more, I wanna talk to you about why we're singing and talk to you about what is Christmas about. What is Christmas even for?

Because there's a passage in in scripture where Jesus has a conversation with a man and this man is spiritual. He's looking for things of god. He's looking for the answer to the meaning of life. He's looking for the things a lot of us are looking for. We may not know what it is but we know what we want. Some of you are here looking like, I want peace. I want contentment. I want joy. I want happiness. Some of us are having a really tough time right now. You go, I want light at the end of the tunnel. I want a better relationship. I want a better job. I want a better this. I want a better but in the reality is all these things we're looking for,

we might be counting passes and missing the real answer that's right there. And that's really what this conversation Jesus has is this really spiritual man. He's a Pharisee, a teacher of the word of god in in Israel and he comes to have this conversation with Jesus and he is missing

the moonwalking bear because he's focusing on the passes and Jesus basically lets him know, this is why I was born. This is why Christmas

and so it's in the book of John chapter three and starting in verse one, it says this, there was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus.

Rabbi said, we all know that god has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that god is with you. So, he goes, hey, I believe in the spiritual things. I believe in this. I believe in what, you know, these things but then Jesus replied, I tell you the truth unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of god. So, he goes, had be born again and then Nicodemus responds with, what do you mean?

What do you mean? He's like, I don't get that. What do you, what?

He goes, how can an old man go back into a mother's womb and be born again? So, he took it really literal. He's like, I don't get it. He's literal. How can you be born again? That's kinda gross but he just says this and then Jesus replies, I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of god without being born of water and the spirit. Water is being a physical birth. We're born in this world physically but then, you can only be in the kingdom of god if you have this spiritual birth as well. So, he's starting to unpackage that and he goes, he goes, so don't be surprised.

No, wait, I skipped.

Here we go. Humans can reproduce only human life but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So, don't be surprised when I say you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it's going. So, you can't explain how people are born of the spirit.

He's basically saying that the Holy Spirit

is what brings on the second birth is that it comes in your life. It's a spiritual thing and it blows in and it like the wind. You don't know where it's like coming from. You can't explain. It just happens. In a matter of fact, you're gonna have an opportunity. It's gonna happen in some of your lives by the end of the service. By the end of my talk, you're gonna see what he's talking about here. The Holy Spirit is gonna change your life forever.

It's already happened over 400 times in nine, eight services and and we're gonna watch it literally happen. He's saying that it's god that has to draw you and bring you and so then he says, how are these things possible?

And Jesus replied, you are a respected Jewish teacher and yet you don't understand these things? He's like, guys, you should you should know the answer. You have the Old Testament? You know the prophecies? You know what I'm talking about?

And he says, I assure you, we tell you that we know what we have seen and that you won't believe our testimony but if you don't believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how are you possibly gonna believe me if I tell you about heavenly These spiritual things, the things that are really the meaning of the universe. The answer to what you're really looking for is what he's saying.

You're not gonna see it if you don't listen to me. He goes, no one has ever gone to heaven in return but the son of man, Jesus, has come down from heaven. And then in verse fourteen, fifteen, and 16, he explains what the second birth looks like. He basically tells Nicodemus, here's how it works.

And and he says, and as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up. So that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. For this is how god loved the world. Verse 16, the most famous verse in the Bible, for this is how god loved the world. He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal

So, he says, he says this weird verse 14 which I'm gonna explain in a minute and then he says and see, just like this thing, like, as Moses lifted up this snake on a pole in the wilderness,

so must the son of man be lifted up and anyone who believes in that will have eternal life and how you have eternal life is you put your faith in the fact that god sent his son, Jesus and if you believe in Jesus, you have eternal life. Now, what is eternal life? We know what eternal means. It means going on forever. We all wanna live forever, right? But the ideas with the life part. Some of us think eternal life is I just don't wanna die. You think of eternal life like it's some twilight kinda morph thing. Like you're just a vampire. You just keep going.

