Christmas message

The angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you tidings of great joy that will be for all the people, for a savior has been born for you today in the city of David, who is Christ the Lord. This will serve as a sign, you will find the child wrapped in diapers, lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men.'

Then we go to the account there in verse 25 of when the Lord is presented in the temple. A few days have passed, 8 days to be specific, on the eighth day the male child was circumcised and taken to the temple to be presented. And they arrive at the temple in Jerusalem and something very interesting happens there.

It says in verse 25: “....and behold, there was in Jerusalem a man named Simeon, and this just and pious man awaited the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord's anointed."

What does that mean about the Lord's anointed? That is why the word Messiah is, Christ means anointed.

“...And moved by the spirit he came to the temple and when the parents brought the child Jesus to the temple to do with him according to the rite of the law, he took him in his arms, -and look at how he blesses that child and what he says- ...and he blessed God saying, 'Now, Lord, you send your servant away in peace, according to your word because my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of of all the peoples. Light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to your people, Israel.'

In verse 36 it says “....there was also Hannah, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher, of very advanced age, as she had lived with her husband for 7 years since her virginity and had been a widow for 84 years.”

In other words, she was a woman in her 90s, maybe even older.

"... and she did not leave the temple serving night and day, with fasting and prayers, and she appeared at the same hour, gave thanks to God and spoke of the child to all those who were waiting redemption in Jerusalem."

That is, as you can see, the special character of that child, his extraordinary function, a savior, was going to bring peace to humanity, many important things that were taking place and if we only had the stories of the Gospels, the 4 Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. If that were all we had, really, imagine, one couldn't really understand what these people meant, that he was the savior, that he was the anointed Messiah. The Jews themselves, according to their Scriptures, did not quite understand what was the function of this mysterious being that had been predicted centuries before by the prophets.

They thought he was a king who was going to come to save Israel from their oppressors, and was going to give Israel dominion over the nations again. They saw the Messiah in political terms, in purely military, governmental terms. That was all they understood. They did not know exactly what this being was going to do that had been predicted by the prophets and that God from the very beginning there in creation, in the Garden of Eden, had already predicted that a being would come who would step on the head of the serpent and would remove the curse.

But in reality people did not understand, what was the meaning, what was the function of this being, and even we reading those Gospel accounts cannot fully understand what that being was supposed to do . And if we read the Gospel accounts even during the life of Jesus, you realize that there are many things that remain unsaid, not exactly explained. We understand the Gospels because we have already read the passages from Paul's letters and all these things, but only by reading the stories and the narrative, we cannot understand how it was that Jesus, how it was that he saved humanity. What did that mean? What was its function? Etc.

That, it's up to those epistles, to that second part of the New Testament that are the epistles of Paul, Peter, John, James and all these things. That completes the revelation we read about in the Gospels.

For example, Romans is wonderful in that sense, because Romans is an explanation of what is the true function of that Messiah who is announced to the shepherds and why the shepherds say 'Peace to men of good willpower'. And why Ana and Simeon talk about a savior who is going to bring redemption to humanity, etc. That is what Paul relates in his letter to the Romans.

Let's go to Chapter 5 now of Romans to understand some things a little more. Remember last Sunday we discussed Chapter 4 where Paul finally points out that it is by faith that man is saved, and it is by faith that man has dealings with God. It is by believing God what God says, it is by believing God. When God says, for example, on the day that Christ is baptized he says, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, listen to him...'

In other words, pay attention to him. He is my beloved Son, he is the person I have chosen to develop and reveal my will to humanity. If one believes God what he says, then one enters into that mandate of God. Then I hear what Jesus says, the words of Jesus.

The Lord said, 'Whoever hears my words and does them, he will be saved.' So it is by believing God what he says about his Son, that he is the mediator between him and men that we can be saved. That is the salvation that Paul develops in Chapter 4 when he says, for example, we go to verse 24, he says that "... but also with regard to us to whom it is to be credited, that is to those who believe in the one who He raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our transgressions and was raised for our justification.”

That is what we have to believe God, what he says about his Son. And we have to enter into that revelation of God by faith. So in Chapter 5, Paul develops this idea, that just as Abraham believed God and that was counted to him for justice, for Abraham's salvation, then now, following Abraham's example, we also have to believe God. God about Jesus Christ.

