You can experience this consistent joy by surrendering your life to Jesus rather than relying on temporary circumstances. Take the step to follow Him today and let His presence fill your heart with peace. Make the choice to let Him be Lord of your life and discover the joy that lasts.
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, nothing I'd rather be doing than getting to preach the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ to you today on Christmas Eve morning. "Merry Christmas".
Merry Christmas.
Amen. I think I think we should probably just start with a prayer. So let's do that. And as I'm praying, I'm gonna ask you to prepare your hearts to receive the message that God has for you, and pray for me too that that everything I say, it would be anointed by his presence. There's nothing that I can tell you or say to you that would change your life forever if it came from me.
But man, if if God really does use people to speak to people, and if God can really impact people if the if the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, then man, he could use me and anoint me today to impact you in such a way that your life is forever changed. And I've said this multiple times the last few times I preached, be careful how you hear. The Bible says be careful. Jesus said, be careful how you hear for with the measure you use, it will be measured unto you. So how much weight you put into the service today, how much weight you put into the words that you hear, that's how much impact it will have in your life.
I don't know about you, but when I'm sitting in the seats and somebody else is preaching, even somebody on our speaking team, when Chevy was preaching or Gabe or Daniel, or I go somewhere, I'm sitting on the edge of my seat measuring everything as from the word. Lord God, I wanna hear your voice, and I wanna receive it in such a way that it bears fruit in my life so I can reflect your goodness, your kindness, your character, your nature, so I can experience more of your joy and your peace in my life. Amen? Amen. Amen.
It might be good that that we have the first row so far back today just because I I you you ever know or you ever see in the light when when a a pastor gets really into it, and he says those p's and d's and the spit goes? It's like, let's call it baptism and Merry Merry Christmas. Alright. So I I I wanted to start with this just because, you know, we're talking about joy and and happiness and and all that. Some people, maybe you're here because your grandmama wanted you to come to Christmas Eve service, or your son, or your kids, or whatever, and and usually you don't you're not in in the word a lot, or maybe only pick up your bible once a year, something like that.
I just wanna tell you a little bit about this thing. There are multiple different translations like the Message Bible, the Amplified, the the NIV, the King James Version, and they all kinda say differently the same thing from the original manuscripts. Right? Right? So so if I'm reading a certain translation, like I have the NIV here today, it might be a little bit different from what you open your Bible and read, but it's gonna say the same principles, the same words, because they're all translated from the same original manuscripts.
Make sense? But just an example for you, like if if, the message bible said, mama, I'm hungry, then the amplified bible would say, mommy, I'm hungry, famished, starving. The NIV would say, mother, I am hungry. And the King James version would say, henceforth, let it be known unto thee, birth giver, that my belly consists of emptiness. Just that's basically how it works.
Fair enough? Okay. Well, I'm excited about the message today, and I think I think we're gonna start you guys sang the right song, *Joy* to the World, because the message has a lot to do with that. And I'm just gonna ask, Dolores, would you come here, and would you sing Joy to the World? Because it's just a part of the message.
Just sing that first stanza, if you don't mind. You guys, you can sing with her, listen in, has to do with the message. Turn and face. There you go. Let let them experience the gifting God has given you.
She's anointed and she's gifted, full of Jesus, has such an amazing voice. Yeah.
*Joy* to the world, the *Lord* is come. Let earth receive our king. Let every heart prepare him room, And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and heaven nature sing.
Amen. Amen. *Joy*
to the world. A little history lesson for you history buffs. In 1719, a dude you probably never heard of named Isaac Watts published a poem or a poem, from his reading in scripture of Psalm chapter 98 verses 4 through 9, Psalm 96 11 through 13, and Genesis-3:17 and 18. And he titled the poem, The Messiah's Coming and Kingdom. And today, we know that poem by *Joy* to the World.
More than a century later, 1836, another dude you've never probably heard of, Lowell Mason, set the words to the poem, *joy* to the world, to the song that we all know and love and that we've heard and we sing every Christmas or you if you around Christmas carols. You've heard that song over and over and over. So and and you'll get used to this. Dolores, would you come? I just really like that that your voice.
