Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus

[Music] Morning everyone. Sorry, it says evening. I read it wrong. Evening. It's a good start. What a great time this is to worship the one who came to save us from our sin.

The beauty of Advent and Christmas is that God came and dwelt among us and that all of God's promises of the coming Messiah were fulfilled in Jesus. John tells us this in John 1. Let's read aloud with me this beautiful truth. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory as the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me.

For from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. The word who was in the beginning, who was with God, and who in fact was God, took on flesh. And the birth of Jesus Christ is when is the arrival of God in the flesh and the world to bring us grace. It's God entering into the world to fix what we have broken, to save what has been lost, and to reconcile sinners to himself. Jesus has come to save you and me. This is what we get to celebrate through the incarnation of Christ in Christmas.

Would you stand and worship with us? This great God and King. [Music] Oh come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant. Oh come ye, oh come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold him born the king of angels. Oh come, oh come, oh come.

Let us adore him. Christ the Lord. This is the light of the world we have waited for. Come bow before him. Savior is born. Let us adore him.

Adore him. Christ alone. Sing choirs of angels. Sing in exaltation. Sing all ye citizens of heaven above. Gloryy to God.

Glory in the highest. Let us adore him. Christ the Lord. This is the light of the world we've been waiting for. Come bow before him. Savior is born.

Let us adore him. Adore him. Christ the Lord. Christ the Lord. Yay. Lord we greet you.

Born this happy morning. Jesus to thee be all glory we give. Word of the father now in flesh appeal. Oh come oh come oh come let us adore him. Christ the Lord. This is the light of the world we've been waiting for.

Come bow before him. Savior is born. Let us adore him. Adore him. Christ, let us adore him. Christ the Lord.

This is the light of the world we've been waiting for. Come bow before him. Savior is born. Let us adore him. Adore him. Christ the Lord.

[Music] Let's sing. Angels we have heard on high. Angels we have heard on high. Sweetly sing in all the plains and the mountains in reply echoing their joyous face. Oh, [Music] glor shall see. Oh, glor [Music] shall see.

Shepherds, why this jubiley? Why your joyouous strange prolong? What the glad some tidings be which inspire your heavenly song. Gloria [Music] in exalt say oh glor in exo Come to Bethlehem and see him whose birth the angels see. Come adore on bend in knee. Christ the Lord the newborn king.

Gloria [Music] [Laughter] [Music] in ex shall see oh glory [Laughter] [Music] glor in ex shall he say oh glor Oh, [Music] glor shel say gloro [Music] in ex shall see [Music] [Music] The first Noel the angels did sing was to certain poor sheepers in fields as they lay in fields where They lay keeping their sheep on a cold winter's night that was so he. No well, no well, no well, no well. Born is the king of Israelel. [Music] Then they looked up and saw a star shining in the beyond them far into the earth. It gave great light and so it continued both day and night. No well, no well, no well, no well.

Born is the king of Israelel. [Music] Then let us all With one accord sing praisees to our heavenly Lord that hath made heaven and earth of night. And with his blood mankind had bought. No well. No well. No well.

No well. Born is the king of Israelel. No well, Noel, Noel, Noel. Born is the king of Israelel. Born is the king. Born is the king.

Jesus is king of Israel. [Music] Oh holy night, the stars are brightly shine. It is the night of our dear Savior's birth. [Music] Long lay the world in sin and error pine till he appeared and the soul felt it work. The thrill of hope. The weery world rejoicees for yonder praise.

A new and glorious morning full on your knees. Oh, hear the angel voicees. Oh, divine. Oh night when Christ was born. Truly he taught us to love one another. His law is love and his gospel is peace.

Chain shall he break. For the slave is our brother and in his name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus grace we let all within us praise his holy name. Christ is the Lord. Oh, praise his name forever. His power and glory ever more.

Ever more proclaim his power. in glory ever more. Ever more proclaimed. for on your knees. will hear the angel voicees. Oh night divine.

Oh night when Christ was born. Oh night divine, [Music] oh night, oh night divine. [Music] Let's pray. Heavenly Father, what a blessing it is just to get to celebrate what Christmas means, what it stands for. That on a holy night, you came into the darkness and you provided light. That light now gives us life to the fullest forever more.

God, may this Christmas time, everything that's wrapped around it, God, may it just remind us the gift that we've been given. God, we are just so lucky to have Jesus. And tonight, we just want to celebrate that Jesus came into this world for us. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.

