it's important it's interesting that last week someone told me oh pastor you're gonna talk about the unmarried and and the widows and it's kind of interesting because we thought of that it's like well I had asked last week of all the unmarried that were in the church and I got two hands I got actually Caleb and Julius in the back, and no one else. And yet at the same time, it's like, well, we're going to go later on into the latter part of it, and you may talk about widows. But the truth is, even a widow isn't unmarried. And yet no one raised their hand towards us. So maybe we need a little bit of time there. I don't know, but we'll see. But this morning I've actually come into it with a few different things as an approach. I hope maybe if you're here visiting for the first time, I hope you'll enjoy. It won't be directly expository type preaching out of the word, but it is going to bring in some areas of topics. And some topics that we look at this morning. And the reason why not doing the rest of the chapter, Paul Harvey, the rest of the story, is because today is December 1st. And what is December 1st? What's that? It's Christmas month. I like how Chris said it. And you picked it up too. Christmas month. And in some places, if you've come from different backgrounds of churches, that's usually called what? Advent. Yes, the word Advent. And then you think of the whole part of Advent itself. And you say, we don't practice Advent in a Baptist church. It's like, well, why shouldn't we? You know, there's different thoughts behind this as we look at it, and so one of the things we're looking at is that we're not actually going to technically practice Advent, but yet one of the things I can say is it would be something to think about in the future as we actually prepare when we think of Christmas. So, in it, it's kind of unique in a sense, but I did title the message this morning, as we look at this, is, What is the Meaning of Christmas? What is the meaning of Christmas? Now, I have some papers on the table for those, and I don't know how well, hopefully I have enough here, but If you wouldn't mind, I do have pens. If you take one, take one and pass it around. Hopefully I have enough, and if there's not enough, we'll grab a couple off the table. If you wouldn't mind filling it out, and I'm going to ask you to think of this as we get started here, just in a sense. I want you to think of the thought of what is the meaning of Christmas? What is the meaning of Christmas? And so we start thinking of Christmas and the meaning of it. And it's kind of a good thing to reflect on. I know that often in the area of contemporary churches today, or even in the modern church today, we oftentimes don't take the time to go through a specific topic anymore, like when you start thinking of some of the different events. Oh, it was Memorial Day, or it was Labor Day, or it was this day. And aren't you going to have a message on that topic? or even Thanksgiving. We looked at Thanksgiving, and before that we didn't have a message on Thanksgiving. I do come from an era that at one time, yes, that was an opportunity to bring in special guests and advertise that we're doing a special service for possibly Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and we go through the list of things, but often you'll see that more and more pastors oftentimes keep preaching through maybe the areas of their passages that they're expositing on, or as they speak in that topic, or even the thought of maybe they have what would be a topical type message and they keep going with it. And you know, there's nothing wrong with that. But there's nothing wrong with, in a sense, too, taking a little bit of time and spending it on the topic. And Christmas would be a real good one to do that with, I think, because of the fact that we ought to be able to answer the question, especially in a sense as what is the meaning of Christmas? So when you think of this, it is, in a sense, oftentimes, referred to as the Christmas month, Advent. But do you know that Advent isn't really about Christmas? It's not about Christmas. Imagine as you think of the word, you know, as you think of this, it is often with the idea that it's a preparation for Christmas. And we've lost the art, in a sense, of making preparation. You say, well, I worked all last week in preparing and getting ready for a meal. You know, you bought all this stuff at the right price, at the right place, and you got the fixings that the people in your household would like. I made something in my household, and it was actually ragatouille. I think that's how you say it. Ragatouille. And anyone know what that is? Nope. Okay. It was actually... It was... zucchini squash, eggplant, tomatoes, all lined up in a fancy way with an area of crushed tomatoes and some seasoning. And it's like, my wife looked at me, she says, that is not Thanksgiving. Who says it's not Thanksgiving? Well, you know, we have our customs that we kind of get wrapped up in, in a sense, when it comes to the area. But here, one of the statements that I read in one of the books here, when it says, Rediscovering Christmas, was something like this, that it was a preparation time. In other words, one statement was, a little advent, a little Christmas. A great advent, a great Christmas. And you know, by the time we get to December 25th, and we sit down and get ready, in a sense, on that day, as we read the Christmas story together as a family, which we do, and we read it, most of us are so exhausted. And we're left at a place where it's like, we're not ready for anything else. Matter of fact, it becomes one of those time periods that what do we end up doing? We watch this no-brainer type of Christmas movie. How many watch a movie on Christmas Day? Yeah, you know what? It's interesting to know that actually Hollywood said in 2017 that over 80 million Dollars is made on the production of Christmas in the areas of the theaters just in one day and yet when you start looking at 2000 2019 2020 2019 Christmas sales was actually 118 point six billion dollars And in 2000, I think I said 19, right? 