Cherishing the Name of Jesus This Christmas

Well, amen.

That was a blessing to my heart.

Hearing the Music Tonight.

I titled what I thought I had a title and then I heard the Music Tonight and it changed.

But the title that I had was this Pondering Christ During Christmas chaos.

And I thought, man, that's a great title.

That's awesome.

That's pretty good stuff.

I really thought a lot about it.

And then I heard all these Christ centered songs and it made me think, here's a good one.

Oh, come let us adore him.

What a beautiful thought.

Or Cherish that beautiful name.

Those are better titles.

Turn your Bibles to Luke, chapter two, please.

Luke two.

Tonight I would like us to consider the name of Jesus.

And I'd like us to consider the story of Jesus.

The key word in whatever of these three titles that we've heard here would be the word ponder or consider.

Or cherish.

What we do with his name, what we do with the truths that we know.

And we'll be also in the book of First Peter, if you want to put a thumb there, or a crayon if you're in my family with his kids always around with things in their hands or whatever it might be.

What comes into your mind, though, when you think about the phrase, this is a terrifying thought.

Are you ready?

Christmas is in 22 days.

Is that right?

Christmas is in just 22 days.

I am certain that, as I say, that many of you have a whole lot of different thoughts that go into your mind.

It might be panic as you think about all the things that have to get done.

Maybe a little bit of anxiety immediately sets in.

You might think, well, what presents have I not bought?

Or who have I not thought of yet?

Or am I going to be able to get to the post office or FedEx or wherever it is that you ship your things through?

They're all terrible during this time of the year, let's be honest.

But you might be thinking, well, how am I going to get all that done?

You might think, well, what party that I'm being asked to be at can I get out of somehow maybe one of my kids will get sick or something and I don't have to be there or whatever it might be.

And there's always all the things that are going on.

There's so many different groups and factions trying to gain our attention and get us to do something more.

During what we call Christmas season or in December, it might be even something like, you know, I hope I don't have to be at that house this year.

I hope I don't have to do this, or I hope I don't have to see that person during this time of the year.

But again, when we think about the fact that Christmas is in just 22 days, in some ways it makes me stress out.

It makes me think of a lot of things that I know I need to get done as well.

Maybe it even makes you think about things that are unpleasant in your life.

And in some ways, holidays and the holiday season can bring about thoughts of loneliness.

And some people even it brings on a bout of depression and maybe just different types of anxieties that maybe no one else knows about.

Personal feelings and things that might make you feel lonely.

And when we think about the thought that Christmas is coming and coming soon, I want us just to think about the thought that we ought to adore him.

The thought that we ought to take a moment and stop and ponder and cherish the name, that beautiful name of Jesus.

We need to be aware of the trap.

Of business and being busy and busyness and be intentional.

Intentional enough to be able to hear the voice of God.

And hear the voice, I would say, even of God the Father.

And maybe you'd hear something like this.

And maybe you'd hear something like from the Father.

Well, Merry Christmas.

Aaron, I want to remind you about a gift that I've given you.

And that gift would be capital G. That gift is a person.

And you'd say, that gift is my son, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ, the Emmanuel, the one that came to be with us, to dwell with us, to live as us, and to live among us for us.

What a beautiful truth the incarnation of Jesus Christ is.

What a beautiful truth to see in the Gospel records God becoming flesh without ceasing to be God.

All of it with you in mind and with me in mind.

We've probably all been in the Christmas setting where Christmas gifts are being opened and maybe there's a child or two.

And when there's a particular child, maybe you can think of a scenario where a kid is just opening gift after gift after gift, and it's just happening so quickly.

And you're starting to wonder, where even are all of these gifts coming from?

And you know, the child is just ripping paper and boxes apart like a little busy beaver, and he's tearing apart things like a wood chipper.

And all of a sudden there's a pile of paper all over the middle of the family room.

So much so that you can literally not tell the difference between what might be trash and what might be treasure.

