Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

1 (4m 54s): Jeez. 1 (6m 17s): When Christ was for 0 (6m 22s): Choose 1 (6m 41s): Is, is Fall on your knees. 1 (8m 38s): on 2 (9m 25s): Hello. We're so thankful that we get to gather together and honor, and acknowledge what you accomplished over 2000 years ago in bringing Jesus Christ, our savior, the Messiah into the world. And Lord, as we think about that, we pray that our hearts would be open a fresh to the, the living work that you're doing in us. Lord, we thank you that what you're doing in our lives it's, it's growing, it's constant, it's dynamic. And so Lord that each one of us here today, each one of us here tonight would just have our hearts open and ready to receive all that you have for us. Lord, bless our time together. Thank you that you promise it where we gathered together in your name that you are here in our midst, the Lord, we welcome you. 2 (10m 9s): And we thank you. And we bless you in Jesus name. We pray and God's people said, amen. Amen. Go ahead and have a seat, please. All right. So in addition to what Curtis shared earlier in welcoming you, I also want to welcome you because what typically happens either at Christmas and Easter time is a lot of people wind up coming to church that don't normally come to church. So if that's you, thank you so much for being here tonight and maybe a friend invited you a family member. We're just so delighted that you're here with us. We, we hope that you do really sense and experience the love of God in our midst. 2 (10m 53s): What I'm going to do tonight is actually actually going to read a, a children's book to you in just a minute. But before I get to that book, I want to introduce you to a good friend of mine. And so I gotta, I gotta go get him. All right. So here's my friend. All right, his name, his name. I'll pick it up so you can all see his name is brownie. I gotta get out of here where everybody over here. So I'm looking at the monitor up on the wall. So hopefully you can all see it and, and people online as well. This is brownie. So I'm going to give you a little background on brownie. You might think to yourself, well, why, why in the world would pastor Ron bring a bike with him to, you know, Christmas Eve service? 2 (11m 38s): The answer is it's a prop and it gets your attention and it makes you want to know why that, why did he bring that? Well, let me give you a little history on brownie. So, you know, in our family growing up, there's, there's four kids. And so it was my, my oldest sister, her name is Ruth and the year was about 1960. And my mom and dad figured, okay, it's time for my sister to learn how to ride a bike. So my dad went down to Ken's bike shop on Monterey street and found a used bike and the bike he bought his brownie. So that was right around 1960. So you do the math help me out here was that 61 years ago. 2 (12m 19s): And it was used then. So what, what's the history of, of brownie? So my, my sister Ruth learn how to ride a bike on brownie as well as my other sister, Trina. And I learned how to ride a bike on brownie as well as my brother, Gary. So somehow I wound up with brownie and my family. So DJ and I have four kids. So guess what? Jamie, Bethany, Leah and Seth all learned how to ride a bike on, on brownie right here. So Leah, our third daughter, she's kind of the personality where she thought in the neighborhood where we were living at the time, she thought, well, I'm going to teach all the neighborhood kids how to ride a bike too. 2 (12m 59s): So she'd gather up all the kids in the neighborhood that didn't know how to ride a bike and she would, would teach them how to do it. So think about it, parents, moms, and dads, grandmas, and grandpas. Think about it. Do you remember when you would get your child for the first time on a bicycle and you'd grab the seat and then you start running behind them and you're holding on holding on and you're encouraging them all the while you're saying something like, you know, you can do this and you got this and, and you're helping them get enough speed. And then, and then you let go and then they crash and burn, right? That's part of the process. 2 (13m 40s): Thinking about riding a bike though, what does it take? It takes three things. It takes a little bit of faith that I can do this a little bit of trust. I've seen other people riding bikes, so I know it can be done and some confidence, okay, I don't have it yet, but I have the ability to be successful in riding, riding a bike. So riding bike for the first time takes what it takes. Some faith. It takes some trust. It takes some confidence. So I know it's very simplistic, but help me out here believing in the story that I'm about to tell you requires some faith. It requires some trust and some confidence in God's story about the birth of his son, Jesus Christ. 2 (14m 28s): And I can promise you this, if you will place your faith and trust and confidence in Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, you will never regret that decision. And so I don't know where you are. You may have been walking with the Lord for a long, long time, and you might be a new, a new believer. You may not be a believer yet. My hope and my prayer for you is that you'd up your heart and life to see what, what God would have to say to you and believe the story about his birth. So this story that I'm about to read this children's book called crisis saviors born. This story has impacted every person who has ever lived in the past, in the present and on into the future. 