So, Chapter 5 says, "...justified therefore by faith..." What is it to be justified? Justified means that we had a great debt to God, we were guilty of our sins. We were prisoners of death, we were sentenced to death. We were in jail waiting to be executed, but Christ comes and says, 'That person does not have to die, I am going to die in his place.' Then he pays the price for my guilt and then I come to be saved by the sacrifice of Jesus. And I believe that, and then that becomes a reality in my life and God justifies me.

In other words, he nullifies the sin that is in me and tells me, 'now I consider you righteous'. That's why he says, “Therefore justified by faith, faith in whom? In that child born in Bethlehem, in that fragile, totally powerless creature, it required a huge mental leap to believe that this little boy, born in a manger who did not even have money for a hotel, that this creature, there is God.

Yesterday, Stephen Johnson preached about the absurdity of Christmas. And it is true because it was impossible to think that this little boy was born to two very poor people, in an insignificant village.

Brothers, if you go to Israel, one of the things that one discovers in Israel when one travels is that everything is tiny. Israel is smaller than the state of Rhode Island, which is the smallest state in New England, and everything is small there. And sometimes you go to those places like Capernaum, for example, sometimes when you read the Bible you think that Capernaum is a village and you see a lot of people walking and you think almost like Fifth Avenue here in New York. Look, Capernaum is a little hole, practically there in the middle of a desert and what there are are some tiny ruins, and one says, Wow, that's all! And you're like you're looking for something more, bigger, right?

And Bethlehem was even smaller. Bethlehem was an insignificant village at the time when Jesus was born in it. And to think that there in that village, in a manger of cows and stinking animals, a little boy wrapped in cloth that was the Son of God, the Savior of humanity, that requires a great leap of imagination and that is what that God asks of us.

He says, 'that creature, impossible to think there, that is my beloved Son'. And whoever wants to believe that is saved by believing God. Go? That's what Paul is saying here:

"...being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

You understand why the angel tells the shepherds, 'Do not be afraid, for I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, that today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who it is Christ, the Lord.'

And he says that 'when the heavenly hosts praise God he says, 'Glory to God in the highest and on earth, what? peace, good will towards men.

That is, and Paul says, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why the Bible calls Jesus the Prince of Peace, because Christ came to bring peace and reconciliation to a creation that was divided and in conflict. The fall, when sin entered into creation, broke the harmony that God had established when he created the perfect world. Everything entered into a relationship of conflict. The man with the woman, the rich with the poor. The earth no longer gave man its fruit unless it was dug and wounded and worked. The woman used to give birth without pain and now she has to go through all the work and all the suffering of childbirth.

The Apostle Paul also says further on in Romans Chapter 8, or 9, I believe it is 'that the creation itself groans in travail waiting for the day of its deliverance.' , in conflict, in war, there is Christ Jesus bringing peace with God, bringing peace within us, bringing reconciliation to the man who is divided within himself, in those fights that produce anxiety, agony in us. Christ comes to bring peace to all of that.

And how is that peace found? Through Jesus, believing Jesus. That Jesus in whom Carlos, the painter brother who was here with us, believed. He dared to believe her. Carlos was there, alcoholism, drugs, all these things are forms, traps that men fall into because there is something in them that does not have peace, and they are looking for that satisfaction. Men look for peace in sex, in money, in the approval of others, in fame, in drugs, in all these things they are looking for something they need. And when they find Christ and accept him and receive him in their hearts as Lord and savior, then everything sort of reconciles. And then that man is released so that what God has put in him or her can come out, in this case, that beautiful gift of painting.

It was there, but it was like a lot of rubble falls on something beautiful, a jewel, and it's lost in the rubble, dirty. And Christ comes, and when that man allows Christ to enter his house full of rubble, the Lord comes and begins to order everything, begins to harmonize all things. It takes away the dirty, corroded beams and dusts and cleans and throws out all the rubbish, and momentarily that jewel that was tucked in there under all that landslide begins to shine.

Peace. You see. That is what Christ makes possible. Peace between God and man. When man does not have peace with God he will be at war with himself too. Humanity that does not have peace with God, that is why it is at war. Right now there are surely dozens of people dying in Iraq and Afghanistan because they don't know, they haven't believed God. Even in this country many of the things that happen, the wars and the things that exist is because in this country the rulers have not believed God. They say they believe and with their mouths they say they believe in Jesus Christ, but with their hearts they do not believe. And they do not have enough faith to say if we act according to the principles of the Gospel, we are going to have peace in this country.