Come on. I kinda I told her we were gonna use her throughout the message, so she's a little prepared. I don't know how prepared. You'll
see. A little bit. Oh, okay. Joy to the world. Stop.
Thank you. *Joy* to the world. No. No. Seriously.
*Joy* to the world. The purpose of Christmas 1 of the purposes the many purposes of Christmas is joy to the world. *Jesus* came to give joy to the whole world. When you really know and experience Jesus and you walk with him, you have the capacity to have **consistent joy** in every aspect of your life. When it comes to consistent joy in your life, there's really there's 3 types of people.
K? So it's first, it's the type of people, the people that do not know Jesus, the people that have never been *born* again. They've never given their life to Jesus. They've never said, I'm gonna follow you instead of following me. The people that don't know Jesus do not have the capacity to have consistent joy in the midst of every single circumstance.
The people that have never given their life to Jesus do not have the capacity for consistent *joy* in every circumstance, no matter the storms of life. Again, experience joy based on things that happen. Maybe, you know, get joy from alcohol at the bottom of a bottle, or maybe joy from drugs, or maybe joy from good things in life, like success in your job, or or doing well in sports, or doing well in this, and that, and the other. Maybe joy from healthy recreation, and and they've learned to get joy in those areas, or maybe, like, hopefully, at Christmas, a lot of people experience joy when they're sitting around the Christmas tree with their families and passing out gifts, and it's a beautiful thing. But it's a fleeting joy because, really, without Jesus, you're only as good as you're doing.
You're only as good as it's going. And if the thing that gives you joy falls away, or something happens to it, or there's no more success, all of a sudden, it's ripped out from under the joy is gone too because your joy was based in the circumstance. Do you understand? The only people that have the capacity for a consistent, eternal joy that is never fleeting and never failing, and you can stand on it, are the people that know the 1 who is joy. "Joy to the world".
Some of you might be saying, now wait a second. Hold on. How could you say that? I'm just telling you biblical truth.
And if you don't know Jesus, then judge
your life and see if you have consistent *joy* in the midst of trials, in the midst of circumstances, in the midst of everything. Or is it fleeting? There's 3 types of people when it comes to joy. Number 1, it's the people that do not know Jesus. Number 2, it's the people who have given their lives to Jesus, but do not know how to trust him where they can experience joy in the midst of every trial.
They have the capacity for joy in the midst of every trial, but are still have not yet learned to walk by faith in the midst of every circumstance and trial, and instead, their joy is also fleeting. *God* has given us the ability to have joy and to walk in joy. It's a part of being his kid. Joy to the world. Amen?
Amen. See, Christmas is an invitation and a reminder to lasting and consistent *joy*. No. Not this. This.
Dolores. Would you sing it again? I'm probably gonna interrupt you. Okay.
*Joy* to the world, the *Lord* has come.
You can stop. Just hold on to the mic. Just mute it right there with your thumb. That'd be great. *Joy* to the world, why?
Because is the come. Isn't that interesting? Is that a typo? The Lord is come? It's not.
Remember, this was written in 1713. It's an archaic way of making a point. It's an old English way of making a point. It doesn't say the Lord has come. It doesn't say the Lord will come.
It says the Lord is come. Meaning, that the Lord has come and is still here. Who is he? He's the Lord. See, you only have the capacity for joy to the extent that you call him Lord in every area of your life.
And any area of your life where you're still Lord of your life, you're going to miss out on the joy of the Lord. Amen? So man, anytime where I'm missing out joy, I want to say, Lord, I give this to you. I want to see you and rejoice. Let's let's look at, like, joy to the world, the Lord is come, which reminds me of Matthew-1:23.
Matthew-1:23 is that famous verse, Christmas verse. It says, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. Emmanuel. If you didn't know, that verse comes from Isaiah-7 and verse 14, I believe. Let me get there.
