This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at christkingum.org for our calendar, driving directions and more audio recordings. Why? Auto-worship and loot 2-1-3-7. In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken at the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while queerness was governor of Syria. And everyone went to his own town to register. Caesar Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea. Do Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house in line of David. He went there to register with Mary who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born. And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the end. They ate down his sweet head. The stars in the bright sky looked down. The Jesus asleep. The Jesus looked down. The Jesus I asked thee to stay. Close by me for thee I pray. Bless all the dear children. The handles as a lute and family comes forth. We're eating us from Luke chapter 2 verses 8 through 14. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them. And they were terrified. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. This will be assigned to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests. Let's stand together again. Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing, or the plains, and the mountains in reply, and going their joyous strings. Glory is shared by your joy and strings for long. You see, richens by your heavenly song. Glory is shared. The opportunity now is we get to hear from our kingdom kids as they're going to come forward and lead us. And she gave birth to her four-sporner son. She wrapped him in cloth and placed in a manger. And because there were no room for them in the end. And there was shepherd to him now in the fjords nearby keeping watch over the flocks at night. And angel of the water appeared to them. And the glory of the world shown around them. They were terrified. And they were terrified, but the angel said, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy. That be for all the people in the today and the town of David as Savior has been born to you. Here's Christ the Lord, Luke 2, 7 for 11. And to give a special thanks to Gabby Astrado and our middle schoolers to help coordinate that as well. So thank you Gabby. Right now I want to direct your attention to a special video presentation here just to remind us about the, Well, the view of Christmas from that of a child. What's your favorite part of Christmas? Christian up the Christmas tree. When we get to have all the food. King Christmas presents. Getting out my room, peaking the corner and seeing more Santa Claus's. What's your least favorite part? Last year the tree was fake and we could see right through it. My brother cried because he's scared of Santa, but I'm not. What kinds of things do you like to do in the snow? Play in the snow. I like to make snowman. Make snow angels. I found hills. Snowball fights. And then I like to escape but really hard. I can't even do it. Whose birthday is on Christmas? Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus is. Sing for us. I mean, I mean, Jesus. And where was Jesus born? In a tent. In a state. At a hospital. In Bethlehem. In Oklahoma. What kind of animals were there? Sheep and cow forces. Sheep and camel takes us. Why do other people get presents on Jesus' birthday? I'm because they've been good. Well, they gave presents to him when he was born. And we give gifts to each other because Jesus was the gift from God. What do you think is Jesus' favorite part of Christmas? Just seeing people happy. See how everyone's being kind to one another. Probably the missions for all the homeless people. If you could give Jesus a present, what would you give him? A puppy dog. A snowball. A little bear. And he loves it. How can he run away toys? My love. My heart. Everything I had. Why do you think Jesus came to live with us? Because he loved everybody the most. Because he wanted us to be good, not bad. He got son and that was what God wanted him to do. And that way he could fix out all the problems that were happening. He felt like we were more important than him. I think he loves us very much. Why is Christmas so special? Jesus was born on that day. Because you share it with your friends and family. It's a day where we can spend time and we get to give presents to our people. It's about sharing. We get to play with Jesus. We love you. We love you everybody. Back your heads and let's pray together. Father God, we thank you for the cool and special reminders that you give us. From the lips of our kids sometimes reminding us about Christmas, from the story itself, from our own family traditions and experiences. I thank you for another opportunity this year to come and pause, to come and remember, to come and look forward as well. So God would you continue to draw our hearts to you now? Would you give us God a true and manual presence here now? Would your presence come and fill this place and come and impact us? And reveal your glory and we pray this in Christ's name. Well, you just had a second to look about perspective of Christmas from kids. But think about the perspective of a not much older than a kid. A woman named Mary was probably a young teenager going through very strange experience. Coming, giving birth according to the angel of the Son of God. Did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water? Mary, did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters? Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you this child that you deliver? As soon as he did you know that your baby boy would give sight to the blind man? Mary, did you know that your baby boy would call the store with his head? And your baby has walked the face of God. Oh man, that your baby is Lord of all. Mary, did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters? That your baby boy would save our sons and daughters? You are a luxurious, wondrous ediceration itself. And that was you leaving your garments of light, your constant praise of angels, leaving your heavenly throne to come here to earth. If not to come to earth as an adult, but to come to earth as a young child, to come to earth as an infant baby, completely dependent on a human mother and human father that you had created yourself. Because we come and remember, we come and reflect here tonight. We remind us that you stepped into time. The eternal God stepped into time that we might be reconciled with the eternal God who created us. So, God, would you come and speak to us now as we look to you and look to your Word. We pray this in Christ name and then. If you got a bolt in when you came in, there is a little insert, a sermon, insert or outline. If