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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["O tidings of comfort and joy"] ["O tidings of comfort and joy"] ["O tidings of comfort and joy"] ["O tidings of comfort and joy"] ["O tidings of comfort and joy"] ["O tidings of comfort and joy"] ["O tidings of comfort and joy"] ["O tidings of comfort and joy"] With true love and brother, each other now embrace. This holy night of Christmas, all others come to face. Oh tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy. Oh tidings of comfort and joy. Amen. Your Lord, I thank you again for another opportunity to be in God's house this morning and I praise you and just bless our singing to you this morning as we celebrate this Christmas time, celebrate your birth, and I praise you and bless our efforts singing and our effort soloing today, and bless the pastor when he comes and he's going to pray for you. Amen. All right, our next song is actually going to be on our hymnal. We saw it on 430. Song number 430, while shepherds watch their flock. Song 430. On the verse. While shepherds watch their flocks die, die, all seated on the ground. The angel of the Lord came down, and glory shone around, and glory shone around. Fear not sinning for my heat, and cease their troubled mind. Let tidings of great joy I pray to you and all mankind, to you and all mankind. To you in David's town this day is Lord of David's light. The Savior who is Christ the Lord, and this shall be the sign, and this shall be the sign. The heavenly breakthroughs there shall fly to you and you display. Oh, be here at this wanting place, and in the painter's lane, and in the painter's lane. All glory be to God on high, and to the earthly peace. Good will and sport from man to man, within and never cease. Within and never cease. Amen. All right, great singing this morning. It's good to see you all here and have you here with us on this Sunday morning. At this time, we're going to go through our announcements, so if you do not have one of these bulletins, slip your hand up real high. We'll make sure that we get one out to you, and if you'd open up to the first page, you'll see our service time is listed at the top. Sunday morning at 1030, Sunday afternoon again at 4 p.m., and then Wednesday night at 7 is our Bible study. We're going to be in Isaiah 37 this week. We have the soul-winning opportunities listed there, as well as our salvations and baptisms for the month of December, as well as for the year, and then the offering totals through the month of December down there at the bottom of the page. Let's go ahead and count up. Were there any salvations to report of this week? Anyone preach the gospel? Anyone saved this week? Yes, sir. One yesterday. One yesterday. Amen. Anything else to report? All right, very good. Keep up the good work preaching the gospel. We've got time this afternoon. If you're visiting our church, renew our church. This is the most important thing that we do. It's the lifeblood of our church is going out and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and just showing people how they can be saved from the Scriptures, how Jesus Christ was born, bled, and died for their sins, and rose again on the third day to pay for their sins and that all you have to do to be saved is put your trust in our Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. That's what we teach. That's what we believe, and that is the most important thing that any believer can do. If you'd like to join us, we're changing up the way we're doing our sowing a little bit. Brother Vernon is the leader. He's been leader for quite a while now, but make sure if you want to go out with us, and here's the other thing too, whether you're new or not, if you want to be a silent partner, that's the thing. If you're brand new, you've never done this before, don't worry. You don't have to say anything. We're not going to throw you just out there and leave you high and dry or whatever. Just come on out with us, and you can be paired up with someone who has been doing this for quite a while and is very comfortable giving the Gospel, and you can just observe and see how we go about preaching the Gospel to people. We'd love to have you join us, but make sure anyone who is planning on going immediately after the church service, speak with Brother Miller, and Brother Miller, make sure before you leave, you give kind of a last call so that people know that you're going to be out of here. So if there's anyone, it's easy to get caught up in fellowshipping, talking, and everything else. I just want to make sure that everyone gets a chance to speak to you and make sure that they're partnered up. So if you're going to need a sowing partner or whatever, Brother Vernon's going to take care of that before, as soon as service ends. That way, when we split and go get lunch and everything else, we could make the most efficient use of our time. So we're going to have the maps printed already for after church. Those are set and ready to go. And then you can get your marching orders from Brother Vernon if you want to come out with us this afternoon. And then the prayer requests. So I do have one addition besides what's already on the list. Henry Allen is my wife's father, and he's scheduled to have surgery on his back on January 4th, and he's getting some of the plates fused on his back. And that's kind of a serious surgery, so we appreciate prayers for him. That's going to be on January 4th. That will be added to the bulletin next week. And then we added Kristen Miller with her pregnancy to pray for her, pray for everyone else still on the list. Jaylene, we got the update today that she's doing well. It's good to see her walking around, and she's not rolling on a scooter. I thought she might just roll in on a scooter anyways, just for fun, because it looked like she was having a good time with it last week. But we're glad that your foot's feeling better and that you're back on your feet and walking normally. So praise God for that. And then we added Richard Sayoffer, that is DJ's boss. He just had surgery on his neck, and he had that on Friday, and the surgery went well, but he's recovering from that, so he's asking for continued prayers on that. I got an update from him this morning. And then we added for our churches and pastors, we cycle through different churches and pastors to pray for. Pray for Mountain Baptist Church this week, Pastor Jason Robinson. And then on the next page, congratulations, big congratulations to the Taylor family. Jude Taylor was born on Friday, December 17th. I'm sorry I don't have any more details than that, but everything went well. They're doing fine. So many of you might already know this, if you've gotten some updates through social media or whatever, that the baby was born on Friday. We brought them a meal yesterday. So anyone who's interested in providing meals for the Taylor family, please coordinate that with my wife. We just want to make sure that anyone who wants to participate in providing a meal, that we can do so in providing it for them most efficiently, and that we don't just dump a whole bunch of food on them at once, because you're going to need some space to be able to store it. But also, I know people live all over the place, so if you want to help with this, then just speak to my wife, and they're very much appreciative of anything that you're willing to give for their family, and just keep in mind the size of their family when preparing food, because they have a larger family. So just provide for them. We appreciate everyone that's helping out with that. Month of December is our singing challenge. So the challenge is to stop listening to worldly music, if you are used to doing it, if you've been doing that, and to sing four hymns every single day. So take one of our song books home with you, sing praises unto our Lord, and I guarantee you'll be edified by it. It's a great challenge. I love doing this challenge, making sure you sing every day, and who knows, maybe after the month of December, you could just