Christmas Eve Morning Service (3)
First B Jackson
2017-12-24

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Good morning, everybody. How are you? How about Merry Christmas, everybody? How are you? Merry Christmas.

Well, welcome here this morning to first b. We've got Christmas is happening all day long here. It'll be tonight we're having two services, one at 04:30 and one at six, and we're starting this one right now. So would you stand with us? It's gonna look more like our second service than our first service.

Scott, Humphrey, and Judy are Judy's gonna be on the piano, and Scott's gonna help me up here. And would you sing with us? Hymn number two forty nine. We're gonna sing them as hymns this morning as they are tonight. It'll be the full band that y'all are used to at the 09:00, and we'll play those however Carl wants to.

Alright? So would you sing with us? Hymn number two forty nine. Amen. Y'all sound like a choir of angels this morning.

I did. That's fantastic. You know this one, How about Away in a Manger? We'll sing hymn number two sixty two. Two sixty two, Away in a Manger.

I don't

see any hymnals out there.

If you want to sing your part, if you don't know it, there are hymnals in the seats in Amen. Y'all can have a seat and if you're in the back and you can't find a seat, it's a baptist church. You can always find a seat on the front row and today, you could put your feet up on the platform. There's just close enough. What is going on?

Yeah. Hey. Just a quick announcement that, this is an opportunity, this morning during the offering to give to our staff a Christmas, gift. And, so I just wanted to, as part of the elder board, just give you guys an opportunity to announce it and, just say that we have a great staff, and we're blessed to have these guys, and we can be a blessing back to them by giving them a Christmas bonus.

Very

sneaky. Merry Christmas. There will not be a Monday night service tomorrow night. We're we're not gonna have a Monday night service. So 06:00 tomorrow, although we do it pretty much every week, we are not gonna do it Christmas day.

Y'all have fun, hang out with family. If if you need somewhere to go with people and you don't have your family, y'all are welcome to come here and hang out in the fellowship hall and have your own Monday night. Okay? But Monday nights at first be not this week. There is a snowmobile retreat that's coming up for the guys January 26 through the twenty eighth.

You can see Kyle Knutson if you'd like to be involved in that. That's the twenty sixth through the January 28. And I think that we have gone through all of the Christmas stuff. I will say, again, we have services tonight at 04:30 and six. Both services will be the same.

In some years, we do them differently, but this year, both services will be the same, so choose your time that's most favorable to you, 04:30 or six, and the band will be playing. I think we have a couple of additional members with additional instruments, but that should be a fun, fun Christmas Eve service tonight. Am I forgetting anything else? I hope not. In the bulletin, it's written down.

So if you have anything else, any other announcements, prayer requests, anything, you could check your bulletin. We do have one other announcement after the service today. If the preacher doesn't go long winded and even if he does, we're gonna do another baptism. It's a nice time. A combined service is a nice time for a baptism.

So we have Ephesians is gonna be baptized at the end of service today. I'm going to invite up the Kaufmans, if you would, for our Advent reading this morning.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby keeping watch over their flocks at night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all of the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you.

He is Christ the Lord.

Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent when we light our fourth candle on our Advent wreath. The candle is purple, the candle of love. God's inexpressible love was demonstrated in the sending of his son. His love has led to our salvation. We recognize we respond by loving God and loving Jesus for him.

Now if everyone will join me in reading along with John three sixteen, as God says, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Amen. Thank you, Coffins. Would you all stand and greet one another? A lot of visitors here and a lot of relatives and kinfolk. Please greet and welcome one another.

Hey. How are you?

I'm so sorry. We did not do well in

time

management. It's not

easy to do. Alright. Here we go.

Joy to the world. The Lord is come. Let earth receive

her king.

His love wonders wonders of his love is that the best one

amen that's a good one I like that one. There's a lot of good ones. That's good. How about it came upon a midnight clear? There will be a lot of a lot of other Christmas songs tonight.

There might be a duplicate here and there but there will be a lot of em tonight. It's mostly music tonight. Mercifully said the pastor. It's mostly music.

Angels sing.

Y'all can have a seat, and I'm gonna invite the frontline team forward. I see Todd making a gesture here. I'm pretty sure what he's gonna say is this whole offering is not going to the staff. Right? Yeah.

