The Extravagance of Christmas | Pastor Bryan Jarrett | Northplace Church

Hello, my name is Brian Jarrett, and my wife Haley and I have had the privilege of pastoring North Place Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for almost 20 years. We're one church that meets in multiple locations, even on multiple continents, and today you are one of those locations. The church is not about buildings, it is about people, and we have the privilege today of sharing the hope of the gospel with you right where you are. There is no way I can know exactly what you're going through or dealing with right now, but for almost 30 years I have preached about a God who I know, I am confident, knows you, your struggles, knows the very hairs on your head and the thoughts that you think before you think them, and He is passionately in love with you. And our prayer today is that in our time together you feel our love for you and His presence, and we pray that this time together gives you hope. Thank you for joining us. Before the first word was ever spoken, there was darkness. Not the fearful kind, but the quiet kind, the kind that settles over empty streets and rests on the rafters of an old chapel. It's the darkness we know well, the darkness of waiting rooms and wandering seasons, the darkness between questions and answers, between longing and fulfillment, the darkness where we whisper, how long, Lord? For generations God's people waited in this kind of darkness, tracing the promises of prophets, holding to ancient words like lanterns in their hearts, believing that one day, somehow, the giver would come with the extravagant gift He had spoken. They did not know when, they did not know how, they only knew the ache of expectation, and we still feel that ache. We still live in the tension of what is and what will be. We still ask the questions our ancestors asked. When will joy arrive? When will God break in? When will we see? When will the light finally come?

And yet, even here, in the stillness, it's like we know there's something stirring. There's a sense, faint, but certain, that heaven has not forgotten us, that beyond what our eyes can see, a story is moving toward its moment. But this, this silent, holy waiting, has always been part of the story. Because joy doesn't rush, hope doesn't hurry, because heaven's most extravagant gifts rarely enter with fanfare. They come quietly, softly, unexpectedly, until, in a single moment, everything changes. This, this is that moment. This is the moment when God broke in, when heaven's joy entered the world, when darkness gave way to light. This is the moment when God broke in, when darkness gave way to light. An extravagant entrance, which means the light has come. The light of the world, land that was slain, the lion arose, mighty to save. The fullness of God won't be kept in the grave. Darkness, your hour is over. ♪ Oh Lord, light of the world ♪ ♪ Lamb that was slain ♪ ♪ The lion rose, mighty to save ♪ ♪ The fullness of God will be kept in the grave ♪ ♪ Darkness, your hour is over ♪ ♪ Oh Lord, light of the world ♪ ♪ We bow to you, oh Lord, light of the world ♪ ♪ Oh Lord, light of the world ♪ ♪ Lamb that was slain ♪ ♪ The lion rose, mighty to save ♪ ♪ The fullness of God will be kept in the grave ♪ ♪ Darkness, your hour is over ♪ ♪ Lamb that was slain ♪ ♪ The lion rose, mighty to save ♪ ♪ The fullness of God will be kept in the grave ♪

♪ Darkness, your hour is over ♪ ♪ Darkness, your hour is over ♪ ♪ Oh Lord, we thank you Lord ♪ Welcome to Christmas at North Place, everybody. Will you stand to your feet today as we celebrate that the light has come. Hope is here, amen. And there is joy in this room today. Come on, let's put our hands together as we celebrate and we rejoice the King who has come. ♪ Joy to the world, the Lord is come ♪ ♪ Let earth receive her King ♪ ♪ And let every heart prepare Him room ♪ ♪ And heaven and nature sing ♪ ♪ And heaven and nature sing ♪ ♪ And heaven and heaven and nature sing ♪ Come on, put those hands together, hey. ♪ Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns ♪ ♪ Let men their songs employ ♪ ♪ While we use them for love, proxy use them for name ♪ ♪ Repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy ♪ ♪ Repeat, repeat the sounding ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is rising ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Sing all my soul, all my soul, bless His name ♪ ♪ All that is within me sing ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Oh nothing beats the joy of the Lord ♪ We worship You, our King. Come on, let me sing, let it rise.

