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This is being provided in a rough-draft format. Communications Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
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>> Just search for First Colony Church of Christ in the App Store or on Google Play. The app is a great resource where you can stay connected to First Colony Church. Thank you for joining us online today. We are glad you're here!
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>> Narrator: My mama told me something that I was growing up that has forever changed my life. She played the piano at our church at Third and Pine for 37 years. She tried to teach me to play the piano, but I wasn't very good. She would teach me the names of the notes, what a major key is, what a minor key is. She tried to teach me musical theory, but I was just bored. Then one day she told me that the best news in the world is found by playing a simple scale on the piano. I had no idea what she meant so she told me to play an eight-note scale. So I did.
(Playing scale)
I said, "How is that good news?"
And she said I played it incorrectly and that I needed to play it the other way. So I did.
(Playing scale)
Again, I said, "How is that good news?"
And she said I played it the right way but I needed to add the pauses.
“The pauses?”
She said the pauses at on the first, second, fourth, sixth, seventh, and last notes.
Now, I was frustrated and said, "How can eight notes with random pauses the best news in the world?"
Then I got up, walked away, and went outside. Frankly, I didn't care what she was talking about. I didn't like playing the piano anyway.
Well, years later my mama got sick and passed away. As I was thinking about her, I remembered what she told me about the piano. Not only that, I still remembered the notes she told me to pause: the first, second, fourth, sixth, seventh, and last note. So I sat down at her piano and played the scale WITH the pauses.
(Playing "Joy to the World")
And that's when I realized the Good News she was talking about.
¶
(Triumphant music playing)
>> The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
(Choir vocalizing)
>> The Lord is my light and my salvation.
>> Let your light shine.
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>> The light of the righteous shines brightly.
>> Arise, shine, for your light has come.
(Choir vocalizing)
Jesus is the True Light.
>> You are the light of the world.
¶
>> Ronnie: Good evening, and welcome to the First Colony Church of Christ; and to our Christmas Eve service, we're so glad to have you with us. To those of you in the room, welcome! To those of you watching online, we're so glad to have you with us as well. You may be watching us online and you feel like you're alone; you're in a room; nobody else is there. Let me just remind you, first of all, we're together; and the Lord is with you. The Creator of heaven and earth is RIGHT there with you. I'm so thankful you are part of this Christmas Eve service.
You know, it's an unusual Christmas Eve. Let's acknowledge that, but it is Christmas Eve, and we plan to worship our Great God and King. We're going to praise Him for the giving of the most Wonderful Gift of all, the Amazing Jesus; our Savior; our Lord; and our King.
Here's what to expect tonight. One, a candle lighting. For those of you at home, I encourage you to get a candle and be ready under adult supervision, of course, and participate right along with us. We plan to have music, a time of reflection, but most of all, a time of celebration. So glad that you're here. Everyone, let's please be standing and singing together.
>> Richard: Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
("Joy to the World/Unspeakable Joy")
>> Richard: Yes! Joy to the world because the Lord is come! Amen! It's so good to be with you tonight on Christmas Eve.
("Midnight Clear/Love Song")
>> Richard: You're the Love Song.
>> Richard: You may be seated.
¶
("What Child Is This" playing)
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("He Shall Reign Forevermore" playing)
>> Richard: Why don't we continue to stand together and worship the Lord?
¶
>> Richard: How many of you believe that? He will reign forevermore! There will be no end to His throne, His kingdom. In seasons and times like this, we just have to remember He is the King of Kings. It's not that He will be. He is already the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Somebody asked me what my favorite instrument or sound was in worship, and I said the sound of the church singing. We will do this next Christmas carol with just mainly keys and voices, and I want to hear you sing.
("O Come All Ye Faithful" playing)
>> Richard: You may be seated.
>> Kyle: Well, merry Christmas, everyone, and welcome to our Christmas Eve service again. My name is Kyle, and I am so glad that we are here together, whether you are here in the room with us or at home again. Let me say to you, welcome!
We set aside this time in our service for a couple of things. One, we want to know and hear from you. So if you want to contact us, you can do that on our website or meet with some of our team member in the lobby when we are finished this evening.
Or if you're online, you can certainly fill out an online Connection card, and especially for those of you online, there is a request prayer button if the Lord moves in you and stirs your heart this evening. You can request prayer, and people will standing by, waiting for you.