If you would like for anything to go to the staff, you can put that on the memo line. The general fund is what keeps the church going. So that's what the offering is for every Sunday, but I thank you, Todd, for that. God, would you pray with me, people? God, I thank you, and I'm humbled this morning just being in the house of those, Lord, who have trusted you and bringing along some relative, Lord, who perhaps haven't.

God, I just am so thankful and so humbled by the season, by this morning, by considering what you've done, leaving the glories of heaven to come to Earth, Lord, to experience life in the same way, same temptation, same trials, same ways that we experience it, yet being without sin. God, you're amazing, and we want to further the good news of the kingdom, the good news of great joy of Christmastime. We wanna further that year round, Lord. So would you use this church? Would you use this church?

These people, the tithes and offerings, Lord, that go in these plates, would you extend your kingdom to the uttermost parts, to the ends of the earth? We trust you to do it, Lord, you to do it because you're the only one that can. I thank you that we're a part of that plan. Would you impress upon our hearts what you'd have us do? And, Lord, give us the strength to do it.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Let your heart be light. From hell on, your troubles game. From now on, your troubles will be miles happy golden days of your faithful friends who are dear to us gather near to us once more through the years we all will be together if the Lord hang a shining star upon the highest bow have yourself a merry little Christmas night. Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

Let your heart be light. From now on, your troubles will be out of sight. Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Faithful friends who are dear to us gather near to us once more through the years we all will be together if the Lord hang a shining star upon the highest And have yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas now.

Amen. Thank you very much. That's great. It's time now for children's church. Here they go.

The cavalcade out of here. Ephesians, we'll send for you in a little while. Bring your friends. Alright? Alright.

So God rescue Mary. Thank you. I did not know that song was gonna be sung either. So have yourself a merry little Christmas. Why we say merry Christmas and not happy Christmas?

They do say happy Christmas in England, is funny because we got merry Christmas from England. I'm just wondering, have yourself a Merry Little Christmas or Merry Christmas, we say it all the time, and we say Merry Christmas so often. And then when we sing a song like God Rest You Merry Gentlemen, we tend to use the Merry as an adjective for the gentleman. Does that make sense? It's not.

It's not. It's interesting. And last week I talked about how I struggle with preaching something that's not just in line with the text we've been studying for months. You know? I like to go in order, and I talked about it being kind of a struggle.

Birth pains like struggle for me to birth a sermon that's off of that beaten track. But I had to think, why is it that I like doing this in order? Because of context. And when I thought this thought, the context is Christmas. Y'all all know the story.

Let's go through this. Let's do this. The context being Christmas, I was thinking, Merry Christmas. Why, Merry? And this kept coming back to mind.

God rest you merry gentlemen. I'm gonna use this as a frame on which to hang the sermon this morning. The problem for me too when I try to preach something that's off of, you know, a paragraph at a time or a few sentences at a time is that I wanna preach the whole Bible, and y'all don't wanna hear the whole Bible this morning. Y'all got places to go, and I know that. So we're starting with God, rest you, merry, gentlemen.

I want to do this. God, rest you. We don't use this kind of terminology. It's old English. It's probably as old as the fifteen hundreds.

Fifteen hundreds, definitely seventeen hundreds. That's the first time we see it written down that we can find copies of. God rest you, Mary, comma. It's God rest you, Mary, comma, gentlemen. So the gentleman part is direct address.

And kind of like Spanish or kind of like Greek, when you say just gentlemen unless it's limited, it means ladies too. Okay? Some folks have tried in fairly recent years, it's actually not even all that recent, just about a hundred years, they've been saying God rest ye merry people all. And that's a reasonable one too, but God rest ye merry means something. So God rest you is a way of saying, may God keep you or sustain you in this position.

May God sustain you at this place. Mary. So, Mary, what is it? Full of cheerfulness or gaiety, joyous in disposition or spirit, a merry little man. If I had to say, do any of y'all know a merry little man?

Would you have anybody in mind? Is he in the room? Yes. Yes. Alright.

That's Mary. Second definition of Mary. Laughingly happy, mirthful, festively joyous, hilarious. Can you all see that picture? That is Mary.

That was during the Christmas caroling a couple weeks ago. Jill and Nancy were having a joyous, hilarious time. The next definition is causing happiness, that which causes happiness pleasant or delightful. And I think y'all get the point, Mary. Now, I also wanted to do this because some of y'all have may have received an email that said, Mary originally did not mean Mary.

