And it's a real blessing that our family's together. We're very excited about that. Natalie came in on Saturday morning, very early, and she was ready to get here, and we were ready for her to get here also. And Melanie, she's getting ready to go to school, getting ready to go to Bible college. I was telling Patty the other day that I'm gonna need to probably buy another shotgun and make sure there's... So I'll make sure it's a double barrel. Amen. And so it's a real blessing. And to be with mom and dad also, it's been 11 years since we've been here for Christmas. So it's a real blessing to be able to be here. Amen. And so let's, I saw the presents up here. Look at that. This is the iPhone 12 right there. The little one there. And then for 2020, the iPad. Amen. The new iPad that's coming out. So that's a real blessing. 2020 is for the people that do not have 2020 vision. Amen. And that way you can see. Make sure you see things well. Amen. Real blessing there. Amen. Here's the greatest gift that we could ever receive. It's our Savior that was born. Here's the story, Luke chapter number 2. We'll go there if you would. It's just a real pleasure, a real blessing to be able to celebrate the birth of our Savior. And here and there in Mexico, people get on these bandwagons so quickly, pastors even, that used to be just the the charismatics would preach against Christmas, that you shouldn't celebrate Christmas because it comes from a pagan, has pagan roots. Well, the whole reason to celebrate Christmas is not pagan whatsoever, it's the birth of our Savior. And that's the whole reason. And the word Navidad means birth. And it's Nacimiento in Spanish. But anyway, now independent fundamental Baptist preachers, they're afraid to put up a Christmas tree, they're afraid to celebrate Christmas. Not all of them, but there's a group out there, and they just fall into these traps. You and I should never fall into traps of new things that we hear and all that, and the hymns that we sing, and they're all to glorify the Lord, and we should stick with it, we should stick with the story, we should stick with God's Word, and this is the reason why we're celebrating Christmas, this story right here. the birth of our Savior. Here is Luke chapter number 2 verse number 1. And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Serenius, the governor of Syria, was the governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, everyone into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David. to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone around them And they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. you shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger and Let's pray Heavenly Father We thank you so much for your goodness and your blessings and I just pray and ask that you bless in the Sunday school hour Thank you for everyone that's here. I know several families are traveling right now they're going to be with loved ones and I pray that you give each one your blessings, Lord. And Lord, keep them safe on the road, whether they're flying or driving. I pray that you would bless the time that they have together. And Lord, I pray that you'd meet with us this morning. Give us something to think about this morning. Give us something to think about all week, Lord. I pray that you'd bless your word this morning. And thank you for your goodness. In your precious name we pray, amen. Here, we're seeing the birth of Christ. It's biblical, amen? It is in the Bible. That's so good. God, for the first time, has, in over 400 years, all of a sudden started speaking again to his people. And there was silence for so long, and people were wondering, is the Savior ever gonna come? and here our Savior was born just as God said and trust me he's coming back just as God said as well and sometimes we get weary sometimes we can slack off and thank God there were people like Mary and Joseph who loved the Lord and they were serving the Lord and they were They were chosen to carry out a great mission here to bring our Savior to this world. And back when I was in the Air Force and I was down in Panama, I was preaching while I was down there in 1994. And we're coming up in December of 1994, It was almost one year that I had just turned my life over to the Lord. And I found myself in a position where I knew God wanted me to preach, God wanted me to be a missionary in Mexico. And when I got down there to Panama, I knew that God wanted me to preach to the soldiers that were there. We've got several people who got saved and it was a real blessing to have a part in that. And also to our church that was down there, Brother Al Sly, he was the pastor there. And whenever we could be in town, I would go to his church, and he was a real blessing, and his church families were. But there were several families in the church, several men that were military, active duty, that were bilingual. And so they could speak Spanish and English, and they were able to go out to the Cuban camps and preach the gospel to the Cubans that were out there. And it was a real blessing because many Cubans got saved. They trusted Christ as their Savior. And during that time, all that's going on, all said and done, there were over 500 Cubans that trusted Christ as their Savior. Many of them followed the Lord in believers' baptism. And it was just a real joy to see all that stuff going on. During that time, right about the time that it was getting to be around Christmas, and the Lord has done a great thing in their lives, and