What A Gift! | Tyrone P Jones | Legacy Giving | Full Service

Good morning church, good morning to the online campus and to the prison campus. My name is Naya and I'm so glad that you've joined us this morning. If you've already found your seats, I just wanna ask that if there's room in the middle of your rows, for everybody to just move in so we can make space for the people who are still coming in to fill out the end seats. And if you're not already standing, would you just stand with me as we open up with the word? Today I'm reading from Colossians 3, 16, and it says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Today, I'm so excited and I'm ready to hear the word. I hope that you're excited and ready to hear the word, but more than hearing it like the scripture says, I just hope that every single one of us allow the word to just dwell in our hearts, that it would become the treasure that's in our hearts and that it would remain in us all the days of our lives. If you guys would just bow your heads and pray with me. Thank you, Jesus, so much for this morning, Lord. I just thank you that you've just brought us all together today to just worship you, to learn about you, to be in communion with you and with each other, God.

And I just pray that as the message is spoken, as the worship is sung, it is pure and it's true, Jesus. In your name we pray, amen. Remain standing as we worship together. Come on, put your hands together this morning. ♪ There's joy in the morning ♪ ♪ Joy to the world, the Lord is come ♪ ♪ Let earth receive her King ♪ ♪ Heaven and earth repent the evil one ♪ ♪ Heaven and nature sing, heaven and nature sing ♪ ♪ Heaven and nature sing, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Joy to the world, the Lord is come ♪ ♪ Let all their songs be glorified ♪ ♪ While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains ♪ ♪ Leave the sounds of joy, leave the sounds of joy ♪ ♪ We repeat the sounding joy of the Lord, joy of the Lord ♪ ♪ He's my strength, joy of the Lord, joy of the Lord ♪ ♪ Joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ Oh my soul, bless His name, all that is within me sing ♪ ♪ Joy of the Lord, joy of the Lord is my strength ♪ ♪ There is joy in the morning ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ So let it rise up like a river ♪ ♪ Overflowing Holy Spirit ♪ ♪ So let it pour out with no limit ♪ ♪ Overflowing Holy Spirit ♪ Come on, let it rise. ♪ Let it rise up like a river ♪ ♪ Overflowing Holy Spirit ♪ Holy Spirit

Let it pour out With no limit Overflowing 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 Oh Come on, lift up your voice today Oh The joy of the Lord The joy of the Lord is my strength The joy of the Lord The joy of the Lord is my strength Oh my soul Oh my soul Bless His name All that is within me say Oh my soul Bless His name All that is within me say Oh my soul Bless His name All that is within me say The joy of the Lord The joy of the Lord is my strength Oh

It is my strength Come on, lift it up this morning as we continue to sing Let's celebrate the birth of Jesus The herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King Peace on earth and mercy mild God and sinners reconciled Joyful all ye nations rise Join the triumph of the skies With angelic hosts proclaim Christ is born in Bethlehem Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King By highest heaven adored Christ the everlasting Lord In time behold Him come Offspring of everlasting Veiled in flesh the Godhead see Hail the incarnate Deity Pleased with man as man to dwell Jesus our Emmanuel Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King Yeah Hail the heaven born Prince of Peace Hail the Son of Righteousness And life to all He brings Risen with healing in His wings Mild He lays His glory by Born that way

That man no more may die Born to raise the sons of earth Born to give it its second birth Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King Hail the Heaven born Prince of Peace Hail the Son of Righteousness Living life to all He brings Risen with healing in His wings Mild He lays His glory by Born that man no more may die Born to raise the sons of earth Born to give them second birth Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King Hark the herald angels sing Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King Hark the herald angels sing Hark the herald angels sing In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And because of your confession of faith, today I baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins,

and according to Scripture, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Come on, let's celebrate that. Wow. What a powerful testimony. The work of Jesus and the love of Jesus. Come on, let's continue to sing. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Leaving the angels in glorious For the deep shadows of death nest Oh, what a wonder How, oh, how could it be Oh, sacredness true The High King of Heaven, Lord, go to sleep Oh, oh, oh Gracious Redeemer, You looked upon me Born before Eden, You knew my great need Woven through history a rich, crimson thread Your planned salvation in this manger bed Oh, what a wonder How, oh, how could it be Oh, sacredness true The High King of Heaven, Lord, go to sleep Thank You, Jesus Oh, Lord Our affection, our devotion Poured out on the feet of Jesus Our affection, our devotion Poured out on the feet of Jesus