You can go and have a seat. Good evening everyone and merry Christmas on this eve of the eve and uh just so thankful for you guys to be with us. It has uh it's been a year, you know, it's been a year. It's been a couple of years really for for a lot of us and I feel like I said that at the end of last year and if I say that at the end of 2022, it's going to start to feel like Groundhog's Day if you're familiar with that movie of just this repetition of of craziness and uh and just living through it and and and really what that looks like. It's it's been kind of surprise after surprise after surprise. Uh it'll be kind of shocking that this coming spring will will be two years since that kind of March lockdowns of of where it was surprise there's a pandemic and then surprise March Madness is canled and surprise we're we're cancelling just working in general and everyone go work from home if you can and and surprise murder hornets and and all these things that were just going on in our in our country and and now we find ourselves kind of on this back end of it if you will maybe in some ways the dust is settling uh where we're kind of coming up to breathe a little bit.

I know there's a lot going on still right now, but we're still kind of coming up a little bit to breathe and and we're kind of reflecting a little bit maybe over the last 18 months to two years just reflecting on on life and and really what we value and and what we care about. And I think in a lot of the conversations that I've had over the last several months, um I I think there's been one specific thing that's been resounding amongst our people, and it's this idea of just the lossness over the last two years of closeness and togetherness, uh uh just community. I I think there's for most of our people, there's this desperation for this longing for this deep desire for just more closeness and more togetherness, more this idea of being with one another. And I think that's one of the reasons why also we're as we come into uh 2022, we're going to be focusing on this idea of of one another and and being with one another.

We're going to be walking through a series in our epiphany. We always do an Epiphany series in January and this year that idea of Epiphany, Christ being manifested, Christ being made known. We're going to be walking through the New Testament's 59 one anothers and kind of breaking that into four categories of what it looks like to to be close and to encourage one another and to love one another and to to have this sense of togetherness. And and I feel like that's this idea of of being with one another is one of the things that I wanted to talk about tonight because I believe it is very foundational to disciplehip. And I think it's very foundational to this idea of of God and our relationship with him as far as him being with us. Because the reality is it's the way God has wired us.

It's the way he's wired us. He he did not wire us for isolation. He did not wire us to be alone. And I I know most single guys have have sort of hijacked this verse in Genesis 21:18 where the Lord God said, "It's not good for the man to be alone, so I'm going to make him a helper fit for him." And and so I know a lot of single guys will go around saying like, "Hey, I just want to be biblical and it's not good for me to be alone, so I think we should date and and whatever that might look like." But at the at the foundation of that of that passage, that verse is this idea of togetherness.

This idea of not being alone. Period. And so we want to look at this idea of God in a Christmas type of message. God not leaving us alone, but coming to be with us and the implications that that has for us. Because the desire to be with others is a is a desire that really comes straight from the heart of God. And so Christmas is not just about God coming to earth to show us what a righteous and perfect person looks like.

He he does do that in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus comes and and lives a perfect life. Never sins. Completely and perfectly abides by the law of God. following God, listening to God, trusting God in every thought, in every decision, in every action, in every word, in everything that he did. He was perfect and righteous.

But Christmas isn't just about that. That's part of it. Christmas is also not just about God coming to earth to defeat sin and death and evil through the death of Jesus on a cross at the end of his life. That's huge. But that's not all of it either. God isn't coming to begrudgingly clean up the mess that we made.

All right? He's not He's not doing that. He's not going, "I can't believe you did this. Get out of the way. Let me do it myself." That's not how his posture is when he is coming to us.

As if it's some some sort of impatient and frustrated parent who's reacting when their kids aren't behaving properly. And so they they lose their cool. God's not sending his son Jesus because he lost his cool as an impatient father. That's not what God is doing here. God is rather saying, and this is John 3:16 paraphrased, but God is saying to us, I I love you so much. I love you so much that I'm going to send my son Jesus to be with you so that you'll never be alone again.

that whoever believes in him will not experience shame or guilt or death, but instead they will have peace and they will have renewal and they will have times of refreshing and they will have life now and with me forever. This is the Apostle John, the the beloved John who was with Jesus during his three years of ministry and is probably during that time with Jesus more than than the majority of the disciples as Jesus always refers to him as the beloved disciple or the disciple whom Jesus loves. and so much affection there that even at the last supper, there's this intimate moment where John is sitting next to Jesus and reclines against Jesus's chest. I mean, we're we're so westernized in our macho culture here that that that you might get punched in the face if you try to do that to another guy. But in this culture, it's this sweetness that we see behind the heartbeat of God and the closeness and togetherness that we see between Jesus and John.

