You are invited to surrender your life to Jesus this season, moving beyond tradition into a genuine relationship. Come forward for prayer and healing if you feel the need for encouragement or forgiveness. Let this Christmas be the moment you declare Him Lord over your life.
*Father*, I thank you for your goodness. I thank you for who you are. Lord, I thank you for how you love us. I thank you that that you came. Thank you for Christmas.
Lord God, thank you. Lord God, that we get to be here and worship together. Thank you for everybody that would choose to be here today with us. *Father* God, we give you today completely and totally. We ask you to open up our ears to hear you clearly.
Lord God, that we would honor you with the way that we listen. We would honor you with the way that we put into practice what you say. *Father* God, our eyes and our ears are on you. **Holy Spirit**, come. Amen.
You know, so first, I wanna do we we do prison ministry, on Wednesday mornings. And when we go there, we lead it a a very specific way. And I just wanna take a page from that playbook for a second. I I wanna invite all of you guys to stand. And there's a song that we sing in the jail that's really a prayer because the bible says the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers.
And I think sometimes we can be so distracted even as believers that we're blinded from hearing truth, blinded by whatever, you know. And so this is this is a prayer. It's it's an old song, open the eyes of my heart. Just an old song, but I encourage you to sing it as a prayer. Hopefully, you didn't come here just to check off on Sunday morning, you know, or your Christmas.
I went to church or this Christmas, or I went to church the Sunday before Christmas. Hopefully, you came to hear from God. Man, because I believe he can speak and I believe he can use people to speak to people. And we participate in that. Jesus said, be careful how you hear.
Right? So, man, let's let's sing this song together as a prayer asking God to open the eyes of my heart. Okay?
It goes like this. Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you. Lord, I want to see you with all your heart.
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart. I want to see you. I want to see you. It's about him.
To see you high and lifted up, shining in the light of your glory. Pour out your power and love as we sing holy, holy, holy to see you high and lifted up, shining in the light of your glory. Pour out your power and love as we sing holy holy holy holy holy Holy holy holy. You are holy holy holy. Holy holy holy.
I want to see you. Lord, we lift you up. We lift you over the circumstance. Lord, you're
Lord over this church. You're Lord over our lives. You're Lord over everything that we're going through. We see you as Lord, and we thank you, Father. We praise you that we get to be here together in *unity* as the body of Christ.
Lord God, and we we repent of anything that would hinder that unity. Lord, we repent of any thoughts that would that would place itself up against what you say about the body of Christ and what you say about who you are. Lord God, you are high and lifted up. Thank you for this church. Thank you that your presence, the Holy Spirit is poured out in a unified body.
Lord God, thank you for the new people that have come today and that will be here next service. Lord God, thank you for just your presence. Open the eyes of our heart to see you clearly. In Jesus' name we pray. And everybody said, amen.
You can be seated. My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. There's no place I'd rather be. There's nothing I'd rather be doing.
And thank you so much for choosing to spend the Sunday before Christmas here with us. Our prayer is that you encounter the love and the power and the presence of Jesus. When you encounter the love, the power, and the presence of Jesus, it leaves you never the same. It causes you to want to go after him with all that you have. It causes you to want to surrender, and you just gotta choose to.
He's worth it. He's worth your full surrender. Amen? Amen. Alright.
So I prepared a Christmas message. It may be a little different. If you come to real church, you're used to a little different. I mean, shoot, we just say stand and sang an acapella song. Right?
We get into the message. A little different. It's all good. Just real people living a real life for real Jesus having a real good time. But I'm a go on on a little bit of a history detour, if that's okay.
Just to You know, this might be history class for a second. If you got bored in history class, please stay awake during history class December 22 at Real Church. Okay? Maybe this might, interest you just to understand some of the origins of why we celebrate Christmas in America the way that we do today, and how and then going back to the reason for this season. You guys ready for this?
Yes. You sure? Yes. Alright. I'm gonna read to you A Visit from Saint Nicholas by Clement Clark Moore.
