Transcription
The Christmas story. What [music] is the story again?
Mary was going to have a baby. So said to ride on a donkey and they went to a place and I think it is called Bethlehem. They had a baby at a bar.
Um, they didn't have anywhere to stay, so they stayed in a manger.
Who visited Mary and told her about the baby?
Um, baby angel. The angel said she's going to have a baby named Jesus. And then the angel of the Lord came and he said, "You will have the baby of heaven." And [singing] Jesus. Joseph didn't believe.
Mary had a baby and [music] that was the son of God.
They went around and asked every doctor and everything like this. There went to a place where where have a farm and he laid um on a major and I think that's it. Is it uh horses, cows, and probably sheep?
Donkeys and horses.
Cows, camels. Camels were not around at that point. The shepherds when the angel came, they were afraid and then the angel said, "Don't be afraid. I come with good news." There was one angel that actually came up to them. They were think all the stars were. They were thinking those angels, but actually just stars. The wise men brought Jesus, frankincense, gold, and more.
And they're giving gold, treasure, and I don't know the last one.
So, the three gifts that the three wise men brought was gold, Frankenstein, and I forgot. And they traveled on camels. One was white and two were brown. It's a birthday party. But the last one was like, maybe it's a party of the son of God. They brought gold. Um, there's one I can't remember, but I know they brought Francon, whatever that was called. How do you remember this one? Sorry, a lot.
So, he could be with us and God told him to come down to earth. So, people who believed in God could worship him and praise him.
To take away our sins and show us the right way to live so he can heal us. To help our people out, 'cause we weren't going the right way. We had to take a huge turn.
Jesus came to save the world.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. [music] [bell]
Well, good evening, Beltway Park. Welcome. Uh, and Merry Christmas. Uh, my name is Jeffrey. I am the lead pastor here. And I am excited about our Christmas Eve service. I am going to do something that you never do in a setting like this. And it's going to be very risky. And so, I know before services at both campuses, we had some like fun games that we did up front. They were silly and you kind of did silly things. I'm just going to tell you teenagers, I'm about to talk to you. I promise that this is not going to be that, okay? So, I'm not going to make you do anything weird. But, I do need one teenage volunteer. Boy, girl, you can raise your hand. It only works if somebody you see somebody raising their hand. Okay, come up here. Awesome. Come on up here. Man, that could have been awkward if nobody raised their hand. All right. And you sat close. That was like perfectly convenient. Okay, so tell me your name.
Ay.
Ay, nice to meet you. I'm Jeffrey. Uh, all you have to do is just open this present. Okay, easy peasy. You come stand here, though, 'cause the light's better. Now, if you take a long time, there's just a couple of people watching you, so that's okay. Uh, okay. So, before you get excited, it's not Nikes, so just keep opening it. I know Nikes are fire. It's not Nikes. Uh, I also didn't wrap the present because I am incapable of wrapping, but I did make my daughter do it. So, all right. So, in this present that she gets from Beltway Park, she's got some like awesome, you can start pulling it out. She's got some awesome BSM merch. This is a hat that we sell up in our BSM area and a really great mug. And then there's also a t-shirt in there. Like, it's this BSM stuff is really cool. It's all high-quality stuff. So y'all give Ay a hand real quick. No. Hey, just kidding. Don't go anywhere. Okay. How, like, be honest. You come up on stage in front of this many people and you open not these are great hats, Daniel and Molly and Zach. They're awesome stuff. Like, it's a little bit of a downer that you open a Nike box and you get that. So let's uh open the open the coffee mug. I think that's the only one of those that open. So, just open the open the coffee mug for me real quick. While you do that, I'm just gonna [whistles] That's going to get on my nerves. If not, oh, okay. So, you can pull it out and show everyone. So, there's $300 there for her. Uh, we also wanted, and this, we also wanted to give you a free registration to youth camp this year. So, tell Pastor Daniel that or Pastor Molly, tell them that and then they'll remember because you were up here. So, now y'all give Ay a hand. Okay, thank you. And North Campus, before you get mad you didn't get included in that, at the end of service, Pastor Mark is going to give away a camp uh registration as well. So, they're going to include you as well. But like, how mean would it have been at Christmas Eve service to bait and switch a teenager in front of hundreds of people, right? Like, that would have been