I just want to know. It was great.
It is great to have Caleb and Noel back with us all the way from New York.
Caleb and Noel, Robyn's brother and sister.
They've.
They grew up in this church.
You started this church with us?
Yeah. You're.
You're not that old brother.
Well, we were just in our garage meeting,
just kind of hanging and, So, anyway, it's great to have you guys back.
You know, you're welcome back.
Every and every time you're back in the area from from New York.
Yeah.
Thank you guys very much.
It's a blessing to have you both.
In this series, I've been introducing
to you our different church planters
and network leaders, around the world
and locally, Cuba, Guatemala.
In churches we've started in Fresno.
Those were committed to.
And so in that same vein, I want to introduce you to a lady this morning.
She's not a church planter, but she is doing,
a lot of church work, maybe in a different venue.
Her name is Tita,
and, I got to know Tita.
Years and years and years ago, Tita has given her life
to ministry in the largest urban slum in Central America.
In the heart of Guatemala City.
There's a ravine that's a mile long and half a mile wide.
And it it's a it's home
to about 70,000 people just in this ravine.
Just these chanties stacked on top of each other with the sewage river
that runs down the middle of it is divided into
ten gang neighborhoods.
At one point, it was the most dangerous place on the planet.
Because you can't go.
You can't pass into another neighborhood without your life being,
risked and oftentimes taken.
And so these kids that are growing up in this area, it's
estimated about 90% of them are physically and sexually abused on a regular basis.
The police don't go into this area.
The military doesn't go into this area.
It's just run by ten gangs.
And so Tita,
God put it on her heart instead of trying to deal with the trauma
after the trauma has happened, to stop the trauma from happening.
And so she has,
through years and years and years of work, has established relationships
with basically the gang leaders of each of the ten neighborhoods.
And she's been able to start academies in a place called la La manana.
And we have partnered with her in paying for academies and propelling the work
there for, very, very for year after year after year after year, after year.
And so what she does is establish these schools
where the kids will get education, because otherwise they're not educated.
They get meals five days a week, Monday through Friday,
they get medicine and doctors.
They get,
counseling for them and
their parents, in education, the Bible.
And so she's really stepped in in the role of a Christian community
and, and meeting these needs and rescuing these kids
and trying to transform the parents lives and their families.
And so we're committed to, you know, we always have been for years and years
and years.
We've taken multiple trips there.
We support her every month.
And so as, as with these other church planters, I'm continue to ask you
that you consider over and above your regular tithes and offerings.
We have two times left today, and then to culminate it
all on Christmas Eve, so that we can take your extra giving.
Our extra give it showing have already decided and given extra over
and above to this very initiative, so we can divide all that up
amongst our planters and and network leaders and Tita
to an end of the year gift for them
to help them, survive to help them live.
And so if you if you've already participated in that, thank you so much.
It is fantastic going to make a world of difference in these people's lives.
If you haven't yet, prayerfully consider God.
What about my regular tithes and offerings?
Would you have me give to propel your work, kingdom work all around the world
and culminate on Christmas Eve and then we'll be able to bless them?
Okay, you got it.
Okay.
In this series, we're looking at these characteristics
that are, that come with Christmas, as it were.
I've titled this series, The King Has come and we're we're we're we're in this.
It'll culminate in next week at Christmas Eve.
We're looking at these different characteristics
and I want to dive into today not just Bethlehem, but way before Bethlehem.
And I'm going to try to take these two, polar ins and kind of tie
them together around the Christmas story.
Let me suggest this, that Christmas is not just the story of a baby in a manger.
It's the story of God's love.
And God's love didn't begin in a manger.
It started a way back in the Garden of Eden.
And Christmas comes with profound claims
about God and claims for us.
And the big idea that I want to press into this morning
is this that many people love the vibe of Christmas,
but avoid the claim of Christmas.
Christmas makes some profound claims
about God,
about who God is, about God's expectation
about his desire and kingdom
make some profound claims
and implications for us.
But the fact is that most people love
the vibe of Christmas, but avoid the claim of it
right?
I mean, we love this time.
