Luke chapter number one is where we will be today. It's a privilege to be in the house of God, and it's a privilege to worship Him. You know, there's a lot of ills of the soul that are made right by coming to church and corporately worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, there's a lot of people dealing with a lot of stress in the world today. and they would find that their stress levels would go down if they would just sing to the Lord. You know, we serve a God that has the ability to create the world, to speak it into existence, to part the Red Sea, and have the children of Israel pass over on dry ground. He's certainly a God that wants to help you carry your burdens, and as you sing to Him, it's certainly casting your care upon the Lord. He cares for you, and He can help you bear your burden. Luke chapter number one, we'll begin our reading In verse 26, last week we covered the angel Gabriel appearing before two parents, elderly parents, the parents of John the Baptist, you know, and the book of Luke begins and Luke begins to set in order those things that he was trying to most certainly assure Theophilus of. He begins with two parents who were elderly, who had been faithful to God, and God was going to do something very special in their lives. He was going to give them a son. Parents who previously had not been able to have children, parents who were past the age of having children, and God allowed a baby boy to be born unto them, and his name was John the Baptist. John the Baptist had a very important part in ushering in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I just want to say this as we start our service this morning, I am a preacher and a pastor who believes that Jesus started His church while He was on the earth. and that those who were known as Baptists did not start from the Protestant Reformation. Our heritage goes all the way back to a man named John the Baptist who came out of the wilderness of Judea preaching. That's where we got our baptism from, from John the Baptist. When we baptize in our church, we baptize by immersion in the same way as John the Baptist baptized Jesus himself. And so in Luke chapter 1 and verse 26, this angel, Gabriel, is now speaking. to the Virgin Mary. Now when the Bible says in verse 26 that it was in the sixth month, that means that it was in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy with John the Baptist. So Elizabeth was pregnant, a miracle of God, the Bible declares that she was hiding herself at this time, she was an elderly woman, and she was now with child. Now it's in the sixth month of her pregnancy, so she's getting along, isn't she, ladies? She's coming around at the time when it starts getting real. I only got a couple of laughs from that. We've had five children, trust me. I don't know anything about giving birth, but I know about being around someone who's going to give birth. It's getting real. Verse 26, and in the sixth month of the angel, in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth. to a virgin, a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. And he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. There shall be no end." Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible." What a blessed reading of the Scripture. A beautiful portion of the Scripture. We'll be focusing this morning on the first thing that Gabriel said in verse 32. He shall be great. Let's bow for prayer. Father in Heaven, bless the preaching of Your Word today. Help us Lord as we consider Your greatness. Bless this service and bless this sanctuary Lord with Your presence and Your power. I pray that you might accomplish your purposes in this message, Lord, that the Word of God might fall on soft hearts that would receive it in faith. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Now it is remarkable to consider that during the days that are recorded here in Luke chapter 1, heaven seemed so unusually near. The angel Gabriel, whose name only appears four times in the Scriptures, stepped out of eternity, or stepped out of heaven, stepped out of the, you know, the obscure, the places, you know, we typically don't see angels. The angel Gabriel was very active during this time. But we know that in the Old Testament, in Daniel chapter 7 and 8, Gabriel was explaining to Daniel when the end of the world would come. He was also explaining to Daniel when the When the Messiah would be cut off, he was explaining visions that Daniel had. It's very clear from Daniel 7 and 8 that God dispatched Gabriel to try to set things in order for Daniel. Now Gabriel is very active. He's speaking to a priest, Zacharias, who went into the temple to burn incense while everyone else was outside praying. He was alone in the temple, burning incense, a sweet-smelling incense to the Lord, and all of a sudden, Gabriel appears. What a beautiful sight. Now, the Bible says that Zacharias was a bit fearful. I've got to be honest with you. I've been pastoring churches for a long time, and sometimes it can be very unnerving when you hear things in a building that's supposed to be empty. I used to live in a house that was connected to a church, and one night I'd stayed up late and I was studying and I was walking in my home