So this was written over 700 years before Jesus was born. For those of you that think this is cool or you need a little proof, like, the Old Testament was was written years, hundreds of years before Jesus was born. And specifically, Isaiah prophesied and wrote this prophecy prophecy down by scribe over 700 years before as we have by manuscripts and other things. There was over 300 different prophecies of the birth of Jesus that was written before. And depending on what theologians you follow, some will say there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds depending on how they parse the prophecies.
Just some stuff for you. But conservatively, at least 300 different prophecies that *prophecy Jesus' birth, how he would come, where he would be born*, all of these different things, and every single 1 of them, Jesus fulfilled. The probability of that is crazy. Well, here's 1 of them. Isaiah-7:14, therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. And what does Emmanuel mean? **"God with us"**. With us. Joy to the world, the Lord is come.
He has come and that still matters today, he is here. *God with us. And there's where your capacity for joy* comes from. 2000 years after Jesus' birth, crucifixion, and resurrection, he made a way for God to be with you now. For those only for those who call him Lord.
A lot of people say, well, God's with all of us. No. He's with you to the extent that you surrender. He's not forcing himself on you. He wants you to experience the fullness of who he is.
But until you surrender to him, you're not gonna experience what it's like to have him to be your Lord. And that's where the joy comes from. With respect to consistent joy, there's 3 types of people. The people that don't know Jesus, the people who started a relationship with Jesus but don't know how to trust him in the midst of their trial, and the people that know Jesus and know more than him more than just in their head, but also with their whole heart that he's Emmanuel, that he's God with us, that he'll never leave us or forsake us, And because he's with me, I can have joy in the midst of the highs and lows of life because God is really really with me. I know he really really loves me.
He really really walks with me, and he really really talks with me. Like, that's what it means to have Jesus as Lord of your life. He walks with you and talks with you. You're not just praying into the air and, like, you're talking to an imaginary friend that never responds. True Christianity, you grow and learn to hear God.
And the world calls it insane. I call it a real relationship. You grow and learn how God communicates day in and day out. *Philippians-4:4-5*. Some of my favorite verses in the whole bible says, **"rejoice in the Lord"**.
Always. It doesn't say sometimes. It doesn't say only when you feel good. It doesn't say rejoice in the Lord when things are going good, when you should be good. It says, rejoice in the Lord always.
And that is a command. It's a command to rejoice. Do you know God is a good God, and he's a good father, so he's not gonna command you to do something that he hasn't given you the capacity to do as a son or daughter? He's put, when you confessed him as Lord, he put his Holy Spirit* in you, the very spirit of joy*, to give you the capacity to be able to rejoice in the middle of all circumstances. That's why it says, rejoice always.
And I'll say this, I I said it a few months ago or a few weeks ago, and I'll say it again. If you only rejoice when you feel like joicing, then you're a hypocrite. Because you're only as good as you're feeling. You're not doing by faith what his word says. So when you don't feel like rejoicing, that is the opportune time to begin to rejoice in the Lord, because you know what he says is more true than how you feel.
Right. So in that circumstance, when I'm feeling down, when my kids are sick, which was for the last 2 weeks, praise the Lord, they're all better. When I I don't I'm not getting much sleep at night, when, you know, you're you're concerned because you have to go to the hospital for this 1 or that 1, and you're like, there's there's a the possibilities of anxiety and worry that this or that could happen, or maybe it is happening in your life. It's those times
that we need to rejoice. Because in
the world, it's the only opportunity that we will ever have to stand in faith in the midst of circumstances that are going against us.
Yeah.
It's an opportunity to demonstrate *faith*. So those are the times when I sing, joy to the world, the Lord has Nope. The Lord is come. He's with me. He's with me in the midst of this.
The verse Philippians-4:4 and 5 goes on to say, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, say rejoice. It's that important for us to learn to do that. And it says, let your gentleness or reasonableness be evident to all. The Lord is Emmanuel.