Mary meant mighty. So when the song says, God rest you, Mary, gentlemen, he meant God rest you mighty. Robin Hood's merry men were really mighty men, and merry Old England is really mighty Old England, and it's about power and force. I think this is Christian subculture reaction to the war on Christmas. Really.

I think it is. I think that we overstepped what is written. It's a song anyway, by the way. It's not biblical. It's not Bible, but it is biblical.

Merry means happy. It means joyous. It means laughingly so, really, really good. It doesn't mean mighty and powerful. In fact, Christ's power lay in his humility and his obedience.

So we don't have to fight back in the war on Christmas. You don't have to take it upon yourself to fight back. It's Christmas. We're still celebrating it two thousand years later. Who's winning?

Right? All right. Check Snopes before you forward anything, please. If you see something that says merry, it means mighty and you know, I don't think merry means mighty. Check snopes, please.

Before you forward it, tell your friends because it does not mean mighty. It means merry. It means happy and don't be ashamed of it. It's good. Really good.

God rest you, Mary. You know that because the refrain from the song is, oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy. What could be more merry and happy than being comfortable and full of joy? So that's what it means. God rest you merry gentlemen.

Like I said, it's gentle people all. It includes all people because it is good news that shall be to all people. Let nothing you dismay. It even says, it doesn't say, God rest you mighty gentlemen. Let nothing overpower you.

It's to be merry is the opposite of being dismayed. How many of you have been dismayed? How many of you have been anxious in the past week? To be merry is the opposite of that, dismay. So, let nothing you dismay.

Is that biblical? It is. Philippians, we're studying Philippians right now. We're up to Philippians two. In just a few weeks, we'll be at this.

Be anxious for nothing. Let nothing you dismay. But in everything by prayer and by supplication. With thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus. Who is Christmas about?

Christ Jesus. Amen. Remember Christ our savior was born on Christmas day. Whatever day that was, it was Christmas day. Okay?

There are people that argue about when it was. It most certainly, most likely was not December 25. Who cares? Right? We are celebrating Christ's birth, and we've chosen to do it all at the same time.

Praise God. This is tomorrow, Christ's birthday. We celebrate tomorrow. My dad's birthday is December 28. We celebrate it in August because it's December 28.

We chose to celebrate it on a day not his birthday because we want to celebrate my dad. Usually, it's in August. This is what we're celebrating. John one fourteen. And the word, that is the divine expression of God, his very absolute expression of himself, his communication.

The word became flesh and it dwell dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. That's what we're celebrating, that God almighty expressed himself in his son, Jesus. Why? To save us all from Satan's power. Amen.

Jesus responded. This is from Luke 19. It's the story of Zacchaeus. You know, the wee little man up in the tree. Jesus responded, salvation has come to this home today for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham.

He stepped out in faith for the son of God, son of man came to seek and to save those who are lost. Why did Jesus came? Why did Jesus come? To save us all from Satan's power. Matthew one twenty one and she will have a son.

You've heard this 12 times already this Christmas season and you are to name him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. Jesus came to save. Don't be ashamed of it. We without him lie in peril, and with him we can be saved. So I thought of several different ways to approach this.

One of them was there's good news, there's bad news, and there's fake news. Alright? The bad news is we all start out in peril. The good news is, God sent Jesus so that we could be saved and the fake news we'll talk about later. To save us all from Satan's power.

When we were gone astray, when did he do it? Before we made a step towards him, God demonstrated his love, his own love toward us and while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He made the step towards us. Actually, grace means leaning toward with an expression of favor. Galatians four four and five says, but when the right time, at exactly the right time in history, when the right time came, God sent his son, born of a woman and subject to the law.

God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own children. This is why we celebrate Christmas because God sent his son. And then tidings. Oh, tidings. Where's Kevin Olsen?

Somewhere. Tidings just means news. That's all it means. News. News.

News. Mike Demetrius, our youth leader, is fond of saying there is no new news. There's only old news happening to new people. He usually uses it in the context of watch how you make your decisions, watch where you step, but it's good news that has been around for two thousand years is still news if you haven't experienced it. Tidings means news.

Tidings of what? News of comfort and joy. Have you felt discomfort, and have you felt the opposite of joy this week? A lot of you have. I have.

But this refrain keeps coming back. Tidings of comfort and joy. Where do I find my peace? I'll talk about comfort and joy at the very end. That's verse one.