keep up the habit and sing praises unto God outside of church. It's not just something to be done only in church. Praising and rejoicing in the Lord ought to be done regularly. So that's our challenge for month of December, and I like preparing you before our January challenge, so that you can make sure you've got a plan if you want to actually do this. This is something that you can't do. You know, the singing four hymns every day doesn't really take up a lot of your time. It's just something you need to remember to do every day, but it's not something that's like you really need to focus and make sure that they're setting apart the time and everything else. But for the Bible reading challenge, depending on how much you normally read the Bible already, I mean, this may not be a problem for people who normally read a good amount of Bible every day, but if you don't, the goal is to read the entire New Testament in the month of January. So that is the challenge. We do this every year. We start off the year. The reason we do it in January, it's a great way to start off the year. Just read the entire New Testament in that very first month, and that'll, I mean, everyone, you ought to be going through the Bible, regular reading the Bible daily as it is. But in order to complete this challenge, so try to help you out and plan for this, if you were to read just nine chapters, and nine's a lot, because most of the chapters in the New Testament, especially in the Gospels, they're long, right? They're going to take some time, so you're going to need to make sure you set aside the time, and maybe not even do it all in one sitting. I recommend, you know, reading maybe some in the morning, some in the evening, and split it up that way, just so that you can make sure you're getting all the time in. And it's good to just get a break sometimes, too, but it is a reading challenge. Now, you know, some people listen to the Bible. I'm all for listening to the Bible, but if you want to listen to the Bible for this challenge, I want you to follow along and read as well. It's fine to listen to it, but make sure you're doing the reading. There is something different about reading than listening. It's maybe kind of subtle, but I want you to read, for those of you that can read, obviously children, if children want to participate in this, they're fully capable of getting the prize as well for the challenge. And if they don't know how to read, and you have them listen to it, then great. That will count for children, or for people who are blind, people who can't read, anyone who's illiterate, you know, we'll give you a pass and let you listen to the Bible, but for those of us who can read, we're asking that you do at least follow along. So that's the goal. You can complete this in 29 days. If you read nine chapters every day, that gives you two days to kind of, you know, have, if you have any issues with being able to complete them all, that gives you two free days for the month of January. So it's a great challenge. Hopefully you'll step it up and be ready to complete this in the month of January. We have the watch night service right here on New Year's Eve. It's a Friday evening at 7 p.m. We'd love to have you come and spend New Year's with us. We're going to be playing some games. We'll sing a few songs, maybe hear a little preaching, but most of the time will be spent just fellowshipping, having some snacks, playing some games. Overall, it's going to be a lot of fun. So we'd love to have you out here and join us with that. And then the upcoming events there, we have a homeschool field trip on January 14th, and then our camping trip in May, which I need to start getting very serious on the planning for that. So I don't think we have a sign-up sheet for this, or do we? Did anyone notice we have a sign-up sheet? Either way, I don't think we can put it out yet. I'll make sure, and I'm going to put that out, and I'm going to ask that you please RSVP to this as soon as possible. We've been mentioning it for a while, and I just want to make sure that I know who's going to be able to make it so that we could offer up any extra accommodations that we have to people outside of our church. Upcoming birthdays and anniversaries, we've got brother Peter has a birthday and an anniversary tomorrow. So it should be an exciting day for you then. We've got Mrs. Johnson on the 21st has a birthday, and Enoch on the 27th. And let's see, on the back. So we're finishing up Romans chapter 4. We're on week 10 of 10. I apologize for not having the prizes yet. I will get them. It's been kind of a crazy week, but I'm planning on having those by next Sunday. And then this is the last week, though, to memorize Romans chapter 4. If you did not complete the challenge for November, because that was a challenge for November, was to memorize all of Romans 4 within November. If you didn't do that, but you're still planning, either finished it or you will have this done, just help me out and see if I get an account for anyone who is still planning on getting Romans 4 done. Is there anyone? All right. So you either did it in November or that's it. All right. Well, maybe there's someone that's not here right now that was still planning on doing it, so I'll ask again later. But you've got one more week to finish this off, and you'll still get a prize for that. That is about it for our announcement. So I'm going to ask Brother Peter to come up and lead us. We had the Christmas caroling yesterday, right? I think a little over 20 people showed up for that, so I heard a few stories already. It was really a good time, a lot of fun. Like always, some good stories, and we'll be doing that every year. And I think next year we're going to try to hit maybe some assisted living homes, nursing homes, things like that, maybe do one of those in addition to doing the caroling. And it really made him think this year, because if the weather's just really poor on the day that we choose to do the caroling, it's great to have that even as not just a backup, but in addition to the caroling anyway. So that way if it's not really going to be feasible to go out and do the Christmas caroling because it's just really bad weather, at least we still have a plan and you can still go and do some caroling in those other areas. I think that's a great idea. We'll look forward to doing that next year. And that is about it for our announcements. So come on up here, Brother Peter, and lead us to the next song. Church, our next song is going to be back in our Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs book. It'll be at the very end of it. It's going to be O Holy Night, second to last song. O Holy Night. All right, Church, let's sing this beautiful hymn out on the first. O holy night, the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of the dear Savior's birth. Long may the Word be seated here finding. Till He appeared and the soul felt His birth. The thrill of Rome, the weary world rejoices. For down to earth brings a new and glorious light. Out on your knees, O hear the angel voices. O night divine, O night when Christ was born. O night of Holy Night, O night divine. Led by the light, a face is thinly beaming. With glowing light, by His cradle we stand. So when by light a star is gleaming. Here came the wise men from glory and wind. The King of Kings laid us in lowly manger. In all our troubles, warned to be our friend. He knows our need to arrive. This is no stranger. Behold your King, before in lowly man. Behold your King, before in lowly man. For the last truly He taught us love for another. His law is law and His Gospel is peace. Shame shall be great for the Savior's our brother. And in His name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy and grateful chorus raise we. Let all within us praise His holy name. Christ is the Lord. O praise His name forever. His power and glory evermore proclaim. His power and glory evermore proclaim. Amen. Great saying of this time. We would like our Sunday morning offering. Ask for Lindsay to take her face from that place. Church, while