No, what governs US politics is real politic, as it is called in German, it means 'to be realistic'. It's looking after the interests of this nation, no idealism, no morality, just what's practical, what's pragmatic. That's what's going on today, and Bush is accused of being too idealistic. The problem with Bush is that he wanted to be idealistic, I think, but he didn't have to, he wasn't idealistic enough. It's dangerous to do things by halves, you know? You, or make it complete, if you are going to get into certain waters, get in fully, but don't get in half because then you are not going to be with God or with the devil, and both are going to fall on you.

And that's what happens. But today many are already saying, Bush has already failed. This idea of idealistic politics of bringing democracy to nations, of trying to defend nations from their dictators, that doesn't work. Let's go back to the interests of our nation, that's what it should... realism, realism.

And Christ says, 'No, it's not realism, it's believe God.' Believe God that if you put Christ in the first place, and his principles in the first place, even if it seems contradictory, God will establish peace and prosperity. That is the difference. And that is what happens with us too, when we choose by faith to believe that the principles of the Bible produce prosperity, blessing, success in life, family reconciliation, freedom from the things that torment us and we put those principles into practice, even though seems impossible, God brings blessing to our life. And we see it, brothers, we see it, that it works because little by little everything is being ordered and the peace that God promises comes. Ah, but that requires faith.

Because when someone tells you, 'look, do this business. It lies there, put that milk is one hundred percent pure, but nothing is 80%, 20% is water. But do not worry because that way you will earn more money. You have more milk to sell, and say that it is one hundred percent pure. That sounds good, to the real man, to the material, pragmatic man, he says 'of course yes, 20% more that's all salary and rent and electricity debts. I can pay for it there and everything else is profit for me. That is the mind, isn't it?

But the man of faith, the woman of faith who believes God says, 'No, lies never lead to blessing. I tell the truth and God is going to bless me in some way and I am not going to steal from my neighbor, I am not going to deceive my neighbor, I am going to speak the truth to my neighbor and the Lord is going to take care of things. And you know what? You do it and people will laugh at you, those who think with the human mind will laugh, because you say 'no, I'm going to believe the Lord, I'm going to believe the principles, the word of God'. And you are blessed in the long run. And what you have is not made on deaf ears but is a tight measure, he says, which remains, and you are blessed. And God becomes the defender of your finances.

That is believing God, it is living by the principles of faith. When you give the Lord your money, your time, your energy, people say, 'No, you're becoming a fanatic, you're giving everything to the church and this and that.' in whom I have believed.” You live and God blesses, God prospers, God gives you much more because it is by faith.

And so it is with Jesus Christ. The mind tells you, 'Look, but there are so many other gods, so many other things that you can believe and this and that and no one has ever proven that he even existed, this.... You say, 'No, I'm going to to believe God and I am going to believe that my justification is, not in doing good works, not in behaving well, not in giving money to the poor, but in Christ Jesus who died for me on the cross and justified me. That baby born in a manger in Israel two thousand years ago, I have not even seen a photo of him, I am not even one hundred percent sure that he existed, but I believe what the word of the Lord says and I know that in him I am going to put all my hope of eternal life, of salvation, of everything even though my mind tells me, 'it's a lie', I'm going to believe in that.

And guess what? When you believe God then you are justified and you receive eternal life and receive peace in your heart and reconciliation.

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

That Jesus who was born in Bethlehem and who was presented by his parents there humbly gives us peace.

"...by whom also we have access by faith, says verse 2, into this grace in which we stand."

You have to be firm in that faith, brothers, because there are many things that will deny Christ, and questions will come to your life, and circumstances, but you remain firm and then you have access to that grace that God makes possible through Christ Jesus.

Further on it says in verse 8, “...because Christ died for the wicked when we were still weak in due time. Certainly, as soon as someone will die for a righteous man, it could be that someone dares to die for the good, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

What does the Bible say? That when we were dead in sins, Christ came into the world. Christ came into the world, not when humanity asked him to come into the world, not when humanity was prepared for Christ to come. They had already recognized that we were prisoners of death and then humanity begged God 'Lord, send a savior to take us out of our darkness'. No, the Bible says that when we were lost in our sins, when humanity was most entangled in sin, that was when God sent Christ to die.