God is with us. You don't know that unless you've confessed him as Lord, and you've learned to see him and what he says about you over the circumstance. And then it says, don't be anxious about anything. You have the capacity to not be anxious about anything when you recognize that He's near, and you begin to rejoice and lift Him up over every circumstance. Christmas, because of Christmas, you have the capacity to have joy in the midst of every circumstance, and it takes walking by faith and letting him be Lord over every circumstance, instead of taking control and being your own Lord in the midst of the circumstance.
So when I don't feel joy in the midst of a circumstance, that is an indicator, an alarm bell that I need to, by faith, *rejoice* because my God is near to me regardless of what I do and don't feel. And if I consistently don't feel joy, then what I do is I go to the Lord, and I say, hey, am I putting myself in control of this instead of surrendering it to you? And if so, I repent. I'm turning my life in this area and saying, yes, Lord, to the things that you've already told me to do, that I've been scared to do because I didn't trust your goodness. Instead, I trusted me being in control.
And if I've already done that, I don't go looking for a bunch of other sin. I just keep rejoicing and standing until his joy comes. Come on, guys. I'm talking about mature Christianity. I'm talking about the number 3 type of person that's been born again and has learned what it looks like to stand in the goodness of God regardless of the junk the enemy is throwing at you or the wilderness the Lord has led you to.
Maturing, persevering, rejoicing in the midst of all circumstances. Joy to the world. He wants everybody to experience the joy, but not everybody is willing to believe that he's good and worth following. Would you sing again? Joy
to the world, the *Lord* is come. Let earth receive her king.
You know you gotta stop. So beautiful. Let earth receive her king. This is an intercession prayer, the song is. Praying that earth would receive her king.
*Jesus is the king of kings and the lord* of lords, and Christmas is an invitation for you to receive your king. You don't get the benefits of his kingdom until he becomes your king. And he doesn't force himself as your king in this life. You only get the benefits of his kingdom when you receive him as king. And we know his kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness, *peace, and joy*.
So when you give him your heart and you begin to follow him with it, your life surrendered to him as king, you receive the benefits of his kingdom which are righteousness. He credits his righteousness to your account, but then you teaches you by the Holy Spirit to live righteously. Peace. You get to live as an ambassador of the kingdom of heaven on the kingdom of earth, reflecting the character characteristics and nature of your king because you're growing in a relationship with him, getting to know him, which means you have a "peace that passes understanding". You don't have to understand in order to have peace, but you have faith in Jesus, and he supernaturally gives you his peace.
Your role is protecting it and guarding it. And to the extent that you have the capacity and the ability to stand in that peace, that's the extent that you'll have joy in the midst of every circumstance. My peace isn't based on how I'm doing or how it's going. My peace is based on my king. And when I have faith in him as my king, I will see that righteousness, peace, and joy in the midst of every circumstance.
And I'm standing in him until I do, and rejoicing regardless of where I whether what I feel. Oh, you're just in denial. No. I'm not. I'm denying the lies that the world are trying to tell me and standing in the truth of his word that I'm full in him.
Oh, you're just brainwashed. Heck, yeah, I am. Man, I've washed I've allowed him to wash my mind by the water of his word, so I can experience the fullness of who he is.
And when people see a life that's
lived that has peace and joy when they
shouldn't have peace and joy, they say, what is wrong with you? And then, when they see it's consistent,
they say, I gotta have what you have. So to the non Christians in the room or the ones that have never really given your whole life to Jesus, it's worth it. To the ones that have but don't know how to stand in peace and joy, man, it's time to grow up and learn to rejoice in the midst of every trial. Don't worry, he's gonna help you. As you fall down, he'll pick you back up.
Hey, remember. Send some brothers and sisters around you to encourage you forward. Hey, quit quit your whining and complaining. Let's start thanking Jesus and walking forward. Amen?
Real church is what we do. Alright. I think I think maybe 1 more time,
Dolores. I
I don't ever get tired of her voice.
*Joy* to the world, the *Lord* is come. Let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him rule. Okay. Okay.
Okay.
