The Power of Jesus Love in Action

In this message, Pastor Chris reflects on the significance of love during the Christmas season, emphasizing how Jesus' love is demonstrated through action and sacrifice. He discusses the journey of Joseph and Mary, the challenges they faced, and how their story exemplifies love in action. Chris also highlights the transformative power of love, the importance of sharing this love with others, and the impact of Jesus on society. The conversation concludes with an invitation for listeners to experience and share this love in their own lives.


Takeaways

• Love is often taken for granted, especially during Christmas.
• Jesus' love is demonstrated through action and sacrifice.
• The journey of Joseph and Mary illustrates love in action.
• Serving and sharing faith can be difficult but shows love.
• God orchestrated the events of Jesus' birth perfectly.
• Love moves near, even in difficult circumstances.
• Christmas is a time to reflect on Jesus' love and share it with others.
• The transformative power of love can change lives.
• Christianity has significantly influenced society and moral values.
• Inviting others to experience Jesus' love is essential. 

Outline

Rockwell Church     Dec 22, 2024     Pastor Chris Teien
The Power of Jesus’ Love in Action
Luke 2:1-7, John 1:14

1. Jesus' Love Moves NEAR (Luke 2:1-7)

2. Jesus' Love Moves to SACRIFICE (John 3:16)

3. Jesus' Love Moves to TRANSFORM  (John 1:14)


Keywords

Christmas, love, Jesus, sacrifice, faith, church, worship, community, transformation, hope