the offering plate is being passed around, put up your Bibles in the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 9. That's 2 Corinthians, chapter 9. And as we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church, we're going to read the entire chapter. And I'm going to ask Brother Carter if he can please do that for us. Once again, that's 2 Corinthians, chapter 9. For as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you. For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achiah was ready a year ago, and your zeal has provoked very many. Yet have I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf, that, as I said, ye may be ready. Lest, happily, if they of Macedonia come with me and find you unprepared, we, that we say not ye, should be ashamed in this same confident boasting. Therefore, I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had no, excuse me, whereof ye had noticed before, that the same might be ready, as of a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness. But this I say, he which saw it sparingly, shall reap also sparingly, and he which saw it bouncefully, shall reap also bouncefully, every man according as he purposeth in his heart. So let him give, not grudgingly, or of necessity. For God loveth a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. As it is written, he hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness remaineth forever. Now he that ministers seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness, being enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. For the administration of this service not only supplied the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God, whilst by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed objection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men, and by their prayer for you, which long after you for the acceding grace of God in you. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Let's have a word of prayer. Lord God, we thank you for your word this evening, and thank you for the church this morning as well, Lord God, we ask that you would speak to our hearts through your word this morning, and ask that you would give us wisdom, help us to grow in grace of our knowledge and savior Jesus Christ, Lord God. Let your spirit be upon the pastor as well as he come forth with the word. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Alright, so this morning I want to preach, basically it's a Christmas sermon. I'm excited about Christmas coming up on Saturday. We're going to be celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, of course, we know that we don't know the exact day of Jesus' birth, and I don't like getting caught up in all the people who want to attack the celebration of Christmas and talk about how pagan it is and everything else, and, you know, are there problems with the way people celebrate Christmas? Sure there are, and there's a lot of things I don't think that Christians ought to do when it comes to how we celebrate Christmas, but I'm not going to get into all those things this morning. You know, things like Santa Claus and yule logs and things like that, those are not right and not what we should be doing at all when we celebrate Christmas. The whole point, though, is to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I think it's a great thing to do, and I think of all the times of year, too, we see people speaking about and talking about Christmas, and it's a great opportunity to talk about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because people are already focused on it. It's a big deal for a lot of people. It should be a big deal for us just in general. I mean, there's nothing in Scripture that says you must celebrate, you know, this holiday or even make this a holiday or anything like that. We're at liberty to esteem one day as the next or to esteem one day above another. That's fine. We have the liberty to do that. We have the liberty to do that as New Testament Bible believers, and I think it's a great idea to celebrate Christmas. Like I said, there's, you know, apart from the negative aspects, all the commercialism and the things that are, you know, the world wants to add in to the celebration, you know, it doesn't mean we need to throw away the whole holiday itself just because people are doing things that are not right and wicked or wrong or whatever. But we need to make sure as believers that we are celebrating appropriately and that we do remember the whole point and the whole reason for Christmas. And the title of my sermon this morning is the best Christmas gift, and one of the things I know as a child that I remember and one of the things I love about Christmas is the gift-giving itself, right? Now, when you're younger, of course, you're going to love that at this time of year, you are going to receive gifts, and you know what? I don't think that there's anything wrong with that either. I don't, you know, as you mature, your perception's going to change, hopefully. You know, you might grow and start to understand, we'll get into this a little bit, that you like giving gifts even more than receiving the gifts, and I know that's, I mean, that's a case for me. You know, receiving gifts is great. I think, you know, there's appreciation there. It's nice to know that you're loved, that you're thought about, that people care about you enough to give you a gift. That's great. There's a joy in receiving gifts, but also giving gifts, I think there's even more joy, and the Bible teaches that in Acts 20. You don't have to turn there. You're saying 2 Corinthians 9. Acts 20 verse 34, the Bible says, Ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto you my necessities and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that's so laboring, ye ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. That's a statement made by Jesus Christ being quoted here by the Apostle Paul saying, hey, look, it's more blessed to give than to receive, and that is an absolutely true statement, and if you don't understand that statement, maybe it's time for you to do some more giving than receiving and focus more on the giving, and in the context here, he's talking about, first of all, that he worked to provide for himself and for those that were with him. He was trying not to have people be burdened in helping him through his ministry, and then on top of that, he was saying, look, I showed you all things, how that's so laboring, ye ought to support the weak, and that you need to be out there ministering and helping other people. Why? Because it's more blessed to give than to receive. Don't look at the ministering unto people who are weak, unto people who are in need as a burden unto you. Look at that as an opportunity to help them and receive a blessing for yourself because it is more blessed to give than to receive, and when you, you know, the joy that comes from providing things for people in need, that's a great joy, and it should, and it does, I mean, it should surpass the joy of, like, you know, someone helping you with something, right? Being able to give freely of yourself, that is a great love. Now, before I even get into my next point here in 2 Corinthians 9, just real briefly, I kind of skipped over this in my notes, you know, the giving of gifts and the celebration of Christmas I do believe is completely appropriate as well for many reasons. One, that's just a, you know, a tradition of giving gifts is actually found in Scripture. You know, when people are happy, you have a feast and you give gifts and you help others out, that you could find throughout Scripture. You find, you know, even in the book of Esther, there was, you know, when they had the days of Purim when they defeated their enemies, you know, when Haman's plan was defeated by Mordecai and the Jews, what did they end up doing when they celebrated that victory? They had a day of rest and a day of giving of gifts and feasting and fellowshipping and things like that, and that's just a form of celebration that's good and that's the way