Sermons tagged with Community

Well, good morning, everybody. My name is Nate. I get to be one of the pastors here. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm making grace a part of your Sunday morning. If you're watching online, wherever you are, whatever you may be doing, thank you for joining us in that way. We are beginning our new series, or we're continuing in our new series, called You'll Be Glad You Did. And the idea is to take the wisdom of Proverbs, proverbial wisdom, written by King Solomon, who the Bible claims is the wisest man who ever lived, and to look at some of his wisdom and say here at the top of the year, if we confront ourselves with it, if we listen to it, I bet, I bet that by the end of the year, you'll finish 2026 being glad that you listened to the wisdom of Solomon here at the top of the year. You guys will have to forgive me. We've got a small contingent of Bills fans in the church, and they're all sitting in the front row with, I even forget the name of those pants, but there's a particular, what's the name of those kinds of pants, do you know? Zubas, yes, that look like zebra stripes, and then Susie's got on the best fan shoes I've ever seen in my life, so I just need to say that out loud before I can continue as if there's nothing happening right in front of me. But we're looking at this proverbial wisdom, and one of the reasons I wanted to do it, and one of the reasons I wanted to spend a month looking at the wisdom of Proverbs is because one of the best things I've ever done is to take very seriously reading the book of Proverbs. You've heard me say, hopefully multiple times, that the greatest habit anyone in their life can develop is to wake up every day and spend time in God's word and time in God's presence through prayer. And I still believe that to be true. And there was a season where for three years, every day, I read a Proverb dated as just read a chapter. It's a great place to start. And if you want to read your Bible and you don't know where to start, you don't know how, that's where I would encourage you to begin. If you are someone who reads your Bible, I will tell you that most days for three years, I read whatever proverb was commensurate with that date, that day, and then read whatever else from the Bible I wanted to read that day. And those were some of the richest three years of my life. I immensely enjoyed it and never got tired of reading those Proverbs. So that's a good place to start. And if you hear nothing else from me today of any value, but you leave here and you go read Proverbs every day for the next year, I promise you, you'll be glad you did. This morning, we're going to look, did you like that, Tom? This morning, we're going to look at a proverb about generosity. And I said this in the Gracevine this week. I send it out. And if you're here and you don't get the Gracevine, you don't know what that is, and you would like to receive it, just please fill out a connection card or email me, and we'll get you on that distribution list. But I said in the Grace Find this week that we were going to be talking about a proverb on generosity. And those of you who are my church friends and church people, you know that generosity is pastor code for give us some money. Generosity is code for I'm going to preach a sermon compelling you to give to the church because we need to get some stuff done. And I want to ally that fear this week. Maybe that's why it seems a little bit more thin this week than last week is because I sent that email out. Those of you who have been here for a long time can attest to this. I've never preached a sermon trying to get you to give to grace, nor do I think that the New Testament teaches that you need to give 10% to your local church. I don't even think the New Testament teaches you need to give 10%. I think it just is a good marker based on something that happened in Genesis with Melchizedek and Abraham that we'll talk about later. But I don't even think the New Testament teaches you that. So you'll never hear me preach a sermon trying to compel you to give to grace. So that's not what we're doing this morning. But what you will hear me do, hopefully, repeatedly, is preach sermons on generosity. And the sermon on generosity would make particular sense this morning as it relates to the strategies and desires of grace, because you guys are well aware, we just had a big push towards this building campaign, and we're're hitting go and we're going to try to be in there by the end of next year. So that's particularly relevant to our church. But that's not what I'm preaching about this morning. I can tell you that next week one of our elders, David McWilliams, who's faithfully operating the camera back there, is going to give us an update. We had end of the year giving. We have some very good, exciting news to share. He's going to give us an update. We just want another week to get all of our numbers together so that what we present to you will be the most accurate thing possible. We don't want to talk in what ifs and hypotheticals. We want to talk in precision. So David's going to do that next week. By the way, David has been serving with Jim Adams for a year now as elders, and we still have yet to bring them up here and pray over them because I'm not good at planning things like that. Also, just while we're here, Wes and Doug served for six years, and I was supposed to bring them up here and pray for them too. I've not done that yet either. So Wes, David, Doug, Jim, sorry. But as we think about generosity this morning, I think this proverb allows us to frame it up in a very robust, encompassing way so we can think about the idea of generosity from a more holistic view. So let's look at Proverbs chapter 11, verse 25, which simply says this, a generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. I don't think that we think about generosity the way that Solomon frames it up here. First of all, he says, a generous person prospers. And we should be careful there because we're tempted to kind of fall into a health and wealth gospel that says, the more that I give, the more that will be given back to me monetarily. The more money I give away, the more God will bless my bank account. And that's really terrible teaching, and it ends up making poor people poorer. So that's not what we want to do. So we have to understand what prosper is. And we have to open ourselves up to maybe it means more than just prospering financially. And one of the ways that we prosper is what follows. He who refreshes people will be refreshed. The people who refresh others will be refreshed themselves. I think that opens us up to what prosperity there actually is. But I like this verse because it doesn't tell us how to be generous. It just tells us to be generous. And that the more you give to other people, the more you refresh others, the more you restore the souls of others, the more you look out for others, the more you care for others, the more your soul will be refreshed. And I think that's a really helpful and valuable way to think about generosity. And the truth of it is, God has always wanted his children to be characterized by generosity. God has always wanted his children to be characterized by generosity. All the way back at the beginning of the Bible, beginning in Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, where the laws are meted out for the ancient Israelites, for the ancient Hebrew people. God is very diligent and fastidious about making sure that his children are generous people. He says, care for the widows and the orphans and the aliens and the sojourners, which means care for those who can't care for themselves. Care for the widows because they have no way to make money and no one's paying for them. They need your help. Care for the orphans because they have no way to take care of themselves. Take care of them. Take care of the sojourners, the aliens, the people who are foreign, who are coming to your country from other places. We should always have a heart for them and their plight. So take care of them. And God gets so specific as to give this law in multiple places in the books of Moses. When you harvest your fields, leave the corners there, healthy, ready to be picked. For who? For the widows and the orphans and the aliens and the sojourners. Leave that there so that they can wean from your crop. That ethic, that ethos is there from God at the very beginning of the Bible. And then we see again, Abraham meets the king of Salem, a mysterious figure, the most fascinating figure in the Bible to me, Melchizedek. And he, upon meeting him, gives Melchizedek 10% of everything that he has. And this 10% law becomes called the tithe, and it gets written into Jewish law, Hebrew law, which we inherit in the New Testament. And it was so extensive that they gave, those who were being as righteous as possible, would give 10% of everything that they owned. They would literally empty the pantry and give 10% of the cream of mushroom soup can that they had and give 10% of the spices. They would give 10% of everything. That's how important it was to God to write it into law to do in that way that his people would be generous. Then we get into the New Testament and we see Jesus teach generosity over and over and over again. And listen, almost every time it's taught, it's taught to be generous in order to care for the have-nots. It's almost always taught as don't tithe to be obedient, don't tithe to be blessed, but give what you have to give to take care of the people who don't have something to give. This is the story of the widow's mite, where the rich man gives a bunch and the widow gives all she has, and it's two pennies. And Jesus says she just gave more than he did to the kingdom of God. We cannot argue with the idea that our God has always wanted his children to be characterized by generosity. With that in mind, I would like for us to consider how we can be generous. We're going to swallow the frog and do the obvious one first. We can be generous with our finances. We can be generous with our finances. This is the obvious one, and this is where our brain goes when we think about generosity. And so I'd like to talk about this, but then spend the rest of our time on other ways to be generous. But I was listening to a book recently, and some of you guys like to judge people for listening and not reading, because you're stuck up. And it was by an author named Scott Galloway, who is, it's difficult to define what he does. He sits on boards, he runs companies, he's a professor of economics at NYU, and he's someone that I find interesting and thoughtful. And he wrote a book called Notes on Being a Man, and that's something I've thought about a lot is I've got a son named John who's four and a half. And I don't know why the half matters. He's four. I'm a grown up. And then I have a daughter named Lily who's going to turn 10 here in a week. And I think a lot about what is it that I want to teach to John that I don't want to teach to Lily? What is it that Jen, my wife, should teach to Lily that she doesn't teach to John? And I don't have a good answer for that. And I would invite this, if any of you have answers for that, I want that discourse. Particularly if you're a little bit longer in the tooth than me. Then I really want to hear that. If you're shorter in the tooth, maybe just relax. But he wrote a book, Thoughts on Being a Man, and I would, the only criticism I have, I'm not recommending it to you. There's cuss words, so as a pastor, I cannot recommend it. But the only critique I have is I really think it would better be titled Thoughts on Being a Human. Because the things that he was espousing in there didn't feel to me like things that only men should think about. I think women should think about these things too. And Scott is a devout atheist. He has respect for people of faith, but he's not a person of faith himself, and he's open about that. But in his book, and he's become, by any stretch of the world's measure, very successful, all right? He's in his mid-50s, really successful dude, flying on private jets when he goes places, that kind of thing, all right? But here's what he said, and this is what I thought was interesting that I wanted to share with you. He said when he started his career, it was all about accruing for himself. It was all about what he wanted to get. It was all about getting rich and getting more for himself and just build, build, build, build, build. But that one day, once he felt like he had enough, there was this seismic shift in his mindset. And he became a lot more interested in being a generous person than being an accumulator. He realized it made him feel good. This is wild. It made him feel good to buy dinner. In his words, it made him feel like more of a man. In my words, I would say it made you feel like more of a grown-up. But the way that he phrased it was, it made me feel like more of a man to buy dinner for my friends, to take my friends on trips that I could afford and let them come. It made me feel like more of a man to give things away. And again, I'm not trying to be over-masculine here. I think it really makes us feel like more of a responsible human. But he said that there was this shift, and after that shift that he made this decision, that he made it his goal to give away more money every year than he spent. Not more money than he made, but give away more money than he spent on himself. And he said, in doing this, it makes me feel better about myself and about who I am. Makes me feel like a better human. This, to me, and if Scott were here, he might push back on this, but this, to me, is an atheist nodding towards the way his creator inclined him to be. What he was saying in his book was, when I refresh others, I am refreshed. And I realized it made me feel better to give away my resources than it did to accrue them for myself and my own selfish ends. And my challenge or my thought to the church this morning, because this is a room of largely church people, is if an atheist can stumble upon the simple joy of generosity and find in his own experience that he is refreshed by refreshing others, then can't we as Christians learn from that lesson and be people who seek to be generous? I told you the story a few weeks ago of the former student that I have, a kid named Alex. He's not a kid anymore. He's in his 30s. He graduated in 2010, and he and I haven't had a ton of contact since then, but I've always thought very highly of him and been glad that he's been in my life and that I had the opportunity to be in his. And he had a tough story and ended up not going to college. He had to watch his brothers when he was 19 years old. But he found a way and he became a general contractor. And some of you know the story, but just by way of refreshing, he reached out to me a month or two ago, and he just said, hey, I'm making good money now. That's not what he said, but that's pretty much what he said. I'm making good money now. I want to be generous. I want to give. I want to honor God the way that he's blessed me. I want to bless others. What can I do? And he, to answer that question, drove. He had a job in Charlotte. He lives in Atlanta. So he drove the day before the extra two and a half, three hours from Charlotte to Raleigh, met me, took me to Sullivan's where I got a bone-in filet, which is really great. And then we met in my office and I said, hey man, here's six nonprofits that I know of whose founders I know very well, who I trust and love. Let me just tell you what they do and you tell me where, and then you just do whatever you want. I don't need to know, but then you can kind of figure out where your heart's led, which ones of these capture you, yeah? And that conversation led to him having breakfast the next day with the founder of one of the non-profits and then giving that founder the largest single donation they've had in the history of that non-profit. That's cool, isn't it? Now listen, Alex also told me in that conversation, in our discourse about wanting to be generous, that out of this desire to simply be generous, he had a job in downtown Atlanta. They were building a building or they were refurbishing one or whatever. There was a job with a fence and the things and all the stuff. And he would go there every day. And he said on his way there, he would go to the ATM and get out cash. And keep it in his truck. Because there was homeless people surrounding this job site. And he would make sure to go around and give money to every homeless person that was there. Because he felt like he had the opportunity to do that and he wanted to do it. Now here's where our brain goes. Okay? And here's where mine went. Dude, that's not wise. There's a better way. I love your heart. There's a better way to give money than to do that. And that's why he and I were having the conversation. Let's think about a wise way to do it so we can make sure that that money's going to God's kingdom. We can make sure that's an effective expenditure. But here's why I tell you this story this morning. It's to say that what I truly believe, and this is just my opinion, you may disagree. What I truly believe is the spirit of generosity that led him to give in both situations, whether it's a large donation to a responsible nonprofit or smaller multiple donations that we really don't have any