Most people love this time of year. It's fun.
I get it.
But if you have given much deep
thought to the claim behind the vibe
it. Christmas is much more than a baby.
It's much more than tinsel. You understand this.
It's much more than lights.
It's much more than presents.
It's much more than cookies. It's much more than decor.
Most people want the
warmth of Christmas, but not the weight of it.
And so this morning
I want to talk about the claim of Christmas and the weight of it,
what lies behind the manger,
what was what was put in motion
not in Bethlehem, but back in the garden.
Since the days of Eden, God has been
telling his story of love since the days of Eden,
he's been making his love manifest since the days of Eden.
We've rejected his love since the days of Eden.
He instituted and started the Christmas story.
We celebrate the advent of in the advent of it at Bethlehem.
But since the days of Eden,
it's been before our very eyes and poor before humanity's eyes.
And I'm going to look
at the days of Eden.
In Eden, God's love was revealed.
And my hope and prayer is that
we're going to see the correlation between the Eden and Bethlehem.
What we see in Eden, we see in Bethlehem,
what we see, and God's interaction with Adam and Eve.
We see in the advent of Jesus coming to earth,
the Bethlehem story, the manger story,
the Christmas story was written and spoke about and prophesied
in the garden a long time ago.
And in Eden, God's love was revealed.
God manifest his love in three ways,
and they're the same ways God manifests his love in Jesus.
Then the same three ways this has been.
This has been God's model since the very beginning.
God's love is manifested in three ways
proximity, provision, and parameters.
Say those with mean proximity,
provision, parameters.
This is the way it was in the in the Garden of Eden.
This is this is the way he manifested his love in a manger.
And on Christmas Eve, I'm going to talk about these three things in detail.
So I just want to give you a snapshot.
I just want to open just open a jar.
We'll get into it on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Eve.
Liberty High School 5:00.
We're going to dive into this.
And my son Caleb is going to preach this message with me on Christmas Eve.
And so I'm excited for that time.
I'm excited for our time together.
I'm excited for you to get to see hear him
as we dive into these three things together.
But let me just say as a snapshot proximity, provision,
parameters, this was the manifestation of God's love in need.
And this was the manifestation of God's love in Bethlehem, in the manger
proximity.
Genesis three eight
the Bible tells us, and they heard the sound
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
The Hebrew word is the breeze of the evening.
And so right from the very beginning.
So Adam and Eve would hide themselves and walk away from him.
Right from the very beginning in the garden,
God said, you were so important to me.
I want to be near you.
And in the manger he said, you're so important to me.
I just don't want to be near you.
I want to be in you.
But the story of God's love is made manifest
both in the garden and of the manger.
By this word proximity.
God came close to walk amongst and walk with.
Love is not distant.
Love is close
and God was a part of the world in the garden.
He was a part of their walk in the garden.
It was a part of their reality in the garden.
And that Christmas Jesus is known as Emmanuel, God.
With this proximity to be with us, to be near us, and not just to be
with us in nearest neighbor, but to be within us as a Savior.
Not only that, in the garden we see
God's love manifested in his provision.
God said to Adam and Eve, behold, I've given you every plant yielding seed
that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit.
You shall have them for food.
He's providing for those he loves, and to every beast of the earth,
and every bird of the heavens, and everything
that creeps on the earth, everything that has breath of life.
I've given every green plant for food.
And it was so.
God says, I'm giving.
I'm giving you more than what you can enjoy.
I'm giving you everything for your enjoyment.
But I've given you so much you can't even enjoy everything I'm giving you.
You have needs that you can't provide for yourself,
that I don't expect you to provide for yourself.
So I'm coming.
Close proximity
and I'm providing for you that what you cannot provide for yourself.
And it's the same thing that happened in Bethlehem in a manger.
God said,
I'm going to come close
and provide the provision for you that you cannot provide for yourself,
namely forgiveness of sin and eternal life.
The story of God's love in the garden
is the same story of his love in a manger.
Proximity and provision.
In Genesis 216, the Lord God commanded
the man, saying, you can surely eat of all the trees of the garden.
