I want to I want to share a little bit from the heart here about, uh, about the Ministry of Giving. And I want to kind of call us back to what we have been called to as a church. And our motto, you know, it’s on our shirts, it’s on our signs. It’s the it’s the way that we live. And this is what it says in Second Corinthians five and I’m going to begin in fifteen.
And he died for all so that all who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised from now on, then we don’t know anyone in a purely human way, even if we have known Christ in a purely human way. Yet now we no longer know him like that. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. Old things have passed away and look, new things have come.
I hope that that each of us can have this heart of dying to self, and especially when we think about our opportunity in the ministry of giving that we can think about Jesus and that we can put him first and then we can put ourselves second, and that we can we can seek to see his will being done as opposed to ours. So I hope that you’ll join me this morning in that same spirit of giving. And I just want to again say welcome to everybody here.
Thank you for your generosity. Thank you for being here. We have a great, great service planned. Let’s go ahead and and join in song. Let’s pray for for a moment as we begin the service. Our God, you’re so good to us. You are. You’re such a great dad. Father, we would be remiss by overlooking the fact that we have breath in our lungs and you have given life to our bodies and you’ve given us the joy of being a family, being able to be here together.
We we love that we get to be a part of a new body, a new creation, and that we can put off our old selves and that we can look to Jesus, who is is the reason that we’re here. And we can be grateful that he is with us, that we have an Emmanuel and father that we get to rejoice in this season, knowing that this dark world is not dark anymore and that we have that we have your son to give us light and to give us a way forward and to give us this way that we get to know you.
Father, I pray that we can offer our hearts today. I pray that we can offer our hearts and and that we can be this living sacrifice that you call us to be in life always. We love you so much, God. And we are grateful to be here this morning.
It is in your son’s name that we pray Amen. Let’s all stand and sing.
I want to talk about the spirit of gratitude that has been nurtured in the year 2020. I think that a lot of times I realized that I can become more grateful in this year because I know the world yearns for the things that God already provides for us. I see that in a lot of the things that happened this year, you know, with the protests, I saw people who yearn for justice. I saw through political campaigns people yearning for something that they can believe in a movement they can believe in.
And I know that through this pandemic, people are yearning for peace and knowing when, you know, this will all end, you know, they want to know when the unknown will stop. And I don’t want to base my gratefulness to God off of what other people don’t have. But I know that God provides us all of these things. I know God provides us justice. He provides us peace, provides us, you know, understanding that, you know, the discomfort will end and the comfort will will begin.
I don’t know about you, but every time I feel discomfort, all I can think about is when is this going to end? You know, like you’re out for a run. You’re very tired. When is it going to end? When am I going to stop? Or, you know, you’re just in a situation where, you know, when is this going to stop, you know, with this pandemic? Right now, all I can think about to myself is when will things return back to normal?
But I know that with God, what we have is something that we know that the discomfort will stop. And he gives us everlasting comfort. He will give us everlasting comfort if we do what the word says. That if we accept Jesus Christ, if we are repentant and we’re baptized and we follow his word, you know, there’s a guarantee in that. And I think that we can be grateful in the fact that, yes, we know that the discomfort will end, but the comfort will be endless.
Thank you very much.
Whose son is that? Good morning, Church. I want to thank Broward church and the leadership for allowing Spencer and I to share. My name is Steven Mitchell, one of the deacons here. It’s good to see so many familiar faces, and especially after a long separation from each other. Side note, of course, we will not be having our annual international Christmas potluck this year. So obvious reasons, but we do have our annual Christmas cards.
So if you’re here, please stop by and get one. If you haven’t got one.
I only have two and a half minutes to speak. So forgive me for reading.
Christmas is probably one of the most celebrated holidays in the Christian world, probably for the same reason that the shepherds and the Majai were so excited when they were told about the coming of the newborn king. It’s because it was the beginning of God’s promise for the good news. Twenty twenty has been a very difficult year for many due to sickness with the disease, loss of income, loss of family members or friends. And on top of that, of course, add the mental stress, additional mental stress of that many of us have felt as a result of the racial turmoil, the contentious election in America.
Fortunately for the Mitchell family, we have so far been spared of getting sick and losing immediate family members. But like many of you, we’ve also felt the loss of fellowship with friends, family and the body of Christ. And we mourn with those of you who have lost close friends, whether due to the pandemic or otherwise.