from the church office, so basically you'd walk right by the piano, and as I'd walk into the house area, all of a sudden I heard this, and it scared the living daylights out of me. And it was that little character from the toy story. It was the dinosaur. It was motion activated. It was a toy. Normally the toys my children had I stumbled over or it hurt my feet. You know, whenever glass breaks in my house I can tell you whose foot it's going to be on the bottom of. It's mine. But this little dinosaur said, ah! And then it said, were you scared? Tell me, really. And I was ashamed of myself because I jumped in fear from a little child's toy. But there have been times when walking through an empty sanctuary where I heard some pretty strange noises. And a little bit of fear overwhelmed my soul. And some other preachers are nodding their head yes. I remember walking out to a tree stand one morning and my mentor who taught me how to hunt just said, listen, you'll get on that footpath, you won't even need to turn on a flashlight. He said, just walk out that footpath and you'll find that footpath will end in a tree stand. I'd never seen that tree stand before. There was no harness. It was 16 feet up in the air. And apparently he didn't realize that people like me fall asleep in tree stands. You have no idea how many times the angelic host saved my life that day. But when I was on my way out there with a .30-06, I heard things moving at the top of the trees. And I want to tell you something, it's just that same fear that I had in empty church buildings sometimes I had that day because I thought a bear was going to attack me. I had much respect for David, the servant of the Lord, for killing a lion with a staff. I was armed with a .30-06 and was scared. Some of you guys didn't find any humor in that, but it's hunting season. And I'm the one preaching, so I'm fine. As long as I'm amused, it does not matter. But here you got, you know, the father of John the Baptist being frightened by the angel Gabriel because he was alone in the temple and then Gabriel appeared. Now, Gabriel's appearing before the Virgin Mary. It is interesting to think about this, how that Gabriel was talking to Daniel 500 years before. You know these angelic beings, they go all the way back to the beginning. They were a created being, created by God. But now He's speaking to the Virgin Mary and He says something, He says several things that are so wonderful to consider. But what we're going to consider this morning is how when He began speaking about the character of the Lord Jesus and who the Lord Jesus would be, He said, He shall be great. There is no title that's too lofty for Jesus. There's no song that's too sweet for His praise. There's no worship too glorious for His name. Gabriel's simple phrase is our theme today, and that is the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a greatness in His incarnation. The Incarnation was how that the Lord Jesus Christ was brought into this world. You know, Jesus Christ is eternal. He was found all the way back in the book of Genesis. Turn in your Bible quickly to Genesis chapter number 1. Here's one of the first truths that you must receive by faith according to the Scripture. Genesis chapter number 1, and then we're going to read the very first verse in the Bible, and I hope, like me, you could say, I believe that. And you must believe it, you should believe it, by faith. Genesis 1 and 1, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. God's the one who created it. God spoke it into being. He said, let there be light. And there was light. That was when the light was supposed to go out, right there. Let there be light. And there was light. You know, God created it and He said it was good. Verse number 26. And God said, notice, let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, praise the Lord, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, created He Him. Male and female, created He them. You wonder where the gender confusion comes from today? God is not confused. This world may be confused, but if you go back to the first book of the Bible, it tells you how God created mankind. It was male and female, and the Bible said, God said, let us. There are three members of the Godhead. All seen at the baptism of Jesus, or heard, Jesus came to John the Baptist, was baptized of him. When John the Baptist dumped him under the water, immersed him, and brought him up, the Bible said that the Spirit of God came down. God the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove and rested upon the shoulder of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a voice from heaven came and said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. You know what I'm trying to say here today is it was glorious that an eternal God had come into the world and became like man. In the Old Testament it said one of the names of Jesus would be called Immanuel, which means God with us. God lived alongside of man through the Lord Jesus Christ. During Jesus' life one of His disciples said, Lord, show us the Father, and He said, if you see me You've seen the Father. Jesus Christ was in the beginning with God. He was God. This is John chapter 1 and verse number 1. In John, the