And that's not what he's talking about. That word for life in the Bible is written this this passage written in Greek. It's a Greek word for life that means life found in god. It means life the way the creator meant it to be and here's the thing about life that comes from god. That's where you can have peace, contentment,

joy, happiness, and here's the catch. The life, the Zoe, that happens despite your circumstances. Any other life we run after, you might only have fleeting moments of that because every other life that we try to live, when we live life on our own terms, we end up having these moments of peace, moments of contentment,

moments of happiness. And then, but if the moment's not happy, if you're going through something tough, if you're in a dark moment right now, the only answer we have for life is, I hope this ends soon. And until I get to that better moment, it's not gonna happen.

The other thing is is so what happens, we can end up in darkness but he's saying, this is how you can have eternal life and eternal life is not just you're you're you're punching in, you turn in tickets when you came in here. Hey, you got your ticket to heaven. Someday, it'll be okay. This idea of eternal life is you can start experiencing this life that's despite what's going on around you.

Now, you might not have the problems go away. You might still be in a dark moment but you can experience life despite it. That's what he's offering. That's what he's saying and he explains how you gotta do it. In other words, what he just told Jesus is, what he just told Nicodemus is, I was born

so you can be born again. Jesus

was born. Christmas is this, Jesus was born so we can be born again and what does that mean? See, I just told you, he explained it to Nicodemus but you're like, I still don't get it. So, I gotta believe in Jesus. I understand that. That sounds like a churchy answer but what what did he say to Nicodemus that helped this guy who was spiritual understand exactly what he meant? It was verse 14.

When he said, and as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the son of man must have been lifted up. Nicodemus understood this. It comes from the Old Testament. He understood the story. He understood and basically told him, you should know better, you should know the Bible. This is what I mean and it's a vague story in the Old Testament but he discovered

not long after this conversation when Jesus was crucified and hung on the cross that that was a foreshadowing

back in the Old Testament of what Jesus was gonna do and we know Nicodemus understood this in the end because he put his faith in Jesus and when his disciples were afraid for their lives and ran, Nicodemus was one of the two Pharisees that went and asked if they could bury the body of Jesus

and it records as he became a follower of Jesus. So, he understood because of this verse.

I wanna quickly go to that story to explain what it means to be born again, to explain what it means, how to have the Zoe eternal life that god promises. To explain what it means, how you can get to what I think you're running after in your life. Those things you think that are gonna give you what you're looking for but they won't actually get you there. They'll give you moments

but the Bible says, there's a way that seems right to man but in the end, it leads to death. What that's saying is there's a way we try to go after life. There's a way we try to go after contentment. The way we try to go after things that actually make sense to us.

It literally makes sense to us but what god is saying is, in the end, it's not gonna give you what you thought you were gonna get. It's not gonna pay off. You're just gonna end your life with a few fleeting moments, some ups and downs, and then nothing. Then nothing. But the life that Jesus offers

is an eternal life because it reconnects us in relationship with the god who created life in the first place and so this story, what is he referring to that he would have understood what does it mean to become born again and it's in the book of Numbers chapter 21. Numbers, that sounds like math.

Numbers is really the chronicles of when the Israelites were miraculously saved from slavery in Egypt by god and now, this story takes place as they've left Egypt and they're heading towards the promised land. They're heading towards the promised land and what we're gonna see in this little quick story is this,

it is like the road trip with kids from hell. So, if you've gone on a road trip with your kids, now imagine it. I don't know if any, some of you have literally done this. I've said this every Saturday, that's been me. Imagine if you woke up, if you told your kids on Christmas morning, we're going to Disney Land.

Kids, you'd be pretty excited about that, wouldn't? You're like, no, I just ruined your Christmas but but imagine, you get em in the car and you have little kids. They're super excited and you drive from here. Takes like seven hours to get there. What's gonna happen within fifteen minutes? Are we there yet?

And then you you start to regret ever having ever loved your kids that much to do this.