In other words, Christ dies, not because of people who are looking for him, but because of people who have no desire to know him. The Romans didn't want it, the Jews certainly rejected it, the Greeks weren't interested either, they were too into their business of human wisdom and philosophy. Nobody wanted Jesus. It was paganism, the sensuality of the world, and let's not talk about the Aztecs or the Mayans, here in America, at that time; or in Africa. Nobody was looking for God. At that time the Lord sends Jesus to die for us. At that time God sends Jesus to be born in that humble manger in Israel.

And that's why we adore Jesus, we serve Jesus. In Chapter 5, verse 12, what the Apostle Paul does then is he continues to develop this image of the Lord Jesus as... Here is something I want to explain to you, this of the first Adam and the second Adam.

This matter is very important, because when you go through these passages, I want you to understand what it is about and what the Bible is talking about. If you help us, please, I'm trying to... the baby... you could just quiet a little bit. Thank you, I'm so sorry, I am having hard time keeping up. Sorry, thank you.

Brethren, it says here “…for as sin entered into the world through one man, verse 12, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned, for before the law there was sin in the world but where there is no law, sin is not imputed, however death reigned from Adam to Moses, even in those who did not sin in the manner of Adam's transgression, which is a figure from the one to come”

What is the Bible saying here? He is saying, he is developing the ministry of the Messiah, that child who was born in Bethlehem came to neutralize the damage done by the first Adam. The Adam who sinned in the Garden of Eden brought a curse to mankind. When Adam and Eve sinned there in Eden they destroyed the perfect work that God had made, they damaged it. And they left a perverted and distorted world.

So when that child is born it is like a new Adam. It is a new humanity. Jesus is the firstborn, he is the one who represents a new order in humanity, it is a new beginning for humanity. Jesus is the firstborn, that is, he is the first of a new, redeemed race, and he then represents the anti-Adam. He comes now, every harmful thing that Adam did, he comes to neutralize it. But not only does it come to neutralize it, but it comes to surpass it and overwhelm it with much more blessing than the curse that Adam caused.

In other words, the Lord not only neutralized everything Adam did into its equivalent, but went much further. The blessing that Christ unleashes on humanity is much greater than the curse that the first Adam left behind. So, that is why all this that is here, says:

“... But the gift, that is, Jesus, the gift to humanity was not like the transgression, that is, like what He did Adam's disobedience. For if by the transgression of that one, that is to say, of Adam, the many died, that is to say, all humanity that dies as a consequence of the sin of Adam, the grace and the gift of God by the grace of God abounded much more for the many. a man, Jesus Christ.”

That is why the Apostle Paul speaks of a better covenant through Jesus. And I want us to understand this, brothers, that what Christ has done through Christmas is to unleash on all those who believe in him, a much greater possibility of blessing than the curse under which we existed before.

If you are in Christ through that covenant that you have made in him, I want you to know, that you have many more blessings than the Jews had under the Mosaic covenant. Because Christ's covenant is a much better covenant.

That is why God told the Hebrews, 'If you follow me, obey me, do my will, none of the diseases that I put on the Egyptians, I will put on you.'

That means, brothers, from what I understand, that we Christians have the right to a much healthier life physically than the one who does not know God through Christ Jesus, because the curse of sin releases all those diseases in which we live in the modern world. But through Christ Jesus we can aspire by faith to a healthy life, to a vigorous life, brothers, to a healthy life, in the name of Jesus.

Do you know what's up? It is that we do not meditate on it enough and we have not made it one, something on which to live, the health of God in us, the vigor of God in us, the abundance of God in us. We have not believed God enough. Because what Christ is saying, the Holy Spirit is saying through Paul here is this: look, when Adam sinned he unleashed a curse, he unleashed sickness, death, lack, violence, conflict, but now in Christ Jesus all that is neutralized. The curse is neutralized and we can aspire to live a healthy life, a happy life, a prosperous life, a blessed life, a life of prosperity and harmony in our homes.

Now, you have to believe that and you have to live by the word of God. You have to obey the Lord. I am not saying that illnesses and struggles will not come into your life, what I am saying is that if they do come, you can defeat them in the name of Jesus Christ. There is a special grace, there is abundance. I believe that if we thought more about our lives in health, prosperity, blessing, vigor, harmony, peace, and we did not think about fear, disaster, violence, conflict, disease, and if we put our minds more and more in the blessing that there is Through Christ Jesus, that newborn child at Christmas, we could live a much more blessed and fruitful and productive life.

