The Warrior Baby | Pastor Chris Kouba | United City Church

Good morning, good morning, United City. Hey, will you guys stand with us? And as we get started this morning, I wanna read to you a scripture from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter nine, verse six says this. It says, for unto us, for to us, a child is born, to us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. But we also know him by a few other names. We know him by Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. We know him by Jehovah Shiloh, the God who gives peace. We know him by Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals. We know him by Jehovah Rapha, the God that can heal your body, and so this morning, church, we just don't celebrate a risen savior, but we celebrate a savior born to us. His name is Jesus, his name is Yahweh, his name is Emmanuel, and he is worthy of praise. So just for five seconds, church, can you just give God a hand clap of praise for who he is and what he's done, for he is worthy, amen. Let's have some fun. He goes by the name of Jehovah, Jehovah. He speaks into nothing and darkness goes running. He goes by the name of Jehovah, Jehovah. Come on, call the name. Call the name, call the name, call the name, Jehovah.

All our praise, all our praise, all our praise belongs to him. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. All our praise, all our praise belongs to him. Call the name, call the name, call the name, Jehovah. All our praise, all our praise, all our praise, all our praise belongs to him. Come on. Now come on, church, sing. Yes, he does. Yes, he does. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Come on, be your King. Jehovah needs to fight your battle. Jehovah's arrow hits your knee. ♪ Jehovah I hear your voice ♪ ♪ Jehovah shall be your King ♪ ♪ Jehovah shall be your King ♪ ♪ Call the name, just call the name ♪ ♪ Call the name Jehovah ♪ ♪ All our praise, all our praise, all our praise ♪ ♪ Belong to Him, call the name, call the name, call His name ♪ ♪ Call the name Jehovah ♪ ♪ All our praise, all our praise, all our praise ♪ Come on one more time, sing. ♪ Jehovah needs to fight your battles ♪ ♪ Jehovah shall be your King ♪ ♪ Jehovah shall be your King ♪ ♪ He's fighting all your battles ♪ ♪ He's everything you need Him to be ♪

♪ Jehovah shall be your King ♪ ♪ Jehovah shall be your King ♪ ♪ In excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ In excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ Come to Bethlehem and see Him ♪ ♪ Whose birth the angels sing ♪ ♪ Come adore on bended knee ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord, the newborn King ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ In excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ In excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ In excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ In excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪ Good morning and welcome to United City Church. Hey, it is a great day. One, to celebrate in the December season for who Christ is and how he came into this world. But man, we get to also reflect on the other side and what he has done for us this morning as we get to celebrate two baptisms. And I don't know about you guys, but we're excited up here. Woo! And this is Mason. I've got to know Mason and his family for the last few years.

I mean, his dad and I sat down four years ago and started talking about this. He has made this choice to follow Jesus and today he is following through with that. So Mason, I have an important question for you, bro. Do you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Then it's my privilege to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Marry with Christ in baptism. Praise God. All right, and this is Paige. And Paige actually made this decision just a couple of weeks ago and is super excited about what God is doing in her life and her daughter's life and her family as they get to come and celebrate this decision that she has made today. So Paige, I have the same question for you. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Then it's my privilege to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Marry with Christ in baptism. Praise God. Amen. God is so good. What he continues to do in the life of this church. Perching through his people every single week is so amazing. Amen, amen. I'm gonna ask everyone to stand. It's time for our meet and greet.

I want you to introduce yourself to someone new. Tell them you're glad to see them. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Alright, good morning church, go ahead and grab a seat. Are you thankful to be here today to lift up the name of Jesus together? Well I wanna extend that welcome to all of you who are watching online as well. Hope you sense the love of God right where you're at. So good to see you all here today. If you would look in front of the seat in front of you. If you're a first time guest, you're gonna notice the car looks just like this. And would you just take a moment, we would ask that you would fill it out. Perhaps in a moment when our offering plates are being passed, you drop that in. Or as soon as our service is over, we'd love to be able to visit with you, put a gift in your hand and get to know you outside in our lobby at our connect table.