Gospel of John, chapter 1 and verse 3, it says, all things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. Jesus Christ was present in the beginning and now He became a man. It's an amazing thing to think about His incarnation. Luke 137 says, for with God, nothing shall be impossible. God took upon Himself human flesh in Jesus Christ. The eternal Word became flesh and dwelt among us, John 114. He would robe Himself in humanity. This is not simply a baby being born, it was God entering His own creation as a man. And in one of the oldest books of the Bible, the book of Genesis in the third chapter, it calls the child that would be born the seed of the woman. That was Jesus Christ, who was known on earth as the Son of Man. As the Son of Man, He was the Son of Mary, but He was also the Son of God, because He had no earthly father. 1 Timothy 3 and verse 16 says, God was manifest in the flesh. One preacher of old said, the infinite became an infant. The Creator became a creature. The Son of God became the Son of Man, that the sons of men might become the sons of God. Are you thankful for the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ? I suppose during the Christmas time, there's no greater thought to have how that God entered into this world. You know that the angels sang about the Lord's birth, you know, they came into that town of Bethlehem, a little town of Bethlehem we sing, there was no room for Jesus in the inn, they had a, there was only a barn that he was able to be born in, and most of the world didn't see the glory and the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. But there were some shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night, and the Lord sent an angelic host down there, and they started singing glory to God in the highest and on earth. peace, goodwill toward men. God had good things in mind for men when He sent the Lord Jesus Christ to this earth. And it wasn't just for kings, even though the Lord was born for kings, and there were some dignitaries who traveled and met Jesus when He was just a little toddler where they gave the golden frankincense and myrrh, but it was the common man that the angels were sent to. What a glorious sight. You know, most of the world was so busy they didn't have any time for Christ and there was no room for them in the end, but there was some angelic host who said, somebody's going to find out about this. This is too good to keep silent, and they were singing to those shepherds in the field, and they said, go see. This will be a sign to you. When you go, you'll find that babe. He said, unto you was born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord, and the sign was that they would find that babe lying in a manger. A manger's not a place where you'd find children ordinarily, friend. They knew when they came to town they were looking for a barn. And as they stood in the doorway of that barn and they fell down to worship the Lord Jesus, can you imagine if you were one of those shepherds? You would have been—a Savior was born today. God's going to do something with that little child. You know why? Because just as the angels said, that little boy was to be great. He shall be great. Is Jesus Christ great in your sight today? Is His Incarnation something that still stirs your soul? If His Incarnation reveals His power, then His Kingdom certainly reveals His glory. In Luke chapter 1 and verse number 33, it says, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end." Now there's two, primarily two kinds of people that are found in that verse. First of all, the house of Jacob is a reference to the Jewish people, the Israelites. God chose the Jews through which he would bring Jesus Christ to the world. Now you may not think a lot about the Jews. I think a lot about the Jews. I thank God for the Jews. My Savior was a Jew. Jesus Christ was born a Jew. Thank the Lord for the Jewish people. Without them we wouldn't have our Bible. You realize your Bible's a Jewish book? Your Bible is an archive of Jewish history. You know who the father of the Jews is? His name was Abraham. Abraham was known as the father of the Jews. He was the father of faith. The Bible says in the book of Galatians that if you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're a spiritual child of Abraham because you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Aren't you thankful for the Jewish people? thankful, I'm thankful for the Jewish people. The Bible says in verse number 33, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, that's a reference to the children of Israel. And then he says, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Now, the kingdom of God is something that was preached about by John the Baptist when he came on the scene. When he came in Matthew 3 and verse 1, he said, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Something new is taking place. And the Bible says, of Christ's kingdom there shall be no end. Now, if you have your Bible here in the book of Luke, If you turn back with me to the book of Daniel, the Old Testament book of Daniel, it's right around the middle of your Bible, and if you don't know how to use your Bible, there's all kinds of things you can learn about it, but