The second reason we set aside this time for at this moment in our Christmas Eve service is for our Compassion Offering. You, as well as I, know this has not been an easy year, and the needs of the people in Fort Bend County have increased exponentially. We stand ready and willing to help those. You have our assurances for a couple of things. Number one, if you give to our Compassion Offering here, you can do so especially online, in a safe and secure manner. All the details will be on the screen in just a moment. You can also give here in the house. There are some giving receptacles at our entrances here and you can do that as well.
But the second thing is that you have our assurance that all the monies and offers collected in our Christmas Eve services, our two services, will be 100% used for the people here in Fort Bend County. We invite you to worship WITH and THROUGH your generosity at this time.
Let's pray over this offering together. Lord Jesus, we come before You in the spirit of Christmas, in the spirit of receiving because we have received You. We have received the Gift not only for the universe but for us as well, for us personally, for our families.
We have received salvation. We have received forgiveness, grace, and mercy. We come in this moment of reception, willing and ready to give; to bless those in this county who are in desperate need in this Christmas season. We ask for healing in our world. We ask for the blessing of the Spirit of Jesus to move in us to bless those who need it most.
Multiply what is given here; bless our gifting and bless those who will receive it. We know that this will be a divine partnership. We trust You, Lord. We love You and come to You right now in Your Name, and we pray this. Amen.
>> Narrator: In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.  And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth, to Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.
(Crickets chirping)
Because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn.
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night, and an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."
And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest! And on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased."
>> Kyle: All right, everybody, this is our fellowship greeting so let me ask you to stand where you are and wish everyone around you a very merry Christmas. If you're online, go ahead and log in to the chat and say hello.
("Angels We Have Heard on High" playing)
>> Richard: Hark the herald angels sing!
("Hark the Herald Angels Sing" playing)
>> Richard: You may be seated.
>> Ronnie: Thank you so much, Richard and team. Again, good evening, everyone. Welcome. We're so grateful to have you here with us, so grateful to have you watching online. Now, in just a moment we're gonna be moving into our candle lighting, and you see here our Advent candles. That center can't candle represents the Light of Christ.
As we talked about this past Sunday, Christ really happened. This is not folklore. This is not some mythical story. This REALLY happened in human history. We are the visited planet. God Himself came here; was born, yes, but don't keep Him in the crib. The crib is an important part of the Story, but we worship Jesus from the crib to the cross and all the way to the crown. As we were sing earlier, He shall reign forevermore. And the Coming of Christ -- He lived a perfect life so He might be our perfect sacrifice to take away our sins. Is there a more beautiful word than forgiven? He was raised to life again so we'll come back to this in just a moment.
But first, I'd like to walk over here to our memory candle. I light this every year in honor of our loved ones who have gone on before us. Everybody in this room, we've all tasted grief. We know what it's like to lose someone that we love very much, and they loved us; and this time of the year, you know, sometimes the highs can get higher and the lows can feel a little lower; and we're just more sensitive and a little more tender. It's part of the Christmas season, and we embrace it and acknowledge it.
For many of you, you can still see that person's face, still hear their voice, or maybe you imagine what that voice would have sounded like. Whether it's been one year or 41 years, you remember, and so I light that candle in honor of our loved ones whom we love and miss. Would you pray with me in just a moment? 
Before I pray, I want us to take just a moment of quietness as we remember. 
Father God, we do thank You for our loved ones; what they added to our lives. We remember them and we miss them and so, Lord, I ask tonight that You might be the Comforter of our hearts. Lord, we know people who are in need of healing and pray for those and we intercede in Your Power. In Christ's Name do we prayers, amen.
And so as we move now to the lighting of the Christ candle, I remind you of these four other candles. These four other candles are possible only because of what Christ offers us: hope, joy, peace, love.
Hope: we worship a God who calls keeps His promises. They may not always come on our timetable and sometimes a promise is delayed, but that doesn't mean it's denied. We wait with expectation for God to bring about His good plans.
And joy: the joy of the Lord is our strength.
And peace. Because of Christ, we can have peace WITH God. No more alienation. Through prayer, we can have the peace of God; and because we walk with Jesus, we become peacemakers. We bring about healing and reconciliation.
And then love: my goodness. It's the love God invented. It's a truly unique kind of love. It's a love that Acts for the good of ooh, even when that other is undeserving. It's love even to an enemy. And gang, these gifts, they are to be hopefully received and we praise the Lord for them. 