I'm giving you so much you have no idea of the bounty
and the abundance and the provision that I'm setting
before you.
Because I love you
and I want to have this relationship with you.
So I'm going to provide for you
and friends.
That's exactly what he did in a manger.
But along with the proximity provision,
there are some parameters.
It's just not a free for all.
Genesis 217
I love you, and I've drawn near, and I've given you more
than what you can enjoy. But
one parameter
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat.
For in the day you eat of it, you will surely die.
There's parameters.
It's just not a free for all.
There's boundaries, there's rules.
The love of God was manifested
not just by his proximity, not just in his provision,
but was manifested by the parameters
he put around us for our protection.
You understand this.
It is unloving not to protect.
And so God says, for your protection, I'm going to put parameters.
Yes, I want to be near you. Proximity.
Yes, I will bless you and provide for you, but I will set for your protection
certain parameters.
Clinically, the best thing that parents can do for
their children is give them parameters and boundaries.
I was just reading one,
statement that said this children
especially need parameters, boundaries, limits and structure
because they provide safety, they teach self-regulation,
they build resilience, they develop decision making skills.
They help,
understand expectations,
parameters and boundaries, prevent anxiety.
And kids.
They prevent entitlement to kids by guiding them to manage their own emotions
and be able to function in the world and without boundaries and limits
and without those things.
Kids feel insecure, struggle with behavior, lack
the internal framework to handle challenges in life,
and it makes them unhappy and less equipped for this world.
Do you see the correlation spiritually?
And so God says, for your protection
and for your benefit, to provide you boundaries and structure.
I love you, I am with you, I want to and I will provide for you.
But there must be boundaries and parameters for your protection.
See God's parameters that he gives us
are not God's rejection of us.
They're God's protection for us.
And in the garden God said,
there are certain parameters you have to live by and at the manger.
With the advent of Jesus, Jesus came and said, yes, I've come for you,
and I will provide for you that what you cannot provide
for yourselves forgiveness and salvation.
But there are parameters in our relationship.
There's commands to understand.
So what we what God did in the manger,
God first did in the garden of.
And this has been God's love story.
This has been God's plan.
This has been God's work since the very beginning.
It didn't start at Bethlehem.
Love does not give one everything they want.
We understand that right?
Sometimes love keeps
from one what they want.
Dad's, pay attention.
A good dad's strong.
No is proof of the good.
Dad's strong love.
And the dad ought to be the first,
most profound and loudest know in the child's life.
Not the mom's.
Body clear.
God's parameters are not prison bars for us.
They're guardrails on a mountain road.
And so, from the beginning,
God says, I love you.
And my love is revealed in those three ways.
I don't want you to miss them.
They're the same ways God revealed his love in a manger in Bethlehem.
And in response to that,
God's love was rejected.
This is what happened to the garden.
And it's still what happened after Bethlehem.
Genesis three one through seven.
Let me just read this for you.
I think the reference is up there, but let me just let me just you
know, most of this story.
Let me just recap it now.
The serpent was more serpent than you know,
the devil was more crafty than any of the other beasts of the field
that the Lord God made.
And he said to the woman,
Did God really say that you shouldn't eat of any tree in the garden?
I mean, that's what the devil always does, takes what God
says, manipulated, morphs, it changes. It.
God never said you can't eat of any tree.
Matter of fact, God said, you can eat of every tree but one.
And so the devil always does this.
The God really.
And he fools us.
And the woman said,
we can eat of the fruit of the tree of the garden.
But God said, there's one tree that we can't eat from.
Don't even touch it.
And the serpent said,
listen.
God's holding out on you.
You won't really.
It won't be that bad.
Like the consequences.
There won't be that severe.
It's not going to be that costly.
Anybody can.
Maybe this one time will be all right.
Maybe this one sin I still flirt with.
It'll be okay.
It won't be that bad.
He says you won't really die.
Matter of fact, God knows that when you eat of it,
you get all the good stuff you've always wanted.
Because God's holding out on you.
He's put up some parameters and boundaries
because he really doesn't want you
to have all you.
Again, anybody?