There are seven verses, but we're going to go through them fast. In Bethlehem and Israel, this blessed babe was born. I actually went over that last week. This blessed babe was born. I like this from Paul writing to Timothy without question.

This is the great mystery of our faith. Christ was revealed in a human body. The deity was revealed in a human body. This is a great mystery. That's true.

That's true, and Paul stated it as such. He didn't overstate his case. It is a great mystery of our faith. Nevertheless, it's true. Christ was revealed in the human body and laid within a manger upon this blessed morn.

I showed you this picture last week of a stable. This is actually North Africa, but that is a manger over in the corner with a chicken in it. A chicken in a manger is not an abnormal sight. A baby in a manger is. So that was the way that God made it clear to the shepherds that they had found the right baby child.

To which his mother Mary did nothing take in scorn, may it be to me just as you have said, is the proper response for whatever God asks us to do. She didn't take anything in scorn. This is this is a long quote. I'm going to read it because I like I like it. Jesus was born in the most humble circumstances imaginable.

In all of his life, he lived like most of the people around him, only poorer. Think of it. From all eternity, his home had been heaven, surrounded by all the glory and power that were rightfully his as God's only son but he willingly left all of that behind and he came down to share our lives on this Earth and even our temptations. Last week, we two weeks ago, we talked about this, that though he was God, that's Jesus. Jesus did not think of equality with God as something to cling on to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges. The Greek says he emptied himself. That's the opposite of filling up yourself. Okay? Puffing up.

He emptied himself in humility. He took the humble position of a slave, and he was born as a human being. Yes, Paul says, it is a great mystery, but it came to pass, and that is good news. Billy Graham's the one with this quote, and I'm gonna finish it out. It says because he did this, he knows because he did this, we who we know he understands that our lives are like what our lives are like.

This is why you can bring every burden you have to Jesus in prayer because you know he loves you, and he understands your needs. He's walked this earth. The Bible says we do not have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet was without sin. That's Hebrews. Billy Graham said that.

I've got one more quote from him at the very end, and I want to come back to that one. That was it. Tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy, comfort and joy. That's the news. Comfort and joy is out there available, made available by God in the birth of Jesus.

From God our heavenly father, a blessed angel came, and unto certain shepherds brought tidings of the same. We talked about it last week. How that in Bethlehem was born, the son of God by name. Tidings of comfort and joy. Comfort and joy.

Tidings of comfort and joy. Fear not then, said the angel. Let nothing you affright. Fear not. 365 times in the Bible?

Yes or no? What do you think? Y'all have heard that on K Love, haven't you? Check snopes. If you can't just check your Bible, you can check your Bible.

Look it up in the concordance. It's it's it's hundreds of times. It's not 300 times. It's about a 122 times. If you include in that worrisome or troubled, yeah, it gets on up there.

But when you say that and you overstate your case and then a skeptic looks and checks up and they go, well, that's just a lie. Why do they believe that? We don't go outside of what's written. Fear not one time would have been good enough, and it's a 140 times, a 122 times depending on your translation. Nope.

That doesn't mean that you need to fear. Don't get me wrong. It says it a whole bunch of times. Just don't overstate your case. Do do you understand what I'm saying?

An honest Christian who honestly struggles with their faith in front of other people is usable by God. It's great when you have that foundation and it's beyond beyond just the normal everyday struggles, but when you admit the struggles, it really does give you credibility. Also, you stand on his word for what it says, that gives you authority because you don't have any authority outside of that. This day is born a savior of a pure virgin bright. That's biblical.

It was a virgin. It wasn't just a young lady no matter what the learning channel or the history channel says. It was a virgin. To free all those who trust in him from Satan's power and might. John one eleven through 13, right before that, fourteenth, and the word became flesh 11 through 13 says, he came to his own and his own did not receive him but as many as did receive him, he gave them the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name.

That's tidings of comfort and joy right there. It is through belief that you are made right with God because of what Jesus did, because of his emptying himself and his coming to Earth, his living that perfect life and dying that perfect sacrificial death. The shepherds at those tidings rejoiced much in mind and left their flocks of feeding in tempest storm and wind. They left behind their livelihood. That's not something they normally do.

They left it behind trusting that God said go, so they went. Does that make sense? They went to Bethlehem straight away, this blessed babe to find and I read this last week but I'm going read it again. Luke two fifteen says, so it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven that the shepherds said to one another, let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass which the Lord has made known to us and they came with haste. Immediately, they followed.

