DISCLAIMER:  This text is not a verbatim transcript.  Communication Access Real Time Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication credibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.    (Cheerful music playing) >> We are blessed to be in partnership with Second Mile Mission center to help stock their pantry at a time of year their food supply runs very low. Second Mile Mission and First Colony are also partnering with Santa's Exchange as we host their toy drive. We will be serving the residents of Fort Bend County and have the opportunity to provide toys to over 5,000 children. ¶ (“Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” playing) Come, Thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free, from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee Our rest in Thee Born thy people to deliver Born a child and yet a King Born to reign in us forever Now thy gracious kingdom bring ¶ Come, thou long expected Jesus Come, thou long expected Jesus ¶ Come, thou long expected Jesus Joy of every longing heart Of every heart Of every heart Every heart The joy of (vocalizing) ¶ Come, thou long expected Jesus >> Grant: Well, good morning, and welcome to the First Colony Church of Christ and our live services today! Let us fill this church. Let us fill our homes with the joy of the Lord today as we celebrate the Coming of Jesus. The Coming of the Christ, our Newborn King! Let's stand as we get to enjoy this time of worship today! >> Richard: All right! ("What a Glorious Night" playing) >> Richard: So I guess if the cowboys were angels, that's what it would sound like. ("O Holy Night" playing) >> Joel: Good morning, everyone! You may be seated. Welcome! This is the kids' spot where we have a form of specialized observable teaching for kids and parents, who can tag along if you'd like. My name is Joel, Children's Minister here. It's good to see you whether you're in the audience or watching us online. It's great to be here, although I will say there's a benefit to being here because at the end of the service, anyone that's here can go out to the Information Table and can get a copy of my notes and consume them if they would like. So they will be there if you want to take them home. All right, well, today I wanted to share with you the Gospel; and the Gospel essentially is this: God made everything around us. The trees, the sky. It was beautiful. It was good. It was perfect. And then man and woman came into the world and as you know, we sinned. We broke God's perfect creation. And then, as you know, as we began to prepare to celebrate Christmas -- got to get these just right; don't want to lose any of those. We celebrate Jesus. Jesus came, and Jesus fixed it. Now, many of you are probably familiar with the story of the candy cane. There's a legend that goes with it about a candy cane maker who wanted to have something that would present the Gospel and so he invented the candy cane with a few things to learn about the candy cane. Number one, the flavor. It's very strong, almost spicy, the mint it reminds us that the first gifts that were given to Jesus -- gold, frankincense, and myrrh, spices. It's strong and heart and in the form of a shepherd's crook. We know that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. The verse I want to emphasize today comes to us from Isaiah 1:13, which says "Come, let us reason together, though your sins were scarlet, they will be made white as snow." What are the two main colors of Christmas? Red and white. As you can see, there's a band that is dark and thicker on a typical candy cane and then there are some stripes there. That represents God's heart, but then the stripes represents the fact when Jesus fixed it, He die on the cross for our sins. And so the cool thing is that when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, because He is God, He didn't stay dead. As you know, He was buried and rose again. The last point is that we need to respond -- so check this out. Ooh. Ahh. Beautiful. But even more importantly, look at this. So God gives us the ability to have a new heart when you turn and follow Him. Think about that this Christmas season. Thank you very much. (Applause) >> Grant: As usual, thank you, Joel. Today is the third Sunday in our Advent season and the Waldron family will lead us into our time and focus today is joy. We think about the joy we have as God fulfilled His promise to Israel of bringing the Messiah. Tommy, thank you. >> Tommy: We relight the candle of hope because of God's promise to send a Savior; the candle of peace, remembering Jesus is the Prince of Peace. And now we light the candle of joy. May our hearts be forever filled with the joy of His coming because He is the fullness of joy. >> Brice: I will be reading Luke 2, verses 9 through 11. (Reading) >> Grant: They will lead us in our time of communion. If you're at home, get your elements. If you're here, get your packets. If you don't have one, they're in the back. When you're finish, put the packet in the bags in the baskets at the end of the aisle and trash on your way out. Thank you all. Waldrons, thank you. >> Tommy: Good morning, church. I'm Tommy Waldon, my wife, Brice; and son and daughter. We're privileged to lead you this morning in our prayers over the bread, which represents Christ's body broken for us; and the cup, which represents His blood poured out for us. Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we're so thankful for who You Are. You Are such a loving and great God, and Father, today our hearts are full. During this Advent season, we have so much to be greater for but nothing greater than the gift of Your Son. As a family of believers, of children of Yours, we come before Your throne and thank You for Your love for us, for Your willingness to send Your Son to this earth to live a perfect life and be the example we can model our lives after, ultimately walking the road to Calvary and bear our burden of sin on the cross. Father, as we take this bread, we remember His body beaten and broken for us. Father, and we remember His blood as we take this cup that was shed as the crown of thorns was placed on His head and nails on His hands and feet. Father, I pray this sacrifice every day of our lives, Father, we will truly understand the magnitude of what it is. And Father, understand the hope it brings to us. Father, we're thankful and our hearts are full this morning. We thank You for Jesus and His sacrifice for us. It's in His Name we pray. Amen. Let us partake together. >> Brice: Today's Scripture reading is from Isaiah 52, verses 8-10. (Reading) ("Midnight Clear [Love Song]" playing) >> Grant: Josh Cummings is an elder at First Colony and will lead us in prayer. Thank you so much, Josh. >> Josh: Before we pray over offering, thank you for your continued generosity in partnering with this church and advancing the kingdom of God. When you give to your local church, you're not only supporting the missionaries and staff and ministers here, but you're supporting friends and family who depend on the local church for their support. There are many ways to give. You can set up recurring giving online, as my family has done. You can text to give. If you're at home, click on the link on your screen to give or mail in your contributions. If you're here with us today, there are giving boxes in the back to place your contributions. Thank you again for your giving. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we know that all we have comes from You. Thank You for continually providing all we need and more. We ask that as we simply give back to You a portion of what You have given to us that we two so cheerfully. Please multiply these gifts for Your kingdom. In Christ's Name we pray, amen. (Harp playing) (Bells jingling) ¶ (Ding-ding) ("Jingle Bells" playing) (Ding-dong) ¶ (Applause) >> Grant: Well, that's fantastic. Well, church, today is our Care and Share toy and food drive. Thank you for everyone who brought things already. It's still not too late. You can drop stuff off until 1:00 today; and if you're buying off the Amazon page on the website, as long as the gifts are here by Friday, they are in great shape. If you're looking to volunteer, we have spots all week long, as well as all day Saturday for the big Santa's Exchange event. So you can go to the website and sign up there. But church, I want to thank you for just making a huge impact. You know, all the gifts we give today go to Santa's Exchange, which blesses about 5,000 children right here in Fort Bend. All the food that's donated goes to our local food pantry at Second Mile Mission and is a huge blessing to them this season. So thank you. Thank you, thank you for all that are giving today. At this time, speaking of giving, I want to invite up Scott Finley, who serves and makes Santa's Exchange happen every year. So Scott and his wife Marcie have been members here since 1998. He's been a deacon for the past 15 years, and they love to serve. So they have served in the youth group. They have served at Camp of the Hills every year and serve in Honduras and Haiti; but they are family that loves to serve. If you know Scott, he loves this community. He's given his life to this community, and one of the things he's chosen to lead is Santa's Exchange. So for the past 20 years, Scott has helped lead Santa's Exchange at this building. So 20 years of service he has done that. And in that time, I just want to say, Scott, I thank you for being a role model to myself, to our church, of what it looks like to love God and to love others more than you love yourself. Your family has modeled that so much, and I know he hates standing here and me talking about him, but it's something that needs to be done today. We are rockin' the house tonight. I don't know what is going on. >> Scott: It's not me. (Grant laughing) >> Grant: All right, but in that, today, I want to present this to Scott. It's just a thank you on the 20th anniversary of his service. This is a thank you for everything that you have done for this church and for the community and obviously for Santa's Exchange. Thank you, Scott. (Applause) All right, at this time, it's our fellowship greeting. Let's stand and greet the folks around you. If you're online, it's a great time to log in to the chat and say hello. ("Joy to the World [Unspeakable Joy]" playing) >> Richard: Thank you so much for your worship today. You may be seated. >> Ronnie: Richard and team, thank you so very, very much. And good morning, everyone! Glad to see you to those of you in the room. Thank you for braving this morning's weather and being with us; and to those of you online, we welcome you to the First Colony Church of Christ. Although we cannot read your mind, if you communicate with us, it would be our honor and joy to pray for you and with you. You can fill out a Connection Card there on your church