You know, I’ve always been a glass half full kind of person. So while 2020 has been extremely different and often difficult, I’m grateful for the experience as I was able to have, I was grateful for the experience I was able to have during this time of social distancing, the time spent with my kids, just talking or watching a movie, the time spent on Zoom or Facetime with family and friends or a small group and many of you. The time spent working with the ICRC squad and our newly formed Broward Squad to further unity, love and diversity in God’s kingdom.
And I’m grateful that I’ve been able to use the time to draw closer to God, to my wife, Gina, to my kids, and to strengthen relationships and even to build new ones through the wonder of technology. It was an honor to be part of the studies that helped. Tinnell Vincent and George Woodson come to Christ. It’s been an honor to share my life as a married disciple with many of our young married men on our Zoom calls.
You know, back in the old days when you were studying the Bible, you are sometimes asked, what would you do if all the church leaders you knew suddenly disappeared? And this was to show that there’s no distinction between clergy or laity, that it’s all of our responsibility to share the good news and to share the gospel. And I’m so encouraged to see that despite the pandemic, despite pain and suffering, despite not being able to be together physically, we as the Broward Church have continued to press on, to stay faithful and to continue our mission.
I don’t know how the Mitchell family would have survived without the connection to this body, even though it went from being physical to digital. So I’m grateful for you, Broward church family, for Tony, Cassandra, the elders, the staff, the worship team, the tech crew that have kept us connected and kept us growing. So just as the birth of Jesus over 2000 years ago was God’s signal to a new hope. I pray that this Christmas 2020 will be a signal to the hope of the future and the promise of better things to come. I love you all from the Mitchell family.
Let’s pray, dear father, God, you are an amazing father, you have everything under control, and you know, when we don’t know what’s going on, you do. Dear Father, God. Dear Lord, we are so blessed to be here today. We’re so blessed to be looking at each other in person, to be alive, to have the spirit of your father, God, to being able to sing songs to you and to sing songs with one another.
Dear Father, God and to God, please help us to be grateful for this year despite everything that’s going on. Dear Father God. Because we know that each and every one of these things is a privilege to your father. God, just to worship you is a privilege. Just to be in fellowship is a privilege. And you know where sometimes you might have seen these things as as a challenge before we know that, you know, we don’t know what we’re missing out on your father, God, a world without you, a world without the things that that you promote your father.
God is just nothing. If Father God help us to be grateful for every little thing. Do you, Father, God help us to be grateful for the breath that we breathe right now. However, it is comfortable. It may be your father. God, please help us to be eternally grateful. I thank you so much for the sacrifice that you’ve given us and your son, Jesus Christ. That he’s willing to love us so, so much and die for us.
That despite all of our shortcomings, we can still enjoy your presence and your father. God, we can still enjoy the presence of each other, dear Lord God, and still revel in these these privileges. Dear God, thank you so much. And I pray that we can all have this spirit of gratitude moving forward. Dear Lord, I pray with your son. Jesus Christ name. Amen.
We’re going to continue to sing, you guys could stay seated.
Good morning, everybody let’s let’s go to God in prayer as we begin. Father, we’re so thankful to have this morning to have a morning to remember you’re coming. Father, thank you for the people who are here. Just brings me so much joy. It brings me joy to see my brother Louis Avila here with us, who I’ve been praying for feels like for a really long time. God, and I just so grateful to see the faces of the people I love so much.
Your father. This is my family. I’m grateful to be in their presence. God, thank you for the cool breeze that has come our way. And thank you for the warm sun and for all the gifts that you’ve given us every day as a reminder of your gloriousness, of your kindness, of your graciousness to us. Thank you for being a dad who loves us deeply, who gives us good gifts, who cares about us more than we care, could ever care about you.
Father, we honor you and praise you. Christ Jesus name. Amen.
Good morning. It’s great to be together face to face, even though we’re kind of far away from one another. And it’s good to be in the presence of some of you who I haven’t seen in nine months or maybe even maybe even a little bit more than that. It brings me tremendous joy to be here, to be before you to see your faces in the daytime.
And I want to also say hello to all the people watching our live stream this morning.
I’m not sure which camera I’m looking at, this one or this one. OK, cool. I want to say good morning, good morning to all of you who are watching, especially I know we have people who watch from all over the United States, from people in the Northeast or in the Midwest, in the heartland and the northwestern part of our state. And I just want to say that it’s sunny out today, that it’s 80 degrees or give or take.