that we celebrate as well. Now, obviously, we don't want the holiday to be overshadowed with the commercialism or covetousness that's being pushed by the world, right? We don't look at this holiday of just saying, oh, man, I want this, this, this, this, this and getting these eyes set on what you want and, you know, kids, adults, everybody, don't be focused on what you want to get for Christmas this year because that does ruin the spirit of Christmas. That is not what it's all about. Receiving gifts is great, like I said before, and there's nothing wrong with kids wanting to receive gifts, but you shouldn't be focused on all the things that you want. Just rejoice and be happy that people love you enough to give you gifts, and it is nice to receive gifts, but it's more blessed to give than even than it is to receive, and, you know, embracing the gift-giving tradition, I think, is a great thing, and we're going to get into, you know, even the deeper meaning of giving of gifts and the gift itself in celebrating Christmas in a little bit, but let's, you know, in 2 Corinthians 9, I want to show you a couple things here because while we do celebrate, and I think it's appropriate and fine to celebrate with giving of gifts and receiving of gifts, you should never have to feel obligated to give a gift to anybody. This should not become something where, well, I have to give a gift to this person, this person, this person. Well, who's going to give me a gift, and I have to give them a gift? That's destroying the purpose of giving a gift, okay? Now, look, I understand socially the pressures and the thoughts and that that may be a normal, natural thought to think those things, but you ought not to take away from the gifts that you give by feeling constrained to have to give them. God doesn't want us as believers to have to feel forced to have to give gifts at all, and the Bible teaches that in 2 Corinthians 9. Now, in this context, in 2 Corinthians 9, we just read the whole chapter, but the context here is where the church was asked to put aside some money or some resources for people who are doing the work of the Lord, okay? For providing, for support, for other saints that are doing the work of God that were in need, and he was saying, okay, well, hey, I'm going to come there, so if you could put aside some money when I show up, then I'll bring it to them, and we could distribute unto the necessity of the saints there, and that's the context here, but in a broader sense, this can be applied to any purpose for giving, right? There is a need. They're trying to meet the need, so there's a purpose for giving. Verse number 6, the Bible says, But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. And the reason why he's saying this is because he's trying to explain that, look, when you are going to help this cause, you're going to provide the need for these people who are preaching the gospel, these people who are doing the work of the Lord, you're actually, you know, you're helping them to sow the seed of the word of God. You're going to help them to get this work done, and the more bountifully we can sow, the more that we can get the word out, the more that we're able to do, then the more that's going to come back. And he's reminding them of this because God is going to bless those that are blessing this ministry and helping it to be furthered. So people who are deciding of their own free will to give and to help these laborers, these workers to go out and spread the word far and wide, hey, some of that is going to come back on their account for providing for these things, even if it's just carnal things, even if it's not, you know, the most important things, hey, look, you still need to have the food and the supplies in order to do the job, in order to do the work. They need to be there, right? We need all the pieces that come together, and if you can help on that side of things, then great. And if you're able to sow, you know, if you're only able to sow sparingly, well, that's all you're going to reap. And this is just a fact, right, a fact of life. If you're going to go out and sow some type, you know, plant some type of crops, some corn, some whatever, any type of food, the more that you sow, obviously the more that you'll be able to bring back. So if you only sow a little bit, you can only get a little bit back. And he's reminding them of this fact to try to encourage them that when they're, you know, deciding on giving or helping out, hey, the more you can help out, the better. The more you're able to give, the better it's going to be, the more work that's going to be done because of that gift. So he's reminding them to keep this in mind. Verse number seven, every man, but look at this verse number seven, every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. So when you decide, you have a purpose in your heart and say, I'm going to give a gift. I want to do this. I want to help these people out. I want to help provide for this need. You should not be doing that grudgingly, going like, well, I don't really want to give this money. It's really going to hurt me, and I don't want to, you know. If you're going to be like that, then just don't give. Or of necessity, well, I have to do this. No, you don't. Use a purpose in your own heart whether or not you want to give. And that's up to you to decide so that when you give, you should be happy about it. You should be joyful in, you know what, I love these people. I love this. I love this work. I love this effort. I love the saints. I love what they're trying to do here. I want to give, and I'm happy to give, and I'm going to do whatever it is I'm purposing in my heart to do that and be happy about it because God loves a cheerful giver. That's the right spirit. That's the right attitude. And I think we can apply the same thing to celebrations and celebrating Christmas and celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior. You're not obligated to give anybody gifts. And, you know, on the flip side, kids don't think that you're ever obligated to receive gifts. You know, we don't want people having this mindset of thinking that it's something that's owed to you or something that's deserved because that messes with the whole purpose of a gift anyways, the whole meaning behind a gift. You know, if you feel like you deserve something, well, that's not a gift anymore. It's like you working for it or you're just at an expectation. Well, of course I'm going to get gifts. No, maybe not. You know, we should never, the right attitude to have is you should never, you should go into every holiday, every birthday, every Christmas not expecting anything. Don't expect anything because you don't know. And anything that you receive then you can be thankful for no matter what it is. You know, and it's bothersome and your parents need to do a good job of teaching children not to be so spoiled rotten that they could turn up their nose when they receive a gift that someone gives them because they love, oh, you gave me this? Oh, I don't like that. Oh, I don't like this piece of junk or, you know. Hey, if someone decides to give you a gift what's more important is that they're thinking about you and love you and want to do something nice for you than the actual object that they give you. They're showing you love. And that's something that they are not obligated that they have to do that. They're choosing to do that and you need to understand that and appreciate that. Now obviously with children, especially little children, they're not mature. They don't understand all these concepts as much but you know what? We need to be training them as parents because when you don't teach them, when you don't show them, when you don't give them this great truth and understanding and say, hey, you are not obligated to have these things, that's going to help them learn from the early age the truth about this matter instead of growing up into this expecting to have all these handouts and oh, of course you're going to give me this. Of course you're going to pay for me when I'm not