The Gift That Doesn’t Wear Out (December 21, 2025)

A funny family moment with an Elvis nutcracker sets the stage for something deeper: the best gifts aren’t flashy, they’re thoughtful. We trace that truth from the living room to the nativity, exploring why a real gift doesn’t wear out and why the heart of Christmas can’t be boxed, bagged, or returned. Heaven didn’t send a package; the Father sent His Son—good news that matters because bad news is real.

We walk through the tension of a holiday faith and a whole-life faith. Love shows up as a covenant, not just a feeling, and the manger becomes a doorway to Calvary. Drawing on John 3, Isaiah 9, Philippians 2, and 1 Peter 1, we unpack how the rescue was planned before the problem, why grace meets us in the mess, and how belief without repentance becomes a story we admire instead of a Savior we follow. Along the way, we talk about hurry-sick holidays, prosperity’s false promises, and the practical courage it takes to say no to spaces and habits that quietly pull us off course.

This is a warm, honest, and hope-filled invitation: receive the gift, don’t just celebrate the season. Pray instead of gossiping. Bring Scripture and worship into your home. Choose consistency over convenience. You can’t separate the cradle from the cross, and you don’t have to wait for perfect feelings to make a faithful move. If you’re ready for a Christmas that outlasts the tree, press play and join us on the path from story to Savior. If this resonates, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help more people find the show.

Chapters

• 0:00 A Cozy Gift Story With A Point
• 4:22 Thought Over Price In Giving
• 7:17 The Gift That Never Wears Out
• 11:14 Jesus Beyond Holidays
• 14:52 Love As Commitment, Not Just Feeling
• 19:37 Christmas Planned Before The Problem
• 24:57 Personal Rescue And Open Doors
• 28:47 Humility, The Manger, And The Cross
• 33:12 Receive The Gift, Don’t Just Celebrate
• 37:47 From Belief To Repentance And Change

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:28

I'm a firm believer that the best way to connect with people is to share your own story, right? We overcome the world by the word of our testimony, right? Blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony. You know, the blood of the Lamb is handled, our testimony is what matters. And so I'm gonna share a testimony this morning, but it's just short and it's silly, but it means something, right? So here's what I want to share. Every year, my wife and I exchange Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve. We do all of the things that we're responsible for doing on Christmas Eve, and then we gather in the living room. I uh we don't have a fireplace in our house, so I always turn on the fireplace on Netflix. You can feel the heat, you know what I mean? It's cozy. Uh she makes fun of me every year for it, and I don't care, I still do it. But uh we we sit there together and we exchange gifts and we just laugh and we're able to talk about all of the things that have happened, you know, over the season and in our lives, and you know, all of those fun things. And last night she said to me, she said, I really want to give you one of your Christmas gifts. And I said, Let's do it. Because I I don't like surprises, right? Like I like to get good, I like to get good gifts. So she was like, No, because I only got you a couple of things, and if I give you this one, it's really the only super good one that I can give you, and I don't want it. I was like, I've got a gift I'll give to you if you give like pro quo here, right? She's like, Well, I only got you three. How many did you get me? And I said, Oh, I only got you three. That was a lie, I got her four. She didn't need to know that at the time, right? So she finally agrees, and she goes and she gets the gift, and she opens it and she hands it to me, and it is something that she knew that I had wanted. Because every time we go to a store together, I look for it. Okay? Can I tell you what it is?

unknown: 2:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:08

Is this a judgment-free zone? Promise? You're not gonna laugh? What? No. An Elvis nutcracker. Listen, so I saw they used to be everywhere. You used to be able to walk into the store, and there was always this ugly nutcracker that looked like Elvis. And I was ecstatic that she had given me that gift. And then I gave her her gift, and it was equally as funny, but do you know what it was?

unknown: 2:40

Elvis Miller. No.