But that is a huge, huge piece of information allows us to be able to walk alongside you, pray for you and your family. But so thankful that you are here worshiping with us here today. Also, as you came in, you're gonna notice in your seats, these beautiful red cards. Yes, we have them again. And these are your personal invitation reminders that God has given you the gospel to then pass it on to someone else. And so would you take these invitations with you today, perhaps put one on your fridge as a reminder, you guys can see the Christmas Eve Eve service times at five o'clock on that 23rd. And then we've got four on Christmas Eve with noon being our Esbanola service. And then we've got three English speaking two o'clock, 3.30 and five o'clock. Here's what we would also ask is that last year, we had a tremendous showing of people. And so we're trying to make as much room as possible. Would you consider joining us on the 23rd? That would allow us to open up a few more seats on the 24th, or even perhaps coming to that five o'clock service as we believe that those two services at two o'clock and 3.30 will be the most heavily attended. By doing so again, you're gonna help make room for people who are seeking hope

and looking for a place to worship. So we appreciate your help and consideration with that. At this point, I'm gonna ask that our ushers would come forward to receive our offering. I just can't help but give praise to the Lord, seeing those two baptized this morning. And we've got four more being baptized at the next service. Church family, in this year 2025, we have seen 338 people take their next step in believers baptism, which is incredible. It's 50 more than what we saw last year, and God has continued to move. And so we just wanna remind you of, this is how your giving and generosity is fueling the mission of the gospel of Jesus Christ in and through United Cities. So we just wanna say thank you for your generosity, for your joyful giving, and know that it truly does make a kingdom impact. Let's go to the Lord and let's pray to ask Him to further these tithes and offerings. So Father, that is our plea and our request, that Father, we would pause in the middle of this service, God, that this is a declaration and a response to who you are and what you've done. God, your goodness and grace in our lives, we can't help but just say, thank you, Lord. So God, would you use every single penny and every dollar amount given, both in the room today and online later,

God, for the furthering of your kingdom. God, thank you, Lord, for what you have done, what you are doing, and what you will continue to do. Jesus, draw people to yourself. And we pray that in Jesus' name, amen. ♪ Modest entrance for a king ♪ Entered into shame ♪ Stepped into your pain ♪ Illumination the world would see ♪ The grace that you would need ♪ A light that would never fade ♪ Your mercy's when time had come ♪ Salvation arrived His name is Jesus To the King Give your worries To the King Lay your burdens He's the hope Your heart needs So bring all you are Before the King From a stable To His throne He has sought the lost He has paid your cost Through His wonder And majesty He's made a home for you Making all things new

To the King Give your worries To the King Lay your burdens He's the hope Your heart needs So bring all you are Before the King Joyful, joyful, come receive Him For His mercies never end May your broken heart be For Him from His love Your life begins Joyful, joyful, come receive Him For His mercies never end Lay your broken heart before Him From His love Your life begins To the King Give your worries To the King Lay your burdens He's the hope Your heart needs So bring all you are Before the King Bring all you are Before the King Bring all you are Before the King

Your name is the highest Your name is the greatest Your name stands above them all Above all thrones and dominions All powers and positions Your name stands above them all Your name is the highest Your name is the greatest Your name stands above them all Above all thrones and dominions All powers and positions Your name stands above them all When the angels cry Holy All creation cries Holy You are lifted high You're holy Holy forever Hear your people Hear your people sing You are holy To the King of kings Holy You will always be holy. Holy forever. And you will always be your holy. Holy forever. You are holy, Jesus. You will always be holy. Holy forever. 10 o'clock, how we doing? And it's really, really good to see you. My name is Chris Kubba. I have the privilege of being lead pastor here at United City. Hey, before we get going, I got an announcement that I want to make. Josh Thomas, you still around? Can

