Christmas Eve on Town Square

Thank you for coming out and raving this rainy Christmas Eve. Can we all sing together? Alright. We wrote this one to finish it off, round it out. Let’s sing that first verse again.

Well, merry Christmas, everyone. Look at this turnout. How tough is Jackson, Wyoming? Are you kidding me? Oh, I love it.

Let’s come together as the joyful, the triumphant tonight as we celebrate. Sing it with me. Pray with me, would you please? Well, Lord, as we gather today in the rain on your birthday as we celebrate it, We just ask that you would encounter us. Thank you for your presence as we worship you in Jesus’ name.

And everybody said, amen. Everybody staying dry out there? I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it. Thank you guys so much for being here.

Why don’t you turn to a neighbor and tell them Merry Christmas? And then give them a pat on their soggy jacket. Man, so great to see so many of you out here this evening braving the elements. For those of you that live here, if you’ve raised families here, if you’ve raised children here, you know, at a very young age, the old adage is there’s no such thing as bad weather, just Bad weather. And all of you tourists are learning that valuable lesson here this evening.

I’d love to find out how many people we’ve got here from different parts that are all over the country and maybe even from other places. How about some of our West Coast folks? We got any West Coast folks here? Alright. Alright.

A few West Coast folks. How about the East Coast? Oh, East Coast. Now now we’re gonna now the people from Texas are gonna put everybody else on your shoulders and then carry them. Who’s here from Texas tonight?

Oh. Wow. East Coast. East Coast beats Texas. Wow.

Amazing. I look how about from across the pond or another country? Anybody here? Oh, alright. Well done.

Well done. So great to see all of you here this evening. Just really quickly, wanna say a special Merry Christmas to my dear friend, Rabbi Zelman. I know that you’ve just got done celebrating Hanukkah, and it was dry for your Hanukkah celebration here on Town Square. But I just wanted to tell you purse I can’t see you out there, but I just wanted to tell you personally thank you so much for being a part of our Christmas Eve service here and, being with us this evening.

The community is stronger when we all stand together and support one another. Am I right, guys? For just a few moments, I wanna talk to you about the story of Christmas. But the story of Christmas, it doesn’t begin in the third century with Saint Nicholas. The story of Christmas doesn’t begin in a little barn in the little Judean village of Bethlehem.

The story of Christmas begins all the way back in a garden. The god of the universe created mankind for his enjoyment and for us to enjoy him. He placed man in a garden that was kinda like heaven and kind of like earth, an intermingling of two realms. When God created man, he took a great risk and gave mankind a priceless gift, the gift of free will. Regrettably, man used that gift to eat from the tree of independence apart from a relationship with God, resulting in the human race being infected with sin.

War, murder, theft, injustice, persecution, oppression, sickness, and disease. And if any of those afflictions seem removed from you, you can still not escape the lineage of your family. Within your own hearts, lurk selfishness, pride, envy, jealousy, and rebellion to your creator. This condition of sin that has infected all of us is terminal, resulting in death, separation forever from God’s family. But God, he already had the story of Christmas on his mind.

In the garden, God told Adam that from him would come a present, a gift, one whose heel would crush the head of evil. With his plan set in motion, God created a nation of people out of whom would come the present promised in the garden. This nation of people were sovereignly chosen by God to bring forth the promise. For generations, they cried out for their savior of the people, but their prophets only caught a glimpse of the coming savior. Listen to the words from Isaiah chapter nine.

Isaiah chapter nine. Those who walked in darkness will see a radiant light shining upon them. They once lived in the shadows of death, but now glorious light will dawn. Lord, you have multiplied the nation and given them overwhelming joy. They are ecstatic in your presence and rejoice like those who bring in a great harvest and those who divide up the spoils of victory.

For you will break the chains that have bound your people and will lift off the heavy bar from across their shoulders, the rod of oppression used against them, and you will shatter all their bondage. The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and we’ll name him Emmanuel, God among us. A child will be born for us. A son will be given to us.

The responsibility of complete dominion will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be the wonderful one, the extraordinary strategist, the mighty God, the father of eternity, the prince of peace. Great and vast will be his dominion. He will bring immeasurable peace and prosperity. He will rule on David’s throne and over David’s kingdom to establish and uphold it by promoting justice and righteousness from this time forward and forevermore. The marvelous passion that the Lord Yahweh, commander of angel armies has for his people were in will ensure that it is finished.

Like a woman giving birth, the chosen people of Israel labored in travail for the arrival of their messiah. And finally, after generations, as the bible says, at just the right time, God fulfilled his promise made in the garden. Listen to the story of the arrival of the messiah from Luke chapter two. When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem, Mary went into labor. And there, she gave birth to her firstborn son.

