The Greatest Rescue Mission of All Time | Glad Tidings We Bring | Pastor Josh Howerton

Hey guys, thanks for checking out this Bible teaching. Every week, release a podcast that corresponds to the sermon. It's like a little bit of a deeper dive where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free, an episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Point YouTube channel and look for the Podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free. Now, enjoy this Bible teaching. Very Christmas-like point family. Come on man, here we go. Amen, amen, amen. This is the last Christmas service we've got. Last one on Christmas Eve, y'all are the real ones. These are the real ones right here. Come on man. I'm so excited. If you didn't know this, these are my favorite services every year. I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve is how I feel every year. And it's just incredible to worship with you. I do want to just do one thing because this is the last service. I want to do something I didn't do in any of the other services. All around you on your way walking in. There were people out in the parking lot, at the doors, grabbing the kids, back in kids men, right over back there in the production crew over there. They don't like when people look at them. We're all going to look at them right now. And a ton of these people, they're like not past staff members. They're volunteers who gave away hours and hours this week from their families to serve and bless us. And so will you guys help me show all of them how thankful we are? Thank you production team. Thank you guys up there. Thank you all the volunteers. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And then I hate to do this, but I do want to do one last thing and then I'm going to talk about Jesus I promise. We have become aware recently of a large and growing number of men and women in uniform that join with us online. And they're hanging out with us like right now. And so right now Lake Point family, there's men and women in uniform station all over the globe that they wish they could be where we are right now, home with their families and they're not. They're joining in with us for Christmas online right now. Lake Point family, will you help me show our men and women in uniform how thankful we are for what they do? Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Thank you all, thank you all, thank you all. We appreciate you. If you can't see it online, they're standing. Thank you. Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. And then one last one I lied, one last one, Lake Point family, will you help me show our guests how honored we are? They're here. Come on man, there we go. Hey man, alright, y'all can have a seat now. That was a lot. That was a lot. Now I've only got a few minutes, it's a Christmas service and I'm a little under the weather. So let me get right at it. I want to talk to you for just a few minutes about the greatest love story ever enacted. The greatest love story ever enacted and I want to begin by talking about some things that are emphatically not the greatest love stories ever told. I'm going to have a little fun with this. Work with me here. Okay. Number one, I just want to emphatically say, because I was forced to watch it in high school, that Romeo and Juliet is not the greatest love story ever told, especially the one with Leo and Claire Daines. I'm out. It's not my thing. It's weird. It's not my thing. Not. Okay. Now this next one, what I've learned of the course of all the services this week, this next one is a very divisive movie. Okay. So here's what we're going to do. Work it like a pole right here and I'm going to give the pro this movie people their chance and I'm going to give the anti this movie people their chance. We'll see who wins and we'll go at it. Let me go on the record and say that the notebook is not the greatest love story ever. Now real quick, real quick. Who are the people who are where are the pro notebook people? Where are you at? Bah humbug. Where are the anti notebook people at? Where are my people? Where are my, yeah, that's awesome. Okay. I didn't do that any other services. This is the last one. I was having fun. I'll just say if you go watch that thing, Ali Shady. That's all I say. Now last one is the last one I want to emphatically say that the Titanic is not now the voting's over. Stop. We're done. The Titanic is not the greatest love story ever told. Now pastor friend of mine Craig Graschel pointed all this out to me. What I want you to notice is that in all of these they all have like tragic endings. So in Romeo and Juliet it's like literally just a misunderstanding. And then they both end up taking their lives. They both die. Bad, bad ending. In the notebook two people experience decades upon decades of memory loss and then they die in each other's arms. And some of you are furious that I just ruined the movie. You had 20 years. That's on you. You had 20 years. That's on you. Okay. Last one is the easiest one. It's very easy to tell the Titanic is not the greatest