[00:00:00] Well, good morning everyone. And welcome it is so good to have you with us. Welcome you. Welcome you on any of our campuses. And I also want to welcome those who are experiencing this online, wherever you are in the world. In fact, I want to give a shout. I see Caitlin in Manchester, England. Shout out to you Caitlyn. [00:00:17] Thanks for being here! And a Jim in Lone Tree, Colorado. Have no idea where that is, but it sounds like a wonderful place to be. Jim, welcome and welcome everybody else. Wherever you are in the world. It is so good to be with you and I'll tell you what, I just love it when we, when we can gather together. And this was the weirdest year ever in our lives. [00:00:36] And just, uh, do, do whatever you have to do to make it through this year because 2021 is coming. Amen. Amen. We're expecting great things. All right. So here's what I need you to do. Take your Bible. And go ahead and open it up to Galatians. All right. Now let me just explain kind of how your Bible is broken down. [00:00:54] We're in the new Testament. We've talked about the old Testament right now let's talk about the new Testament. I want to remind you there's [00:01:00] four biographies that it begins with. So Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the story of Jesus told through the eyes of four different guys. And then it's followed by the book of Acts. [00:01:07] Acts is Luke chapter two or the sequel it's from the time of the like, literally the rising up of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus as the early church got started. That's the book of Acts. And then you enter into a series of books that are written to churches in cities. So the book of Romans to Rome, you know, the book of first and second Corinthians to the church in Corinth, which is in Greece, and then you get into Galatia, Galatians is to the church in Galatia, Ephesians, the church in Ephesis and on down until you get into a different section. [00:01:40] So about the middle of the new Testament, you're going to find the book of Galatians. So if you'll find that. This is a letter from Paul to the church there. Now just hold that chapter four is where we're going to be. We'll get there in just a moment. And we're in a series that we started last week. All I want for Christmas is you [00:02:00] see, it's one of the questions you get asked all the time. [00:02:01] What do you want for Christmas? What do you want for all I want for Christmas is, and we're trying to answer that question and we began. This whole series last week with one particular verse that comes from the book of Ecclesiastes, whose old covenant, old Testament, the words of Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived. [00:02:18] He said this, he said this statement, and we believe it's loaded with truth. This is what he said. I'll just remind you Ecclesiastes 3:11. He, speaking of God is God. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart yet. No one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end, since he, God put this thing called the eternity in our hearts, that you have a, you have a discontent with anything short of that. [00:02:48] Not, and you maybe don't think about this, but you have a longing for something. And most of us would say in our lifetime, we, you know, we, we, we kind of searched for this thing. Some elusive, something it's just right outside our grasp. We [00:03:00] don't so close. I don't know even know for certain what it is, but I know that when I find it, I'll be happy. [00:03:06] And then last week we talked about the different pursuits, you know? So we start with the idea of stuff. All this missing from my life has some stuff I don't have and I need a new house. I need a new car. I need a new, whatever. I need something I don't have in the way of stuff. You get all this stuff and you realize that it must not be it because none of it ever keeps you happy. [00:03:23] So it's gotta be a relationship. So I just need a new relationship. I need a new girlfriend. I need a new boyfriend. I needed a new marriage. I need a new whatever we tried in relationships and maybe it's not stuff and it's not relationships, but a lot of us are seeking it through some form of significance or success or status. [00:03:40] The point is, is we're looking for something we just don't know. And last week we, we sang the song and many of you saying it out loud by U2. I still haven't found what I'm looking for. What is it you're looking for? I'm telling you what it is, is the eternity that God has set in your heart that caused you to long. [00:03:59] So now this [00:04:00] brings us to Christmas and I said, last weekend, I'm just trying to build on what we started. So that's all I'm doing right now is quickly reviewing. I said, many of us love Christmas, some of us don't, but here's what I did. I said all of us when we were young, loved Christmas, we can't get an amen wherever you are. [00:04:17] Amen. Amen. We you love Christmas when you were young. So something happens as the years go by. If you don't love it anymore, something happened. Maybe what happened is you got disappointed by Christmas, disappointed in the sense that you, you, you thought that if I got this thing, then I'd be happy and you discovered in Christmas that, Hey, it just, wasn't going to do it for you. [00:04:39] And maybe. It was a wake-up call when you were young, that Christmas getting stuff