Our affection, our devotion Poured out on the feet of Jesus Our affection, our devotion Poured out Jesus, we love You Oh, how we love You You are the one our Our hearts adore You, adore You Our affection, our devotion Poured out on the feet of Jesus Our affection, our devotion Poured out on the feet of Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus We adore You, Jesus How we love You You are the one our Our hearts adore You Oh we truly adore you Jesus, we thank you for your sacrifice God that you've ransomed us and made us whole Lord giving us a hope for eternity in Jesus name the church said amen amen so before you prepare for the message please take the time to meet someone around you if you've never seen them before tell them that you're thankful they're here in the house today you all right good morning to you welcome to Church for the City where we'll teach the Word of God and encounter the presence of the Lord and spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ I'm glad that you're here as we draw closer and closer to Christmas Day and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ since it's good to be in the house of the Lord witness baptisms hear

the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and just honestly prepare our heart to close the year strong how many want to close strong this year and walk into next year amen amen I want to give a shout out to those that are online those that are watching us in the prison and those at the county jail God bless you and thank you so much for being with us a couple of things we have the mental health seminar that's coming up there has been some communication on this if you're included in the constant contact the communication that goes out on a weekly basis if not you can do so on the tap disc in front of you or even let them know at the desk that you're not receiving emails but the mental health seminar pastor Bob McGregor will actually be here for our first Wednesday that'll be a night of preaching and prophetic and just a wonderful time with pastor Bob and then there's a three-day mental health seminar you can you can even engage in this on the website and hear pastor Bob's he gives a two-minute story of why he does this it's $40 that includes a lunch the times and everything is included on the website pastor Bob when he first did this material he done a like a pilot with us oh several years ago I want to say it was before COVID or right after COVID since then of course he's been quite active teaching the mental health seminar and it really it's open to everyone listen folks I'm going to go through the mental health seminar you probably guessed that right that I'm I'm going to go through I'm not sure I really got an option but but but everyone will receive from it if you're dealing with fear anxiety some of it is trauma from the past but it's a wonderful wonderful teaching and it'll be a real blessing to us so I encourage you to join in with us and just give us those three days and see what the Holy Spirit will do in your life also obviously you have I don't know if you were giving cards on your way in but you have the invite cards for the holiday season this Wednesday of course is is our Christmas Eve services 4 and 5 30 and 7 p.m. I do ask you to invite people it really is an easy invite to bring people to Christmas Eve services so I encourage you to do that family friends find a service that works for you honestly maybe even find a service that works for them and come that for Christmas Eve it's going to be a great great service as it always is there is a message that I'm

giving for Christmas morning that will also be sent out. on Christmas morning at 7 a.m., and then next Sunday, of course, we're doing church at home, normal times, 8.30, 10 a.m., and 11.30 a.m., and also 1 p.m. that will be broadcast in Spanish. So that's that next Sunday. The church goes dark, I say dark, after Christmas Eve until the first Sunday of January. So there'll be no city youth. Also, City Bible College begins January 12th. Those that want to be part of the Holy Spirit class and Old Testament survey, you can register for that. Those of you that are with me in ACTS, we still have two more months to go. But if you want to get into City Bible College now, you can jump into Holy Spirit class, which is a semester class, and also Old Testament survey. All right, I want to also just remind you again, I'm not sure if you received these cards when you came in, but I want to thank you for your giving. End of the year, we do our legacy giving where we encourage you to give a year-end gift. Our legacy giving card has some options on it. For some people, it's beginning to give for the first time. Some of you give, but maybe not consistently, and the Holy Spirit, I trust, and the Word of God is encouraging you to give consistent. Some people have not began tithing, which is a biblical principle. And if you missed the teachings on that, you can go back maybe two weeks ago, and you'll hear the teaching on that, where you give a tenth of your income to the house of the Lord for the work of the ministry. And so there's an opportunity for you to make a commitment to begin tithing. And some of you are very faithful in giving to the Lord. And at the end of the year, Pastor Ty, as a matter of fact, preached a wonderful message last week on dealing with the legacy lanes and giving