normally at the beginning of every Bible there's what we would call an index, and it will tell you what page number that book of the Bible will start in. The book of Daniel is in the Old Testament, we would consider Daniel to be one of the major prophets. In Daniel chapter number two there was something very interesting that took place, and we're not going to take time to read the whole dream. If you want to read this dream that was given to a great Babylonian leader, you can read it. But there was a dream that he had, and the dream was that of like a statue It was, it talked about different things that took place in verse number 31 of Daniel chapter 2. It says, Thou, O King, sawest, and behold, a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. The image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay, and then he saw a stone that was cut out and some things happened and the image was destroyed and basically the vision that he had troubled him. If you have your attention fall down to Daniel chapter number 2 and read verse 44 where Daniel is now prophesying about the Kingdom of God. And notice what he says about the Kingdom of God. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. Guess who's part of that kingdom? You are, if you're saved, you're a part of a kingdom that's never gonna end, it's now being prophesied about in verse number 44, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand, notice, forever. Do you realize that the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ stands forever? It doesn't end. When's the first time you ever contemplated forever? First time I ever contemplated forever when I was thinking about the issues of heaven and hell. My preachers when I grew up did a great job preaching that there's a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. And when the preachers would preach about hell they would say that hell is forever. And if you wind up there you can't get out, you'll be incarcerated there forever. And I thought about, man you get through the first 50 years, you're just getting started. Hell is a place where you—I didn't want to go to a place like that, but there's something else that's forever in the Bible, and that is the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And may I say to you today, friend, that this is a Kingdom that you want to be a part of. God will not force you to be a part of it. Jesus isn't going to kick your door in. You're going to have to choose to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be a part of that Kingdom. But that kingdom has no end, and that's what Gabriel said in verse 33 of Luke 1. It says, and of His kingdom there shall be no end. You know, when my earthly existence ends, you know what? I'm still a part of God's kingdom. I'm a part of the Lord's kingdom. The Bible says if you suffer with Him, you'll rule and reign with Him. I believe that Jesus Christ is coming back. And if I should, if I go, I will come again, Jesus said in John chapter 14. In Acts chapter number 1, the angel said, hey, you guys from Galilee, what are you standing here for? This same Jesus is going to come in like manner. Jesus is coming again. I would suggest that you know Him. This is the glory of His kingdom. His, He's not only great because of His incarnation and how He came to the world, He is great because His kingdom lasts forever. I mean just let that settle in on your soul that you're on the winning side. And that when you received the Lord Jesus Christ, you became a part of a kingdom that has no end. You know, we don't live in the days of earthly kings. Some people think we live in a day of kings, but here in the United States, we don't have kings. If we had kings, we wouldn't have protests. But here, what I'm trying to say is that whoever's ruling, whoever is making decisions, whatever administration there is today, it's going to change. And those men will fall off the scene. I don't care how healthy these men, some of our political leaders are reaching into their 80s and 90s, I've only known one person in all my life that made it past 100. At our nursing home service we've got a man there named Arnold. We got an Arnold there and he's, you know, all the ladies there are upset because he's now got their age beaten. He's 99 years old, he's the oldest one there in the home. days will come to an end. All political leaders their days will come to an end. But Jesus Christ's kingdom will never come to an end, and I'm thankful to be a part of that kingdom today. When I got saved by the grace of God, the Lord put me inside of that kingdom, and He sealed me inside of that kingdom, and I'm thankful for that today. He's not only great because of His incarnation, and He's great because of His kingdom, because His kingdom is eternal. I thank God that Jesus Christ, when Gabriel said, He shall be great, Jesus Christ was great because of His love. You know, our God is a great God, and He's great because of His love. We as men, we fall short in many ways. There's no man, no woman here today that is a perfect being. We fall short. We're sinners. As our pastors would preach, we're sinners by birth. Nobody had to teach us to sin. Mothers, how about it? Once your kid turned two, did you have to teach him