There's just too much there. You know, we we initially just back to the king thing. We initially give him like, *surrender* to him as king, but then he brings out every area that we've not surrendered to him as every little thing that we we haven't fully surrendered to him as king. And day in and day out, we're learning to to more fully surrender to him as king so we can experience more of his peace and joy in every area of our heart. If you're not growing in the amount of peace and joy you have in your life, you're you're probably not growing in the Lord.
And you probably need to go back and start **surrendering** to him as king in every area. See, the the next part of that song is, let every heart prepare him room. There's a lot I wanna say about this, but I'll start with this. *Luke-2*. In my family, growing up around the Christmas tree, on Christmas Eve, we would all we would all sit, we'd wear the jammies, the Christmas jammies that my mom got us because every year she liked to get us Christmas jammies.
Don't know. And we'd have our hot cocoa sometimes, or we all get comfortable. And my dad would pull out the bible, and he'd have us read *Luke-2*, the Christmas story. And that was our family tradition. It's a beautiful thing.
If as I'm saying that, some of you are in in here and you're thinking, well I didn't grow up with a family like that. I I don't have this tradition and Christmas brings actually sorrow and a lack of joy to me. I want you to know that God loves you, he cares for you, and he wants to invite you into a family of believers that spans the globe, so that you can experience what true family is like. He wants to reconcile you to His family. He loves you.
Amen? Amen. As far as the the tradition that we have, and and we do it now. I do it with my kids. We did it We had our Christmas Eve yesterday because we'll be driving today.
But, Tripp, would you come here, buddy? Come on. Why don't you read Luke-2:1-7?
In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Corinthians, governor of Syria, and all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galatians, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David. So be to be registered with Mary, his betrothed who who was betrothed with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.
And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was "no place for them" in the inn.
You can take that back to miss Dolores. We'll probably use her again. So just let every heart prepare him room, makes me think of that last verse. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, that's Jesus, *born* of a virgin. We saw it prophesied that that would happen, that would come to pass over 700 years before, book of Isaiah.
She gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, laid him in a manger. It was like a feeding trough. Why? Because there was no place for them in the inn. There was no room in the upper rooms is what another version says.
People were busy and wouldn't welcome, couldn't welcome, or just ignored. Didn't know, ignorant of the fact that the savior of the world needed a place to be born. Let every heart prepare him room. The cry of my heart is I wanna give my whole heart to *Jesus* in every way so the life of Christ can be birthed in every room of my heart. So I can experience the fullness of who he is in every aspect of who I am, reflecting his life.
That starts with someone recognizing their need for a savior. A lot of times there's no "room in the heart" for *Jesus* because it's filled with affections for other things. Remember, the bible says he gives the Holy Spirit*, the spirit of Christ* without limit. But it also says we're limited by our affections. We're so distracted by other things that we don't really We might say we need him up here, but our affections so that we don't really want him or need him, and we relegate him to be born somewhere beneath us.
The **life of Christ** Jesus was born in a place of ultimate humility, and the life of Christ is only born in you when it's a place of ultimate humility. The bible says blessed are the "poor in spirit" for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Not the rich in spirit, the poor in spirit. Not the ones rich in spirit who say, I've got it all together or I can do this on my own, I can figure this out, I can clean myself up before, you know, receiving Christ, or or I have everything I need, I'll do it later. That's pride.
It's being your own king, thinking that you can do it. And the problem is, pride comes before destruction. Bible also says God opposes the proud. So if you think that you're being opposed in areas of your life, it might not be the devil. It might be God opposing you.
And it might be an area of your life where you need to surrender to his lordship and his kingship so that you can experience the life of Christ birthed in that area. Amen? Because the life of Christ is birthed in humility and from humility. And then it says, he from humility, he raises you up. The Lord will raise up you you from humility.
So we have to recognize our need for a savior to come to Him. To live any other way, any other way than dependence on Him in any area of our life is pride. I don't wanna be resisted by God. You know why God resists the proud? It's because he loves you too much not to.