wasn't going to fill that emptiness that you, you knew you had that discontent, whatever it's going to take, it's not going to be easy. Now I last week I said this, and this is the last thing we'll talk about last week. And then we'll go. [00:04:57] All right. Maybe the [00:05:00] discontent that was in our heart that we discovered in Christmas when we were young was put there by God. To cause us to understand that we were made for more than stuff, relationship and success. And that there's this, this longing that we have that is really difficult to fulfill. [00:05:19] Now, listen, listen, this is the tough part. We all live in a culture. All right. And I mean, America, I mean, wherever again, wherever you are, we live in a culture that is telling us that there is no God. That you're nothing special. You're just a random, you know, another random happening in the universe of time and your life has no significance. [00:05:43] Now here's the problem. If there is a God and he created within you a vacuum, a whole, a longing for him and you live in a society that tells you Him doesn't exist. There is no God. Then what are you going to do with that longing that God put there if there is a God? [00:06:00] And the thing is you're going to stuff it with something, you got to try to fill it. [00:06:04] And, um, this is, this is the problem. Now I would say this there's many things about Christmas that we outgrow as the years go by, but I want to suggest there's a couple of things about Christmas that we don't outgrow. All I want for Christmas is now however old you get, there's going to be some universal things that we're, we're just going to say [00:06:23] we just long for these things. And what I want to talk about today. Uh, the way we'd most likely say it as man, I just want to be home for Christmas. It's really not your home that you're missing. You go no, I just want to be a part of my family. I want to be, I want to be with my family for Christmas. And I want to say, we'll talk about family in just a moment, but I want to say just, maybe it's even more than that, that really what home and family represent is what you're actually wanting, which is [00:06:54] to be wanted. What I want for Christmas is to be wanted. [00:07:00] To be included, to belong, to have a place where I'm loved. And can I suggest that from the time you were very young, you had inside you a longing to be wanted. And I think of this, the easiest illustration comes to my mind was even when I was just a kid. [00:07:21] Um, we used to, as you did, I'm sure on our playground, we used to play kickball and Dodge ball and it was a very common experience. And again, I want to know as anyone else have this memory that the teacher, the coach, whoever would put everybody up against the backstop, remember lined up against the backstop. [00:07:38] Anyone Tyler, I heard Tyler, you line up against the backstop and then the PE teacher, whoever would go, okay, you're a captain, you're a captain. And there you were. And what was the biggest fear of your life at that moment? You'd be picked last. That everyone else get picked and then they'd go. You got him. [00:07:58] Oh man, I had him last [00:08:00] time. You got him again. Cause that's the way it worked. You don't want to be... you want to be picked. You want to be wanted, you want to be chosen. And that's the same thing that happens when it comes to in, in the advancing of our years of life. When it comes to getting married. You want to know that you are attractive to somebody that you're wanted by somebody that you're chosen by somebody that somebody's picked you and there's a thousand other ways that we can illustrate that. [00:08:26] Now here's the deal. So I want to, what I love about Christmas is family. What I love about Christmas is home. No what you love about it. I'll be home for Christmas, man. You can count on that. It's a song. I'm longing for something and it has to do with those in my life. Now, could it be okay? This is a big thought big thought. [00:08:49] Could it be part of what's caused us to fall out of love with Christmas, are issues with our family, our family of origin, that family that you came from now stay with me. [00:09:00] Some of you go, are you kidding me preacher? I, I, I come from the greatest family ever. I love my parents. I have nothing but fond memories. [00:09:08] I have great siblings. I have the kind of parents that everybody on my street wish they had. Well, they all hung out at my house because it was so much fun at my house. And some of you have that experience that you have that memory and good for you. Good for you. A lot of us don't have that memory. [00:09:24] Anyone here that doesn't have that memory, anyone. Man, some of us go, I man, my family, you won the lottery. I lost it. You, everything works out good for you. That's awesome. I didn't, I didn't have that experience, you know, and that's what some people would say? In fact, for some people, the very thought of Christmas, it doesn't brighten their light. [00:09:50] It darkens their demeanor. They're like going. Oh. And in fact, most recently in the last say four to six years, Where we've come to experience this is around Thanksgiving. [00:10:00] Thanksgiving is changed. You know, Thanksgiving used to be man, we get together and we have so much fun. Thanksgiving in the last four to six years has been about tension and discord and anger. [00:10:11] And some people maybe, this is you. You're like going, Oh man, this year with a virus, we didn't get together as a family. Greatest Thanksgiving we've never had, man. I hope this sticks around for 2021. Cause I can do two years of this. Now again, I don't know where you are. You might go, are you kidding me? [00:10:32] But others are going. No, that's exactly what I feel. I just don't love that. Now you don't get to choose your family. This is the point you're you're born into a family and it was either good or it wasn't. I have no idea. I know my story. But deep down inside, we want to be wanted and we want to be included. [00:10:55] We want to belong. Now we're talking about your family of