to tell you no? To ball up their fist at you? They're not little angels anymore, are they? Oh, he's a little angel. No, he's not. He's a sinner. Every one of you is a sinner. Children are not angels. They will prove that if you give them time. Have you ever been to Walmart with a kid that got angry at his mother and she didn't know how to deal with him and you saw them ball their fist up at mom and hit their mother? I've seen kids spit on their mother. Let me tell you something, I'm not calling any being that spits on his mom an angel. Now kids are innocent, and thank the Lord, they're so cute. I admire every woman in the church who can tell from the day they're born who they look like. I don't know who the child looks like. Doesn't he look, doesn't he have his dad's nose? No, he doesn't have his dad's nose. I mean sometimes I feel like ladies are just making it up. No, all I can tell you is I've had very few, you know, I think babies are beautiful and thank the Lord for them. I tell the story often of my daughter Becca being born. We'd prayed for a little daughter, and God gave me a daughter and I wept when she was born and the doctor was like, hey, are you okay? I'm like, yeah man, I'm fine. God answered a prayer, am I not allowed to cry? I thought I was going to pass out. I'm not going to pass out, I was rejoicing because God gave us a beautiful child. Now children are born in that innocent state, you know, they don't have any idea, you know, they're doing something wrong. One time we were pastoring my first church and I hate to talk about him while he's in the service, but old Jake, he didn't always used to be this hairy. He was an escape artist and I told you we lived in a house connected to the church. And Jacob would be able to get out of that, his crib, I mean he was an escape artist, we called him Houdini. And one time he ran out nearly naked right out in front of the service, I had to pick him up. And I got into the microphone in the basement nursery, I said, Loretta, your child got out. Now Jacob was a sweet kid, but he was at a place and time where he didn't care if he had anything on because he was in one of those innocent stages. But we are sinners by birth. We just sin. We don't like to be told no. If you don't believe that's true, I'll take you to the nursery. You go to see somebody steals a toy from another child and say, no, you can't take that from them. You're about to see something that we used to call a tantrum. Somebody's about to throw a fit. You know what that's called? Oh, it's so cute. No, it's called sin, mom. It's called sin. And if you don't correct those things, it's going to get even worse. We're sinners by birth, then we're sinners by choice. I tell the story all the time, I told my sister when I was called to preach, I was going to tell everything she ever did to me that deserved to be repeated. She got away with it for all those years and then God called me to preach. My mother would buy six snack cakes for my dad and she told us, kids, you stay out of them. I'm making dad's lunch for the week, he was working two and three jobs to put food on the table, and she would go to the hostess store and get those hostess snack cakes and we would always be running short on Saturdays. and I was the one taking the whooping for it. Trust me, when I got whipped for something I didn't do, I was taking it for all the stuff I got away with, because I was a bad child. But I was telling my mom as I was being spanked, Mom, I didn't do this, I didn't take that snack I wouldn't take from my dad. And then one day she, praise the Lord, the Holy Spirit of God, had my mother go in and change the sheets on my sister's bed. And when she lifted up the mattress all those all the evidence was there My sister wasn't just any sinner. She was a bad sinner She knew that I was suffering for her decisions she chose to have me delivered to my tormentors Thinking she got away with it, but she didn't get away with it. The truth was discovered be sure your sin will find you out and And finally justice was served, but she wasn't the only person who made a choice in her childhood to do wrong. I did too. I don't gloat about it. I told my parents things that weren't true. I thought things I shouldn't think. I did things that I denied that I was guilty of. I was a sinner. Even though I was raised in church, I had the ability to think bad thoughts, dark thoughts, things that I would never admit to anyone else. I was a sinner by birth, I was a sinner by choice, and then trust me, all teenagers have some problems. Can I get a witness in the congregation? You know when you were a teenager, sometimes you became a good practicing sinner. Well we're thankful that Jesus loves sinners. The Bible said that He came to this world to seek and to save that which was lost, but God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. His love is indescribable. The Lord came to this earth to suffer because He loved us, and Jesus is great because of His love. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And that provided a way for anyone in the world without exception to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Have you ever believed on Jesus for the forgiveness of your sin? This is something you need to do before you pass from this life. Sometimes people use an acronym for the word Bible, Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. And one of the things you need to do before you leave this earth is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't save yourself from sin. You can't get baptized enough to save you from your sin. You can't be good enough to keep yourself saved. You must be born again, and that is through truly trusting in Jesus Christ. Jesus came to this earth because of His great love. Now we don't have time to develop this. There was this, when the Bible said, He shall be great, can any of us say that Jesus wasn't great because of His miracles? old blind Bartimaeus is sitting on the side of the road and he hears about Jesus passing by, and he starts hollering out, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me! And people are like, hush now! He don't have time for you! And he cried out the more, the Bible said, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me! And Jesus stopped, he stood still, and he said, come on. He called for blind Bartimaeus and somebody came to Bartimaeus and said, be of good comfort. He calls for you. The Bible says he left his outer garment and he came to Jesus. He said, what do you want me to do for you? He said, oh Lord, that I just might receive my sight. And to see Jesus Christ anoint that man and give him sight would have been a sight to see. Jesus is great because of his miracles. Mary and Martha called to Jesus when their brother was sick, they wanted Jesus to be there and help their brother. Jesus delayed and their brother died and they buried him and put him in a grave. Jesus goes out to the graveyard, the Bible said that he wept. You know why Jesus was weeping? Some believe that Jesus was only weeping because of their unbelief. I'm sure that their unbelief was a part of why he was weeping, but I think that Jesus was weeping because he identified with the pain that was delivered to others when a loved one dies. He wept because of what death did to mankind, what sin did to mankind. You know where there's sin? There's going to be death. Why do people die, Pastor? It's their sin. There's sin in the world. Man, we as human beings, as sinners, we won't live forever. The Bible says, wherefore as by one man's sin that death had come into the world, and so death passed upon all men because all have sinned. But when Jesus came out to that grave and wept, he called out for old Lazarus. He said, Lazarus, come forth. And he came walking out of that grave. What a miracle was done that day. What a miracle was done when he raised the widow of Nain's son. What a miracle was done when he cast demons out of that man who was at Gadara. Jesus Christ was a man who was able to feed thousands and thousands of people with a couple of loaves and fish. Jesus Christ miracles. I'll tell you what. I have no problem believing in the greatness of Jesus. There are people today, they say these sports stars, they're great. They're great because they can catch a football. They're great because they can shoot hoops and dunk a basketball. No, I'm going to tell you somebody who is great, his name was Jesus Christ. When the angel said, he shall be great, this was the greatest of all. Jesus Christ was the greatest of all. Not only was He great for His love and His miracles, but could anybody look at the sacrificial death that Jesus Christ died? You know, at the end of His life, people were saying, Lord, don't go up to Jerusalem. They'll kill you up there. Jesus knew why He was born. He knew that He was the Lamb of God, and He directed His face toward Jerusalem and He said, I'm going up there. You know why He went up there? Because He loved you as a friend. The Bible says, this greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend, and Jesus called you His friend. He died not as a martyr, Jesus died as a substitute. He died in your place. For the things you've done, for the things you've thought, for the acts that you've committed, Jesus died in your place. The Scriptures declare that He was wounded for our transgressions. When Jesus went to Calvary's cross and He was put on trial and He was beaten with a a scourge of cords and when a crown of thorns was placed on his head and when they buffeted him with their fists and with sticks, you know they put bags over his head and were hitting him with sticks and saying, if you're the Christ, tell us who hit you. They were mocking him. I mean, this wasn't like trash talk on a ball field, this was them taking Jesus' beard and plucking it from His face, and spitting upon Him, the worst humiliating death that you could ever have. He was hung up before His mother, and all mankind, why? Because He was suffering for the sins that mankind would commit. The Bible said that He, speaking of God, hath made Him to be sin for us. God made Jesus to be sin and to suffer our wrath. Have you ever looked at the sacrificial death on the cross that Jesus made a way for you to go to heaven and say, wow, that's great. That was the greatness of Jesus Christ, but you know, death couldn't hold Him in the grave. They buried Him, they put a stone over the grave, they sealed that grave, but three days and three