She wrapped the newborn baby in strips of cloth, and Mary and Joseph laid him in a feeding trough since there was no available space in any upper room in the village. That night, in a field near Bethlehem, shepherds were watching over their flocks. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared in radiant splendor before them, lighting up the field with the blazing glory of God. And the shepherds were terrified, but the angel reassured them saying, don’t be afraid, for I have come to bring you good news, for the most joyous news the world has ever heard, and it is for everyone everywhere. For today in Bethlehem, a rescuer was born for you.

He is the Lord, Yahweh, the Messiah. You will recognize him by this miraculous sign. You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in the feeding trough. Then all at once in the night sky, a vast number of glorious angels appeared, the very armies of heaven, and they all praised God singing, glory to God in the highest realms of heaven, for there is peace and a good hope given to the sons of men. When the choir of angels disappeared and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let’s go.

Let’s hurry and find this word who is born in Bethlehem and see for ourselves what the Lord has revealed to us. So they hurried off and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and there was a baby lying in the feeding trough. Upon seeing this miraculous sign, the shepherds recounted what they had what had just happened. Everyone who heard the shepherd story was astonished by what they were told. You see, the story of Christmas is about giving gifts, but not material gifts that run on batteries and is delivered by Amazon.

The story of Christmas is about God giving the present of the Messiah to the nation of Israel. And if you don’t know this, it’s one of the wonderful things about God. He always goes one step further than what you expect. The gift of a savior wasn’t given exclusively for Israel. The gift of a savior was given to the whole world.

Two thousand years ago, God sent his son to live as one of us. He lived without sin but died a criminal’s death. He paid the price of sin for Israel and all mankind by shedding his perfect blood on the cross. With his death and resurrection, he paid the price for our sin and destroyed the power of the curse, providing a way for God and man to be reunited as family once again. And this gift is for anyone who will receive it.

The bible tells us that God so loved the world, you, he gave his one and only son so that whoever shall believe in him will not perish but have eternal life. And tonight, you can receive that gift. Ask Jesus to forgive your sin. Invite him into your heart and make him the leader and the boss of your life. And the present gets even better.

He came once to redeem us from sin and establish his kingdom in our hearts, and he will come again to establish his governmental leadership on planet Earth. He will renew this planet ravaged by violence and greed and destruction. And the bible tells us that the hallmarks of his coming kingdom are justice, righteousness, and peace. That’s why we sing this song at Christmas because God has put the light of Jesus in our hearts and brought us back into his family. It’s a song that we sing at Christmas, but we haven’t really stopped to think about the words.

The lyrics are this, silent night, holy night, son of God loves pure light. Radiant beams from thy holy face with the dawn of redeeming grace. Jesus is lord at thy birth, lord at thy birth. And that, my friends, is the story of Christmas. Let’s sing that verse that we just talked about.

Jesus, lord at thy birth, silent night. Jesus, Lord at thy door. Good job. Good singing, man. That is good singing.

Well, if you are just passing through, you don’t live here, thank you so much for coming. We’re glad that you spent your Christmas Eve with us. If you do live here and you are looking for more of this, we do it every Sunday. If you’re a young adult, we do it every Tuesday. But go to our website, tribejh.com, and we have services every Sunday.

We’re essentially located across from Whole Foods. You can see our address on our website. But before you leave oh, and particularly this Sunday with Christmas falling today, we’ll have one service at 10AM this Sunday. You can come and be part of our family at tribe. But tonight before you leave, if you need prayer for anything or if you need a bible or you heard pastor Brian talking about this Christmas story and you wanna know more, please pick up a bible.

Everything is free. I’ll do us a favor and empty out the cocoa and cookies too on your way. You need if you don’t have them for Santa to lay out yet, please grab some. Or if you want a poinsettia, also take it. Or please, truly, if you want a points oh, they’re being watered as we speak, so you’re good to go.

So prayer and bible’s also visiting us sundaytribejh.com. And I think that’s it. Pastor Brian, please pray us out. I know that you love standing out here in the rain. Is it alright if I come out here, get in and amongst you?

Would that be okay if I prayed for you really quickly? Alright. Lord Jesus, thank you so very much that you sent your Messiah into the world for us. Lord Jesus, I command a blessing over each and every person here tonight. Lord, will you bless their finances?

Will you bless their health? Will you bless their relationships? Will they will you bless everything that they set their hand to in the coming new year? Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for being so good to us. We tell you one more time, Jesus, we love you. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, the strong son of God. And everybody said, amen. I love you so very much.

Turn around to somebody new. Give them a softy hug. Tell them Merry Christmas, and thanks for being here tonight. Told me power. Honkor?

Of what? I don’t think we have anymore. When we come. I am a poor boy to parampum pum pum. I have no gift to bring