The True Light of Christmas

One of the best things about the Christmas season is seeing all the beautiful lights both inside and outside. The Bible talks a lot about light and darkness. The Bible has a lot to say about light and darkness. John 1:4-5 (NIV) says, “In him (Jesus) was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Come to Rockwell Church this Sunday at 10:15 am to be encouraged to live in and shine forth the light of Jesus, your Savior.

NOTES:

Rockwell  Church     Dec 17, 2023   Pastor Chris Teien
Experience the True Light of Christmas
John 1

1. The Light is the source of LIFE (John 1:1–4)

2. The Light OVERCOMES the darkness (John 1:5-6, John 1:9-12)

3. The Light ILLUMINATES Christ-followers lives (John 8:12, 1 John 1:7)

4. The Light shines in believer’s HEARTS (2 Cor 4:6) 

5. The Light is meant the be SHARED (Matt 5:14-16)

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

All right. So experiencing the true light of Christmas. Experiencing the true light of Christmas. And that's really what it's all about, isn't it? Isn't it about the light of Jesus? That's what the Gospel of John says it's about. It's about light. And have you ever really thought about light? I mean, we take light for granted. We have so many choices with light. I mean, now there's all sorts of different types of light bulbs we can buy. I remember you just go to the store and you'd buy a light bulb. They all came in one color. You know, you didn't have to choose the different colors. And so I have determined that I really like the cool, the 6,000 K light, you know, the bluish hue. That's always been the standard that I want. But then I was realizing the other day that when it gets cold, I'm liking the warmer temperature light, like the lights over there, maybe. And so maybe on the 3,500 K, the warmer ones. And I'm like, you know, I almost want to go around my house and like in the summer change it to the cool light bulbs, and in the winter change it to the warm light bulbs just because I like the way it looks better. I hope that it doesn't come to that. So I used to decorate my house, not too much, but with Christmas lights. I just sold them to someone else because I don't have any place to put them. And I'm not crawling up on the roof to put them along the sides of the roof. My neighbor actually did that. My neighbor across the street from me where I used to live, uh, he put all these lights along the gutters along the roof line, and then the wind would blow it off, and he'd come over and ask to borrow my ladder, and he'd be up there in the freezing cold blizzard fixing his Christmas lights, and then uh they'd blow off again, he'd come and get my ladder again. I just don't want to do that. But I used to decorate with Christmas lights, and so um it was pretty pretty spectacular. So um that's not my house. No, this is it. This is actually a thing, it's like Bentleville, but it's in Mankato. So um I've only been to that one. I haven't made it to Bentleville yet, but it would be exciting to go to see the lights. Or I hear the drones put on a spectacular display over Lake Superior until the wind grabbed some of them and threw them in the water. But uh, I guess they couldn't handle the Lake Superior winds. But the drone lights as they go through the sky and make the different displays is pretty amazing. Um a long time ago, before they had lights and electricity, um, it really uh made a difference in what people did during the day. They'd spend a lot of time in the darkness just sleeping or, you know, trying to use candles or whatever. And now that we have lights and we have electricity, it's really changed the way that everything can be done. I mean, literally, uh, because of electricity, uh, cities don't need to sleep. I mean, with enough light, it looks just as much like daytime in the middle of the night as it does during the day because of electricity. And so, in all of our technology and all of the things that we have, we really think that we know a lot. I mean, here, uh, you know, as we come to 2024, uh, the human race, we've we've really got it all together. We we we know it all. So, so we think. But when we come to Christmas time, we come to amazing lights. Uh, one, I want you to think about one, you don't really know much about anything. And two, when you look at Christmas lights in the Christmas season, just think about, okay, if I'm a Christ follower and I'm one light, and I shine my light brightly, and then you're a Christ follower and you shine your light brightly, and then you like look at the trees over there or the lights over there, and think about, okay, what if that, what if all those little series, all those little lights were Christ followers sharing their testimony. And just as I was thinking about that, Dare to Share, a youth ministry organization that teaches kids how to share their faith, posted this thing that said, hey, this might be encouraging to you. Look at all the places that gospel conversations are going on right now around the world. And there's so there's like this um videographic thing showing these lights pop up in different parts of the country and some different parts of the world where kids are going on the app saying, I'm sharing my faith with somebody, you know, pray for me or whatever, and the lights popping on, and there's all these gospel conversation lights going on. So when you think about the lights, you think about Jesus, the light of the world, and his Christ followers reflecting or revealing that light