(soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) - Good morning, church family.

Happy Lord's Day and Merry Christmas. Before we begin our worship, I just wanted to read a verse that should be familiar to us in Isaiah chapter nine, verse six. "For a child will be born to us, "a son will be given to us, "and the government will rest on his shoulders, "and his name will be called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, "Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

"There will be no end "to the increase of his government or of peace "on the throne of David and over his kingdom "to establish it and to uphold it "with justice and righteousness "from then on and forevermore. "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this." So as we come before our God in celebration of Christmas, I pray that what we sing here today, what we hear today, that we may have fertile and open hearts to give God the glory he deserves.

(soft music) ♪ Sing over the skies ♪ ♪ Over the skies of Bethlehem ♪ ♪ Appear the star ♪ ♪ While angels sing to the lowly shepherd ♪ ♪ Three wise men seeking truth ♪ ♪ Travel from afar ♪ ♪ Hoping to find the child of heaven ♪ ♪ Falling on their knees ♪ ♪ They bow before the humble ♪ ♪ Prince of peace ♪ ♪ I bring an offering of worship to my king ♪ ♪ No one on earth deserves the praises that I sing ♪ ♪ Jesus may you receive the honor that you're given ♪ ♪ Oh Lord I bring an offering to you ♪ ♪ I bring an offering to you ♪ ♪ The sun cannot ♪ ♪ The sun cannot compare to the glory of your love ♪ ♪ There is no shadow in your presence ♪ ♪ No mortal man would dare to stand before your throne ♪ ♪ Before the holy one of heaven ♪ ♪ It's only by your blood ♪ ♪ And it's only through your mercy ♪ ♪ Lord I come ♪ ♪ I bring ♪ ♪ I bring an offering of worship to my king ♪ ♪ No one on earth deserves the praises that I sing ♪ ♪ Jesus may you receive the honor that you're given ♪ ♪ Oh Lord I bring an offering ♪ ♪ I bring an offering of worship to my king ♪ ♪ No one on earth deserves the praises that I sing ♪ ♪ Jesus may you receive the honor that you're given ♪ ♪ Oh Lord I bring an offering to you ♪ ♪ I bring an offering to you ♪ ♪ I bring an offering to you ♪ - All right, good morning.

Welcome to Breen Community Church. And as you guys know, as we're celebrating the birth of Christ and today being the Christmas Eve, obviously the pulpit is not here because we have a special presentation. We have a choir. We have our young children and our elementary department. So it's a privilege to be in here and doing the presentations in between before I come to give the sermon.

But let me give you a few announcements that are relevant for the next few weeks. First of all, next Sunday is the New Year's Eve service. Though we have a morning service, at nighttime we have a Christmas Eve service that we have every year at 11 p.m. And so during the day we have a ping pong tournament.

Those of you guys who want to come to church and even just to watch, it's going to be at three o'clock. And if you still want to sign up, you can sign up for that. But the church will be open all day. So we'll have the morning worship and then the church will be open and the cafe is going to be open from about five o'clock until our worship time and then it starts at 11.

And we're going to try to be done everything out the door by 12.30 so that you don't have to go home too late. Those of you who cannot make it because of your children, we will have live streaming as well. But again, we want to encourage you so that our church could be together to give the first fruits of our offering, our worship to our Lord together.

So that's going to be taking place next Sunday. And then we have a new round of membership class that's happening on January 14th. So if you're applying to become a member, please sign up for that. And then we have a members meeting on that Sunday at 2 p.m. So please mark that on your calendar as well.

And as you guys know, we have this service, next Sunday service, and then Sunday after that, January 7th, we're going to be beginning our three services. 8 a.m. is the first service. And there's no child care taking place at 8 a.m. service. But 9.30 a.m. is, again, child care only up to second grade.

So there's going to be child care if you have little ones. And then up to second grade, there's an elementary department, some lessons that are going on. And then 11.30 is where the full education is going to be happening, youth group, full education. And so please mark that on your calendar and try to make it to the service that you're committed to for that, okay?

One last thing. We've been mentioning how we're going to be taking Lottie Moon Christmas missions offering, which we do every year. The offering that you give, please mark that clearly that it is for Lottie Moon, it's for the missions offering, so that we can distinguish that from the regular offering.

The offering that we collect, that we will send to the IMB, and they will distribute that to the missionaries who are abroad and use it for mission purposes. So please, when you give, please mark that, and then we'll let you know how much we're able to give this year, okay?

All right, I think that's it for the announcement. So before I pray for the offering, again, if you are just visiting us and you have a physical offering, there's a physical offering box in the back, and for the rest of you, you can go online and give it through Zelle.

And there will be some announcements. We're going to be changing some of the things that we're doing about offerings starting next year, but we'll give that announcement next year. After I pray, during the offering time, our choir is going to come up, and they're going to be doing their special Christmas presentation this morning.