It’s wonderful in the shade. We have a cool breeze from the ocean and Broward is a great place to live. So if you’re thinking about coming somewhere, here’s a great place to be. I know in some places in New York and New Jersey, there was 12 inches of snow. We we have about four inches of grass. So it’s green and it’s awesome. And yeah, Broward is great. The sun is out. It’s a wonderful morning, not a cloud in the sky.
Certainly it’s a little bit warmer than we anticipated. But what a great morning to celebrate Christmas. I want to welcome you to our Christmas service here today. And and I want to tell you that I just love this season. I love the Christmas season. When I was a kid growing up in New York, my family would take me to see the great lights of New York City. Christmas was always a time to see the lights. We would go to places like Rockefeller Center and look at this awesome, glorious tree adorned with lights upon lights, upon lights, upon lights, and just marvel at its spectacular, spectacular wonder.
We went to places like Pelham Parkway and would drive by and see the house lit up in glory. I love seeing the lights. It’s one of the greatest traditions in Christmas and we even have some great lights here. If you go to I think it’s Butterfly Park in North Broward or some of the houses in Weston, you’ll see some beautiful, beautiful homes with some marvelous lights. But I wonder if you knew where that tradition actually comes from.
Why for Christmas do we decorate with lights?
Well, the custom goes all the way back to when we put candles in trees, which was a terrible idea, but it was to symbolize that Jesus was the light of the world, which actually came from a custom that was borrowed from a German ritual that celebrated the return of the light after the winter of darkness. So from early on, light has been an important part of the Christmas history and holiday. It goes back even further than you might imagine.
It’s not just the lights of the candles or the lights on the trees. It’s not just the calling of the of the dawn to come. When the nights have been long, it actually goes back to possibly the greatest prophecy in all of the Bible as it relates to the first Christmas morning. But the coming of Christ written through the prophet Isaiah when the prophet Isaiah spoke, maybe the most important messianic prophecy that’s ever happened. This is what he said, was he did not talk about gifts.
He didn’t talk about a manger. He didn’t talk about a shepherd in the field or wise men on a journey.
Instead, what Isaiah spoke about was about light, about light. He said this. This is Isaiah. Chapter nine, verse two. It says, The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. Of those living in the land of darkness a light has dawned. One of the major themes of Christmas from the very beginning was this concept of the first Christmas morning was that light was coming to brighten up the darkness. See, on those days, in those months, in those years before the very first Christmas morning, Isaiah explained that there was no lights.
Instead, what he describes as the people who lived in darkness and those who lived the Bible says, in the land of deep darkness, the word darkness in the Bibles means simply an absence of light. But it also configurability mean an absence of moral values, deep shadows, intense darkness, frozeness people being unable to move. Darkness can be barrenness. No opportunity for clarity. Darkness is deafening. It’s daunting. It’s overwhelming the first occurrence in the entire Bible, the Bible talks about there being darkness, and that equates to there being chaos and confusion and uncertainty.
Job chapter twelve, verse twenty five talks about that.
The Bible talks about evil being done in secret when there is darkness, obscurity, vanity and even for Samuel. Chapter two, verse nine references darkness with death and hopelessness.
It’s almost as if to say that the value of the coming of Christ in the Christmas season is best understood while in the midst of a season of darkness. It’s hard to understand Christmas when there hasn’t been some darkness. It’s hard to understand light. When there hasn’t been some darkness and certainly this year has been a year where we have experienced a lot of darkness this year, maybe better than any other year, the value of Christmas should be understood by us.
This year has been a year where we felt the deafening sense of darkness or we felt the tangible sense of darkness. I should say it’s a year filled of confusion. That’s what I said. I said that darkness meant confusion and uncertainty and evil done in secret, in obscurity and vanity and death and even hopeless hopelessness. And that’s what we face this year. Confusion. This has been the year of the identity crisis. Who am I? Who am I without my work?
Who am I without my ability to congregate with my friends and family at church? Who am I in the midst of all that is going on here? Who will I be on the other side of this? So much of our normal has been taken away and certainly there has been an identity crisis for so many of us.