like my first Christmas Eve here and I just embarrass a child. Like, that would be horrible. But I was thinking this week about Christmas and how, how so often we can get to the place that like we, we open a present and it's not what we thought. Like, you've had the conversation with Grandma, right? You told her for a year. You're like, "Grandma, hey." And teenagers, don't look at your grandmother's here either. That happened on Thursday and it got awkward. Like, you tell Grandma all year long, "Hey, this is what I want for Christmas." And then you're like, "Hey Grandma, this is what I want for Christmas. Grandma, this is the Amazon link for what I want for Christmas. Grandma, it's on my gift store. Just buy what I'm asking for." Or then you open the present Christmas Eve and it's totally not that. You're like, "Ah, thanks." You got to like fake joy because you had an expectation and it wasn't met. And, and all of us wrestle with unmet expectations. And it's not a, it's not a Christmas thing. And when our expectations go unmet, what happens immediately afterwards is we just get disappointed. It's impossible when we have an expectation that we have and it doesn't happen. It's impossible to not be disappointed. And it's not just about Christmas. This is like in life. Years ago, when my daughters were younger, we were, uh, my, we had this, I mean, this incredible house. It was our first home and it was, it was built in 1926. It had original wood floors and that's like, it sounds awesome. It had stained glass from First Baptist Church whenever First Baptist Church was renovated in this house. It had this beautiful mirror that came out of the Paramount whenever they did the Paramount renovation. It was an awesome house. We brought our girls home for the first time in this house. We loved this house and we felt like we were, uh, like the girls were getting older. It didn't have a backyard. So, okay, we're going to, we got to sell this house that we love and we're going to move into a different house in a different neighborhood. It's going to be great. And so, we did all the work to get it ready. Got it ready. Talked to a realtor, had a price, was about to press send on like posting it online. And then I got a call from my wife a couple of days later and she's like, "Hey, babe, um, I think we may have a plumbing issue." Swell. So, I called the plumber and he called me back and you can always tell immediately in the first five seconds with a plumber or electrician if it's bad or not because they're either like, "Hey, Mr. Turner." Or they're like, "Mr. Turner, I, uh, I have some news for you." Like, what? Well, this is the problem. It's XYZ. He probably said plumbing terms and I'm sure they made sense. And I was like, "All right, what's it going to cost?" And he was like, "A lot. And also, we may have to like pull up some of your floor that you love." And all of a sudden, I began to wrestle going, "Okay, I know what this means. Like, if we have the money to pay the plumbing bill, we don't have to pay the money to to do the plumbing and then also still sell the house." And I sat there in the midst of like this expectation that I had built up. We had been planning, prepping, working, getting everything ready to sell this house that we love, but go get something different for our family. Like, we were so excited. And then all of a sudden, instead of God providing the answer that we wanted, it felt like he ripped the rug out from under me. And all of a sudden, I looked up and I'm like, man, this expectation isn't going the way I thought it was going to. This thing that I wanted to happen isn't happening. We all have this in our lives. It's easy to get to the point in your marriage that you look up a couple of years in and you're like, man, this, this whole marriage deal, it's, it's not really been what I thought it was going to be. Or maybe it's the waiting for the spouse and you've been waiting for the spouse and waiting with, like, God, I, I felt like we talked about this when I was growing up and I told you, like, by the time I'm 21, I want to be married. 20, uh, for my daughter's 31, at least 41, preferably. Like, God, I told you this. It happens in our jobs. We, we set up like, you go to school and you, you get the degree that you need for the job that you want and then you get into the career field and it doesn't go the way you wanted it to. And you look up and you're like, "God, I had like plans in here. I, I already wanted to be three steps ahead of this and now I'm stuck behind this guy ahead of me and he doesn't even know what he's doing. God, what in the world? Maybe 2025 for you has been one just big mess of unmet expectations. Every time you put something in front of the Lord, it didn't go the way that you thought it should. And what happens inevitably whenever we have an expectation that is unmet, it is impossible for us to not begin to wrestle with frustration. What if, what if sometimes our unmet expectations are an open door to something better?