And and and you're gonna look at your kids and go maybe the adoptive parents that are gonna take you next will take you to Disneyland because I'm done with this trip. So, that's really what happened. So, watch this. Verse four says this, then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hore taking the road to the Red Sea

to go around the land of Edom but the people grew impatient with the long journey and they began to speak against god and Moses. Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness? See, they're like, they're god's kids from hell. They're not only complaining at the church. When are we gonna get there? They're like, well, not only we're not getting there. I think you're trying to kill me and then they look what they said. They complained, there is nothing to eat in here and there's nothing to drink and then they say, and we hate this horrible manna. They just contradicted themselves. They said, there's nothing to eat. I don't if you've ever been to church but manna was a thing that god supernaturally produced to feed them miraculously

when they were wandering to the wilderness. They would show up every morning. They could get as much as they wanted. It is meat, eat as much as they wanted all day. They could make it into paste and bread and whatever they did with it. They could they could cook it and they could eat all they wanted. The only thing they couldn't do is it would go bad overnight. You couldn't hoard it and what god was trying to teach them on their way to the promised land is you need to trust me.

Not in hoarding your food which I think we still do that even as people that try to follow god today. Sometimes, we're like, well, I need more money. I need this to be. I need I I need. I I I love you, Jesus. I love you, god but and he goes, nope, can't hoard it. You have as much to eat but it comes one day at a time.

And what are they complaining about? There's nothing to eat. They have plenty to eat. Once again, if you have kids, you understand what I'm saying. How many times have you went shopping, filled the cupboards, and then your kid goes, I'm starving. Well, there's something. There's nothing to eat.

You know who you are, kids. I see you. You know you do it. You know what you mean when you say there's nothing to eat. Is there literally nothing to eat in your house? No. You know what it is? Tell me.

It's nothing you want to eat, isn't it? It's nothing you want to eat. So, had put on the menu, I don't like how long this trip is taking and I don't like what you're feeding me. That's the same thing that we all do. This is an illustration. What god was doing with Israel is an illustration of what all of us are going through. God has a plan for us

and he has a plan of where he wants to take us. He wants to take us to the promised land. But the problem is we don't have god's perspective. So, sometimes when the trip gets long, we get mad. Why can't we take a short cut? And then when we start to not trust that plan, we start to reject his provision.

Well, now, I don't like what I'm eating. I don't like what I'm doing. I don't like what I'm and that's what they're doing and they're rejecting God who's already supernaturally provided for them. And so here's what happens. So the Lord, verse six, sent poisonous snakes among the people and many people were bitten and died.

Wow. You better watch out. You better not pow. Because I'm telling you why.

This sounds extreme, doesn't it? Well, does god hate it? No. Because we're gonna see what god does here is actually an incredible thing and he's trying to show an example and he's trying to show us the example. The reality is he sent snakes, they get bit, they die. Merry Christmas. Let's close in prayer. No.

The example is you realize what he's doing literally with them. He's an example that for all of us, all of us have rejected god's plan. All of us have resisted and complained about his provision. All of us have missed out on that eternal life. All of us are snake bit. We're all filled with a poison called sin.

We've all done the path that seems right to us but in the end leads to death and here's the problem, you can't earn god's love by being good enough. Some of you here at church is like, I should do a spiritual thing. I should get some brownie points before god. You can't.

If you wanna earn god's love, you know what you gotta do? Be perfect.

Can't be perfect because no one is. Let's be honest, I'm the closest one here in this room.

And I'm pretty far away So, what can I do? I can understand that god doesn't love me because I'm lovable. God loves me because he loves and I need to trust him and

so the story is they they get bit and guess what they do? They do what a lot of us do. When we get snake bit in life, when our choices and our struggles lead us to a dark path, a deadly poisonous path that's toxic in our lives.

We do what a lot of us do. What they do is what many of us do. They do the foxhole prayer. Then the people came to Moses and cried out, we have sinned by speaking against the lord and against you. Pray that the lord will take away the snakes.

Isn't that what we do? We get to a bad spot and some of us, you, I don't know how long you've, some of you don't go to church very often. Some of you do but a lot of us have the same token. When life gets really, really hard, sometimes we even take that moment. Some of you like, well, here's why I'm not really in the church because I tried this before. I got to a tough spot. I said, god, if you're really there, take this away and he didn't take it away.