control over, in God's eyes are the same. Because it's not about what we give. And I don't even think, and I'm careful when I say this, because I do think we need to give to God's kingdom. But it's not about what we give, and I'm not always convinced it's about where we give. It's about the fact that we just give. So we should be generous financially, whatever that looks like for us. We should also, I believe, be generous with our time. This is not a way we think about generosity, but it is a way we think about our days. And the story that I will share about being generous with our time is actually critical of me, which is what I would prefer. I'd much prefer a story where I look bad than to tell you a story where I'm the hero. So I'll tell you a story where I look bad. In November, we went home for Thanksgiving, and I needed to preach that upcoming Sunday. My dad is a CPA. He has his own firm, and he was going into the office on Tuesday morning, and I said, hey, dad, can I come into the office with you? Excuse me. I said, can I come into the office with you on Tuesday? I need to write a sermon. I've got a couple things to do, and I'd like to get that done and be done with it so I can just focus on family this week. He said, sure. So we rode to the office together. And on the way to the office, I'm thinking about, and I think some of us can relate, I've got a lot of work to do. I have a very important task to write a sermon for 145 people to listen to. This is the most important thing happening in the whole world. Thank you for the laughter over there. That was what was intended. But that's where my head's at. I have to get this done. I have to do this. And there was some other things I needed to do. So I was really focused and I was in what we call in my family task mode. Like I'm not interacting, engaging. I'm just trying to get stuff done. And so we get to the office and we're walking in and dad stops. There's a car pulling in and he stops and he says, oh, that's so-and-so. And he kind of steps back. Like he's going to wait on so-and-so to get out of her car and come see us. And this is where, if you'd like to be disappointed in me as your pastor, this is a great place to start. I looked at dad and I said, what difference does it make? And he went, okay. And we went inside. Because my thought was, dad, this is just practical brain, okay, I'm sorry. Practical brain. I'm never going to talk to this lady again in my life. I don't know who she is. She only knows who I am because I'm your son. I don't want to talk to her. I have a job to do. I need to get done quick because my wife has the kids with her mother-in-law out on the town. And she'd really like me there as a buffer, frankly. She'd like me to be there. I need to go. So I need to get this done as soon as I can. I need to get in the car. I need to drive to Monroe and go to some stupid store I don't care about so that I can hang out with my family. That's what I need to do. That's the pressure that I feel. So when dad says that so-and-so, I think, who cares? What's it matter? And so he's like, okay. So we go inside. My sister works for dad and she had brought us Chick-fil-A biscuits that morning, which are the worst of all the biscuits. And they really are. They're the worst. And she has the Chick-fil-A biscuits, but I am grateful it's free biscuit, fine. And I said, Dad, where can I work? What conference room or cubicle are you going to tuck me into? And he says, well, you know, you can, one of those down there. He goes, but don't you want to eat first? And I said, again, practical brain. No, Dad, I'm visiting you for three days, all right? I don't need to have breakfast right now. I'm going to go eat the biscuit while I write the sermon and get my important work done. And so I said, no, Dad, I'd really just like to get to work. He's like, okay. So I go get to work, and I write the sermon. I text Jen. I'm done. Where are you guys at? I go to the thing, and we do the things. And then, this is why I'm telling you the story, that evening, Dad snaps at me about something that was pretty innocuous. And those of you who, I have a good relationship with my parents, but Dad and I can get on each other's nerves. And those of you, Kristen's nodding her head as she sits next to her dad. All right, perfect. Let's just unpack this right now, Sartoriuses. If you have grown kids, you know you can get on their nerves. If you still are fortunate enough to have your parents, they know how to get on your nerves, you know how to get on them. We got on each other's nerves. And I thought it was silly. And I finally, I didn't snap, but I just kind of said, I don't know what you want me to do. You know, we were talking about whatever. And I just, like, I needed to go. So I stepped away. And I came back after a calming down period of 72 hours. And it was like 15 minutes later, I said, hey, Dad, I'm sorry. That's not how I want to handle that, but here's what's upsetting me. And he said, I understand. And we started talking. And here's what I learned, and this is why I'm sharing this story. He said, son, essentially, you matter a lot to me. I talk to you a lot. I talk about you a lot to my employees. And it would have meant a lot to me for you to have taken the time to have met them and to be gracious with them. But you were too self-important and you couldn't. And that's why I'm upset. And I went. What a lesson. What a lesson. I don't like saying this, particularly on a permanent record. But he was right, and I was wrong. I was so focused on my tasks and what I needed to get done that I couldn't see the value in investing my time in people. And so I missed a chance. How much better would my afternoon have gone if I would have simply been generous with my time and honored my dad? How much more refreshed could I have been by taking the time to meet the different people that he wanted me to meet. How arrogant of me to think that I have nothing to benefit from small talking and exchanging pleasantries and shaking hands and learning names. What, honestly, what a jerk. And so it was a lesson. Be generous with your time. How many of us have opportunities throughout the week when someone imposes on our time and we have a task or we have a thing that we want to do, but this coworker has texted us, this coworker has popped in, this person has emailed us, this person has called us, this friend needs us. It might be dinner time, but they don't normally call at this time, so what are they calling about? How often do we have opportunities to be generous with our time that we miss for whatever reason? Maybe your reason isn't task-oriented self-importance like me, but maybe it's something else, but how often do we have the opportunities to be generous with our time that we miss because we don't think of those times as opportunities for generosity. We just think about them as impositions on our schedule and on our tasks. I'm reminded as I think of this, every time I read through the Gospels, I am amazed at Jesus' generosity with His time. Those of you who have read through the Gospels, can you recall the amounts of times that Jesus finishes an arduous day or week of ministry? Does the Sermon on the Mount, heals people, speaks to people, casts out demons, teaches, combats with the rabbis, and then once that's done, it says Jesus went off to a quiet place to pray. He went off to be by himself and to rest and recruit. And here's what stuns me is how many times in the gospels it says after finishing a day like that or an event like that, Jesus goes off to pray by himself and on his way to do that, someone says, Rabbi, can I talk to you? Will you talk to my mom? Will you come meet my son? They need you. And Jesus always, sure, what do you need? Yes, I would love to. Yes, let me talk to you. Yes, let me pray to you. Jesus is the greatest example of someone who is generous with his time. And I think, I suspect, that we can probably all be more generous with ours. The last idea about generosity I want us to consider is that we can be generous with our spirit. We can be generous with our spirit. We can be generous with our disposition towards others, with our assessment towards them, with the benefit of the doubt we are willing to give them. I had a friend in college named Paul Honeycutt. Paul Honeycutt and I, we played on the soccer team together and we did the landscape crew together. We were in charge of keeping the grounds of Toccoa Falls College pristine and we did great. It was a fun job. I got to do the zero turn mowers and the weed eaters every day and I loved it. And Honeycutt was this really interesting guy because Honeycutt was cool. Everybody liked Honeycutt. Everybody did. He had all the friends in the world. And at this stage in life, try to remember, you know, I've been in high school and now college and cool people are cool. Cool people, they make friends easily. They make friends well. And they tend to be a little bit exclusionary in the way they move through the world. If you're not as cool as them, they're not going to give you their time. They're not going to be as nice to you. It can get to be exclusive, right? And so that was my experience of cool people. And Paul was cool. Everybody liked Paul. But Paul was unique in that he was kind to everyone. We ran in the same circle, and I watched some people try to get into the circle, and other guys in the circle would kind of hold them in arm's length. I don't know if you're going to cut the mustard. I don't know if I like the cut of your jib. What a great phrase that is. But I don't know. So they kind of hold them away. But Paul was always the first person to welcome them in and to make them feel like a part of things and to be a good host and to be a generous person with his spirit. And I remember asking him one time, this is now 25 years ago, I think, and I still remember the conversation. I asked him something to the effect of, Paul, you're so nice to everybody all the time. How are you this nice to everyone? And Paul said this simple phrase to me, and I'll never forget it. He said, Nate, if they're cool to Jesus, they're cool to me. Isn't that great? If they're cool to Jesus, thanks Jeff. If they're cool to Jesus, they're cool to me. If Jesus likes them, I do too. And here's the problem for us Christians. Jesus likes everybody. How inconvenient is that? I don't know. I've thought about this over the years and I'm not going to make any declarative or definitive statements this morning. I really don't know how much space there is for us to choose to not like somebody. I don't know how much space there is for that. I don't know how much space there is for us to just hold a grudge against somebody. I don't know how much space there is to think the worst of somebody and write them off. Now listen, I want to be very careful. I'm not asking us to trust everyone and to make ourselves vulnerable to everyone and to return to painful relationships when they've burned us in the past and it's hurt so much. I'm not asking you to be unwise. Scripture says that we should be as innocent as doves and as shrewd as vipers, and I think that that absolutely applies. But what I am saying is, I'm not sure how much space we have to just choose to not like someone and write them off. If they're cool to Jesus, they're cool to me. And unfortunately, Jesus likes everybody. So I think maybe you don't have something to learn from my buddy Honeycutt, but I still do. And here's where I would say this too, and I say this carefully. Our country is very divided right now. We know that. By simply saying that statement, everybody in this room just tensed up about 25%. Here's my estimation of part of that division. Is that we are not generous in spirit towards the people who don't vote like us. And what I've noticed is our tendency is to think and assume the worst of them. But what if we would be more generous in spirit and assume the best of them? Not just politically. People who think differently than us. People who don't share the values that we do. People who don't root for the bills. What if we started to view generosity as being a way to assume the best of others, to believe the best of others, and to give them the benefit of the doubt whenever we could? Let me tell you what would happen. Not just on a church level, but on a personal level. It is refreshing to refresh others. This series is called You'll Be Glad You Did. If you will listen to the wisdom that Solomon wrote down, you'll be glad you did. This week, we have an opportunity to consider what kind of people we are in regards to generosity. And my main point is, how refreshing would it be to spend this year being more generous with your resources, with your time, with your spirit, with your demeanor towards other people. And here's what I would challenge you with. If you think about these things, and there's other ways to be generous as well, but if you'll just think about these things. How can I this year be generous with my finances? How can I this year be generous with my time? How can I this year be generous with my spirit towards others? I highly doubt you'll finish the year and think, I wish I'd have kept more of it for myself. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you for this church body, for this family. Thank you for the love that we share and the community that we have. God, all of us in this room have been given resources. From your fullness, we have received grace upon grace in different ways. And I pray, God, that you would increase our heart and increase our desire to be people who are characterized by generosity. May we be people who are happy to give, who are happy to refresh others, and in so doing find that you refresh us as we do. Give us the eyes to see and the ears to hear opportunities for generosity. And give us the willingness to step into those. In Jesus' name, amen.

All right. Well, good morning, everyone. It's good to see you. Thanks for being here. Happy New Year's. I'm so grateful that you've chosen to make grace not just a part of your Sunday, but by being here the first Sunday of the year, you're at least, some of us are going, and you know, I didn't go to church enough last year, so I'm going to come more this year. Great. Go Bills back there, by the way. Go Bills up here. By the way, who do you all play in today? The other team. I hope you beat the other team. That's great. And today's a fun day for me as a Falcons fan because all you jerk Panthers fans that cheer for an Arena League team now have to cheer for my team so you can make the playoffs. So go Falcons today. Yeah, we can get behind it. Yes. All right. Good deal. Well, listen, thanks for making church a part of your year and a part of your Sunday. I hope we don't let you down. If you're watching online, wherever you are, whatever you may be doing, thank you for doing that. This is the time of year where everybody, for the most part, assesses the person that they are and thinks about the kind of person that they'd like to become or that they'd like to be. And so this is the time of year when we tend to set goals for ourselves, whether you're comfortable with the idea of New Year's resolutions or just in general setting goals that we have for ourselves, this is the time of year when we do that. If you haven't thought about that, if you're not doing that, if this has not occurred to you, then I can only assume about you that either you think you're nailing it, like you're just so good at life, no notes, no changes. I hope the next year is just as good as the last four years. And if that's you, you're a jerk. All right. There's some notes for you. Or you've given up, which I wouldn't blame you for. But maybe let's try to log in and set some goals and think about the kind of people that we want to be in the new year. We've done that in our house. We've set some goals. Jen wants to be a more supportive and loving wife, and I'm so grateful that she has set that goal for us this year. I'm trying to be a more accepting husband of her faults. And so in that way, we're hoping for a better marriage in 20... I'm so sorry, Jen. I'm sorry for all of that. So in that vein, in thinking about how we want to be in the new year, the series that we're going to be in for the next four weeks is simply called You'll Be Glad You Did. And what we're going to do is look at some proverbial wisdom from the book of Proverbs written by King Solomon, who is, we are told, the wisest man to ever live. And just look at his wisdom and with the premise of if we'll simply listen to him and take his advice this year, we'll be glad we did. And one of the reasons I wanted to open the year with it is simply this. I don't know where you are spiritually. I don't know where you are on that journey. I don't know how much of what we're selling you're buying, I don't know. Many of you who are here are Christians. You would call yourself a Christian. God is your Father. Jesus is your Savior. Wonderful. Some of you may be kicking the tires going, is church worth it? When I get to talk to those people, I used to lead high school Bible studies. I was close with the high school football coaches at my last church, and I would go lead Bible studies for the football teams, optional, after practice on a certain day of the week. And I would always start with them with Proverbs. Because in Proverbs, you don't have to believe