All right? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the privilege that we have to come to you week after week to come into your presence seeking help in time of need, to worship you, to thank you, Father God, for the goodness that you've already given in our lives.

We especially want to thank you, Lord, as we celebrate the birth of Christ, that you would install in us the true meaning of what this represents, that we would not be distracted, Lord, with all the busyness and things that are going on, that we miss the main point of what we're doing.

We pray that our Christmas service would be a reminder of why this day is so important, that we may praise you and honor you and worship you in spirit and in truth. We pray, Father, that you would bless and anoint even this offering, may it be multiplied and used for your kingdom.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. (woman cheering) (congregation laughing) (baby crying) (congregation murmuring) (gentle music) ♪ O holy night ♪ ♪ The stars are brightly shining ♪ ♪ It is the night ♪ ♪ Of our dear Savior's birth ♪ ♪ Long lay the world ♪ ♪ In sin and error pining ♪ ♪ 'Til he appeared ♪ ♪ And the soul felt its worth ♪ ♪ A thrill of hope ♪ ♪ The weary world rejoices ♪ ♪ For yonder breaks ♪ ♪ A new and glorious morn ♪ ♪ Fall on your knees ♪ ♪ O hear the angel voices ♪ ♪ From night ♪ ♪ To night ♪ ♪ O night ♪ ♪ When Christ was born ♪ ♪ O night ♪ ♪ Divine ♪ ♪ O night ♪ ♪ O night divine ♪ ♪ Truly he taught us ♪ ♪ To love one another ♪ ♪ His law is love ♪ ♪ And his gospel is peace ♪ ♪ Chains shall he break ♪ ♪ For the Savior is our brother ♪ ♪ And in his name ♪ ♪ All oppression shall cease ♪ ♪ Sweet hymns of joy ♪ ♪ In 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 ♪ ♪ Fall on your knees ♪ ♪ And hear the angel voices ♪ ♪ O night divine ♪ ♪ O night ♪ ♪ When Christ was born ♪ ♪ O night divine ♪ ♪ O night ♪ ♪ O night divine ♪ (audience applauding) - If we could go ahead and stand together.

And for those around you, say hello for a minute or two, just greeting those that you're worshiping with. 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chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (cheers and applause) (cheers and applause) (cheers and applause) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ Oh, a wonderful child ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ So hold me in your mouth ♪ ♪ And let my hope and joy be free ♪ ♪ Won't you listen ♪ ♪ To the angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory, glory, glory ♪ ♪ To the newborn king ♪ ♪ He was heralded by the angel ♪ ♪ Born to a lowly angel ♪ ♪ The Virgin Mary was his mother ♪ ♪ And Joseph was his earthly father ♪ ♪ So while he came from afar ♪ ♪ Now we're guided by a shining star ♪ ♪ To seek in Jesus where we lay ♪ ♪ In a manger filled with hay ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ Oh, a wonderful child ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ So hold me in your mouth ♪ ♪ And let my hope and joy be free ♪ ♪ Won't you listen ♪ ♪ To the angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory, glory, glory ♪ ♪ To the newborn king ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ Oh, a wonderful child ♪ ♪ What a wonderful child ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ She's a ♪ ♪ So hold me in your mouth ♪ ♪ And let my hope and joy be free ♪ ♪ Won't you listen ♪ ♪ To the angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory, glory, glory ♪ ♪ To the newborn king ♪ ♪ Glory, glory, glory ♪ ♪ To the newborn king ♪ ♪ - Oh, yeah, yeah, thank you, man.

Let's go, let's go, let's go. - All right, let's hear it one more time for our children. And for all the teachers who are sacrificing every Sunday to watch and teach the kids. I feel like we doubled in number for the children in the last year, so hopefully we'll have enough space to fill them next year.

But, again, people have been being fruitful and multiplying, and we're just very thankful. Again, you know, we have children presentation, like, when the newborns come, and we try to present them, and it's all happening almost quarterly because so many people are having children. But in the context of that, we, you know, want to continue to emphasize that the strength of our church is not just how it is conveyed to the next generation, but how it is conveyed to the next generation.

So these children are the ones who are going to inherit whatever labor and sacrifices that you make so that they may be the heralder of the gospel in the next generation. So please continue to keep them in your prayers. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 1, verse 18 through 25.

And I'll read in the NASB. It says, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus." Let's pray.

Father, we pray for understanding. We pray that your word, Lord God, would come alive and open our eyes to see the truth of the glory of what you've given us. Help us, Lord God, to fix our attention upon Christ, his birth, and the significance it has in our lives.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You know, as we celebrate Christmas, and I think we can remember we have various stages that people go through in how we celebrate Christmas. You know, when we're young children like at their age, you know, everything is so exciting. Parents are getting together.