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there. The children were nestled all snug in their beds while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads. Have you heard this before? Yes.
Mama in her kerchief and I in my cap had nestled our brains for a long winter's nap, when out of the lawn there rose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window, I flew like a flash, tore open the shutters and threw up my sash. The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow gave a luster of midday to objects below. When what to my wondering eyes did appear but a miniature sleigh and 8 tiny reindeer. With a little old driver so lively and quick, I knew in a moment he must be Saint Nick.
More rapid than eagles, his coursers they came, and he whistled and shouted and called them by name. Now dasher, now dancer, now prancer and vixen. On comet, on cupid, on donder and blitzing, to the top of the porch, to the top of the wall, now dash away, dash away, dash away all. As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, when they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky, so up to the housetop, the coursers they flew, with the sleigh full of toys and Saint Nicholas too. And then in the twinkling, I heard on the roof the prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
Hoof. As I drew in my head and was turning around down the chimneys, Saint Nicholas came with a bound. He dressed in all fur with his head to his, from his head to his foot, and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot. A bundle of toys he flung on his back, and he looked like a peddler just opening his pack. His eyes, how they twinkled, his dimples, how merry.
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry. His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, and the beard on his chin was as white as the snow. The stump of his pipe, he held tight in his teeth, and the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath. He had a broad face and a little round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, and I laughed when I saw him in spite of myself.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread. He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work and filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk, and laying his finger aside of his nose, and giving a nod at the chimney he rose. He sprang to his sleigh, to his team with the whistle, and away they flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night. You know that poem.
Yes? You realize that that poem is the reason America Americans celebrate Christmas the way that we do. It was written in the early 18 hundreds, and it's a conglomerate of multiple different traditions across multiple different nations to make Christmas the way that we celebrate it in America, a tradition of our own. Just interesting little tidbits of facts, I wanna throw at you a little bit before we get into the real reason for the season so you understand what we celebrate and why we celebrate it. Not saying that, you should or you shouldn't, just trying to help quell some of the rumors that fly around on Christmas.
People say, Santa is just Satan rearranged. Historically, that's not true. Although, the Santa as we know it did, really come to light not just here when Clement Clark Moore wrote this, but also in the 19 thirties, Coca Cola had an ad. They were trying to figure out how to sell more Coke at winter because they sold a lot in the summer. Just stay with me.
Trust me here. Okay? Stay with me. I'm going places for a reason. They sold a lot of coke in the summer, but didn't sell hardly any in the winter, so they came up with this ad campaign based on 'twas the night before Christmas, and they they created this jolly old Santa.
Instead of being an elf, he was gonna be a man with a big white beard, and he was gonna be red and white because that was Coca Cola's colors. And so the red and white Santa Claus we know actually was born in 1930 by a Coca Cola ad campaign. Ain't that interesting? And then Christmas, is a con conglomeration. You know, you heard Saint Nicholas.
It's not 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. The name of this poem is actually A Visit from Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas was an actual man. He was a bishop back in the April and a Catholic saint. You know, the Catholics, they like to, some worship, some just say they venerate or really honor the the Christians of of past that did really good.
Call them saints. So there was a day on December where they had the feast of Saint Nicholas. You guys okay with a little history? Yeah. Guys alright?
Okay. So they had the feast of Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas in the April went to the Council of Nicaea, which is a famous thing where they were setting some Christian theology based on what was believed, and Saint Nicholas actually didn't like what this guy named Arius was saying, who was saying that Jesus wasn't God, and Saint Nicholas decked the halls. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.
This is this is a likely story. He slapped him, maybe not punched him in the face, but that's Saint Nicholas. He was defrocked, took away from being a bishop, but the stories of Saint Nicholas continued to go. Saint Nicholas was known as 1 who would go to great lengths to be radically generous to the less fortunate, sometimes children. So they celebrated Saint Nicholas on December 6, and it continued throughout Europe.