in everything to follow the advice that we find there. But here's what I will posit to you. If you listen to the wisdom of Solomon in Proverbs, you'll be glad you did. I hope that you'll listen to that wisdom. And for those of you who don't yet know Jesus, I hope that by listening to that wisdom, it gives you more trust in the other words in this book, and you come to faith in Jesus, and you come to call yourself a Christian and believe in God as your Father and Jesus as your Savior, because you entered in from this perspective of Proverbs, which is simply, if we listen to the wisest man who's ever lived, who points us towards Jesus, we will be glad we did. So that's all I'm inviting you to do today. And this morning, I'm particularly excited about the topic, because it's one that is very dear to me. And so I'll just say this up front. Here's my goal this morning. I'm going to say this and then preach to it. And we'll return to it in 25 minutes or so. But here's my goal for you this year. Set some friend goals this year. We all have goals that we're setting. I hope you do. I hope there are things that you want to accomplish in your life. I hope there's some goals that you're setting for yourself. I'm going to exercise. I'm not going to eat sugar. I'm not going to drink this. I'm not going to ingest that. I'm going to show up at work and actually care about what I'm doing. Whatever it is that might be your goal, I hope you're setting some goals this year. But what I would like to encourage you to do is to set some friend goals this year. And this is something that means so much to me. I never, and you guys who have been here a long time, you know this to be true. I never ever establish myself as moral exemplar. I'm the pastor. Don't giggle, Zach. I'm making a point. This is important. Shut up. I never approach talking to you as if I am on some moral high ground and I'm trying to help you get on my level. Ever. I think that's disrespectful. I've actually said that I live my life the way that I do as a favor to you so it's easy to not put me on a pedestal. I'm helping you in that way. That's why I cuss. Just not on stage. But here's what I would say about this one this week. I know how to be a good friend. I know how to be a friend. Friendship is one of the most important things to me in my life. As a matter of fact, I've told Jen, you can ask her afterwards, because the other thing I said about her is absolutely not true, but this is true. I've told her, in the case of my untimely demise, the only thing I want on my headstone, if we can afford one, is Nate was a friend. That's what I want. Nate was a friend to his wife, to his church, to his co-workers, to his children, to his parents, to his friends. Nate was a friend. It's deeply important to me. And I hope that friendship is deeply important to you. And here's what I would say as a person who is fortunate enough to have some good, deep friendships. As a matter of fact, Jen and I were driving back this Christmas. Excuse me. We were driving back home. When you come from Atlanta, really it's from Athens, there's two ways to come home. The fast way is to come just straight 85, and we do that every time. But this time, judge me if you'd like, and you probably should, but we chose to go the long way, 20 to Florence and then 95 north. Do you know why? Who knows why? Who knows why we went that way? Does anybody know? Buc-ee's. Yes, ma'am. Buc-ee's. That's why. We wasted 30 minutes of our lives so that we could take our children to Buc-ee's and buy beef jerky that I still have at the house. No, I will not share it because it was hard-earned. It was a stupid decision. I'll never make it again. But as I was driving, I had set my cruise at 8 over. That's just what I do. I set it at 78. I don't know if our resident highway patrol officer is in the crowd, but I don't think he would pull me over for that. I set it at 78. So I'm going, and I'm speeding. I know I'm speeding, but I'm not speeding by a lot. Like, come on, get over it. It's fine. I'm just trying to get home. And I pass a cop. And, of course, I'm in my rearview mirror. Is this cop following me? Am I about to get pulled over? And so then I start the doom spiral. If he pulls me over, I don't have a license. Okay? I have a license. I'm a licensed driver. Don't worry about that. I just lost it. And I lost it weeks ago. And I went online. Get this. This is just my personal complaint. This doesn't need to be in a sermon. I'm just telling you. I went online to try to replace my lost license. And as a part of that, they asked me for my license number. How am I going to know that? I lost it. Do any of you take a picture of your license and save it just in case? Like, no. So I don't have a license right now. Okay. And I'm like, if I get pulled over, he's going to ask for my license and I'm going to have to say, I don't, I don't have one officer. And then he's going to say, and this is further judgment, I understand. Then he's going to say, well, do you have a proof of insurance? I'm going to say, no, I don't carry that around. I assume you have a database you can look it up in. And then at that point, he's going to arrest me in front of my family. He's going to pull me out of the car and he's going to put handcuffs on me and arrest me in front of my family. At this point, I'm about in Goldsboro, North Carolina, just past Fort Bragg. I have no idea how Fort Bragg and Fayetteville has that many exits on 95. Jen and I felt like we were in a Twilight Zone doom loop coming home trying to get through Fort Bragg. But we had just gotten through and I'm like, I'm going to get arrested and they're going to take me to jail and I'm going to look at Jen and I'm going to say, let's just be calm, just take it easy, just get the kids home. We don't need to upset them for this. I'm going to be fine. They're going to take me to jail. And I thought to myself, who am I going to call? And I thought, I'm going to call Harris Winston. I'm going to call Harris. Because I know if I call Harris, I'm going to say, hey, dude, I'm in jail in Goldsboro. I need you to come bail me out. And Harris, at 9 o'clock at night, is going to go, and I would have called Chris, except I knew he'd be asleep. That's useless. I knew that Harris would be like, all right, dude, I'll see you in 45 minutes. And come down there and bail me out, no questions asked. And then in the car, as we're driving home, he would go, what did you do? I know I have those kinds of friends. Everybody needs those kinds of friends. The people you can call at any hour of the night who will show up and help you. There's this great line from a movie, and I don't remember the movie or the actors, but I just know that the main character walks into a room and says something to the effect of, hey, I need you to come with me. We're going to hurt some people and do illegal things, and you can't ask any questions about it, or you enter out. And the person that he's speaking to says, whose car do you want to take? Those are the kinds of friends we need. I'm not standing here supporting your illegal activities. I'm just hypothetically saying if you wanted to engage in them, you need some friends who will without asking questions. We need those kinds of friends in our life. But here's what I know. And I have those and I'm so grateful for them. But here's what I know about friends. Okay? Friends are like children. They are fundamentally inconvenient. Okay? Friends are like children. They are fundamentally inconvenient. You'll hear this side isn't laughing because you think it's inappropriate. This side that has young children is they're all giggling because they know it's true. I heard a comedian in an interview on a podcast say that children are fundamentally inconvenient, and I thought, well, that's absolutely true. John and Lily, my two children, they inconvenience me every day. They're looking forward to inconveniencing me when I'm done doing this. But friends are like that. They're fundamentally inconvenient. Just this last weekend, John and Lily had some friends over. For the sake of anonymity, we'll call them Chandler and Jackson Johnson. And they were over, and John comes downstairs crying. Jen had absconded and gone to the grocery store, leaving me with the children by myself. And I was watching them diligently. And John comes downstairs and is upset and he's crying. And I said, what's wrong, buddy? John's four and a half, so when you're four and a half, you cry about anything with no regard to reality. And I said, what's wrong, buddy? And he said that he was upset and I got it out of him. He was upset because Jackson wasn't playing right. Because John got a castle for Christmas that had knights and a wizard and a king and a queen and a dragon, and they all have certain roles to play. And in John's mind, clearly the dragon's the enemy attacking the castle. But he had decided that the wizard was team dragon instead of team castle. And Jackson really was ardent in his belief that the wizard was pro-castle and anti-dragon, which I've got to say, I think Jackson's right on this one. But he wasn't playing right. Meaning, he's not playing the way I want him to play. He's not listening to me and letting me boss him around. And I told him, yeah, son, that's what friends are. They don't always play right. But if you want to be a good friend, then you have to learn to play the way that they want to play. And this doesn't change as adults. Our friends don't always play right. If you go golfing with your friend, they might reach a level of anger that is unwarranted based on their level of practice. But you have to deal with it because they may not know how to play right. They may play too fast or too slow. I say, when you golf and you address the ball, the longer it takes you to hit it, the better that shot needs to be. Otherwise, just be bad quickly and let's move forward. Some of our friends don't gossip enough for our tastes. All right? We like to get some more deets. Some gossip too much, and we're like, that's enough, and I don't trust you. Some friends show up late. Some friends, like Keith Cathcart, when he texts you, will text you 95 times in a row until you have to silence the messages because I'm doing other stuff, Keith, and I don't care about the Steelers right now. Thank you, Jeff. Our friends don't play right, but it's still worth it to invest in them. It's still worth it to have them. And we still need to consider who our friends are. And that's not something that I just think from living life. That's something that has been ingrained in me since I was a child. And it starts with this verse in Proverbs 13, verse 20, which says, Now, when I memorized it, I memorized it this way. The companion of the wise will become wise, and the companion of fools will suffer harm. Growing up in my house, what was told to me over and over again is this simple thought, which is simply, show me your friends, and I'll show you your future. Statistically speaking, it's true empirically that we become the average of the five people that we spend the most time around. And so this morning, as we begin the year, I want to ask you, who are your closest friends? Who's the person you would call if you got arrested in Goldsboro? Who's the person that you could call in the middle of the night that would answer their phone and show up where you needed them to be? Who are the people that when your spouse goes out of town and you want to have a fun hang, you go, hey, and you text, let's do steaks, let's go out, let's play golf, let's go watch a movie. Let's go, I don't know what girls do. Let's brush each other's hair for fun. Whatever it is. Who are the people that you call and say, I've got some free time. Let's hang. Who are those folks? Who are the people that on Christmas you texted? Said, hey, I'm grateful for you. Merry Christmas. Who are the people on January 1st you texted? Hey, I'm grateful for you. Happy New Year. Who are your friends? Not your acquaintances. We all have acquaintances. Who are your friends? Who are the people that show up for you no matter what? Who are the people that you love? And here's this. This is going to be harder for the men than the women. And you may reject it on its face. That's fine. That's your issue to deal with in therapy. Who are the people that you have told them, I love you? I love you. I'm grateful for you. Men, men, be man enough to tell the people in your life that you love that you love them. Make sure they know. And make sure you show it. And so this morning I'm asking you, men and women, who are the five people that you spend the most time with? Who are you becoming like? Who is shaping you inexorably into the person that you are becoming? Because I remind you, and I'm asking you that question here at the top of the year, so you can think about it as you go through 2026. Who are the people that you spend the most time around who are shaping the person that you are becoming? Here's why I ask this and why I think it's important and worth talking about on Sunday. I say to you often, I quote this verse all the time. It's one of my favorite ones, Ephesians 2.10. You are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works before time that you might walk in them. Parents. Phil, nodding your head. Your son Wyatt is 10. Is he 10 yet? A couple weeks. Lily, too. Do you know what my job is and your job is? It's not to get them to behave as a 10-year-old, although you're doing great at that. No thanks to faith. It is your job and my job to help Wyatt and Lily identify their good works and empower them to walk in those. Man to man, I'm emotional as I say it. You guys too. That's our job. How do we help our children identify their good works and walk in them? That's the job of parents. Your job as adults, what are your good works? What did God create you to do? And how might you walk in them? Whatever those are. And I'm not here today to expound on that or articulate upon those. But I want us to capture that idea. Because as we think about our friends, I think this question is important. Who can I surround myself with that will help me become the person God created me to be? Who can I surround myself with that will help me become the person that God created me to be. Now I was talking to Jen about this sermon this week and she made a great point to me to answer this question. Who can I surround myself with that will help me become the person that God created me to be? If it is true that I become the average of the five people that I spend the most time with, then who should I be spending my time with? And here's what she says is the mark of a good friend. A good friend listens to everything you have to say. You go get dinner, you call on the phone, whatever it is, you go grab a drink and you're talking and you say everything you need to say. Here's what's happening at work. Here's what's happening in my marriage. Here's where I don't like my kids. Here's what's going on with other people in my life. Here's all the things. And you just kind of unload, right, on your friend because that's what friends do. Friends listen. But here's the mark of a good friend. They don't just listen to you, but they hear you and then they take you and they point you back to Jesus. I hear all of that. I'm so sorry for what's happening at your work. I'm so sorry that your husband or your wife is disappointing you in that way. I'm so sorry that your kids are so difficult in this season of life. I'm so sorry that that amount of stress is on you right now. That's a big decision that you have to make, and I'm not sure I can correctly advise you on how to make it. But where do we see Jesus in this? Where do we see him talking to us? Where is he guiding you spiritually? What do you think God's plan is in this? What do you think God's purpose is in allowing this to go on in your life? Let me tell you something. That's another level of friend. And that's what I want you to have. Is the people that you go to and you say all the things you need to say and they hear you and they listen and then they love you enough to grab your face. Theoretically. Hopefully they're not grabbing your face. That's weird. But they love you enough to grab your face and orient it towards Christ. And say, what is he teaching you through this? Those are your true friends. Those are the ones that you can walk through fire with. Those are the ones that you need. So who do you have in your life who can grab you and hear you, who will answer the call at 3 a.m., who will come bail you out of jail if you need it, who will engage in illegal activities if they benefit you, but at the end of all of that will grab your face and point you towards Jesus. Who do you have in your life that will do that? And here's what I would say before moving on. The only thing worse than having bad friends is having no friends. The only thing worse than having bad friends is having no friends. Maybe you're sitting here this morning and I'm asking you to do a friend inventory. And you're thinking about the people in your life that you could call, the people in your life that you talk to. And you're like, man, they don't point me towards Jesus. If anything, they point me away from Jesus. They don't help me spiritually at all. I don't have good friends in my life. My friends don't point me towards him. They're not good friends. They're bad friends. They discourage me. But here's what I would tell you. At least you have some. The only thing worse than having bad friends is having no friends. I came across a statistic recently and I double checked it because it sounded absurd. But there are more people every year that die due to loneliness than people who die due to lung issues dealing with smoking. Meaning, it is statistically true that it is more dangerous to not have any friends than it is to smoke a pack a day. By being lonely, you are more at risk for mortality than you are if you smoke a pack a day. Which brings me back to this idea of needing friends. This is the whole ethic of grace, by the way. Every week we say from stage, at Grace we exist to connect people to Jesus and connect people to? Yes. This is the whole ethic of grace. I tell my non-believing friends, even if you don't buy what we are selling, it's best for you and your family to come because of the benefits you get from the community, of people investing in you and you investing in them. And I hope, as I say that, that eventually they'll believe what we believe. But even if you don't, it's better for you and your family to be a part of a church so that you're engaged in friendships, so that people look out for you, people care about you and point you towards Christ. So two thoughts quickly there. If you are someone who would say, and this is, I've done some research on it, this is largely, this is more prevalent in the male community than the female community. There's a preponderance of men in their 60s who report, I have no one that I would call a close friend. It's so sad. There's even more men that would say, I've made no new friends since my 20s. Men are bad at being friends. Do you know why? Because other people don't play right. Because you're five. That's why. You're a dope. Sorry, I don't mean that. I don't mean that. Men have a hard time making friends because to be a true friend requires some emotional vulnerability. We have to put ourselves out there. We have to share our weaknesses. And we have to trust that we're going to be met with kindness. Men are taught not to show weakness, not to show need, to be self-sufficient, to take care of ourselves. And those things are not conducive to real friendship. To be a friend, Proverbs says, to be a friend, you must show thyself friendly. We have to do that. And so, men, here's what I would tell you. Leaders lead in vulnerability. You want friends? 