we get Josh to come on out here? Come on up. Josh Thomas, we got an exciting announcement today about Mr. Josh Thomas. About a year ago, about this time of year, we sat down with Josh just talking about his future here with us at United City. We love him. We really love Lily, his wife, and we just have Josh with us too. Lily, of course, serves in our kids ministry. Just an amazing addition to our team. But we kind of talked to Josh, hey, what does your future look like? Because we want it to be United City Church. And we began a discussion talking through — he, of course, has launched our young adult ministry. He's done an amazing job with that. That's a thriving ministry here in our church. But we also kind of knew and saw gifting in him in the worship ministry area, and so we have basically all year long been in a process where we have been slowly transitioning Josh out of the young adult ministry and more into the worship pastor ministry. He's basically had two jobs for the last few months, there's no question about that. We've been walking through that for quite a while, all by design, and we are now officially ready to say, here's your new worship pastor at United City Church, all right? We are, we are super excited about this. I do just want to ask for your prayers as we have been and are going to continue to look for a replacement on your young adult ministry. This is a very important part of what we believe God is leading us as a church to do, and we want to continue to build on the foundation that's already been laid. So pray for us as we look for God's man to be able to take that over, but we also know this is going to be exciting in the days ahead, particularly for Josh and Lily, and we just, we love you, want to give you one more chance just to say thank you to Josh Thomas as he's going to do this role. Love you. Love you, Josh. Hey, grab your Bibles, open them up, Hebrews chapter two, Hebrews chapter two. I do want to take the opportunity just to welcome — we got folks that are joining us in correctional facilities which still just blows my mind that that's the case, that we have the opportunity to go into places where people can't come to us to be able to bring them the Gospel. We've got folks that are joining us online, we've got some homebound folks that join us. Maybe you're a guest and you're kind of just like checking at United City Church out and you're watching this online. I do want to know, we don't bite, you can come in the room and it's all good here too. We'd love to have you here. We're just really grateful though

to have the opportunity to connect with so many different people. I want you to consider and think about this with me today. There is nothing in my mind more satisfying and just gratifying and just a joy to watch than seeing someone who has tons of potential, who has like all of the gifts that seemingly were placed in their lap and then they actually live that potential out. Of course, we know this is such a great thing to watch and observe because we know also the opposite of that. Whenever you see someone who's got all the privileges, you see someone who's got all the advantages, you see someone that's got all the background and all of the things in place that you would think would make them great, whether it's a sports team, whether it is an academic setting, whether it is in a work setting, and you're thinking man they're going to really do amazing, then they squander it. They waste it. They don't put in the work to meet the potential and it doesn't ever materialize. I want to throw a name out there that is the complete opposite of that. A guy who had all the advantages but actually lived up to it. Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps is somebody who genetically speaking was made to be a dominant swimmer. Michael Phelps has a wingspan band that is longer than he is tall. Michael Phelps has an extraordinary long torso. Michael Phelps also has incredibly extraordinarily flexible ankles. His lung capacity is twice the size of mine and twice the size of yours. Scientists did some study and research on him and said this, this guy is scientifically engineered to dominate in the pool. But here's the thing, just having potential doesn't make you great. You got to put in the work. And Michael Phelps showed up at the pool every single day at 5 a.m. He swam lap after lap after lap after lap grinding, pushing through setbacks, finding himself having to compete against the best athletes in the world. And what was the outcome? When all of that potential met all of that hard work, you ended up with the greatest Olympian of all time. Michael Phelps has 28 medals.

23 of them are gold. It is beautiful to see someone live out the purpose for which they were born. We're in a sermon series we started last week. We're gonna look at this entire Christmas called Born for a Purpose. And we're trying to discover this. Why was Jesus born? What was the purpose of Him coming to this earth? What I want us to consider is this, is that Jesus came for a very specific reason to accomplish something that we needed, which is why we can celebrate. Christmas. Last week, we're gonna look. We saw Jason led us through the idea that Jesus was born to preach the good news. That He literally came to herald, to tell everybody else, not only about His coming, but ultimately about what He would ultimately do. And it should lead and inspire us this Christmas season to do something so powerful by giving a simple invitation to somebody else so that they can hear the same good news that we've heard. This morning, it's gonna be a little more cosmic. It's gonna be this idea that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. But here's what I want you to see, is that the question I want us to consider, really the question that comes up at Christmas is, okay, why did He have to be born in order to do that? Like if God is the creator, if He's sovereign over all things, from His perch up in heaven, couldn't He have just gone down there and said, hey, I want you guys to fix this. Satan, you're not allowed to have any influence and done it all right there. We're gonna see today that it wasn't that simple. That instead, Jesus had to put on human flesh. The manger had to be a reality. I want us to look at a passage in Hebrews chapter two.