love story ever. Here's how you know that. If you watch the end of that movie there was room on that door for one more. There was room on that door. She didn't, she wanted him to die. That's, she almost pushed him down in her spirit is what I think having. So not the greatest love stories ever. That what I want to say to you this Christmas is that the greatest love story ever told did not begin with the words once upon a time. The greatest love story ever told began with the words for God so loved the world, for God so loved the world. Those are the beginning of the word the greatest love story ever told. And those of you who hear that and you're like, yeah, Josh, but the main story, main character of that story, Jesus, he died too. Yes, he did. But after they buried him in a borrowed tomb and it was borrowed because he wasn't going to be needing it very long. Three days later when they rolled away that stone, he was not there because he is now risen and he lives to give life to anybody who would call in his name and he is now ruling and reigning over all nations right now. And that's when we celebrate this Christmas, Amen, man. Now that's the Easter story. I'm supposed to do Christmas. Let me stick right out of here, okay? The Bible begins that story just by saying it like this. It begins a story by saying the Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son. Check this out. And they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. Now this is a Christmas sermon a little shorter, but by my Bible teacher, give me at least a second to teach. This passage is describing a doctrine that Christians have historically called the incarnation of Jesus Christ. And our Lake Point people know this. The word incarnation, it comes from a Latin word, carne, means flesh. And so like two days ago when I ordered three carne asada tacos, in Jesus' name to God be the glory, what I was ordering literally was flesh tacos, Merry Christmas. You can remember that. Because what was happening at the first Christmas is that God himself was robing himself with human flesh, with human flesh. Now if you're not a big church dude, you're not super into this thing yet. I want to answer a question that you probably have had that people don't know how to ask. The question is, why did Jesus Christ have to be born of a virgin? That's actually a really important question I want to answer it. Why did Jesus Christ have to be born of a virgin? Well, here's what we're going to do. So at the beginning of the Bible, our first parents Adam and Eve, they were born into created into a face to face relationship of intimacy with our Heavenly Father God. Literally they woke up for the first time face to face with their maker. Which by the way is why listen to me, you will never be happy. You will never be fulfilled. Your soul will never be satisfied until you're back in a face to face relationship with your maker. Because that is how we were created to live. And we will, in the words of St. Augustine, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee. But our first parents Adam and Eve, when they sinned and rebelled against God, sin always separates. And so that rebellion against God caused a fracture in the intimacy between God and man. And that that fracture and alienation from God, you were born into. And it has been passed down from generation to generation to generation in our spiritual DNA from our first parents to you. So that now what you were created for intimacy with the Father, you were born into absence of that thing, even though it's the thing that you most deeply need. Now what theologians say, we're answering the question, why did Jesus Christ have to be born of a virgin? What theologians say is that God sent forth his son as a quote, like substitute in order to redeem what had been broken by rebellion, a like substitute. Okay. Now this takes us here. The book of Romans says that he was born as, listen to this language, born as one under the law so that he could redeem those who had been cursed by the law. What that means, that's all sermon there, but what that means is that in order for God to redeem mankind, he had to come as a man, like for like, so that he could die in our place. By the way, you need to understand this. When Jesus went to the cross, he wasn't just dying for you, he was dying instead of you. So he had to come as a man to redeem mankind, which is why he had to be a human on mom's side. But here's the question, why did he have to be born of a virgin? Well, a like substitute. In order for him to be a substitute for our sins, what that means is he had to be unlike us in one extremely important way. He had to be totally sinless. The Bible says that when Adam and Eve sinned, that it developed a sin nature that has been passed down from generation to everybody. So that you and me, listen, Mary Christmas, you and me, we are wretched black-hearted sinners by both nature and choice. The default mode of the human heart is independence from God and rebellion against God. And so what Jesus had to do is God had to send him as a sinless