You're anticipating your gifts. And then you get a little bit older, and you get--you become bahumba. You're too cool for this, right, to dress up and stand in front of people, you know? And then you get a little bit older, and as you become an adult, you start to see the significance of it, and especially once you start having children.

A lot of the young families here, you know, the hard work that you put in, you get to participate and see that, and it's amazing, and then as you get older, you know, you have--become grandparents, and, you know, there's various stages that you go through, and I know we have people from various stages, even in this room, of how we think of Christmas.

But beyond how it is subjectively we celebrate, what it means to us, traditions that you have created in your family, beyond that, we need to properly understand what is the objective truth of why we celebrate this, because Christmas has become a universal holiday, whether you believe Christ or not, even in the Middle East, you'll see Santa Claus, you'll see Christmas trees, they'll sing Christmas songs, not really understanding what they're singing.

Even in communist China, where atheism is taught in school, you'll see Christmas signs everywhere. People will say, "Merry Christmas." They'll sing "Holy Night," and they'll sing it to each other, and then if you ask them the meaning behind that, and they say, "Well, it's something "that came from the United States, "from Christianity," but they don't fully understand.

As Christians here, obviously, when we celebrate, we know that this day specifically is about the incarnation of God's only son, who came and took on human form, that he may be a sympathetic high priest. We want to look at the text this morning in Matthew 1:21, where the angel appears to Joseph, and appears and basically tells him that this is the reason why we celebrate Christmas.

There's three things that he mentions in Matthew 1:21. He says, "She will bear a son, number one. "Two, you shall call his name Jesus, number two. "And third, for he will save his people "from their sins." So there's three things prophesied about the birth of Christ, and I want to follow along these prophecies so that we may, at the end of this, at least have three clear things that you can focus on as we celebrate Christmas today and tomorrow.

One, the angel says, "She will bear a son." Now, this was not a gender reveal party, right? Like people do today, they gather together. You know, some of you guys have children and two, three months into it, you want to reveal to people, "Is it a son? Is it a girl?

"Is it going to be blue? "Is it going to be pink?" The angel was not revealing the gender of a child. This was not just a child. This was the child. If you look previously, before the angel makes his prophecy, Matthew begins with a long, boring list of names.

And so if you don't understand what's going on, you may look at that and say, "Wow, this is the presentation of the Son of God, "and you have a whole chapter "dedicated to his genealogy." But the reason why the genealogy is there is to connect the Son with the fulfilled prophecies of the coming Messiah.

So when the angel says that you will have a son, that this son was not going to be any ordinary son. It was going to come through a virgin birth. It was specifically for a fulfilled prophecy that they'd been waiting for hundreds of years, and thousands of years. The very next text in Matthew 1, 22, 23 says, "Now all this took place "to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet.

"Behold, the virgin shall be with child "and shall bear a son, "and they shall call his name Immanuel." The title that he has is God with us, which translated means, again, God with us. That specific prophecy given through Isaiah was given over 750 years before Jesus ever showed up.

So when the angel says that you're going to have a son, he's saying you're going to have the son that we've been waiting for, the Messiah. You're going to have that son. Micah 5, verse 2, 500 years before Jesus ever shows up, it tells us where he's going to be born, in Bethlehem.

Jeremiah 31, 15, 600 years before Jesus ever showed up, Jeremiah prophesied that the fake king Herod is going to go and slaughter all these young children because he was afraid that he was going to lose his throne. The true king of Israel was going to come. That was prophesied 600 years before this ever happened.

And again, Isaiah 11, verse 1, it tells us that Jesus is going to come through the line of Jesse, King David. He's going to come from the kingly line. That's why we see the genealogy in Matthew 1 telling us that there's proof that Jesus is the fulfillment of that prophecy in Isaiah which was given more than 750 years before he showed up.

In fact, if I was to stand here today and just go through the prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus' life, and more than 330 separate prophecies that were made about Christ, his birth, his life, his ministry, his death, his resurrection, 330 separate prophecies. Now, even if you're a skeptic and say, "You know what?

I don't believe all this miracle "about the virgin birth and about the Son of God showing up." Even if you choose to reject all of that, at the minimum, it would be beneficial to take an objective look at what the Old Testament says. And what are the odds that one human being was able to fulfill over 300 separate things that were stated about him?

So when this angel says, "You're going to have that child," he wasn't just a child. It was the child that's coming. And this child, in the second prophecy, he comes with a name. As soon as a child is about to be born, one of the first things that we think about is what are we going to name him?

What's his name? And so in our generation, some of you put some thought into it and maybe it's a family member or a significant name or just some of you maybe choose just because it sounds good. Maybe you were picked on when you were a kid, so you don't want to make sure that you can't pick on your child with this name.