♪ Sing let it rise up like the river ♪ ♪ Overflowing Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Sing let it pour out with no limit ♪ ♪ Overflowing Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ Sing let it rise up like the river ♪ ♪ Oh the glory Lord almighty Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ She let it pour out with no limit ♪ ♪ All the glory Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ He rules the world with truth and grace ♪ ♪ And makes the nations prove ♪ ♪ The glories of His righteousness ♪ ♪ And wonders of His love and wonders of His love ♪ ♪ And wonders, wonders of His love ♪ ♪ Oh what can be better than this? ♪ ♪ Sing it's the joy of the Lord, who rises in us all ♪ ‪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Oh the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Oh my soul, oh my soul, let it sing today ♪ ♪ All I need is to hear me sing ♪ ♪ Oh my soul, let it sing today ♪ ♪ All I need to hear me sing ♪ ♪ All I need to hear me sing ♪ ♪ All I need to hear me sing ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, it's the joy of the Lord right here on earth ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

My name is Tanya. I was born in Garland, Texas. I grew up in a small church. I'm actually about the size of this. Mike and I met at Garland First Assembly at his uncle's church. I chose to marry Mike because he was the type of guy that was happy, he was kind, he joked, he loved his family. He was a great family guy. He was just what I had always wanted to have in a husband. I would say probably when we had been married about 14, 15 years, I started seeing things slowly changing in Mike. He had started traveling quite a bit, which took him away, and I could see him growing apart from God. I could tell he wasn't happy as much as he was. He was still, like, he was still there. He was still at church with us every Sunday, but I could tell his heart was not there. His heart was not there. He wasn't the Mike that I had married anymore. He was turning into someone different. So, in 2020, he confessed that he had been unfaithful, and... Then... The night he confessed that, I never saw it coming, even though he had been a different person. And there had definitely been challenges, and his heart had grown harder.

That is the one thing I never saw coming. That night broke me. A lot of whines, how, what do we do now, immediately? My very first thought was we have to protect the girls. I put a smile on my face and pretended like everything was okay. But I told him the next day, divorce was not an option for me. I knew he had not been the person that he was, that the Mike that I had known was not the true Mike that I have always known and loved. And that I was willing to fight for our marriage and for our family. I knew at that moment that I had to pick my heart, and either way was not gonna be easy. When everything happened, it was during COVID, and you couldn't go anywhere. So I... I would walk the trails behind our house and I literally walking one day felt hope again because I felt God with me more than I had ever felt God with me in my entire life and I knew that he gave me the strength to take one step forward, put one foot in front of the other daily. There were days that I thought would break me, days that I didn't have the strength to do it, days I didn't have the strength to forgive him, but God gave me the strength to do that. God helped me. God walked me through that. God was what held me together as a wife, as a mom. God is the only thing that got me through and got us through because even though I was hurt and angry and sad, when you hit rock bottom and the only thing you have is hope

in God, that's the only thing you have that will carry you through, that's what causes you to pursue him even more. At times it felt very dark. That is when God started shining his light and giving me hope along the way that things could change and that God was working. He was lighting up this path that through the darkness was leading us directly to him. Star of one, star of light, star with roar, beauty bright. This worthy, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Be three kings of oriental, bearing things we traverse alone. Field and fountain, oar and mountain, follow me under star. Born a king on Bethlehem's plain, gold I'll bring to crown him again. King forever, ceasing never, over us all to reign. Star of wonder, star of night, star with roar, beauty bright. This worthy, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Frankincense to offer have I, hymns and songs a deity mine. Prayer and praise and voices raising, worshiping God on high. Word is mine, it's bitter perfume. Praise the life of gathering loom. Star wings flying, bleeding, dying, sealed in a stone-cold tomb. Star of wonder, star of night, star with roar, beauty bright. This worthy, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. ♪ Yes you, not worth it ♪ ♪ Glorious King, behold Him arise ♪ ♪ King and God in sacrifice ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, songs through the air ♪ ♪ And skies ♪ ♪ Star of wonders, star of night ♪ ♪ Star with royal beauty bright ♪ ♪ Westward leading, still proceeding ♪ ♪ Guide us to the perfect day ♪