We're gonna be all over the Bible today though. Looking at the theology of why Christmas exists. Look with me in Hebrews chapter two, beginning in verse 14. It says, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. And deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. I got three things I wanna show you today. One, I wanna show you the problem, the enemy that we couldn't defeat. I wanna show you the solution, the warrior who took on flesh. And I wanna show you the result, the freedom that we get to live in. Let's break these down one by one. First, the problem. I want you to know the problem. Look again at verse 14. In the middle of it, it says, the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. We think about Christmas usually as something that's nice and happy and joyous and all of those things are true. But we need to understand this foundational thing. You cannot have Christmas with all of the good news unless you first realize what the bad news is. Before there could be a rescue, there had to be danger. The whole story of Christmas begins with this sobering reality. Humanity faced an enemy that we could not defeat. You know, whenever you think about the devil, it mentions that there in verse 14. A lot of times when it comes to this idea of demonic forces

or it comes to spiritual warfare and those types of things, most people have one of two extremes is how they react. One, the devil's in everything. And so no matter what happens, we should be constantly afraid and scared because the devil is this way. The other hand, it's like spiritual warfare. where it's like superstition, that stuff's not necessarily real. The Bible has a third way, which says that we are aware of the danger, but we aren't paranoid by it. First Peter chapter five, verse eight says this, be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. It doesn't say don't live your life, but it does say live your life looking around. Waking up to the reality that there is danger in our midst. You don't walk around scared 24 seven, but you also don't pretend like evil is not real. You live aware and watchful because Hebrews chapter two, verse 14 says, the enemy has the power of death. Don't mistake this by thinking that somehow Satan controls when you die. God is sovereign and God is the author and the taker of life. That being said though, we know Satan constantly uses death as a weapon. Death is the ultimate threat against us.

Romans chapter six, verse 23 says this, for the wages of sin is death. If you don't believe that death is something that puts terror in the lives of all of us, just wait until you get a diagnosis. And then all of a sudden you begin to be told you only have so many months to live, how immediately your life begins to get put in perspective. Death has this haunting reality over us. Sin entered the world in Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter three and death came with it and Satan has been using death as a weapon ever since. First John chapter three, verse eight says, whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil. For the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works. Many different works of the devil. He has a full playbook and he's not afraid to use them. He uses deception. John chapter eight, verse 44 says, he is a liar and the father of lies. Has the devil been lying to you at all lately? He's the chief accuser. Revelation chapter 12, verse 10 says, he accuses them day and night before our God. Every single time you begin to think, I'm gonna make some changes in my life. By the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm gonna go and improve my marriage.

What does the accuser say? Hey, you're not good enough to do that. Your life is over. You know that, right? He just lies to us and accuses us. Luke chapter 13, verse 16 tells us that he keeps his people in bondage. Satan has someone bound for 18 years. Let me make this a little more personal. Every lie that you believe about yourself, every accusation that you walked into this service with that haunts you at 2 a.m., every addiction that's got you in chains, every fear that controls your decisions, it's just the devil work. It's just working in the background, working in your life, working right in front of your face, trying to tell you this, you are not worth it. The result of all this works, look at Hebrews chapter two, verse 15. It says, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. This shows us that we're not just victims, we're captives. We are slaves. Here's how the fear of death works. It's not just about being afraid of dying, but that fear of death creates this domino effect where other fears begin to show up.

Stuff like the fear of failure, meaning that I'm gonna die and have accomplished nothing. The fear of rejection, I'm gonna die alone and unloved. The fear of meaninglessness, what if my life doesn't matter? The fear of loss where everything is taken away, fear is a slave master. It makes you do things that you don't wanna do, it keeps you from doing things that you should do, it controls your decisions, it shapes your relationships, it robs you of your joy. That's slavery. So the question is, what do you do when you're facing an enemy that you can't defeat? When you got a problem that is bigger than you, when you're enslaved and you can't break free, you need someone stronger to help you. You need a warrior, you need a champion. But here's the catch, and this is where it gets brilliant. The warrior had to be one of us in order to defeat this enemy. Look at verse 14 again. So since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things. I've told you what the problem is, the second thing I want you to do is, to see from this passage is what the solution is. There's a problem, but he also tells you the solution. Verse 14, there it says the word likewise. Likewise means this, the exact same. Not similar, exactly the same.