nights later, Jesus came walking out of that grave and He started talking to people. He started talking to people with love. He called out to Mary. He said, Mary, He talked to Mary so kindly, and Mary was able to recognize His voice, and she called Him Rabboni. Jesus is not only great because of His sacrificial death, He was great. He shall be great because He has power over death. You know, Jesus Christ defeated death for us. He resurrected from the grave. That was God's final stamp of approval on Christ. He was declared to be the Son of God with power, says Romans 1-4, by the resurrection of the dead. A risen Savior also gives. He offers salvation to all men. We're going to close with this point today. But the greatness Of Jesus Christ is in his offer free offer of salvation to every person Now there could be somebody here today and you may be never have understood The issues of salvation and not understood how you can be saved say well pastor I've been taught that if I do enough good works that I'll be able to get into heaven because hey I'm not that bad of a person If that's your attitude today, I'm going to tell you this right now You need to be saved because your sins were bad enough for Christ to die on the cross for you. You can't go to heaven of your own power. You can't go to heaven of your own goodness. You know, sometimes people have that human pride and they think, well, I'm not as bad as that person. I've never done all those things. But I'm going to tell you something, you are guilty of sin in your life. The Bible says this, for all have sinned. No, pastor, you don't know me. That may be true, I don't know you, but I know a man who does. And he's keeping awful good records of everything you've ever thought and you've ever done. And he still loves you, and he's offered salvation to you. This is something Jesus said in his life, he said, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He was talking about the issue of salvation. If you want to know for sure that you're going to heaven when you die, all you need to do is come to Jesus. He'll give you that assurance. But the first thing you're going to have to acknowledge is, I'm a sinner and I'm in need of a Savior. If you've never acknowledged that, let today be that day. The Bible says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you're in that conviction of sin and you realize you've offended a holy God, that you, you know, some people as they go through life and they're going through difficulties, whether it be of health or with families, they come to that recognition that, hey, I'm not saved. You know what, Jesus loves you and He wants you to be saved. The Bible says He's not willing that any should perish. He wants everyone to be saved. Jesus saves young and old. I've seen little children come to the Lord before they've ever known major manners of sin, they knew that they disobeyed their parents and done wrong, and I do believe that children can come and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, suffer the little children to come unto me. I've met people who were on the church roll but they weren't on the roll in heaven. I've known deacons who've run the aisle who've said, I'm not saved, I haven't truly believed on the Lord, I've been living a lie. No matter who you are today, if you're not saved, why don't you let God save your soul? God certainly doesn't want you sitting there in doubt either. God doesn't love us because we're valuable, we're valuable because He loves us. God thought so much of us that He gave His only begotten Son to provide a way for all mankind to come to the Lord and be saved. Jesus is great. When Gabriel declared, he shall be great, he opened the door of this truth to all of humanity. He was great because of how he came into the world. He was great because of his everlasting kingdom and his love and his miracles, and praise the Lord for his sacrifice. His sacrifice was enough. You know, we sing the song often in church called, Jesus paid it all. Jesus didn't pay for some of your sins, He paid for all of your sins. But the only way His payment is applied to your account is when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I'm trusting You to save me, to forgive me of my sin, and to take me to heaven when I die. The only merit you'll have to get into heaven is through the blood of Jesus Christ. And that blood gets applied when you believe. There could be somebody here today and you need to be saved. You need more than anything else to know for sure that you're going to heaven when you die, that you've been born again. That takes place when you say, Lord, I need to be saved. And right now, I'm putting my faith and my trust in you. Maybe that's you today. Won't you come and trust Jesus? He is great, as the angel prophesied. Let's stand together. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, we'll prepare for a verse of invitation. There could be somebody here today and you don't know the Lord as your Savior, and you need to be saved. I want to tell you today, the Lord wants to save you. And if you come to church today and the Lord has showed you your great need, what a shame it would be if you left this place and you didn't know for sure that you were on your way to Heaven. Jesus died so that you could know, not that you could hope. Not that you may be saved, but that you would know that you're saved. 