Well, at this particular time, Joseph and Mary were not given the opportunity to name their child because this child was directly from God. God names a child and says, "He is going to be named Jesus." Now, the reason why this name is so significant, Jesus is the Greek name of the Old Testament name Joshua.

Now, Joshua is the butchered way that we say it. The actual Hebrew way of saying that is Yehoshua. Yehoshua literally in Hebrew means Yahweh saves. Yahweh saves. Now, the significance of this name, of Jesus' name, is it prophesies and tells us what Jesus is going to do, why he came.

But what's interesting about this name, Yahweh saves, is that if you look at the Hebrew spelling of this name, the way we spell it in English is Y-A-H-W-E-H, Yahweh. The meaning behind this name is "to be." And so when Moses asks God, when God tells Moses to go tell Pharaoh to let my people go, Moses rightfully asks, "By what authority am I going to go to Pharaoh and demand my people go?

I'm a shepherd. I've been taking care of sheep for 40 years. By what authority?" And God answers him saying, "Tell them I Am has sent you. Yahweh has sent you. I Am who I Am has sent you." The meaning behind the name Yahweh basically means "life," "to be." He was, He is, and He will be.

So if we were to translate that into modern-day significance, basically it means "life." Now, the interesting thing about this name is that when Hebrew was written in the Old Testament, there was no vowels. So the A and the E that you see in Yahweh didn't exist. So in the original Hebrew, it's just spelled Y-H-W-H.

Yod, He, Wo, He. Y-H-W-H. Now, the significance behind this word is if you take the vowels out of this name and you were to pronounce it without the vowels, this is what it would sound like. That's what it would sound like without the vowels. What does it sound like?

Breath. It's just sound of a breathing. Now, the significance behind that is-- I have an iPhone here, right? Some of you guys are iPhone haters. iPhone wanted to make clear that when you turn it on and when you turn it off, that you know who owns you, okay? Or owns the phone, okay?

So the first thing that happens when you turn it on, what do you see on the iPhone? The Apple, right? Just in case you forgot, right? Who you--who you pay your money to, right? And then when you turn it off, what's the last thing that you see before it turns off?

The Apple symbol, right? Because they want to remind you every time you turn it on, every time you turn it off, that who this belongs to. Well, the very breath is an expression of his name. So when you and I are born, the very first thing that comes out of our mouth is breath.

And sometimes if you don't breathe, the doctor will spank you in the butt, clear your throat, so that you would... And then when you die, how does somebody know that you have passed, that there's no more breath? So the very imprint of our--who we are, we come in saying, expressing his name.

God has imprinted his creation. God has imprinted himself in our very breath. In fact, when you come to the New Testament, God says he invested his breath into what? To the Word of God. Into the Word of God. His very breath in his life was imprinted in the Word of God.

Don't you think that's interesting that God has placed his own imprint in every creation? That he, that Yahweh is going to come, the very creator of all the universe, and the reason why you and I have breath, he's going to come, and he says he's going to come to save the world.

When you hear the word "saved," right? You need to be saved. The first question you need to ask is, saved from what? Typically, if you say, somebody says you need to be saved, the question we would ask is, what kind of peril am I in that I need to be saved?

And in particular, how bad must the situation be that the Son of God, Emmanuel, would come, that he would have to come and save me? That's the third prophecy he gives. He said, "That Son, whose name is Yahweh Saves, is going to come and save us from their sins." So, the angel prophesied this, and then in John 1:29, when John the Baptist was sent to prepare for Jesus' ministry, when he sees Jesus and introduces him into ministry, this is what he says, "The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.'" So, the whole point of his incarnation, why he humbled himself and took on human form, is so that Yahweh can save us from our sins, predominantly.

So, the next question that we need to be asking is, if we were in such peril that the Son of God would have to take on human form in order to save us from our sins, what does sin mean? The Old Testament word, the Hebrew word for sin, is katah, and basically means to fail or to miss something, to fail or to miss.

The Greek version of that in the New Testament is hamartia, and that word basically means to miss the mark, to miss the mark. So, when you understand the core understanding of katah and hamartia, it doesn't sound that bad. It sounds like you just missed. You tried to get something, and you just couldn't achieve it.

And so, judgment is coming because we failed? I mean, we tried to get an A, and we got a B, so, therefore, judgment is coming? If we don't understand the context of this, you may think of sin as a mistake, or we just didn't quite reach up because God is so high.

We tried jumping, and we just couldn't reach Him. That's what it may seem like in the beginning. But the understanding of sin, why this was so detrimental, sin, basically, the root understanding of sin is the perversion of the good that God has created, that what God had imprinted in creation and in us has been perverted by man.

In 1 Timothy 4, 4, it says everything God created is good. Everything God created is good. So, if you look at Genesis, after every creation, how does it end? And God saw that it was good. God saw that it was good. And every creation, it ends with God created, what He created was good.

