Announcements

Collection

Birthdays and Anniversaries

Our sermon will be on Acts 9:1-19

We have a website: https://tahlequahworshipcenter.com/

We have started Wednesday Night service back up

We need a work day

We are having a candlelight service after church on 12/26

Prayer requests

Sue

Georgey

Billy’s Family

Dorcas

Cristy’s Grandparents

Sandra

Jim’s Son

Stephen

Tornado victims

Cristy’s Friend

Songs

Go Tell It On The Mountain

Light Of The World

The Reason For The Season

Yesterday was Christmas.

Many of you were visiting family, or traveling, or opening presents.

Did you play dirty Santa?

Did you get what you wanted?

But none of that is what Christmas is about is it?

What’s the true meaning of Christmas?

It’s about the birth of Jesus.

We don’t know the actual date.

Do you know where we get the date?

Well it could be a few different things.

It could be the correct data.

It could be due to an ancient Jewish tradition.

It was that prophets would die on the date they were conceived.

March to December is 9 months.

It also could have been selected because the days of the year grow longer every day until the end of June

Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter what day, but know this:

Whatever the reason that day was selected, we have been using it for over 1700 years.

What we need to remember is not the when, but the why.

So, what did Jesus say about he why.

John 6:38–40 NKJV

38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

When? Where? Why? Who? What?

When? We don’t know

I’ve already talked about that. We just don’t know for sure, but it could have been on Dec. 25.

The where was Israel. That one is easy

Why? The Will of the Father

Why did Jesus Come? Because it was God’s plan.

John 6:38–39 NKJV

38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.

I know it sometimes sounds a little strange, but Jesus, even though he was God, still came as a man.

He lived as a man and died as a man.

So how do you come into this world? You come as a baby.

So God could have sent a fully grown man to the world, but that’s not what he said he would do.

Isaiah 53:2 NKJV

2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.

We don’t know all the detail, but we know that God said it and that settles it.

We can go al the way back to Genesis 3 and see that this is what God said he would do.

We can believe that if God said it, then he will do it.

Who? Jesus

Jesus it the one talking to us here and he is telling these people who he is.

In this particular case, He is the Bread of Life.

In other places, He is a Fountain of Living Water.

He’s also the Light of the World.

That’s all you need for Life.

But he’s also Lord, Creator, Son of the Living God, the Holy One of Israel, Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

I could go on and on about the King of Kings, but at Christmas, he is the King of the Jews

He is Immanuel. “God with us”

He is our Savior. He is Christ the Lord

That’s who Jesus is.

What? Everlasting Life

We talked about the When, the Why, and the Who, but what about the What.

The what is what touches us.

John 6:40 NKJV

40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Do you see the good news in that?

The verb sees is interesting. It means sees but more accurately it means to watch.

Those who look to, those who watch, Jesus will have eternal life.

Let’s look back to verse 39

John 6:39 NKJV

39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.

God’s will is for us to raised up at the last day.

That means that we can be secure in the fact that Jesus has saved us if put our trust in him.

When someone is investigating some kind of event, they need to look for the When, Where, Who, Why, and What.

The Reason for the Season is Jesus!

And if you trust in him, you will have eternal life.

God loved us so much that he gave us the greatest gift we could ever have: Jesus

and Jesus died to pay the cost of our sin.

That’s the best gift I’ve ever had.