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, well, it's been about almost three years that we've been Rockwell Church, connecting people of all ages to Christ the Rock, so that together we can live well lives of worshiping, encouraging, learning, and loving. And those are actually things that you do at Christmas time. You worship, you encourage or evangelize. Well, you can still learn and you show love. You show love through telling people about Jesus. Sometimes you show love through showing up, caring, giving. And so loving is a big deal. Loving is important. Loving is something that we often take for granted. I often have been married for 37 years, and I feel like overwhelming, gushing love for my wife every time I see her. Well, no, actually not. Sorry. I do. Every time I think of losing her, every time I think of something were to happen to her, or if she wasn't here, you know, then I do. But if I felt that every single time, it'd be hard to get any work done around here. And we're still trying to let new people know that the church administrative secretary lady is my wife. That's why she comes and brings me food and gives me back rubs and says nice things to me and all those things. But nonetheless, love is something that we can take for granted. And to talk about a message at Christmas time on love, you might just go, yeah, whatever. Jesus loves me. I know that I'm good and move on. But if you really think about it, if you think about Jesus' love at Christmas time and Jesus' love in action, then that should motivate you, inspire you, encourage you, and maybe even get you excited to share the story. To share the story. I listen and sometimes even watch what I do here on Sundays and think about things that I could do better. And it's many, I'm sure. But for two weeks in a row, I said pastors have a hard time when it comes to Christmas time and Easter because everybody knows the story. And so I don't know if it was a thought in my head or maybe the Holy Spirit was talking to me. But there's nothing wrong with the old, old story. There's nothing wrong with traditions, and actually there's expectations with traditions. Now I hope I don't offend anybody here by what I'm about to say. But when Thanksgiving time rolls around, I think just about everybody has a general expectation that they're going to be eating turkey. So now you may have changed up the menu and had fish tacos or something. But if at my house we had fish tacos, I'd be like, well, that doesn't seem like much of a Thanksgiving. And uh I was listening to one of the Christian radio stations and the announcers they talk too much in the morning. I tell you, just play the song. But anyway, they're talking about how it didn't seem right to have turkey for Christmas because that was for Thanksgiving. So what should you have for Christmas? And so there's just traditions that we have. And traditions that we have at Christmas time, I think every time should be thinking and talking about Jesus' love. But Jesus' love wasn't a love where God just sent a message and said, Hey, everybody, I just want you to know I love you. Love you, love you, love you. Do whatever you want. I'm a God of love. Just thought I'd let you know. But instead, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit got together and said, Those people are really messed up. There is no way that they're going to be able to spend eternity with us because of their sinfulness, because we're holy and we can't stand sin. So what are we going to do? They've got a sin debt. They'll never be able to pay it. Jesus says, I will go. I will go, I'll live among them. I will become a man. I will I will teach them how to live. And then I will purposefully go to the cross, suffer. I'll take on their sins in exchange, in exchange, give them my righteousness if they believe upon me. And I'll show them love that way. We'll adopt them as children of God. And then we can spend eternity together. That is love in action. And love takes action. So I am terrible with sympathetic words. I mean, if you tell me you've got a problem or whatever, I am not very good at going, oh poor thing, I feel so bad for you. That's my wife's department. She's super good at it. So I am not. I'm like, what can we do to fix it? I mean, I will travel, you know, a long distance in the middle of the night to get somebody a prescription if that helps fix something. I want to be a fixer. I want to show my love in action. I try. I try with the words of sympathy. So, and if I ever am trying really hard, don't go, oh, I just know you're trying. That's not really your thing. But I'm trying to learn from my wife, you know. She's she's been teaching me a lot over the years. But nonetheless, I think that Jesus' love was shown powerful in action. The power of Jesus' love in action. Number one, love moves near. Love moves near. And you know, in the Christmas story in Luke chapter 2, in those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. So Joseph and Mary were part of that Roman world, and the census was really to find out how many taxpayers we've got here and how many people can we conscript into the army. So Joseph wasn't at risk of being pulled into the army, but they did want to count heads and know how many tax people, how many taxpayers they had. And so they made this rule that said that you had to travel back to the place in which you were born and uh go for this census. So you couldn't just send it in, you had to actually go. And this was the first census that took place where Corinius was governor of Syria. He was a he was a big deal, and he was big into numbers. He liked to count those numbers. So everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph had to go back to where he was from. So Joseph went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. And so I think that you see Joseph's lineage in Matthew and Mary's lineage in Luke. But so Joseph and Mary, actually, Mary didn't, from what I understand, Mary didn't really have to go. So she could have stayed behind. But she went with. And so they traveled to Bethlehem. And it was roughly, if if you took the roads, it was 90 miles, I