Where's the problem? That's what we always do. We make choices. We get into a bad spot and then we ask god to take it away and I'm just gonna tell you, he doesn't really take away the snakes. He does something better. He does something better.

See, he he prayed. So, Moses prayed for the people. Then, the lord told him, here's what god answered to their prayer. They said, take away the snakes. God says, make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole.

So, they want the snakes gone and he goes, hey, just make a replica of a snake, put it on a pole, and and and stick it up in the air. That sounds crazy. Who puts us replica of a snake? Which by the way, if you just for curiosity's sake, this story is where we get the medical symbol.

It's from the story, the snake on a on a pole there. So, so so they're going. He says to do that but then he look what he says, all who are bitten will live if they simply look at it.

So, they caused the problems that led to being snake bit. They want the snakes gone and god says, nope, the snakes aren't gonna go away but you know what I will do? If you simply look at this thing, you're healed.

Basically, he's going back to you didn't trust me. You had your own plan And guess what? You know, there's a way that seems right. Remember that passage I said, there's a way that seems right to us, but neither leads to death. Wouldn't a better plan be? Why don't you give us all sticks, god?

And then we'll just beat the snakes to death. That makes more sense, doesn't it? But here's the problem. You still happen to get bit. You still die. What he gave is a solution to the bite. He didn't get rid of the snakes. He didn't get rid of the bite. But you know what he did get rid of? Their ability to kill you.

And all you had to do was look.

Meaning and you know what? It's not the look. There was not some supernatural power. The snake didn't have some laser beam that would and healed you. The idea was it was god that healed you because all you did was I trust you, God, more than I trust this. I'm just trusting you again, which was their problem in the first place, which is our problem in the first place. So what he was telling Nicodemus is this is what it means to be born again, to look to the snake on the stick and believe.

The New Testament, when Jesus came it says he was born, he went to the cross. That's what it meant, the Son of Man will be put up on the pole. He'll put up on the cross and the Bible says that he became sin, meaning he took all of our poison.

He's the one that took the poison though it's killing us from eternal life, separating us from God and making us run after all these ridiculous things that we think will make us happy but they won't. And he said, all we have to do is look to Jesus. He is the snake on the pole.

He became sin, meaning he took all the poison.

And Nicodemus understood what he meant then. Do you? So, to be born again simply means, look to Jesus. Look away from your own plans, admit that we've ran the wrong way, and look to Jesus but here's what holds us up is we get stuck with this idea that god never wants, never promises to take us on the shortcut.

Some of us were like, this journey is long and hard. I don't get it. If god really loves me, why is it so hard? Just like they were complaining about the length of their journey. Do you realize in that story, it says, he took him this way to go around Edom

because the Edomites were powerful at the time and a bunch of freed slaves, if they try to go through Edom, they would have been in a war and been killed. The long journey that seemed hard was actually god protecting them. How about you? The provision he had of manna Support him but they didn't want it. How about you?

What are you looking for this Christmas? Because the thing that stand, the real answer to what we want, I'm just here to tell you. I'm just the messenger. Is many of us are looking at the passes.

It's gonna happen. I'm gonna be happy when I get this in my life, when I have this relationship, when this gets fixed, when I get this job, when I get this, when I get that, when this happens, you're counting passes when you should be looking for the moonwalking bear Which is Jesus.

Because he moonwalked right over the Sea Of Galilee. Showed us who he was. Because he made us and he loves you. And he took the poison.

But the only way you survive is you gotta look. You know what's implied in here? There's probably some people that didn't wanna believe that. They got bit. It's a stupid story. Not gonna be dead. And the reality is some of you are gonna walk out and say, nope, that's a dumb story. I don't believe Jesus really saves me.

