Christmas Eve

It says, once a certain poor shepherd in fields as they lay, in fields where they lay keeping their sheep, on a cold winter's night that was so deep. Noel, Noel, Noel, King of Israel. On angels, looking for Jesus, lay down his sweet head. The stars in the sky, look down where he lay, the little Lord Jesus. Asleep on the hay, Jesus, I ask thee to stay. Close my eyes forever, and love me, I pray.

Bless all the dear children in thy tender care. And give us, Lord, heaven to live with thee. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. How often do we look at inconvenience, things that seemingly interrupt our day, interrupt the things that we think are important, as just a trial. Just something to get in the way of what we really deem as important, just like Mrs. Innkeeper.

And of course we know the blessing that they missed as a result of complaining about inconvenience. As you read through Scripture, you find an amazing thing. God seems to reveal himself the most, and reveal his strength the greatest, amidst inconvenience. Jesus was born inconveniently. And that's what I want us to look at tonight, and to consider again, for the 2000th time, as we celebrate this Christmas Eve.

In your little bulletin, you have the 136th Psalm. And you can either look at that, or if you have a Bible handy, turn to Psalm 136.

Psalm 136. That great Christmas psalm. Oh really, right? Gee, I guess I lost that tradition. I missed that one. I haven't read that one this Christmas, or last Christmas, or the Christmas before that. Well, maybe this will become a tradition to us as we look at this. I want us to do something. I want us to do this as a responsive reading. And you have the hard part, okay?

You will respond with, His love endures forever. That's all you have to know. But I want us to stand and do this, because it kind of helps emphasize the importance of what this is saying. Okay? Okay, here we go. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever. Now, you kind of got it. But this was a psalm. Actually, this psalm was a song that was sung, it's part of what's called the Great Hallel,

the great songs of praise that were done at Passover. And it was one of the most favorite songs. They love to do this song at Passover. And it had, this echo was like, an echo was like the ladies' part. It was like the, you know, the parts that we have today with the echo choruses. But it was exciting, and this is the most important part of it. So, when we get to that part, I want you to really put some punch into this, okay?

Let's try it again. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever. That's better. Give thanks to the Lord, the God of gods. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords. His love endures forever. To Him who alone does great wonders. His love endures forever. Who by His understanding made the heavens. His love endures forever.

Who spread out the earth upon the waters. His love endures forever. Who made the great lights. His love endures forever. The sun to govern the day. You don't have to read this anymore, do you? You just got it down. That's good. The moon and stars to govern the night. His love endures forever. To Him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt. His love endures forever.

And brought Israel out from among them. His love endures forever. With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. His love endures forever. To Him who divided the Red Sea asunder. His love endures forever. And brought Israel out through the midst of it. His love endures forever. But swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea. His love endures forever. To Him who led His people through the desert.

His love endures forever. Who struck down great kings. His love endures forever. And killed mighty kings. His love endures forever. Sihon, the king of the Amorite. His love endures forever. And Og, the king of Bashan. His love endures forever. gave their land as an inheritance and inheritance to his servant Israel to the one who remembered us in our lowest state and freed us from our enemies and who gives food to every creature

give thanks to the God of heaven his love endures forever all right you may be seated now we're going to talk tonight about Joseph and Mary's Christmas vacation but as we get into that I want you to see Psalm 136 as a prelude to that and if you don't have your Bible just kind of look at the first part of that on your bulletin if you do look at look at this with me for just a second because this is broken into marvelous sections Psalm 136 it's a psalm of remembering and this is what we're doing tonight is remembering we're calling to mind an event that indeed happened that even Peter Jennings and his news team is acknowledging it's a real strong probability you know and I want you to see that in verses one through nine what this psalm remembers is the

creative power of God and it's a psalm of remembering it begins with creation it begins with acknowledging God as creator an excellent place to begin because God can make something out of nothing just look at us and that's what Israel did they looked at what they were and they realized and acknowledged the creative power of God look at verse five for just a minute which in your bulletin is who by his understanding made the heavens and let me read this with a little different emphasis who by his understanding made the heaven you see it's by God's understanding it's by God's perspective that things happen there really aren't any inconveniences or it's by his understanding that things happen the way that they do so the first nine verses

show us the Creator and they declare that and as they declare it they remember that his love endures forever it's demonstrated through creation then in verses 10 through 15 they remember him as Redeemer he is the Redeemer the one who redeemed them out of bondage in Egypt and you look at this in in verse 10 to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt and and the response was his love endures forever and brought Israel out from among them and from among them and his love endured forever and he brought Israel out from among them and his love endures forever to him whosprung down to earth 1. it's demonstrated in the partnership with 10.1 what happened was his separation ofoklahoma,