Let's receive them -- but listen carefully -- let's cultivate them and distribute them because these gives aren't just to be received and then go to waste. They are to be received, cultivated, and then distributed. I mean, hope. If you don't choose hope, what do you choose? You become a perpetual cynic. You like being a perpetual cynic? That's not inspiring.
What's the opposite of peace? Someone who is anxious without prayer or they're just chronically angry and agitated.
Joy. You know, if you're going to be a joyful person and know the joy of the Lord, joy will always be in spite of something. There's never a perfect situation and so joy is always in spite of something that's imperfect. Or you could choose to be like the father-in-law in the movie with a house of the million lights who says, "But Clark, you do know the little ones are not twinkling." You could choose that route.
And then love. And the opposite of love is just to be abrasive and as everyone knows, you're never persuasive when you're abrasive. And is there a better time -- I mean, this is such a WONDERFUL time -- it's a crazy time -- but it's a WONDERFUL opportunity for Christians to shine; for Christians to show that we are people of robust hope and joy and peace and love and that these wonderful gifts that we have and we cultivate and we distribute, they come not because of our personality type. They come because we know the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you have and I have this wonderful opportunity now to let our light shine. Don't lose your hope. Don't lose your joy. Don't lose your peace. Don't lose your love.
THIS is the time that we get to show a world -- you get to show your family, your children, your grandchildren the difference Christ makes.
Let me ask our lighters to please be taking your places and, you know, some of you will come down here. All right, everyone, please be getting your candle ready, and let me just remind you that you never want to tilt a lighted candle. A light candle needs to remain straight up. You can tilt one that's unlighted. As the Light of Christ is being passed around, I'd like to read some Scriptures to you. These will be on the screen as well.
First of all, Isaiah 9.
(Reading)
Jesus Himself said in John 12:46 --
(Reading)
And then from 2 Corinthians 4.
(Reading)
Now, as you receive the Light of Christ, let's sing together, please, "Silent Night."
("Silent Night" playing)
>> Ronnie: I want us to make a declaration. You know, light is so necessary. It's necessary for growth. It's necessary for healing. It's necessary for vision, and because of Christ being the Light of the World, He shows us the blessed way to live. He shows us the way to God Himself, and He shows us the way to eternal life. That's why Jesus said, "I am the Light of the World."
I want us to make a declaration. I want us to hope -- let's hold up our light and we're going to -- we're going to say something directly to the Lord. We're about to say, "You are the Light of the World."
Ready? One, two, three: You Are the Light of the World.
We will do this one more time. This time, high octane. Let those RPMs, you know, rev up. Let hear you loud and loudly. One, two, three: You Are the Light of the World!
Let's continue to sing, please.
("Silent Night" continues)
>> Ronnie: I tell you what, it's a beautiful sight from my vantage point. Everyone, just hold up your light for a moment. It's a beautiful thing when believers show the Light of Christ. Thank you.
Now, very carefully, let's blow out these candles. Again, be careful with them as you exit this evening. Feel free to just take it home if you want, but you can also put them back on the table. 
Now, I want to put another Scripture up here on the screen, and this one comes from Matthew 5. It's a beautiful reminder. Jesus says also --
(Reading)
In other words, let your hope, joy, love, and peace shine before others so they may see your good deeds and glorify Your Father in heaven.
Everyone, let's pray together. Father God, we thank You for Jesus, Light of the World. It's dark without You. We all know what that's like, and we need hope and we need Your Light at the end of whatever tunnel we're in. So Father God, in this Christmas season, let Your Light shine on us in a fresh and personal way. You are the Light of the World. You come into our lives, and we celebrate that today. In this we pray in Christ's Name, amen.
If you are guest with us, as Kyle mentioned earlier, we'd love for you to stop by and meet team members in our New Here Start Here room. You're here to worship any Sunday. Most Sundays we worship at 8:30 and 11:00 a.m. this Sunday, we have one service at 10:00 a.m., right after Christmas, Sunday at 10:00  a.m.
So from my family to you, from my wife Martha, Martha and I wish for all of you just a very happy and merry Christmas. May the God of hope, joy, peace, and love bless you in every way. Happy Christmas Eve, everyone. Let's be standing, please, for one more song.
>> Richard: All right, joy to the world!
("Joy to the World /Unspeakable Joy" playing)
>> Richard: Thank you for your worship today! Merry Christmas! You are dismissed!