♪ Glory ♪ ♪ He is risen today ♪ ♪ Glory ♪ Hi, my name is Michael Nagel. My wife, Tanya, and my two daughters, Emily and Ashton, we started going to North Place about six years ago. Just growing up when they were little, you know, I wanted to make sure that I gave them the time, same time that my dad gave me and my sister. My parents were always available. And so that's what I wanted to provide for my daughters. I wanted to give them that same feeling of, hey, they can go to their dad for anything. But, you know, honestly, as I look back to see how I progressed in my career, I was getting promoted to upper management positions, which gave me the opportunity to travel, which opened up a whole new level of vices and challenges in and of themselves that I really was where I was in my walk with the Lord I wasn't ready for. It took me down a path that I really didn't see myself going. I was thinking I was still taking care of my family. I was still loving my girls the way that they needed me to love on them and loving on my wife to the degree that I thought it was enough, only to realize that I'm really changing and they're seeing that.

And in some cases, my daughters find out later that they were actually scared when I started raising my voice. They didn't know, you know, why is dad yelling? I was just, I was a jerk. And looking back, I could see where I used alcohol to numb the pain that I was dealing with. Didn't realize it was pain at the time. It caused me to go way outside of a realm that I never imagined that I could. I really thought that there's like a line, there's a threshold. I could do all of this, but I would never do that. That being, being unfaithful to my wife. And, you know, it's still heartbreaking to know that I got to that point in my life. Having the reality of my decisions now slap me in the face that this is where I've taken myself. I'm about to lose my family. The one thing that I said I would never do, I did. The truth of the matter came out in March of 2020, that, man, I messed up. I cheated on her. To see that instant drain off of her face, and then I started thinking about what does Todd's face look like?

When he sees me intentionally walk away from him. It was my breakdown. But it was God's breakthrough. He used that terrible, terrible mistake and decision to break through to my stubborn, hard heart. I was pursuing career opportunities. I was pursuing people acknowledging me and getting approval from them. But God used it and turned it around to bring such a change in our life. Our marriage is better today than it was when we first got married. That's the only thing that makes this worthwhile is that God can take something that the devil meant to destroy and to kill. He instantly gave me a new life right then and there. The main thing that Tonya and I want out of all of this, you're never too far away from Him. All you have to do is just invite Him in. He's there. He's just waiting. He just wants you to invite Him into your life. And He can be the same light in your darkness that He was in ours. Because we can at least give hope, give trust. It can happen. And He will do miracles in your life if you'll let Him. Even if you're nervous and ready to start all over,

We've been waiting. Welcome, holy child. Welcome, holy child. Hope that you don't mind our manger. Now I wish we could have known Long-awaited, holy stranger, Make yourself at home. Please make yourself at home. Bring your peace into our hearts. In our hungry souls be filled. We're now breaking heaven's silence. Welcome to our world. Welcome to our world. Fragile fingers sent to heal us, Tender brow prepared for thorns, Tiny heart whose love will save us, Unto us is born. Unto us is born. So wrap our injured flesh around you, Breathe our air and walk our side. Rob our sins and make us holy, Perfect son of God. Welcome to our world. Come on, can you stand and sing this with us? So take this world and give me heaven. Take this world and give me heaven. You're all we want, Jesus. Isn't He enough? Isn't He enough? Jesus is everything, all that I'll ever need. Isn't He enough? Isn't He enough? Jesus, my King of kings, you satisfy me.