[00:11:00] origin. I want you to zoom out for the next few minutes, the zoom out, get beyond your immediate thing. Could it be possible that what God did in all of us with this longing put in our hearts is to get us to crave or desire something that has to do with family, but not maybe in the way that we tend to think it is, stay with me. [00:11:20] All right. What if there was a meta narrative, a bigger story, a greater story that God was working in your life than just the story of your family. Now I'm going to suggest that that's what's going on. What if, what if God, alright, got to bring God into the equation. What if God, who intentionally put eternity into our hearts, a longing for eternity, which serves that longing, serves to create a basic discontent with all things ordinary in life. [00:11:54] Nothing in life can fulfill it so that he did all that [00:12:00] simply to draw us to him and to his family. But that's a big thought. What if God put this longing inside of you for you to become part of something that maybe you've never even considered was what he was drawing you into. I know, again, we live in a world that says there is no God, but what if there is a God? [00:12:22] And, and what he's trying to do is get you to see that you're wanted in his family. Now we go to Galatians chapter four, where we open our Bibles. Galatians chapter four, verses four to seven is a continuation of a thought that begins at the beginning of that chapter. Now, again, I just don't have the time to go into much depth here. [00:12:43] Here's what you need to understand that the beginning of it talks about the old covenant in what God did originally and how he did all of that to move us along, to get ready for something that he was then going to give us. And so you'll see, even in the [00:13:00] first words of verse four, it's referencing [00:13:03] something that came before. So the old covenant, all the stuff before Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all of that, it was like setting us up so that we could become something that he's going to give us in the coming of Jesus. Now stay with me. Let me, let me, let me, let me read this. It'll make sense. But when the set time had fully come, what, what, what. [00:13:27] When the set time had fully come. In other words, God did all this to get ready. And when that moment came, when the time had fully come, God sent his son. Sent his son, now born of a woman born under the law, the old covenant law to redeem those under the law. But when the time had come, God sent his son. So all of us. [00:13:51] Could be introduced into something new, something different that we might receive adoption, two sonship. [00:14:00] What, what? Adoption to sonship, because you are his sons. God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, the spirit who calls out Abba father. So you are no longer a slave, but God's child. And since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. [00:14:24] When the set time and fully come, do you think it was just a coincidence that Jesus just showed up in history when he did, where he did, how he did? Or was God going look, I've got this one. I've got it all thought out. Could it be that you were included? Now stay with me long before you were conceived long before Jesus came. [00:14:47] That literally from the beginning of time, God picked you. God chose you. God wanted you. So why would God do all this? And he just told you so you could receive adoption. [00:15:00] I don't know what you think of when you think of adoption. The Bible speaks of adoption frequently, and it's always in a positive context. [00:15:07] It's not a negative. It's how you become a part of something you weren't a part of. You see, God's inviting you into something you weren't invited into, but now you are invited into. And so it's not a negative, it's a positive, it's a, it's a good thing. And then he says, God, when the time had come instituted this adoption process so that you could cry out Abba father to God. It's so hard for us to grasp what Abba father Abba is a, it's an Aramaic word that has, it has the best English translation has been dubbed daddy. [00:15:41] Daddy now I know we're adults. We had go over and go, daddy, I get that. But remember the longing in your heart for a dad, you could cry out daddy. That intimate, that like you're special. You're that special thing in his eye. [00:16:00] You're my son and my daughter. Only those who are adopted into God's family can say Abba to father. Now, [00:16:07] okay. Six things. He just told us we were. Six blessings. Did you catch him them. In Ephesians four, four through seven. Number one, you are redeemed. What has redeemed me means you were bought, you were