SPEAKER_00: 2:44

Electric salt and pepper grinders. Like, right? Look, no got excited. No was like, she got excited. So it seems silly, but it's something she's talked about every time she sees one, she talks about it. So I thought, you know what? Every year we exchange gifts. Every year, more opulent than the year before. I remember one year I upgraded her engagement ring, right? So she had her engagement ring in her wedding band, and I upgraded her engagement ring. And she looked in and she goes, Oh, that's nice, and closed the box and sat it back down. That's the level of excitement I get out of my wife on everything. She was more excited about these salt and pepper grinders than she was anything I have ever bought her in my life. And I realized something that I feel like sometimes we miss that it's not about the expense of the gift, it's not about the value of the gift, it's about the thought behind the gift, right? So, you know, sometimes handmade gifts are the best gifts. Moms love handmade gifts. It's a good thing since it's all my kids can afford, right? Get a job, you bum, right? A bunch of mooch is trying to get me to take them to the store. Anyhow, I realized that it's not always about the expense of the gift. Every Christmas we exchange gifts. Some are thoughtful, some are last minute. Gentlemen, you're gonna go to the store and just grab whatever they had on the shelf? Probably in the aisle of the gift box. Am I lying? The pedicure set that has the little foot soak and the salts. Women, have you ever gotten one of those? Yeah, but look, Lauren's like, yep, that was me. Bobby, when did you buy that gift? Towels? The night before, Christmas Eve, at four o'clock when they're getting ready to close the store. They're making the page, it's time to go, get out. And us guys are still in there buying stuff. We don't know what else to buy. The shelves are empty. We grab whatever we find, right? Listen, sometimes the gifts are last minute, and some of them are forgotten before that tree ever even comes down. Parents, ever been there? You buy that gift that you're so excited about, and by the time the tree comes down, it's broken. They can't find the remote control for it. Or they say, But I wanted the blue one. Jesus. It is your birthday, give me. You better give me patience because you give me strength. I'm gonna go to jail. Every year we do these things. But let me tell you, if it's something that can break, wear out, or be replaced, it was never the real gift. Amen. It was never the real gift. Last year at our young adult Christmas exchange, my wife wrapped a pack of batteries and said, gift not included. Funny. This is normally the other way around, right? Okay, but here's the thing: those batteries will die, right? Parents, we stock up on batteries the week of Christmas because there's never enough of them. And can I promise you something? If you buy D batteries, you needed C. And if you buy double A, you needed triple A, right? Lord have mercy. But here's the thing: those are never the real gift. John 3 16, it says, For this is how God loved the world. Now, this is um NLT. He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but will have eternal life. God sent his son into the world, not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Amen. See, here's what we forget. Heaven didn't send a package, it didn't send a gift that will wear out or that we will forget about when the tree comes down. Amen. So I want to say something that is not a popular opinion. We show up for church at Christmas, but Jesus transcends the Christmas holiday. Right? Now, some of us know it, but some of us stop talking about it after Christmas. And we hold off until when? Easter, right? And then we decide Jesus is something we want to talk about again. Jesus transcends holidays. Jesus, the birth, the death, the life, the resurrection of Jesus, transcends any holiday that we can celebrate, right? Because we should be living Jesus literally every day of our lives. For God so loved the world, he didn't give us a thing, he gave us his son. He did not give us a thing, he gave us his son. Love is not measured by what you this. I'm gonna stop for a second because I want to tell a story. I've always believed this, and again, it's not always a popular opinion. I do not believe that love is a feeling. Okay, love is a commitment, right? Because sometimes you marry somebody and you say that you love them, and about six months later, the love is gone, right? We're not feeling it right now. Anyone ever been there? Yes? Here's the thing. I made a commitment. I made a covenant with my wife and before God that I would love her like Christ loved the church, right? Now I'm gonna tell you something. There are times when the church is not lovable, right? Now we are fortunate because Christ loves us even through the unlovable seasons. Amen. Amen. And we are we are called to do that with our spouses as well. So I say that love is not just a feeling, it is a commitment, but the feeling should always be there, right? So listen, when my wife gets mad at me, I know she loves me, but she's sick of me. And that's okay, right? It's okay. But the thing is, I can't just walk away. I can't just look at it and say, I don't need to. She loves me, that's all I need to know. No, I need to work on it, right? But see, I need to work on my relationship with Jesus just the same. So I don't get to celebrate my wife on our anniversary and walk away. Right? Now, I'm gonna tell you a secret about me. I'm lucky. Actually, I'm gonna say I'm smart. Here's the reason. My wife and I's anniversary, February 12th, two days before Valentine's Day. That's one gift, gentlemen. Not just a hat rack. You know my wife's birthday? August 