2020, it was $777.3 billion when it comes to sales and Christmas. We rush off, we're in a hurry. We're looking for the right sale and we're looking for the right parking lot. We're filled with all this running around and we have a radio that's filled with Christmas songs from the beginning or the end of November to the 1st of January. And we're just filled with the songs all the way through. I know Chris said my wife just couldn't wait for Christmas day or Christmas month to start singing Christmas songs. I tried to tell her we couldn't put stuff in our house and we couldn't put it up until the fixings of Thanksgiving was gone. That didn't last. It was instantly up as the guest went away on the 24th, and sure enough, out come the Christmas stuff. But the idea here was, the thought of Advent is the idea of shaping a journey, a journey of patience and hopeful, joyful expectation. Just as those, as we would say when we start reading the Christmas story, that they were actually long, you would say longing or waiting for the arrival. Arrival of what? The Messiah. God in the form of a child. God in the flesh. And yet today we have no concept of actually waiting. So, in a sense, Advent was set up that would prepare our hearts to wait for Sundays and then Christmas. But think of Mary. How long did she have to wait? Anyone know? Nine months for the birth of a child. You talk about waiting. You know, when you think about waiting, sometimes we think of waiting in line. And that it's like a long time. But the truth is, most of the concept we have today of waiting is very short. I mean, to wait is the idea of a so long time. And that would be the thought. And yet, what it would create in there is the longing for what's going to come. They were waiting for the Messiah. And as they were waiting for the Messiah, Christmas is the announcement of what we would know as the word that we say the first advent and that was the coming of Jesus. Are we waiting for the first coming of the advent of Jesus? No. But the truth is, we are still part of an Advent. Because we're waiting as we take communion, oftentimes we're reminded in the sense that we would see Scripture, and we see it in such a way that we are waiting for the return of Jesus. The second coming. And in it, we still can have the mindset of the Old Testament people who were waiting, and they were anticipating with hope, We also are waiting, and as we wait, it's not one of those things of apathy, boredom, or laziness. It's a waiting of hope of the return of Christ. In other words, yes, our king was born, but his kingdom is not finished. I will tell you, that would define some theology, that we do not believe of a kingdom of a heart. We believe in a literal kingdom. we will be part of it and we'll be serving within it and we look at it with the idea of a future tense. We recognize the past, but in an Advent here we would say we're looking towards the future. A future hope with a joyful expectation. That's not really loud enough. With a joyful expectation. Problem is, when we think of Christmas, we don't really know what to say. Now, I've handed out a piece of paper. I do have pens. I won't throw them at you, but if Bill does... Oh, yeah, let's get Bill. I'm going to pick on John this time. If you don't have a pen, John's got it. See, John? But would you put in there, like in the area of that little note that's before you, a statement there where it says, what is Christmas about? Think about this in a sense, hopefully you didn't fill it out already because there's some instructions to this, but could you imagine a one-word answer? One word. In other words, that line is only prepared for one word. And when we say, can you imagine this, answering the question, write it in, write it on the line of what is Christmas is about in one word. Some would say hope, joy, peace, love. You know, we could say, but what is it? So as you're thinking about that, I'll keep talking, write it in there, and I want to. I mean, one of the things that we see within the areas of the timeframe of Christmas There was those that was waiting for the Messiah in the form of a king. And so the advent that we see here is this idea that it is a waiting, and it's waiting. In other words, it's kind of a waiting that knows something significant and a future concept here. And it's the idea here that when it comes to waiting, we wait with hope, And even in the concept of the traditional Christian faith, it comes in with this thought here that it's not actually January 1st of a new year. But it's this idea that December marks this period of waiting and the fulfillment that happens in December. In other words, it's like almost going through these time periods of darkness. where you receive an actual statement of health. You know that maybe things aren't good. Maybe there's a problem in your family. Maybe there's relationships that are broke. And in those darknesses, thank you, in those darknesses, there's those dark moments and you're