And maybe you've even been guilty of accidentally throwing away a gift card, and you probably don't even know about it.

Isn't that terrible?

If you could just go to the dumpster right now and you could find all the Christmas gift cards that will be thrown away.

It's incredible.

And by the way, businesses are banking on that.

They are banking on the fact that.

That those precious little gift cards are going to get lost in all of that trash.

But, you know, you think about that child and you think of the parent that eventually just can't handle it anymore and says, whoa, hey, slow down.

And then the kid would maybe look back up at mom and ask, well, why in the world would I slow down?

There's still more to unwrap, and there's just so much going on all at once.

Sometimes I think we can treat Christmas that way.

Maybe we are not the.

Maybe.

The picture of that child tearing gifts apart, but maybe there are other things that are taking all of our attention away from the Lord when he would desire to have his rightful place in our hearts.

You know, one of the things that we do as a family, and I love traditions.

I love Christmas traditions.

I know every family has them.

I have been in the homes that I've described and seen those things happening, and it's just kind of.

It almost feels like mayhem.

It's almost not even enjoyable.

But what our family does.

And maybe this is an idea for some of you.

I don't know if you have a young family and you're looking for ideas or maybe you think this idea is terrible.

But what we like to do is when we're at our house, we'll have all the gifts there at the tree, and there's a ton of them, and it's incredible.

And the more kids you have seems the more presents end up being there.

And we all do look forward to opening gifts together.

And I just find myself more and more.

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I want to teach my children to be able to stop and ponder for a moment at least, and just think about the blessings of the people that have given those gifts and all those different types of things.

And there's so much to think and ponder about.

And.

What we do now is, what we will do is we'll sing a song together, we'll read scripture together, we'll pray, and then we'll open up, all of us a gift.

We all open up a single gift, and then we stop and we throw the trash in a bag, and then we look at the gifts and we kind of enjoy them for Just a moment.

And then we think about the people that gave us the gifts.

And then what do we do?

Well, we don't jump into another gift.

We actually stop and we all think of another song to sing, and we sing another Christmas song, and then we open up another gift.

Everybody opens up another gift.

And then we just kind of keep doing that.

Well, then after that, we throw the trash away, and then we think of the people, and then we think of the Lord, and then we sing another song and we all sing together as a family.

And then we open up another gift and we just keep doing that.

And I like that tradition.

To me, that helps me, because my mind is always racing.

And if I don't force myself to stop and consider a thing, I will be guilty of what I despise.

And that's failing to see Jesus of all times in Christmas.

And so I want to see the Lord.

And I hope, and I know that you do, too, in verse number eight of Luke chapter two.

I want to read a few verses here.

So Luke 2.

8, it says, and there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you.

Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill to men, toward men.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said, one to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to pass which the Lord hath made known unto us.

And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger.

And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

And notice the phrase in verse number 19.

But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.

I think that's a good verse to underline.

But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.

And then it says, and the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them.

And so think about.

Think about Bethlehem in this time.

Think about them during this, if you will, first Christmas season.

Heaven is singing, the angels are rejoicing, shepherds are shouting and hearing and retelling a story, and traveling and racing and hustling, and local businesses are booming and taxes are being collected, and all the things are happening.

And if you look past all the excitement, all the things that are going on.

There'S a woman, a young woman in her late third, late part of her third trimester, is about to give birth to a baby that she knows of all people on earth is an absolute, absolute, complete.

Undescribable miracle.

And she cannot get past the thought that she is a virgin about to give birth to a child and has been told by God through angels, all what is happening.

And she is just floored and amazed at what is really happening.

And.

And she gets it.

She gets the big picture.

She's piecing together so many things, and she's starting to recognize just how important Christmas, if you will, is.

So when you look at verse 19, it does say Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.

I think it's wise that we just look at that word pondered.

And that's kind of what I've been doing and thinking about.

I've been pondering about the word ponder a lot today, but the word ponder is used six times in Scripture.