Uncertainty, will I be OK, my family be OK, when will things get back to normal? If darkness means that evil is done in secret, you don’t have to look very far to see that, whether it’s politically or within our government or the people in power, obscurity, vanity, as some of the world faces, as most of the world faces unemployment and crushing debt and and money being ripped from them. Some of the people who are the richest in the world have just gotten richer.
Vanity, death. I don’t want to speak about that one and hopelessness. If there’s ever been a year for us to sit and consider the value of Christmas, it is this year because you can only truly learn to appreciate the light when it’s totally gone. I read a story about the Inuit people who live in the North Pole in the winter, the nights last for months and months and months because the North Pole, the sun doesn’t really rise in the winter.
And so when the people expected that the day was about to dawn, what they would do is they would send the coalition, they would send a coalition to the highest peak or the top, the top part of the mountain, and they would spend weeks there and weeks there just waiting for a glimmer of light, waiting to see, waiting to see the light come. And when they first saw the first streak of daylight, the story goes that the people would put on their brightest clothing and they would embrace one another and they would say, behold, the sun is here.
And the cry would go out and the bells would ring and people would shout, Behold, the sun is here. Because as their saying goes, light was hope. Where there is no hope, life is quite difficult. Walking is difficult. Eating is difficult. Reading is difficult. Living is difficult. And maybe again, this has been your year of difficulty. Maybe it’s been a year of difficulty, a month of difficulty, days of difficulties. Maybe you feel this morning the darkness, the hopelessness, the despair of the destitute life has been difficult living in the darkness.
But what I love about that story and what I love about the Christmas morning is that today today I’m here to remind you that there is something on the horizon, that it’s not a vaccine on the horizon. And certainly that’s awesome. It’s not sort of the return to normalcy. And certainly that’s awesome. But today we celebrate the fact that real hope has arrived. Christmas is a reminder that hope is here. Light is on the horizon, and so hope is on the horizon.
What Isaiah told those people all those years ago is what I hope to tell you here today. The world was in darkness. Long centuries of people had laid in ignorance of their own sin as Zacharias cry and Luke one says, behold, the sun of righteousness is rising. With healing in his wings to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadows of death to guide their feet to the place of peace. These words well express the purpose of the coming of Christ.
The point was to bring us light, to bring us light, and by extension, to give us hope, even if everything is falling down around us. Christmas is a reminder that there is still hope. That eternity has touched the earth, that life is possible with the sun is in the material world, that Christ is for us in the spiritual world, he enlightened the darkness of his people. He brings them out of desperate situations and gives them freedom.
Christmas is a reminder that heaven is come, the sun has dawned, hope is available, and peace is provided. In Matthew chapter for this passage in Isaiah, Chapter nine is quoted word for word as applying to Jesus. When Jesus came to the Earth, there was an explosion of light. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that when he actually came to Earth there overhead, there was a light that a star that illuminated everything.
Matthew Chapter two. And when he began to teach, he would say that he is the light of the world. And when he rose from the dead, it was the moment of sunrise. And when we get to heaven, you will find no need for lamp or no need for the sun, because the lamb himself, the Bible says, will be our lights. Light has kissed the earth, light has invaded the earth. Hope is available. Jesus is our hope.
He is our deliverer. And it doesn’t matter how dark the world gets. We still have that hope. We still have it because Jesus is yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is forever. Jesus has come. Jesus brings us intellectual light, spiritual light, emotional light and everlasting light because he gives us everlasting life. And that’s what we celebrate on Christmas. We celebrate light, hope, opportunity, freedom and redemption. And it all started with the baby born in Bethlehem.
The passage in Isaiah Chapter nine also speaks of this God of this God man’s characteristics.
I want to read it to you because it’s so profound and so powerful and it speaks to why he is the light. Bringer says for us, a child is born to us. His son has given the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. I love the course of the song. We just saying it was those words. He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace, of the greatness of his government and peace.
The Bible says there will be no end. This centerpiece of all the Christmas prophecies was written nearly 600 years before the birth of Jesus, and it describes the light bringer. And for the next few minutes, I want to talk about him. I want to talk about him because he is, quote unquote, the reason for the season. The reason that we celebrate Christmas is because of Jesus. It’s always been and always will be because of Jesus. Consider the richness of this one verse and the attributes of this extraordinary child.
The Bible says to us, a child is born. That statement speaks of his humanity. Jesus began life just like us as a babe, as an infant, he was a man. Hebrews Chapter four, verse fifteen tells us that Christ experienced every temptation common to man so that he can relate to us. But he was without sin, so that he can show us the way. He was a light in the way in which he lived.