2026? Go make some. Put yourself out there. Invite somebody to lunch. Dude, that's going to be weird. What if they tell me that they don't want to eat lunch with me? Well, then they're not going to be your friend. Be a grown-up. Invite the next person. We need these people in our lives. And here's the other place where I would challenge you, men and women alike. I'd be willing to bet that you have people in your life that you know and you care for and you respect and you wish you were better friends with them. I bet that's true. I know that's true for us because yesterday, out of conviction, I texted another couple in the church and I said I said hey tomorrow I'm going to be preaching about friend goals and you guys are ours we love you and don't spend enough time with you or your family can you come over and hang out the only thing I'm going to ask is that you not wear Panthers gear when you come and they wouldn't even agree to that So I don't know if we're off to a great start. But I bet you have people in your life that you respect and you know would point you towards Jesus and would listen to your things. But because of your own insecurities, because of your own uncertainties, because friends are fundamentally inconvenient. I mean, listen, listen, listen. Sometimes Tuesday Nate makes plans for Friday Nate. And when Friday Nate wakes up and is reminded of Tuesday Nate's commitment, he's ticked. Because I don't want to get, like I don't want to shower and go see you people. I don't want you to come over to the house that I now have to clean maniacally. I don't want to do that. Until you get there and then Friday Nate's happy again because now I'm with my friends. It's hard to spend the time that we should spend investing in relationships with other people, but it's absolutely worth it. And so this year I started out, set some friend goals. I bet you know people who you respect, who you care for, who would point you towards Christ, and maybe you're not as close with them as you'd like to be. Let me challenge you to take steps this year. Let me challenge you to engage in more new friendships. My friends who are over 50, okay? Just talking to my over 50 crowd here. When's the last time you made a new friend? Do you have some friendships in your life that are dear to you that have slipped away? That you could re-engage? Statistics tell me that that's very likely. Who are the people that you know already that you can engage with who will point you towards Jesus and be there for you? It's worth the investment and here's one of the big reasons why. Proverbs 24 6. Surely you need guidance to wage war and victory is won through many advisors. Now I'm not espousing that any of us are about to declare war. If I were preaching at a church in Washington, D.C., I might have to couch this a little bit differently, but in Raleigh, none of us have that capacity. But the point of the verse is not really about waging war. It's about doing the wise thing in the challenge that we're facing. And Solomon's point is, the more counsel that we have, the wiser choices that we will make. And when you have friends in your life who point you towards Jesus, they will offer you wise counsel, and that counsel is invaluable. It cannot be quantified. Just in 2025, and I'm not saying this to aggrandize myself and my friendships. I'm just saying it to be a real human. In 2025, I have friends that I texted at 7.30 in the morning and I said, I need to come over. I need to talk. And when I got there, they hugged me and we all cried because of stuff that was happening in my life. They were there for me, drop of a hat, in the morning. Those are friends. I have friends that I texted. I said, I just need to process some things. Can we do dinner soon? And within a night or two, I was having beef bourbignon at La Coquette, crying over our issues with a friend that made time for me. I have a friend in my life named Trip that when I call, he answers. And when he calls, I answer. No questions asked. He called yesterday. I was working. I said, hey, man, what's up? And he goes, nothing, I'm just bored. And I said, well, then I don't have any time for you. And I hung up on him. We have not talked since. I don't care to until there's a good reason for it. But if he calls today, I will answer. And so will he. We need those friends. So the simple message for you today, who are you getting counsel from? Who is loving you? Who is pointing you towards Jesus? And most importantly, what friends do you have that will take everything from you and at the end of the conversation say, yes, I hear you. What is Jesus saying to you in this moment? What people do you have in your life that you can turn to who will turn your face towards Christ? And what kinds of people should you be pursuing in 2026? Here's the question. Who should I be friends with in 2026? And here's my point. If you think about that critically and meaningfully and act on those decisions, you'll be glad you did. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you for this church family, for bringing us together and allowing us to enjoy one another. God, thank you for friends and the gift that they are. Thank you for connecting us and giving us the capacity for love and relationship and friendship. Father, I ask that everybody here would have a friend that loves them dearly, that accepts them completely, and that points them towards Christ. May we all enjoy those kinds of friendships. And God, for those of us in this room who feel lonely, I pray that that would be solved this year and that would not be a thing that we need to carry forward. And for those of us who have put up walls and maybe don't have the depth of friends that we know that we need, God, would you help us to have the courage to tear those down and invite people into our lives who point us towards you so that we might become the version of ourselves that you intended us to be. In Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you for being here. My name is Nate. I get to be one of the pastors and I get to preach the sermons. And so I'm grateful that you're here and I'm grateful that you've made grace a part of your morning if you're watching online. Thank you for doing that as well. But I will say up front that I'm going to be a little bit more brief than normal because I have a high degree of respect for the fact that many of you are here this morning to see your grandchild, and that's done, and now you're just thinking about lunch, all right? So I try to pride myself in reading the room, so loud and clear, all right? But we do find ourselves in a series, here we go, a wassailing, where we're focused on Christmas carols and looking at where they come from in Scripture and seeking through that understanding to imbue them with a greater meaning so that as we sing them as a congregation and as we sing them in our cars and listen to them, I've shared with you that Lily and I have a Christmas playlist that we listen to on the way to school in the mornings beginning November 1st. And so as we hear them and as we sing them and as we celebrate them, if we focus on them this Christmas season, maybe they can be imbued with greater meaning for us. And so that's what we're doing is we're looking at different Christmas songs and understanding them from a biblical perspective or what the thrust of them really is. The song that we're looking at this morning, and Jen and I, I want to personally apologize to you, Jen. Jen's my wife. She's sitting right there. We have laughed in our house, and I don't know if y'all have heard this phrase, but we hate it when someone says, and if you've said this, we don't hate you. We just think this phrase is ridiculous. This thing is giving this thing vibes. This is giving this vibes, right? We've heard this phrase. The song this morning gives buying presents for your parents vibes, okay? And I'm sorry to say that, but there's not a better way to structure it. And here's what I'm talking about, and you guys are probably familiar with this. Every Christmas, you need to buy your parents something, right? Like that's the nice thing to do. And it's always difficult to buy presents for your parents because they're richer than you. Mostly. I saw a clip of Dwayne the Rock Johnson and the interviewer asked him, you just bought a house for your mom. And Kevin Hart was next to him and he said, yeah, about time, a billion dollars later, he bought a house for his mom. But most of us in the room are not positioned to buy houses for our parents. And so what's probably true of you, though I don't know, but what's probably true of the majority of us is that when it comes time to buy gifts for our parents, if they want it, they would have it. And if they can't afford it, neither can you. Maybe my dad wants a nice new car. Well, that's not coming from me. I'm not putting the bow on the Lexus. Also, before I just keep going, I have to say this. I have to, because he deserves some credit. Cason Smith, Carter's son, who takes after his mom and his dad is not in the room. He's the worst. Y'all couldn't see him because he's a fifth grader and he's one of the taller ones. So he was back here. But when they started practicing, Cason moved away from everybody else because he needed room to explore the space and to dance and to perform. And if you could peek through the heads, and you didn't know to look for it, no, you couldn't know to look for it, but if you could peek through the heads, you would have seen him back here just getting after it. And if you missed it, I'm so sorry. And because he was going at it so hard, I just wanted to acknowledge him that Kaysen's the best every year when we do this. All right, what was I talking about? Yeah, buying gifts for your parents is hard. I think over the years, the two best things I've ever gotten from my parents is my mom, all she wants, every now and again, they will facilitate a vacation for our whole family. My family will go. My sister's family will go. Everyone will go on a vacation to the beach on a cruise or whatever it is. And the only thing she wants as a thank you for this, and this is the gift that you give to her, is to participate in family pictures. And my whole job, which I fail at, is to have a good attitude during pictures. Because pictures are the worst. But the best thing I can do for my mom is just not be a jerk about it and take the pictures and smile. And we went on a cruise in August that they facilitated and they wanted to do the family pictures. And it was time for Nate and Jen's pictures. And the photographer was like, do this pose, do this pose, and like look at each other longingly in this way. Laugh and giggle. And it was a degree of physical affection that Jen and I have not shown in public for 15 years. And I finally went, that's enough. We're squared away. Thanks. We're all good here. And he goes, I'm sorry. And I go, yeah, you are sorry. We're done. You've got enough. We're not going to buy any of those anyways. And then the best thing I've ever gotten from my dad, and I don't know how many of you remember this, but if you grew up in evangelical church, particularly Baptist church, in the 80s or the 90s, just raise your hand if you know what special music is. Do you know what special music is? Yes. There's a few hands raised. All right. Here's what special music is. It's not the way we usually use the word special. All right. It's different. Here's what it is. In the 80s and 90s, there were Christian songs that were not, they weren't praise hymns or choruses that you sang in the church. They were just songs that you listened to, like on the radio or on a cassette tape. And the really popular ones would have a cassette tape with a side A and a side B. And side A was the song, Ray Bolt's Watch the Lamb. If you don't know that one, can't recommend it highly enough. That's the best. Ray Bolts, Watch the Lamb. And then you'd flip it to side B, and it was just the instruments and no vocals. And so what they would do in church is after normal worship, after the choir sang, then one select person from the congregation who was gifted above and beyond everyone else in the voice department would get up, kind of like Jordan, would get up and sing to the track. So they'd play the track, they'd turn on the music, and then that person would sing. And when I was growing up, my dad was the special music guy. There's other people that dabbled around in special music in like May and June. But dad got Christmas and Easter. All right, he was a big deal. And I used to sit in the third row and mouth every word for him in case he forgot because I loved it so much. And so one year I made, and I don't know how many years ago this was, but it was long enough ago that I burned a CD. Remember that? And I made him Dale's greatest hits. And I gave him that so that he could listen to it and replay the glory days in the car because nobody cares about him anymore. He doesn't do anything special. But it's hard to get gifts for our parents because more often than not, they're taken care of, and we don't really know how we can celebrate them in such a way that's going to be impactful. The song that we're looking at this morning is a song called Little Drummer Boy, and when I say that, you probably have the same reaction that Aaron had when I told him a few years ago I wanted to do Little Drummer Boy. And his response to me was, I don't know how to get a room full of adults to sing the words parumpapumpum in a worshipful way. So maybe let's not. But in his first year here, Gibby did not know me well enough and was not yet secure enough in his job to tell me no. And I took advantage of this. And coming into the Christmas service, I said, hey man, I really think we need to do Little Drummer Boy. And he gave me the pushback of, I don't know if I want to do that. I don't know how to worshipfully sing the words parumpapumpum. Like, I don't know if I can do that. And I said, well, I really need you to do that. And here's the funny thing, If you remember last week's sermon, and most of you don't because your grandkid wasn't singing last week. Last week, I said I asked him to do the third verse of a song and that I kind of like, hey, dude, we need to do this and that I never, ever do that. And now here I am two weeks in a row telling you stories about times I told Gibby he had to sing a song. But I think these are the only two. I really do think so. We'll see, he just said, for those of you in the back. And so he did it. But in planning to do the song, it was very important to him, and I think that this is actually a wonderful quality to have in our worship pastor, and it's one of the reasons why I think he does such a good job. It was really important to him that he wanted this to be worshipful for the congregation. He wanted to try to connect it, not just be performative, but can we sing this together and be worshipful together? And so