guess. I guess if you could fly, it'd be like 70. But there were wild animals, there were thieves and robbers, there were sometimes you'd have to like take a little different path. It was a rugged trail. And so they traveled. They did what they were supposed to do, and they traveled. So he went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. So while they were there, the time came for the baby to be born. So let me just back this up a little bit. So in Galatians 4:4, it talks about how in the fullness of time God sent his son, born of a woman, born under law, that we might receive adoptions as sons. So God orchestrated this perfectly to get Joseph and Mary where they needed to be so that they could fulfill the prophecy that I think was in Micah 5.2 or something, somewhere around there, and to orchestrate this whole thing. So, but it wasn't easy for Joseph and Mary. I mean, the angels showed up and told Mary what was going to happen. So why couldn't the angels or the Holy Spirit just like transport them? Say, hey, you know what? We need to move you. It's going to be difficult. Here, fly with me, or let's just transport you there and make it easy. But no, they endured the difficulty. And sometimes, in the midst of God's love, when we serve, when we worship, when we share our faith, sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's difficult. Sometimes in all of the anxiety or the work or whatever, it's hard. But I think that in the midst of all of that, you really show God how much you love Him. So when you serve, when you give, when you share your faith, when you show care for others, when you help provide for the needs of others, when you're trying to be like Jesus, hands and feet, it's difficult. And I think that that's you showing love in action. That's you showing God how much you love him and Jesus how much you appreciate him and as your Lord and Savior who bought you with a price to be able to show that kind of love and worship. And this is the one time of year where we can easily speak about our Lord and Savior when we can more likely talk about Jesus without people getting all upset. So I think though that there's a lot fewer people that get upset than we think. I think Satan wants to do everything he can to make us be quiet. Just sit down, be quiet. Nobody wants to hear what you have to say. But I think there's a lot of people that want to hear what you have to say. So while they were there, the time came for the baby to be born. So it's kind of an inconvenient time, probably not what they had planned, probably didn't expect to have the baby right then and there. But Mary gave birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them. So the reason they think that Jesus might have been born in an animal stable is because of the word manger. So in the pictures and um, well, not that's not wood, but I guess wood was really expensive, so it'd be highly unlikely that he was in a wooden cradle. More likely it was a carved-out rock. Maybe they put some hay in there or whatever to make Jesus a little more comfortable. The claws, the swaddling claws, were strips of claws where they would wrap the baby up real tight to make him feel secure and keep him warm. And so Mary was being a good mom, even though the circumstances and the conditions weren't ideal. So Jesus was born to basically poor people in a difficult situation. In uh the tired parents who had traveled a long ways that were just doing what they were told to go take part in the census. And sometimes that's how God moves, sometimes that's how God moves in the midst of difficulty. Sometimes God moves you in the midst of difficulty. Some of you won't move until God makes you move. So, for instance, some people wouldn't move if there was no need to move. So somebody loses a job and they need to find another job, and then they find another job and it's a different place, so then they are moving. Some people tell me in their life experience that they felt that they wanted to do, they wanted to serve in a church, they wanted to do some things different, but they were pretty comfortable with where they were. And then when God allowed their life to kind of get all shaken up and all the pieces fell and they landed in a particular place, then they found themselves serving in in this church and making a difference in a in a way and serving in a way they weren't before. And maybe you're someone who's come here recently, or someone that has ministry skills that they'd like to use or would like to get involved. And so we are a church that you can get involved if you're watching online. Maybe you should come in person and try it and see uh where you fit. Come serve with us. But we show love by the way we serve, we show love by the way we care. Mary was showing love for Jesus and the way that she cared for him. So, and then Jesus. Jesus showed great love in what he has done for us in Philippians chapter two. In Philippians chapter two, it talks about. Um I have verse six on the screen, but Paul says to the church at Philippi in verse in chapter two if we have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of mind, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, as is on the screen, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. So, on the throne with God, up in heaven, um, he could have said, you know, that is not something that I can do or would do because uh I'm very important. And don't you know who I am? I help speak the world into existence. And but instead, Jesus is like, you know, I'm willing to do anything because I love those people so much that I would be willing to go down there and in the incarnation become one of them and live with them, among them, experience that. And that's when Hebrews, I think, in the book of Hebrews, why it says that we have a high priest, Jesus, who's able to sympathize with us in all our weaknesses. He's tempted in every way, but you never gave in to sin. And so he understands heartbreak and disappointment and toil and difficulty and hunger and things that you experience. He has experienced that and understands. And you can know that when you pray, that he can hear, that