Well, Mr. Schnecke tried to organize the structure of tonight's program so that I'm not last, because then we would realize that many of you would leave. So actually, we do have two more songs coming up, following just a short thing that I'd like to share with you guys. Is anybody here done with Christmas shopping for this year? Anybody done? I know Black Friday's a big day. Nobody's done? Anybody having family come in? That's a good thing. You'll have a very merry Christmas then. There's a lot of things that can get us busy, aren't there? There's Christmas programs. There's this. There's that. You're running around. There's parties to go to. There's a lot that can keep us kind of at a place in which we're, in a way, trying to... Actually, I forgot something down here, so I'm going to have to go get that. My remote control. This thing is going to be a big help to me. But I love that, I love that allelu, I love hallelujah, I love that word. It's just so beautiful, it's a Hebrew word that just basically means praise Yahweh, or praise Yah, Yahweh, praise God. And today I want to focus on Emmanuel, God with us, but not just with us 2,000 years ago. Because really, in essence, who needs Jesus? We all do. It's not just those that don't know Him personally, but it's even those of us that have walked with Him for years, we still need Jesus. And the good thing is, and the beautiful thing is, is that He's here and He's here now. Let me open in your Bibles to John chapter 1. We're just going to cover just a few simple verses that I think speak absolute volumes about who God is. A lot of people have a question about Jesus. You know, I mean, a lot of people think, I mean, if you even talk with people who are of the Islamic faith, would say that Jesus was a good man. You know, I think everybody here would say, man, he did some really good things on earth. But it doesn't, it can't just stop there. Either Jesus was a good man, or he was God. Because who goes around saying, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me, and is just a good man? He's either a lunatic, or he was who he says he is. Let me just take a minute to walk with you through something. I don't know if you've ever experienced a song or a verse of a song or some text within a song that you felt, that is just an excellent way of putting it. O Holy Night was actually written as a French poem years and years ago. It was actually put to music by John Sullivan Dwight in 1855. So what we see when we see Oh Holy Night, it was actually written in four different verses. So it's a really neat little, it's in French, it's in English, and the one verse in that, that just kind of stops me. That is pretty profound, is this verse right here. Till he appeared and the soul felt It's worth. You know, we're all looking for worth in this world, aren't we? We feel that we want to find a place where we're needed. We find it in vocation, with our talents. But there's only one thing where our soul can find its worth. It's value. Because you know what? One of the toughest things for teenagers today is value. What makes me valuable? Is it my looks? For us, as we get older, is it our money? Is it what's in our bank account? Is it how big our house is? But the only thing at the seat of who you are, the immaterial you, there's a question of what gives me value. And as you start to unpeel it, you're gonna realize it is in nothing that I can lose. It's in everything I can't lose, and that's Jesus, the stable one, the imminent one, the one that is here, the one that is here now. I love Lewis and he put this so perfectly, basically I could just read this and walk off the stage and I think you'd get the point. But I'm trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him. And this is a quote, I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who is merely a man, instead the sort of things that Jesus said, would not be a great moral teacher. He would be either a lunatic or a level with a man who says he is a poached egg. Or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make the choice. Either this man was and is the son of God, or else he's a madman. or something worse. He goes on to say this, you can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him, or you can kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He didn't intend it to be that way. Jesus is real. Jesus is here. He is among us. Let's take a look here at John chapter one. In the beginning was the Word, and I'm gonna read it through in its context and then take a couple of things here. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. You know, the word Logos, is an interesting word as I started to study it. In Psalm 33, 6, it is a Hebrew word where the word logos or word is used as an agent of creation. By the word, the heavens were made with basically a simple breath. Everything was made with a word. So tuck that away. Hosea 2 says, God's message to his people through the prophets was considered to be the word of God. Psalm 119.11, it also illustrates God's law. I will hide it in my soul, in my heart. I'm gonna hide God's truth. Because out of it are the issues of life. In Greek philosophy, the divine essence that holds all things together, God's ideal pattern for creation, the Stoics strongly emphasize the Logos, the rational principle which pervades all reality, providing meaning, order to persons and the universe. The Logos creates coherence and unity, provides an orderly pattern for existence, and holds everything together. So let's read that one verse one more time. In the beginning was the Word. So packed with that definition. Imagine you're a first century Christian and you're hearing, wait a minute, he's creator. He is the sustainer. He holds everything together. He is the truth that has come down to us. He's the message. He's everything. The beauty of the gospel. I love the gospel. Not because it can be neatly packaged into five verses. I love the fact that the gospel and God are transcendent over life and of this life and the next. Not only do you get life more abundantly here, but you get it in eternity. Because only through Him are all things, and only through Him our soul feels its worth. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. As far back as man can think, in the beginning, the Word existed. The term Word is common in the Greek word logos, which means speaking or message or words. It must have been amazing there to hear that for the first time. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That Word is also translated Jesus. Jesus is also God. Verse 2, the same was in the beginning with God. The Word has always been in a relationship with God the Father. Christ did not at some point in time come into existence or begin a relationship with the Father. He's been there. There's not two Gods. He's had this unique relationship with God the Father. He is God. The word was that God, the special relationship that they have, is something that is not really easy to explain in regards to the Trinity. But the word with there, when it says the same as in the beginning with God, translates into the word Greek prose, which here says in company with. In company with. There was a unity there, that Jesus was not just the beginning, and he wasn't just there in the beginning, but Jesus is also God. Jesus is also something called the Creator. God is the Creator. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Why is there something rather than nothing? Very good question. This is a great question in philosophy. The Christian answer is God. He is eternal. He is the Creator of all things, and the Word was the agent of creation. He is the uncaused cause. All creation was made by the Word in revelation with God the Father and God the Spirit. The most amazing thing as I look at creation is not that it was made and formed with hands, but that it was spoken. And as you start to pan out, you're gonna realize, with Hubble telescopes and all these other different things that show us the expanse of the universe, you start to see that there's something that is way bigger than our little, little, little, little cul-de-sac here in a cold earth, in the expanse of all of creation. But yet God has chosen to make this as the place in which we live, we breathe, and we can seek his face. God is the creator. Now we're getting into some areas that are, I think we get to the point at which we realize, when you get older, I found this to be true, you start to realize more people are starting to pass away. Not a wonderful thought, but needless to say, if you started, if you had like a five year reunion, or a 50 year class reunion, there's probably gonna be less at the 50 year reunion than there would be at the five year reunion. Life is fragile. Life is man's most important asset. Verse 4 says this, in him was life, and the life was the light of men. To lose life is tragic. It really is. To lose life is tragic, but to lose life in this life is tragic, but to lose your life in the next life is more severely tragic. You know, we're all faced with being able to say, what Jesus always says He was. If He's the way, the truth, and the life, that means I'm not the way, the truth, and the life. So following what I believe to be true isn't gonna get me anywhere. Do you ever feel like, I don't know, I feel like this on this earth, do you ever feel like you are an alien and a stranger? Like a refugee, like something does not belong. Do you ever feel like there's just, it seems like with the pain, with things, with mental demons, with issues and all these different things, you feel like there's got to be something more going on here than just this. Because if we're just existentialists, we're just here to exist and kind of die, this is pretty pathetic. Do you ever feel like there's more, like when Paul says we're alien and strangers in a hostile foreign land? As believers, we should understand that there is a higher plane, a higher calling that we're called to, and that life is God. Jesus not only gives us life through this life, but ultimately lets us rest in eternity, and in the place where at last we will belong in eternity. Jesus not only is the beginning. He's not only God. He's not only the creator. He's not only life. but He's also the light. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Light is commonly used in the Bible as an emblem of God. Darkness is commonly used to denote death, ignorance, sin, and separation from God. Technically, darkness isn't anything except the absence of light. You can't go into a room and turn on the dark. You go into a room and you turn on the light. And it's interesting, though, that by nature, The idea of light, it shows, it exposes, it sees things for what they really are. You know, I think we all want truth. I think we do. I don't think anybody here is like, I just want to hear what's false. Especially when it comes to God, we're like, we want truth, we desire truth, we desire God. But you know what I found on a relational level, we don't always want that truth. We don't always want the truth. We don't want to know what people think about us sometimes. I would just rather not know and go my way. And a lot of times we can ignore or askew, and even us as parents, many times we don't want to know what the truth is with our children. That they're struggling. What if our child came to us and said, I don't believe in God? But do we want to know the truth? Or are we like, I don't want to know that. I don't want to know that. Jesus is the light that exposes. He exposes everything for what it's worth. It's the part of which the cockroaches scatter. I've lived in Florida. I know what that's like. Emmanuel, God with us. Light will give clarity and hope to those that seek it. This God is with us. Not only did He come 2,000 years ago as a babe in a manger, but He is here. He is here now. Who needs Jesus? We all do. We all need Him. The Gospel, the Good News, is not just the five verses. It is the grandiose plan from creation to eternity. This is the good news that God has made possible to us. Some people say, well, it's not fair that people are sent to hell or are in hell. To me, the question would be, it's not fair that we're able to spend eternity with God. It is this grand, grandiose plan from creation to eternity where Jesus is the central figure and you, me, the pinnacle of his creation, is His treasure that was created in His image for His glory, for His honor. Now my question would be, do you know this Jesus? Do you know Him for who He is as the Redeemer? We've all missed the mark. There's nothing you can do. There's no karma. If karma is true, we are all in trouble. Because whatever you throw out negative is going to come back negative. I don't want to rest in that, I'll be honest with you. I want to rest in something called grace that says, come as you are to me, to Jesus. Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy leaden. I will give you rest. That's the Jesus of the gospel. That's the Jesus of the good news. That's the Jesus that says it doesn't matter what you've done, how evil you've been in your mind. It doesn't mean you have to be Hitler. It doesn't matter. Every human being has missed the mark. And we've missed the mark because of our sin, our degradation, our depravity. But God has said, I want to rescue you. I want to take you from that, and I want to give you life, and I want to give it to you more abundantly. Let this be the night that you do that. All you've got to say is say, he who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. If you believe him for who he is, and you want to walk with him, Let tonight be that night that you do that. Let tonight be that night so that you can actually say, this season, with all of the busyness, with all of the stuff that's going on, you can say, my soul has found its worth in Jesus, in Yahweh. And now you can say, hallelujah. Praise Yah. Praise Yahweh. Let's pray. God, thank you. For your goodness, God, if there's someone here that does not know you, God, I pray tonight would be the night that they say, God, take my life. Take my life and use me. God, we understand that you are the life. You are the light. You are the sustainer, the thing that holds together, the being that holds together all things. And God, I pray that we would recognize that this season, with all of the busyness, that those of us that are followers of you would recognize that you are the reason that everything is held together, and that our view, our minds would be captivated by your glory, by your goodness, and that in our hearts, in our souls, at the depth of our soul, we would be able to say, hallelujah, praise God. We love you. Thank you so much for the opportunity that you've given me to be the administrator here at this school with such amazing students and teachers. And God, I pray that as we lift our voices to you, that you would just take them as a sweet savor to your nose, as praise to the one that is worthy of it. In Jesus' name, amen.