he was trying to connect those dots so that he could make it impactful and help us step into it. And as he was trying to do that, I believe it was his wife Tamara that pointed out to him, Aaron, you're the drummer boy. And he paused, and he communicated this to me the next day, and he communicated it to the church through tears tears and I've always found it very moving. Because here's why. Psalm 50 tells us this is God speaking I have no need of a bull from your stall or goats from your pens for every animal of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. So we serve a God who needs nothing from us. All the animals in the forest are his. All the cattle on the hills are his. What are we going to give him that he needs? What are we going to give him that flatters him? What are we going to give him that worships him? And as we enter into the Christmas season and we do all the things and we seek at Christmas to honor our God and to worship our Jesus and to adequately celebrate the birth of Christ, what do we bring to God? Gold, frankincense, and myrrh? I seriously doubt. I have no idea what heaven's like, but I don't think that there's a frankincense shortage for Jesus. I think he's got plenty if that's what he needs. He's not looking around for myrrh, trying to find a good deal on it. Like, what do we bring Jesus to adequately celebrate him? If he has everything that he needs already, what could he possibly want from us? And I think that the point that Tamara made about Gibby being the drummer boy is a profound one. And I think it's true for everyone. So just so we know, let me tell you what the lyrics are in case you've forgotten. I'm going to leave out the parumpapumpums. All right, let's just assume there's a lot of those. And I'll read the normal words. It says, little baby, rumpumpumpum, I'm a poor boy too. I have no gift to bring that's fit to give a king. Shall I play for you on my drum? Mary nodded. Go ahead. The ox and lamb kept time, which I find dubious, because they are the least rhythmic of the farm animals, and we all know it. I played my drum for him. I love this. I played my best for him. Then he smiled at me, me and my drum. Now here's what's great, okay? And this is why I'm getting emotional over Little Drummer Boy lyrics. All right, hopefully you'll be there with me in a minute and not think I'm a crazy person. Here's the point. Gibby has nothing to offer his Savior in gratitude for what Jesus has done for him. He has nothing that Jesus needs. He's just got his drum. He has been gifted, though it is hard for me to say, with some talent. He could, I think, play any instrument up here that we needed him to. When he sings, he manages to remain on key from what I can tell. He has been given a gift. And what his wife was telling him was, use that gift to glorify your God, the one who gave it to you. And use that gift for what it was intended, which is to usher everyone else in the congregation into worship. Go play your drum. Go do your thing. Go do what God created you to do and use the talents with which he imbued you to point people towards me. Go play your drum. I remember years ago, I took over as a student pastor at a church. And the youth group was large enough that they were able to furnish their own youth band. And there was a girl who was, I think, a junior at the time, maybe a senior, named Kelsey. And Kelsey was this 4'11", tops, tiny, tiny girl, and just very shy. And at the time, I had this tradition when my mama was alive called Mama Mondays. And every other Monday, I'd go to Mama's house at 1030 in the morning because I was a youth pastor. I didn't have anything else to do. And we would have coffee together. And I would just listen to stories. And Mama was a small, diminutive woman like Kelsey was, and she was very shy, and she felt very outshone by the other people around her, and so I began to draw these parallels between the two, and that developed within me a real affinity for Kelsey, and I wanted to look out for her. And Kelsey sang in the band. And I wish, I wish like heck, because she's a children's pastor in Florida now, and I wish like heck I could get her here for one week and just let you all hear her sing because she's incredible. You would never expect this voice to come out of this person. But when she would sing, she was timid. And I remember going to her and pulling her aside and saying, hey, Kelsey, God gave you a voice. He gave you a gift. And when you use it, Holly, when you use it, and for the purpose for which it was given to you and you invite people into praise with your boldness in how you use your voice, you're doing exactly what God intended with that gift. And because of that and because I watched her, not because of what I said, but just gradual comfort in the environment, I couldn't make it through a worship set without tearing up because I was so moved by Kelsey using her gift for her God to usher people towards him. She was playing her drum. And now here's the thing. You all have a drum. You all have something to play. For most of you, it would be great if you were not up here singing. We don't want that, and that's not what I'm preaching towards. We're pretty happy with our current arrangement, but you have a drum. I was reminded of this verse in Isaiah 51 that's quoted in 1 Peter, brought up later. But it says this, And when Peter extrapolates in in this in 1 Peter, he talks about Abraham and the great things that Abraham did. And you don't have to be very versed in Christianity and biblical knowledge to understand that Abraham sits on the Mount Rushmore of Christian figures. He sits on the Mount Rushmore of God followers. And what he did was amazing. And it echoes and tumbles down through the millennia. Abraham was impressive. He did amazing things. But Peter quotes Isaiah and tells you, do you know the quarry from which you are cut and the rock from which you are hewn? You're made of the same material. You have the same gifts. You have the same input from God. He's bestowed similar blessings upon you. And what I want you to hear this morning as we think about the song Little Drummer Boy and the stupid words, pa-rum-pa-pum-pum, that are actually pretty fun to sing. If you're not a stick in the mud, they're actually great. Is you've been given a drum too. Here I play for you. I played my best for you. And he smiled at me. You have a drum too. Maybe your drum is kindness. Maybe your drum is compassion. A few years ago, some friends of mine heard about a man that was disabled and shut in in essentially public housing, for lack of a better term. And he was a mess and his apartment was a mess. And upon hearing of his predicament, they went over on a Saturday and spent eight hours cleaning up what was unpleasant. That's compassion. They were playing their drum. I saw a picture, came across on a social media feed, of a mug that said, it's actually pretty funny, it said, help, I've become very important at my job and it's ruining my life. We have some people here who have influence in their space, who are leaders in their company. God's given you a drum to influence those people towards Christ. Play it. Use your influence. Show people what a Christ follower looks like and point people towards him. We have teachers in the room. You have a drum to play in front of those kids every day. We have people in this room who are incredible at gathering folks, at getting people together, drawing together community. And that's not a talent that everyone has. Chris is terrible at that. That's not a talent that we all get. But maybe it's yours, and maybe you do draw people together well. That's your drum. Play your drum. Maybe you're a good listener. Maybe you're a good friend. Maybe you're good at business. Maybe you're good at garnering influence. Maybe you can sing. Maybe you can teach. I'll tell you, it's a bummer to be given the drum of teaching because you have to do it every week. It's kind of a hassle. But maybe that's your drum. I don't know what it is, but here's what I know for sure. You have one. And if you want to honor your Jesus at Christmas or any time, play it. Play your best for him, And he will smile at you. Play your drum. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you for the kids that played their drums. For the way that they honored you. Thank you for a worship team that plays theirs. Thank you for a church that wants to go and play for you as well. Father, we pray that we would honor you in this season and in these weeks and that we wouldn't lose sight of what we're celebrating. God, if we don't know what we're good at, maybe we're simply good at humility and help us play that one well too. But I pray that we would all go and play our best for you and that you would smile at us. In Jesus' name, amen.

All right. Well, good morning, everybody. It's good to see everybody's Christmas sweaters. Steve, it's nice to see your festive Christmas blazer. Thank you. This morning. If you don't understand what's happening on my sweater, that's on you. All right. This is from the movie Christmas Vacation. Chevy Chase is up hanging lights and he pulls the gutter and a shard of ice shoots into their obnoxious neighbor's room, shattering the window and the stereo system. And when they get home, Julia Louise Dreyfuss' character says what's on Jen's sweater, which is why is the carpet wet, Todd, and to which he responds disgustedly, I don't know, Margo. So that's what this is. Just so you know, if you're looking at my sweater going, that doesn't make any sense to me, that's where it comes from, okay? And I just wish that you had as much joy in your clothes as I do in mine. This week we continue, as Haley just mentioned, which it is Christmas Sweater Sunday. It's not Christmas Overall Sunday. I don't know what you're doing, but it is. What was it, Christmas Knits, if that's not your love language? It is yours. So, yeah, very good. The series is called Here We Go, A Wassailing, and we're looking at Christmas songs that we sing, and we're seeking to understand them in a deeper way so that when we sing them at Christmas, hopefully they're imbued with greater meaning. As we approach this one, I have a sensibility or a standard in my life. I'm almost always consuming two books. I'm consuming one on the app Audible, which is a wonderful app, and that's where I consume nonfiction. Biography, sociology, often history, political stuff, that's where I do my learning because it's hard to sit down and read those books, at least for me. And then I try to always be reading a book in addition to the book that I'm listening to, and I read fiction. But the standard for me in the fiction that I read is I almost exclusively read classics because I kind of think, and I know that all of this sounds pretentious. I'm talking to you about how much I read and what I read and that I only read the classics and blah, blah, blah. Fine. I would assume that if you're not a reader, there is this belief amongst readers that we are somehow superior to non-readers. But what I would argue is that we just have more free time than you. You're busier than we are, and so we fill it with reading. Regardless, I read classics, because here's my thought. If it's been in print for over 50 years, then that author had something to say beyond just the story that is written. So if it's been around for a long time, I'm more apt to read it because I feel like it was written with purpose. And I feel like what is contained in those pages moves beyond just the story. And what I've found over and over and over again is that it really offers profound insight into the human spirit and human psyche. And it has a good commentary on life. And here's what's wild to me about the classics when you read them, is they were written in the mid-1800s, but the dynamics of human life persist today and are absolutely relatable. And so in literature, I have a proclivity for the classics because there's a reason that they've kind of billowed down through the centuries. And so this morning, I bring that up because this morning we arrive at maybe the most famous Christmas carol there is outside of Jingle Bells. And Jingle Bells means nothing. So we're not going to talk about that. But the one that does mean something is this Christmas carol, Joy to the World, that we sang at the beginning of the service. It was written by a pastor named Isaac Watts in the early 1700s. So the words of joy to the world that we sing every year are over 300 years old. It is very much a classic. And so to honor the classic this morning, as we focus ourselves on the songs that we sing at Christmas time, I want to go through this song, what's called exegetically. To preach exegetically is to go through a passage and just verse by verse, what does it mean, what does it mean, what does it mean? And so I want to take that practice and apply it to the song of joy to the world and go through it exegetically and understand what we're singing because I believe that there's something profound in each verse that may pass us by as we just sing it every year and we repeat with sounding joy and all the things. It's going to be really, really hard, I'm just saying this right now, for me to not sing parts of this song to you as I preach. I've been in sermons before where the pastor would just like pause and start singing awkwardly. And even if they have a good voice, you're still like, what are you doing, dude? So I'm going to really try hard not to sing to you this morning, but I don't know what's going to come out. I'm flying by the seat of my pants. So let's look at this wonderful Christmas carol written by Isaac Watts that we sing every year, and let's seek a greater understanding of what's going on when we sing it. Here's the first verse. Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her king. Let every heart. Where's Gibson? Gibby. In the original, in my notes, there's an apostrophe and the E, the second E in every. And one of the great things about our Christian heritage is that we apostrophize words that don't make any sense. And you've robbed us from this experience. I appreciate that you kept heaven, but every. Come on, man. Aren't you from Kentucky? Please don't fix it. Let every heart prepare him room and heaven and nature sing. So the first thing we see, he is actually going to go fix this as I preach to you. Let's just give him time. It's my fault. I made a big deal of it. There we go. Thank you. Now we've had the full experience, Gibberoo. Thanks, pal. The first thing that I want to point out is how it starts. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king. Every Easter, rather, I share with you this quote, and I'll share it again here as we approach Christmas. It's an Easter quote, but it's apropos today. It's from John Paul II, one of the great popes of the Catholic Church. And he said, For we do not give way to despair, for we are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song. And what he means is we serve a Savior that has conquered sin and death. We serve a Savior that gives us joy in whom we can rest easy. And so when it starts off, it's appropriately so. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. This person, this Messiah, this entity that will defeat sin and death has come. And so we can experience joy. And there should be no more joyful people in the Christmas season than Christians because we understand fully what it is for and what it is about. And make no mistake, we get into the hustle and the bustle of the Christmas season, but let us not forget that Jesus is why we are here, and he gives us joy. To the next point, in here it says, let every heart prepare him room at my last church my pastor a guy named Jonathan about every other year if not annually would preach the same Christmas message and I think that the point of it was an excellent one. We see it in Luke chapter 2, verses 6 and 7. Let's read this together. While they were there, there came a time for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in clothes and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them. You've probably heard it. There was no room for them in the inn. And it's this idea that Joseph and Mary went down not for what they knew to be Christmas, but what we knew to be Christmas. Also probably in September, not in December, but that's neither here nor there. But they went down for the census and gave birth to Jesus. And they gave birth to Jesus in the manger because there was no room for them in the inn. That's the famous line. And so my pastor used to say in the Christmas season, let us make room for Jesus in our hearts. Let us not be like the innkeeper. And here's why that's tricky. This season has so many things that demand our time and our attention, does it not? Just yesterday, I was talking to Jen. What do you think we should get for John? I bought him this and this and this. We have this much money left. What do you think we should get for him? And so we're sitting there using our day talking about what we should get for our four-year-old who's eventually going to throw away everything that he gets in favor of other things that he gets when he's nine, which he will then throw away as well. It's an endless cycle. And she also shared with me that she was trying to buy some pajamas for Fammy Jammy Sunday because we got a match. And it's difficult to find. I'm just going to be really real with you guys. It's difficult to find pajamas I can preach in, okay? We would all be uncomfortable with the pants situation and all of the pajamas coming from Amazon. We don't want that. So it's tricky. And she's like, I've spent two and a half hours of my life trying to buy pajamas for us for this stupid thing at your stupid church. That's a loose paraphrase. She didn't say that. We have parties to go to. We have gifts to buy. On Christmas Eve, I've got to preach a sermon. You've got to come to a service. The band has to play music. You've got family things you're thinking about. You've got gifts to wrap. Santa has to sit in the living room and assemble things for Christmas morning. We have office parties to go to. We have friend parties to go to. We have regular gifts that we're getting, and then we have to think of the hilarious things to get for the dirty Santa party that we're going to that's going to be really funny. We have all kinds of things to think about in this Christmas season. And what happens so easily is that all of those different things that intrude upon our calendar and our schedule and our conscience invade the space that belongs to Christ and causes us to put him out of this Christmas season. For us to deprioritize him during the season that is meant more than any other to celebrate him and prioritize him. And so when we sing joy to the world, the Lord has come, let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room. Reminds us if we let it. This is a busy season. There are lots of things being demanded of us. But the most important thing is to celebrate my Jesus. And I'll tell you this now more than ever. You've heard me, if you've been here any length of time, you've heard me say this a hundred times. There is no greater habit that anyone can develop than to wake up every day and spend time in God's word and time in God's presence through prayer. At no point in the year is that more important than the Christmas season. So let joy to the world encourage you to do that. Wake up early tomorrow. I promise you, I promise you, if you wake up 30 minutes earlier than you normally do tomorrow, and you spend the first 10 minutes becoming cognizant and making coffee, and the latter 20 minutes reading and praying, that will be a better invested half hour than whatever you were going to gain by sleeping for that additional time. Let this season be a season that pushes you back to Christ as you prepare room in your hearts for him. The second verse. Joy to the earth. The Savior reigns. And that says, let men their songs employ. The original version, and I think this is important, we'll get back to it, says, our mortal songs employ. And then it says, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy. Andrew, if you can leave that up there. Here's why I think it's important, the language that is used in the original line from 300 years ago, where it says, our immortal songs employ. Now, we don't sing that. That doesn't make any sense to us. That's not vernacular that we would use. Let men their songs employ seems to get the job done. But here's the deal with mortal. Mortal admits he is immortal. I am mortal. I am less than. It's a declaration of the beginning of the Bible where it says, in the beginning God created, establishing this fundamental relationship that he is the creator and I am the created. So when we say our mortal songs employ, what we're admitting is that we're not enough. This is the best we can do. The best we can do is sing to you with a pure heart and invite you in. It's not just let men their songs employ because that doesn't have the same bite that mortal does. Our mortal songs employ because we are insufficient and this is all that we can give. So when we sing at the end of my sermon, we will sing joy to the world again, and we will sing let men their songs employ, but I want your brain to go to mortal, understanding God, I am insufficient. You are God. I am not. I am mortal. You are immortal. By your love and by your grace and by your goodness and by your sacrifice and by the arrival that we are celebrating in this season, we become immortal from your love. But right now, as I sit in this seat, as I stand in that space, my songs are mortal. And I love you for making me immortal. Let men their songs employ. And then, these great lines, while fields and Jesus says in Luke chapter 19, verses 39 through again. There was a season in my life when I was quote unquote rugged. I went to REI. I shopped at the scratch and dent sales. I owned, listen, some of you will understand this. I'm looking at you, Jacob Farmer. I owned Chacos in 1999, pal. Do you understand? Like, I was OG on the Chacos. And if you don't know what Chacos are, you're not cool. And I would go hiking. I remember I would go on the Appalachian Trail. I went one time. It was February. It was freezing. I made the mistake in getting into my tent of knocking over my boot. And when I woke up the next day, I had to peel it off the ground because it was frozen to the ground ground and it was thawing out on my sock as we would walk that day. I remember one time we forgot water and I was mixing dry oatmeal, this is true, with my spit for sustenance until we could find a brook and a pot that we could boil water in so that we wouldn't die. I used to go hiking. I have not done that for years. But when I did, and when I would be at the top of a mountain or have an incredible view, and I've had this opportunity, God's been good to me all over the place. I remember I would feel the presence of God in those places. I remember there was one time in particular when I was in Quito, Ecuador. And we went out to this camp, this youth camp in the rainforest. And we had the opportunity to hike up the mountain. And so we walked for 60 or 90 minutes up this mountain at very high altitude, like 11,000 feet. It was a hard hike. And we got to the top. And as we got to the top of this mountain, I look around and there's mountains all around us. And this cloud moves in over us, literally, and settles into the valley from whence we came. And we walked down the trail, into the clouds, into the rainstorm that it created by moving over the mountain. And I remember in that space being awed at the glory of God. And if you're a hiker, and if you're a nature person, and you're a person of spirituality, I think it's undeniable that when you're in those places, you see the glory of God. You see his goodness. You see the wonders of his love. And when I'm in those places, I feel closer to him. I marvel at him. And so Jesus says, if we don't proclaim his praise, the rocks will cry out themselves. And if you're a person who's been out in nature and is moved by that, if you've been to the Grand Canyon as I have. You've seen the rocks cry out. You know that's true experientially. And so what praise is. Singing to God. Is an invitation. To participate. In what's already happening. Do you understand? It's not on you to praise God. It's not on you to proclaim His name. It's not on you to proclaim His glory and His goodness. And it's not as if we don't do it at grace this morning that it simply won't happen. No. all of creation is proclaiming the glory of the King and of the Creator. Romans 1 says that God has written Himself into nature so that we can see it and that no man is without excuse. Walk outside and God has written His glory in the sky so when we sing, we are not initiating something that's not happening. We are participating in something that's been going on for eons and ages. We're simply joining into the chorus of creation and proclaiming his name. So when we say that line, repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, we are acknowledging that we are repeating the joy and the glory and the goodness and the praise that's going on outside of these walls all day, every day, in ways that we cannot comprehend. Do you get it? When we sing joy to the world, the Lord has come. When we sing repeat the sounding joy, are acknowledging. We're not initiating this. We're echoing in with creation, with what's been happening for thousands of years without us. Now the third verse. The third verse might be my favorite. No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. And listen, I know that's a weird one to be my favorite. But I don't know how many years you've sang the song or you've heard it sung. And we get to that last line, far as, far as the curse is found. And then we sing it again. That's as close as I'm going to get to singing this one. And we just sing it. Thank you for your clapping. We just sing it because those are the lyrics. And it's like, it's almost comical because it's just like, happy joy to the world. You know, this is a happy song. And then we get to the third verse. And even this week, I went to Gibby once I was writing the sermon and I was like, hey dude, are we going to do the third verse? And he was like, no, that one's weird. And I was like, oh, can we do it? And I don't, you guys don't know how much trust I put in him. I never, ever, do I ever tell you to sing a song or do a thing? He's not, he's shaking his head no, because I paid him. But no, I never like, hey dude, we have to do this here, we have to do this song last, so I need you to sing this. I never give him instructions like that. But this week I was like, I need you to find a way to do the third verse. Because we get to that place where we just sing far as far as the curse is found. And I think we just sing it, but we don't think about it. And we might not even understand it. So let's understand it. Genesis chapter 3 verses 17 through 19 say this. To Adam he said, because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree, a fundamental sin of men. Just saying. I'm done listening to you, Jen. Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat from it. Cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. Because Eve ate of the apple, and because Adam listened to his wife, because he sinned too, there was a curse. And the curse was that there would be great pain and childbearing. And the curse for all of mankind was that now you have to work for your food. And it will be hard labor. There will be thorns and thistles that make it challenging. Do you realize that Adam and Eve were birthed into an all-inclusive resort? It was just, that's how they existed. Have you ever been to one of those? You just, there's just drinks in your room. There's just water in your refrigerator. And then you drink the water and you come back from going to the pool and there's more water in there. And then you go wherever you want to go for lunch. It's mediocre, but it's there and free. And then you go to dinner wherever you, there's no work involved. You're just reading and relaxing all day. That's what Adam and Eve were born into, but they sinned. They got that fundamental relationship wrong. God is the creator. We is the created. The serpent spoke into Eve's ear and said, you don't have to be like that. You can be like this. You can be as the creator and know what right from wrong. And so they chose to throw off the auspices of the original agreed upon relationship where God is the creator and we are the created. And they said, no, we want to be like the created. And so they inherited the curse. And the curse is that we have to work hard for our food. We have to labor. There are thorns and thistles. And if you want to read more deeply into it, the curse, more pointedly, is cancer. Cancer did not exist in the Garden of Eden. The curse is disabilities. Disabilities didn't exist in the Garden of Eden. The curse is anxiety and depression. The curse is divorce. The curse is abuse. The curse is that hurt people hurt people. The curse is loneliness. Do you understand? The curse is hurt and tragedy and pain. And one of my favorite verses that I bring up all the time and I preach it at every funeral I ever do is in Revelation chapter 20, chapter 21, where it says, at the end of days, God will be with his people and his people will be with their God and there will be no more weeping and no more crying and no more pain anymore for the former things, the curse have passed away. And so what this verse proclaims is it acknowledges that the curse is worldwide. But it says, That's the curse. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. He comes to expunge all of those things forever to make all the right things wrong and the sad things untrue. So when we sing the third verse of joy to the world, let us acknowledge that we know what the curse is and we know it's a result of sin and we know all the things are wrapped up in the curse. But when Jesus comes back one day and Christmas celebrates and acknowledges the fact that Jesus will come back and that he does keep his promises because God sent him and we acknowledge his reception and we look forward to his return. And as far as that curse is found, his blessings will flow and expunge. So we can sing that verse impugned with greater meaning when we understand the curse and we understand its healing. I didn't mean to rhyme those last four lines, but that was all right. Fourth verse. This one's great. He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love. I think this is an incredibly poignant and appropriate verse for us now in our current political climate. I hesitated to make this parallel because I truly believe that the things we talked about in each of the first three verses are meaningful and impactful or I would not have wasted your time with them. And I'm afraid that when I say what I'm about to say that we're going to lose the rest of it for this point. So please let's not do that. Let's just be grownups. But here's what I know about this room. There was an election in 2024. And some people in this room voted conservatively, believing that that candidate was most aligned with their values, and some people in this room voted liberally, believing that that candidate best aligned with their values. Some people didn't vote at all because there was no one that was representative of their values, and some people didn't vote at all because they're bad citizens. Well, I would say I'm just kidding, but I'm not. But we all had different reasons for the choices that we made that November. But here's what I know is part of everyone's reasoning. This candidate is not perfect, but they align with my values in this way, so I'm going to vote for them, and I'm going to overlook the shortcomings that they have as a person in their character. Okay? I don't think anyone here thinks that they voted for someone who was perfect in every way and was the ideal leader in every way. And I think as I trace back through my life, I'm 44, I've seen a lot of presidents. And I've seen a lot of elections. And you have too. And I don't think there's ever been a single time in your life when you voted or your parents voted and who they were voting for they thought was moral exemplar, ideal human on the planet, we have to make no exceptions for their character or their morality or their policies, but they're enough in line with me that I'm going to vote for them. Yeah? Jesus, Isaiah tells us, is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And Revelation tells us this in Revelation 19, one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. On his robe and on his thigh, he has this name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. So in Revelation 19, there is this picture of Jesus crashing out of the sky. I've said dozens of times, if not hundreds of times in this place, that to be a Christian is to believe that Jesus is who he says he is. He's the son of God and divine. He did what he said he did. He died and he raised again on the third day. And he's going to do what he says he's going to do, which is Revelation 19. One day he's going to come crashing through the clouds and he's going to reclaim creation for his father and for himself. And he'll be riding on a horse and on his thigh will be tattooed, will be emblazoned, righteous and true. And he's going to make all the wrong things right and all the sad things untrue. And he is going to rescue his creation. And then he will sit on his throne as king of kings and lord of lords. And he is one that no matter how we voted in the past, we would vote for him. And we would not have to make equivocations for him. I don't agree with some of his policies. Well, then you're wrong, buddy. We wouldn't have to make equivocations for his morality. One day he will lead. One day he will sit on the rightful throne of the universe. And when that day comes, for the rest of our days, we will follow him, resting easy in his leadership, trusting in his wisdom, finding peace in his sovereignty, and finding joy in worshiping him and him alone. He will be the perfect king of kings. And he will sit on the throne of the universe. And verse 4 proclaims that. He rules the world with truth and grace and he makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love. So I'm going to pray. And as I pray, the band's going to come back up. And we're going to sing joy to the world again. And if you don't mean it a little bit more than you did when we sang it at the start, well, I'm just a bad preacher. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your servant Isaac Watts who gave us the gift of this song. Thank you for how much meaning it has and how rich it is. Lord, your son's arrival brings joy to the whole world. It gives us a reason to praise and to sing. It gives us a reason to be happy and to be hopeful. So God, I pray that as we sing here in a minute, that we would remember what these words mean. That we would put meaning and passion behind them as we declare and proclaim your son. And we claim the joy of what this season is. Help us sing with meaning, God, and help us sing to you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Good morning. My name is Nate. I get to be one of the pastors here, and I'm very excited for the series. I hope that you guys had a good Thanksgiving. For the Rectors, it's a whirlwind. It's six and a half hours to Atlanta on Monday, five hours to Dothan on Wednesday, six hours to Greenville on Friday, and four and a half hours to Raleigh on Saturday, which is 22 hours of travel. So if you see my children and they look a little bit addled, that's why. But they did great and we had a great time and we saw family and I hope that you did too. But now that we're past that, we have arrived at my favorite time of year at Grace. I love this time of year at grace i i love uh getting to celebrate next week uh as mikey said is uh christmas sweater sunday so i hope you'll bring out your best um i've seen some of yours before and i know they're pretty good so maybe you've upgraded but i hope that we'll all have a good sweater to wear for next week my favorite sunday of the year is fami jammy sunday We'll be like them. Which is more pointedly Amo La Civita every year. I'm looking at you, pal. Let's put something on this year, buddy. But I love this season. I love the Christmas series. I love how fun it is. And for me, obviously, we're celebrating Christmas. We're celebrating what that is. We're celebrating the arrival of Christ. But I also, in my head, as I kind of celebrate the end of the year, I celebrate what God has done at Grace. I celebrate who you are and who we are and God's presence here. I celebrate the people who are committed to this place and who love it so much, and all that God has done. So I think it's a perfect time of year to kind of not only celebrate Christmas and what that means and the arrival of Christ, but to also reflect on what God has done in our church and in our church family and look forward to what He's going to do in the future. To that end, we've got a meeting on December the 14th, immediately following the service to update everybody on the building, where we're at, and exactly what it's going to take to get us where we believe we need to go. And I think we're a lot closer than people suspect. So I'm optimistic for that meeting and I'm hopeful that you'll make it a priority to be there. I also know that that's on the same Sunday that we're doing the kids caroling. So there's going to be grandparents and stuff like that here. So to the young families, I would encourage you maybe bring two cars that day and one party can stay behind and attend the meeting and then the rest can go out to eat with grandma and grandpa and then you can can catch up later, because let's be honest, that lunch is overrated, and you probably just want to be here. Anyways. This series, here we go, is it, was, Wassailing, here we go, Wassailing. As Aaron mentioned, it was either Aaron or Mikey, I don't pay much attention. A few years ago, either last fall or fall before last, we did a series called The Songs We Sing. And we looked at the songs that we sing as a church, some of the hymns and praise choruses that we do, and we found them in the Bible. And we said, let's kind of imbue them with more meaning by looking at these songs. And it's a Christmas series that I've always wanted to do. And so this year we're going to do that. We're going to look at a Christmas carol each week and look at how it's imbued with meaning through scripture. We're going to climax this on Christmas Eve, looking at the greatest song that's ever been written, in my opinion, Oh Holy Night. And so I'm very excited to do that, but we've got some good songs along the way. And we have a song that we're focused on this morning that if you were paying attention to the video, you already know what it is. Or if you've looked through the notes to try to see what the fill in the blanks are, you already know what it is. But I'm not going to tell you yet if you haven't done either of those things. The first thing I'm going to do is make the opening point. This is the least expected opening point that I'm going to put on the screen in the history of Grace Raleigh, okay? A few weeks ago, I had a point that said something like, faith is like a Brazilian steakhouse. And Carly, who I send the notes to, who puts them on the bulletin, emailed me back and she said, I can't wait to see what this is about. And then I sent her this week's notes and she said, I never thought you would top Brazilian steakhouse, but I'm about to. Here's the first point of the sermon. Be like Keith Cathcart. Yeah. Where's Keith? Hey, buddy. Don't let him go, Keck. Be like Keith Cathcart. Here's my second point. Sort of. Okay. Now that we're clear. Now listen, before I just dump on him for the rest of the sermon, let's be clear. Keith is a really good friend of mine. I love Keith. I have a policy in my house. I do not pay money to a handyman of any kind until I've gotten permission from Keith. When there is something wrong in my house, I call him and I say, I think I need to call somebody to come fix this. And he will often say to me, if you call somebody to fix that, I will not be your friend anymore. I cannot respect you as a man. Keith has stood on the safe confines of my deck while I was up on my roof with FaceTiming him, showing him some flashing underneath some shingles and he helped me repair it. And we did, we fixed the leak. Did we not? Yeah, we did. So he's a good buddy. He's also the greatest evangelist I've ever met in my life. And this is true. Keith evangelizes like no one I've ever met. He espouses his beliefs more zealously and more effectively than any Christian I've ever known. The problem is he's an evangelist for the Steelers, not Jesus. Although I'm sure he does evangelize for Jesus from time to time. He's an incredibly effective evangelist for the Steelers. As a matter of fact, to prove it to you, I texted him earlier in the week. And I said, hey, I'm not going to tell you why. I just need you to text me pictures of people you've converted to Steelers fans. I just need three or four pictures. Dude sent me 20. 20 pictures. And he said, this is just the beginning. He got so excited about it. He's going down to Mexico to celebrate Christmas, to do a Christmas celebration with our ministry partners there. And he printed up terrible towels that say Feliz Navidad. And he's going to hand them out to 200 children and get them to wave them at once. And he told me it's going to be the greatest moment of my life. Just so you don't think I'm making this up, I wanted to share with you some of the people that Keith has evangelized for the Steelers. So let's take a look, Lynn. This is a young man at our church. He did not grow up in Pittsburgh. He does not care about the Steelers, but now he does. His mom made the mistake of going to Mexico with Keith and the rest of the team. They didn't just go to Mexico together, let's be clear. Sorry, Miel. There was like a whole group of people. They all went together. That's funny. He converted him. This is Patrick. Patrick did not, he's wearing, I don't know, Patrick, are you in the service this morning? Yeah, there he is. He's wearing that jersey. I didn't even tell him to. He didn't even know that this was happening. He's caught the virus, okay? Keith gave him that jersey. He's so proud of himself. Look at that dumb grin on Keith's face. Look at him. He's evangelizing for the Steelers. What's the next one? Is this Chucky? Oh, no. This is a guy. This is a random dude from Home Depot. That's who that is. That is Casey. Casey. Thank you, Keck. Keck is also in Steelers gear. Did you purchase that gear, Keck? Or did Keith? He puts on his hat. Yes, that's a random guy from Home Depot that is now a Steelers fan because of Keith. Who's the next one? Chucky. Chucky is the foreman in Mexico. Now this, I'll give Keith some credit as much as it pains me. Keith has been going to Mexico for darn near 20 years. And he met Chucky when Chucky was in seventh grade and was a volunteer working to get a home for his family. And he has gone through the years and he is now the foreman of the work crews for Faith Ministry, the ministry with which we partner. Every year, Keith goes down and he spends time with Chucky. And every year, he gives Chucky more Steelers crap. He has gotten birth announcements, wedding announcements, engagement announcements. That is like a surrogate son to Keith, and that's a very special person to us here at Grace. So I don't want to make light of it, but also, look at that. He's got all kinds of Steeler stuff. Can I tell you this? He even got me. Here I am. I went, too. I figured if I was gonna be in Pittsburgh, I needed to look the part, so I shaved down to a mustache, which I would say looks awesome. And here's the worst part. Do we have it, Aaron? He got my children. He got them too. But do you know what I did with those towels? Last time we had the hootenanny and we had the grill, the Blackstone needs a towel to clean up the grease I use those just so we know all right that's enough of that Keith is the most effective evangelist I've ever met in my life he loves the Steelers he wants everyone else to love the Steelers and he and it's a point of pride and joy when other people love his team too. And it's harmless and it's fun. But he, as I was thinking about the song this morning, he embodies this song better than anyone I've ever met, which is this, Go Tell It on the Mountain. We know this Christmas carol. Go tell it on the mountain. Go proclaim it. Here's the chorus of the carol. Let's look at it together. Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere. Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born. I love this carol. I thought it was the right place to begin the series. I don't know how you guys do it in your house, but at our house, after Halloween, the first weekend after Halloween, we decorate for Christmas. I know that's crazy. I know. But here's what Jen and I say. There's nothing wrong with a little extra Christmas in the house. We love our living room with lights and a tree and the ambiance. And during the year, we got our TV up on the mantle, you know, like you're supposed to do in 2025. And then bracketing the TV, we have these potted plants that are fake that have like different like plumes coming out of them like you're supposed to. But at Christmas, they're reindeers, and it's cooler. And then instead of just this naked mantle, there's garland with lights on it. And so it's just festive. And then we turn on the gas fire that emits zero heat whatsoever. And it's more cozy in there. So in our house, we decorate for Christmas the first weekend after Halloween and the first school day after Halloween we get in the car and Lily will say, Daddy, can we listen to Christmas carols now? And we do. On the way to school we listen to Christmas carols. We've got a playlist. We've added to it over the years. She has her favorites. I have mine. If you haven't listened to Barbara Streisand's version of Jingle Bells, it's the best in the whole wide world and I love it. I highly recommend. But one of my favorite songs that we listen to in the car together is Go Tell It on the Mountain. It's fun. It's festive. It's energetic. And it really gets across the point of the season. This idea of go be an evangelist. Here's what Keith does for the Steelers. As he goes and he tells it on the mountain. Over the hills and everywhere. Everywhere he goes, he's going to tell you about the Steelers. He's going to give you a terrible towel. He's going to give you a jersey that you don't want, that your children are going to wear, and now your host. But he's going to go and he's going to tell. And that's what this song is about. Go tell it on the mountain. Go tell people about Jesus. And this is a fundamental part of our faith that we don't talk about often enough. I'll be the first person to admit that I'm bad at evangelism. I don't do it as often as I should. And before I get into the sermon too far, making a crude analogy that's clumsy, it's far easier to evangelize for your team than it is to evangelize for your Savior. Because there's not a bunch of social emotional baggage wrapped up in your team. Keith doesn't go tell people that they should root for the Steelers and then get the response, I've tried to root for the Steelers before, but the fans of the Steelers are hypocrites and they hurt me. I've tried to root for the Steelers before, but I have existential reasons to believe that the Steelers don't exist. I've tried to root for the Steelers before, but I have this and this and this reason why I just can't do that anymore. You tell someone to root for the Steelers, and they're like, no, I like the Falcons, and you're like, I'm so sorry for you and your life, but I understand. But you tell someone to convert to your Savior, and it becomes a lot more complicated and a lot more deep. And so it's a clumsy comparison. And the point of the story isn't to guilt Keith into sharing Jesus with the same zeal that he shares the Steelers. Although, Keith, maybe. But it's a clumsy comparison if you want to make it one-to-one. Nevertheless, evangelism and going and telling it on the mountain is a fundamental part of what it is to be a Christian. And here's how I know that this is true. I don't know if you've ever thought about the disciples in this way, but I have a cousin. I was just with him over his cousin-in-law, actually. He's an OBGYN, and he had to go through a ton of school to get to practice as a doctor. And the last part of school that you do when you're pursuing the medical field is residency. You go and you follow actual doctors who are licensed. And you that's what the disciples were doing. The disciples were in residency with Jesus. They were being trained by him. They were being prepared for ministry. And this is not the point of the sermon, but just by way of thought exercise, I doubt that you've ever considered, why didn't Jesus, if what Jesus came to do is come and live a perfect life and die a perfect death, why didn't he die on the cross when he was 21? Why didn't he die when he was 18? Why didn't he die when he was 30? Why didn't he just come down here, live a sinless life, die a perfect death, and be our perfect sacrifice, which is what we believe that he was and is? I'll tell you why. Because he wanted to spend the last years of his life training young men in residency to take over the church. To do what he did. And so that's what the disciples were doing. They were in residency learning how to lead what would be known as the church. Because the church didn't exist as an idea before Jesus implanted it into the minds and the practices of the disciples. And when he left, he said, now go and spread the good news to the corners of the earth, to all the nations. Go to the ends of the earth and tell them who I am, baptizing people in my name. Go make disciples in Jerusalem and Judea and all of the ends of the earth. The reason that Jesus didn't just live and die was to train the disciples. You understand? And fundamental to that training was evangelism. It was so fundamental that 30 years after the death of Christ, when Mark and Luke, and Mark wrote the gospel on behalf of Peter, and Luke wrote the gospel to, oh, blessed Theophilus, to explain to this man named Theophilus what was going on, and then to explain to humans for the rest of time what was going on. It was so important to them that they included this story in Mark chapter 6 and in Luke chapter 9. Two of the disciples thought that this part of their training was so important that it needed to be recounted. In Mark chapter 6 and Luke chapter 9, you can look it up if you want to. I'm not going to read the verses. Jesus sent out the disciples two by two. He said, go in pairs, go into the surrounding towns, cast out demons and heal, and tell them the good news of the gospel. Tell them who I am. Tell them what I've done. Tell them what I'm going to do. And we often, those of us who know our Bible, associate that with the end of the story, which is if they don't receive you, shake the dust of that town off of your sandals as you go, which is to say, like, I don't want to have anything to do with you anymore and go. And we like that because that way, if evangelism doesn't work, we don't have to feel bad and whatever. But the point of that story, the point of that recounting, the reason that it's included in the gospels, the reason that Peter and Mark and Luke felt compelled to include that in their narrative and in their recounting of their experience with the Messiah is to say the point is we were told to go and tell other people about Jesus. We were told to go and evangelize. And so it is unavoidable that part of our Christian experience is to tell people about the Jesus that we love. Now listen, I want to be really clear here. If you're new to the faith, if you're questioning the faith, if you're here kicking the tires to see if faith is for you, I'm