Jesus didn't appear human. He didn't put on a costume. He didn't go into AI and it looks really so real that you can't really tell the difference between whether it's real or not. He didn't become an avatar. Instead, he became human flesh. Philippians 2, verse 7, this is speaking of Jesus, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the same Greek word, likeness, exactness, sameness of men. This is the incarnation. This is the story of Christmas. When God became human flesh, when the creator became the creation, when the infinite became finite and an infant, when the eternal one entered into time. Why? Because the battle required it. Look in Genesis chapter three, the very beginning of your Bible. If you go all the way back when the serpent shows up, what you see is this story where Adam and Eve are told, hey, you can do anything you want. You can enjoy everything you've got. There's just this one tree, don't eat from that. And what do they do? They're like, oh, wet paint, don't touch. Let's go right over there towards it, right? And they go right over there and they eat of that tree.

And God begins to judge them as a result of that. And we see some judgments that are pronounced upon Adam. And then we see some judgments that are pronounced upon Eve. But we also see a judgment that is pronounced upon the serpent who was the tempter in the story. And what I want you to see in Genesis chapter three, verse 15, is this beautiful verse that if you not really know what's going on, you might miss it. It's actually the first glimmer of hope in the midst of judgment when all of the world has changed. Look at what it says in Genesis 3, 15. It says, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Here's what this is saying. God says one day a descendant of the woman, meaning a human being, is going to crush the serpent. It's giving you a glimmer in the midst of judgment that one day I'm gonna fix this. Because somebody who's gonna be from a human is gonna come and they're going to be the one who crushes the head, crushes the serpent. And that is gonna bring the freedom that we so desire. Now, why is it important that it's a human? Because humanity lost the fight, so humanity has to be the one that wins it back. You see, think about the ancient practice of champion warfare. The most vivid description of this

would be David and Goliath, where basically you have two competing armies that are against each other. And instead of them just fighting in the middle, what you instead have is that this army over here has a representative and this army has a representative and they fight winner take all. Whoever wins, the whole country wins. If you remember, that was the story of the Philistines and the Israelites. The Philistines was Goliath, this large, massive man who stood up and taunted the people of Israel. And then Israel, it was David who was the least candidate of all of them who steps up and he defeats Goliath. And as a result of that one battle of champion warfare, all of the Israelites ended up winning the victory. Folks, what I want you to know is that that exact same thing took place whenever it came to the champion who represented you, which was Jesus. What I need you to know this about champion warfare is that you can't hire a mercenary, somebody from another country to stand in and represent you, that wouldn't count. Instead, the person who represents you has to be one of you, has to be like you. That's why Jesus had to be human, because humanity was in this fight and we needed a champion who could represent us,

who was fully and truly one of us. Look down with me at Hebrews 2, verse 17. It says, therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation, that's a Bible word that means this, paid the penalty for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Jesus didn't just look like us, he experienced what we experienced, he was tempted. He experienced suffering and ultimately he died. Why? Because the mission that he was on required it. Jesus didn't just send down orders from heaven, he got in the game and he stepped onto the field. And here was his strategy. Look at Hebrews chapter two, verse 14. It says, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. Don't miss this, folks. Jesus wasn't born to live, he was born to die. The manger leads to a cross. Every single breath from Bethlehem moved him toward Golgotha. Christmas and Easter are two chapters from the same story. And here's where it gets crazy.

Satan's greatest weapon was death. So what did Jesus do? He used death to defeat Satan. First Corinthians chapter 15, verse 54 and 55 says when the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? If you ever played chess before and you're playing against somebody who's really good, you know you've got to constantly be watching because they're really smart and you kind of know all along they're setting you up for a trap. There's the famous painting that exists that talks about how basically the devil played his chess move and he thought that he had a checkmate. And what he didn't realize is that the entire time when he was doing all of his moves and all of his things and all of the plays, he was actually setting himself up because Jesus had the final say and ultimately what the devil thought was winning was actually leading him into the place of being defeated. And that's exactly what happened in the person of Jesus when he was born in Bethlehem, every single day of his life was gearing himself up for that one day when he would die on the cross

and the enemy and the devil and the works of the devil and that moment assumed we are winning, we have won, checkmate, it is over. But what happened was three days later what appeared to be the ultimate defeat ended up becoming the ultimate victory when Jesus was raised from the dead and showed that all that he did in Bethlehem led to all that he did in this resurrection and ultimately, mic drop, game over, he has won the victory for us. What I want you to see is Jesus came and lived a perfect life which allowed him to be our substitute. Every time he was tempted, he validated and proved that he was perfect. Jesus won by his substitutionary death on our behalf. Colossians chapter two, verse 13 through 15, and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. The cross canceled our debt. The cross silenced the accuser.