Like, what if that's the case? Can I tell you that every time? No. I can tell you the end of the grand story. The house that we had. I was mad. I was complaining about, I was complaining to God like, "God, you didn't do it. I felt like this was the thing we were supposed to do. And why aren't you doing what you said you were going to do?" And yada yada yada, whine whine whine. And I got a phone call one day. It was from one of our elders. And I'll tell you this, this is like, I mean, 18 years ago, so I am a fresh youth pastor and I think we have the greatest elders at Beltway Park on planet Earth. They are incredible men. Unbelievable. Like, they're awesome. That being said, when you're that age and you get a phone call from one of the elders and he goes, "Hey, uh, Jeffrey, where are you at? I need to come talk to you real quick. You don't feel good." And so I'm like, "Well, I'm right here." He pulled up, rolls down his window, doesn't even get out of the car, and hands me an envelope. He goes, "Hey, my wife and I felt like we were supposed to do this for you." Okay. He rolls up the window and drives off. I open the envelope after he left and then there's a check. And this elder did not know anything about what was going on in our house stuff. Had no clue that we were having plumbing issues. Didn't know that we were even looking to move. Like, had no knowledge of it. And in this moment, what was so cool is that God showed me this promise that we're going to talk about today. That God provides perfectly even when it looks unexpected. For Sarah and I, we were stuck, frustrated, angry about, God, why didn't you do this? And then he looks up and he goes, "Hey, I did. It just looked different than you thought it was going to. It wasn't in the in the way that you thought it was going to look. I still provided." It just was unexpected. And Christmas is the greatest unmet expectation in all of human history. What, what happened at the Christmas story was not what anyone expected. It was exactly what everyone needed. We're going to look at it. So, open up to Luke chapter 2. This is where we've been over the last few weeks. While you turn over there, if you're at one of our physical campuses, there's a Bible around you. If not, uh, online campus, there's a Bible right there on your screen. And in Luke 2, which is where we've been over the last few weeks, we've talked about how God had this miracle of timing that there was this perfect moment in human history because of the transportation system and language and it was the right moment for Jesus to come so that the gospel could advance. And then last week we talked about the miraculous message. Like, the message of Christmas is miraculous, but God also used these ordinary people to deliver the most extraordinary message in all of human history. And then we jump back into our story in Luke 2:1. "In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to to Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage of David to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was 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 clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn." Caesar Augustus at this point in human history is maybe the most powerful person on the planet and he feels like he's supposed to do this census, make everyone go to their hometown so that they can be registered. And what I love about how that ties to God using this like this extraordinary ability that he has to provide is that God used an imperfect Caesar Augustus to accomplish his sovereign will. Caesar Augustus is not following God. Yet God used him to accomplish his purposes on this earth. So Mary and Joseph begin this journey because of the census that Caesar Augustus laid out for them. They begin this journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. And this was not going to be like an easy experience for them. It was about 80 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem. And now in in the year of our Lord 2025, we've forgotten how far 80 miles is 'cause we can go get on 20 and drive 75 miles an hour or the speed limit, whatever it is. Like, 80 miles in this day and age would have been tough. Not to mention he's traveling 80 miles with a pregnant Mary. Not to mention from Nazareth to Bethlehem is mostly uphill. They're going to travel 80 miles mostly uphill. So kids, listen to me. This Christmas, whenever Dad sits you down, he starts going, "When I was growing up, we had to go uphill both ways in the snow and I had to carry all my stuff." You tell him this. Mary and Joseph traveled 80 miles carrying the Savior of the world there, Dad. Okay, you win. You win that. That is the the argument ender. And they do. They've got to travel all this way and they get all the way to Bethlehem and then no room. I mean, think about for Joseph. This is this is one tremendous unmet expectation. This whole thing has not gone the way that he thought. He didn't think that he was going to have Mary pregnant before they got married. He didn't think that they were going to have to make this whole long journey. He didn't enjoy getting to Bethlehem and going, "Hey, any room?" No. Hey, any room? No. Hey. And then they finally, after no room, they get into a barn and then she goes into labor. Can you imagine him? God, none of this is the way that I thought it was going to go. Yet, and we could look at Joseph's situation and go, man, everything was working against them. And that's kind of true. Yet everything was working against them to position them at the perfect time at the perfect place to fulfill the prophecies and bring about the