the father didn't searched and the sin thinker was the child whoателяuraganeg and the mother who waskins Valley among them and his love endures forever and it's easy to forget how that all transpired and that there was some major calamity that hit before they were released the flies the lice the frogs the river turned to blood the hail the fire the firstborn killed and then he brought them out a lot of inconvenience they were commanded by pharaoh before all of that happened to make brick without straw a little bit of inconvenience but god redeemed them god brought them out from a bondage that they thought they'd never be released from and he brought them out in a way that was totally

foreign from how they would perceive it but he brought them out and so israel declares in this psalm not only the greatness of creator god but of redeemer god his love endures forever and then in verses 16 through 22 they remember god bringing israel through the wilderness their wilderness experiences after acknowledging him as creator and redeemer there's a wilderness time before they inherit the promised land you see it parallels us it parallels the church it parallels us as believers as we acknowledge god's creative ability and his marvelous understanding that did that and how he redeemed us i don't know your story we have myriads of marvelous stories here of how you were saved how god moved and brought you to that point of

salvation but it was amazing as to how he did it now you're in the midst of a wilderness experience per se you're walking with the lord but we still haven't received the fullness of the inheritance that he's promised to us and so there are many kings like and og who were mighty kings mightier than the nation of israel israel feared before those kings and yet god promised to deliver those kings into their hand and he did that and so these memorialized forever in god's word is the fact of god's deliverance in the midst of the wilderness and they sing about that because it demonstrates that his love endures forever and then finally the verses 23 through 26 and the marvelous receiving of the promised land and and they uh entered in and now they've

entered into the promised land and 23 through 26 they see the continuing deliverance of god remembered us in our lowest state freed us from our enemy who gives food to every creature his continuing sustenance his continuing strength because his love endures forever and the jews love to sing this because for most of their time other than under david and solomon they were in persecution they were in oppression in other land and it caused them to remember god's faithful love and that's what brings us to our consideration tonight in josephson mary's christmas vacation and i want us to remember this as if we were looking back through a photo album okay so so i've opened the album up here and here's a little christmas collage that we're looking at and you

can kind of let your mind imagine what what what we're seeing here as we open this there's there's mom and dad you know joseph and mary and then there's there's a few friends here in the next year that have that have gathered around some friends from the neighborhood you know a shepherd or two or 12 we don't have any idea how many were there several shepherds some animals the sheep we have an action life picture here you know probably all of us have something like this a little plastic whatever's at home to remind us of the manger scene and of course here's baby jesus in the midst of this this collage just cute and cuddly quietly laying lying in the manger he was quiet

wasn't he i mean after all he was god truly he was quiet i like to think he was quiet didn't cry this picture doesn't show him crying so that's fine nice group i have the replica in my house too in the little manger scene that commemorates this christmas eve that's usually about all we think about regarding this particular time on this special evening but let's flip the uh the photo album back a year and here's pictures now of wedding plan this is pictures of joseph and mary as they were planning their wedding a year ago now since jesus was actually born in late september or early october sometime in there if you count backwards you find it's actually the time that the news broke that mary was confronted by gabriel with the news of

her conception now joseph and mary would have been engaged at this time espoused is the idea in the eastern culture they would have been as good as married without the the consummation of the marriage relationship they if they were to separate at this time they would need a writing of divorcement and so they are probably at this time planning the wedding and we can see that in the pictures planning a good jewish wedding with the canopy and a priest and a few friends i mean they were they were poor folk both mary and joseph were poor but they'd had friends over i mean it would have been a good family gathering joseph is a good man here's a picture of joseph and a picture of mary

a year before mary would have been about 14 between 14 and 17 years old joseph was considerably older i won't go into considerably older anything over 20 would have been considerably older but he was considerably older but he had a trade and he was a good man he could provide for mary so that was great you see it was a shame for a woman in israel of marriageable age to be without a husband and so at least this would keep mary from facing that shame right so the family planning the wedding maybe maybe a fall wedding maybe maybe september would be good and we could pool resources together and and maybe send them on a honeymoon or a it could be kind of like a vacation they could go see joseph and mary lived in nazareth