And when I say it's used six times in Scripture, I'm referring to if you see that word in the original language as it is used throughout the New Testament, it's seen six times.

And it might look a little bit different in the English in different passages, but we'll look at one here in particular.

But the idea of the word there is.

It's the word symbolo, and it's really two words into one.

And it is syn or syn, which means together, and then the word balo, which means to throw.

So the idea is that it is, and the interpretation of the Word is to bring together, to compare, to piece together, to assemble toward understanding.

Think of those three words, to assemble toward understanding.

It's not daydreaming.

Mary's not daydreaming here.

Mary's not just thinking about things and just distracted.

She's intentional here.

She's piecing things together.

She's mentally laying out all the pieces of what God is showing her, and she's fitting them, and she's fastening them together in her mind.

And she's in her own mind creating a beautiful Gospel Christmas picture.

And what does she see?

She sees a clearer vision of who God is, a clearer vision of who Jesus is.

Would you turn with me now into 1 Peter, chapter 2, please?

Let's keep our place in Luke 2, but let's turn to 1st Peter, chapter 2, and we'll read about five or six verses.

I want you to see it 1st Peter, chapter 2.

And we're going to look at verse number four, 1st Peter 2.

I'll give you a minute to turn there.

Verse number four.

And the Bible says this.

And so we're thinking again about this word pondered.

And we're going to see here in another part of the New Testament where this Greek word symbolo is used, but there's some text behind it wanting to see.

So look at verse number four.

And it says, to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious ye also, as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture.

Behold, I lay in Sion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious.

And he that believeth on him shall not be confounded unto you therefore, which believe he is precious, but unto them which be disobedient.

The stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner.

So I want you to be thinking about Mary and remember what she's doing.

She's pondering and she's building.

She's piecing together.

She's taking lots of bits of information that she knows, and she's building something.

And I would say that anytime we're building something and we see a clear vision of who Jesus is, it makes me think of a passage like this where Jesus is the chief cornerstone.

And it says in verse eight, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient.

Where unto also they were appointed.

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

And so as we think about that thought again, this picture that's being taken from many different viewpoints and many bits of information, Mary's piecing it all together Almost like a puzzle.

And she's seeing this beautiful thing constructed in her mind, and it is an image of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And she puts those things together.

And now, before we go back to Luke chapter two, I'd like us to turn to Acts chapter four.

And we're going to read just another few verses here in Acts chapter four.

Acts chapter four.

And we're going to look at verse number eight.

So Acts four, eight.

The Bible says, then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole.

That's key.

That there is a man that has been made whole.

A miracle has been performed.

Verse number 10.

Be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.

This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Now look at verse number 13.

Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, so now there are some people putting some things together.

They saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that there were unlearned, and that they were unlearned and ignorant men.

They marveled and they took knowledge of them, and that they had been with Jesus.

So they're piecing these things together in verse number 14, and beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.

But when they commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, what shall we do to these men?

For.

For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

If you see in verse number 15, it says that they would go aside out of the council.

Then it says they conferred, maybe want to underline that word there.

Conferred among themselves.

Do you know what word that is?

Symbalo.

What were they doing?

They pieced together a bunch of information that they had heard.

They.

They put it together, and it helped formulate an opinion and helped them build and construct a narrative so that they could do something about the information that they had.

The important thing to understand here is that they did all of that investigation and pondering, putting together so that they could make a decision, and they could do something about it.

It's very important to understand that it was not just information, but for informational purposes alone.

It was information that they were intending to act upon.

And I believe that's what Mary does, too.

All the things that she brought together in her mind, those were things to act on.

May I say this?

All the things that we know to be true from God's word and that we know to be true of Jesus Christ, those are not things just to appreciate here in this beautiful room, but they are things to act upon, right?

And when we read the Word of God and it does not change us, something is not right.