Savior of the world. And then the angel appears to the shepherds in the same region. So Jesus has been born in the same region. There were shepherds out in a field keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were filled with great fear. You think they're shepherds in a field. How boring must that have been? They're looking at sheep eating all day. Sometimes they've got to like go wrangle one. Like a boring life. They're just chilling. Then all of a sudden, bam, there's an angel. Like, that had to be a jarring experience. There was robe changing that had to happen after that. But what I love this tells us about the nature and heart of God is that the first people who are told about the Savior of the world is shepherds. Regular ordinary people, not people who had status, not a king, not not somebody who even governed a region, a regular ordinary person. If you've ever felt overlooked, forgotten, or unimportant, the Christmas story is a declaration that you are not. If you feel like you've sat in the background all the time, God's going, "Hey, I told the shepherds first." And then he doubles down on it later. The Easter story, Jesus rises from the dead after going to the cross. Who does he appear to first? Two women. In a culture, in a day and age that women were not looked at with any importance at all in society, he chose to reveal himself first to two women. I mean, the Christmas story is a declaration that it doesn't matter if you feel unimportant or overlooked. He says you're not. So now after the angel has appeared to them and probably scared them pretty decently, he speaks. 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. And this will be the sign for you. You will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those whom with whom he is pleased." These shepherds, they like hear this news from the angel and the angel says, "I bring to you good news of great joy for some people. I bring you good news of mediocre joy for the people who make the right decisions. I bring you good news." No, he says, "I bring you good news of great joy for all people." And the message and the story of Christmas isn't reserved for it. Like, it is for for everyone. You know what "all" means here? It means all. Sometimes the Bible's not that hard. The angel said, 'I bring good news of what? Great joy. The good news of Jesus is the source of great joy. Not surface level stuff, not just happiness because circumstances are good. The good news of Jesus is the only source of great joy. So the angel tells them, I've brought you good news of great joy for all people. And then when the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known, they made known the saying they had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. So the shepherds are told this by the angel and then they journey to find Mary and Joseph and Jesus. They find him and then they begin to talk about what they have seen. They begin to tell of what they have known. When the good news of great joy found in Jesus changes our lives, the natural response is to tell others. If I've met the Jesus that came at Christmas, the only natural response is to talk about it. You know why? It's the good news of great joy for all people. And the shepherds, they hear this news, the first humans on planet Earth who've heard this news, not named Mary and Joseph, and they begin to talk about it. They begin to talk about the provision that God was bringing about to humanity. God provides perfectly even when it looked unexpected. And this Jesus coming to this earth would have looked unexpected. This is not what they thought the Savior was going to be. They thought the Savior was going to come in riding his horse, armored up, ready to go to war, going to overthrow the kingdom, going to sit on the throne, going to reign forever. And then baby Jesus, born in a barn to a carpenter. And then he, he begins to grow up and he lives a relatively normal life for three decades. Then he spends three years in public ministry and still doesn't overthrow the kingdom. Still does it different. But it was exactly what was needed for the most amount of people to find the saving grace of Jesus. The reason Jesus came in the manner in which he did is because it allowed both Jew and Gentile, both the people of Jesus and the people who weren't of Jesus at that time to find saving grace. Jesus coming in the way that he did gave an opportunity for heaven to be crowded. He provided for us in the way and the manner he did so that we could find Jesus. The Christmas story is a declaration that God's provision is perfect even when it looks unexpected. But it didn't stop at Jesus. It is a part of his very nature and character. It's named. It's a named characteristic of God in the Bible. Jehovah Gyra. The first week when we were talking about these miracles of Christmas, we told the story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham is, he's married to a lady named Sarah and they, they try for decades to have a kid because Abraham's been promised he's going to be the father of many nations. So they try for decades to have kids. They can't. They just wrestle with infertility. Finally, they have Isaac, this son of the promise. They, they have him. They're raising him. And then one day, God goes, "Hey, Abe, uh, I need you to offer up your son as a sacrifice." So Abraham goes to the place God told him to, and he lays, he lays Isaac on the altar. He offers him up as a sacrifice. And then in the moment before he could actually go through with the shedding of Isaac's blood, God provides a ram in a thicket. God wanted to see if Abraham would