working. Of course you're going to give me this food and then turning to government as their provider and their source instead of understanding no, no one owes me anything. I'm going to go off and work because that's what I need to do in order to provide for myself and just as I read from Acts 20, you know, the puzzle Paul's saying, look, these hands have ministered on to my necessities and to them that were with me and it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. No, I'm going to work hard instead of expecting handouts from people, I'm going to work out so I can give handouts to people, not just receive those handouts from people. Let's keep reading here, verse number 8, the Bible says and God is able to make all grace abound toward you that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work and he's saying here, look, he's talking about giving and God's loving a cheerful giver. He says ultimately, God is able to provide in all of the works that you do. Grace is able to abound. So he says you have all sufficiency in all things. You have enough to do what you need to do. It's sufficient, the amount that he's going to give you. He's saying you'll have sufficiency in all things. So when you show yourself a cheerful giver, when you show yourself being liberal with your generosity and being giving, God will make sure that your needs are met and when you need to do things, that that's provided for you, that you reap what you sow when you sow abundantly. Verse 9, as it is written, he hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness remaineth forever. Now he that ministereth seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food and multiply your seed sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, being enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which causeeth through us thanksgiving to God. For the administration of this service not only supplyeth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God. So the administration of this service, giving of their bounty to the people doing this work, it says it's not only supplying the want, the want means the lack, what they need. You're supplying what they need to these saints, but it's abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God, whilst by the experiment of this ministration, they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ and for your liberal distribution unto them and unto all men. So not only are you providing something that they need, but now it's gonna result in all the thanksgivings unto God and the praise and glory going to God and the hope and the comfort and the joy that they get through your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ and that you're dedicated to this cause, you're dedicated to helping them out and for your liberal distribution unto them and to all men and by the prayer for you which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you. And then verse 15 closes here. It says, Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. And there's a lot of things brought up in this chapter and his verse kind of stands on its own, but we can't forget the context with which it's written as well because God has an unspeakable gift. God has an awesome gift and this is the gift that we want to focus on as the best Christmas gift that anyone can receive. In the context here, it's referring to the gospel of Jesus Christ being preached and the people who are all a part of that and the people who are giving to that need and then the thanksgiving that goes back up to God but what a gift that is that God has for the earth, for the world, for anybody who will believe. The gift is available. The gift is open to all. Now, real quick also on this concept of giving thanks unto God, the administration of the service resulting in thanksgiving unto God, you say, If someone gives me a gift, why is God going to be thanked? Because ultimately, God is responsible for that. Bible says in James 1, verse 17, you could turn if you would to Luke chapter 7. James 1, 17 says, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. We ought to be giving God the credit and the glory for every gift that we receive because the Bible says every good gift is from above because the Bible says every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Now, it doesn't mean you don't thank the person, the human being, that's giving you a gift that's helping you out. Of course, you thank them as well. But you know what? God's the one who made it possible for that person to even be able to provide anything for you because God is the ultimate great provider for everybody. So at the end of the day, all the credit ultimately will go back to God. And you know the reason why they're even helping you out is because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the reason why they're doing this and have that love, especially in the context we were just reading of, they're supplying your want, your need. Why? Because they're dedicated to the cause of Christ. That's why they're helping you out. That's why they're giving. They understand the words of the Lord Jesus Christ is more blessed to give than to receive. So yeah, God ought to get the credit for that. Don't forget that this year, this Christmas, as you celebrate and give gifts and receive gifts maybe from others, thank God. Thank God for those people in your life. Thank God for those that love you. Thank God for the people who care enough about you to want to give you a gift in celebration of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Don't let that slip by. Don't let that, you know, obviously be thankful for everybody in your life and in your family, but be thankful unto God for anything that you receive because that's ultimately coming from God. Now, the best gifts that people receive just in general, if you stop and think about this, and it's so easy in a rich world, in a culture, in a nation that God has blessed so much. And when I say rich, I'm not talking about the multi-billionaires, right? I'm talking about just even the average person in the United States of America today is truly rich. And I would say rich beyond measure. It's hard. When you have a lot, many times people don't realize how much they have because you maybe compare yourself. You know, if you have a whole group of people who are really well off, and you start comparing yourself against each other, you'd be like, well, I'm not rich because I don't have three cars and a vacation home and a boat or whatever. You know, like, hold on a second, right? You've got to keep the right scale in mind, and you look at all of human history and how people have just lived over time, and then you look at how we live today. We're all very rich, my friends, very rich. And when you have, I mean, I can look around this room. Now, I'm not saying there aren't people in this country even that don't always have a meal to eat, but by and large, the vast majority of people in this nation have food, they have clothing, they have a place to sleep, and they're okay with all of those things, and I would say be comfortable with all of those things. Now, I get it. Day to day, you may be stressed out on your finances and this and this and this. I've got this bill and these other things to pay, but look at the things that you're probably paying for. You're probably paying to have heat being just pumped into your house through a central machine. You're paying to have air conditioning, to have it cooled throughout your house. You're paying to have all, you know, water being delivered straight up to your house and the waste going straight out of your house and, you know, things that, these things, you go out of water, you gotta carry it in a bucket from a water source. You gotta, you know, you gotta do these different things. You have it very, very well. Very well. There's a lot of services that we pay for that we have just come to take for granted and come to expect to have these things instead of appreciating that we have these things, and we need to remember that and keep that mindset and