and why we do what we do. And so you can make a commitment to give at the end of the year. I do want to show one video before I jump into the Word, but let me just share with you at the end of the year, as you know, CTC gives at the end of the year, over and beyond what we have already planned to give in our missions and church planting. And a lot of this we do with local agencies, but I know all of it hasn't been released, but I believe it's all set to be released. But we're giving 45,000 as a church. I just want to call off where some of this is going, Lifted Up Living, which is in Imperial Valley, Crossroads Mission, Turning Point Ministries, Yuma Community Food Bank, United Way of Yuma County, Amberley's Place, Grace Bible Church in Yuma, Cocopah Assembly, Lifevine Church in Livingston, Texas, Calvary Chapel, Hopeville, Light on the Mountain Campground, Fairways to Freedom is a veterans group, and Salvation Army, and Kingdom Way Ministries. All of these will be recipients of your giving, and they're all going to be but it's because we believe the Lord helps us to help those who are helping expand in the kingdom of God. So thank you so much for your giving. We'll watch a video, and then I'm going to jump right into the word. It was in 2002, I got saved in 1999 when we lived in Petal, Mississippi. I retired from the military, we moved here, and I started my own business as a financial advisor with a company called First Command. You have to build your business, and sometimes you have to borrow money. So I went $70,000 in the hole, and then it was the fall of 2002, and I was coming out of the bathroom at our home, and the stress was just on me, the weight of the money, and I literally just fell to my knees, and I started praying. And then I remembered, tithe, give back to me, I'll take care of the rest.

And so we sat down at that time, we started a fixed amount so we could work up to it. Right, it wasn't a percentage, it was just what we could handle at the time. But every time I got a raise in the business, I would give 10% to God until we were exceeding the 10%. Sissy, my lovely bride, was diagnosed with cancer, and then in 08, First Command, the company I was an independent contractor with, terminated me without cause because I wouldn't take a pay cut. The next thing you know, our income was gone, and we decided that we would tithe all the way through that. And then in 2014, we finally got to a point where I was taking home the revenue, and then I was attacked and had to defend myself, and we made the decision then, too, we're going to keep tithing all the way through this. I would just walk around the building. Wailing at God, saying, why, why? And I just had to trust in him. And know that he had it. He was teaching me something. Wasn't sure what it was at the time, but he was teaching me something. He taught me about heart. And believe in him, just trust. I have a little note pad, or a little sticky note on my desk, and it says, after obedience comes the reward. If I could just be obedient for this day, tomorrow will be better. We just let go. Stop worrying about it.

All right, just let go. God's got it. Giving is about your heart with God. That's it. It's that simple. And if you let go, God will reward it back tenfold, more than you can ever know. There are rewards because of our tithing that have happened to us that we both broke down into tears, because we can't believe what God's doing in our life. If I could put it into steps, like how do you start? You know, when you're just overwhelmed by what 10% looks like? You just start small, and trust God with the little bits that you have, and he will multiply. Let go and start. Because once you start, you will go. And because God's gonna start rewarding you for trusting in him, and continue to multiply, and he will continue to reward you and trust you with more. Trust and obedience. Just take that first step. He changes your heart, which changes your perspective, which the next thing you know, you're not feeling it anymore. You're just doing it because that's just what you do. Being able to let go has been the most stress-free thing I've ever done in my life. You put God first, and he'll take care of the rest. Amen, wonderful.