be willing to offer up the thing that he had begged God for more than anything else. And then Abraham says this. "So Abraham called the name of the place, 'The Lord will provide.' As it is said to this day, 'On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.'" Jehovah Gyra, the Lord will provide. And we see it all over scripture. You see, you see it like when Jesus fed the 5,000, which is actually like 10 to 20,000. He had five loaves of bread and two fish, feeds everybody. So much so there was leftovers. The Israelites wandered for decades in the wilderness and and every time they woke up in the morning, they had manna on the ground for them to eat. And we could tell stories of Joseph. We could tell stories of Moses or how God used Rahab to provide for his people. But the greatest example, bar none, of Jehovah Gyra is Christmas and Easter. As we can't talk about one without talking about the other, they are completely connected. We view Christmas through the lens of the end of the story. If you know the end of the story, Easter, Jesus goes to the cross, takes on the sins of the world so that salvation can be brought about from that baby that was born. I heard it said like this, the manger of Bethlehem always lies in the shadow of the cross of Calvary. Jesus's birth and his life brought the Savior into the world at the perfect time for the gospel that he was going to talk about to spread like wildfire. But it was his death on the cross that brought about the salvation of the world and anyone who would say yes to him. He had to shed his blood. He had to become the sacrifice that you and I needed. Jesus was laid in a wooden manger already moving towards a wooden cross. That destiny was in motion from that moment. And it was that cross that brought about salvation to you, to me. The provision of Jesus as a saving grace for our sins is the single greatest provision we could ever get, we could ever need. But God being provider, that being a part of who he is, it doesn't end with that. So when we tell stories of like, yeah, we're disappointed with God with our job or with our marriage or our infertility or whatever it is, God doesn't just go, "Hey, I gave you Jesus and you're still asking for more. Come on." No, it is a part of his very nature for him to be the God who provides. Philippians 4 says this, "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus." He sent Jesus. Look at me. He sent Jesus for you. For God so loved the world. Yes. But God so loved you that he would send his son so that you and me could find Jesus. And he showed us that we can trust his provision because he sent us Jesus. The challenge for us often is to to see through his lens and not ours. "For the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts," says in Isaiah. The Christmas story is a declaration that God provides perfectly even when it looks unexpected. And it looked unexpected. They weren't expecting a baby in that way. They weren't expecting it to look like it did. God does that all the time. But just because it looked unexpected didn't mean it wasn't the greatest gift that humanity could ever receive. And as we continue on into the service and we're going to do the, the things that, you know, we're going to take the picture with the the lights and we're going to take communion here in a minute. I don't want to run past the reality that Jesus came to this earth as a baby born in Bethlehem to show that God is provider first and foremost for salvation. If you are here and you've never said yes to Jesus, let this Christmas be the time you do it. What a great time. Open the greatest gift that anyone has ever received. The outside of the box looked different when it came, but it's the greatest thing that humanity has ever been given. And maybe you're here going, I've said yes to Jesus, but I'm wrestling with the God being provider kind of thing. I feel like I open the wrong box sometimes. What I love about Jesus knowing that he came differently than we expected is that God goes, "Hey, I got this. Just trust me." Is that always easy? No. But he is always good. Even when it looks different, even when it feels different, he is good. And he showed us that in Jesus. Let's pray. God, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the unexpected gift, God. This season as we go through the the parties and the the gift wrapping and opening and stockings and everything that we're going to do, God, would we remember Jesus? Would we never ever rush past that? It's in your name we pray. Amen.
[music]
You embody [music] the fullness of God wrapped in mercy. [music] You showed us your [singing] heart. Your love upon [music] the cross. Your [music and singing] love poured out for all. There [music and singing] is no one like the Lord our God. You've been [music] faithful [singing] every day of my life. I could search the [singing and music] world and never find another [music] like you. Another like you. [music] [music] [music] You set a table and you invite [music and singing] us to come. Your body broken [music and singing] and your blood was enough. This love upon the cross. [music and singing] Oh, this love poured out for all. [music and singing] There is no one like [music] the Lord our God. You've been faithful every [music and singing] day of my life. I could [singing] search the world and never [music] find another like [singing] you. Another [music] like you. There is. There is [music] no one like the Lord our God. [music] You've been faithful every day of [music] my life. I could search the [music] world [singing] and never find another like you. [music] Another like you.