This beautiful thing as it shows this God with us heartbeat. And I want to show you where this God with us idea comes from. As we look at Matthew 1:18-25, many of you know with the Christmas message, this is part of the story of the birth of Jesus. And I want to I want us to focus in on a couple of things from this tonight, but specifically dealing with this birth announcement, this celebrating this birth of Jesus, but really focusing in on the names that were given to him. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolve to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel," which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.

And he called his name Jesus. All right. A a little bit of confusion here because the prophecy says his name shall be called Emmanuel, which is God with us. Yet Joseph names their son Jesus, which means God saves. And here's why this is not a contradiction, but rather fulfilling both the prophecy as well as filling that prophecy with some good news for us. You see, throughout the Old Testament, the promise of God with us was not always good news.

It was not always good news. Sometimes it was deadly news. Sometimes it was deadly news. When God promised a virgin would conceive and bear a son, as Isaiah 7:14 says, this was fulfilled at a time when his presence meant judgment for the people. That's why whenever is God with us or often times when an angel would appear, the first thing the angel would say is, "Fear not. We're not here to condemn.

We're not here to kill. We're not here to exact judgment on you. Do your sin." It was fulfilled at a time when this presence meant judgment. Isaiah records God's approach to his rebellious people in the northern kingdom of Israel. In Isaiah 85-8, the Lord warns of waters sweeping over Israel, threatening the nation of Judah, too.

And so, though God's people have God with them, Emmanuel, their their sin itself brings upon them judgment and actually disqualifies them from the blessing that comes with God. So, it was a scary thing to have God with you if your sin is ultimately not dealt with. In Isaiah 7:es 9-10, they only continue this theme of judgment. Turning and looking at the nations, it says, "Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered, you far countries." See, the Lord scoffs at the cons concerted effort to oppose him. While Israel receives judgment for their sin, so will the nations.

So this wasn't just a judgment for the stiff- necked, rebellious people of Israel, but God's presence was also a judgment for all of the nations. And so this idea of God with us was not necessarily always a comforting understanding or a comforting news for the people. In historical context, God with us was bad news as long as sin remained. Though committed to doing his chosen people good, God's history with Israel and the nations demonstrates the way sin undermines his good plans and renders God with us as fearful news. But fortunately, fortunately, Isaiah's prophecy, God's promise to the people, moves from judgment to salvation. It moves from punishment to pardon.

Because as we get to Isaiah 9, the son from Isaiah 7:14 is explained to be a righteous son of David who will bring light into the darkness and peace to the earth. The rest of Isaiah's book then explains how this peace was going to be procured for the people through the suffering servant and his atoning sacrifice as you get to Isaiah 52 and 53. And if you really even just look at the book of Isaiah, it's actually this mini Bible within the Bible. 66 chapters in the book of Isaiah representing the 66 books of the Bible. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah have to do with all of the prophecies of the son to come. And the last 27 chapters of Isaiah have to do with the uh describing this son who would come, this prophet, this Messiah who would come as it kind of gets to that climax of 52 and 53 of Jesus being the suffering servant.

And so looking back at the text in Matthew, in Matthew's gospel, it is striking to see how he explains the fulfillment of Isaiah 7 through9 in what he is describing here to the people. Matthew says, "All this all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet." All this points back to really three actions that we saw in Isaiah 7:14. that there was going to be conceiving, that there was going to be birthing, and that there was going to be calling, which are each given a narrative explanation. In verse 18, the son is conceived in Mary's womb by the holy power of the spirit of God. And then in verses 19- 20, God's angelic revelation to Joseph explains how this son of David would become the adoptive father of David.

So, Joseph's Davidic heritage is highlighted to stress the Davidic identity of this son who is going to be born. Then the name of the son is given. You shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. Now again, this name is curious because it doesn't exactly match the prophecy, right? The prophecy was not to name him Jesus, but the prophecy was to name him Emmanuel. And so, literally speaking, it doesn't happen.