So grateful for the talks, for doing that. All right, I'm gonna have you stand, and we're gonna read the scriptures, and then we're gonna pray, and I'm gonna dive right on into the word. We're gonna go to two verses. John chapter three, verse 16, and second Corinthians nine, verse 15. John chapter three, if you're new in your Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. John chapter three, verse 16, and then second Corinthians after John, you'll have Acts, Romans, first Corinthians, and second Corinthians. Here's the word of the Lord. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. And second Corinthians nine, verse 15. Second Corinthians nine, verse 15. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. Some translation says indescribable gift. Let's pray. Father, I wanna thank you for this opportunity now to be in your house. I thank you for the word. I thank you for the truth of the word, that every one of us, Lord, get an opportunity here in this next 30 minutes or so. And Lord, I know that the things that I'm gonna say,

not everything is gonna apply to everyone. But Lord, I know also that the Holy Spirit is able to take my words and speak even beyond what comes out of my mouth. And the Holy Spirit is able to speak directly. As does the word. So Lord, my prayer and my hope is that everyone at the sound of my voice, whether it be here in the house or those that are online, that the spirit of God will minister a word of truth to them. That wherever they're walking in this life, whatever situation they're facing, whatever occurrence that they're enduring, that the word of the Lord will speak. Father, I wanna thank you for this house. I thank you for this church. Lord, as we close out the year on Sundays here in the sanctuary, I can certainly say it's been a great year but this is a great congregation. And I pray, Lord, for every family as they prepare to go into a week of festivities, maybe a little bit beyond going into New Year, that you would keep everyone safe, that families that are gathering, Lord God, it would be festive time. But above all, it would be centered around Christ. And Lord, I thank you for the heart of this house for generosity. Lord, there's still some praying, Lord. what commitment they can make. I pray, Lord, that you will minister to the

hearts of everyone. Some will surrender, some will move in faith, some will be convinced. But Lord, I pray that every one of us trust you, that no matter where we are financially, no matter what we have, no matter what we don't have, ultimately, that we trust you. The greatest gift that each of us can have is found in Christ Jesus. It's in the name of Jesus Christ that I pray. May the people of God say, amen. And God bless you. You may be seated. Now, of course, as noted, we're standing a few days from Christmas, and obviously, homes are decorated. Some of you don't even ever take down your Christmas lights, but homes are decorated, trees are lit, gifts are wrapped, music is playing. For some, maybe if you've got younger children, they're probably counting down the hours before they can open their gifts. Some of us are adults are counting the cost, right? They're counting the hours. We're counting the cost. People may be asking questions on whether they did enough or got the right thing or how people are going to respond with their gifts. But I hope that we've all come to a place to really ask ourselves what really does matter. When I was preparing this, and actually even in our content meeting months ago, I knew there was going to be a story that I would share about. In 1973, I was actually living in Chester, Pennsylvania, which is just six miles right outside of Philadelphia, right on the edge of Philadelphia. My mom went into the hospital December 9th, 1973. She didn't come out of the hospital till January 18th or 16th, something like that. Now, mind you, I had been living with my grandparents all of the years up until one year prior to that, not even quite a year, but somewhere in that area before I was living with my mom and my stepdad for the first time. And my stepdad at the time was out of work. I actually saw my mom collapse right in front of me before she went into the hospital. My stepdad wasn't working. And it was a whole...everything was new to me. Where I was living, the culture that I was living in, family dynamics, everything was new. And the one thing that I had came