And so in, I don't know, 14, 15, 16 hundreds, 17 hundreds, Spain, when Spain was over The Netherlands. In Netherlands, they celebrated Saint Nicholas as Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas in the Dutch means, you know, Saint Nicholas, but we that's where we get Santa Claus. Interesting. Right?
Not Satan. Not *Jesus* either. And so the story of the Dutch is they they said that Sinterklaas, Saint Nicholas, would come once a year from Spain with his little friend who helped him carry the presents, and they would bring presents down the chimney to the little boys and girls that were good. And those that were bad, they'd bring a switch, and so the parents tried to get their kids to be good by telling them, hey, Saint Nicholas is gonna come or Sinter Claus is gonna come and spank you. Interesting.
Right? And then we get the other traditions that we have. There was some England stuff in in what what I'm about to say is not good, actually, but praise the Lord for England. *Father* Christmas was like a spirit. Any spirit that's not the Holy Spirit is an evil spirit, even if it's the spirit of merriment.
And they would celebrate and do, like like, merrymaking and stuff on the the last day of of before the the winter really hit, and they weren't able to really go out much. So they would have this big party, and there would be not good stuff happening, but merrymaking. December 25. And so that's *Father* Christmas, and then Christmas trees. Where did Christmas trees come from?
I think, like, Queen Victoria, really liked the the evergreen inside, and they they wrote a a magazine that that featured that and kinda taught women how to to fix up the house on the inside during Christmas season. So all of this is kind of mixed together in 'twas the night before Christmas and became how we celebrate Christmas, but the reason for the season is not sinter claus. Oh, 1 more thing, just so you know, the Germans didn't like sinter claus, so instead, they changed it to to baby Jesus going and giving presents, and they called him Chris Chris Chris Kendall, which changed into Kris Kringle, just so you know. History lesson almost complete. In AD 3 26 is where the first actual Christmas was celebrated about the birth of Jesus, which is before all of that.
On December 25, by the way, and you know the reason it was celebrated on December 25? It's because there was a lot of people that believed that *Jesus*, the immaculate conception, happened in March 25. So plus 9 months, December 25, it would make sense that would be about the birth of Christ. Interesting. So now you know.
The real reason for the season is Jesus being born. And all of the other stuff, I don't mind presents, I don't mind merrymaking, as long I don't I don't mind any of it, as long as it doesn't distract from who Christ is, what he's done, what he's doing, why he was born. Amen? So why was Jesus born? We should probably talk about that.
It's Christmas. Right? *Luke-1*. Not only was Jesus born, Jesus was born from a virgin, and it had to be that way. Luke-1:26.
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, greetings, oh favored 1. The Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called son of the most high, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom of his kingdom, there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I'm a virgin? And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you.
Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son. That was John the Baptist. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.
And Mary said, behold, I am your servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word, and the angel departed from her. By the way, when you get a word from God, respond like Mary. Because Mary responded in *faith* and Jesus was implanted into her womb by the Holy Spirit. In the same way when God speaks to you and you respond in faith and move forward in faith, you experience you experience Christ and the fruit of Christ in your life.
Amen? So so Jesus was born of a virgin. In in Matthew-1, that angel appeared to Joseph as well because Joseph was doubting. Joseph's like, hey, Mary, I don't really think it happened the way that you said. Moses was about to I mean, Moses.
Joseph was about to divorce her quietly. The angel appeared to Joseph and, told him, it is like she said. And it says in verse 22, all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means *God* with us. Very important that Jesus was born of a virgin.
Why? Because a seed reproduces after its own kind. If he wasn't born of a virgin, he wouldn't have been the son of God. He would have been the son of only man and would have had a sin nature. *Jesus* didn't have a sin nature.
He had the nature of his heavenly father, God in the flesh. It's who he was and who he is. But you and I, we were born with a sin nature. That's why Jesus had to be born of a virgin. Amen?
When we were born when we were born, we were born sinners. I talked to a lot of people around the world sharing the gospel with them. They don't believe we were born sinners. They think we're born basically good, and I have to prove to them. Guys, no.
Do you teach a 3 year old to disobey? No. Do you teach a 3 year old to steal? No. Do you teach teach a 3 year old to lie?