bought. Now, technically you were, there was an exchange made for you. You were bought with a, you were bought with a price. [00:16:26] That's the idea. You, you, you are so worth it, that something was exchanged for you on your behalf. You remember? Okay. Again, I'm going to date myself here. We're going to have fun. How many of you remember. S and H green stamps. Oh, look at you. You're all just like me. Remember you used to collect these stamps that were worthless. [00:16:47] They felt like they were worthless and you put them in books and then you would turn your books in and you would exchange that for something of great value. You see one thing of value though, you didn't see, it was exchanged [00:17:00] for something of greater value. Folks. You were redeemed, you were bought with a price. [00:17:06] A life was exchanged for your life. You're incredibly valuable. That's what you need to understand. We were redeemed. And then he says second blessing. We're adopted into God's family, which I already said the Holy spirit now lives in us, which was a gift given by God, to all of us who have given our lives to Jesus. [00:17:26] God gives you this gift of his spirit. Fourth um, we get to call God father Abba. Five we are because we're God's children. Which is why we get to say daddy because you're his child. And because you're a child, the six blessing is you are an heir of the father, not in error, an heir. You have an inheritance coming as scripture speaks about this. [00:17:54] Could, I mean, could it be possible that the greatest

[00:18:00] news that you've maybe never appreciated as you were chosen by God, you were wanted by God? You, you were valued in his eyes and you were worth sacrificing for, I want to show you now the next book, Galatians, Ephesians chapter one, you don't need to, you can flip if you want. [00:18:16] I'm going to bring it up on the screen here. Ephesians chapter one tells us a bucket load of backdrop. Okay. What's this Ephesians one, four through six, four. He chose us in him before the creation of the world. You want to know how valuable you are? From before the creation of the world. He picked you, he chose you. [00:18:44] He wanted you to be Holy and blameless in his sight. The end, uh, for the, you know, that's the end result of the means of what he did. In love. He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus [00:19:00] Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which is how you got in which he has freely given us in the one. [00:19:12] He loves his son Jesus. Could Christmas be about getting that thing you always wanted, but you never really understood what he was doing for you or for us. You see the big idea of this whole message today is just a simple idea and it is really simple. Christmas is God's invitation for you to join his family. [00:19:39] Christmas is just God's way of saying I pick you. I choose you. You're in on. Come on. Come on, come on home, come home. Come on. I want you, I gotta, I gotta digress here for just a moment. If you'll allow me, because I started this message. I said, you know, some of you came from great families and you've got all kinds of wonderful, wonderful memories. [00:20:00] [00:19:59] I don't have that. All right. I just don't, my mom was wonderful lady and she worked really hard to feed us. So I'm not, I'm not against my mom at all, but my mom and my dad. And again, some of you have heard this and I apologize, depending on how long you've been around. Let me just give you a little backdrop to this makes sense. [00:20:17] My mom and my dad divorced apparently when I was three months old. I never knew my dad all through my life. I never knew my dad. I could spend hours just telling you about that struggle, but, um, I didn't have a dad. I grew up without a dad. I had an older sister who was wonderful and I have a mom. All right, who did her best? [00:20:34] All right. But throughout the years, because my mom was also searching for something, a longing, a brokenness of something in her heart that she didn't know what would fill it. She certainly was involved with various men. Now, if you know anything about a woman, a single mom, Who's got two kids. We're considered baggage. [00:21:00] [00:20:59] Yes. And I don't mean this derogatorily. We were there, but so, you know, when any guy would show interest in my mom, they got to deal with us. And, uh, I remember some of the guys that, you know, we just share with you a couple. I remember the guys, a couple of my memories just center around cars. And let me tell you just a couple of them. [00:21:21] One had to do with the guy that showed up. He had the coolest car. He had a Plymouth Roadrunner. Remember these? Okay. APlymouth Roadrunner. It was so cool. And I'll never forget the day he said, get in, get in. And we didn't live on a long street. But man, he fired that sucker up and he got started and he did, I don't know, 70, 80 miles an hour. [00:21:43] We're flying down our street and I'll never forget. He got to the corner. He had to brake hard and he looked at me. You said that was just second gear. Just second gear and I'm going, you are so cool. And I'm going, mom choose him. Choose this guy as she didn't choose that guy, he [00:22:00] came and went. Uh, another car memory I've got was one day I was watching cartoons [00:22:05] like seven o'clock on Saturday morning. Remember? You used to have to get up and watch cartoons