he cares, and that in his timing, if it's his will, he can help you, he can answer, he can heal, he can help, he can provide, he can rescue. Pray. Pray for whatever it is you need. If you need a friend, pray. If you need more resources, pray and ask God and see what you might need to do to change. Some people want friends, they want Christian friends. They want, I wanted, I came to the church and I didn't make any friends, is what I've heard before. Which I pointed out. You realize that you show up late and you're the first one out the door. How are you planning on making any friends? Nobody even had a chance to, you know, catch you. So maybe if you were to just like hang out, talk with some people. I did this thing when I was my first semester at Bible college, my friend and I. It was kind of weird though. Uh, it was Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and um, there were 1,500 girls and 500 guys. And my friend and I, we would just sit at a table by ourselves to see who would come sit with us. It was kind of fun. But out of all those girls, I never met anybody like Julie, my perfect bride. So it's true, part of my testimony. But we would just sit there and see who showed up. And we made friends that way. And we also got involved in things. So I was not a music major, but I ended up in university choir, university band, and intramural sports. Had the time of my life. It was a very expensive vacation. I didn't get very many credits that first semester, but uh, I did make a lot of friends. And if you want to make some friends, maybe you need to show up to uh a Bible study. Maybe you need to just say, Hey, would you like to come over? Or hey, would you like to get together and pray and look for opportunities to connect with people and look for those friends? And maybe you, maybe you can open up your schedule or your time and see who God would allow you to be friend. Who is it that you've connected with? Sometimes people come to church and they have similar interests. And I'm like, hey, you know what? You're interested in that. And I know another guy that's interested in that. So I wanted to introduce you and you can talk about, you know, building hot rods or fishing or whatever or things like that. So, but nonetheless, rather, Jesus made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. That type of humility, that type of love, that type of gift. And so I know that the gift has been continuing to give for over 2,000 years, and that is awesome. And until Jesus returns, it will continue to give. The story will continue to be relevant. And but think about it. I mean, here you have Jesus who created the Bible says that he was there at creation, he was part of creating. He could have just wiped us all out and started out over all over again, but instead, he endures with us. Our brokenness, our sinfulness, the things that uh are we're slow to learn, the sins that we're slow to turn from. He continues to be there. We're in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, not just a religion. We read God's word, we read the word, the Holy Spirit helps us understand. We pray to Jesus, we pray in the Father's name. We have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit at work in the world and at work in our lives. And one of the things that you could do when you are somewhere for Christmas time is share your faith story. Maybe share what your life was like before you came to Christ, how you came to Christ, and what your life has been like since. Or if you're in a group of people that have known you for a really long time, maybe you could share what the Lord's been doing in your life, what he's been teaching you, what uh, you know, areas that you've seen him at work, because that's an encouragement to everybody around you. Answered prayers, maybe even some prayers that you're looking for an answer, and maybe they can pray with you and pray for you. But it is a good thing to remember what Jesus did to make this relationship possible, to make this opportunity that we have possible. And it's important for us to never ever take it for granted. So Christmas isn't just a season that will come and go, because by the time we come around to next Sunday, we'll be off to something else. We'll be talking about the new year, delighting in Christ in the new year, and then after that, we'll have a series on chasing what matters, and you know, the clock will come keep, you know, we'll just keep moving forward. On Christmas Eve, we've got a good service planned for Christmas Eve. So bring your friends and family for 45 minutes of Christmas Eve time on Tuesday from 4:30 until 5:15. And that gives you time to still, you know, get home and dinner and all that. From what we hear, that's a good time for most people. But nonetheless, year round, think about how much Jesus loves you and how much that makes a difference. Never forget it. All right, let's look at more of love moves to sacrifice, of love moving to sacrifice. That verse, probably the first verse you all memorized, the first verse I memorized. So my step-grandparents, they gave me a quarter for each Bible verse I memorized. And back then you could actually do something with a quarter. So now you might have to, you know, step it up, you know, give kids a dollar for each verse they memorize or something. Inflation, you know. But for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. So God so loved the entire world. When you think about that, you think about people of all the different nations and all the different languages and all the different cultures. And as Jerry was talking about, all the different types of chili. So I got to go to Chili for almost a month, and there they didn't serve chili. I asked if they had good chili, and they're like, we don't eat chili and chili. So is what I was told. So maybe they do, but not. I was in the slums, La Pentana. So I asked about chili, they're like, no, no, we don't know chili. So, but that kind of love, he loves the world, he loves your neighbors, he loves the people around you, he loves and is reaching out in love to the people that don't just get it. But if you keep