2 (15m 12s): The truth is you can't ignore it and you can't get around it because God loves you so much. The story I'm about to share with you. It is not a myth. It is not a fairy tale. It is not wishful thinking. It is not fiction. It is reality. It is absolutely true and absolutely accurate. And it is the story about God sending his son into the world as savior of the world. So won't you join me now, the pictures are going to be up on the screen and I'm going to read to you this book Christ. 2 (15m 53s): The savior is born young Mary with Joseph felt time drawing near both knew God. The father was leading them here. They searched the whole town for a safe place to stay. But all that they found was a stable with hay, although all alone and most likely afraid they clung to God's plan as they trusted and prayed at just the right time and in God's chosen place. A new born soon cried in the parents embrace as bright stars shone down from the dark sky above Christ. 2 (16m 38s): Jesus was born. He's the gift of God's love. And then Mary wrapped Jesus at all, snugly and tight while angels in heaven, rejoiced at the sight. God wanted the whole world to hear his good news, but how should he tell them? And whom should he choose? He could have told Kings or the rich or the smart. Instead he picked shepherds the lowly of heart. The Lord sent his angels to dark fields that night, the shepherds fell down at the bright holy site. The angels announced, do not fear. 2 (17m 18s): This is true. Good news of great joy straight from heaven to you, Christ. The savior is born Jesus, the king Christ. The savior is born praises. We sing, they glorified God and gave praise to his name while shepherds on earth joined in all the acclaim. The shepherds found Jesus, as angels had said, all swaddled and loved and with hay for a bed, they knelt down to worship right there in that place. Then left to tell all of God's wonderful grace in all were amazed at the news. 2 (17m 59s): They were told by these joyful shepherds us stories, soul bold. Then out of the east, Wiseman came from afar. They followed a big, bright and beautiful star, gold incense, and myrrh at his feet. They laid down their gifts for the king born in Bethlehem town. They looked one last time at the Christ child sweet face and saw there for certain, the God of all grace. They left then for home on a bright starry night, perhaps they heard songs of God's angels in flights Christ. 2 (18m 40s): The savior is born Jesus, the king Christ. The savior is born praises. We sing great story. Jesus. The savior is born. You might be thinking, I don't know. I don't think I really need to save your life's going pretty well. Feeling good about myself. But reality is what we're going to discover is we all need a savior, no matter where we are in life, how good things are or even how bad things are going. Think about this for a moment. What if hypothetical? What if you inherited in your DNA, in your chromosomes, through your family line, a corrupted gene that will absolutely cause you to have a severe disability and will eventually cause you to suffer and die preset story, huh? 2 (19m 36s): And there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. You didn't cause it, you simply inherited this genetic defect and this defect is incurable. Unless, unless God intervenes this story that I just read to you, Christ, the savior is born. It's all about God's intervention into a human dilemma. Human problem. It's all about God's remedy God's solutions. God's way of saving you from a defect that you did inherit. See the defect is a sinful nature and you were born with this. 2 (20m 18s): I was born with this. All of the human race inherited this through Adam, this defect, the sinful nature and the sinful nature that we've inherited has corrupted our relationship with God. And the truth is that without Jesus, we are separated from God. From a human perspective, it is incurable. From God's perspective, he has provided the cure, the solution, the antidote, the vaccine, if you will, to completely restore and heal you from this defect, you see the reality is we are all in desperate need of a savior and his name is Jesus. 2 (21m 11s): The cure, the remedy, the solution, the antidote, the savior is Jesus. And that's what this story is about. God's solution for sin and a restored relationship with God don't know how much you know about Christianity or, or, or other religions. We tend to sort of group them all together. But the reality is Christianity. Following Jesus as Lord and savior. It's all about a relationship with God. It's not about ritual or religion at all. It's about a relationship. And yet you might be wondering how can a little bitty baby save the world. 2 (21m 55s): Now here's the part of the story. It's, it's a bit difficult to hear because you see baby, Jesus didn't stay in that manger. He didn't stay a baby, but he grew up and he became a man. And as a man, he fulfilled the purpose for which he came into the world to be the savior of the world, the Messiah. So how did he accomplish this? He did it by laying down his life as a ransom, as a payment for many, you see the sin of the world has the sin of the world was placed upon him upon Jesus. 