waiting. with even the expectation of hope. Nothing worse than sitting in the doctor's office after you've got some test and there you sit waiting. You're waiting for the doctor to tell you what's going on. Seems like eternity, doesn't it? In some doctor's office, it is. And it doesn't stop there because you get to the room and you have to wait in the room besides. And it's like, oh, really? And you're just hoping in some ways it's good news. There's kind of a darkness that begins. And the Advent actually leads us to a sense of that, like John the Baptist. Being in the desert in the darkness. Because the truth is, often as we pause and as we wait and as we're reflecting, even on the areas of our despairs, we become in a place that we're ready to receive the actual gift that God has given. And it becomes, in a sense, very precious. Today, Christmas is not looked at as something as very precious. Matter of fact, it's just an easy thing. Young people here, maybe the thought of Santa Claus. The reward for good deeds. And yet it rolls over even into the theology of actually Christianity. If I just do these good deeds, I will receive a gift. And yet that is not the message of Christmas. But we can't handle the message of Christmas in the clarity of what Scripture speaks and offers appreciation that we ought to have. We tend to actually dramatize it, sensationalize it, fill it as busy, or even bring it before it should even come. And so pausing in this, we thought, I think here, it's one of those things that Advent actually pushed against the concept of re-singing Joy to the World before Christmas. Now Connie doesn't know anything about this. She didn't hear the message. So she picks the song next week of Joy to the World. Don't get on her about it. But it was a pushback. It was saved and reserved for that day. And we would hold it up. And the idea is this is waiting a month here is not really that long. But it is a reminder. And sometimes some of the things that was done in Advent. I don't have the candelabra, I don't have the fancy candles, but we would have, in a sense, the idea that there would be four candles and one would stand out, and four would represent often the topics that would go through the four weeks before, and the last one would be lit on the area of Christmas Eve, and it would be the idea that the coming of Christ and the celebration. And each time, a church, and churches often, would actually do something, in a sense, to make it, in a sense, unique. Like watching Cheryl walk up here with Peyton, and as she read the scripture, bringing families up and doing something different out of the ordinary. You know, we get wrapped up sometimes in just getting into a sense, well, we have a tradition here. We just do these things. And yet the truth is, we need to stop sometimes doing just the same old thing all the time. Because what happens is, is you get complacent towards that. And so when we start saying, we're gonna talk about Christmas this time of the year, and we're gonna talk about it for four weeks. How many of you think that you've probably heard, I've heard all the stories there is about Christmas, be honest with me. How many of you would say that? You've been in church. You've watched the movies. You'd say, I've learned it all. Well, I hope you would come to a place where you'd say, no, there's so much because the scripture throughout it with an authenticity proclaims the gospel, and it proclaims the gospel to broken people. And yet today probably we'd say we'd like to see ourselves as successful, upright, well-educated. And often what that does is puts us in a place that we're not even ready to receive. And so I think about even the dark time John the Baptist sat in the darkness. making, in a sense, a place for God. He didn't fully understand who Jesus was. Do you know when he really came to understanding who Jesus was? Is when he baptized him. And the Spirit of God spoke and told him exactly, and John came to a place of understanding the very presence of God. And from that time on, John stopped preaching in the area of the focus of his ministry and started preaching about Jesus. hearts lives change oftentimes when they've been affected in the darkness and Christmas can do that. But we have so much celebration going on beforehand, but you don't even get a chance to do that. And so the tendency in this is that even though we're lighting candles or we may be spotting, taking different topics of the month, we don't actually come to a place of a deeper appreciation or understanding. So even as you think here, I think that it is an idea of waiting that we need to see. And so even as you have been waiting, And I told you this was going to be different. Hopefully, I move quickly through the last part of it, and we will see in this some topics that are in here. But the question is here, what is Christmas about? And that is there. Hopefully, did you write that down? You said, no, the paper's there. I didn't write it down. I didn't really think I needed to participate. Well, I do want to get your input. One word. that would actually define to you when you say, in the sense of answering the book of Matthew and the book of Luke, those two, and they tell us the story. So you think it's like only two places directly that tell us the story. We wonder why we get kind of bored. Because we read through it and read through it and it's like, oh yeah, I got this, I got this. But yes, in Luke chapter 1, verse 31, it says, will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you don't get to pick the name call his name Jesus now I say Matthew and Luke But it's also quite interesting in John's gospel, Jesus discloses to us, or John does, discloses Jesus as the idea here as the through seven I am's statements. In one of the seven in verse 35 of chapter 6, Jesus says this, Jesus said to them, I am what? The bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall not thirst. Christmas, meaning, is about Jesus as the bread. We can use the name Jesus and we can say the name of Jesus is sweet, like Hawaiian sweet rolls, right? The bread of life, no. The idea here is his meaning of his name. There's multiple meanings of Jesus's name, but one here we see specifically says, I am the bread of life. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall not thirst. And so when you look at this, there's those, as we would see here within the passage, as though that hunger. Jesus being the reason or the meaning of Christmas is the idea that Jesus has come to hungry people. Hungry people! And what does he want to do to hungry people? In other words, those that are in the darkness, those that are in the areas of disparity of their life, those that have not experienced forgiveness or the righteousness of God, or to understand redemption or salvation. But he wants to feed them. And what does he say he's going to feed them? He says, I am the bread of life. What is it that we need? We don't really need all the busyness of Christmas. What we need is a clear understanding of Jesus. We don't need another Christmas movie. And yet, I gotta tell you, we love our Christmas movies, don't we? And some of them are just downright ridiculous. Yes, I did go see the one red Christmas. And, you know, I thought, whoa, kids could be a little startled by that, but yet, okay. But hold on to the idea. The thought is, as you look at the passage here, and as we look at it, one of the things you'll notice in this passage is it says just this as you look at Matthew chapter and especially looking at the verses we saw in verse 18. Did I say 16? Now the birth of Jesus took place in this way, when the mother of Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But As he considered these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, fear not to take Mary, your wife, for she is conceived in her from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will save his people from their sins, the darkness of mankind. There's no doubt. And this doesn't mean just some, but all. So is the Christmas for everyone? Yes, even the ones that want to deny that we shouldn't celebrate it, or those that would look at it and say, well, I don't believe. Well, you may not believe, and one that created everything from nothing. But oftentimes by faith you still believe that everything came from nothing in an evolutional concept. And yet the scripture gives to us answers for our question. And so even as it says here in verse 22, all this book placed to fulfill that the Lord has spoken by the prophet, What we're looking at is something that specifically is declaring to us some things we ought to know. Jesus is the bread of life. And the passages throughout the area of our story, even if you go over into chapter 2, and now after Jesus was born, what's the story about? Jesus. Interesting that you see in this that as we look at what is the meaning of Christmas, and I say bread. I want you to add that to that one of the things. But notice here he says, born in Bethlehem of Judea. The next association you look at within the scripture is this little town called Bethlehem. Bethlehem. Now you're thinking, what's this about? Well it's pretty interesting to take just a few moments and look at the area of Bethlehem itself, because it's the next thing to consider here. Not only Jesus, but also to consider Bethlehem. Bethlehem, and I don't know, I do have a PowerPoint, but sometimes getting it to come up doesn't always work for the guys that well when it comes to converting it and bringing it over. And I'm not asking Dale to do that, but the idea here is the first part of the word, B-E-T, anyone know what that means? Chris could probably help us. B-E-T? House. You might even have some study notes there. House. And yet the latter part of it, the L-E-C-H-E-M, means... Bread, house of bread. Look at this, Jesus, the bread of life, this bread. And then Bethlehem is actually associated with the thought that when we think of Bethlehem, it is the house of bread. Why would you think that Caesar would put out an actual census, and in the census, people would have to return to their homes, and then Bethlehem, this little place, becomes a focus within the Christmas story. We've already associated Jesus as the one of the story, but then you look at Bethlehem, and it's tied to us with this whole concept that this is the house here. In other words, speak the thought here, it means bread, house of bread. So when you think of verse one there, it says, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold the wise men from the far east to Jerusalem. There's a story about Jerusalem here too. We'll look at that maybe somewhere along in the message. But notice verse six. Move down in chapter two and notice in verse six what becomes part of the essential part of the story even when we look at this. We see it says, oh you oh Bethlehem, the land of Judah, are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come the ruler who will shepherd my people Israel." Shepherding. How? the house of bread. The Christmas story begins not only with Jesus as the bread, but it