Isn't He enough? ♪ Oh, isn't He love ♪ ♪ Jesus is everything, all that I have believed ♪ ♪ Isn't He love, isn't He love ♪ ♪ Jesus, my King of kings, You satisfy me, yeah ♪ ♪ Oh, I want Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, I want Him and only Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, only Jesus ♪ ♪ So take this world and give me heaven, yeah, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, I want Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, I want Him and only Jesus ♪ ♪ So take this world and give me heaven, yeah, oh, oh, oh ♪ You may be seated today. Thank you for your hearts of worship and attention. You know, I know, I realize some of you are probably thinking, Pastor Brian, I thought today was supposed to be a day that celebrated Christmas joy, so why would the service be filled with video testimonies about infidelity and brokenness and shame and tears? It's really heavy and not what I expected this service to be about. And I understand that reaction, but here's the truth. We could talk about fake, fleeting, surface-level joy all day long because that's what our culture tries to sell every Christmas. For a few weeks every year, we put on a holiday facade, we spend frivolously to numb the pain,

we binge nostalgic movies where everything always turns out perfectly, and we watch them long enough to try to get our minds off the fact that everything in our life isn't, and we walk through December chasing this mirage of joy, trying to escape reality until the movie ends or the credit card bill comes in or the decorations go back in the attic, and then reality hits us again. But what if I told you that the joy culture associates with Christmas is not biblical joy at all? Because when you read the Scripture, your joy is not something you get as a reward at the end of a painful journey. God promises His people a joy that becomes our strength while we're walking through that journey. The key to understanding biblical joy is knowing the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is emotion tied to your circumstance. It comes when things are good and it fades when they're not. But real God-given joy is an eternal and internal work of the Holy Spirit that transcends any external situation that you face, circumstance or situation, which means something radical to us. It means that we can experience joy

even when we suffer, that joy and pain can coexist. The pain is real. But joy is this God-given strength that cannot be dislodged by suffering and hardship. That's why over and over again, Paul says things like, "'But we rejoice in our sufferings.'" He's talking about experiencing joy while still in suffering. He's not saying that suffering is good. He's saying that joy can exist in the middle of his sorrow. A little later in the New Testament, he writes this, "'Our hearts ache, but we always have joy.'" You hear that? Ache and joy at the same time. You know what that means? It means you don't have to fake it this Christmas. You don't have to pretend that the heartache isn't there. You don't have to wear a mask and a facade for the sake of tradition. You just gotta hold on to the promise of Scripture that God wants to deposit joy into you, a joy that will be your strength in the middle of your heartache. The prophet Nehemiah tells what we were singing a moment ago for the joy of the Lord is your strength. God is offering you a joy that doesn't fluctuate with your mood or your circumstances

or other people's actions. actions or the economy or political environment or the season of the year or anything else. There is a consistent, sustaining, permanent joy that you can only get from a relationship with God. And if you're in need of that kind of joy in your life right now, you need to lean in more than ever to the story of Christmas. Because if Christmas is about anything, it's about the extravagant entrance of God into our story. I call it extravagant because he came in the most unexpected way. It's an extravagant entrance because the birth of Jesus was so ordinary and otherworldly at the same time. Ordinary because his birth could be seen historically as just another peasant child born to a poor family. It's otherworldly because that's the way God chose to come into our world. Humble and unassuming. Don't miss the extravagance of his entrance. Christmas is the story of heaven's joy entering into human brokenness. Listen to this Christmas passage. John 1, so the word, Jesus, became human and made his home among us. That's the message of Christmas. Jesus stepped away from the perfection and beauty of heaven

and intentionally placed himself into the story of human sin, suffering, and brokenness. Heaven's joy came to be born into our brokenness. It's excessive, it's crazy, it's indescribable. It's an extravagant display of God's love for us. And don't miss this. What happened at Christmas is not a children's Bible story. The story of Christmas is the reason there is a Bible. But here's the problem. Most of us have heard the story so many times. We have this nice picture perfect idea of what that first Christmas was like. A perfect baby angel singing, a guiding star in the night and all paints this made for TV image. But time and history have a way of sanitizing what really went on. In all honesty, that first Christmas was a mess. For centuries and millennia, people had been waiting on the fulfillment of God's promise and now the fullness of time had come. The Messiah was here. But how does the King of Kings choose to make his grand entrance onto the world stage? A barn, a barn that would not have been fit for an ordinary child, much less a king. Don't sanitize it. A barn stinks, it's dirty. Jesus was born in an animal stall. His bed was a manger, that is a feed trough. There would have been mud and manure and urine