that focus of how great we really have it, and this is why it may, you know, you're gonna be able to understand the concept because it's not a hard concept to understand, but at the same time, many of us don't experience this as much, but there is all, there's one event that we all experience, that everyone here at least should have experienced that you can apply this to, but think about this, right? The best gifts that people receive are usually when you have the most need, when you are in the most need of something and someone's able to supply that need for you, those are gonna be the gifts that you're most appreciative of. Those are gonna be the gifts you're most thankful for, and it makes sense, right? You're in need. You're going through a hard time. You're struggling. You're having difficulties, and then someone's able to supply that need for you and help you out. That means a real lot, a lot more to someone than to someone who already kind of has everything receiving another gift and just adding to what you already have. Now, look, if you're in a great position and God has blessed you, then praise God. There's nothing wrong about the person who doesn't have those types of needs, right? So I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but the full appreciation of what someone is doing for you is felt the most when you have the most need, right? And when you receive a gift of which you have great need, it also shows the love that someone else has for you of being able to even know that you have that need, thinking about you and willing to give a sacrifice of their own to help you out knowing you have that need. This gets to the essence of gift giving, and I had you turn to Luke chapter 7. We're going to see this play out a little bit in Jesus' teaching. We're going to start reading in verse number 37. The Bible reads, And behold, a woman in the city which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house and brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner. And look at this pompous, self-righteous attitude of this Pharisee who is probably living very well off and has his needs met and everything's great. And all he can do when he sees this woman, she's weeping, she's washing Jesus Christ's feet with her tears and literally using the hair on her head to scrub his feet and to wash his feet and to dry his feet off with her tears and her hair. Extremely humble, obviously very emotional and very loving of Jesus to not have anything else but to be able to do these things for him and all he can see is, well, if this person really were a man of God, he wouldn't even let her touch him. Of course, Jesus rebukes him. Verse number 40, the Bible says, And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he said, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors. The one owed 500 pounds and the other 50. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou is rightly judged. So even, you know, the Pharisee understands this concept, and I said we can understand this concept, too, but it's harder to really think about it or to be in your memory when you've got everything and all your needs met. That, yeah, sure, when it's brought up, just logically, you just think about it. Yeah, well, I guess that's right. And that is right. And when you're in more need, you're going to be more appreciative and you're going to show more love. When you're forgiven of more, that's a bigger deal, and, of course, you're going to love more. Verse number 43 says, Simon answered and said, or excuse me, verse 44. And he turned to the woman and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house. Thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil, thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven? For she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. Thy sins are forgiven. Now, we see this man, this Pharisee, Jesus is saying, look, I came in, you didn't even do anything. You didn't give me, you didn't greet me with a kiss, you didn't give me any oil to wash myself with. You didn't do any of this stuff. You didn't allow me to wash my feet. But this woman has done all of these things and done so in the most humble manner. And he's saying, the reason she's doing this is because her sins are forgiven. Yeah, she may be a sinner, but you know what? She's trusting in the Lord. You know what? Her sins are saved and she's happy about that and she rejoices and she's humble and she's showing her gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ, to her Savior, by doing all of these things for him, whereas the Pharisee, he doesn't have that. And here's the thing, the Pharisee didn't even understand how much of a sinner he really was. And we all ought to be aware of, especially the longer you've been a Christian, maybe the more sin you've gotten out of your life, don't forget what you've been saved from. Don't forget the sinful state and condition that you are in before Christ saved your soul. And don't start taking that for granted. And that's one of the reasons why I love celebrating these holidays like Christmas and Easter every single year, because if we're doing it right, if we're thinking about it right, if we're celebrating for the right reasons, it's going to help us to remember and go back to not ever forgetting what was done for us. You know, you've already received the gift, hey, that's great, but you know what? Don't forget how much that gift cost, what that gift did for you, what you were saved out of. Don't forget those things ever. So you don't start getting this pompous, lifted-up attitude as if, oh, well, I deserve that. No, you didn't deserve that. No, if you're saved today, you didn't deserve that. If God saved your soul, you didn't deserve that. Because you know what you deserve? You deserve hell. Because you're a sinner. We're all sinners. For all have sinned and come sure of the glory of God. We all deserve the punishment of hell. Why? Because the wages of sin is death. That's what you deserve. That's what you've got coming to you. If you've got just what you deserve in this life, you deserve to burn in hell forever and ever and ever. But because God loved you, he decided to give you a gift. Because God loves you so much, even when you've done wrong to him, he made the payment, he sacrificed of himself, he loved you enough to say, you know what? You don't deserve this. You don't merit this. But I love you and I want you to have this. That is the meaning of a gift. God wanting you to be saved. God wanting you to be with him. God wanting you to be reconciled with him. Making the payment for you, paying the ultimate price, you can't purchase that on your own. That is something that you have total need of. You are in want. Your sins cost more than you can pay. There's nothing that you can do, no amount of good deeds that you can do on this earth to cover for your sins. And here's why. Because when you do good, when you do right, that's what you're supposed to do. Because the Bible says, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. People who think, oh, but I'm helping people out and I'm doing this and I'm doing that, that should at least cover up and pay for some of the sins that I've done. No! You're only doing what you're supposed to do. You are not doing more and just adding and trying to cover up for sins. No. You're just doing the minimum. That's it. Which is why we all need that savior. We need that reconciler. We need a pardon for our sins. We need God to wash those away. And thank God for his love for us, for his mercy, that he made that payment and that he offers it as a free gift unto us. As a gift. This is why I love the tradition of giving gifts at Christmas because it ought to remind us of the greatest gift that was ever given. The gift of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The gift of eternal life through putting our faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That is the best gift. And as we give other gifts, maybe money or things or whatever it is, maybe you make something, whatever gifts that you