sharing the message and God keeps working in their life with other people sharing the message, someday they might just get it. Someday they might just, you know what? I think I understand what you're talking about now. Let them read it in the word. These how to find God New Testaments that we give away are so helpful. In the front, there are all these notes to talk about who is God, who is the Holy Spirit, what are angels, who is Jesus, what must I do to be saved? How can I grow as a Christian? Job performance, choices, attitude towards self, all sorts of notes and whatever. And we want you to take them and to give them away. And I mentioned in the past that I prefer to put them in a big ziploc bag in my car so that when I find somebody to share one with, they get one that's clean and dry and doesn't have any road salt or any mud on it or whatever. And I'm ready to share. And maybe you can be too because God loves the world so much, and God loves you so much. And because you're saved in Christ, because you repented of your sin and believed on Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and he adopted you as a child of God, you love him so much that you can't help but share the message and share the love. The love part comes more from not just you being a good person to, oh, you know, I just feel so full of love. You know, what could I do to be helpful to somebody today? But often it's more as you are receiving more and more of God's word and God's love and it's flowing through you, then out of that it flows out of you. There's been times as pastors, sometimes we get to be like social workers and help people in need. And sometimes, I think many times, people have tried to con us or try to take advantage of the church and get stuff. But there's been times when I was questioning whether or not this person's need was real, or if you know, giving them, you know, gas money or groceries or all of these different things was really, you know, something they needed, or just something that they were trying to get from the church. I literally had one church group that helped somebody in need. I had met somebody in town and not this town, said he, his kids, his boys, didn't have socks or underwear. Or whatever. So the ladies in the church they went to the store and they got all sorts of socks and underwear and they brought all, gave me all the stuff. And I went to his house and I said, The church wants to help you and give you some of the stuff for your boys. And what did I expect? Him to say thank you. Now we can buy groceries or something like that. This is what the guy said and just blew me away. He said, Thanks, man. Now I can afford a custom exhaust for my truck. It's like that was not the purpose. I did not take the stuff back, but I knew that what we did was still a need that was fulfilled, and we honored the Lord by being faithful to give in that way. So God sees what we do, even if it gets misapplied or whatever. And it is an act of worship in the way that we show care. Because God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, Jesus, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Perishing is not like fruit that you bring home and eventually it goes bad and you throw it away and it disintegrates into nothing. Perish is eternal separation from God. So we all are going to live somewhere for eternity. We're either going to live with God or away from God. And through Jesus, by believing upon Jesus, we're pistol, believing, like if I was drowning and you you shouldn't like reach your hand out because I could pull you down and I could make you drown. But when you hold out that that towel or your shirt or that pool noodle or whatever you got, and I cling on to that for life, that's the type of I'm believing that that's gonna hold me up and bring me in. And Jesus is that thing that saves us, that thing that we hang on to, that thing we place our trust in, that thing that we believe upon. And it shouldn't just be I believe it exists, it should be I believe in and I trust that Jesus will get me through, that he will help me, that he will save me, that what he has said about eternity is true, and I'm going to invest my life in building his kingdom and sharing Jesus with people. Because in Romans 5:8, again it says God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So in Romans 5, Paul says a lot of great things about peace and hope. But in verse 1, it says, Therefore, since we've been justified through faith and we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Christmas is about peace too. Through him we have gained access by faith into this grace which we now stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time when we are still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And you can continue to read the good news in that chapter. But Christ died for us. Christ wants us to live in him. Christ wants us to live for eternity, to have the confidence. And I get to see it sometimes in even the lives of saints who have helped been foundational in this church in the past, to sometimes hear some of their last words as they're dying. Sometimes they tell me what they'd like me to do at their funeral memorial service. But I hear so many times from godly people who have lived the life, who truly believe in Jesus, that are about to exit this existence, say, I lived a good life. Jesus has been really good to me. I'm excited to go see him. I can't wait for what comes next. That eternal hope is found in scripture. That eternal hope is found in living the Christian life. And love moves to transform. Love moves to transform. So John Piper says, Christmas is God's declaration that he loves the world enough to send his son to take on flesh and bear our sins on the cross. Love moves to transform. So in John 1 14, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We've seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. So atoning is basically to pay off, to cover a debt. Atoning means to cover. So Jesus' sacrifice covers the debt of our sins. And we've all sinned. Everybody has sinned. The Bible makes that clear. But Jesus makes it possible not only for us to live a