No. You have to teach them to obey. You have to teach them to to, be generous. You have to teach them to to not lie and to tell the truth. Why?
Because there's a nature towards sin. *God* is love, and he wanted a loving *relationship* with mankind, so he had to give mankind the choice not to love. And God gave Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, the choice not to love, and they they chose themselves instead of God. So God didn't force himself on them. He had given dominion of the world to to mankind, and they chose not him.
They chose themselves, and so they gave dominion of the world to sin. Sin is simply choosing yourself instead of God. And when they multiplied, sin multiplied too. A seed reproduces after its own kind. *Romans-6 says or Romans-5 says, by the disobedience of the 1 man, the many were made sinners*.
So you're not a sinner because you sin. You're a sinner because 1 man sinned, Adam and Eve in the beginning. And that nature to sin was passed down from generation to generation. So *Jesus* had to be born of a *virgin* because he had to be born with a sinless nature. From God, the word planted in Mary, the word became flesh.
Amen? So he lived the **perfect life** because he had the nature of his heavenly father. He lived as the exact representation of the father in bodily form. You wanna know what the father looks like? Look at Jesus.
You know what? You wanna know what the father would do in any given situation? Look at how Jesus responded because he and the father are 1. And he never chose. He never chose to act according to the flesh.
He only submitted and surrendered to the leading of the Holy Spirit because of the nature, because of his nature, God's nature as a son of God. Amen? You guys okay? Okay. So the reason for the birth of Christ is the death and resurrection of Christ.
*Jesus* was born to die, to pay for our sin and to rise again so that we could experience his life. *John-14*. Jesus is speaking to the disciples, and he says, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house, there are many rooms.
If it were not so, I would have told you. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may also be. If Jesus really came in the flesh the first time, then he's really gonna come back. Amen?
And you know the way to where I'm going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the *Father* except through me.
*Jesus* is not a way, he is the way. It's 2024 years since what? 2024 years since the most influential man of all time was born. Nobody else ever split time in half, but Jesus did. We should listen to what he said, and he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, which means Buddha doesn't get you to heaven.
Allah doesn't get you to heaven. Those are false religions taught by false gods. Being good enough doesn't get you to heaven. That's why you have to be "born again". That's why Jesus Jesus came and was born of a virgin, so that when you believe that Jesus died and rose again, and you believe it so much that you're willing to say, I'm gonna follow you instead of myself, in that moment, he forgives you of all of your sin, past, present, and future, and puts the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God on the inside of you to lead you like a father leads a son or a father leads a daughter.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father but by me. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How come we know the way? Jesus said, I am the way.
If you had known me, you would have known my father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said, Lord, show us the father, and it'll be enough for us. Jesus said, have I been with you so long, you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the father.
How can you say, show us the father? Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father is in me? The words that I say to you, do not speak of my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does the works. So to see Jesus was to see the Father because the Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in the Father. It's a big deal.
Jesus also said, verse 18, I will not leave you as orphans. See, around the world spiritually, today, there are a bunch of spiritual orphans. People that are looking for the love of the father, and they're looking in every place, trying to find love in all the wrong places, as the saying goes. The only way that they're gonna find love is to surrender to Jesus and experience the love of the father. When you really know the love of the father, all the insecurity goes away, because you're secure in who he is and who he says that you are.
You're created for this. You're created to know him. You're created to walk with him. You're created to experience his love and his peace and his joy. That's where true merrymaking comes from.
His joy in you, you hearing his voice and walking with him. Amen? So *Jesus* came, was born of a virgin, lived the perfect life. He did all of this. The son of God became a son of man so that the sons and daughters of men can become sons and daughters of God.
But what does it take? It takes saying, yes, Lord. It takes more than believing it happened. It takes more than believing *Jesus* existed. It takes more than believing that he did some miracles and was from God.
It takes being born again. It takes becoming a son and daughter of God. And by the way, just because you're a human being doesn't mean you're a son or daughter of God. *Jesus* differentiated. He called the pharisees sons of the devil.