When they had the message from the Lord, they immediately followed after. Tidings of comfort and joy. Comfort and joy. Tidings of comfort and joy. And when they came to Bethlehem where our dear savior lay, here it says, they found Mary and Joseph and the babe where oxen feed on hay.

They found him in a manger where oxen feed on hay and it says and they found him lying in a manger. It's God's confirmation, his sign. This is the one and they found him just like he said. His mother, Mary, kneeling down and to the Lord did pray. Tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy We're all the way through verse six now.

It's on it's we're on the home front. We got twenty minutes left Verse seven, now when it says now in the Bible, it says now, I like that little turnaround. It's usually gonna indicate in in the Bible. This is a song. I know it's not the Bible.

But when it says now, it's like, pay attention. If it was Charles Stanley, he'd put his feet up on the speaker and say, listen to me now. Okay? Now. Are you listening?

Now, what's the proper response? Now, to the Lord sing praises. Y'all were blasting this morning. I pray for two full rooms tonight where we're blasting the night because singing praise to the Lord is the proper response for this good news of great joy. Psalm ninety six one through three oh, sing to the Lord a new song.

Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name. Proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day, every day, not just Christmas, every day. Declare his glory among the nations, his wonders, among all of the peoples. All of you within this place.

It's not just for the preacher. All you within this place and with true love and brotherhood, each other now embraces. Does that sound like anything we've studied recently? Ephesians four thirty one and thirty two. Closing out of the book of Ephesians, it says, and now let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with along with all malice, get rid of that, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another just as or even as God in Christ forgave you.

The holy tide of Christmas all other doth deface. Now that holy news about Christmas, all other doth efface is the one we don't use very often. Have you used that phrase this week? Not unless you sang this song probably. Efface means to erase or get rid of, to completely obliterate and get rid of it.

This holy tide of Christmas is the good news. It completely obliterates the bad news of peril that we all start off facing. For the one who heeds this good news, it erases the past. It erases the sins of the past and produces a hope incorruptible for the future. All other news it doth face.

Tidings of comfort and joy. Comfort and joy. Oh, tidings of comfort and joy. So comfort and joy, we're finally there. Paracletus and Kara in the Bible are the two, and I put those up there because those of you who've been in church your whole life when you see Paracletus, what does it sound like?

Parakletas, which is the Holy Spirit, the comforter. And chara, I wanted to see because all of y'all who have heard this before, charis means grace, and chara is a cognitive grace. It's really close. Paraklesis, consolation, comfort, solace. Properly, it is a calling near.

It's someone that you can call upon to come near to give you comfort and encouragement that knows more than you know. It has a legal connotation in that when you're standing before a judge quaking in your boots, it's really nice to have a lawyer at your side that knows the law and knows that you're innocent. In our case, we have the Holy Spirit at our side that knows that we're guilty, but that we've trusted Christ, and he presents the case. A summons or a calling near, exhortation, admonition, encouragement. I like this too because this is my job.

Persuasive discourse or stirring address. It's instructive. It's admonitory, meaning it gives advice and challenge. Consolatory, and then it gives comfort. Jokingly, a lot of times we say that our job in ministry is to comfort the afflicted, but it's also to afflict the comfortable.

When people get too comfortable, afflict them, stir them up. Instructive, admonitor, consolatory, powerful hortatory discourse. Exhortation that just can't disagree with it. Don't overstate your case. Stick with what's there.

You have no authority outside of scripture. So, go with that. It's good enough. Second Corinthians, we've studied together here. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

That's the same word or the same. It's cognate in all of those cases right there with this tidings of comfort and joy. So we get to joy. Joy means joy. Don't let somebody tell you it means mighty, okay?

Joy means joy and gladness. I know you know what joy means, but I wanted you to see the relationship of joy to grace. You know why this is a joyful time of year? And know why we give presents? We don't have to give presents.

You don't have to give anybody a present, but when you give a present, that's not because somebody deserves it. If it is, it's payment. Right? If you give a present to someone and they receive that present, that produces a happiness. I don't deserve this, but they gave it anyway.

That's kinda cool. Well, when what you deserve is death and what God gives is life, that is a present, that once you receive it produces joy, and you can see it's from the root of charis, char, extend favor, to lean towards, to be favorably disposed towards someone. To be leaning towards them with open arms properly. It is an awareness of God's grace, of his favor, of his joy. I like this.