app. And then for those of you on our live chat this morning, there are people who are eager and ready to pray with you today. Let me welcome new member family. We'll put their photo on the screen. This is Jonathon and Melinda Rao and their three children: Alicia, Hudson, and Sloane. We're delighted to have them. They're watching online so let's go ahead. We can welcome them and say welcome to the First Colony Church of Christ. (Applause) And from Martha and me and my family, let me put a family photo up here. This is our group and from us to you, we wish for you a very, very happy Christmas season. Again, from Martha and me and our children, their spouses, and our six grandchildren. We wish for you all of God's best. We continue today with a message series called “A Weary World Rejoices.” This week's message is front and Santa. 7-year-old Caden wrote Santa and said, “I don't want much, maybe a remote controlled car, jacket, and coronavirus-free school year.” It definitely is a weary and wearying year, but, you know, this last week, I saw a survey done in late November from the Gallup Poll where they said we had a 20-year low in our nation for mental and emotional health. Like people just surveyed saying, "How you doing and feeling about things?" They said one group was actually UP: regular church-goers. Either in person, online, to say, this will be my regular habit. I do not believe that is coincidential because in the midst of the weariness, we do believe there are reasons to rejoice and pursue hope and peace. Let me put an image on the screen. This is an image of a rose window. Many have seen Gothic cathedrals with rose windows and they're certainly beautiful, but there's more to them than just beauty and a marvel of engineering. At the center of every rose window is Christ, and wheeling around Christ in lyrical and harmonious patterns, scenes depicting believers or scenes from Scripture. The meaning is clear. When our life is centered on Christ -- and by implication not on money, success, adulation, self-promotion, revenge -- but when Christ fills the center, our soul tends to fall into harmony, not disharmony. In other words, don't put Christ at the rim but at the center. And what all does that mean, practically? We'll talk a little bit about that today. You know, there is a perspective of liberal theology, liberal theology in modern-day progressive Christianity that often will demean the historical Christian understanding of Jesus, the Biblical description of Jesus. For example, the miracle of Jesus are diminished and the Resurrection -- is it literal or just illustrative in nature? The death of Christ on the cross -- is it really necessary? Was the atonement necessary? One writer called it, if you believe in that, cosmic child abuse. But if you want a Biblical view, an estimation of Jesus Christ, Who I believe deserves to be front and center in your life and mine, you would be hard-pressed to find a more compelling passage of Scripture than Colossians 1. So we will just walk through this teaching about the nature of Jesus today. You ready? Here we go, Colossians 1. I have two headings over this passage. The first one is Jesus: supreme over all cession. The next one will be Jesus: supreme over all reconciliation. If you want to simplify it, Jesus made it all, and Jesus paid it all. So here we go, Colossians 1:15. The Son is Jesus. (Reading) God is invisible, but invisible doesn't mean not real. Just because something is sin visible doesn't mean it's not real. God is not seen by us. He lives and operates in realms of existence we know nothing about. But the Son is the image, the icon, the exact representation of God. So Jesus is God in the flesh. Imagine, if you will, Jesus being 12 years old and that famous story of talking with the wise men in the temple. Imagine if someone said, "Young man, how old are you?" And Jesus could say, "Well, on my mother's side I'm 12 years old. But on my Father's side, I'm older than my mother and just as old as my Father." You see, Jesus was both God and man. On His mother's side, He got hungry. On His Father's side, he took a little boy's lunch and fed 5,000 people, miraculously. On his mother's side, he wept at the tomb of Lazarus, and on His Father's side said, “Lazarus, come forth,” and raised him from the dead. Jesus was God in human flesh. The Son is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn over all creation -- that term simply means it's a metaphor for supremacy. Now, look at this passage again, verse 15, and notice that little word "all." He's supreme over ALL creation. Don't let that little word “all" escape your notice. You'll find it six times in this passage of Scripture. You know, there's a difference between “all" and "some" and a difference between "all" and "most." Imagine your favorite sports team and if they could win ALL their games from the very first game of their very first season -- they win them all. I'm not talking about one undefeated season. ALL seasons, ALL games, ALL the time. You would say, that's impossible. That would be superhuman. Yeah. Imagine a student getting ALL answers correct from the very beginning of their academic career -- pre-K. I'm not talking most answers correct or straight-As one year or being a straight-A student -- I'm not talking about a hundred on one tests. I'm talking ALL tests, ALL answers, ALL correct. That's mind-boggling. And six times the Bible wants you to know Jesus, not