The cross broke Satan's power and then when Jesus rode from the dead, it showed that death no longer had dominion over him. Hear this, Easter proves that Christmas worked. And even though Satan hasn't been completely removed, he will one day at the final day, we know that he has been rendered powerless. He's been rendered ineffective. So what does this mean for us? Look at verse 15. It says, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. I've told you about the problem. I've told you about the solution. The last thing I wanna tell you about is the result. I want you to see the result. What does this mean for us? If Jesus destroyed the devil's works, how does this change our lives today? We're delivered from fear. Jesus came to set us free from fear, especially the fear of death, which is at the root of all other fears. Listen to this verse, Romans 8, 38 and 39. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor death, nor anything else in all of us. of creation or anything else you wanna put on the list,

will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Let me ask you, what fears are controlling you today? Is it the fear of failure? Is it the fear of rejection? Is it the fear of the future? Is it the fear of losing control? All of these fears go back that you will end up in loss, but Jesus destroyed the devil's power. Got a situation I'm working with right now. I feel the Lord is prompting me to start something. And I've done a lot of work behind it. I've done a lot of research behind it. I've kind of prayed through it. And it's like the Lord is just keeps opening up the door, but I'm stuck. To be honest with you, I'm scared. My fear is that, well, what if it doesn't work? What if we can't fund it? What if it falls flat? And I got all these excuses. And in the midst of my preparation this week, the Lord was like, am I real or not? Like, am I legit in your life? Or are you just gonna preach about the big stuff, but it's not gonna apply to the little things that you're walking through? What I found is whenever I begin to realize that Christmas led to Easter, it means that those things where I just get stuck,

I'm guessing I'm not the only one in this room that's felt that, where you're just stuck. You know what to do. You just need the courage to do it. I'm right there with you. But if this is true, if the Christmas story is real, what this means is this. I may be facing a very uncertain future and the devil has wracked havoc in my life and in my marriage and in my family and all these situations that maybe you're dealing with. Let me just remind you of this. He doesn't get the last word. And so because of that, I may not know how it's all gonna work out, but I can know this. I don't have to fear. Nothing, nothing separate me from the love of God. Christ Jesus, our Lord. You can also join his mission. First John chapter three, verse eight says, "'Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, "'for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. "'The reason the Son of God appeared "'was to destroy the works of the devil.'" Jesus destroyed the works of the devil. Now we get to continue dismantling them. By speaking truth to lies. Satan, this isn't true about me. This isn't true about them.

I declared God's truth over the situation. This isn't some name it and claim it stuff, but it is sitting firmly and deeply in the promises of our God. One of our core values at United City is that the Bible would speak because we wanna let God speak louder in your life than anything the enemy's accusing you of. You get to bring freedom where there is bondage. You may feel helpless. Helpless and unable to change, but here's what the Bible says. You are being renewed day after day, after day, after day. Lamentations chapter three, verse 23 says, "'That there are new mercies every single day. "'Great is your faithfulness.'" It allows you to share life where there's death. After this service, we're gonna have a time calling it the fellowship of comfort. We recognize that at this time of year, it's very difficult if you've walked through a loss in your family, a loss in your life. A lot of times the holidays are some of the toughest, most difficult times that we just wanna set aside some time basically just to pray with you, just to come alongside of you. But if that person that you love and that person that you are grieving is someone who's experienced

the life changing message of Jesus Christ, you still walk in grief, but here's what I want you to see. You don't walk in grief without hope. We wanna come alongside of you and be the one that simply tells you this. We can know nothing to replace the loss that is in your heart, but I can tell you the one who can, that's Jesus. He'll never leave you, he'll never forsake you. First God calling you to destroy the devil's works in your family, in your workplace, in our city. Romans 16, verse 20 says, "'The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.'" The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Notice under your feet, we don't fight for victory, we fight from victory. Jesus has already won. Michael. Phelps was born with the tools to dominate swimming, but he still had to do the work. Jesus was different. He didn't just have the tools, he became the tool. God took on flesh and blood because that's what the mission required. He had to be human to fight our battle. He had to die to defeat death. He had to rise to prove the victory, and he did it all. Christmas is a war story. The baby in the manger was the champion entering the ring.