If he let you to succeed in your pride, then you would be destined for destruction. So he resists you as long as he can, as long as you're alive, to give you every opportunity to realize that you need Him. So you come to Him, and can experience a relationship with Him that results in righteousness, peace, and joy in your life. Amen? Alright.
So Christmas. *God* so loved the world that he gave his only son, *Jesus*. Jesus came, God in the flesh, *born* of a virgin, born in a manger. Angels sang, it was beautiful, wonderful. What's the point?
What's the purpose of Christmas? The purpose is this. *God* became a man, a son of man, so that the sons of men and women could become sons of God. That's the point. *Jesus*, *born* of a virgin, lived the perfect life, died on a cross, and rose again.
Why? So that you could be born again. *Jesus* was born right the first time. He was born of the Holy Spirit**. Holy Spirit implanted the word of God in in a virgin, born of the Holy Spirit, had the character and nature of his father from day 1.
But you weren't born right the first time, neither was I. We were born with the nature of our dad that was passed down from generation to generation. A nature to sin, a nature towards selfishness. Human nature. We see that all the time.
My kids, when they were 3 and 4 years old, I didn't teach them to steal. They naturally stole. They wanted something, they said mine. I didn't teach them to lie. They naturally hid it, and said their brother did it.
I didn't teach them to disobey. They naturally disobeyed. Every single 1 of them, and every single 1 of your children. You did too. Because there's a heart and a nature towards selfishness.
You can't save that and clean that on your own. It's impossible. So because you can't do that, you can't make it to God on your own. You can be spiritual, but any spirit that's not the Holy Spirit is a demonic spirit, and you're opening yourself up to a bunch of junk. You can't experience the life of *Christ* without being born again.
Jesus, that man that was fully God, said these words, nobody, no 1, no man can see the kingdom of heaven, can experience true, fulfilling, consistent, righteousness, peace, and joy in their life, can walk with the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God, day in and day out, growing to know his voice. No 1 can see the kingdom of heaven unless they have been born again. And then, says, you must be born of, he said, you must be "born of water" and born of spirit. I love how the Spanish bible says this. My good friend, Ezra, gave me a a Spanish and English bible.
And it says, Which means human beings can only reproduce human life, but spiritual life is born of the Holy Spirit**. And that doesn't just happen. It's an invitation for you to receive Jesus as king. It says see, in in order for that to happen, I love what it says in Romans-10:9 and 10 in the Spanish bible too. It said this it says this, If you declare openly, openly that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
There's a lot of people that, yes, I believe in Jesus, I confess you as my Lord and Savior. Walk an aisle, and they're done. Come back to church the next Christmas. If you're never willing to confess him openly, you're ashamed of him, which means you probably don't know him. I doubt your salvation.
When you're born again, the Holy Spirit**, the spirit of *Christ* fills your heart, gives you a new heart and a new life, and you're like a spiritual infant that can recognize the presence of God. Just like my my River Royce, you saw me holding and dancing with her. When she was born as a baby, she knew the voice of her father because she had heard it when she was in the womb. So she knew when I was in the room, but she didn't know what I was saying. She couldn't understand the different things that I was saying out of my mouth.
She had to spend time in my arms, Me dancing with her, putting her to sleep, praying over her, talking to her, and telling her no. It was 1 of the first words she learned. But, when she spent time with me, she got to know my voice, and now she knows every word that I'm saying almost. Because she's spending time with her daddy.
When you're really born again, you have the Holy Spirit* in you that's drawing you into deeper relationship with the Father*. Drawing you to know Jesus. You can't continue in sin. You can't continue in sin. Because when you do, you will feel terrible because you're living a way that you is not who you are anymore.
Right. If you can continue in sin and not worry about it and just say I'm good, you don't know Jesus. And you need to get born again. If
all you got is excuses, I prayed
a prayer 1 day, but there's no conviction for the way that you're living. You don't
know Jesus, and you need
to be born again. A Christian who calls himself a Christian, but continues to live
in sin does not know Jesus. First John tells me that.