When all you have to do is look. Let me let me let me close down this way. When my son was in kindergarten, he's now 19 and bigger than me but when he was in kindergarten and he went into first grade,

he really struggled with going into class, going to school. We would take him and he was fine playing out out there and in front but once they had to line up and go to class, he would start getting at you. He'd start freaking out and he'd run. He'd fight the teacher. He'd get in trouble and he and he would get in trouble like they they had like the popsicle stick system. I don't know if you guys, if any teachers thought there was red, yellow, and green.

Green was you're great. Yellow was I'm keeping my eyes on you. Red was I wish you weren't in my class kind of a thing and and and he was getting red sticked every day and and it was like he was fighting. He'd run to his mom. It became a big huge hassle. We get called. He'd be in the principals. Obviously, he wouldn't do it. He would scream. So, finally, we went and and it came to a head where we were trying to get him to do it. We're like, saying, hey, we're gonna have to we're taking away some of your toys. You're not gonna be able to do this. You're not gonna be that. And then finally, one day after a few days of school, like four days into this, five days a week into school, he he actually literally got away from the teacher as they walked into class, ran, got out, and there was a side gate that wasn't closed yet. He got out while my wife was still going to the office to check on something and before they could even call the office, then she got in the car. She drove home, had no idea. He ran all the way home. We lived not too far but he's still a little kid, ran across the main street, went over, and she pulls up to our house and he's standing in the front lawn. She's like, are you doing here? He's like, I don't like school. You know, like, I don't like how long it is. I don't like the manna. You know, I don't like what it is. So, he would scream. So, then we realized, we can't do this. You can't just choose to run away from school.

It's dangerous. So, I gotta bring some snakes. Snakes to the plane. You know, here we go and and and so we said, alright, here's the deal. I end up taking away all of his toys and then he ended up having to go to bed right when he got home from school

and we just bring him some dinner around 05:30 and he laid. I took the door off of his his his room so we could keep an eye on him and he had to go in there with nothing to play within and just lay there until the next morning. He was a first grader.

He did that for five straight days an entire week and he was showing no signs of giving up.

So, we're about to go, well, what am I doing on the weekend? Okay, you're like, I had no idea what to do with him. Matter of fact, we were so worn out. It's like, I was about to give up. You're the leader now. Here's the checkbook. Here's our bank account information.

I I'll sign the armistice, the truce. This is now the sovereign territory of you. You won, Anakin. Your dark side of the force was too strong for us. So, we're about to quit but then, what happens is my wife figured it out.

She sat down and had this conversation with him and we found out the first obvious thing was he's frustrated. He didn't like how long the school day was. He wanted the shortcut. But the second thing was he finally admitted he was afraid. He was having serious separation anxiety from his mom.

And and and it would just make him out. He just couldn't handle it. He was so fearful

and and he still is like more like has to talk to his mom. He still comes in the house today. He'll come in and be like, mom and I'm like, hey, what do you need, man? I'm here. He's like, okay, dad. You can help me. Yeah. What do you need? Where's mom? He's upstairs. Fine.

But the reality is is is he admitted this and so my wife actually talked to him and said, son, here's the problem. You're looking at the frustration and you're stuck looking at your fear.

You need to look in faith. Guess what? And she pulled out the bible and turned to the book of Philippians and she read a passage that says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Now now now and she said, see, you can can understand, son. We're not taking school away. It's hard. You gotta go. So I'm not gonna take you around it. You also can't take it away. Just like god doesn't take away the snakes, doesn't take us on the shortcut, but you know what he did promise? He'll take you through it.

He'll take you through it. So, if you can look to Jesus instead of your frustration and your fears, he'll take you through it.

Can you do that? And and here's the great. So many people take that verse out of context. It says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Athletes quoted all this as if it means, I can do anything I want if I just believe hard enough. That's not what it says. The verses before it talk about, I have horrible times. I've had great times. I can go through any of those times as long as I trust Jesus.

As long as I look to Jesus, I can get to I can follow his plan. I can go through the dark moments, the light moments. I can have the experience of that eternal life right now. But you have to look to Jesus.

So she he my wife actually wrote it on a piece of paper, that verse out for him, gave it to him. Put it in his pocket.