to others. So that is one thing we can think about at Christmas time. Now let me tell you why I don't think that you know as much as you think you know, why we don't know as much as we think we know. So I was looking this stuff up, and it says that um, well, I saw a chart of 55 different types of light bulb shapes. So usually at least three LED light bulb colors in the store. I already shared that with you. But then at the um spectroscopy 101, the light and matter at the Web Space Telescope site, talks about what are the six forms of light: gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, the visible rainbow, infrared light, microwaves, and radio waves are all forms of light, also called the electromagnetic radiation. Together they make up the electromagnetic spectrum. That's right, the radio waves that carry music from the station to your radio, the microwaves that heat up your food and the X-rays dentists use to detect tooth decay are all forms of light. So we can only learn, we can learn only so much from a visible spectrum. Some stars are so hot that most of their light is ultraviolet. Planets and dust grains are too cool to emit visible light. They give off most of their light as infrared. Many atoms and molecules are easier to detect via their ultraviolet or infrared spectra than their visible, then they than their visible. Some phenomena emit radio waves but no other measurable form of light. Some galaxies are so far away that their light, which was once visible, has been stretched out into infrared light. And then the Department of Energy site, the government site, says the entire rainbow of radiation observable to the human eye only makes up a tiny portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, about 0.0035%. This range of wavelength is known as visible light. So, and the Scientific American website says, How much can humans perceive? Only 5% of the universe's normal observable matter. Within that small fraction, the human eye can only perceive matter that emits light within a certain frequency on the electromagnetic spectrum. While birds can perceive magnetic fields and snakes can imagine or can image in the infrared, we can detect only visible light. So think about that. Think about all there is out there that we can't even see. All these things that could be known if we could perceive it, but we can't. And then we have Jesus, who we saw in past weeks, was not only God's Son, but also involved in creation, creator who has come to share with us how life is, how life works, what the purpose of life is, while we're why we are here and where we are headed. So God has created us because he wants us to worship him, and in return, we will receive the kind of life that we could never have on our own, the type of understanding that we could never know if Jesus hadn't revealed it, if God hadn't given us his word and preserved its word. It's amazing how many times people have tried to destroy God's word and it never works. But if there was no light, we would quickly die. If we were in darkness, um it would be the well, there'd be no photosynthesis, there would the plants would die, there would be nothing to eat, uh oxygen would be a problem, there'd be so many problems without light. And but God has given us light, and so that light is the source of life. That light is the source of life. Can you imagine if there was no light, how depressed we would be, how sad we would be, how insecure we would feel, how difficult things would be. Um most likely we would die quite quickly. Um but in that form of depression, we would probably be happy with that anyway. So there's people that have seasonal light disorder where they get like a special lamp on their desk to help them, you know, through the through the dark times. And that can be a real thing this time of year as we're coming, you know, Christmas time brings us to the winter solstice, which brings us to the darkest day of the year, the day with the shortest amount of daylight of the entire year. And then once we get past Christmas time, then the day starts to get longer again, and we we get excited because pretty soon um, you know, spring and summer will be back, and we can get to the summer solstice, and that will be good. But just a reminder of where we've been in John chapter one, uh shared this in the last couple of weeks. But in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. So this is talking about Jesus. Through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. So Jesus is the life and the light. He is the light that illuminates in the darkness, in the dark world, in the sinful dark world. Man brought darkness and sin into the world when he sinned against God. And so in the midst of the darkness, this bright light shines out and is available to us to illuminate the way, to show us which way to go, to show us which way is the safe way to go. It is really difficult when things are totally dark. Um, have you ever been out in total darkness before? Uh there was a time when I was riding my bicycle. Uh it was summer, but um it was a full moon. And I'm like, oh, this is so cool. I'm going for a bike ride because you could see everything. You know, the loot, the moon was lighting everything up where we used to live with the uh the farm fields and the dirt roads and stuff that I would ride my bike down. And so um the I didn't realize it was cloudy. So the moon, which isn't light, it reflects the light of the sun. The moon, which was illuminating my way, making my night so