to the conclusion that would not be normal would be Christmas. But sure enough, that Christmas morning, when I didn't even try to wake up early because, you know, I wasn't expecting much. My mom was in a hospital and the stepdad wasn't working. And I didn't really even know him that well. But when I did come down the steps, it was me, my brother, my sister, there was three gifts under the tree. Every one of us, somehow or another, he managed to get a gift for every one of us. And I still remember what mine was. It was one of those little table air hockey things. You remember those little... I still can remember because what mattered then was the love that he showed. That's what mattered. It didn't matter that it was only one gift. And at that time, I was a black man not into hockey. I got into hockey, but I wasn't in hockey at the time, but it didn't matter. It was a love that was shown. So every December, you know, we exchange gifts and some are meaningful, some feel obligatory. Honestly, most of the time, most gifts are forgotten by February, to be honest. But we know ultimately, Christmas is not about what we give, it's about what God gave. That's what John 3.16 speaks about. And before we rush to the manger scene, before we sing a silent night, before we open a single gift, Christmas asks all of us to stop for a minute and consider the one gift above all others. It's the most powerful thing that has come down from heaven and broke into earth. So personal what God did that he didn't send a message, he sent himself a gift that's so great. That verse we read in 2 Corinthians 9.15 was actually Paul not even having the words on how to describe how great this gift was. He just simply says, my goodness, this is indescribable. This is indescribable what Christ has done. And so honestly, the question for all of us is not really that... complicated, but it's looking into this and asking, what is it that God really gave us when he gave us his son? Normally, this time of the year in churches, we're celebrating what's called Advent, and it starts the closest Sunday to November 30th. That starts the first week of Advent, and it runs for the next four Sundays right up to Christmas Eve. And the

word Advent, of course, means, the Latin word is Adventus, but it means coming or arrival. There is the coming and there's yet the arriving. It speaks about the past, remembering that Christ has come, but it also anticipates the future, that Christ is going to come again. And we live in the present, and in the present, there's this spiritual preparation that all of us should do, should be going through. We have a sense to look at things from a calendar perspective, and it's almost a spiritual preparation for a reset. And each week, we're reminded of what Christ did for us, hoping that we would embrace those elements going into what the Lord has ahead of us, whether the four elements are hope and peace and joy and love. And in most churches, or some churches, I should say, they light a candle each week to remind us of those themes. The real theme, to me, of Advent is reminding us of the real gift of Christ. And so, this message is designed to speak about what Christ gave us. And the first thing, if I was to go with the Advent theme, is when God gave us Jesus, He did indeed give us hope. The scripture is real clear. Without God, there is no hope. I want you to hear, or you can read it on the screen, Ephesians 2.12. It says, in those days, you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel. You did not know the covenant promises God made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. Paul is talking to the people of Ephesus, but he's speaking to all of us in this sense, that we're Gentiles outside of the covenant promises of God until Christ came. And so, not only did we not have hope, we would not have had hope if Christ hadn't come. But humanity, it wasn't that we just struggled without Christ. We're actually lost. We're overcome with sin. We've absolutely missed the whole idea of what God's purposes are for our life. Without this hope, we'd never be able to embrace the God who created us. And so, what Jesus did, God sent His Son to invade the world, to absolutely invade the world, not because we deserved it, because none of us deserved it. And it's not because humanity came along eventually after Adam and Eve, and somewhere down the line, we improved. We didn't improve. As a matter of fact, we got worse. As a matter of fact, you don't have to go far on any stream or TV channel to see that humanity is even getting worse without Christ. I don't know if worse is a word. It just became one. That's one of the greatest things about going to Yuma High