So the woman saw that the tree was good.
It was a delight to the eyes.
It's everything she wanted.
And she took some of the fruit and ate it
and gave some to her husband,
who got really stupid and ate it too.
And then they realized how much it cost him.
And in the middle of this,
when God says, I love you so much, I'm drawing near to you.
And my provision is so profound,
I'm going to give you more than you could ever enjoy.
I have a few parameters that's going to protect you.
And in response to that, Adam and Eve said, I don't want it.
They reject you this proximity.
They rejected his provision and they moved against his parameters.
And in the in Bethlehem, in the manger,
God again came to us and he said, I want to be near you.
I'm giving you my son, whose name will be God with you.
And he will give you everything that you cannot do for yourself, namely, a
right relationship with me, the forgiveness of sin,
the promise of eternal life and our response to him.
He says, even though I have some parameters that you have to live by
for your protection, our response to him has been, I don't want it,
but do my own thing.
Because at the end of the day,
there's something in here that tells me you're holding out on me.
How many of us?
But I've waited and I've wanted and I've prayed and I've tried to do.
And God still hasn't come through. Why?
Maybe he doesn't love me.
Maybe he's not going to provide for me.
Maybe these parameters are to keep me constricted,
not to protect me.
Everything
that we see in the garden,
we see at the manger,
both in the love of God and the response of our hearts.
God's love story didn't start in Bethlehem.
It has been a part of his character
from the very beginning.
And unfortunately,
the character of humans haven't changed either.
See, the foundation
for the first sin in the garden was not breaking a rule.
It was doubting God's love
that caused them to break the rule.
And that's the foundation of our wandering as well.
You see, Eve disobeyed Eve.
Disobedience flowed out of suspicion.
I'm suspicious that God really doesn't hear or
obviously care who's willing to intervene, or powerful enough to act.
And so I'm going to do it my way.
Joseph's disobedience
flowed out of misplaced loyalty.
He was loyal to Eve over God.
So he misplaced loyalty,
always produces misplaced love.
And we have to understand.
That sin is not merely loving the wrong thing.
It's trusting or loving God less than something
else.
God's love for us calls
for loyalty to God above all else.
All else.
Things and people.
Jesus, after
the manger would say, some 30 years later,
the greatest commandment is to love the Lord
your God with your whole all of your heart
and soul and mind,
love and loyalty to him above all else.
To love God
with our whole heart and soul in mind
is first and utmost loyalty to him,
and to the parameters that he's established.
Jesus will say in John 1415,
if you love me, you'll what?
You'll live within my parameters.
If you love me,
you'll live within my parameters.
The greatest manifestation of God's love for us
is proximity, provision and giving us parameters.
The greatest manifestation of our love to God is obedience to those parameters.
That's what Jesus said.
Do you realize that
every act of disobedience is a vote of no confidence of God's character?
Every time I disobey God,
it's my vote of no confidence in God's character.
I don't trust him
nor love him in that moment.
This has been.
This has been the story of God's love and our response to it
since the garden
and since the manger.
And the thing I love about God is how he responds.
How we responded in the garden is how he responds after the manger.
How does God respond?
Well, God's love both pursued and covered those who rejected him.
This is a beautiful part of it.
Genesis three nine
but the Lord God called to the man and said, where are you?
It's not that he didn't know.
God wanted Adam to know that he was pursuing him
because Adam was running away.
Adam was hiding.
And so God calls it. Adam, where are you?
I want you to know I'm coming after you, is what he's saying.
It's not that he didn't know where he was.
And so God's love started the pursuit.
And it didn't just pursue.
It covered for the Lord.
God made Adam, made for Adam and his wife
garments of skins and clothed them.
Because as a result of their rejection of God's
love, living outside the parameters of God they inherited,
they gained shame because of sin, nakedness before God.
And so God had to cover their nakedness in shame because of their sin
and so the response of God in the garden is the same response of God at the manger.
God says, I will come to you and pursue you.
You're running away from me.
You've chosen to live outside of my parameters,
even though I love you and I provided all things for you,
but because you chose to live outside
of my parameters, you're not going to come to me.