which was up in northern the northern part of the world and they could go and they could go and they northern part of israel up around the sea of galilee we could send them south they could go down and maybe visit friends down in the southern part or maybe go over to the mediterranean and spend a few days walking along the coast see do you ever think about that or do we just think of oh holy night and it was an awesome night but we think wow how awesome and we forget everything that led up to this and we think they were holy you know okay we're holy all this is gonna happen and it just is planned and gonna happen and holy and we're all gonna be no they're just like you and me planning a wedding here's mom mary's mother you know planning and give her

daughter away and wonderful time send them on a vacation married new life kids in the future probably now you flip over a page and here's a picture of joseph's face the night mary told him she was pregnant about how god was the father of the child now there's a lot of stories go around you know but that god there's another picture of joseph he's smiling now at the camera but he told us later inside he was trying to figure out how he could dump mary how he could set her aside you see according to jewish law all he had to do is mention the fact to the elders there in israel that mary was pregnant and they were espoused and she could have under the law been killed i mean even though the romans were were in charge

at that time and and stoning and killing was a little more difficult than under normal conditions at least she would have been ostracized she would have been set apart she'd been black marked by the community nobody would ever have wanted anything to do with her and so he was thinking in himself he said later how he could maybe put her away quietly so he wouldn't cause a lot of problems for mary oh joseph was a good man and he had one of children but not this way not now i mean after all he's thinking about his vacation later a time of fun but we flip over a page and we find joseph and mary here a few days later and they're smiling and they're hugging again because joseph said that an angel had appeared to him in a dream

and said that this that is conceived in mary's womb is from the holy one of israel we thought at first maybe joseph was just you know he didn't want to let a good catch get away and he's going to be an older guy and all that but we found out later that he was right that if god was in this thing maybe it just could possibly work then we could flip over a few pages in the photo album and we could find now the family of mary and joseph and mary and mary and joseph and mary and mary and mary preparing not only for the wedding which would come quicker than they thought but for a birth a new baby and here's mama here and she's getting invitations ready to send to the people

so they can have a wonderful baby shower here's joseph and he's a carpenter so he's making a new place for the baby a new crib or whatever furniture maybe building on a room i mean they're planning for this thing there's a lot of preparation going into this mary's gonna need some clothes and the baby's gonna need to have stuff ready and joseph's probably working overtime selling furniture to get ready for this event there's all kinds of planning for a proper place for the new baby everything's ready they've got everything planned down to the nub even with this little inconvenience that happened at the beginning but they've overcome that and they're ready and the invitations have been sent for the baby shower and then it's tax time now this wasn't

a new thing every 14 years caesar would cause the kingdom to be taxed and the way that was done was that from the bloodlines the heritage the people would go to their particular areas and they would be counted there was a census taken and they would be taxed accordingly a census tax it wasn't something new it was something that happened every 14 years and augustus just decided we'll go ahead and do that now right now and so here's the picture of mary and joseph standing there looking at the house that's been prepared all of the preparation all of the time spent anticipating all of the people that have been notified all the plans that have been made for this special time and now they gotta go to bethlehem

because that's where joseph was from he was from the line of david and all of david's lineage had to go to bethlehem and judah in judea because he was from the tribe of david so here's a picture now of joseph and mary standing out next to the donkey they're poor they only got one donkey so they can't take all the stuff that joseph and mary have to go to bethlehem and they can't take all the stuff that joseph probably made they can't take the extra whatever's that they had already there for the birth they had to get to bethlehem and they packed up and they moved on no clothes no nice new bed just in case the baby was born i mean it was at the time for her to be delivered no baby

shell it just had to go off an inconvenience to say the least and you know the rest of the story everything seemingly has been going downhill but god said he was in this thing god said at the time that he was the one that has planned this he was the one that was doing it just trust him and now he brings him to bethlehem and there's no room in the end what would you think if you were joseph and mary would you begin to think you had some bad chili somewhere did we really hear this you know what did you really hear him say you know let's go over it again say it again tell me what you heard the angel say where do we go now well there's a stable back here in the back it was it was just all it was was a wooden structure it was open all the way around and

it had concrete feeding troughs which was the manger it's just a concrete stone type of structure not concrete they didn't make concrete but stone type of structure that they put this straw in and stuff for the animals so when you see this little wooden stuff in the manger scenes that's inaccurate all over israel you still see the stone mangers and that's what they had to lay him in when he was born and that's how their life together began but they went through that and joseph and mary had a christmas vacation that the world would remember forever and it was out of a myriad of seeming inconvenience but they remembered one thing god was in this and according to what we've learned in his word his love endures forever that brings us back to the