School, you can make up words. But it just got worse. And there's this great new book out called Grip by Hope. If you read it, there's something in it that I think that you'd want to hear. Because I deal with quite a bit in the beginning of the book of what hope really means. And oftentimes, we speak about, you know, when we say hope, we mean either wishing or, man, I just, you know, really, really wish this comes through. But we leave ourselves with a little doubt. But not biblical hope. Biblical hope absolutely means anticipation or confident expectation. That when we have biblical hope, there is an assurance that God is going to do what He promised. Romans 15, 13 says, may the God of hope, and that word hope there means confident expectation. May the God of confident expectation fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him so that you may overflow with confident expectation by the power of the Holy Spirit. So hope is not wishful thinking. It's confidence rooted in... God's character. There's a couple in our church, and they're really dear friends of Lady V and I, and they recently shared with me that he had a job offer to move from Yuma. And he was kind of concerned on whether, you know, he didn't know whether he should take the job or not. But of course, we prayed together and just encouraged him to listen to the Lord. And so he did, and he felt like that he should take it. And so he reported to his company that, you know, he wants to look further into the opportunity that they gave him. And so sure enough, they made him a formal offer. And in this formal offer, though, it was a lot less than what he thought it would be for his family to move to an absolute another part of the country. And so when they added everything up, looked at everything, he came to the conclusion, there's just no way that we can make it financially with what we're doing, even to sell the home with the money we get from the home to buy another home, et cetera. And so, of course, I get the call, I'm talking with him, praying with him, and laid out some options, and he worked through all of those. One is I can just negotiate with him. Usually, if company's making an offer, that's what you do, you negotiate with them. Or just turn it down, say, hey, good opportunity, but not going to make the move, et cetera. Him and his wife talked about it, and she asked him a simple question. They'd done all the math and said, financially, it's not going to work,

not in the manner that this is going to go. And talked to his wife again, and she said to him, do you believe that this is part of Jesus's calling for our life? He says, absolutely, I do. He says, it's without a doubt. Then she said, either you will choose to trust him or not. And he made the decision, I'm going to trust the Lord. And so, sure enough, the next day, he called his company and says, I'm going to take the offer. And two days later, he gets a phone call from his stepmom, who lives in another place. And she was aware that they were talking about making this move. And she's not a believer, by the way. But she said to him, well, I've looked at the property, she's in real estate, I've looked at the properties there, where you're going. I know basically what your house is worth, I know what you'll have to spend to get another house there. And she said, his father's past. She said, your father would be so proud of you, of what you're doing with your family, how you lead your family, that I want to bless you. She asked for his account number. They woke up the next day, and sure enough, she had put $200,000 in their bank account. He knows absolutely. Of course, you know me, I asked him, does she need another stepson? But that confident hope, that expectation that you can trust God, that's what we received in Jesus, is hope, is confident expectation. When God gave us Jesus, he gave us hope. Hope that sin would not be the final word, honestly. Hope that death would be defeated, hope that God would keep his promises. When he gave us Jesus, he gave us hope. The second thing is when he gave us Jesus, he gave us peace. And oftentimes, we kind of misunderstand peace as, well, shalom from the Hebrew, it doesn't mean the absence of conflict. It actually means the presence of wholeness. It means the presence of reconciliation. It means the presence of restored relationships. That's what peace means. I'm just going to tell you, as long as you live in this world, chaos is always nearby. So, peace for us is not free from chaos. Chaotic nonsense, you know, you might be living with chaotic people. Don't look at them, but you might be living with chaotic people. So, it's not the absence of conflict or the absence of chaos, but there is a wholeness that comes in Christ. There's a reconciliation with yourself and with God and restored relationships. Ephesians 2.12 says, God clearly informs us that we are… Sorry, the word clearly informs us that we are all at enmity with God, enemies of Him, against Him, and His holy calling. Jesus didn't come to merely calm our anxiety. He came to reconcile us to God.