So I have to go to you.
Which is the difference between Christianity and religion.
Religion is man's attempt to get to God.
Christian is God's coming to man
says, I will come to you and now I will cover you.
It's the same thing that happened in the garden.
It happened at the manger.
This has always been God's love story to us.
Think about it.
After Adam and Eve rejected God,
after everything God had done,
I want to walk with you.
I want to be near you.
I want to be like all in your life, and I'm giving you everything I've given.
You are you kidding me?
You're going to turn your back on me.
You're going to reject me.
You're going to act like I'm
the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth option in your life.
As if I don't really matter.
If my parameters don't matter.
Can you imagine how God should have responded
to it?
I'm done. I'm starting over.
I created you two out of nothing.
I can do that again.
God showed a ghost to them,
and instead God started a rescue plan.
And the thing that amazes me,
the shock to me
that while God's love pursued them,
his justice remained intact
because somebody had to pay
somebody, his justice would not be lessened
because of his love.
So while justice demanded destruction,
God pursued without abandoning justice.
In the garden
and at the manger,
Christmas time is a time of joy and happiness and hopefully
peace and beauty.
But it doesn't mean that God ignores
the demands of justice.
God's pursuit is seen at Christmas,
but God entered the world
to satisfy his justice.
Romans 323 and 24.
For all of us, me who you
have sinned and fall
far short of the glory and ideal of God.
And are justified.
His justice satisfied
by his grace as a gift through but through redemption.
That in whom
Jesus.
God never lowers his standard.
Instead, God sends his son.
God shows his love.
It's always been his story
and that while we're still sinners.
Christ died for us.
Justice satisfied?
See, God's pursuit started in Eden.
And then resulted in the shedding
of innocent blood to cover Adam and Eve.
And God's pursuit entered the world at Bethlehem.
And it resulted in the shedding of innocent blood on the cross
to cover me and my sin,
and you and yours, if you'll accept it.
This has always been God's story.
It's always been his plan.
And God both initiated this plan
and completed this plan not just at Bethlehem, but in the garden.
Let me let me explain to you how God works.
This is God's economy.
And because God the Father lives outside the space time
continuum, let's just get that part straight.
Have you ever thought about this idea that there was a time when time didn't exist?
Like the.
It was just God.
God the Triune God, God the Father, God the son, God the spirit, the only thing.
And God initiated this whole creative work.
So God exists.
God the father, God Son, and God's Spirit exist outside the space time continuum.
And so when God says something, pronounces something
because he's outside the space time continuum, that thing
that he is pronounced actually has come to pass right?
Then,
because he's over the whole
spectrum of time now, you and I are reality.
Isn't that
when we hear something is going to happen, we have to wait for it to happen.
And so there's a lag time with us, but with God.
And so in response to God's love is proximity,
provision and parameters that we break and we reject.
He draws near and provides for us the way back
and in the garden, not just at the at the manger, but in the garden.
He's solidified this whole thing.
He took care of everything in the garden.
And here's what it look like in talking to,
to to Eve and to Adam and to the serpent.
He he he set this in motion.
His love both acted in that moment
and was promised to still arrive
because he's outside the space time continuum.
His love acted definitively and finally, in that moment in the garden,
and made a promise that we would later experience thousands of years later.
But he solidified it.
Then, and the way he solidified it then was to make this promise
and prophecy as if it had already happened.
He said to the serpent, I will put enmity
between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.
He shall bruise your head, or no.
Yeah.
He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
Here's what God the Father is saying.
That word offspring
put the word seed in there, because that's the actual Hebrew word.
So what God is saying to the devil
is I'm going to put in between, do between you and her,
between your seed and her seed
and of that seed.
You might bruise his heel, granted, but he's crushing
your head.
Here's
the one of the power of things, in that when God says her seed.
We know this.
When a husband or wife come together
and make a baby
who brings the seed to that conception.
And then the man does.
I'm I'm a little concerned that two of you got it right.
The man brings the seed right?
Right.
God says to eat about Eve.
Your seed. Eve.
Did God not understand biology?