you will in there, they might be helpful. You're welcome to use that to fall along. Let me if you'd like. You have the sermon. Media shout. Come in. As I mentioned, we've been in a sermon series comparing the first coming of Christ with the second coming of Christ, a Christmas revelation, and today we're looking at the concept of the King coming and being a conquering king, conquering sin and death and doing it in the most unexpected way. Let me start off reading by reading in John chapter 1, verses 1 through 5. Here God's Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning through him all things were made without him, nothing was made that has been made in him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. You see Jesus came 2,000 years ago, and he came and brought light, because darkness had overtaken the earth, the earth, the world that he had created, and what was the first thing he created? God said let there be light. Problem was is that there was a rebellion going on in the kingdom. You see in the beginning there was God and there was light, and it was complete, and it was perfect, and it was ultimate beauty, and it was at rest, and there was peace. You see peace between God and man, peace between Adam and Eve, and peace between people and all of creation. That was until sin entered into the world through Adam and Eve and through a choice there at the Tree of Knowledge and Good of Evil. And Adam and Eve rebelled against God and brought nakedness and brought shame and brought guilt and brought judgment into the world. And the light of men was stuffed out. Darkness began to rain on all the earth, except for some faint reflections of light. Faint reflections of light that came from a promise. The promise was this that even though Adam and Eve had welcomed darkness and sin into the world, God told them there would be one who would come who would crush the head of the serpent. That is, hundreds of years went past from that promise. The promise was often forgotten. The promise was difficult to remember. The promise had to be recited over or over again. The promise had to be spoken to one another to remember. And hundreds of years later, the promise was reignited when the angel comes and visits Mary and Joseph, when that angel comes and visits the shepherds and befflehem on that mountain side. And he said, today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you and he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests. The king's first coming inaugurates peace, peace coming back to the world. See the angel appears with the heavenly host and I love this picture because it gives you probably more accurate picture of what it is. The heavenly host is an army of angels, not naked babies playing harps, flooding around above your head. It's the armies of the living God. And armies don't stop and take time to sing unless victory has come in these angels. This heavenly host is singing because peace has been inaugurated. Now you might say it was the celebration a little bit premature after all. It's just a baby and my goodness, it's a baby laying in a feeding trough. Is it really time to celebrate? Remind me a little bit of some of the movies we see these days. Movies that have a heroine character in it that starts off and they don't just start usually with necessarily with the hero at its peak. You go back and you see the hero back in its childhood. You see him being born, you see him growing up, you see the circumstances with that. A hero like, well, Simba. The story with Simba starts when he's just a cub, right? And there's something that happens and there's something that's important about the beginnings of heroes. Not just like Simba, but how about a William Wallace, remember from the movie Braveheart? You don't pick up with just him in the battle scenes. You start off early on and they give you glimpses of who he was, it's just a boy. Because it's part of the story. Because you learn about the heroic characteristics that are being shaped when they're young, you learn about events that help shape them and brought context. You learn about why a hero is needed in the first place and how they were prepared for that. They bring hope when they're young, hope of deliverance and hope of peace. See Jesus wasn't just a baby, he was the son of God. He was born according to the ancient prophecies. He was born according to the angel's proclamation to Mary and Joseph. He was born to a virgin. He was born and announced by heavenly host to the shepherds. He was born and he guided the magi by a star across the sky. They probably took the months, maybe years, to follow, to reach Jesus. He was born to bring hope of deliverance. He was born to bring peace. Isaiah 9.6 tells us this, for to us a child is born. To us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulders and he will be called a wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. See Jesus is first coming and inaugurates peace, as Jesus invites all those who long for the light to come to him. Colossians tells us that once you were alienated from God and you were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holiness sight without blemish and free of accusation. If you continue in your faith, establish and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. See Jesus came 2,000 years ago and he initiates the offer a peace. But Jesus is not finished. The story is not over. He's promised to return. See we're the first coming inaugurated peace. It's the second coming that consumates peace. It's the fulfillment of the promise made long ago that one would come that would crush the head of the serpent and would bring peace again. John tells us this, Jesus spoke and he said, peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. You heard me say I'm going away and I am coming back to you. You see the full picture of peace is not what we see 2,000 years ago with Jesus coming and making reconciliation possible between men, women and God. That's not the full picture of it because we still long for a peace that brings justice in the world around us. Long to see an end to oppression. We long to see the end of racism and hate. We long to see an end to sickness and disease. We long to see the harmonization of all creation. Don't wait. We long to see the ceasing of wars. We long for Satan his demons to be banished once and for all. We long for sin to be eliminated. We long for Pete's sake for death to be destroyed. Every single one of you here is probably old enough to have lost somebody that you cared about to death. The picture we have of peace right now is just the beginning that's been offered. It's not the consummation of it. That comes with Jesus in