bethlehem collage here that brings us back to christmas eve the reason joseph and mary could do this the reason they could see these things through was i believe they had a willingness to be inconvenienced now i don't know what you see as a christian your life being but again if you're fighting for your life you're not fighting for your life you're fighting for your life you're fighting for some kind of normalcy in life forget it there is no such thing the normalcy of life is a series of inconveniences and jesus came to show us that there was purpose behind that and in him we'd have the strength to face the inconveniences in him we'd have the life to endure the inconveniences

in him we would have the end of the promise as a result of the inconveniences and so they had a willingness joseph and mary had a willingness to be inconvenienced and i wonder i wonder if we do i wonder I do. I fight it so often. If you take, if you pick up the little daily bread devotionals that we hand out, the 21st, this past Friday, or the 20th, this past Friday, the devotional just happened to be thanks for the inconvenience. Let me read it to you quickly. Thanking God for the

good things that he has given us comes pretty easy, but thanking him for an enduring inconvenience can be difficult. Moira McLaughlin, which is a pen name, experienced the shattering life-altering event when she was raped and became pregnant. Because of her decision to raise the child, there would be a daily reminder of this violent disruption of life. Moira cautiously likens her situation to Mary's unexpected pregnancy. She writes, quote, this world considers any disruption

of its thoroughly detailed preparation for a life of convenience a rational excuse for unbridled anguish and rebellion. To the world, the thankful prayer that I raised to God for the radical explosion that took place in my life is akin to insanity. The disruptions in the plans of Mary and me serve to bring us both to the same place. Sometimes God's purpose in shattering the peace in our lives is to remind us that he has a purpose for everything. Moira thanks God for a beautiful child and concludes, quote, don't pray for a life

of convenience. You might get it. And wouldn't that be too bad? If you're enduring a long-term inconvenience, consider thanking God for what he has taught you through it. I thank you, Lord, for bitter things. They've been a friend of grace. They've driven me from paths of ease to seek the Father's face. Are you willing? Are you willing to be inconvenienced? That's what Christmas is all about. It's not

about the toys and the presents and the stuff that's at home that you'll tear into tonight and tomorrow. It's not even about all the family getting together, although that's a joy and should not be overlooked or minimized. But it's about the fact of inconvenience. And even in your preparations for tonight and tomorrow, you've experienced some inconvenience.

I know. I've been in the stores. But how have you viewed the inconvenience? And with all of a sudden it's Thursday and you're getting your z MAY be brought out? Are you willing toward a peace of saying, thursday and all of the feeling of tonight and tomorrow seems to diminish and thursday becomes a real time of inconvenience where am i going to put the tree now you know i gotta get all the boxes

out and put all this stuff away and then the job is still there and school is still there and the pressures are still there are you willing to be inconvenienced for christ's sake are you willing to be inconvenienced that the power of god might be demonstrated in you and through you you see if you're not you're probably going to miss a tremendous blessing just like mrs innkeeper did so the first thing we've got to be is willing to be inconvenienced secondly secondly there needs to be and follow me with this one there needs to be an understanding of the cheapness of my life for him that flies in the face of a lot of stuff i'm hearing today about you got to be a king's kid i

learned to live like a king's kid and you got to take this stuff and this is yours so i gotta get out there and get it i don't see that in here i see if you're gonna live for yourself if you're gonna grab on to your life you're gonna lose it but if you lose your life for my sake you're gonna find a kernel of wheat except it falls into the ground and dies will not bring forth life if any man come after me let him take up his cross and follow me you see for his sake there has to be a an understanding of the cheapness of my life for him and the world doesn't see that that way so it's a real contradiction to the world see the world sees that i'm number one and i gotta watch out for number one i gotta hang on to this stuff

and go for all the gusto because it's fast slipping away and if i might miss out on some of according to the word of god there's a cheapness to my life that i have to consider this is an excellent devotional it's called daily with the king it's by a pastor named w glenn evans and i would encourage you to pick up on this for this next year it'd be a tremendous thing for you to go through with yourself or your family um this was the 21st this past week he writes my discipleship for jesus christ will mean nothing unless i consider my life cheap for him paul said i consider my life worth nothing to me acts 2024 he was willing to cheapen himself for the gospel and that cheap view of his own welfare and safety