Someone who's really been born again, when they go, and they mess up, and they screw up, they might continue to do that, but they feel terrible because it's not who they are anymore. And they eventually say, me. They come
broken and hurt into a church, and the church says, hey, I love you. Jesus loves you. Let me teach you what it looks like to really walk with Jesus. *God wants you to enter into relationship with him. See, when you really know him as a father*, and you mess up, Does God kick you while you're down?
No. He's a good father. He takes his hand, picks you up, says, come on, son. Let's keep going. All you have to do is say, yes, Lord.
And keep walking. He cares for you. The purpose of Christmas is so that you can be born again, and walk with Him, and talk with Him, and begin to reflect His goodness day in and day out. So you've heard this truth. It's what my my buddy Jerry says all the time.
So you've heard this truth. What you gonna do about it? 2 2 more quick stories. In the in scripture, in in *Luke-1*, there's there's 2 Christmas stories about a supernatural birth, and there's 2 different responses to those stories. The first 1 is the angel Gabriel showed up to Zechariah.
Now Zechariah was a religious and righteous man. Right? He was doing everything right. He was at the church, the temple back then, and man, he was in the place that he was supposed to be. He was actually going into the holy place in order to offer incense, which would be a representation of us offering prayers to God.
Problem is his wife was way past childbearing years, and it was impossible for her to have a kid. Impossible. And they had prayed for it, but had given up on it. Angel Gabriel shows up to him in the holy place and says, hey, Zechariah. You're gonna have a boy.
You know how Zechariah responds? Even though he he was doing everything right, doubt and disbelief. And guess what? He didn't get to participate in the fruit of that promise until he was willing to walk by faith.
When
she finally had the boy, now I'm he he the angels when he doubt and disbelief, the angel silenced him. He couldn't talk. Came out mute. Had to write what happened down. 9 months later, his wife had the baby.
7 days after that, they're gonna name him. The mama said his name's John. They said, what? They they looked to Zechariah, and John took a step of faith, His name, and he spoke for the first time, got getting to participate in the miracle that was prophesied 9 months before because he wasn't willing to "walk by faith" until that moment. For you.
You wanna participate in what it looks like to have Jesus as Lord, to experience peace and joy in your life, to have the righteousness flowing out of your life, to grow in that? It takes steps of faith. Because it's only through steps of faith that you bear fruit. Faith requires risk. Everybody say risk.
Risk. In order to take a step of faith, you have to risk it. It's like stepping out on a limb. You know why? Because it's only on a limb that a tree bears fruit.
So if you stay comfortable, you're not gonna bear fruit in your life. You gotta risk it. Step out in faith. Amen? The second supernatural story of a birth, Gabriel shows up to Mary, a virgin, and says, even though you've never been with a man, you're gonna have a baby.
And his name's gonna be Jesus, the Messiah of the world. And you know how Mary responds? She responds in faith, and she gets to participate in every aspect of it. She says, behold, I am your servant. I am a servant of the Lord.
Let it be unto me according to your word. That's how I wanna respond in everything the Lord tells me. Behold, I'm your servant. Let it be unto me according to your word. Not just with my mouth, but with my actions.
With repentance, turning from myself to him and experiencing the fullness of relationship with Jesus. And I ask you all to stand. *John-1:9* says, the "true light" which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, this is Jesus, and his own people did not receive him.
But to all who did receive him. But to all who did receive him. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king. When you receive Jesus as king, to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become *children of God, born* again.
Who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, or the will of man, but born of God. So this is an opportunity today, the purpose of Christmas. You thought you were here maybe for whatever reason, just to do your Christmas duty, but you were actually here to meet and encounter Jesus, and to be invited into a relationship with him. To be invited to declare openly, I'm gonna follow Jesus as the Lord of my life, to be born again. When when this happens, you We're gonna give the opportunity here in a second.
When this happens in your life, you're gonna sense literally the shame and guilt fall off of your shoulders like "weight of your past", and you're gonna sense the presence of the Holy Spirit coming to live inside of you. It's gonna be supernatural. He's gonna give you a new heart. And in God's eyes, you're not the same person anymore. In God's eyes, you'll you'll be a new creation in him, empowered by his presence to walk with him.