just some, not just most He is over ALL things, reigns over ALL things. Verse 16. (Reading) In other words, they know that you know Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Jesus is God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Three in one. (Continuing to read) And to affirm Jesus is no small matter because you think of our galaxy, the Milky Way has 135 billion stars and there thought to be at least 100 billion other galaxies. I heard a story one time of a younger person who went to a Sunday School teacher and said, “Why would the Lord go to all that trouble to make ALL of those galaxies?” And the Sunday School teacher said, “What trouble? What trouble? That's no trouble.” All the Lord needs to do is say, "Let there be light." And there's light. "Let there be a galaxy." And there's a galaxy. It was no trouble. Verse 17. (Reading) Jesus is the glue of the galaxies and holds all things together, and part of what this means is you were not made to hold yourself together. You were made to depend on Jesus. I think I will do a mic switch right here. Thank you, Richard. And so Jesus holds all things together. We're not made to hold ourselves together all the time. That's why we're invited to pray and why He promises to listen. And that's why we're taught, whatever you do, don't give up on prayer. Because in Christ, alm things holding together. Verse 18. (Reading) In other words, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is no myth; it's no fable; He's the first one to come back from the grave with a glorified body, never to die again. And believer, that's your promise, too. YOU will receive that ultimate promotion. So that's how big Jesus is. The image of God; the agent of creation; Lord of all; the creator of life. He holds all things together. He's the conqueror of death. He's the head of the church. His body Secondly, Paul continues on here and says, Jesus is supreme over all reconciliation. This is where he gets real personal with you and me. This grand glorious Jesus -- verse 19 -- (reading). Here's a beautiful word: reconcile. (Reading) Notice how specific it will get. By making peace through his blood shed on the cross. You see, Jesus Christ is the Greatest Peacemaker ever. Taking the hand of holy God, taking the hand of sinful you and me, and He reconciles us. You think about it during this Christmas season why do we celebrate Jesus. A lot of reasons, but ultimately we celebrate Him because He was God in human flesh, sent from heaven to take away our sins, and to give us hope for the future. And now He reaches a climax point here, verse 21. Again, getting personal. (Reading) Notice this: Jesus has reconciled you. (Reading) Again, notice how specific he's getting. Chris' physical body on the cross, shedding His blood. There was something about this sacrifice for you. Jesus didn't just die for you. He died a particular kind of death for you, and He was worthy and sufficient. Notice what this sacrifice, this love offering of Christ, provides. By His death, He presents -- notice three-fold description -- presents you holy, without blemish, and free from accusation. If you have known me for any length of time, you could bring an accusation against me. There's not a one of us in this room that on our own could say "I'm holy. Without blemish. And free from accusation." The ONLY way we claim that is because of the Grace and the gift and the Identity that sacrifice of Christ gives us. We don't follow a gospel of grit "Maybe someday I could earn God's love." We follow a Gospel of grace. His love provides for us an identity, and we respond with enthusiasm to that. So he said in verse 23, you continue in this. (Reading) You stay content with the Good News of Jesus Christ. You stay with the Gospel you have heard. Don't get sidetracked to false ideas about Jesus. This is who He Is, the image of God, the head of the church, the firstborn from among the dead, the One who went to the cross and shed His blood for you to make peace. To reconcile you to God so that YOU stand holy, free from accusation. “But do you know what I did” -- holy, free from accusation, without blemish. If you've not heard me say this in a while, Jesus Christ is fully worthy to be your Savior and mine. So after reading through this, how, then, shall we respond? I have two points. Here's the first one: only Jesus is worthy of being front and center over all things in your life. Sort of like that rose window -- let's put that image back on the screen. You place Jesus at the center. Christ, the head of the body of the church; Christ, the One who loves you more than anyone; and He's worthy to be there and only Christ is worthy to be there. When you think about it, the center of a circle is what holds, feeds, supports; and defines that circle. And for you, at the very center, is this awareness that because of Jesus Christ YOU are holy, without accusation, and free from blemish. That's incredible news. It's motivating and gives you a brand-new identity. And so, then, I believe that for us as believers the primary, one of the primary motivations for us -- one of the decision-making grids that we should regularly ask is, "In this moment, since Christ is the center of my identity and foundation, what's the most Christ-honoring decision I can make in this specific moment?” What's the most Christ-honoring decision I can make in this relationship? What's the most Christ-honoring decision I can make