WILDFIRE, the youth branch of Hope to Families, seeking unity and community, helping people come to know Jesus and pointing people to the local body. here this morning Merry Christmas everybody Merry Christmas the gospel is understanding who we were to who we are because of who was and who is to come That is the main truth and the only truth that I am communicating to you this morning. So let me repeat it again. The gospel is understanding who we were to who we are because of who was and who is to come. The gospel is the good news. The good news that Jesus, as we've been looking as a church body, incarnate. came dwelt among us as we just read he is Emmanuel and what is the reason for why he came? Astonishingly the reason is you. You this morning as you sit there Jesus the one who created everyone in this room he said I have come to save the world not to condemn the world this is the good news the good news is that all of us were in sin bondage we'll spend time with family. Family will inevitably annoy us. Games will start to get a little bit competitive. and this is Christmas, right? But the question you've got to ask yourself is, where does the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ come into our Christmas days? Right? How do we have this good news mindset? Are we here to tick the religious box, to be holy, to say we went to church, and then to go and box up this part of our lives and then have Christmas Day? and think to ourselves, this actually be real right now. How is it whenever we're stuffing cocktail sausages into our mouth, whenever we're eating an overdose of chocolate, whenever we're opening Christmas presents, how do we think of Jesus? How do we think of what he did for us on the cross this Christmas day? And so what I wanna leave you with this morning is the good news mindset, all right? Everyone do it this morning, kids included, put on the good news mindset, right? This is what we're gonna take with us this Christmas day. Understanding who we were to who we are because of everything that Jesus is then and now. And I just wanna close, that's right, close, but that's, I'm not really finished. With three texts of scripture, I just wanna read the words of Jesus to you. And it tells us who we were. Who were we? What's the biography of our lives? If you were to ask people, hey, this is who I was in my life. What would you say? I doubt many of you would say what Jesus is about to say of us now. None of us have to wonder. Jesus is about to tell us who we were before we met him. Who am I Jesus before I met you? And this is what Jesus says He's speaking in the temple to Jews and to Pharisees, but this is very much for us as we sit here this Christmas day Let me read his words to you. This is John 8 verses 44 to 47 Jesus says you are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desires. was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies but because I tell the truth you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin if I tell the truth? Why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God All right This is what Jesus says about you. Your father is Satan the devil Have any of you ever said that to anybody in your life? Hey, let me tell you a little detail of my story. So my dad used to be seeing the devil, the father of lies. And my father, he just lied all the time and I just did as he did. I lied. I committed sin just as he did. None of us would say that of ourselves, but yet this is true and Jesus is saying this of you and of me. Our Father is Satan. We do not believe the words of God. This is who we are. What great news for us this Christmas day. Who wants to go eat some Christmas dinner now? Celebrating our Father who is Satan, who we worshiped. That's true of us. Jesus says it. Don't take it up with me, take it up with him. This is who we are. Full stop. We can't celebrate Christmas without truth. It's remarkably sad that we decided to sin and to follow in our Father's footsteps, see it in the Father of lies. And we don't believe in Jesus. but Jesus. But the good news of the gospel is understanding who we were to who we are. Let me triumphantly proclaim to you John 1 verses 11 to 13 where it tells us who we are now if we have accepted, believed, and confessed Jesus Christ. He came to his own and his own people, the Jews, did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood nor of the will of flesh nor of the will of man but of God Guys our father was Satan this is who we were but because of Jesus Christ who we are now what stands before you is a child of God not born of flesh or of blood but born of God spiritually alive, joyful and triumphant and that is the testimony of you who sit here today if you know truly Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior when he bled and died his blood purchased you as his own making you a child of God taking you from where you were a child of Satan now making you a child of God this is the gospel and it's only because of Jesus Christ, only because of him, whenever he became a baby, whenever he lived his life blameless and pure, whenever he died on a cross, when three days later he rose on high as he stands now seated at the right hand of the Father, given all dominion and authority and glory. This is where Jesus reigns now. This is what we celebrate, who we were to who we are now. And so we must ask ourselves, knowing the gospel, knowing this is who we were to who we are because of everything that Jesus is, how then are we to respond this Christmas day? How are we to leave, to go, to stick on Michael Buble in the car, to eat Christmas dinner, to open Christmas presents? Let's be practical. How do we celebrate Jesus and everything that he has done? How do we live out the gospel? Don't you want to know? I want to know. Praise God, he's a good father who loves his children and he has told us, none of us have to wonder. I'm not gonna create some three points. I'm just gonna read his words to you. This is what he tells you to do this Christmas day with the gospel mindset. for you are all children of light. This is the Lord speaking this over you. Children of the day, we are not of the night or of the darkness, so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night, but since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet. a hope of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, for God has not destined us to wrath. Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up just as you have been doing. What is the will of God for this Christmas day for you? How are you to live out the good news of the gospel? It is to be sober minded. It is to know that the days are indeed evil. And we need the Lord to teach us to number our days. Not to be foolish, but to know what the will of the Lord is for our lives today. The will of God for our lives is that we be sober minded, that we encourage one another, that we live lives of faith, lives of love for one another, for all of those who we sit with this Christmas day at the dinner table. Be sober minded. Have faith, have love, know the good news of the gospel that saved you and want to proclaim that and share that with all of those you sit with today. As people celebrate eating Christmas dinner with their families, we as people can celebrate it the most because the difference between us and them is that we're saved. Jesus is our savior and we celebrate with him in his presence. So encourage one another, build one another up, be super minded, have faith, have love this Christmas day knowing that Jesus Christ and everything that he is From the baby to the one enthroned on high is the one who took you from your sin, a child of Satan and made you a child of God. And that is the truth that we live out from. That is the truth that I will remember when I'm eating my Christmas dinner, whenever I'm laughing and playing games, Jesus Christ saved me. Jesus Christ saved you. And for those of you who do not know Jesus this morning, do not let this opportunity pass you by. that this will be the greatest Christmas day of your life because you accepted the greatest gift of humanity's lives, the gift that is Jesus Christ for you and I. Let me pray.