great because I could see everything without a flashlight, um, went behind a cloud and I couldn't see anything. So it was so dark. I mean, there's like couldn't see anything. Yeah, no, there was no city lights, just farm stuff. So I put my phone, my very expensive flashlight, on my on my shirt with a little clip, and it was kind of illuminating the way. And I kind of had a general idea of where I was going down this dirt road. And so, but then off into the horizon, I saw this thing. It was weird. It was like these glowing eyes, and so it's it looked evil, it really looked evil. And as I got closer, there were more of them, and I'm like, what in the world? And as I got right, I'm like, I kept riding towards them, I probably should have gone the other way. But it turns out that all the Texas longhorn steer that this guy had were up along the fence watching me come along, and what I was getting was the reflection off of their eyes and their horns, and it was so weird because it was so dark. If it had been light, if it that the moon was doing its job and the clouds were out of the way, I would have been able to see what was happening there. It wouldn't have been a freaky situation because I would have been able to, you know, see what was going on. I would have felt safer because I would have known what was going on. And that's what light does in our life. It illuminates the way and helps us to find uh the safe way to go to make the right choices. Psalm 119, 105 says, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And as we spend time in God's word, it helps us to understand the way which we should go, the way which we should live, and gives light into our life. Light that we receive so that we can uh know the right way to go and the right things to do, and light that we can reflect to help other people in their time of need, in their darkness, to see something different in us. Psalm 27, 1 says, The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? Again, um, where we used to live, probably get tired of those, but I did spend 20 years there, so what am I supposed to do with those stories? So all the power went out in town, total darkness. It's so weird that you can have a town of like 7,000 people uh and like one pole that goes down the highway, and if someone runs into it, then everybody's power goes out. And so the darkness uh was all over town, except for the grocery store, the new grocery store. It was like this blazing light in the midst of all the darkness. I just had to go see what the deal was over there. So, and that's when I discovered that this grocery store was built with a generator system that takes care of everything. You would have no idea the power was out because of the power that they had. All their lights were on. Uh, the gas pumps were still pumping gas, the cash registers were still working. Nothing had changed in this place, even though everybody else in town had no power because they had their own generator. And I was talking to the manager, and he's like, not only do we do our own power when the power goes out, but during the summer when the electricity is being used heavily with people's air conditioners and stuff, the power company calls us and asks if we'll take ourselves off of the power grid and use our generators uh to reduce demand. And so that is so cool. What if we as Christians, uh empowered by the Holy Spirit in times of darkness and times of difficulty, could be that kind of power generating light? If we could be fully functional in dark times because we are charged up with what we know of Christ and Christ working in our life and the power that he gives us to accomplish things, wouldn't that be great? Jesus is creator, Jesus is life, and Jesus is light. And I hope that every one of you has experienced Jesus as your Lord and personal Savior. And you see the truth in it. You see that we are so frail, we are so finite, we are so not in control, but yet the Lord seems to hold things together. Now, there are a lot of difficulties caused by people's free will and sin in the world and um difficult stuff, and someday Jesus will make all of that right. But Jesus is light in the darkness, Jesus is eternal life, the life of all men who will receive him. So Paul actually talks about this as he writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy. He says, For at just the right time, Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only Almighty God, the King of all kings and Lord of all lords. So someday Jesus is going to return. It could be any time. It could be next week, it could be a thousand years from now. God knows the perfect time. Until that time happens, more people have opportunity to hear the message, have Christ come into the life so that they can be saved and live with us for all eternity. The longer Jesus waits, the more opportunity you might have to bring people with you to heaven. So I might have opportunity to lead like great grandkids to Christ who aren't here yet. Um, and they'll spend eternity uh with us in heaven. I don't even know them yet. They're not even uh, you know, they're uh they're they're unknown, but if Christ the longer Christ waits, the more opportunity there is. Anyway, so just the right time. Christ will be revealed, and it talks about God the Father, um, how he is Almighty, and then it says he alone can never die, and he lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach him. No human eye has ever seen him nor ever will. All honor and power to him forever. Amen. So