As a matter of fact, you're either a son of God or a son of the devil, and you can transfer from 1 to the other. 1 way, not the other. But the way that you do that is to be born again by giving your life to Jesus. He doesn't want you to be orphans. See, we we were born with a sin nature, born separated from him, but he loved you so much that he became a person, became a man, lived the perfect life, and died on a cross and rose again so that you could experience the life of God and be led toward the purposes that he created you for.
But it takes actual surrender. He doesn't become your savior until he becomes your Lord. Confessing him as Lord. The reason for Christmas is another celebration to point you to Jesus so that he could become the "Lord of your life". And when he becomes the Lord of your life, he fills you up, and then this happens.
Watch this. Verse 18. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more.
But you will see me because I live, you also will live. In that day, you will know that I am in my father, and you in me, and I in you. So Jesus was supposed to be and was and is the exact representation of the father in bodily form. He died on a cross and rose again so that we could become sons of God. When we are born again, when we give our life to Jesus, he puts the Holy Spirit inside of us so we can walk in relationship with God, experience his joy, surrender him and con to him and continue to follow him.
But it says that he will be in us. Jesus will be us, and the father's in him, which means the father's in us just like he was in Jesus. Which means once you give your life to Jesus, you're supposed to be the representation of the father to the world. Once you give your life to Jesus, you're now a son of God that's supposed to be an imitator of the heavenly father as a dearly loved child. *1 John-4:17*, you're supposed to be in this world just like Jesus, which means the Holy Spirit empowers you to be more than just as church sitting Christmas Christian, but empowers you to take the gospel and the good news into your job, into your family, everywhere you go, representing the goodness of the father so that when the world sees you, they see the goodness of the heavenly father.
You are supposed to be the that's why Jesus came and was born. That's the purpose of Christmas, was to save you from yourself, to put the Holy Spirit inside of you, and empower you to go live like Jesus. That's it. So we celebrate and we honor Jesus because of what he did. And that honor should be an act of worship for every day of our life because we're surrendering to him as the Lord of our life, saying yes in everything so that others can see his goodness and his love through us.
Amen? That's the gospel. That's it. I'm gonna invite you guys to stand. We're gonna do 3 things.
Number 1, before we take communion, as I was talking about having a relationship with God, I believe there are people in here that don't know Jesus. You might have experienced Jesus on the outside. There's a lot of people that go to church and experience God's presence on the outside, or get around other Christians and experience God's worked in their life. They're like, man, yeah, God's worked in my life before. He saved me from this car crash and from this.
He did all this. And and, yeah, he he did because he doesn't want you to die and go to hell. He's trying to get your attention so that he goes from out here to living in here so you can know his voice and follow him. Because those that have never been born again, when they die, they die separated from God for eternity. Not because he's a mean God, but because he's a loving God and gives you the choice instead of forcing himself on you.
My challenge to you would be to choose him. How do you do that? You surrender. You say, I'm not gonna live for myself anymore. I'm gonna live for you, and I don't care who else who who sees it.
In Romans-10:9-10 in the Spanish Bible, it says it says, if you confess with your mouth openly that Jesus is Lord. **"closet Christianity"** is not a thing. It's not a personal religion. It's a public declaration of your faith and a relationship that overflows to everybody else. If you're a closet Christian, you might not be a Christian.
Because if you're ashamed of Him before men, He'll be ashamed of you before the Father. So ask the Lord to challenge you outside of yourself and step outside of yourself into the light and into the public saying, I love Jesus and I don't care who it who knows? Amen? Amen. If that stepped on your toes a little bit and Jesus says, Lord, just move your toes out the way and start walking with him.
Are you okay with that? Alright. So let's do this. Is there anybody in here as I'm talking about knowing him, like him coming into you, into your life, the Holy Spirit living inside of you where you can know his voice, his peace, and his joy, is there anybody in here that would say, I've never really experienced that, and I want to. I'm ready.