sacrifice. Why? Because if he had any sin at all, then his death would be the penalty for his sin, and he could not take your place at the cross and die for your sin. Now, what theologians will sometimes say is that the Bible implies that the sin nature of mankind is passed through the Father's seed in the Bible. So from Adam to Father to Father to Father to Father to Father to Father to Father all the way down to you, which is why everybody is infected with a sin nature. But think about this. But Jesus didn't have an earthly biological father, only dude that ever didn't. He was protected from that. Why? Because he was born of a virgin. His mom was a human and his dad was God. This is what theologians will sometimes call the hypostatic union of the natures of Jesus. Big word, here's all it means. It means that Jesus Christ was simultaneously 100% God and 100% man, and that neither of those natures diminishes the others. This is a common misunderstanding a lot of Christians have. And Jesus Christ, when God became a man, he did not shed his divinity or diminish his divinity to take on humanity. No, no. He who had been divine for all of eternity, he simply added his humanity, those dual natures. Now, the book of Philippians, let's go a layer deeper, says it like this. It says that when God became a man, he quote, emptied himself of all of the privileges and dignities of heaven to robe himself in human flesh. Think about that language. He emptied himself, the Bible says. Now, this is hard to illustrate. Here's my best shot. So, like, one of the weird things about my job is legitimately, it's like a really weird thing. It's just kind of a public job. So, like, when I go places, I don't know who knows me that I don't want this weird thing. It makes me feel weird. And so, a couple of years ago, I was going in for a medical procedure. I don't know how else to say this. It was a colonoscopy, Mary Christmas. And I was going in. And honestly, I was a little nervous about it. And I was going in. And when I went in, it was, you know, it's just awkward. You know you're there. And I was stripped of all my dignity. You know, I'm there and all the roby thingies and everything's flapping around and all the things. I'm there on the little hospital table. And again, I don't know how else to say this. I was in position to receive the procedure. I don't know how else to say this. And right before I go back for the procedure, the nurse leaned forward and whispered in my ear the six most horrifying words of my entire life. Right before I go in, she whispered in my ear, I love your preaching pastor, Josh. Okay. From behind me. Let me just say that. It's all the horrifying, terrifying, traumatizing, scarred for life. In that moment, what I need you to see is that I had been stripped of all of my dignity to be laid out on a hospital bed. But when Jesus Christ became a man at the first Christmas, he stripped, think about this, the God before whom the nations tremble at the sound of whom the earth quakes and at the sight of whom men die. He stripped himself of all of the dignities of heaven to become a babbling little baby that would need his mommy to wipe his nose, that would need somebody else to feed him, that would need somebody else to change his diaper. Why? You know, it's really, these services are so meaningful to me because, you know, when you guys are walking in, I'm watching you. And I just sit back there, I kind of pray in my head for you. And what I know is that for some of you, listen, I'm not an idiot, dude, some of you don't want to be here. You got guilt through it by my mom or grandma. I'm not an idiot. I don't know how this thing works. And you walked in, as you were walking in, you were looking at whatever campus you're at, at all these thousands of people walking in. And what some of you were thinking is you were looking at them, all these perfect little people, their perfect little families and their perfect little kids, hop in other perfect little mini vans. And the people that are chocolate are the ones who hopped out of those mini vans and they ain't perfect. And you were looking at them and you were thinking like, man, like, I could never, I could never fit in among these people. And I just need to like, from the bottom of my heart, I need to tell you something that you may not know, but I need you to know. What you need to know is we are not here because we think we are good people. Well, listen, we are not a bunch of good people trying to tell bad people how to be good. But we are her is we are a bunch of forgiven nobody's trying to tell everybody about somebody who can save anybody. That's who we are. That's who this thing is, man. That's our thing here. And so when you're walking in at whatever campus you're at and you're looking at these people and you're like, man, I could never fit in here. Can I say something? I've been around here for a minute. I know some things about these people. You're going to fit in just fine. In fact, if you knew what I knew about these people, you would not be sitting as close to them as you