We are failing to symbolo, to put together the pieces that will help us see a clear vision of who Jesus is so that we can act on that information.

So when Luke says that Mary ponders, she carefully assembles the spiritual truth until it changes her.

And that's why it matters so much.

So a gospel that is beautiful enough to save your soul, or to save my soul, I would say, is beautiful enough to act upon.

Or maybe you can put it this way.

Let our church not just be a gospel observatory, but a gospel foundry.

The gospel is a beautiful thing to behold.

And we can gather the beautiful truths of Christmas in order to observe.

But are we doing all of that so that it will change who we are and how we think about God and how we treat the people that are around us and.

And how we go about our daily busy, busy December lives as we ponder who Jesus is, as we cherish that beautiful name as we come and adore him.

How does it affect our daily living?

A Jesus or a savior that is good enough to be adored and a name that is good enough to be recognized as beautiful.

The person behind it is good enough to be lived for.

And he gave his life and lived his for you, and he lived his for me.

So I would encourage you tonight to gather the truths together, to build a picture in your heart, in your mind, to understand who Christ is and to know who he is and in a more clear way.

And I would say that we can determine to be a gospel foundry in this church.

When we take the information that we have and not just observe it as a beautiful thing, that we have rich, strong, deep doctrine, but that we take that doctrine and we do something we observe to do.

We see the doctrine, we realize its simplicity, its beauty, the person of Jesus behind it all.

And it makes us want to live for him and do something for him and be different people.

It's really simple.

Though it's a lot to ponder and think about, but it's simple.

We think about Christ and it helps us understand who he is.

And it should cause us to want to live for him and do for him in a way that glorifies him and see souls saved and.

And see our church, a gospel foundry, make new and forge new disciples one by one for his glory.

So when we ponder, when we symbolo and put all the things together, put all the information together and we see the big picture, when we ponder him, it helps us to see what God is doing.

My pastor in college, Pastor Clarence Sexton, would say many times, something like this.

Find out what God is doing in this world and let's get in on that.

I love that.

What that means is this.

Let's stop trying to make our schedules.

Align, or let's stop trying to make.

God align with our schedules and what we have to do and what's important to us.

And let's look at Scripture and see what's important to him.

And let's act on that.

Let's allow that to schedule our December and allow that to schedule even simple things like where I've had to force myself to change how I open a present.

I mean, it's simple stuff, but they are things that help us live so that we are thinking about who the person of Jesus is.

Is there anything else?

Is there anyone else more worthy of our thoughts and our thinking and our pondering and our puzzling?

I would say no in Luke 2:15.

So we're going to go back to our passage now and Luke 2:15.

I want us to look at just a few verses here and see what's going on here.

Again with the shepherds, it says, and it came to pass that the angels were gone away from them into heaven.

The shepherds said, one to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

And they came with haste.

I like that word, with haste.

And haste is something that we see every December.

Lots of things going on.

Just haste, with haste.

And found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger.

And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

Now, it doesn't say the word or it doesn't say or convey the exact truth.

It does about Mary here regarding the shepherds pondering.

But they're kind of doing the same thing.

It might be different wording, but they're also getting bits of information and acting on that and going here and going there and then preaching what they've heard.

And it changed them.

Why?

Because they took the time to think about the Christ child.

They took time to think about what was being told to them.

What was important to God became important to them.

And so Mary has lived through a whirlwind.

Think of some of the things she's gone through.

Angels announcing prophecies.

There's many other things that I listed here.

A baby miraculously conceived of the Holy Ghost in her womb.

Enduring ridicule from family, friends.

All of culture around her.

Traveling during her third trimester, not in a Cadillac, not that that's even a nice car, but experiencing the fact that no one was willing to put her in a hotel, which is not that great of a place to have a baby, by the way.

Maybe that was the reason why they said there was no room in the inn.

You know, that's not a good place to have a baby.

And I'm sure that the people that were cleaning the rooms thought, I'm so glad that there was no room in the inn.