And so the idea of sin is that man comes in and takes what is good and perverts it. Let me give you an example. Is food good or bad? Food is good. We can't exist without food. But food, when it is taken too much, we call it gluttony. Right?

Which is one of the deadly sins. Food in itself is good. And when man indulges his flesh without limit, it becomes sinful. Now, let me see. Scan the room. Make sure we're safe. Okay? If I say the word sex, is that good or bad? You're afraid to say. I'll say it for you.

Sex is good. Should we say it together? You look really uncomfortable. Sex is good because God created it. God created it so that husband and wife can come together and procreate. They cannot fulfill the mandate of God without sex. But the reason why the term sex makes you feel uncomfortable is because mankind has perverted it.

Because when we think of sex, we don't think of sex the way God created it. We think of the perversion that has been introduced in sex. In fact, when we look at technology, is technology good or bad? Good. It makes life easier. We're able to communicate. You know, think how easy banking has become.

You can do all your banking without ever leaving your pajamas. Technology in itself is good. But the number one use of internet, the number one use by far is pornography. What was created good, man has chosen to use that for his own purpose and his perversion. So the root understanding of sin that caused the judgment of God to come upon mankind is his own desire to make himself the owner of himself.

Some of you guys who are a bit older may know the song from Frank Sinatra, "I Did It My Way." And even if you're younger, this song is so universally known that even though you were born decades after this man passed away, you probably know this song, "I Did It My Way." And initially, when you look at the lyrics, it seems pretty innocuous.

It seems pretty innocent. But let me read it for you, some of it. It says, "And now the end is near, "and so I face that final curtain. "My friend, I'll make it clear. "I'll state my case "of which I'm certain. "I've lived a life that's full. "I traveled each and every highway "and more, much more, "I did it my way.

"Regrets, I've had a few, "but then again, "too few to mention. "I did what I had to do. "I saw it through "without exemption. "I planned each charted course, "each careful step along the byway "and more, much more, much more. "I did it. "I did it my way. "For what is a man?

"What has he got? "If not himself, "then he has not. "Not to say the things "that he truly feels "and not the words "of someone who kneels. "And that's the key. "If someone who kneels, "let the record show "I took all the blows "and did it my way." Now, especially in the Western culture where we value independence and freedom, "I did it my way" sounds like a very good value to have.

But what Ferenc Canessa expresses is the spirit of mankind, not just our generation, but spirit of mankind. "I did it my way." In fact, in Romans chapter 1, when Apostle Paul describes to us why Christ was necessary, he describes in Romans chapter 1 that mankind refused to acknowledge the Creator and worship the creation instead.

At the core of man's rebellion, he wanted to do it his way. "I'm going to do it my way. "I'm going to do "whatever makes me happy." And as a result of that, perverted every good thing that God has created. What was meant for good, man made it bad.

On the surface, it looks like, "Well, I mean, that's it? "That's the description "of rebellion?" Imagine if you have a painting that was painted by Monet. Okay, that's the only one I can think of right now. And it's worth millions of dollars because Monet's imprint is on there. Somebody comes in and takes a paintbrush and it's like, "I'm going to do it my way." You know what I mean?

His impressionism, it just doesn't do it for me. It's not clear. I want to make the lines very clear. And so you take a paintbrush and you start doing it my way. Well, what's so bad about that? Because that's not your paint. You're ruining the creator's work. If somebody comes into your house that you paid for, that you live in, chooses to change the lock and come in and eat whatever food from your refrigerator, sleep whatever bed that you want to sleep in, and then he begins to say, "I did it my way." No one's going to look at that as virtuous.

It's like, "How dare you do it your way? "That's not yours." The scripture tells us that we have been created for the purpose of worshiping God. And when we feel the most alive is when we are acknowledging his creatorship, his ownership of us. And yet mankind chooses to rebel against that and perverts, again, every good thing.

And as a result of that, it says in Isaiah 59, "But your iniquities "have made a separation "between you and your God, "and your sins "have hidden his face from you "so that he does not hear." That our sins have separated us from the creator. The very name that we come into this earth and leaving this earth, we refuse to acknowledge in between.

If you've ever been lost as a child, you know what it feels like to be separated from somebody who you are in dire need. I remember when I was a young child living in Korea, I think I was maybe about four or five years old. My mom specifically told me, and I remember very vividly because it was so traumatizing, my mom told me, "When you go out and play," this is when children used to go play outside, right?

"When you go out and play, "you cannot go "beyond these boundaries." And she specifically told me, "Don't cross this bridge "because once you cross "that bridge, "it's not going to be safe." So being a good middle child that I am, I needed to know what's on that other side.

So I chose to cross that bridge because I wanted to know how hard could it be? You know, to come back. Well, I went there and I started to check out different things and I don't know how much time went by but I realized I needed to get home and I turned around and I could not find the bridge.