are right now. Man, what you need to know is that some of these people, we have not lived good life. Some of these people, they have been kicked out of schools. Some of these people have had foul mouths. Some of them have had multiple affairs. You are worshipping next to people who some of them, they've had more divorces than they count on one hand. There are some campuses where you're worshipping next to somebody. The first time they met Jesus, they were in a correctional facility. That's a politically correct way to say prison. They met Jesus there. He redeemed them. They're out. Their worshiping next to you right now. That's where they came from. There is, listen, these people, there is nothing on the internet they have not viewed. There is no substance these people have not snorted, swallowed, snipped or shot up. They were full of bitterness. They were full of hatred some of them. But God changed them. Not because they were decent people who just needed a second chance, but because we were dead people and Jesus made us alive. That's what happened. Listen, and how did that happen, man? How did that happen? He became as we are that we might become as he is in the words of St. Augustine. In fact, the Bible says it like this. It just says in John 3.16. It says, for God's so loved the world, by the way, this Christmas verse. For God's so loved the world, He gave. He is one and only son that whoever believes in Him won't perish, but will have eternal life. He gave a kid for you. Let that sink in. How many of you all got kids? I'm curious. Who's got kids? Kid people? All right. Listen, let me just say it. I'm a dad of three. Three adopted kids. We have one miscarriage. Three adopted kids. I'm going to say something that every dad feels before they become a dad, but no dad's going to say I'll out. What every dad wonders when you find out you're going to have a kid is every dad's going to have a kid. I hope I can love this kid like I'm supposed to. Nobody says it out loud. Every dad's thinking it. I hope I can love this kid like I'm supposed to. And then when you got a kid, I'm just telling you, man, you find out real quick. There's a whole other gear in there you didn't even know you had. So it's like, I mean, you all remember this. I remember it like as yesterday with all my kids. With one of our adopted kids, we got in with a potential birth mom and we got to go in for the ultrasound. So you remember this, you going for that ultrasound and they pull up the thing and stick all that Nickelodeon gunk on the thing and they stick the thing on the thing and do the wall wall wall wall wall, that's called and then they pointed a little screen and she literally pointed his screen and said, what do you think, Mr. Howardston, I'm a little bit of a jam and I'm going, oh, it looks to me like we're adopting a demigorgan from stranger things. That's what I said, I don't know what that thing is and you're like, you don't know what you think, but something starts bloodening up in your heart and then you go through You're the first trimester, second trimester, third trimester, the beast of false-proven antichrist. You know, that's, I love that joke. And then you get out. And then you remember this. You get to that day. I remember these days so much with all my kids on their gotcha days. But for you, you get to that day and baby's coming. And you're rushing up in there and you're like, ah, you don't know what's going to happen. And then that moment comes and it's just like, things pop out of you. I think from alien two. And then they grab it. As soon as it comes out and they rush it over the little emergency, keep the french fries hot machine. And then that room, you remember that? And they do that whole thing. And then they wrap it up. And then you remember that moment? You remember that moment where they hand you that little burrito baby? And I remember that when like they, I remember being a 26 year old young man and walking into a room in Bowling Green, Kentucky. And somebody wrapped up that little burrito baby. My daughter, Eliana, legit was not much bigger than a burrito. And they handed me that little burrito baby. And for the first time in my whole life, I thought two things. And I looked at that little baby and I thought, I would die for you. And then the second thing I thought was, and her may come a day when I need to make somebody else die for you and I will definitely do it. It's just you feel it, man. And then with all that in mind, think about this. What? Think about what it means when the Bible says, for God so loved the world that He gave a son for you, a son. Listen, listen like one church. I love y'all. I love y'all more than you will ever know. There's a reason I stand out in that lobby and I pray with people for hours until I'm like my body's breaking down for breaching the sweats. The reason I sleep, you're the reason I sleep that. I wake up in the middle of that. I think about you and praying for you and thinking about church members. I love you more than you will ever know. But listen, I love y'all. But if I were to choose