You know, giving birth in a barn.

She's going through all these things and she's shepherds, interrupting that whole scenario as if it, you know, it was already not a very intimate setting.

But now shepherds are here, complete strangers.

And the list can go on and on.

But most people overlook God when life gets hectic.

And I know that because I'm a human, and that's what happens to me sometimes.

We can be guilty in December of maybe not stopping, stopping to smell the rose of Sharon and not seeing him and recognizing the Lord and allowing that to change how we behave and how we treat others and how we see God in a thing and see what he's doing.

I would make the claim that Mary is the busiest person, person who's ever experienced Christmas.

I don't know.

I mean, we can all have different opinions, I'm sure, and maybe I'm way off here, but she's busy.

She's got a lot going on.

Maybe we'll put it that way.

Who's ever had more going on in their life during Christmas season than Mary?

Now that I know I'm right on, and if you disagree with me, you're wrong.

I'm okay with you being wrong.

No one has had a more crazy situation in Christmas time than Mary.

Now, in circles like ours, because of the fear and pushback of false Catholic doctrine, we tend to overlook some really neat things and important things about Mary that we can learn from.

This is One of them though, that she stopped in all of this and recognizes who Jesus is and she knew that it was important she took the time to piece these things together.

When all this is happening and she's thinking about Christ.

I have a child and she is not in this room because she's with the teens.

So that helps you know who it might be.

Because there's only one of my children who's in the teen group.

And because she's not in here, I would even say her name, Ellie.

And so Ellie's funny, she's very intuitive, she's very perceptive and she sees things and the Lord's given her that gift.

However, there is one thing that is a fatal flaw.

If you're ever trying to explain or describe something to Ellie.

If you're ever showing Ellie something or want everyone in the car to see something that's really amazing and you make the fatal flaw of pointing at it for them to see, she will never find it.

She will never see it.

I don't know what it is.

We've always joked about it ever since she was a little thing.

But the moment you point at it, she'll never be able to find it.

I don't know why that is.

I don't know what's up with that.

Maybe she's cross eyed, I do not know.

But she misses the obvious.

When you point at it, she just completely misses it and she won't see it.

But let's ask ourselves a question here.

I've been guilty of this very recently.

Have you ever looked for your glasses while they were on your head?

Maybe it's just me.

Have you ever looked for your keys with your keys in your hand?

Like some of us are getting older and we're like, yeah, that's why I'm late.

Have you ever looked for your phone for 10 minutes and then it's literally in your pocket?

You know, the most obvious things are the things that we, that we can sometimes overlook.

And so sometimes we miss what's right in front of us because we're in a rush and that's Christmas for a lot of people.

I think the miracle is there, the information is there, the beautiful puzzle is all there in front of us that we just can put together the pieces and see a beautiful picture of the Lord.

But because of the busyness, we don't stop to ponder and piece it together.

The Bible says that Mary kept, that's the word, kept all these things in her heart and she held onto God's activity and carefully guarded that information.

I would say that if we never quiet our minds, never quiet our lives, never turn off Buble, or.

If you have real problems, Carrie.

I won't even say her first name.

Not in the pulpit, but all the singers, right?

If you never turn off all the music, you will never hear and never see, never hear the gospel music that God is playing in the word of God and he wants us to see him in a clear way.

I'm not against Christmas music.

My wife plays it like year round and it drives me crazy.

But I'm not against it.

I like it after Thanksgiving.

Can I get a witness on that?

Anyone?

Thank you.

All the men and then all the ladies are just, you know, now all the men have a, you know, hurting their side because they just got elbowed.

The ladies used to like to play Christmas from July forward.

I don't understand that.

I don't know why that is.

But anyhow, by the time Christmas comes, I'm a little bit Christmas musiced out and so.

But the application is simple though, in regards to this, you know, when we ponder, I would say that pondering hearts say, lord, help me to stop, to notice you, to put all the truths together.