resulted in homelessness danger and finally death if i regard my life of infinite value and protect and pamper it i will certainly be more comfortable and more fruitless abraham lincoln said quote love destroys end quote he was right i cannot love jesus christ without destroying many things one of which is the price tag i put on my life the love of christ constrains me paul said in second corinthians if i still think of my salvation as a security blanket or a comfort i have sadly missed the meaning of christ's weeping over jerusalem the agony of calvary and the lostness of men our emphasis on the gospel of grace has led us to think of our salvation as cheap and easy the very opposite of what god intended we think in terms of safety and

preservation and escape our faith is often a device to escape the eternal darkness and nothing more can we say that our attachment to god is due to our insatiable desire for him as a person and our overwhelming desire to do his will regardless of the cost i cannot expect to come to the end of my life fruit laden unless i have shed tears and perhaps blood in the field god will not examine me for jolliness or agreeableness but for scars the marks of a love that was willing to bear the cost if my salvation has not carried me that far i may have to hang my head in shame but thank god he is able to carry me farther past mere salvation and on to the kind of life that becomes more precious than gold

that perishes in his sight are you willing to be inconvenienced for his sake can you begin to see your life as cheap unto him lord whatever whatever you need to do and god begins to move and you go no lord that's like habakkuk habakkuk the prophet how long god will you will you let this injustice happen in israel and god says this is what i'm gonna do i'm bringing the babylonians and they're gonna eat everything but the dirt and and habakkuk goes no god god's moving god's moving in your life are you willing to be inconvenienced and do you understand the cheapness of your life for him finally finally we need to have an understanding of god's love for us i mean we say that his love

endures forever but each of us needs to come to the point where we understand that we read one more little thing from max locato he's got a book out this is published this year called in the grip of grace and he says we want to know how long god's love will endure does god really love us forever not just on easter sunday when our shoes are shined and our hair is fixed we want to know how does god feel about us and how does he feel about us and how does he feel about us and how does he feel about us and how does he feel about us and how does he feel about me when i'm a jerk not when i'm peppy and positive and ready to tackle world hunger not then i know how he feels

about me then even i like me then i want to know how he feels about me when i snap at anything that moves when my thoughts are gutter level when my tongue is sharp enough to slice a rock how does he feel about me then can anything separate us from the love christ had for us god answered our question before we asked it so we'd see his answer he lit the sky with a star so we'd hear it he'd hear it and we'd hear it and we'd hear it and we'd hear it and we'd hear it and we'd hear it he filled the night with the choir and so we'd believe it he did what no man had ever dreamed he became flesh and dwelt among us he placed his hand on the shoulder of humanity and said

you're something special take your bibles real quickly and go to habakkuk with me oh god habakkuk where is that again in the old testament go to matthew and go left it's just a little ways in there you go to zechariah and backwards malachi zephaniah and then you come to habakkuk go to habakkuk habakkuk chapter 3 you see habakkuk came to that point cried out to god about the injustice of israel god said i'm sending the babylonians i'm going to destroy everything there i'm going to leave a little bit of a remnant but i'm going to destroy just practically everything there habakkuk cries out to god oh no god please no then habakkuk realized god knows what he's doing

god knows what he's doing he created the world by his understanding and his love endures forever god knows what he's doing and so habakkuk ends his prophecy in this book down in verse 17 of chapter 3 and he says though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls yet i will rejoice in the lord i will be joyful in god my savior the sovereign lord is my strength he makes my feet like the feet of a deer he enables me to go on to the heights joseph and mary understood that and god has their story the reality of the birth of christ into history forever and as we're here tonight

and we're remembering this night two thousand years ago i believe that's what god is crying out to us come unto me you who labor and are heavy laden and i will give you rest take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden is life see you have to respond to what he's done that's that's the only condition you just have to say yes lord i'm willing to be inconvenienced for your sake yes lord i understand the cheapness of my life for you that i'm expendable for your sake i want to be that because there's there's no happiness any other way because i understand your love for me that your love endures forever father as we go to our homes tonight and have that time with family and as we have the dinners

and all the fun and everything tomorrow and there will probably be some inconveniences tomorrow may we remember that your love endures forever amen another worship group come back up here talk about inconvenience and god's blessing in the midst of it this morning the phone rang christmas eve morning had my day planned and i get a call there's a girl in the ponca city hospital who's having a baby and she wants to give it up for adoption and they're trying to get a hold of tim at family life services and they can't find him and somehow they got my number and called me they said you have anything to do with that and i said yeah i'm on the board and i said well this is what's going on and i'm going to do it and i'm

And the social worker is down there, and she's only going to be there until 12. It's 11.35. And so we started looking for Dave Maslin, the attorney for Family Life Services. I started calling different people to try and find Tim. I couldn't find him. We couldn't find him. We prayed. We just said, Lord, you know, that's how we go, right? We do the work, and then we pray.