and all the sights and sounds and smells that go with a barn. That first Christmas was set in a messy place and the creator of the universe intentionally chose to come into the world this way. And when he did, he was sending you a message. He was making a statement about his heart for you. You see, God is drawn to broken places and he's drawn to broken people like a magnet. He's actually attracted to the mess. You might be listening to me right now and feel undeserving of God's love. Maybe you feel like Mike in the video a moment ago. You think you've disqualified yourself. You think that you're the least likely candidate in the room to have God's attention today. And if you feel that way, it's because you really don't understand the gospel and you don't really know the heart of God for you. Religion tells us that everything has to be neat and tidy. It has to be ironed and creased. It's gotta be perfect. And that's why many people never get around to coming to God. They just can't seem to get it together enough to come. And that's just one of the many lies that religion will tell you. The desire of God's heart is to step into your mess and into your hurt and into your sin, into your life and redeem it.

But he can't do that. If you keep running from him, he can't do that if you keep trying to hide. He just wants you to come just like you are. And he'll take you and begin his very gracious process of transformation in your life. Listen, the more disqualified you think you are, the higher you are on his most wanted list. He'll come into your mess and take a dirty life and make it a holy life. That first Christmas was set. in a messy place, but it was riddled with messy problems. And here's just one of them. Can you imagine the personal challenges of Mary and Joseph trying to navigate this situation? She's an unwed, pregnant, teenage girl who claims she's a virgin and that God is the father of the baby. And you have Joseph staying with her all the while admitting that he's not the child's father. Can you imagine the whispers behind their back? People would have said, why would Joseph stay with her? She cheated and she's made up this deranged lie. Or they would whisper, I didn't think Mary was that kind of girl. Messy problems to navigate. The first Christmas was set in a messy place, riddled with messy problems and it was full of messy pain. The world that Jesus came to was no different from the world that we live in right now.

It was hurting. Powerful people were exploiting the vulnerable in order to protect themselves. King Herod was so threatened by the announcement of the birth of Jesus that he ordered his armies to kill every Hebrew child in the vicinity of Bethlehem that was under the age of two, all in an attempt to protect himself and his throne. It was a bloodbath. Just imagine the pain and tragedy that filled Bethlehem as those orders are being carried out. Don't sanitize it. The setting of that first Christmas was a mess, but don't miss this. God intentionally chose that moment of history to come into our world to prove to us that he is drawn toward the darkness and the brokenness and the mess of human lives. Listen, pain doesn't take a holiday. Our world and our lives are full of pain this Christmas. You don't have to try to hide it or fake it because if that first Christmas tells us anything, it tells us that God is drawn into historical moments like the ones we're living in. He looks for messy places like our lives and he searches for hurting people just like us. Why would the king of kings come to a messy place riddled with messy problems, full of messy pain? Why? Because he had a messy plan to save messy people.

He's born the child of a virgin peasant girl, lives as a carpenter's son, dies a criminal's death, and is resurrected king of all kings. It really is extravagant. In the video we showed to open the service about the king's extravagant entrance into our world, these questions were asked. When will joy arrive? When will God break in? When will we see? When will the light finally come? How long will we wake with the ache of expectation? Some of us are asking those same questions about the brokenness in our own lives. We're searching for that joy. Advent and Christmas remind us that joy has arrived, that God has broken in, that we have seen the glory, that the light has come, that expectation has turned to fulfillment, that the word is now flesh. You just have to quit disqualifying yourself. You have to stop believing that your sin and circumstances are bigger than God. And you have to start believing that the same God who made this unexpected entrance at that first Christmas wants to make the same kind of entrance into your tangled, messed up life. He's not intimidated by the mess