on Saturday morning, right? So I'm watching cartoons on Saturday morning, I'm having a great time and all of sudden there's a pounding on our front door and I'm like, what's happening. And as I recall this ok I was little as I recall this, just not long after that, my sister who's like a year and a half older than me [00:22:26] she came out and I opened the front door and how my memory serves me is I was standing there behind the screen door. And my S my sister was behind me and I opened the door and this lady is pounded on the door and she looks at me. She goes, where is he? Where is he? And I have, like, I've never seen this lady. [00:22:44] I have no idea what she's talking about. Who is she referencing? I'm like, I got, I got nothing here. And then, um, my mom, and then some guy showed up. And the guy and this woman have it out. And I'm like looking up, [00:23:00] watching. And I'm like, Oh no. And she got so irate. I'll never forget what she did. She went in and he, and the remember of the car is a red convertible parked in front of our house. [00:23:12] And she picked up a rock from our front yard and she threw it through the windshield of this car. And I'm like, Oh, that's going to leave a mark. Oh on me, not on the car. I'm never going to forget this. Then I never have. And then there were guys that would take me fishing. I love those. Oh, choose to them. Here's your number two. [00:23:35] Now, let me tell you about, um, let me tell you how it actually worked out. My mom married four times because he was searching for something. She married four times. Um, the first one was my dad. The second one. Um, yeah. Where do I begin here? Um, okay. Well, the first thing I need to tell you about the second one. [00:23:58] As I had no idea that [00:24:00] she and this guy were married until one day I saw her doing a needle point and it had her name, his name and a date. And I said, w w what is, what are you doing? And she goes, well, that's the date we got married. And I said, you and he are married? Like that was news. Yeah. She didn't bother to tell me. [00:24:21] Now, let me just tell you about this guy. All right. Two, two stories of many. I could tell you he was a biker and he had all kinds of biker friends. I remember walking home from school and I tell these motorcycles on our driveway and even in our front yard. And it was just kind of an interesting era. And so I, I remember, I remember coming home from school one day. [00:24:42] He was not there. His bikes were gone and all of these plants were in our utility room. All of these little potted plants on these plats or whatever you call them. We have so many of these it's like who needs this many plants. And so I thought it would be really a kind thing to [00:25:00] do to give some of those to my neighbor across the street. [00:25:02] A dear lady, Mrs. Foley, who I loved. And so I've dropped a plat off at Mrs. Foley's house and said, Hey, I want to give you a gift. And she was so kind. And she put them in her front window. [00:25:17] And, uh, this guy came home and, uh, let's just say, uh, it got really ugly and he knew that some plants were missing and a little search was underway as to where they went. And guess what? I got ratted out and I got dressed down big time and told you, go get those back. So I had to go to dear miss Foley's house and say, before you get arrested, it would be best if I took those plants back. [00:25:45] I didn't say it that way. Uh, but you're getting a kind of an idea that the second story I want to tell you about this guy is, um, in my neighborhood, there were a number of us who were, there were, there were city workers that would work our neighborhood and they [00:26:00] spoke Spanish and we didn't speak Spanish. [00:26:01] And we wanted to know what they were talking about. So believe this or not starting in the fifth grade, I started trying to learn Spanish. So me and my friends and my neighborhood, so that we can understand what people were talking about in our neighborhood. And so we took Spanish and we were picking up all kinds of words, but we weren't sure about what some of them actually meant. [00:26:20] So we had a really kind of a special teacher in our school, a guy named Mr. Garcia, who is our Spanish teacher. And we thought he's cool. He's hip he's happening. He'll tell us. So before school, one day we went to meet with Mr. Garcia to see if he would tell us, as we would say this word, Mr. Garcia, what does this mean? [00:26:36] And he would go boys, wait where'd you learn that word? And they go, Oh, that's a bad word. He goes, you don't ever want to say that word, but what does it mean? No. No, I can't tell you. Well, how about this word? Oh, that's worse word. Who are you running around with? Where are you picking up these words in any way the bell rang. [00:26:51] He didn't tell us anything. I'll never forget what he did tell us. He said, listen, guys, I can't tell you what those would be inappropriate, but I'll tell you what, if you really want to [00:27:00] know there's this, I'm going to say this exactly. As he said it. There's this white guy that I know who knows more cuss words in Spanish and any [00:27:09] hispanic person I've ever met. You find this guy, you ask him what those words mean. I guarantee you he'll know, and we're going, what's his name? You ready for? This? His name's Jaime is a white guy. His name's Jaime [00:27:25] He's a red headed