I finally called the hospital, and we couldn't find the social worker down there. She evidently was on the phone. And so I left word to have her call me back. And time went by. And, of course, she didn't call me back. And so I'm thinking, well, okay, Lord, I guess that one got away. And really feeling bad. I didn't know what else to do. I'd done everything I could.

And at the time, to be honest with you, let me tell you how I felt when I got the call. It's Christmassy. I'll be back in the office. I didn't say that. That's how I felt. But then in the midst of the inconvenience, the awesomeness of what was happening really hit me. And God answered prayer. Tim called, and he'd gotten a hold of, and he was in control of the situation.

He said, The girl just came into the office yesterday and said, I want to place my child. Got to talk to Tim. They prayed together, and she delivered this morning. All the paperwork has flown through. We've had a couple that's been in waiting. They have moved to adopt before and have been disappointed a couple times because at the last minute the girl had changed her mind and all.

And they just happened to have relatives in Arc City. And they just happened to be down. They were coming down to visit, and they just happened to get to pick up their new little baby boy tomorrow morning because a few people were inconvenienced. How wonderful the Lord is. How many blessings we get to see if we're willing to be inconvenienced. Wonderful gospel, wonderful good news that the world needs to hear.

And they'll only hear it if we're willing to be his vessel, if we're willing to see our cheapness before him to be used of him however he wants to use us for his glory. And as we close the service, we close it with candlelight. We're going to darken the sanctuary. We're going to darken the sanctuary in just a second. And that's to symbolize the dark condition of the world.

The world, apart from God's moving, sits in darkness. And that's what Isaiah the prophet said. The world is sitting in darkness, and they have seen a great light. John said in his gospel that Jesus is the light of life who lights the life of men. And so on the altar we have a single candle burning, which represents the Lord, which represents the light of life in him.

And as we darken the sanctuary, the ushers will come forward and we'll light their candles. And they'll come down the aisles and they'll just light the candle of the person on the aisle. And then if you would just pass that light to the person next to you, that symbolizes the fact that the light of life, the word of truth, the gospel has been shared and is being passed on from individual to individual until eventually this entire sanctuary will be filled with light as it has been passed from the one candle to everybody else. That's the gospel.

We have been entrusted with the word of life. We have been entrusted with the treasure. We are but jars of clay. But we have the gift of life to share with humanity, with the people around us, with family, with friends. And that's all God calls us to do, is to be an available vessel to him, to be willing, to be inconvenienced, because he understands, he has a plan

that from our perspective may seem totally crazy, totally foolish, totally if I'm following you and I'm your child, why are all of these things seemingly going wrong? Why are all of these things going wrong? All he says is, trust me, because I love you and my love endures forever. Now we'll do this as we sing Silent Night together. And as every candle is lit, we'll stand together as we sing the third verse.

And I ask that you lift your lights as a symbol of surrender of our hearts back to the Lord. And in that we'll be saying, Lord, here I am. I have received the light that you have sent to me and I offer myself back to you. I'm willing to be inconvenienced. Do what you want with my life, Lord, to bring glory to your name, because I know how much you love me. Ryan, go ahead and darken the sanctuary.

Ushers, if you'd come on down here.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for who you are and for what you've done. And Lord, tonight we would ask that the truth of this would hit us in a way that maybe it hasn't ever before. That we might understand the sense of urgency that there is in our lives, that the time is short before your son comes again, Lord. We've been called to make disciples, to go and share with others.

And I pray that we would release our hearts to that truth, Lord, not let somebody else do it, not just assume it's going to get done by somebody else. But as we come into this new year, we'd be committed in a way that we've never been before. We're totally and completely involved. This is a time of refreshing, a time of renewal tonight. And we thank you for it.

In Jesus' name, amen. When Silent Night was written, probably many of you know, it was written by a priest who went out and spent some time on... Go ahead, you can start. Started, just sat on a hillside before the Lord, and God gave him the words for Silent Night, and he took it to his... organist, who discovered that mice had eaten holes in the bellows of the organ.

And so as he was putting music to this to be done on Christmas Eve, this was in one day this happened. He received the words on one day, and Christmas Eve was the next day. And Franz Gruber then put this music to Silent Night and played it that evening on the guitar. Silent Night Holy Night All is calm and shine Oh, tender and mild Sing in peace The words are on the back of your bulletin.

Have a good Christmas. God bless you all.