The swaddling clothes foreshadowed the burial cloths. The feeding trough pointed to the cross where the lamb would ultimately be slain. And God couldn't defeat Satan from heaven. The battle required a human champion, so he became one. And when the shepherds looked into that feeding trough in Bethlehem, they didn't just see a baby, they were looking at the champion who was gonna crush the serpent. They were looking at the warrior who would destroy the works of the devil. They were looking at the only one who could set humanity free. This is what Christmas is. This is who Jesus is. This is why he was born. Would you bow your heads and would you close your eyes with me all across this room? I'm gonna ask our men to go ahead and get in their places and get the elements of the communion and the Lord's Supper to prepare to take and receive. The Bible tells us of two primary ways that we are to constantly remember the warrior baby. One is through the testimony of baptism. We got to experience that already this service. We saw these two give public expression of their faith, literally the act of baptism, not only tells their story but tell God's story. They are died with Christ, buried with him in baptism,

under the water and raised to walk in newness of life. He also gives us the testimony of the Lord's Supper. When he was with his disciples in the upper room, he instituted something he says that we are to do often. We are to do likewise. The very act of taking the cup and very act of taking the bread is a reminder to us one, so that we can look and see what it costs Jesus to pay for our sins, but also during this Christmas season, it's so appropriate that we take it together because it reminds us of the victory that he accomplished. Easter proves Christmas worked. You should take up these elements. I just wanna ask that you wait, we'll do them all together. We'll actually take them together, but I ask that you reflect, reflect on the warrior baby, came, lived, died for you so that you can have life. Father, in Jesus' name I pray that you would allow our hearts to be stirred and moved in these moments as we reflect on what you have done for us. As we take up the bread, as we take up the cup, Lord, may our hearts be full because they have every reason to be because of what you've done for us. That we live, walk and meditate on that today. It's in the name of Jesus that I pray, amen. Amen. Amen.

Oh, the perfect Son of God and all His innocence here walking in the dirt with you and me. For He knows what living is. He's acquainted with our grief. Man of sorrows, Son of suffering. Blood and tears, how can it be? There's a God who weeps, there's a God who bleeds. Oh, praise the one who would reach for me. Hallelujah to the Son of suffering. Oh. Son, imagine you, you were distant and remote but you chased us down in mercy. ♪ Fall but soon to the sinner you were gracious ♪ ♪ And the broken you embraced ♪ ♪ And in the end the proof is in your arms ♪ ♪ All I know in the end the proof is in your, your arms ♪ ♪ Blood and tears how can it be ♪ ♪ There's a God who hears and there's a God who leads ♪ ♪ Oh praise the one who would reach for me ♪ ♪ Hallelujah to the son of sovereign ♪ ♪ Hallelujah oh oh ♪ ♪ Your cross is my freedom ♪ ♪ Your stripes are my healing ♪ ♪ Oh praise King Jesus glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ Your blood still speak and your love still be known ♪ ♪ Still reach and all praise King Jesus glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ Your cross is my freedom ♪ ♪ Your stripes are my healing ♪ ♪ Oh praise King Jesus glory to God in heaven ♪

♪ Your blood still speak and your love still be known ♪ ♪ Still reach and all praise King Jesus glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ Glory to God forever glory to God forever ♪ ♪ Glory to God glory to God forever glory to God forever ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪ Your cross is my freedom ♪ ♪ Your stripes are my healing ♪ ♪ Oh praise King Jesus glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ Your blood still speak and your love still be known ♪ ♪ Oh praise King Jesus glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ We sing glory glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ Glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ Your blood still speak and your love still be known ♪ ♪ King Jesus glory to God forever ♪ ♪ Glory to God forever ♪ The night that Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread and he broke it. He gave it to each of his disciples one by one. He said, as often as you eat of this, do it in remembrance of me. He then took the cup, which is filled with the fruit of the vine. He said, this is the blood of my new covenant. As often as you drink of it, do it in remembrance of me. You can put this aside, and if you would just bow your heads and move in prayer. If you've never trusted in Jesus, the Bible says you're still enslaved.