white guy named Jaime. You find him, you ask him. My stepdad. Number two, redheaded, a white guy named Jaime. Huh? My friends starting to look at me and said, that sounds like your dad. Sure enough. I saw it on the needle point. That's him. Yup. That'll leave a Mark. The third, by the way, the third guy was a long distance trucker. [00:27:56] Third marriage, long distance trucker guy named King. [00:28:00] Nuff said. Just a rough cut of wood, man. I'm just telling you. And the fourth guy, my mom married, she lasted with him for like 20 some years and he was wonderful. Why am I telling you all this? Because the point of this message is that you're wanted and God wants to adopt you. [00:28:18] And here's the dilemma. We tend to project onto God as father the worst father experience we've had in our earthly life. So when I first came across these concepts, I'm like not interested. No, thank you. Deal breaker. I don't want another dad. I don't want anyone to feel it. No, I'm good. I don't have a need, and I dropped into denial and God had to bust through the hardness of that for me to accept what he had before creation planned for me in my life. [00:28:57] And some of you need to break through that as well, [00:29:00] because God is not a projection of your worst father experience. He is so much more. He wants to adopt you. My, my, my son, Jeremy, and his wife, Michelle, they have three kids of the, two of them had, and then they had two little boys they fostered. And they'd be the first to tell you we have done nothing. [00:29:22] They would say we have done nothing heroic. We've simply seen a need and tried to meet it. But they took these two little boys that they fostered and they adopted them. And they're wonderful little boys and they've come from, you know, some challenges in their past. And they become a part of my son's family, our family, but their immediate family and these little boys, I sometimes just look at them and they're so happy. [00:29:45] And I go. Will they ever understand what these two adults did for them? Will they ever get it? And as soon as I think that thought immediately, some bigger thought pops into my [00:30:00] head and this is it. Do I have any appreciation for what God did for me? Which takes me to you. Do you have any appreciation for what God did for you? [00:30:13] Uh, there's a story told of a couple that wanted to have a baby and they couldn't. So they adopted a little boy. And as soon as they adopt, as often happens, she conceived. And so they adopted a boy and then she gave birth to a boy. And when the boys were like eight and nine, somewhere in that eight or nine years old, they were out playing. [00:30:30] And one of the mom's friends came over and she saw the boys playing and she said, w which, which one is yours? And the mom said, well, they're both mine. Do you want to know which one is the adopted one? And to the mom's incredible credit, she said, you know, I've totally forgotten. Don't know. Could you be so wanted, um, when you think of Christmas, what comes to mind? [00:30:59] My guess is, [00:31:00] um, These came from a nativity scene. All right, got an angel, got have an angel, you know, got an angel. And so we got an angel angels go course. The angel belongs in the activity scene. I mean, you got to have an angel glory to God in the highest then shouts of joy and all that. So an angel, an angel belongs. [00:31:19] Okay. It ought to be about a bunch of angels, but have you ever noticed in like in ours, there's these guys who are these guys? I know you can't see really well. The shepherds, wait a minute. Shepherds. Do you know anything about shepherds in the first century? They were outcasts. They were lowlifes. They were undesirables. [00:31:41] They were unwanted. They, they, they smell like sheep. They lived out doors. They never showered. They were, they were like the bottom of the social ladder. If a shepherd saw crime, he couldn't testify because nobody cared what a shepherd said. [00:32:00] Why are they in your nativity scene? What, what, who's this guy? [00:32:06] This is one of the Kings that's technically not Kings King makers. One of the magi, the magi from the East. You know, where this guy is from. He's from the place that represented the worst chapter in the history of the old Testament, the capture, the captivity in Babylon. Purge of Mito Persian empire. [00:32:30] These guys came from there. What did they show up? They're outsiders. He's an outcast. He's an outsider. These guys don't belong in the story. Why do you belong in this story? I was once at outcast, I was once an outsider. God goes I'm going to make you Holy. [00:32:54] I was wanted. You're wanted. You're not an accident. You're not a leftover thought. [00:33:00] Did I deserve it. No. Let me read to you. I got to read second Timothy, and then I'll wrap up. One nine. Listen, listen carefully to these words. He saved us. God saved us and he called us to a Holy life. Not because of anything we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace, it wasn't about you. [00:33:21] It wasn't about you. It was about his love for you. Not because you were good enough. Cause he was. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before for the beginning of time, you are not an afterthought in God's mind, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our savior Christ. Jesus was happened when? At Christmas, in that one year. [00:33:50] Who has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Let me wind this down by just saying a couple of things to [00:34:00] you. All right. Number one, Christmas is about family. It's about being wanted. Can I just encourage you to do something this year? This is the weirdest year ever. [00:34:11] Can you make sure you include somebody this year more than ever before? Can you be conscious of trying to invite somebody in. This year more, more than in our lifetime. We need to know that somebody cares about us. And if, if you, if you feel like nobody's inviting you, you should just be the inviter. Just start inviting people. [00:34:30] Don't do Christmas alone this year. You've done a year alone. Don't do Christmas alone. You make sure it's about being wanted and inviting and including maybe outsiders, maybe outcasts just include. Okay. Pick some people choose, communicate their value. Second thing that was already talked about here and has on all of our campuses. [00:34:54] And again, I know on our online deal, Fill the Sleigh. [00:35:00] I don't know if you understand the deal with this, but a couple of years ago, we used to call this adopt-a-family. We did your adopt-a-family and the church would come swooping in on some family and we would bring all these presents and it was awesome. [00:35:12] And I remember we'd look at mom and dad and they were just kinda like. Oh, man. I wish I could do that for my kids. And sometimes it just did not sit right inside me and others were just like, well, we're the, we gotta figure out how to make them the heroes, not us. So a year ago we changed it. We call it now Fill the Sleigh. [00:35:33] Here's the deal. We don't take the presents anymore. We, what we do is we partner with schools and we give the schools a bunch of toys. And we say to the schools who are in partnership, You find the parents, you give these presents to the parents and let them give them to their kids. It's a chance for the parent to be the one admired by the child. [00:35:57] But folks, if we don't have presents to [00:36:00] give we, we, we could have, it's such a difference to those parents, those kids. Please this week is the it's the last week we got to get these presents. We're about 50% there. This is why it matters. Last thing I want to say, and I'll be done. There's a story that came out of Wales. [00:36:23] That's just a little bit hard to get your brain around. I want to close on it. It's about a man who wanted desperately to win the heart of a woman. He, uh, tried and tried and tried for 42 years. He pursued this one woman. And most of to you have, you can give up and move on. 42 years. Okay. Um, but this recently, the couple, both, both 74 years old, by the way, both of them 74, um, recently became Mr. and [00:36:54] Mrs. But let me tell you how it happened about 40 some years ago, [00:37:00] 42 years ago, to be precise. They had known each other, but they had some disagreement and the guy felt horrible and he began to try to explain that he was, you know, That let's put this behind us and let's move on. And she just really wanted nothing to do with it. [00:37:16] And so every week he would write, he would write up a love letter to her and slip it under her door. And he lived in the same building and he'd slip it under her door and she'd read it and never moved by it. Just didn't, uh, she didn't speak to him. Wouldn't mend the problem that had been separating them. [00:37:39] After writing ready for this 2,184 love letters without ever getting a spoken word back or any kind of encouragement. This guy finally summoned up enough courage to knock on her door. He knocked on her door, she opened the [00:38:00] door. He expressed in words, his love for her said he wanted to marry her. And you know how it turned out. [00:38:07] She said yes. So imagine for just a moment, the perspective of God and trying to win your heart, how does he convince you how much you're wanted? Well, write me some letters. [00:38:26] It's a love note to you from God. That's how much you matter, you go, yeah, I've read it. Parts of it, anyway. Yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't see it. I don't get it. What if Jesus just came to your, to your door, knocked on your door, said, Hey, I love you, man. I want you to know you matter. I want you to know, I chose you. Want you to know [00:38:52] I want you in my family. Cause he, sometimes words just won't do it. You need to show up [00:39:00] that's Christmas. See Christmas is. God's invitation to you to join his family. You know what you're longing for? To be a part of family. You know what you were given family. God wants you. Now this is part one. You come back next week. [00:39:20] We're gonna talk about something else we're longing for, and we're going to talk about forgiveness. Don't miss it. Let me pray. And then your campus pastor will come up. God, thank you for your love for us. Thank you for wanting us. Thank you for choosing us. Thank you for picking and desiring and going to all the effort. [00:39:41] God, you sent letters and we just didn't really get it, but then you came and now we do thank you. In Jesus name. We praise you for this love you've lavished upon us. May every person here understand their life matters. They are [00:40:00] sons and daughters of a King. They are Prince and princess by name. Thank you for this in Jesus' name. [00:40:09] Amen. Bless you guys. Thanks.