15th. You know how I remember that? It's the day before Elvis died. Not just a hat rack, folks. Right? You gotta plan these things in life. I don't just get to celebrate my wife on her birthday and on her anniversary. I have to celebrate her all year long. What does celebration of your spouse look like? None of us celebrate our spouse, so we don't really know. Celebration of our spouse means pursuing them even in frustration. It means pursuing them even in anger. It means pursuing them even when life is not good. Amen. We lost the job, we don't have any food, we have all of these negative things that the world is just throwing at. Listen, we could have just said, you know what, we're not gonna do this kid play this morning. There was a moment when I was like, we're just not gonna do it, because Lord, we're gonna we can't, right? And I said, no, because we're not gonna let the enemy have victory over something in our lives, right? And so we have to be able to celebrate all of the all of the seasons, just like Christ loved the church. He celebrates, we celebrate him all year long, he celebrates the church all year long. Now, listen, Christmas, and I'm not talking about Jesus' birthday, Christmas, right? Because there's no biblical evidence that Jesus was born on December 25th. Can we just be okay with that for a minute? But it's when we choose to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, amen. And so that's what that's what's important here. But can I tell you that Christmas, get your notebook out, was God's plan before it was our problem. Because let me tell you something. Christmas is a problem, right? And what I mean by that is we are all hurry sick right now, right? We're all rushing from there to there and there to here, and we're worried about is this gift good enough? And did I get enough? How many of you, as parents, sit in the closet and count out the gifts and make sure you got the right number for the right kids? Right? Jesus, right? That's what the season is about. It's not about the number of gifts, it's not about the price tag on the box. Isaiah 9, 6. Maybe we're gonna put it up there. For a child is born to us, a son is given to us, the government will rest upon his shoulders, and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. Jesus was not born into the world as an emergency response to your sin. Did you know that? He was not born as an emergency response to your sin. He was the eternal answer, already planned and put into motion before you were formed in your mother's womb and started acting stupid. Thank you, Jesus. He was looking out for me when I wasn't looking out for myself. Amen. Listen, before Adam ever fell, before there was ever sin in the world, God had already prepared the Lamb. God had already prepared Jesus for what he would have to do. Before humanity was lost, heaven had the plan. Do you hear that? Heaven had the plan before we lost our minds. I heard somebody say one time that if you lived when Cain and Abel and Adam and Eve lived, you had a 25% chance of being murdered. Four people on earth, and one of them got killed. You had a 25% chance of being a murderer. Those odds aren't very good. Right? It ain't looking too promising for us. But God had already planned our His response to our sin. He had already planned for the Lamb to come and to set us free. 1 Peter 1 20. Whew, Jesus, I need a drink. You ready? God chose him as your ransom. Your ransom. Right? It is specific. We should be taking that personally. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began. But now, in these last days, he has been revealed for your sake. Not my sake, your sake. Right? Now, you can say, not for my sake, but for your sake. Because it is for each and every one of us. It's personal. Do we treat Jesus personally? So I always invite listen, last night and the young adults were coming to the house, they were knocking. Don't knock on my door. If you have been invited to my house, just walk in. Right? Because chances are when you knock, what are you gonna do? Make my dog bark. I don't want to listen to him bark. So just come in, right? He has been revealed for our sake. He's not asking us to knock. He's just waiting for us to cry out. He's just waiting for us. He is just waiting for us. The cross was not God's reaction, it was his redeeming. Right? The cross was not a reaction to sin. See, at Easter, that's all we talk about. Our sins are covered by the blood, the blood of the Lamb, the blood of the Lamb, the blood of the Lamb. That's wonderful. But we have to remember that that was not the intention. It was not just to cover sin, it was to redeem us eternally so that we might have everlasting life. Can I tell you something? That without the birth of the Savior, the cross doesn't happen. Every year at Christmas, we get so excited, so excited about the birth of a little baby, right? Let me get my baby. One year I did this at last year, as a matter of fact, at Christmas Eve, I carried baby Jesus the entire service. I had somebody say to me after, you look really good carrying a baby. And I said, forget about it. I'll tell you what, Mike. You and Tanya have one, and I'll take care of it. Grace didn't wait for you to get better. Grace came when you were broken. Right? Amen. Grace doesn't wait. God does not, Jesus does not call us to him in perfection. When does he call us? He calls us to come as we are, broken, confused, hurt, hungry. Right? Can I tell you that's a problem with the church today? The church isn't hungry anymore. Right? The church isn't hungry. The church, I put him down like he's a real baby. Can't help it. That's one of those second nature things. The church isn't hungry for God anymore. You know what the church is hungry for?