No. He understood it full well.
But what he was saying and it was done then it was an experience to Bethlehem.
Is that this one who will crush the head of the devil,
will not be of the seed of man,
though born of a woman,
it will be the God that exists outside the space time continuum.
Because we all know that the woman doesn't bring the seed to the baby.
The man does.
Jesus was not born of man, nor of man's decision, but of God the Father.
Outside of the space time continuum.
What caused this little girl to have a baby way in the future?
But God had determined that it was already done in the garden.
He showed up and answered the question and he made a promise.
At the same time.
He acted, and he promised to act.
And that's why in John 114 we read and the word capital W
the Logos of God, the Word of God, Jesus became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we've seen his glory.
Glory is the only son from the father,
full of grace and truth, his love from close,
his provision we've seen, and the parameters
of truth.
The promise fulfilled
immediately after the rejection of him.
God makes a promise and fulfills it
all at the same time.
Our restoration was never an afterthought to God.
It was immediate.
He said, you ran away.
I came near.
See the first Christmas promise
was made in the middle of the first mess.
To understand that.
For us, the Christmas
promise of God being with us comes in the middle of our mess.
God doesn't expect us
to clean stuff up
before he comes to us.
And if will open the door of our heart
to him, he'll show up in the middle of our mess
and make it right.
It's what he did in the garden for the promise in the garden.
What he did in Bethlehem, in the manger
was willing to do right now.
God's pursuit is faster than my failure.
And God's pursuit of provision
for you is faster than your failure.
Here's the point.
Christmas
is God's expression of love.
And it didn't start in Bethlehem.
We saw it there,
but it was manifested clearly all the way in the garden.
Because God has loved us with an everlasting love.
The Bible says.
But please hear me.
And I'm going to say this gently, but please hear me.
To celebrate Christmas
without accepting the claims of Christmas is disingenuous
and I would say heresy.
Christmas comes with profound claims.
And it is her radical
to only love the vibe of Christmas
and reject the claims of it.
And the best way, according to Jesus,
to express our love to God.
Is obedience to him.
If you love me,
he says.
The way we say it here
is belong, become, give and go.
Belong. Become.
Give and go.
That encapsulates the greatest command to love God
with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength.
To love God with your whole heart.
That's the belong part
where I fall in love with Jesus
and belong to his family.
And then as I learn to love him
with my soul, mind and strength,
that's to become
the person God made me to be in Christ likeness.
And now response to that I give my life,
my time, my talents, my treasures,
and I go on mission with him because there's people in my world
that don't know him, that need to.
Belong.
Become. Give and go.
Love the Lord God with their whole heart, soul, mind, strength.
It's the best way in obedience to him to show
that you love him according to what Christ said.
And so today
I want to invite you,
if you haven't yet agreed to belong to the family of God.
To do that.
And if you have already chosen
to belong to the family, God by faith in Jesus,
to commit to obedience, to becoming
Christlike.
To giving all of yourself
and to going on mission with him.
How can we ask God to be near us?
Proximity and expect to enjoy the provisions of God,
his goodness, and his grace,
and reject the parameters that he's given us
to belong, become, give and go.
And so I invite you to pray with me.
If you've never fully
given your life to Christ,
fully love God with your whole heart
and soul and mind, strength,
and you're realizing today
that God's love for you has brought him near.
You realize his provision
and his profound goodness to you.
And you're realizing,
have you kicked back against him?
And invite you in this moment
to draw near to him just simply.
God, I believe that you love me.
And I believe that through
Jesus, you've come close to me.
And this morning I want to come close to you.
I admit I've lived against
and in opposition to your parameters and boundaries.
You call that sin?
And I agree with you.
And I need your forgiveness.
And so this morning,
I place my faith in you.
I accept what you did for me
on the cross to die for my sins.
And they give me the way
to be right with the father
and have eternal life.
Today I accept you as my Savior.
Thank you for your forgiveness.
Just keep your eyes closed, just for a moment.
If you made that.
If you said that prayer, would you just simply slip your hand up right now?
I'm not going to ask you to do anything crazy. I just want to pray for you.