I've never surrendered my life to Jesus as Lord and been born again where the Holy Spirit came to live inside of me, and I and I know that that's me. I need a relationship with Jesus right now. If that's you, I want you to raise your hand boldly. Anybody in here? That's me.
I don't care. I don't care who's who's looking. I'm nervous as heck, but I'm gonna raise my hand anyway because I'm ready to give my life to Jesus. Anybody? Raise your hand high.
Man, that just means I'm gonna assume we're all Christians in here. That's that's that's good and bad. It's good that, praise the Lord, we're all Christians in here. It's bad. Why don't we all bring a non christian next week?
Amen? Alright.
So let's take communion together. I want you to open up. I know it's kinda hard. This is the best we got. I'm gonna pray, and then we're gonna take it.
We'll take the bread first. Father, thank you that your body was broken so that we could be whole in you. Thank you that you were broken so we could be healed, oh god, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And we recognize that you died on a cross 2000 years ago. Lord God, and that matters for us today.
We recognize this in just pomp and circumstance. But Father God, this is this is an act of of remembering and and saying that it matters and knowing that we're declaring our bodies healed because of what you did 2000 years ago. We're declaring we're declaring all anxiety and depression must go because our minds are healed because of what you did 2000 years ago. Lord God, we thank you, father, for your broken body. Lord God, you've you took away our our sickness and our disease.
So in the name of Jesus, we declare that today by faith as we take this thanking you for what you did in Jesus' name. *Father*, we thank you that your Jesus, your blood was shed. You willingly went to the cross. The most painful of deaths, you chose it so that we could be clean and whole in you, that we could be forgiven, past, present, and future, so our shame could be taken away. So we take this remembering that what you did mattered and we're forgiven.
How dare we ever willingly walk on the blood of Christ. Lord God, every every time that we we mess up, we ask for discipline. Discipline us, father, so that we "fall forward" and never back again, standing up and walking in righteousness. Lord God, we we we could confidently stand up in your presence because of this blood, because of what you did as forgiven. But Lord God, as sons and daughters of God, we ask for discipline so that in all things we can grow and and look more and more like you, imitators of you as dearly loved children.
Thank you for forgiveness, and thank you that we can try to walk with you and not fear failure because of the blood. But at the same time, we we welcome your your discipline, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, that we're forgiven. We take this remembering what you've done. I wanna ask the altar team to come forward.
This is the third thing, by the way, and we're done. A crowd this size usually, I don't know, 30 percent people in the crowd need healing in their body. If you need healing, I'd encourage you to come forward in prayer when I dismiss. If you need prayer for anything, struggle in your life, come forward for prayer. These guys, the altar ministry team is equipped to pray, to prophesy, to encourage you, to minister to you.
There's a lot of people going through a lot of things at Christmas time. You know, it's it's not it's what's the word I'm looking for? It's escaping me, so I'll just say it's not right for you to try to do it on your own and to do it alone. We're the body of Christ for a reason. So it's the it's the injured sheep that don't go to the shepherd that the wolf takes out.
You know? So if you need encouragement, you need prayer, please come forward. Let the altered ministry team pray for you. We love you. We want we want to to challenge you forward, give you the word, pray for you, and then then you run forward healed and become somebody that's ministering to others out of your wholeness.
Amen? If you know you need Jesus and you you didn't raise your hand because you were a little nervous or or like and you realize it, come forward. They'll lead you to Christ. Amen? And we'll pray and dismiss and "Merry Christmas".
Father, thank you for these people. Lord, your church that you love. This is your body. This is the bride of Christ. This is who you died for so that they could know you and walk in in you in all things.
Lord God, let them grow in you. Lord, let them be encouraged today. Lord God, I thank you, father, that just for what you've done, they're mighty men and women of God. Lord God, I thank you for for how you're gonna lead them in 2025 toward the purposes that you have for them. Thank you, Lord Jesus.
Lord, if they if any of them need *ministry* or a word, Lord God, I pray they come forward. You're a wonderful God. Thank you that I get to be the pastor here. In Jesus' name, pray. Everybody said Amen.
Amen.