Instead, his name was Yeshua. Yeshua, which means Yahweh saves. God saves. And so, why the discrepancy here? Why the difference in this name? Because I believe a name matters.

All right? A name matters. We we had a group text this week with some guys in our church from uh one of the families who used to be a part of our church and now they're helping serve a church in Scotland. And uh they just had a baby and as they were sharing about this baby being born, all the guys in the thread were just like, "Congrats, congrats. Congrats." And the wives were like, "We need more details.

What's the name? How much did the baby weigh?" and whatnot. It just shows you the difference of of how guys communicate versus women. Sometimes we don't really care so much about the details, but but we wanted to know the name because oftentimes name matters. We we don't just give birthing announcements without names and without details.

And so the birth announcement of Jesus, the name matters. The name matters. Had Mary's son only been called Emmanuel during this time. Again, still leaning on the the old prophecies. If his name's Emanuel, God with us, that's great. But there's a question mark to it.

What what does that mean for us? Is it God with us that he's come to exact judgment? Or is it God with us that he's come to write what's wrong by bringing the Messiah? By bringing the Messiah. You see, God with us is only good news if God comes to atone for sin. Is he here to judge us for our sins?

The name Jesus puts an exclamation point to this. As verse 21 says, "You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." That's the explanation that they were so longing for. That's the news that they've been waiting 400 years in silence. I mean, we talk about a silent night. We're talking about silent generations, silent centennials of waiting for the Lord to bring this news, this birthing announcement of Isaiah 9:6 ultimately coming true in this son who would be given, this child who'd be given.

And so by naming him Jesus along with Emmanuel is essentially saying this isn't just God with us but this is God for us by taking the name Jesus. God gave the answer to his people's prayers. What he had promised long ago was now fulfilled in the birth of a virgin son. This Jesus is not coming to condemn the world but to save the world. He's not coming to judge but he is coming to be a blessing. in all nations now have the opportunity to be blessed through this son Jesus who is born to us and for us as we read that prophecy in Isaiah 9 6-7 for to us a child is born to us a son is given and the government what a what a word there for us right now in our time the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace.

I mean, if you're reading the news of this baby to be born and let's just say it's all wrapped up in a newspaper, these are the headlines of each of the sections. this baby to be born. Jesus is born. He is a wonderful counselor. And that's not wonderful in the sense of of like uh I'm I'm kind of not sure what we mean by wonder. This is wonderful in the sense of amazement at how wise he is to offer us counsel in times of need.

That he is mighty God. that this that this child, this baby to be born is not born weak but born mightful, powerful deity wrapped in flesh. He is God, everlasting father. This is not to mix up the trinity here and and say that Jesus is fulfilling the role of the father but it's everlasting father in the sense that he is making provision for us in every possible way that you can think of whether it's the days of your life how he has willed them and how he provides for them on a daily basis every single need that you have as well as the protection that you need the care that you need through Christ all thing has been have been created and by him all things are being upheld. Therefore in in light of that he is the creator and father over everything and he is ushering in with the rule as a prince peace. Peace of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.

no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom. Just showing that this child to be born, this baby, this Jesus Emmanuel, God with us and God for us, sits a top as king of kings, lord of lords, ruler of rulers. So much so that we know that the magi come from the east to bear gifts to him. And this isn't just we we kind of joked about it this last week of like, you know, let's make sure that these Christmas gifts are also representing your birthday as well, but it's this idea that these magi that are coming to present gifts, they're not just gifts to just celebrate a birth. But these magi historically are considered to be kingmakers. kingmakers, which means they come to basically stamp their approval on the new and ushered in king.

So, they were coming off of a prophecy hundreds of years before and just following a star, making their way long, very expensive, treacherous journey to establish Jesus and to recognize that this is the king. the king who sits on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness. He's above reproach in everything that he promises and everything that he governs. that every decree that has come from his mouth, every uh promise that has come from his mouth, when he says that we will be hes with him of the kingdom forever, he upholds it with justice and righteousness, which means we can trust every word that he says. We can trust it from this time forth and forever more. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

I love that it ends with that because what it essentially says is is this prophecy is not dictated upon the people. It's not dictated upon the people. Like it will not be fulfilled if Israel gets their act together. It will not be fulfilled if we clean up our messes ourselves. Who's going to do this? the zeal of the Lord will do this.