this light is bright, this light is powerful at the perfect time. Jesus is coming back. So um I don't know if you've ever watched the videos of our church before online, but I'm not the most handsome looking video personality here in this church. So I actually look Asian and I'm not. I'm Norwegian. Thain is a Japanese name in Norwegian, but I always look like I'm squinting because I'm light sensitive because the lights are so bright and it makes me it makes me squint. But light can be so bright that it can burn your eyes. It can, the UV rays can burn your retinas. You can get, if you watch someone arc welding, you can actually burn your eyes. Like some burn on your eyes, and usually it's temporary, but it can cause blindness. Um, it can cause a lot of trouble. Uh staring at a halogen of a bright halogen light can damage your eyes, can burn your eyes. And if God the Father lives in this brilliant, unapproachable light that we couldn't handle seeing, it's not just about the brightness of the light, it's about the holiness of God the Father. He is so holy, he is so pure, He and we are so sinful. Um, there will be a time probably when we have our glorified bodies that we will be able to see the Father and be able to experience that. But I just told you about all this stuff on the different sides of the of the light spectrum that we can't see. I mean, what if there are spiritual beings all around? What if the place is filled with angels, hopefully not demons, filled with angels all around that we can't see because they're in a different light spectrum, but they're real, they're there, and they're around. Would that make a difference in the way that you lived your life? If you're like, okay, uh, I'm never alone, there's an audience around me, I want to do the right thing to glorify God. But light so brilliant, no one can approach. So when Jesus came, when Jesus came into the world, when he became, well, when he took on the form of man, he was he's always God, but when he took on the form of man, he brought God down so that we would be able to interact, so that we would be able to see, to understand, to listen, to comprehend. And that is one of the greatest things about Christmas that we celebrate. And it's too bad we only do it once a year, that we celebrate Jesus coming into the world so that we would be able to see the light of life, so that we would be able to understand that God loves us, that God wants to have a personal relationship with us. No matter what we've done or where we've been, he offers forgiveness and he offers the opportunity for us to spend the rest of our lives and even all eternity following his plan and all the excitement that comes from that. And that light, that light overcomes the darkness, uh overcomes the darkness. We live in a very dark, evil world. We've been talking about that at Sunday school a little bit, but uh the things that they have at the bookstore, um the books, so much witchcraft, evil, um, so many things, darkness, the things they put on TV, the movies, the things uh that they put uh that people watch for entertainment, often evil, darkness, sinful stuff. Um even the teenage stuff. I remember it was years ago, but I remember telling one of my kids, I'm like, so if you were to do that thing that that kid just did on this TV show, not only would you get suspended from school, but I think the police would come visit us for that. So that that that's not real. That doesn't that doesn't work, that doesn't fly. But Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. So Satan is unable to overcome the light. When light shines, it's hard to make it stop shining. The only way that you can make it stop shining is to extinguish it or to cover it up. So sometimes light shines so much farther than you can imagine. So I think, I'm not sure, I think we can see a few miles during the daytime with our eyes, you know, maybe further if we're on like a high point on a mountain or something like that. But I believe we could see, you know, hundreds, like thousands or more miles uh when we look up at the stars in space. So some of the light in the sky though, um it's disappointing for two reasons. One, all these people are posting these images of the northern lights. And I'm like, yeah, I've seen the northern lights before, I'd like to see that. And I get out of my backyard and I don't see anything. I'm like, huh. Well, I think that's the light from Virginia, I think that's the light from Hibbing. Um I'm not seeing it because it's just too bright, I guess. And then you're trying to look at the stars, you're trying to teach little kids about the stars. They're like, what are all those lights? I'm like, those aren't stars, those are satellites. Um, so have you ever seen the trail of satellites as they go by? And it looks like a train of lights, you know, going through the sky. I'm like, yeah, those are satellites, those aren't stars. But nonetheless, um, light shines in the darkness, and that's where it can be seen the most. And the darkness has not overcome it. Darkness indicates ignorance and sin and active rejection of God's will. Those in darkness reject Christ, his light, and his followers. But no matter how deep the darkness, even a small light can drive it back. And the power of Christ's life overcomes any darkness in the world. Jesus came to light up Our lives to give us a better quality of life, to help us to live in the power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit, to help us to find meaning and purpose in life