To reconcile us to God. Romans 5.10 in the Amplified says, For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. It is much more certain, having been reconciled, that we will be saved from the consequences of sin by His life. That is, we will be saved because Christ lives today. And so when we have peace, He gives us peace with God. He gives peace within our own hearts. He gives us peace that doesn't depend on circumstances. At Christmas time, when heaven touches earth, it's not with a sword, it's with a baby in a manger that entered this world wrapped in swaddling clothing. The third thing is, when God gave us Jesus, He gave us joy. And you know this, joy is not happiness. Happiness can come and go. Happiness depends on happenings, depends on circumstances. But joy is rooted in something that's solid, that's constant. And I know for a fact, what's constant is God's salvation. That's why we receive joy. That's why we have joy. That's why we embrace joy. That song is so great, the words of it, Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the earth, the Lord reigns, the Savior reigns. In that last stanza, He rules the world with truth and grace. That's why we have joy, because of what Christ has done. Christ has come. God gave us joy when He gave us Jesus. Luke 2.10 and 11 says this, And the angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. A Savior has come. And the scripture is clear that joy has a name, and that name is Jesus. Joy is knowing that God entered a broken world and didn't leave us alone. Didn't leave us alone. And here's the fourth thing, when God gave us Jesus, He gave us love. It's the final candle, and if we were lighting candles today, that would be the one that we would be lighting. John 3.16 is so known and so

often quoted. And oftentimes, I just sometimes think people miss some of the key elements in it. It begins with love and it ends with life. It begins with love and it ends with life because God's love is not sentimental. It's sacrificial. It's sacrificial. And love always gives. And when God gave us Jesus, He gave us a love that forgives all of our past. It forgives all of our sins. It redeems our present. Our life now is new because of the love of Christ. He redeems all of our present and He secures our future. Love wasn't just spoken in heaven. It was demonstrated on the cross. It was revealed greatly. Romans 5.8 tells us this, but God shows His love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for us. And here's the last thing, and the team probably can come. I didn't realize I'd be done this fast. I'll probably make up something as we go. But here's the last thing. When God gave us Jesus, He gave us Himself. That's actually the heart of Christmas. God did not just send help. He didn't just send hope. He didn't send us instructions on how to make life better. He came Himself. Think about that, the God who created the planet, that is the sovereign ruler over all things, that knows all things, that is in control of all things. He came Himself to rescue mankind. Matthew says He's Emmanuel, that He's God with us. Hear that. He's God with us, God with us in pain, God with us in temptation, God with us in suffering, God with us in death. He is Emmanuel. God with us. The greatest message of Christmas is that we are not alone because God has sent his son. Jesus did not shout salvation from heaven. He walked it out on earth. And here is what Christmas says. Christmas says you're not alone. Christmas says that God is near. Christmas says that God is present.

Christmas says that God is with you. Christmas says that our God invaded the planet so that we would know what he's able to give to us. It's no wonder that Paul used those words. What an indescribable gift. What an indescribable gift. We may unwrap sometimes this gift and just unwrap parts of it and pieces of it. Maybe we're in a time of a tough time and yes, then we do need hope. So we break open the gift and just use Jesus for hope. Times in our life when nothing seems to be restored, nothing seems to be coming together and we need peace. Well, we'll open up the gift and just get some peace. Maybe things just aren't seem to be going the way that you want it to go and you got more down days than up days. Well, you'll just open up the gift and just get a little bit of joy out. But when you're feeling lonely or feeling ostracized or feeling less than, maybe you just open it up and get a little love. But this is an indescribable gift that always has all of those things. So as believers, there's not times when we should ever be lacking in any of those. We always have hope if we always have Jesus. We always have joy if we always have Jesus. We always have peace if we always have Jesus and we always have love if we always have Jesus.

And so the real issue, honestly, is how do you respond to it? Because that's where the rubber meets the road. There's no hocus pocus about preaching at Christmas or even Easter. If a dude don't preach on resurrection on Easter, he need to quit preaching. If you don't preach about the birth of Christ, people want to come up with all kind of, oh, it's boring to preach the same things. People want to hear about a baby in a manger. They want to hear Christmas songs. They want to see lights. They want to hear about gifts. So there's no hocus pocus about the message. What I'm preaching is something that you should have expected to hear, but here's where the rubber meets the road. It demands a response. That's the real issue. Something has to be done with it. Many people admire the gift. And I'm telling you, Jesus is easier to admire than he is to follow. Some of y'all got that, some of y'all didn't. People admire the gift. Some people talk about the gift. Everybody's talking about Christmas. People are singing Christmas songs that don't even know Jesus.