not preaching to you this morning. This is not for you. I don't want you to feel an ounce of responsibility for the things that I'm about to say. I just would invite you to soak it in and know that this is what we're about. But if you're a Christian, if you're not kicking the tires, if God is your Father and Jesus is your Savior, if you believe that Jesus is who he says he is, did what he said he did, and is going to do what he says he's going to do, then this is for you. And this should compel us. A fundamental part of your life, of your faith, is evangelism. Is to tell people about your Jesus. And I know that this makes us deeply uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable. It's an uncomfortable conversation. But that does not negate the fact that it is a biblical imperative, that it was a course requirement for the residency of the disciples, and it is an expectation that Jesus himself places on you to go tell it on the mountain, to go tell it everywhere, to go tell people about the Jesus that you love. And in our culture and in our context, go tell people why you still love him. Go tell people why you stayed in church and they left. Go tell people why you've come back to church after wandering for a while. Go tell people what Jesus has done for you. Go tell people about the sense of peace that he's given you. Christians, go tell people about the sense of worth that he's given your soul. Christians, go tell people about the purpose that he's given you in the waning years of your life. I know many of us are at the point of our life where we're thinking, we're not thinking about a cruel, we're thinking about legacy. What do we leave behind? Go tell people what you want to leave behind and why. Go tell people what you want to build in your building years and why. If you're young, go tell people what you want to do with your life. And why? Go tell people how you want to raise your kids and what you want them to do. And why? Go tell people about your Jesus and why you're sticking with it and why you're still doing it and why you still have faith and why you still bother to get up on a Sunday morning and to do your makeup and to do your hair and to tuck in your shirt and to blouse your sweatshirt, which is something I just learned this morning. Go tell people why you bother to do that instead of sleep in. And don't just keep it to yourself as this personal private thing that's my business and not their business and I don't want to offend anyone. No. Go tell it. Go tell people what Jesus has done for you. If you serve in the community, tell people why you do. If you're kind to someone at the office that other people are not kind to, tell people why you're kind to them. If you pray for your grandchildren, tell people what you hope for your grandchildren and what you pray for them. I think in 2025, this idea of evangelism, it used to be when I was growing up in the 80s, evangelism was like, go tell people the good news. Go tell people about this Jesus. They may have never heard of him before. He forgives their sins. And he omits their shame. He erases it. And he's conquered sin and death so that we don't have to be afraid of him. So that we don't have to be afraid of it. Go tell them the good news. Go tell them that Jesus exists. And it was this idea that you could sit down with a person and be like, let me tell you about the person in this Bible that the whole Bible is about. It's about Jesus. Let me tell you about him and how he erases all of your guilt and shame for all of your life and accepts you for who you are and makes a passage into heaven for you for eternity. And then the idea was that they would hear that and be like, my gosh, I've never heard that before. That's incredible news. I'd like to be a Christian. Is that true now? The people in your life that you know who either don't believe in Jesus or are not actively engaged in faith, they have a reason. They have a reason. And it's a good one. I don't know what it is, but it's a good reason. The people that you know in your life who are atheists, when I was coming up, do you know what I was taught? Atheists are dumb. And if you'll just do a couple easy arguments with them, you'll win, and they'll convert immediately. Have you guys found that to be true? The atheists in your life probably, some of them are dumb, just like some of you are dumb. But most of them are pretty smart. And some of you are pretty smart. Begrudgingly. Evangelism is different in 2025. But I think an interesting way to engage the conversation is to say, here's why I'm still doing what I'm doing. Here's why I'm still here. Serving my God, praising my Jesus, worshiping my Lord. And I think that's an interesting place to start the conversation. But the larger point is, we can't get around the fact that evangelism is an essential part of Christian life. And I bring that up because Christmas is the perfect time to go tell it. Christmas is the perfect time to go tell it. Our whole world rallies around this holiday, right? Our whole world commercializes this holiday. This is when all the holiday stuff starts. This is when they start telling you to buy presents. This is when Lexus every year comes out with the most ridiculous ad campaign I've ever seen with a red bow on a $75,000 SUV as a Christmas present. Listen, I've often said I don't believe in reincarnation, but if it's true, I want to come back as a member of a family that gives away Lexuses at Christmas. And if any of you are giving Lexuses as Christmas gifts, consider the building campaign. It could help. Our whole culture rallies around this holiday. We commercialize it and we make it about gifts and all the things and family and decorations and lights and we celebrate. But Christians, we hold the truth of it. I am not going to say that Jesus is the reason for this season. I will not preach that. Although he is. We hold the truth of what this season is about. It's about Jesus. It's about his arrival. When I preach on Christmas Eve, it's going to be the phrase, long lay the world in sin and error pining until he appeared and the soul felt its worth. Oh, that's the most compelling line ever written. That's what Christmas is about. It gives us a sense of worth and purpose and hope and joy. And we know that better than anyone around us who doesn't love Jesus and who isn't spiritually engaged. So Christmas is the easiest and best time of year to go tell it. And let me tell you an easy way, the easiest possible way to go tell it and to evangelize your friends. This is going to sound self-serving, but I'm going to explain it. The easiest, I can't think of an easier invite than a Christmas Eve service. Can you? How easy is it? I've got some friends. I'm not setting myself up as moral exemplar. I'm a terrible evangelist. But one thing I have done in my life is Lily was a part of a soccer team for years. My daughter Lily, she's nine. She'll be 10 in January, which is nuts. And I coach. I have a soccer background and I coach. And I got to be friends with the coach and her husband, Heidi and Trey, and their daughters, Josie and Hannah. And Lily decided to quit. And I was like, I like this community. I'm going to keep coaching. And I'm also convicted that I asked you guys to volunteer. This is an organization that runs on volunteers. And so you guys give up an extra day to volunteer here. And I get paid to be here. And I don't volunteer anywhere else. So I thought maybe I should practice what I preach and volunteer somewhere. So I coach. So I kept going. And people are like, you're just a creepy guy coaching nine-year-old girls, and your daughter's not on the team. I'm like, yeah, it's cool. Don't worry about it. But I volunteered, and I enjoy that relationship with them. And there's another coach on the team, a guy named Vishal, who's from Pakistan. And I enjoy him too. And I've developed a relationship with him such that I told him when I get back from Thanksgiving, he actually said, let's get drinks or let's get wings or something like that. And so I'm going to go out and spend some time with what we call Coach V. And I was actually in the lead up to this, I realized I need to invite Heidi and Trey to the Christmas Eve service. And here's why this is such an easy invite. They're people of faith, but they don't go to a church. It's marginal for them. But they probably want to celebrate Christmas Eve somewhere with their family. There's a chance they want to go to church somewhere. So why not just invite them to Grace? And it's actually funny, we've joked about them coming to Grace and they said, we kind of like you being our friend and not our pastor. And I'm like, I kind of like you being my friend and not someone who comes to my church. It's nice. But I bet you have people in your life where it would be a really easy invite to just say, hey, I don't know if you're going to celebrate Christmas Eve anywhere. I don't know if you're part of a church right now, but you can come to my church. And at that service, can we show them that we take our Jesus very seriously and we don't take ourselves very seriously at all? Can we model for them what church can be? Can we show them who our Jesus is? Can we use that service to go and tell it? And now here, this is very important to me. I'm not preaching this sermon to get you to invite people to Christmas Eve, okay? I don't care, and I don't think you understand how true this is. I don't care how many people come to the Christmas Eve service. I'm gonna have a good Christmas with my family either way. I'm not trying to get butts in seats I never have. I've never, ever, and some of you know you've been here for all eight years, stood up here and tried to compel you to invite people to grace for the sake of grace. I've never done that. And I never will. But it does occur to me, invite them to Summit's Christmas Eve service if you think I'm full of it. I don't care. Go to a Christmas Eve service with your neighbors. That's not the point here. I'm not trying to fill up our services. But what I am presenting to you is the easiest of opportunities. Is it easier to invite your neighbor, your coworker, a family on your kid's ball team, an associate, whatever? Is it easier to go, hey, I don't know if you wanted to celebrate Christmas Eve in a church but if you do come to mine it's gonna be pretty okay and here's how I know it's gonna be pretty okay the sermons like 12 minutes that day and then it's all songs all right so we know we're in good hands Aaron's got it is it easier to invite them to that or in March? Hey, do you want to come to church with me on Sunday? Yikes. That's a tougher one. I hope you will. I'm just saying, I'm just acknowledging what we all know. So it's never been easier to go tell it than it is this Christmas season. So I hope that you'll consider that as a way to kind of open the door to conversation with some people that you care about. And I hope that maybe you'll leave her thinking about who can I invite to the Christmas Eve service. And again, if you think this is remotely self-serving, take them to Summit. I couldn't care less. I would, I would, listen, I would rather you invite people to Summit's Christmas Eve service and go with them and let them experience church there than I would you come by yourself having never invited anyone. Okay? But if you want to bring them here and let us show them what it's like to worship Jesus together and celebrate who he is, what a wonderful introduction into church. There's never been an easier time or season to go tell it. Now, I don't just want us to go tell it this season. I want us to continue to do it. So three very quick ways because I just realized it's 1056 and I'm going to move very quickly through these. Three very easy ways to be an evangelist. Okay? First, this sounds cheesy but it's true. Wear it. Wear it. Keith, did you wear a hat this morning? Yeah. What is it? Nah. Keck, you, listen, you don't have to spend more than 15 minutes with Keith to know that he's a Steelers fan. All right? Huh? Always. Always. That's right. It's on his car. If you go to his house, it's all over his dumb basement. Well, I don't even think he has a dumb basement anymore. He has like an apartment because he's building a house. But it's all over his stupid apartment. It's on his clothes. It's where he wears it. You go to his office, it's all over the place. It's everywhere. If you experience Keith, you experience the Steelers. And it reminds me of this verse in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14, that says, We are led in triumphal procession by Christ, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of God. I love that verse because it's this idea that passively from us wafts this knowledge of God passively from, from Keith, unfortunately wafts this love of the Steelers. You just, it just is infectious. He just does. And what if we love Jesus in such a way? What if we wore it? And this is, this is so funny. I wrote this point before I knew I'd be wearing a gray sweatshirt that we're currently selling this morning. We're not commercializing this. I'm not making any money off of it. Actually, I get 5% of every sweatshirt. So please. Wear your gray stuff to the gym. Wear it to the soccer field. Put it in your office. So that when people come in your office, they know this person loves Jesus. Put it in your home. Put verses on your walls so that when they come over to your house, when your neighbors come over, they know passively this person loves Jesus. This family loves Jesus. This home is oriented around Jesus. Make it so that wherever people go in your life, when they encounter you, whether it's in your car with what you're listening to, with what you're wearing to different things, and I'm not actually saying that you should wear a grace logo every day to work. That would be ridiculous. But I think you get my point. Put it out there that if you know me, you know I love my Jesus. Regardless of church, wear it. Make it visible so that people passively know who you are allied to. Second is live it. Live it. In Matthew 5, 16, we find one of the most challenging verses in Scripture which which says, Let your light shine before men so that they might see your good works and so glorify your Father who is in heaven. This is more than passive. This is if someone were to follow you through your day, just by seeing you move in and out of conversation and people, they would see that you are so different, that you are so other, that you are so holy, that they would want to know more about you and glorify your Father who is in heaven. If you want to be an evangelist, spread the good news of Jesus and what he's done for you. Live that out. Be kind to the cashier. Be patient in traffic. Be considerate of the co-worker that no one else likes. Be even-handed in your dealings. Have character in your deals. Be honest in your negotiations. Do not backstab your co-workers. Be forthright even when it's hard. Tell the truth even when it's inconvenient. Be loving to your spouse even when they're being a jerk. And they deserve to be clapped back at. You can talk to Jen about how to do that if you need some examples. Do not yell unnecessarily at your children. Do not lose your temper. Be people of a meek countenance and kind such that others see your good work and so glorify your Father who is in heaven. Live it out. The last way we evangelize is to love it. Do you know why Keith tells everyone about the Steelers? Because he loves the Steelers. And when you love them, it brings him joy. It's a maniacal, twisted joy that's harming to humanity. Nevertheless, it's what compels him. And here's what I would say to you as a challenge. If you find yourself convicted because you're not someone who evangelizes for your Jesus, maybe, maybe it's a love issue. I don't know what to say. I don't know how to soften it. Maybe if you found yourself loving him more, you would tell other people about him more. I know the reason that my buddy tells people about the team he loves is because he loves them so much that it brings him joy when you love them too. And if we don't love Jesus so much that it brings us joy to see other people begin to love him too, then maybe we don't love him enough. And if we want to be evangelists, instead of looking out, what we need to do is look in and ask the Father to cultivate a love for him and what he's done in our hearts, so much so that we are so compelled to go and tell it. So I'm going to invite up Aaron and pray. And we're going to sing Go Tell It on the mountain together. And we're going to mean it. Yeah? Let's pray. Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you for Keith, I guess. Thank you for a Jesus who loves us so well, loves us so much. I pray that we would be so compelled by that love that we would go and tell other people about it. God, there's no easier time of year to spread the good news of your glory to our friends and to the people that we care about so much. So I pray that you would give us the wisdom and the insight and the courage to do just that. And that this season we would invite, we would compel, we would introduce, we would be courageous, and we would engage in conversations that maybe we're fearful of, but we know that we are so compelled by our love for you and our love for them that we want to see them love you. Help us to do that, Father. In Jesus' name, amen.