new life, but to have that sin forgiven and even find victory over the sins that we struggle with. It says, Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. So it's interesting that Jesus does so many things. He heals the broken and he provides for our needs. He helps us and guides us and teaches us and he protects and he rescues and intercedes for us in prayer. And he prepares the place for us in heaven. But in the few minutes I have, I kind of wanted to think about how God has used people to make a difference in the world. So D. James Kennedy wrote a book called What If Jesus Had Never Been Born, and it lists some of the influences that Christianity has brought into the world. And if it hadn't been for Christ in the world and people following after him, we might not enjoy some of the things that we have. In his book, he says that without Jesus, the moral teachings rooted in the Bible, like love your neighbor, the sanctity of life, and following the golden rule, might not have become universal principles. Societies might lack a strong moral compass, emphasizing love, mercy, and justice, might not have the value of life. Christianity's emphasis on the sanctity of human life influenced the abolition of practices like infanticide, child sacrifice, and slavery in many cultures. Since Jesus was born with Christian teachings of caring for the sick and poor, it led to the establishment of hospitals, orphanages, and countless charitable organizations. Without Jesus, they might not have emerged. In education, many of the world's greatest universities started out as Christian institutions with a desire to spread the knowledge and truth of God, including Harvard, Oxford, and Yale. So without that, there might not have been the push for universal literacy. So back in those days, they taught people how to read using the King James Bible. So human rights, the belief that all humans are made in the image of God, laid the groundwork for modern concepts of human rights and equality. So, including the rights, Jesus' revolutionary treatment of women and children elevated their status in societies where they were often marginalized. Influence on science, many early scientists like Newton and Kepler were motivated by their faith, believing that studying the natural world was a way to understand God's creation. Because science observes experiments and infers. So to me, it's strange. You got so many scientists telling me how we evolved and where we came from, because they said, Oh, we know that story. We've got that all together. And then in the same scientific journal, it's like, yeah, some divers found a fish we've never seen before. Oh, a new satellite in space is showing us parts of the galaxy we've never seen before. We don't really understand this. We really don't understand that, but we definitely are sure that we we evolved. There was no creator, there was just a big bang. And so how did they know that? They don't for sure. So because science can only observe, experiment, and infer. Government, Kennedy writes, had an influence on Western law. Christian principles have deeply shaped Western legal systems, including concepts of justice, mercy, and the presumption of innocence and art. Some of the most iconic pieces of art, music, and literature were inspired by the life and teachings of Jesus. And he goes on, it's a good book. So, but I'm gonna show a video clip and then the worshiping is gonna come up and sing. Uh, I'll pray before that. But this Christmas, let Jesus' love move you near to others, inspire sacrifice in your life, and transform how you love people around you. Lord, I pray that if anybody here doesn't know you as their Lord and Savior, that this Christmas they might walk into that relationship by acknowledging that they are sinners. Even through prayer, prayer is talking to God, saying something like, Dear Lord, I acknowledge that I'm a sinner and I need to have my sins forgiven. Please forgive me of my sins and come into my life and save me. Teach me how to follow you, make me all you created me to be. Show me new life in Christ at this Christmas in Jesus' name. And if you're somewhere along the way, I'd love to talk to you. Grab one of these How to Find God New Testaments. They're on the table on your way out. That would be a good thing. Another way to show God's love is to get involved in church. And when you get involved in church, we need to know who you are. So you could fill that out in the prayer and connect card, which is in front of you or online at rockwell.church forward slash connect. Another way to show your great love for God is to give a Christmas offering. So maybe as you're giving gifts to everyone, maybe you want to give a gift back to Jesus. When you give to the church, you make it possible for us to continue on, for us to pay for everything that we have here and for the missionaries and ministries that we support. There's an anytime offering box on the wall, or one when you walk in, or you can give online at rockwell.church forward slash give. But um as we as we move forward, listen to this Christmas poem and then invite people to come back for Christmas Eve. So we already planned the service. I can tell you everything that's gonna happen. It happened in it, and I think you're really gonna like it. It's a candlelight Christmas Eve service. But let's watch this, and then the worship team will come up.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

Amid the lights and songs of cheer, a message calls for hearts to hear. In Bethlehem, so long ago, God's love appeared in precious glow. No crown of gold, no robe of might, just love that pierces through the night. No wealth, no throne, no grand display, just endless grace to light the way. A manger held the King of Kings, the Lord of life, the peace he brings. In humble straw, the Savior lay, the gift of love on Christmas Day. The sky is calm, the world is bright, a holy star breaks through the night. The angels sang, the shepherds came to glorify his holy name. So let us pause and lift our eyes to heaven's gift, the perfect prize for Christ is Christmas, so pure, so true, the Savior's love for me and you.