Would you just kind of.
Thank you. Thank you. God bless you.
Thank you.
Good for you.
Good for you, good for you. Good.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,
thank you.
Over there. Good.
Anybody else? Good.
Thank you, thank you I appreciate.
Good for you.
Good for you. Good.
Thank you.
Don't let this time pass you by, man.
Thank you.
Good.
Father, you know these hearts that are coming to you right now.
You know, these hearts that have returned to you right now.
I thank you for their courage.
I thank you for their boldness.
I thank you for their desire to live rightly and to give themselves to you.
Holy spirit, thank you for speaking of them.
Thank you for their decision.
I, together with them, affirm their decision
and we lay hold of that together.
And father, I ask in the name of Jesus that they would
fill your presence right now, that you'd fill them with your spirit,
that you would enable them to walk in concert with you,
being led by you, not trying to lead you, that you protect them from the evil one.
God, I pray that they would look back on this moment in this day
and think, this was one of those times that absolutely changed my life.
Thank you.
Now listen, we're not done yet.
For those of you who have already made that prayer,
you've already made that decision, but that you know there's something in you.
When we talk about loving God with your whole heart,
soul, mind and strength to live in, in concert
and within his parameters, you know you have it.
You know you've allowed stuff
to slip into Wayne.
And though he is
the one who saved your soul,
you know at times in your life he's
maybe the second, third, fourth option.
And I want to invite you to come back.
Would would
you say, God, thank you that you love me?
Thank you that you forgiven me?
But I admit
I've slipped and wandered.
I'm hiding from you
in some areas of my life.
And I know it's silly.
That I can't hide from you.
And so, father, I ask your forgiveness.
And I repent of those things.
That those things might.
That's.
You've been secondary at best.
Give me the strength to desire
to be right with you.
Give me the strength.
And the decision, because of your grace,
to live in obedience.
Father, thank you for your love.
Thank you that you pursued us with an everlasting love.
Thank you for what you instituted back in the garden.
You fulfilled in the manger,
and that we get to sit here in this moment and look back
at all this that you've done
with gratitude
and thankfulness and commitment.
You are a good God.
Help us to love you with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength.
In your name I pray. Amen.
Listen, I love you.
I'm proud of you.
Those of you who made those decisions, I want you to tell somebody today.
You got to tell somebody today.
You can write on the card.
Let us know. You can see me in the welcome center.
Let's talk.
I got I got a little book that I wrote about the foundations of,
of of Christian doctrine.
I would love for you to pick up and start reading that and start
understanding what this Christianity thing is.
It'd be great for you to pick that up,
tell someone you came with, let us know on a card.
We want to walk with you through these next steps.
Those of you who have made some decision to get right with Jesus, then
don't let that die.
I want you to walk out these doors.
You understand? You understand? Yeah.
Listen, I'm proud of you.
I love you on on Christmas Eve, 5:00, Liberty High School.
Okay.
I'm so excited for that time together.
Just to be together and for for my son Caleb.
They get to share that time with us teaching through these things.
And I'm just I'm just so excited for what God's going to do.
So make sure you come.
Now, listen, you all know people who don't know Jesus.
You have them in your in your family.
You have them in your life. You have them in your huddle.
So you if you're graced with waking up every morning between now
and Christmas Eve, okay, if God allows you that grace which I pray he does,
if he doesn't, I hope you wake up in heaven and not somewhere else.
But if your grace to be able to wake up, you know, every day between now
and the 24th, it's only for one reason.
The only reason
you're waking up on the 24th is for one reason
that those people who don't know Jesus, you invite them in church
and help them get to know Jesus. That's the only reason you're going to wake up.
You got it.
So they they're 80,
80 times more likely to come with you on Christmas Eve.
One, if you invite them, they won't come with you.
They are unavailable, but if you invite them to like a cookie
or hot chocolate or shaking, what do we put
one of those boards
before or after?
80 times more likely.
Okay, so invite them a hot chocolate or a keyboard cue board, something.
They'll come. You got it.
I love you got a song about Jesus.
All right, let's sing.