As a man he felt everything we could feel. He hurt like we hurt. He he wept like we with and wept and in his death he even felt the weight of sin as he took upon the weight of sin for all of us. To us, the Bible says a child is born and then it says a son is given. This speaks of his pre-existent deity by saying given and not born Isaiah, suggesting that Jesus existed before his birth.
He has always been God, the second person of the Trinity before he was given to us to be a savior, he existed. He came as the son of God, God in bodily form to conquer sin and deliver us from the defeat that brought the defeat of death, he was the perfect son of God, the promise of the ages to come, the holy one of Israel, the only hope for a lost world.
He again was the light in darkness. To us, a child is born. His humanity, a son is given his divinity. The government will rest on his shoulders. The government speaks of his kingdom, certainly as a kingdom within his church. He is the king. He rules and he reigns. He is our Lord, our deliverer, the one that we follow. He is the one who gives us directives that we follow. That is, his government and his church expands all cultures and all races and all people.
And that’s just today.
But in one day, on one day, Christ return and he will rule over an earthly geopolitical kingdom that encompasses all the kingdoms, and he will be the sovereign ruler over all the kingdoms of the Earth.
The Bible says and Philippians Chapter four, that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. To us, a child is born to us, a son is given and the government will rest on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor.
There has never been a moment in life more needing or in my lifetime or needing of a counselor, someone who we can look to in the midst of our chaos, who can give us an answer to our pain, who can hear who can hear our prayers and then heal our broken hearts, who could care about us more than we care about ourselves. There has never been a moment in history where we needed a counselor more, someone to give us wise counsel for how to live, for how to cope, for how to rebuild, for how to adapt in this ever changing world, to solve our problems and to speak into our insecurities, to challenge our sinfulness.
And then also encourage us with his loving arm, a confidante, a wise counsel that is who Jesus is. He seeks the hurting soul and restores them to a place of life. He rebukes those who are far from him and he speaks, the Bible says, as no one who has ever spoke. That’s John chapter seven, verse 46. Christ is the source of all truth, John chapter 14. And it’s in him that we must turn when we’re in the midst of confusion, a light in the darkness.
He’s the counselor we’ve all needed. He’s the counselor who knows everything about us. He knows the needs of our hearts and the pains of our souls. And he has an answer to everything that we’re going through right now. He’s a guide. While on a long journey of life, he does better than any self-help book or than any person we could ever go to because he is a wonderful counselor. He’s also mighty God. The child born in the manger is God himself.
Christ the king who loves us enough to step into our life and provide help within our chaos, is also able to, with his divine power, bring order to the chaos. He is God, God himself, the one who spoke into the chaos and brought order, the one who created all things he is God able to defeat Satan, liberate us from the powers of evil, evil, redeem us, actually answer our prayers, restore our broken souls, rebuild our our broken lives.
He is the Bible, says Eternal Father. The phrase in Isaiah, Chapter nine actually says literally says this He is the father of eternity. Christ is the co-creator of heaven and earth. According to God, the father’s own testimony. Jesus was the person in the Godhead who created Time Out of Eternity and fashioned the universe from nothing. That’s what Hebrews chapter one, verse 10 and 12 says. Nothing that means is too difficult for him because he is creator and sustainer of everything.
Infinity and all its intricacies are nothing to him. He’s the one who was Alpha Omega, beginning and the end, the first and the last. The father of eternity. He declares the end from the beginning and he completes everything by his sovereign control. He sees the end of everything and he guarantees everything. And the Bible says that he works everything out for the good of those who love him.
Romans Chapter eight, verse twenty eight. To us, the child is born. A son is given. The government will be on his shoulders. He’ll be called wonderful counselor Prince Everlasting Father, Mighty God, Prince of Peace. In the Messiah’s Kingdom there will be no conflict because he is the Prince of Peace. He offers peace from God. Romans Chapter one to all who receive His grace. He makes peace with God. Romans Chapter five, verse one for those who surrender to him and he brings the peace of God Philippians Chapter four to those who walk with him.
As we hear so often in Christmas, the beginning of the Christmas story comes with an angel declaring peace on earth goodwill to men. And certainly there is not been any real peace in the millennia since God has been born. Wars and rumors of wars have characterized every year, every month and every day. But this is an announcement for us that one day if we choose Jesus, there will be peace, there will be peace.