also is tied to the understanding of the association of Bethlehem as that house. And then even if you go to verse 8, And he sent him to Bethlehem saying, go search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship. Now who said that? Herod. Nothing like watching the Christmas story at the movies and be those cantankerous kids that want to take down and stake on business with Herod. Because what was he about? He was about destroying the baby child, Jesus. The worship. Take away the bread of life in the house of bread. It's quite a message that comes into this. So even when you think of Bethlehem and its meaning in the house of bread. But here's the next one that comes into this. And you can say, well pastor, this doesn't actually have bread in it. That's okay. But if you would give me just a moment, the thing to consider is the word manger. Manger is not what we usually think today. You know, I can remember doing a drive-by manger in the area of Polk City, Florida. We set up this manger scene. We had the hay bales, we had the fencing, we had the little cradle, and in it, outside of it, were the wise men, and there was animals here and there, and people would go by, and they were enjoying it, and then they would get their hot cocoa afterwards, and we'd give them a track, and we'd talk to them. And yet, when I think of it, it's like, wow. When you really think about it, it was the furthest from the truth. But it worked really well. And we liked it. And so we accepted the story. And yet, when you think when the scripture says in Luke 2, chapter 7, she gave birth to her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger. Oh, that's got to be a barn. That's gotta be the trough in the barn. It's gotta have animals around. Well, okay. And yet, when you think of mangers, they were not wooden beds filled with a pillow or hay. The manger in the time of Jesus was a cutout from a stone. maybe wood, depending on, it would be cut out from the stone. It was a feeding trough for animals. And you may see that. And yet, when you think of this feeding trough, it was set there oftentimes as the thought of the manger. That was the manger. It was something placed. Oftentimes, it wasn't placed in a barn. If you think of the Jewish concept of housing, often even in the betrothal period, when it was a period of actually marriage, but yet there was no sexual relationship until the ceremony had happened, you would see that there was preparation that was oftentimes being made. And in a house, as you think of here, it would not only be in a sense that the future husband would actually go and prepare a place, oftentimes off of his parents' home, for the area of his new bride to come. And there would be different rooms and sections. And one of the questions I asked while I was in Jerusalem, and we were over in Israel, was, what's with all these areas that are unfinished? Buildings that had maybe a couple stories to them. And there would be places where people were living, and then there would be none. Well, our professor says, well, because it was typically they would build And they would build in preparation that the family would come and move in. And there would be a preparation period of time. Well, it's kind of neat to hear the history. You start looking at some of the other history, you'd find that really a home in this time period would actually be, in a sense, not just one level, but possibly two. And the lower level of a home would actually be a place where the animals would stay. And especially in the cold weather, they would be brought in. When you go to Genesis, and you look at Genesis, and Jephthah comes back from battle, and as he has gotten great victory, he says on his way home, he says, the first thing that comes out of my house, I will slaughter and kill. And do you remember who came out of the house? His daughter. And we think, how could you do that? Because it was normal in the household of this time that actually the house would have a section below that the animals would go into. And the animals would stay in there overnight in the cool. And yet the animals being in the house would provide heat that helps with even the adults that live in the house above. And so when he says here, manger, he's talking about that trough that was possibly, as we see here, in the house where the animals dwelled, where they would put the food for the animals to live in. What an appropriate place for Jesus to be placed. Not in this little cradle wrapped up in blankets and straw and with the animals gathering around as though it was like the perfect bedding. No, it was a place where the animals ate. They got their food. Why? Why? Because if you would understand the fact that animals like to eat. I said that we, excuse me, we, I don't want this to go negative, but you ever had dinner with somebody that eats like a bird? And I did say that today. We ate dinner with somebody that eats like a bird. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. I mean, not much of all. And you sat there eating. I couldn't really actually fill my plate like I wanted to, but probably it was a good thing. Because they felt guilty because the people they were eating. Although, I was corrected this morning by saying, have you ever watched a bird eat? They eat a lot. Just, we just put grass seed in our backyard to cover, you know, the brown spots and that for, and some places it's not coming back. It's not coming up, I don't know why. And my wife says, because all the birds are eating it. I said, that's, that's a lot of grass seed. Must be they eat a lot. Well, they would eat there. And that's what they eat. It wasn't, in a sense, uncommon for animals to be there because they were hungry. And so when I think here, you ever think about the message of Christmas as the idea of the bread of life? Jesus in the house of bread as food for the hungry? I would hope that when we look at Christmas with this expectation, you sit here as people recognizing the fact that we are hungry and we ought to be hungry for the bread of life. And so when you think the meaning of Christmas, we start to look at it with a greater appreciation. God has come to feed the hungry. Not just you, but we also think of those that he would call my Israel, my people. He is that bread of life. And he's come for hungry souls. He does want to bring to them the necessity as we see. And so when you piece these pieces of the puzzle together in the New Testament story, you arrive to the fact that Jesus is the bread of life. He was born in a town that was called the house of bread. He immediately was placed in a manger in that feeding trough. So the bread of life, is born in a house, placed in a feeding trough to satisfy hungry-hearted people. I don't know. That's the meaning of Christmas. Do you actually approach Christmas with the idea that your heart is hungry to know more about Jesus? Or do we get so complacent to the thought of Christmas That it's in such a way that you can't tell me anything more about Christmas. Or we celebrate it in such a sensational way that we have the songs playing and everything about it and it's began before it even got here. There's no anticipation. There's no waiting. There's no actually getting to a place of learning what the scripture has to say. Because the truth is, when you think about these passages, it is the scripture that actually satisfies. I'd like to say the gift satisfies. You know, I think one statement was made, and it was made with the idea that as a dad, husband, I would envision that one Sunday or that one Christmas day that I was going to go out, like on TV, and there would be a brand new car sitting in front of my house with a bow on top of it. Because you know, all of you know, that's just what I need, right? I know, amen. But the truth is, it may be a nice Christmas present, but it doesn't satisfy. The truth is, we have what satisfies. It came at this first Advent. And as we think of that Messiah, that child, Philippians 2 says to us here. Stop that. I have this. Oh, I didn't do it that time. Didn't catch it. And Philippians 2 verse 5, it says this. It says here, it says, having this mind among ourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to grasp, but emptied himself, took upon the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to death. the death of the cross therefore God has highly exalted him bestowed on him the name above every name so that the name of Jesus every knee would bow and heaven and earth and under earth and every tongue confessed that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father we celebrate Christmas with a meaning that comes out of the scripture Not something we fantasize or we create in a sense of special, absorbent type of story, in a sense with a bent. No, it's the truth. And you know what? I do believe that God's people can handle the truth. Maybe it means we refrain on some things. We start to put some things off. We wait. So we can really anticipate what the scripture has to say. And Abu, what do you think? When we settle for a hurried pace, we fail to anticipate the one who came in the flesh, taking on a body and becoming bread for our sake. You are a powerful person who can actually say, no thanks, when it's necessary. Exercise that, even when you think of Christmas. If it's going to distract you and take away from what we really need, we should consider that. So, when you think of Advent, is it wrong to practice in a Baptist church? No. And what reason, why would we do it? We would do it that would create awaiting and yet understanding who Christ is. That would affect us in the year to come, all the way through. It's important. Where are you today? Have you received that bread of life? the Lord Jesus Christ because he came to satisfy a hunger that everyone has. Everyone. Some want to suppress that truth that God has created within them that there is a God and that you need that God. Some try to actually replace it. with so many extra things that you don't need. And what happens is you don't get to know the God of glory. And Christians today, we are able to receive the truth and enjoy it. But be very careful about the things that seem to be so exciting around us. God, we thank you. We ask that as we come to you, that you would use your word and even the thoughts that we gather from it to lead us and guide us and direct us in our life. But there's one here without Jesus as their personal savior. May they realize their soul hungers. And we are looking for answers. And the food that you have is your truth. to direct us in the darkness of even our days. And yet even in their celebration, we glory in you. Help us to realize that relationship is essential for life and sustaining life. In Jesus' name, amen. Would you stand as we sing in a closing song? This is where I would have probably brought out the communion bread, those little wafers, and pass it around and say to you, eat. Without the juice to say, do in remembrance of me. Because when you think of Christmas, bread is part of Christmas. We can't take it away. Let's sing together in this song.