any more than he was turned off by a manger or a barn. He so wants to be with us, he'll come into our mess. You just gotta invite him in. But just like that first Christmas, he comes so unassuming, so ordinary, so humble, no frills, no pressure, that we don't even realize he's right here right now knocking at our heart's door. He is. That's why he's come. That's the message of Christmas. Will you let him in? My heart is heavy for two groups of people today. First, the Christ follower that's trying their best to put on a smile during a season that is supposed to be marked by happiness, but on the inside, underneath the mask of that smile, the grief and the pain and the brokenness feels like it's winning on the inside. I wanna challenge you to activate by your faith as a child of God, what you already know. Deep in your soul, when you made Jesus the Lord of your life, when the Spirit of God was deposited into you, to you at the moment of your salvation, so was a life giving joy that would sustain you in moments like these. It may have stolen your happiness, but if you've got Jesus, you've got joy.

Hold on to what Paul said, our hearts ache, but we always have joy. Real Christmas joy is stronger than whatever you are facing at this moment. Claim it as a child of God, it is your right. And then hold on to it and don't let it go. The second group of people I'm burdened for today are those who aren't really following Jesus, because if you're not in relationship with him, you don't have access to that kind of joy. Maybe you've been around it, maybe you're a cultural Christian, but you're not really a committed one. Maybe you're a spiritual seeker that has never really made a decision to surrender everything and come into relationship with him. Throw out the excuses today. Stop disqualifying yourself and invite him into your mess. This message is extremely personal to me, because I don't deserve to be here. I was a lying, cheating addict that believed God loved everybody but me, but he chased me down in my addiction and loved me anyway, and he came into my messy life at the worst of my life, and he's still, by his grace, changing me. This message is also personal to me because Mike and Tonya's story impacts Haley and I in a deeply personal way. Sure, because we love them, we are their pastors,

and we love them like pastors love their people, but it's more than that. My middle son, Gavin, is about to marry Mike and Tonya's youngest daughter, Ashton. Now, we didn't know that when this Christmas service was planned months ago, and I didn't even know that our production team had reached out to Mike and Tonya to tell their story until it was already done, but just a few weeks ago, Gavin asked Ashton to marry him, and we're elated that she said yes, and we have a photo of our families together just a few weeks ago of that proposal. Let me tell you something else Haley and I are excited about. We're excited that when we tell you about a God that descends into the mess of people's lives, that rescues and redeems and transforms, the power of that grace is real. You see, Mike and Tonya are gonna help us raise our future grandkids, and if grace doesn't step into their story, I don't know what our story looks like. If grace doesn't step into my story, I don't know what my kids' lives look like. If Jesus doesn't descend into human brokenness and change people, you don't have a pastor day, at least not this one, and if Jesus doesn't descend into Mike and Tonya's brokenness, it impacts everything for the future

of both of our families. I invited him a long time ago to my mess, and within the last few years, Mike stopped going through the motions and really, really made Jesus the king of his heart and has gone through a deep discipleship process of transformation. Mike invited him into his mess, and it's gonna change generations for both of our families. Will you join us? Mike and I and the host of others who when we were at our worst point, our lowest point, when we felt like God didn't want anything to do with us, in his infidelity and my addiction, that's when God was chasing us and we didn't even know it. He came into the brokenness of our lives. I want you to join us today and just say, come into my mess, Jesus. I know what it feels like. The day I prayed, I didn't even know what to say. I didn't know how to pray. I had just come from a party earlier that night and knew that the spirit of God was dealing with me. I didn't know what to pray, and a pastor helped me pray. So if you're where I was over 30 years ago, where Mike was a few years ago, let me help you, whether you're in a prison cell somewhere in this country or you're in one of our campuses or in the room here with me today,