2 (22m 38s): He died so that we can be freed from our sinful nature so that we can have our relationship with God restored through Jesus Christ. We are reconciled to God. That's the word? The Bible uses. It's a great word. We're reconciled to God. What that means is this. We are friends with God, the one who created all things that heaven in the earth, and we are accepted by God through Jesus Christ. Great verse in first Timothy chapter one, verse 15 in the Bible, it says this, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 2 (23m 26s): So difficult story. So I'm going to trust moms and dads, grandma, and grandpa. If your kids ask a little bit about what I'm talking about here, I'm going to let you fill in the blanks and broaden that story a little bit. So-so now I want to get back to the Christmas story, the fun and the joy of the Christmas story. Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus. I think it's a wonderful thing to gather each year. I've been doing this since the early eighties, and I always look forward to gathering together on Christmas Eve and hearing the story. Once again about Jesus' birth. Christmas is also all about giving gifts, right? I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning when I wake up and I looked down at the foot of my bed and guess what's going to be there a stocking, a Christmas stocking. 2 (24m 16s): I don't know where it came from, but there it is. Every year I want to open up my stocking and then I'll watch, want to watch my kids, my grandkids, you know, opening up their gifts. I love to give gifts. At Christmas time. We love giving gifts to one another because God gave to us the greatest gift of all eternal life through Jesus Christ. Our Lord, a couple more verses. One is in Romans chapter six, verse 23. It says this, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ. Jesus, our Lord, the beauty of the gospel story, the story of Jesus is all about a gift. 2 (24m 56s): It's not something that we earn or work towards or try to be good enough to receive. We just simply accept the gift that God has given to us through his son. Jesus, second Corinthians nine 15. It says this. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. And of course the verse that most of us know many of us know. In fact, if you know John three 16, I want you to go ahead and speak it out and say it with me, John three 16 for God. So loved the world that he gave. His only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 2 (25m 39s): John three 16, God so loved the world that he gave. He gave Jesus. He gave the gift of his son. The verse, right after that, John three 17 is equally as impactful. It says for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved to love story. Beautiful, beautiful love story. So here's my question to you today. Tonight, have you received God's gift of eternal life through his son? Jesus Christ. I hope that you have, as we get ready to close, as I close my part of the gathering tonight, the worship team is going to come up. 2 (26m 22s): In fact, if I could go ahead and invite the worship team back up to the front, but, and as we sing these last closing songs, if you have not yet invited Jesus Christ to be your savior, I would encourage you to do that. And it's so simple. God has made it so simple. It really can be boiled down to ABC a, an admit, admit that you have sinned against Scott. Just acknowledge it. And the way we do that is through prayer. It's it's through just a quiet conversation with God. There's no one way no right way to do it. 2 (27m 2s): It's just an honest acknowledging Lord, God almighty. I admit, I admit and acknowledge that I've sinned against you and now be believe that Jesus Christ God's son came and died as a payment, as a remedy for your sin and that he was buried and rose again the third day. So we simply believe what the Bible tells us about who Jesus is and what he accomplished for us on the cross. And finally see call upon the name of the Lord and you shall be saved. How do you do that again? 2 (27m 43s): It's it's just simply being honest with God, Lord. I have not yet done this in my life, but I, I want you to be in my life. I need your solution. I need your restoration, your reconciliation. I want to have a re my relationship with you restored. And if you'll do that, and again, as we have these last two closing songs, if you've not yet done that just while we're, while we're singing, just have that conversation with God and invite him in invite Christ, the savior to be your Lord and God will do amazing, amazing things. 2 (28m 23s): Lord, we are so thankful. The gift that you gave to us over 2000 years ago is still fresh and, and living and impactful Lord. It's a story that never gets old. So Lord, we are so thankful that you gave to us the gift of your son and Lord. My hope, my prayer is that each and every one of us would come to know you as Lord and savior and just walk with you day by day in that living relationship, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand. Shall we going to continue to sing a few songs together tonight? 0 (29m 2s): She had your candles. Let's go ahead and turn those on as well as let's sing silent night together. juicy. 0 (34m 48s): .