1 John 5 and 13 tells us if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that we may know that we have eternal life. As we play this number, if the Lord has spoken to your heart, maybe it's time for you to say, hey, today is my day. I'm gonna get this right with God. As we sing this number, no matter what God's spoken to your heart about, won't you come? Surely Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me. I don't know if I know the date and time or where I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Won't you get that settled today? He's waiting and watching, watching for you and for me. Pastor, I'm not sure I'm saved. Jesus is great in his love. He wants to save you. Don't leave lost. Verse two. Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading, pleading for you and for me? Why should we linger and heed not His mercies? Mercies for you and for me. Come home. Come home. Ye who are weary, come home. earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, O sinner, come home. One more verse. Time is now fleeing, the moments are passing, passing from you and from me. Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming, coming for you and for me. Come home, come home. Ye who are weary, come home. And all of God's people said Amen, it's been good to be in the Lord's house You know, if you have questions about anything whether it be how to join the church or how to be saved We're here for you. That's what the church is here for you were to proclaim the gospel of Jesus and And I stand before you today as a sinner who's been saved by grace. And I hope and pray you could say the same thing, that there's a day and time in your life when you received Christ as your Savior, and now that you have assurance that you're on your way to heaven. And if that's your case, then, well, the next step of obedience is to be baptized. It's to be baptized in water by immersion as a testimony of your faith. to a congregation that's an act that a church will do and We pray that you'd follow the Lord not only in baptism, but in discipleship That's the whole purpose of the Lord's Church is to teach people Everything that was commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ and to live out our faith in this place now We, I'll let you know, we would love to sit down and eat with you or to discuss the things of the Lord with you. If you have questions, please feel free. Sometimes people are intimidated, well I can't talk to the pastor. That's, we don't have a church that's like that here. My door is open and anyone can talk to me about anything at any time if you need prayer if you need counsel We'll we'll set up a time where we can have a have words with you as for now We have our church banquet our christmas banquet that we've prepared some food for you for those of you who may be visiting us through this door and down the hallway And we have tables set up in the gymnasium. And we're looking forward to having a great meal. I think we have turkey and ham and all different kinds of things that have been prepared for you to eat. How many of you are excited about the meal? All right. Well, praise the Lord. What we would like is for those of you who are mobility challenged, let's say today you're using a walker or a cane or you're struggling with your mobility. We would like you to be the first ones to go to the line along with our visitors if you're visiting with us today We'd like you to go to the line first and those of us who are church members and especially our young people Parents, please take hold of your children and let them know that today. They're not the center of the universe Amen. Let's honor our elders. Should we do that? Amen. We should honor those who are older than us. And, you know, if you're a young person, maybe you would say, hey, can I help you? You know, somebody's using a walker. I can carry your plate for you. Let's show respect here at the house of God. And let's have a good meal together today. We're going to bow and have a word of dismissal prayer. Brother Tim, if you'd come to the pulpit and pray, and we'll check and see where the meal is at. We hope to see you over there. And we're not having evening services tonight, so don't think the rapture happened if you come back and nobody's here. And so, Brother Tim, if you'd close the service in prayer. Let's pray dear Heavenly Father Lord. We thank you so much for allowing us to be in your house Lord, we can definitely say it was good to be in your house today Lord, we thank you for the many blessings this time of year Lord. We thank you for all that you've done your son his birth Lord his death for our salvation and for our sins. Lord, I pray that you'll bless each one that's here. Lord, we thank you so much for visitors. Lord, I pray that you'll continue to be with all the many prayer requests. Lord, you know each one, and Lord, I pray that you'll continue to bless and comfort in each area. Lord, bless this time together as our church family gathers to celebrate Christmas and celebrate your birth. Lord bless each one that's here in Jesus name, amen.