unknown: 16:33

Prosperity and false.

SPEAKER_00: 16:35

Yes. It's excited about me telling you that if you just believe that you will be rich, you will be rich. Can I tell you something? That's not how it works. I'm gonna tell you, I'm already rich in the spirit. God is already doing something great in my life. Amen. Listen, I don't care about the money. Listen, money's nice, right? Because money buys you things and you're able to care for your family, but that's not what's important. The health of my family is important. See, I am rich because I have five healthy children, mostly healthy, mostly normal, right? They did take after me, so there's a little bit of a risk there, but I am blessed in that. Whew. God didn't discover your mess. Ready? He didn't discover your mess. Your mess is your mess. You created it, right? You ever heard anybody say, You made that bed now lay in it? Yeah. I made lots of beds. I've laid in lots of beds. Typically, when I make it, it ain't fun. Listen, God did not discover your mess, he already designed your rescue. Yes, he wants you to be rescued from that sinful life. Christmas tells us the truth. God came looking for us when we weren't looking for him. We were never looking, listen, when I got saved, I wasn't looking for Jesus. Do you know what I was looking for? I was looking for relief from the pain. I was looking for relief from the stress and the chaos in life. And it wasn't until he said to me, But I can carry that burden. Amen. But I can carry that burden. I want to talk about the prophecy of the other three gifts. And I want to say this. I love all of you, and I'm so thankful that the past three weeks have spoken to you guys so well and that those messages have been received, so well received. But I want to tell you this that I this is none of this is ever me. I believe that the Holy Spirit works through me. I write these notes, I don't use half of them. Right? I just skip around and I'm like, Lord, whatever you want me to do, that's what I'm gonna do today. And but I'm so thankful that they have spoken to you because I think it's important to understand the prophetic of the gifts that were delivered. Now I want to tell you about something that I did not know. Right? So I saw a video on one of those Facebook reels. You never get stuck in one of those rabbit holes. I watched the video, and then the next thing I know, I'm watching another one and another one. Did you know? Did you know that there are people who claim to be prophetic? Pastor Holly, I don't think you've ever done this to me. And if you do, you're gonna scare the daylights out of me. Who claim to be prophetic and associate noise with color? It's true. It is a scientific fact that there are people who it is not a disorder, it is some sort of like they can't explain it, and it is consistent over all of the time that they know a person. They they'll like they can smell the perfume that you wear and associate that perfume with a color. That color, some people say it's aura, they go through all of these things, but biblically they say that it's prophetic in some way, somehow. Now, here's the thing, and I want to just I want to share this with you. I I'm not even gonna try to say the word. It's synthesia, it's neurological. Many people of faith experience it both as described and through a natural lens, which they perceive as emotional or it perceive in both emotional and spiritual atmospheres. Right? Can you imagine being able to associate with the color G. Promised I'd do it. It is amazing that that exists, but here's the thing it's a joke. But here's the thing, it's real, and you have to think that when the the wise men, when the magi were choosing gifts for Jesus, right, that this wasn't by accident. Nobody said he is this he is the coming king. They they found that out prophetically and had to get those gifts, receive the understanding of those gifts prophetically. Philippians 2, 6 through 8. It says, though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his his divine privileges, he took a humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. You have to understand that that manger was the first step towards the cross. He humbled himself and was able to give us everlasting life. Being humble is an important thing to be able to do, right? We don't always have to be right.

unknown: 21:39

That's right.