I couldn't find how I got there. So I remember just panicking. How am I going to get home? The sun's going to go down. If my mom finds out, I'm going to be in trouble. But even more than that, I don't know where to go. I don't know how to eat.

What's going to happen? And somebody in that neighborhood recognized how lost I was and grabbed my hand and told me what happened and I told them I crossed this bridge and it's like, oh yeah, that bridge is over there and took me back home. For a child to lose his mom or dad is the end of his life.

The Bible tells us that our Creator who created us, who sustains us because of our own rebellion, I'm going to do it my way that we have been separated from this God. And as a result, the most important question of mankind is why am I here? What is my purpose?

What's going to happen after I die? Nobody knows and everybody's just guessing even though the Creator has made it very clear. Everybody's just going to make the best that we can. Whoever has the most toy wins. And yet, every single person who ever lives on this earth has the same question.

The biggest question. Where did I come from? Why am I here? You mean we came from nothing? Even the most smartest, well-educated scientist, the best that they came up with of where we came from is there was a big bang and we came from nothing. So it was magic.

If you believe that God created you, you're unscientific and you're illogical and you're foolish. So if you really want to be smart, you have to believe nothing created you because that's more logical. The best scientists in our generation, that's their answer because we have been separated from our Creator.

And we live our days every single day just getting in this line. Line of life. You're supposed to go to school. Go to college. Get good grades so you can get a good job. And then what? So you can get married. And then what? And you have kids. And then what?

And then you climb the ladder and you make a better job, a better money, a better house. And then what? You save up enough money so you can retire. And then what? And then you die. That's it? All that we're doing, that's it? We're just going to work hard and I don't like my job and stress.

You know, this is it? We don't know the answer because we have fallen short of the Creator because we've been lost because we did it our way. Not only does it separate us from God, Scripture tells us it isolates us from each other. First thing that happens when sin enters, Adam and Eve recognize their shame and who do they hide from?

From each other. So imagine two people who were created to procreate together, to rule the land together, now because shame and sin has entered, they're trying to hide from each other. Even in the best of marriages, even in the best of marriages, communication is difficult. It's difficult because I don't want to reveal everything to you.

Even though my wife knows me better than any other human being, there's things that I don't want her to know. There's things that she doesn't want me to know. Sin enters into what God has created and makes it difficult. James 4.1, it says, "What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?

Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?" All the conflict, all the difficulty, heartache. Isn't it because of sin, your coveting, your desire? Because you want to do it your way and the other person wants to do it their way and they have conflict. James 3.16, "For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder in every evil thing." We live in a world where everybody wants to do it their own way.

And so where that happens between husband and wife, there's conflict. Wherever two selfish people get together, try to do anything together, there's going to be some conflict. You put that in a larger scale of countries, families. And so the whole world is under this condemnation and his main rebellion is, "I'm going to do what I think is right and what makes me the most happy." And in his pursuit of his own pleasure and his own life and his own glory, instead of bringing life, it has brought judgment.

And ultimately, it says, it leads to death. Romans 6.23, "For the wages of sin is death." James 1.15, "Then when lust has conceived, when coveting has conceived, it gives birth to sin. When sin is accomplished, it brings forth death." There is a physical death and then there is a spiritual death, a second death.

Death was not part of creation, even though this is the experience of every single human being who has ever lived on this earth has experienced death. So because that is our experience, our natural inclination is to say, "It's part of life." Think about that statement. Death is a part of life.

That's a contradiction. Death is a part of life? No. Death is a contradiction to life. Death is not part of life. We say death is a part of life because there is no answer to this death. But death is not part of life. That's not what God intended. God intended for us to have life and have this life abundantly, but death came in as a result of perverting every good thing that God had created.

And as a result of that, it says, "Inasmuch as it is appointed for all men to die once because of a sin, after this will come judgment." I'm going to read you a long quote from Steve Jobs, right? The creator of this, okay? As you guys know, he died pretty young because of cancer and at the age of 56, he had plenty of time to contemplate the position that he was in and then he wrote a memoir and some of his last words have been recorded and I'm not surprised that not many people have read it because it's not a happy letter.

It doesn't make your life better. He's just matter of fact stating this and this is what he says. "I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others' eyes, my life is the epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. In the end, my wealth is only a fact of life that I am accustomed to.

At this moment, lying on my bed and recalling my life, I realized that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in have paled and becoming meaningless in the face of my death. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you, but you cannot have someone bear your sickness for you.

Material things, loss can be found or replaced but there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost, life. Whichever stage in life you're in right now, with time, you will face the day when the curtain falls. You can see why so many things about Steve Jobs are recorded, books written about what kind of manager he was, how he changed the world with all this new technology and yet the most important thing that he has said in his life at his death, very few people know because they don't want to hear it.