some of those Cubans were telling the Americans, we want to go back to Cuba. They were in Panama because several different reasons why they were in Panama, but they were telling the Americans, they were telling the political officers that were there, that they were being processed to go into the States. And that was their whole thing. They were looking forward to coming. to America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. They were wanting an opportunity to live this life. And the ones that have gotten saved, they were growing in grace, they were learning to tell others about Jesus. And man, it was just a real blessing, all these things that were going on down there. And they told the American political officers, they said, we wanna go back to Cuba. And they're like, what? You're gonna die. Castro will kill you. And they said, we don't care. We'll risk our lives if that's what it takes. But we found real freedom. We found real liberty in Jesus. And let me say this, that's the greatest gift that you and I can have is freedom and liberty is in Jesus Christ. God sent his son. Now you and I have a way to be reconciled with God because of this event that happened over 2000 years ago when Jesus was born. What a great thing. I wrote down some things and I preached a message on December 25th, 1994. I still have that message that I did, but I like the notes that it talks about Jesus. And that's what our conversation should be full of is Jesus, amen? The reason why he was born. People get up, get caught up in the Santa Claus and going into debt with the gifts and all that kind of stuff. Well, we shouldn't do that. I'm not saying that you shouldn't give out gifts or anything like that. I'm saying that don't go into debt over it and enjoy the season, enjoy our company one with another. enjoy each other because our time is short. Our time is short here on earth. It's a vapor. But here are some things that I wrote down in this message and I have the book that I still wrote these things out of and I just want to share a few of them with you. By any, Jesus Christ, some facts about our Savior, Jesus Christ is born. A few facts that we could look at here. By any and all standards, Jesus Christ has always been regarded the greatest figure in human history. We will always find at the top of any list of the world's greatest men, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Regardless of whether or not men acknowledge Him as Savior and Lord, they must pay tribute to Him as the world's outstanding man. More pages are printed about Him every week. than about any hundred of the world's greatest men. In this land alone, men contribute several hundred million dollars every year to support the institutions which bear his name. They do it voluntarily because they want to do it, and because he so works upon them that they count such giving a privilege and a pleasure. All the volumes of the life of Jesus record the history, the story of His ascent. goes on and on from victory to victory, from glory to glory, and as men's eyes become cleansed and their hearts purified, they see with increasing certainty that God has indeed so highly exalted His Son, and someday Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that He is King indeed. Children like Him, boys sang for Him, publicans hung upon Him. He had the heart of a child, the tenderness of a woman, and the strength of a man. Jesus Christ pushed every good trait of human character to its utmost limit. The perfectness of Jesus' love has shamed us with its purity and wooed us with its gentleness, from sin-stained lives to holiness of heart. His memory is everywhere. It can be found on the walls of churches, on the tops of bell towers, tombstones, in museums, books and literature. The cross can always be found. His memory is everywhere. What a blessing, our country, that we serve a mighty God. In our country, we can serve a mighty God. I believe it was James Adams that said our Constitution was designed for a moral and religious people. That's why people that are unholy and un-moral want to destroy the Constitution. We need to get back because if we don't fight back like we are, this book will not be able to be preached here in this country. That's the road that we're headed down if we do not fight for our rights and this book to be preached. This country has survived so many years. Why? Because it was founded and built upon these words right here in this Bible. And Jesus should still be first in our lives. Here in this story, in history, the book of Luke here, it's showing us history. History. History that's still alive today. The Word of God lives today. Look what the Bible says here in verse number 7. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes. All this is prophecy. All this was said before, not like the Jehovah's Witnesses, that they come up with some weird idea, some date, and they say, this is gonna happen on this date, and get everybody's hopes up. No, Jesus was born, amen? Just as God said he would, in the place that he said he would be born in. And the Bible says, and she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room For them, in the end, our Savior was born in the most humble way someone could be born here on earth. and he will not come back as a humble savior he'll come back as the king of kings and lord of lords when he comes back for us here in this in this verse it says here and she she brought forth their firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the end. When I was little, I wasn't even saved. But I would hear this story and I would think, what's wrong with those people? Don't they know that that was the Savior, that that was Jesus? If they would have known, would they have opened the doors to Him? Would they have made room for Him? At least in the house of David, which was a big house, a big family. And I mean, there was no room for them in there. And neither in the inn where there was no room. And the Bible says, and there was no room for them in the inn. I would get mad. I would say, why didn't they let him stay there? Don't they know that this was the Savior? And the truth is, they didn't know. They didn't know. And they didn't know. And so Mary and Joseph, they were forced to go to be in a barn, basically, where their son, this baby, the Savior, His name is Jesus, which means, His name means Savior or Deliverer. And here the Savior of the world was born in this barn. And now, reading God's Word and understanding, these people did not know that this was the Savior. And they made no room for Him. They made no room for Him. But I got to thinking. This thought came to me. We know today. We know. We know, and you know what? We still don't make room for him. Are you following me? You see, they didn't know. Their ignorance, they were ignorant to the fact that this was the savior of the world, and they didn't make room for him. I thought when I was a kid, man, couldn't they have just put him in a living room or they could have, someone could have said, take my room and let that little one be born here in this place. But no one made room for them. And you can't get mad at them because they didn't know. Jesus or God hasn't spoken to anyone in over 400 years when this was taking place. 400 years was going by since the last time that God had spoke to his people. And all this silence and I believe there was probably a lot of apathy going on at that time. But those people didn't know. The truth is, you and I, we know. But I wonder if we're making room for Him in our lives today. Do we make room for Him in our daily living? Whenever someone asks us or talks to us, do they know that we make room for Him in our lives? Do we go and try to tell people to make room for Him in their lives, in their home? Is there room for Him in your home? Is there a special place for Him in every room of your home, where He can freely reign and where He can freely live in our lives? It's not that I live, but Christ liveth in me. Amen? But so many people, so many Christians today, I'm afraid, aren't making room for Him in their daily prayer life. They don't take time to make room in the day. See, it's not gonna be something automatic. It's something that you and I have to do. We have to make room for him. The Bible says, seek ye first the kingdom of God. That means I've gotta look for a way to keep him first. I've gotta keep looking for a way to make sure that he's first in our lives. You and I, we now know the truth of who Jesus is. but are we making room for Him? Are we making room for Him to read our Bibles every single day? Are we making room for Him to, in our finances, to tithe and give like we're supposed to? Are we making room for Him? Are we setting apart a place special for Him? Are we making room for Him in our busy schedules to take some time out and go visiting and tell people about Jesus? We went downtown on Thursday. That was such a blessing. And I was talking to these guys. There were three young men. And I said to them, I said, what's your name? And the boy was trying to think. And he said, Diego. I said, did you have to think about that? And he said, and his friend said, no speaking English. I said, oh man, I'm sorry. I said, you speak Spanish? And I told them in Spanish and they're like, yes, wow. And so we got to talking and they're from Mexico City. These three guys, I said, I live in Mexico City. They said, no. I said, yes. And they said, what do you do in Mexico City? I said, I'm a pastor there. And I pulled out a track from our church and I said, this is me right here. I'm the pastor of this church and we're speaking in Spanish. And I gave them a track from the church here with the maps. We were passing out those maps and it was a blessing. And so I told them, I looked at Brother Sells, I said, hey, Brother Sells, these three guys are from Mexico City. What are the odds, you know? It was a real blessing to be able to do that. But you know why we're in Mexico City? Because we have a Savior that was born. We've made room in our lives to go and to tell other people about the Savior. Are you making room in your life? We were passing out those maps and this one family that walked by, just a real nice family. It seemed like they're really nice folks. And I said, here's a map for you. And she said, oh, we're not tourists. We're from here. And I said, well, great, because inside this is a map. She said, we don't need that. We don't need that map. And I said, well, good news, because there's also a map to heaven. She said, we might need that one. Praise the Lord. Amen. Are you making time? There's never a dull moment when you go out visiting, when you tell people about the Lord. I mean, there's never a dull moment. Are you with me? There's a dull moment when we go out and we're not making room for Him in our lives. Then that's when it's dull. That's when it gets old. Are you with me? There are so many different places in our life where we need to make room for Him in our lives. Here are these people, they didn't know. But you and I, we know. You