SPEAKER_00: 21:40

We don't always have sometimes we're wrong, and when you can say, you know what, I was wrong, I'm sorry about that. Right? So listen, um, for those of you who know me, you know that I really love, really love the gingerbread chai from Starbucks, right? I'm talking like I drink six a day if I could afford it, but who can afford it? And here's what I was told one day. I was told, you know, Pastor Michael, that's not a coffee, it's a tea. No, it's not. They're like, yes, it is. And I'm like, no, it is not. I know a coffee when I drink a coffee. Can you believe it's a tea? Can you believe that? So I had to apologize to the person I was arguing with. Now the worst part is it was Ashley Johnson, and anytime you apologize to Ashley Johnson, how are you now? Anyhow. Anyhow, sometimes sometimes we just have to understand that we don't always have to be right. Jesus was born in a borrowed stable, laid in a feeding trough, and raised in obscurity. Any of us ever feel like we are obscure and that people don't see us? That people will see right through, they'll walk right by you and they don't even realize that you're standing next to them. That hurts, right? It hurts. Now listen. Jesus was raised in obscurity. The manger wasn't his destination, it was simply the doorway to the cross. Do you understand the importance of that doorway being open? Right? So last night I was gifted a wonderful gift. It's a gift that I'll cherish for the rest of my life. Uh, it was a well, no, I'm not talking about the summer sausage log. That was you're over there laughing, like, that's what I'm talking about. That's not what I'm talking about. I received a meaningful gift yesterday. Thank you very much. Meaningful. Andrew's the one that picked that gift. He's not in here. I'm pretty sure he got that at a gas station somewhere. It's like last Christmas. Anyhow, it doesn't matter. He got it from Minard. Okay. He said it spoke to him, was what I was told. It spoke to him. Never had summer sausage speak to me, but I mean, hey, to each their end. I received a hand-drawn canvas of the long hallway with all of the doors, and at the end there was another door. And that was something that was spoken into my life by Pastor Holly whenever I lost my job. And she told me that there's a long hallway full of doors, and all of those doors are glowing, and that each and every one of them is an opportunity for me, and that the doors will just continue to open. And that gift meant so much to me because it said two things. I had preached about that previously, and that person heard it and absorbed it, and they knew what it meant to me, and they were willing to take the time to put that on canvas for me. Amen. And so I think that oftentimes we have to realize that those doorways, those long hallways full of doors, when those open, we have to be willing to step through them because God is doing something, right? So I want to just remind you that Jesus was in that same place. The manger was a doorway to the cross. Willingly walked through that doorway so that we might have everlasting life. You cannot separate the cradle from Calvary. You cannot separate the cradle from the cross. They are one and the same because the birth of the Messiah leads to the life of the Messiah, leads to the crucifixion of the Messiah. The gift was free to us. Amen. It didn't cost any of us anything, except for our sin. But it was costly to heaven. I don't know that there's a single one of us in this room that would be willing to give up one of our children as a sacrifice for the world. It would be a hard thing to ask anybody to do. 1 Peter 1.18. It says, For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life that you inherited from your ancestors. We're gonna stop there for a second. I said it to you last week, I want to say it to you again. If your dad doesn't deal with his stuff, you're gonna deal with it, right? Listen, we receive empty lives from our ancestors. We aren't receiving joy. Listen, your family can leave you an inheritance, and that might feel really, really good. But your real inheritance is coming from heaven, right? Through Jesus Christ. So I always joke with my mom, she's just leaving me a bunch of junk. My mom has like 3,052 snowmen in her house. I'm like, I what are we gonna do with all these? There's gonna come a day when those snowmen become mine, and I'm dropping them off in Nick and Margie's house. They can put them in their yard. Right? We don't receive inheritance that will get us into heaven from our parents. Our parents raise us up in the way that we should go, but it is our responsibility to walk that path. Amen. It is our responsibility, and it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which loses their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began. But now, in the last days, he has been revealed for your sake. Grace is free to receive, but it was incredibly expensive for God to release. Amen. Listen. If salvation was cheap, if it didn't have value, then why would God have sent Jesus to die for us? If salvation was cheap, why would Jesus have had to die so that we could receive it? The gift of Christmas, you ready? Is understanding that the nails are already prepared. The gift of Christmas is knowing that the nails are waiting for Jesus on the cross. Love doesn't count the cost, it pays it. Right? Love doesn't count the cost. When you love somebody, you don't, you're not trying to figure out how much money it costs to be in love. Right? Some of you are willing to spend a lot of money to be in love with people who don't love you back. Right? Listen, I had a first date spot my entire life. Dante's in Philly. Anyone remember Dante's? I was devastated when it broke down because my entire life crumbled in front in front of my eyes. I would go in there, they knew my name. Michael, regular table? That was always the first date spot. Why? It was a decent place to go. It wasn't too expensive, right? I spent money on dates, thought that I was gonna fall in love with people that never mattered, and then I met my wife, who doesn't spend money on herself for anything. She doesn't get her hair cut, she doesn't get her eyebrows, she didn't do anything, right? That's what love is all about. Because one of us has to be able to afford my habits, so she goes without so that I can know. That's kind of true. Don't tell anybody though. What time is it? Good gravy. I got 10 minutes. Oh boy. Okay, Luke 2.10, 210 and 11. It says, but the angel reassured them, don't be afraid, he said, I bring you good news that there will be that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior, yes, the Messiah, the Lord has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David. I bring you news of great joy, and good news only matters when there's bad news. Right? How do you know what good news is if you don't experience bad news? Because if all you ever experience is good news, guess what? It's just news. Right? So do you I mean you understand how that works. See, we don't have the good without the bad. We don't have the bad without the good. We were spared by sin, and we were lost without hope until Jesus was born in a manger. Amen. Now we don't understand that hope. Now, those shepherds, they were told to not be afraid. Now, I want to just say this. We all like, weren't those little girls cute, all dressed up in little angel costumes? Wasn't that cute? Biblically, I don't think that's what angels look like. You guys read that? They have like 47 eyes and wings that sprout out of their head. This is a little strange, right? Don't be afraid. I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna put a hole through the wall if one of those things show up in front of me today. See, that's why Pastor Holly's the prophetic. She can see that stuff and don't scare her.