But the thing is, many of us haven't changed the station on the radio. And we are receiving signs and messages of evil, of fear, of anguish, of illness, of loneliness. Many of us are preparing before reaching old age, for a lonely, feeble, puny, sickly, senile old age. And of course, if that is what you are waiting for, don't worry that your faith is going to take you there because there is positive faith and there is negative faith.

But if you say, 'No, I have a better deal. Christ is the mediator of a better pact. Christ neutralized the curse of the first Adam. I now live in the blessing of the second Adam that he made possible through his coming into the world. And you meditate on it, and you live in it, and you obey it and you live by faith and you put its principles and its commandments into practice, brothers, the blessing will accompany your life.

As the psalmist says in Psalm 23, 'certainly good and mercy will follow me all the days of my life'. Hallelujah!

That was what the second Adam made possible. That is Christmas, brothers, that is what we celebrate at Christmas. He is the mediator of a better pact, he is the new Adam, he is the new creation. That's why the word says in Second Corinthians, I think it's 5:17 or something like that, 'if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature'.

See? Because we are a new creation. Through a new Adam. It's like God is starting from scratch again. We now live in our own Eden created by the second Adam, who is Christ Jesus. Still walking in this world, full of problems and difficulties, we are in our own Garden of Eden, where I go is Eden, that is what must be said, brothers, because the new Adam made it possible.

That is what Paul is establishing here, he says that “....the gift, verse 15, was not like the transgression, for if by the transgression of the one many died, much more abounded for the many, the grace and gift of God by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ.

And look at what 16 says, “... and with the gift it does not happen as in the case of that one who sinned, that is, of Adam, because certainly the judgment came because of a only sin, when Adam ate of that fruit that God said, 'do not eat of it'; a single sin brought a curse to humanity.

Do you understand why Paul says, 'no one can be saved by works of the law'? No one can hope to be saved by behaving well. Because? Because one sin is all it takes for a man to fall into disobedience and deserve death, one sin. And who can tell me that he has not committed a single sin in his life? Everyone, everyone, and as I said, the only thing that allows you to pass God's test is a perfect hundred, a round A, and no one can get a hundred before God's judgment. That is why we need Jesus Christ.

Because, mind you, a single sin in Eden damaged God's entire plan for many, many centuries and the new Adam had to come to correct that.

It says, "...but the gift came because of many transgressions for justification."

If condemnation and death came for a single sin, now, the gift of God, the blessing of God came for many sins that humanity had collected through the centuries and centuries.

"...for if by the transgression of only one death reigned, much more will reign in life by one, Jesus Christ, those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of justice."

Brothers, there it is, very clear. Much more will reign in life by one, Jesus Christ, those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of justice."

That's what I want brothers, to reign in life, you know? I like the idea of going to heaven, but here I still have a few years left, I would like to reign here while I'm alive, right? Enjoy life. Wouldn't you like that too? Wouldn't you like to enjoy a healthy old age, a blessing, your family, a blessed marriage, children who love the Lord, a beautiful economy? Why not? We have many years here in life. And Christ said, 'I have come that they may have life and have it to the full'.

The Christian has to aspire to reign here in life. Leave that idea of failure in your mind, a life, as they say, from the plate to the mouth, living there by the spoonful, little by little. We have to aspire to an abundant life, a life of triumph, because that is what Christ did. Christ became poor, he says, so that we might be rich. He had all the riches in the universe and he lost weight, emptied himself, says Philippians 2, and became poor, assuming the incredibly fragile form of a poor baby. He was born in a village in an insignificant country so that we could reign in life.

And unfortunately we Christians live as miserable many times, because we have chosen not to adopt that recipe for life that Christ has given. Even Christians, we have accepted Christ but we have not changed our way of thinking. We live according to the same patterns as before, miserable, of people who are always keeping track of others. He stole a little from me, so I'm going to keep him there, the desire for revenge and I'm going to curse him, and I'm going to do this to him. He did that to me, and I'm going to do that to him, instead of saying, 'hey, I'm rich. I am going to forgive, I am going to bless, I am going to shed grace because I live in abundance.

Brothers, abundance is the word of the Christian. Abundance. Because that is what the new Adam made possible. That is why when the angels reveal themselves to the shepherds, they tell them 'Do not be afraid, because here I give you news of great joy that will be for all the people who have been born to you in the city of David a savior who is Christ, the Lord. '. And there he said it all. News of great joy.

That is why we have to live in joy. If we are children of God we have to live in joy, in abundance and if from time to time you get a little bit of depression and sadness, you have to move quickly and whip that and throw it aside, like a mangy dog because That is not your natural state, or your supernatural state is one of joy, abundance, hope, it is full realization in Christ Jesus.