And she goes, keep this with you. When you get frustrated, you get afraid, just look at it. And when he lined up at school next day, she kinda waited at the gate, she saw him. He got up, and started looking around. She saw him like pull his pocket out and kinda look at it and was looking at it, which is crazy because I don't think he can even read it because I told you he doesn't like school. So he's sitting there going

and he put it in and he went in. He ran to her after school that day and he goes, I got the green stick. And he got in and the first thing he said, mom, you know why? He goes, because it works. Jesus works. He was actually surprised. Jesus actually works. I'm like, thanks for affirming my career choice, son.

And he was right. His situation didn't change. All that changed is what he looked at. Look to the pole. Look to Jesus. You put your faith in Jesus and that's how you're born again. And it might not change your situation, but it'll change you. It'll empower you. So what are you looking for?

Are you counting passes or you can see Jesus right there? The one who created you, the one who loves you. Because that's what it means to be a Christian. It just simply means I look to Jesus. Will you?

I just wanna pray. So if you could close your eyes. Now many of you already are born again. You've already looked to Jesus in your life and but sometimes we get a little distracted. May this be a moment of like maybe a a recommit moment where you can look back

and just be thankful. So you start praying. But I wanna pray with some of the people in this room. When I said the Holy Spirit was gonna move through, some of you have never become born again. You've never looked to Jesus. And I'm gonna pray with you and show you that you can be born again right now.

And some of you, you're feeling weird like in this meeting, I don't even know what's going on, but I I just I feel like this guy's speaking right at me. That is the Holy Spirit talking to you. Will you listen? And if you will and you're willing, just pray with me. Pray it in your own heart and make it your own words.

But just pray something like this. Dear Jesus, thank you. Thank you that I can look to you and you took the poison of sin away from me. Thank you that even though I might run from you, you ran for me. And right now, I put my faith in you and not me. I turn from my ways and I turn to you.

And in the best way I know how and even understand in this moment, I choose to believe that you were born, that you walked that perfect life, you died on the cross, and then you came back to life beating death for me. And I put my faith in that. I look to you and you alone.

Thank you for that. Thank you for forgiving me. Thank you for saving you. Thank you for giving me eternal life in you. And now help me each and every day to look for you in my life and understand what that means a little bit more every day. Thank you. And before I say amen,

I'm gonna ask you to do something. If you prayed with me, have the courage, no one else looking around, just put your arm, put your hand up in the air. Hold it up nice and high. Be proud because you know the Bible says,

every time someone looks to Jesus and turns to him, it says the angels rejoice in heaven. Meaning, you guys just got the Christmas party started early. So praise God for that. Don't be afraid. And if you're out there online watching,

just just comment. I just prayed with you, Bill. So, we know you did too and we can praise Jesus for that. We can say amen to that. We can celebrate because we're actually had over 400 people that have looked to Jesus already through these services. Add your name to that list.

Father god, thank you for all the hands up in this room. I thank you for the hands that I know are up out there in the in the cyber verse as well, lord. And the reason I thank you is, lord, this is what you've called us to do. And lord, I thank you because this is what Christmas is about.

It's about this idea that we need to look. We're all snake bitten, but we need to look to you. And only in looking to you do we find eternal life. Only in you do we find an answer. And so many of us are looking right at the answer each and every day and even in this moment, we miss it. But Lord, these people have found it because you found them. So I thank you for them. And I thank you that this is why we're here. And I thank you as we continue to sing, as we continue to worship, that the of these songs that we are singing out, we understand why.

We understand that we are able to sing these songs about you being born because you were born so we can be born again. And we give you all the praise and all the glory in that, and we say this in the mighty name of Jesus. Thank you. Amen.

Place. You laid down your crown for me. How great a king. And so what a life you gave. And you

be in midst

And all you've done, we lift you midst up. Lift you up for all you are. And all you've done, we lift

and just as the angels declared it that night to the shepherds, we join in with their song declaring the birth of Christ our lord.

Is born.

Christ the savior is born.