unknown: 31:12

Right?

SPEAKER_00: 31:12

She's like, Pastor Michael, there's angels stationed at either side of the door. I'm like, Lord, leave them, but don't let me see them. Thank you. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

unknown: 31:20

I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_00: 31:24

Don't you dare! Don't you dare! She starts praying for stuff, crazy stuff. One time she prayed, Lord, I pray that you will wake Michael, wake Pastor Michael in the midnight hours with revelation. And the next thing I know, I'm weeks every night in the middle of the night, and I'm making notes, and I'm like, what is going on? And I'm telling her about it. She goes, Oh, I've been praying for that. I need a solid 10, man. Can you cut me a break? Cut me a break. I've spit all over this iPad this morning, y'all. The baby in the manger became the savior on the cross. The gift must be received, not just celebrated, right? We can't show up and celebrate Christmas if we don't receive the gift of the Savior. Right? So we can be excited about the holiday season. And listen, there's nobody that loves to open gifts more than I love to open gifts. Okay? I love a good gift. I love presents. I love to give gifts. I just enjoy that part of the season. But I enjoy that all year long. Right? But Christmas means nothing if I don't accept the Savior for who he is in my life. Like I can look at the world around me and I can see that it is broken and that it is in this place of chaos and that there is despair. I can see that, and it doesn't require spiritual eyes, right? Fleshly eyes can see a broken world, but a spiritual eye, through the through the lens of our spirit, we can see Jesus restoring, creating hope. But we have to be willing to receive the gift. John 1 12. My belly's growling. Anybody else? Yeah. Anybody bring lunch? Anybody got any snacks? Anybody got any goldfish? You really go for a handful of goldfish right now. But to all who believed him, believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. Yes. To become children of God. To all who did receive him. You can decorate your house, you can put up nativity scenes, but you can still miss Jesus. Right? You can still miss Jesus. You can know the story and not know the Savior. I know a lot of people like that. I know a lot of people who are who are biblically smart. They can they can quote scripture, they can recite it, but I don't know that they know Jesus. They know the word, but do they know Jesus? Do they have a relationship with Christ? That relationship comes through cultivating, right? You have to be willing to pray, you have to be willing to sit and listen. And you know what else you have to be willing to do? Be corrected. Change, repent. Listen, sinner's prayer, Father, come into my heart, forgive me of my sins. That's all wonderful. But you know what the Bible tells us? Repent and turn from your sin. It doesn't just say Jesus come into my life. It says, Jesus, shake me up. Amen. It says, change me from my inside out. Allow me, Lord, to follow you more freely. Allow me, Lord, to believe in you and know that you are my hope, my foundation. But church, we have a watered-down gospel. We have a watered-down gospel that tells us all we have to do is believe in Him. All we have to do is say, Lord, I follow you, and I'm gonna put my 10% in the offering plate. I'm gonna show up on Sunday, but I am not gonna read my Bible. I'm not gonna pray. I'm not gonna fellowship with you. Lord, you will not be welcome in my home. Only when I'm at church. Can I tell you that if you don't have Jesus in your home, you might as well stay there on Sunday morning because it ain't changing your life. It ain't changing your life. Listen, if you're calling people and complaining, if you're talking about other people, if you're you you got you ain't got nothing like you know what you would what is it? Uh Thumper, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all, right? That's practically biblical. I'm just saying, right? Listen, we have to understand that every time we start to complain and we hope cannot live in that place. You cannot have encouragement, you cannot have good faith in humanity. Listen, if every time somebody does or says something, and all you can do is say, Well, yeah, I'm not surprised from them, it's not doing them any good. Can I ask you to do something instead? Can I ask you to just pray for that person? And you know what? When somebody says that to you, say, I'll tell you what. I'm not gonna receive that, but I'm gonna pray for them. And I'm gonna pray for you too, because there