with my finances; with my gifts; with my abilities; my marriage; my children? Christ is worthy to be right there at the center of the rose window of your life. Secondly, Christ's invitation, His invitation to peace, is both universal and personal. It's universal in that Jesus did not come to exclude everyone. He came to include everyone for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. The Bible said He's not willing that ANY should perish but that EVERYONE should come and turn to Him. Our God is a hopeful universalist, welcoming all; but He welcomes you personally. Do you know who win vented the price tag? John Wanamaker, a businessman out of Philadelphia, P.A. And before the price tag, people -- and this was invented mid-1800s -- before the price tag, people haggled over EVERYTHING. Wanamaker said there's a better way to do business so he's credited with inventing the price tag. Now, here's the truth: you think of yourself when you look at yourself and you sort of see a price tag on there. What does your price tag say? I mean, whatever your price tag says, that must be the truth about you, right? Maybe your price tag reflects the very last tacky snot comment someone says to you. Maybe your price tag reflects some words from an authority figure you heard years ago and they're etched in your spirit. Maybe you look at your own price tag the way you've tagged yourself and you think that price tag reflects your worst day, some of your worst decisions; and you just say, "I'm damaged goods." What does your price tag say? I want you to see another price tag. Let's put it up here. That truly is the price tag of Jesus Christ upon your life and upon your soul. You are ABSOLUTELY priceless to Him and so loved and so precious and so priceless that this Jesus Christ Who could be no higher was willing to descend to a place to be no lower so that you might sense your value and know reconciliation and redemption. Jesus has paid the penalty. My friends, I hope you will stop trying to earn God's love and start living out of gratitude that God already loves you and has paid the ultimate sacrifice to draw you close to Him. Trust Christ with your life and your soul. You do know what grace is, don't you? Grace is God accepting you because of Jesus. You know what the essence of faith is, don't you? Faith is YOU accepting that God accepts you on the basis of Jesus. Okay. I've got something here in my pocket. It is a beautiful, fresh, clean; legitimate; bona fide; non-counterfeit; real -- you can spend this anywhere -- $5 bill. It is pristine, and I'm giving it away. Anybody in this room want a $5 bill? Would you like it? Anybody want a $5 bill? Okay. Just a second. What about now? You know, it was nice and pristine and smooth and non-wrinkled; but now you look at this $5 bill, and look at this thing! It is wrinkled. Anybody, anybody still want this $5 bill? Even though -- I'm taking the bottom of my shoe and finding this $5 bill down into this carpet, grinding it down. It's wrinkled; it's been dirtied; is there anybody in this room who STILL wants this $5 bill? Anybody still want it? You still want it? You still want this $5 bill? All right, come on up here. I'll give it to you. Here you go. Now, you have to share it with your appreciation okay? Just cut it in half. (Laughter) You have to share it with your brother. This is a wise young lady right here. You know why? She knew that $5 bill had not lost its value. It might have been crumpled up and wrinkled and damaged, but you can still spend it, can't you? It is not lost its value. It's been stepped on; it's been dirtied; if that $5 had a volitional will, trust me. That $5 bill would have made a TON of bad decisions in fits life. But that $5 bill has not lost its value, and let me tell you, my friend, you and me, you can't walk through this life without some wrinkles and bruises and bad decisions and sometimes being misused. In God's eyes you have not lost your value. In His eyes -- again, the price tag -- is priceless. You hold on to that message. You hold onto the Gospel of Jesus Christ that calls you into a fresh, new identity. Here's what I'd like to do. I want to close by pointing you -- Josh, you make your way up with here, please -- to the Heidelberg Catechism. Don't let the word "catechism" scare you. It's not something that is different from Scripture. It's simply an organized way of reaffirming Biblical truths in our hearts and mind. Question number one and answer number one from the Heidelberg Catechism reads as follows: what is your only comfort in life and death? That I am not my own but belong, body and soul; in life and in death; to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. Everybody, thank you for being with us today right here. Thank you for being with us online, and I would ask you, what is your next step regarding Jesus Christ? What is the most Christ-honoring choice I can make, even in this specific moment? Josh, would you pray over us, please. >> Josh: That $5 might still be worth $5 but probably want to wash your hand once the service is over. Let's pray. Heavy Father, we thank You again for this opportunity to gather today to glory and worship You. It's good to be together to sing songs of praise and participate in communion and hear Your Word. Thank You for Your church and this portion of the church that meets today, in person and online. As we focus on joy today, we're reminded of when the angel appeared