between one of my kids and a thousand of you, peace. Peace matches. I don't know if that's right or wrong. It just is. The Bible says God loved you so much that the father sent a son to lose a kid for you. Christmas is a love story about a father's love for you. But it's not just about a father's love for you. It was about a mother's love for you. It's like, I want to do this real quick. I don't want to linger here. You guys understand this. If you have kids that moms and dads, they love their kids equally, but very, very differently. It's like mother's love. It's very like, I can't do it. I'm not it. I can't do it. Whatever that. You're weeping all the time and you feel everything in the depths of your soul and all the stuff. And it's like I'll cry with you. A dad's love is like, rub some dirt on it. I'll kill somebody for you. It's that kind of thing. But it's just equal but different. I got to example this. So this is a picture of mother's love, Janna with one of our kids and her eights in my soul. So that's mother's love, all empathetic, nurturing. She's all up in it. Okay. Fathers love. Here's me with one of our kids in their eights in my soul. That's my dad right back there. He's sitting on the front row over there. That's my dad. That's the 2021 AFC championship. I was real excited. Keeps to feel going to be the chiefs. One of the super balls was awesome. Okay. I'm just saying, fathers and mothers, they love their kids equally, but differently. And listen, even if you're not a mom, you have to understand this, that mothers, they have a type of love for their kids. For anything that happens to their kids, they feel it and they actually feel it more than the kid. Which is what makes it so hard to imagine what it must have been like for 14, 15, 16 year old scared Mary to have an angel come to her and say this at the first Christmas. Mary, you're going to give birth to a son. Heads up. And you're going to give him the name Jesus and watch this. And she would have heard this because he's going to save people from their sins. Now think about this. Mary would have been going, that's amazing. That's incredible. I wonder how he's going to do that. How is he going to save people from their sins? Then she's got to walk over here to Joseph. He's doing like, so her fiance Joseph. So Joseph, quick update, little update. Okay. I'm pregnant and I promise it's the Holy Ghost. I promise, promise, promise. That's what she's got to sell. And then he was good dude. Joseph doesn't get enough cred. He's good dude and he decides I'm going to stick with her and he walks with her. Now, she's pregnant and then she's pregnant for nine months. Now think about this. Time comes for them to have Jesus. She's nine months pregnant and they have to take a, I've done the journey. They have to take a 90 mile journey, nine months pregnant on a donkey. Every aspect of nine months pregnant. So her feet are swollen. She's craving sushi flavored Oreos. The whole way they got to pull over the donkey like five times to go to the bathroom. All the things. Then they get there and think about this. Remember Mary's asking the question, how's he going to save people from their sins? Then she has the baby and think about this. What the angels tell her and the shepherds is they're like, this is going to be a sign for you. You're going to find a baby. Listen, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Now question class, you probably never thought about this. How's that a sign? Why is a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger? How's that a sign? Well here's what Mary would have known. In their culture, they didn't wrap babies in swaddling clothes and they never put them in a manger. In fact, here were the only people who ever used swaddling clothes in a manger. Mary would have known this. All those shepherds, they were raised in sheep to be sin offerings to grow up and eventually they would have their throat slit to die in place to pay the penalty for other people sins. Mary knew this. Now, whenever they raised a little lamb that was spotless and they saw that it was spotless, they would take it when it was born and they would swaddle it, put swaddling clothes around it to protect it so it didn't get any blemishes. Then they would put it in a manger that was elevated to keep it off the ground so it didn't incur a spot or a blemish and then it could grow up and have its throat slit to be a sin offering to pay the penalty for somebody else's sins. Now think about this. Mary's just given birth. She's literally still lying on the ground bleeding. She's heard this prophecy and then she watches as they do to her son what they did to the spotless lambs that they would raise and eventually slaughter and she watches her newborn boy swaddled and put in a manger and Mary would have been gone. Oh, oh, wait. I know exactly what happens to those things and a thought would have begun to form in her head. Then eight days later, she goes to this other place, there's this weird dude, his name Simeon, you can read about him later, dude named Simeon walks up