And then after that, Lord, help that information and that picture of Jesus change who I am.

Today.

Is Christmas season.

Is this just another Christmas season for us all?

Or are we willing to get to be different and to really stop and to really ponder and to really think about the truths and that back up the Christmas story that are the Christmas story, the person of Jesus Christ.

Pondering also helps us savor God's blessings.

It says that she kept.

Mary kept all these things in her heart.

And that word, there is an interesting word.

It means to treasure, to protect, to store up, to guard from loss.

Mary did not allow the miraculous to become ordinary.

Imagine Mary throughout the rest of her life, each time they celebrate Jesus birthday, right, what we call Christmas.

But she would think of it as Jesus birthday.

She would no doubt explain to Joseph once again, do you remember when we did this or we did that or we went there and do you remember what the innkeeper said?

And then we ended up going to a bar.

Can you imagine?

Do you remember the smells and all the things she would just talk about all the.

The things that surrounded Christmas for her and she would never forget those things.

She kept those things, she guarded those truths in her heart because they were important and she understood above all people living then how important the truths really were.

Mary made sure that nothing God did slipped through the cracks.

She treasured every blessing and the application there is this.

Or maybe the question would be, what blessings have you stopped treasuring?

Sometimes it can be something as simple as salvation.

When's the last time you stopped and just really thought about your salvation and what all God did and all of that and just praised him and thanked him for it?

Go read the Psalms.

It'll help you.

And think about the Lord and what he's done.

When's the last time you really stopped and really thought about God's blessings in your life with the family that you have, your children.

Maybe a spouse, maybe someone that the Lord gave you, that you no longer have here on this side of eternity.

But stop and thank the Lord for that person, and you think about the blessing that God has given you.

We can all think of things that are difficult, but is it not true that God has greatly blessed your life?

He's so good, and he's blessed each and every one of us.

And we ought to stop and think and ponder about those blessings during Christmas time.

What blessings have you stopped treasuring?

What about church, family, or your pastor or a friend that's in your church, A brother or sister in Christ?

What about the answered prayers that we've forgotten about?

When's the last time you stopped and recalled what God has done in your life apart from salvation?

As if that wasn't enough.

And it is, well, what else has he done in your life that you can point and say, God did that.

Ponder.

Put those pieces back together in your mind.

It's good to pick the puzzle up every once in a while.

You know, the longer the puzzle goes without being built again, it seems the more pieces are missing the next time you put it together.

Now, I've got four kids, so about half the puzzle's missing already.

And you know what I'm talking about there.

But the fact remains that we ought to continually bring out those pieces again and think about the goodness of God.

Mary gives us a model, I would say, for this season to slow down, to reflect, to treasure, to assemble truth, and just to let God speak and to hear what he has to say to get into his word so we can notice God's activity.

And I would say to that, let's not rush past the truths that make Christmas what Christmas is.

I know that's super cliche.

And honestly, pretty much this whole idea of this, what I'm preaching tonight, it sounds very cliche.

Like all the hustle and bustle of Christmas, let's just focus back on Christ, you know, isn't that what we need, though?

That's what we need.

That's what I need.

What about treasuring his blessings?

Not letting the miraculous to become mundane or even forgotten.

Let's remember and recall the goodness of God in our lives.

And let's let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

So let's not just celebrate Christmas.

It's early in December.

Things are busy.

Let's do more than that.

Let's ponder Jesus Christ.

Let's pray together.

Lord, thank you for allowing us to ponder your scriptures, to look and piece some things together to help us understand why what we call Christmas is even so important.

The doctrinal truths that are so beautiful.

Thank you for allowing us to have those truths in your word, in our heart language and please help it to make sense to us by the power of thy spirit.

And then also help us to be willing to allow our lives to be changed because of those truths.

Please help me Lord, not to just be a hearer, a reader and a preacher of your word, but a doer of your word.

I pray that all of us would do the same as well.

It's in Jesus name we pray.