and I, we know who he is. We know that he's the one. Look what it says here in verse number 25. Here's another person that understood who it was. Verse number 25. The Bible says here, in the same story, you see, someone else knew. The angels announced to the shepherds that were there. The word shepherd in Spanish is pastor. Pastor. They call them pastores. They call them pastors that take care of sheep. And that's also the name of the position in the church of the leader of the church, of the flock, is a pastor as well. Pastor. So here's verse number 25. The Bible says here, And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the Bible says here, And the same man was just. and devout. What that's saying is it's just saying he was faithful to the Lord. He was faithful waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Ghost was upon him and it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. You see that? The Savior. He was not going to see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ. Then the Bible says, by the Spirit unto the temple. He was led by the Spirit. He was led. Maybe he didn't understand why he was going there, who he was going to see at that moment. The Lord was leading him. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, then took him up in his arms. and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. Unbelievable. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. What a joy, not just to the Jews, but to the Gentiles. By the way, you and I are in this Gentile group right here. When He was born there, He's our salvation. And you see, Simeon grabbed that little baby boy. I wonder if he held him up like this and just looked into his eyes, seeing the salvation that God had promised. that because, see, the blood of bulls and rams and sheep, it wasn't enough to cleanse the sin. It was like putting a patch on the Band-Aid of sin for us. But the blood of this precious little baby, it's gonna be enough to save us. It's gonna be enough to wash away all of our sins, past, present and future sins. That we won't be condemned because of this little one that was born. This little baby that was born in a manger. This little humble family that just obeyed the Lord. the trouble that Mary and Joseph went through just to have this little baby. I'm sure that there was skepticism, there were rumors, and all the gossips were talking, she's with a baby, they had relations before they got married, and there were scandals that were going on. And here was this young lady, who had the Savior inside of her that was from the Holy Spirit and from God, God's only Son within her. And then all of a sudden they had to go to Bethlehem to be taxed. It wasn't easy for them. She was with child. And they're gonna take this long journey all the way to Bethlehem that this child would be born and the Savior would be born. And there were no room in David's house for this little child. And they just kept getting pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed all the way to the barn. our humble Savior. He left, I mean when I'm talking about this, He left glory to come to this sinful world. He left purity to come to this place, plagued by sin and hatred and greed and all the garbage that sin brings about in our lives. He left all that to come and He knew His mission. to do the will of his Father. You and I need to learn to do the will of our Father as well. And here was Simeon and he held this baby and he said, I see the Lord's salvation. Right here, there's hope. There's hope. And let me say this, when you make room for Jesus, there's going to be hope in your marriage. There's going to be hope in your home. There's going to be hope in your work. There's going to be hope in your life. If you make room for Jesus, let Him have a space. Give Him some room in your place. Amen? Jesus you're welcome here any day give him some room and your make room for him in your day Start it off by making room for him in the morning with prayer and reading your Bible and getting Getting something from God's Word not just reading your Bible read your Bible listening to the voice of God He is the Savior of the world Simeon got it The pastors, yeah, the shepherds got it, amen? The shepherds got it. They came to see and they were amazed. And that our savior was born here on earth. And Simeon with his own hands held that little one, knowing this is our salvation. This is the Lord's salvation, the Christ. And you and I, please, Think about this and make room for him in your life. Make room for him in your life, in your daily schedule. Our schedules are so busy today and they can just be overwhelming sometimes. But we need to take time and make room for our Savior and let him have first place in our life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you that we get to celebrate Christmas. It's interesting fact here that not one war was ever declared on the 25th of December since it was designated to be your birthday here on earth. That that date was given to celebrate the birth of our Savior. Not one war had been declared, has been declared on that day. Oh Lord, thank you so much. Peace on earth, goodwill to men. Goodwill, you want goodwill to be for us, Lord. And I pray and ask that all of us, as your children, we would realize we need to make room for you in our lives, in our daily schedules, in our job, in our workplace, in our finances, every aspect of our life. Help us to make room for you. We love you and thank you for your goodness and your precious name, we pray.