If When you prayed that prayer and you experienced the weight falling off your shoulders, would you just raise your hand? Look around, guys. It's amazing. I'm not lying to you. So I wanna ask you all to just close your eyes for a second.
Oh God, just thank you for this holy moment. We thank you for your goodness. Let's pray chains break in Jesus' name. Oh God, that people would sense their need, oh God, those that need to be born again would sense their need for you, and they take that step today in Jesus name. Thank you for your goodness.
If as I'm talking, you sense the presence of the Holy Spirit**, and you know that you need to be born again. You need to give your life to Jesus and declare that you're gonna follow him instead of yourself because you've never experienced that before, really. If that's you, would you raise your hand high? I see. I see your hand.
Anybody else? Would you raise your hand high? Even if you're not raising your hand, but you know that's you, I'm gonna ask you to do something crazy. I'm gonna ask you to declare us that you really need him, which means I'm gonna ask you to declare openly that you need him. If you really believe that, I want you to come forward right now.
If you really want Jesus to be Lord of your life and be born again, I want you to take a step out and come forward. Come on. Amen. Is there anybody else? Come on.
Take a step out and come forward. If you need Jesus to be the Lord of your life, praise the Lord. We're gonna pray. Okay? And it's it's the position of your heart that saves you, but you believe it so much that it's gonna come out of the out of out of your mouth.
Right? So you're believing in your heart, which is gonna make you right with God. Declaring with your mouth openly, saved. You're gonna sense the shame and the guilt of the past fall off, just like I said. It's gonna be beautiful, and we're all cheering you on.
Family in Christ Jesus is what it's gonna be. You're loved by him. What's your name? Dana. Can I hold your hands?
Just say this with me. Say Jesus. Jesus. I've been living for me. I've living for me.
And I'm ready to live for you. And I'm ready to live for you. Thank you for forgiving me of my sin.
Thank you for forgiving me of my sin.
Because your word says that you forgive me.
Because your word says that you forgive me.
So I give you my sin. So I give you my sin. I give you all of it. I give you all. Take it.
Take it. Thank you, Jesus. Thank Jesus. And I ask you to come into my life. Fill my heart.
My heart. I give you my life. I choose right now. I choose right now. To follow you.
Teach me what it means to follow you. And if I fall, help me to **"fall forward"** into your arms, and to get back up, and keep walking. Let me pray for you. Father, I just thank you. You said Dana?
Yeah. Lord, I thank you for Dana. Touch her, let her sense your presence and your love. Let her sense your just your peace flooding her soul in joy in Jesus name. Thank you, Lord.
I just want you to stay right here for a second. Would you guys give a "big old hand"? Now now maybe there are people in here, you've given your life to Jesus a long time ago, and that was real. You know you're a son or daughter of God. But you haven't been living for him, and it's time to rededicate your life to living for him today.
It's time to rededicate your life to following him and saying, I I've been hiding him, but I'm I'm ready to declare. I'm ready to declare. I'm ready to to declare him as Lord of my life openly. If that's you, would you raise your hand? You're ready to rededicate your life to Jesus.
Anybody at all? Come on. Come forward. Come forward. Who else?
It's a open thing. I'm rededicating my life to Jesus openly. Come forward. Who else? Anybody?
Alright. Let's just let's all pray this together. I want you to pray this too. Okay? So I want you to just lift your hands as a sign of surrender, and everybody lift your hands.
Say, Jesus. Jesus. I'm ready to live for you fully.
I'm ready to live for
I ask you to fill me with your presence.
I ask you to fill me with your presence.
Teach me what it means. Teach me what it means. To fall forward into you. Thank Fall forward into you. You, Lord Jesus.
Thank you,
*Lord Jesus*. That your word says I'm forgiven. So right now, turn every area of my life to you. Help me to take steps To you. To you.
In obedience. Obedience. Name. In Jesus' name. Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Everybody give a big old hand clap of praise.