his second coming. Why are the stories of Simba and the stories of William Wallace? Why are those so appealing to us? Let me tell you something that you know already deep down. The Simba cub as cute and cuddliest he was is not what your heart was longing for and that story was it. Your heart was longing for something more. Your heart was longing for it. The Simba that is restored as the rightful king and restores the pride land. That's what you long for. That's what made it a great story. William Wallace was a cute kid. I tell you, William Wallace didn't do anything to change the environment for his family or his people until you met William Wallace the man and there was something inside of every one of you saw a movie that was like, yeah, that's what we were longing for. We didn't want just the promise of hope. We didn't want the potential for peace. We wanted to see it realized. We wanted to see a conqueror come and bring the kind of peace that our hearts were longing for. Let me tell you, it's not this picture of Jesus that your heart is most longing for because even though it inaugurated the coming and the bringing of peace, it's not the consummation of it. He longed for Jesus to return as the conqueror king. The revelation says he has listened to Revelation 19 and I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse whose rider is called faithful and true. With justice, he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty and on his robe and on his thigh. He has the name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He has the picture that needs to stay ingrained in every heart of every true follower of Jesus Christ because that's the hope that one day the wrongs will be made right. That one day peace, true peace, will come and will be realized and things will be as they ought to be and as they should be. This Christmas let me encourage you to celebrate remembering his first coming. Celebrate his first coming. Maybe for a change this year by embracing and longing more for his second coming and fixing your eyes upon that because he is coming back. Take your life and light it from Christ himself. Light it from the one who created light, the one who is himself light. This is the message we have heard from him and declared to you. God is light and him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and then purify us from all in righteousness. Let me just ask you honestly as a light of Jesus Christ truly energy our heart this Christmas season. You feel like you are a match sometimes and you need it to get reignited once a year Christmas maybe twice a year Easter or have you been set alive with the hope that is yours through faith in Jesus Christ and if you embraced him as the one who is the light. St. Corinthians 4.6 says this for God who said let light shine out of darkness made his light shining our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ will you receive Christ this Christmas if you haven't already will you receive him as your Lord and Savior when you follow him because he is king of kings because he is Lord of lords and although he started in a manger he comes back on a horse and he comes back to finish what he came to start will he know you when he comes back will you know him he came not just to wish you Merry Christmas he came to make it a Merry Christmas and he came to be your king to be your Lord let's pray. Father God as we remember and acknowledge and reminded about who you are God as we come as we look back and don't just remember your first coming but as we contemplate that your first coming was all about setting up your second that your first coming was maybe the first half but there's a second half of the game where you come and you restore all things God we know deep down we're longing for we know that deep down that there's something more that we look for and need from this life that's not there because we weren't created for this world of sin God we were created for a world of righteousness that you originally created and that through our rebellion we have wrecked and we have caused to fall apart so God for those that are looking for hope this morning where you extend that through your holy spirit and we invite those to come and trust you to come and confess their sins God for you that are here here tonight that know that they are not truly followers if you God would you give them the boldness and the grace to say God I confess my sin to be able to name it specifically they know it and you know it but God to name it to forsake it God to come and to claim the forgiveness that Jesus Christ came to bring to die in a cross to pay the penalty for our sin God would you give them the encouragement of faith to receive that knowing that you promise to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all the righteousness and God would you come would you take up dwelling within every single person and either has made that decision or makes it here tonight and God would you're a manual presence come and not be just a reflection from a book in the Bible that we're reading that's thousands of years old but would you're coming and you're a manual presence come and fill hearts God here tonight God do that for your glory God do that for your honor I'll probably pray that you would come and meet with us that you would come and touch our hearts we pray this in Christ it was on that night the darkness is veered out of the way the darkness is parted of you your family understands the reality of why Christ has come forgiveness he came to bring peace and he's coming again so as we start our candle lighting here now as we sing silent night in just a second let me encourage you to be careful with the fires that comes around with that kids when it comes to you you can crack that glow stick when it comes with that as well but be reminded that as we do this we are remembering the reality of Christ coming we're inviting him in his presence to come and rule and reign our lives because he's king of kings and lord of lords so remember that as we do that continue reflect upon that as we come down sing silent night so so so that you all those around you not just next 24 hours but all your days ahead so let me invite you to stand with us as we are reminded to hold your light up and on the last verse of joy the world hold it up extra high as well as we come having experienced a joy of Christ we come and offer it to the world around us that's desperately in need of that better nature sing and heaven and nature sing the joy bless you and keep you the Lord and be gracious to you lift up his countenance upon you and all gods people said and then you're dismissed Mary Christmas go share the joy of Christ tonight