We have to change the program, brothers, in other words, because that is what Christmas is. Christmas only makes sense in the light of that Christ who made it possible....

I'm going to ask the musicians to come here please.

That's why I rebel against the idea, brothers, of wanting to take Christmas and turn it into something purely secular. To me that, of all the things that bother me the most, is that they want to steal Christmas from us, because Christmas makes no sense without the work that Christ made possible by coming into the world.

If we remove Christ from the equation this, the only thing we have left, brothers, what is it? It's like me aspiring to get into the shell of a car that has had its engine, transmission, cables and electricity removed, and all 4 wheels and wanting to go from here to New York in that junk, that crap. That's it, and that's what people want, right? They want to absorb all its spiritual meaning from Christmas, remove Christ, remove the wizards, remove Mary and Joseph, remove the cross, remove everything and leave us only with the dirty bodywork. What does that work for? What is it for? Just the ads and the shops and the gifts, if that's what it causes is more pain in people, drunkenness and problems and spending money.

Is that Christmas? What crap, what a big lie. What makes Christmas possible is Jesus Christ, what he did through his sacrifice on the cross. And that is what we celebrate, the message of that God who came and said, 'everyone who believes in me will be saved. Believe in me and you will be saved. I have come to give you mediation between God and you. And that's Christmas. It is the beginning of that magical work that Christ Jesus does through the centuries. Everyone who believes in him is not lost but receives eternal life, life here on earth and life there in heaven.

Glory to the Lord. Abundant life here and absolutely inconceivable life there in heaven. What a beautiful package, what a beautiful gift! That's Christmas, brothers. And the one who loses that of his vision is a wretch.

Today so many people are thinking only about partying, drinking, and that's all. What a terrible deception! It is like taking a banana, a banana, throwing away the meat that is inside and eating the peel. Maybe monkeys do that, I don't know if they do. I don't think even monkeys do. They peel it, right? Yet that is what so many people are doing today, and they think they are fooling God, they are fooling themselves. It is impossible.

The message, what Paul talks about in that Chapter 5 of Romans. That is "...justified because by faith we have peace with God through Christ Jesus." That's Christmas, brothers. And that is what we celebrate this morning.

Has Christ been born in your heart, has Christ been born in your life? If so, say amen this morning. Amen. Glory to God.

And if Christ has not been born in your heart, I want to encourage you this morning to do so and I am simply going to ask the question because it must be asked. Has Christ dawned in your life? Has Christ been born to you? And if you have not been born, I invite you to raise your hand to pray with you this morning so that Christ enters your life and you can receive that salvation and eternal life.

Will Christ have been born in your life? If not, raise your hand to pray for yourself and to put you on that path of relationship with Jesus Christ. Is there someone who has done it before and wants to receive that salvation today through Jesus? I give a moment for us to think it over. Amen.

If not, is everyone here clear in our faith in Jesus? Glory to the Lord, you leave as you have to leave and if you do not know that Christmas has no meaning for you truly. There is no Christmas for those who are not in Christ Jesus, but there is Christmas, yes, for those who are in Jesus Christ.

Father, thank you for the Christmas message. Thank you for what Christ has done on the cross of Calvary. Thank you for the salvation received.

Father, we surrender our lives to you again. The beautiful Christmas message that dawns in our lives. Keep praying there for a little while.

Lord, may the Christmas message never leave our hearts. Although we celebrate it today, but next week and in the next few weeks of the future year, 2007, Father, we want that Christmas to always remain there, every time we come to church, every time we are on the road, at work , at home, that we always remember that Christ was already born and has been born to us day after day in our hearts, every day, by faith, when we receive him, we accept him, we live in him, it is Christmas again in our lives.

Thank you because you have made peace between God and men. Peace, reconciliation, mediation, communication. Christ is the bridge, the door, he is the path to our Heavenly Father from which we were separated and alienated. We celebrate your birth Lord Jesus. Thank you because that child that was announced to the shepherds, that Simeon and Ana could see in the temple, today we, through the eyes of faith, also see it, that risen Christ, that Christ of power, that Christ who became poor so that we might be rich because of his poverty. We celebrate him this morning, Lord. And to him we give all the glory and all the honor. We bless you, Father. Thank you, in the name of Jesus.

Give the Lord a big round of applause.