All the anxiety and all the issues and all the trouble and all the disease and all the chaos and all the frustrations and everything that draws out of us and everything that is broken in us will all be restored because he is a prince of peace. The announcement is that he will bring peace on earth to all who choose to have peace with him, see, the prophetic message of Christmas is the good news of God’s answers to the darkness of our world.
And it was true 600 years ago and it’s true today. It was true 2000 years ago and it’s true today. It was true in the BCS and it’s true today. The good news of God is that he brings us an answer. He brings us lights out of the chaos and the confusion and the complexity and the conflicts of our world.
Christmas. It is the gift of an infant who is also the father of eternity, innocent in all of his ways, but a wise counselor, nonetheless, a mighty king. He is God with us, Emmanuel.
And so this Christmas, as we live in probably the darkest moment of our lives, as we take stock of the nearly 300000 people who have passed away because of covid-19, as we lost our normalcy and many of us have lost our fun and many of the simple enjoyment of life and the simple things of just going to visit our family as we consider the darkness of the world. Let us remember that two thousand years ago hope was on the horizon, and today it still dawns that there is still a chance at light if we decide to follow Jesus.
Behold, the sun has arrived. Behold, the world has hope again that God can reign again, that life can be found again. If only we will turn away from who we are and choose to follow him and turn away from all the answers of the world and choose to follow him. Because nothing brings order out of the chaos like the mighty son of God. Let’s remember that Christmas is not a time just for family and certainly it’s time for family, that it’s not a time just for presents and certainly it’s a time for fun and for presents if we have the ability to give or to receive. But really, this is a time for us to remember that Jesus came, that life is restored and that hope is on the horizon for all who choose to follow him this year. If you have swayed away from following him, I encourage you to restore your relationship, to choose him again.
If you don’t even know if you’re close to him, ask somebody around you or go to the welcome table and connect with somebody. Why wait another second? Living in darkness? Why not today choose to be with the light of the world. Let’s go to God in prayer. Father, you are awesome. Powerful, mighty, glorious. We thank you, Lord. We thank you for what you’ve done for us. Lord, it’s so easy to look and to contemplate all that has gone wrong.
But I pray that we can just stop for a moment and remember all that is right. Father, you are right in the world still. You are still reaching out your hand for men to seek after you got the same answer. That is, this year has been last year and the year before and the year before that. If we want peace in our lives, God, the answer is to choose you.
Father, let us this year drop whatever it is, the answers that we’re looking for from the world and find the only real answer that is you’ve got, as we take communion, the small piece of bread that represents your body and the juice that represents your blood. Let us be reminded of the sacrifice you made for us that you were willing not only to die, but become a man, stepped out of eternity and live as kind of a nothing so that you can show us the way to live and then give us hope for heaven.
Father, you are everything your life. You are our joy. We love you. Christ Jesus name. Amen.
I, I hope that you’re like me in in thinking about Tony sermon, what really struck me was the desperation that the Inuit people had to see the light, how how desperate they were for that moment when they would have the hope of the light coming. And I think for for all of us that are Christians, we’ve had that desperation in our hearts. And we’ve we’ve had that where we’ve needed the light to come into our lives.
And I I hope that I can have that that same real sense of desperation that I need Jesus day by day as opposed to that being something that just happened in the past. And I’m so grateful for the reminder of how good Jesus is and how great an answer he is in hope. And especially, I think now for all of us, you know, here at the end of 2020, I think I’m grateful for the reminder that we have this great gift and to not think about Christmas as some, you know, some worldly event, but instead to be reminded of the greatness of this wonderful council that we’ve got in Jesus.
So I hope you take something like that with you this morning. I hope that that can can guide some conversations. And I hope that that that that brightens your life always. I want to pass along a couple of announcements.
We for those who are interested in coming, we will have a staged reopening that we are planning for the beginning of January. That’s January 3rd, I believe.
And so I’ve actually taken a look inside. And so there are as many precautions as we can take. There are spaced seats, space will be limited. And so look for more information in kind of normal communication channels in the in the days upcoming. I’m not sure what you’re going to be doing or if you’re going to be traveling, but if you do, please stay safe. And we wish you the very best that that God can give all of us this Christmas.
And from all of us here, we just want to say Merry Christmas. We love you. We’ll see you soon.