Open up the bread. Don't take it yet. Just open it up and you can grab it in your hand. You do not have to be a member of Beltway to take communion with us. We just [music] ask that you be a follower of Jesus. But communion is a holy experience [music] all the time. It especially is on Christmas Eve as we remember Jesus coming. [music] We remember that the the perfect God, Jesus, the son of God, sinless, [music] comes to earth as a baby in the most humblest of humble, the most humbling manners, grows up, lives a perfect life, and then takes [music] on the sins of the world, and overcomes death, hell, [music] and the grave. That is how loved you are and I am that Jesus would willingly [music] go to the cross for us. 1 Corinthians says Jesus said [music] these words, "This is my body which is for you. Do this [music] take the bread in remembrance of me." Let's take the bread together. Can open your juice. [music] And then Jesus took the wine and he said, "This [music] is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." Jesus knows that quickly after this, [music] that blood is going to be a very real reality. And he's going to shed it. [music] And scripture tells us that it was that shedding of blood that took our sins though they were like scarlet [music] and made them white as snow. Not because there's anything you could do or I could do, but because Jesus shed his blood. [music] Let's take the truth together. Jesus, we thank you. [music] We thank you that you willingly went to the cross. And I thank you that I know my sins, they are a plenty. I thank [music] you, God, that you, your blood and your body broken [music] and shed. Though my sins were like scarlet, they became white as snow. [music] And you, Jehovah Gyra, the Lord who provides, provided the saving grace that I was incapable of doing on my own. It's in your name we pray. Amen. [music]
Worthy is the lamb. Worthy is the king. Worthy [singing] is the one who reigns forever. Seated on the throne, high above it all. [singing] [music] And everyone will know you're like no other. [singing] Worthy is the lamb. Worthy is the [music] king. Worthy is the one [singing] who reigns forever. [music] You seated on the throne. [singing] So high above [music] it all. Everyone will know you are like [music and singing] what [music] is the king? He is the one [music] who reigns forever. He's seen it all the so [music] [singing] you are [music] [singing] like the Lord our God. [singing] [music] You've been faithful every day of my life. [music] I can say the [singing] world can never [music] find another like you. There is no one like [music] you. There [singing] is none like [music] the Lord our God. You've [music] been faithful [singing] every day of my life. I can search the world can never find [music] another like you. Nothing like [music] you. There is no like you. [music] Like you. There is no [singing] like you. No other like you. There is [singing] no [music] one like the Lord our God. You've been [music and singing] faithful every day of my life. I could [music] search the [singing] world and never find another like [singing] you. Another like you.
Okay, if you will, if you'll find your candles, but do me a favor. Don't start lighting them yet. So, for a second, I want you to just look at the candle, unlit, relatively ordinary. And here in a minute, somebody's going to come around and they're going to light your candle. You don't, you don't have the lighter. Somebody else is going to do it. [music] And you're going to have like a lit candle that you didn't do. [snorts] You had to receive it. That's that is what we remember. We don't do this for a picture on Instagram. It is a great Instagram picture. That's not why we do this. We do this remembering that we've received this. And then Jesus tells us, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and give light to everyone in the house." [music] "In that same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." So, you're going to take that light and then [music] we get to go out into a dark world and we get to shine the light and the hope of Jesus. Nothing about us. It's all about [music] him. And as we do this, as we do this, that I love, one of my favorite traditions that we do here at Beltway Park, [music] remember what an honor and what a responsibility that is. Silent night, holy night, all [singing] is calm, all is bright, round yon virgin. Virgin [singing] mother and child.
Holy [singing] infant so [music] tender and [singing] mild.
Sleep in [singing] heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly [singing] king.
Silent [singing] night,
Holy [music] night,
Shepherds quake at the sight. [music and singing] Glory stream from heaven. [singing]
Heavenly [music] host [singing] sing hallelu.
Christ [singing] the Savior is born. [singing] Christ the Savior is born. Silent [singing] night, holy night,
Son of God, love's [singing] pure light,
Radiant [singing] art thou from thy holy face. With [singing] the dawn of redeeming grace.
Jesus [singing] Lord at thy [singing] birth.
Jesus [music] Lord [singing] at thy birth.
Just like take a look around. Like, I love this view not because it's, it's just such a great picture of what we get to do in our worlds that you get to go in your spheres and your places in your areas and you get to carry hope and life found in the provision of Jesus that we receive because of Christmas. How beautiful is that? Merry Christmas.
Now you can carefully blow these out. One thing just to keep in front of you before we all leave here and go about our Christmas festivities is next week we will not be in person on Sundays. We will have an online service at 10:00 a.m. Okay? So, every, we're not doing in person, but we are still having church at 10:00 a.m. next Sunday. But we like to end service here the same way every week. So, if you will, if you're comfortable, if you'll put your hands out in front of you, you can have a candle in that hand. God can see past the candle. Let's receive a prayer of blessing. May the Lord bless you and may he keep you. May he make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. Would he turn his countenance towards you and give you peace found only in him?
Amen.