we're gonna have this on the screens for you. Own it, make it yours. Jesus, I confess, I'm a sinful mess. I feel too broken, too ashamed and too far gone. But today I realize your love and grace are greater than my brokenness, shame and sin. Today I stopped running, I stopped hiding. I stopped believing the lie that my sin is greater than your grace. Today I stopped disqualifying myself from your love. I surrender my life to you. Forgive me and change me from the person I am to the person you created me to be. Make your extraction. avagant entrance into my life. Come into the mess. I open the door, I invite you in. I bow my heart and will to you, making you the Lord, Savior, and King of my life. Do what only you can do in me. Let today be like the first day of the rest of my life. I give all that I am to you. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. And I believe with all my heart, today somebody made a significant spiritual decision that's gonna change the rest of their life and generations and their families. If you did, when you leave today, my heart, my life's passion is to help you grow spiritually. At every one of our campuses today,

there's an area in the lobby marked Next Steps, and we created an ornament for Christmas that's labeled with the date so you can, I'm big on memorials. When I make a decision, I want a memorial to look back on, and I wanna gift you a memorial today. You stop by the Next Steps booth and say, I made that, I prayed the prayer today with Pastor, I made a decision, and they'll give you one of these as a gift. The QR code is there because if you're a believer and you want one of those, you can order one. Don't overrun the Next Steps booth asking. Let this be for people who made significant spiritual decisions today. Today is the third Sunday of Advent. On the first Sunday of Advent, we celebrate hope, hope that breaks in and rewrites human stories. Christmas proves that God still breaks in. The second week was peace, and I like the Advent candle for peace because when you look at the Christmas story, the world was in chaos, but when you back up, he reminds you he was in control the whole time. Our world is in chaos and the same is still true. He's still in control the whole time. And because of that, it gives me peace, and I rest in Advent peace. Today is about Advent joy. One thing we're gonna do right before we walk

out of this room is we're gonna make a prophetic declaration by song. My hearts may ache, but the joy has come. We will always have joy, and that joy is our strength. So when I light this candle today, my prayer is that Advent joy will infuse your life in the name of Jesus. Come on, would you stand with me and sing this song today? ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ♪ Come on, I don't know about y'all today, but I'm feeling the joy that the world can't take away, the joy that comes from Jesus. Come on, let's praise him today. Hey! ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ♪ ♪ Expingable joy, joy to the world, the Lord is come ♪ ♪ Let earth receive her King ♪ ♪ Let every heart prepare Him room ♪ ♪ And heaven and nature sing ♪ ♪ And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing ♪ Come on, put those hands together, hey! Come on, sing He rules. ♪ He rules the world with truth and grace ♪ ♪ And makes the nations prove His love to you ♪ ♪ The glories of His righteousness ♪ ♪ And wonders of His love, and wonders of His love ♪ ♪ And wonders, wonders of His love ♪ It's the joy of the Lord. He rises in my soul. Come on, sing.

♪ Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh ♪ Nothing can take this joy away. ♪ Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh ♪ Come on, can we sing the joy of the Lord? ♪ Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh ♪ ♪ The joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord is mine, sing ♪ ♪ Can we sing the joy, the joy of the Lord, the joy of the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, how you sitting on my soul, oh my soul, blessed and paired ♪ ♪ Oh what it is within me saves, oh my soul, blessed and paired ♪ Hey friends, I just wanted to spend a second with you at the end of this message today and just encourage you if in some way you've made a spiritual decision, maybe you've given your life to Christ today, you've recently given your life to Christ, you want to talk to somebody about giving your life to Christ, our team would love to help you. We're on the Pando app and have several ministries into various prisons because God has called us to you. We have a heart for forgotten people and forgotten places and that means we serve widows and we serve orphans and we serve special needs kids and God has given us a heart for men and women in the prison system because I believe Jesus died for you, he has a plan and a purpose for your life and we want to help you know that and discover that. There is an address on the screen that you can communicate with us, we have a team of people that would love to hear from you, especially if you've made a decision to follow Jesus so that we can resource you and point you to tools that can help you grow. Just know that we're praying over you and we're genuinely honored that you've taken time to watch our channel and these messages from North Place Church.