They don't want to face reality. This is reality. You may never experience even one percent of the success that Steve Jobs had but every single person at some point in life will come to realize what he says and experience the exact thing that he wrote. So when the scripture says that the sun is going to come, Yahweh, our creator is going to come save us from our sins.

This is the most important thing that we have to answer for ourselves. Is the creator real or did we just come out of nothing? That if we keep studying science eventually everything is going to make sense or were we truly created and this creator had a plan for our lives and we lived in rebellion.

I did it my way. Did this creator really come and bear our sins upon himself? In fact, what Steve Jobs has said has been said multiple times, thousands of times. People who have gone before us hundreds of years, thousands of years before us have said the exact same thing at the end of their life.

Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verse 2 to 4 there is a man named Solomon who was considered the wisest man on earth but not only was he wise he was rich. Not only was he wise and rich he was powerful. He was a king. So there is nothing nothing restraining him.

So all the pleasure all the things that he could possibly experience as a king as the wealth that he had and the wisdom that he had he pursued all his life to experience life to do it his way. At the end of his life he writes "Vanity, vanity says the preacher vanity of vanities all is vanity what advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun a generation goes and a generation comes but the earth remains forever vanity all is vanity.

Let me ask you a question how many of you know the name of your great-grandparents? A few of you might a few of you might maybe some of you your great-grandparents lived a little bit longer and maybe they told you had a good relationship with them and they told you stories about their parents and so as a result of that some of you may know.

From my experience majority of you have no idea who they are. If great-grandparents but at least even above that right for sure they don't know. You don't know their personality you don't even know their name you don't know where they were born you don't know what kind of job they had you don't know whatever was good whatever was bad you just don't know right which means in about a hundred years no one's gonna know you were here in about a hundred years no one's gonna even remember like oh was Peter Kim even alive?

Did he exist? The Bible says that we're just a mist in comparison to even just human history we're just a mist that comes and we go. In two generations no one's even gonna know you and I were here and in between this short period of life if we live long ninety ninety years a hundred years if we live short much less than that we try so hard to fill this short gap to do whatever we want how meaningless life is when you consider take a step back and consider what we are a part of it is because we have been separated from this God the very purpose that you and I have been created to be worshippers and not to be worshipped now some of that may say well God's an egomaniac well he wants to be worshipped rather than rather than to give worship let me ask you when do you feel the most alive?

Like some of you guys who are sports fans right like it's easy because you pay a ridiculous amount of money to go see Shohei Otani right a ridiculous I heard that their baseball tickets his opening day I forgot who they were playing I forgot how much it was but now standing room only right not sitting to stand and watch this guy play in a Dodgers uniform for the first time the cheapest tickets is $900 I don't know if that's going to go up or down but I guarantee you they're going to sell every single ticket they have why do they do that?