My experience has been, you probably already know that, because you feel it. Like you feel trapped, trapped by expectations. How about this one, trapped by religion? and I've been checking off all the boxes and it really hadn't been working. You'd be trapped by your own success. I want you to know this, Jesus came to set you free. Freedom doesn't come by doing, it comes by receiving. Receiving the free gift of God in His Son, Jesus Christ. It comes when you repent, when you turn from your sins, when you turn to Jesus, when you put your hope and your faith in Him. Let me plead with you today. You experience that freedom by giving your life to Jesus. If that's you, I want you to pray this simple prayer with me, dear God, I wanna be free. I don't wanna be enslaved anymore. I turn from my sins and I turn to you right now. I believe that you died on the cross for me. I believe that you rose from the dead and I receive you right this moment to my life. Thank you for the gift of forgiveness. Thank you for the gift of freedom. Thank you for the gift of victory. It's in the name of Jesus that I pray. Amen, would you look up here,

I want you to know if you just prayed that prayer with me, you're saved. Bible says it. And we wanna have the opportunity to talk with you about that, to celebrate with you. Our team is gonna be up front. Our team is gonna be at the bottom of these steps. And what I wanna just simply ask you to do is that you just come forward here in just a moment. You just tell them, I just prayed that prayer. I wanna give my life to Jesus. Maybe others of you are here and the best way you could possibly close out 2025 is by joining the church. Would you come to join United City Church? You lead the way today. Your coming's gonna help encourage others. Maybe some of you need to be baptized like these two that we saw. You've already given your life to Jesus, but your next step is to follow through in public declaration of that faith through believers baptism. Would you come, let us schedule your baptism. Maybe some of you need prayer and you're just up against it. You feel the works of the devil active in your life right now. And you need hope, you need encouragement. We don't want you to walk alone.

We wanna come alongside of you. We wanna pray for you. We believe the Bible tells us that God is with us. Sometimes the benefit, we're better together. That's one of our core values. Proves that whenever we with somebody else praying for us, it just helps to remember a reminder that God has been with us the whole time. Let us come alongside and pray with and pray for you. Father, in Jesus name, I pray you'd use these final moments we have left together and you would call people to yourself. God, that you would move and that you would work in such a way where people Lord would be able to experience freedom. God, that you would allow them to experience your mercy and your grace in significant ways. It's in the powerful name of Jesus that I pray, amen. You come right now as God is leading you to respond to him today. Our team is up front. They're there at the bottom of those steps. You come right now, come on. ♪ Christ, your name is the greatest, your name ♪ ♪ Stands above them all ♪ Come on, who's gonna lead the way? Who's God for you? Come on, who else? ♪ The positions of your name ♪ Who's God for you?

♪ Stands above them all ♪ ♪ Your name is the highest, your name is the greatest ♪ ♪ Your name stands above them all ♪ Who's God for you? Do you believe this to be true? ♪ And dominions, all powers, and positions, your name ♪ Who's God for you? ♪ Stands above them all ♪ Come on, who else? ♪ And the angels cry, holy, our creation cries, holy ♪ ♪ You will live divine, holy, only forever ♪ ♪ Hear your people sing, holy, to the King of kings, holy ♪ ♪ You will always be holy, only forever, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Only forever ♪ Let's pray together. Father, we do declare that today. Bethlehem leads to victory. Bethlehem leads to freedom. God, while we celebrate with all the joy and the festivities and all the things that go along with that, Lord, we celebrate the warrior who died in our place. We thank you, Father. I pray that you would help us to live with the confidence that we have. In what you have accomplished on the cross. May we not keep it at so high level that it doesn't get down in the middle of the very things that you desire to show us, that you freed us from.

May we be a people who join you in destroying these works of the devil. May we be a people who live without fear because of what you have done for us. It's in the powerful name of Jesus that I pray, amen.