and he gives Mary this prophecy and watch carefully what he says to Mary. He says this child has been sent as a sign from God but many will oppose him and a sword will pierce your very soul and Mary would have heard that and it would have dawned on her. Oh, wait a second. So like my boy is not going to grow up and go to college and have a family in a great career, give me grandkids and make me proud. She would have realized, oh, wait, my son has been born to die. He's going to be the sin offering for the entire world. Now fast forward two more years, little thing you probably never noticed in the Bible about the Christmas story, two more years. Two years later, these three weird dudes, we call them Magi, they show up, that didn't happen at Jesus' birth, it was two years later, they show up and they bring three gifts, you probably never notice this before. Mary's there and they're open to three gifts. The first gift was gold and gold was for kings and Mary would have been gone. Your darn right, he deserves some gold because this boy is a king. He's not just a king, he's a king of kings. Yes, all right, we needed that gift. Then the second one, she would have opened it, the first one was gold, the second one was frankincense. Frankincense was this little, it was an incense that priests would use in the temple to go up as an offering to God and Mary would have been gone. That's right, thank you because my boy is going to be the priest to end all priests. He's going to be the mediator between God and man. He's going to represent mankind to a holy God and reunify what has been separated. Thank you very much, he's going to be needing it. Then she would have opened that third gift, you remember what it was? It was mur. You don't know this, but mur was a burial spice. They would use on bodies of people who had been crucified or slaughtered. And Mary would have seen that third gift open and she would have gone, that's right. My boy is going to need that someday. Which is why if you read the gospels carefully, at the end of the gospels when Jesus goes to the cross, everybody abandons Jesus. All the big tough fishermen with the callous hands and the scraped up knees, all the things, they run away and fear. There's one person who never abandons Jesus to his dying breath, one person at the foot of the cross, Jesus' mom never leaves. She's right there. And with his dying breath, Mary is at the foot of the cross watching her son choke to death on his own blood. She never leaves. Why? Because from the minute that he was born, she knew he was born. But he might die. And that bloody little baby was going to grow up and become a bloody crucified man. And he would start in a wooden manger and he would end on a wooden cross. Listen, because the first gift at the first Christmas didn't go under a tree, he climbed up on one to pay the penalty for the sins of the world. That was the purpose of Christmas. Now listen, what I've noticed is a lot of people, they go through their entire lives and they never receive that gift because they don't understand the heart of the Father that's trying to give it to them. It hears all you need to know. All Christmas was a rescue mission. It's all it was, rescue mission. So check this out. Some of you, you may remember this story because it became international news in 2023. And this incident, it ended up being known as, as listen, the miracle in the Amazon. The miracle in the Amazon. On May 1, 2023, a single engine, Cessna Plain, was flying south and it crashed about 200 miles south of Bogota, Colombia in the worst possible place in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. So the Colombian Special Forces, they issued this little unit and they go searching for it and they searched for a week and they're afraid they're not going to find it because the potential crash site was enormous. It was 100 miles wide by 20 miles long. And they searched for a week and eventually they found the wreckage. And actually this is a picture of it. This is the moment that they found that wreckage and when they found it, they were shocked because when they got inside, they found three dead bodies, the pilot and two parents. The reason they were shocked is when they looked at the manifest, they realized there weren't three people on board. There had been seven people on board and in addition to the three dead adults, there had been four children, ages 13, nine, four and 11 months but they were nowhere to be found. So they start looking all around the plane and they quickly realized, oh my goodness, these kids survived the crash. They knew this because they started seeing like, man, there was these little muddy footprints going away from the plane. Then they went a little farther and they found like a half drunk little baby bottle and then went a little farther and they found a dirty diaper from the 11 month old. So they knew the kids were alive. So the Columbia Special Forces, they send 150 more soldiers and much rescue dogs and they search for weeks, for four weeks they search and they can't find these kids but something