What do they get out of it? Do they is there a possibility that they're going to get signed to Dodgers? Are they going to become famous? Like what? What is it? Because they find pleasure in seeing glory they find pleasure in watching something spectacular beyond them if I play baseball nobody cares because it's not spectacular you're going to say I could do that my sister could do that right but there's something about seeing something beyond us that gives us life and this is just a human being that just plays baseball better than a little bit better than most average people maybe a little bit more than a little bit better but he's just another human being playing baseball God created us to be image bearers of him and that our life comes when we reflect his glory so imagine if you feel life watching a human baseball player playing better than any other person imagine what we're missing when the Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God because of our sins we're unable to worship him we're unable to see him and as a result of that we don't know what this life is about and we're trying to bring meaning into life and Christ came so that he may bear the sin that you and I cannot bear to absorb our sins upon himself on the cross when he died when he was resurrected he pushes back against the curse of mankind and gives us new life in Christ that's what we are celebrating in Christmas Emmanuel the son of God who would have been perfectly justified to crush us but instead had compassion and took on human form that he may be a sympathetic high priest and then invites us to come to him Jesus said 2,000 years ago come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest the reason why there is unrest in our lives is not because of our broken families it's not because of economy it's not because you bought the house at the wrong time it's not because of a communication problem all of these things are symptoms of spiritual cancer in us our own sins come to me all who are weary those of you who are anxious who are hurting and you don't have any answer to this the only answer to our real problem is Christ come to Christ all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest take my work upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find true Sabbath you will find true rest for your souls if this morning you came maybe you just came you know you wanted to see your grandchildren or your nephews or it's Christmas so it's a habit like you come at least once a year try to do something good you know at least try to maybe your children or somebody that really cares about you have been praying and you didn't want to let them down you came here however you came however you came I believe God had his own plan for you if any of this makes any sense to you don't harden your heart do you really believe we came from nothing and we go to nothing that everything that we do is meaningless and we're just going to die and that's just life and we just happen to be in this line and everybody else gets in this line and this is it that's the meaning of life all of it that's it or was there a creator was there a creator who created you and you don't know who he is you've never talked to him you maybe thought about him and you've concluded without giving it much thought even if he exists I'm not going to know and you've already made a conclusion without ever giving it a try I want to plead with you reconcile with God reconcile with God in 1st John 1:9 says if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness our greatest problem of mankind is we refuse refuse to acknowledge that we've gone astray and as a result of that it blinds us but the scripture tells us that if you would humble yourself confess your sin acknowledge acknowledge the sin inside of you and confess with your mouth that Christ died and was resurrected for your sin and ask for forgiveness he is faithful and just to make you righteous to open your eyes to see that there is much more to your existence much more to your afterlife than what you have been imagining to come to Christ this morning come to Christ this morning I beg of you I beg of you come to Christ this morning there is nothing nothing more important there is no greater question for you to answer before you pass away to answer that question would God be real I'm telling you with all my heart God is real we didn't come from nothing God created us he loved us he sent his only son to die for us please receive his forgiveness be saved and come to Christ would you take a minute to pray for me Father Lord I pray for your mercy I pray Lord God as you've been merciful to us that you would be merciful to the souls in this room Lord my words are not enough Lord our songs are not enough everything that we come short of you promised that your Holy Spirit would make it clear I pray that as you promised that your word would go forth and will not return until it has accomplished the purpose you have ordained I pray that you would open many people's eyes that they would see that these are not empty words that this is the truth that you are the Alpha and the Omega you are our creator you are our salvation I pray Father God that you would be merciful I pray for the believers in this room Lord God that you would shake up our core to know that there is nothing more worth living for than to share this gospel to the world as we celebrate the birth of your son Jesus restore in us the joy of our salvation that Christ's name may be exalted that the lost may hear the voice of their master and that many many souls will come to know the Savior and be adopted into your family in Jesus name we pray, Amen would you all stand up for the closing praise You are faithful God You can unstable God No you are not alone Oh God, bearing and waiting Lord, bury your praying heart See what your God hath done Christ is born Christ is born Christ is born You are unbroken heart His fears unspoken heart Just who is broken heart Empty and blinded There is no need to worry See what your God hath done Christ is born Christ is born Christ is born The man who was given Slain for our pardon His promise is peace For those who believe He's the man who was given Slain for our pardon His promise is peace For those who believe He's the man who was given Slain for our pardon His promise is peace For those who believe He's the man who was given Slain for our pardon His promise is peace For those who believe So come, though you have nothing Come, he is the offering Come, see what your God has done Christ is born Christ is born Christ is born For you Before I pray, I wanted to...

Our outreach team has a table set up outside, so as soon as you go outside to the right, one of our pastor, Pastor Mark, and the outreach team is going to be stationed there, so if you have any questions, anything that you've heard, or I think they may have some also materials to help you if you have any questions, so if you can go outside.

As soon as you go outside to your right side, if you visit that table, they'll be able to help you with any questions that you may have, okay? Let me pray for us, and then we'll sing our final closing song and we'll finish for today. Father, we thank you for what this day means to all of us and to the world, that in the midst of the darkness that you have come to shed light, Lord God, that we may see truth and follow you.

I pray, Father, that as many of the minds of the unbelieving has been blinded so that they may not see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I pray that as you have promised, as you built your church and the gates of Hades will not be able to prevail against it, that that would be true today, that no amount of darkness will be able to fight off the tremendous light that you are able to shine.

May your glory, your love, your holiness, your patience, your mercy, your kindness shed light on this truth that more and more people, Lord God, would know and live and die with the hope that can only be found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amen. As we sing this last song, we're going to sing this ending song with a Christmas song.

♪ ♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory to the newborn King ♪ ♪ Peace on earth and mercy mild ♪ ♪ God and sinners reconciled ♪ ♪ Joyful all ye nations rise ♪ ♪ Join the triumph of the skies ♪ ♪ When angelic hosts proclaim ♪ ♪ Christ is born in Bethlehem ♪ ♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory to the newborn King ♪ ♪ ♪ Christ by highest heaven adored ♪ ♪ Christ the everlasting Lord ♪ ♪ Late in time behold Him come ♪ ♪ Offspring of the Virgin's womb ♪ ♪ Veiled in flesh the Godhead see ♪ ♪ Hail the incarnate Deity ♪ ♪ Pleased as man with man to dwell ♪ ♪ Jesus our Emmanuel ♪ ♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory to the newborn King ♪ ♪ ♪ Hail the headlord Prince of Peace ♪ ♪ Hail the Son of Righteousness ♪ ♪ Born in life to all He brings ♪ ♪ Risen with healing in His wings ♪ ♪ Vow we lay this glory bound ♪ ♪ Born that man new in glory time ♪ ♪ Born to raise the sons of earth ♪ ♪ Born to give them second birth ♪ ♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory to the newborn King ♪ ♪ Merry Christmas.

Have a good weekend.