That that means it's it's the desire of God to make this happen. And and zeal isn't just like uh I'm motivated to do this. Zeal is I'm excited to do this. I can't wait to do this and I'm going to do this because I want to give you the greatest gift possible. It's kind of like right now, many of you have presents that are wrapped and and there's this part of you, if you if you enjoy giving gifts, there's this part of you, you can't wait for someone to open the gift and see the expression on their face and see the joy that comes into their minds. Now, sometimes that can go wrong if if it's not the gift they were expecting.

So, maybe lower your expectations a little bit, but we have this angst. We have this anx like of wanting someone to open a gift and enjoy it. That's a zeal that we have for Christmas and and sharing gifts and seeing the expression on someone's face and what they enjoy from this. And that's what God is doing in our history when he wraps Jesus up and he sends him to us and he's telling us hundreds of years before. Don't miss this. Now, we're talking like our kids have been constantly asking for the last two weeks, three weeks as they start to see little presents start to kind of gather themselves under the tree.

What is this one? Whose present is this one? When do I get to open this one? Is it Christmas yet? Can I open it? And we're talking the Lord made them wait so long for Jesus to come.

So long. But the beauty in that and that's why we celebrate Advent is that it built that angst. It built that come that longexected Jesus. And it allowed for the word to be spread so much that even magi from the east would hear of it and then come and honor this new king who's ushered in. Therefore, as you celebrate Christmas in a couple of days, I don't want you to confuse Jesus coming similar to Santa Claus. What I mean by that is is he sees you when you're sleeping.

He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good. So, be good for goodness sake. Like, that's not the Christmas story. That's not how Jesus does things. I if that were the case, I mean, everyone's getting coal and no one's getting Jesus if it's strictly dependent upon our efforts and our good deeds or bad deeds or whatever those look like.

Like the that's the beauty of Christianity versus any other religion that exists is every single other belief or ritual or thought when it comes to religion is built on scales that balance themselves out throughout life whether or not you are better or more good than you are bad. And so it's this constant work and and and honestly like when is there ever a moment to rest because when do you ever know if you've outweighed good versus bad? And so I remember thinking like as a child and I mean my parents I I did not grow up in a Christian home. And so, uh, so Christmas was a big, uh, as we kind of like to say, it was a moralistic, uh, therapeutic way of my family really getting me and my brother in line. All right. It this was going to be and they ramped it up.

I mean, this was like as soon as school started, it was like Christmas is right around the corner. Like, we got to start getting those good deeds up. We got to start have you got to start listening more and obeying more. and you got to start cleaning your room and you got to start doing these things and you got to stop hitting your brother and and so it was just this constant feeling of like, man, Santa's not going to come to my house because I just slapped my brother. Like it's and and so it was just this constant weariness and anxiety of whether or not I was more better or good versus bad and evil. And Jesus doesn't do it that way.

Thank God he doesn't do it that way. It's not naughty or nice, bad or good. It's because I so loved you that for you I sent my son Jesus. To us a child is born. To us a son is given. God with us.

Emmanuel is also Jesus. God saves us. God is for us. And it's it's all his work that he's doing. It's not ours. He He He's not up there having a list and checking it twice.

That's not happening. The only thing he's looking at, the only thing he's looking at are those who have heard of his son, Jesus. And do they believe in him? Do they trust that Jesus is the son of God? And that that that he is the only one that they're putting hope in, that they're putting trust in, that they're they're putting all their eggs in the in his basket. It's not my work.

It's Jesus's work. He lived perfectly. I didn't. And and and so I trust his perfect life, not my own. And because I'm imperfect and I deserve death, I deserve that judgment that God has spoken of all throughout the Old Testament. And then continues to echo in the New Testament.

I deserve that judgment. But by the grace of God, Jesus Christ took that judgment on the cross. And he now looks at me without seeing my failures, without seeing my sin. He sees his son, Jesus. And he says, "This is my son in whom I'm well pleased." That's what he says of you when he saves you at your worst.

This is my son or daughter in whom I'm well pleased. You You haven't done a an ounce of work for him. You haven't gone on a mission trip. You haven't prayed yet. You haven't read your Bible yet. You haven't done any of those things.

You just you heard Jesus. You believed in him to be the son of God who died for your sins. Rose again three days later in order for you to be risen from your dead spiritual state to a new life in him that is now and for eternity. You didn't do anything. At your worst, Jesus came to you and saved you. To us, a child is born.