was baffling them because they kept dropping food stuffs into the jungle and at night, somebody, it was a human, somebody was gathering all the food but then no matter how much they searched around the foodstuffs, they couldn't find anybody. So they were dumbfounded. Well eventually one of the dudes had this idea. He asked the question, no wait a second, what if the kids don't actually want to be rescued? But if they just see a bunch of big guys with guns and they think that the people who are trying to rescue them are actually there to harm them and they're hiding. So they had this idea. They went and grabbed the kids' grandmother and they had her record a message to the kids in her own language and in her own voice about how those guys were there to help them and they put it on a loud speaker and then they air dropped it into the middle of the Amazon jungle and they played it on repeat over the loudspeaker day and night for days. Now do you guys want to know what happened to those four traumatized children? Well ladies and gentlemen will you please help me welcome the four, I'm just teasing they're not here, that's a joke, that's a joke, that's a joke, that's a joke, that's a joke. That's Christmas, you gotta keep it Mary, you know, come back, come back to me. They did it, they played that message on the loudspeaker over and over and eventually the kids heard it and immediately they ran out and they were rescued. Now listen here's the big idea, those kids spent all that time hiding from the people who were there to rescue them because they mistakenly thought that the people who were there to rescue them were actually there to harm them. Can I say something to you? There are a lot of you who you've spent your entire life running, ducking, hiding and avoiding God because you think he's out to get you when listen to me, he's actually here to rescue you, that's it, that's it man, okay, listen. I did John 316 earlier, John 317 I think is even better. Jesus says, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, he's not out to get you but to save the world through him. Every now and then at Christmas you'll hear Christians, they'll say this little phrase and they mean well but they'll say this little phrase, they'll say Jesus is the reason for the season. That sounds good but in one sense that's not true. Jesus was doing just fine up in heaven, three Christmas without you. But God so loved the world and he loved you and he loved your jacked up family and he loved your weird uncle that's coming in tomorrow is going to get drunk at your house, he loved your aunt that's going to lie about everything and he loves your weird cousin that's like a real life cousin that he loves to all of you. So much that he sent his one and only son at the first Christmas to rescue you. Listen, listen, listen. It would not matter if a baby was born in a manger in Bethlehem a thousand times. If he is not born into your heart you will be lost. So the question is have you had a personal Christmas or you invite the Lord of the universe into your life to be your savior and your Lord? Have you done that? So here's all I do. One, I want that to happen. But two, if you do that I want to make you a promise, okay? And I'm like a decade running on this promise is promise ain't never not worked. So here's a promise I want to give you. If you, you're like you're new to this whole thing, I want to challenge you to give me one year of your life. Give me one year of your life prioritizing the purposes of God and gathering weekly for the worship of God. No, it sounds insane. We do this every week. It's crazy. One year prioritizing the purposes of God and gathering weekly for the worship of God and I'm going to make you a promise. Your life will never be the same. Your family's life will never be the same. Because Jesus Christ came into the world to seek, save and redeem what's lost. Amen, church. Amen, man. Okay. So man, I'm asking you. I'm asking you to do that. Come new year. I'm asking you to give me one year of your life personal Christmas right now. So right now I want to pray at all of our campuses that you would let that happen this year. So would you right now bow your heads and close your eyes, please? My father, what I'm praying right now is that thousands here and online, the thousands of personal Christmases would be having the people for the first time or for the first time in a long time, maybe even decades, they'd be going like, all right, Jesus, I'm yours. Father, I'm yours. I'm in. I'm bending my knee to your Lordship. You take my sin. I'll take your glory. Father, I pray that you be praying, things like this in your seat. From this day forward, as best as I know how I'm going to live for you first. I keep your dying for my sin. But father, I pray that right now your spirit would be the preacher that I come out me, be inside of the chest of men and women. And that right now, that every heart would prepare him room and that you would come in and do your work. I pray that in the crucified, risen name of Jesus Christ and all God's people said, Amen.