Joy is grace recognized, or it's joy because of the grace of God. So the news is that God has graciously provided a savior. That's the good news. Because you stand in peril, that's the bad news. First Peter one seven through nine says this, at the revelation of Jesus Christ whom having not seen, you now love.

Though now you do not see him yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory and receive in the end of your faith, and the end of your faith is the salvation of your souls. The reason Christmas is celebrated is because of salvation. The beginning part of Jesus' earthly life, we celebrate because of the ending part of Jesus' earthly life, and then the resurrection. We'll talk about that at Easter. Until then, we're going in order.

Alright? My prayer for you today is that God would rest you, Mary. I want for your state of being not to be in a life consuming problem that all you can think about is your worries and your fears. I want for you to fear not reasonably because you trust in Jesus Christ. Nothing can separate you from the love of God.

So I want for you to rest Mary. So my prayer, and let me pray for you right now. God, would you rest to these folks merry, happy? May they not need or use anything to get them to a state where they're just giddy. God, I pray that your word and it's all sufficiency would be the power by which they rest.

Mary, and I pray that for my heart too. This for me, Lord, is a difficult season except for the comfort and joy. Lord, I trust in you, my creator and my redeemer, and I'm very, very thankful for the comfort that you give through Jesus Christ, our lord. Amen. So God, rest you, merry gentle people all and I am going to invite did I see Gloria?

Is Evie here? You go grab her. We're gonna sing a song and get guess which song we're gonna sing? God rest you merry gentlemen. It's not on your program.

Judy's gonna play it, and we're gonna sing it. I'm gonna give Evie some time. Scott, would you come up? We have three verses, not seven, to sing, but pay attention to what they say. Not that you haven't been paying attention for twenty minutes, but pay attention to what they say and just think, it's God rest ye Mary, gentlemen, and not the other way around, right?

It's not just for the happy folk that he wants them to sleep better. You want to be rested in the merryness that comes from knowing Christ and his comfort and joy. So here we go, and I probably ought to change clothes too. So, if I leave, I'll come back in shorts, okay? Stand with us if you would God

rest you, merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay. Remember Christ our savior was born on Christmas day to save us all from Satan's power we have gone astray oh tidings of comfort and joy comfort and joy oh tidings of comfort and joy. From God, our heavenly Father, a blessed angel came, and unto certain shepherds brought tidings of the same. Oh, and in Bethlehem was born a son of God by name. Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy oh tidings of comfort and joy now to the Lord sing praises all you within this place and with true love and brotherhood, he now will now embrace this holy tide of Christmas all others doth they face.

Oh, tidings of comfort and joy. Comfort and joy. Oh, tidings of comfort and joy. Ain't that nice? Anybody forget the words?

You better not have. That was a great servant, Big Ray. Oh, this is a good look right there.

This is the Christmas version of the baptism clothes. So, well, I'm waiting on Evie and the rest of the kids to come up. Here she is. I wanted do you wanna say anything? Not really.

Not really? You're saying something.

I love everybody.

Amen. With all we are loving God and loving people through Christ. Right? Yeah. So Evie has always been a friendly child, but recently, she prayed with Eileen Marsteller, actually, after Gary spoke about speaking to one another and evangelizing.

Eileen Marsteller went to Evie and said, do you wanna make it official? And Evie said, yes. This is something that's been going on for some time. Obviously, but here she is and she is saying something today about being baptized. She's taken on the first step of obedience and identification with Christ and so we're gonna get in the pool.

Y'all can have a seat. So I sat. I talked with Debbie. Known her for some time. Known her parents.

And I trust that she has accepted Christ. She's made a profession of faith in Christ. And upon that profession of faith in Christ, Evelyn Courser, Evelyn Rose. I now baptize you, my sister, in the name of the father, So are there others here who have believed on Christ, are willing to profess that faith publicly, and would like to be baptized. So here is water.

What hinders you? Alright. Well, then how about this? Let's sing Go Tell It On The Mount. Would you sing with me?

Judy, would you play Scott? Would you grab the here's your mic.

Can't. Amen. Let's stand and sing together. Amen. Amen.

Newness in life. That that ain't inspiring. Nothing is ready. Go tell it on the mountain over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born while shepherds kept their watching for silent flocks by night behold

Christ is Amen. Now, may the Lord bless and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and give you peace, comfort, and joy. Amen. Amen.