is no reason for us to want to divide the body of Christ. There is no, listen, sometimes people don't like pastors and they don't like ministries, right? That happens, that's okay. It's okay to get up and move. I'm not gonna chase you and I'm not gonna be mad at you. I'm gonna call you and tell you I love you. I've been through it, I've seen it happen, but I can do that because God has opened my eyes to what he wants in the house of the Lord. Amen. He doesn't want watered-down ministry, he doesn't want you guys drinking milk anymore. He wants you eating meat, right? And that means we have to have a hard conversation and we have to say, hey, listen, I don't like that, and it ain't gonna happen here anymore. It's not gonna happen on the phone with me. Listen, I said to somebody last night, it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. Somebody I've known my entire life, somebody I would consider a dear friend. They said to me, Pastor Michael, I have this game, I'd like to play with you, and they were telling me about the game, and my spirit knew immediately the answer was no. Right? Now, it's somebody I've known my entire life. They knew me before I was a pastor. Why didn't I just say yes? And I said to them, I said, I need you to understand something. It's not you. But I know that there are places that I cannot be anymore. I know that there are because when I put myself in that place, I do things that I know are not glorifying to God. And listen, not just as a pastor, but as a disciple of Christ, I know that that is not where God wants me. Amen. And we have to be willing to have those conversations. What are you gonna lose from that? You're gonna lose some friends. You're gonna lose some friends. But I'm gonna ask you a question: were they ever really friends? Were they ever because it's not what we need in our lives. If we're here to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, if we are here to celebrate the coming of Christ, then we have to be willing to change our lives, accept Jesus for our Savior, and live, He's not calling us for perfection, he's calling us to live in consistency and to be Christ-like every day of our lives. Amen. And that's what we're called to do. And sometimes you just gotta cut it off, right? He tells you if you're if you sin with one eye, you're gonna gouge it out, right? Listen. I don't want to have to gouge it out. Can I just make a change? Yep. Yep. I can just cut off whatever it is that's causing me to sin. Listen, I don't want to over-spiritualize the sin that we have in our lives because sometimes sin is just your own stupidity, right? That's true. It's I mean, it's a fact. You know you shouldn't go, yet you go. You know you shouldn't say, yet you say, you know you shouldn't do, yet you do. Listen, sometimes it's not the enemy that's working in our lives, it's us working in our lives. And it's not us focusing on Christ. And so the enemy, he's just like, well, I'll let them go. They're already being dumb. Right? They're already doing what I would be making them do. So I'm just gonna let them run, right? Amen. Listen. Repent and turn from your sins. Repent and turn from your sins. Lord, I am praying right now that the people of this building are hearing this word today, Father God. Lord, that as we are speaking the word of truth, Father, as we are speaking your word, that there is change in their lives, that their hearts are being stirred up today, Father God. Father, that they have a desire to be in your word to hear what it is that's happening. Because, Father, my words mean nothing. It is your word that means something. It is your word that changes the lives of the people in this house, Father. Lord, I thank you and I praise you for being so willing to show up here and shake us up from the inside out, Father God. That you would stir us up, that you would wake us up. Father, that when Christmas morning arrives, we are not just Excited about the packages and the boxes and all of the beautiful things that are happening. But Father, that we are celebrating your life. Father, that we are excited about who you are and what you are doing. Father, change us. Rearrange us, Father. From season to season, from glory to glory, situation to situation, Lord. Just shake us up. Father, I thank you for the anointing that rests in your house. Father, I thank you for the blessings you've bestowed upon us. Father, I pray that you continue to move in our lives. Show us your way, Lord. Show us your way. We pray all of this in your precious son, Jesus' name, and the church says. Amen. Love you guys. We'll see you Wednesday.