to the shepherds on the day Jesus was born. He told them the Savior was born and good news that would bring joy to all people. He has brought joy to the world. We thank you for the joy we have as rooted in the unshakable promises we have in God. The fact we have unspeakable and endless joy because of His salvation over our souls. We have the opportunity to bless others through the offering of food and tiffs for children through Care and Share this year. I pray this offering will not only make Christmas happier for everyone this year and for those that receive the gifts but also know they are loved by You and Your people. Thank you for the organization and volunteers that make this possible. We continue to pray for healing. We ask for healing for those currently ill and give comfort to those who experienced loss and grateful for those who recovered or have not contracted the virus. We pray for Your wisdom and grace in dealing with the situations that continue. Lord, help us to represent You well in our daily lives, to make You the center and the focus of our lives. Help us to love others as You do and have compassion of those in need and show mercy as we have received mercy. May we persevere in the faith so we may be productive for Your kingdom. Again, thank You for the unspeakable joy we have in You and help us to share that joy with the rest of the world. Thank You for the Gift of Your Son and His sacrifice. With glory in His resurrection and wait expectantly for His return. Help us to do the work we are prepared to do for His glory. Amen. >> Grant: Thank you. We have the opportunity to witness two baptisms and can watch the Baptistry as Mackenzie and Charles Dick are baptized by father Chad. >> Chad: Good morning, church. We're so happy to be here with Macenzie and Charlie. This is my daughter Macenzie and has been looking for this for a while. Due to world events, it's been delayed by a number of months’ time and time again but the day has finally come she has been wanting. I think it's appropriate we lit the candle of joy today because of not only the joy that she and her brother bring to us but the rejoicing in heaven today because you're now putting on the full armor of God and being baptized in His Name. I'm so, so proud of you, sweetheart. So I'm going to ask you a few questions this morning. Do you reject Satan and all of his works? >> Yes. >> Do you believe in God, the Creator of heaven and earth and the One who created you? >> Yes. >> Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Only Son of the Father who was born; was on this earth; died; buried; rose again; so that you may live with Him in heaven and for the forgiveness of your sins? >> Yes. >> So with that, sweetheart, I'm now going to baptize you in the Name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. (Applause) I love you. This is Charlie, and it's very appropriate that he is doing this this morning with Macenzie because they basically do everything together. So happy that you can share this with not only our church family but with Macenzie and also, you know, as I said to your sister, just so proud of you and love you for the decision that you have made today. So happy we could fulfill one of the promises that your mother and I made to you when you were born. Again, it's nothing compared to the promises of your Holy Father. Charlie, if you're ready, I will ask a few questions. Do you reject Satan and all of his works? >> Yes. >> Do you believe in God, the Creator of heaven and earth? >> Yes. >> And do you believe in Jesus, the Only Son of the Father, who came to earth a man; died; was buried; rose again so you may be forgiven of your sins and live with Him forever in heaven? >> Yes. >> Okay, buddy. With that, I will baptize you in the Name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of your sins. (Applause) You can go this way. >> Grant: Fantastic. We celebrate with the family and extended family here at church today. Well, let me just remind us of our holiday calendar coming up. Of course, today is Care and Share toy and food drive so you can bring things up here until 1:00. If you're looking to volunteer, you can go to the website and there's opportunities all week long and all day Saturday. If you haven't been able to get your gift, you can do it on Amazon and as long as it's here at the building by Friday, you will be in great shape. We will be able to use it on Saturday. Of course, we are hosting our traditional Christmas Eve candle light service this year. Our normal times, 3:00 and 5:00; a great event for the families so bring them up here. We also will have the online option this year; but again, Christmas Eve candle light service. Make sure that's on your calendar for 3:00 and 5:00. We also have our servants of remembrance this year, which is a fantastic service where we take the time to remember the loved one that are not with us this holiday season. So that will be December 20, a live stream event only; and then after that you can catch it on demand on the website as well. Service of Remembrance. Make sure that's on the calendar. Church, we love you guys and are praying for you, and specifically this week praying that the joy of the Lord is with you. As we go, let's go ahead and stand and sing one final song today. ("Joy to the World [Unspeakable Joy]" playing) >> Richard: Hey, thank you for coming today and worshiping with us! You have a great week and you are all dismissed!