give, whatever they are, don't get just wrapped up in those gifts. Always go back to the greatest gift of all. And parents, explain that to your children. We have a tradition in my home every Christmas morning. We read Luke chapter 2. And I make it a point not to assume, oh, well, they're pastors, kids, so they're just going to know this. Oh, we bring them to church every week, so they should just know this. Oh, no. Don't ever assume that your children just know anything. That's a huge mistake just in general in your life. Take that advice. Don't ever assume that they just know something. You have to teach them. You have to train them. And you know what? I love the teaching and training because I need it to remind myself as well and make sure we're doing that regularly so I don't ever forget and get to a point of too much comfort and too many things and too much blessings or whatever to where I forget God. Every year, we read Luke chapter 2 and explain, we are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is what this holiday is all about. We are very, very thankful for the love that God had for us to send His only begotten Son to make the biggest payment that anyone can make, going through everything that He did, being crucified on that cross, shedding His blood, going to hell for three days and three nights, and then rising again from the dead. That is what we're celebrating, that God loved us enough to send us a Savior. And when we give gifts to each other, we're giving this small representation of the greatest gift that was ever given. We could demonstrate a little bit of love toward each other through these small gifts without ever forgetting the greatest love that was given. Of course, the Bible says, Jesus said this, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Jesus exhibited the greatest amount of love by offering Himself up as that sacrifice. The sacrifice, the only sacrifice that could atone for your sins, the only thing, the only thing possible is the blood of Jesus Christ. He gave of Himself. He made the self-sacrifice. He made that payment, giving that ultimate gift, the greatest gift ever given. Look at Ephesians 2. We'll start reading verse 1 of Ephesians 2. The Bible reads, Quickened means made alive. You were given life. You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. So we're all in this boat, all of us. At one point or another, we all were in this situation, just like so many are right now. Verse 4, But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love, wherewith He loved us. That great love that God had for us, what did He do? Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved. And look, I'm going to pause here real quick. God was giving a gift to people who didn't deserve a gift. Think about that when you celebrate Christmas. If you like giving gifts, if you're moved in your heart to give gifts, don't be stuck in a paradigm that thinks you could only give gifts to people who you know and who are going to give you gifts back again, because that's not what God did. When God decided to give a gift, He gave it to people who didn't deserve it, people who you might not normally think, oh, I'm not going to give a gift to that person. Why would I give a gift to that person? They don't do anything for me. Why would God give a gift to you? Even when we were dead in sins, verse 5, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works as any man should boast. Such a powerful passage just demonstrating and showing us so clearly that our salvation is a gift from God. Our salvation is that eternal life is a gift from God. It is not earned. It is not merited. It is the best gift ever and it exalts the exceeding riches of God's grace and His kindness that He's giving us such a great and pricey gift. And the fact that He says here you're saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God. The gift isn't your faith by the way. As a Calvinist will tell you saying oh the faith is the gift. No, that is not the gift. The gift of God is eternal life. The Bible literally says that. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the gift. The gift is being saved, your salvation. That's what was bought and paid for. The debt for your sins. That's what was bought and paid for. Everybody has a choice in this world. Everybody has a choice. You choose to put your faith in a Savior or you choose to put your faith in yourself. That's ultimately what it comes down to because people who are not trusting the Savior they're trusting themselves. They may have different ways of explaining that or trying to make it sound like they're not trusting themselves but ultimately at the end of the day they're trusting themselves. I don't know of any other religion where it requires 100% of your faith to be in a Savior other than Christianity. I mean even these false religions they have saviors. They have their prophets. They have people they look to but none of them actually look to that one as a Savior, as a sole Savior, as the only thing you need to do to be saved. All of them require you to do some works. Every single one of them do. But Christianity, Jesus Christ, He is the Savior. He has the title of Savior because guess what? He's the one that does the saving, not you. He's the gift giver. God is the gift giver. You're the gift receiver. You don't pay for that. You don't work for that. And this great gift, this important truth that so many people are screwed up on today that think, well, I mean, yeah, it's a gift, but if I do this or that or if I were to murder someone or if I were to stop going to church or if I were to do this, if I were to do that, then God's going to take it away from me. Look, then that's not a gift. Your obedience to His law does not change the gift that was given and it does not revoke the gift that was given unto you. I mean, think about how crazy that was to you. Think about how crazy that would be. You're already a sinner. You've already not deserved a gift. You haven't deserved salvation. You have done nothing for it. You receive it by grace. If you receive it by grace, then how could you lose it? Through works of the law. It wasn't the works of the law that got it for you. So by breaking the law, how could God take that away from you? You already broke the law before He gave it to you. So why is He going to hold you to that standard now? You've maintained that standard, which is why you needed salvation. But now you think God's going to hold you to that same standard in order to keep it? Nonsense. Nonsense. Once you are saved, you are saved forever. That is the good news of the Gospel. It is free. It is bought and paid for. You are secure in Christ. He has saved you eternally and once you receive that gift, God does not take it back. And this awesome gift of God, the truth and the clarity and just the simplicity in Christ is amazing. And this is why on the flip side I loathe some of the modern traditions of Christmas. Because they defile the meaning of gift giving. I started off saying gift giving is great. I love it. I think it's a great part of our celebration, ultimately to remind us of the greatest gift that was ever given. But what has the world come and done? They've defiled the concept of a gift. And the worst part, they've defiled the concept of a gift in the mind of children. Children are being raised, being taught that there is this character named Santa Claus. That one is now going to receive the praise of the gifts that you receive instead of God receiving the ultimate praise of the gift you receive. Now kids are going to be looking to Santa Claus as their God. Santa Claus, the one who, according to that tradition, he sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows where you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. Yeah, sounds a little bit like God. Now why in the world, other than, you know, I understand why, because most parents don't think about it. Either they're not saved or they don't think about it if they are. But when you stop and think about this tradition and think about the meanings