and to even change the world. And as we do that, certain people aren't going to be happy about that. But that's actually, I'm getting ahead of myself. Okay. Verse 9: the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. So he came to God's chosen people. He was the expected Messiah of the Israelites. So they had heard about his coming, but when he showed up, he wasn't what they expected. So I don't think they expected humble Jesus to hang out with the fishermen that he chose for disciples and the tax collector and those other guys. And, you know, he did some miracles, but he didn't do all the miracles that they wanted him to. People believed in him as long as they did what they as long as Jesus did what they expected. But then when he didn't do what they expected, then they didn't believe on him anymore. They didn't truly believe on him as the Son of God, as the Messiah, as the Savior of the world, until after, until after he went to the cross and he made the sacrifice for our sins, and then he rose again. Then he was seen by his disciples and over 500 others before he ascended into heaven in that 40-day period. And so he was rejected then, and he's often rejected now, but yet there's still a lot of people all over the world that have received Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and do know him, and do understand him and do pursue him and see him as the source of their life. See him as valuable. I hope that's why you're part of this church. I hope that's why you're a member of this church, is because Christ is in your life and you want to be part of the local body of Christ. You want to be part of what God is doing. We need to do more as a church to help disciple new people, to help them grow, to raise up leaders, to replace the other leaders that used to be here before. So I've been here for two years and I don't know, two years and a month or so. And two years and two months. And in that time, we have lost nine people. Eight people that were, we've lost nine people, but eight people that were core people of this church, uh, leaders of the past in this church in just that period of time, they've all gone to be with Jesus and we celebrate that. You know, there's and they were old, most of them. Um but nonetheless, we need to raise up new leaders. We need to raise up new Christ followers, we need to live for Jesus because we have no idea how much time we get left. Um, I could I could walk out of this building, go out on the highway, get in a car accident, and die. Um or you could, or I could live a really long time, or you, you know, we just have no idea how long our days will be. It could be long, they could be short, nobody knows. But each day we should live for Christ. Each day we should live a life that matters. Now, there's all sorts of extenuating circumstances in everybody's life that just make it seem like, well, I can't serve Jesus because of this. You know, I can't serve Jesus because this part of my life is messed up, or um, maybe you're like a we I like to call them like kind of like church widows, or uh you come to church by yourself because your spouse doesn't, so they're okay with you coming to church, but they don't want to come to church. Um that's not for them, but they're okay with it if you do it. And so uh, but be faithful with what you have, be faithful with who you are, be faithful to just answer anybody that accuses you of you know whatever was wrong in your whatever's messed up in your life, of saying, Um, well, Jesus, I've asked him to forgive me of that. Um, he's changing me from the inside out. That's not who I am anymore. Um forgive me of my of that in the past, but I'm moving on. And you know, one of the places that happens the most is when you go to the family gatherings at Christmas time, when you show up among your former, among your among the places you used to live, among your parents and um your siblings and the people that knew who you used to be. Um they don't maybe maybe they don't understand the change that's in you. Maybe they don't understand what Christ is doing in you, what Christ had done in you, that he's changed you and how important it is. And Scripture says, yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. So have you received Jesus? Do you believe in his name, not just believe that he existed as a historical person, but truly believe who that he is, who he says he is. Have you asked him to forgive you of your sin and come into your life and save you? Because if you have, it says he gave you the right to become a child of God, a child of God, and we talked about that in the past, and that light illuminates Christ's followers' lives. That light illuminates Christ's followers' lives. In John chapter 17, when Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Are you following Jesus? If you looked at your schedule, if you looked at your goals for 2024, if you looked at um the things that you're passionate about, if you closed your eyes right now and you you're like, okay, what's the first thing that comes to mind? You know, hopefully it's Jesus and not the Vikings. So um, you know, there's a 50% chance that they could go to the playoffs and a like next to nothing chance they'll win a Super Bowl. I was reading that yesterday. But nonetheless, put Jesus first, follow him. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Jesus says, This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So it is good to follow Jesus. It is good to know Jesus. And then so Jesus is praying this actually. He's about to go to the cross, but he's praying this to the Father, and he says, I brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And so he accomplished God's task and he gave us what we need to know. He didn't give us everything about everything that we could know about creation, but he gave us enough to put us in a right relationship so we could become children of God. And John 1, 1 John 1 7 says, If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin. So we're walking in the light, we're living in the light, and we're purified from sin. And what else are we doing? We're fellowshipping with each other. We need each other. If we're going to be a strong church, if we're going to be a strong Christ follower, we need to be in the body of Christ. And you can watch TV online, uh video online if you're watching on cable or video, and that's great, and we appreciate that you do. But it's so much better when you are here in person, when you just start to show up. And it might take a bit for you to feel connected, but come here, and we would love to make you part of our church family. Number four, the light shines in believers' hearts. The light shines in your heart so that you will know the way, so that you can be confident in the dark, difficult times, so you can have peace in the midst of the tragedies that are all around, so you can find peace from your past and hope for the future. 2 Corinthians 4, 6 says, For God who said, Let the light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ. And we look to Christ, we watch Christ, we follow Christ, and it is a good thing to do. So I am gonna show a video here for two for a minute and a half, um, but I'm also gonna skip ahead real soon. So be ready for the lights, but we'll get to the video in a second here. So um, number five, the light is meant to be shared. Jesus doesn't give light to the world and to the Christ follower just for you to keep it to yourself, just for you to like hide it and say, I got my light, and you can't have it, it's all mine. Oh, there's plenty of light to go around for everyone. There's plenty of light to shine out so that other people can see Christ in your life, so that other people can see what you're doing. So sometimes um those glow-in-the-dark things, you know, they they get enough sunlight and they glow for a while, and that's pretty cool. And so, you know, we should we should be in the presence of Christ, and then we should glow, kind of like Moses did when he came down from the mountain, that Shekinah glory followed glowing from his face. He would be up with God on the mountain, he'd come down, and there'd be like, Moses, put a veil on, man. We can't see anything because his face would just shine out. And so it would be great if Christ would shine out in our life, and if we would share the message of Christ, if we would share the source of light, if we would be like like the moon reflects the light from the sun, that would be pretty cool. So, but um hang on one second. Matthew 5 14 says, You are the light of the world, a town built on a hill cannot be hidden, neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they give put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. So we're gonna watch a video in a second, but on Christmas Eve day, we're gonna talk about experiencing the grace and blessings of Christmas, and then Christmas Eve night, uh, it's a shorter message, we're gonna celebrate the life-changing gift of Jesus. So I'm gonna pray, we're gonna watch this video, and then the worship team is gonna come up and close for our closing song. But Lord Jesus, I pray that we would do more than this message than just nod our heads and go, isn't that interesting? But that we would realize that you are the light that shines in a dark world, and as your followers, we are supposed to carry that light to others. Lord, help us to carry that light through our actions and the things that we do and say, and the way we interact with each other, and the way that we don't gossip and cause conflict, but the way that we show love and care for one another, um, people will see that light. And let us bring light to dark places, even when it's not welcome, because sometimes when people uh see the light, they reject it because of their sinful ways, and they don't want that to be exposed. Lord, help us to take you seriously and to follow your will in your way, to spend time in the light of your word, which is a lamp that guides our feet on the path of life. So, Lord, we ask us all in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, we're gonna watch this video. You can grab the lights, and then the worship team will come up for the closing song.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Christmas is a beautiful thing filled with joy and laughter, family and friends. It's a beautiful day and a beautiful season, but it's so much more than that. Christmas is a belief that the God who made the world also loved the world, so much so that he sent his one and only son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. This is Christmas. Christmas isn't just a story to be told and then forgotten. But it's a story to be remembered and loved and lived. Christmas is a celebration, rejoicing in the light of the world, stepping into the darkness for all of us. Christmas is a time with all kinds of people, with all kinds of places, come together to remember any well. Christmas is an invitation. Oakcome, all you faithful, welcome, all you come, let us go.