You hear it everywhere. You hear it in the market. You hear it in a movie theater. You hear it in an elevator. People humming along and singing along. And you know they don't know Jesus. They're stumbling around with everything in their hand, but they say joy to the world. They don't even know him. They got joy, but it ain't the right kind, but you know what I'm saying. The issue is, do you receive the gift? Because if you do, it'll change your life. It will absolutely change your life. John 3, 16 says that whoever believes in him, belief is not an intellectual agreement, it's a trust. You don't earn a gift. You don't negotiate for a gift. You simply receive it. And the tragedy of Christmas is it's not so much that people reject Jesus, because people will accept the fact that there is a Jesus, but the tragedy is that everyone who knows about him doesn't receive him. And that's, I don't want that to be you. So before you open another gift, before you attend another gathering, before you sing another carol, receive Christ. Receive the gift that's been given to you. We stand here on the doorsteps of Christmas

and the question for you is what do you do? For some, it's a response of faith. For some, it's surrender. For some, it's gratitude. But this Christmas season, the greatest wish, I'm no longer wishing for my two front teeth, not wishing for that anymore, and not singing all I want for Christmas is you because I already got her. But my wish for, my prayer for all of you for Christmas is that you receive his son. You receive forgiveness. You receive life. Let the greatest gift that's ever been given change your life forever. Everybody stand if you would. Prayer team, you can come. It'll be a great gift not only to you, but I'm telling you what a great gift it would be for those that you're in relationship with if today's the day that you make a decision to give your life to Jesus. The greatest thing that can happen for Christmas is for you to receive the gift that Christ has for you. Now, if you're in the house today and you haven't opened up that gift that God the Father has sent down to all mankind, today can be the day you can start a new life, a great life, a life that has an assurance of hope and peace, joy and love,

but it starts with you receiving that gift. I'm gonna pray for you. The prayer team is here for you. It's in your court. Those of you that know Christ as Lord and Savior, don't let any of the gifts go to waste. I said it earlier and maybe not be true for all situations, but a lot of times you don't remember what you got for Christmas because we set it on the shelf somewhere and you know what some of us are doing? Some of us are taking hope and setting it off somewhere. Some of us are taking peace and setting it off somewhere. We've been given joy and we're setting it off somewhere and we're living this life without the things that Jesus came to give us, that you wanted when you said yes to him. Start living with what Jesus gave us, the hope, the joy, the peace, the love that he gave us. And if you want that, today is the day for you. Father, I wanna thank you for this opportunity to share the word of the Lord, believe in you, that this is not just a normal Christmas, but for many, this is a new day. For others, this is a new opportunity. And for many more of us, it's a real reality that we have a gift that's greater than anything else. We wanna just start living with it. Father, we thank you and we love you. In Christ's name we pray, amen.

God bless you, have a great day. What a wonderful message to just prepare our hearts for Christmas. Like Pastor just said, let's just start living with what the Lord has given us. So if you feel ready to take your next step, I just wanna encourage you to do that. There's a disc on the back of each seat that you can tap with your phone. And if you're online, then there's gonna be a link posted in the chat. And on your way out, you can stop at the Connect table. We would love to walk with you through your next steps and just be in community through what the Lord is just calling you to do next. And we would love to see you this Wednesday night at 4 p.m., 5.30 p.m. and 7 p.m. But let's just worship together one last time. Somewhere far, far out on the field of Jesus Hallelujah! We need the world to know our song of praise, for Jesus shed His blood on the cross to hand us the light of his judgment day. We sing, we sing, we sing. Freedom, Jesus, our affliction, our devotion poured out on the field of Jesus. Our affliction, our devotion is poured out on the field of Jesus. We love you, oh how we love you. You are the one our hearts adore.

Jesus, we love you, oh how we love you. You are the one our hearts adore. We'll see you this Wednesday night for our candlelight services. God bless you, church.