and what you do and what you're actually teaching your kids, no Bible-believing Christian should ever be lying to their children about the source of their gifts and telling them it's this fictional character that makes all these gifts and brings them to you and is only going to give you your gift if you're good. You hear that? That is what is being taught through Satan Claus. Well, you only get this gift if you're good. You better be good, little Johnny. You better be good or else Santa might not come. He might not give you a gift. No! You get a gift because you're loved. You don't get a gift because you deserve it. Then that's not a gift. You make your kids earn their gifts? No. And you know what makes me so angry about this? It's because sometimes when we go out and preach the Gospel to people and you preach the Gospel to kids, they're screwed up on this concept because when you ask them about, well, yeah, I mean, I could lose that gift if I'm not good enough. I might not get it. Where did that come? Where did that teaching come from? It came from people not teaching their children what a true gift is, teaching them that there's this other man that is deserving of your attention and you should write him and ask him the things and pray to him for what you want and ask him to fulfill your needs and your desires and then he'll give you those things and taking away from the love of the parent to the child, taking away from the love of God to the child, and then teaching them that that gift only comes when they're good. And then we wonder why it's so hard for people to grasp the concept of the free gift that God has for us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Why? Because you've bastardized the meaning of a gift. You've changed it. You've defiled it. The way that we celebrate Christmas. Christmas is great. Don't get caught up in all the ways of the world, though. There's nothing wrong. I said this at the beginning. There's nothing wrong with celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We don't know the actual day he was born, so why not celebrate on December 25th? I don't care about all the reasoning that went behind why a day was chosen. I don't care about it. Because as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And whatever reason that day was chosen, it doesn't matter if you're celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and you have godly traditions and you're doing things. What could be wrong with that? You tell me. Well, I don't like that you're doing it on December 25th because that's a... Okay, so would you care if I did it on December 24th or 26th? Would that matter to you? How about on November 7th? But you know what? For some people, there's always going to be a reason not to celebrate. Oh, you can't do that day. Well, how about Monday? Oh, you mean moon day? How about Thursday? You mean Thor's day? How about Saturday? Oh, you mean Saturn day? Yeah, you know what? There's always a reason. Look, I know it's funny, but that's where our names of our calendar came from, the days of the week. That's literally where they came from. You say, oh, you worship God on Sunday? Don't you know that's sun worship? Look, the only sun we worship is the Son of God. We live in the world. The world has done things and named things a certain way, and you know what? We're not going to just go ahead and change everything because who cares what the day of the week is called? And at the end of the day, when it comes to choosing a day to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who cares what day that is? If we had a way of knowing for sure the date, then I would say, yeah, why don't we celebrate on that date? But we don't know with certainty. And there's no reason to change it to something that we're not certain of anyways. What I'm more concerned about is getting people to celebrate it right and to stop teaching their children you have to be good to receive a gift. That's way more important than the day you actually choose to celebrate it. Let's celebrate it right. Let's not get caught up in covetousness. Let's not think that we deserve everything and that we just expect we ought to have gifts. Look, you better believe nothing is promised to you. No one owes you. Kids, your parents don't owe you any gifts. Your family members don't owe you any gifts. You better be appreciative and thankful for anything that you might receive on Christmas, on your birthday, on the other day of the year. Anything that you get, thank God for and thank the person who's giving you that gift. You earn something, you deserve something, that's through your own work. That's not a gift. The paycheck you get at work, that's not a gift. You earn that, you work for that. And if you're telling your kids you have to be good at something, then you know what? You're making them earn something. You didn't have to keep a whole bunch of set of rules and laws in order to attain salvation because you've broken those laws. You received it as a gift. Let's remember that gift. Let's honor that gift. This Christmas Day, this holiday season, don't get caught up in covetousness. Don't get caught up in all the ways of the world. Let's bring honor and glory and praise unto our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, unto God the Father and the Holy Spirit. Let's give praise unto the three in one in remembrance of what was done for us and in celebration of the birth of a Savior physically into this world. SpyRides have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for loving us. God, we love you because you first loved us. Thank you for loving us so much. Thank you for showing us how to love. God, I pray that you please help us to show our love unto others through gift giving and other means, dear Lord. I pray that you please help us to maintain a humble and righteous attitude of not expecting things. Help us to teach our children well, dear Lord, and that we wouldn't just follow the ways of this world, but we think about the things that we do, think about the ways that we celebrate, dear Lord, and I pray that you please bless our church family. Bless us all, Lord. Help us to have a great week to be able to further bring honor and glory in your name, and help us, dear Lord, to bring that gift of salvation today and throughout the week as we talk to people. Lord, help us to have the right Scriptures come to mind to be able to, and that you would lead people in our path and lead us to those who are ready to receive your gift. God, you know their hearts. Please help us to point them to Christ. Help us to be able to show them that great gift is available and that people this year can receive the best gift they've ever received in their life. Lord, help us to do that. Help us to be the bearers of that gift as we go out this week and we preach the gospel. God, we love you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. All right, we're gonna sing one last song before we dismiss. Brother Peter, please lead us in our last song. All right, church, you can grab your hymnals and open the song 425. Song 425, no room in the inn. Song 425. Let's sing this out in first. No beautiful chamber, no soft cradle bed, no place for a manger, nowhere for his head, no phrases of presence, no thought of their sin, no glory but sadness, no room in the inn, no room, no room for Jesus. Oh, give him welcome free. Bless you, dear, at heaven's gate. There is no room for me. No sweet consecration, no sinking his heart, no humiliation, no place in the heart, no thought of the Savior, no sorrow for sin, no praise anywhere, no room in the inn, no room, no room for Jesus. Oh, give him welcome free. Bless you, dear, at heaven's gate. There is no room for me, no one to receive him, no welcome out here, no one to relieve him, no step but a spear, no seeking his treasure, no weeping for sin, no doing his pleasure, no room in the inn, no room, no room for Jesus. Oh, give him welcome free. Bless you, dear, at heaven's gate. There is no room for me. Great singing. Thank you so much for coming. You guys are amazing.