To us, a son is given. This is the good news of Christmas and the reason why Jesus is the name above all names. And I love this heartbeat of God that he sees us in our separation from him. That he sees us in our desperation for closeness and togetherness. He's wired us that way. You you see that in the Garden of Eden.

He is in perfect communion with Adam and Eve. And they sin and there is separation there. And God doesn't sit and wait for them to come to him. He comes to them. He comes to them. They even try to create more separation by running and hiding.

And he still pursues. And he still goes. He says, "I'm here to be with you." And the only way that's going to happen is having Jesus before you. To us, a child is born. To us, a son is given.

And it's in him that we trust. So, in light of this wonderful news, I have onelica application for you this week. Because God is with us and he is for us in freeing us and saving us. I want you to have the merriiest of Christmases that you've ever had. Like I want us to put some work into that. I want us to have the merriest of Christmases that we can possibly have because we're free to like this is the best news that you can ever hear is that God has come and he's not come to condemn or judge you.

He's come to save you and forgive you and to cleanse you to have your conscience wiped clean to be completely free and to forgive. Like that's what Jesus has come to do. That's my son, by the way. He's lucky that grace abounds. But it's true. Grace abounds.

And because of that, we don't have to go into this these next couple of days. We don't have to go into it with this kind of looming like, am I good? Am I bad? No, you're bad. He's good. and he's made you good because he became bad for us.

That's a that's a paraphrase of second 2 Corinthians 5:21. Let's let's let's do Christmas up this week. But we do it up because of Jesus, the perfect gift who came to us, who frees us to worship, frees us to celebrate, frees us to enjoy him in the closeness and togetherness that we have now with him in perfect unity and communion. And that brings me to our time of communion. We do communion most at the end of all of our gatherings because it's an opportunity for us to come and celebrate this idea of of yes Jesus came to us to be born to us child is given but this son is given and the only way he's given for it to be good news was that he had to become our bad news and be killed on a us to have his body broken and his bloodshed so that we could be ushered into his family, declared righteous. [Music] And so that's the way he ushers us into the family is by remembering.

As often as we partake of communion, as the scriptures say, we remember the body breaking and the blood being shed. That's the one point in human history that everything hinges on everything. I if if Jesus did not die and resurrect, Christianity is a shame. The whole none of it matters. None of it matters. And so we we remember and we celebrate and it's it's a meal for our soul.

It's a meal for our soul to spiritually revive us, renew us, restore us, to know that we don't have to break our bodies and we don't have to shed our blood to be with God. to be with Jesus. He did it for us. So, let's stand. If you do not have the elements, you can go back to the table and grab them and then come back to your seats. And as you come back to your seats, we will remember and partake together on this night.

[Music] The Apostle Paul says to the churches, "For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you. At the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and he said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And in the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and you drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

So right now, let's proclaim the Lord's death as we celebrate his birth and remember him in his sacrifice for us. [Music] night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright, brown, young, virgin, mother and child, holy Heaven so tender and sleep in heaven. [Music] Sleep in heaven. [Music] Silent night. Holy night. Shephers quake at the side.

Glory stream from heaven above. Heavenly host single. Christ the Savior is born. Christ the Savior is born. Silent night, holy night, son of God, loves pure light, radant beams from thy holy face with the dawn of redeeing grace. Jesus Lord at thy birth.

Jesus Lord. [Music] In the bleak winter, all creation groans for a world in darkness. Frozen like a stone. Light is breaking. in a stable for a throne. And he shall reign forever more.

Forever more. And he shall reign forever more. Forever more. Unto us a child is born. A king of kings, the Lord of lords. And he shall reign forever more.

Forever more. [Music] If wise man, I would travel far. If I were a shepherd, I would do my part. Poor as I am. I will give to him my heart. And he shall reign forever more.

Forever more. And he shall reign forever more. Forever more. Unto us a child is born. The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and he shall reign forever more. Forever more.

Here within a manger lies, the one who made the starry skies. This baby born for sacrifice. Christ the Messiah into our hopes into our fears. The savior of the world appears. The promise of eternal years. Christ the Messiah.

And he shall reign forever more. forever more. And he shall reign forever more. Forever more. Unto us a child is born. The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and he shall reign forever more.

Forever more. Oh, hey.